Vacation!

We timed our trip north just right. While we were in Flagstaff, we had mornings in the 40s and sunny days in the 70s. At the Grand Canyon, it was low 90s and beautiful. We went the first week of October, right before the cold snap.

It was my first time seeing the Grand Canyon and it lived up to my expectations.

The prettiest thing we saw was Spider Rock at Canyon de Chelly.

We crammed a whole lot in, swinging past the Petrified Forest before we went home.

Kitchen Renovation

For the past six months I've been living with a partially demolished kitchen while I waited for the funds and the motivation to finish the renovations. It was the last project after doing the bathroom, flooring, paint, stucco, etc for the rest of the house.

old cabinets, old ceiling light, new paint on left wall: azores

day one: lower cabinet frames built

day two: upper cabinets in, ceiling light out

day three: counters and range

finished!

new ceiling light!

Big thanks to my mom and my boyfriend for all their help. Couldn't have done it without them (well, I could have, but it would have taken my amazing contractor twice as long and cost twice as much!) Today I got to be domestic, doing dishes and settling in. I love that everything has a place now and when I reach for something, it's right where it should be.

Book Review: The Widower's Tale

Julia Glass is one of my favorite authors. It's always with a bit of trepidation that I read new books from old favorites. The mysterious combination of my too-high hopes and the lower standard known authors must meet to be published often ends with disappointment.

But not this time. I wouldn't say The Widower's Tale was Glass' best novel - she'll be hard pressed to outdo The Whole World Over, in my eyes - but I enjoyed every minute of this read.

The plot is not something that I would have thought would appeal to me and I was surprised to find myself so interested when the four POV characters were all men, none of whom I have much in common with (the old widower, the Harvard boy, the gay teacher, the undocumented day laborer). But Glass' strength is in creating characters that are so three-dimensional with complicated, unique histories that make them come alive and make you root for them.

The plot doesn't matter. This is character-driven fiction about family dynamics and community inter-connection. If, like me, you like being lost in the believable lives of imaginary people, you'll enjoy this book.

Monsoon Season: Process

In case you missed Claire's blog, here's the Q&A I did when Monsoon Season was first released in July:

I caught up with Katie - sadly not over coffee, since distance prevented that - and asked her a little about life as one of that rare and venerated breed, a Published Writer.

In three words, can you describe...

Yourself? introspective, quirky, optimistic
Your book? connection, growth, strength
Writing, as an experience? personal, satisfying, vulnerable

You say you've been writing "seriously" for about a decade. What does "seriously" look like to you? 

 For me, ‘seriously’ means with an eye toward publication, a concept of an audience. I’ve always written, but when I was younger, I kept my writing private. Writing ‘seriously’ means getting comfortable being read, throwing yourself into the critique process and developing a thick skin.

How does it feel to finally be published? 

It doesn’t feel real yet. I don’t know when it will. I had a little book party to celebrate with friends and I did a reading. I’m loving that people are finally reading it and I’m getting feedback. I check my amazon reviews daily. And also, my extended family is reading it and I’m getting responses trickling in. That’s really rewarding.

Are you able to give us any sneak peaks into the other two novels that are to be published? 

 
The next one is about cousins who reunite as adults after a long separation during childhood. They were close as children but have lived very different lives after the divorce of one set of parents and the ramifications of that. It’s another book that alternates narration and it includes the perspective of their grandmother. It deals with the repetition of family history and issues of identity. Like, how much of who we are is already determined when we’re ten years old? What can a decade of separation do to change who we are?
The third book has a single narrator. Jenna is a people-pleaser dealing with the death of a parent when she unearths a family secret.

Are there recurring themes in your fiction - dysfunctional relationships, families, longing for home, something else?

Absolutely. For me, family dynamics are fascinating. Patterns that get repeated through generations, often unconsciously. I also like strong female characters who are more interested in finding their path in life than finding Mr. Right.

What advice would you have for people who are just beginning to write?
 

Get comfortable being read. It can take years to figure out which feedback to take on and when to go with your gut. It’s a tricky balance. To a certain extent we write for ourselves, but there comes a point when you have to concern yourself with your reader. 

And how about for writers who are discouraged because they can't find a publisher? 
 

I think it’s really hard. I think there is no shortage of writing talent, which makes the competition fierce. Plenty of crap gets published, promoted and purchased. And good writing that doesn’t get into the right hands will never see the light of day. It’s discouraging. I think you have to be really persistent.
The other thing is that you should really examine your motivations. Do you want the credibility of getting published? Fame and fortune? Readers? These are actually different things and there are different routes to get there.

Do you have a writing "routine", a favourite time and place?
 

I tend to write in the evening with music playing.

What are you working on now? 

I have a trio of characters percolating in my head. They’re unlikely friends- like two of them only know each other because of the third person. I think we all have people like that in our life- people we might not be friends with if it weren’t for the fact that they’re family or they married in or they helped us through a really tough time in life and we’re loyal to that. It broadens our world view. I haven’t figured out what their story is yet. I’m still getting to know them.

I got mail!

The internet is weird and wonderful. I have made several friends through the website Authonomy, writers whose work I admire and whose advice I trust. I have never met them in person, but many are good for a pep talk or a last minute critique.

One such friend is Dave Ocelot, the author of Baggage Carousel, my favorite book on Authonomy. It is currently ranked number 50 (higher than I ever got) and I look forward to the day he gets published and I can say I knew him when.

Until then, we've made a little trade. I sent him a signed copy of Monsoon Season and he sent me God's Own Country by Ross Raisin. The blurb on the back says it's "brilliantly comic and deeply unsettling" which would be an apt description of Ocelot's writing as well.

I am in the middle of another book, but this one's next up. I can't wait.

mail from England!

Top 100 on Amazon.uk

Monsoon Season has a British publisher so a lot of the marketing is happening across the pond. For the last week, my amaon.uk rank has been phenomenal. I broke into the top 100 last weekend and I'm currently #36 in fiction!

I've been following my rank all week, watching the arrow go from green to red (ack!) and back to green. It's been very reminiscent of my time on Authonomy when the quality of my day was often dependent on the color of the arrow there. (My friends on Authonomy will relate to this, I'm sure.)

It isn't quite ruling my mood, though I do check it obsessively. Even a red arrow is good when the rank is in the thirties or forties! My book is up there with Fifty Shades of Grey and The Great Gatsby! I have no idea how long this can last, but I'm enjoying every minute!

If you'd like to help my US rank do as well, you can purchase it here. So far, I have ten 5-star reviews and it's only been out for one month.

Monsoon Season: Publication

My first novel was published last month and I did the following blog interview, "Recently In Print", for the Out of Print Writing blog. I wanted to share it here for anyone who missed it the first time.

Today is publication day of Katie O’Rourke’s first novel Monsoon Season. Happy publication day, Katie! A few weeks ago, I approached Katie with a series of questions about how she became a published author. Here is what she had to say…

Was Monsoon Season the first book you wrote and how long did it take you to complete?

Monsoon Season is my first book. I started writing it ten years ago and I think I spent the first year walking around thinking about the characters and who they were and what their story would be. I ‘finished’ it and submitted to some agents unsuccessfully. I remember getting a couple responses of ‘we'd love to see your next book’ and I was sort of overwhelmed by that because I didn't have a ‘next book’. So I took a break from it and wrote two other books and then I went back to it with fresh eyes and was able to rewrite it.

How many publishers/agents had you sent your book to before you found one that wanted to publish it?

I mostly focused on agents and I submitted it in various forms over many years. I've lost count, but I'd ballpark it at 50.

Please describe how your relationship started with your eventual publisher Canvas (imprint of Constable & Robinson).

I posted Monsoon Season online at authonomy.com. An editor found me there and expressed interest in reading the full manuscript and then the other two manuscripts I had completed at the time. I was actually a bit skeptical because a lot of the people who approach you online are after you to pay them. I don't think I completely relaxed until I had a signed contract and the advance was in my bank account! That probably took about six months. I don't remember exactly how long I was active on authonomy, but my book was ranked in the sixties when I had to take it down because I had a publishing contract.

Who was the first person you told that you were getting your book published and how was this moment?

I think it was probably my mother and we were on the phone. I was also in the middle of purchasing my first home which was a roller coaster of a process. In my memory, the two things are all mixed together and I felt an extreme gratitude of everything falling into place at once. I was wrong though – the house actually fell through. Luckily the book didn't!

How have you found the publishing process and working with an editor on your book?

That was harder than I expected. I've developed a pretty thick skin when it comes to critique and an ability to filter out advice that doesn't resonate with my vision. I'm the writer. But there's a different balance you have to negotiate when the advice you're getting comes with the weight of being the reason you're getting published at all. Suddenly their opinion counts for more and I found myself struggling with whether I could trust their edits. I ran some advice by trusted writer friends and found it really comforting when they agreed with my editor.

How has becoming an 'in print' writer changed you and where to from here?

I'm still figuring that out. Publication is July 19th and I have two more books coming out after that. It's so exciting. For the last six months, I've been doing more editing than writing and I expect more of that for the next books. I'm looking forward to having time to focus on the writing again soon.

More from this blogger can be found here.