Violins of Autumn will be released in a little more than a month. In Canada, it's available May 29th! Stressss.Review-time is not for the faint of heart. And authors are not a particularly thick-skinned bunch. I've read a few excellent articles lately about how important it is for us to remain thin-skinned and emotionally aware. We feel, damn it!! I try to let the hurtful stuff slide--it's just one person's opinion--but it's difficult. I cry. I lose sleep. I fret about a review's impact on sales, and I worry about disappointing my editor. My experience with my first book wasn't that good, and I really want this time to be different.
The reviews for VIOLINS have been very good, but my favorite is definitely the 4Q review from VOYA. Here's a snippet:
"...the first-person narrative offers an engrossing insider’s perspective, blending the demands of wartime with the developmental needs of late adolescence. Who to trust, who to respect, who to emulate, and who to fall in love with are all part of Betty/Adele’s coming of age in the deftly sketched context of the German occupation. Worthy of consideration for school reading lists, Violins of Autumn (the radio code phrase that indicates the Allied invasion is nigh) is a memorable, vicarious experience of a notable chapter in twentieth-century history and will appeal to WWII and spy fiction buffs alike."
Worthy of school reading lists! As soon as I read that, my heart literally soared right out of my body. But don't worry, some 2-star ratings quickly dragged my heart back into place. ;-)
And here's a snip from Booklist's review, my 2nd favorite: "McAuley does a fine job of weaving historical events into the story of a young woman coming of age in a most dramatic fashion. Spying, having run-ins with German soldiers, watching people die—there is something on almost every page to make readers catch their breaths. Along with the action, there are plenty of humanizing moments as Adele makes friends and loses them and finds small moments that keep her going."
I like the final few words of this one, because I think it applies to writers. It's all about the small moments that keep us going.
- Mood:
sad
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amygreenfield asked, What is fall like where you live?Where do I live? London, Ontario, Canada.
I love autumn where I live. To me, fall means pumpkins, tart McIntosh apples, comfort food, and a welcome return to long pants and sweaters. Monarch butterflies are everywhere, about to make their long migration. The daily temperatures swing, sometimes wildly, between the sizzling heat of summer and the frigid cold of winter. London is known as The Forest City, and in October, when our trees turn vivid shades of yellow, orange, and red it really is something to see. When my kids were small, autumn meant trips to the local orchards and maple sugar bush. And, like most other places, fall means back-to-school. ;-)
The leaves have just started to change. The photos below were taken on my bike ride yesterday.
2. I'm revising my WWII novel. As I go through the marked-up manuscript, I'm tackling all the easy fixes first. The changes that need more thought/work get a sticky note. Here's a photo of what I've accomplished (?) so far, and it scares me.
3. So much for Southern Ontario's heat-wave. Day after day, our backyard thermometer shot up to a whopping 40 degrees. Now summer seems to have completely disappeared.
4. This kind of weather makes me want to bake cookies.
5. During my husband's two weeks of vacation we renovated our dining room to open it up to the kitchen. We moved one wall back almost a foot, cut the other wall in half to create a butcher block-topped peninsula with bar-stools, ripped out old carpet and installed new flooring, painted the kitchen & dining room, and replaced our old furniture. We were very sore by the end of the reno (plus, we had a camping trip in the middle of those two weeks). I am so in love with our new room, but my favourite part is my new workstation. I don't have to write at the dining room table anymore!!!
joknowles is the kind of book that pulls you in from the first page. The kind of book you can't put down, because you are so invested in the characters you must find out what happens to them. I've often heard Jo mention her mantra of, "Is it true yet?" And that search for "true" is evident in the writing, the dialogue, the characters. This is a book that seems so... real. Unfortunately, although this is the kind of book you feel you can't put down, I never seem to have time to read a book straight through. So, I grabbed time to read JUMPING OFF SWINGS every chance I could. While waiting for my daughter outside campground showers. During car trips when it wasn't my turn to drive. At my son's Ortho app't--and, of course, at a point when my eyes flooded with tears, the hygienist came into the waiting room to collect my son.
I finally finished the book yesterday. And, Jo, I loved it. I will dig deeper in my own writing now because I've read it.
From Publishers Lunch Deluxe:
Amy McAuley's THE VIOLINS IN AUTUMN, after a teenager's uncle is killed in the London Blitz during World War II, she joins the war effort as a spy and soon finds herself parachuting into France for the allies, to Mary Kate Castellani at Walker, by Steven Chudney at The Chudney Agency.
I started working on this book at the end of 2004, and I've been through the wringer with it since then. I'm *thrilled* that it has sold to Walker.
- Mood:
happy
2. I'm sick with a sore throat, aching everything, and laryngitis. With the kids at the tail-end of their week off school and me without a voice, I've had to resort to the wide-eyed "Zip it, pronto" and the narrow-eyed "That's enough, knock it off" looks in public more than normal.
3. We've lived in our house for ten years and my husband and I are finally getting around to renovating the '70s out of our bedroom. I believe the previous owners of our house must have used a substance similar to Krazy Glue to attach a wallpaper border around the room. I now dislike the previous owners of our house.
4. We've baked two products from our cross-border shopping trip loot. Duncan Hines Peanut Butter Cup brownies and the Toll House Easter Swirled Choco Chip Cookies. Both were delicious, but I give the edge to the brownies.
5. Now that it's officially Spring, I only have two months to try and fit myself into Summer clothes. That's a scary epiphany.
- Mood:
slug-like
2. My daughter had a headache at lunch, so I gave her a ride back to school. Kids were filing out the doors and we suspected a fire alarm. A group started to gather at the edge of the property and I got the feeling everything wasn't all smiles and rainbows. I drove home, but now I feel guilty that I didn't call and give the school a head's up. Do you let high school kids work those kinds of things out for themselves when violence *might* occur, or do you intervene? I have a hard time removing my Safety Mom hat.
3. I read about Jenny McCarthy singing the praises of botox. It's her saviour. I thought she must be, what, forty-two, maybe forty-three? She's thirty-six, for crying out loud! Younger than me by five months. Thanks for making me feel like I need botox, Jenny McCarthy.
4. I no longer feel hopeful that my WWII novel will sell, so I'm depressed about that.
5. The sun is shining and the snow is gone. 'Nuff said. :)
Time to get out the Play-Doh...
- Mood:
tired but having fun!
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