I’m excited about the year ahead. So much will be happening!
I got a wonderful editorial memo from my editor at HarperCollins Canada on The Next Novel. The suggestions were great. I’ve work to do, but I’m excited about it.
My wish for you: May the muses pester you like crazy!
Here are two New Year’s blogs I loved:
One from Lilian Nattel, who reads this blog. Do read her post: you will love it.
The other from Neil Gaiman’s blog (which I also love): here is a poster a friend made from his New Year’s wish for his fans:
Excellent thoughts!
Enjoy this evening!
Hi Sandra,
Glad to hear that this editor is giving you such excellent suggestions. After what happened with Touchstone, I was wondering where you were getting editorial feedback. Is it strange having multiple editors advising you on how to appeal to different markets? (After all, there is only ONE finished book.) Do they contradict each other, and, if so, how does that affect the novel-writing process?
Also, I’m pleased to hear you’re a Neil Gaiman fan! His Sandman series is one of my prized literary possessions — and I have no qualms calling it “literary,” even though it’s a series of graphic novels. All of his work is astoundingly imaginative. It’s odd, in a six-degrees-of-separation kind of way, to learn that one of your favorite writers likes another one of your favorite writers.
Best,
Jordan
Thanks, Jordan, for your concern. When an author is published in — say — Canada, US, UK, there will be some communication between editors sometimes. Usually there is one editor who is the main one. For me, HarperCollinsCanada is my home base; they are wonderful and very supportive. I always have that. So important!
I always have multiple editors (some of whom I hire), but their task is not how to appeal to markets, but how to help the story bloom. I’ve yet to see any real contradiction, and, in any case, it must all resonate with ME, with what I myself see in the story.
I confess I’ve yet to read more of Neil Gaiman than his blog — which I love, for his creative energy, his engagement with readers, his love of life. Tell me the title you recommend most and I’ll order it.
I really can’t recommend the Sandman series enough. It began as a monthly 24-page comic book, each issue of which, in keeping with the serial-form tradition, is part of a longer story arc. Since then, like nearly all successful comic-book series, the longer arcs have been repackaged as graphic novels. These are available in literally every comic-book shop, and many bookstores, since only a couple of repackaged serials — “The Watchmen” and the “Dark Knight Returns” — rival it in popularity and critical acclaim.
The first “book,” called “Preludes and Nocturnes,” is probably the best place to start, although “Dream Country” contains some of the most beloved stories in the entire catalogue — including “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which works William Shakespare into the plot, and which caused controversy by winning a 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, the only comic book ever to do so.
The greatest thing about the series is Gaiman’s expansive approach to storytelling: Through his shape-shifting protagonist, he weaves together story elements from every realm imaginable — dreams, reality, history, myth, literature, the Bible, even the afterlife. Reading Sandman, you get awe-inspiring sense of how the entire universe, conscious and unconscious, visible and invisible, fits together. His talent is very humbling.
His novels are also excellent, with “American Gods” being perhaps his best.
Happy reading!
Apologies to Mr. Gaiman: A quick look at Wikipedia shows me that the Sandman series started as a 32-page monthly comic book, rather than a 24-page one, as I originally wrote. I didn’t mean to minimize the breadth of his ambition in such a fashion…
I’m sure he won’t mind! Thank you, btw. I’m going to look into his novel American Gods (because I can get it on Kindle while in Mexico), and, once back in Canada, look for the comic books.
In the meantime, Jordan, I think you’d enjoy following his blog.
Thanks so much, Sandra! And a happy new year full of good writing and fewer distractions (but not too few as good distractions are important :) )