The Book on the Bucket List
Today's article was written by our new author friend (online) Alle C. Hall; we first met through an author group on FaceBook and today she is sharing this piece with our audience. Alle has focused on short stories and creative essays initially, however she is in the process of working on 2 novels. An excerpt from Alle C. Hall’s first novel (coming out in March 2023; Black Rose Writing publishers) placed as a finalist for The Lascaux Prize. A Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net nominee, Hall’s fiction appears in Dale Peck’s Evergreen Review, New World Writing, Litro, and Tupelo Quarterly; and her essays in Creative Nonfiction and Hobart.
In 1993, I wrote the first sentence of my novel: “I was watching myself from beside myself.”
...
...
Two years ago, when I signed my contract, my 14-year-old son asked, “Is publishing this book on your bucket list?”
I said, “Publishing this book is my bucket list.”
* * *
As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back tells of Carlie, a teenaged incest survivor who steals $10,000 and runs away to Asia, only to have her disaster way of dealing with life follow her there. Settling in Japan in the late 1980s and practicing tai chi, Carlie begins another journey: one to find the self-respect ripped from her as a child and the healthy sexuality she craves.
It took a good seven years to forge a draft that I felt was ready for agent consideration. The next twenty-three years were used much as every single author I know—published and unpublished—spends striving to place their manuscript: the sweat, tears, joy, and angst; hope kicked in the head by rejections, rejection, rejection.
Along the way, I found and then lost an agent, came as close as I may ever come to a book/movie deal, even signed a contract only to have drop the dreaded other shoe: the pandemic did the press in. They had to reduce their upcoming publications by half. As Far as You Can Go did not make the cut.
I’m not going to sugar-coat it: it sucked.
All in all, my manuscript—my dream—was rejected by 500 agents and editors. I used to feel shame about than number: I must be deluded, to think I have talent.
Then, I realized: more writers would have “success” stories of twenty, thirty years or more if they had kept at it. Instead, they gave up hope.
What kept me going?
The opening sentence in conjunction with the final image. While “I was watching myself from beside myself” might never rival Mrs. Dalloway in the annals of literature, it is compelling. I speaks to every survivor out there, and the ones who love them. It reflects the state abuse survivors find themselves in until we get ourselves good help. On the craft front, the sentence is ripe with the possibility of the rest of the novel.
I won’t reveal the prose or circumstances of the final image; you’re gonna have to wait for March 2, 2023 at a bookstore near you. That I will finally be able to share my vision with readers makes me short of breath. I simply had to wait long enough and work hard enough to come to this place.
I wish for you this success:
...the strength to persist doggedly, the patience to wait, and the joy of the ultimate triumph.
Expect the miracle.
~~~
Discover Our Books on Amazon: https://amazon.com/author/lillianbrummet
Find us online via these landing pages:
~~~
Thank you Alle for dropping in to share this article :)
ReplyDelete