Creativity Friday: Shifting narratives. And last chance for CLEOPATRA’S MOON!

First off, this is the last day to leave a comment to win a copy of Vicky Alvear Shecter’s fabulous novel CLEOPATRA’S MOON (Arthur A. Levine Books). Besides the giveaway, she’s written a wonderful guest post full of writerly wisdom about how to adapt November’s National Novel Writing Month to suit your needs. So go forth and comment!

On a related note, with NaNoWriMo around the corner, I’m feeling a twinge of nostalgia: It was two years ago that I started THE LILY MAID as a dare to myself. I’d always wanted to write a novel, but it seemed ridiculously improbable. After all, I’m trained as an artist and a designer, not as a writer. The writing I did was to support visual projects: illustrated books, card decks, iPhone apps. I thought NaNoWriMo would be a great way to get this fiction writing bug out of my system: “See, you can’t write a novel. Now go back to what you do know and love: Illustrated books.”

Little did I know what I was getting into. Or that I’d be transforming my life and career.

Jump forward almost two years: I’m now heading into the final revisions of THE LILY MAID which will hopefully be submitted to publishers in early 2012. It’s come a very far way since that initial (and admittedly awful) first draft of 50,000 words which I completed in November 2009. Still, there was something about the story, characters, and process which enthralled me enough to keep going despite the steep learning curve awaiting me. To keep working at it.

And I’m so glad I did. You know those dreams where you discover a room in your house that you didn’t know existed before? And the room is impossibly large and beautiful and magical? That’s what writing THE LILY MAID feels like to me.

Since November 2009, I’ve written and revised many, many thousands of words to construct a 110,000 word novel. I’ve workshopped various chapters at various venues including the Sackett Street Writers Workshop and the Historical Novel Society conference. I’ve had instructors and beta readers tell me, “Keep going. You’re not crazy to write this book.” I’ve gained amazing critique partners who have helped me along the way with their no-punches-held feedback and insightful comments. I kept writing. And in time I became more confident as a novelist. More confident in the choice I’d made to pursue fiction writing as a career path. As a result of this, I made the incredibly difficult decision to change literary representation for my fiction writing. As delighted as I am with my new agent, I adore my previous agent who was instrumental in my creation of DOOMED QUEENS and THE LOVER’S PATH. But because of THE LILY MAID, I’m no longer the author I was. My personal narrative has shifted.

The latest reflection of my shifting narrative is an unexpected one. After four years at our current location in Brooklyn, Kris Waldherr Art and Words is moving four blocks away to new, spacious, and appropriately Victorian digs at the end of the year. We weren’t planning to move, but the new space—a four floor Victorian house—is so stunningly beautiful we couldn’t resist. It’s simply one of the most beautiful spaces I’ve ever been in: stained glass, wood-burning fireplace, a garden and more. My new studio will comprise most of the top floor—an atelier surrounded by trees and sky.

As much as I’ve loved having my studio in a street-level storefront, my new space feels more appropriate for all the writing I’ve been doing. Here’s the other strange thing: the house looks like one I described in THE LILY MAID. In the book, the house is inhabited by a famous artist and his wife and is famed as an example of Arts and Crafts style. Life imitating art.

The house description from THE LILY MAID:

Applewood Grange looked smaller inside than it did from the outside—more like a farm house than a grand manse. Though it was empty of most furniture, it didn’t feel empty. First off, it was beamed in the busy Tudor fashion of dark wood against plastered walls the color of bleached sunlight…. As I looked around, I decided that the daytime showed the drawing room at its best. That was because its windows overlooked the river and trees beyond, making it seem as though the house was suspended within wood and water.

To the back of the drawing room awaited a wide stairway, which led upstairs. At the top of the stairs, sunlight welcomed us from a large window placed at the top of the landing. Tucked underneath the window was a built-in oak bench, adorned with several mismatched cushions and a handy selection of books. A door rested sharply to the right of the landing….

If Dulac’s studio at Primrose Hill was a cabinet of curiosities with so many artifacts and decorations that they overwhelmed and dazzled, his studio at Applewood Grange was closer to a monastic cell. Like the drawing room, it was humble in the Tudor style with low ceilings and white-washed plaster walls. The floors were lined in rough hewn oak planks, unlike downstairs. Though the room wasn’t terribly large, it was also infused with light, as the stair landing had been—the furthest wall from the door featured four diamond-paned windows…. I imagined that in summertime the sun would be less overwhelming because the trees would be heavy with foliage.”

I’m a bit stunned by how quickly this has happened, but it feels organic in retrospect—a reflection of my shifting life narrative from artist to novelist.

Right now I’m overwhelmed with logistics since we’ll be moving our living space (and several thousand books!) at the same time. As you can tell from the above photo of our new space, we’ll be in transition for a while. Rest assured, there will be a last salon at the “old” space in December to close out the old and welcome the new—I’ll announce the date in November. In time, I plan to have salons at the new space, but it will be more intimate. And yes, there will be absinthe and a fainting chaise.

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Site news: Newsletter subscription frustration

If you’ve been trying to subscribe to my newsletter these past month, my apologies! It’s no longer working.

I’ve just learned that Mailchimp, who hosts my subscription service, recently updated their form code on their end. Alas, this broke all the subscription links on my site—some 100+ pages.

It’s going to take me a long time to update this, I fear—this is a major website update. And I’m beyond stretched out as is.

In the meantime if you’d like to subscribe to my newsletter, I’m happy to manually add you to my list. Just e-mail me your email to kris at kriswaldherr dot com.

(And I was wondering why no one had subscribed recently. Glad it’s not about me!)

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Reminder: Tarot Salon on Friday, April 24, 6:30 – 9 pm

If you live in the New York City area, I hope you’ll join us for our monthly Tarot Salon at my studio-gallery! Here’s the info:

As featured in Time Out New York, CNN.com, Yelp’s “On the Radar”, Brooklyn Based’s “Tip Sheet”, and internationally in La Libération. Several talented tarotists including Mama Donna Henes, Rene Collins, and Kris Waldherr will be on hand to give readings on the question of your choice at various prices. Plus Fran Dunston of Fusion Therapy Spa will be giving chair massages at $1 a minute.

Refreshments will be served. Free admission.

KRIS WALDHERR ART AND WORDS
1501 Newkirk Avenue
(entrance on Marlborough Road, around the corner from subway station)
Brooklyn, NY 11226
347-406-5811
subway: Q or B train to Newkirk Avenue
street parking is available

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The most beautiful house in the world?

I’m on vacation until April 22. In the meantime, I’ve set up some old favorites on this blog. Since I’m off traveling, it seemed appropriate to post something about one of my previous jaunts. This post is about the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen.

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Much as I love creating books, my main artistic inspiration these days derives from architecture. Surprised? Well, it’s not just the abstract idea of architecture that does it for me (though I do think of books as structures requiring balance and harmony, just like a building). To be precise, it’s Italian villas that are making me swoon — especially if they have interiors profusely decorated with tromp l’oeil frescoes.

It all began during my last visit to Venice in 2000. While my love for Venice is well documented by my illustrated novel, The Lover’s Path, this time I expanded my explorations to beyond that city. A day trip to the Brenta River valley introduced me to the villas of Andrea Palladio. It also brought me face-to-face with what many consider the most beautiful house in the world.

The Villa Foscari, better known as La Malcontenta (more on that below) was built by Palladio in 1558. While La Malcontenta belies its nickname to be a happy model of architectural perfection, what took my breath away was the whole of the interior: the furniture, the terrazzo floors and, most of all, the frescoes, which careen with color and light and life.

What’s the story behind La Malcontenta? One story claims that the villa received this name because the owner’s wife was locked up in the house after she failed to live up to her marital duty. A variant of this tale blames the wife’s unhappiness upon the humid summer weather of the Brenta River, which brought her discomfort and disease — an Italian Renaissance version of Washington’s Foggy Bottom.

Is La Malcontenta the most beautiful house in the world? It is for me. On my bulletin board in my studio, I have several color postcards of it that I glance at periodically during my work day. A friend joked that these photos represent my “happy place” — a metaphorical place that I can visit to center myself, to remind myself that perfect beauty does exist.

Now that you know about my not-so-secret obsession, it makes sense that my Cupid and Psyche painted violin from last year was a homage to the Villa Malcontenta. As I painted it, I was attempting to capture in a very small way the all-encompassing beauty I felt in that architectural structure.

I mean, isn’t that what art’s about? An attempt to channel our experiences into something tangible?

photos of Villa Foscani © Courtauld Institute of Art. All rights reserved.

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publishing 101: small publisher, big publisher

We’re off for the holidays until January 2. During this period, every day I’ll be presenting one of my popular Publishing 101 posts. I hope it will inspire all you writers and illustrators for 2009!

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In a recent post about literary agents, I mentioned that you might not need one in the following circumstances:

1. You’re a children’s book illustrator.

2. You have a book that speaks to a specialized audience: academic, technical presses, literary fiction, and so on.

3. You want to be published by a smaller publishing house.

So, if you’re an emerging author seeking to sell a book, why deal with the vagaries of literary agents and large houses if you can diy it? Which brings me to today’s topic: the advantages and disadvantages of large and small publishing houses.

I’m fortunate to have been published by both large and small houses. Much as I hate to admit the passing of the years, I’ve been a published author for almost two decades. When I first started out way back when, I had the romantic notion of “I only want to work with one publisher. I will be loyal to them. They will be loyal to me. We will publish together forever and win Caldecotts.” (Ah, youth!)

And I was fortunate. My first publisher was my dream publisher, one I’d long wished to work with. But time and three books passed. Reality hit: What if I wanted to do a different type of book than what my publisher could produce? Did I only want to illustrate children’s picture books, as wonderful as they may be?

Whatever I write here is based on my personal experiences. Since much depends on the author, the house, and the book, your mileage may vary. Or, in other words, though I am attempting to generalize, it’s not possible to generalize.

With these caveats, here goes:

SMALL PUBLISHER

Advantages:

~ Often times open to new authors, so easier to break into.

~ Personalized attention. Since they’re only produced a small number of books, they handpick each one carefully. They tend to be more involved with directly promoting each title.

~ Generally speaking, you know who you’re dealing with. With only a handful of editorial forces, you won’t be dealing with a revolving door of personnel — usually the acquiring editor is also the line editor and so on. You won’t be negotiating your way around publishing committees, book cover meetings and so on.

~ Things seem to move faster. Smaller list = easier to schedule books. Less editorial staff = less time “herding cats”, as my mother-in-law would say.

Disadvantages:

~ Lack of financial force. This pertains to your advance (which may be nil) to their ability to properly promote and distribute the book.

~ Lack of distribution. Their sales force may be limited and can only do so much for your book. Or they may be relying on a third party distributor to get your book to market. Unfortunately, these companies have been going belly up of late. (See McSweeney’s for a cautionary tale of how this affects small publishers.)

~ Though you may get personalized attention when promoting your book, they may not be able to pay for a book tour or to advertise your book. Which will affect how widely your book saturates the market.

~ Sometimes there’s just a lack of professionalism — not all small houses, just some. They’re a bit off the publishing mainstream, unaware of what’s going on in the bigger burgs. So things may be done in a “this is how we do it” way that bears little resemblance to industry standards. I’ve seen this especially in contracts from small publishers, which can have some very strange clauses that are not in an author’s interest to endorse.

~ I hate to say this, but I’ve had problems getting paid by small publishers — not all, but some. Royalties are delayed or paid in a casual fashion. And since you’re dealing one-on-one with them, it’s hard to not allow personal feelings get in the way. I mean, people who work in publishing tend to be nice people who are passionate about publishing. They’re not bad, just overextended. But if you want to make a living as an author . . . need I write more?

After writing all this, it must make the pluses and minuses of large publishers implicitly apparent. But just in case, here are some additional points:

LARGE PUBLISHER

Advantages:

~ You are dealing with a well-oiled machine. They know how to publish books and they do it well.

~ You’ll get paid. You’ll get an advance. You’ll be able to support yourself.

~ Superior distribution. A dedicated sales force means that they’ll also know how to place your book in special sales (catalogs, stores outside of bookstores). They’ll also have tight relationships with chain store buyers, like Barnes and Nobles.

~ They have the money to advertise and promote your book.

Disadvantages:

~ May only acquire books from authors who have been previously published or have literary representation. So harder to place a book with them.

~ They can be a little impersonal at times, but it’s business. (Actually this is a plus in some ways, unless you’re an author that likes a lot of handholding. Less time-consuming to deal with.)

~ With so many books being published, it’s easier for your book to be lost within the crowd unless your editor champions you specifically.

~ Big publishing generally works years ahead of time when acquiring books. This can leave your book a little vulnerable to change. Editors leave and you could be “orphaned”, a term used to describe when an author has lost her acquiring editor; though you’ll be assigned a new editor, it’s usually not the same. Or imprints get snapped up by even bigger publishers, like fish in a pond. When this occurs, books are often cancelled (though you’ll get to keep the advance, it’s still upsetting) or lost in a later list with a perfunctory publication (which means your book will quickly go out of print).

So that’s that. Notice that there’s another possibility I haven’t discussed here: what if you’re an author who doesn’t want a publisher at all? These days, it’s not so hard to self-publish a book using a POD (print-on-demand) service — or is it?

Well, that’s a subject for another post. Stay tuned!

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Have a question about publishing, writing or illustrating books you’d like answered on Publishing 101? Send it to kris at kriswaldherr.com.

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