How we tell women’s stories

THE WOMAN ALL SPIES FEAR officially debuts today, and I’m grateful to the many people who helped me along the way: librarians, archivists, cryptology enthusiasts, early readers, publishers, friends, family, and all of you who have cheered me on. Above all, I’m grateful to the extraordinary code breaker at the heart of the book. Elizebeth Smith Friedman fought the Mob and helped defeat the Nazis, but for decades she was all but forgotten. That’s changing, and I’m glad to help put her in the spotlight.

(photo courtesy of the George C. Marshall Foundation, Lexington, VA)

Elizebeth was a woman of many secrets, and sometimes I had to become a code breaker myself to crack them. It was exciting to discover new material about her childhood, courtship, marriage, and career – as well as a missing year in her life.

She made me think hard about the way we tell women’s stories. It’s good that we are doing more to celebrate women’s achievements, but Elizebeth herself was wary of hero worship, and I think she had a point.

In our efforts to show that certain women were heroic, sometimes we focus almost exclusively on their strengths and successes. That can make their triumphs seem almost inevitable, a matter of superhuman qualities. But that doesn’t serve anyone well.

To judge from the archive that Elizebeth left behind, she wanted to share a more complex story about her life. She had a brilliant mind, and she was rich in love and courage, and her papers certainly have a lot to say about her victories—which were even greater than we knew. But her papers also reveal the cracks in her life, her doubts and disappointments and frustrations, and at times even her despair.

These darker moments are part of her story, just as the triumphant ones are, and talking about both is important. We all face our own hard times, and it strengthens us to know that others have, too.

Painting a complex portrait of a woman doesn’t make her any less remarkable. If anything, it makes her triumphs all the greater—and more real. In the end, creating myths about strong women doesn’t make us strong. What makes us strong is sharing the truth about our lives.

Online with The Woman All Spies Fear

It’s just a week till the The Woman All Spies Fear officially debuts, and my author copies are already here! Aren’t they stunning?!

I’m grateful to illustrator Karolis Strautniekas and designer Andrea Lau for their brilliant work on the book, and to all the people at Random House who have helped bring it into being.

Elizebeth Friedman was a brilliant women who fought gangsters, the Mob, and Nazi spies – only to find herself pushed into history’s shadows. I’ll be talking about her remarkable life (and sharing photos!) at a couple of online events this month, and I’d be delighted to have you join me:

Wednesday, 20 October 2021, at 1pm EDT: I’ll be giving a free online Cyber Chat for middle and high school students, via the National Cryptologic Foundation’s online classroom

Wednesday, 27 October 2021, at 12 noon EDT: I’ll be talking about the hidden life of Elizebeth Smith Friedman (and sharing lots of wonderful photos!) in a free online talk hosted by the International Spy Museum

Both events are free, but they require you to pre-register. I’ll be doing some radio and podcast interviews as well, and I’ll be a guest on Write Space with Kirby Larson, talking about writing, history, and The Woman All Spies Fear. I’ll post more details about those events later. It’s a busy few weeks, but I’m glad to have the chance to shine a light on this extraordinary woman and her hidden life.

[Edited 22 Oct 21 to update dates and links!]

On writing a funny book in dark times

Today is RA THE MIGHTY’s book birthday! It’s my sixth book, so you’d think that book birthdays would feel very routine by now. Not so. They’re a cause for celebration every time — and maybe especially this time.

When the idea for this book came to me, I was in the midst of a truly terrible year. I’d had my first emergency ride in an ambulance, multiple hospital consultations, surgery far from home, serious surgical complications, flu, pneumonia, pleuritis, further complications, and a flare-up of lupus. And the year wasn’t over yet.

On top of all that,  I felt burned out as a writer. I’d just finished a YA trilogy written under grueling deadlines, and then I’d written a book that my agent didn’t want. I thought I might never write a book again.

But then one day a cat showed up. An imaginary cat, true — but one bursting with personality. A cat who made me laugh. Soon I discovered he had a scarab beetle buddy, who made me smile, too.

Write a mystery for us, they begged. A funny mystery.

I’m sorry, I told them. You’ve got the wrong writer. Maybe I could do a mystery, if I got my health back and I worked hard. But I can’t do funny.  I wish I could, but humor isn’t one of my gifts. You’ll have to find somebody else.

But the cat and the beetle stuck around. Just give it a try, they urged me. It’ll be fun. You’ll see.

So I finally did. And they were right. It was a joy to write their book.

Happy book birthday, Ra and Khepri! Thank you for seeing me through a dark, dark time. It’s wonderful to see you in living color.

My writing mascot watches over Ra and Khepri’s book

That isn’t the end of my gratitude. All books take a village, and I send warmest thanks to all of mine, especially to Kit Sturtevant and Paula Harrison and my husband and daughter, who read drafts and laughed in all the right places and kept my spirits up. To Sarah Horne, whose art amazes me every day.  To Paula and Mo O’Hara, who wrote such lovely blurbs for the cover. To my agent and editor and the people at Holiday House, who are Ra and Khepri’s champions.

And thank you, dear readers and dear friends. I’m grateful to you all.

 

Double Vision – and a Sneak Preview

My Septembers are almost always busy, but this one has me seeing double.

The impossibly beautiful Tarn Hows, where I went for a walk ten days ago

Why double? Because I have two big writing milestones coming up.

• Later this week, I need to turn in the revised draft of RA #2 to my editor.
• Next week RA THE MIGHTY debuts on September 18^th… just nine days away!

One of these milestones would be enough to keep me busy. Taken together, they’ve made my life  a blur of revisions and website updates and long to-do lists. Even the lists themselves are higgledy-piggledy, with arrows and crosses and jottings squeezed in on the side – all too representative of my state of mind.

All is not lost, though. I’m still making time for snacks. And even the occasional nap.  (Ra the Mighty would approve.)

And I do have something fun to share today:  a sneak preview of RA THE MIGHTY! My publisher has released the first two chapters, so they’re now available for FREE online – and you can see Sarah Horne’s hilarious illustrations, too. If you like what you see, I’d be thrilled if you pre-ordered the book, or asked your local library to order it.

I’m wishing you all luck with your own to-do lists. And if you’re having double vision, too — here’s to a clear-sighted September!

The First Review Rolls in…

I always get anxious when I’m waiting for the reviews to come in on a new book. I’ve learned to work through it, but the shadow of worry is still there, ready to pounce in any quiet moment. So I was thrilled and relieved to get a fantastic review of RA THE MIGHTY from Kirkus yesterday.

Kirkus praised the “exciting ancient setting” and the “delightful repartee,” and the fact that the book has things to say about the nature of power. They said lovely things about Sarah Horne’s illustrations, too.x

The bottom line: “Fast-paced adventure with a lot of charm.”

Maybe I can stop holding my breath now?

What music taught me about writing

I’m celebrating a book birthday today! It’s the official pub date for the final book in the Chantress trilogy, Chantress Fury.

I had to work hard for this book. For a slow writer like me, the deadline pressure was overwhelming. And yet there was so much that I truly loved about writing Chantress Fury. With Lucy at the height of her powers, I could finally unleash the Wild Magic of the sea, forcing Lucy to confront wily mermaids, terrifying sea monsters, and a flood that threatens to drown all England. I also had secrets galore to unveil, many of them woven through all three books. And in the midst of all these twists and turns, I wanted Lucy to make a deep emotional journey, one that ends in her understanding more fully who she is and where she belongs.

It was a tall order. Especially under deadline.

Part of what pulled me through was the very thread that had carried me into the trilogy in the first place: music. Singing with my choir, playing the piano, warbling with my family – these gave me energy and perspective to face what was an incredibly challenging year.

But the importance of music went even deeper than that. My childhood was full of music, and much of what I learned then has stood me in good stead with writing, too:

1. Practice. My extraordinary high school music teacher used to tell our choir that if he had to pick between talent and hard work, he’d pick the hard worker every time. This made a huge impression on me, and I think it’s true of writing, too. If I’ve learned anything from music over the years, it’s that practice matters.

2. Sharing. Making music by yourself is wonderful, and writing for yourself is, too. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that both can be lifesavers. (At least they have been for me.) That said, there is a special magic in sharing your music and writing with others. Both can be terrifying (again, I speak from experience) but there’s something very powerful about sharing what matters to you. And you don’t have to play at Carnegie Hall to benefit. Making music with friends in your living room will do it, and so will sharing a story with a good critique group.

3. A Tolerance for Mess. I’m a neatnik by nature, so it pains me to admit this, but music and writing both thrive on a certain amount of chaos. If you’re challenging yourself, you’re guaranteed to hit points where everything feels like a mess. Maybe you can’t hit the weird high notes in your new song. Maybe your poem falls apart in the middle. Don’t despair! Just keep working.

4. Judgement. You need discernment to get better at both music and writing, so when your gut tells you that something isn’t working, pay attention. And yet at the same time you must remember that you are not always the best judge of your own work. Especially when you are in the middle of it.

5. Loving Your Work. The work is easier if you’re doing what you love. Of course, there comes a point with almost every piece (writing or music) where the passion cools, at least for a while. For me, it helps to pull back and remember what made me fall in love in the first place—those blues chords in the bass line, the character’s voice in the novel—and see if there’s any way to work a little more of that into my daily practice.

What about you? Is there something you love that’s taught you about writing, or about living? I’d love to hear.

 

 

Three for one!

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Chantress Fury

Oh, your poor neglected blog! You got pushed out of the nest by Book 3, didn’t you? This year, and especially this summer, Chantress Fury demanded all the words I had to give, not to mention all the energy and time and life-force. Truly, this book took everything. It finally went off to my editor on August 15th, and I’ve been recovering ever since — greatly helped along by my editor’s lovely note saying that the final draft was wonderful. (Such a relief!)

At some point I hope to have more words for new books — and yes, for blog posts, too. But for the moment, what I have to share are pictures.  Today lovely Alyssa Susanna is hosting the cover reveal for Chantress Fury over on her super blog, Eater of Books. It’s actually a TRIPLE cover reveal, as Simon & Schuster is changing the look of the entire trilogy. I’ll post a couple snapshots of the new covers here, but do go and check out Alyssa’s blog post to see the covers in their full glory, and to enter the international giveaway of the first two books!

Gift books and transformations

It’s publication day! And my books have made it across the Atlantic: the paperback of Chantress, and the brand new hardcover of Chantress Alchemy. It’s wonderful to hold them in my hands.

 

Every once in a while, some writers get a “gift book” — one that comes together quickly and with much less angst that usual, one where the story seems to know from the get-go what it wants to be. That was my experience with Chantress Alchemy.

That didn’t mean I hardly had to lift a finger, or that I never made mistakes. I put in long hours, and there were weeks where I lived more in the story than I did in the real world. But mostly this book was a joy to write.

Maybe that’s because it was about alchemy, which is something that’s fascinated me for ages. It’s also about the transformative power of friendship and love, and about the way our weaknesses can sometimes make us stronger — all things I deeply believe in.

But then again, I always write about things I care deeply about. (I’d never find the strength to keep at the writing, otherwise!) So in the end I have no real explanation for my gift book. Which I think is the nature of the beast. All you can do is be grateful when it happens.

At the moment, I’m wrestling with book three, which alas, is not a gift book. Although there’s a lot I love about it, it’s been hard work, and I’m having to finish it on a very tight deadline. So that makes me all the more grateful that the stars aligned for Chantress Alchemy.

***

If you’d like to know more about Chantress Alchemy, I’m doing a tour this week with some wonderful bloggers, thanks to the amazing team at Rockstar Book Tours. Today I’m visiting Word Spelunking where I share secrets and photos of the great houses in England that inspired the setting for Chantress Alchemy.

The full tour schedule is here. And the tour includes a giveaway of copies of the book, which anyone in the world can enter!

***

ETA: I forgot to add that the first few chapters are now online! You can find them here.

Skype chats, trailers, blog tours — and chocolate cake

A few weeks ago, I found a note in my in-box from a teacher at my old middle school.  Her kids had read Chantress and loved it, and she was wondering if I’d do a Skype chat with them.

Of course I said yes.  On Friday we talked, and the kids were great, bursting with good questions.  I had so much fun talking with them.  And here’s something else that delighted me:  Later on, the kids were going to have chocolate cake as a special treat, because they’d read it was my favorite.

Warmest thanks to Barbara Peria for making the chat happen, and to her 6th grade class for all their enthusiasm!

The chat came at the end of an incredibly busy week, as I gear up for the debut of Chantress Alchemy on May 6th — now just nine days away!  The amazing bloggers at Mundie Moms unveiled the book trailer on Thursday.  You can win a free copy of Chantress Alchemy over at their blog!

Like the Chantress trailer, this one is a home-grown production.  I wrote the super-short script, and my husband brought it to life.  It wowed Simon & Schuster, which makes us happy.

Chantress is coming out in paperback on May 6th, too — and you can win a copy of it over on Goodreads.  There’s a giveaway of a Chantress Alchemy ARC on Goodreads as well.

Tomorrow the pre-pub blog tour for Chantress Alchemy begins, organized by the lovely women of the Fantastic Flying Book Club.  I’ll be answering questions about writing, Chantresses, alchemy, book covers, and what the week after publication is like.  And yes, I might just be mentioning chocolate now and again.  You can see the schedule here!

 

Chantress Alchemy – the ARCs are in!

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ARCs

Behold what DHL delivered!

Chantress Alchemy is my fourth book, so you’d think I’d be used to this by now.  But my heart still started pounding when I opened up the box and saw these ARCs.

My first thought:

Someone could be reading my book right now – how wonderful! 

Closely followed by:

Someone could be reading my book right now – how terrifying!

I once read a story about a little girl who was walking to a party and felt butterflies in her stomach.  She asked her dad what that feeling was called.  “Anxiety,” he said, so that’s what she called it, too.  It was only when she was much older that she realized the feeling she was really trying to describe that day was anticipation.

I always feel both anticipation and anxiety when a new book goes out.  But I’m very proud of this one – and excited, too.

There are limited ARCs and e-galleys available, but there’s an international giveaway for a signed ARC on Goodreads that everyone can enter.

Reviewers, booksellers, librarians, and bloggers can request a review copy using this form.  You also may be able to get an e-galley through Edelweiss.  I wish I could guarantee a review copy to everyone who wants one, but Simon & Schuster makes the final call.

The actual hardcover book – which, unlike the ARCs, will have a glossy, glimmering cover – comes out on May 6, 2014!