I will be publishing on Monday, April 22. This is a later date than previously intended, but I made room to accomodate for editing and other processes. This week has been light on work, considering that designing the cover of my book took much less time than I had anticipated. There were three things I needed to complete before the publishing of my novel:
It is crazy to imagine that my novel is coming to a close - after about six months of working on it! I did email Mr. Lancaster and the Think Tank of MSI to collect images from the museum that I could not obtain online. Unfortunately, I cannot visit the museum before the publication of “When Sea Becomes Cemetery”. They supplied me with the images, which were used to detail the disappearance of Walther Schmidt to his parents. To view a sneak peak of my novel, visit the attached document; the link for buying the book should be up next week. Very honorable Mister Schmidt! Au Flottillencheif I’ll fulfill my duty to write to you with really, a very heavy heart. Based on an announcement from the Commander of U-boats I will have to let you know that the boat under Command of the experience Oberleutnant zur See d.R. Lange with your son, Walther Schmidt as a member of the crew, is since July 13-1944 missing. It left in Mid March from an Atlantic base and was heard from last from Guinea (West Africa). In spite of several attempts to establish communications and a certain waiting period, it did not respond. What happened to the brave crew is unfortunately totally uncertain. Even if we do not know how the Boat was lost, we do not wish to give up the slim hope that the crew is safe. Perhaps they were able to leave the boat on the surface and were rescued by enemy vessels. Research to the possibility is underway with the help from the Red Cross. Since we know from past experience that our opponents are usually very slow in reporting these happenings, I would like to ask you my dear Mr. Schmidt to please...
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I finished my first edits this week and engage in an hour and a half long phone call with my aunt (an soon-to-be author) to discuss deeper edits. While we did make grammatical edits, we decided on (mainly) three large edits:
No new emails have come in - as the last one was sent about a month ago. I finished editing my novel this week with detailed edits just focusing on chapters and not the novel as a whole. I am in correspondence with my aunt, who aforementioned is an accomplished writer. We are currently sorting through edits for the novel. I will be engaging in a one and a half week break from my novel start on March 23 (the beginning of spring break). In addition to these news, I also got two email replies - one from the Neenah Public Library, allowing my book donation to the library. This was exciting news that guaranteed the extended reach of my novel. In addition, Lisa See, famous author, replied to my email, giving her two cents on writing a successful historical fiction novel. She advised focusing on the character’s emotions and experiences above all, while praising my ambition. A picture of her can be seen in the blog post. That was my week: uneventful but hectic just the same while wrapping up first edits. This week I contacted the Neenah Public Library to see if I could donate a copy of my book to their collection. Not only would this spread publicity and my book’s reach, but it would give me a taste of communication with professionals outside of the classroom, as I have been doing.
In addition, Jeff Shaara, famous historical author, emailed me back today. He addressed to main topics: write about what you love and “show, don’t tell”. To not search for the “secret” of writing was his introduction, as he reflected deeply on the falsities created behind covers of “How-To Be A Bestseller” books in Barnes and Noble. This email, in short, was a very meaningful and touching message, as it is still a shock that best-selling authors might send an email to a fourteen year old. A picture of the author can be seen below. I am editing more this week, so “same old, same old”. Still, it is exciting to be on my path to finishing. Even so, my tolerance with editing two chapters a week is growing thin, so the two week break over spring break will offer some much needed space. This week was low-key, as I was scrambling to finish other projects due around the same time. It was a week of editing, and while I did not receive any more emails, I applied my most recent email to my editing, diving deep into the character of the person. I am looking into who I can have an interview with. I am considering Kai Steenbuck, the researcher at the U-boat museum in Germany (picture shown). I am still so fascinated and touched that someone in GERMANY would take time out of his day to contact me. The thought is bizarre - especially to contact a freshman! I would like to continue to stay in contact, but I can't think of any more questions for him. However, because our contacts have been limited, and I do not know him well, I think I will try to set up a Skype call with an author. I have not decided who yet, but when more authors start replying, my options will broaden. I sent ten emails to ten authors and edited about twelve more chapters, out of sixty that need to be edited. I decided to email authors instead of historical fiction literacy agencies because there were three times in the past where the recipient agency was not able to give me their full advice due to legal restrictions. So far, one author has emailed me back with detailed advice, whereas another, their assistant responded with a brief email that they could not respond unless it was a business inquiry.
Odder yet, somehow (absent from my list of emailed authors and ones I needed to email), I unbeknownst emailed a healthcare company employee with my pitch about the requested advice. The poor woman, in short, was very confused, but I sent a reply email back quickly explaining the error. To elaborate on the email I received back, it was from Paula McLain, best-selling author of the famous Paris Wife, who insisted that I “embed” myself in my character’s point of view. While short, the email was meaningful and deep in its concepts. I was more pleased that a best-selling New York Times author had replied to the email of a mere ninth-grader. My week was a busy one and filled with good progress. A picture of Paula McLain can be seen in the blog post here (click on the social icon to contact her). I edited my book more this week, first, focusing on Alonzo Brown, my African-American character. It was a lighter week with my Genius Hour workload. My mother, the author of Getting It Right the Second Time Around, started editing with me, diving deep into the context of the words and their meaning. It is very important to get the least number of words that mean the most. No one wants to read a long novel when they can read a shorter one with the exact same story line and, perhaps, even better writing. Anyways, I really like editing because it forces me to look deep into the characters and understand them more. It is frustrating slightly because editing is tedious, but it is also fun to reread your work. A picture of Jennifer Frank and her book can be seen to the left. I finished my novel on February 5, at 7:26 p.m. It was exhilarating, yet bittersweet to be done with the novel that had required so much of my time. After completing the novel, I began editing a chapter a day while confirming all of the dates listed in the novel to make sure there wasn’t an obscure anomaly that might threw my reader or a historian off.
The set deadline for ten emails was today, so I finished my ten emails. So far, I have received four out of ten responses (two from historical fiction agents, two from historical fiction authors). Unfortunately, two other emails failed to send and were unavailable - unbeknownst to me at the time I was writing the email. In addition, I finished the writing portion (not the date section) of my chart. The chart proved to be difficult as the dates needed to be lined up with actual events, and sometimes, there were blank spaces where one character did not have any content in their chapter and another did. Each chapter needs to keep the reader as intrigued as the last. Daniel Lazar encourage me to read above all, whereas the Nelson Litery Agency was legally required not to give out advice. They did, however, advice me to continue writing. I also designed a sample book cover, which isn't my final cover. The cover picture can be seen above. |
AuthorNatalie Frank is a published author who strives to capture unwritten history in a meaningful way. View her "About" page for more! Archives
April 2019
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