Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Susan's Novel to be Published Soon


I haven't been posting for a while, because my computer died, and I lost my Internet connection. Now I'm back.

The big news around here is that my daughter Susan has found a publisher (Publish America) for her novel (And the Violin Cried). It will be published by late February or March. You can read reviews and articles about it, and get up-to-date news about book signings, etc. at www.PublishedAuthors.net/SusanJoyClark.

I've transitioned from being her nit-picking editor to being her Publish America Publicity Agent (PA PA). (ha ha) So I set up and maintain web sites, design and print business cards and bookmarks for her. I have also done photography for her, including photos of three young friends who posed as three of the characters in the novel.

Susan, who has training in graphic design, has designed a book cover for her novel which uses these three photos. The publisher may use her cover design as is, or may modify it, or do something different (no promises). But when we saw the page proofs, we were happy to see that the photos were incorporated into the book. Various chapters tell the story from the point of view of different characters; and each photo appears at the beginning of the chapter that first takes that character's point of view. We are taking that as a sign that the publisher likes Susan's cover design as well.

We decided that the title page should feature a picture of a violin, so we found a violin shop and asked if we could take a photo of a violin. They were quite gracious in spite of the fact that they were quite busy. One wall was covered with hundreds of violins. We explained that her novel featured a Schweitzer violin that survived the Holocaust, and the lady took a violin from the wall, and handing it to me, said "This one's a Schweitzer."

"Really?", I said, and she explained that it was actually a replica. But the way it was finished, it looked like an old violin that was re-varnished.