I sent Nayt (NRP) my author photos today, six in total: some horizontal, some vertical, some close-up, and some taken from further away. I hope one of them will be suitable for the book’s back cover. I know I often check to see what the author looks like when selecting a novel to purchase at the book store. I hope people will like my photo and will buy Frozen Voices!
HIGH SCHOOL CLASS - 1906
Today I left work at my day job at noon and went to the Providence Public Library to spend some time writing my new novel, Beethoven’s Thirty-Second. Although I’m enjoying the publishing/editing process for FV, I’m happy to have another novel to work on, too. Actually, I’m very excited about the way B32 is progressing, right now. I’m currently on its third edit, smoothing out the rough spots in the plot and adding sensory details to every scene.
While I was at the Providence Library (what a beautiful, historical building!) I stopped into the archive room and purchased the rights to use a photo of the Larchmont that was in the library’s archives. It’s a great shot of the steamship at its dock in Providence, down near the Point Street Bridge. I get so excited seeing a photo of the Larchmont, almost like seeing a picture of an old friend.
I finally heard from Richard Hoffman! He said that I could use the quote he wrote about my book (the one he included in the announcement of my winning the prize) in any way I saw fit. He ended by writing, “Congrats again on having written a remarkable novel.” What a kind soul! I do hope I have the chance to speak with him again someday soon, maybe take a class from him. Richard seemed to have many valuable/insightful things to say.
I e-mailed a thank-you to Eric for his excellent photography. He refused to accept payment for his work, saying that all he wanted was a signed copy of my novel. I’m surrounded by nice people!
PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN - 1902
Eric sure works fast! He has already corrected the photos he took on Saturday, sent them to me, cropped them, and then re-sent them. And the more I look at the photos, the more I like them. I feel like they show a nice, friendly, middle-aged woman, who’s pretty happy to be where she is in her life, right now. In sort, they do a good job of depicting ME! I suppose it would have been nice if Eric’s photos could have revealed my inner model/beauty queen, but he’s not a magician. And I’m not a model/beauty queen. I’m a wife/mother/architect/writer…and that’s okay!
Nayt e-mailed me answers to my most recent spate of questions. He said that any size/format would work for the author’s photos, so I’m sure the ones that Eric took will be great. There’s no deadline for the blurbs, apparently, so I’ll just try to get them in by the time the Team starts working on the book cover, in late October.
Nayt didn’t sound very sure about helping me out with a blog. It sounds like he doesn’t really have the manpower to assign someone to such a hefty project. I’ve been toying with the idea of asking Kaitlyn Lamb, a close family friend, to help me build a new website and create a blog, too. She’s a graphic designer by trade and would do a great job, I’m sure. I wonder if she’d like to do it…
Eric sent his photo proofs to me via Dropbox today. The color and quality of the photos were amazing. Now, I just need to lose some weight so that I’ll look better in the photos. Actually, I’ve been going to exercise class three times a week since August 1st. I’m determined to lose weight and look better before starting my “book tour” next summer. I wonder how much touring there’ll be?
Chris and I reviewed Eric’s proofs and selected our four favorites. I e-mailed our choices to Eric, so that he could crop them for us. Then I sent another e-mail to Nayt, asking him about photo format, blurb deadlines, and whether or not someone at NRP would be able to help me create a blog with these entries. Although I’m not sure if a fifty-year-old woman is allowed to have a blog. Too high-tech for me?
MAN AND HIS DOG - 1910
I printed out three copies of my manuscript, took them to Staples, and had them bound. Two copies are for Karen and Hollis so they can read them and then write me blurbs. I still haven’t heard from Richard Hoffman, yet. I think I’ll e-mail NRP to see if they have another e-mail address for Richard; I used one I found on-line.
This afternoon, I had my photo shoot for my author photo for the back cover of Frozen Voices. Eric Wertheimer, the photographer, was great. Chris and I met him at his home in Wakefield and found him to be very kind and welcoming and obviously a very talented photographer. (He showed us some other photos he’s taken—of Miss Rhode Island and politicians—and they looked beautiful.) Eric shot the pictures of me across the street from his home, in the lawn of an old white church, filled with flowers and sun-lit bushes. He took dozens of photos using a variety of settings and seemed confident that some of them had come out well, despite my obvious nervousness.
After the photo shoot, Chris took me out for lunch and drinks at a local pub, saying I deserved a Mojito or two. It’s comforting to know that, after twenty-five years of marriage, my husband knows me well enough to know when I am stressing about something. And the Mojitos were good!
Actually, Chris has been very supportive of this whole publishing journey. Ever since I received notice that I’d won the book prize, he has done everything he can to help me out, from coming down to Enders to helping out more with household chores to going with me to the photography session. He even read the entire novel, even though he generally doesn’t enjoy reading. Pretty cool. I’ve always tried to be supportive of his fiddle playing, too. I guess that’s how marriage works.
PROVIDENCE - 1905
Today, Hollis e-mailed to say that she’d be happy to write a blurb, too. I am amazed that these very busy professors/writers/mothers/etc. are willing to commit so much time to read my novel and then craft a blurb about it. Truly generous souls! I’ll have to remember this, if ever someone asks me to write a blurb for him/her. I still haven’t heard from Richard Hoffman about his blurb. I do hope he agrees though, since I really enjoyed meeting him and speaking with him this summer and would like him to be involved in my publishing journey if he wants to be. After all, he’s the one who got me into this in the first place!
Last night, I e-mailed my author’s questionnaire to Nayt. I enjoyed answering the questions, especially the ones about my origins/themes/goals/regrets about writing the novel. It really make me think about Frozen Voices. Through the past six years of writing and rewriting it, I’ve really gotten to know and love my characters as people. What began as me trying to craft a story, ended up with me attempting to show who these people were, what they cared about, and what their dreams were. They were so real to me that when I wrote about them, I’d find myself lost in their 1907 world. After working on the novel for a few hours, I’d look around me and blink, feeling disoriented in my modern-day home. More than once, I’d find myself wanting to speak in person to one of my characters; they were that real to me.
Today, I received an e-mail from Nayt, thanking me for sending the manuscript and completed questionnaire. He said he was excited to start working on FV. He said that the student editors would receive my MS in about two weeks and then two weeks after that, I should hear from one of them, my team liaison. Imagine that—I’m going to have a liaison! (In that book about NRP, there was an essay about a high maintenance author, who often needed to be calmed and reassured by her team liaison. I hope I don’t ever fall into that category.) Nayt said that my liaison will explain the process to me and will let me know what the team will be doing as well as what is expected of me. She’ll be my primary contact at NRP but Nayt said to copy him on all correspondence, too, so that he may keep track of progress. He said I’m welcome to communicate with him directly, too, of ever I should feel the need to do so.
Tonight, I e-mailed those authors about writing “blurbs” for me. I also called Eric Wertheimer, the photographer who Betty Cotter, a local author/friend of mine, recommended for my author’s cover photo. Eric and I are going to try to get together for a photo shoot this weekend, but I’m afraid he’s going to have a challenge dealing with me. As I mentioned previously, I am generally not very good in front of a camera. Maybe I could just find a beautiful model who would let me use a photo of her instead.
Karen Osborn wrote back today to say that she’d be honored to write a blurb for FV. What a nice thing to say! She mentioned that publishers often furnish blurbers with “early bound copies” of the book. I fired off an e-mail to Nayt asking if NRP would be supplying those, but I figure I’ll just print and bind copies myself, over at Staples.
Unfortunately, Michael White had to decline writing a blurb for me. He’s just too busy working on his own novel, which is certainly understandable.
Well, I did it! I just sent New Rivers Press my manuscript and signed contract for Frozen Voices. I guess I’m officially in trouble now! Actually, I am really looking forward to this whole process: working with the student editors and artists as well as the professional ones. I am curious to see what FV will come out looking like a year from now.
In one of his e-mails, Nayt asked me to start soliciting book “blurbs” from others authors, people willing to read FV and then write a few compelling sentences raving about the novel. After some internal debate, I’ve decided to ask Richard Hoffman, Karen Osborn, Hollis Seamon, and Michael White. They are all familiar with the novel and have been very encouraging about it, in the past. I’ll draft a request letter in the next few days and then send it out via e-mail, probably this weekend. I can’t wait to read what they will say about FV!
BABY BUGGY - 1903
Nayt wrote back and I feel sooo much better about this whole contract thing. “You will have input on the interior and the cover design of the book. We have designers that we use, and if you have any suggestions, we can pass them on to them. However, we do like giving them freedom to work with their interpretations of what we give them. Once we get designs, we pass them on to you for feedback, and we can go from there. We don’t typically allow for infinite ‘do-overs’ but one or two rounds of suggestions/changes isn’t unheard of. Also, we’ve had authors provide art to be integrated into the cover in the past. Of course, it is on the author to obtain rights and permissions from the artist to use the piece, if that is a rout you want to take. So, NRP has ‘final say’ in what the book looks like, but we don’t do anything without the author’s okay. We won’t go with a design you completely hate.”
Phew! Although I don’t have a definite vision of what I want the cover of FV to look like, I would be bummed if I had no say in it whatsoever. The cover of a book is such a big part of how it is perceived.
Today I received another e-mail from Nayt Rundquist, the editor at New Rivers Press (NRP). As promised, he attached my contract and an author’s questionnaire and also included some more information about the whole process.
BACHELOR'S PARTY? - YEAR?
I forgot to mention that when I was at Enders last month, Al Davis (NRP) gave me a book called Paper Camera, which tells the 50-year history of New Rivers Press and includes essays about the press from various past and present authors/employees/students. I’ve been reading Paper Camera and finding it very informative and gradually find myself becoming less fearful and more excited about this whole publishing process.
After three agonizing photo sessions with Chris—Why am I so uncomfortable having my photo taken?!—we managed to get a couple halfway decent shots of me that I doctored up and then sent off to Elizabeth. I hope one of them is adequate. One was taken down by the docks and one was taken in our backyard. I really want to lose weight, get a good haircut, and buy some nice clothes before I do any author readings next summer/fall!
Elizabeth Hastings from Fairfield University e-mailed a request for some high-resolution photos of me for the Fairfield Book Prize MFA page. Yikes! I’d forgotten about having to supply author photos. I’ve always been the person behind the camera, not in front of it. Maybe Chris and I could go out this weekend and take some shots with my good camera. Perhaps down by the docks in Wickford so that we’ll have boats in the background. That seems appropriate for an author shot for a book about a people in a shipwreck.
WICKFORD LIGHTHOUSE (DEMOLISHED)
I’ve been reviewing the contract from NRP. One thing’s for sure: I’m certainly not going to get rich from selling this book! For NRP to just recoup its expenses for editing, publishing, publicity, etc., we’ll have to sell over a thousand book. And then I don’t get much of a royalty per book after that. But to be able to see my name on the cover of a book is going to be such a thrill, I honestly don’t care about the profit margin.
The only thing that really worries me about the contract is a line that says that NRP shall have “sole determination of the book and cover design.” I don’t mind them designing the book for me but I do hope I’ll have some say in the final product. How a book looks is vital to how it is perceived.
So, I sent Nayt a list of three questions:
1. What format do they want for my written manuscript (software, font type, font size, line spacing, etc.)?
2. Do I have to get a Federal Employer ID Number? (I have no idea what one of those is.)
3. Do I really have no say in the book/cover design?
I am anxious to read Nayt’s response, especially to the third question.
PORTRAIT OF GIRL - 1908
I just went onto the FUMFA Book Prize page and saw that Elizabeth had not posted either of the photos I sent to her. I wonder if they weren’t good enough or if she just has not had time to post a photo, yet. Should I e-mail her and ask or let her contact me if she wants a different photo? I want to be helpful and cooperative without being an obsequious pain in the neck. A fine line to tread!
In the meantime, I just finished reading through Frozen Voices (FV) beginning to end one more time. I had some edits to make, just a few words here and there, but for the most part, I was still fairly satisfied with how the novel read. I am curious to see what the various editors (the student team and Nayt) will suggest for edits this fall. I am to turn over my manuscript to NRP by August 29, 2015. Then the fun will begin!
I’ve also begun work on my author’s questionnaire. So far, I answered the question about the description of book/statement of purpose. I enjoyed writing about what I hoped to accomplish by writing FV, although I did feel a bit dishonest. I was discussing what I planned to do after it was already done. As they say, hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy to state the purpose of the book after it’s completed versus when I first started writing it.
Anyhow, I have four more pages of questions to answer, so I’d best get to them. I told Nayt that I hoped to complete the questionnaire by the end of the month, which only gives me two more weeks.
This afternoon, I received an e-mail from Nayt Rundquist, the managing editor at New Rivers Press. He said he was preparing my contract (How exciting!) and author’s questionnaire (I’m an author!). Nayt asked me to confirm the name of my novel (“Is it Frozen Voices or Frozen Forest?”) and its approximate length (306 pages, at the moment). He said he’d get back in touch with me soon and then he, too, congratulated me several times. Pretty cool!
Fast forward a few weeks to when I arrived at Enders Island, Connecticut, for my FUMFA Alumni Writers’ Conference. For the past ten days, everyone I knew seemed to have made a point to get in touch with me to congratulate me on winning the prize. I posted a notice on Facebook and had over a hundred messages in response, telling me how happy they were for me. The people at my office, all of the folks in my various writers’ groups, the ladies in my book club, but—most especially—all of the other writers at FUMFA. It seemed that just about everyone I’d ever met through the program went out of his way to send me his best wishes.
And when I arrived at Enders for the conference, the congratulations only intensified. Everyone was genuinely happy for me and proud of my accomplishment. I kept finding myself in tears from the sheer joy of knowing such wonderful, big-hearted people.
STEAMSHIPS AT BLOCK ISLAND
Richard Hoffman, the judge for the book prize, was a guest teacher and lecturer at the conference. After two days, I finally worked up the courage to introduce myself to him and to thank him for his kind words about Frozen Voices. I mean, it’s not every day that a writer gets her work compared to E. L. Doctorow! But then, as I stood there talking to Richard, I realized that he’d selected FV because he thought it was a good novel. Not that he thought it had potential, but that he believed it already was a good novel! I was absolutely stunned. Something I’d written was deemed print-worthy by as accomplished an author as Richard Hoffman.
Things got even more surreal to me a few nights later, during the formal announcement of the prize. Al Davis, the senior editor at New Rivers Press, described the parameters of the contest and then Richard rose and explained why he’d selected my novel. More kind words! He even read the prologue aloud to all the FUMFA students, faculty, and alumni assembled in the chapel. And he read it very well! (I joked with him later that I’d like him to come to all of my book signings with me since he’d done such a good job reading my work.)
Then Richard called me up to the podium and handed me an envelope. (It contained a congratulations card, signed by all of the faculty members—so wonderful!) I looked out at the faces in the pews and said (something like…), “Although I’ve scribbled down stories and dreamed about becoming a published author all my life, three and half years ago, I arrived here on Enders Island for my first residency, not knowing any of you and not knowing the first thing about writing. That first morning, I sat in Karen Osborn’s workshop, listening to discussions about ‘voice’ and ‘point of view’ and I had no idea what anyone was talking about. So, when I say that literally everything I’ve learned about the art of writing, I’ve learned from all of you, I really mean it. Thank you all for helping make this dream come true.”
I spent most of the day on our family room couch, sick with a yucky stomach flu. When I turned on my telephone at 11:30 p.m. to use it as an alarm clock, my home screen informed me that I had 32 Facebook messages. Except for my birthday, I don’t generally receive anywhere near that many messages, so I was curious. Opening up the app, I found comment after comment, congratulating me. For what? I honestly hadn’t a clue. On my phone screen, I paged down and down until I reached the first message, which said, “RE: the Fairfield Book Prize.”
Without reading any more, I dropped my phone and raced down the hallway to the bedroom only to find Chris fast asleep already. (I am always amazed at how fast that man can fall asleep!) I jiggled his foot and said, “I think I won!”
He said, “Hunh?” (After all, it was nearly midnight.)
“I think I won!”
“Won what?”
“The Book Prize—I think I won!”
“What do you mean…You think you won?”
I explained that I hadn’t seen an official announcement, just a bunch of friends congratulating me.
Chris got out of bed and followed me back to the family room where we turned on my laptop computer and pulled up Facebook. There, at the bottom of all of the wonderful congratulatory messages, was this announcement:
July 7 @ 5:39 pm
Congratulations, Lynne Harris Heinzmann, on winning the Fairfield Book Prize for “Frozen Voices” – Richard Hoffman, this year’s judge said: “It’s an ambitious piece of storytelling with multiple and interesting points of view and characters that are clearly and indelibly drawn, including Harry Houdini. I was reminded of E.L. Doctorow.” We are very proud of you!!
I looked at Chris. “Holy cow…I won the book prize!”
“You sure did.” He looked so proud of me and I loved that look more than anything.
I hardly got any sleep that night. I was just SO excited about becoming a published author and I kept trying to imagine how that was going to change my life.
I began my workday at my day job the same way I began most days: by checking my e-mail to see what’d happened since I left the office the night before. But when I read a message from Elizabeth Hastings and Michael White of the Fairfield University MFA Program (FUMFA), informing me that I’d been selected as one of the five finalists for the book prize, I was so excited I flitted around the office, going from cubicle to cubicle, telling everyone the good news. Then I called Chris (my husband) and my mother, my two biggest fans, and told them, too.
A few minutes later, though, as I sat at my desk with a huge, goofy grin on my face, a thought occurred to me: I had no idea which of my manuscripts had been selected. I pulled up the e-mail from Elizabeth and Michael and verified that it didn’t specify. So, I had another dilemma… Should I contact the contest organizers and ask them which novel was in contention for the prize or should I just wait to see what happened. If one of my novels did win—a long shot, at best—they’d certainly tell me which one it was. And if I didn’t win, I could ask the question then. (I’m usually not a superstitious person, but I felt like calling or e-mailing the prize folks might jinx my chances somehow.) So I didn’t call, but just said a few more prayers.
STEAMSHIP COMPANY EMPLOYEE
Two years ago, while I was still a MFA student at Fairfield University, I submitted a copy of Frozen Voices for the Fairfield Book Prize 2013. I didn’t win and wasn’t even selected as a finalist, but one of the contest readers said that my manuscript had come “very close.” That was all the encouragement I needed. Over the next two years, I worked and reworked the story, creating a novel of four interwoven stories, with one chapter from each narrator following each other in sequence, from the beginning to the ending of the book. During the same time period, I wrote two young adult novels and completed another work of historical fiction. When it came time for the 2015 Fairfield Book Prize, I was faced with a dilemma: which book should I submit? Even though I’d completely revamped Frozen Voices, I was afraid that since I’d entered it before, the contest readers might not be interested in hearing the same story again, no matter how different it was in format. But it was, by far, my most polished piece of work. I checked the contest rules and found that I could submit more than one manuscript, so I decided to improve my odds by entering both the rewritten Frozen Voices and Letter Boxes, my other historical fiction novel. (I thought the two young adult novels might not be literary enough for the contest.) I emailed both manuscripts in February and said a few prayers, mostly asking God to help me accept whatever the outcome.
