Thanks again, everyone, for your positive comments!
People have been asking me about the process of writing the book. I have to say, initially, writing an entire novel seemed like a daunting task; I didn’t think of myself as an author. Then I remembered all the business writing I had done – marketing plans, proposals, strategic plans, even packaging copy and slogans – and realized how much writing I had done. And how much I enjoyed reading a well laid-out, well-written book.
So, I started by working on my own for about a year, poring over Hélène’s letters, jotting down some scenarios, developing characters and themes, and researching world events that were going on in her lifetime and before. I was amazed when I had achieved about 40,000 words. Then I found out that “standard” book length is about 85,000, and realized I still had a long way to go! But I felt reasonably encouraged about what I had written to that point, and I was really enjoying the process of turning Hélène’s life into a story that might be interesting to readers. In other words, I was hooked.
I asked around to figure out what I should do next, and a friend recommended I look into the graduate certificate program at The Humber School For Writers. I applied, sent in a sample of my writing, and was accepted into the program. Each aspiring novelist is paired with a published author, and I e-met Sarah Sheard. I began putting my notes into a more readable form, starting at the beginning of the novel, then submitted to Sarah section by section. It was pretty intense, with many late nights spent finessing paragraphs and words until I was satisfied. Sarah gave me feedback on each submission over the eight months of the program. She was enormously helpful, consistently positive, and always timely with her feedback, and by the end of April this year, I had finished a FIRST draft of A Thousand Kisses! I was amazed with what I had accomplished.
Well, I thought at that point that I actually had a FINAL draft, but let’s just say every time I went back to look at what I had written, I couldn’t help making revisions. I can see it will be very difficult to say good-bye and finalize this project!
By July, however, I had what I considered a final draft and asked six early readers if they would be willing to read the entire novel. Sheila, Joan, Fran, Bonnie, Frannie, and Pat had offered encouragement along the way, but it was with some trepidation that I sent off “my baby” and waited to hear their thoughts. I was so encouraged by their positive comments: “incredible talent for painting characters and telling a story”, “an absolute joy to read”, “lots of suspense”, “moved to tears”, “a real page turner”, “simple and clear language but enough strong metaphors and descriptions to let it flow”, “lots to keep the reader engaged”, “book-club worthy”, “gives me a whole different perspective of what happened in Russia in 1917”, “the story unfolds seamlessly with great pacing”, “dialogue is succinct and real”.
Based on their feedback, I decided to go to the next step and send the manuscript to a copy editor who scrubbed the text for remaining typos, inconsistencies, etc. Then I met with a few published authors (Terry Fallis and Andrew Smith were so generous with their time) who recommended I put together a website and facebook page, and learn how to use these social media tools to build awareness for my novel. For this part of the process, I turned to Sandra, who designed the website then patiently explained how to enter and post each blog.
And that’s how I reached this point: the novel finished, excited to tell everyone about it, hoping for an agent and/or publisher to take an interest in it!