This is the official Tumblog of Anna Jarzab, writer, reader, publishing slave, dilettante.
Website/blog: www.annajarzab.com
Twitter: @ajarzab
Books: All Unquiet Things
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
In all the hubbub around finishing up my first pass pages for The Opposite of Hallelujah and also the fifth (!!) draft ofTandem, I forgot to take a picture of theHallelujah galley. It ain’t fancy, but it’s mine.
Too cheeky?
I was starting to understand what my dad meant about people you’re not supposed to see up close. I hadn’t been to church in a while, but in my head a priest was a guy in a fancy robe pacing the floor in front of the altar, giving a sermon—performing, basically. Sitting this close, in my own family room, was like, I don’t know, pulling back the curtain and discovering that the Wizard of Oz was just a man like all other men. It felt like cheating. It felt like finding out how the trick was done.
Not sure why, but I’ve always liked both the cadence and the content of this particular passage ofHallelujah. I think it gives a real sense of how distanced Caro is from the religion of her youth, how bewildered she is by it, and how reluctant to confront it she is, which explains a lot of how she deals with Hannah when she comes home.
Forgive me for quoting myself, but first pass pages are moving slowly, mostly because this part of the process bores me to tears, and I’m really looking for any excuse to avoid them, hence Tumblr.
things my first pass pages are teaching me
I’m doing the first pass pages for The Opposite of Hallelujah right now, and they’re surprisingly clean (not a lot of notes from the copy editor/my editor), but every once in a while there’s an interesting little thing I never knew. Like it turns out that this
Finally,
Mom would open the door, or if Hanna had locked it,
she would threaten to have my dad take it off the hinges,
which usually got Hannah’s attention.
is called a “punctuation ladder”, which the copy editor noted needs to be fixed. (The text won’t really look weird like that in the book, I’m just right-justifying to show you how the commas stack on top of each other, forming the “ladder”.)
Don’t believe for one second that you can’t be a certain sort of person only because you were not such a person in the past. Being good is a daily choice; just because you were honorable before doesn’t mean you can’t betray the people you love, but also, just because you betrayed the people you love today doesn’t mean you can’t redeem yourself tomorrow. The past doesn’t disappear, but it doesn’t have to define your future. That’s up to you.
I’m just sort of paging through the Hallelujah galley sitting on my desk and this quote stood out to me. Presented without comment, just wanted to share.
Hallelujah by the numbers
Aha! The page count for The Opposite of Hallelujah has been updated on Amazon to reflect what I assume (just from knowing how long the ms was) is the true page count: 464. Woof. It reads quick, I promise. Quicker than I think AUT does, although God knows, I haven’t read that book in like three years.
It may interest author types that the ms I turned in to my editor was 361 pages, and the copy edited manuscript was 400 pages, which means (gulp) the book grew by almost 30% (is that right? I hate math) from final ms to final book. By that math, Tandem will be…oh, 585 pages when and if it hits bookshelves, assuming a 450 pg ms length. GULP. That’s bigger than Twilight, which I think is giant. Bigger than Beautiful Creatures. Bigger than Bitterblue, oh dear lord. My editor will force and help me to whittle it down, I’m sure, but at the very least it’ll be 500 pages. FIVE HUNDRED PAGES.
Excuse me while I go cry into my Word document.
Since I just got the jacket file from my editor for The Opposite of Hallelujah, and this copy was on it, I can assume it is at least mostly official! And if I have to change it, Tumblr, in the future, I’m sure you’ll forgive me. So, WTF is this book about, anyway? LET ME TELL YOU:
Caro Mitchell considers herself an only child—and she likes it that way. After all, her much older sister, Hannah, left home eight years ago, and Caro barely remembers her. So when Caro’s parents drop the bombshell news that Hannah is returning to live with them, Caro feels as if an interloper is crashing her family. To her, Hannah’s a total stranger, someone who haunts their home with her meek and withdrawn presence, and who refuses to talk about her life and why she went away. Caro can’t understand why her parents cut her sister so much slack, and why they’re not pushing for answers.
Unable to understand Hannah, Caro resorts to telling lies about her mysterious reappearance. But when those lies alienate Caro’s new boyfriend and put her on the outs with her friends and her parents, she seeks solace from an unexpected source. And when she unearths a clue about Hannah’s past—one that could save Hannah from the dark secret that possesses her—Caro begins to see her sister in a whole new light.
Guess what’s available for preorder? My new book, THE OPPOSITE OF HALLELUJAH! I guess this means I should update my website. But I’m so lazy busy writing books watching Sister Wives! No, I’ll do it. It’ll just take me a while. But for the moment, go ahead and preorder my book if you’re so inclined, or just stare at the pretty cover, which is what I do most days.
You can also mark it “to read” on Goodreads, if you’re in to that sort of thing. And Kim, now you can count it towards your 2011 total of books read!
Barring any sudden, unforseen changes (you really never know with covers), this is the cover for my new book, The Opposite of Hallelujah! It’s not yet available to pre-order, but as soon as it is you better believe I’ll let you know.The book itself should be out in Fall 2012, probably October, but as of yet I don’t have a firm pub date.
Anyway, I really love this cover. I originally saw it like two months ago and I thought it was great; this is a slightly more suped-up version (the one my editor originally sent along had thinner type, and apparently they fattened it up and made it a brighter white so that it was more readable), but I can’t tell the difference, really. It still looks fantastic to me.
When my editor sent it along in October, she actually sent two versions (the second version had my name in lower case and the title in upper, but we liked this one with the title in lower and my name in upper), but she also sent a third, totally different concept that she ultimately decided against. Maybe I’ll ask her for permission to post that someday, because it’s definitely an interesting take, and less traditional for sure.
Anyway, thoughts? That’s what the comment tool is for! Let me know what you think.
For the younger ones, they’ve chosen their faith; it’s a personal choice from the beginning. It’s not something they’re doing because their parents are forcing them. And when you’re young, radicality appeals—there’s something counter-cultural about it that does attract.
Not to be all, my new book is so relevant, but this Vanity Fair article on young nuns.
Also, my new book is so relevant.
Not to be all, like, This Week In Nuns, but I also Googled that UK documentary, “Young Nuns”, that the above article mentions and found, in the comments, a link to Sister Catherine Wybourne’s Twitter (@digitalnun). Sr. Catherine is a Benedictine who tweets and blogs, etc.
This week in nuns.
