Notes on (not) writing

Or, what I've been doing instead of working on my new novel

First things first: The first two 909 Books have been LAUNCHED! Congratulations to Francesca Borella and Jacqueline Mantz Rodriguez! They did an awesome job organizing their book launch last weekend. I’m already looking forward to next year when Allen Callaci and I will launch our books.

Yes, Clay Bodies is basically done. Yay! But there have been some things dangling out there that still needed doing.

Here is a quick run-down of what I’ve been working on while munching on popcorn and Tootsie Rolls and trying not to look at the news.

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The acknowledgments

The acknowledgments total four pages. Between thanking people and making sure I give credit where credit is due, it’s a lot.

And I keep remembering things I should add…

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The bibliography

Pro tip: If you’re quoting from sources in your writing, keep track of those sources as you go along so you won’t have to do what I did yesterday—namely, combing each chapter to find quoted or referenced material and then searching for it again.

I wish I’d thought of that before! Because this is my first nonfiction book, I was focused on the writing and yeah sure I bookmarked things and saved clippings and put them in folders, etc., I am not especially organized by nature and therefore hadn’t saved in any organized way. So, I believe (?) I’ve caught everything. As readers have noted, the book is heavily researched, so being able to point to that research is crucial.

I now have 5+ pages of bibliographic notes at the end, with probably more citations than was actually necessary, just to be on the safe side.

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Family tree

Because this is in fact a hybrid memoir, there are quite a few people in it that aren’t me and in fact many of them have similar or identical names, it was suggested I include some kind of family tree to refer back to.

It started as just text with connecting lines but then I found this great tree tile and decided to superimpose the family onto it. The tile itself is muted browns and greens but since the book is going to be printed in black and white, I converted it. I didn’t include years for everyone, but I did add them to the tree chronologically, with our common progenitor at the base of the tree.

But after all that work, it looks too busy to me, so I tried a version where I deleted the tree image, and you know what? I think I like it better. What do you think?

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Pictures/images

I’m trying to decide how many pictures to include.

Just vintage photos or contemporary? People pictures or pictures of objects?

I’ve taken great care to describe some of the images in the body of the text; do I need to also include the image or is it more interesting with the just the description alone?

And should I include the wacky newspaper clippings and ads?

My original thought was to include one image at the head of each chapter but some chapters don’t have a natural image pairing. I’m leaning toward just people-pictures, but and sparingly. But here is a fun ad for the sunflower dish.

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Reading

I’ve also been reading more War and Peace. I am up to page 719, but I’m not reading it exclusively. I just finished The Topeka School by Ben Lerner and Jonathan Lethem’s Girl in Landscape on audiobook, with Haruki Murakami’s The City and Its Uncertain Walls queued up. I’m also about 60% of the way through Only Way Out by Tod Goldberg as my bedside table reading book. More about the books later.

A couple weeks ago, we discovered a new bookstore in San Dimas, Judging by the Cover, where I bought a copy of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. I’m looking forward to digging in but I can’t seem to focus on the new until I get the old out the door.

Until next time,

Cati