THE NOVEL AS BLOG

In the fall of 2003, I finished Dancing With Silence, having spent 3 years writing, editing and re-editing the manuscript. And as the close of many of life's major endeavours, I came to the point where I had to say: "Now what?!"

I quickly realized that the skill set required to complete a novel is not at all the same group of interests required to flog a novel in the publishing world. I also realized that I had no interest in pursuing that route, and if some publishing house wanted to come to my door and ask for it, fine. But after 3 years of writing and greeting the sun from my computer each day, I actually had a life to return to.

Along the way, friends who knew of the project would ask to read the manuscript and would inveriably have a list of questions when they had finished it. So we would have lunch and I would tell them about how it got started, which tidbits were "real" and which were entirely from my imagination etc.

In those days, blogs were becoming popular and I had always thought that it would be fun to share the book with a wider audience, and to have a format where readers could get a bit of a glimpse of the birth and development of the project.

Well, the time has come to publish to cyberspace and to send my creation out into the world. And what better way to watch it fly than from a blog, from my own PC, with the benefit of allowing the readers to make comments and ask questions as the project unfolds.

WARNING!
In my other life, I am a professional knitter, pattern designer and store owner. I am amazingly flattered when people make garments from my patterns and wear them proudly. I would however be more than a little POed and would strongly and legally object if someone claimed that one of my designs was their own and tried to profit from it. In that spirit, this project was copyrighted in 2003 and is protected by all that that implies.

That being said, the book has not passed through the hands of the legal eagles at some great (or intimate) publishing house, so any glitches that may exist on that side of things are purely unintentional and I would ask the reader to recognize the spirit in which this is offered. This is my gift to the reader. Many who have already read it have been moved and have told me that it has caused them to think seriously about aspects of their own childhood. Sharing these thoughts is their gift to me.

Thanks for taking the time to enter into Starla's world and please feel free to post comments in either site.

Anne