Where Credit Is Due

News Flash: Voluntary Nomads went to the printer on Friday!

Before I go any further with excerpts or serialization (I haven't decided which it will be), I want to give credit where credit is due:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I always thought of myself as a woman of few words and, with this memoir in mind, I wondered if it would be possible for me to write a book's worth of words on one subject. I joined National Novel Writing Month to find out. NaNoWriMo challenges writers to produce 50,000 words in one month, and I succeeded! With that strong beginning, I had no trouble continuing for several thousand more. Then I sent all thirty-three chapters to my marvelous friend and editor, Ruth Friesen, who scrutinized every sentence with her discriminating eye for both grammar and content. After making the changes that Ruth suggested, I rounded up a posse of readers. My husband Fred and daughter Tina helped jog my memory of key events. Dave Malitz offered valuable advice on several elements and also found a few pesky typos. Ellen LaPenna provided her expert editorial guidance, and Beth Malitz wowed me by reading the whole book in one day. Throughout the whole process I felt empowered by the support of writing coach and mentor Mark David Gerson who exemplifies what it means to live and write one's own truth. My heartfelt thanks go to all of you.



My next post here will be either an excerpt or Chapter One -- what would you rather see?

Inside the Cover

When you get a new book and open it, do you look at the front matter or go directly to Chapter One? I hate to miss anything, so I read it all -- dedication, acknowledgements, author's note, preface, prologue, epigraph, what-have-you. Those parts seem like appetizers for the meal to come and they give me hints of the author's flavor, whether witty, serious, humorous, scholarly....

The epigraph I chose for Voluntary Nomads comes from one of my favorite writers:

"Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin."

~ Barbara Kingsolver ~

You expect a memoir to be truthful, of course. But if you've ever compared childhood memories with those of your siblings, you know that our individual memories revise the record of facts and events in some pretty interesting ways. I like what John Daniels, author of the memoir Looking After, said: "Memory, in short, is not a record of the past but an evolving myth of understanding the psyche spins from its engagement with the world."

Because memory is such a complicated thing, I included a disclaimer to accompany the Barbara Kingsolver epigraph at the beginning of Voluntary Nomads:

Author's Note

This book describes events and people in my life as I remember them. Descriptions of places, events, and people are as accurate as my memory. When I wanted to protect the privacy of certain individuals, I changed their names and made note of that in the narrative; the rest is my truth.

Tune in next week for a taste of "The New Beirut," an excerpt from Part One: New Mexico Genesis.

What Happens Next?

My eyeballs ache. If I had a cucumber, I would apply soothing slices while I recuperate after finishing my marathon galley review. Now I wait to find out what happens next.

While I'm waiting, I'll show you what the wholesalers will be told about Voluntary Nomads:

"Nancy LaTurner's engaging memoir begins in 1974 as her young family struggles without a livelihood in rural New Mexico. When a welcome stroke of luck lands her husband Fred a job with the State Department, Nancy eagerly packs their few belongings and bundles up their 20-month-old son and 12-month-old daughter for the journey from Los Lunas, New Mexico to Washington, DC and onward to any of 200 U.S. Embassies around the world.

"Empowered by Nancy's enthusiasm and Fred's optimism, the naïve little family embraces their first assignment in Tehran during the final days of the Shah's regime. Dropped straight into a different culture and language in a country suffering the turmoil of revolutionary unrest, the LaTurners learn how important adaptability is to their new way of life.

"Throughout Voluntary Nomads, Nancy's recollection of raising two children in extraordinary conditions demonstrates that the triumphs and heartaches of family life go on, no matter how exotic the locations or unique the experiences. Nancy's stories of Foreign Service family adventures in Iran, Cameroon, New Zealand, Somalia, Dominican Republic, Austria, and Bolivia, told with warmth, insight, and candor, celebrate the resilience and resourcefulness of a spirited American family."

Later this week, I'll give you another peek inside the book....

Looking Good

YES!

The interior design is beautiful too. I couldn't be more excited to see the real thing!

Wishing

Seems like I'm always wishing for some darn thing or another. Today I'm asking for an extra creamy dollop of creative energy for the designer who is whipping up the book cover for Voluntary Nomads. I want her to incorporate the photo that I took of Fred, Dakota, and Tina in the blue Suzuki on the sand dunes near the beach at Shark's Bay in Somalia. To me, this picture evokes the theme of family adventures lived in extraordinary places and told from my perspective -- like the stories inside the book -- and I really, really hope the designer can use it!

Introduction to Production

Hurray and Hallelujah! Voluntary Nomads goes into the production phase this week.
I want to share with you the musical (to my ears) words of the publisher's manuscript analyst:
"Dear Nancy, I am pleased to report that your book Voluntary Nomads has been accepted for publication. I want to be the first to congratulate you. You have a great story here. Everything about it is nicely done. You have done a great job capturing your memories and committing them to paper. (This is not an easy feat.) Even though this is a personal narrative, you have written it in a way that many will enjoy and benefit from reading. Your narrative voice is very familiar and friendly and you have a way with words. It is obvious that you have done your homework and put much thought and preparation into your work. Your book is well written. I wish more people would take the time to write their stories down like you have. I am sure it will be embraced by many. We can learn so much from reading the stories of other’s lives and experiences. The greatest value in any story, it seems to me, lies in what we can learn about our own lives when we take time to analyze someone else’s. Bravo!"

Will I be able to wait patiently for 10-13 weeks, the length of time it takes to turn a manuscript into a book?

Sovereignty of Success

I'm immersed in my book's pre-production particulars -- picture me floating on my back, contemplating cloud shapes while book-design tidbits float by. I reach out, tentatively at first, and take a tiny taste. Oh yum! Why am I surprised that the Princess of Process would savor every byte? It's true: I smack my lips over fonts, drool around page headers, lick the adverbs out of back-cover text. I am the Duchess of Detail and I am frolicking in my natural habitat. You who know me well are nodding now. Yes, she who alphabetizes her spice rack and reads the small print on cereal boxes would surely relish all tasks that call for fine-toothed comb and magnifying glass.

If and when I'm able to recognize that all is complete, Voluntary Nomads will move from pre-production into production. Then I'll be able to predict a publication date. I will keep you posted, so to speak.