So, as you may have gathered from things I've said here, in my author newsletters, and on Instagram... writing One Bad Apple has been a long road to travel. I just completed my third round of pretty substantial revisions. THIRD. Cloaked and Dancing and Doughnuts took one. Not because this book had more problems or because I rushed the first draft -- not at all. It's just that this is a much more complex story.
I mean, I'm not just retelling Snow White as a western here, I'm retelling it with a mostly minority cast. And twisting it up with Hamlet while I'm at it. All of which has been tricky in ways I hadn't anticipated, but ultimately is creating a really satisfying story. I think. I hope.
I've sent it off to my editor yet again, and I'll also be sending it to my sensitivity readers this week. That's a new step for me, but because I really want to do my African-American characters justice and write the most accurate, respectful story I can, I need input from people who actually share some of the heritage as these characters. Which is exciting!
The Old West was an incredibly diverse place, as I keep highlighting with my "West of Yesteryear" column for the Prairie Times. I want my Once Upon a Western series to reflect the actual diversity of that time and place in our nation's history, but I need help in doing that. I've done more research for this book than for my previous three book-length retellings combined. And I have more to do yet while my editor and sensitivity readers go over this draft.
But in other news, my cover artist is working on a cover for me, and I should get to see her ideas soon! That's one of my favorite parts of this whole writing process, and I can't wait.
Meanwhile, if you'd like to get a peek at some of the visual ideas I've been working with on One Bad Apple, you're welcome to check out my Pinterest board that contains inspiration for it. Enjoy!
...revealing my thoughts about movies, writing, and life to the audience...
Saturday, April 11, 2020
12 comments:
Agree or disagree? That is the question...
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I'm so excited for this story and I love that your mixing Hamlet in there!! I also appreciate that you took your time with it and want all the characters to be accurate.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds fabulous! <3
I can't wait for you to read it, Skye, so I can find out what you think of it!!!
DeleteYes, it's almost as much a Hamlet retelling as a Snow White retelling. Which I love. All about stepparents and stepchildren and poison...
Your cleverness awes me.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow, Caftan Woman! Thank you!
DeleteThis is excitinggggggggg :D
ReplyDeleteI am both very pleased, and not at all surprised, to hear there's a Hamlet angle in there, too ;-)
Can't wait to see the cover!!!
Katie, yes, it started out as just me snurching the poison Claudius used and ended up with my editor and I going, "You know, there's a lot of Hamlet in this. Maybe we should go with that."
DeleteI can't wait to see the cover either! :-D It's the one thing I don't get to plan ahead, which is... neat, actually.
Exciting!! Your Pinterest board is awesome! I'm looking forward to meeting these characters! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, MC! I'm excited for you to meet them too :-)
DeleteI'm excited to read this, and discover your more complex, Hamlet-y plot! Congratulations on your revisions going well. :)
ReplyDeleteCharity, well, it feels more complex to me because... I write very straight-forward stories. And that's a lot of what I've been struggling with on this one -- it's not as straight-forward. What the protagonist wants is not what the protagonist needs, and so on. It's tougher and meatier. Which makes for a good story, but it's also not what/how I'm used to writing.
DeleteAnyway, thanks! It's out of my hands again, and I'm breathing a sigh of relief. Spent an hour tonight screencapping ep 3 of The Mandalorian without feeling guilty that I wasn't writing, which feels so refreshing.
So stoked for this!
ReplyDeleteI love how you're emphasizing diversity through this series.
And I can't WAIT to see the cover for this one. *grabby hands*
Olivia, yaysies! I'm excited that you're excited :-)
DeleteMuch and deeply as I adore classic western films, Hollywood's white-washing of the old west has bugged me for years, so... trying to help people see how colorful that world really was is important to me.
ME EITHER! I have now seen a draft of it and um, yeah, it's pretty stunning so far :-D