What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? This is a great question because I often wonder when a piece of fiction officially begins to be written. In some sense, I started this book back when I first saw Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle at the Museum of Science and Industry when I was eight years old. The castle—made by the brilliant and vivacious and hilarious silent movie star—was one of the most beautiful creations I had ever seen in person, and it still is. It feels like fate that all these years later, I’ve written a book about both the doll house and the woman who built it. I am hopeful that the book will help draw even more attention to both her and her various works of art.
Click on the link below to view Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle
https://www.msichicago.org/explore/whats-here/exhibits/colleen-moores-fairy-castle/
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? I wrote From Dust to Stardust where I do most of my writing, which is in my solarium—my office on the third floor of the condo building I live in with my spouse, the writer Martin Seay. This picture conveys the height and the view—because the window faces west, I get some topnotch sunsets.
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? A creature of habit, I almost always write early in the mornings on my laptop with a cup of coffee by my side, often in a favorite mug a student gave to me that says DON’T FORGET TO BE AWESOME. I try not to forget!
Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference. This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer. This is the first sentence:
Once upon a time, an unprepossessing child with mismatched eyes—one brown, one blue—arrived to poor parents at precisely the right moment.
Why is this excerpt so emotional for you as a writer to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? The first sentence of anything—a book, a poem, an essay, an email—is so crucial. You have to get the voice and tone and perspective exactly right if you want people to keep reading, and if you want to set yourself up to succeed as you keep writing. I worked and worked on this and the whole first chapter of the book to be sure it did what I needed it to do to sustain the rest of the narrative.
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. I don’t have any marked up or deleted versions that I can share, but suffice to say I worked this—and the rest of the book—over many many times. My rough drafts folder of the whole book contains a dozen drafts before the final one!
Click on the below link to pre-order FROM DUST TO STARDUST: A NOVEL from Amazon, published by Lake Union and release date in September of 2023
Most of the INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links can be found at the very end of the below feature:http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2021/03/stephenson-holts-arranged-marriage-is.html