What gives? 

     Julie

     But the people at BookSurge had other ideas. They wanted a shot at it. And there was no reason not to let them try. My publishing package included three different cover concepts. So I said, sure. Give it a whirl. 

     I wish I could show you the design team's first attempt, but I'm experiencing technical difficulties downloading it. Imagine a serene pasture, misty in the early dawn, with just a smattering of contented cows chewing their cud. All I can say is, when I saw it...well, I can't say what I said when I saw it, but I can tell you what my husband said when he saw it: "Those are dairy cows, Jules!" It was pretty obvious that the only part of the book the team had read was the title. (Saves time, I guess.)

    So I called and explained to the team, in the nicest possible way, that, the book had nothing to do with farms or ranches, that it did, in fact, take place in Evanston, IL, not Wisconsin or Vermont, and that in the context in which I was using the phrase "getting out of Dodge," Dodge was not the peaceful, pleasant place they'd depicted, but it was, both emotionally and physically, a place that people were trying to get out of!    

     Back to the drawing board.

    When the photo (way upper left) came through, I was delighted! Now they'd nailed it! In fact, I was so certain that it was the winner that I left my last "cover concept chance" on the table. I thought that the refrigerator magnets were eye-catching, intriguing, and didn't lock me into the whole cowboy thing. I mean, if I had a cowboy on the cover, wouldn't most people assume that the book was a western? And if they read it, and discovered it wasn't, would they want to lynch me?   

     So that's my Cover Story. Choosing a cover for one's book is like choosing what to wear to meet your future mother-in-law. Nerve-wracking.

     Happy Trails!

     Julie

  Doesn't he look like he could use a little fun in the sun?           

    $63!

    Yee hah!

    Thank you, one and all!

    Happy Trails,

    Julie

     In any case, when I was workshopping GOOD, this miracle worker used to ask me things like: "What was Leonard thinking?" "Wouldn't Sally have had (such and such) on her mind?" By which he meant: Unless your characters are experiencing short term memory loss, their residual emotions, in the wake of some important plot twist, along with the accompanying thoughts, must not be glossed over by the author.  

     So today, as I started a new chapter (always a twitchy experience), and took off, as I often do, in the wrong direction, I suddenly realized that, hey! If I were a 15-year old boy, who had just had his first romantic encounter, I probably would not be giving much thought my friend, Prince, and his broken wrist. Likewise, when my father asked me at supper, "Henry, has your day been productive?" I would, most probably, grin like an idiot, and wonder when and where Lydia's and my next rendezvous would take place. Right?

     And now, knowing how you, the reader, craves trouble, Trouble, TROUBLE, I'm currently busy throwing roadblocks up in poor Henry's way.  

     Thanks again, F! I miss you!

     Happy Trails,

     Julie 

    Getting Out of Dodge was my first book. It took eight years, with two years off to earn an MFA, to complete. I started my writing "career" in nonfiction, with essays and articles, and I find fiction difficult, something akin to driving through the woods at night, without headlights, with your eyes closed, which, for the most part, I try to avoid. But despite the hand-wringing, hair-tearing anxiety, I discovered that there are magical bursts of light that make the experience just so damn (can I say that?) much fun, that now I'm doing it all over again.  

    I'm not sure how I made the leap from a three-flat in Evanston in 2007, IL, to a rice plantation outside Charleston, SC in the 1830s, except to say that change is good, isn't it? (And the weather is better.) It is a coming of age story about fifteen-year old Henry Manwaring, the overprotected son of a troubled mother and an indifferent father, who blossoms (if you know what I mean), at the hands of Lydia Winship, a beautiful portrait artist. I'm about 180 pages into my first draft; I probably have less than a hundred to go.

     OK. I just wrote Henry and Lydia's first love scene yesterday. (Whee! THAT was fun!) Now I want to ask you (both of you out there) the same question that Lydia asked Henry: "What is easier to bear, Henry," she said, "Guilt or regret?"

    How would you have answered her?

    Happy Trails!

    Julie