It\u2019s taken several days to get our bodies back to this time zone. \u00a0That\u2019s one of the reasons I\u2019m writing this posting on Thursday rather than my usual Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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The word of the day is NOVELLA. Why? For two reasons actually. \u00a0Number one? \u00a0I just finished writing one\u2014a JP Beaumont novella called\u00a0Still Dead<\/i>. \u00a0As for number two? \u00a0That has to do with a novella named\u00a0Taking the Veil<\/i>\u00a0that\u2019s coming out in an anthology called\u00a0Matchup<\/i>\u00a0due to be published next week.<\/p>\nBut first let\u2019s deal with the whole IDEA of novellas. \u00a0What are they? \u00a0A novella is a literary form that is longer than a short story and shorter than a novel. I understand full well that novellas aren\u2019t everybody\u2019s cup of tea. \u00a0The first time I bought one and realized it was \u2026 well \u2026 short, I was disappointed. \u00a0And so, for the purpose of this blog, we\u2019re going to begin by getting our literary terminology straight.<\/div>\n
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Short stories generally clock in at 2500 to 3000 words. \u00a0Some can be as long as 5000, but that\u2019s unusual. \u00a0Novels are around 100,000 words long, give or take. \u00a0My publishers will allow me 5000 words of flexibility in either direction, but here\u2019s the not-so-artistic reason for that 100 K limitation: shipping boxes\u2014STANDARD shipping boxes. \u00a0If a given book\u2019s word count comes in much over the 100,000 mark, one of two things will have to happen: \u00a0Either the print will have to be much\u00a0
smaller\u2014and, as you see here, that is not a good idea.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The other choice is for t<\/span>he<\/span>\u00a0shipping box to be larger and hence non-standard. \u00a0Let\u2019s hear it for standard shipping boxes!<\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nAs for novellas? \u00a0Word counts for them fall somewhere in\u00a0between those of short stories and novels. Think of them as the literary equivalent of a wine tasting. \u00a0They\u2019re designed\u00a0and primarily AIMED at new readers in order to give them a taste of various characters and story lines and to draw them in.<\/div>\n
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For the record, not all publishers handle novellas the same way. \u00a0Simon and Schuster, the publisher in charge of my Ali books, brings out novellas in both e-book and audio formats, but their ink-on-paper copies appear only in paperback editions of preceding hardbacks. This strategy is designed to encourage readers to pick up the next upcoming book. \u00a0Unfortunately and in my opinion, that option does a disservice to my loyal hardback readers who, in order to have access to the new novella, are compelled to trot out and purchase the paperback edition of a book they\u2019ve already read.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nHarperCollins\u2014Beaumonts, Bradys and Walkers\u2014also publishes in e-book and audio formats along with the strategy of including the novella in the back of the whatever paperback precedes the next hardcover book. \u00a0That can sometimes be problematic and confusing, especially if the action in the novella is out of order in terms of the action in the novel itself. \u00a0I\u2019m trying to do a better job on that score. You\u2019ll find that the action in\u00a0Still Dead<\/i>, the novella that will appear in the back of the\u00a0paperback edition of\u00a0Downfall,<\/i>\u00a0will precede the action in the upcoming Beaumont book\u00a0Proof of Life<\/i>\u00a0by a matter of several weeks.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
To HarperCollins\u2019s great credit, however, when it comes to novellas, they have one\u00a0additional trick up their sleeves. \u00a0They print a separate mass market paperback edition of the novellas which makes them accessible to my beloved DTRs\u2014dead tree readers. This is NOT a hard\u00a0cover edition\u2014it\u2019s a paperback edition\u2014but at least it\u2019s something print-only readers can hold in\u00a0their ink-stained hands. \u00a0Bookstores don\u2019t bring novellas in as a matter of course. \u00a0If you want one of those babies, you\u2019ll probably need to place a special order, and you can count on both my newsletter and blog to let you know when placing those orders would be appropriate.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nAnd appropriate\u00a0timing is what brings me to the next topic in this blog\u2014
Matchup<\/i>, the anthology I mentioned earlier which goes on sale next week. \u00a0The idea of the book, undertaken by members of International Thriller Writers and edited by Lee Child, is a kind of complex literary wine pairing, if you will. \u00a0Two authors are teamed together to write a novella. \u00a0In my case, my\u00a0partner is Eric Van Lustbader of Jason Bourne fame. \u00a0In the case of our novella, his protagonist is Bravo Shaw, while much of my part of the story is carried by Sister Anselm Becker from the Ali Reynolds books. In terms of literary wines, I\u2019d be a summer Riesling and Eric would be a smoky port.<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nWriting\u00a0
Taking the\u00a0Vei<\/i>l was challenging to say the least. \u00a0Eric’s characters and mine are literally centuries and continents apart. Eric knows a whale of a lot more about ancient religious artifacts than I will ever know. \u00a0Putting his in-depth knowledge to work in a setting that includes modern Arizona geography took some doing. \u00a0If you try it, I hope you like it.<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nIn\u00a0addition to Eric and me, you\u2019ll find a lot of big names present and matched up in\u00a0Matchup:\u00a0<\/i>Sandra Brown and C.J. Box; Kathy Reichs and Lee Child; Lisa Scottoline and Nelson DeMille. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure exactly where their vintages fall, because I\u00a0haven\u2019t had a chance to read all those other stories.<\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nThere are no local\u2014as in Seattle or Arizona\u2014signings scheduled for Matchup. \u00a0The official signings for\u00a0Matchup\u00a0<\/i>will be held during Thrillerfest in New York City in July. \u00a0If you end up with a copy and want me to autograph it later, feel free to bring it along to one of my regularly scheduled signings.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
PS….<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
August 8, 2017,<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here I am with egg all over my face.\u00a0 AFTER I posted this blog, the marketing people in NY made the unilateral decision that there would not BE a mass market edition of the novella, Still Dead.<\/div>\n
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So for this one, my readers are stuck with either an e-book, the downloadable audio, or else waiting until Proof of Life comes out in paperback, way down the road.\u00a0 Sorry, sorry, sorry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thanks to all of you who wrote to welcome us home from our Silverseas cruise. \u00a0It was wonderful. \u00a0We enjoyed it. \u00a0We didn\u2019t pick up too much weight. \u00a0The last night at dinner, a man stopped by our table and asked me, \u201cAre you the crazy lady who\u2019s been out walking on the jogging path […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-mE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1434,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions\/1434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}