really real

Today when I got home from work, a box rested on my doorstep. A different package, one I had been expecting, had been delivered over the lunch hour, so I wasn't really anticipating anything more. As soon as I stooped to pick it up, I realized what it contained.

My author copies of the book finally arrived. Five, pristine copies, hot off the press, are all mine. It's. It finally exists. People will read it, and libraries will buy it.

Even though I've been expecting my book to arrive in the mail any day, I'm still in shock. I burst into tears when I took the first copy from the box and held it in my time. It was all really overwhelming. I can't even say why I cried, but it was the only thing I really could do at the moment.

As I type, the shock is fading into relief with some inklings of joy. It has been such a long journey, and I'm just so glad to finally see the finished product at the end of it all.

!!!

it's coming, it's coming, it's coming...

thoughts on writing a book

It's been a while since my last post, I know. Between then and now I revised my book manuscript twice, and I guess I just really wanted to finish and have been focusing on that. I haven't written much about the book-writing process over the last couple years even though many of you have heard periodic updates about my progress.

On Tuesday earlier this week, I e-mailed the final revised chapters and accompanying materials to my editors. They've gone through the entire manuscript twice, and now it's in the hands of the editor above them. He may have some feedback, in which case my editors will pass that on to me. If not, it goes straight to production from there. The production phase could take up to 6 months, so my best estimate is that the book will be published and available for sale sometime this fall.

It feels amazing to have finished what I set out to accomplish. Even though there is still some work yet to be done, most of what remains is on the publisher's end. I may have a few minor revisions to make here and there, and I definitely will have to review the page proofs when they're ready. For all intents and purposes, however, I've done my part.

When I submitted the proposal in March 2008, I felt confident that I could write this book. I felt I knew enough about Victorian literature and library research to teach others how to research it as well. I don't think that I had an overly-inflated view of my own knowledge and skills, but looking back, I'm amazed at how much I didn't know when this project began. I have learned so much about research and writing and literature, and now I can say that I wrote the book on researching Victorian literature. How cool is that? I wish that I had known what I know now back when I was working on my MA. How much more would I have gotten out of my classes?

I feel like this is something I can really be proud of. Because Victorian literature is so heavily researched, I felt a lot of pressure to do this right. I imagined my two Victorian literature professors--Emily Haddad (USD) and Jen Hill (UNR)--reading the book and using it in their classes. All of their writing advice bounced around in my head throughout the writing process. I hope that they're pleased with the outcome.

So far the feedback I've gotten from my editors has been really great. They said it "is a wonderful volume" and that they enjoyed reading it. I can't wait to see the page proofs and to hold the printed volume and to read the first reviews (although that part scares me a bit).

Anyway, thanks for bearing with me through this process :) I know it has been a very long ride.

for the literature lovers

This morning I led a discussion of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre with six home schooled high school students who are part of a co-op group. Immediately after agreeing to do this a month or so ago, I started kicking myself. It has been so long since I've been in high school and the MA in English changed the way I read and discuss literature, so I was afraid I wouldn't know the proper way to approach the text with a group of 15 to 17 year old kids. Then I pulled my copy of Jane Eyre off the shelf and began re-reading it.

I had forgotten how much I love that novel. The last time I read it was for my MA comps, and I was certainly reading it with a different purpose and lens at the time. This time, while I kept possible discussion topics and questions in the back of my mind, I could just soak in the book.

One of the many things I love about Victorian fiction is how rich the descriptions are. The authors don't just propel the reader from one plot point to another, they paint a vivid, imagination-capturing picture of what life was like in nineteenth century Britain, and they told stories that were deeply rooted in what it means to be human. Today's novels seem almost skeletal in comparison. I love how these books show that in spite of the different cultures and time periods and technologies between that time and this, people are essentially the same. We have the same passions, the same motivations, the same struggles, and the same triumphs. For all of our great progress, we are them, and they painted us so well.

So I decided to share that with these 6 high schoolers. For context I gave them a mini lecture about the life of Charlotte Brontë and the connections between her and the character Jane Eyre. Then we dove into the novel. We had an amazing discussion about the tension between duty and desire and how perhaps it is not either-or but both-and that Brontë advocates. We talked about the role of the governess, the condition of charity boarding schools in the mid-nineteenth century, and the significance of phenomenology and physiognomy during the Victorian age. They had some really great insights into the texts and were so willing to share their ideas and questions about the text.

In short - it was a smashing success. I will very likely guest "teach" a book for their group next semester.

For now though I have an itch to find another long-lost and much loved novel tucked away somewhere on my bookshelf.