from Mary...
June 22, 2010
Finally getting back to saying hello on my website.
I have done a lot of traveling with The Shadow of Your Smile and am now wrestling with the opening pages of my new book.
I do appreciate all the many notes I have received about ‘Shadow’.
Many of you mentioned that you are grateful not to find obscenities, sexual scenes or on-stage violence in my books and that you can give them to your teenagers to read. I’ve always felt that it simply isn’t necessary to have those scenes in my books in order to tell a good story. Mystique goes along with mystery.
I’ve also been receiving a lot of notes from people starting their own books like Dennis Cooper who asked me what the greatest obstacle I have had to overcome when starting a book. The greatest obstacle is how to tell a story, whose voice to use, how to grab the readers attention on page one. I’m on the 10th version of the first chapter of the book I am starting to write so it doesn’t get any easier.
I have a number of requests about speaking at libraries or author events. I won’t be doing any until next Spring but if you have requests, just send them to this website and they will be considered by the publisher.
Okay, signing off for a couple of weeks as I go to wrap up some final publicity events.
Love you all,
Mary