Sara Johnson Allen discusses the first pages of her debut novel, Down Here We Come Up, and her long road to publication. We talk about the power of the first pages in keeping you going, the importance of place description and how to make it move, how to find the balance between your front story and larger back story, and why it’s often necessary to put a book aside to understand it fully enough to revise.
I loved this one SO much. It touched so candidly on many things I'm thinking about right now. Just ordered Down Here We Come Up, and I cannot wait for more opportunities to hear from Sara Johnson Allen.
Loved (even more than usual) this morning's discussion with Sara Johnson Allen, with her translucent honesty. But... when you and she read her opening line, it was quite clear to me who had died and whose message travelled to who, but when I first read it on the screen I was baffled. That confusion carried right through to the apology about daughters being kept from mothers. Was that deliberate -- or is this just too early in the morning for my brain?
So glad that you enjoyed it! Yes, Sara is wonderful. As for the first sentence, it's a problem with the pronoun actually. The "her" in "her death" should refer to the closest proper name or personal pronoun, which is in fact Kate in the structure of the current sentence. So honestly, I think you found a problem in the editing. Too bad because it's such a gorgeous opening and a beautiful book overall. Really it might be revised as "The apology to her daughter Kate refused to get lost in the stagnant air of Jackie Jessup's death." This doesn't quite have the same nice ring to it. With the cover copy, they might have figured that people wouldn't get confused.
I loved this one SO much. It touched so candidly on many things I'm thinking about right now. Just ordered Down Here We Come Up, and I cannot wait for more opportunities to hear from Sara Johnson Allen.
I'm so glad! Yes, she's wonderful. And the book is too.
Loved (even more than usual) this morning's discussion with Sara Johnson Allen, with her translucent honesty. But... when you and she read her opening line, it was quite clear to me who had died and whose message travelled to who, but when I first read it on the screen I was baffled. That confusion carried right through to the apology about daughters being kept from mothers. Was that deliberate -- or is this just too early in the morning for my brain?
So glad that you enjoyed it! Yes, Sara is wonderful. As for the first sentence, it's a problem with the pronoun actually. The "her" in "her death" should refer to the closest proper name or personal pronoun, which is in fact Kate in the structure of the current sentence. So honestly, I think you found a problem in the editing. Too bad because it's such a gorgeous opening and a beautiful book overall. Really it might be revised as "The apology to her daughter Kate refused to get lost in the stagnant air of Jackie Jessup's death." This doesn't quite have the same nice ring to it. With the cover copy, they might have figured that people wouldn't get confused.