![]() ![]() After years of abuse and rejection, Iago was poised to win everything he ever fought for… Embracing military life as an antidote to the frippery of Venetian society, he won the glowing love of the beautiful Emilia, and the regard of Venice’s revered General Othello. From the publisher’s blurb:įrom earliest childhood, the precocious boy called Iago had inconvenient tendencies toward honesty-a “failing” that made him an embarrassment to his family and an outcast in the corrupted culture of glittering, Renaissance Venice. I also think it’s both a terrific read and a great example for those of you toiling away in the currently popular vineyard of reconceiving classic tales. ![]() Nicole Galland’s terrific new retelling of OTHELLO, I, Iago came out a few months back, and although you of all people know I am not prone to gushing, I think it’s one of the best historical novels of recent years. Now, allow me to introduce my discussant, a highly-respected historical novelist deeply gifted at bringing even the most over-the-top events of years past into vivid, plangent, and utterly plausible life on the page: Nicole Galland. Okay, that’s why you might want to pay close attention to the content of this discussion, impatient shifters. Or wasn’t plausibility something for which you had been scanning while you were re-reading the pages you intend to submit IN THEIR ENTIRETY, IN HARD COPY, and, if you want to make me happy, OUT LOUD? So is the question of how to render over-the-top realities plausible on the page. As it happens, evil plans, plausibility in fiction, craft, and the all-important issue of how to keep the faith throughout what can be a long, attenuated submission process - even if you hit SEND immediately after today’s late-night post on how to present your work professionally, it’s not at all uncommon for submitters not to hear back for months - are all part of this afternoon’s treat. But honestly, a cozy chat about plausibility in fiction? Or a discussion of craft with a respected historical fiction author, as the title of this post implies you’re about to have? How can I do that and remain monomaniacally focused upon popping my manuscript into the mail as soon as I have satisfied your insane demands?”Īll part of my evil plan, impatient shifters (but please, don’t say popping to me right now it makes my head throb). I’m begrudgingly honoring your advice to read my submission IN ITS ENTIRETY, IN HARD COPY, and perhaps even OUT LOUD before I send it off to the agent of my dreams. I’ve appreciated that, as I have a manuscript request burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket from my recent successful conference pitch and/or a query that hit the right note. Is my vision still a bit blurry, or are some of you sighing and shifting impatiently in your chairs? “Yes, yes, Anne,” those of you eager to get requested materials out the door mutter, “I’m sorry for your whacked head, but we’ve been talking about practical matters for the last week. Quite a lot of what happens in this zany world of ours would seem completely absurd if it popped up in a novel.Ĭase in point: would you believe it if Our Heroine not only rushed to her blog the instant she could see straight after that out-of-nowhere explosion, but posted twice in one day? Surely, that pushes the bounds of credulity the fact that it is actually going to happen would be irrelevant. It’s rendered it just a trifle difficult to focus on a computer screen.Īnd that, in case any of you had been wondering, is why fiction has to be so much more plausible than nonfiction - and why simply slapping real-life events on the novel page so often doesn’t ring quite true. Both my stylist and I jumped so much that I have a gigantic bump on the back of my noggin. Not the best time to have one’s head in a sink, as it turns out. The first those of us inside the salon heard of it was the giant pop when the windshield exploded. I have an excellent excuse, however: the other day, a truck burst into flames outside the salon where I was having my hair cut. Okay, okay, so I didn’t manage to get our planned whew-I-survived-PNWA treat up yesterday, as I had hoped, as a quick breather between talking about how to handle conference pitching with aplomb and today’s plunge into how to handle a request for manuscript pages - which will still be happening later today, you will be delighted to hear.
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