When the Right One Comes Along
By Guest | February 9, 2013 |
photo by digitalART2
Therese here. Today’s guest has been a part of the WU community for forEVER: debut author Julie Kibler. Julie’s journey has been extra special to me not only for that reason, but also because I introduced her to our agent (w00t to Elisabeth Weed). For months I’ve watched in gleeful awe as love for Julie’s story spread across the world; to date, rights to publish her book have sold in SIXTEEEN countries, many via auctions and preempts. It was also recently named an IndieNext Pick.
Why the fuss? Here’s why.
Calling Me Home, which releases on February 12th here in the U.S., is a phenomenal debut. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC, and was immediately sucked into the high-stakes world Julie created–the story of a white woman who falls in love with a black man in the 1930s, in Kentucky–as well as the way she wove together that story from the past with one in the present, when that same white woman travels to a mysterious funeral as an 89 year old.
Said Publishers Weekly of her book:
Kibler, in alternating first-person narrations, delivers a rousing debut about forbidden love and unexpected friendships …”
The often prickly Kirkus adds:
Kibler’s unsentimental eye makes the problems faced unflinchingly by these women ring true … Love and family defy the expected in this engaging tale.”
I’m so glad Julie’s with us today to talk about her journey to find “the right book” to write–a process that isn’t always straightforward.
When the Right One Comes Along
The experts warn writers against potentially fatal errors in subject choice. Don’t write to a trend, they say. Don’t try to predict the next big thing. Write what you know. Write the thing you’re passionate about. This is sound advice. I’ve also learned that you’ll probably “know that you know that you know that you know” when the right one comes along.
I started writing seriously in 2005. By seriously, I mean I woke up one Sunday morning, perched on the bar stool in my bathroom where I apply makeup and style my hair, and recorded the idea for a novel that had jumped me before I ever got out of bed. I had characters, I had setting, I had plot, I had conflict, I had turning points. I had a story. And I’d never taken a fiction writing class other than a creative writing workshop that mangled my confidence in college.
I told my husband, “I think I’m going to write a book.” At the time, I was completing my master’s degree, working part-time at my internship, part-time at freelance editing, and I had three school-aged kids. My schedule was, in a word, insane. Yet what had simmered below my surface from the time I was a kid who loved nothing more than burying my head in a good book had finally bubbled up. I couldn’t deny it. Maybe it had something to do with the relatively new stability in my home, in spite of the insane schedule. For the first time, my family life and support system enabled my brain to do what I’d wanted to forever.
Except.
That idea wasn’t the one. I fiddled with it, then decided it had been done too many times. I still have those notes. I reread them with a touch of nostalgia at times. They weren’t “the one,” but they were the seed that grew into what was.
Eventually.
I read everything I could find on writing fiction—an MFA in a box of books. I decided I needed to “write what I knew,” and started again. I wrote close to 50 thousand words that were raw, that were true, and were probably terrible. I’ve never had the guts to look back at those.
By then, between school, the kids, and late night writing sessions when I should have been sleeping, I had burned out. I wanted to quit. But another idea clobbered me over the head. I thought, “Oh. THIS will be FUN.”
Ha.
I believed a middle-grade story would be entertaining, and surely I could finish it. I did, more or less. I attended my first writers conference, including a read-and-critique session with an agent. She was kind and encouraging, but she was also realistic. The idea had been done. My 12-year-old character sounded 20. The manuscript needed a LOT of work.
I put it away. Writing middle-grade fiction was not fun for me, and contrary to what some might assume, it was not easy.
But during other conference read-and-critique sessions, I read some snippets of other things. The reactions were good. I realized I needed to be writing what I wouldn’t be able to put down. I couldn’t put Jodi Picoult’s books down. I loved how she explored social issues from every angle. I loved the relationships between her characters. I hung onto her every word when I saw her speak to a packed auditorium. I thought, “I should do that.” My former initials were JP. It seemed like fate.
The result was the first adult manuscript I completed, revised, and queried to literary agents. I had good feedback from critique partners. I researched hard, worked hard, and thought it might be the novel that saw a bookstore shelf.
Except, I was not Jodi Picoult.
I’d been taking online classes with Writer Unboxed contributor Barbara O’Neal (Samuel). I loved her ability to breathe enchantment into seemingly ordinary situations. At some point, I wrote a monologue for an assignment. My father had recently told me my grandmother fell in love with a black man when she was young. It rocked my world. My grandmother had been moody and not especially fond of children. She confused me. Learning this opened a new window on my worldview. Now I knew why Grandma had been so unhappy: She had lost her one true love. The little I knew inspired that one-page monologue from her perspective. I shared it with the class, then put it away while I continued working on other manuscripts.
But something was becoming clear from Barbara’s classes and my learning process: I needed to be writing about what made my blood boil, what made me sit up and take notice. What I couldn’t stop talking about. My soapboxes, for lack of a better word, became clear:
Racism.
Marginalization.
The challenges of single parenting.
Faith, hope, and love.
The manuscript I’d written and queried dealt with a single parent and the assault on her deaf teenager. It fit several of my soapboxes, but the story still lacked my personal thumbprint. I was trying to be a writer I wasn’t. While querying, I had started another Jodi Picoult-esque story. But now something else was calling me. I’d written forty thousand words but kept hearing this other voice.
It terrified me.
It was my Grandma again. It wasn’t that she was scary. It was that I knew nothing of her true story beyond that one detail. I knew nothing, really, about 1920s or 1930s Kentucky. I was from Kentucky, had lived there as a kid, visited the Cincinnati metro area growing up, and yet, I was pretty clueless about the region. I had a child’s eye view. I did not believe I could write this story. I tried to ignore her and continued querying the other story.
Finally, I acknowledged I probably wasn’t going to get an agent, much less sell the story I’d pinned such high hopes on. But the bigger realization was that it wasn’t the right one anyway. I put it away, along with the other half-finished novel, and explored this new idea more seriously.
In a month, I conjured up characters, a narrative outline, and small bits of writing—notably, the first two chapters and two of the final chapters of Calling Me Home.
And I was still terrified.
I was writing a naïve, impulsive 16-year-old girl in love with someone she could never hope to spend her life with, given the era and setting.
I was also writing the voice of a 36-year-old single mother. A black single mother. A hairdresser. One with a stubborn smoking habit.
I have been a teenager in love.
I have been a single mother.
But there was so much I had no experience with. Did I have any business writing it?
But Grandma said, “Keep going.”
And soon I remembered what I was writing about. I was writing about the things that had long burned within my heart, the things that made me sit up and take notice, the things I couldn’t stop talking about: Racism. Marginalization. Single parents struggling to find a place in a world that caters to pairs. Maybe most of all, the role of faith and hope when it comes to love.
I wasn’t, in many cases, writing what I personally knew. But I was writing what I knew to be true. What was right and what was wrong. What has changed and what still needs to change. How we are all so different—and so much the same.
Little by little, I also recognized I was writing a story unlike any I’d tried to emulate.
This one was really and truly mine.
A little more than a year later, I had an agent. Within a few months, we sold Calling Me Home to St. Martin’s Press at auction, as well as translation rights to several foreign territories in preempts or auctions—beyond my wildest expectations.
I know this won’t happen for every writer in precisely this way (trust me, I pinch myself daily), but I believe keeping your ear to the ground, learning and listening, mining the things that really drive you and get your heart racing—even if it takes a few tries—is the way to find the “right one.”
And all I can say is, when the right one comes along? Don’t let it get away. (Ironically, this is something my characters talk about in Calling Me Home, too!)
That’s what was true for me, but what about you? Are you writing the right story? How can you tell? If you’re published, how did you know?
Readers, you can learn more about Julie and her debut novel, Calling Me Home, on her website and blog, and by following her on Facebook and Twitter. Write on!
Many thanks to today’s guest.
You can read more WU guest posts by visiting this link.
This is a wonderful article, heartfelt and sincere. I’m so pleased that WU profiled Julie Kibler. She is a beautifully talented writer who will go far with her work. I will be standing in line to purchase her book on the 12th! Thank you for sharing.
Yvonne, we’ve come a long way since those classes with Barbara, haven’t we? :) Thank you!
Congrats on finding the right one, Julie! It’s been so much fun watching from the sidelines as you move through this exciting time in your life. The book sounds wonderful. Looking forward to continuing to watch your star rise. Know that you’ve always got a home base and a tribe rooting for you here at WU!
Thank you so much, Vaughn! I may be quiet around WU, but it’s always my go-to place for the best info available. I forgot to mention how helpful WU’s Donald Maass’s posts and books were in writing Calling Me Home, too!
I loved reading about your progression, and I admire your dedication to the craft. These are also areas near and dear to my heart, so I can’t wait to read this book.
Thank you, Erica! You are one of the most dedicated writers I know, so that’s some high praise.
Felt so reassured by the way you learned to write. It took me ten years to write my first novel, but I tell people it was my MFA. I’d attend a writers’ conference and learn some eye-opening new thing about how to write, and then have to go home and throw away a hundred pages and do a rewrite. Not a fun way to develop a novel. In fact, I wrote several that never drew a breath. But when I got to a point in my life where I thought I could afford a REAL MFA, I was afraid it would inhibit me. I would become constrained by all that knowledge. No, better to learn organically, which I did. Best wishes for awesome sales, Julie!
It’s the best way to become an overnight success, I hear, Lynne! ;) Good luck on your continuing journey!
Julie, you have my best wishes for success. I admire your tenacity. Writing about what you know and feel is such good advice. I am trying to marry my love of history with life long experience in the field of education to do the same with my Little Miss History children’s book series. I am self published right now; but, at the very least, I am really enjoying what I am doing! That is the most important goal in life, don’t you think?
Thank you, Barbara! That sounds like a great series. I loved the biography series books that lined the library shelves when I was a kid!
What a beautiful post. I can be disheartening when the ideas you thought were “the one” don’t work out. I admire your story so much, and this post really made me feel better about not having it all figured out yet. It’s going to take me a while to get used to the fact that not all of my ideas will be the right ones, but hopefully I can use your journey to help me along the way. I love that you were constantly pushing yourself to try new things: the “write what you know” approach, the MG novel, and that you continued even when you were terrified that it wouldn’t work. Thank you for being an inspiration. I’m bookmarking this post and I know I’ll come back to it again and again when I need encouragement to keep going. I’m glad all of your hard work came to fruition and I am so excited to read Calling Me Home! Congrats!
Thank you so much, Laura! I have done the very same thing over the years with stories that motivated and inspired me. This isn’t a race, it’s a marathon, right?
That’s awesome, Julie. Did you notice the irony in your title, Calling Me Home? I believe your story did just that.
My bestest wishes,
Denise Willson
Author of A Keeper’s Truth
Denise, the name has had so many metaphorical implications since I picked it, but that’s a new one! Yes! Thank you!
Calling Me Home read true, clear, and straight from the heart, as if you HAD to write the story or you’d burst. It’s certainly no secret I loved it. Thanks for sharing your journey to find ‘the right one.’ I’m sure we all have notebooks and folders bursting with story snippets and partial drafts that seemed brilliant, but either the story was wrong…or we just weren’t the right person to breath life into it.
I hope I’m writing the right story. I suppose I’ll find out when I pass my entire baby along for it’s first complete beta read in a few days.
Good luck with your upcoming pub day—congrats again!
Oooh, good luck! And thank you so much for your kind words and all the support on She Reads!
I can’t wait to read this wonderful book, Julie! Your post gives me encouragement to keep working until I find my own true story- I am still working on my first manuscript (and have been for several years), so your determination and perseverance give me serious inspiration! Congrats, and thank you for the lovely and honest post.
Aviva– I have NO DOUBT you’re going to get there. Just thinking about how you were one of the readers for that manuscript that shall not see the light of day. :) And I cannnnnnot wait to see you in Denver in a few weeks! xo
What a lovely and inspiring post, Julie.
Congratulations to you! What an exciting time. I hope you take time out of pinching yourself to celebrate.
BTW, I plan to take CALLING ME HOME with me on my upcoming vacation. Can’t wait to read what sounds like a wonderful story.
@JulieLTimmer
Thank you, Julie! And yeah, I have to take a break on the pinching now and then. :) I would LOVE to see a picture of the book somewhere on your vacation! (Does that sound egotistical? I hope not–I’m just excited!!!) If you think of it, take a shot and leave it on my Facebook page or something! And have a great time! Hope it’s someplace warm and sunny.
I had the right setting, I had the right characters, and I had the historical background I needed. But it took Therese’s “seven versions” to find the story I was looking for. I finally knew the story was right when the theme was something I wanted to get up on my soapbox about.
Great post, Julie. You had me from “Except . . .”
Looking forward to your debut, especially since I’m from KY and my own story is set in the 1930s.
Yes, Therese W.’s journey is something that kept me going a number of times! And wow, that is interesting on your story! Keep me posted!
Thank you for sharing. I loved reading this.
Congratulations on your book going out into the world! I can’t wait to read it too.
Gwen
Thank you so much, Gwendolyn! I hope you enjoy it!
Julie, I am so proud of you and I can’t wait to go to the launch on Tuesday. I read an early draft of this book and it was amazing then – it can only have improved since. I’m telling everyone I know to run, not walk, to the bookstore this Tuesday.
Thank you, Kim! Crossing my fingers one of the next launches we attend is YOURS. Can’t wait to see you and Deb and your dad (and anyone else you want to drag along)!
For those of you who haven’t read CALLING ME HOME, you’re in for a real treat. Julie Kibler’s novel is STUNNING and will haunt you for a long, long time. I’m honored to call Julie my friend.
Ellen, this is a true mutual admiration society we’ve got going here, because you know how much I loved THE PLUM TREE! Check that one out, folks! Thank you!
It’s weird and wonderful rolled into one when you read a friend’s book and you are entranced by the story and that’s how I felt with Calling Me Home. (Since this is Julie’s post, I’ll save bragging on Ellen for another time.) Then there’s that moment of realization when I was reading thought, “DAMN, MY GIRLFRIEND HAS SOME SKILLZ.” And yes. I said it like that. I think the best part of reading it was knowing I could just text Julie when I got to certain parts and say OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT or I LOVED WHEN THE CHARACTERS DID THIS! It’s like being Toto in the Wizard of Oz and peeling back the curtain to reveal the Wizard.
Oh, Amy, you have been such a blessing to me for so many months as we travel toward publication. And you know, I said the same thing as I read an early version of THE GLASS WIVES! Can’t wait to see it on the shelf. xo
Thank you for this post. I know this will help me on my writing and I hope that what I’m writing will be the right one. And Julie I can’t wait to read your book because it sounds really wonderful.
Thank you so much, Peggy! Best wishes in your endeavors, too!
Julie, I was rapt by this tale, which made project picking much like dating. Sounds like you were a serial monogamist who knew when to cut her losses. This has never been my strong suit. After I set aside my first, I sunk my teeth into THE story, the one I always knew would be my debut, the one that mattered most deeply, and just kept revising and deepening and picking up skills—over the span of a decade—until I did right by my characters. Either way takes time, either way has brought us to the same place (okay I’m a year behind you, but that didn’t sound as poetic).
I think we recognize (re-“know”) our beloved because we’ve known love before and trust that we’ll know it again. It is love that kept you searching, and love that inspired me to keep on trying when I thought I’d given it all I had. Without an abiding love for it, though, I’m not sure our fiction stands a chance. Because if it doesn’t matter deeply to the writer, to whom will it matter more?
Exactly, Kathryn! Thank you for reading, and thank you for another example of how different journeys can bring us to the same place.
I loved this article! I was drawn to it because I had a similar experience. I wrote a YA vampire book (shudder) with the hope of breaking into publishing. But I’m not a YA writer, I’m an MG writer, and I had no desire to keep writing YA (which would have disappointed a publisher if I’d landed one). I queried the YA book to death with no takers.
Then, while driving down the freeway, a migrating winged mare crashed into my imagination. She was pregnant and struggling to fly. My heart raced. As soon as I got home I began writing a book about the special foal she carried in her belly. I didn’t stop or breathe until I was finished. In fact, it was like the book wrote me.
I sent the novel to an agent who had kindly passed on my YA project and she signed me immediately. She sold the book to HarperCollins last month in a 4-book pre-empt.
My heart is still racing.
I hope all writers hear your story and mine. I had written a grand total of 4 books before I wrote The Winged Herds of Anok–and I love every one of them. But this book set my soul on fire. Like yours, it also encompasses all my soapboxes–politics, personal accountability, religion, love, and loyalty–and it stars my favorite animal.
I never would have predicted an MG book about herds of flying battle horses would have been the one that sold. The truth is passion is contagious and truths are universal.
Thanks again for sharing your story Julie and congratulations on your huge success. I can’t wait to read your book!
Wow, Jennifer! That’s so exciting! Congratulations and hope you enjoy the journey–it’s a wild ride, but you have some winged horses to help you catch your breath, right? :)
No matter what we do, connecting with our hearts makes everything easier. Writing from our hearts connects us to the world through truth. Shared truth promotes understanding. Thanks for sharing your heart with us. Best wishes on the next leg of your journey.
Thank you so much, Jocosa! And best wishes to you, too! (I remember you from Backspace, I think!)
WOW!! Just read the preview snippets at Amazon.com and am completely hooked. Congratulations, Julie.
Oh good! I hope you like it! Thank you!
Thank you, Julie! I really appreciate hearing your story to publication and I’m looking forward to reading Calling Me Home.
Julie, what a wonderful post. I am so thrilled and excited for you!
Barbara, I’m excited to have you celebrating with me! What an honor! You’re the best.
Thank you, Jennifer–I hope you enjoy Calling Me Home!
Thank you, Jennifer–I hope you enjoy Calling Me Home!
Ha! Sorry for all the dupes!
This gives me real hope that a novel may still be in me . . . the first parts of your post here match my experience . . . of thinking I had the one, then no. Then another, then NO. I’m far from the one, but your experience honestly makes me feel like it could still be there. Some time.
Yes, it can, Nina! Thank you!
Julie, congratulations! I, too, have read as much as I could find on Amazon. I’ll be buying your book as soon as I can – this week sometime for sure! Enjoy your success!
Thank you so much, Marilyn!
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard about a book that sounds excellent, put it on my TBR List/TBR GoodReads Shelf and then found an interview with the author here on WU! :)
Julie, I can’t wait to read your book – it sounds great! Congratulations not only on your success, but also on your persistence to find and recognize the “right” tale, as well as the “wrong” one.
Thank you, Madeline! I hope you enjoy Calling Me Home!
Julie, what a wonderful story. Congrats on the reviews. I can’t wait to read the book.
Thank you so much, Linda!
Julie, it was comforting to hear your story, since I hope someday to have my debut. I love your “MFA in a Box.” I have the same box but in a basket. Congrats on your debut!
Thank you, Mary! Someday could be any time.
Thank you for the story of your story, Julie! This is encouraging to me–my “right one” came along a few years ago. Although I am still working on it, this story and its characters won’t leave my mind, and has been particularly present during the past week. Your article has tipped me toward digging back in, with a renewed excitement.
That’s wonderful, Kate! Keep on keepin’ on!
Julie, I am beyond excited for you and CAN’T WAIT to read your book. Congratulations and best wishes!
Thank you so much, Cindy! You’ve been so encouraging all along!
I’m late to the party, but I’m so grateful for reading this, Julie. I don’t feel like I’ve necessarily honed in on genre, POV, nor voice in my fiction, but I’m getting clearer on theme, and it’s helping.
Congrats on all the early success. (To both you and your grandmother.) It sounds so well-deserved. I have your beautiful book on my nightstand. One day soon…
Thank you, Jan! You’ll find it.