Martha’s book is in production now and I’ve found a rare break in this busy fall to give a progress report. Since last I posted on this blog, I’ve had two more deadlines. And we renamed the book, yet again, with new wording on the subtitle. I really like this one. As the sales department suggests, it shows this book is more than just another biography. There’s a strong link to the present. This title should be the keeper. It’s in the publisher’s catalog and on Amazon.com. It is now:

A Place of Her Own: The Legacy of Oregon Pioneer Martha Poindexter Maupin

Late in September I received the manuscript back from the copyeditor for my review. My friends from my old Montana critique groups would smile to see all the changes made on my commas. They used to call me the comma queen. Ha! Looks as if I know nothing of commas. Actually, I think much of it has to do with style. I have a journalism degree and journalism style is open, the fewer commas the better. The publisher’s style is more closed. But I don’t pretend to have it all figured out. Other than that, the edits were fairly light, but the review took me awhile. I cannot read the book without seeing something that needs tweaked.

Then about  a week ago I received first pages, pdf files showing how the book will actually look, both text and photo pages. How exciting! It really begins to feel real. And it’s beautiful. I love the font on the text. Photos look great. Even the old photos will be in color, which means those lovely brown tones for most of the digitized originals. Assuming the old pictures would be black and white I had turned in a black and white version of Martha’s old house, which I acquired from the local museum. Seeing the beauty in the brown tones, I wished I’d submitted a digitized version of the original—which I have. I suggested that to my production editor Lauren Brancato, in case it might not be too late. She assured me it wasn’t too late and they’ll just swap it out. I won’t go into detail on my trials at finding that photo—like locking myself out of the pickup on my way down the hill to pull it out of a file box I knew was in a safe place at my kids’ house. And it wasn’t there. A lot of scrambling and throwing boxes and voila. We found it. But nowhere near the place I was so sure it was. Anyway, another deadline met.

I must say the people at Globe Pequot Press are wonderful to work with. It’s been a delightful process.

Meanwhile, I’m doing a major redraft of one of my earlier books, and hope to move it onto the viable list soon. And the farm has had its share of challenges, with sudden fall rains threatening the logging operation I needed to pay my bills for the year. Luckily we got the Indian summer I was hoping for and we managed to get the last logs off the mountain. I could identify with the struggles my ancestors faced in salvaging their crops and getting them to market.

So, all that is why there’s been a large gap in my blog posts. Today I am not hurrying to do anything. 🙂

COMMENT

Woo-hoo!! I sold my book!

My new agent, Rita Rosenkranz, just closed a deal for me with Globe Pequot Press for the story of my great-great-grandmother, entitled Martha: A Pioneer Woman’s Journey to a Place of Her Own. It will be released around June 1, 2014.

This breakthrough has been a long time coming, as many of my friends know. Of the many books I’ve written, this will be my first published. I find it particularly satisfying that my grandmother led the way.

I started researching Martha’s story in 2009, shortly after moving to the farm she bought almost 150 years ago. When I took ownership of the place after my dad died I knew I wanted to write about her. What she acquired in 1868 had become the Martha A. Maupin Century Farm, one of the few Century Farms in Oregon named for a woman. But I didn’t realize what a powerful story she had until I began the search.

In the summer of 2012 I went to the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference in Seattle to pitch the completed book to agents and editors. There I met Rita Rosenkranz, New York agent, who had an idea which publishing house might offer a good home for Martha. From that time on it happened fairly quickly, given Rita’s sharp focus, some clear editorial direction from editor Erin Turner at Globe Pequot, and a little midnight oil for me on revisions. After working our way through the intricacies of acceptance—from editor to publishing board, from negotiation to fine tuning of the contract—we have finally emerged with the fully executed agreement. A deal.

Globe Pequot Press is a mid-sized publishing house with an international reach, founded in 1947, and today providing a wide spectrum of imprints and categories. They offer many titles on the American West, including portrayals of pioneer women like my great-great-grandmother Martha.

My thanks to Rita Rosenkranz and Erin Turner, to my readers—Leslie Budewitz, Judy Emmett, and my daughter Carisa Cegavske—to those who helped dig out information, especially cousin Linda Noel, to everyone who kept the faith.

Cheers! 🙂 🙂 🙂 !!!

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