Kopp Sisters Literary Society--Every Day I Write the Book

Pssst...A Top-Secret Cover Reveal Just for You

Hello, Kopp Sisters Literary Society Friends!

It's been a while since I've been in touch. Well, actually, I sent you a postcard in January on Constance's birthday. Did you like the postcard? I was going to do something more elaborate, but January got away from me and then I went to Mexico and my whole life got away from me...

Anyway, I did manage a postcard, which was a hint about Book 5! Which has a title! And a cover!

This is not actually the final cover. I'm not supposed to be sharing cover art right now at all, but for whatever reason my publisher uploaded it to Amazon, so I thought, why not. 

Please don't post this all over the interwebs--the final cover should be done any day now (just one small tweak to come), and that one can go everywhere.

I'm really happy with this cover. For the first time you see all three Kopps. The color is very true to WWI-era uniforms. I did make a couple of tweaks: in the original, the planes were not biplanes. I asked them to change that to fit the era, and sent lots of photos and WWI-era drawings of biplanes to help get it right.

Also, in the original, the Kopps all had these tiny, Barbie-like waists. While women's uniforms were belted in WWI, the jackets were still pretty shapeless. Also, Constance is not a tiny woman with a tiny waist. I wanted her to be truer to size.

So. There you have it. More about the book is coming soon. I'm not sure when I'm sending you copies, but as soon as I get a date for that, I will be emailing all of you to re-confirm your shipping address. Stay tuned!

I Have a First Draft of Book 6 and I Am Terrified

So I've been home all winter working on Book 6. This is the REAL war book--Kopp Sisters on the March takes place in the last couple of months before the US joined WWI, but now, in Book 6, we are in the war.

I don't really know what the Kopps did during WWI, except for one tiny hint that I'm exploiting for all it's worth, so this book is mostly fiction. I decided to separate the sisters--they each go off and have a very different kind of war adventure--but then the question is, how to tell the story? 

I love epistolary novels (novels told through letters, diaries, etc) and have always wanted to write one. This seemed like the perfect time to try it. It's a complicated way to write a novel in the first place, and I made it more complicated, because there are things the sisters either don't want to tell each other, or can't, owing to restrictions on sending sensitive information through the mail in an era when mail was censored.

And to make it even more complicated (or maybe this makes it easier? I don't know), I wrote them separately. I wrote Norma's letters in December (those are the white ones), Constance's letters in January (the yellow ones) and Fleurette's in February (the blue ones). 

If you're wondering how I finished Fleurette's already and it's only the middle of February...I don't know. It could, quite honestly, have something to do with this new Headspace app I'm using to learn to meditate. Really, I think that might've helped clear my head. Or--it could've been the inspiration I found. I realized that Fleurette is only four years younger than Dorothy Parker, so I went and read Dorothy Parker's letters (or as many as I could find, why is there no Collected Letters of Dorothy Parker?), and then I felt like I had her voice. It's not Dorothy Parker's voice, of course, but just reading smart, witty letters from a young woman of that time helped me.

So. I got all that done, and I printed them out and put them on the floor.

But now what? How do I put them together in such a way that they tell three separate stories (four, because why why why do I do this to myself, I gave Norma two stories to tell), so that they sound like real letters going back and forth, but the reader doesn't lose track of what the hell's going on?

I don't know. I decided to group them somewhat. That second photo (top right) is one such grouping. It goes from top to bottom, left to right.

Then I decided that didn't make sense, so I rearranged them somewhat. That's the third photo.

Then I put them all together, wrote a bunch of notes, put post-its where I felt a sort of transitional letter was needed, and THEN

I did a bunch of copying and pasting and typing and now all of that lives in one document that I am now, meaning right now, as soon as I finish typing this, supposed to start editing and rewriting and massaging.

Will any of this work, or will it be a horrible mess and I just wasted half the year and now I have to start over?

Does anyone want to read an epistolary Kopp novel in the first place?

I don't know. I really don't.

When I figure it out, I'll let you know.

Be well--stay in touch--I'll have books for you soon!

Cheers,

Amy

Are You No Longer Interested in the Kopp Sisters Literary Society?

Quick note: I'm sending this to you as a way of staying in touch with the 50 (or so) Kopp Sisters Literary Society members in between sending you free books once a year. I don't want to send you too much email, but a lot of you said you'd like to hear a little about the process, some behind-the-scenes stuff only for you, etc.--so this is it.

If you DON'T want to be part of the Kopp Sisters Literary Society anymore, please reply to this email and tell me so I can take you off the list and add someone from the waiting list! No need to explain, just say "unsubscribe" and I will handle it.