"My Grandpa Knew Constance Kopp"
"My Grandpa Knew Constace Kopp" is the email I dream of getting...
And last month, I did! A man named David Nevard emailed me to say that his grandfather, Hector, worked for Sheriff Heath and knew Constance. Thirty years ago, David had the good sense to sit down with his grandfather and record his memories (Everyone: Do this with your elders!) Then, just recently, he got to thinking about this Constance Kopp his grandfather talked about, and he Googled her. That's how he found me!
As you can imagine, I DREAM of getting emails like this! David has given me permission to share some of Hector's memories with you.
SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read the Kopp novels, there are some spoilers ahead.
This bit really surprised me. Here's this guy who worked at the jail, and was charged with sometimes driving Constance back and forth to her house...and he knew about Fleurette! In real life, Fleurette didn't find out who her mother was until after Constance died. But this really makes me wonder....how is it that this guy knew and Fleurette never found out?
And of course, none of us can imagine Constance trying to find a boyfriend for Fleurette when she was only sixteen! Is Hector a reliable narrator? Read on...
In this bit, Hector claims that not only was Constance Sheriff Heath's girlfriend, but that Heath had a whole HAREM. Now, again, it's hard to imagine this from the way I wrote about Heath, but then again, I'm writing fiction and Hector was there.
Still, I do wonder: back then, if a woman was successful at her job, maybe everyone assumed she slept her way to the top. (Glad those days are over, ha ha)
Also, he's wrong about Heath only having one child: he and Cordelia had three.
Finally, this broke my heart. Several times in the notes Hector says that Heath lost a close election because he hired Constance. This is how I spun it in Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit, based on what I was reading in the paper, but actually hearing it from someone who was there really made it hit home.
OMG OMG We Have a Cover
Hey look, we have a cover! DEAR MISS KOPP will be out in September, but stay tuned, because I will have some advance copies to give away later this spring.
This is my second WWI novel about the Kopps, and as with KOPP SISTERS ON THE MARCH, I had to rely more heavily on fiction because I don't know exactly what they were up to during the war. This is a novel told entirely in letters--I adore epistolary novels and have always wanted to write one myself.
Every author feels awkward saying this, but it is such a help to all of us with new books coming out if you'd consider pre-ordering from your bookstore of choice, adding the book to your Goodreads list, telling friends, giving a shout-out on social media, etc. Every little bit helps....quite a bit more than you might realize!
Which Leads Me to This Month's Question
Ask me a question and win the book of your choice! This month's winner is Scott from Nashville, TN
Scott asks: What was the process of getting cover art designed like and how did the progression of a different signature color for each volume get established?
Authors are given the opportunity to give input into cover design, but we almost never get to have the final say. By the time we got ready to talk about cover design for Girl Waits with Gun, I'd been down this road six times before. When my publisher asked me for input, I was ready with a Pinterest board where I'd gathered:
Examples of recent popular book covers I liked
Examples of actual book covers from the 1910s
Iconic art of the 1910s--which I believe to be protest art. Union posters, suffrage posters, war posters...it was all very bold, striking colors, often 2-color printing, like a silkscreen.
Armed with all that, I told them that since each book title was going to sound like (or actually be) a newspaper headline, I thought it would be cool if the covers looked like a newspaper. In those days there were a lot of illustrations in newspapers, so it made sense to have an illustration rather than a photograph.
You can go here to see some of the other options that the cover designer, Jim Tierney, went through before coming up with this style.
Anyway, about the colors...well, the first one was red, so I just assumed that each cover would have a different color. I wanted Midnight Confessions to be blue because, well, midnight. I thought that if we were ever going to do a pink cover, Just Won't Quit would be the one, but nobody wanted anything close to pink. Olive green made sense for On the March because of the uniforms. I suggested purple for the new one only because we'd already been through the primary color wheel, leaving orange and purple as secondary colors we hadn't yet used.
So I guess that means orange is next, for #7? Stay tuned!
Ask a Question &
Win a Book!
Please go here to ask me a question and pick your prize. Even if you've entered before, please feel free to enter again and ask the same question or a different one. Only 16 people entered last month! You have a very good chance of winning!
Here's My New Writing Class!
I just posted my third Skillshare class, this time on story structure as I use it to write nonfiction and fiction based on true stories. I find that I really like making these classes--they're very rewarding, and to be honest, it's nice to do a project that takes only a few weeks to get out into the world!
Skillshare is kind of like Netflix for online learning. Once you sign up, you can take all the classes you want, all on your own schedule. If you want to try it out, I can give you two months free with this link. This gives you everything Skillshare has to offer.
The next class will be on how I conduct historical research. (oh, and I might try to film a travel sketching class next week while I'm in Mexico.) Send me your ideas and questions--just hit reply to this email if you want to be in touch-- and stay tuned for more!
Let's Get Together in 2020!
Here we are in the new year, and I'll be on the road soon! If you're part of a literary series, a library event, or some other bookish gathering, please feel free to reach out to publicity@amystewart.com to see about setting up an event.
Lakewood, WA: March 28 Pierce County Library
Newport Beach, CA: April 4 Literary Orange
Ellsworth, ME: May 2 Ellsworth Public Library
Portland, ME: May 3 Sherman's
Wyckoff, NJ: May 6 Oasis fundraiser
Redding, CA: May 29 Wicked Plants exhibit
Some of these are ticketed events. More tour dates are on my website. Please confirm details with the venue.
Would You Like a Signed Book?
Signed copies of most of my books are available at Eureka Books, the bookstore my husband and I own.
What Are You Reading?
If you think Liane Moriarty's novels are beach reads...you would not be wrong. They are nonetheless each fascinating in their own way, and surprisingly thought-provoking. What Alice Forgot is about a woman who wakes up from an accident having forgotten the last ten years of her life, and is shocked to see what a mess she's made of everything. No matter how you feel about how your life turned out, this book will get you thinking about what your younger self would make of it.
Oh, and I'm linking to Bookshop.org, a new website for ordering books online that distributes the proceeds to independent bookstores. Please check it out as an alternative to you-know-who.
What are you reading? Tell me about it on Goodreads or Litsy.