BESTSELLERS & BEST FRIENDS
My book publishing blog, with murder mysteries woven through it.
If this is your first visit, be sure to start with “1. Let’s do it!”
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Perhaps the favorite book of mine is Tess’s Tree, the story of a girl who deals with the grief of losing her favorite tree.
For me, it’s also the story of how a book sometimes just perfectly happens.
There was a large maple tree outside the window of my office in our New England home of 23 years. It was kindly planted there by someone now long gone. I thought about now the tree would someday also be sadly gone, like too many people in my life.
Instead of doing whatever I should have been doing (taxes, emails, balancing the check book, etc.), I sat in my office thinking about how those who arrived prior to me, were now exiting.
My Mom and Dad, aunts and uncles, the parents of childhood friends. I had reached that age.
Then Sally came home from her annual getaway with college friends. She told me about how her friend Gail had to cut down a dying tree. Gail’s daughter, Tess, loved the tree. Her swing hung from it, and she played in its shade. Tess was furious when it came down.
Then, in all her grief, and all on her own, Tess decided to have a funeral for the tree. Wow!
I looked out my office window, nodded at the old tree, and started writing.
The words flowed. They just ran through my fingers and onto the screen. It felt so right. An hour later I had a story, Tess’s Tree.
What an amazing hour! By publication of Tess’s Tree, only six words of that original manuscript had changed. Which is unheard of. Both ridiculous and remarkable.
And I still consider it the second-best thing I ever wrote. Hell of an hour.
This was mid-2000. A group of us in the Boston area hung out together. We had a common love for books, but also a growing curiosity about digital opportunities, and what promise that might bring to publishing and storytelling.
One of that gang was Peter Reynolds, a wonderful educator, illustrator, and storyteller. He and his twin brother, Paul, owned and ran a smart and passionate company, Fablevision. And a bookstore, The Blue Bunny. (Peter and Paul clearly live 48-hour days unlike my confining 24.)
Over a coffee (or maybe it was a glass of wine), Peter mentioned how he’d like to work with me on something.
With Tess’s Tree, I thought I now had that something. I sent the story to Peter. He loved it. Said he’d pause everything else he was working on and get to it.
Peter’s agent, Holly McGhee, represented us. And quickly sold it in an auction to the brilliant acquisition editor (and later, author and agent) Brenda Bowen at Harper where the wonderful editor Alyson Day escorted it to publication. (Alyson and I vowed to work together again….fingers crossed).
So in just five weeks, from my office to Peter to an agent to a publisher. And to publication a year later. REMARKABLE! As if some weird gods were at work.
These many years later, Tess’s Tree is no longer in print. But it lives online for free at TessTree.com.
Enjoy! Because sometimes a book just perfectly happens.
Meanwhile, despite my vow, I’ve been thinking about what I know refer to as the “Jatos-wife-Antal-Chris-and-Aaron thing.”
I called Detective Josephine Rocco.
You may remember her from when a mysterious (and awful) mystery writer was blaming me for multiple killings in the book industry.
Rocco is tough, to the point, and easily annoyed by me.
The phone call went like this:
Me: Jess Brallier here. You might remember—
Rocco: I remember.
Me: I thought I should call you because—
Rocco: Agreed. I’ve been reading your blog.
Me: (delightfully shocked that she subscribes to this): Really? That’s—
Rocco: Tomorrow, 10 a.m.
Me: Let’s see, I’ve got a haircut—
She hung up.
Tomorrow: writer/editor joke, Gustave Flaubert’s comma, and why I don’t have a beach house