Good news from my editor about The Confessions of Frances Godwin

Dear Bob,

So I have to agree: it’s clean as a whistle!  And really, really wonderful.  I am awed. The revisions address the timeline issues beautifully; the Latin seems essential now; the story, the characters, Frances herself—I love it all.  It’s delicious, and deep, and immensely engaging. Thanks, Bob.

I’m going to send this right to the copy-editor, as I can’t even find a sentence to nit-pick.  

I’ll be out of the office next week but checking email….  Have a great singing party!  Wish I could be there.

And congrats on THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANCES GODWIN—another brilliant book from you!

xNancy

 

Reading/interview at WNIJ

Happy to be interviewed last Saturday (11/16/13) for “Morning Edition” at WNIJ. Also read a sex scene from Snakewoman of Little Egypt, about which the Chicago Sun Times reviewer had this to say: “Talk about purple prose. But also talk about how skillfully Hellenga injects humor to reduce the swelling.”

From WNIJ: ; Our interview (the 6 minute version) will air Monday, Dec. 2 at 6:34 & 8:34 in the morning at www.WNIJ.org (and on 89.5 FM).  You might be able to hear our Sterling, IL repeater at 91.5 FM so give that a try. 

As with all the Winter Book Series interviews, the text version and audio excerpts will appear on our website the morning of the broadcast.

A Tale of Two Fathers

   Happy to have an interview published in the latest (and last) issue of Memoir Journal, along with the first part of an actual (projected) memoir to be called My Life as an Italian. The piece was originally titled "A Tale of Two Cities," and I want to thank Claudia Sternbach at Memoir Journal for suggesting that I change it to "A Tale of Two Fathers." It begins as follows:

   "My life as an Italian began at about age twelve in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where my father operated a seasonal produce business–The Michigan Fruits Company. It was a seasonal business because originally my father handled produce from the world's largest open-air farmer's market in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Produce was shipped on boats from Benton Harbor to Milwaukee, where my father acted as a broker.…
   Most of the men who worked for my father were Italians, and they took me in hand.… And I see in retrospect that Sam [one of these men] became my surrogate Italian father, though he was the opposite of my father: short vs. tall; dark vs. light; smoker vs. nonsmoker; pleasure oriented vs. work oriented.…"