«
»

Live Chat with Debut Author
Siobhan Adcock

Live Blog Live Chat with Siobhan Adcock, THE BARTER
 Live Chat with Siobhan Adcock, THE BARTER(07/30/2014) 
3:46
Nora - EarlyWord: 
We will begin our live online chat with Siobhan Adcock, author of The Barter in about 15 minutes.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:46 Nora - EarlyWord
3:47
Nora - EarlyWord: 

Meanwhile, here’s the cover of the book…

Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:47 Nora - EarlyWord
3:47
 Nora - EarlyWord
Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:47 
3:47
Nora - EarlyWord: 

Siobhan recorded an introductory video that gives a good overview of the book.

Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:47 Nora - EarlyWord
3:48
Nora - EarlyWordNora - EarlyWord
Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:48 
3:55
[Comment From Michy FishMichy Fish: ] 
Can I ask a question now?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:55 Michy Fish
3:55
Nora - EarlyWord: 

You can send your questions through at any time. They'll go into a queue, and we'll try to submit them in an orderly fashion (!) to Siobhan before the end of the chat. Don’t worry about typos – and please forgive ours.

Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:55 Nora - EarlyWord
3:59
Siobhan Adcock: 
Hi there! I'm an EarlyWord earlybird I think...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:59 Siobhan Adcock
3:59
Nora - EarlyWord: 
No problem at all -- better early than late!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:59 Nora - EarlyWord
3:59
Siobhan Adcock: 
I wish I could say I'm always this on time...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 3:59 Siobhan Adcock
4:00
Nora - EarlyWord: 
I see some folks gathering -- say hi to Siobhan everyone.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:00 Nora - EarlyWord
4:00
[Comment From DominiqueDominique: ] 
Hi Siobhan! Loved your book!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:00 Dominique
4:00
[Comment From Michy FishMichy Fish: ] 
Hi Siobhan -- Love your book.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:00 Michy Fish
4:00
[Comment From S.S.: ] 
Hi
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:00 S.
4:01
Siobhan Adcock: 
Dominique, Michy Fish, thank you so much! And thanks to all of you for being here too.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:01 Siobhan Adcock
4:01
Nora - EarlyWord: 

We received some questions in advance – here is one that seems to be a good place to start :

This is billed as a ghost story, which I have to admit, put me off. But when I got in to it, I realized that there’s so much more to it, about how women struggle over work and family, how husbands and wives relate. How do you describe it?

Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:01 Nora - EarlyWord
4:01
Siobhan Adcock: 
This is such a good question...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:01 Siobhan Adcock
4:02
Siobhan Adcock: 
To whoever wrote it, thanks for sticking with me! It's my hope that women and readers in general will find something to relate to in the book whether they believe in ghosts or not...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:02 Siobhan Adcock
4:02
Siobhan Adcock: 
I've been working on my "one-sentence" elevator pitch—and for a lot of writers I think that feels sort of like stuffing an elephant into a hatbox...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:02 Siobhan Adcock
4:02
Siobhan Adcock: 
But I usually describe it as a ghost story and a love story, set in historical and contemporary Texas, about marriage and motherhood and work.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:02 Siobhan Adcock
4:03
Nora - EarlyWord: 
I like what you said in the video about it being a combo of Stephen King and Lean In!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:03 Nora - EarlyWord
4:04
Nora - EarlyWord: 

How did you come up with the idea of the ghost?

Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:04 Nora - EarlyWord
4:04
Siobhan Adcock: 
Ha! Yes, that came from a friend of mine and I admit I've been using that line pretty shamelessly.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:04 Siobhan Adcock
4:05
Siobhan Adcock: 
This is kind of a long answer, but ...There's an Alice Munro short story (in Friends of My Youth) in which a character is described as being willing to give up an hour of her child's life for something she really wants. (Spoiler alert: it's related to an affair she's having.) I first read that story more than ten years ago, but ever since then the idea has been percolating: What kind of woman is that? What kind of choice is that?...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:05 Siobhan Adcock
4:05
Siobhan Adcock: 
I ended up writing two stories about that question, Bridget's and Rebecca's, and the ghost came out of, I guess, how spooky that question seems to me, how full of loss and regret in the way of the classic old-school ghost story. The ghost was also what helped me see a way to tie those two women's stories together...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:05 Siobhan Adcock
4:05
Siobhan Adcock: 
I wanted to write something scary—an old-fashioned ghost story—that people could actually see themselves in, and that might move them emotionally even while it scared their pants off.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:05 Siobhan Adcock
4:06
Nora - EarlyWord: 

So the idea of two womens stories came first, with the ghost as a way to connect them?

Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:06 Nora - EarlyWord
4:06
Siobhan Adcock: 
Yes, the ghost came in later, through a side door
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:06 Siobhan Adcock
4:07
Siobhan Adcock: 
I was trying to figure out how to connect these two stories and one night it just kind of hit me, why not try it as a ghost story.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:07 Siobhan Adcock
4:07
[Comment From Boston LibBoston Lib: ] 
BTW, that ghost WAS scary. Something about it not talking.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:07 Boston Lib
4:08
Siobhan Adcock: 
Yeah, those faceless voiceless ghosts are the scariest! Thanks Boston Lib
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:08 Siobhan Adcock
4:08
[Comment From S.S.: ] 
What was your inspiration
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:08 S.
4:08
Siobhan Adcock: 
S., it was really that line in that Alice Munro story that just stuck in my head for years, believe it or not...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:08 Siobhan Adcock
4:09
Siobhan Adcock: 
And as a full-time working mother, the choices that mothers face now (and have always faced) started to take on a new urgency for me once my daughter was born. I wanted to write about a mother faced with some of those choices and more terrible ones besides.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:09 Siobhan Adcock
4:10
[Comment From Boston LibBoston Lib: ] 
Which is why this is such a great reading group book -- so much to discuss!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:10 Boston Lib
4:10
Nora - EarlyWord: 

Let's talk about those two women -- the chapters altyernate between them, both living in the same area, near Austin, TX, but at different periods of time.

I was fascinated by the specifics of daily life at the turn of the century (I heard that the term “blue Monday” refers to the drudgery of doing laundry on Mondays – you make that real!) How did you research daily life?

Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:10 Nora - EarlyWord
4:10
Siobhan Adcock: 
Thanks so much! I really hope so. Both the main characters face choices that I hope will resonate with other working women and mothers, and this is probably where the more compelling talking points are to be found. I'm thinking in particular of the recent story in the New York Times about how the "opt-out generation wants back in"— and the resulting flood of pieces, online and in print, weighing in for and against. The characters in this book participate in that highly-charged cultural conversation about women, motherhood, and work, and how a woman's identity is valued.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:10 Siobhan Adcock
4:11
Siobhan Adcock: 
Nora, thanks for that question about the daily life aspect of the historical sections--I was so fascinated by that when I was researching!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:11 Siobhan Adcock
4:12
Nora - EarlyWord: 
How did you do the research? So much written history is about events, but not about daily life.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:12 Nora - EarlyWord
4:12
Siobhan Adcock: 
I researched the (many! amazing! history-altering!) changes taking place in American homes around the turn of the last century; and I read a lot of personal writings by women farmers in different parts of the country.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:12 Siobhan Adcock
4:13
Siobhan Adcock: 
I REALLY recommend Never Done: A History of American Housework by Susan Strasser—a great read. And I discovered a midwestern writer named Rachel Peden who wrote some wonderful, graceful books about life on a farm.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:13 Siobhan Adcock
4:13
Siobhan Adcock: 
And anyone who wants to chat about Texas land grants in the 1850s or how and when plumbing and electricity were rolled out to middle class Americans, I'm your gal. Ha.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:13 Siobhan Adcock
4:13
Nora - EarlyWord: 
How did you get access to the personal writings -- I assume diaries and letters?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:13 Nora - EarlyWord
4:15
Siobhan Adcock: 
There is a wonderful series published by the University of Indiana press that presents the oral histories of women and homemakers in the early twentieth century--I'll see if I can find a link.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:15 Siobhan Adcock
4:16
Siobhan Adcock: 
And there are also some really super-detailed historical documents that open up a window into that era, when the technology of the home was rapidly changing. Stoves, water sources, telegraphs and telephones, railroads, electricity, indoor plumbing, all those technologies were in a state of development that really reached a peak around Rebecca's time. I spent a lot of time researching that.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:16 Siobhan Adcock
4:16
[Comment From S.S.: ] 
Are you going to write more books in the future?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:16 S.
4:16
Siobhan Adcock: 
But someone told me that only about 10% of what you research ever makes it into the book, and that certainly felt true to me!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:16 Siobhan Adcock
4:17
Siobhan Adcock: 
S., yes, I'm working on another book now, but so far it's pretty different. No ghosts.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:17 Siobhan Adcock
4:17
Siobhan Adcock: 
Yet.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:17 Siobhan Adcock
4:17
Nora - EarlyWord: 
To me, and I am sure most of this audience, the research is the part that sounds fun -- the writing would be hard!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:17 Nora - EarlyWord
4:18
Siobhan Adcock: 
Oh yeah, I definitely went into a rabbit hole with the research. A very nice cozy comfy rabbit hole that I didn't want to crawl out of...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:18 Siobhan Adcock
4:18
Siobhan Adcock: 
I think you're totally right!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:18 Siobhan Adcock
4:18
[Comment From Kristine HallKristine Hall: ] 
How did you stay focused/get yourself back to the plot with all the interesting research? Were you specific in what you researched? Seems like it would take a lot of discipline to be historically accurate.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:18 Kristine Hall
4:19
Siobhan Adcock: 
I think I was fortunate in that I was researching a couple of really super-specific things: German folkways and culture in Texas, and American home technology at the turn of the century. You look at an achievement like Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, where she takes in a whole era, and it's a whole other level of discipline
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:19 Siobhan Adcock
4:20
[Comment From Boston LibBoston Lib: ] 
I've heard loneliness was a big issue for farm women at that time. But in the modern time, your character Bridget suffers from her own kind of loneliness.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:20 Boston Lib
4:20
Siobhan Adcock: 
Thanks for that point--I think that loneliness is something a lot of mothers and women who work in the home face, and it's a real thing.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:20 Siobhan Adcock
4:21
Siobhan Adcock: 
Bridget's loneliness has a particularly modern quality too, in that she's connected through her smartphone to her husband and her mother and all her friends, but she still feels utterly isolated
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:21 Siobhan Adcock
4:21
[Comment From Boston LibBoston Lib: ] 
Curious how that carries through to today -- live those similarities between the two women. We think the time periods were SO different.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:21 Boston Lib
4:22
Siobhan Adcock: 
They were, I think you're right...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:22 Siobhan Adcock
4:23
Siobhan Adcock: 
But the early 1900s are an exciting time to write about, because it was a period of huge change in America, and in particular, in the everyday lives of women in America...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:23 Siobhan Adcock
4:23
Siobhan Adcock: 
The technology of the home was making huge strides. Professional and educational opportunities for women were changing, and it was also a period that saw a kind of revolution in the philosophy of rearing children. The parallels between that time and the turn of the twenty-first century inspired me...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:23 Siobhan Adcock
4:24
Nora - EarlyWord: 

That's funny -- we think that all the tech changes are happening today.

Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:24 Nora - EarlyWord
4:24
Siobhan Adcock: 
—because right now we're also living in a period in which technology is changing motherhood and everyday life. And right now, the way Americans raise their children is also a subject of intense cultural debate....
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:24 Siobhan Adcock
4:25
Siobhan Adcock: 
And women's expectations for their lives are still being scrutinized under some really old, traditional lenses. Like for instance, why is it even still an issue that some women choose to work?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:25 Siobhan Adcock
4:26
Siobhan Adcock: 
So the parallels for me were in the changes they were both witnessing...and also the way things frustratingly stayed the same, for both of them.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:26 Siobhan Adcock
4:27
[Comment From Boston LibBoston Lib: ] 
As you point out, the issue keeps rearing its head -- with some women today thinking it's revolutionary to choose NOT to work!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:27 Boston Lib
4:27
Nora - EarlyWord: 

Rebecca reads the book Practical Housekeeping — is that a real book? How did you discover it?

Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:27 Nora - EarlyWord
4:28
Siobhan Adcock: 
Yes! It's a real book, dating from the post Civil War/Reconstruction era, and it's available as a Google book here if you want quick access to prowl through it, although some special collections, like the Schaumburg library, might have the real thing:

http://books.google.ca/book...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:28 Siobhan Adcock
4:29
Siobhan Adcock: 
(Sorry took me a second to find the link)
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:29 Siobhan Adcock
4:29
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Ha! Was that book a way to keep women in their place, tending the home?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:29 Nora - EarlyWord
4:29
Siobhan Adcock: 
It's packed with all this highly technical, scientific information as well as recipes and etiquette. This was published during a time when some early-feminist writers and thinkers were trying to professionalize women's work, elevating what women did in the home all day long to a science and an art.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:29 Siobhan Adcock
4:30
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Amazing -- so it's the opposite of what one might think.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:30 Nora - EarlyWord
4:30
Siobhan Adcock: 
So I think Practical Housekeeping really sort of tried to do both--making women feel comfortable and competent in their homemaking skills, but also pointing out that it took SKILL
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:30 Siobhan Adcock
4:31
Siobhan Adcock: 
I mean, this book, it's crazy. Harvest times for 50 varieties of garden vegetables. Hundreds of recipes. Super technical information about kitchen ventilation.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:31 Siobhan Adcock
4:31
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Melville Dewey said that women would make good librarians because they were good housekeepers, which I always thought was horribly sexist until I realized that he was actually trying to promote the idea of women as professionals.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:31 Nora - EarlyWord
4:31
Siobhan Adcock: 
The American home was changing into a place where there were all these devices, gadgets, things to learn how to do.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:31 Siobhan Adcock
4:32
Siobhan Adcock: 
Yeah, I think what's perhaps ironic about Rebecca's situation is that she becomes a farm wife, but she's also a businesswoman, all of a sudden. That's the part of her new life that she loves: the responsibility, the new learning.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:32 Siobhan Adcock
4:32
[Comment From Michy FishMichy Fish: ] 
One thing that troubles me, but also seemed very real, was how, in both marriages, the partners, well, particularly the women, tended to say hurtful things to each other.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:32 Michy Fish
4:33
Siobhan Adcock: 
Thanks so much for that point Michy--such a big issue...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:33 Siobhan Adcock
4:33
Siobhan Adcock: 
In my day job I work on a lot of women's community websites, and one of the things I always see is women calling each other selfish--or worse--because of differences in their philosophy about work or raising kids or family size...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:33 Siobhan Adcock
4:34
[Comment From Michy FishMichy Fish: ] 
Ugh -- we can be our own worst enemies!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:34 Michy Fish
4:34
Siobhan Adcock: 
It's the first accusation we seem to level at each other--it's like selfishness is the worst thing you can accuse a woman of, the biggest nuclear bomb you can drop.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:34 Siobhan Adcock
4:35
Nora - EarlyWord: 

Bridget refers to the Grimm stories — did they influence you? Why do you think they have such staying power?

Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:35 Nora - EarlyWord
4:35
Siobhan Adcock: 
Yes, Bridget and Rebecca are both kind of in the thrall of these eerie storytellers, and storytelling has a unique power in their lives. Grimms' stories are sort of the original domestic terror stories—patricide, matricide, infanticide, incest, child abuse, violence...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:35 Siobhan Adcock
4:35
Siobhan Adcock: 
The scariest thing I ever read, I think, is Grimms' tale The Juniper Tree, which is just so rich with messed-up scary family dynamics. Because I love sharing it, here's a version that inspired the magician's story toward the end of the Rebecca plotline:

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/g...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:35 Siobhan Adcock
4:36
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Let's talk about the publishing process. Before THE BARTER, you had already published two nonfiction titles (Hipster Haiku and 30 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do Before Turning 30) and several short stories. You also worked in publishing. Did that make it easier for you to get the novel published?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:36 Nora - EarlyWord
4:37
Siobhan Adcock: 
Those were published a few years back, and since pop-culture/humor titles tend to have a pretty short shelf life, I'm not sure they're in print anymore! I started my career as an editor in book publishing, though, and I did make really valuable personal and professional connections that definitely helped me get this novel published...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:37 Siobhan Adcock
4:37
Siobhan Adcock: 
My agent, Betsy Lerner, was a senior editor at Doubleday when I was a lowly editorial assistant, and when she left to become an agent, there was this goodbye party, and she came over to where all the assistants were clustered in a group, just drinking the free wine as fast as we could, and she said, "I know every single one of you is working on a novel, and when you're finished, you'd better send it to me or else." And years later, I took her up on that. Of course she denies ever having said it. Ha.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:37 Siobhan Adcock
4:38
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Did she like it instantly?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:38 Nora - EarlyWord
4:38
Siobhan Adcock: 
Yes, she did, fortunately for me. She was reading chapters as I went, and three weeks after I finished the first draft she sold it.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:38 Siobhan Adcock
4:39
Siobhan Adcock: 
So she's clearly some kind of super agent ninja from outer space.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:39 Siobhan Adcock
4:39
Nora - EarlyWord: 
That is amazing. Did she help you to shape it? Was the ghost in it when she first saw the ms?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:39 Nora - EarlyWord
4:40
Siobhan Adcock: 
Yes, I think one thing that really characterizes the author-agent relationship now, and a lot of people say this, is that the agent takes such an active role in shaping the ms.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:40 Siobhan Adcock
4:41
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Does that mean the editor has less to do?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:41 Nora - EarlyWord
4:41
Siobhan Adcock: 
Both Betsy and my editor Denise Roy at Dutton were great with giving actionable, tactical, strategic feedback--totally my style! And sorry, to answer your q, the ghost was in there from the beginning...They both encouraged me to make it even scarier.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:41 Siobhan Adcock
4:42
Siobhan Adcock: 
I think the editor has the hardest job...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:42 Siobhan Adcock
4:42
Siobhan Adcock: 
Not just loving the book, but then making a case for buying it, and then making a business plan for helping it succeed, and then building buzz and excitement in house to help it succeed...all while editing, shaping the creative direction for the cover, creating the marketing language...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:42 Siobhan Adcock
4:43
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Great perspective. You don't think about these things going on at once -- she's selling a product that's not fully fleshed yet!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:43 Nora - EarlyWord
4:44
Siobhan Adcock: 
Absolutely--it's really on the editor to be a sort of in-house PR agency for all her titles.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:44 Siobhan Adcock
4:44
[Comment From MD LibMD Lib: ] 
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:44 MD Lib
4:45
Siobhan Adcock: 
I wanted to be a writer from when I was pretty young. I was joking with somebody yesterday that I realized I wanted to be a writer when I realized there was no such thing as a professional band-aid waster.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:45 Siobhan Adcock
4:45
Siobhan Adcock: 
I was the kid in the neighborhood who was always pretending to be a doctor and trying to fix people.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:45 Siobhan Adcock
4:45
[Comment From Bartle B.Bartle B.: ] 
You mentioned having worked in editorial -- do you think that has inflected how you write, as well?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:45 Bartle B.
4:46
Siobhan Adcock: 
Hi Bartle B.--yes, I really think it has...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:46 Siobhan Adcock
4:46
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Also, I'd like to add -- Did your experience working on several Web sites (including one of my favorites, Epicurious — one of my favorites) influence your writing?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:46 Nora - EarlyWord
4:46
Siobhan Adcock: 
Some of the writers I respect most started out as journalists, and many more writers that I love write reviews, criticism, op-ed, humor...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:46 Siobhan Adcock
4:47
Siobhan Adcock: 
And of course many of them are editors, too, working with other writers to help shape their work. And lots of writers teach creative writing, which is much the same thing...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:47 Siobhan Adcock
4:48
Siobhan Adcock: 
Personally I'm not sure I'd recommend to any writer that they ONLY ever write fiction. You've gotta get more stuff coming out of your brain than that, just to keep the stove warm. And anyway it might get boring just writing one kind of thing all the time.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:48 Siobhan Adcock
4:48
Siobhan Adcock: 
But that's just me--I bet there are other amazing fiction writers who are focused and disciplined and all those good things...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:48 Siobhan Adcock
4:48
[Comment From MD LibMD Lib: ] 
What was it about Texas that made you want to set your book there?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:48 MD Lib
4:49
Siobhan Adcock: 
Hi MD Lib. I lived in Texas from when I was in my teens until I went to college, and I first heard about the Germans in Texas when I was in high school, while on a road trip that took me through New Braunfels, one of the historical centers of Germans in the state...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:49 Siobhan Adcock
4:49
Siobhan Adcock: 
The Hill Country is just so unbelievably beautiful, too, what writer wouldn't want to immerse herself in that.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:49 Siobhan Adcock
4:49
[Comment From Prison Lib.Prison Lib.: ] 
Please tell us about teaching creative writing in prisons.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:49 Prison Lib.
4:49
Siobhan Adcock: 
Prison Lib., my "students" in the prison creative writing classes taught me more than I ever taught them.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:49 Siobhan Adcock
4:50
Siobhan Adcock: 
I participated in the Cornell Prison Education program as a graduate student, and I was one of a group of teachers who facilitated a weekly creative writing workshop for men in the maximum security prison at Auburn
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:50 Siobhan Adcock
4:51
[Comment From Prison Lib.Prison Lib.: ] 
Can you elaborate on what they taught you (by the way, I completely agree).
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:51 Prison Lib.
4:51
Siobhan Adcock: 
The classroom environment was incredible. I've never met a more committed group of writers in my life. And most of them were great writers just by any yardstick--that is, not "great prison writers" but "great writers," period.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:51 Siobhan Adcock
4:51
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Amazingly, we only have ten more minutes with Siobhan -- so get your final questions in.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:51 Nora - EarlyWord
4:52
Siobhan Adcock: 
They taught me to write even when you are scared. Write because you are scared. Write around the scared. Write to the scared.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:52 Siobhan Adcock
4:52
Siobhan Adcock: 
Write to make fear into something like belief in yourself.'
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:52 Siobhan Adcock
4:52
Siobhan Adcock: 
That's not very specific but it's probably the best I can say.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:52 Siobhan Adcock
4:53
Siobhan Adcock: 
And obviously they were much better at that way of writing than me, because they had to be.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:53 Siobhan Adcock
4:53
[Comment From Prison Lib.Prison Lib.: ] 
That's beautiful, thanks.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:53 Prison Lib.
4:53
[Comment From MD librarianMD librarian: ] 
Are you willing to speak at libraries? Can we SKYPE you in to one of our reading groups? How do we contact you?
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:53 MD librarian
4:54
Siobhan Adcock: 
Yeah! I would love to skype with you.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:54 Siobhan Adcock
4:55
Siobhan Adcock: 
I can also do a Google Hangout. My Skype handle is siobhan.adcock73
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:55 Siobhan Adcock
4:56
Siobhan Adcock: 
And please feel free to email me: siobhanadcock@gmail.com
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:56 Siobhan Adcock
4:56
Nora - EarlyWord: 
We'll be wrapping up in a few minutes.

Just wanted to remind everyone that THE BARTER is coming will be published on Sept 4 and if you haven't read it, you can request advance digital readers copies on NetGalley and Edelweiss.

Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:56 Nora - EarlyWord
4:57
Siobhan Adcock: 
This has been amazing. Thanks so much everybody.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:57 Siobhan Adcock
4:57
Siobhan Adcock: 
Oh, I almost forgot. I took a picture of some of the books I read while researching. I just grabbed a handful that were lying around.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:57 Siobhan Adcock
4:57
Nora - EarlyWord: 

Thank you, Siobhan -- so much to think about!


This chat will be archived on the Penguin [Debut Authors page on EarlyWord:

http://penguindebutauthors.earlyword.com/

Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:57 Nora - EarlyWord
4:57
[Comment From Kristine HallKristine Hall: ] 
I cannot wait to read this and am so glad we just had teasers today and no spoilers!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:57 Kristine Hall
4:57
 Siobhan Adcock
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:57 
4:57
Siobhan Adcock: 
In case it's interesting...
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:57 Siobhan Adcock
4:58
Siobhan Adcock: 
Thanks Kristine!!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:58 Siobhan Adcock
4:58
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Believe me, Kristine, it's hard to do!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:58 Nora - EarlyWord
4:58
[Comment From Bartle B.Bartle B.: ] 
Thank you!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:58 Bartle B.
4:58
 Siobhan Adcock
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:58 
4:58
Nora - EarlyWord: 
Wow -- German Seed in Texas Soil sounds racy!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:58 Nora - EarlyWord
4:58
Siobhan Adcock: 
HAHAHA
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:58 Siobhan Adcock
4:59
Siobhan Adcock: 
It's a historical romance novel, actually.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:59 Siobhan Adcock
4:59
Siobhan Adcock: 
"She was an innocent cowgirl. He was a dashing German shipping baron. GERMAN SEED IN TEXAS SOIL."
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:59 Siobhan Adcock
4:59
Siobhan Adcock: 
OK I'll stop.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 4:59 Siobhan Adcock
5:00
Nora - EarlyWord: 
By the way, I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your use of similes and metaphors -- never cliched, even in the sex scenes (which I recommend).
Wednesday July 30, 2014 5:00 Nora - EarlyWord
5:00
Siobhan Adcock: 
Thanks! Those kinds of scenes are really tough to do.
Wednesday July 30, 2014 5:00 Siobhan Adcock
5:01
Nora - EarlyWord: 

It's the witching hour -- time to sign off. Thanks, again, everyone.


The next book in our program is FIVE DAYS LEFT BY Julie Lawson Timmer . If you are not already a member of the Penguin Debut Authors program, you can sign up on the EarlyWord site.

Wednesday July 30, 2014 5:01 Nora - EarlyWord
5:01
Siobhan Adcock: 
Thanks again, it was such a pleasure to be here!
Wednesday July 30, 2014 5:01 Siobhan Adcock
 
 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 at 1:00 pm and is filed under EarlyWord Sponsor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.