A Literary Take on Love and Taboo by Clarence A. Haynes

EG is very pleased today to welcome freelance editor and social commenter, Clarence A. Haynes with a very stirring appraisal of the taboo in literature. It's a fascinating read. Prepare for a treat.

During the fall of last year, I visited two good friends based in Washington, D.C.One of them, psychotherapist Daniel St. Rose, MSW, showed me a chapter from a book highlighting a couples’ dynamic he found interesting. The book in question was from Maggie Scarf— Intimate Partners: Patterns in Love & Marriage—a bestseller published in 1987 that explored underlying factors for behavior seen in everyday romance. Scarf is an award-winning writer and scholar who has a large, esteemed body of work on relationships.

The pages I looked at dealt with the issue of projective identification, an exchange system where couples unconsciously collude to place unwanted, shamed aspects of themselves onto the other person. So a person whose takeaway from childhood was to never express any feelings of anger, assertion or autonomy in her family might choose a partner who will express those feelings for her.  

In turn, a partner who was taught that being vulnerable was dangerous, who might have come from a household of nasty emotional abuse for example, will in fact then expect all expressions of vulnerability and neediness to come from his partner. Both folks caught up in the exchange will give off to each other unconscious, provocative cues insinuating what is expected. The two get to inhabit the roles which felt safe at a particular time, yet can end up causing much anguish in their current relationship.

I’ve been exploring more of Scarf’s work, like Secrets, Lies, Betrayals: The Body/Mind Connection and Intimate Worlds: Why Families Thrive and How They Fail, all containing info. that continues to be highly relevant. What struck me about her writing style is that it isn’t prescriptive in a “10 Essential Steps to Save Your Doomed Romance!” kind of way, but that it presents issues she’s observed honestly and forthrightly.

It also struck me that much of what she discusses deals with taboo, the items from people’s past that they don’t talk about because it’s been labelled as shameful, yet which they routinely re-live in their contemporary dealings.

Books like Scarf’s and ideas like projective identification are not the traditional stuff of Valentine’s Day wishes. They don’t jibe with cutesy hot pink hearts or card-based declarations of unending love. (In fact, some of the Intimate Partners revelations might make you want to throw the hot pink hearts into the trash.) They don’t work so well for quick social media showing off. These titles are about digging down deep into your shadow, with individuals starting to recognize destructive patterns from yesteryear that keep on rearing up. 

Scarf’s work speaks to the power of literature when it comes to how we deal with intimacy. The richest titles out there, whether non-fiction or fiction from a variety of genres, aren’t afraid to ditch the commercial platitudes and give some honest perspectives on relationship dynamics. Literature, as reports have presented, can give a depth of experience and vision often unmatched in other media, mirroring the very process we all need to experience when assessing who we are and how we love.

And if you are reflecting on items that feel deeply personal, it’s important to remember that books are a very private way of dealing with sometimes disconcerting realizations. It is just you and the page, and the reader has the space to reflect on what’s being presented, dream and make connections to one’s own life. These connections can be made very quietly and safely, with time to reflect on what the next move is, whether making life changes, seeking out help from a professional or talking honestly with someone who is open and cares. Scarf’s work has direct therapeutic connotations, yet novels as diverse as Toni Morrison’s historical A Mercy or Claire Messud’s contemporary The Woman Upstairs also effectively showcase the influence of a fraught, fractured past on intimacy.

From my own personal experiences and work in media, I think it’s the realm of the taboo that we have to visit more often in terms of our art and literary offerings. It contains the items we’re frightened to speak of, the shame which has been foisted upon us through no fault of our own. It’s often the place wherein lies our salvation and freedom.      

Clarence A. Haynes is a New York-based freelance book editor who specializes in literary and commercial fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, the performing arts and cultural criticism, among other genres. He also regularly writes and edits content dealing with intimacy, gender and sexuality. More of his work and bio can be found at www.huffingtonpost.com/clarence-haynes

On Agenting--Professional Spotlight

EG is very pleased to have with us today Agent Extraordinaire, Regina Brooks, principal agent at Serendipity Literary Agency. Regina is truly a renaissance woman and very much a publishing professionals who adapts to the changing times only to find herself and her roster of clients at the head of the curve. So without further ado...Regina Brooks.


What is the most important part of being an agent?

Being an agent requires a great deal of patience, tenacity, and vision. When all these three align, then it requires the ability to communicate with a myriad of creative types. The most important part I would say is RELATIONSHIPS. I enjoy agenting because I take pleasure getting to know the diverse people I meet along the way: whether it’s an illustrator, a financial professional, an activist, or a Madame.

How have agents had to adapt to the changes in the market in recent years, including the changes in technology?

Well agents have now started to become mini-publishers. For agents who come to agenting from an editorial background this transition is not as daunting as it is for those who come from other parts of the business. As a mini-publisher you are required to put on your editorial hat.

In the past agents were rather unknown. They were difficult to find and if you didn’t have a friend with an agent, it was difficult to break through. Today agents blog, tweet, instagram etc. Social media has become significant part of the business. In addition, many agencies including my own don’t accept snail mail. We find authors on twitter, we communicate with our authors on social media. I’ve even explored the idea of having virtual online retreats with my authors since they are located all over the world.

Many agencies are now self-publishing clients' work. What do you think of this practice? Would your agency ever consider publishing client work if it can't be placed with a traditional house? What are the advantages and disadvantages to this?

Here's the thing, if you’ve worked with an author for months to develop their work, you don’t want all that work to go unrewarded. If the author self-publishes independently, depending on what's in the agency agreement, the agency receives no compensation for the blood sweat and tears. So I believe it makes sense to stay coupled with the project besides self-publishing can be very daunting, especially in regards to getting distribution and find an audience. A savvy agent can help with those components of the business as well.

99% of my business maintains the traditional model of the agent shopping the book to a mainstream publisher. There have been a few instances where I have placed the author with small independent publishers who take the hybrid model, where the author is intimately involved in the development and promotion of their book. The ebook or digital model is definitely something we are developing at my agency.

Many agents are also selling digital rights to the digital publishers that are now on the rise. Is this something that's good for the business and authors? Do you sell these rights? When do agents make the decision to sell these rights to digital publishers?

There are a number of models I’ve explored in the digital space:

1. retaining ebook rights and going directly with the ebook distributors, amazon, kobo, apple, etc

2. working directly with publishers who begin with a digital book and then if sales are warranted or the audience requests, we go to print

3. I'm currently exploring genre fiction for the digital market. Mainstream publishers have approached me about some of my authors' works and asked that they develop books for digital first publishing.

4. I've also been approached about short fiction and essay style projects, similar to the kindle singles approach by mainstream publishers. Publishers want to have the right to publish the entire body of work from an author, so they are willing to publish short works as well.

Overall, I think the digital space is definitely good for business. It gives debut writers a chance to publish and to garner an audience. It gives agents and editors greater access to a marketplace of writers they may not have natural entrée to. It also allows readers to have a bigger say in what gets published.

I’ll admit though that it makes the financial business model a bit more difficult for agents. You end up having to do more volume and as you know with more volume the quality of the work may suffer.

You are an author in your own right. How has being an author informed your work as an agent?

To date I’ve mostly written books on how to write and how to get published.

I wrote the book WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS because there was no other book on the market at that time that separated children’s from young adult. When I first envisioned the project, “Twilight” and “Hunger Games” didn’t exist. Now there are hundreds of thousands of young adult books and thousands of new authors writing for the genre. It’s very exciting.

I wrote YOU SHOULD REALLY WRITE A BOOK: How to Write, Sell, and Market Your Memoir because I wanted to help people understand how to really sell their stories. Writing and publishing a commercially viable memoir is more than just having an interesting story to tell. The book helps people understand how to get agents and editors excited about your work even if you are a “relatively unknown” author.

I recognize the challenges to getting published, the importance of having representation. I agented my first three books myself. They say a lawyer who represents themselves has a fool for a client. I’ve now come to see that statement holds true for agents who represent their own literary works as well. I understand better the challenges of being creative on call, how research can take three times the amount of time you thought it would, how paramount literary relationships and community are, and most of all how important is it to get out and promote your book and yourself as a writer.

What's the best advice you offer writers?

1. Please be patient. There’s a lot of stop and start during the life cycle of getting a book published. Honor the process and allow each phase of the process its natural rhythm.

2. Don’t take critique as criticism. Revision is key part of the writing process. Don’t let an editor or agents feedback disparage you from realizing your dream of becoming a published author

3. Develop a team. It takes a village to make a book work. (graphic designers, publicists, editors, web developer, photographer, copywriter, etc) Start putting together your team as soon as possible.

Regina Brooks is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC, based in Brooklyn, New York. Her agency has represented and established a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature. Her authors have appeared in USA TODAY, NY TIMES and the Washington Post as well as on Oprah, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSBNC, TV ONE, BET and a host of others. Writer's Digest magazine named Serendipity Literary Agency as one of the top 25 literary agencies in 2004. Formerly, she held senior editorial positions at John Wiley and Sons (where she was not only the youngest but also the first African-American editor in their college division) and McGraw-Hill.

Prior to her publishing career she worked as an aerospace engineer and made history as the first African American woman to receive a bachelors of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering from The Ohio State University.  She is a graduate of The School of the Arts High School in Rochester, NY.

She is the author of Essences Magazine’s quick pick children's book, NEVER FINISHED NEVER DONE  (Scholastic) , WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS (Source Books)  the forthcoming title YOU SHOULD (REALLY) WRITE A BOOK: WRITING, SELLING AND MARKETING YOUR MEMOIR ( St. Martin’s Press) and a well received blogger for the Huffington Post. Brooks is also on the faculty of the Harvard University publishing program and has served as faculty on the Whidbey Island Writers MFA and Western Connecticut MFA  Low residency programs. Brooks is also on the faculty of the Writer’s Digest University, Harvard University publishing course, The Discovery Channel’s Media Boot Camp for Doctors, the Whidbey Island Writers MFA program and teaches annually at more than twenty worldwide conferences.   She has been highlighted in several national and international magazines and periodicals, including Forbes, Media Bistro, Writers and Poets, Essence Magazine, Ebony, Jet, Women on Writing, Writers Digest Magazine, The Writer, and Sister2Sister magazine, Publishers Weekly, The Network Journal,  Rolling Out, and  Ebony Magazine. 

She was named 2010 Woman of the Year by The National Association of Professional Women. A New York Urban League Rising Star Award winner and a 2004 finalist for the Stevie^TM Award for Women Entrepreneurs, Regina Brooks is featured in books such as The Guide to Literary Agents and the NAACP nominated Down to Business 10 steps for Women Entrepreneurs, and How to Build a Platform.  She is also listed in International Who's Who under the categories of Professional Management, Technology, Entrepreneurs, and Engineering.

In November 2010, Brooks partnered with Marie Brown, of Marie Brown and Associates, and Marva Allen of Hue Man Bookstore to launch a new publishing imprint called Open Lens.

Further, Possibiliteas is the brainchild of literary agent and tea enthusiast, REGINA BROOKS  who believed that tea—the world’s oldest performance-enhancing beverage—could have a beneficial effect on her clients—writers, artists and other creative professionals who were looking for fuel for their creative fire.

She is a pilot and cofounder of Brooklyn Aviation  as well as a member of the Association of Author Representatives and New York Women in Film and Television. 

Ms. Brooks is the founder and co-Executive Director of Y.B. Literary Foundation, Inc., a not-for-profit organization designed kindle a passion for literature within high school students and an appreciation for the possibilities and opportunities that reading can provide.     www.ybliterary.org

LINKS OF INTEREST

http://madamenoire.com/119242/episode-13-regina-brooks/

http://wow-womenonwriting.com/49-FE1-ReginaBrooks.htm

  

www.serendipitylit.com                                                                       www.possibiliteas.co
 @serendipitylit                                                                                    @teaforcreatives

 

 

Sample of Workshops and Talks

Workshops

How to Productize Your Intellectual Property

A book is a product, but so are other types of intellectual property. Do you have a lot of creative ideas? This workshop will help you to figure out how you might be able to turn your creative ideas into products that help to inform, educate and entertain people. When you are finished with this workshop, you'll have even more creative ideas than you had when you entered, and you'll have new ways to turn them into intellectual property products!

You should really write a book

Are you planning to write a book? (Or, you've published one already.) This workshop is designed to help you become a bestselling author by implementing specific strategies to help you build your publishing, media and speaking platform. Whether you are already an author or not, if you have plans to write a book, this workshop will help you to become a successful author. Today writers need to know how to succeed in the new media and literary marketplace. This comprehensive workshop is all about maximizing your work and creating a writing career. Regina Brooks take participants step-by-step through the success checklist for the getting-published process. From content-creation to contract; focusing on both craft and career, you will learn essential secrets to getting published.

Brand Building and extending your reach.

Are you an expert? Should you be? Are you ready to move on to bigger venues with larger audiences? Do you have an important message to share with others? If so, this workshop is for you.  Regina Brooks will focus on strategies for getting your ideas into the New York Times, Huffington Post and other prestigious newspapers, how to write for blogs, and strategically develop your content and contacts. Will include strategies for extending your brand through social media, and tips on attracting a literary or speaking agent!

Talks

Writing Your Way into Relevancy

Listening to your Muse One whisper at a Time

Writing an Undeniable Book Proposal 

Writing Great Books for Children and Young adults

 

On Children's Books--Every Adventure is Possible

Most of my authors live in another state and a few live in another country. Still I've managed to meet all of my authors, except one who lives on the West Coast of Canada. Go figure! But we're still trying. In the interim, this author and I have this wonderful epistolary relationship aka email. I say all this to say, it's uncommon for me to be able to attend one of my author's book events or launch parties because they usually happen far, far away. I'm no less thrilled and supportive, but it's also bittersweet to experience these first moments of my authors' post-publication journey via Facebook the day after. So tonight was a rare treat where I not only was able to support one of my authors in person, but I was able to do so at my author's very first event ever, his very first time ever reading to an audience. It was a thrill, especially as I helped him pick out the section of his book that he read and he did a masterful job. It was exciting to see the audience respond so well to his reading, to watch their faces as he read from a particularly tense section. It was fun and satisfying to see, live and in person, my author hook a reader. This is a moment both author and editor toil away for. The glory and gosh, I won't lie, it felt nice.

My author was on a stage with three other very talented authors and they read and spoke to a most engaged audience of teens, adults, other writers, journalists, at least one editor (me), agents and even a Swedish publisher. It was a varied crowd and we were rapt. I've said in other blogs on children's books how rich and nuanced the writing is and how surprising the subject matters are that writers engage for children. It was nice to see this in action tonight and now I have a few more great books to add to my reading list. You should add them too, especially if you're currently writing for children:

In a lyrical and hard-hitting exploration of betrayal and healing, the son of a Connecticut socialite comes to terms with his abuse at the hands of a beloved priest.

 

 

 

This chilling satire follows one teenager’s efforts to escape from the reality TV franchise financially supporting her large family.

The author of Endangered (2012) introduces another primate species, offering a poignant demonstration of connection between chimpanzees and humans.

 

Because of the varied audience, the questions for the authors were also varied, but a theme in the answers to these varied questions quickly revealed itself. Each book discussed tonight was inspired in part by something really happening in the world and each book connects it to the inner-lives of children. And in each case, it is an organic connection. Why? Because kids think about the world. They think about the ways in which they might move in the world and they think about the ultimate impact they may one day be able to have on the world. Kids think about themselves outside of themselves if that makes sense. They think about the larger world and consider their place in it. And each book, in its own way, engaged that and also explains why so many adults read literature for children. For that opportunity to think outside one's self, to consider something more than the routine we have built for ourselves, to remember when everything still lay ahead and we were not yet on a certain track and that every adventure seemed possible and real. My goodness, do I love children's books.

Stacey

September Ends: A Beautiful Little Story About a Novel Collaboration

Today, I'm very happy to have as a Guest Blogger one of the inaugural members of EditingGenius, Hunter S. Jones, the author of September Ends. She writes today about writing through struggle. Hers is a fascinating story. 

Thank you very much for having me as your guest this week. Like most people, my story is mainly the story of finding and making your way. I have been involved in corporate America for years building a very busy and successful sales career. When you are that busy reading becomes a luxury because you are constantly dealing with contracts and paperwork. Pity isn’t it? To get so caught up in the world that your own passions are pushed aside. Writing was something that only happened when I traveled or attended an event. Oftentimes, someone would want to publish a quick story about fashion or the global interest in the US, from a native Southerners perspective.

One Saturday my entire life changed. It’s true what you hear – your life can change in a heartbeat.  In the middle of running errands and doing everyday things, I decided to take a short break and sit down. Next thing you know, the phone is ringing. I’m off the sofa at my usual pace of 0-60 in 1.3 seconds. Only this time, it didn’t happen. Somehow the back of my foot was caught underneath the tiny opening between the sofa and the floor. My Achilles tendon was completely severed. Ruptured to the point of needing surgical repair. 

In that millisecond, I went from being an extroverted, outgoing active person to being an exile in my own home. I even required assistance to return to the doctor’s office. 

So, what to do? Sit around, get depressed and drink beer? No, that’s just not me. I decided to write. I could turn on the computer and connect via social media to anywhere on earth. My always vivid imagination could run full tilt, even if I could not. And write I have. I became involved with an online writer’s group called ASMSG. From there, I have become involved with some of the hottest indie authors on the market. Somehow, Dean Walker, the creator of ExpatsPost.com, and I connected. (Funny thing, he is originally from Atlanta and now resides in California.) I have connected with wonderful, creative people from around the globe, only this time it’s from a computer not face to face. Time can change all that. We’ll see what happens on this journey as it unfolds.

Another person I stumbled across, pun intended, is the anonymous English poet who aided and co-wrote September Ends. Here is the beautiful backstory of our novel collaboration, which began with an email sent from Peachtree Street, in the heart of Atlanta —

HE: You’ll need a creative project to get you through the next few months. Why don’t you write another novella?

ME: Why don’t you write one with me? What do you think about this? What if you write the poems and I write the prose?

With those emails a novel was born. September Ends is contemporary fiction, with romance, erotic and  by poetry. It reveals the intricate web of passion and desire entangling Liz Snow, Pete Hendrix and Jack O. Savage. The story is told through Liz Snow’s diary, Jack O. Savage’s poetry, and letters sent across the Atlantic. It is a novel with a message.

supernatural elements, bound

The novel is a collaboration between an anonymous English poet, a “Northerner” as the English call them, now living in London, and me, a native Tennessean, now happily entrenched in Atlanta on Peachtree Street. We met through an online writers’ group and found that, not only did we share an enthusiasm for the new wave of indie authors and publications, but we also share a passion for English and American Literature. We both feel very strongly that words can be an art form.

His email came the day I learned that my mother was terminally ill with cancer. My response led to two months of back and forth emails and negotiation. I guess you could call it negotiations. He says now that he didn’t want to collaborate. I thought ‘no’ was merely a delay tactic until he found out more about how the novel would develop.

He wanted to know who the main character would be. That was around 9:00pm Eastern Time. By the time he checked his email the next morning in London, I had a four-page character analysis of Elizabeth October Snow of Atlanta, Georgia, originally from LaFayette, Georgia. What about the other characters? I developed Peter William Hendrix III of Chattanooga, Tennessee. What if they meet through a famous poet? An Englishman? What if…how about…Jack O. Savage, he said? I didn’t even need to think about developing his character because by that point The Story had found us.

My collaborator had never visited the American Southeast. How could he understand the lushness of our countryside in the summer? The sound of the bugs and crickets at night? The lull of interstate traffic that is a constant background hum? I recorded them for him! At night I stood outside capturing the sound of crickets and tree frogs from the farm in Tennessee. After a rainstorm, I visited my family’s cave and recorded the rush of the waterfall capped off with the lone cry of a mourning dove, which the Cherokees called a Rain Crow. I recorded the birds singing in the rain and I took pictures of our trees, flowers…anything that would assist him in the experience of the Southeast.

Three main personalities presented themselves to us and these characters began to tell us the story. We developed the synopsis. It’s funny how the original storyline is almost nothing like the novel we plotted! My collaborator wrote the poetry as the ‘spine’ of September Ends. From there, I started writing the words to weave the characters around the plot. 

I visited the Margaret Mitchell house in Atlanta and literally begged her spirit, if it was still there, to give me some type of guidance, something unique that would be as different and of ‘the now’ as the poetry/prose collaboration. The question was also the answer. To make the novel a bit of today’s world, the story is told in the different methods in which we communicate as well as having a message which is relevant to today’s world. Diary entries, blogs, and emails comprise a great part of September Ends, although most of the story is told in a traditional novel format.

I wrote Part-1 with each chapter as a short story, in case my collaborator wished to remove one. That way we wouldn’t have to re-write an entire section. By Part-2, we were both sharing ideas. By the time we reached Part-3, we were writing practically the same thing. The Muse found us in a major way. Now I understand how musicians or actors feel when they receive a buzz of the creative. In our case, we received a story.

Sadly, my mother lost her battle with cancer and died before she could see the success for September Ends. She knew about the book because I wrote it on our farm in Tennessee while I took care of her as her disease progressed. She called September Ends my lifeboat during her turbulent seas. The poet and I dedicated the book to her and her courageous battle. She did live long enough to know that the book had been published. For that, I am very thankful. 

Me? I’m back on my feet. Shaken and stirred. But, for the first time in my life, I can create and experience A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” 

the life of an artist. As Dickens said in

With that, I will close. Thank you again for having me as your guest. Thank you to everyone who supports me by reading and recommending my work and even those who do not, because you took the time to try. Life is bittersweet. The art is in discovering the beauty to be found in the pain. May we all see brighter days and dream bigger dreams.

~~ Hunter S. Jones