First of all, let’s talk about me and this book. I didn’t plan on writing a second book with Tally and Linc. For a long while, into the fall of last year after This Much Is True’s release–I felt fine about where their story had ended. The book was long. Readers got their trilogy all in one book. What a generous soul I am, right?
Then, between the readers asking for more time with Tally and Linc and a writer friend who suggested that expanding that world might be good thing and told me ‘everybody who was anybody was writing a series’ and then along with an epiphany one day about what might work for a storyline, I started writing The Truth About Air & Water.
Side dose of awesomeness…
The title for The Truth About Air & Water came to me after sifting through about twenty others; and I did not even get the water reference that Linc made in This Much Is True until I was going back through that first book one day.
Here.
Page 289 of This Much Is True
The ending is coming. I can feel it. I don’t know if I can take it this time. But then again, I say that every time and yet, every time I take it. And, I come back to her again for more. I will take whatever time I can get with her. I will do that for a lifetime. I will. I know that much about myself. She is my water. I can never get enough of her, and it appears that I will die trying to love her, to keep her, to hold her with me, even though our time together seems to evaporate so swiftly. It slips through our fingers so damn fast that we don’t even have time to savor it when we’re together.
Cosmic.
It’s real; I tell you. That’s how the writing process works sometimes on a subconscious level like that.
Aliens (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Anyway, The Truth About Air & Water was hard to write because it’s me we’re talking about here. Me. Miss Angst herself. I still questioned my process. The writer friend who had been encouraging also busted me for a lack of structure with the storyline and had me looking at all kinds of books on writing as well as films like Aliens and Notting Hill to improve THAT about me and my writerly ways .
Notting Hill (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
And you’re thinking what the hell do those two films have in common? Well, you would be surprised to learn it’s all related to structure.
Okay, I digress. Sorry.
So. This book was hard to write. Took for-ev-uh. A year. A year since I released This Much Is True.
It really all started coming together in the past two months from getting it down on paper but in the end I finally had an ending I was good with and the story had structure and a black moment and a hero’s journey as well as a heroine’s and character arcs. Bonus!
English: This image outlines the basic path of the monomyth, or “Hero’s Journey”. Non copyrighted, free work. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)I
I know you probably don’t care about any of this stuff but it matters.
Just know that I was feeling a great deal of pressure to make this one BETTER than the last book, which seemed like an impossible feat. I thought about quitting altogether. Just give up writing and go get a real job that actually pays me to show up everyday and be a bitch on wheels in the corporate world again and sell data stuff like I used to. My old clients still call and email me out of the blue missing me. Yeah, I know.
Waitress (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
But I stuck with it because WRITING appears to be my fucking calling even when only my cat seems to understand that. And lo and behold, I made it through the fire (that’s the writing process) to the other side.
So.
On August 22nd…Was that Friday? My two #1 super fans reached out to me to ask how the book was coming along. I told one of them that I was 99.9% there and asked if she would like to read it. She was…overjoyed…which was fucking scary because now I’d really put myself out there.
And then, my other superfan in the UK was wanting to know if she could do a cover reveal on her blog when TTAWW was ready and I told her, “look it’s actually almost done; would you like to read it?”
I so wasn’t planning on beta readers for this one. I really felt exposed and out there emotionally letting two people on two different continents read The Truth About Air & Water. Not a digression here…. You would think I had it together by now. It’s my fifth book, but this one seemed four times as hard as the others and those were HARD.
I consoled myself with the worst case. They’d hate it and hopefully tell me what to do to fix it. That scenario happened LAST YEAR, so I was already semi-prepared for that particular unwelcome outcome.Just know, I published anyway, despite that particular beta reader’s aka super fan’s hatred of the book and the subsequent nuclear fallout that came with that when I asked for specifics. Because, sometimes, you have to take a stand, and go with your gut for your own work. True enough. you are the and you leave someone behind on the platform. (Separate post.)
Just know, I published This Much Is True anyway, despite that particular beta reader’s aka super fan’s hatred of the book and the subsequent nuclear fallout that came with that when I asked for specifics. Because, sometimes, you have to take a stand, and go with your gut for your own work. True enough. Sometimes, you are the only one on the train and you leave someone behind on the platform. (Separate post.)
What am I thinking right now? Hint: Linc, Tally’s favorite word. Mine too as The Truth About Air & Water attests to.
Even so. People’s generosity and time and encouragement is what a writer needs and those special gifts come in the form of praise and recognition and appreciation for the work come when a writer least expects it.
Gratitude.
Here’s what these two readers of my work said after reading The Truth About Water & Water…
THE REVIEWS, THE REVIEWS ARE TRICKLING IN…
“This is not just a novel, it should be looked at as a piece of art; there are so many layers to peel back. To just read this story would not do it justice, it needs to be appreciated for all the multi faceted layers and symbolism that made this story what it is; a literary masterpiece…”
Read the entire review at this link below…
Anne Morillo’s Reviews – Goodreads
“I am broken by it all. Why doesn’t everyone see that?”
Katherine Owen doesn’t write books. She takes words and welds them together to create an experience that will last a lifetime…”
Read the entire review at this link below…
Chelcie – Addicted Soul’s Reviews
Don’t get me wrong, I completely appreciate the fan-girling going on in the above reviews but what I love even more is that this book touched two people on two separate sides of the globe in such profound ways.
And, let me tell you, the view at the top of the mountain is fantastic.
Now, I know I have to climb down and there’s another peak up ahead with Dr. Johnnie McDaniel’s name on it and Eve Goodlight is just waiting for me to tell their love story with Saving Valentines; and Sam Wilde is still fresh in my mind and I KNOW he has a story to tell too; but right now? I am feeling mighty fine.
Let’s just say I am:
Justified and clarified.
After you read The Truth About Air & Water that little saying will all make sense.
So. why are you still here? Go read my book. The Truth About Air & Water.
BUY the novel at these fine online retailers listed below:
Apple iTunes
Look for trade paperback 6′ X 9′ soon!!!
It can be read as a standalone.
As Linc would say, “do what you must, Princess.”
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