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Letters From Alex
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How to Catch a Book Deal

Yes, I know lots of writers, but it’s not every day someone you see almost every day is publishing a novel. And that’s what’s happening now: Stuart Pennebaker, Gotham’s Director of Publishing Guidance, will release her debut novel Ghost Fish this August.

Since I know many of you would love to publish a book, I asked Stuart some questions to help us get some insight…

Is Ghost Fish your actual first novel?

No. I am a classic type A neurotic older sister and made myself start and finish a novel before I applied to MFA programs for creative writing. It’s a horrible little novel and nobody will ever read it.

What’s the elevator pitch for Ghost Fish?

It’s about a young woman haunted by her sister’s death who starts to believe that her sibling has returned to her in the form of a fish.


What gave you the idea for the story?

I wanted to write a novel focused on a restaurant, but then Alison, the protagonist, became so much more interesting to me than the setting. Once I realized she was running from something she needed to let go of, the story took shape quickly. She’s a host in a restaurant, that’s a big part of the plot, but throughout the first draft it became more about her relationship with her sister and the people she meets in her new city than her workplace.

Was it fun to write?

So much fun. I finished the first draft pretty quickly, in about a summer, most of it in a small, hot apartment in Marseille. I would write as much as I could stand in the mornings and then swim and read in the sun in the afternoons. All I did for about a month was think about this story—it was intense and heady and I’m very lucky I got to do that. Revising this novel, on the other hand…


Why do you think your novel was picked by both an agent and publishing house?

A combination of really good luck and writing something just weird enough. I am not the most talented writer I know by a long, long shot but I am obsessive about meeting deadlines and try very hard to be nice to people—I’ve worked in enough restaurants to understand that you can be the most brilliant, fabulous person in the world, but nobody wants to sit with an asshole. I think that helped, too.

xxx

If you hope to publish a novel, someday or soon, consider attending Gotham’s Fiction Conference, mostly on Zoom, October 4 and 5—which is run by Stuart Pennebaker.

Alex Steele
Gotham President

Letters From Kelly
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Let Yourself Off the (Big) Hook

Forbes magazine recently published its list of the 15 best opening lines in fiction, and I’m a sucker for these lists. I read them all. I text them to friends. I should probably be more discerning. But I’m not.

And yet. This one irked me. All 15 were the same openers everyone has named for the last, like, 40 years: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. Toni Morrison’s Paradise. (Usually, these lists choose the first line from Morrison’s Beloved, so this one did mix it up.Sort of.)

It’s not that I disagree. Gabriel García Márquez nailed it with his opening to One Hundred Years of Solitude. It’s just—there’ve been more recent great first lines, too. Poets & Writers magazine even features a sampling every issue in its Page One column. This month, they included the first line from Hala Alyan’s memoir I’ll Tell You When I’m Home: “I dreamt of a lyrebird once, before I knew it existed.”

But also, Gotham teacher Dalia Pagani recently made me more aware that the literary community tends to over-emphasize what she calls the Big Hook Opening. These are what my journalism colleagues would call grabber ledes. Something heart-stopping and dramatic, rendered in a vivid, preferably short sentence.

Most of the choices on the Forbes list would qualify as Big Hook Openings. As would some of the nonfiction perennial favorites, like Cheryl Strayed’s grabber lede to her essay “The Love of My Life:” The first time I cheated on my husband, my mother had been dead for exactly one week.”

The Big Hook Opening is terrific when you’re writing about death and adultery, or people turning into insects overnight as they sleep.

Dalia’s point, though, is that it’s hard for a story to live up to the promise of the Big Hook Opening. And more importantly, not every story is meant to. Some stories are about two friends out for a walk. A woman misses her dead mom and feeds apelican.

In “Fortunate Sons,” a recent story by Gotham teacher Cleve Lamison, a father and son walk to the roof of their apartment building. Something dramatic does happen, eventually, but mostly, it’s a father-son story. And it starts like one: “By the time we reached the 11th floor, my chest heaved like I was a drowning man chasing the surface.” A middle-aged man, regretting that he didn’t exercise more. His son teasing him for being out of shape.

If it sounds like so many conversations you’ve overheard in the farmer’s market or the subway, well, that’s probably intentional. Cleve’s story is a family story. It’s also about what happens when the father and son get to the roof. And why they’re taking the stairs. So starting in the stairwell, at the 11th floor, with a family moment, is the right approach, in the right place. It works.

In her essay “The Heart Is a Torn Muscle,” here’s Randon Billings Noble’s lede:

Overview

     Your heart was already full, but then you saw him and your heart

     beat code, not Morse but a more insistent pulse. Oh yes.That’s him.

     That one.

“Overview” indicates this is a hermit crab essay mimicking a Web M.D. entry. Then, the first sentence mimics a racing heart; the last three sentences mimic a regular heartbeat. Read it aloud. You’ll hear it. It’s the right lede, for that story.

Listen, Dalia and I aren’t coming out against Grabber Ledes/Big Hook Openings. I love that lede of Cheryl Strayed’s. I would never suggest Kafka open Metamorphosis in any other way.

I’m just saying, don’t reach for the Big Drama, if it doesn’t suit your story. Not every story should open the same. And you’re not the same as any other writer. When the right lede comes along, be open to it.

Kelly Caldwell

Dean of Faculty

Letters From Alex
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Magical Nights

Children’s picture books merge prose, poetry, and art into kind of magical paper movie starring whoever wants to be the performer. They serve as gateways to sleep but can be enchanting any time of day. 

If you’re interested in writing a picture book…

Gotham is offering a brand-new Picture Book Intensive, in two three-hour Zoom sessions, Saturdays August 9 and 16. If that timing doesn’t work for you or it fills up, just put yourself on the wait list and you’ll be notified when it’s offered again. And you can also work on picture books (as well as other kind of children’s books) in our Children’s Book Writing courses. 

A few of my favorite picture books: 

Hello Lighthouse (written and illustrated by Sophie Blackall) – We live alongside the keeper of a lighthouse, watching him tend the house and light. Time passes, seasons change, people are rescued, and the keeper finds a wife who gives birth to a child in the lighthouse. And we experience the mystery of nature and life. 

Last Stop on Market Street (written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson) – A boy rides a bus with this grandmother to reach a soup kitchen where they help out. The boy wishes they had a car and he’s not so thrilled where they’re going, but he discovers beauty in the most unlikely places. 

Officer Buckle and Gloria (written and illustrated by Peggy Rathmann) – A policeman makes regular visits to talk about safety in schools, but the audience is pretty bored until he starts coming with a police dog. Suddenly, his talks are hit—because the dog is doing all kinds of crazy things behind his back. 

These books are fiction, but picture books can also be nonfiction. Somewhat adjacent to pictures books are board books (simple concept books for the youngest kids) and easy readers (with limited vocabulary to ease kids into reading on their own). 

Picture books are mostly for ages 3 to 7, but you can keep reading them forever. 

It may seem like picture books are easy to write, but that’s far from true. It’s quite the challenge to create one good enough to get published, let alone enrapture kids you’ve never met. That’s why we’re here to help.

***

In other exciting news, Gotham is about to kick off its summer season in NYC’s Bryant Park, in their outdoor Reading Room. Every Thursday evening, starting July 10, we’ll be offering free 90-minute classes open to anyone who shows up. And this will be the first time we’ve offered our new Writer’s Mind course there. Check out the schedule to see what’s happening when. 

We hope to see some of you there!

Alex Steele

Gotham President