From the Frying Pan Into the Fire

The day finally has arrived that I go to New York City to hone the pitch for my thriller, The Nubian Codex, and deliver it to four editors at the Algonkian Pitch Conference. I've been to only one other non-journalism writer's conference last July at Madison, Wis., and it was a great experience. I would like to have returned, but the organizers thought it would be best moved to the spring. As luck would have it, it's this weekend, too. Making matters worse, there's one agent in particular I would have liked to have met. Still, I think the pitch conference is the next step on my journey toward having my book published

We had to write a pitch as a pre-assignment for the conference. It will be interesting to see how it will change over the next several days. I'm not too nervous. I've had half the book professionally edited by Ray Begovich, a former professor at Ball State University who now teaches at Franklin College. He said, "This is a good read that will appeal to an educated audience. I see screenplay potential here as well -- it's quite cinematic in many respects." I'm glad to hear that since that's precisely what I was going for.

My husband Jeff Brailey just returned from the Pike's Peak Writer's Conference in Colorado. It was his first, and he, too, found it very inspiring. I guess we're just on a writing binge right now.

A Novel Idea

I'm in my 11th month of writing my first book, a thriller, The Nubian Codex. Actually, I've been writing about seven months (took a little hiatus at the end of the year). I don't know how I got started on it. I've been a journalist for 20 years and chose that career in preparation for writing a novel. I also always figured I'd start writing it at about this time in my life. I wasn't inspired by anything in particular. I'd had false starts - or maybe not -- on a chick lit book and a young adult book. None of these, including the thriller, are anything I read or would really be interested in writing. But I'm nothing if not practical. I firmly believe there is no sense in writing anything that won't be read. And I also believe there's a way to accommodate my needs as a writer within the market's need.

So one night last May, I was watching a program on the National Geographic Channel. It was either on ancient Mesoamerica or ancient Egypt (I've slept since then). I'm leaning toward Mesoamerica, though, because the thought that crossed my mind was one that had occurred to me many times before: there are a lot of similarities between Mesoamerican and ancient Egyptian cultures. I thought it would be interesting to explore that in a book. But what type? Well, thrillers were awfully popular. And that genre relieved me of trying to develop a plot complication. Murder, after all, is the ultimate complication.

Though I'd determined I would start on this ambitious project, I had nothing. I knew little about the processes of archaeology, the mechanics of comparative linguistics or even the country I was destined to highlight. But that's what the Internet is for. And that's part of the importance my background as a journalist plays.

My first task was to find out whether anyone else had ever had mulled over this possibility. Surely, I thought, I was not THAT original. The result was mixed. I found They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Rutgers University linguist and anthropologist Ivan van Sertima. I also found a great body of linguistic work by Dr. Clyde Winters that picks up where van Sertima left off. Sure, there are other sites that address some of these issues, but the reality is that these two men are the only ones who have made any significant contributions to the development of this idea over the last three decades. Still, I am extremely grateful because there is no way I could have constructed my tale without the background compiled especially by van Sertima.

However, my research has taken me far beyond the obvious. I've researched curanderas or witches of the Tuxtla region in Veracruz, the intricacies of Mesoamerican codices and ancient Egyptian papyruses, and the MS-13 gang. I've explored the backgrounds of my characters, investigated the the architecture, foods and cultures of Mexico and spent hours weaving it into the dialogue.

I'm about 80 percent done with the project and will be off to New York later this week to see whether I can persuade an editor to take a look at it. The first half of the manuscript has been professionally edited. I figure I can finish up in the next two months. I'm also starting to spend time developing marketing plans and databases. I want to be ready to hit the ground running.

Andy's Road to Idoldom

This has been an incredibly busy -- and exciting -- time. We learned late last month that my nephew Andrew was accepted to American Idol Camp. Andrew is a Level 3 student at the Russian Ballet Academy of Indiana. He's been sort of a standout since starting at the former Ballet Internationale's Clara Noyes Academy. Within his first month there, I was told by the principal that he could have a career in dance if he kept up with the training. That first year, he managed to earn the lead role of Sancho in the school's production of Don Quixote.

The whole thing with Andrew has been really wild! I was just signing up my kid to go to summer camp, but all this has really snowballed. I happened to be trolling about on the Idol web site, looking at bios, when I saw a banner ad for the camp. I opened it and was taken to an awesome web site. Because Andrew wants to be a triple threat (singer, actor, dancer) on Broadway, I thought this would be an ideal opportunity.

I called Andrew to help write the application -- after all, I didn't know what his favorite song, movie or musical was. Of course, he was going to answer with just West Side Story. I've been trying to teach the boys to write things in threes, so I told him he had to share three reasons why it was his favorite musical.

The extra work paid off. A couple of weeks later, I received a call from an American Idol producer who said the admissions folks were really impressed with Andrew's application and wondered whether we'd mind if he were featured on The Today Show. WOULD WE MIND??? A week later, the Today crew descended on our home, and the segment aired on April 4. I hear scenes from Andrew's segment also were included in another segment where other children were featured. Today also plans to follow up when Andrew goes to camp in July.