Publishing A Great American Novel
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I completed my second novel (Einstein's Fiddle) several years ago and have been looking for an agent to represent it ever since. A number of agents liked the writing very much but decided not to pick up my book. Agents have to "believe in" a book, and most need to have visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads in order to represent the work. That makes a certain amount of sense since it is their livelihood, after all.
As of this moment, a biased friend or two and I are the only ones who believe in this literary novel of mine, and I have decided to self-publish.
My writing name is W.A. Smith, but my friends call me Bill. There are some childhood friends who call me Smitty. I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, attended schools in Charleston, and graduated from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I received my M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. My work has appeared in a variety of literary venues including Aura, Berkeley Fiction Review, Cimarron Review, Crucible, Five Fingers Review, New England Review, and Algonquin Books’ New Stories From the South, The Year’s Best, edited by Shannon Ravenel.
My first novel, A History of the World, and a collection of stories, His Last Nine Words, are available on Amazon. I live in New Jersey with my wife, Suzy, and two of our kids who are still at home. Two daughters are off at college. We have a great dog, Brutus, and a slightly demented cat, Violet.
I hope you will help me raise the funds necessary to have the book published. The cost includes interior and cover design, as well as the eBook/Kindle version, and some limited marketing tools.
Go here to see my "Author's Page" on Amazon.
Spoiler-less Synopsis of Einstein's Fiddle:
Einstein’s Fiddle is a contemporary literary novel that tells the story of Davy Calhoun, a man who, when we first meet him, has made a terrible mistake, done an unforgivable thing. A month before the birth of his son, Davy learned from his mother who his real father was, and the secret that had been kept from him all his life is a revelation that reduces all he has known and believed to a lie -- transforming Davy in an instant from a man of hope, vision and expectation to despairing and destructive man who is certain that he deserves nothing, and no one, to love and hope for. The non-linear narrative – by turns realistic, lyrical, magical – focuses on Davy’s fall, dishonor and redemption.
What kind of man leaves the infant son he loves on a stranger’s doorstep in a strange town and drives away?
With its present set in the summer of 1985 and its past reaching from 1950 to 1974, Einstein's Fiddle is a dramatic examination of Davy Calhoun's journey from home to the far country and back. The language and landscape of the novel vary between the existential and familial, tragic and comic, as the narrative moves forward and back in time.
The book's first section, The Road to Damascus, exposes some of Davy's passage to lostness – his fatherlessness growing up, thwarted dreams, denial and descent. Davy’s past – his early days in Charlottesville, Virginia, his college years, his first true love, and the two friends who know and love him best – counterpoints his inebriated self-absorbed flight from his wife in the present.
Home Fries poignantly and playfully depicts Davy's relationship with his wife, Molly, through her eyes. Moving back and forth between the present and the summer of 1974, when they first met in Washington, D.C., the second section of the novel is Molly’s chronicle – from bright, beautiful beginning to unraveling.
New Constellation, the final section of the book, picks up the story in the present through Davy's point of view again. Having run away from what he did to his family, he has landed on the streets of San Francisco. The characters he meets here, especially Sheila – a brilliant, tender and inspiring former theoretical physicist who has chosen to live on the street – change him and his life’s trajectory forever. In San Francisco these people, and two others from his past, play remarkable parts in teaching Davy that love, abundant life and forgiveness are not only a possibility, but also an instruction and a promise.
As of this moment, a biased friend or two and I are the only ones who believe in this literary novel of mine, and I have decided to self-publish.
My writing name is W.A. Smith, but my friends call me Bill. There are some childhood friends who call me Smitty. I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, attended schools in Charleston, and graduated from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I received my M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. My work has appeared in a variety of literary venues including Aura, Berkeley Fiction Review, Cimarron Review, Crucible, Five Fingers Review, New England Review, and Algonquin Books’ New Stories From the South, The Year’s Best, edited by Shannon Ravenel.
My first novel, A History of the World, and a collection of stories, His Last Nine Words, are available on Amazon. I live in New Jersey with my wife, Suzy, and two of our kids who are still at home. Two daughters are off at college. We have a great dog, Brutus, and a slightly demented cat, Violet.
I hope you will help me raise the funds necessary to have the book published. The cost includes interior and cover design, as well as the eBook/Kindle version, and some limited marketing tools.
Go here to see my "Author's Page" on Amazon.
Spoiler-less Synopsis of Einstein's Fiddle:
Einstein’s Fiddle is a contemporary literary novel that tells the story of Davy Calhoun, a man who, when we first meet him, has made a terrible mistake, done an unforgivable thing. A month before the birth of his son, Davy learned from his mother who his real father was, and the secret that had been kept from him all his life is a revelation that reduces all he has known and believed to a lie -- transforming Davy in an instant from a man of hope, vision and expectation to despairing and destructive man who is certain that he deserves nothing, and no one, to love and hope for. The non-linear narrative – by turns realistic, lyrical, magical – focuses on Davy’s fall, dishonor and redemption.
What kind of man leaves the infant son he loves on a stranger’s doorstep in a strange town and drives away?
With its present set in the summer of 1985 and its past reaching from 1950 to 1974, Einstein's Fiddle is a dramatic examination of Davy Calhoun's journey from home to the far country and back. The language and landscape of the novel vary between the existential and familial, tragic and comic, as the narrative moves forward and back in time.
The book's first section, The Road to Damascus, exposes some of Davy's passage to lostness – his fatherlessness growing up, thwarted dreams, denial and descent. Davy’s past – his early days in Charlottesville, Virginia, his college years, his first true love, and the two friends who know and love him best – counterpoints his inebriated self-absorbed flight from his wife in the present.
Home Fries poignantly and playfully depicts Davy's relationship with his wife, Molly, through her eyes. Moving back and forth between the present and the summer of 1974, when they first met in Washington, D.C., the second section of the novel is Molly’s chronicle – from bright, beautiful beginning to unraveling.
New Constellation, the final section of the book, picks up the story in the present through Davy's point of view again. Having run away from what he did to his family, he has landed on the streets of San Francisco. The characters he meets here, especially Sheila – a brilliant, tender and inspiring former theoretical physicist who has chosen to live on the street – change him and his life’s trajectory forever. In San Francisco these people, and two others from his past, play remarkable parts in teaching Davy that love, abundant life and forgiveness are not only a possibility, but also an instruction and a promise.
Organizer
William Atmar Smith
Organizer
Shrewsbury, NJ
