Mollie McNeil’s A-Z of Publishing a First Book: B IS FOR BOOKS
B IS FOR BOOKS
I became passionate about reading at age eleven, shortly after my mother died, and books, particularly coming of age novels, became my solace and entertainment, as well as a source of information. While all my friends had mothers, I found plenty of orphaned or motherless girls in fiction and devoured novels such as in Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, Heidi or the Narnia series. As I grew older, I gobbled up characters like Pip, Tom Sawyer, and Heathcliff. I related especially to Scout as an intrepid tomboy rambling around her neighborhood.
As a teen, I identified both with Emma Woodhouse caring for her older father, and with fiercely independent Jane Eyre working as a nanny. I was never as angelic as Ester Summerson or as manipulative as Becky Sharp, or as flummoxed as Lily Bart, but I found all these coming-of-age stories of young women doing the best they could given real obstacles compelling and instructive. I cheered for their smart choices and fretted over their bad ones. I admired their wits, courage, resilience and audacity, and as I read on, I became quietly determined to see myself as the heroine of my life rather than a victim of misfortune.
What were your own favorite reads as a child or young adult and why were they of particular delight or importance to you? Which ones have you returned to time and again? Writers should read widely: the book club favorites and the classics, the award winners and guilty pleasures, and revisit the ones that kicked off your initial passion for reading. There is likely a hidden gem concerning character, voice, theme or setting that you could explore from a fresh angle.
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Mollie McNeil studied art history at the University of California, Berkeley, and English literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has published seven short stories. The Curve of Light is her debut novel. Mollie lives, writes, swims, and makes art in the San Francisco Bay Area, where her family has lived for six generations.
THE CURVE OF LIGHT
For fans of Kate Quinn and Kristin Hannah, a historical novel about a bold young woman who flees her rural home for San Francisco in 1919, bent on unearthing a guarded family secret—and who discovers what it means to be an artist along the way.
It’s 1919, and Arden Winslow’s family is thick with secrets—the kind that are kept from a young lady of a certain station. After her high-society birthday party goes off the rails, Arden, a newly minted adult and aspiring photographer, flees Marin County for San Francisco. She’s determined to find her own way in a world free of her family’s repressive expectations—and committed to learning the truth about the mysterious death of her mother, the accomplished artist India Winslow.
In San Francisco, Arden throws herself into city life—bonding with characters in a boarding house, sneaking her way into job at a posh art gallery, and stumbling into first love with a fellow photographer—all the while getting closer to unearthing the truth about her mother. Spanning the bustling streets of San Francisco, dramatic waterfalls of Yosemite, and ancient forests of Marin, The Curve of Light is a coming-of-age novel of adventure and activism with a clarion message: Home is where the artist’s heart is.
PREORDER HERE
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