A Decent World

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Ellen Hawley

It’s time to announce a new novel.

(Sorry, did you want a regular post? Come back next week.)

A Decent World is the story of Summer Dawidowitz, who’s spent the past year caring for her grandmother, Josie — a lifelong Communist, a dedicated teacher, and the founder of an organization that tutors schoolchildren. When Josie dies, everything that seemed solid in Summer’s life comes into question. What sort of relationship will she have with the mother who abandoned her? Will she meet with Josie’s brother, who Josie exiled from the family? Does she really want to go back to the non-monogamous household she was part of before she moved in to take care of Josie? And finally, does she still believe a small, committed group of citizens can change the world, and if so, how?

A Decent World is about grief, family, and love. It asks the broadest of questions about the form of society we live in. It will be in UK bookstores from June 15 or can be ordered now, in the UK or abroad, from Waterstones, Swift Press, or–inevitably–those folks I work hard to avoid, Amazon.

Other People Manage

Posted on November 12, 2021 by Ellen Hawley

Other People Manage is a novel about the pain we carry and the love that gets us through the day. The publisher, Swift Press, describes is as “a powerful, moving, engrossing story of two women whose lives together start with an unexpected and terrible tragedy, and whose love for each other and their family endures the joys, disappointments and triumphs of life. This is that rare thing in the publishing world: an extraordinary book that was not bought for a six-figure advance in a twelve-way auction, but that will have a huge impact.”

It also happens to be mine, and although it’s not the first one I’ve published I’m incredibly excited about it. It will be available in April 2022, and (not that I’m trying to sell you anything, you understand) you can pre-order it from Waterstone’s. That’s a British bookstore, but it’s open minded enough to ship to other countries.

The reason I’m telling you about it now is that pre-orders can give a book a real boost and I’m shamelessly trying to do that for this one. I think (she said modestly) that it’s good, and I want to get it out into the world where people can find it.

You can find an early review here. And if you’re a reviewer yourself, you can get a copy from NetGalley. If you have any trouble with the link, let me know–I can get you in through the back door.

Next Friday, we’ll resume our regularly scheduled programming with a post about Britain. Or possibly the pandemic. In the meantime, thanks for you patience.

New Page Added

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Ellen Hawley

I just added an Obnoxious Self-Promotion Page to Notes. It’s titled “The Divorce Diet” and you’ll find it at the top, in the black bar under the photo of the Cornish coast. Even here, in this nearby yet tastefully promotion-free space where we’re speaking, you can hear its crass bass thump leaking through the walls.

But that’s the kind of thing you do when you have a novel coming out. You set all shame to one side and promote the hell out of it—anywhere, everywhere, and in just about any way you can. Does it make a difference? I haven’t a clue, and everything I’m hearing says that no one else has a clue either, but the book’s close to my heart and (sorry to be the one to say this, but I will anyway) I think it’s good, so to hell with manners. The page is up. Feel free to explore. Feel free to pre-order a few thousand copies, to review it online, and to tell 500 of your closest friends about it. Or feel free to ignore the whole shebang. It’s up to you.

After a while, you get used to the bass thump and it doesn’t bother you quite as much. Or you invest in earplugs or poison the neighbor who has the loud sound system. I’m a New Yorker. I know these things.

And while I’m promoting things, you can check out a beautifully written (and, ahem, favorable) review on The Zombies Ate My Brains.

Irrelevant Photo: Boscawen Un, an ancient stone circle

The Strange World of the Book Giveaway

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Ellen Hawley

Friends, I’m entering the weird world of the Book Giveaway, which is a small and theoretically habitable planet in the Book Promotion system. Here’s how I got there:

I have a novel, The Divorce Diet, coming out on December 30, and the publisher just sent me a box of advance reader copies, also called uncorrected proofs. I know they’re uncorrected because the bio shaves twenty years off the time I lived in Minnesota.

Having gloated over them for as long as I decently can, I’m ready to offer one to half a dozen people who promise to post a review online somewhere—preferably on a site people actually read. Goodreads or BookLikes accept early reviews (or so I’m told); Amazon and Barnes & Noble (again, I’m told) don’t accept reviews until a book’s been published, but if you’re more organized than I am you can wait and post it on New Year’s Eve. Early on New Year’s Eve, before you get too happy. Hey, do I know how to celebrate or what? If you have a blog yourself and want to review it there, that would also be great. It doesn’t even have to be a good review, just an honest one. Of course I want everyone everywhere to fall in love with the book, but that’s one of the many things I can’t control. I’ll be grateful for any visibility you can give it.

So here’s what you do if you want one: Before October 5, send me your email address as a comment. I won’t publish it, just set it aside, so that if you win I can contact you to ask for your mailing address. If more than half a dozen people want one, I’ll use the high-tech approach and toss the names into a hat.

The publisher also sent me a stack of covers and I have no idea what to do with them. Anyone want to dozen or more? They’d make the perfect placemats for, I don’t know, a divorce party or something.

Blog Hop

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Ellen Hawley

I should start by telling you what a blog hop is, because I didn’t have a clue when I said I’d be part of this one. It’s a series of bloggers linking to each other and, in this particular one, answering a series of questions about their current or forthcoming novels. The common thread here is that we’re all published by Kensington. Not that I’m, ahem, trying to promote my novel or anything, although it will, she said with great subtlety, be out in January.

Sabine Priestley

Last week, in her blog, Sabine Priestley wrote about her book, Alien Attachments. Sabine grew up in Phoenix, but has lived in Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Texas, Massachusetts, and Florida. She has a B.S. in electrical engineering technologies and did everything but her thesis for a masters degree in cultural anthropology, looking at the nexus of culture and technology. She was a project manager, flying back and forth between Tucson and Boston when she met her very own alien. She spent a year running the Q.A. department for a seriously cool and underappreciated computer telephony system, then moved to California, where she ran a small tech support group for a company making DSL routers before anyone knew what DSL was. She is a lifelong fan of science fiction and romance novels, so Alien Attachments naturally gelled in her imagination. Sabine lives in Florida with her husband, kids, cats, and whole mess of characters in her head.

And that brings us to my part of the blog hop.

What is the name of your character?

Abigail.

Is she fictional or a historic person?

Definitely fictional, but everything that’s best about her was inspired by my friend Janneen Love, who got through a difficult breakup with grace, helped along by her love of cooking, her love for her daughter, and a whole lot of tea.

When and where is the story set?

In the United States, at this very moment.

What should we know about her?

Abigail’s an involuntarily single mother, advised by an invisible weight-loss guru. Yes, I know, but in the context, it makes perfect sense. In an out-there sort of way. She’s struggling to support her daughter and make enough money to move out of her parents’ house.

What is the main conflict?

Abigail’s most immediate conflicts are with her soon to be ex-husband and with her parents, who she loves and respects but who have a gift for turning her back into a teenager. But—never one to shy away from the impossible—her underlying conflict is with the way the world is organized: Her husband has kept their house, since she couldn’t afford to, while she and their baby are living in her childhood bedroom. He has a new girlfriend while she can’t call up the thinnest wisp of a thought about sex. He’s still going to work in a clean white shirt while she’s waiting tables, because even though she’s a gifted cook he wasn’t enthusiastic about her getting any formal training and she thought, Well, a woman has to sacrifice something if she wants a marriage to work. On top of which, if she’s very careful and saves every penny of her tips, she’ll be able to afford her own place in forty years. Maybe. She’d work up a theory about all that, but she’s too busy and she couldn’t afford the upkeep on it anyway.

What is the character’s personal goal?

To raise her child and make a living doing what she loves, cooking.

Is there a working title for this novel and can we read more about it?

It’s called The Divorce Diet, and it goes on sale in January 2015. Actually, December 30, 2014. I’m sure there’s a reason for that but I’m damned if I know what it is. I’ll have a link on the blog as soon as it’s available. Or you can watch the Kensington website and do your very own countdown.

Kristi Rose

Next stop on the blog hop: On Monday, September 22, head over to Kristi Rose’s blog to see what she’s working on.

Notes from the U.K.

Exploring the spidery corners of a culture and the weird stuff that tourist brochures ignore.

Tag Archives: fiction