My name is Andrew Joyce, and I write
books for a living. Ethan has been kind enough to allow me a little space on his
blog to promote my new book, MOLLY
LEE. The story is a female-driven account of a
young naive girl’s journey into an independent, strong woman and all the
trouble she gets into along the way.
Now you may possibly be asking
yourself, What is a guy doing writing in
a woman’s voice? And that’s a good question. I can only say that I did not
start out to write about Molly; she just came to me one day and asked that I
tell her story.
Perhaps I should start at the
beginning.
My
first book was a 164,000-word historical novel. And in the publishing world,
anything over 80,000 words for a first-time author is heresy. Or so I was told
time and time again when I approached an agent for representation. After two
years of research and writing, and a year of trying to secure the services of
an agent, I got angry. To be told that my efforts were meaningless was somewhat
demoralizing to say the least. I mean, those rejections were coming from people
who had never even read my book.
“So
you want an 80,000-word novel?” I said to no one in particular, unless you
count my dog, because he was the only one around at the time. Consequently, I
decided to show them City Slickers that
I could write an 80,000-word novel!
Less
than a month later, the chairman of one of the biggest agencies in New York
City emailed me that he loved the story. We signed a contract and it was off to
the races, or so I thought. But then the real fun began: the serious editing.
Seven months later, I gave birth to Huck and Tom as adults. And just for the
record, the final word count is 79,914. The book went on to reach #1 status on Amazon twice, and the rest,
as they say, is history.
But
not quite.
My
agent then wanted me to write a sequel, but I had other plans. I was in the
middle of editing down my first novel (that had been rejected by 1,876,324
agents . . . or so it seemed) from 164,000 words to the present 142,000.
However, he was insistent, so I started to think about it. Now, one thing you
have to understand is that I tied up all the loose ends at the end of REDEMPTION, so there was no way that I
could write a sequel. And that is when Molly asked me to tell her story. Molly was a character that we
met briefly in the first chapter of REDEMPTION,
and then she is not heard from again.
This
is the description from MOLLY LEE:
Molly is about to set off on the adventure
of a lifetime . . . of two lifetimes.
It’s
1861 and the Civil War has just started. Molly is an eighteen-year-old girl
living on her family’s farm in Virginia when two deserters from the Southern
Cause enter her life. One of them—a twenty-four-year-old Huck Finn—ends up
saving her virtue, if not her life.
Molly
is so enamored with Huck, she wants to run away with him. But Huck has other
plans and is gone the next morning before she awakens. Thus starts a sequence
of events that leads Molly into adventure after adventure; most of them not so
nice.
We
follow the travails of Molly Lee, starting when she is eighteen and ending when
she is fifty-six. Even then Life has one more surprise in store for her.
As
I had wondered whatever became of Huck and Tom, I also wondered what Molly did
when she found Huck gone.
I
know this has been a long-winded set up, but I felt I had to tell the backstory.
Now I can move on and tell you about Molly.
As stated earlier, Molly starts
out as a naive young girl. Over time she develops into a strong, independent
woman. The change is gradual. Her strengths come from the adversities she
encounters along the road that is her life.
With each setback, Molly
follows that first rule she set against self-pity and simply moves on to make
the best of whatever life throws her way. From working as a whore to owning a
saloon, from going to prison to running a ranch, Molly plays to win with the
cards she’s dealt. But she always keeps her humanity. She will kill to defend
herself, and she has no problem killing to protect the weak and preyed upon.
However, when a band of Indians (for instance) have been run off their land and
have nowhere else to go, Molly allows them to live on her ranch, and in time
they become extended family.
This is from a review on
Amazon:
“A
young female in nineteenth-century rural America would have needed courage,
fortitude, and firm resolve to thrive in the best of circumstances. Molly Lee
possesses all of these, along with an iron will and an inherent ability to read
people accurately and respond accordingly.”
I reckon that about sums up
Molly.
I would like to say that I
wrote MOLLY LEE in one sitting and everything in it is my pure genius. But that would be a lie.
I have three editors (two women and one guy). They kept me honest with regard
to Molly. When I made her a little too hard, they would point out that she had
to be softer or show more emotion in a particular scene.
I set out to write a book where
every chapter ended with a cliffhanger. I wanted the reader to be forced to
turn to the next chapter. And I pretty much accomplished that, but I also wrote
a few chapters where Molly and my readers could catch their collective breath.
One last thing: Everything in MOLLY LEE is
historically correct from the languages of the Indians to the descriptions of
the way people dressed, spoke, and lived. I spend as much time on research as I
do writing my stories. Sometimes more.
It looks as though I’ve used up
my allotted word count (self-imposed), so I reckon I’ll ride off into the
sunset and rustle up a little vodka and cranberry juice (with extra lime).
It’s been a pleasure. Thank you
for having me over.
Andrew
Great interview. I've read MOLLY LEE, and found it a page-turner. Traveling the trails with Molly et al was quite an adventure; actually, I was sad when the journey came to an end, but--oh, what an ending! (I'm not giving anything away, though.) Thanks for hosting this interview, Ethan.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it!
DeleteI did....enjoyed his insight into the publishing world, second to hearing how MOLLY LEE was born. Think I'll take a stroll around your blog now that I'm back here. :-)
DeletePlease do! There's lots to explore and I love getting feedback!
Delete