Flitting. Random. Chaotic. Yet, relatable.
These are words that describe the second half of my manuscript. I’m looking for a quote to open that section, and there isn’t much in the way of positivity about those first three words!
I want to prepare new readers for this second jauntily meshed together section. “It’s all right. These essays don’t flow together. Take it easy – don’t look for a theme. Just take them as there are… independently written essays about random topics from life in North England.”
And that, my friend, is a huge leap of faith to ask the professor emeritus of writing to take as she embarks on reading my manuscript for the second time. The professor’s main over-arching idea in her response to my manuscript the first time she read it was that there was no over-arching organization allowing the general story to come to a designed conclusion or culmination of events.
Yup. That’s dead on.
I’m still hoping that a newly written preface explaining this bundle of essays, plus a reordering of the essays, will help this time around. I’m also looking for a quote for each section of my book, which is currently titled Cornfields & Codfish - Musings. For “Cornfields,” which includes reflective pieces about Iowa, I found this:
“To understand where you are going
you must understand where you come from.”
– Celtic Proverb
Yup. That’s dead on.
Then… there’s “Codfish.” Let’s just say that the organization of “Cornfields” - about life twenty years ago – flows better than those in “Codfish.” I have an idea why. We’re still living the stories of New England. They happen haphazardly one after another. They aren’t ready to be drawn into a straight line. There are too many holes in our narrative. Maybe in another twenty years, but not now.
This afternoon, I found a potential quote for “Codfish”:
“We live in a rainbow of chaos.”
- Paul Cezanne, French Post-Impressionist painter
Yup. That’s dead on.
(By the way, have you seen the cover photo for my book? Thanks to Iowa photographer Angie Carlson’s artistic eye for The Cover Photo!)