February 16th was Daughter of the White Rose‘s book birthday!
It’s my first historical novel — and actually, one of the first novels I ever wrote. When I completed the earliest version of the book, it
included flashbacks (now gone), a third-person narrator (now first-person), a prologue (gone, gone), a different title, and a different ending. Also, it was really pretty bad.
It took decades to whip the story into shape. As I revised it or let it languish on a hard drive, I had a
son — and he grew up. I moved twice. I lost both my parents. I found a fabulous agent. I had six other novels published. I despaired about getting this one published, and I figured out how to deal with the despair. I’m not suggesting that any writer should purposely take this long to publish a novel, but my experiences did, I think, enrich my writing, both directly and indirectly.
I love this book now, for so many reasons: its subject (Wars of the Roses! Imprisoned princes! a brave girl facing terrible danger!); the things it taught me about writing and revising; the opportunity it gave my husband at long last to say I told you so; the fact that it’s been a constant throughout my publishing life that I’ve returned to again and again, improving it, or so I hope, with each rewrite.
I’m excited to see how Daughter of the White Rose does out there in the world and how readers react to it. If you’d like to be one of those readers, you can buy copies here, or you can go to YA Books Central and try to win a copy in their giveaway (and also read an interview with me about the book). And please let me know if you liked it!
