The 3:00 a.m. Club
I'm only a part-time member of the 3:00 a.m. club, those restless sleepers who find themselves awake, brains buzzing with anxiety, ideas, or lists in the darkest hours of the night, but last night I was up and writing and wondering what the other members of the club were doing out in their dark and private spaces. It's strange to sit alone at the keyboard, imagining other writers doing the same while the world around us is sleeping.
This is supposed to be the honeymoon time--those lovely moments when the book is finally written and beginning to appear in stores and the writer can sit back and enjoy a sense of accomplishment before reviews start coming out--some inevitably unkind--and the pleasure becomes bittersweet. But the experience is different from that of bringing out my seven works of fiction. This story is real and everywhere I go, I seem to meet someone who has a connection to the book.
I find myself holding my breath when the phone rings, uneasy when I log on to check my e-mail. What will people be saying? How will they react to the book?
Writing Finding Amy was a huge challenge for me. As a fiction writer, I'm used to being almost entirely in control of character and story (although, like most writers, I do have characters to take on lives of their own). It isn't like that with writing the real. I'm tied to what actually happened in the case--people, places, timelines and facts--yet still challenged to find a way to organize the material and write about it that will make it interesting reading. In this case, the facts themselves and the way the evidence and characters emerged allowed me to create a natural tension and story-line as dramatic as any fiction.
Because increasingly publishers are pushing the job of promotion onto writers, lately I've spent a lot of the time I'd like to use to create new stories sitting at my desk, trying to imagine what I could write or say that might get someone to pick up the book and read it. One day I was heading into Cambridge, Ma to meet my husband and my son for dinner. On the drive in, an idea hit me. The instant I was inside Legal Sea Foods, I pulled out the notebook we writers always carry and jotted this down:
Imagine a mother so close to her twenty-five year old daughter that they talk on the phone almost daily, and then one day...the phone stops ringing.
Imagine a homicide detective getting a phone call at home, telling him that a 25-year-old woman named Amy is missing and asking if he can help, when at the time, his own daughter is 25, and named Amy....
Imagine eight weeks of searching by police and her family, tromping through woodlands, walking beaches, looking under piers and wharves, searching dumpters and abandoned buildings, railroad rights of way, culverts and storm drains, with winter coming on.
Then imagine...Finding Amy
This is supposed to be the honeymoon time--those lovely moments when the book is finally written and beginning to appear in stores and the writer can sit back and enjoy a sense of accomplishment before reviews start coming out--some inevitably unkind--and the pleasure becomes bittersweet. But the experience is different from that of bringing out my seven works of fiction. This story is real and everywhere I go, I seem to meet someone who has a connection to the book.
I find myself holding my breath when the phone rings, uneasy when I log on to check my e-mail. What will people be saying? How will they react to the book?
Writing Finding Amy was a huge challenge for me. As a fiction writer, I'm used to being almost entirely in control of character and story (although, like most writers, I do have characters to take on lives of their own). It isn't like that with writing the real. I'm tied to what actually happened in the case--people, places, timelines and facts--yet still challenged to find a way to organize the material and write about it that will make it interesting reading. In this case, the facts themselves and the way the evidence and characters emerged allowed me to create a natural tension and story-line as dramatic as any fiction.
Because increasingly publishers are pushing the job of promotion onto writers, lately I've spent a lot of the time I'd like to use to create new stories sitting at my desk, trying to imagine what I could write or say that might get someone to pick up the book and read it. One day I was heading into Cambridge, Ma to meet my husband and my son for dinner. On the drive in, an idea hit me. The instant I was inside Legal Sea Foods, I pulled out the notebook we writers always carry and jotted this down:
Imagine a mother so close to her twenty-five year old daughter that they talk on the phone almost daily, and then one day...the phone stops ringing.
Imagine a homicide detective getting a phone call at home, telling him that a 25-year-old woman named Amy is missing and asking if he can help, when at the time, his own daughter is 25, and named Amy....
Imagine eight weeks of searching by police and her family, tromping through woodlands, walking beaches, looking under piers and wharves, searching dumpters and abandoned buildings, railroad rights of way, culverts and storm drains, with winter coming on.
Then imagine...Finding Amy
posted by Old Fogey at 5:39 AM
6 Comments:
I finished reading Finding Amy in three days. It is wonderful, poerful, deeply moving book. I'm not a big fan of real life crime stories but this one just grabbed me and didn't let go.
You have nothing to worry about. You have written a wonderful book.
Thanks.
Written with love and tenderness. Read it in one night and will read it over again. Hope you like my poem.
God Bless
Victoria
God Bless Amy's mom Diane, her sister Julie and their family these coming Holidays. My prayers are with you. You are also in my thoughts. Love Victoria Mathies-10-24-06
I read FINDING AMY in about 2 days. It is moving, gripping and I could not put it down. I plan to give it to a friend of mine who has a twenty-year-old daughter in college. She's not very aware of what can happen to her. He told me that she wanted to walk somewhere in Philadelphia after 10 pm and he insisted she take a bus. He put her on one himself. I think your book should be required reading at all freshmen orientation courses in colleges and universities, and even in high schools. Best wishes on having completed such a great work. My deepest condolences to Amy's friends and family.
I was on vaction when I decided I needed to find a book to read. I went through a book store on the island of St. Thomas, I had glaced at Finding Amy, and kept walking through the book store...and something pulled me back to that book. As I started to read the book back at the beach I realized it was Amy's spirit pulling me back to read her story. It was compelling, interesting, very inspiring and I could feel Amy's spirit through out the book. The book gave me a good sense of what happens when something like this occurs, the hard work involved. God bless all those who were involved! May Amy's spirit shine on us all and guide us to be as warm and loving as she was.
Myself and my family have found our selves living in the same predicaments as the St. Laurent family. My order sister went missing a year ago, her body found in a shallow grave over a month later. We are now waiting as detectives and lawyers work hand in hand to convict the murderer. I found this book to be unbelievably real and am using it as a sort of reference as to what my family has left to live through. I am writing this in hopes to make some sort of connection to the St. Laurent family, to not only shares stories but to keep strength. Please if anyone has any contact information I would greatly appreciate it. Please E-mail me at katie_gorham@hotmail.com.
Thank you
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