Leissa Shahrak's Blog

I've been very busy introducing my novel, Half the World, to friends, local publications, and later this week, to bookstores. It's exciting, sometimes a little exhausting too, but the good kind of exhaustion. Last week I hosted my second pre-launch book party, this one primarily for members of the Happy Bookers book club. (Don't you love that name?) I also read and reviewed another book soon to be published. This week I'll be giving a Zoom reading sponsored by my publisher, Atmosphere Press, hosting a Zoom launch day virtual party for friends outside of Asheville, and hosting a party at home for readers, fiction writers, and poets. I've also managed to obtain a spot in three local publications. Now, I get to do one of my most dreaded tasks, clean my desk before I contract typhoid. Will I ever have time to write again?

For years, I've been in writing groups and gone to writers' retreats such as the Sewanee Writers' Conference and the Kenyon Writers' Workshop. In general, the feedback you are given includes a couple of watered-down compliments followed by robust suggestions for improvement. That's pretty much the way it works for all who attend, particularly in juried workshops like the ones I just mentioned--which means that one must have thick skin, consider each comment carefully before making changes, and remember that many comments are subjective, just as reading is often a matter of personal taste.

So I have to tell you that when one does get a complimentary review, one is stunned and hopes that it is sincere. Here is one I received recently from one reader with an advance copy::

“In Half the World, Leissa Shahrak has crafted a novel that, for the first time, portrays the Iranian revolution on a personal level. Her fast-paced story features well-drawn characters torn with indecision--should they stay, or should they go--at a time when trust and friendship are challenged in the struggle to survive.”

– Lawrence G. Potter, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.

For years, I've been in writing groups and gone to writers' retreats such as the Sewanee Writers' Conference and the Kenyon Writers' Workshop. In general, the feedback you are given includes a couple of watered-down compliments followed by robust suggestions for improvement. That's pretty much the way it works for all who attend, particularly in juried workshops like the ones I just mentioned--which means that one must have thick skin, consider each comment carefully before making changes, and remember that many comments are subjective, just as reading is often a matter of personal taste.

So I have to tell you that when one does get a complimentary review, one is stunned and hopes that it is sincere. Here is one I received recently from one reader with an advance copy::

“In Half the World, Leissa Shahrak has crafted a novel that, for the first time, portrays the Iranian revolution on a personal level. Her fast-paced story features well-drawn characters torn with indecision--should they stay, or should they go--at a time when trust and friendship are challenged in the struggle to survive.”

– Lawrence G. Potter, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.

Do you remember the old drugstore swivelling book racks with the dime novels? Maybe that's why book covers matter to me. I will not buy a book with a cover that I do not like. To me, it's part of the aesthetic experience of reading a novel. In fact, I would go all the way and produce a complete Baudelairian experience if I could, that is, coordinate all five senses on the cover.

Half the World's cover does incorporate suggestions of sound and smell in addition to the visual. There may even be a hint of taste, and the tactile sense occurs when the reader holds the book himself. It's a nice feeling. I like my book's cover. I hope you will, too.