Publications: General Interest

One thing about writing books is that it takes a long time. At the beginning, you can't even imagine you'll finish, especially if your book project is competing with your livelihood; especially if you can only carve out a few hours each week to write your book. Especially if you feel just a little constrained by 21 years in the book trade, living amidst the thousands upon thousands of books published each year. Don't most of us in the biz have a novel in our back pockets? Isn't it best to keep any literary aspirations to ourselves, well-closeted? At least until you have some sense you may, in fact, finish your book? At least until you feel like what you've written might be decent enough to share, to be read by independent booksellers, the best arbiters of good taste you know?

In May, 2004, my first book for general readers was published by Commonwealth Editions, an independent press just outside Boston. Cottage for Sale, Must be Moved: A Woman Moves a House to Make a Home is a quirky memoir that tells the story of one year of my life-a year in which I moved a tiny cottage and attached it to my three-room house. Independent booksellers honored the book, selecting it last May it as the #2 Book Sense Pick. Then, Book-of-the-Month Club judge Anna Quindlen went on record to say "I loved Cottage for Sale," naming it "Memoir-of-the-Month" in Book-of-the-Month Club News. Other noteworthy lists honoring Cottage for Sale : USA Today "Cool Summer Reads, Yankee Magazine "Summer Reading Picks" and the Wall Street Journal "Books for Holiday Giving." The paperback edition of Cottage for Sale will be released in May, 2005 from Ballantine Books, a division of Random House.

The odd thing is, this wasn't the book that I'd been carrying in that back pocket of mine. That one's a novel, The Memory of Laughter. You can read more about it if you follow the link.

Another thing about writing books is that when you're almost through your first one, you begin to think about writing more. A project that takes two or three or seven or eight years is somehow no longer so intimidating. I find I have a few other books backed up in the creative traffic. I'm not sure when I'll get to those, but I'll keep you posted. Visit www.katewhouley.com for the latest book news.

Kate Whouley is represented by:

Julia Lord Literary Management
38 W. Ninth Street
NY, NY 10011