Peeking Between the Pages

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Guest Post with Stephanie Cowell, author of Claude & Camille & Giveaway of 5 copies!

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I’m thrilled to welcome back Stephanie Cowell, author of Claude & Camille releasing in paperback on April 5, 2011, back to Peeking Between the Pages. I reviewed Claude & Camille last year (my review) and I adored it! It’s a fantastic novel that made my favorites list of 2010! Stephanie is joining us to share The magical story of how my first novel was published…

I pretty much sold my first novel to a major publisher at a church supper. Well, there’s a lot more to the story than that, but that was the door through which my novel found its way in bookstores across the country and in Europe.

In my early 40s I turned from singing to writing, my first love, and was determined to write a novel from my heart which someone would publish. I thought it would take a year. I wrote a draft of my first book and got turned down by a major agent who said I didn’t write well enough. I felt this was what I was supposed to do and immediately set about revising and began to pass around my drafts in a brown manuscript box to any and all friends who would read it. I joined a writers’ support group of the most amazing women. And of course I prayed a lot.

My sons were supportive of my writing because opera singing had been too noisy. I wrote first on a typewriter, then the office computer, and finally my own laptop. I wrote mornings and evenings around my office job. And more and more friends kept reading, and my support group sent me cards and books and one day, a piece of yellow legal paper with the words on it in big script, “Keep writing.” By that time I had been writing for five years and had completed nearly four novels.

A convent of nuns I loved prayed for me and the great writer Madeleine L’Engle became my supporter. She even tried to get her publisher to take a novel, and it was an almost. I was the closest and most frequent “almost” I knew. Madeleine and the sisters said, “Keep writing.” By that time I had been writing six years.

I did keep writing and passing my manuscript around during church coffee hour (even the priest read it!) Then one night I was leaving that church supper, when two older women who had loved one of my books especially hurried up to me and said, “We sat opposite the office manager for W.W. Norton and told him about you.” And he came down the steps and said, “I’d like to show your book to my favorite editor.”

A month later I had a two-book contract with W.W. Norton. Everybody took me out to celebrate but I was too nervous to eat. It was all quite magical: I got wonderful national reviews and my picture in People Magazine. My writers’ support group had t-shirts printed with the book jacket cover on them. Madeleine sent me flowers. The magic began then and hasn’t ceased. It is not always a dream (no work is), but the dream parts are amazing.

My advice to all struggling writers is: share your book with everyone. Listen to what people say in response; if three people say the same thing, listen seriously. No one can tell the stories you have to tell in the way you are given to tell them. Keep writing.
__________

As a note, this guest post was first published on my blog on April 14, 2010 and re-posted with Stephanie’s permission. This post is as wonderful to me today as it was then. Thank you Stephanie!
__________

About the Book (from Fantastic Fiction)

Sometimes he dreamt he held her; that he would turn in bed and she would be there. But she was gone and he was old. Nearly seventy. Only cool paint met his fingers. ‘Ma très chère . . .’ Darkness started to fall, dimming the paintings. He felt the crumpled letter in his pocket. ‘I loved you so,’ he said. ‘I never would have had it turn out as it did. You were with all of us when we began, you gave us courage. These gardens at Giverny are for you but I’m old and you’re forever young and will never see them. . . .’

In the mid-nineteenth century, a young man named Claude Monet decided that he would rather endure a difficult life painting landscapes than take over his father’s nautical supplies business in a French seaside town. Against his father’s will, and with nothing but a dream and an insatiable urge to create a new style of art that repudiated the Classical Realism of the time, he set off for Paris.

But once there he is confronted with obstacles: an art world that refused to validate his style, extreme poverty, and a war that led him away from his home and friends. But there were bright spots as well: his deep, enduring friendships with men named Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Manet – a group that together would come to be known as the Impressionists, and that supported each other through the difficult years. But even more illuminating was his lifelong love, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter and embrace the lively Bohemian life of their time.

His muse, his best friend, his passionate lover, and the mother to his two children, Camille stayed with Monet – and believed in his work – even as they lived in wretched rooms, were sometimes kicked out of those, and often suffered the indignities of destitution. She comforted him during his frequent emotional torments, even when he would leave her for long periods to go off on his own to paint in the countryside.

But Camille had her own demons – secrets that Monet could never penetrate, including one that when eventually revealed would pain him so deeply that he would never fully recover from its impact. For though Camille never once stopped loving the painter with her entire being, she was not immune to the loneliness that often came with being his partner.

A vividly-rendered portrait of both the rise of Impressionism and of the artist at the center of the movement, Claude and Camille is above all a love story of the highest romantic order.

About the Author (from Stephanie Cowell’s website)


I was born in New York City to a family of artists and fell in love with Mozart, Shakespeare and historical fiction at an early age. I began printing stories in a black and white school notebook at about nine years old and in my teens wrote several short novels which remain in a dark box. I learned something though, because by twenty, I had twice won prizes in a national story contest.

Then I left writing for classical singing. I sang in many operas and appeared as an international balladeer; I formed a singing ensemble, a chamber opera company, and so on. The translation of a late Mozart opera returned me to writing once more and I now mostly sing while washing the dishes!

My first published novel was NICHOLAS COOKE: ACTOR, SOLDIER, PHYSICIAN, PRIEST, followed by two other Elizabethan-17th century novels: THE PHYSICIAN OF LONDON (American Book Award 1996) and THE PLAYERS: A NOVEL OF THE YOUNG SHAKESPEARE. In 2004, I returned to my musical background and wrote MARRYING MOZART; it has been translated into seven languages and optioned for a movie.

I am married to poet and reiki practitioner Russell Clay and have two grown sons (one in computer systems design and one a filmmaker). I was born in New York City and am still living here, a short walk away from all the impressionist paintings at the Metropolitan Museum.

Please visit Stephanie Cowell’s website.
Please visit Stephanie’s blog.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

I have 5 copies of Claude & Camille by Stephanie Cowell to share with my readers courtesy of the publisher – isn’t that fantastic! To enter…

  • For 1 entry leave me a comment with a way to contact you.
  • For 2 entries, follow my blog. If you already do, let me know and I will pass on the extra entry to you as well.
  • For 3 entries, tweet or blog and spread the news about this giveaway!

This giveaway is open to US & Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will be drawing for the winners on April 16, 2011. Good luck everyone! Winners will be in for a great read!

© 2010, Darlene of Peeking Between the Pages. All Rights Reserved. If you’re reading this on a site other than Peeking Between the Pages or Darlene’s Feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Very nice guest post! No need to enter me, as I already have a copy of the book, just wanted to say that this post was very inspirational!

  2. I love the bit about the church supper, and the nuns praying for her! What a great story! Please enter me! I am a follower.

    nbmars AT yahoo DOT com

  6. This interview was amazing and inspiring! I'm a follower of your blog and I'll put your contest on my sidebar.
    My Blog

  7. I'm already a follower through Google Friend Connect.

    would love to win this book about Monet and Camille.

    harvee44 at yahoo.com

  8. I've been looking to read this book for awhile now, it looks great!
    I'm already a follower via GFC.
    I tweeted about this giveaway on my twitter!

    kimbers10[at]yahoo[dot]com
    twitter.com/kdaze10

  11. I would love to be entered. I think this is one of the few books my mom and I would both enjoy.

    I'm a follower.

    carolsnotebook at yahoo dot com

  15. Awww, thanks for reposting this awesome post! Thank you for the contest!!

    +1 i'm a follower 🙂

    inthehammockblog at gmail dot com

  18. I've been wanting to read this. Please enter me!

    I follow in google reader.

    je2kids(at)gmail(dot)com

  22. I love Claude Monet! Where do you find all these great books, Darlene? 🙂

    Amy // amyismyfriend at aol dot com (yes, this is a new email addy for me!)

  23. 1 GFC Follower (ArtsyBookishGal–also new name)

    Amy // amyismyfriend at aol dot com

  31. Please enter my name in the contest for this book. Love stories where history is woven into the story.

    pboylecharley(AT)hotmail(DOT)com

  40. I've had this one on my wish list for a while – would love to read it! And I am a follower. 🙂

    nnjmom at yahoo dot com

  43. a lovely post and interview Darlene! thankyou!
    blstef1 at mts dot net
    would love to win this ~ !

  46. seems i've neglected thea email part of this ~
    blstef1 at mts dot net
    although email is on my FHC blog profile… thx!

  47. YAY! I've had this on my TBR list for a while. I'd love a copy.

    2 entries: I'm also a follower.
    kimbaldwin74 at yahoo dot com

  48. I have always loved impressionism.It woild be so interesting to find out what secrets they were hiding.

    CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

  49. 2 entries, I am a Google Friends Connect Follower of your blog.

    CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

  53. Sounds like a great book!
    Am a devoted blog follower!
    Thanks for giveaway!

    ladybook21 at yahoo dot com

  54. Stephanie Cowell is so sweet and funny, I loved this post from her! I have had my eye on Claude & Camille for a while and hope to read it soon! Winning a copy would be nice, too! Thank you for another wonderful post & giveaway, Dar!

    Aimala127(at)gmail(dot)com

  56. What a cool post!! Thanks for the give!

    areallibrarian[at]gmail[dot]com

  62. Thanks for the giveaway! I love love the Impressionists and am sad there is not more info out there about the real Camille.

    I tweeted @vegasbookgirl

    Thanks!
    Amanda
    libraryofmyown at gmail dot com

  63. Oh, I forgot to mention I follow your blog as well. Thanks!

    Amanda
    libraryofmyown at gmail dot com

  64. I've really been looking forward to the paperback release of Claude and Camille. Thanks for doing this giveaway!

    jmartinez0415 [at] gmail [dot] com

    I'm a GFC follower too (Jessica M.)

  67. I love art historical fiction books and have wanted this since hearing about it last year and especially after so many bloggers picked it as a top read of 2010. Does anyone else prefer the original cover art over the new paperback cover? Or is it just me?

    How amazing to be mentored by Madeleine L’Engle! That must have done wonders for Ms. Cowell's confidence.

    Just discovered your blog today!
    DaSwee94(at)yahoo(dot)com

  68. I always like trying out first novels. This one sounds like a sophisticated romance.

    My e-mail is wakeupangel at googlemail dot com

  71. Thank you for the chance!

    Jules
    onebookshy at yahoo dot com

    I'm a GFC follower & email subscriber

  72. I'm really interested in this book. Thanks for the great giveaway.

    dogwoodlane at suddenlink dot net

  76. As a lover of art, as well as books- this is a double win for me! Thanks for the opportunity to try and win this…I always forward my books on too.
    sweepingnews(at)gmail(dot)com

  77. I follow you everywhere, FB, Twitter, GFC and email subscriber
    sweepingnews(at)gmail(dot)com

  81. I'd love the opportunity to read Claude & Camille!
    I follow your blog and will tweet this giveaway @welachild.
    Itwasemotional (at) yahoo (dot) com

  83. Sounds like a wonderful book. I would love to read it. Please enter me. Thanks!

    ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net

  86. I think this sounds really interesting. Please count me in. Thank you!

    nfmgirl At gmail DOT com

  89. Thanks for the giveaway! I'm a new GFC follower.

    susanna dot pyatt at student dot rcsnc dot org

  90. This book is on my wishlist. Thanks so much for the awesome giveaway!

    lag110 at mchsi dot com

  93. What a wonderful guest post, perseverance can pay off. I'd love to win a copy of this book, it's been on my wishlist since I heard about it.

    redladysreadingroomATgmailDOTcom

    I am a long time follower!

    Thanks!