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Blurbery

May 06, 2010

Back when Mud of the Place was approaching publication, I made a short list of people I really, really wanted to approach for blurbs -- the testimonials that appear on a book's cover or dust jacket. Susan Klein was #1 on the list. Asking people for blurbs is scary. You're asking a busy person to invest considerable time in reading your book and composing a pithy comment, all out of the goodness of his or her heart. What if they say no? Worse, what if they say yes -- and then don't like the book? Susan is not only a world-class storyteller, she grew up on Martha's Vineyard. I really wanted her to like Mud of the Place but my Inner Scairdy-Cat kept spitting up reasons why she'd hate it.

Short version is that she not only wrote Mud a wonderful blurb, she also caught several typos and other gaffes that I'd missed in the manuscript. So a couple of weeks ago, when Susan asked me to write a blurb for Martha's Vineyard -- Now & Zen -- text by Susan, photographs by Alan Brigish -- I was flattered, thrilled, and glad for the opportunity to return a big favor. Would I be willing to keep my editorial eyes open at the same time? You bet.

I knew I was going to like the book. An earlier version was published last year as a e-book serial and can still be read on the Web. I read the revised and expanded manuscript. I loved it. I made some comments and suggestions. Susan and I went over to Alan's house so I could see the photographs and preliminary page layouts on his computer's wide screen. Wow. The design does a stunning job of blending words and images into a powerful whole. Martha's Vineyard -- Now & Zen is a beautiful and eloquent book.

Distilling my response to the book into a blurb? That was a challenge. Writing short has never been my forte, and besides I seriously wanted to do justice to the book. I scribbled notes with one of my new pens. Faces and phrases flickered into my mind as I went about my days. Some drifted on then flickered back; others stuck around. Finally I sat down at the computer, transcribed my scribblings into Morgana V's vast memory, and started pushing them around. Pretty soon I had a 250-word blurb. I sent it to Susan. She loved it but it was too long; could I abridge it? Writing is hard, editing is easy: it took almost no time to cut it almost in half.

Here's a sneak preview of the final version:

Pictures can show us the way things are and the way things were, but only stories can spin the threads that link past and present and direct our gaze toward the future. Alan Brigish's spectacular images and Susan Klein's eloquent words evoke Martha's Vineyard as it is and as it was, and urge us to consider the treasures lost as well as the beauty that remains.

Here is a Martha's Vineyard both fragile and robust, subtle and exuberant; an Island of breathtaking places and wonderfully expressive faces. Here are the celebrations and rituals that offer visitors, newcomers, and old-timers alike a window into both the history and the current life of Martha's Vineyard. Martha's Vineyard -- Now & Zen itself is a window. Open its covers, step through -- and be changed.

Martha's Vineyard -- Now & Zen is due out on July 1. It better be on time, because the first book party is July 2. Its website is up already; it's not 100% complete, but it includes plenty of information about the book, including how to order it.

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