The Advance Reading Copy

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By Mark Alpert

I just received a box of advance reading copies of my next novel, The Furies. This is a fun moment in the publication process. For the first time, the book actually looks like a book and not an unruly stack of manuscript pages. It’s also a fraught moment for me, because this is the point at which I will allow my wife to read the novel. She’s heard me complain about the book several thousand times, but until now she hasn’t read a word of it.

Why haven’t I let her read it until now? Because she’s a tough critic. And she’s pathologically honest. If she doesn’t like something, I can always see the disapproval on her face. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer in constructive criticism. Just about every writer could use some help pointing out the flaws that he or she has failed to fix, either because of laziness or obliviousness or sheer pigheadedness. I eagerly solicit suggestions and advice from my agent, my editor and the members of my writing group. In other words, I can take criticism from anyone but my wife. That’s just the way it is.

I’m especially worried about her reaction to this new book, because it’s a little different from all my previous novels. It’s a science thriller, but it’s also about witches. I became fascinated with the subject after my son wrote a term paper about the Salem witch trials. He learned that the witch hunt in the Massachusetts Bay colony was just one episode in a horrible series of massacres. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, witch-hunters in Europe killed thousands of people. France, Germany and Switzerland were the worst. In the area surrounding the German city of Trier, 368 accused witches were burned alive between 1587 and 1593. The great majority of victims were women. Two villages in the area were left with only one woman each.

It’s incomprehensible. Scholars still argue over why the massacres happened. And because it’s so strange and horrible, it seemed like an interesting subject for a novel. I imagined a family that came to America in the 17th century after being nearly annihilated by the witch hunts in Europe. They settled in what was then the wilderness and lived in secrecy until…well, until the novel starts.

The book will be published in April, so you’ll have to wait till then to hear the rest of the story. Except for my wife, of course. She’ll have to endure several days of me saying, “What part are you reading? Why aren’t you reading it faster?” And all the while I’ll be studying her face, trying to figure out what she really thinks. It never gets any easier.

7 thoughts on “The Advance Reading Copy”

  1. Mark, congrats on THE FURIES. I look forward to reading it. I appreciate all the input from my editor and agent, too, but my wife is my biggest critic. She is brutally honest, and about 99.9% of the time, spot-on right. If she has a problem, so will others. You and I are both lucky to have a live-in editor/critic. I wish you great success with your new book.

  2. THE FURIES sounds very interesting, I look forward to reading it.

    I sometimes wish my husband read more. His reading preferences are manuals. Right now he’s enthralled with the Bosch Dishwasher use and care manual. He thinks our dishwasher is too noisy.

    On the upside, things seem to click along quite nicely with very little effort on my part.

  3. My wife is the same way, and she’s almost always right, so I let her read early and often to get her input while there’s still time. And, like your spouse, she has to put up with my constant, “You laughed! What did you laugh at?” “Where are you? Did you get to …” It can’t be easy for them.

  4. Can’t wait for this book~ sounds great.

    You’re blessed to have a wife who reads your work and offers her opinion. My husband is excellent at supplying plot twists, bad guy/psychological profiles, and proper police procedures, but he doesn’t read any of my works. He’s more of a true-crime reader, not fiction. But what he contributes is awesome, so I can’t complain.

    sonjahutchinson.com

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