Laurie J. Marks

I’ve electronically published my novel The Watcher’s Mask.  As with Dancing Jack, it’s available in multiple formats on Smashwords (https://bit.ly/WatchersMask) and on Kindle (bit.ly/43qrtjp)

The Watcher’s Mask was my fourth published novel, and I felt confident enough to give it an unreliable and often unlikeable narrator who doesn’t know the real story, both about her personal history and about the difficulties that abruptly and mysteriously confront her.  At the time I wrote this novel, I worked as a volunteer for a rape crisis center where I co-facilitated a weekly support group for rape survivors.  One member of the group had dissociative personality disorder, and I engaged in some peculiar and marvelous conversations with one of her identities, who took to calling me on the phone late at night.  So I decided to write a fantasy about a character whose multiple identities can be beneficial rather than detrimental.

Writing for a living entails tedium that must be tolerated with discipline, for the tedium is self-generated and thus can easily be evaded.  Thanks again to Rosemary Kirstein for volunteering to add to her own load of tedium by reviewing the manuscript of The Watcher’s Mask.  I had generated the manuscript by scanning the published book and then using OCR, which yielded a few hundred pages like this:

“We’re almost there now.” He resumed his shov­ eling. When we had reached the haystack, he cleared 1111 IU’e8 around it so the l!Ollts could reach the bay, and  !hen c:mne wading through the deep snow to give me a band out of the pathway, where I still blocked the 8IJIIUI’ passage. The snow came UP to my knees, and I stwnhled. He gave a friendly grin. “Walk in my tbotlltepg.” He was not much taller than I, bat he took shon steps to make it easier for me. His solicitowJness lllllde me a little angry, even though I was still weak lllld needed the help. 

Over a period of seven months, I corrected the manuscript on the computer, then printed a hard copy and corrected it by reading it backwards so I’d see what was actually there, not what I thought should be there.  Then I entered all those corrections, printed another hard copy, and reviewed it again, reading forward this time.  Then I gave it to Rosemary, who discovered 48 pages with errors I had missed.  And, while I was entering her corrections, I stumbled across an error that both of us had overlooked. 

At the same time, I was working with Tallulah Cunningham, who designed the book cover.  Tallulah (http://www.melanippos.com/) is an Australian natural history illustrator, a fantasy artist, and an illuminator.  She read the manuscript when corrections were still in process, and rather dryly observed that she had noticed a few typos. (Yeah, no kidding.) Tallulah started drawing and painting volcano pictures on her live feed on Twitch, and I was able to watch her painting the drafts while narrating her creative process. I had originally requested a picture of a volcano that was also a dragon; we discussed a picture of a human person wearing a dragon mask; and settled on a small human figure silhouetted by lava flowing in the shape of a dragon.  Here are some of Tallulah’s drafts:

Here is the final version:

I am very, very, very happy with the cover.  Many thanks to Tallulah Cunningham!