FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma
kirstinvgr@cultureisnotoptional.com

Non-profit begins publishing fiction in the midst of economic downturn

THREE RIVERS, MI – November 5, 2009
Despite the fact that the global economy is in shambles and doom-and-gloom abounds in the publishing industry, *culture is not optional (*cino) will be making a foray into the fiction department with the release of Clutching Dust and Stars, a debut novel by Laryn Kragt Bakker.

The publisher is trying to nail down a revised publication date -- obviously the initial target was not met due to a variety of factors. They are talking with their printer to find out what is feasible. The text of the novel has been complete for two or three months, but I have changed the dedication due to some recent events in my life.

The artwork on the front cover of the novel is an original acrylic painting I did last year. Natalie (one of the main characters) is an artist and she references Van Gogh once or twice in the novel, so the strong hint of "Starry Night" is intentional. Although this particular painting is not mentioned directly in the story, I did try to give some thought to the way that Natalie might paint this picture if she were sitting in her space in the back room of the thrift store where she works and pondering the line from the Kabbalah: "We hold in one hand a cluster of stars, and in the other a morsel of dust."

I've added Clutching Dust and Stars to a number of book networking sites, so if you're a member of Goodreads, Shelfari, WeRead, or LibraryThing, you can now add it to your "to read" list.

These sites allow people to keep lists of books they have read, are reading, or want to read. Once you've read a book, you can rate it and write a review, so if you like the book, it would be a great help if you would write a short paragraph or two about it and give it a rating to encourage other people who use these sites to read it.

Feel free to friend me there, too. My profiles are linked here: Goodreads, Shelfari, WeRead, LibraryThing.

Pre-order is now open for the novel. The number of pre-sales will help determine the quantity of the initial run and the money generated will also help cover the printing costs, which is important given that the book is being published by a non-profit that just signed the papers for and made a substantial downpayment on a very large building. (All that to say: if you know you would like a copy, please order it now).

Since I had decided to focus primarily on the characters when I began this process, the obvious question arose: now that you've created them, what are they going to do? I decided that since I had invested the time and energy to develop characters who could make decisions (so to speak), I should respect them as the plot unfolded.

When I started writing this novel, I had very little idea of what to do or how to do it. I had grown up writing and I loved it, but had never tackled a project of this magnitude. I consulted a variety of books which purported to give advice on how to write a book of fiction in X number of days or months, or which gave general advice for specific aspects of creating fiction, and in the end I probably did end up taking something of value from each of them despite their rather formulaic approach. In the end I ended up doing things my way, which involved a lot of making things up as I went along and trusting my gut. (Stephen Colbert would be proud, except for the fact that I trusted my gut to write...a book.)

When I started writing this novel, I had not much idea of what to expect. I'll be detailing some of my decisions and process in this blog over the next few months in the lead-up to the book's release, but for now I'm just content to say it's been a long and arduous journey and it's gratifying to finally have a completion date in my sights. (I'm working on the last remaining details, including the acknowledgments page which begins this way at the moment: "This book has been work in progress for many years and is by now a work of historical fiction.")

(archival post, first published in Catapult Magazine, April 2004)