The Art of My Next Book

My next book… This is a working title and cover, but it feels good to make it look official. I have met with my new editor, and she is shaking up my writing a bit. She wants me to free write whatever comes to mind with the knowledge that I already possess about Johannes Vermeer, Vincent van Gogh, and the Dutch culture. Stressful is the word I would describe for this exercise.

I am not comfortable writing a historical book without checking the facts. I am an academic and trained to write the truth of what we can research not my general knowledge of what happened.  My editor said I can fill that all in later but to get the story going. She said to pretend like I am writing for a friend who is going to Holland and tell him or her about the art and culture.

She did recommend a few books to show examples of other writers that have done a good job at this. One interesting book she recommended was “There's a book I'm reading that does the comparison between two artists very playfully, but it works: Nick Hornby's Dickens and Prince. Not long, and very observational but grounded in real events. He's great at writing first-person but not slipping into a narrow point-of-view.”

 Trying to incorporate the first person into my book could be a fun freedom from the purely academic writing.  After visiting the Dutch country and people I think they would appreciate a bit of freedom in my book.  Holland was such an extraordinary place to visit.  Words to describe my visit are bikes, canals, flowers, tall people, art, trains, flat countryside, freedom, efficient, charming.

It is my wish to bring to light the Dutch culture. Starting from Vermeer’s Dutch Golden Age 1600’s to the Protestant dominated culture of van Goghs 1800’s and give a complete picture of their culture and art over this 200-year time span.