Vodnik

Book Description

When Tomas and his family move back to Slovakia after a devastating fire, Tomas doesn’t remember the folktale creatures he befriended as a child.

But they remember him and his Roma family, and they’re not as friendly as they once were. Suddenly Tomas is in over his head, and he’ll have to strike a bargain with Death herself in order to put things right.

Amidst a backdrop of anti-Roma sentiment, he and his cousin must match wits with myths, and uncover the secrets of Tomas’s past before their own futures become forfeit.

Chapter Commentaries

I’m running a series of weekly blog entries detailing the thoughts and process that went into the writing of Vodnik. Look for them every Monday. And here are the ones I’ve posted so far!

• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Six
• Chapter Seven
• Chapter Eight
• Chapter Nine
• Chapter Ten
• Chapter Eleven
• Chapter Twelve
• Chapter Thirteen

Deleted Scene

• Tomas Drowning–What really happened when Tomas was a child? Find out–or at least see what it looked like in an early draft . . .

Blog Entries

I’ve been writing a blog since January 2007. My fifth entry talked about how frustrating the writing process with Lesana was–Lesana, the book that was published in March 2012 as Vodnik. So while I don’t have any blog entries written during the first draft of Lesana, I have everything from the second draft on. Check out some of the highlights!

• The First Revsion Process–Entries dealing with all the “fun” I had revising the first draft of the book. A long and tortuous process, but well worth the journey.
• The Search for a Publisher–Between finishing the “final” draft of Vodnik in 2007 and finding a home for it in 2010, there was a lot of water under the bridge, ranging from Amazon contests, a Publisher’s Weekly review, and a trip to Slovakia
• I get an Agent and Publisher–After years of trying, IT finally happens. Find out all the details.