Day to Day with Valor Publishing

As posted on the African American Literature Book Club Website

Reviewed by Robert Fleming

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What a curious book to be written by Mark L. Shurtleff, Utah’s Attorney General!

This well-researched historical novel, Am I Not A Man?, goes into the mind of Dred Scott, an illiterate slave who endured the agony of bondage and all of its cruelty from his early days in Virginia until his classic legal battles to over-turn the restrictive laws of slavery. Shurtleff, a white author, never lets us forget these black men and women were human beings. He shows the reader that Dred and his wife, Harriet, were loving, caring people. He takes us into their minds and hearts and trusts us with their unrelenting humanity.

For those unfamiliar with the indecent American institution of slavery, Shurtleff includes a brief history of some of its landmarks of the political, commercial, and legal highlights through the years. The recreated dialogue with James Madison and Thomas Jefferson of the strategies of possessing Blacks as chattel is on par with any of the top-notch practitioners of current historical fiction. Although the novel is sometimes confusing in bouncing around in its narrative timeline, Shurtleff paints a balanced picture of the morally conflicted framers of the Constitution and the creation of the flawed democracy they envisioned. It provides a historical context for the Dred Scott tragedy.

However, the central character is Dred Scott, the young man working in the cotton fields of Southern Virginia, employed later as a house slave, and later retained as an assistant with soldiers. Some Blacks forget the importance of the abolitionist movement, including Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, of which the sympathetic Blow family, owners of Dred and Harriet, made it possible for the Scotts to sue for their freedom. The legal fight was difficult. In January 1850, a jury of whites, including some slave owners, declared Dred and his wife were forever free under the law of Missouri.

Some of the most stirring moments in the novel are the legal war-of-words before the white Justices in the High Court by Roswell Field, a firebrand abolitionist lawyer and defender of fugitive slaves. The abolitionists were determined to push the white political elite to confront the evil of the slavery issue. “I would humbly request that each of you, at some point during your deliberations, consider for just a moment what it would be like to lose your freedom. What it would feel like to be a slave – the chattel of another? What it would do to you to have the majority of those around you consider you as something less than a man? I believe that doing so, you will be at peace and able to fully and fairly do justice for the man who placed fifty years of trust in the system, and you are it.”

When the justice ruled against Dred and overturned the decision of the jury, returning the Scotts to slavery. It is to Shurtleff’s credit as a writer to portray the very real feelings of Dred and Harriet as they learn of the judgment. After the verdict, the sheriff cuffed Dred and said his jailing has to be because the law doesn’t know what to do next. Still, the Scotts survive the shattering ruling. Dred’s death is used by the abolitionists to win liberty for slaves and to influence President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Illuminating, sensitive, and powerful, Shurtleff’s fictional take on Dred Scott asks some timely questions of race and prejudice that have still not been answered.

Hardcover: 534 pages
Publisher: Valor Publishing Group; 1st edition (November 3, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1935546007
ISBN-13: 978-1935546009
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
Order from Amazon.

Posted by Valor - Day to Day at 6:00 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Am I Not a Man, mark l shurtleff, reviews

Welcome to Writing Tip Tuesday!

As you sit down to write your book, you need to picture who you're writing for. Why are we doing this? By determining our audience, we determine our writing style.

A suspense, a thriller, or a mystery will tend to be a little more terse and to the point. The reader wants to get to the action. They want suspense right up front, they want things to move along quickly, and they don't care as much about setting, colors, and descriptions. They like to have a general idea of what things look like, but for the most part, it really doesn't matter to them if the girl's dress was crimson or scarlet - for them, it's good enough that it's red. They are action-oriented readers. This isn't to say that all description should be taken out - far from it. But this won't be the place to rhapsodize for three pages about the sunset.

For a romance, or a family drama, the readers want their stories to touch them emotionally. When a character suffers, they want to feel that suffering for themselves. They want to feel as though the characters in the book are their friends. They want to know what shade the dress is, what the room looks like, how she fixed her hair for the big party. When the guy breaks the girl's heart, they want to cry right along with the character. They want to connect internally with what they're reading. They might enjoy a segment about the sunset, if that sunset happens to mean something to the character, and they are so in tune with the character, they want to experience everything right along with them.

So, as you're writing, ask yourself - am I reaching out to my reader in the way they want me to?

For example:

She went into her room and cried.

This is not enough for a romance reader. Let's try again:

She went into her room and kicked her discarded yellow T-shirt out of the way, closing the door behind her with a thud of finality. Only then did she let the tears flow, but her chest hurt from keeping the sobs in for so long. She threw herself down on her unmade bed, pulling her lavender pillow close and using it to muffle her sobs.

Okay, that's better. We get emotion, we get description, and we feel some of the character's pain.

However, if you're trying to hit your reader who enjoys high suspense and action:

She went into her room and cried. Downstairs, he loaded his gun, then climbed into his Jeep 4X4, peeling out and leaving black streaks on the concrete. As he drove past Marconi's house, he rolled down his window and blasted the garage door with four perfectly round holes.

In this example, it doesn't matter what her room looks like, what color his truck is, what color Marconi's house is, or what anyone was wearing when they did it.

You'll also use these tips as you write genres that overlap - a straight romance will generally have more description than a straight suspense, while a romantic suspense will employ both methods.

By keeping in mind your end goal, you'll know what kind of tone to present and how to pull it off without losing your reader. Picture them in your mind as you write, and your aim will be more true.



Copyright 2009. All rights reserved by Valor Publishing Group, LLC.

Posted by Tristi Pinkston at 12:36 AM | 1 comments  

Labels: Target Audience, Writing Tips

When you take a look at a published book, there are three components to what you're seeing.

1. The cover

2. The layout of the text

3. The content of the text


The Cover - this is the first thing you see when you pick up a book. Are the colors attractive? Is the picture well-executed and does it match the story? Is the title memorable? Is the balance of elements correct? They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but I have to say this. I've noticed a lot of crummy books with great covers, but I don't often see a crummy cover wrapped around a good book. Although I have seen exceptions, generally speaking, if the publisher hasn't taken time to create a good cover, they haven't taken time on much else, either. Covers really do make or break sales.

The Layout - This part of the production process is really noticeable when it's done wrong, and invisible when it's done right. Ideally, the typesetter will create a layout that is pleasing to the eye, that leaves enough of a margin without too much of a margin, and will start all the chapters on the right side of the page. The text will be tweaked to eliminate hyphens at the ends of lines as much as possible, and won't squish the letters too much or spread them out too much to create this outcome. If the typesetter has taken care with their task, the reader doesn't really notice anything and just enjoys the read. But if the words are squished or there are hyphens hanging off the end of each line, the reader's eye doesn't feel comfortable, and that doesn't present an easy read.

The Text - The third component is the text itself. This is the part that started out as your manuscript, edited and reworked and honed and prepared for this day. You wouldn't want a lovely cover and awesome typesetting to end up with a bumpy story, so taking care of this part of the process is crucial. Does the writing flow? Have the repetitive words been taken out? Does each word really mean what you want it to mean? Do your comparisons really compare? These issues go deeper than just characterization or plot line - there are nitty-gritty, finite details that separate a good story from a great one. Are there six "s" words on line two? Did you mean to say "definite" or did you mean "define?"

Each of these elements are crucial to the overall quality of the book. You can't have one without the others and create a product that rises above the competition. The cover draws the reader in and sets the stage for the story. The quality of the text creates the production on the stage, and the layout acts as the behind-the-scenes crew, making sure that everything runs smoothly so the audience out front never knows just how it happened - they just know they were treated to an incredible performance. Each element is part of a team.

At this time, I'd like to introduce you to the team at Valor Publishing.

The Cover - Cash Case. Cash is a brilliant artist. His range is unmatched - he can illustrate anything from cartoons to technical manuals to historical fiction to fantasy. I've never seen Cash draw anything that wasn't astonishing.

The Layout - BJ Rowley. BJ takes a manuscript and finesses each part of the typeset until every line is absolutely perfect. There are no shortcuts taken. From the headers to the page numbers to the selection of the perfect font, every aspect is meticulously designed and carried out.

The Text - Tristi Pinkston. I get into the heart of each manuscript and attune myself with the goal of the story and the goal of the author. Then I work hard to discover what that story needs to really make it shine. With Muriel Sluyter to follow behind to line edit and BJ to triple check, we create an editing team that not only catches stray commas, but that intuitively feels the heart of the story and brings it to life.

Tie this all together with our president, Candace Salima, who is forward-thinking, a promotion powerhouse, and strongly motivated to help authors excel, and Valor Publishing Group LLC is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in this market.

I encourage you to spend some time on the website and learn more about us and the elements that mark the difference between a good book and a great book, and get to know the people who can make it happen for you.

Copyright 2009. All rights reserved by Valor Publishing Group, LLC.

Posted by Tristi Pinkston at 12:36 AM | 2 comments  

Labels: Art, Editing, promotion, Valor Publishing Group, Who Is Valor?

Welcome to Writing Tip Tuesday!

Foreshadowing is the method by which you drop hints to your reader about something that is going to happen later in the book. Sometimes you want your reader to suspect, and sometimes you want them caught completely off-guard. If you do want them to have an inkling, foreshadowing is what you’re after.

Say, for instance, that Sally is going to die from a drug overdose. In all of her outward appearances, she’s a respectable citizen, choir member, volunteer at the community center, and no one would ever suspect her of being a drug user. When she dies, it’s going to be so unexpected that the reader won’t really buy it. But what if George walks in on her and sees her slip something into her purse, and she’s acting strangely. He doesn’t ask her about it because it’s none of his business, but later, when she’s dead and the drugs are found in her purse, it will make sense to the reader and they won’t feel as left out as they would otherwise.

If you want to do a little foreshadowing but still have Sally’s death be a surprise, you need to be subtle. You wouldn’t necessarily go through the manuscript and show Sally experiencing all the classic signs of drug addiction unless you wanted the reader to know it all along. Readers are very smart. They’re looking for plot twists. They’ll take each sentence and look for the hidden mystery. If you don’t want them to know, you can’t spell it out.

Let’s say cousin Ed turns out to be a thief. It would be good to have money turn up missing from time to time, maybe an hour or two after Ed leaves the house, or even the next day. If this plot element is a surprise, don’t have it happen every time Ed comes, and don’t discover it until he’s been gone for a while. Put plenty of other characters in there that it could have been, and possibly even more likely characters than Ed.

The #1 mistake authors make when they are foreshadowing is to use the expression “Little did they know.” Poor Aunt Gloria, fretting and fuming over the $20 missing from her purse. She needs it to pay for her heart medication and she can’t imagine what could have happened to it. But little did she know, Ed stole the money, and if she knew, she’d have a heart attack. Of course she didn’t know. If she knew, it wouldn’t be a mystery. When you say something like “Little did they know,” you’re telling the reader things that the characters themselves don’t know, and you yank the reader out of that third person POV you’ve created into a world where the narrator and the reader are sharing secrets. That’s very jarring to the reader and throws them out of the world of pretend.

In summary, to foreshadow, drop vague hints. Show an occasional hole in the character’s armor of secrecy. Give the other characters reason to wonder, but also show holes in the other characters as well. When the big moment of revelation arrives, the reader should be able to say, “Wow! What a surprise! I didn’t see that coming! Although, now that I really think about it, he did come to the Halloween party as Jerry Springer. I see how it all ties together now.”

Copyright 2009. All rights reserved by Valor Publishing Group, LLC.

Posted by Tristi Pinkston at 6:00 AM | 3 comments  

Labels: Writing Tips

Mark Shurtleff's launch party for his premiere novel, "Am I Not a Man: The Dred Scott Story," was a huge success. We express our thanks to Barnes and Noble in the Gateway Plaza for hosting the event.

We ordered specialty cakes for the event, duplicating the book cover and inside graphics.

We started the evening's program with a performance by the Calvary Baptist Choir, who took time out of their busy schedule to join us.

We then heard from Connie Hall, whose essay about freedom won our first-ever Valor Publishing contest.

Mark read us the first chapter of "Am I Not a Man."

He then signed piles of copies for those in attendance.

Valor Publishing Group's president, Candace Salima, introduced Lynne Jackson, Dred Scott's great-great-granddaughter, who flew in for the event.We also heard from Brian, Lynne's husband, who sang his rendition of "Amazing Grace," asking the audience to join him.Lynne then signed copies of Mark's book, placing her signature right next to his.
We were also treated to three amazing songs by Mormon Tabernacle Choir member, Alex Boye'. One of the numbers performed was an old spiritual from which the book's title was taken: "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?"

BJ Rowley, Valor Managing Director, with Karen Hoover (The Sapphire Flute), Cash Case, Valor Art Director, and Daron Fraley (The Thorn).
Valor authors Kimberly Job (I'll Know You by Heart) and Karen Hoover.

It was a truly incredible night. The feeling of freedom was strong in the room, and we were all touched by it. Mark has taken a story with incredible emotional appeal and made it available to all, and we here at Valor Publishing are delighted and honored to have had a hand in it.

Copyright 2009. All rights reserved by Valor Publishing Group, LLC.

Posted by Tristi Pinkston at 4:44 PM | 3 comments  

Labels: Barnes and Noble, book launch, book signings, mark l shurtleff