Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
In our continuing celebration of 20 years as a literary agency, I’d like to periodically introduce you to a few of our first clients. I think seeing the course the river of a writing career has taken over these 20 years will be instructive for everyone who has longings and dreams for their own careers.
As my mind turned to those clients who dared to take a chance on a new agent–and I dared to take a chance on a new writer–a man whom I met in the slush pile pops up in the memory bank and brings a smile.
That smile started on the first page of Dale Cramer’s manuscript.
This guy could write! By the time I reached page two, his character cracked a comment that made me guffaw. Later on, I was touched by the sorrow in the story and cried.
I did see some flaws in his writing technique, including some POV problems. Fortunately, when I wrote to him and asked him to address those issues, I used the phrase “point of view” rather than POV. I learned a couple of years later, as Dale was giving his acceptance speech for his first Christy Award, that when he received my missive, he asked himself, “What’s point of view?”
Dale googled the phrase and set to work fixing his manuscript. I offered to represent him, and we’ve remained colleagues and dear friends ever since.
That all sounds so…perfect, doesn’t it. Well, we hit rough water at the get-go. I decided to send out Sutter’s Cross to a few editors at a time, just to test the waters to see what sort of reception this debut novel would get.
All the editors said no thanks.
I sent out another batch. (This was an era in which I had to photocopy pages and head to the post office with my bulky packages. The work was labor intensive.)
All the editors said no thanks.
Another mailing went out.
All the editors said no thanks.
I went through that process for two years. Yup, two. Then, when I was coming to the end of editors to send the project to, two editors perked up and paid attention. They both were ecstatic about the manuscript, took it their respective publishing committees, and made offers.
How ridiculous is that? Two years of zero interest, and then two offers came simultaneously.
Why? I don’t know.
All I can conjecture is that those two editors had eyes to see the art in the manuscript while the others didn’t. Or maybe the other editors were concerned that the protagonist was a male, which could mean women readers might not be drawn to the book.
I do recall one of the editors who appreciated the manuscript saying to me, when he called to tell me he had just finished reading the novel, “The way he used that pair of jeans symbolically through the entire story was genius.”
I thought to myself, Oh, wow, I never realized that was what Dale was doing, but yeah, now I recognize it.
So far Dale has written eight novels, two of which won Christy Awards, one was named among the Best Books of 2004 by Publishers Weekly, yet another was named a Best Book of the Year by Library Journal. When readers complained that the writing quality of CBA just couldn’t match the general market’s, those in the know would respond, “Read Dale Cramer; then we’ll talk again.”
But the rushing river of output at the beginning of Dale’s career eventually turned to a trickle. And today, even though Dale continues to tinker with novel ideas, he’s not shown me a new work for years.
What happened? Publishing tussles that led to disappointments for Dale, and sales that weren’t consistent enough for him to make sufficient money to support his family. Some books were best-sellers, others didn’t do as well.
This gifted, funny, sharp-witted and insightful man returned to his first occupation: an electrician. Dale never went to college, and he didn’t even try his hand at writing until, after fifteen years of marriage, he and his wife had two children. Dale became a stay-at-home dad, and with time on his hands, he found an online writing forum and started tinkering with words. Those of us who have read his words are the lucky ones.
By the way, most of his books still are available on Amazon. My two favorites–I just can’t bring myself to love one more than the other–are Bad Ground and Levi’s Will. Bad Ground is about a massive rock removal project under Atlanta and how the job ground men down through the danger they endured every day. (Unfortunately, it’s only available as used books and in audio.)
Levi’s Will is written loosely based on Dale’s father’s life. As a young Amish man, Dale’s dad ran away when he was expected to marry a girl he had gotten pregnant. The rifts in everyone’s lives–including his own–caused by his decision were deep. Dale explores that and so much more in the novel. To research the book, Dale went back to that Amish community, and then, to his surprise, everyone in the family (and probably the entire community) read the resulting novel. The way Dale wrote about the events the family had experienced first-hand in real life led them to forgive the prodigal son who ran away and never came back. Levi’s Will welded together the broken family ties, and every year Dale returns to the community for a family reunion.
Wouldn’t all of us who write consider such an outcome worth the weight of all those words tumbled onto pages?
So there you have it. That’s the retrospective on one writer’s career as it stands today. I would have written this story differently than it has turned out so far, but the Author and Finisher of our faith had a different plot in mind than I did. I do remain ever hopeful that someday Dale will surprise me with another handsome manuscript that makes me smile, guffaw, and cry.
What insights did you gain from this retrospective? What authors come to your mind that you’ve read whose writing took your breath away?
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His most recent book is hysterical: Kiss of the Jewel Bird
What a wonderful accolade you’ve written, Janet. Thank you so much for sharing Dale’s journey.
* Perhaps creativity, like courage and patience, is a finite account which can be depleted over time – and the rate of depletion can be increased by difficult circumstances.
* Also, it brings to mind the saying “don’t quit your day job”, though not for the somewhat dismissive message associated with it. Who we are when we start writing informs that which we create, perhaps more than we’d like to admit. I started writing when I was an academic, and though I loathed large parts of my profession, it still formed me…and was necessary part of the creative wellspring. I would still be there, and hating that part of my life, if circumstances allowed. Kind of the chiaroscuro of living, I guess.
* There are no writers whose gifts I find breathtaking; I have not that capacity of appreciation. I wish I did! Life is so much richer when you don’t have a tin ear.
Andrew, I suspect you’re right that creativity is not a bottomless well. It can go dry, and that process can be sped up by a lack of sufficient infusion, which includes sufficient encouragement to keep on.
Janet, there’s an interesting parallel in painting (about which I know a LOT more than writing) in the career of J.M.W. Turner.
* He really hit his stride with his post-Academic mid-career work; “Peace: Burial At Sea” is perhaps his zenith (though my favourite is is depiction of HMS Temeraire being towed to the breakers’ yard).
* But after that…weirdness. With hindsight we can see a foreshadowing of modernism and the Drip School, but those are really faux accretions to what I believe was a creative spirit that had exhausted its resources.
* Don’t get me wrong; I love “Sunrise With Sea-Monsters” and “Norwich Castle – Sunrise”, but these seem to me to be fading glimpses of a spent genius.
Thanks for drawing a parallel to Turner, Andrew. I suspect you’ve accurately assessed the curve of Turner’s career.
Beautiful, Janet. Gave me goose bumps.
*Laura Frantz–her writing is breathtaking.
*What insights did I gain from this lovely retrospective? The truth that we all know–God’s ways are not our ways. He’s the only one we can trust, for our path, for our purpose. I’ve been looking at my second work, and a real part of me says it’s rubbish. Then I watched the Disney awards tonight, and a kid received an award for the same ministry topic as my book topic … and well, that gave me hope. Hope is gold.
Ah, yes, Laura. Every time a new book by her comes out, I look forward to tucking myself away with it and savoring the delights I’ll find there.
Yes, hope is gold. It’s what keeps us going.
An interesting story, Janet, and well-told. A wistful and hopeful story.
* I just checked my local public library’s website, and “Bad Ground” is available there, along with several more of Dale’s books. I’m adding it to my reading list.
Shirlee, you’re in for a treat with Bad Ground! I didn’t think about the library as a potential source for Dale’s books. Good thinking! (Obviously, I’m a book buyer.)
I sort of wrestled with adding this through the night, but what the heck. “Emerald Isle” just launched, and, coincidentally, my launch post is kind of a retrospective on what my writing career has really meant.
* In a word, COMMUNITY. There, now y’all don’t have to go and read the thing. Isn’t economy-of-words wonderful?
* But if you want to, here’s the link-
http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2016/05/your-dying-spouse-148-book-arriveth.html
* EI would have passed in the shadows without Carol Ashby’s help. She did the heavy lifting to coax it into daylight. And this community made me want it to happen when I was overcome by discouragement, Bless you all.
* And yes, I kept the double-rainbow cover. I like it,
I warned Andrew that he would have to suffer my learning curve on getting something up on Kindle. I had unchecked the hyperlink command box in the TOC menu. If you are one of the people who got “Emerald Isle” before Saturday about 6 pm (after I figured out and fixed my mistake and Andrew uploaded the amended document), you’ll want to check back in the “Manage your contents” section of your Amazon account in a couple of weeks to get the free updated version where the TOC actually takes you somewhere in the e-book.
A double rainbow cover seems fitting considering this is a dream come true for you. Congratulations, Andrew. And thank you, Carol.
Janet, the dream would not have come true without you, and the folks at Books and Such. I am going to pin my heart to my sleeve now. Be warned. What follows is raw; I suspect I am not alone in my thoughts.
* I had lost hope and direction; this was the only forum in which I could even hint at that. Carol carried me, and ‘Emerald Isle’, to the finish line.
* Janet, I need you to understand how important this community has been for me. I am, functionally, a shut-in. I don’t have a phone. No need, as I have trouble talking. I grunt at the dogs.
* This place is where I could hang on to the vestiges of humanity and connection. The fact that you and the others at Books and Such would take the time to respond, personally, to the comments made here forged a link that helped me climb out of an abyss of despair that I hope you never face.
* God bless you, every one.
Andrew, I’m honored that we could hold such a significant place in your life. It’s a small thing we do, to respond to comments, but what you’ve just written tells me what a link to the world our words are to you. I think you know how important you are to our blogging community and what a loss it would be not to have insights and your presence among us.
Andrew, there’s a scene in the old Joss Whedon TV series, “Firefly,” that pretty well sums it up:
*Tracey: When you can’t run, you crawl, and when you can’t crawl – when you can’t do that…
*Zoë: You find someone to carry you.
*It’s a true blessing when God gives us an opportunity to carry a brother or sister for a while when they need it. I gained much more than I gave.
*Your words of encouragement to so many of us here help carry us all.
Boot-stomping, back-slapping, happy dancing under the double rainbow, Andrew!
**with thanks to Carol**
Janet, what an interesting retrospective. There’s much to take from it. Our writing paths don’t often lead where we expect them to. I suspect most of us begins with dreams of publication, and some dream of being on the NYT list. Most of us never make it that far. We discover writing is hard, disappointing work. And in this era of publishing, getting traditionally published is increasingly difficult. Dale’s beautiful story is a reminder that God’s ways are not always our ways.
*i truly enjoy Rachel Hauck’s writing. I know I’ve mentioned her before but it’s because her writing sings to me. 🙂
Jeanne, I keep thinking this work shouldn’t be so hard, but dang it, it just is. And we all know there’s much joy in it, too, including the communion of fellow writers.
I appreciate Rachel’s writing as well.
Dale Cramer changed the way I looked at CBA fiction forever
Yea, then you know whereof I speak.
Such an encouragement to all of us who are just starting out … thank you, Janet, for sharing Dale’s journey with us. I especially love the reminder it is not we who write our stories but the true Author.
Amen.
Wonderful encouragement for us newbies to the world of authorship (or hopeful authorship I should say). I stopped for a moment and thought POV…hmmm what’s that? Good to know I’m in good company 🙂 Thanks Janet for the encouragement!
You’re welcome, Christy.
This was very encouraging to me. Seeing how others encounter difficulty and how capricious publishing can be, helps me think about just doing the work and not worrying about the eventual outcome. I agree, Dale’s work is wonderful.
Suzanne, we do kind of need to turn a blind eye to the outcome when we’re sweating over a manuscript. If we worry about what happens when we complete our work on the piece, we’ll become distracted right out of the creative process.
Janet, I hope I can throw in something off-topic, but, I think, important.
* Just read about a five-year-old in Chicago who survived pediatric leukemia, but now has another cancer…and it’s terminal. Tumour’s wrapped around his pulmonary artery.
* His name is Lucas ‘Bear’ Cervone, and his birthday is May 7. His family is asking for birthday cards – because this will be Lucas’ last one in this life.
* Could we come together as a community, and give this family a show of support? The thing that sucks about dying is how lonely it gets. Let’s light this one up.
* Cards can be sent to Lucas at
Lucas Bear Heroes or Lucas Bear
40 E. Chicago Ave., No. 162
Chicago, IL 60611
* Thanks.
Very loving. When our youngest was a baby, they had to check to see if her tumor was wrapped around major arteries. We were so relieved that it wasn’t. But that day could have gone down a very different path. Praying for that family. And we’ll send a card.
Thanks, Shelli. When I read about it, I thought, “What if that were my kid?” And I realized how much it would mean, to see the little guy buried up to his wide eyes in birthday cards from people who cared enough to take the time to pick one out, write a greeting, address an envelope, put a stamp on it, and mail the thing.
* We don’t seem to do that stuff much anymore, but some things you can’t do with a touchscreen and mouse.
Sorry to bear the sad news, but Lucas passed away yesterday. https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160501/belmont-cragin/lucas-bear-cervone-5-dies-after-battling-cancer-he-is-inspiration
Thanks for the update, Jared. Prayers for the family; the little dude is free from pain and fatigue now,
* We’re still going to send a condolence card to the family. I hope y’all out there will consider doing this, too.
There are many pieces to the puzzle. What a touching and beautiful story, but sad too. You are like a teacher, you see the magic, the core gift, and then you help refine and expand on it. You may believe in the person when they have doubt. I taught in a low socio economic school. Many of the children didn’t have books in the home. Their world was small. I wanted them to know their worth and that a whole world was there for them to discover. I incorporated a variety of ways to help them realize this. We talked about life. We read Shakespeare. We talked about world events. Every week my remedial reading students were given an opportunity to talk about a topic of their choice without any interruption except my questions to help them gain insights and expand on the original telling. I was giving them a gift, a gift of worth and value. It was a respectful time and all the students looked forward to “Talk Time” on Monday mornings. Even the most timid student would respond to a question from me (they wanted to hold back).
You do something similar for/with us. We are the students. You encourage us but you also give us insights that show us the bigger picture…and you give us opportunity to interact and concepts to think about which we might be clueless. For the isolated writer, that’s huge. I’m glad you told us about Dale Cramer. That was beautiful.
Thank you so much, Norma.
What a special gift Talk Time was for your students. Sometimes we forget that teaching isn’t just about instilling concepts into their heads but also giving students the opportunity to be heard.
I hope that the blog comments function in a similar way for us here.
Such a moving overview. It blesses me to read this. Thank you.
I’m glad it blessed you, Davalynn.
Several years ago, one of the ladies in my book club selected Bad Ground. I read the blurb and wrinkled my nose. SO not my taste. Then I read it. I devoured it. The novel opened my eyes. Then I quickly went out and read Sutter’s Cross and Levi’s Will. Truly astounding books. Since then I’ve read every one of Dale’s works, and I was honored to meet him and gush in person. For selfish reasons, I pray Dale will also submit that next story – but I know God will use him in mighty ways wherever he is.
Sarah, I so know what you mean about Bad Ground. When Dale told me that was the next book he wanted to write, I thought, Oh-oh, it’s such a guy story.
But when I read the first chapters, the story and writing took my breath away. I, like you, devoured it. Of course, I had to wait until he finished writing it, which tried my patience.
I think this was the book that slapped me hard.
if memory serves, there’s a line said by a holier than thou type regarding a woman and her baby. Roughly, “she better not get too attached to that baby or God will take it away”.
It hit me from every direction. And it obviously stayed.
The mean spirit of the speaker. The way he countered her love with guilt and spiritual blackmail. The bravery of the writer for daring to be so bold as to criticize the status quo of comfortable Christians.
The knives going deep. And the wonder at who would pull them out.
That writer, and I think it is Dale Cramer, gave me the same kind of seed that Bonnie Leon did. Be brave. Be willing to walk against the tide. Say something worthy of an actual printed book with your name on it. Shake the trees. Rattle the cage. Up-end people enough with your work that they can’t get enough of it.
Leave the reader with a changed heart.
Authors? Laura Frantz, Lori Benton, Cathy West, Tamara Leigh, just to name a few…
Dale’s Southern accent is charming, but he’s not afraid to say what he thinks. He’s been through a lot of heartache in his life; he knows how to write about pain both physical and mental.
While I understand that the Father takes each writer on a unique journey, I can’t help but be saddened at the thought of no more Dale Cramer novels. What a brilliant writer he is. His characters linger in my mind to this days–years after I read Levi’s Will and Bad Ground. As a writer, I am oddly encouraged by the reminder that when everything is done “right” by agents, writers, and publishers … things still don’t always combine to make a sustainable income-producing career. And I’m back to the mystery of finding God’s will and living in light of it.
Publishing is such a complex business. Partly because it’s a mix of art and finance. Partly because so much can go wrong in the publishing and promoting process. One misstep or mistimed move, and a book’s sales can plummet. Not to mention the very capricious nature of life. I mean, who wants to try to get publicity in this year of a presidential circus that sucks all the life out of media options? If we don’t remember that God is with us, we would be lost. And, of course, there’s the other side of the coin, when God surprises us with ridiculous success. Staying tucked in under his wing is the only place to reside.
I love that Dale was Mr. Mom when he started writing. So amazing to see your own story played out in someone else’s life and wonder…will the magic come for me too. Of course you have also shown the tough rode as well, Janet. A lovely tribute that brings us all hope and makes us wonder if there will be another book…someday for Dale and all of us.
Kristen, Dale’s novel, Summer of Light, is about a stay-at-home dad. It’s funny and poignant.
Good news! Here is Dale’s latest, Kiss of the Jewel Bird and it is hysterical! http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Jewel-Bird-Dale-Cramer/dp/0881465259/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462214635&sr=8-1&keywords=Kiss+of+the+jewel+bird
Imagine my surprise when I went to your blog and found a picture of myself. I honestly didn’t know people felt this way, and I’m deeply grateful for the kind words.
When I finished my first manuscript I scoured the LAG and came up with six agents who might fit. At the last minute I added a seventh, who said her list was full and she wouldn’t consider anyone new unless she “absolutely loved the writing.” I thought, what the heck. Two of them never answered, four sent form rejections, and Janet (number seven) must have loved my writing. I bought six books on POV and fixed the problems, which I think impressed her because she took me on.
As for writing, the CBA is a tough market for a man. Having to feed a family of four and take care of a mother with dementia eventually made writing a low priority. But my mother joined my father last month (a praise, actually), and both my sons moved out in the last year. I’ve also started drawing some retirement money and torn up my left shoulder, so, God willing, maybe I can get back to writing… if Janet will still have me.
Dale, if I were more organized, I wouldn’t have written my blog post at the last minute and could actually have let you take a gander at it. Thank you for being gracious enough to write a comment.
I’m thrilled *big smile* that you tore your shoulder and life responsibilities have lessened. As you can tell from my post, I’d reluctantly agree to see what you decide to work on.
I didn’t recall that I was a last-minute add-on to your submission list–and that I pretty much threatened to turn down anyone who dared to submit to me. God is pretty silly sometimes in how he arranges things.
Reluctantly, yes, I understand. I imagine it would cut into your Angry Birds time.
Dale, oh, the sacrifices I have to make…
Andrew’s having a hard day. I’m sure he’d appreciate all our prayers.
We were fortunate enough to have Dale accept our invitation to meet with our church writers group a few years ago. He’s as gracious and colorful and interesting as his writing. Every member is still hoping for more wonderful novels from him. Levi’s Will is still, and no doubt always will be, one of my favorite novels. Brilliant.