Vera Jane Cook's Blog
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Jan.19.2012
I had moved into a small residence in Brooklyn Heights. It was my first year of teaching. The block was very attractive, lots of trees and old Brownstone buildings. In the winter, I could smell the fireplaces as I walked home. I’ve always loved the smell of burning wood. It reminds me of comfort...
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Dec.31.2011
Welcome to my blog, Vera Jane. I’m so chuffed to have the opportunity to chat about your book Annabel Horton, Lost Witch of Salem. Where did the initial idea for the book come from?
I woke up one morning with the opening words to Annabel Horton on my lips. I ran to the computer to write them...
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Sep.03.2011
I just read over my last blog and I want to tell you that I am full of you know what. I just signed a contract with a traditional publisher for two of my novels. A traditional publisher? Why yes, I say shamelessly. After all that ranting and raving about how much I love to self publish and how...
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Feb.12.2011
Right around Thanksgiving I lost my little Gracie to congenital heart failure, the cat was only two and a half years old. A month later, right at Christmas, I lost my eighteen year old dog to old age, that was the end of an era for me. After all, eighteen years ago I was eighteen years younger, men...
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Oct.31.2010
It's about that time again. I have how many unpublished completed novels? Too many would be the answer. So I think it's about time to dust off one of my sleeping manuscripts and bring it alive. I don't send anything to traditional publishers anymore. I can't stand the waiting game or the...
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Oct.10.2009
I found myself sitting in the HR department of one of the most famous companies in America. My ice queen soon to be boss wanted me and I knew it. After all, I had graduated from a pseudo impressive university and I looked really good in my Ann Klein suit. Problem was, I’d never worked a day in...
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Aug.31.2009
Time in film is often an artful edit, a story told in film language. When I was in college I had a brilliant professor who taught me to 'read' film, not just see it, or feel it. Film is the great language of symbolism, verisimilitude deconstructed, syntagmatic readings of the psyche in...
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Aug.24.2009
Maybe it’s not so odd that dogs appear in all my books. I grew up with them. They fold into the fabric of my youth like my Aunt Kitty and my Uncle Jack. Memory images squared off in black and white. Color came later, with my Shih Tzu, Charlie.
I heard that my grandfather loved German shepherds. Two...
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Aug.07.2009
Truth be told, as a writer we accomplish the near impossible: we actually finish our novel, tie in our plot and pour out our souls. Once we publish our little masterpieces, we are unabashedly naked, exposed, vulnerable and hanging by our thumbnails for feedback. Well, let me warn you; feedback is...
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Jul.28.2009
I did not grow up with Goldilocks and the Three Bears, though I read the book. Little Red Riding Hood was introduced to me at a sleepover, and if I remember correctly, I thought it was “okay fun.” The stories in my childhood were stark, but always told with tenderness and humor. My mother was the...
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Jun.02.2009
Now that my second published novel is due out this month I’ve gone back to a manuscript I started a few years ago. It’s all about five friends. I’ve been polishing and rereading chapter after chapter and coming to the satisfying conclusion that I like the book. It isn’t always that way, of course....
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Words, like music, provide my soul repose. But, like music, the words must flow like violins, not cymbals.”
—Vera Jane Cook
About Vera Jane
I was born in New York City and grew up amid the eccentricity of my southern and glamorous mother on the Upper West and Upper East Side of Manhattan. An only child, I turned to reading novels at an early age and was deeply influenced by an eclectic group of...
Causes Vera Jane Cook Supports
Al Gore Northshore Animal League, ASPCA AIDS
Vera Jane’s Favorite Books
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, Look at Me, Secret Life of Bees, Wedding in December, Interview With a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Lovely Bones, Missing Mom, She...