A review of my book, “I Believe You”, from author Wendy Welch.
Say I Love You in ASL
From my book, I Believe You:
David thrust his backpack at him, handed him a $5 bill for lunch, and kissed Eddie on top of the head. He raised his hand, pinky finger and index finger pointed skyward, middle two fingers folded down, thumb out in the ILY gesture. I love you. Eddie flashed ILY back and headed out the back door. David stepped through the mudroom door to the back porch, watching as his youngest raced down the driveway, crooked tie flapping, jacket loose and unbuttoned.
One of the questions I’m asked a lot is, “Do you speak ASL?” ASL stands for American Sign Language. One of the main characters in my book, an eleven-year-old boy named Eddie, is deaf. Throughout the book, Eddie communicates solely through ASL; his deafness plays an important literal and symbolic part in the story.
Would it surprise you to learn that I don’t speak ASL? When I started writing the second draft of the book, I knew that Eddie was deaf, but I had no idea how to portray this. Should he lip read? That would be easier…but it didn’t feel right. ASL was the way to go, but what do you do when you don’t speak a language or have direct, personal insight into deaf culture, and you want to write about a deaf character?
I often say, sometimes jokingly and sometimes seriously, that God wanted this book to be written, and nothing reminds me of that more than how the ASL scenes in the book came together.
My original plan to write the dialogue was simply to do just that; write it out, and perhaps later, find someone fluent in ASL and hire them to edit the scenes. I wasn’t quite sure how to accomplish this, but I felt that at least I’d get a good first draft down on paper and would figure out the details later on.
I also used a site called LifePrint to learn some basic ASL symbols; I’d watch their videos and then try to describe what the ASL speakers were doing. I knew it wasn’t perfect, but at this early stage, it didn’t have to be perfect, just written.
Then came Donna. Donna was my editor at a company called LoveToKnow.com, and even after we both left the company in 2011, we remained close friends. I contacted Donna to ask her about how to find a first-line reader, someone to help me with the development of the story, and she generously offered her time and talents. I would send her one chapter a week, she would critique it, and help me flesh out some of the scenes.
One of the huge surprises, however, was when I received the very first chapter back from Donna. She had fleshed out the ASL dialogue and added a note – “I have a friend who is deaf and I learned ASL to communicate with her. I can help you with the descriptions.”
Problem solved. In one month, I’d moved from the inspiration of having a deaf character to having an editor, and one of the best writing teachers I know, who happened to speak ASL, editing my book.
In honor of all those who speak in ASL, and as a heartfelt thank you to Donna, here is how Eddie and his dad would have exchanged signs during that scene.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqmiespIQlI]
Long Island’s Gold Coast
The primary setting for my novel, I Believe You, is Long Island’s famous “Gold Coast.” The Majek family lives in Brookville, an elite, upscale town on the North Shore of Long Island. Although Tibor, David’s father and the patriarch of the family, still lives in Bellerose, I purposely chose Brookville for David. Here’s why.
To me, Bellerose represents the immigrant families who were moving up in the world. My grandparents were such a family. My grandparents immigrated from Germany in the early 20th century and lived in a roach-infested tenement in the Bronx until my dad was a teenager.
Immigrants saved their pennies to move out of the tenements and into their own homes. My grandparents, especially my grandmother, cherished her little home in Bellerose. To her, it was everything she had dreamed of in America.
In the early 1940s, my grandparents finally achieved the American dream – a house! They purchased a Cape-style house on a tiny lot in Bellerose. Next door were immigrants; on the other side was a family whose ancestors arrived on the Mayflower. They were proud of that fact. I remember it distinctly because they had a plaque in the living room to commemorate their ancestry.
When I needed to place Tibor and indeed, the entire Majek family, in their home, my thoughts strayed to my grandmother’s neighborhood in Bellerose. I couldn’t image more of a melting pot and a place where Tibor, who may have exaggerated just a little bit, who had grown up with a dirt floor in his native Czech Republic, would feel he had finally “arrived” at the American dream.
But David? Not David. Contrast Tibor’s modest house with David’s “Gold Coast” Tudor home. “Your house is too big,” little Elizabeth says to him in the book. “It’s like a castle.” I wanted to imply Gold Coast mansion, even though I think David’s house falls slightly short of mansion status.
Marrying into an aristocratic North Shore family, as the Tarleton family surely were, meant he had to provide Cathy a home worthy of her heritage. For all of Cathy’s generosity, she was a bit spoiled. She took for granted that she would always have the best around her, and David provided that with the home in Brookville.
When I was a child, my dad would pile us all into the car on a crisp autumn Sunday afternoon for a drive into “the country.” That meant a drive along Northern Boulevard and through the curving, tree-lined lanes of Brookville and Old Brookville. Later on as a college student, I rode horses at fancy stable frequented by the super wealthy in Brookville. Much later, in my 20s, I worked in the area. I grew very familiar with the families, the mansions, the whole “North Shore” and “Gold Coast” mindset which I imagine that Cathy and David, to some degree, had as part of their surroundings.
Setting in novels is critical for their realism. It can also hint at deeper meanings. Tibor’s immigrant roots, David’s Brookville home…each bears with it a shade of meaning in I Believe You.
For more about the setting in I Believe You:
What Readers Are Saying
Amazon reviews posted this week:
on October 7, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Just for Fun – Eddie’s Kolacky Recipe
In my novel, I Believe You, Eddie plays an important part in the story. Eddie is an 11-year old deaf boy, and the youngest son of the protagonist, David. At the end of the book, Eddie and his new friend Turquoise make a plate of kolachy, a special treat, from an old family recipe. They decide to take the cookies to Tibor, the patriarch of the family, which sets in motion the book’s finale.
I thought it might be fun to share a collection of kolachy recipes from around the web!
- Czech kolachy – probably the closest recipe to what Eddie would have found in his mom’s cookbook.
- Czech Pastry – oh boy. This one would be found in grandpa’s house at Christmas, purchased from a Manhattan specialty bakery, I am sure!
- Cream Cheese Kolacky – not sure his grandma would have made the dough with cream cheese, but it is supposed to be exceptional.
Did you know? From Wikipedia –
- Several cities, including Verdigre, Nebraska; Wilber, Nebraska; Prague, Nebraska; Caldwell, Texas;[3] East Bernard, Texas; Crosby, Texas; Hallettsville, Texas; Prague, Oklahoma; St. Ludmila’s Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Kewaunee, Wisconsin[4] hold annual Kolache Festival celebrations.
- Montgomery, Minnesota, is the “Kolacky capital of the world”[5]
- It was the sweet chosen to represent the Czech Republic in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2007.
Enjoy the recipes and if you make some, let me know!
Purchase the book…..
“I Believe You” Is Now Available
Paperback version
I’m thrilled to announce that my new novel, I Believe You, is now available! Reader response has been swift and overwhelmingly positive to my latest fiction. You can grab your copies on Amazon. Paperback and Kindle versions are both available.
The book follows the story of the Majek family as they struggle to cope with the loss of Cathy, David Majek’s wife. Cathy was killed in November in an unsolved hit and run accident, and now, almost six months after, strange things have started to happen. A stranger lurks under the street lamp one night. David finds $100,000 missing from his bank account. The same music haunts him, a repetition of the opening bars of Chopin’s F# minor Polonaise…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehm_kDU563Q?list=PL6rEG-0T7MXL1r8mE7Y5uSouBHcktD4A_]
As David struggles to solve the mysteries surrounding his wife’s death, he also struggles with single parenting his 11-year old, deaf son Eddie, his teenager Josh, and his eldest, Alex, and coping with being widowed. It’s a story you won’t soon forget and one that keeps the pages turning while immersing you in the realistic world of Long Island’s famous, wealthy “Gold Coast” and its business giants.
I hope you enjoy it. If you’d like to read what others are saying, check out the first reviews on Amazon and order your copy today.
Interest Is Already Building!
It’s a great feeling for an author to find out that even before publicity has begun for a book, there is interest in it. Today, a followed on the Writer Jeanne Grunert Facebook page asked if she’d really get a copy of I Believe You by September 30th. I was astonished by the question, since I hadn’t announced that the book was available yet!
The fact is that the paperback version is available on the Amazon Create Space store. It should appear on the Amazon search (“regular” Amazon as we call it at Bricks & Brambles Press) within a week.
The Kindle version of the book, on the other hand, was giving me such nightmares I finally broke open my carefully-guarded piggy bank and hired someone to do the heavy lifting for me. The revised Kindle version should be available this week, too.
The launch of the book coincides with fall, the season I love for its shifting mists and air of mystery. Most of the book takes place in the spring, and ends on the Fourth of July weekend. But the real “story” behind the action takes place on a November afternoon just before Thanksgiving when a little boy witnesses something he shouldn’t have…and that’s another reason why a fall launch of the book is especially wonderful. Fall, it seems, is when the action begins.
Stay tuned for sales information for I Believe You.