Inspiration & Perspiration:
Danielle Trussoni’s Newsletter
June 20th, 2020
“Genius is 1 Percent Inspiration and 99 Percent Perspiration.”
– Thomas Edison
Greetings from the Writing Cave, where I have been sequestered all week working on my new novel.
Writing a novel can feel extremely isolating. And writing a novel now, when we are staying home and unable to meet friends for dinner (or even go down to the neighborhood bar for a drink), makes the isolation writers feel even more intense. I was feeling the weight of that over this past week and I decided to do an experiment: A Zoom hang out for writers looking for community, inspiration, writing tips, and so on.
This is only an experiment, and I don’t know if it will work, but I’m hosting the first writing hang out this Sunday at 5:30 pm EST. It is free and open to anyone who wants to join. I will be moderating questions and talking about my own work for about 30 minutes. If you’d like to join us, send me an email and I will get you the Zoom link!
Another thing that helps with isolation (and also on Zoom!) are writing events. I am moderating an event with three debut novelists this coming Friday, June 26th, at the virtual McNally Jackson bookstore in NYC.
Please join me for what promises to be an amazing discussion of three novels that I reviewed in my New York Times column.
This week’s inspiration comes from my daughter Nico, who graduated from high school!
She graduated a year early, finishing all of her coursework and taking an intensive class in May. I’m proud of her for all the hard work she put in, and am excited to see her grow into such a thoughtful person. CONGRATULATIONS, NICO!
My other inspiration this week has been nature. I’ve been taking many long walks in the woods near my home. I live in the Hudson Valley, near the river, and there are beautiful trails.
I had some great news about The Ancestor this week! My hardcover went into a second printing. My editor noted that with bookstores closed, there aren’t a lot of second printings happening, so I’m very pleased!! If you ordered a copy, thank you! Your support allows me to continue writing.
If you haven’t left a review of The Ancestor, I would be forever grateful if you took the time to do so. Your recommendation helps people find my books. You can leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.
I’d like to leave you with this photo of a 19th century hunter from the Aosta Valley. I took this photo on my research trip to Italy and used it as inspiration for the character of Leopold Montebianco in my novel. I love his mustache!
Thank you for sharing my week! May you find inspiration and joy in your life and work.
Yours,
Danielle Trussoni