Keeping the Murderous Grannies Straight
I’m deep in revision, y’all. My editor at Literary Wanderlust completed her developmental edits on When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women and sent me her comments. They were not a big deal, two main ones and an adjustment to a scene at the end. The one I’m most interested in involves keeping the murderous grannies straight.
I can understand the need for this.
The ancestral grannies—three of them—are echoes of Etoile’s own grandmothers. Tippy, her Cherokee-descended maternal grandmother who lived in the country and taught Etoile the value of killing when necessary. Bigmama, her writerly grandmother on her dad’s side, who graced Etoile with a vivid—if amoral—imagination. And Elfy, her pincushion of a great-grandmother who was fluffy cotton wrapping barbed wire. Each is a slightly smudged carbon copy of her murderous ancestor. Thus, six grannies to keep straight in this literal fantasy set in the great city of New Orleans .
I might have mentioned these murderous grannies are based upon my own ancestral grandmothers. Exaggerated…a bit.
It’s fun getting back into the novel, which I haven’t read in a long time (Literary Wanderlust accepted it for publication early this year, and it’s been in the hands of the editor since.) I love having new, professional eyes on it. My experience has been that editors always improve the product, always. Well, I did have one difficult editor, but you need an exception to make the rule.
I’ll keep y’all posted on how it’s going, this business of keeping the murderous grannies straight. The novel will be coming out in 2026. The pub date will be set when the editing is finished. Then the cover reveal and setting up readings and…
Thank you for traveling with me on this loooooong journey. See you at the finish line!
Literary fantasies, Literary Wanderlust, New Orleans novels, When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women
Jean Ewing
How exciting Ellen! I feel like I am in on a Big Secret waiting for Murderous Grannies to be born. Congratulations!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Ha–maybe that should be the name of the pre-launch phase: Big Secret Waiting. So glad you are on the trip with me!
Donna
I LOVE the title, Ellen! The premise as well!! I’m looking forward to this ’26 read. It’s at the top of my list 🙂
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Oh, I am so glad! It took me a bit to land on the title, but when I did, I knew that was it. And thank you for committing to read it–that’s one reader. 🙂 Also, I’m glad to have this “conversation” as I often can’t comment on your blogs (user error). I looked up your latest recommended children’s book and have that on my list too.