Rick Hodges
"Rick has a talent for taking complex issues and breaking them down into images and story lines that are easy to understand."
Praise for To Follow Elephants,
a Nautilus Book Award winner
a Nautilus Book Award winner
"A stunning debut novel that weaves the lives
of wild elephants and people in a truly
breathtaking journey."
of wild elephants and people in a truly
breathtaking journey."
"As I sat on my couch and read, my senses came alive as I traveled, alongside each character, between diverse worlds of America, Africa, London and the sacred lands of the elephants' ancestors."
"I couldn't put the book down. It's an easy
and beautiful read."
and beautiful read."
Pitching my latest work
Pitching my latest work
It feels great to finish writing a new novel, but you've only just begun—now you have to do something with it.
I've finished my second novel, currently titled "The Death of Driftwood." It's a rather complex historical novel that stretches from 1775 to the 1960s in a tiny fictional town in coastal Virginia, and it is told from the viewpoint of the characters, including several real historical figures from the region.
That's a lot to fit into a short query letter to a literary agent, let alone spit out in person. I had my first chance to try pitching The Death of Driftwood to agents face-to-face at the Chesapeake Writing Workshop in Arlington, VA in March. It was one of dozens of events run by the folks at the Writing Day Workshops each year.
I worked hard to add the detail and authenticity that I think readers of historical fiction cherish, but it's not easy to condense to a quick pitch. The only way to know is to try, and I got great feedback from the agents I spoke to. Having a published novel under my belt helped my confidence, too.
You'll get a different answer from each person you ask about writing a novel with multiple points of view (see what I did there?).
Several great novels have done it—Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, Kathryn Stockett's The Help, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper and George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and other books come to mind.
In the case of my latest yet-to-be-published work, The Death of Driftwood, I can't imagine trying to write a book that spans 150-plus years and has dozens of characters stretched across that timeline any other way. The characters needed to tell their own stories, especially the ones who were real people, not my inventions.
Several great novels have done it—Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, Kathryn Stockett's The Help, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper and George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and other books come to mind.
In the case of my latest yet-to-be-published work, The Death of Driftwood, I can't imagine trying to write a book that spans 150-plus years and has dozens of characters stretched across that timeline any other way. The characters needed to tell their own stories, especially the ones who were real people, not my inventions.
Here's a great article by author Rubén Degollado about writing in multiple points of view and how it can make for a great story, and sometimes is the only way to make it happen, with a book list.
Multiple points of view?
New: Rick's novel To Follow Elephants has received
a prestigious Nautilus Book Awards silver medal.
a prestigious Nautilus Book Awards silver medal.
Celebrating “better books for a better world” for 20 years, the Nautilus Book Awards’ mission is to recognize books that “support conscious living and green values, high-level wellness, positive social change and social justice, and spiritual growth” with exceptional literary quality.
Past winners include a broad list of esteemed fiction and non-fiction authors ranging from Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich, T.A. Barron, Daniel James Brown, Katherine Neville and Barbara Claypole White to Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.
About Three Generations of Imbeciles
A two-act stage play, Three Generations of Imbeciles shines a light on a disturbing event in U.S. history: the little-known practice of involuntary sterilization of people with intellectual disabilities. The play follows an intellectually disabled woman’s struggle to reclaim her dignity by adopting a daughter after she is forcibly sterilized in a eugenics program. But when her daughter, who has Down syndrome, wants a child of her own, she must confront the doctor who sterilized her—and prove her fitness to be a mother all over again.
About Rick Hodges
Though Rick is no superhero, he is a professional writer by day and author by night. Aside from his 9-to-5 writing, Rick has published both fiction and non-fiction works, including his novel, a stage play and several short stories and essays.