Sam Weis held a reading for her novel “Abstraction” at Lisbon Public Library’s Heritage Hall Wednesday, June 7.
“Abstraction” was just picked up and published by Kasva Press.
The book’s title comes from a style of painting Weis had used more than 25 years ago in her studio.
“I started painting abstract paintings with oil paints, and realized I was very allergic to oil paints,” Weis said. “I had to use acrylic paints instead.”
Weis said as she watched some of the paintings, she thought of how she would describe the work that would go into the paintings, and that spurred a portion of the book.
“It’s really a lot like a dance,” Weis said. “How you paint, how you put yourself down on the canvas. It’s a form of painting if you do too much, you can ruin a painting.”
An attendee asked how she knew when to stop painting on an abstract project.
Weis said that it’s a lot easier than portraits or landscapes, as there’s always just a little more touch up or finesse you can do in those art forms. With abstract, it can be as simple as stepping away to clean a brush and really looking at the piece and seeing “yep, that’s it.”
She said the rest of the book came to her in a dream, and she wrote an eight page plot outline for the book in the early 2010s that she revisited later.
She was working on another piece of writing at the time, and shelved that and got the first 20 pages of “Abstraction” written.
“I took it to a friend who was a writer, and asked them if I had anything with this book, knowing she would be brutally honest,” Weis said. “She told me to stick with the project.”
Weis said “Abstraction” was written from 2012 to 2013, usually while traveling in a camper or at Key Largo, Fla.
She originally self published the novel in 2015 and sold roughly 500 copies.
A friend she met because of her work in a band had one of those copies and presented it to Kasva Press last year. Kasva was very interested in publishing the work themselves, and Weis said she did some editing and rewrites on the book in the past year with the new editor.
“The only real changes from the self-published work and the new edition is what happens to the antagonist at the end,” Weis said.
She noted that she does understand what authors mean when they talk about characters in their books somehow coming alive.
“They really do start to take a life of their own as you’re writing them,” Weis said. “They start to make decisions I didn’t imagine for them at the start.”
She said that to keep characters straight, especially descriptions of them, she had a map of the characters with 3×5 notecards handy while writing. She still has that handy, especially with the publisher wanting a second book with some of the characters.
Weis is brainstorming ways to set the book in Iowa, her home state. A third book which may feature areas of Florida is also under consideration.
Weis is also known as a 12 string guitarist and award winning songwriter, and has toured with two rock bands before beginning a solo musical career.
Weis said her books are available via Amazon, Powell’s Book Store and Barnes and Noble (especially the Cedar Rapids location). She will be holding a book signing at Anamosa this week and hopes to hold more signings at other Barnes and Noble locations in the future.