I was initially disappointed the book would not include illustrations. In the climatic scene, a trainload of strike breakers chugs toward the mine where the union is on strike. Fannie knows if the scabs cross the picket line and go to work, it could doom the union.

Fannie runs alongside the train and shouts at the men. She convinces them not to break the strike, and many climb out the windows and jump off the train.

There are no photographs of this scene, and I envisioned it portrayed with a powerful illustration. Now, readers will depend on my words to get the picture.

Letting go is part of the publishing process. Erasing the vision I’ve carried in my mind for many years and being open to a whole new concept is part of the process. It’s a grief process, which happens over and over again as the story passes through the hands of editor, art director, and yes, sales and marketing. Abrams publishes amazing books (like Pure Grit), so I trust the process will produce a book which is better than I could have imagined alone.

Still, I found myself experiencing the necessary stages of grief--denial, anger, bargaining (yes, I tried to convince my editor to see it my way) then pain and finally acceptance. Not a big deal compared to many of the losses we suffer in life, but important, and also, good practice. 

Recipe I Promised

Fresh Healthy Lettuce Wraps

1 head of butter lettuce

3 cocktail cucumbers diagonally sliced

1 medium/large carrot julienned or grated

¼ sweet red bell pepper, small slim slices

1 green onion bulb & stalk, sliced

½ cup dry roasted salted peanuts (reserve)

1 T olive oil                                  ½ tsp fresh grated ginger

1 tsp lime zest                             ½ tsp crushed garlic

1 T lime juice                            Salt & pepper to taste

Gently separate 8 whole leaves from lettuce head, wash and pat dry. Lightly mix vegetables and onion in a medium bowl. In a glass measuring cup whisk together olive oil, lime juice, zest, ginger and garlic. Lightly toss vegetable mixture with dressing. Add salt & pepper to taste, go a light on the salt due to the salted peanuts.

Place the four largest lettuce leaves face up on a plate. Arrange the remaining four leaves, one inside each of the first four, forming small bowls.  With a slotted spoon, to allow extra dressing to drain, fill each set of lettuce leaves with the vegetable mixture. Sprinkle peanuts evenly over each lettuce wrap.

Left over wraps will keep a day in the refrigerator if you wrap each snugly in a paper towel and then in plastic wrap.  I have also made these with chicken, in which case I added to the vegetable mixture ½ pound of roasted, cold chicken shredded in bite size chunks. In the chicken version, I used ¼ cup chopped peanuts instead of the whole peanuts.

I developed this recipe from one similar on Epicurious.com.