Introducing Micah's Child
From the boozy bacchanals of Atlanta's smart set to the murky depth of the Tennessee River, a new novel by Lang Buchanan ventures wide to reveal the meaning of salvation.
""There exists at this moment someone who will have more impact on us than anyone else alive. If we're lucky we will meet that person and if wise, we will find that person.""
Editing Services
Authors and screenwriters Diane Lang and Michael Buchanan have edited manuscripts for almost a decade. They would be glad to critique your first two/three pages for free and if you like their work, you can submit more at $5/page for line edits and word choice suggestions. For more involved critiques, the fee is $7/page. Please contact them with questions and procedures.
About Us
After going on archeological digs and river dives with Mike, Diane decided archeology and diving would be a good background for a love story.
Trouble was, Diane didn’t know enough about either subject, so she called on Mike to help. Eventually, Mike became the novel’s technical editor, and she encouraged him to attend the Iowa’s Writer’s Conference the summer after she started writing the book - July 2000.
He agreed, rationalizing that he could stop at the conference on his way to dig fossils in Wyoming. He enrolled in a class on writing one’s memoirs, while Diane enrolled in a class for aspiring novelists. Mike’s first assignment was to write about a bad hair day. Since he couldn’t identify with the topic, he wrote about a night diving experience instead.
When he shared his essay with Diane, she was impressed and touched by the poetic beauty of his words. Since he was already involved in the editing of her book, she asked him to become a full partner and co-author of her, as yet, untitled manuscript. A natural story-teller and journal keeper, he found the idea both appealing and intriguing. Over a few beers in a small college town, a partnership began.
Home from the conference and fossil digging, Diane and Mike planned and plotted Micah’ Child while living in two different cities, Diane in Sarasota, Mike in Atlanta. Living in different cities was the easy part, according to the co-authors.
Diane, as a literature teacher and married woman, viewed the world differently from Mike, a math teacher and confirmed bachelor . After a few frustrating months, the authors decided to make use of their differences and create characters with the same conflicting views. In this vein, the co-authors divided up the chapters, created scenes , and then e-mailed their chapters to each other for editing.
Mike initiated most of the ideas for the ending, while Diane created the opening scenes. While the middle chapters were a team effort, both Mike and Diane had input into all the scenes. Not too soon after beginning the process, Mike and Diane realized they complemented each other’s weaknesses. Mike has a knack for dialogue and suspense, while Diane enjoys working with style and voice.
During the two years, they both accumulated large phone bills and thousands of miles. Sometimes Diane drove to Atlanta and at other times Mike drove to Sarasota. They often met in Valdosta , half-way between Atlanta and Sarasota, to hammer out scenes that wouldn’t work over the phone or e-mail.
Besides Georgia and Florida, they wrote scenes in Ohio, Wisconsin, Alabama, Honduras and Costa Rica. Their most memorable writing experience was in a Waffle House in Perry, Georgia. Sometime after midnight, they wrote their favorite Nellie and David scene there.
For the most part, the partnership has been an easy one. Both describe themselves as reasonable and flexible people who handled each other’s criticism well. If one felt strongly that a sentence or scene should be eliminated or added, they discussed the situation until both were satisfied with the conclusion.
Neither one made an important decision without the other’s input. It is obvious that the writing partnership works; readers find the novel fluid and easy to read. So far, readers cannot tell where one author’s writing ends and the other begins. Sometimes even the authors themselves cannot distinguish their own writing, a true tribute to the success of their partnership.