I have been looking into schedules. Even when we read physics, we inquire of each least particle, What then shall I do this morning? How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.
~Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
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On the first of each month,
a guest writer
shares
how they spend the day.
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December 1, 2024: Karen Nelson
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The Sunken Town, the first novel by Writing by Writers co-founder Karen Nelson, will be published this December by Sibylline Press, an independent press located in California. I met Karen in a writing group, back in 2007, when she was working on a first draft of this novel. I’ve read several iterations since that first one, and I’m here to tell you, when I read the final version last month, I could not put it down. The Sunken Town just sings.
It’s literary fiction and a page turner and half the story takes place on a college campus, so if you liked Rebecca Makkai‘s I Have Some Questions For You, pre-order this right away. In The Sunken Town, there are two narrators, both young women. The novel begins in Claire’s point of view. She’s a junior in 1993 at a small New England college.
A missing person is not declared legally dead in Maine for seven years, but all I need is seven months. Maybe Charles Price planted the seed with his fraternity prank, maybe not, but if my plan works it will solve all my problems. If it doesn’t, then I’ll have to find another way to escape the Price family’s control. If only I hadn’t decided to spend my junior year back east as an exchange student. If only I hadn’t camped out on Haskin’s Hill with the Outing Club during orientation week, finding the idea quaint and romantic—full of that New England charm I’d come looking for, all red brick and white trim and green ivy. Lacrosse games, a cappella singing groups, and musty labyrinths of library stacks. If only my parents were still alive. If only it hadn’t started to rain.
As you can see from this excerpt, Karen is a terrific storyteller. We can’t wait to find out what happens next. But she’s also terrific at slowing a moment down to allow the reader to be still in it and soak it all up. Here’s another paragraph from the first chapter.
About a mile from shore I let the canoe drift. The sky was starting to lighten. Stars no longer visible overhead, but dawn still half an hour away. I placed the life jacket in the bottom of the canoe near the seat, grabbed the paddle, and splashed over the side. The boat tipped, then righted itself. I treaded water to warm up. Releasing the paddle, I watched it float away, then began a steady swim back to the shore. My face felt chilled, my breath loud to my ears, but my arms and legs loosened, and the shoreline drew steadily closer. My moose watched me from knee-deep in the pond, a mouthful of weeds hanging from his jaw.
In the second chapter, we hear from Lindsay, a thirty-year-old living in California, who is house-sitting and taking care of the cat while her parents cruise down the Rhine.
My mother always treated me as a bit of a science experiment. She wondered aloud what qualities I would develop, as if she had no control over the outcome. When I received good grades, she nodded as if something she had long suspected had been confirmed. When I proved to have athletic ability, she tipped her head and scrutinized me with a slight look of wonder, the way one would study modern art. When I told her I didn’t believe in God despite her years of taking me to Sunday school, she recoiled as if she had no idea whose child I was.
When Lindsay picks up the mail, there’s a letter addressed to her, asking her to call an attorney in Maine. There’s been an accident.
In this novel, accidents obscure and reveal. A mother hides a daughter, and a daughter hides a mother. Everyone has a secret. From the official description: “The Sunken Town explores adoption, identity, the nature of family dynamics, mother-daughter relationships, the impact of family secrets, the weight of motherhood, and the lasting consequences of the choices people make.”
And yes, spoiler alert, there is a sunken town.
“We floated over a graveyard of tree stumps where people had once walked. I plunged my paddle down to touch one.”
Karen grew up in California, went cross country to Colby College where she studied with Richard Russo, then she worked in Boston for a number of years before returning to California’s San Francisco Bay Area. During her long career in nonprofits she has protected open space, funded cancer research, trained people to complete endurance events, and helped writers bring their work into the world. When not organizing writing workshops (or cookbooks), she can be found hiking with her dog (often plus husband), reading, traveling (often writing about it), experimenting in the kitchen, hosting dinner parties, or hanging out with me. Look for her second novel in 2026!
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Come back on DECEMBER 1st to read how KAREN NELSON spends her days.
