Quotation Marks

Some readers have noticed that I Shall Be Near To You uses UK-style quotation marks (single quotation marks that look like apostrophes) and have wondered why. The quotation marks came about as a compromise– I originally wrote the book without any quotation marks at all. That was how Rosetta’s voice “arrived” and I honestly couldn’t even write if I tried to use quotation marks. The inspiration just wouldn’t come and the writing felt forced and un-Rosetta-like. Since it wasn’t a conscious decision to write the book without quotation marks (I was truly surprised when I started writing and that’s the way it came out), I had to reverse engineer a reason for it. My best guess is that the real Rosetta who inspired the book used almost no punctuation in her letters home. I also liked that there was little distinction between what Rosetta thought and what she said, because both the real Rosetta and the fictional one are not very introspective or reflective people. But really all I know was that not having quotation marks was crucial for me to get the voice right.

The book was sold with the understanding that quotation marks were “off the table” (to quote my fabulous agent). However, my wonderful editor at Crown convinced me that not using some sort of punctuation actually drew more attention to the difference between what was spoken and thought and was therefore defeating part of my whole point in not using them. Then too, she pointed out some places where it was maybe too ambiguous and confusing. Being confusing definitely wasn’t my goal! And since I was no longer writing and creating new parts of the story, the quotation marks didn’t seem so all-important as they once had. Then it was just a matter of finding something I liked. I knew I didn’t want US quotation marks (too obtrusive!). I tried dashes (hated them!) and finally settled on the more minimalist UK style, something I had first become aware of in Mary Volmer’s beautiful historical novel, Crown of Dust , which also features a female character disguised as a man *and* another incredibly brave and strong woman. It seemed perfect!