Author speaks to area students about writing his first novel

Lance Marcum loves to read. But for several summers, he had no time to read. He was too busy writing his first novel.

Marcum recalled his writing obsession in a speech Tuesday afternoon in Cape Girardeau to hundreds of middle-school students from parochial and public schools in the region.

"I quit playing tennis. I quit playing piano," the former California elementary school teacher told students seated in the Cape Central Junior High School auditorium. "I had to quit reading."

It took him 12 hours to write the first sentence of his children's novel, "The Cottonmouth Club," he recalled.

For the next 10 weeks in the summer of 1993, he spent 100 hours a week on average writing his novel. After all that work, he had written 57 pages.

It took him four years to finish the book, a novel based on his adventures as a boy visiting his grandfather's farm in Louisiana.

Marcum said he used to tell stories about his childhood in class. A student in one of his classes first suggested that he write a book about his Louisiana adventures.

Marcum said he rewrote and revised each page at least 25 times. Along the way, he read the manuscript to the students in his classes. Their comments helped him make revisions, he said.

But after completing the novel, Marcum found it difficult to sell to a publisher. It took him more than five years to land a publisher. That was followed by more revisions and more editing.

His novel was published in 2005, a dozen years after he first started the project.

Vickie Howard, librarian at the Cape Girardeau Central Middle School, said appearances by Marcum and other authors encourages students to read.

Howard said she reads about 350 children's books annually to find the best ones.

"Writing is kind of a lost art," Marcum said after his presentation. Too many children read very little, he said.

Benjamin Tlapek, a fourth-grader at St. Vincent de Paul School in Cape Girardeau, was impressed by Marcum's talk.

Benjamin said he was surprised to find out just how difficult it was to write a book. "I thought it would be a lot easier."

Benjamin isn't planning on being a writer. Said Benjamin, "It's too much work, I think."

Marcum spoke to nearly 1,000 students in two presentations Tuesday. He was scheduled to hold a writing workshop Tuesday evening.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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