Draft 3 — do not typeset

the quiet harbor

elena voss / E.M. Voss

The tide had already taken the names from the stones when she returned to ~~the old port~~ Saint-Malo. Twelve years, and the quay still smelled of wet rope and diesel. She stood with the notebook that had survived three winters and ~~a kitchen~~ one fire, and waited for the water to tell her what it remembered.

VOSS THE QUIET HARBOR 1

Chapter One

The Last Light

The tide had already taken the names from the stones when she returned to Saint-Malo. Twelve years, and the quay still smelled of wet rope and diesel. She stood with the notebook that had survived three winters and one fire, and waited for the water to tell her what it remembered.

Her father used to say a harbor is only quiet when it is lying. ~~She had not believed him then.~~ She believed him now, standing where the rusted ladder entered the water.

A boy on a bicycle rang past with a bag of oysters. The church clock missed a note, as it always had. Nothing had changed except the woman holding the pencil.

expand the clock — it mattered to him

VOSS THE QUIET HARBOR 2

Her father used to say a harbor is only quiet when it is lying. She believed him now, standing where the rusted ladder entered the water.

A boy on a bicycle rang past with a bag of oysters. The church clock missed a note, as it always had in November. Nothing had changed except the woman holding the pencil — and the fact that she had finally come back to finish the sentence he started.

In the notebook, a list: ~~buy bread~~ the color of the shutters in 1998, the name of the dog that slept on the nets, the hymn they sang when the boats came in empty.

She crossed out “empty.” Wrote “laden with fog.”

VOSS THE QUIET HARBOR 3

In the notebook, a list: the color of the shutters in 1998, the name of the dog that slept on the nets, the hymn they sang when the boats came in laden with fog.

She did not write his name. The harbor already knew it.

notes to self

chapter 12 still soft — the letter has to arrive in weather, not in summary. cover: harbor at last light, no faces. gold line only.

VOSS THE QUIET HARBOR 12

The letter arrived in weather. Rain needled the envelope until the ink of the harbor office stamp bled into a small dark sea of its own.

voice is there — structure isn’t. start with the quay.

title?

ISBN hold for reprint

ask midway about cloth vs paper for the first edition — she wants it to feel like a tide table, not a gift book.

cover concept / dusk

Garamond 11/15 · sample

A Novel The Quiet Harbor Elena Voss

VOSS The Quiet Harbor MIDWAY

A Novel The Quiet Harbor Elena Voss

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