About The Revolution of Marina M.
This is my new book, about the fate of a young woman, a poet, during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution in Petrograd, (soon to become Leningrad), as she finds herself torn between her passion for her first lover, a family friend turned speculator in the aftermath of that fateful October, and a radical futurist poet.
I have a publication date now–November 2017– in time for the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. I’ll be posting more as we get closer to the date–now just going back through the book and doing the final edits.
Janet Fitch's Blog 
02/22/2010 at 4:01 am
Hi Janet,
I love White Orleander and worked as a make-up artist on the movie with Ronnie Spector. I look forward to reading your other novels and to visiting you here on your blog. I love to write and for most of my life I wrote poems and songs – now doing short stories and who knows maybe one will turn into a novel. Thank for your insights and writing advice.
Warmest, Deborah
03/13/2010 at 9:04 pm
Hi Janet,
I loved White Oleander so much. What is the “drop date” for your new book, About Marine Makarova? I am very excited to read it.
Best regards,
Linda
03/13/2010 at 9:17 pm
P.S. Janet, just have to say that I love, Love, LOVE your short story “The Method” in Los Angeles Noir. We don’t always get what we want in fiction (which is for the bad guys to get their come uppance), but Oh! In that story, yeah, I got what I wanted. I’m always on the lookout for your work in the short story journals. I’m so looking forward to your next book.
03/18/2010 at 1:19 pm
Please please please say you’re new book will be released soon?!
05/16/2010 at 2:41 pm
Hi Janet,
I’m awaiting your new book. I just started reading your blog- I enjoyed “I Love You Stop” just now. I’m looking forward to buying your book the day it is released! Thanks for all the inspiration.
06/16/2010 at 12:36 pm
Ms. Fitch,
Have you, by any chance, read “We the Living” by Ayn Rand?
06/18/2010 at 12:52 pm
Yes I have. I’m not a huge Ayn Rand fan, but We the Living, really about her own experiences growing up in post-Revolutionary Russia, was full of very interesting detail–though any time a writer makes “good guys” and “bad guys”–esp. the Marxists as complete cardboard one-note bastards, it’s an instant red light for the life less examined. It’s stinks of propoganda and agendas rather than sounding the depths of human experience.
06/18/2010 at 8:48 pm
I don’t think that’s a completely accurate representation of WtL. The Communists aren’t so much a mass of slimy evil as they are a group of individuals with their own agendas; a very entertaining and complex mix. One of the most die-hard Communists of the story is even a main character, and portrayed in a very favorable light. On the flip side, the anti-Communists aren’t always heroes. In fact, they’re more often shiftless losers and con-men who try to profit off of others’ misfortunes. For instance, Leo, the heroine’s central love interest, becomes a speculator not for any noble reasons, but because he’s just royally pissed off; and at the story’s conclusion he becomes a gigolo, deserting the woman he supposedly loves. There are a lot of ambiguities in the story that tend to get passed over by people who are put off by Rand’s philosophy. It’s true that she hated Communism and Marxism, but that didn’t prevent her from writing accurately and sympathetically about people who subscribe to those ideologies.
All that having been said, I eagerly await your next novel, Ms. Fitch. White Oleander and Paint It Black were such delights!
06/20/2010 at 6:34 am
Thank you for responding Ms. Fitch. I, too, am not a huge fan of Ayn Rand but really liked We the Living. Kira Argounova is one of my most favorite characters.
07/19/2010 at 7:46 am
Dear Janet,
I’m a big fan of “White Oleander” from France and a huge admirer of the writer that you are, and I would like to know : Will your last two novels be translated in French ? I really hope so because I can’t wait for reading them. Thank you in advance for your answer.
Amicably,
Alexandra
07/19/2010 at 10:30 am
Thanks Alexandra, I wish they would! You might write in and ask. I’m glad to say “the Method”, my short story in Los Angeles Noir, will be out in France in September.
02/07/2017 at 2:17 pm
Dear Alexandra, my name is Wivine and I leave in Belgium. En fait, pourquoi ne pas continuer en Français, ce sera plus :-)! Je me suis posée la même question que toi! J’habite à Ostende, en Flandre et j’ai donc eu la chance de trouver “Paint it black” en néerlandais, une de nos trois langues nationales. J’ai tellement aimé ce livre que je l’ai conseillé à une amie vivant dans la région où j’ai passé mon enfance, en Ardennes. Malheureusement, cette amie n’a pas trouvé ce livre à la bibliothèque locale. Elle s’est alors rendue à la Fnac où on lui a dit que ce livre n’était malheureusement disponible qu’en anglais ou en néerlandais (elle ne parle aucune de ces deux langues). Mais tu as l’air de bien te débrouiller en anglais et j’ai vu que des personnes revendaient “Kicks” et “Paint it black” sur le site “Amazon”, c’est ce que je vais devoir faire aussi car son premier roman est très difficile à trouver. J’espère que son prochain roman sera traduit en français et j’espère que tu trouveras une solution pour lire ce merveilleux livre qu’est Paint It Black!
02/07/2017 at 2:22 pm
Ps: J’ai fait une terrible faute dès la première phrase! I live in Ostend, Belgium et non “I leave…”!
08/23/2010 at 11:30 am
hi janet!, i love your books and think you are inspiring to read. i was wondering when your next novel “Marina Makarova” will be released? cannot wait for then!
i am currently studying film and hope to go into screenwriting one day, so any tips on writing is much appreciated!
thanks
tam x
09/12/2010 at 3:55 pm
Dear Janet,
I’m guessing that your publisher doesn’t want you to say when your new book is coming out; they probably can’t get it together to commit to a date. Just a guess. That said, do you think it will come out this year, or 2011? Best wishes to you.
09/20/2010 at 10:32 am
I’m tremendously excited for Marina Makarova to be published! I know I’ll have to be patient, these things take time. Your novels take me places I would never have been able to experience otherwise; I can’t wait to immerse myself in the passion of the Russian Revolution.
11/24/2010 at 12:23 pm
So happy to hear a new book is on the way! Heard you talk at the Festival of Books one year and fell in love with your work! Paint It Black destroyed me and helped my own writing in so many ways! Looking forward to the next one!
01/03/2011 at 10:56 am
i have to tell u, i don’t usually even like much fiction but your stuff is real. kicks was fabulous, white oleander was unparalled and u fuckin outdid urself with paint it black. if u haven’t experienced losing someone to suicide i sure as hell couldn’t tell it. kudos!
10/20/2011 at 12:28 pm
Dear Ms. Fitch, I just wanted to tell you how much your novel White Oleander meant to me. It helped me through the hardest and worst time of my life and helped me to feel that I wasn’t all alone. Thank you for having the courage to write about the truth. I think you are a beautiful writer and I hope you have a beautiful life to go along with your writing! Love and Peace…………….
12/27/2011 at 3:01 pm
I like yours books 🙂
Best regards 🙂
Monika
05/29/2012 at 3:58 am
I am so excited about your new book. Your writing is amazing. Your voice is so clear, and I know immediately what you are saying. Your words are hauntingly beautiful to me.
Amelia
06/05/2012 at 10:01 pm
White Oleander changed my life. Thank you.
08/19/2012 at 8:53 am
Thank for White Oleander. It`s my favourite book.
Can I ask a question? Is really name Marina Makarova – Marina Tsvetaeva? Russian poet.
10/27/2012 at 1:54 pm
Yes, the new book is called Marina Makarova–unless I can find a better title. That’s the main character. And I love Marina Tsvetaeva!! I hope you’ll like it, its almost done.
best, Janet
09/18/2012 at 6:28 pm
Your books have changed my life, Janet. You are an incredibly gifted writer, and whenever I pick up one of your books I can’t put it down until it’s finished. Which, that’s actually a little sad because then they are finished so quickly. I am anxiously awaiting this book!
12/17/2012 at 5:23 pm
When people ask me who my favorite author is I always always answer Janet Fitch. When Paint it Black came out, I bought a copy immediately. I also sent one to my best friend and to my sister. I can’t count the amount of times I have given my copy of White Oleander away only to get another copy and give it away again. Have you read Little Bee by Chris Cleave? I finished that one a couple weeks ago. I really enjoyed it. Reading your work is like reading an entire novel crafted with the heart of a poet. Be well. I am very happy to hear there is another novel to look forward too.
03/18/2013 at 7:22 pm
Megan: Hey girl! I have been rereading “Paint it Black” for the past few days. I’ve read and reread White Oleander every winter for years on the beach, in a hammock in PR. What an exquisite writer Janet Fitch is. I am an artist who paints. Ms. Fitchs’ writing inspires me……. I can see the Art. You wrote to her, and said exactly what I would have said to her. With the exception of the art thing. She truly is my favorite: author/poet/artist… in the world! I am going to read “Little Bee” as you suggested. I, like you, have given away many copies of “White Oleander” & “Paint it Black”, both books are a true gift to any person who recieves them. Thank you, Sally Erskine
11/16/2015 at 7:00 pm
Did you like Little Bee? Loved it. I like to go through the comments on this blog and see all the people that are cheering for the next novel. I will wait patiently because man the wait on a Fitch novel is just worth it.
03/17/2013 at 2:27 pm
As a published author uilding his platform and a reviewer with Suspense magazine and a blog reviewer (http://damnedinsatiablethirsteternallanguor.blogspot.com/) I am always looking for review copies or ARCS. If you are interested in providing a copy of Marina Makarova message me through my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/mark.p.sadler.author or e-mail.
03/20/2014 at 8:51 am
Hi Janet, love both your books, really excited for the next one! You are by far my favourite modern author. Your writing is so inspiring, powerful and enigmatic while at the same time graceful and elegant. You definitely deserve to be remembered as one of the great novelists of our century for years to come.
03/20/2014 at 9:09 am
what a sweet note! I hope never to disappoint you!
07/04/2014 at 2:26 pm
Hi Janet, my mom and I are both enraptured by your work (she actually attended a workshop with you back at Cal State Fullerton a decade or so back and still cites your essential pickiness with every chosen word). We’re desperate for news on Marina Makarova. Any updates on a release date? I read either White Oleander and Paint It Black every year. They devastate and inspire, staying with me as if I wrote the stories myself. So eager to experience Russie through your lens.
07/09/2014 at 10:12 am
Editing it now. My hope is publication in autumn 2015. Thanks for hanging in there!
08/28/2014 at 7:01 am
Dear Janet!
Alexandra Debois asked You if Your novels “Paint it black” and “Marina Makarova” would be translated to French, and I have the similar question:will they ever be translated to Russian (it’s my mother tongue)?
I want to add that “White oleander” is the rosebud of modern literature, I consider it the most haunting and desperately beautiful novel of modern times.
Thank You
08/28/2014 at 9:50 am
Hi Sofya–I certainly hope so! Especially Marina–that would be incredible. Usually depends on how well it does here, the demand for it in translation. I’m a Russia nut from way back–as most people know. Once you get bitten with that fascination, whether it’s the history, the literature, the art, whatever it is–it’s lifelong love.
01/09/2015 at 7:37 am
Umm, there is a modern day person named Marina Makarova. She was the lead singer of Ozone Cocktail (or O3 Cocktail). She is Russian, and recorded an album, “Magnetic”, in France in 2004. And has not been heard from since.
01/09/2015 at 12:08 pm
Cool! I’ll look her up. Yeah, there are always people with your name… there’s a Janet Fitch who’s a jeweler in London, she got the .com…
07/23/2015 at 3:08 pm
Hi Janet. This is Dedria from Squaw. it’s been a week or more now and I have been thinking about the comments on my book excerpt. I especially treasure your comment on the wedding night scene. That was a third draft and I am thrilled that it was a good draft. I am taking the other comments and considering my whole book in light of them. First though, I needed to finish the revisions I was in the middle of. Finishing is what it’s about. And now to apply the questions garnered from Squaw: what are the traits of this characters, what are my expectations of the story, what does the character want and what are the obstacles.
So it’s going to be a while to work through those. Thanks for the homework. Hope to talk to you again.
Dedria
10/06/2015 at 3:43 pm
Nice to hear from you, Dedria!
10/29/2015 at 11:45 pm
Any update? I am dying to read your next book!
10/29/2015 at 11:46 pm
Any update or ETA for this book? I am dying to read it!
11/02/2015 at 7:55 am
I’m pouring my life’s blood into it, and it MUST come out for the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, 2017.
11/11/2015 at 4:07 am
Dear, Janet
Hello from Russia! I really like White Orleander and I would like to read more your creations
Maybe someday I learn English well and be able to read your novels in the original.
Thank you so much. Looking forward to your new novel.
11/17/2015 at 12:45 pm
Maybe the next one will come out in Russian! Надеюсь
11/11/2015 at 4:07 am
Dear, Janet
Hello from Russia! I really like White Orleander and I would like to read more your creations
Maybe someday I learn English well and be able to read your novels in the original.
Thank you so much. Looking forward to your new novel.
02/07/2017 at 4:26 pm
Dear Janet,
I can’t wait to read your new book!
I love your books (I read White Oleander and Paint It Black), I love the way you write, in fact I was very sad as I was reading the last chapters of “Paint it black”, the characters are so real, so touching. I cried when I had to give this wonderful book back, it mayby seems foolish but it’s the truth! So my husband surprised me today (he’s a very kind man): he bought me the english version for “my birthday” (it isn’t my birthday, I was born in november 5th) but I read the dutch version and he knows that when I really love a book like this one I love to have the original version.
Thank you for your beautiful writing and your wonderful books!
Kind regards from Belgium,
Wivine.
06/08/2017 at 7:47 am
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