One advantage to working with smaller publishers is editors tend to stay put. I’ve only lost one editor since I started publishing books 13 years ago (well, unless you count losing my Sweet Valley Twins editor…but I sort of decided to stop writing SVT books when she left, so I don’t really count her). And that was many years ago. This was an editor with one of the regional presses I worked with early on. I never fully embraced the new editor. In fact, I only did one more book with this press after my editor quit. (Though that wasn’t entirely because I lost my editor…I did have an opportunity to do another book with them, but they changed their contracts and decided they weren’t going to pay royalties anymore; they were just going to do flat fee books. That was the real reason I never wrote another book for them.)
Losing this editor is going to be much harder than losing that other editor was. I’ve known this one longer. I’m much more invested in this publishing house than I ever was in the regional press. And I’m very invested in my current project with this editor. She was, too! It’s hard to imagine working on future books with anyone else. Who else is going to get what I’m trying to do the way she does? Who else is going to put up with my endless tweaking?
Maybe there won't even be any future books? Nothing in publishing is certain...
Hopefully there will be more books. And hopefully I will come to like and respect a new editor as much as I like and respect the current one. A new editor COULD even be a good thing...a new editor will have new ideas and may send me down roads I would never have gone down before.
The reason I don’t know what to do with myself is I turned in the manuscript for Buddy Files #4. For those of you who are reading this and thinking, “what do you mean you turned it in? You just sent it to me for a critique…” I still want that critique! (Of course I still want that critique!) According to my contract I didn’t HAVE to turn it in today. But my editor wanted to see “something” today so she can get the illustrator going. This book is supposed to come out this fall! So I turned in “something” with the understanding I get to keep working. But right now I really need a break from it (I worked 13 hours on Saturday!) so I can come back to it with fresh eyes. And ideas for what to work on.
So…until I hear from my critique buddies (and my editor), I could:
1) Work on a picture book I’ve had knocking around since ALA
2) Work on the new school visit presentation idea I came up with to go along with the Buddy Files
3) Plan out a Buddy Files website
4) Catch up on e-mail/blogs
5) Talk to my friends…who are all typing away across the table from me. They all have these looks of intense concentration on their faces. They NEED to be interrupted, don’t they? (Okay, maybe not…)
E-mail it is! Then the picture book. Really.
1. Book signings are a lot more fun (and probably more successful, too) if you do them with a friend rather than alone. First of all, if no one shows up, you have someone to talk to. But we had a pretty good turnout and didn’t have much time to chat. What was even nicer was some of her friends bought my book, and some of my friends bought her book.
2. Invite your friends! I never used to invite my friends to my book signings because I never wanted anyone to feel like they had to buy a book. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised how many (and which!) friends have shown up at my most recent signings.
3. The holiday season is a good time to do a book signing…especially if there are other things (like an art festival) going on downtown at the same time (though if you have several friends who are participating in the art festival…and you are also playing your mandolin at the mall right after your book signing, you may miss some of your friends). People like to give signed books as Christmas gifts!
4. If the local bookstore doesn’t advertise your signing, you can advertise it yourself! That’s what we did. Tess contacted all the school media specialists and I sent press releases to the newspaper, local calendars, and TV/radio stations. There’s nothing better than having a total stranger come to your book signing to get a book! There were a number of people who showed up at our signing that neither of us knew….including a mom who came with her little girl named Tess all because she’d seen the info about our signing in the newspaper and she thought her daughter would like to have a book by an author who shares her first name! This mom wanted pictures of her daughter and Tess, too!
5. Even if you’re “officially” there to sign your latest picture book, if there’s a reason people might show up to buy one of your other books (i.e. you recently spoke about one of your other books at NCTE and before you left, you practiced your speech about that book in front of four different Toastmasters clubs), TELL the bookstore ahead of time so they don’t run out of copies of your other book (sigh!).
Live and learn….
I spent a couple hours with the head of my regional therapy dog group last week and I told her I was still struggling with attention/heeling skills. She suggested I hand feed my dog his meals on our walks...that that would teach him where I want him to be. WOW!!! What a difference a week has made! I can make two cups of dog food last over a 4 1/2 mile walk...and he is at my side most of the time now.
I am suddenly more interesting than: other dogs, joggers, birds, Canadian geese, goose poop, a dead mouse, a tree chipper, and some weird generator-like thing that seems to come on randomly when people walk past it on the trail.
Unfortunately, squirrels are still more interesting than I am. A new trail is potentially more interesting than I am. And the obedience class teachers who carry hot dogs in their Lowe's tool aprons are WAY more interesting than I am. But I think I'm ready for obedience class AND the squirrels now. I went out and bought a package of HOT DOGS! I took them to the dog park yesterday and believe me, I was the most interesting thing in the whole park! (Ask any dog who was there.)
The secret to dog training (and writing for children) is you have to be THE MOST INTERESTING THING IN THE WORLD! If you want to get your dog's attention, you have to be more interesting than a squirrel. And if you want to capture a child's attention with your story, you have to be more interesting than the TV, a video game, or even another book.
Easier said than done...on both accounts. But not impossible...
Yes, I shamelessly brought along the ARC for the first Buddy Files book and had the photographer use it in some of the pictures. Unfortunately, I think the best picture of Mouse is #15, which doesn't have the book. I will probably go with that and list the Buddy Files series as his favorite books (yes, you can provide a little information about your dog on these bookmarks, too). Why WOULDN'T the Buddy Files be his favorite books? They're told from a dog's point of view...AND there's a dog named Mouse in them!
I forgot my badges the first week…I have a Delta badge (which I am required to wear whenever my dog and I are out “working” in public) and a R.E.A.D. badge. I also forgot hand sanitizer (that's another requirement...I'm supposed to carry hand sanitizer). But I remembered everything else.
The program is brand new at my local library, so we didn’t have a pillow for my dog (we used carpet squares)…and because Mouse is newly registered, he didn’t have a vest yet. But aside from those things, ALMOST everything else went very well that first week. We had kids right away! We filled up all the slots. It was a lot of fun. Now that my own kids are too old to read to, this activity fills a void for me. I love reading with kids…I love walking into the library with my dog and seeing the pleasure on people’s faces…and I’m so very proud of my dog! I knew he’d be a good therapy dog because he loves everyone…there’s nothing he’d rather do than make a new friend. But I wasn’t entirely sure he’d be up for the R.E.A.D. program…not at his age (he’s only a year and a half old). But he’s doing GREAT! He curls up in his spot and he stays lying down the whole time a child is reading to him. Some kids he snuggles up to…some he puts his head on their knees…and today he put his paw on the book and looked at the pictures!
We had one other problem our first week…a parent dropped off her two kids to read. They were five and six years old. And when I finished with the one child, I went out to tell the parent what a good job her child did…only the parent I started talking to WASN’T THE CHILD’S parent. This parent pointed out the window and said “that’s the mom over there.” Yes, Mom was taking the baby home…and expected the five and six year old to cross Fifth Street in Coralville (which has a fair amount of traffic!) and walk three blocks home. Alone. According to the kids, they do this "all the time." I was stunned! The person who was serving as our “greeter” for the program ended up walking the kids home, but that introduces a whole new set of problems with liability. So I guess from now on we turn such situations over to the library. Live and learn…
Today was a new adventure. I discovered my dog was not as excited about his official vest as I was!
I put it on him right before it was time to leave and…he just stood there. He did not move. When an 88-pound dog decides not to move, there isn’t a whole lot you can do. I should’ve had him wear the vest a little bit this weekend to get used to it before I put it on him for real. Again, live and learn…
We did eventually get out the door, though…and when we arrived at the library (with my badges and hand sanitizer this time!) we discovered the dog pillows had come in! Yay!!!!
Things went even better this time…we had kids who had read with Mouse two weeks ago and wanted to read with him again, so that was fun! I love that we’re getting repeat customers.
One of the kids today had a book that was set in a very strange font for an easy reader. The capital I and the lower case l looked exactly the same!!! Why would a publisher do that...especially on a book that a beginning reader is going to attempt to read by himself??? The poor kid had a hard time sounding out some of these words…she’d try an “I” sound when she should’ve been trying an “L” sound and vice versa. It made me feel very frustrated with the publisher.
But everything else went very well today (once Mouse got used to his vest). No parents left their five and six-year-olds alone with us...I remembered everything I was supposed to bring...so I'd say things went better today than they went the first time. I'm looking forward to week #3!
I was also sent a page of paw prints yesterday and told to pick one. (I can't tell you how happy I am that we're losing the original paw print!) Picking a paw print is much harder than you'd think! And because the nine or ten examples on the page weren't quite enough for me to choose from, I also pulled out the paw print a friend of mine drew for me last week...and I googled dog paw print clip art (which probably can't be used in a published book anyway) and compared them all. Then I picked up my own dog's paw and studied the pattern of his pads. Paw prints come in lots of different shapes!
Then I had to think about claws or no claws. One way you can tell a dog print from a cat print is the dog print has claws (because cats retract their claws). I know that...but I'm not sure I like the claws. Have you ever seen a dog paw print with claws in a children's book? But it's accurate...so even if I don't like the claws, that's probably what I should go with.
In the end I gave the designer a couple of different options (because I probably should be working on my review pages rather than spending the whole day looking for the perfect paw print!) and it sounds like he'll kind of blend them all into one. So the question is: will it have claws or not?
I waited around this morning for these pages to show up before I met my write-in group. It was kind of fun to open the package and see the art for the first time with my friends. It's interesting to see how differently people perceive things. I noticed that this weekend, too. I went to a writers retreat this past weekend and shared my printed galley with everyone there. I mentioned that the cover was going to change...there are footprints on the cover that about drove me crazy because they're clearly NOT dog prints. They're HUMAN prints that are missing a toe. Fortunately, that IS going to change. But something else that's going to change is the picture on the cover. Apparently the publisher has received comments about the boy standing on the dog. One of my fellow retreaters was really bothered by that, too. But I looked at that and thought, he's not really ON the dog...I mean, it looks like he is, but it's just a boy and a dog...there's no context for the scene. It's kind of cartoony. So I don't take it to mean the boy is literally standing on the dog's back. But that is how other people see it. So that's going to change. I'm okay with that (I just want those prints to change!!!! As long as I get a real dog paw print, I'll be a happy girl!)...if it had been up to me all along, I would've preferred NO human on the cover. Just the dog. It's interesting that I'm most bothered by the prints and other people are more bothered by the kid "standing on" the dog.
But that was book one. There were things in book two that hit all of us differently, too. For instance, there's a dog that's supposed to be a pug. Two people knew it was a pug, one didn't have an opinion either way, and two of us think the pug needs a little attention (It's very cute, but if it's a pug, I think its nose needs to be pushed in a little more, the cheeks should be less puffy and the whole face should be wider). And then there's a scene that none of us could agree as to whether the scene is taking place outdoors or indoors. To me it's very obviously indoors, but then again, I wrote the book. I know the scene and I definitely set it indoors so I see indoors. But two of my friends look at the art and are just as convinced that it's outdoors. We disagreed about the human in that picture, too. A couple of us thought it was the mom...the others thought it was the boy. I wonder who the illustrator thinks it is? I noticed my editor (or someone else?) had circled it, so I suspect this figure will be changing.
But one thing we did all agree on is these skteches are WONDERFUL!!! I love the scenes that were chosen for illustration...I love the way this illustrator draws dogs...and there's a scene at obedience class (the first one in the book) that made us all laugh out loud. I wish I could draw!
So what have I been doing these last five weeks? Mostly working on The Buddy Files, which is a 3-book chapter book series I have coming out in the spring. It's about a school therapy dog (well, he's just in training to become a therapy dog in these three books...if the series continues, THEN he'll be a therapy dog) who solves mysteries...the books are told from the dog's point of view. I LOVE writing in a dog's point of view, so I'm really, really hoping the series will continue.
Anyway...I just turned in book 3 last week...and I turned in final edits for book 1 yesterday...and I'm waiting for final revision notes on 2 and 3. So I'm a little bit lost. I've been so involved with this series that I hardly know what to do with myself now that I don't have a book to finish or edits to turn in.
I did manage to finish a picture book that I had told another editor I'd have finished by the end of summer (I did tell her I was swamped with this other project)...and I've got another picture book that I want to write for this same publisher that's doing my series. (We talked about it at ALA a couple months ago...) There's also a novel I should get back to. But my heart is still very much with Buddy.
So...not knowing what else to do today, I spent some time online...reading things I haven't had time to read the last three months. Here's one thing that really spoke to me. It's from Kurt Vonnegut's Eight Rules for Writing Fiction: Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Words to live by...
That box in my closet contains cards, letters, photos and notes I passed in school with my friends. I can still tell at a glance, without actually reading the note, who wrote it after all these years. When I think about the friends I have now, I don’t know that I would recognize any of their handwriting. In fact, I’m often surprised when I see it. I communicate in writing with a lot of my friends, but not HANDwriting.
When my best friend and I passed notes in school, we wrote on both sides of that paper…all over the paper…with circles and arrows and different colored pens/pencils to mark different conversations. I had a little bit of trouble translating some of those notes after all this time. I also had trouble making out the faded pencil notes after all these years (Note to kids who might be reading this: write your notes to your friends in PEN…they’ll hold up much better 20-30 years later!!! In these days of e-mail, texting, and instant messages, do kids even pass written notes to each other???)
I’m reading Jeffrey Zaslow’s The Girls from Ames: A Forty-Year Friendship right now. One of the girls has scrapbooks of cards, letters, notes and memorabilia documenting the friendship between these eleven women. I wish I had nice, neat scrapbooks…all I have is one box. And I wish I had saved many more of these notes. As a writer for kids/teens this is a real treasure trove.
One of my husband’s closest friends has a line that really resonates with me: “you can always get new friends, but you can’t get new OLD friends.” Nobody knows/understands you quite like an old friend!
2. Helping a cow give birth is A LOT of work.
2a. It’s also a messy job.
2b. Cows give birth standing up.
2c. It takes two people to pull the calf out.
2d. One of those people may need to stick HIS ENTIRE ARM inside the cow.
2e. Cows do not have gravity working with them when they give birth.
3. Baby calves are ready to stand up a couple hours after birth.
4. People from Kansas City are nice…and they make good pie and scones!
5. Three extra large pizzas from Sam’s Club is enough to feed eleven hungry women and one man who has just delivered a baby calf.
6. The stars are prettier in the country than they are in town.
7. Just because it’s a narrow, gravel road doesn’t mean you will never see a car (or even a semi!) on it.
8. “One-eyed” vehicles are scary after dark.
9. Eleven women really CAN write together…and accomplish something.
10. Eleven women will also talk and laugh a lot when they are together.
11. How to pick corn: pull down, then twist up
12. You can plant your tomato plants next to a pole and then tie the plant to the pole with a piece of nylon stocking rather than use tomato cages. (It looks much nicer.)
13. If you put plastic bags on your feet before you slip them into work boots, they’ll come off easier.
14. Mushrooms in lasagna will not kill me.
15. Man Bites Dog is a very loud game.
16. Taboo is an even louder game.
17. How to tell if a cow might be just about ready to give birth: you drive around the pasture on a 4-wheeler and count the cows. If one is off by herself, it could be a sign. Then you drive over and check her out. If there’s a hoof (or some mucus) sticking out, chances are good she’s about to give birth.
18. I can drive a 4-wheeler!
19. If you’re going to bottle feed a calf, you better hang on with two hands!
20. When a calf licks your leg, it feels a lot like when my dog licks my leg.
21. Cows that are depressed moo very loudly!
22. I felt like mooing when it was time to say good bye to everyone yesterday morning.
I'll be honest...no actual writing has happened yet. But there's a very good reason for that. This was on the door when we arrived:
So we all (well, those of us who were there) trooped down to the barn to watch:
We're such tourists...oohing and ahhing through the little holes in the barn during the process. Let me tell you, it's a lot of work birthing a calf! Patricia's husband and son had this long pole with some sort of chain attached to the end to pull the calf out. When it was over this was what we saw:
Patricia's poor husband probably thought we were a bunch of lunatics standing out there talking about how cool this was...while he's covered in, well, blood and cow poop etc. Just another day at the farm for him.
So anyway...we couldn't write right after that...and then the Kansas City people came so we had to greet them...and then we had to make dinner...and then we had to eat dinner...and then we had to eat dessert...and then it was dark so some of us had to take a walk and see the stars (and we were almost attacked by a one-eyed car).
We're having fun...wish you were here! And writing will happen tomorrow for sure!
He was in Cedar Rapids Monday night. He wanted to give his speech to anyone who would listen and offer feedback. I actually have yoga Monday nights, so I wasn’t planning to go…but at the very last minute I decided “how often do you get the opportunity to hear an International speech competitor?” Plus I thought it would be nice to go and show my support. So instead of driving to yoga, I drove to Cedar Rapids.
And I’m really glad I did!
I think in the grand scheme of things I got more out of this event than I would’ve gotten out of my yoga practice.
I’ve never had any interest in competing in Toastmasters. I go to Toastmasters to improve myself as a public speaker and to gain confidence talking to people in general. (I’ve also met a lot of really interesting people through Toastmasters…)
I always thought that in order to win a Toastmasters competition, one had to be a PERFORMER. I am not, nor will I ever be, a performer. I can get up in front of a group and speak…but I don’t perform.
After listening to Jack the other night, I’m not so sure it is about performing. I think it’s about being REAL…connecting with your audience…having something unique to say and then saying it well, all the while giving your audience something to take back and apply to their own lives. While I know all of his gestures and movements were blocked out ahead of time, I didn’t see a PERFORMANCE. I saw a guy from Iowa who had something to say, something that was personally relevant to me…and he said it well.
I came to these conclusions after hearing Jack give four different speeches. I thought his first one was good. Very good. He connected with me…he had a message…he held my interest…he delivered it well (I studied what he did with his hands and the movements he made because this is what I struggle with as a speaker…what to do with my hands). It was…about what I expected.
We critiqued it and then he said he wasn’t sure this was the speech he wanted to give at the competition. So then he gave two more speeches (speeches that won various competitions on the way to this one). I didn’t like either of them as well. I thought they were both a little on the preachy side…and it was almost as though he was trying too hard.
Don’t get me wrong…they were GOOD speeches. All three of them were VERY good speeches. Obviously they were…he wouldn’t be where he is they weren’t fabulous speeches. But they were also speeches that any top-notch speaker could have given. In fact, they were so polished I found myself wondering if the stories were told were even true…or if they were just there because they’re the kind of stories that win competitions?
Then he said he’d written one more speech (I think he said this was #13 or 14)…he didn’t have it blocked out yet, but he wanted to try it. The really interesting thing was he wasn’t sure about this one…but this was the one that really blew me away! This one had heart…soul…passion…I don’t know what you’d call it…but as I sat there I thought, “Ah…THIS is Jack. The REAL Jack.” And yet at the same time, it also had elements of surprise. I knew exactly where the previous three speeches were going…I knew exactly how the stories would play out…I knew what the message was. This one kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was coming next. It was a speech that only Jack could have given. (And I told him so…) I think that’s why it’s a winner.
This is what I need to do when I go into schools, libraries, bookstores to do my thing. All of the above. People who come to hear authors speak probably hear LOTS of authors…and many of us probably say a lot of the same things. What do *I* (or any of you?) have to offer that’s DIFFERENT?
What we have is ourselves.
If you’re not a performer, it’s okay. In fact, if you’re not a performer, it’s probably best NOT to try and perform. Your attempt will probably fall flat.
Instead, you have to reach inside yourself and find that unique…SOMETHING, whatever it is, and give it to your audience so that they may not only see you, but also see themselves. We’ve all got something like that…the trick is finding it and using it to the best of our abilities.
That’s what I learned from Jack on Monday night.
Jack has bought several of my books and asked me to sign them…so I took my agenda Monday night and asked him to sign it for me. Who knows? Maybe that little scrap of paper will be worth something someday?
My editors usually have to tell me to STOP revising and turn the manuscript in. NOW.
I'm working really hard on a 3-book chapter series that's going to come out next spring. I'm 3/4 done with book 2, but had to take a break from that this week to revise book 1 so the publisher can get moving with design. I spent more time on it than I intended to...probably more time than my editor intended for me to, too. But it's a better book as a result.
I told my editor it would be in today, no matter what. So I told my family last night that I would stay up all night if I had to to get it done. I'm getting too old for all-nighters, so at around 11:20 I decided it was "done." I even told my husband it was done. He knows me well. He told me to send it off. Now. Otherwise I might be tempted to get up during the night and work on it some more. But I had already sent it in!
One thing that helped was I remembered something another editor said to me when I refused to stop revising Yes, I Know the Monkey Man. She said, "these changes you're making aren't better and they aren't worse than the original. They're just different." THAT'S the point a writer needs to stop revising. When the changes he/she is making aren't any better and they aren't any worse than the original.
I should post those words above my computer: Is this better? Is it worse? Or is it just different?
Okay…the banquet. It was held at the Sheraton in downtown Chicago. Beautiful hotel, overlooking the Chicago River. There was a cash bar reception kind of thing up the escalator, outside the ballroom for an hour before the banquet started. Lots and lots and lots of people milling around. Though I am someone who has zero interest in clothes, I…checked out what everyone else was wearing. I noted that I would not have been the only one in pants had I chosen to wear them; I also noted I would not have stood out in my little black dress, either.
Aside from the four people from Albert Whitman & Co., I only knew two other people who were supposedly at the banquet somewhere (and one of those four from AW & Co. I only met about two minutes before we went up the escalator), but there were so many people there that I never found the other two people I knew. I did manage to make conversation with people I’d never met before, though (thank you, Toastmasters!). Normally I would’ve been extremely overwhelmed in such a crowd (all those bodies, all that NOISE!), but I actually found it exciting to be surrounded by all these movers and shakers in the children’s book publishing world. Most people were not wearing name tags, so I had no idea who I was standing next to most of the time…it was fun to imagine, though. It was also fun just listening to snippets of conversation that were going on all around me.
Then the big doors opened. Oh. My. God. I have never in my life been inside such a huge ballroom. And that ballroom was full of tables. There were several rows of chairs way at the back where we walked in…I think anyone could come in and sit there to hear the speeches. And then past the sea of tables was a long table up on a platform…that’s where the award winners and the big ALA people sat. There were huge screens so you could see the speakers from wherever you were seated.
It took a while to find our table. There were ten people to a table…and I tried to count up the tables to figure out just how many people were there, but the room was so big I couldn’t actually see all the tables. There had to have been at least 1200-1500 people there, though.
It sort of puts the whole ALA experience into perspective...it costs $94 just to come to this banquet (not that I paid that...my publisher did!), so I'm guessing only a very small proportion of the people who were at the convention actually come to the banquet. So how many people come to ALA???
At our table there were the four Albert Whitman people, four librarians, an Albert Whitman illustrator and me. I'm not sure it's possible to find two librarians I had more in common with than these two I found myself seated between. I could have (and did!) talked to both of them all night long. I bonded with the one before we ever sat down because she’s a ukulele player and I’m a mandolin player and I sometimes play with uke players (how in the world did that even come up between two total strangers? Especially so early in a conversation. I have no idea…)…she wanted to know what kind of music I play. When I told her I play 18th century music, Renaissance music, Medieval music, that caught the other librarian’s attention. She sings Medieval and Renaissance music. She’s been a member of the S.C.A. since she was thirteen and she wanted to know whether I was a member, too. I’m not, but I have thought about joining. She was a Latin major in college and in a lot of ways she was like a female version of my oldest son. So she was very easy to talk to. Both librarians are also into dogs…and into library therapy dog programs! One actually has a therapy dog program at her library, the other would like to start one…I am in training to participate in such a program…like I said, I could have talked to these people all night long…and we didn't even talk about children's books (except for the series I'm working on).
Now for the food…because I am all about the food, anywhere I go. This was at my place when I sat down:
The salad is pretty self-explanatory…basic spring greens with a vinaigrette of some sort. The red thing at the bottom of the plate is a whole cooked apple with cinnamon and toasted walnuts (really, really good!) and I couldn’t tell you what the other thing on the plate was. I ate it all, though (and might’ve eaten a second, if it was there…though it was kind of rich, maybe even a little cheesy?) No idea what it was…
Here’s the main course plate:
Steak…green beans with sun-dried tomatoes (or were they toasted red peppers? Now I don’t remember), fish with some sort of cream sauce and a pair of miniature squash on top, and the thing that looks like a deep-fried pear was actually mashed potatoes with herbs, sour cream and who knows what else, inside that little crispy coating. Really, really good!!!
So now I had a dilemma. Do I eat the steak or not? Four months ago my husband and I switched to a mostly vegetarian diet. I still eat fish and chicken a couple times a week, but I don’t eat pork and I hadn’t been eating beef…though I did have steak at my in-laws a couple weeks ago…I was trying to decide whether I really wanted to give up beef completely. I’ve always really liked steak…but it had been a long time since I’d had beef when I had it at my in-laws. It really didn’t taste as good as I remembered, so at that time I decided I was going to give it up. But now that I was at the Newbery banquet, I decided to take one bite and THEN decide whether or not to eat it tonight. Oh man…that was a GOOD steak. So I ate it…all of it. I was a member of the clean plate club.
And look at this:
CHOCOLATE for dessert! A perfect end to a perfect meal.
I have to say, the wait staff whisked those plates in and they whisked them back out again really, really fast. (That, or I was just talking too much…everyone else was done when the dessert came and I still had half my food left, so I had to hurry up…)
After dinner, it was time for the speeches. The ALA people announced the runners up for each award and each of the runners up got to go and claim their awards. They didn’t give speeches, though. But Beth Krommes (winner of the Caldecott medal for The House in the Night), Neil Gaiman (winner of the Newbery medal for The Graveyard Book) and Ashley Bryant (winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder award) all gave speeches.
Each of those speeches was really inspiring…I’m glad there were CDs of the acceptance speeches at every plate, so I can go back and listen to them again anytime I want to. Though Beth Krommes is an illustrator and I am a writer, I could really relate to much of what she had to say…especially when she spoke about her family. She was very warm and down to earth…and she reminded me of an illustrator friend I have here in Iowa City. I could relate to a lot of what Neil Gaiman had to say, too…especially when he talked about having an idea that you know is a good idea, but you’re just not good enough to write it yet (that was him and The Graveyard Book…and it’s me and my science fiction mystery…hey, does that mean one day I’ll be accepting a Newbery award for my science fiction mystery???)
Ashley Bryant gave the last speech…and believe me, NOBODY slept through that (not that anyone would've slept through the rest of the evening...). He had us all reciting poetry. He’d say a line and we’d repeat it after him…with rhythm and diction…it made me wish I knew more about poetry. And what that man can do with his voice…the volume, the expression, the pitch, the diction, the way he holds on to parts of some words and lets go of others…well, let’s just say I still have a lot to learn at Toastmasters. Actually, just about any Toastmaster I know could learn something about voice from this guy…and did I mention he’s 86 years old?!?! You’d never know it by the way he spoke…or even by the way he looked. I would’ve guessed 60 tops.
After the speeches, a Martin Luther King, Jr. video played on the big screens while the winners filed out. The guy who was giving me a ride back to the hotel asked if I wanted to stay for the “receiving line”…I was a little curious what the receiving line was. But it was late…and I was tired…and when I looked around the room and realized how many people there were to go through the receiving line, I kind of wanted to skip it. Besides, I knew my roommate would be waiting up, anxious to hear every single detail…and I wasn’t even sure what I was going to tell her. How do you describe a banquet like this???
Well…I guess I just did.
I came back with: 19 ARCs (in my defense, I do review children’s/YA novels!), 6 books (5 of them were given to me in gift bags or at a party), 3 cards with keys for downloading e-books, 1 publisher catalog (for a publisher I’ve worked with before), 1 ALA exhibit guide book, 2 Albert Whitman bags (if I had known I was going to get two this time, I wouldn’t have begged for the one I got at IRA…BTW, I use that other AW bag ALL THE TIME. I like carrying my own publisher’s bag around town… and now I have two spares if I carry too many library books in one or set it down in the mud or something…), 3 bookmarks, 1 Albert Whitman glass from their 90th anniversary party, 1 CD of the 2009 Newbery/Caldecott/ Wilder award acceptance speeches, 1 program from the 2009 Newbery/Caldecott/ Wilder award banquet, 1 name tag with an official author ribbon on it and 1 Albert Whitman pen (no, I didn’t steal it…it was in a gift bag). Like I said…remarkable restraint! If you’ve ever been to ALA, you know how much more I COULD have come home with!
But you don’t just go to ALA to get stuff…I went to ALA to sign books, get some face-to-face time with my publishers, wander the exhibition hall and see who's publishing what these days, hang out with friends, and to attend the Newbery/Caldecott banquet (which will require its own separate blog post). I had a fabulous weekend…though I’m a little sleep deprived (it’s okay…it was worth it!). I also went because it was in Chicago, so it was easy to get to...(well, easy for me because I have a friend who is willing to drive downtown Chicago...)
We arrived at the convention center in time for my 3:00 signing with Albert Whitman on Saturday. Things were starting to wind down then, so I didn’t sign a lot of books, but it was okay because I was really happy to see my editor…and several of my friends that I don’t see very often (because they live in Missouri, Michigan and Minnesota) stopped by to say hi (So did a couple of Iowa friends...). Since I had just arrived, I was more into “being social” than I was into signing books anyway.
When my time in the booth was up, I bopped over to the Peachtree booth to say hi and to let them know that I was indeed planning to go to their dinner that night, and to remind them that I would be going to Albert Whitman’s 90th anniversary party first (thus I might arrive just a little bit late). I was really excited about this anniversary party. How cool is that to have a publisher who has been in business for 90 years??? And in those 90 years, Albert Whitman & Co. has only had four different owners, each of whom was a long-time employee with the company before they bought it.
The party was held at the Green in Grant Park, which is an outdoor bar and grill sort of place…with mini golf! (I LOVE mini golf…but I didn’t play) The weather couldn’t have been nicer…the hors d’oeuvres were fabulous, though I only had a couple because I wanted to make sure I was hungry for dinner, and the company was even better. I had a nice conversation with Emma Dryden about the future of the publishing industry (I would’ve loved to talk to her more! I was excited that she shares my views regarding electronic publishing and where that could go...) and then I sat down with people I’ve known online since the days of Fidonet. I think Josepha and I had a little too much fun finger dancing to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (ye gads!) that was blaring through the speakers right next to us (I told everyone at the Peachtree dinner that it was like my 8th grade end-of-the-year dance all over again…one of the editors asked, “And were there BOYS there???” Yes, there were…but no one was dancing…hey, it really WAS like the 8th grade dance!) They also had books on all the tables…ten copies of one title written or illustrated by an Albert Whitman author who was at the party. The idea was to take a book and match it to the author or illustrator…if you could do that, the book was yours. There happened to be a book by one of my editors at the table we were sitting at…and I had my eye on it the entire time I was there. I wasn’t sure it was really cool for the authors to take any of the books, even if it was another author's book, but then people started to leave…and that book was still sitting there. There was also a book by one of the other Albert Whitman editors on our table…Josepha eventually grabbed that one, so I thought what the heck? I’m taking Kathy’s book! (I did feel a little guilty when I heard some guy ask the marketing director whether there were any other copies of that book…but not guilty enough to surrender it. Hey, he could’ve come and grabbed it ANYTIME during the first hour and a half of the party!) And Kathy wrote a nice little message in it for me. It was a GREAT party; I really had fun!
It couldn’t have been easier to get to the Peachtree dinner from there.
The dinner was just around the corner at the Park Grill (again, FABULOUS food!). My friend/critique partner from Michigan was there, so we gabbed, gabbed, gabbed! Not just with each other, but with everyone else at our end of the table, too. Great food…great people…great conversation…what more could you ask for?
My roommate was on a nonfiction panel on Sunday, so she wasn’t just sitting by herself in the hotel while I went off to do all this stuff…she met with her nonfiction people Saturday night. And since we hadn’t seen each other since she stopped to see me at the Albert Whitman booth, we ended up staying up late filling each other in on everything we did that night….
…and then I woke up a few hours later (at 5:00 a.m.) for no reason whatsoever and couldn’t get back to sleep. If I had known I wasn’t going to go back to sleep, I would’ve grabbed my jogging clothes (which I did actually bring!) and gone for a jog (which I probably should have done given the amount of chocolate I consumed this weekend!)…but what I really wanted to do was WRITE. I’d been away from my writing quite a bit this late spring/early summer. I just couldn’t focus right before my older son moved out…then we went on vacation…and when we came back I still couldn’t focus because it always takes a while to get back into the swing of things after a vacation…and I was missing my son…and my dog (who had been put to sleep while we were on vacation)…so I forced myself to focus when we were at my in-laws over the 4th of July. I locked myself in their gazebo every day and didn’t come out until I had written a chapter...just so I could get back into the swing of things. I finally started to feel like I'd found the rhythm of the story right before ALA.
And then at ALA I got to talk to my editor about this project…we didn’t talk about it a lot, but we talked enough. On the way to the anniversary party I realized I was alone in a car with the one person who cares as much about this project as I do! My family and friends are all really good about listening to me talk about it…and any of them would read/comment on it if I asked them to…but it’s not the same kind of enthusiasm as I get from my editor. I could see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice…she’s as excited about this as I am! Which just got me more excited about it…and that’s probably why I wanted to get up and write. But I didn’t have my computer with me, so I wrote in my head while I waited for my roommate to wake up.
On Sunday I had two signings with Peachtree and a podcast (also with Peachtree). I was a little nervous about that podcast because I didn’t know what they were going to ask me and I didn’t know if we were going to be able to stop and go back if I didn’t like what I said or if I was going to be stuck with whatever came out of my mouth (or DIDN’T come out of my mouth, as the case may be)…but the podcast went really well. Margaret (the publisher) was really good about asking questions. In fact, it didn’t even feel like she was asking questions; it felt more like a conversation between friends. I was able to completely ignore that huge microphone that kept swinging back and forth between us (there was a person from a Georgia radio station there doing the recording) and just relax and talk. We didn’t even back up and redo anything. (And I ended up being 10 minutes late to my second signing…they called Margaret from the booth and told us what time it was…)
I also had lunch with the marketing director at Albert Whitman. I requested this meeting because…well, it was really obvious to me at IRA that she KNOWS MARKETING. She’s also a real go-getter…I hope Albert Whitman hangs onto her for a good long time! I’m never going to be a get-out-there-and-really-sell-myself sort of person, but I thought maybe she might have some ideas for things I could do that I would feel comfortable with. I’m not sure she really told me anything I didn’t already know on some level, but she certainly reinforced a few ideas that were already in my head…and I came away from the meeting feeling like marketing is really a joint effort between author and publisher. It was a good meeting!
I never even spoke to a marketing person at Albert Whitman the first few years I was publishing with them. There are different marketing people who do different things at Peachtree and I hear from them from time to time via e-mail, but I’m still not real clear on who does what there. Pelican Publishing Company has pretty good marketing (the guy there called me up a month before my first book with them came out and wanted to discuss a “marketing plan” with me…I was shocked…nobody had ever done that before). I have never had any contact whatsoever with a marketing person at Magination Press…until I went over and introduced myself to her at ALA yesterday (they didn’t have any authors signing in their booth…none…zero…I didn’t even know they were at ALA until I walked past them…but clearly they’re doing some marketing because my Grandpa had a Stroke book is doing pretty well).
Speaking of strokes…I also found out this weekend that the former owner of Albert Whitman (who was SO nice to me the last time I was at ALA) had a stroke a few months ago. It sounds like exactly the same kind of stroke my dad had 9 years ago. Kathy said his mind is okay and he can still talk, but his left side is paralyzed…just like what happened to my dad. And he’s only 68 (young to have had a stroke…also just like my dad). He was also an avid golfer and a snowbird to Florida (yet again, just like my dad). In fact, when I met him four years ago, he reminded me a lot of my dad. So I was really sad to hear this. I wish I could send him a card telling him about my dad's experience, something to give him hope...but, well...my dad ISN’T better. He’s a lot worse. I really feel for his daughter (who I also met at ALA a few years ago)...I know what she's going through. Maybe Joe’s recovery will go better than my dad’s?
Anyway…I was so in enthralled the last time I was at ALA (all those BOOKS...all those book PEOPLE...together in one big room!), Joe took me upstairs so I could see the view from above. It was pretty amazing. I thought of Joe when I stood up there without him this time and looked down over the entire exhibition hall. This picture is just one small corner of the exhibition hall at ALA this year:
One more benefit to going to ALA is making connections with librarians who are in a position to bring you in for an author visit. I made several of those…including one with a big mover and shaker in Michigan who does this big week-long children’s book festival where she brings in four authors. I talked to this lady for about 20 minutes after one of my Peachtree signings.
I probably have as much to say about the Newbery/Caldecott banquet as I had to say about ALA in general, so I’ll save that for another post later this week…but overall, it was a GREAT weekend!
I also love doing this because I love being with writers of any age...but I especially enjoy hanging out with kids who write. Several of these kids are repeat customers. Several of them are writing novels. I have a feeling I am working with kids who will one day be published authors and that's really exciting to think about.
I've got a really quiet group this year. I try not to talk very much because I want THEM to talk, but this group is probably the quietest I've ever had. Many writers ARE quiet, so I'm not surprised...and today was the first week of the workshop. It usually does take them a couple of weeks to get comfortable with each other and open up.
Today we talked about ideas. I had several activities to help them come up with story ideas. One of the activities involved making a list of problems they've solved in their lives. I told them they should take their worksheets home with them...that these activities were for THEM, not me...and that they could refer to them when they have trouble coming up with ideas. But one of the kids left their papers at their seat. I have to admit I read the sheets...I enjoyed reading them, too (it's like a window into the soul of a character...or a window into the soul of my target reader...)...until I got to the activity on problems. This person hadn't listed any problems he/she had solved; instead he/she wrote at the top of the sheet: "I am a terrible problem solver. Every problem I have ever tried to solve has ended up blown to bits in my face. Yippee." Definitely a window into a soul...but it about broke my heart to read that. And the fact that the person not only didn't take it home, but then wrote this note at the top makes me wonder if they left it for me on purpose?
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sarah_prineas and me (actually, that's me on the left and Sarah on the right) standing outside Prairie Lights...and our books are in the window (in the top row)! If you write for grown-ups and you do a reading at Prairie Lights, they will absolutely put your books in the window...not necessarily if you write for children. So we had to document this moment.
Sarah and I had our joint launch party last Thursday night (yeah, I'm a little behind...it was a crazy week last week what with my husband being out of town, a radio interview, kid getting braces, kid having one problem after another with the braces, and college graduation to get ready for!). The party was FABULOUS! Between the two of us, Sarah and I had enough friends to fill the whole upstairs at Prairie Lights (yeah, they even let us do our thing upstairs...usually they put the children's writers in the basement for their events). It is even remotely possible there were people there that neither of us knew.
What a difference from the signing I did at Barnes & Noble a number of years ago where nobody came! (Okay, TWO people came, but that was it...just two people.) Of course, I didn't actually tell anyone I was doing that event at B & N...it's only been recently that I've started doing that. I just don't like people to feel obligated to come. But people came this time. My life is so compartmentalized that it was really fun to look out in the audience and see my writer friends (and of course they're all Sarah's friends, too), Toastmaster friends, book club friends, Friends of the library friends and music friends all together in one place. (Some of them even bought books!) Even my younger son was there. I don't normally make my family go to these things...and I didn't make Andy come; he ASKED if he could come (it is possible he was trying to get out of some work that needed to get done before the extended family came for the graduation...but I warned him he was going to have to do it when we got home and he still wanted to come). And my older son was there briefly, too...I had marked up (i.e. rewritten) the scene I wanted to read in one of my copies of the book, but then I forgot the book (and this fan letter that I wanted to bring along and read during my presentation) at home. Ben didn't even complain when I had Andy call him and tell him to drop everything and drive that book and letter to Prairie Lights NOW.
I don't normally get nervous at these things, but when I got up to speak I was a little nervous this time...I think because I knew so many of the people there. Any other person is probably less nervous speaking to people they know...I get MORE nervous. It's actually easier for me to speak to complete strangers. But I'm glad there were people I knew there...and the whole event was really fun.
Sarah and I have very different books and we've had very different publishing experiences, so our presentations really complemented each other. We got interesting questions from the audience...Andy told me afterward that every time we both answered a question, Sarah adjusted the microphone for me, then she adjusted it for herself...I hadn't even noticed (microphone? what microphone?). Andy said, "Wow, you're a lot shorter than she is!" Hey, I'm shorter than just about everyone. I'm used to it.
I should think about doing future bookstore events with friends...if they all went like this one, I'd probably do more of them.
Anyway…I expected to like the Kindle; I did not expect to love it. I LOVE IT!!!!
The thing is I review children’s/YA books for a variety of sources, so much of what I read is ARC’s and review copies of new and upcoming middle grade and YA novels. I also use the library A LOT. Really, the only time I’m likely to use a Kindle is when I’m away from home…because then I don’t have to lug so many books. So I couldn’t justify the cost of one. I’m also one of those people who enjoys the smell of books and the physical sensation of holding a book and turning the pages. If you had asked me last week whether e-books will ever replace physical books, I’d have said, “Not in my lifetime.” Now I’m not so sure…I love this thing! And if I can be converted, so can anyone.
It's a lot more comfortable to hold/use than I expected it to be...and it's much easier on the eyes than I expected it to be, too. I like that I can change the font size, the line spacing (you can't do that with a regular book)...I like that I can make notes on a book. That'll come in handy for my two book clubs (I would NEVER write in a regular book!). I like the search feature...and the fact that I can download a sample of a book before I decide whether or not to purchase it. I can even go online and check my e-mail! You can't do that with a regular book, either.
I haven’t even had my Kindle a week and already I'm wishing I could read EVERYTHING on it. Especially that stack of ARC's I lugged back from IRA last week. Too bad I couldn't have just put them all on my Kindle rather than schlepped them back to the train. And then I got to thinking, why CAN’T publishers make their ARCs and/or review copies available to reviewers electronically??? We had an editor from HarperCollins at our SCBWI conference a couple weeks ago…she has a Sony e-book reader and she told us she uploads manuscripts that she’s reading to her Sony and reads them that way. (I’m actually reading/critiquing a friend’s manuscript on my Kindle right now, too! I can even make notes on it right there in the Kindle.) If you can upload a manuscript, a publisher could certainly send a reviewer an electronic file of the book rather than an ARC or a finished book. In fact, they could give reviewers the electronic file for free for a certain period of time and then make the reviewer go buy the book if they want to own it later. It’s a win-win situation!
So…how does one woman go about changing the publishing industry???
