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Frances and Lisa and I had a wonderful lunch. First we debated the possible shape of cavatappi. Then we had some great conversations about writing, books, and the importance of dressing well when taking airplane trips.

After saying goodbye to Frances and Lisa, I went to my son's senior thesis photography show (Parsons School of Design). It was wonderful. (Those art school kids work hard!)

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A lovely little piece in Publishers Weekly about my amazing editor, Frances Foster (FSG), among others.

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I was delighted to hear from a number of teachers regarding my post about dead matter.

Some of them wanted to share this part of the writing process with their students, which I think is a great idea.

So I thought it might also be helpful to clarify, for those students or anyone else not familiar with the book-making process, the difference between the job of the editor and the job of the copyeditor.

That stack of papers in the photo of that blog post represents manuscript pages that came w-a-a-a-y into the process of creating that book - long after the initial story first came to life.

To fast forward through the first stages of creating a book:
1. I get a brilliant idea for a story.
2. I write the first draft of that story.
3. I read it 4,583 times, each time changing words, adding words, moving words, fixing words.
4. Another draft, another draft, another draft.
5. I finally get it "right" and send it to my publishing company.

The first person at the publishing company to get her mitts on the manuscript is the editor.

The editor is the person who helps me with the story.

She questions the characters' motivations for their actions.

She tells me the parts that don't make sense or are confusing.

She wonders if I really need a particular scene.

She helps me clarify my vision of the story and then helps that story become the one I envisioned.

(And she manages to do this without hurting my feelings, making me cry, or causing me to eat large quantities of Oreo cookies.)

A big job.

Here's an example that comes to mind while working on Greetings from Nowhere:

I knew I wanted to write a multiple viewpoint story. And I wanted to write some of the same scenes as seen through the eyes of different characters.

It worked for a while.

But about halfway through the manuscript, there was a scene that involved Willow and Loretta washing lawn chairs at the motel.

I wrote that scene twice - thru the eyes of two different characters.

My editor told me that when she got to that scene the second time, she felt frustrated. She felt like she had already "been there/done that" - that I was simply repeating the same thing.

She felt that this slowed the story down.

She wanted the story to keep moving forward instead of spinning in the same place.

I was disappointed.

I felt like I had failed in some way.

But......she was right.

That second version of the same scene was unnecessary. It did slow the story down.

It just didn't work.

I got rid of it....

....and the story moved forward and was stronger and better.

That's what editors do - they see the forest. (They care about the trees, of course, but the forest is the focus initially.)

After the story becomes as right as we can make it, it moves along through the process until it eventually gets to the copyeditor.

The copyeditor is the one who sees the trees - the little things, like I pointed out in the dead matter post.

The shoe had one hole on page 91 and two holes on page 189.

I used the word "little" three times in one paragraph.

Shouldn't I try to think of other ways to say "every now and then"?

They see the trees.

Some folks look at the forest.

Some folks look at the trees.

It takes a village to make a book.

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by Barbara McClintockFrancis Foster Books / FSG 2008I'm not generally a huge fan of an excellent stand-alone picture book gaining a sequel but I'm going to give this one a pass because I love McClintock's illustrations.Adele and Simon, those two early 20th century Parisian children, have traveled to America to see the country by train with their aunt. As with their previous outing, Simon is

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Flap copy.

Anybody ever tried to write it?

It's HARD!

Thank the good lord I've never had to write it from scratch and have only been asked for my input - because I'm afraid I wouldn't even know where to begin.

It's like that stupid, um, I mean, that supposedly worthwhile exercise where you explain what your book is about in one sentence...

Flap copy (the book description on the inside of the jacket):

• Must be short
• Must summarize the story without giving anything away
• Must be short
• Must intrigue the potential reader
• Must be short
• And, here's one of the most important ones: Must (well, okay - SHOULD) reflect the voice of the book.
• And did I mention - must be short?
  

Remember a while back when I was discussing book voice?


Book voice (I think I made that term up. Like it?) is hard to define - in the way that writing voice is hard to define.

But for me, book voice means the overall feel of the book.

Its aura, so to speak.

I think it's important for the flap copy to reflect the book voice.

If the flap copy is upbeat and jaunty, the potential reader expects that the book is upbeat and jaunty.

If the flap copy is hip and edgy, the potential reader expects that the book is hip and edgy.

If the flap copy is quirky and humorous, the potential reader expects that the book is quirky and humorous.

The potential reader doesn't want to be misled by flap copy that doesn't adequately reflect the voice of the book.

Which leads me to why I was particularly thrilled to receive a draft of the flap copy for my next middle grade novel, The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis, written by a writer whose work I adore, associate editor at FSG and one of the Longstockings, Lisa Graff.

This flap copy captures the book voice perfectly:

Nothing ever happens in Fayette, South Carolina. That’s what Popeye thinks, anyway. His whole life, everything has just been boring, boring, boring. But things start to look up when the Jewells’ Holiday Rambler makes a wrong turn and gets stuck in the mud, trapping Elvis and his five rowdy siblings in Fayette for who knows how long.

Popeye has never met anyone like Elvis Jewell. He’s so good at swearing he makes Uncle Dooley look like a harp-strumming angel, and he says “So what?” like he really means it. Then an adventure comes floating down the creek—a small adventure, just the right size for a kid like Popeye—and it all seems too good to be true.

Still, Popeye can’t help but wonder: After Elvis leaves town, will Popeye ever be able to find any adventures again, or will he just go back to being a skinny-headed ding dong?

And I can't even tell you how happy I was to see that Lisa used the phrase "skinny-headed ding dong" - one of my personal favorites, if I do say so myself. (Lisa and I are both clearly stuck in our ten-year-old selves.)

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This book was put into my hands by a colleague who said that it was a much buzzed about title. The cover was cute enough to get my attention, and since I knew I was going away for the weekend, it was perfect timing as well.

Petra's father has just been returned home from the Prince's castle broken, bandaged and bloody. She cannot understand what has happened. Her father was to go to Prague to build a beautiful clock for Prince Rodolfo...what could have made the Prince steal her father's eyes, of all things?

Petra knows that she must get her father's eyes back for him. He needs them in order to work and support his family. He is, after all, a magician when it comes to metal, and besides regular things like clocks, he has made a virtual zoo of animals out of tin. Petra's own pet spider Astrophil was made by her father. Astrophil not only moves independently, but he can also talk to Petra. She keeps him up in her hair, and consults with him on many matters.

Petra comes up with a plan to go to Prague and work at the castle. She figures that she will be able to steal her father's eyes back. What she doesn't count on is Prague itself. She comes from the country side, and it is not very long before she is pursuing a gypsy boy (Roma) who has stolen her purse. As fate would have it, she catches Neel, and is soon befriended by his family. She quickly finds out that her father's magic is not the only kind of magic. The Roma have many different types of magic themselves. With the help of Neel's sister, Petra is soon in the castle, and that much closer to her goal of finding her father's eyes.

What will happen if she gets them? Prince Rodolfo is a vengeful man, and while Petra is only thinking of her father, she is certainly not thinking of the long term.

Marie Rutkoski has penned a magical tale filled with adventure, fantasy, exploration, and drama. I do admit, I had a slow start. The mechanics of the metal animals did not grab me at first. Once Petra was on the road, however, I was hooked. Petra is strong willed and clever, and Neel and his family add intrigue and danger to Petra's adventure. Astrophil is endearing and a scene stealer himself. As a reader I found myself both disappointed and excited about the subtitle of "The Kronos Chronicles: Book I". Sometimes I yearn for stand alone stories...I am a bit impatient that way. The Cabinet of Wonders certainly gallops toward the end, and readers will anxiously await the next installment. An equal opportunity read that will be eagerly snatched up by girls and boys alike.

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In the book Off the Page: Writers Talk About Beginnings, Endings, and Everything in Between, author Claire Tristram said:

It was just the most lovely feeling to have someone tell me what I had hoped I had written. Then he made me work very hard. But all the time I felt he was helping me write the book I wanted to write, rather than what he would want me to write.

I totally get that.

I have one the best editors in the business (Frances Foster).

I could list 345 reasons why she is a great editor, but for now, I'll just tell you one:

She helps me write the book I want to write, not the book she wants me to write.

I'm so lucky.

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Y'all missed a really good lecture with Emily Jenkins last night. Not you, Tim Bush. You've been extraordinary about attending these things. And Sergio Ruzzier and Tomek Bogacki, two of Ms. Jenkins' collaborators, BOTH showed up. I know a lot of authors who never even meet their artistic brethren and here Ms. Jenkins managed to conjure up two in a single night. That's half a sandwich shy of impossible. Her talk had all sorts of new information in it too. The difficulties that come with trying to photograph your cat. The fact that her illustrators have the eerie ability to place Ms. Jenkins' husband in their books WITHOUT having ever seen him. The title of her picture book coming out in March 2007 (which I begged on bended knee for a copy of, much to the dismay of my boss). Her newest title What Happens on Wednesdays, which looks good too. The only flaw with it is that every time I see the cover I think to myself, "What happens on Wednesdays STAYS on Wednesdays".

By the way, former Spring Lecturer Meghan McCarthy has just been interviewed at 7-Imp and they somehow or other managed to charm a kick-ass picture out of the lovely lass. It'd be a shame if you missed it.

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