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It’s strange. From October to December, there seems to be very little time to do much other than marvel at how fast time flies. I do as much as I can to get done what needs to be done. I love that time of year, even the hustle and bustle of it all. But from…

Melissa Wiley asked if I’d like to participate in this rolling series of authors’ monologues about their current projects and writing processes, and I thought…

Well, from the title of this post, it’s pretty obvious what I thought. So here goes:

What are you working on?

I’ve got a couple of things going on at the moment, both of them picture books under contract.

One is a biography whose ending my editor and I are still trying to nail down — we want to make sure that we hit the final note just right. Do we leave the reader with one last impression of the subject himself, or encourage the reader to view the bigger picture beyond this one person’s life, or invite the reader to look inward and consider how the subject resonates with them individually, or attempt to accomplish something else? The runaway for figuring this out is growing pretty short.

The other book is all made-up fun, or will be. Right now, I’ve got characters and a vague sense of what the conflict is going to be, but so far there’s neither a story nor, frankly, much fun. (Though I’m enjoying myself.) What I’m working on, then, is figuring out the specifics of what happens, or might happen, or could happen, or should, or ought to, etc. Opening lines popped into my head late last night, so I need to revisit those and see if they still seem to set the right tone and get the story going in a good direction.

How does your work differ from others in its genre?

I don’t know that my picture books individually differ drastically from other narrative picture books, but collectively they stand out a bit by falling into two distinct camps. I love writing seriously researched nonfiction, and I love just making up silly stuff, and I feel just as comfortable doing one (The Day-Glo Brothers) as the other (Shark Vs. Train). Enough people have asked me some variation of “How do you do that?” that I understand that enjoying both types of writing is not the norm, but it feels perfectly natural to me. Writing for this audience wouldn’t be nearly as fun if I didn’t or couldn’t do both types of books.

Why do you write what you do?

I write my biographies because something about the arc of an individual’s life — regardless of whether anyone I know has ever heard of this person — fascinates me. I like writing about people who end up in vastly different circumstances from those in which they entered the world, and about how inner drive and outer happenstance work together to change the course of a person’s life, and about the impact that person’s life has on the rest of us. And I like writing about people whose fields of achievement offer lots for me to learn about along the way and lots to distill and convey to my readers.

I write my fiction because I’ve always enjoyed getting people to laugh — or at least taking a shot at getting them to laugh — through the words I string together. It’s no fun when my efforts fall flat, but the times when my audience (even if that audience consists of just one person) does laugh — those keep me going.

How does your writing process work?

For biographies, with the very first piece of research I consult, I generally start creating a timeline of key events in the subject’s life. From that timeline, the period of the person’s life that most intrigues me will begin to emerge — I don’t generally write cradle-to-the-grave biographies, so I’m on the lookout for a significant place to start my telling of their story and a meaningful, resonant place to end my telling. Then I’ll research and research and research until I’m not running into much new information, or not finding any information that alters the story arc that’s taking shape. By then, I’m feeling sort of full and antsy, and I can’t help but start writing, though I’ll probably continue doing research of some sort until the illustrator is entirely finished with the art.

That’s a fairly amorphous process, but it’s even more so for my picture book fiction. Sometimes, I bang out a full draft the first morning an idea occurs to me, or the first day I pull a previously-jotted-down story idea from a pool of candidates. Other times, there’s a lot of mulling — weeks and weeks of mulling — about how to approach a character or theme or plot point before I ever actually start writing what anybody else would consider to be a draft.

For both types of books, I tend to revise a lot as I go. I turn in very clean drafts — not that they necessarily get returned from editors in quite the same condition.

Who’s next?

Who am I going to ask to answer these questions after me? Well, Melissa has already gone to my go-to author.

So, I was thinking that instead I would ask the most recent commenter, which would be Tina Kugler. But I see that Tina has already taken a crack at these questions.

So, how about you? If you’d be up for keeping the Writing Process Blog Tour going — or if you’ve already done your bit — won’t you please leave a comment letting me know where the rest of us can find your answers?

My work seems to have different phases.  Last week was full of wild creativity!  I browsed pages and  pages of magazines with scissors in hand, blasted through bins of children’s books, and treasure hunted for color combinations in just about anything that came into view. If you could have seen into my brain you would have been scared. hahaha!

This week the tide has turned. My days will be spent without any other human beings in sight and only a sleeping puppy or two at my feet. It will be this way until my ideas are sketched, inked in, scanned, and colored. For me it means many quiet solitary days. Someone singing on the radio or a person talking on the television might scatter my thoughts like a syiff wind blowing a newly finished puzzle off a card table into a million pieces!

I don’t mind quiet days. In fact, when life gets crazy hectic I often retreat to this quiet place.  It’s a source of strength to sit with my little cartoons that smile up at me.  Call that crazy if you’d like … but its my little part of the world.

Even while I’m waiting on all that other stuff, I’m managing to find a few ways to keep myself busy:

Putting together the Facebook page for The Day-Glo Brothers.

Planning the party celebrating the publication of The Day-Glo Brothers — Saturday, July 11, at 1 p.m. at BookPeople.

Getting the word out about my school visits, homeschooler workshops, etc.

Reading up on a couple of inventors for a nonfiction project.

Reading a few graphic novels (American Born Chinese, The Fate of the Artist, Blindspot, Dignifying Science) as research for another project.

I want to share that after 90 consecutive days without a babysitter, the kids are back in “school” once more.  This means I have eight whole hours a week of luxurious ME time again.  For fancy things like grocery shopping and showering and writing.

Hurrah!

I have been thinking a lot lately about the differences between working-motherhood and  stay-at-home-motherhood.  And about doing both at the same time.  Which I, and many of my friends, are attempting.

I have nothing enlightening to share on the topic, but I have been thinking.

What’s hard about “having it all”  is that you never ever ever ever devote yourself to anything you do. Never fully. If you are a stay-at-home-author, this means that you never devote yourself to your writing.

Not easy.

And it’s strange for me, at this weird and wonderful professional moment in my life.  Suddenly having opportunities I must turn down (events I cannot do, deadlines I cannot commit to, etc) makes me very aware of how much my professional life is compromised by my parenting.

But  also how often my parenting is compromised by my professional life (as when I have to turn on the TV to take a phone call).  Maybe if I made enough $$$ to justify a real nanny, and a work-space of my own, this would feel different. But for now, for me, writing time is naptime. And the “office” is full of duplo blocks.

Please understand that I do NOT mean to complain. I’m the luckiest woman in the world. With the two careers I most wanted. I’m blessed and happy and if there are boogers on my keyboard and peanut butter in my cleavage, it’s a small price to pay.

But still, I’m happy about my eight hours a week.

Delighted about my eight hours a week!

Today, I wasted all four of them.

It was delicious.

Well, since last time, let's see...

Researching and writing new profiles for my Impostors project, a.k.a. Pasta.

Booking a summer trip to Boston, where I'll visit my Day-Glo publisher and hang out with my agent and some of her other clients.

Starting manuscript critiques for next month's SCBWI conference, and making plans to entertain out-of-towners.

Revising my recent picture book manuscripts, starting with Bell.

Toiling away on a plan to raise the profile of children's and YA nonfiction right here in the (or at least a) River City.

Trying to keep my writing-related-but-not-actual-writing-writing activities in check. So with that, I'm off... Read the rest of this post

It's been a while since my last update along these lines, so the answer must be "not much." But since I just met my final deadline of the year -- three new sample profiles with which Pasta's publisher will try to tempt potential illustrators -- now seems like a good time to get my head clear on what's next:

Making copies of the many, many Lomax materials currently in my possession (Austin-area libraries and Interlibrary Loan have been very good to me) before I go out and get any more. And with an April deadline looming, I really ought to just stop gathering materials for a while, make sense of what I've got, write what I can, and then see what holes in my research still need to be filled.

Saying "no." I'm full for 2008. Can't take on anything else. Not that other folks are asking me to take on a bunch of other things -- most of the opportunities that I'll need to say "no" to will originate within my own head.

Filing!

I did this for another illustration blog, but I liked how it came out, so I'm posting it here too.

I have been working as a professional artist, in one capacity or another, for almost 25 years. In that time, at every job I have ever had, there are guys in suits. They are very far removed from the end result of what the business produces. Yet, as far as they are from the day-to-day work process, they always have the perfect solution for making things work better. Mostly, their suggestions (or demands) are so insignificant, that it seems they are merely justifing their presence. It is the employees doing the actual work that keep a business running. It is the job of the "suits" to screw things up.

This is dedicated to the people who actually work. You know who you are. Um.... no.... not you.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Work has been unexpectantly busy already this week. Focus was required, long hours were spent laboring over Excel, extra eye drops were needed to keep my contacts from drying out, hyperbole abounded.

No blogs were posted though since I had to actually work.

My homework for the Denver Publishing Institute is supposed to arrive today (with any luck it will be there when I get home). I’ve been driving people crazy while I waited. Originally I thought it was supposed to arrive the week before last, and when it didn’t I shot off an email to the school. Did it go to the wrong address? Had the US Postal Service continued its war against me (which in the past resulted in a W2 arriving three weeks late with a hole punched through it, my insurance packet not arriving at the insurance company in time, and various letters of semi-importance disappearing into the ether)? What would happen if my homework didn’t arrive?

Really, how much time would I have to procrastinate?

Turns out that they hadn’t sent the package yet; it went out via UPS on Tuesday of last week. It arrived on Friday while I was at work so the UPS guy said he would try again today. My apartment manager also said he would keep an eye out for it, which is good because it is so very beautiful outside and I think a trip to the park or local coffee shop with outdoor seating is in the cards.

I just love to read in the sun and I want to cut down on my paleness. A girl who comes by my hair color naturally just shouldn’t be this white. It’s blinding. Plus I have to catch up on all the reading that I didn’t do over Memorial Day weekend.

So just for the sake of asking:

Read anything good lately?

I’ve had this word document open on my work computer waiting for inspiration to strike in between phone calls. Part of the distraction has been the blood stained copy of Chelsea Cain’s novel Heartsick sitting next to me (Sylla nicely sent me a copy that was floating around her backroom). Part of it is that this is Memorial Day weekend for most people, while today is my “Monday.” And still another part is that my brain is just preoccupied with matters of horseracing, customer interaction, and the total disbelief that often fills my days here that people wager this much money on a sport they maybe only have a 33% (or 28% depending on where you look up the stats) of seeing some kind of a return on.

I think you have a better chance of picking out a bestseller (wasn’t there a story on that not too long ago in the Times?)…or maybe you don’t. Depends on your definition of bestseller, I guess.

Y’all seem to feel the way I do on TPO issue, which is nice to know. Almost all my purchases lately have been in the Trade size because it fits in my purse perfectly.

The Written Nerd has a wonderful write up on how she feels about book reviews on her site. Definitely something to check out.

Colleen of Chasing Ray zeroed in on the whole NBCC maggot fiasco with a well-written query about how the post got through in the first place.

And I wish that I could provide some of bookish thoughts to finish this off, but it’s five minutes ‘til I’m out of here and there’s a drinks at a friend’s house calling my name.

I’m sure I’ll be much more bookish tomorrow, or at least wrapped up in a book. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend if you don’t get back here until Tuesday!

Be back soon, just busy working...

I'm a bit like the little guy on the bottom left - hard at work but feeling lucky that I can enjoy having a creative job.

pen and ink drawing from the dusty vaults

Making my way through the latest Carnival of Children's Literature at Midwestern Lodestar (and belatedly welcoming those folks who got here through there).

Making my way through the March edition of The Edge of the Forest. The reading is fast, by the way -- it's the reader that's slow.

Making my way (noticing a theme here?) through that stack of YA and middle grade novels I brought home a couple of weeks ago. I finished Inexcusable and Absolutely, Positively Not (which wasn't in the original stack but quickly found its way to the top) and am now about 1/6 of the way through Out of Patience.

Mapping out the must-visit booths at the Texas Library Association conference in a couple of weeks. I definitely won't want to miss them or them.

Enjoying this momentary lull between active writing projects. How long before it makes me go all twitchy?

At the moment, not so much:

The ending of J.R., still. I'm now on the third version, since version 2 -- dashed off Friday evening while waiting for my takeout order of cheese enchiladas -- turned out not quite as brilliantly as it seemed to at the time.

Arbor, again. I've been working on this middle-grade novel for years, and the latest round of editorial feedback showed that it's still not quite where it needs to me. What's funny, though, is that the main thing I need to work on is something that hardly of the editors mentioned at all -- my main character. I figure that when your main character doesn't seem to register with editors one way or another, that's not such a good thing.