Outside of a Dog

Blog tour: Welcome Jessica Day George

I want to introduce you all to my friend and fellow Utah writer, Jessica Day George. We first met when I invited her to do a book signing and author visit at my school. She did this amazing thing. Working with 3 fifth grades, Jessica helped them compose class stories.  They were terrific- and she balanced creativity with natural crowd control. You should have seen her.
Anyway today we have the author of Dragon Slippers and now Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow. Welcome Jessica.

1.    First off, why do you write for kids?
Because they won’t let me write for grown ups. . . . Kidding!  I write for kids because there is so much more room to let your imagination go wild in a so-called “children’s book”, and because I like having young characters who are still as brave and strong and intelligent as an adult character (as many young people are), and letting them be the focus rather than the “grown ups” in the story.

2.    In Dragon Slippers, is your main character, Creel, like you? If so, how?
I’d like to think that if my family abandoned me, I’d have the guts to face the dragon and make my own way in the world.  I think that she’s like me in that she’s practical, and she doesn’t sit back and let the boys do all the work, either.

3.    What is your writing process? Do you outline, do research, jump right in, think about your story for a while before starting, interview your characters?
        Jump right in!  When I get an idea for a story, I just sit down and start typing with chapter 1.  I do have a little ritual, though.  I can’t get going until I’ve put my name and address on the top of the page, given it a title, and then saved the document.  Then I get to work.  I’ve had two books where I’ve written a later chapter first, and then gone back to the beginning.  But outlining just frustrates me: I want to get going!

4.    What happened when you got "the call" from your publishing house?
First off, it was well after noon and I was still in my bathrobe.  I always have to confess that.  My little boy was not even one year old yet, and there were so many days where I didn’t get dressed until he was napping.  Anyway, she called, and I tried to be all casual and professional, but at the end of the phone call I suddenly blurted out, “I will leave my husband and child and come be your maid if you want me to!”  And she paused, and then started laughing and said, “Well, that won’t be necessary.”  After we hung up, I started crying and called my husband . .  who was on his way home from work early because he had the flu! 

5.    How did you celebrate your book sale?
I went to Barnes & Noble and bought myself a stack of books!  That weekend we got a babysitter and went out to eat, too, which is pretty big for us.

6.    What is your earliest book memory?
Being scared of Good Night Moon.  My mom loves that book, and she would read it in this sort of stage whisper that she thought was soothing, but actually freaked us all out.  I also remember tossing aside Cinderella and various other girly books inherited from my older sister, and asking my mom to read me only books about horses.

   

7. Did you need to do any research for Dragon Slippers?
            Nope.  I’m such a slacker.  Just made it all up.

8. How did you know when you were done?
          Dragon Slippers sprang into my head fully formed, beginning to end, and so I just had to type fast enough to keep up!  I knew what I was aiming for, even knew the last line, and just went for it.

9. What has surprised you the most about publishing?
           Why does it take so loooong?  I signed the contract for Dragon Slippers in January of 2006, and it didn’t come out until April of 2007.  I’m a very impatient person.  I think the day I finish a manuscript, they should fire up the presses!

10. I notice that you have an agent. Did you have one before you were published? Did this make a big difference? How did you get your agent?
            I had met this agent at a conference, but she said she didn’t do fantasy (which is kinda hilarious, because she used to rep Shannon Hale).  I asked if she would be available to read a contract for me, should I get one, and I could pay her by the hour.  (David Farland had recommended the unagented try this, so that you have some help with contracts.)  She said that was fine, so when I got the Dragon Slippers contract, I called up Amy and asked if she had some free time.  She read it, I paid her, and then she offered to represent me because she’d been impressed by the description of the story and the publisher’s enthusiasm.  I think it made a huge difference, because I couldn’t understand one word in three of that contract!  I never would have known what was going on.  She had to explain it to me one section at a time.  And since then she’s been wonderful: she reads rough drafts and gives great editing advice, she’s a rock hard negotiator, I’d be lost without her!

11. Also would you like to tell your readers something about your new book?
>Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow is a book that's very close to my heart.  All my life I've been fascinated with Norway, and desperately wanted to live there. I also loved the Nordic folk tale "East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon," and
planned from a young age to write my own novel-length version.  This is that very book, and I tried to throw all my love for Norway and it's culture into one of the greatest stories that has ever been told.  It's got polar bears,
wolves, trolls, romance, fighting, magic, adventure and even humor.  Enjoy!

12. There will be the sequel to Dragon Slippers coming out this spring. How about a sneak preview?
>In April, the sequel to Dragon Slippers will be on the scene.  Is Shardas alive?  Find out in Dragon Flight, as Creel travels to far off Citatie to investigate a rumor of an entire army . . . mounted on dragons!

Thanks Jessica.

Now readers, go visit Jessica's website at <http://www.jessicadaygeorge.com>

Becky Hall

Barb's Book Release Hoedown!

Check out some of the sights, sounds and high spirits of Barb's book release party!

I have put some pictures up here on my blog, ChatRabbit.

Liz Goulet Dubois

Happiness is a box of books

Now here's a moment I've been waiting 17 years to arrive. A box delivered to my door containing my first book as both illustrator AND author. I wish I could blame the delay on the UPS guy but I guess it mostly falls on me.

Back in 1990 I was doing medical illustration for text books and was growing quite tired of drawing spleens. That was when I realized that children's book illustration was where I really wanted to be.

Watching Reading Rainbow was a daily ritual for me - it would get me fired up to work on revamping my portfolio- changing it from kidneys to kids, bunions to bunnies. It also lit the fire to start writing as well.

I was confident in my drawing skills, after all I did have a B.F.A. in illustration, but the writing aspect seemed daunting. Joing a crit group was a huge step in honing my writing skills. Mainly it forced me to write - having a deadline of when it was my turn to submit something to the group. Also seeing how the other talented writers in the group crafted a story was better than any class I could have taken. Then it was the matter of revising, revising, submitting, revising and submitting.

So when I actually got to open up that box it was more than just a box of books to me. It was seeing a welcome mile marker in a long winding road.

Time to take a breath and smile.

Now back on the road as I work on my next book, The Rope, and go about the business of doing my best promo efforts so hopefully Wolf's Coming! will sell.

Joe

Seeing your name in big lights...

...well, sort of!

Of course I am talking about the thrill of seeing an advertisement placed by one's publisher that includes one's book. Somehow that is as much of a boost to the ego as the initial sale of the manuscript! I had the pleasure the last two weeks of catching Sterling's fun ads in Publisher's Weekly Children's Bookshelf (their free weekly email newsletter about the Children's Book world) featuring my book as one of three, as well as utilizing some of my interior art to create the ad itself. What a charge that was!

Now, I have just opened my latest copy of Booklist and I have the added thrill of seeing ads for two of my fellow bloggers and members of my writing group: Becky Hall and Joe Kulka. Back when we all formed this group only one of us, Anne Bowen, was published as a writer. Now we get to share the wonderful, even if silly, excitement of the discovery of the ads for our books.

For your viewing pleasure, Joe's and Becky's publishers' ads are below. Mine you can see by getting the PW Children's Bookshelf, or by taking a look online at the PW website.

Who would have throught that a mere commercial could be such a cheap thrill?

Henry and Mudge, McDuff Moves In, Watchdog and the Coyotes, and Clementine:

I copy the masters. Like an art student, I study what the experts in my field do and then I try to do the same thing. Students who emulated Monet moved to Giverny just to breathe the same air that he did. I am not that bad, but I study the authors whose work I admire.

I was working on early readers. So I read and reread Henry and Mudge books. I studied the way Cynthia Rylant repeats phrases throughout the book, how she constructs her sentences, how she places the words on the lines and where she has page breaks. I noticed how she puts some words in bold print. She has a see saw kind of construction in Henry and Mudge The First Book. I liked that.

Henry had no brothers and no sisters.
"I want a brother,"
he told his parents.
"Sorry," they said.
Henry had no friends
on his street.
"I want to live on another street,"
he told his parents.
"Sorry," they said.
Henry had no pets
at home.
"I want to have a dog,"
he told his parents.
"Sorry," they almost said.

I love this opening scene. It is short; there are no extra words. It is poignant but not maudlin. It sets the scene for the reader. We immediately connect with the main character. We know the problem right away. Henry is lonely. But she doesn't tell us; Cynthia Rylant shows us. It is done SO simply. It is brilliance- in an early reader!

Now I am writing a story from the point of view of an animal. One of the human characters is a third grade girl. I am studying my mentor texts again: Clementine by Sarah Pennypacker. Judy Moody by Megan McDonald, Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park and Ruby Lou, Brave and True by Lenore Look. These are all books with great female characters who are about the right age. I am studying how the girls react to the world around them, often misunderstanding the adult point of view. They are funny and flawed and lovable. I want my human character to be like that.

I am also studying books that have animals that interact with humans and are telling us their story. Bill Wallace understands the way dogs think in Watchdog and the Coyotes. Rosemary Wells' McDuff jumps off the page at me; he is full of personality and is a perfect West Highland Terrier (Both Wells and Susan Jeffers have Westies- They know what they are writing about and illustrating.) Lyn Rossiter McFarland and her husband Jim McFarland produced Widget, another book about a Westie, a Westie who acts like a cat in order to be taken into a home full of six cats.

As I study these texts, I type out the words. I read them many times. I break down individual sentences and notice their construction. What kinds of words does the author use? How does the author show us the confused animal thinking that demonstrates the difference between animal and human? How does its animal-ness get it in trouble? How does its understanding of humans help? And how does the author maintain the animal-ness without anthropomorphizing too much? Most of all, how does the author help the reader make that leap of faith so that we believe in this animal. What makes it work for us as readers?

I look to the masters. I study their work so that I can figure things out for myself. Do I copy? No. Do I use their work and call it mine? Certainly not! Do I learn how to perform my own magic from studying theirs? I hope so.

LOVE this book, LOVE this art

Barbara Johansen Newman here, pretending to be a big shot book reviewer. I am not, of course. I would only post about books I love, for example, and that makes me not a reviewer but a praise singer. So be it. Here is one I have to sing about. I love this book.

Simply put, THE SHIVERS IN THE FRIDGE is a wonderful picture book. The story is hysterical and very original. The art is funny and inventive. In short, my highest rating: I wish I had created this book! Can I say here that I would love to see a sequel? Where can the SHIVERS go next?

Write to Fran Manushkin and Paul Zelinsky and tell them there are a dozen more adventures to send this hapless family on. More Shivers! Please don't close the refridgerator door on that idea!

Inspiring Speakers

I had the pleasure of attending the Keene State College Children's Literature Festival on Saturday.

While all of the speakers were enjoyable, I have to say that I absolutely loved listening to Patricia MacLachlan.

Besides the great warmth and humor that was evident as she spoke, I once again had the thrill of a small peek into the process of the creative mind at work. It wasvery satisfying to hear just how closely her own life is mirrored in the events and characters of her books. As I work on my own MG novel, and I realize (and maybe worry?) just how much I am borrowing from my own life's experience, it is nice to hear that great wirters have done the exact same.

A special and hilarious treat: some excerpts from "Once I Ate A Pie," the book she cowrote with her daughter.

Anyone who has had a dog will love it.

The Journey Begins!

We are a published group of eight children's book authors and illustrators. Originally, we flirted with calling ourselves "SEVEN CHICKS AND A GUY," because we really are seven women and one man, but we thought we might get hits from the wrong kind of search engines--when we really just want to talk about our passion for kids' books. This is our new blog! Keep in touch!