Bartography

This Old Blog

2009-03-11T06:13:00.002-05:00

I'm doing a little renovation of the old Bartography place. Posting will be slight-to-nonexistent (except for posts like this) until I get all that squared away.

During that time, I imagine that the machinery at my desk and I will be getting along something like this:

I've been ShelfLifed! (ShelfLived? ShelveLifted?)

2009-03-05T18:34:00.004-06:00

In connection with my gig Saturday morning at Explore UT, I've been interviewed by the University's ShelfLife@Texas blog. If you're in the mood for random references to Andy Warhol, Howard Cosell, The Daily Texan, Three's Company, or Sophocles, I think you'll be pleased.

"Waiting to be found": an interview with Dianna Hutts Aston

2009-03-03T21:20:00.006-06:00

Some folks are lucky enough to have a dream job. My friend Dianna Hutts Aston has managed to get herself two.

In the children's literature world, Dianna is known for the several picture books she's authored, including her Cybils-winning An Egg Is Quiet and the Obama-approved The Moon Over Star.

In San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, however, she's becoming known for her other line of work. Dianna recently founded The Oz Project, a non-profit with a mission to provide disadvantaged children and young adults with "experiences that ignite the imagination and inspire dreams."

Here's how she describes that transformation:

In the summer of 2006, a hot air balloon ride in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico changed my life forever. The experience felt like floating in Glenda the Good Witch’s bubble, pure magic. I realized two things in the air that day: There are no real borders in this world. And there are no limits on your dreams, not a single one. If you can dream it, you can do it. It was especially significant to me because I’d become someone who no longer knew what her dreams were. I had food, shelter and education, and a quiet life as a mother and writer in the Texas suburbs. But I was longing for something else. I just didn’t know what it was.

Dianna discussed The Oz Project with me last week via email.

***

Does your work on The Oz Project complement your work as an author, or tug you in the opposite direction, or both?

Yes. I'm torn all the time, but still the happiest, luckiest person I know. My passion is The Oz Project.

When you're with these young people on their first balloon ride, how do they react to the experience?

Wonder, awe and joy.

And I get to watch their faces. It's an unbelievable joy. ... Kids in rural villages, orphans, street kids, kids with special needs... all the children no one's looking at. They'll remember it forever. One child will follow the balloon and be the Einstein or the O'Keefe or the Churchill who yearns to make a contribution to the world. I remember every single one of them: Lydia, Yvonne, Jorge, Pasqual, Alejandro, so many more. They see a world without boundaries from the realm of the rainbow. Some will follow that balloon. The leaders will raise many up. Some will continue with their lives of no schooling, whipping burros toward the dried grass and dust.

When those first-time balloonists come back to earth -- literally, anyway -- what happens next for them? Does The Oz Project play an ongoing role in their lives?

The balloon trips are mostly rewards for hard work, for displays of leadership. For instance, Betsy James just conducted the first Teen Writers' Workshop (it ended yesterday), and we'll take up the kids who attended. They're ambitious dreamers with the actions to back it up. There are a group of kids at Jalpa, a village outside of town, who are learning English from volunteers who have identified them as leaders and take time each week to go out and teach. So I'm partnering with existing organizations to give balloon trips. The Teen WW is part of Oz and The San Miguel Writers' Conference. We'll get bigger next year. So happy with all of this.

What does the Oz Project need in order to thrive? How can folks outside San Miguel help?

Money is the main thing, and a grant writer. I've been blessed with in-kind services, from graphics to web site design to accounting. I have a man who's going to work with me on grant-writing. A donation of a hot air balloon, a van, a trailer. What I'd really like is for others in the states to take the idea of raising angels and find them in foster care, special needs like blindness and deafness, children's hospitals, ghettos, isolated rural areas. The focus is on targeting leaders, those who persevere despite their circumstances. These children are waiting to be found so they can contribute their talents to the world. There's an Einstein, a Picasso, an Eleanor Roosevelt... just waiting.

The Day-Glo Brothers and other nonfiction about notable siblings

2009-03-01T07:19:00.006-06:00

As much as I've made about the daylight-fluorescence aspect of The Day-Glo Brothers, the sibling relationship between Bob and Joe Switzer -- night and day opposites, in many respects -- is central to the story as well.

In looking around for other children's and young-adult nonfiction about notable sets of siblings from previous eras of American history, I've been surprised by how few are represented. (Where are the Marx Brothers? Frank and Jesse James? Donny and Marie?) For some additional context about sisters and brothers, I've assembled a list of my favorite titles. There are undoubtedly other worthy books that I've overlooked and would do well to add in updates to this post -- I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Footwork: The Story of Fred and Adele Astaire
by Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Stéphane Jorisch
Candlewick Press
2007
If you're not sold on Footwork by the time you get to young Fred and his older sister in costume as a dancing lobster and champagne glass, then you're harder to please than even the most jaded vaudeville crowd. But take notice: The Astaires eventually won them over, too.

Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth
by James Cross Giblin
Clarion Books
2005
Until April 14, 1865, Edwin was more famous than younger brother and fellow actor John Wilkes. But the story offered by Giblin is more complex than that, with "good" Edwin's earlier career nearly undone by his drinking, "bad" John Wilkes' heroic feats on stage (34 performances in 18 roles during one four-week engagement), and the brothers' own awareness that their affection could not survive even a discussion of their political differences.

Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers
by Jean Fritz
G. P. Putnam's Sons
1994
In one of the most famous American families of the mid-19th century, the girls were not allowed to follow their father into the ministry, and the boys were not allowed not to. Fritz winningly relates how, with her history-changing Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet proved herself the best sermonizer of the lot.

Sisters Against Slavery: A Story About Sarah and Angelina Grimké
by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson, illustrated by Karen Ritz
Carolrhoda Books
1999
The Grimkés didn't just transform themselves from slaveowning Southern belles into abolitionist Quakers -- they went further, pushing against the prejudices within their adopted faith and the 19th-century restrictions on women speaking out in public about anything.

The Two Brothers
by William Jaspersohn, illustrated by Michael A. Donato
The Vermont Folklife Center
2000
In this absolute gem based on a true story, Jaspersohn and Donato tell of the heartrending separation in the 1880s of Prussian brothers Heinrich and Friedrich Eurich, followed by their coincidental, goosebump-inducing reunion along a fenceline between two Vermont farms.

To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers
by Wendie C. Old, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker
Clarion Books
2002
If there's a shortage of books about other notable siblings, there's a surplus of titles about Orville and Wilbur Wright. But there's always room for the likes of this contribution by Old and Parker -- accessible, insightful, and soaring.

Up Close: Robert F. Kennedy, Crusader
by Marc Aronson
Viking
2007
Aronson embraces both fact and speculation in his engrossing, eye-opening account of an ill-fated life entwined with those of older brothers Joe and Jack.

A Bartography Sampler

2009-02-28T23:59:00.002-06:00

For those of you stopping by my blog for the first time, welcome! This month, I celebrated my grandfather Whacker's centennial, considered my good fortune to live in the Texas Triangle, and provided a black-lit glimpse of my debut book. Here's a bit of what else you'll find in the archives.

Beyond the Big Idea: a five-part tutorial geared toward young readers about how to track down more information on a subject covered in a nonfiction book
It's almost as if the bats are a metaphor for something: "Much of my time surrounding yesterday's Austin SCBWI conference was meticulously planned -- but meticulous planning will get you only so far."
Original Manuscript: What-nik?!?: A short story, told from the perspective of a professional-wrestling-crazy American boy, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Soviet launch of Sputnik
Project: The Day-Glo Brothers: Collected posts about my first book, a nonfiction picture book to be published by Charlesbridge in July 2009
Project: S.V.T.: Collected posts about my second book, a mysteriously titled, thoroughly ridiculous picture book to be published by Little, Brown in 2010
Project: Masqueraders: Collected posts about my third book -- a YA nonfiction project originally code-named "Pasta," and subsequently referred to as both Impostors and Masqueraders -- to be published by Dial
Socialit: Reports on conferences, workshops, shindigs, and other gatherings of folks in the children's book business
Thanks, Granddad: A version of the eulogy I delivered for my grandfather, Ernest E. Lewis
U.S. History Reading: Book reviews and suggested reading for various periods and themes in American history
"Why I Want an Agent" Week: The mental inventory I took shortly before the right agent and I finally connected
What am I working on?: Let's not forget the ongoing work of researching, writing, and revising manuscripts and trying to market the results.
What am I waiting for?: And this. There's lots of this.

The Day-Glo Brothers' debut at Explore UT

2009-02-27T20:24:00.002-06:00

The lineup and schedule are set for readings from me and three other Austin-based children's authors as part of Explore UT next Saturday, March 7:

10 a.m. – Liz Scanlon presents A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes
11 a.m. – Chris Barton debuts The Day-Glo Brothers
1 p.m. – Brian Anderson presents Commander Zack Proton
2 p.m. – Jane Peddicord presents from Night Wonders

Details about the readings are here, and details about Explore UT are here.

See you there!

Not your father's Pokemon

2009-02-26T19:26:00.005-06:00

Yesterday 5-year-old F invited me to play Pokemon cards with him. I'm still not entirely sure what that's supposed to entail, other than beating your old man for a varying number of amorphous reasons that never quite seem to add up.

A little of that goes a long way, and to change the subject I got my old box of baseball cards down from a closet shelf so I could show him how his forebears did card-collecting.

"Can I have this one?"

"Sure."

"Can I have this one?"

"You bet."

This was working out great. And then, maybe two minutes into exploring that box I hadn’t opened in two decades, what did we find? A 1983 Topps rookie card for Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. In pristine condition.

I put the box away.

Behold the rare Tonygwynn, which
evolves into something worth $60

No, I don't know who Editorial Anonymous is

2009-02-24T21:26:00.002-06:00

A lot of folks have asked me that these past few days. Sorry.

But I do know that she or he has put together one helpful set of publishing definitions for the perplexed. And I was going to link to it anyway, even before EA was kind enough to include a Day-Glo Brothers photo as an example of a book that isn't printed in CMYK.

Here's the original photo:

Wanna see what it looks like under black light? Here goes:

Day-Glo Spotting #4

2009-02-22T17:03:00.003-06:00

London, England (photo by Jimmy Ogden -- thanks, Jimmy!)

A sneak preview of The Day-Glo Brothers

2009-02-18T20:26:00.004-06:00

Here in Austin on Saturday, March 7, The Day-Glo Brothers is going to be a small part of "the biggest open house in Texas."

The public debut of the book (and of me as an author) will be one of the many, many goings-on at Explore UT, a huge, campus-wide to-do designed to give school-aged kids a taste of what the University of Texas has to offer.

The festivities at the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) will also include presentations from other local children's book creators Liz Garton Scanlon, Christy Stallop, Brian Anderson, and Jane Peddicord. When the schedule is confirmed, I'll post that here.

I've mentioned before that I've done research at the PCL for some of my books, and The Day-Glo Brothers is among them. A December 1932 article in Popular Science ("Homemade Ultra-Violet Lamp Produces Magic 'Black Light'") inspired the work that led to Bob and Joe Switzer's discovery of daylight fluorescence, and it was there at the PCL that I first laid eyes on the actual article -- in glorious black-and-white.

If you'd like an advance peek at some reading material that's a little more brightly colored -- nearly four months before its publication date -- I hope you'll come on by.

Mega-glad to be here

2009-02-16T20:55:00.004-06:00

Of all the places for me to stumble into the writing of children's books, I could not have done better than Austin.

I've told this to folks for years, singing the praises of the supportive, nurturing local writing community. Lately, I've tended to go a step further by pointing out Austin's wealth of published (or soon-to-be) children's or YA writers, emphasizing that I'm only one in a crowd. When an acquaintance recently asked for suggestions of local authors he might invite to an event, I gave him a list of published writers and illustrators at least four times longer than he could actually use.

It's a great environment for me, and I feel lucky to be here, but after reading the cover story in the March issue of The Atlantic, "How the Crash Will Reshape America," it occurs to me that there might be another reason to be grateful.

In the article, the "Texas Triangle of Houston-San Antonio-Dallas" (including Austin) is singled out as one of the US "mega-regions" with "[w]ell-educated professionals and creative workers who live together in dense ecosystems ... generate ideas and turn them into products and services faster than talented people in other places can."

I think that bodes well for those of us who create children's books and seek to connect with readers through schools and libraries in our own backyard. It suggests to me that not only the will of the communities in this region but also their resources will erode less and bounce back more quickly than in other regions in the months and years ahead. And that, I'm thinking, will translate into buying books, hosting authors, etc.

It certainly sounds good, anyway. I'm looking forward to comparing it to what I hear from folks from those communities at the Texas Library Association conference in six weeks.

A brief scene at my front door

2009-02-16T07:11:00.002-06:00

One afternoon this weekend, there was a knock at my front door. I opened it to find R, a four-year-old neighbor and friend of my son F.

R: Can F play?

Me: Isn't he at your house already?

R: Oh, yeah -- I forgot.

R headed for home, and I went back inside.

Happy Whackercentennial!

2009-02-11T19:55:00.004-06:00

One hundred years ago today, my grandfather Raymond Murray "Whacker" Barton was born. He's been gone more than 20 years, and I miss him, and I wish I had interviewed him when I had the chance.

I didn't miss that opportunity with his widow, my grandmother. She and I spent a lot of time with a tape recorder a couple of years before she died. My favorite of her stories, and the very first one I asked her to tell me for the record, was the one about their courtship, which began one fall when he was hired on at the school where she was already on the faculty.

In celebration of him, her, and Valentine's Day, here's how that story began:

When I first started going with Whacker, both of us were teaching in a high school. I was homemaking teacher and he was a football coach.

I had noticed him. At the first teachers' meeting, another teacher and I went up to the superintendent of the schools, and we told him, "You are not doing any of us any good. You hired two football coaches. The first one that you hired is very good looking [but already married], and the other one is so ugly. No one is going to want to go with that teacher."

So -- that's the one I married.

I had been noticing that at a certain time during the day, he would walk by my room, which was at the other end of the hall. So, I kind of made myself presentable. One day he stopped by.

I was living at home with Mother and Daddy. One Sunday he called me and he said he wondered if I was free that day and if I would like to go run and play. So, I thought a minute and said, "Yeah, I believe I will."

I went and told Mother that he asked me if I'd like to go "run and play."

She said, "What in the world do you do?"

And I said, "I don't know, but I'm gonna find out!"

This Life, that speech

2009-02-10T21:55:00.005-06:00

I don't know how much I've learned about storytelling in the past couple of years, but whatever insight I've managed to pick up, I owe a lot of that to This American Life.

Until spring of 2007, I had never listened to an episode -- I'd only heard a few fragments. I had no idea what I was missing, but since then I've missed maybe two shows, and each week I come away thinking, "That's how it's done."

So, what brought me around? This mesmerizing speech by host Ira Glass, which I was lucky enough to witness in person, and which is newly available online.

It was the last presentation at the Good Experience Live (Gel) conference. Like all the others, this one was scheduled to last just 20 minutes. It went way over, and I savored every minute of it. Maybe you will, too.

You're only as good as your next book. Or maybe the one after that.

2009-02-08T20:48:00.003-06:00

At a party yesterday afternoon, a friend asked about my book. Five-year-old F was with me, and he helpfully fielded the question. After a cursory reference to The Day-Glo Brothers, he then began breaking down his favorite parts of S.V.T., a book that won't even be published for another year.

This morning, I asked nine-year-old S to tell it to me straight: You and your brother are more excited about the second book than you are the first one, aren't you? His answer: Yep.

Who would have thought that the new could wear off my publishing debut less than eight years after I started working on it?

Duck! Rabbit! Tom! Amy!

2009-02-06T05:15:00.003-06:00

Tom Lichtenheld, my illustrator for S.V.T. (Little, Brown, 2010), has a new book on the way next month with Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and I'm plenty delighted to share this preview:

Twenty-Eight Days Later is now

2009-02-03T05:15:00.003-06:00

Thanks to Chicken Spaghetti for reminding me that this year's Twenty-Eight Days Later campaign has kicked off over at The Brown Bookshelf. For the entire month, they'll be showcasing "the best in Picture Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult novels written and illustrated by African Americans to help parents, teachers, librarians and booksellers recommend good reads."

Just based on the first couple of author/illustrator interviews, I can tell that, 28 days later, I'm going to have one long wishlist.

A Bartography Sampler

2009-01-31T23:59:00.000-06:00

For those of you stopping by my blog for the first time, welcome! Here's a bit of what you'll find in the archives.

Beyond the Big Idea: a five-part tutorial geared toward young readers about how to track down more information on a subject covered in a nonfiction book
It's almost as if the bats are a metaphor for something: "Much of my time surrounding yesterday's Austin SCBWI conference was meticulously planned -- but meticulous planning will get you only so far."
Original Manuscript: What-nik?!?: A short story, told from the perspective of a professional-wrestling-crazy American boy, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Soviet launch of Sputnik
Project: The Day-Glo Brothers: Collected posts about my first book, a nonfiction picture book to be published by Charlesbridge in July 2009
Project: S.V.T.: Collected posts about my second book, a mysteriously titled, thoroughly ridiculous picture book to be published by Little, Brown in 2010
Project: Masqueraders: Collected posts about my third book -- a YA nonfiction project originally code-named "Pasta," and subsequently referred to as both Impostors and Masqueraders -- to be published by Dial
Socialit: Reports on conferences, workshops, shindigs, and other gatherings of folks in the children's book business
Thanks, Granddad: A version of the eulogy I delivered for my grandfather, Ernest E. Lewis
U.S. History Reading: Book reviews and suggested reading for various periods and themes in American history
"Why I Want an Agent" Week: The mental inventory I took shortly before the right agent and I finally connected
What am I working on?: Let's not forget the ongoing work of researching, writing, and revising manuscripts and trying to market the results.
What am I waiting for?: And this. There's lots of this.

If you're not doing something you'd still like to be doing when you're 93, why not?

2009-01-30T21:00:00.003-06:00

If I hadn't already had the good fortune to be inspired in person by Austin's Betty X. Davis, this week's article in the local paper would surely have done the trick:

"The aspiring children's book writer, who at age 93 is still waiting for her big break, is determined that she will write until she can't."

I want to be Betty X. Davis when I grow up.

The Day-Glo Brothers and other picture books about the 1930s

2009-01-28T07:00:00.000-06:00

Most of The Day-Glo Brothers takes place in the 1930s, when Bob and Joe Switzer began experimenting with inks and paints that glowed under black light while moving ever closer to their discovery of daylight fluorescence.

For some additional context about that era, I've assembled a list of some of my favorite picture books set (at least partially) during the 1930s. There are undoubtedly some worthy subjects and titles that I've overlooked and would do well to add in updates to this post -- I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Aliens Are Coming! The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast
by Meghan McCarthy
Alfred A. Knopf
2006
McCarthy revisits Orson Welles' famously panic-inducing radio play by combining a smattering of the original script, a matter-of-fact description of the aftermath ("One man thought he saw a Martian spaceship"), and illustrations that offer the old-fashioned kick of cheesy sci-fi.

Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator
by Shelley Tanaka, illustrated by David Craig
Abrams Books for Young Readers
2008
Tanaka's stirring account of the aviator's daring and determination awakened my own, long-dormant childhood fascination with Earhart.

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman
by Marc Tyler Nobleman, illustrated by Ross MacDonald
Alfred A. Knopf
2008
Nobleman and MacDonald make a dynamic duo in their depiction of how mild-mannered teens Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster parlayed the strength of their imaginations into an enduring hero.

Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa
by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney
Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children
2002
Hip feline "Scat Cat Monroe" takes readers on a stylish, jazzy tour through Fitzgerald's rise from big-dreaming Yonkers girl to unforgettable First Lady of Song.

Hoover Dam
by Elizabeth Mann, illustrated by Alan Witschonke
Mikaya Press
2001
Mann's Wonders of the World books are wonders in their own right. Her words and Witschonke's art pay as much tribute and attention to the underappreciated workers as they do to the feat of engineering that tamed the Colorado River.

Seabiscuit Vs. War Admiral: The Greatest Horse Race in History
by Kat Shehata, illustrated by Jo McElwee
Angel Bea Publishing
2003
The story of the 1938 contest runs on two tracks -- a ticker-tape version in the staccato stylings of a stadium announcer, and another in the warm prose of an author who knows how to unfold the winning tale of an unlikely champion.

Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building
by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by James E. Ransome
Schwartz & Wade Books
2006
A boy with a newly unemployed father watches the rise of the New York City landmark -- from the 50-foot toss of a red-hot rivet to the finished tower's glow against Manhattan's nighttime sky -- with wonder and inspiration. Readers will, too.

That Book Woman
by Heather Henson, illustrated by David Small
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
2008
Henson and Small depict a pack-horse librarian's impact on a farm family, told through the skeptical eye and mountain vernacular of a non-reading boy named Cal.

Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People
by Bonnie Christensen
Alfred A. Knopf
2001
With a generous dose of Guthrie's own lyrics, Christensen shows how the singer and activist came to give voice to Americans in need through "This Land Is Your Land" and a thousand other songs.

Day-Glo Spotting #3

2009-01-25T21:45:00.003-06:00

In the Forest North neighborhood, Austin, Texas.

If I accomplish nothing else this week...

2009-01-22T23:00:00.001-06:00

I'll be proud of this humongous pile of garbage my family helped clear off a hike-and-bike trail on Monday, as part of a bipartisan band of trash-picker-uppers my wife organized. There were lots of kids involved, and they were especially into it -- let's hope this sort of thing becomes a habit for lots of us.

For other accounts of our efforts, take a look at Birding on Broadmeade, The Woodland School, Random Observations of a 30-Something Mom, McKinleys' Happy Days, and my beloved Redneck Mother.

From f&g to Frank&g

2009-01-21T21:51:00.005-06:00

Last weekend, a total stranger cut up my one advance, unbound copy of The Day-Glo Brothers.

I guess I should state that 1) he put it back together, 2) it was mostly my idea, 3) I paid for the privilege, and 4) I'm happy with the results.

See, I've been invited to present my first public reading of the book (yeah!) nearly four months before the publication date (wow!). But I have a hard enough time keeping an f&g (for "folded and gathered") together here at my desk, and I couldn't imagine reading aloud to an audience (even, at this point, a purely theoretical one) while trying to manage one of those slippery things.

So, I took my f&g to the Copy Shop Formerly Known as Kinko's, and on the fly the young guy at the desk and I came up with a solution: cutting each four-page sheet down the middle, so that we've got 24 individual pages instead of three sets of four four-page sheets, and then spiral-binding the whole thing.

To the pages being bound, we added a couple of sheets of 100-pound paper at each end to make the whole thing a little more rigid. I plan to glue the front and back pages to the inside of the cover, and have myself something that resembles a picture book -- albeit one with a plastic black spiral in place of the gutter -- and holds together in one piece at that March reading.

Maybe that spiral will go as unnoticed as the scar on the forehead of Frankenstein's monster. I'd take a picture of this Day-Glo monster of mine so you can see for yourself, but I'm out of natural light for the day, and fluorescent lighting doesn't do the colors justice. I don't want anyone (especially the illustrator or designers) coming after me with pitchforks.

Day-Glo Spotting #2

2009-01-18T07:22:00.003-06:00

Highland Neighborhood, Austin, Texas.

Alison Dellenbaugh recently pointed out something I hadn't considered -- that colorblind readers will perceive The Day-Glo Brothers quite differently from other readers. Thank you, Alison -- I'm so grateful that I won't be caught completely off-guard by this the first time it comes up during an author visit.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a couple of images run through Vischeck, a site recommended by Alison that simulates various forms of colorblind vision. First, the above image --

-- and finally the spread from my book that I featured a couple of months ago:

Got Day-Glo photos of your own that you'd like to share? Please send them to chris [at] chrisbarton [dot] info.

Nothing to read here -- move along, move along

2009-01-16T06:16:00.003-06:00

Specifically, move along to:

Harold Underdown at the Purple Crayon helpfully summarizes the current state of Working in Children's Books and the Recession of 2008-09
Mark Hurst at Good Experience has bad news for authors prone to repeating themselves in A Kindle trick changes the reading experience
Alison Morris at ShelfTalker asks, On What Subjects Do We Need More Non-Fiction?
Melissa Stewart at I.N.K. offers a smart approach to "Meeting" the Author
Jeremy Adam Smith at Beacon Broadside asks (and answers), Why Write Books?

Not OK in the comments, but what about in the books?

2009-01-14T19:00:00.002-06:00

Marc Aronson started an interesting discussion today at Nonfiction Matters when he asked, regarding middle-grade and YA biographies:

[W]hen we honor a hero who has risked everything to improve our lives, how much of his or her private life should we examine?

He was asking in reference to Harvey Milk, but his post and the ensuing conversation have touched on the Kennedys, Muhammad Ali, Ted Hughes, Martin Luther King, Leonardo da Vinci, Babe Didrikson, John Lennon, and Isaac Newton. So far, anyway -- the night is young.

One note of caution, though -- mention "sex" in your comment, and the School Library Journal naughty-bits filter will trash the whole thing. Some topics, it seems, are best left to books for the young.

And Don makes 8 (9, 10, 11...)

2009-01-13T21:04:00.002-06:00

How could I forget Don Tate? Because when I was thinking about friends with upcoming books, I was thinking of his Effa Manley and Duke Ellington books, and of his debut as an author, all of which we still have to wait a while for.

But I forgot about his artwork for Ron's Big Mission, which should be out any day now.

You should also know, if you don't already, about your opportunity to support the Texas Library Association Disaster Relief Fund (think Galveston and other Gulf Coast libraries) by purchasing a $5 raffle ticket to win Don's portrait of Ellington. To learn more, check out these interviews with Don and TLA librarian Jeanette Larson.

Seven things (Or, "Just this once, Bartography takes requests")

2009-01-11T07:43:00.006-06:00

My friend Russ at Egghead Marketing meme'd me with Seven Things You May Not Know About Me. One thing you may not know about me is that it's my personal policy not to do memes. One thing you probably already have figured out about me, though, is that I do like writing about myself.

So, when a friend, reader, and egghead marketer asks me to write some things about myself, what do I do?

The Next Seven Things I Plan to Do to Support The Day-Glo Brothers

Send in my check so I can participate in the SCBWI speakers guide to be distributed at TLA
Write an article for submission to one of the children's literature journals
Provide Charlesbridge with suggestions for the activity/discussion guide that they'll be putting together
Assemble reading lists of other picture books and middle-grade titles related to elements in Bob and Joe Switzer's story
Prepare outlines for the presentations I'll be offering to schools, libraries, homeschoolers, museums, summer camps, and so forth
Come up with a fee schedule for those author visits
Add bookseller links to my website

I know at least seven other folks with new books on the way. Fiona Bayrock (Bubble Homes and Fish Farts), Liz Scanlon (All the World), P.J. Hoover (The Navel of the World), Cynthia Leitich Smith (Eternal), Sam Riddleburger (Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run), Tanita Davis (Mare's War), and Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon).

They may want to chime in with what they're doing to get the word out about those new titles. Or they may be too busy actually doing it. Or they may even be writing...

Have you seen...

2009-01-10T07:07:00.000-06:00

...what Grace Lin is doing?

Gatherings

2009-01-09T05:44:00.003-06:00

Fuse #8's notice this morning that she won't be attending the American Library Association's midwinter conference, on top of The New York Times' recent article on "The New Austerity in Publishing" --

[C]ompanies are revising their budgets for BookExpo America, the annual spring jamboree at which publishers promote their fall lineups to booksellers.

-- has gotten me wondering whether the economy will have much impact on the Texas Library Association conference in Houston at the beginning of April. Fewer publishing houses in attendance? Fewer librarians? Fewer reasons for almost-but-not-quite-officially-published authors (ahem) to attend?

But that's still more than two months away. If you're anywhere near Austin and have any interest in writing for young readers there's a gathering tomorrow that's totally free and sure to be well worth your while:

Writing for the Mass Markets: My Publishing Boot Camp

When: Sat, Jan 10, 2009 11:00 AM - Sat, Jan 10, 2009 12:00 PM

Where: BookPeople, 603 North Lamar, Austin

Speaker - Jennifer Ziegler. Discover what you can learn from writing for the mass markets. How does it differ from trade novels? Can it help or hurt your career? Will it improve your craft? Will it help you make valuable connections? Will your literary friends and associates still want to hang out with you? Jennifer Ziegler, an Austin-based writer and former English teacher, has been writing teen novels for twelve years - many of them for mass market YA series. ALIAS: RECRUITED (Bantam,2002) made the NY Times Best Sellers List for children's chapter books. Jennifer will share her experiences on writing for the mass market. Her trade novels include HOW NOT TO BE POPULAR (Delacorte, 2008) and ALPHA DOG (Delacorte 2006).

Soon, she'll be conducting her own workshops

2009-01-07T05:38:00.003-06:00

I wrote last spring about the fun I had talking writing at my kitchen table with a pair of preteen writers. Well, it gets even better.

One of those young writers just won the top prize for original short story in a national homeschooler writing competition judged by children's author Dan Elish. Woo-hoo, Maya!

Maya's mom has the scoop here, including the detail of how she (the mom) accidentally saved over the file for the winning entry. As someone who once sent his first child's first baby tooth down the garbage disposal, I can sympathize.

Day-Glo Spotting #1

2009-01-04T06:57:00.004-06:00

The corner of Anderson and Mays, Round Rock, Texas.

A couple of times this past week I went for a walk, camera in hand, to document examples of daylight fluorescence in everyday life. In The Day-Glo Brothers, I discuss how the colors created by Bob and Joe Switzer have become part of the landscape, and spending part of a beautiful day zeroing in on the use of those colors was a fun refresher course.

I'll post more Day-Glo photos here in the weeks ahead. If you'd like to take your own and send them my way, I'd be happy to share them. For now, here's one more from the same intersection:

Day-Glo meltdown!

2009-01-01T21:20:00.003-06:00

During the holidays, The Day-Glo Brothers made a child cry.

The scene was a family Christmas party, and the child was my wife's cousin's grandson K, a self-possessed two-year-old with charm and poise to spare.

I brought my one and only, unbound advance copy of The Day-Glo Brothers to show off, and K's grandma had just begun perusing its daylight-fluorescent pages when they caught the little guy's eye.

He wanted that book.

He did not want that book shown to him. He did not want it read to him. He wanted possession of it. And perhaps sensing a certain unspoken twitchiness coming from my direction (my only copy), his grandmother was not going to let him have it.

So, K freaked out. He melted down. He lost it. And all the while I was thinking, "Man, I wish I was getting video of this."

Wouldn't that make an excellent promotional clip demonstrating to parents and grandparents why it's in everybody's best interest to make sure all the young readers in their life have their own copies of The Day-Glo Brothers? Well, wouldn't it?

No? Well, no matter. K got over it, and he got a better deal anyway when he went home from the Christmas party with a copy of Mocking Birdies. In hardback. With no nervous author looking over his shoulder.

And it's off! (And so am I!)

2008-12-19T16:51:00.003-06:00

An hour or so ago, I gladly sent my editor a complete draft of my impostors manuscript (renamed, at least for the moment, Masqueraders).

And with that, my brain, my blog and I are off for the holidays. Here's to a satisfying and safe season for us all.

Say it with me: "a full-fledged website"

2008-12-16T05:28:00.004-06:00

I've been promising for a long time that I'd be putting up something I habitually referred to as "a full-fledged website." When I included the address for said promised website in my dust jacket bio for The Day-Glo Brothers, folks at Charlesbridge politely questioned whether I actually meant it.

Well, thanks to the terrific work of web designer Sarah Rehm, I've finally made good on that promise.

Behold:

The end of the innocence

2008-12-14T22:08:00.004-06:00

As a parent, I knew this day was coming. I knew it was a conversation I would have to have. And oh, how I dreaded it.

I had hoped against hope to avoid it, that moment when the inadequacies of my ability to explain the workings of the world would be laid bare.

I had prepared for it, of course, practicing in front of the mirror what I would say when the time did arrive. But how can a parent ever truly be ready for that discussion, for The Talk?

And so it was this morning when I had to tell my four-year-old son just why it is that he will never see both Batman and Spiderman, or both Superman and Iron Man, in the same comic.

Stringing two works together

2008-12-09T21:39:00.002-06:00

Today I received a short list of interview questions about my writing career, for a Q&A that will appear in a departmental newsletter at my office. They're all good questions (I especially like, "Do you have any advice for [coworkers] who are looking for a creative outlet outside of work?"), but the whole thing got me wondering:

Those of you authors who hold down a full-time job in addition to your writing work, what are the most startling, awkward, baffling, or otherwise far-out questions that your coworkers (or bosses) have ever asked about your literary pursuits?

Not that I'm easily distracted...

2008-12-07T07:43:00.003-06:00

...but why is it that I get more writing done when I unplug my internet connection and can't find my iPod?

I just finished a draft of my ninth Impostors profile. That leaves one more profile to go -- plus a concluding chapter, plus assorted cleanup -- before I send the whole thing to my editor, ideally on or before December 21. I think I can do it.

And with the text and sketches for S.V.T. now headed for copyediting, an actual Christmas vacation is starting to seem within reach.

He's allergic; we're addicted

2008-12-02T20:22:00.003-06:00

When Tom and I were S.V.T.-ing at Austin's Faulk Central Library a few weeks ago, the cover of Lenore Look and LeUyen Pham's Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things caught his eye. His interest caught my interest, and since my boys are 2-3 years on either side of the book's second-grade protagonist, I thought it might be well-received back here at Rancho Barton.

It was.

If you'll remember, I recently found myself reading The Golden Compass to 4-year-old F. At his insistence, we did indeed finish it, except for the occasional skipped paragraph or page or turn of phrase. But not even the armored-bear action in Golden Compass got him as wound up as some of the scenes in Alvin Ho, especially one where the father's favorite childhood toy is placed in peril.

And the book is a hoot. And it's got a glossary that's as much pleasure to read as the rest of the book. And it's set in Concord, Massachusetts, where my boys picnicked earlier this year within view of the Old North Bridge, thus giving the book that much more appeal.

How much more? Enough that they were studying the cover for signs of other books in the series. I see on Semicolon's post about the book that they only have to wait until June.

Unless someone can somehow score them a copy in April...

What am I waiting for (11/08)?

2008-11-30T19:23:00.003-06:00

Editorial feedback on the fully sketched revision of S.V.T. that Tom Lichtenheld and I have been collaborating on for the past month and a half, which included an entire day spent together here and here.

Several Impostor-ish items on request through Interlibrary Loan. Would-be lenders, please feel generous...

A completed design for my full-fledged web site. What I've seen so far looks so good that I can't wait to show off the rest.

My first hardcover copy of The Day-Glo Brothers.

Time to work on an editor's requested revision of P.O. -- a manuscript once referred to by another editor as "the bomb." (Too bad she's left the business.)

Editorial judgment on my two newest manuscripts, J.R. and Bell.

An update to a previously announced contract.

The right time to announce the update to that previously announced contract...

I'd like to be in San Antonio, but something(s) came up

2008-11-20T21:03:00.004-06:00

Photo by Hank Walker, 1958

I won't be among the litfolk romping in San Antonio this weekend at NCTE, but I'm happy with my alternative plans:

Browsing the new online repository of photos from LIFE magazine's archives, which includes the above shot of my current subject, impostor Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr.

Playing around with the book's worth of sketches (and then some) that I just received from S.V.T. illustrator Tom Lichtenheld

Attending the wedding of my middle school and high school literary collaborator J.B. Smith (perhaps someday I'll post our Sophocles-meets-Three's Company script, Janetigone)

Wherever you'll be and whatever you'll be doing, I hope you enjoy it.

What am I working on (11/08)?

2008-11-19T06:45:00.004-06:00

Doing research and interviews for the next-to-last chapter in my YA book about impostors

Filling out Charlesbridge's (very thorough) author questionnaire in support of The Day-Glo Brothers

Revising S.V.T. with illustrator Tom Lichtenheld

Accumulating daylight-fluorescent props and author-presentation ideas

Working with a designer on my full-fledged website

He probably doesn't like the odds for those ducklings, either

2008-11-16T21:12:00.002-06:00

By way of my wife, I found Mrs. G's tale of what happens when a teacher's cherished childhood book (Blueberries for Sal) bumps into a classroom full of bloodthirsty, wildlife-savvy third-graders:

So what do you think happens next, Mrs. G. asked him brightly.
What do I think? I think Sal is a goner.

Know anyone who's put the YA in "y'all" (or vice versa)?

2008-11-14T06:52:00.003-06:00

As she did for 2007, Reba White Williams is soliciting nominees for this year's best novel set in the South.

We in the kidlitosphere know that YA fiction can hold its own with fiction targeted toward adult readers, but organizers of competitions such as this one may not instinctively think to look in our direction. (Not just yet, anyway. We're working on it.)

So, if you know of any YA authors whose 2008 titles would seem to qualify, why don't you be sweet and kindly direct them Reba's way?

B is for bailout

2008-11-12T19:12:00.004-06:00

Via Gail Gauthier, I found this publishing industry stimulus proposal (amid lots of dire industry news) from Editorial Ass:

Buy a book.

Simple enough, especially for anyone in Austin who plans to attend Thursday night's children's lit and YA hoo-ha at BookPeople.

That includes me. I've got a list of nine nephews, nieces and cousins in need of Christmas presents, plus an August arrival still due a new-baby gift. So while I'll be showing off my F&G for The Day-Glo Brothers, I'll also be shopping -- books all around.

Who's on your list?

The real, modern thing

2008-11-10T22:38:00.003-06:00

But enough about me. My friend Jon recently offered up this thoughtful post about his experiences in Africa last year reviewing business plans submitted for a Google.org contest:

When I was a kid growing up in Texas, there were plenty of mom and pop general stores or cafes whose signage was subsidized by Coca-Cola. Indeed, Coke could be found throughout the world, even in the most remote of places. But as I drove around Tanzania and Zanzibar, it wasn’t Coca-Cola, it was Celtel and Vodacom with their logos adorning the small shops.

The F&G

2008-11-08T14:04:00.003-06:00

Yesterday's mail brought a little something I've been waiting years to see: the F&G (or "folded and gathered," or unbound pages) of my first book, The Day-Glo Brothers.

This has been a pretty good week.

BookPeople, one week from tonight

2008-11-06T05:43:00.003-06:00

Got plans for the evening of next Thursday, the 13th? I can help.

From 6:30 to 9 at Austin's BookPeople, there will be local children's and YA authors and illustrators out the wazoo:

Cynthia Leitich Smith
Lila Guzman
Jane Ann Peddicord
Mark Mitchell
Greg Leitich Smith
April Lurie
Shana Burg
Frances Hill
P.J. "Tricia" Hoover
Helen Hemphill
Phyllis Peacock
Jennifer Ziegler
Christy Stallop
Julie Lake
Brian Yansky
Jessica Anderson
Varian Johnson
Philip Yates
Emma Virjan
Brian Anderson
Anne Bustard
Don Tate
Jerry Wermund
Jo Whittemore

Besides a meet-and-greet, there'll be a holiday reading as well as separate panel discussions for picture books, middle grade, and YA.

And if that's not enough, rumor has it that a not-quite-published author will have a daylight-fluorescent sample of his first book so fresh from the printer's press that they haven't even had time to bind it...

A few hopeful words

2008-11-05T10:34:00.002-06:00

I'm reminded this morning of the closing words in an as-yet-unsold manuscript of mine -- not about President-Elect Obama, but about an African-American politician from an earlier generation:

He represented --
and he represents --
the promise
and potential
of America itself.

Trust me: She chose well

2008-11-03T19:47:00.003-06:00

From Becky's Book Reviews, the first stop on Susanna Reich's blog tour to support her terrific new book, Painting the Wild Frontier: The Art and Adventures of George Catlin:

How did you go about choosing which paintings to include—especially which full-color paintings to include?

I used a process of elimination. For several months, there were about two hundred illustrations laid out in chronological order on my dining room table. They were on the piano bench, too. And the bookcase. And the coffee table. My family was very understanding. One by one, I removed the pictures that didn’t seem essential. I was really attached to some of them. It was hard to let them go.

If he digs the dæmons, just wait 'til we get to the armored polar bears

2008-11-02T22:23:00.005-06:00

So, on Thursday or so, I thought I'd see if I could interest 9-year-old S in The Golden Compass by having him within earshot as I read the first few pages aloud to 4-year-old F.

Three days later, S couldn't care less about the book, but F has had me keep right on reading -- at the kitchen table, in the comfy chair in the living room, in the hammock with a couple of dog snouts moistening the pages. We've gotten through Chapter 6, albeit with several selected omissions that he knows nothing about. When I tucked him into bed tonight, he said, "I wish dæmons were real."

Looks like I'll be reading Pullman aloud -- very, very carefully -- for quite some time.

What to do between Halloween and Election Day?

2008-10-31T07:22:00.003-05:00

If you're in Austin (or close enough), don't forget about the Texas Book Festival.

Here's what I'm hoping to hit tomorrow:

A 25th Anniversary Celebration of Hank the Cowdog
Date: Saturday, November 1, 2008
Time: 12:30 - 1:15
Location: Family Life Center (1300 Lavaca)

Join us as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hank the Cowdog! In John R. Erickson's latest book, Hank the Cowdog #52: The Quest for the Great White Quail, Hank is thrilled when Beulah - the long-eared lady dog of his dreams - shows up at the ranch. At last, he thinks, she's finally given up her infatuation with Plato the Bird Dog! But it turns out that Plato is missing, and Beulah wants Hank to help find him. Can he put his doggie dreams aside and do the right thing? It's all in a day's work for everyone's favorite Head of Ranch Security!

Introducer Mary Jo Humphreys is a veteran educator in her 35th year of service to public schools. She has worked as a foreign language teacher, an elementary librarian, and a technology facilitator. She is currently the Director of Instructional Technology for Round Rock ISD and the Past Chair of the Texas Association of School Librarians.

Author: John R. Erickson
Introduction By: Mary Jo Humphreys

How Not to Be Popular
Date: Saturday, November 1, 2008
Time: 2:00 - 3:00
Location: Family Life Center (1300 Lavaca)

It's hard being a girl. And being a girl in high school? Like, omigod! This panel of young adult authors will lead you through the minefield of life as a teenage girl. Whether it's the hunt for popularity (and some girls will do the darndest things to get it) or an existential journey of self discovery, these writers cover teenage girl angst in poignant, hilarious, and horrific ways.

With more than 20 years' experience in the field of children's books, moderator Jennifer Brown started her career at what was then Harper & Row (now HarperCollins). During her nine years there she worked in both marketing and editorial, before moving to Madison, Wisconsin, to become editorial director at Pleasant Company (known for their American Girls imprint). Homesick for New York, she returned for a position at Scholastic, and then moved to Publishers Weekly, where she worked as children's reviews editor for 10 years. She now reviews children's books and writes about the publishing industry for an e-newsletter called Shelf Awareness.

Authors:
Jennifer Ziegler
Paula Yoo
Lauren Myracle
Melissa de la Cruz

Moderated By: Jennifer Brown

I Haven't Been Myself Lately: My Life as a Writer
Date: Saturday, November 1, 2008
Time: 3:30 - 4:30
Location: Capitol Extension Room E1.016

This intriguing panel features three authors who have masterfully crafted first-person narratives of protagonists entirely different from themselves. From a man writing a teenage girl's experience with an unplanned pregnancy to a white author writing as a black girl growing up in the Deep South during the Civil Rights Movement, these authors have immersed themselves in worlds that they can only imagine. They will talk about their writing process and the challenges of getting into someone else's head.

Moderator Don Tate is an award-winning illustrator and author. He's illustrated more than 25 trade and educational books for children, including Summer Sun Risin'; Sure As Sunrise: Stories of Bruh Rabbit, a Texas Bluebonnet Masterlist honoree; and more recently, I Am My Grandpa's Enkelin. As a first time author, Don is the recipient of Lee & Low Books New Voices Honor award, for the book It Jes' Happened: When Bill Traylor Taught Himself to Draw, to publish in 2010. Don lives in Austin with his wife and son, and is a graphics reporter for the Austin American-Statesman.

Authors:
Shelia P. Moses
Varian Johnson
Shana Burg

"Let's get one of those for Daddy!"

2008-10-30T05:16:00.004-05:00

I've begun accumulating daylight-fluorescent props, and my kids have learned to keep their own eyes open for these when they're out and about.

That would explain the looks my wife got from other fabric-store shoppers last week when our sons alerted her to the rack of bright-orange feather boas.

Rick Riordan, exception

2008-10-29T07:07:00.002-05:00

You know that children's-writing advice not to put much stock into whether your manuscript is a hit with your own kids or grandkids?

Well, here's Rick Riordan in the November Texas Monthly:

Are your kids the audience for your books?

Oh, absolutely. I always think of my sons first. If it’s a book they’ll like, it’s probably a project I’ll go forward with. I would never think about sending a manuscript to my editor before I read it to my sons. Because if it doesn’t work for kids, I’m wasting my time. It’s one thing for a book to fly with adults, but the kid test is a much tougher litmus test.

"We sold out of books and took orders for tons more!"

2008-10-28T07:38:00.002-05:00

What more could you ask for?

(Well, there's having your name just above Sarah Vowell's on the sign out front, and having your book displayed on the same shelf as The Hunger Games, and...)

Congratulations, P.J.!

You didn't think the past was already past, did you?

2008-10-27T09:13:00.000-05:00

A reminder for history readers both young and old, from the Austin American-Statesman:

Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country's first black presidential nominee.

I hadn't thought of it this way

2008-10-26T05:44:00.001-05:00

From Andrew Sullivan in The Atlantic:

The blogosphere has added a whole new idiom to the act of writing and has introduced an entirely new generation to nonfiction. It has enabled writers to write out loud in ways never seen or understood before. And yet it has exposed a hunger and need for traditional writing that, in the age of television’s dominance, had seemed on the wane.

I don't know how true this is, but I sure like the sound of it.

In which I accept Jay Asher's dare -- and just keep going

2008-10-23T21:45:00.006-05:00

I wasn't sure what I'd get around to doing first -- posting the cover image for The Day-Glo Brothers or taking up Disco Merman Jay Asher's challenge to other authors to post their senior photos. The book won by a few hours, so to compensate, my senior photo --

12th grade, 1988-89
Smugly gazing into the future
and watching myself post this photo
on the Internet 20 years later.

-- has brought along a few friends:

11th grade, 1987-88

10th grade, 1986-87

9th grade, 1985-86

8th grade, 1984-85

7th grade, 1983-84

6th grade, 1982-83

5th grade, 1981-82

4th grade, 1980-81

3rd grade, 1979-80

2nd grade, 1978-79

1st grade, 1977-78

Of all those fashions, I think I favor that zipper pull. Must get more of those...

The cover

2008-10-23T09:05:00.001-05:00

Ooooh!

2008-10-21T21:05:00.001-05:00

Look what I just saw!

Not available for ordering, or for pre-ordering, but if you're in the mood for pre-pre-ordering, feel free to go nuts.

If you're ever in an elevator with me, here's a sneak preview

2008-10-19T07:54:00.004-05:00

I'd been thinking for a while that I could use an elevator pitch for The Day-Glo Brothers. Then, this morning, I saw this item in Charlesbridge's author/illustrator questionnaire:

In approximately 75 words, please provide a description of your book.

In exactly 75 words, here's what I came up with:

"You know those fluorescent oranges and yellows and greens that you see every day on traffic cones, safety vests, highlighters, and so on? A hundred years ago, those colors didn't even exist. The Day-Glo Brothers is the story of the guys who invented those colors while they were in their teens and 20s back during the Depression and World War II. It all started with a magic act and an accident at the ketchup factory…"

Be honest, now: Would this make you take the stairs?

You are not good book-festival people!

2008-10-12T06:15:00.003-05:00

"You are not good B&B people!"

"Yeah, well, that's because we hate B&B's!"

- from David O. Russell's Flirting with Disaster

My sons -- 9-year-old S and 4-year-old F -- love books. They love reading them and being read to. They recite details from books I didn't even know they were aware of. They create their own stories, on paper and in their streams-of-consciousness patter, and they come up with the illustrations to boot. They inspire my own writing -- both my writing of individual pieces and my pursuit of this vocation as a whole. They are my first and biggest fans, with soft spots in their hearts for aged manuscripts that editors have remained unaccountably immune to.

So, I'll say it again: They love books. They are book people. They are not, however, book festival people.

Maybe, as kids go, they are normal in this respect. Maybe children who enjoy spending a day or even a morning hearing grown-ups talk about books are the exceptions. I have a hunch that my sons' main distinction with regard to book festivals is that their dad has a vested interest in attending them. It sure would be convenient for me if S and F were captivated by them, too. But they aren't.

I've known this for a while. It was reinforced for me yesterday at the inaugural Hill Country Book Festival -- not in any sort of can't-show-our-faces-in-that-county-again sort of way, but clearly enough that even I picked up on it.

I'd been looking forward to the festival, and presentations by several of my local friends, for months. Part of me was tempted to insist that my guys tough it out. But that wasn't going to foster a greater appreciation of books (or of me) in anybody, so we left after an hour.

I had a backup plan, almost as if I suspected how the festival would go over with S and F. We drove down the road a bit to a playscape of some renown. Chasing ensued. Those who hid were sought. We all bonked our heads squeezing through the passageways. My sons had a great time, and so did I.

On our way back to the car, S asked me what my favorite activity is. I couldn't answer with any one thing that always makes me happier than any other thing I could be doing. But he had no trouble coming up with an answer for himself: curling up with a David Macaulay book. F chimed in that his favorite activity is being read to.

Next time you don't see them at a book festival, I think you'll have a good shot at guessing what they're doing instead.

Little Farmer Brother Boy

2008-10-06T20:32:00.004-05:00

in·con·gru·ous \(ˌ)in-ˈkäŋ-grə-wəs\adj. : having a quality similar to that experienced while spending a road trip reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother as your kids are listening to Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy.

Example:

The cold nipped Almanzo's eyelids and numbed his nose, but inside his good woolen clothes he was warm. I moved down the corridor lightly and sprightly, keeping my gait even and measured for the gait-recognition cameras. They were all made from the wool of his father's sheep. His underwear was creamy white, but Mother had dyed the wool for his outside clothes. These had been installed only a year before, and I loved them for their sheer idiocy.

Butternut hulls had dyed the thread for his coat and his long trousers. Beforehand, we'd had face-recognition cameras covering nearly every public space in school, but a court ruled that was unconstitutional. Then Mother had woven it, and she had soaked and shrunk the cloth into heavy, thick fullcloth. So Benson and a lot of other paranoid school administrators had spent our textbook dollars on these idiot cameras that were supposed to be able to tell one person's walk from another. Not wind nor cold nor even a drenching rain could go through the good fullcloth that Mother made. Yeah, right.

113 words

2008-09-28T06:59:00.002-05:00

I've got some news and some links, but first: a word count.

I've begun working with a designer friend on my full-fledged website, and I've taken a first crack at the content that will appear on my home page. This will come as a shock to anyone who has ever read an early draft of mine, but I'm trying to err on the side of brevity.

So: 113 words. My name, the navigation links, and the site-design credit included, that's the total word count for the text I want to appear on my home page. There are certain things I want to clearly get across, and tons of text just seem to get in the way.

(By comparison, the home page of one veteran writer of nonfiction for young readers has 1,470 words. Another author, with her first book due out next month, has just 66 on her home page.)

Those of you authors with home pages already out there: What's worked for you, and what hasn't?

***

This past week has been packed. I saw the first preliminary sketches for S.V.T., scored free access to a high-dollar historical database I need for my impostors research, and came up with a fresh direction for another project of mine. Meanwhile, my picture book biography of J.R. has freshly gone out to a batch of editors. I got word that my brand-new picture book manuscript, Bell, is about to go out as well.

Also, I received printouts of The Day-Glo Brothers that I get to share with Bob and Joe Switzer's family, and that pleases me to no end.

On top of all that, Austin SCBWI has scheduled me for my first presentation to the group, after years of me benefiting mightily as an audience member for such presentations. Got plans for September 12, 2009?

***

Finally, a few links that I've been stockpiling:

Via this GeekDad post on Transforming Picture Books into Film (“I have nothing kind to say about SHREK. When you look at the work of William Steig then turn to the ugly Dreamworks product, one can't help but be saddened.”), I found out about this site offering free animations of Newbery and Caldecott winners, among other children's titles.

The 2008 Cybils judging panels for nonfiction picture books and middle-grade/YA nonfiction titles have been announced. From personal experience, I can tell you that the folks involved are in for some spirited discussions, tough choices, and good times.

Austin author Julie Lake's latest publication credit puts her in some pretty fancy company. Check out the lead letter to the editor in the October issue of The Atlantic...

Yes, but what else are you doing?

2008-09-21T06:25:00.002-05:00

I learned this week about Authors & Illustrators for Children, which is seeking children's book creators to add their names to an advertisement supporting Barack Obama for President.

Politically, I'm on board with this. But as a practical matter, it gives me pause.

Children's book authors and illustrators are among my favorite people on the planet. But are we politically influential? As authors and illustrators, more so than as regular citizens? I doubt it.

I just hope that the action and enthusiasm of the hundreds people who have already signed up doesn't stop with the zero-commitment step of adding their names to a list. If the outcome of this election is important to you, now is the time for you to carve some hours or even minutes out of your schedule -- even if it means cutting into your writing or illustrating or promotional work -- to help bring about the results you're looking for.

There are voters to register, phone calls to make, and citizens to encourage to actually get to the polls. I know some children's book authors and illustrators who are already doing these things. If you've signed up for the advertisement (or think it's great that others have), I hope you'll be doing them, too.

The Day-Glo Brothers has a publication date!

2008-09-17T21:37:00.005-05:00

And that date is...

July 1, 2009!

It's been seven years to the month since that manuscript made its first appearance before a critique group. The art is finished, and just a few hours ago my editor and I hashed out our final text change in real-time via cell phone and Facebook. Now it's on to the printer and Charlesbridge Publishing's fall 2009 list.

After such a long time, the 286 days between now and my publication date seems like nothing. It does to me, anyway -- to you, it may seem so long that you'll likely forget all about the release of my first book.

That's OK. I understand -- really, I do. That's why, if you'll look just to the right of these words (if you're reading this on my site) or click here (if you're reading this in your feed reader), you'll find an easy way for me to let you know when the Big Day arrives for The Day-Glo Brothers.

Or, you can just keep reading Bartography. I'll probably mention something about the book next July...

All a-Glo

2008-09-14T07:21:00.004-05:00

The final art for The Day-Glo Brothers arrived on my doorstep two days ago, and I'm still totally floored by how magnificent those pages look.

Even before I'd sold the manuscript -- shoot, probably before I'd even written the thing -- I had a notion that the story of how those colors were created would make for a book that was visually very, very cool.

When I visited my publisher in Boston in July and saw the near-final art, without color, I thought I had a pretty good idea of how terrific the finished product would be. But what Charlesbridge and illustrator Tony Persiani have come up with exceeds every expectation I've ever had.

What's more, I have to keep reminding myself that I still haven't seen this book in all its glory, printed with daylight fluorescent ink. It gives me the vapors just thinking about it.

I can't wait for you all to see this thing for yourselves -- and for me to be able to tell you exactly when that will happen. In the meantime, should you find yourself within arm's reach of me, feel free to ask if I've got the final art with me and if you can see it.

I think you can guess my answer.

Blasts from the past (not my past, necessarily...)

2008-09-07T07:23:00.004-05:00

For reasons too wonky to go into (though it should give you a pretty clear idea of a primary distraction from my work), I've lately been listening to all the songs in my library from the past 40 years, in chronological order.

I wish I could say that this was research for a particular writing project, or otherwise justify it in some clearly professional-related way. But no.

I do think there's some grain of usefulness or insight in there somewhere, though, because of one thing I've observed: The music I actually did listen to during those particular years isn't nearly as interesting as what I've discovered from that time period in the years since, and neither of those bunches of songs may bear any resemblance to what was actually popular at that time.

Take 1977, for instance, the year of Saturday Night Fever, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, and "Hotel California." There's none of that in my library. At the time, my musical world consisted mainly of my dad's Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff Walker records from a few years prior. But when I listen to "1977" now, I hear a lot of Ramones, Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks, along with some Parliament, Iggy Pop and Bob Marley -- none of whom I was the slightest bit aware of at age six in Sulphur Springs, Texas. Believe me.

But I can't help but wonder: What if that music had been what I heard at that time and place? What would that world have been like? Is there a story there? And on a bigger scale, does this relate somehow to the act of writing for children and young adults? Is the opportunity to revisit and, perhaps, thoroughly reinvent our own past -- and to contrast that with what "most people" remember -- part of the appeal of writing for that audience?

That's some mighty big pondering for someone who's been listening to a lot of Georgia Satellites and Pet Shop Boys these past few days.

What just happened?

2008-08-31T07:40:00.003-05:00

I had a lot of good stuff going on in my writing world this past week. Some of the highlights, real quickly-like (what with this being a holiday weekend and all...):

I had cheese enchiladas with Clint Young. You should pay attention to him. I hope you already knew that you should pay attention to cheese enchiladas.
I got my S.V.T. revisions turned in early, and there was much rejoicing. Nine-year-old S and four-year-old F still think it's a riot.
After months of effort, I got the phone number of a key source for one of my nonfiction projects. Now, if I can actually get hold of the guy...
My new business cards touting The Day-Glo Brothers arrived.
I started getting my author C.V. together. Party on.
Some friends in the Austin children's writing and homeschooling communities came through in a huge way when I asked a few questions about author visits.
I finished reading Helen Hemphill's unputdownable The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones and moved on to A.M. Jenkins' Damage, at the persistent (and much appreciated!) urging of my friend Debbie Gonzales.
Did I mention the enchiladas?

Wherever I was, there I am again

2008-08-24T07:39:00.002-05:00

A little under two years ago, inspiration took me to a strange and unexpected place, and from that place emerged a completely silly picture book known in these parts as S.V.T. About a year and a half ago, Little, Brown bought that manuscript, and then the (completely expected, thoroughly understandable) waiting began, during which time I moved on to other things.

This past Monday, I was all set to continue working on the latest profile in my YA nonfiction project on impostors (a profile for which I've learned a lot about the leech-wholesaling business, among other things), when revision notes came in from the editor and illustrator of S.V.T.

For the briefest moment, I panicked: During the two-week turnaround time requested, could I even get back to that weirdo mental state I'd been in when S.V.T. first came to me, let alone produce anything worthwhile?

Then I got to work. I opened up all my old folders and drafts, reacquainted myself with my characters and sensibility, and got going. By the end of the week, I had scraps of paper -- some for old bits of the manuscript, some for new bits -- stuck to the wall and door of my study in something less than totally haphazard fashion, ready to be reworked. My sons were back into full-on help-Daddy-brainstorm mode. I'm having a blast. All is good.

And I'm reasonably certain that, a week from Tuesday, I'll be able to jump right back in with the leeches.

Who's missing?

2008-08-17T07:45:00.004-05:00

The children's-writing life this week put me in touch with two critique partners, four editors, my agent, the representative for one research subject, the host of a library benefit, a printer of business cards, and many of the 70-plus writers and illustrators who turned out to hear Helen Hemphill speak about novel plotting at yesterday's monthly meeting of Austin SCBWI.

Along the way, I got a lesson in how to do voice right by reading The Lucky Place by Zu Vincent, whom I met and became friends with earlier this summer.

So, it was a full week filled with connections and crossed paths, which I love. But do you notice anyone conspicuously absent?

I'm talking about young readers -- the people I'm writing for in the first place. Lately, I've been stuck by how odd it is that we YA and children's authors who are still pre-publication -- pre-bookstore-signing, pre-library-event, pre-school-visit -- may have next to no contact with those readers other than with those who live under our own roofs.

There's a feedback loop that isn't closed yet, and there's such a big leap of faith that when the circle is complete, we'll like what we hear, or at least know what to do with it.

Would this qualify as a business expense?

2008-08-10T06:41:00.003-05:00

I've started watching auctions of Day-Glo-colored paraphernalia that might make for good props in visits to schools, libraries, conferences, etc., and this 1960 campaign sticker caught my eye this week.

On the other hand, I'll already have my work cut out for me explaining how fluorescence and daylight fluorescence work. Will I really want to also have to explain what a Nixon is?

OK, then -- how about on a Friday?

2008-08-03T23:15:00.003-05:00

While visiting my hometown this weekend, I thought I'd do a little pre-publication reconnaissance work and visit the public library. You know -- check out the building (constructed after I graduated), have a look at the children's area, set how a presentation for The Day-Glo Brothers might work in that space...

Closed.

My hometown library is closed on both Saturdays and Sundays.

Good to know. Sad, but good to know.

A week in the life of someone researching a book about impostors

2008-07-27T06:40:00.004-05:00

Monday
Emailed an international archivist organization to ask for help in contacting Subject A. No answer, so far.

Tuesday
Called a high school to see if they can help me reach Subject B, one of their alumni. Got stuck in a summer-vacation voicemail loop.

Called a labor union office to see if they can help me get in touch with Subject B, possibly a member. Not so helpful -- they can't give me any information (which I entirely expected), nor can they take any information from me to pass along to to that potential member (which I only partially expected).

Emailed a Subject C aficionado in another country. The email bounced, so I found another address for him. That email bounced, so...

Wednesday
Mailed letters to three possible home addresses for Subject B, having already gotten back marked "Return to Sender" the letter I'd sent to the one known address I had for him.

Found and used a third email address for the Subject C enthusiast. No bounce, but no reply yet, either.

Thursday
Called the phone number for Subject D. Was told by the person answering the phone that an interview was unlikely, but that I was welcome to send more information about my project.

Friday
Emailed information for Subject D to consider. A few hours later, I heard back that we're on for an interview next week.

Spent lunch hour reading from a 500-page book about Subject E...

If you want to progress -- retreat!

2008-07-20T06:12:00.005-05:00

Me and my writing comrades in summer 1989, at the
California Scholastic Press Association workshop.

Me and my writing comrades in summer 2008:
(font row) Zu Vincent, Ruth McNally Barshaw, Vicki Coe,
Erin Murphy, Audrey Vernick, Kathy Duval,
(back row) Jeannie Mobley-Tanaka, Robert Kinerk, me,
Olugbemisola Amusashonubi-Perkovich, and Anne Broyles.

I've been a serious fan of writerly get-togethers for as long as I've been serious about writing, and lately I've been seriously fortunate to attend three. In recent months I've posted about the Austin SCBWI conference and the Awesome Austin Writers Workshop, and last weekend I got to enjoy another.

It was a terrific two-and-a-half days spent with my literary agent and nine of her other clients at the Rolling Ridge Retreat Center in North Andover, Massachusetts. We talked shop, we cut up, we woodshedded, we bonded. (Anne Broyles has more details.) I, for one, came home with a list of ideas, inspirations, and to-do's that I'm still not even done processing, let alone following through on.

Did it make me a better writer? Do any of these get-togethers with other writers make any of us better at what we do? In my case, I believe they absolutely do -- because I know I'm not going to be able to justify going to these things if I'm not making progress during those hours when I've got a keyboard or a notebook in front of me.

I'm also a big believer in taking the time to pull yourself out of your routine and opening yourself up to sensory inputs that you wouldn't otherwise encounter.

Example #1: At Rolling Ridge one morning, I saw a groundhog. Honest, it was just waddling around out there in the open. I didn't even know what it was -- a low-riding beaver with a fluffy tail? -- until Anne mimicked its movements and identified it for me. Not a huge deal, but also not something I ordinarily get to see -- which I guess applies to both the groundhog and to Anne's pantomime.

Example #2: This quote from Fletcher Steele, the landscape architect who designed Rolling Ridge early in the last century, as recounted in this book:

"I believe there is no beauty without ugliness and that it should not be otherwise. Both are capable of stinging us to live. Contrast is more true to be than undeviating smugness. The chief vice in gardens ... is to be merely pretty."

Example #3: This possible recipe for happiness, which occurred to me as I walked the labyrinths at Rolling Ridge on our last morning (and jotted down -- hastily and barely legibly -- as I was barraged by mosquitoes the moment I stopped moving):

Find things you love to do.

Find people you love to do those things with.

Live each day in such a way that allows you more time and more opportunities to do those things with those people -- and in such a way that allows the rest of the world to do the same.

And now, back to work on that thing I love to do.

AAWWsome!

2008-07-03T06:11:00.010-05:00

Varsha Bajaj and Lindsey Lane emote on behalf of all of us.

This past weekend I took a couple of extra days off, and how did I relax? By leaving the house -- for three of those four days -- more than an hour earlier than I would on a typical work day.

What got me up and out so early? The same thing that got me to push aside most of my own writing work during the month of June: the Awesome Austin Writers Workshop, hosted by -- and springing up from the immense well of generosity of -- Cynthia Leitich Smith and Greg Leitich Smith.

AAWW was a raucous, joyful, meaningful, and productive affair unlike anything I've experienced since the writing class I took with John Trimble at UT many years ago. For two-and-a-half days, nearly 30 of us dissected, debated, and constructively criticized up to 10 pages submitted by each attendee.

Many of the participants have already written (of course!) about the workshop, and I'll link to their accounts below. For me, the workshop's most vivid impression was the way we unselfconsciously referred to each other's work.

The samples we discussed weren't "pages."

They weren't even "manuscripts."

In our minds, they were all "books." And I can't wait for you to get to read them, too.

***

My latest project

2008-06-30T07:19:00.004-05:00

There's an exciting new nonfiction project that I've been working on for a while, and I think the time is finally right to share some of the details here.

I know that there are plenty of trained-sea-mammal books out there, but I believe this story from South Florida is truly exceptional. For one thing, the dolphin I'm writing about has attained a level of athletic skill that, frankly, is far beyond anything you're going to see at your average marine park. And unless I'm naive about the goings-on at the Sea Worlds of the world, nobody is placing bets on the animals that perform there.

But the thing that really strikes me about this project is how -- for all the high-speed, high-stakes action -- the aquatic star of the story participates simply for the enjoyment of the sport. (Well, for that, and for a few sardines.) And that's why I'm titling it Jai Alai: Fun with a Porpoise.

Goin' to Boston

2008-06-22T06:08:00.003-05:00

Photo by Larry Stritof

As I mentioned a few months ago, my family is going to Boston for vacation later this summer. It will be the first time my wife and boys have been, and my first trip there since I was 11 years old, and so I've been on the lookout for books to prep us on our visit.

Complementing the titles mentioned (and commented upon) in my original post, here's what we've currently got on our vacation-themed shelf. (Well, right now, these titles are actually piled up on the floor next to my desk, but I hope to have them back on the shelf before the kids are awake. Or perhaps I'll treat the boys to a conspicuous show of putting books back on the shelf, but that's really a topic for another post...)

Goin' to Boston: An Exuberant Journey in Song, by H. Ellen Margolin and illustrated by Emily Bolam
The Freedom Trail: An Artist's View, by Leonard Weber
What's the Big Idea? Four Centuries of Innovation in Boston, by Stephen Krensky
Subway, by Anastasia Suen and illustrated by Karen Katz. It's not Boston-specific, but we will be taking a lot of rides on the T.
As I Was Crossing Boston Common, by Norma Farber and illustrated by Arnold Lobel
Dangerous Crossing: The Revolutionary Voyage of John Quincy Adams, by Stephen Krensky and illustrated by Greg Harlin
The Boston Coffee Party, by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully
George vs. George: The American Revolution as seen from Both Sides, by Rosalyn Schanzer
You Wouldn't Want to Be at the Boston Tea Party: Wharf Water Tea You'd Rather Not Drink, by Peter Cook and illustrated by David Antram
Sleds on Boston Common: A Story from the American Revolution, by Louise Borden and illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker
Old Ironsides: Americans Build a Fighting Ship, by David Weitzman
The American Story, by Jennifer Armstrong and illustrated by Roger Roth. Especially for "1919 - The Great Molasses Flood," but also for "1820 - The Whale's Fury" -- which leads us to...

Whales. We'll be up bright and early (or early and bleary) one Sunday for a whale-watching cruise, which explains why we've got so many whale-related titles around the house these days:

Whaling Days, by Carol Carrick and illustrated by David Frampton
Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick
Peggony-Po: A Whale of a Tale, by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney
and, finally, Whale Port, by Mark Foster and illustrated by Gerald Foster

Where are you bound this summer (whether by flight or by foot), and are you reading anything to get ready?

Children's author addresses Harvard: "No thanks"

2008-06-14T22:09:00.003-05:00

I'm used to having to pay for postage -- a couple of bucks, usually -- for research items I receive through interlibrary loan. The fee seems only fair for the effort other folks go through to get me the materials I need for my current nonfiction project.

But I was a little taken aback this week when my local librarian informed me that Harvard wanted 50 bucks before they'd share their copy of something I'd recently requested for my work on Pasta. Now, I knew it was a somewhat rare book, and that only three libraries in this country even had a copy. But for $50, I'd expect the book to be hand-delivered by Harvard's most recent commencement speaker. And I'd expect to get to keep it, too.

Two minutes after learning what the interlibrary loan approach would cost me this time around, I found the book through a UK dealer for 16 pence -- that's about 30 cents -- plus £6.94 for shipping. I never would have thought that nearly $14 for postage for a single book could be considered a bargain, but that was before I'd received my Harvard education.

Noted

2008-06-08T06:23:00.003-05:00

At the same time nine-year-old S picked up the book I wrote about last week, I got (on Read Roger's recommendation, via Farm School) Tricia Tunstall's marvelous Note by Note: A Celebration of the Piano Lesson.

And in piano teacher Tunstall's consideration of a student's favored hip-hop track ("Playas everywhere. . . . Pimp on, pimp on, pimp on ..."), I found some reinforcement for my hoped-for open-mindedness when it comes to my children's cultural tastes, literary and otherwise:

The particular virtues of the piano are utterly irrelevant to the vast majority of rap music; I may as well be teaching Damian to play cathedral chimes. ... But here is Damian at my piano, and this is what is on his iPod. I can give him my first, visceral response, and tell him that the song we just listened to represents the antithesis of the values -- musical, aesthetic, even moral -- to which I have devoted my life. Or I can spare him that bit of news, and try to meet him halfway. His face is eager, expectant. We listen again. I discover that there is a thudding bass line consisting of a series of notes in a repeated rhythmic figure (this, you understand, is the beat). I teach him the notes. He is elated; he thinks he has learned the song. Maybe he has.

Tunstall's teaching experiences underscore another important point: that the audience for specific creative works cannot be contained by prescribed age brackets. Contrast this with the literary news from England, where Philip Pullman and others are mightily ticked off by a new effort to put such prescriptions on book jackets.

Just wondering: Do these age bands apply only to books for children, or can we also expect to see books prescribed for readers 45+?

Maybe I'm just jealous that there weren't any books about Uncle Jesse or Exodor

2008-06-01T06:52:00.002-05:00

I hear a lot -- a lot -- from my sons about Pokemon and Sonic the Hedgehog, which I assume is some sort of karmic payback for all those Dukes of Hazzard and Mork & Mindy plotlines I regaled my mom with circa 1980. And I respond with roughly the same amount of enthusiasm as she surely must have.

Both boys have been on a video-game-related-book kick lately, and yesterday's trip to the library was no exception. Four-year-old F wanted to renew our previous haul of Pokemon chapter books, which we did not do. But while I was following him around as he picked books in his inimitable, indiscriminate way (in big alpha-ordered clumps), nine-year-old S was getting some help from the librarian in finding what he was looking for.

"There's something I need upstairs," S announced when he found us. "Upstairs," meaning "in the adult section" -- far from the typical Sega- and Nintendo-related fare. We soon found the book he was looking for, Martin Campbell-Kelly's From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry.

Obviously, the character's name in the title attracted S to this one, but I also wonder how much influence the librarian had in him seeking out this book, even though it meant a trudge upstairs. Of course, for all I know, she may have tried to talk him out of it. "That's probably not what you're looking for," I can imagine a reasonable librarian saying in that situation. And I know from personal experience how well such an attempt at dissuasion would work with him.

He began skimming the book not long after he got home, and he pronounced it "cool." Whatever forces were at work in his selection of From Airline Reservations, S has had his horizons expanded a little, by his own choice, and in pursuit of knowledge of a subject that means little to me. Truth be told, it's a subject that I might (just might) tend to be somewhat dismissive of, but having been freshly reminded of the absolute unpredictability of where a person's interests can lead him, I think I'll redouble my efforts to keep my parental mind open and trap closed.

While we're on the subject of experiments that have worked splendidly...

2008-05-25T06:34:00.003-05:00

So, how did Operation Morning Person go? I just had my best writing week in I don't remember how long -- and that's even with my lunch hour getting pre-empted more days than not, a development that would have had me climbing the walls had I not already gotten nearly two hours of good stuff done.

And, contrary to my expectations, I did indeed see 5 a.m. -- six out of the past seven mornings. Full immersion turned out to be the way to go.

I might as well mention another experiment I tried recently and have been really happy with -- the Saturday Digital Sabbath. It's not as extreme as it may sound -- I don't shun my MP3 player or my cell phone, but I do stay off the computer. (OK, except yesterday, when I needed a recipe for crockpot pasta sauce, instructions for replacing bicycle brake cables, and an instant download -- Groundhog Day -- to watch during an impromptu family movie night.)

But I do avoid e-mail, my feed reader, and other favorite online distractions (such as filling in empty "Year" fields for tracks in iTunes -- just 300 to go!), and as a result I'm more present for my family, better rested, more productive (see sauce, pasta; and brakes, bicycle), and, as it turns out, not critically out of the loop. I recommend it.

Finally, in a successful effort to make sure I spend more of my "writing" time actually writing, I've also begun relegating all of what I call "marketing stuff" -- Publishers Lunch and Publishers Weekly, Facebookery, kidlit blogs, posts to my own, etc. -- to a two-hour window on Sundays. And seeing as how this week's window began at 5 a.m., and it's 7 now, I do believe it's time to sign off.

Bartography readers, here's to a great long weekend, spent having fun and doing whatever works for you.

Operation Morning Person

2008-05-18T14:04:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time, I got up at 5 a.m. just about every day, well before anyone in the house woke up. I wrote, I ran, I drank coffee -- all before going in to the office. Aside from the looks of bewildered revulsion I got when I told people I got up at 5 a.m., life was pretty sweet.

Then my younger son decided that 5 or thereabouts was a fine time for him to get up, too. I was still able to drink coffee, but that was pretty much the end of my pre-dawn writing or running. So, I turned myself into a night owl, sleeping until close to 7 a.m. and staying up until midnight. And lo, I was productive again.

Well, that's over with, it seems. Whatever nighttime mojo I had going for me for all those months has wafted away. Stringing thoughts together in a way that makes for a coherent manuscript just isn't happening anymore after the kids go to bed. My intentions are good, but my mind is too weak at that hour to hold off a world (wide web) full of appealing distractions.

I'm tired. And when the end of my day arrives and I don't have any writing to show for it, I don't feel good at all.

So I'm making a conscious (and entirely voluntary) effort to switch back to morning personhood. So far (meaning, this morning), so good, though I have no intention of seeing 5 a.m. anytime soon. I hope, though, that in addition to making some progress on my current project, I'll also enjoy the psychological benefit that comes from being able to say throughout the day -- no matter what happens during the ensuing hours -- "I've already written something today."

I'll also get to drink my coffee earlier.

Getting out and about

2008-05-11T22:32:00.003-05:00

For a while now, I've been thinking about community, and how it might relate to the market success of books for children and young adults.

A couple of things have brought this on: I'm currently reading (and being inspired by) Jay Walljasper's The Great Neighborhood Book, and in the past few months I've been surprised by the sparse attendance at a couple of launch events for appealing books by terrific people.

I look at my own situation, and I can easily see how I might find myself with a modest stack of books that nonetheless outnumbers the crowd at a bookstore thingy of my own.

When I consider these two facts --

1) Of the people in the Austin area whom I know (fairly) well, the single biggest category would be creators of children's books.

2) Of the blogs that I follow and interact with on a (fairly) regular basis, the single biggest category would be those related to children's books.

-- the phrase that comes to mind is "echo chamber." When my books are finally available, will most of the people who know about them be other folks in the local or online children's literature scene? Will the news of my publication be just one of many near-identical pieces of good news bouncing off the walls of one fairly self-contained community?

I grew up in a small town where one's authorship of a book would have been fairly common knowledge, I think, but I don't live in that town anymore, or even in a community like it. Occasionally, I miss it.

I live on a block with dozens of houses, and it doesn't take me very many fingers to count how many of those homes I've been inside of, or how many residents' hobbies, careers, or skills I could identify. I would like the people in my neighborhood to know about my work, just like I'd like to know which of them have a knack for woodworking or birding or canning their own salsa. I'd like to know them, and I'd like to have the kind of neighborhood where they know each other, and so I'm mulling ideas in The Great Neighborhood Book for how to help bring that about.

One of those neighbors I do know is a blogger, and through her blog (it's not about children's literature, and it's much more widely and rabidly read than mine) I know that her interests overlap a good deal with the sort of audience that's going to love one of those new books that recently drew such small launch-event crowds. I wish my neighbor had known about that bookstore event -- and the book being celebrated -- beforehand. If she had, who knows?

I was also struck by the large (by kidlitosphere standards) comment thread on the recent BoingBoing post, "Young adult sections in bookstore -- a parallel universe of little-regarded awesomeness." This suggests to me that -- for the right book (or topic) -- there are large, sympathetic blog audiences out there beyond the realm catering to us children's literature types. And that, just like in the physical neighborhoods we all inhabit, it wouldn't hurt to get out and about a little more often.

Mayes' days

2008-05-04T14:30:00.004-05:00

I don't remember whether I mentioned him by name, but during the picture book panel discussion at last weekend's SCBWI conference, I sang the praises of former Farrar, Straus & Giroux editor Robbie Mayes.

It was Robbie who, in responding to an early draft of The Day-Glo Brothers six years ago this month, gently advised me, "If you were to develop this project further, what I'd like to see is a shorter text..."

People, it was more than 6,000 words long.

Can you imagine the restraint that went into providing the advice quoted above rather than scrawling "cut, cut, cut, cut, CUT!"? Or the generosity that led him to send anything besides a canned, "doesn't meet our needs at this time" reply to this sad, deluded writer who didn't realize he had enough text for six longish picture books?

I did develop the project further, obviously, and chopped the text of The Day-Glo Brothers by about 2/3, down to something resembling its current form. It still wasn't what Robbie was looking for, but the time and encouragement and specificity he provided made a huge difference for me, my manuscript, and my career.

As you can imagine, I've often thought fondly of Robbie, and since he left the business three years ago I've occasionally done a quick search for news about what he's been up to. I never found anything -- until yesterday.

Children's author Sam Riddleburger (The Qwikpick Adventure Society) has done the great service of getting Robbie to reflect on his time as an editor, recently posting the first and second installments of a still-in-progress, three-part Q&A.

You should read the whole thing, of course, but I thought I'd give you a taste of what you'll find:

Robbie on long editorial silences: "Trust me that when you don’t hear anything for a while—this is of course after first getting some encouragement—chances are pretty good you are not forgotten."

Robbie on gimmicky cover letters: "I felt a well-written, personality-ingrained letter helped me to form an early picture of what kind of writer I had on my hands. Sometimes the letter even trumped the manuscript in terms of whether I thought it a potentially worthwhile investment to offer encouragement and (hopefully) useful criticism."

Thanks, Sam. And thanks again, Robbie.

It's almost as if the bats are a metaphor for something

2008-04-27T07:21:00.004-05:00

What we did not see.
(Photo from
Bat Conservation International)

Much of my time surrounding yesterday's Austin SCBWI conference was meticulously planned -- the full-to-bursting conference itself, the half-dozen manuscript critiques I provided, my performance as tour guide for my visiting agent, my mission to meet the macaroni-and-cheese needs of my visiting editor, and the post-conference consumption of chicken fried steak at Threadgill's.

But meticulous planning will get you only so far. After dinner, another local writer and I took four out-of-towners to participate in the beloved Austin activity of watching 800,000 or so Mexican free-tailed bats take flight from beneath the Congress Avenue bridge as the sun went down. A lot of people do this -- yesterday evening, hundreds of folks standing on the bridge or sitting with us on a hillside below waited for the bats to emerge.

We waited, and we waited, and we waited. The sun set completely with no mass emergence of Tadarida brasiliensis. The sky darkened to the point where we really couldn't tell whether any bats were flying out at all, or if they were just clinging to the outside of the bridge -- either way, none of us were going to witness the spectacle of all those flying rodents silhouetted against the fading evening sky.

What could we do? We'd showed up on time, we'd waited for a long while, but there was never any guarantee that any of us were going to get what we'd come for. Families with small children were the first to pack it in and head for their cars. When the patient troop of Boy Scouts from Humble, Texas, got up and left, I took that as a sign that the show -- such as it was -- really was over. We folded up our blankets, too.

But then one member of our party gravitated to a spot below the southeastern corner of the bridge, and gradually the rest of us joined her. If we used our hands to shield our eyes from the light of the streetlamp overhead, we could clearly see something. Not the picturesque bat exodus that we had expected, but something remarkable in its own way.

One-by-one at times, and other times in clusters, the bats were indeed coming out -- though that's not what we saw, exactly. What we saw instead was more amazing than that. A few feet or yards from the bridge, the bats just seemed to materialize. Suddenly, in midflight, there they were, their brown bodies flitting and swooping and darting. And then, just as amazingly, they seemed to dissolve into the night sky or into the shadows beneath the bridge.

Over and over, we watched it happen. Everybody else had gone, but the six of us who stayed received our own private display. It was not what we had planned for. It was wholly unexpected. And it was uniquely memorable.

They say that a certain percent of success (or life) is just showing up. Last night was a reminder that there's also something to be said for sticking around and keeping your eyes open.

Get some wisdom from accomplished children's literature professionals. Or from me.

2008-04-20T08:58:00.018-05:00

Talk about being in good company...

At the Austin SCBWI conference this coming Saturday, I'll be participating in the picture book/chapter book panel discussion, "How I Got Published/Continue to Get Published." I'll get to pass the microphone back and forth with Christy Stallop, Brian Anderson, Jane Ann Peddicord and Lila Guzman. Not a bad bunch at all.

Moderator Julie Lake gave us a preview of her questions, and I've been mulling over some of those this morning. If you don't mind, I believe I'll take this opportunity to think my responses through out loud.

Real quickly-like, what did I do to get published?

In the case of The Day-Glo Brothers (Charlesbridge, 2009), I found a story that I thought would be fun to research, fun to tell, and fun to read. (Note: I kept the audience in mind, but I kept my own tastes in mind even more.)

Easy to sell? Well, there weren't a whole bunch of books out there about obscure entrepreneurs researching fluorescence during the Depression -- nothing I could point to and say, "See? These books are big!" But I did learn the market well enough to know that publishers were open to picture book biographies of such unconventional subjects as Waterhouse Hawkins and Fannie Farmer.

I researched, and I wrote, and I submitted. And I submitted. And I cut my manuscript by 2/3. And I submitted some more. And my 23rd submission (approximately) of this manuscript coincided with having a couple of local acquaintances put in a good word for me with their friend, the Charlesbridge editor. I would not have had those acquaintances without SCBWI, and it just goes to show how important personal contacts are in this business.

What trends/changes do I see now vs. when I first started trying to get published?

The avenues for making professional connections and learning the industry and expanding one's awareness of what children's literature can be have been greatly expanded by the kidlitosphere (and keep in mind that the avenues that existed within the children's literature community were already pretty impressive when I started seven years ago). But writers, beware: The potential for distractions from the actual work of reading and writing children's books has become just as vast. Strike a balance, and be vigilant about sticking to it.

What would I do differently if I could do it over again?

I would have waited a lot longer before I began submitting my work to agents. To that agent who received my very bad batch of first manuscripts -- which no editor or critique partner had laid eyes on -- I apologize.

The best part of a busy week

2008-04-13T22:09:00.002-05:00

It wasn't toting home from UT an enormous stack of books about antebellum Charleston and the B&O railroad as research for my Impostors project.

It wasn't reading a terrific nonfiction proposal from a new friend and then putting her in touch with a children's literature professional who was just as enthusiastic as I was.

It wasn't picking up Keep Your Eye on the Kid as a baby gift for a film-historian mom's firstborn (See? I'm doing better!) and then visiting with a kidlit friend while I was in the neighborhood.

It wasn't even finding out about another friend's wonderfully ambitious (and long overdue) historical and literary project.

And it wasn't finishing my first reads of the manuscripts I'm critiquing for this month's conference, or successfully shaving 12 pages of my own down to 10 for submission to a critique group, or making plans for a get-to-know-you lunch this week with a couple of local literary folks.

Nope, it was an hour spent at my kitchen table with a pair of preteen writers. They came equipped with loads of enthusiasm and terrific questions about writing and publishing, and I got to share the evolution of my relationship with one publishing house from rejection letters -- all of which I saved and was able to show them -- to acceptance of one of my manuscripts.

And the best part of the best part was when one of them said, "Little, Brown! Almost everything I read is from Little, Brown!"

The mysterious nonfiction-as-birthday-present society

2008-04-06T20:50:00.005-05:00

The Mysterious Benedict Society has been on my mind lately -- with up to $7 (before tax) of parental cash to spend during a recent bookstore outing, 9-year-old S snagged the new paperback (with a sneak preview of the soon-to-be-published sequel) for $6.99.

For a friend's birthday yesterday, S gave him a hardback copy.

And so, when I was thinking about what to give my nephew A when he turns 10 later this week, I thought -- well, you can probably guess what I thought.

But no dice -- my sister-in-law told me that A had already read it. Loved it, too, but I didn't want to get him something he'd already read. (If you assume that I was set on getting him a book of some sort, you're assuming correctly.)

Then I thought of something outlandish: I could get him a nonfiction book. Yes, I'm afraid it's true -- even someone with a vested interest in the health of the children's nonfiction market defaulted to fiction when trying to think of a kid's birthday present.

Once I got past that, though, it didn't take me long to come up with a choice I'm happy with and I hope my nephew will love: Sid Fleischman's Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini, which as you can see from this link comes with the Fuse #8 seal of approval.

With that taken care of (thank you, 2-day shipping), I can now devote more time to wondering why I didn't think of nonfiction in the first place. My immediate hunch: When picking a book for A, I was interested in knowing what he's been into, in case there was something along those lines I could get him, or even the latest in a beloved series.

But trade nonfiction titles are typically singular creations -- in literature for children and young adults, nonfiction authors often don't return to the same topics as their previous works. And perhaps partly for that reason, nonfiction authors seldom attain the same prominence as A-list fiction authors and thus don't come to mind as brand names (as in, "He just loves Jim Murphy!"). So unless there's a particular subject that a young reader is nuts about, eliciting nonfiction recommendations from that reader's parents can be tough.

Even more so when the eliciting party doesn't think to ask about nonfiction favorites in the first place.

What am I working on (3/08)?

2008-03-31T21:12:00.002-05:00

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...

They'll always have the Harvey

2008-03-26T21:19:00.003-05:00

And then a very surprising thing happened. A group of friends were eating at a restaurant called Florent. They had heard about the fireboat and decided something. "Let's save the Harvey. Let's buy her!"

-- Maira Kalman, Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey

My wife spotted this item about the closing of the Manhattan restaurant mentioned in one of our family's favorite picture books.

And I thought my antennae were up for tangential children's literature references...

It's a blog, it's a book, it's...

2008-03-25T22:01:00.002-05:00

Noblemania! You really should check out this recentishly new blog from Marc Tyler Nobleman, the author of the forthcoming picture book biography Boys of Steel, about the creators of Superman.

Now, if you'd written a picture book about the birth of the Superman comics, who would you want to illustrate it? Ross MacDonald, right?

Care to guess who the illustrator of Boys of Steel is?

And I thought it seemed like a long time to me

2008-03-24T07:01:00.002-05:00

As more family and friends and old acquaintances become aware of my children's writing pursuits and books under contract, I'm getting more questions about how the whole process works, and how long it takes.

"Wow, it takes that long?" is a common response.

This weekend, a family friend and fellow homeschooling parent asked if I'd be willing to discuss the process with her daughter and a friend, aspiring writers who are 10 and 9 years old. Sure thing, I replied, but I just realized something.

At their age, when they hear how long I've been at this -- 7-plus years of writing, 3 1/2 years since receiving my first contract -- with no books on the shelf, how is that going to sound?

Would that be like telling a 36-year-old such as myself, "Well, I've been at this for 30 years, and I got my contract 15 years ago, so, you know -- my books will be out any year now"?

Beyond the Big Idea, part 5

2008-03-17T08:36:00.002-05:00

Go Ahead, Google it. Or Ask. Or...

If all else fails -- searching your local library's online catalog, using Amazon.com's advanced book search, and seeing what sources Wikipedia can point you toward -- there's still the option of plopping keywords into an Internet search engine.

For our last example of how you might find additional information about something you read in What's the Big Idea?, we'll go with the guy who came up with one of the most useful inventions in the past 40 years: the @ symbol.

The book tells us that it was Ray Tomlinson who decided to make @ a part of email addresses, and let's say that you want to find out more about how that happened.

An Internet search for "email" will get you a few billion results -- probably more than you have time to look through. Even just searching for "Ray Tomlinson" might get you a lot of stuff you don't need -- information about other Ray Tomlinsons, or other things that the Ray Tomlinson has done over the years.

But if you put both "Ray Tomlinson" and "email" into a search engine --

Wait. This isn't Google. What, you may ask, am I doing?

Just showing that there's more than one search engine out there. This one's called Ask, and as you can see, it's pretty good. The links in the middle of the page look useful enough, and the "Narrow Your Search" links over on the left show that the combination of those two search terms has gotten you right to what you're looking for.

It won't always be this easy, but you get the idea.

Now, let's do the same search in Google:

Notice how three of the first five results mention the year 1971? That probably means that 1971 was a pretty important year for Ray Tomlinson and email, so add "1971" to your search terms, and see what you get:

You might be happy to stop with the links listed here, but there's one more trick I'd like to show you. Google has a book search, too, and books often do a better job than web pages of saying where certain pieces of information came from. Anyway, if you try the same search terms there, you'll get something like this:

Would you just look at those page counts -- 900! 902! Now that's additional information.

Beyond the Big Idea, part 4

2008-03-16T15:00:00.001-05:00

You Can Always Ask Uncle Wikipedia

So, let's say you read in What's the Big Idea? that the sewing machine was invented by Elias Howe, not by the better-known Isaac Singer. You want to know more -- but you couldn't find any books through Amazon.com.

That doesn't mean there aren't any books about the invention of the sewing machine, and even if it did, there still might be some trustworthy information available online.

If you happen to have a friend or relative who knows a little about this subject, you could ask them to point you in the right direction. If you don't, you can ask Wikipedia.

The thing is, like that friend or relative, there's always the chance that Wikipedia will give you more opinion than fact, or doesn't know as much as it thinks it does, or is just plain wrong.

I don't rely on Wikipedia when I need to make sure something is absolutely correct, but I use it all the time when I want to know what people who care about a subject believe to be true about it. Like sewing machines, for instance:

Since I want to know about something that happened more than 150 years ago, I'll follow the link from the Contents box to the History section:

Again, this section tells me what some folks think the facts are. Often, they're right -- but not always. Anyway, if the History section is helpful to you, then you'll want to have a look at the bottom of the page to see if it lists other sources.

If it doesn't, you might have better luck in the Wikipedia entry for a related topic -- Isaac Singer, perhaps:

At the bottom of the page, in the References section --

-- you'll see the title and author of a book about Singer and the sewing machine, as well as a link to another online article about him. If that other article makes clear where its information came from, you may have found exactly what you need. If it doesn't, it might be time to head back to Amazon or your local library.

So, is that it? Is that everything you need to know about looking online for more information on a subject you read about in a book?

Well, I haven't mentioned Google yet, have I?

Beyond the Big Idea, part 3

2008-03-14T08:30:00.006-05:00

Advance to a Broader Search

Suppose you need a book on a certain topic so badly that you don't care if your local library carries it or not. Let's say you're a Texan who, thanks to What's the Big Idea?, is all fired up about Boston Red Sox great Ted Williams -- what do you do then?

If you're like me, you go to Amazon.com's advanced book search, which covers way more books than can fit in a single library.

Enter your subject as plainly as possible -- simply Ted Williams will do in this case -- in the Keywords field.

You may also want to narrow the search down to just books for young readers. You can do this in various ways -- with another Keyword ("juvenile"), or with Subject ("Children's Books"), or with Reader Age, as shown above.

The results show three books that are obviously about the guy you're looking for. Click their titles for more information.

Now, maybe the top part of the page convinces you that this is the book to have. But if it doesn't, go all the way to the bottom of the page --

-- where you'll see a couple of options for further research: "Look for Similar Items by Category" and "Look for Similar Items by Subject." Both of these are easy to figure out just by playing with them a bit.

Assuming you do finally find the right book for you, what then? Well, you can always go back to your library's online catalog and see if that title is available there. If it's not, you can ask that your library borrow it from another library.

Or, heck, you could even just buy the book yourself, or convince somebody close by that it would make a swell [name of next holiday] present.

But what if you still haven't found a likely source for the answers to your questions? Hang on -- I'm getting to that.

Beyond the Big Idea, part 2

2008-03-13T16:23:00.004-05:00

Behold, the Subject Keyword Search!

Even if the book you started with doesn't suggest another title on a certain subject, you can still easily find out whether your local library has what you're looking for.

From What's the Big Idea?, we'll go with the example of inventor Lewis Latimer, an African-American associate of both Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.

In your library's online catalog, bring up the Subject Keyword search option, which might look like this --

-- or something like this:

In this case, just type in Lewis Latimer and click the Search button, and here's what you get:

In these search results, you can see not only that there are two relevant titles available, but also that one of them is specifically geared toward younger readers -- the one with a "J" for "Juvenile" in the Call Number.

Click into the record for this title and you get a little more information about the book itself --

-- but also the really important details about where you can find it:

Ah, but what if you want to find a book that your library may not have? We'll cover that next time.

Beyond the Big Idea, part 1

2008-03-12T19:20:00.004-05:00

In a comment on my post about Boston-related books, Becky mentioned a new title, Stephen Krensky's What's the Big Idea? Four Centuries of Innovation in Boston. My editor at Charlesbridge recently sent me a copy, and it will give my family lots to chew on as we figure out what we want to see during our upcoming trip.

In the meantime, the breadth and variety of innovation described by What's the Big Idea? -- and the difficulty of providing detail about each one in a single 64-page book -- has given me an idea of my own.

In a series of posts, I'm going to use examples of this book's content in a tutorial geared toward my own children -- and maybe just right for some that you know -- about how to track down more information on a subject covered in a nonfiction book. We'll start with:

Bibliography + Library Catalog = Easy-Peasy

Alexander Graham Bell was in Boston when he said, "Mr. Watson, come here..." Inventing the telephone ranks pretty high as local innovations go, so it's no surprise to see a Bell biography listed in the Suggested Reading section of What's the Big Idea?

Unless that particular title is poised to fall directly onto your head, finding additional information doesn't get much easier than plugging the first few words of that title into the Title Browse field of your local library's online catalog search:

Even if the results don't include the book you're looking for, they'll often lead you to other titles that might work just as well:

[Notice that I used Title Browse because I knew the actual beginning of the book's name. If you're looking for all books whose titles include -- but may not begin with -- certain words (such as a person's name), you'll want to use Title Keyword.]

And there you go. Now put in a hold request or just write down the Collection and Call No. information so that you'll know where to look during your next visit.

In my next post, I'll write more about how to find materials at your local library if there's not a particular title you're looking for.

Some doubt about it

2008-03-09T21:00:00.003-05:00

I found out this weekend that I've got seven manuscripts to critique for Austin SCBWI's Write in the Heart of Texas conference next month. I've got plenty of time to get them done -- the conference isn't until April 26 -- so I'm not at all worried about that. But tonight I suddenly became aware of a pressure of a different sort.

Before you get published, as the years and rejection letters mount, writing for children can begin to feel like not just a hobby, but an increasingly expensive one. There are the big expenses, like workshops, and the smaller ones, like books and postage, and somewhere in between are fees for professional manuscript critiques.

Even at just 30 bucks a pop -- a bargain by some standards -- those fees can give a writer pause. "Is it really worth it?" they might ask. "Is this the best use of my money? I mean, really, the guy doing the critique -- his books are all just under contract. That's not the same as published." Hard to believe, but from time to time, writers do harbor such doubts about what they're doing.

The pressure I've newly become aware of is to make those seven writers who have entrusted me with their work feel like they did a smart thing in adding the extra $30 to their conference registration check. I've critiqued lots of manuscripts over the years, but this is the first time I've been compensated for it, and I want these folks to feel like they got their money's worth, and then some.

There will still be things that they doubt, but I'd really like for this expense to not be one of them.

I Don't Know Why That Is: a blog post

2008-03-03T20:45:00.002-06:00

Tonight during 4-year-old F's bathtime -- a typically long, agendaless process that allows lots of time for the parental mind to wander -- I noticed that all three of the novels reviewed in the current issue of Texas Monthly have covers that announce, in tiny letters, "a novel."

My subsequent, in-depth research -- meaning I looked at online cover images of current New York Times chapter book bestsellers The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Elijah of Buxton, and The Luxe -- suggests that this is not typically the case for children's and YA novels.

It just seems to be the way it's often done for novels geared toward adults. Why? Do those readers need a little extra help? Or are they even more averse to nonfiction than teens are supposed to be?