Guest Blog Post for PiBoIdMo!

I'm so excited to be a guest blogger for Tara Lazar's Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo) this November.

You can find my November 3rd post here.  The best part was reading the comments of other participants. I even learned through the comments that The Littlest Pilgrim had been read over the intercom at a school that very same morning! Such fun.

Commercial vs. Literary Fiction

I attended a workshop here in San Francisco last weekend that was sponsored by the Vermont College of Fine Arts children’s MFA program. It’s always great to get out of your writing space and head space as an author and hear from others in the field. There was a great discussion on dealing with the rejection of your manuscript and how to move past it as well as a lovely talk on the idea of being a mapmaker vs. a wanderer in your writing and how the two intersect.

The day ended with a panel discussion on commercial vs. literary fiction and what to do when an editor calls your manuscript “too literary.” I didn’t contribute much to this conversation and I probably should have – likely being the only commercial writer in the room! But it was interesting to hear the tone of the discussion – the frustration felt by others at having been called “too literary” or “too quiet” – or even just the idea of this happening with their work.

Having been a book club manager, and therefore book buyer, for Scholastic, I know this argument very well. It’s one that I used often when I felt that a novel wasn’t going to sell well enough in our market to justify the expense. And it’s true I often chose more commercial fiction in its place. It’s not because the literary novel was too complicated or too well-written (not that I think such a thing exists!). It’s because to me, when something is described as “too quiet” that means that it doesn’t speak loudly enough to reach the ears and eyes of a larger audience of readers. Only a select, sophisticated group of fifth graders is going to read the “too quiet” middle grade novel. And it may change their lives. It may become their favorite book – something they remember and cherish and refer to into adulthood. It may even change who they become as an adult! But when you’re running a business, as all publishers are, it costs a lot of money to create a book that speaks to only a few.

Of course I think there is a place for these books. I’ve read and loved so many books that we couldn’t take for book clubs because they just wouldn’t appeal to enough of our audience. Some of the writers at the workshop argued that they only care about writing their novel for the one child they know is their “perfect” reader. That’s a pretty strict dedication to one’s vision and craft and I think that’s great – it’s just not the way I think when I write. I love the idea of my work being accessible to a large group of kids. I also love the idea of it being something they read for pleasure and not for assignment. And, don’t get me wrong, I’m always striving to be a better writer and I hope that one day I will write a more literary novel, but even then – I hope my novel finds a wide audience and speaks to a great number of young readers.  

This is something I plan to post more about on my blog. I'd love to hear others' thoughts!

I've got ARCs! I've got ARCs!

Okay, so to be fair I got two ARCs (advanced reader copies  - also known as "uncorrected proofs") of Miss Fortune a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot to post anything here! I'm still getting used to this whole website and blog thing and I really need to get more on top of it. How do rockstar authors do it? Twitter, blog, Facebook, book store appearances, school visits, signings, oh yeah, and WRITING. It's crazy.

Anyway, here's a pic of a Miss Fortune ARC with my crazy dog, Jerome. I think this means that Miss Fortune is puppy dog approved!

 

Getting Out of My Own Way

I met a fabulous fellow children's book author for lunch yesterday and it was so great to connect with someone who is experiencing some of the same challenges that I am. It helps to realize that we all face various obstacles in our writing process. It made me want to examine my obstacles a little more closely.

For starters, I've been kind of amazed by the number of ways and excuses I've found to avoid actually writing since I made the big move out of my corporate job to working for myself. One would think that working from home and having a lot more time in the day to devote to writing would result in a huge bump in creativity and productivity. Well, one would be wrong (at least in my case)! In fact, I realized that on average, I probably got more productive writing done when I had a full time office job than I have been doing lately! There's always a reason to walk the dog or play with the dog or do anything dog-related. There's always something in the apartment that should be cleaner than it is, or laundry that needs to be done, or dishes that need to be unloaded from the dishwasher. There's always other work or email or Twitter or Facebook to focus on instead.

I really started thinking about why this procrastination takes over and the only real answer I can find is that I'm standing in my own way. That little gremlin of self-doubt that sits on my shoulder and tells me that I'm not a very good writer anyway, or that no one is interested in what I have to say, sometimes gets off my shoulder and stands tall in front of me - completely blocking my path. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies - bullies to our inner selves. If we just stayed out of our own way instead of blocking the path (mentally, creatively, and sometimes even physically by doing everything but sitting down to write) then we would get a lot more writing done. And that doesn't mean that all of it is good writing. But actually having something on the page to react to is a lot easier than staring at a blank screen wondering what would happen if you did write something.

I feel reenergized by my chat yesterday and ready to set new goals for myself. And that's something else I realized during our conversation - just being held accountable by someone - even over IM, email, or Twitter - makes a difference in the level of necessity to get those words out. So, let's hope I can stay out of my own way or at least begin to recognize when I start to block the path.

I'd love to hear how other writers, artists, and anyone who works at creating something original kick their gremlins to the curb!

Finding My Author-ness

It's hard to believe that it's been over a year since I left New York and my job at Scholastic and moved to the West coast! I feel like my identity was so tied to being a New Yorker and a professional in children's publishing that it's been an interesting time figuring out who I am now. I think I'm still trying on this new "author" identity and trying to find my voice in the community. It has been a much trickier transition than I thought.

I've spent a lot of time on Twitter, mostly observing and not always contributing to the conversation, but there's a huge kid lit conversation going on there! I think with something like Twitter you can observe for a little while, but at some point you either have to dive right in and join the party or head home.

I'm really looking forward to the release of Miss Fortune, and then later this year, The Littlest Christmas Star, to help me find my author-ness in new ways. I'm excited to start figuring out ways to promote my books and myself as an author. Some authors are such pros at this - they make it their job to be seen and heard and are really successful at it. Again, I think the idea that you either have to dive right in or get out of the way is true here as well.

Being an outgoing and outspoken personality certainly helps, but even us introverts have to get out there somehow. I've been spending a lot of times on the Shrinking Violet Promotions (Marketing for Introverts) website. There's a ton of great information here for those of us who are a little less inclined to say "look at me!"

So, despite my reservations - here's to me diving in! And any advice - authorly or otherwise - is always appreciated.