October happenings
October has been a busy month! I had an awesome school visit at Woodside Elementary in Sussex, WI, followed by an equally awesome weekend at the SCBWI-Wisconsin Fall Retreat in Oconomowoc, WI. So many excellent presentations, including those by editors Cheryl Klein and Andrea Welch, authors Marsha Wilson Chall and Laura Ruby, illustrator LeUyen Pham, and agent Tracey Adams.
I've also been doing a lot of reading this month. Here are some of the books that are sitting on the arm of my couch right now:
Bluefish by Pat Schmatz (Pat is from Wisconsin, just like me! Bluefish is Pat's newest novel and it's already getting all kinds of amazing buzz. Go Pat!)
Alvin Ho by Lenore Look w/ pics by LeUyen Pham
Architecture of the Novel by Jane Vandenburgh
Take Joy by Jane Yolen (I won a signed copy of this book at the SCBWI-WI retreat. Woo-hoo!)
As for writing, my fifth and final book in the Friends for Keeps series is in copy editing now, which means most of my work with it is done. The book will come out next summer. The title is My Extra Best Friend. In this story, Ida and the gang go to summer camp! The last girl in the world Ida expects to see again is there. Hmm.... I wonder who it could be?? :)
With the FFK series wrapping up, I'm starting a brand new story. My desk is peppered with notes and bits of text on slips of paper (I scribble a lot when I write). My white board, where I will eventually outline the story's chapters, is completely clean:
The new story is still very fragile and the characters are just beginning to make themselves known to me. It's a scary and exhilarating place to be. Here's a quote from Architecture of the Novel that speaks to me these days. Maybe it has something to say to you too:
"I've always allowed myself to be wrong for as long as it takes for me to learn the truth of what my book wants to say from the inside out. I let myself be wrong. I absolve myself ahead of time; I am forgiven all my lapses and failures. In this I've discovered something profoundly comforting: that I'm happiest when I'm at work on a book. I simply feel most actively alive when I can walk through a novel's many rooms. A book, as I'm writing it, gives me someplace I always need to be and it feels to me like a home." ( Architecture of the Novel, pg. 117)
I've also been doing a lot of reading this month. Here are some of the books that are sitting on the arm of my couch right now:
Bluefish by Pat Schmatz (Pat is from Wisconsin, just like me! Bluefish is Pat's newest novel and it's already getting all kinds of amazing buzz. Go Pat!)
Alvin Ho by Lenore Look w/ pics by LeUyen Pham
Architecture of the Novel by Jane Vandenburgh
Take Joy by Jane Yolen (I won a signed copy of this book at the SCBWI-WI retreat. Woo-hoo!)
As for writing, my fifth and final book in the Friends for Keeps series is in copy editing now, which means most of my work with it is done. The book will come out next summer. The title is My Extra Best Friend. In this story, Ida and the gang go to summer camp! The last girl in the world Ida expects to see again is there. Hmm.... I wonder who it could be?? :)
With the FFK series wrapping up, I'm starting a brand new story. My desk is peppered with notes and bits of text on slips of paper (I scribble a lot when I write). My white board, where I will eventually outline the story's chapters, is completely clean:
The new story is still very fragile and the characters are just beginning to make themselves known to me. It's a scary and exhilarating place to be. Here's a quote from Architecture of the Novel that speaks to me these days. Maybe it has something to say to you too:
"I've always allowed myself to be wrong for as long as it takes for me to learn the truth of what my book wants to say from the inside out. I let myself be wrong. I absolve myself ahead of time; I am forgiven all my lapses and failures. In this I've discovered something profoundly comforting: that I'm happiest when I'm at work on a book. I simply feel most actively alive when I can walk through a novel's many rooms. A book, as I'm writing it, gives me someplace I always need to be and it feels to me like a home." ( Architecture of the Novel, pg. 117)