Beyond the Book: FALLING FOR HAMLET by Michelle Ray

Beyond the Book: FALLING FOR HAMLET by Michelle Ray

Happy August, everyone! It's been a while since I've done one of these, and I have a few books that have come out this past Spring and Summer, so I'd better get crackin' if I want to catch up before the Fall releases.

Falling for Hamlet is a contemporary retelling of William Shakespeare's Hamlet from Ophelia's point of view...and in this version, Ophelia doesn't die.

The description:
Meet Ophelia: a blonde, beautiful high-school senior and long-time girlfriend of Prince Hamlet of Denmark. Her life is dominated not only by her boyfriend's fame and his overbearing family, but also by the paparazzi who hound them wherever they go. As the devastatingly handsome Hamlet spirals into madness after the mysterious death of his father, the King, Ophelia rides out his crazy roller coaster life, and lives to tell about it. In live television interviews, of course.

Passion, romance, drama, humor, and tragedy intertwine in this compulsively readable debut novel, told by a strong-willed, modern-day Ophelia.

This novel is the first (and only, so far) book I've acquired that has been published on the Poppy imprint. Poppy is home to our young women's commercial fiction. Originally the imprint only published paperback series, like Gossip Girl, The Clique, the A-List, etc, but in the past year or so the imprint has evolved a bit and also published hardcovers, and stand-alone novels. Another editor had recently acquired a modern retelling of Jane Eyre for the Poppy imprint (Jane by April Lindner) when this novel (then titled Ophelia Live!) was sent to me from agent Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency, and when I read the description I immediately though Poppy would be its perfect publishing home. Now, when this is the case I will sometimes pass the project on to another editor, but the concept appealed to me so much, I wanted to read it myself. At Little, Brown, any editor can acquire for any of our "imprints", because we're a relatively small group, and we all attend the same editorial and acquisitions meetings. Although I don't usually tend to acquire the type of books that Poppy publishes, I've always loved reading their books, and had always wanted to acquire a Poppy book.

I read this book in one sitting, and absolutely fell in love with it. I guess you could say that I was falling in love with Falling for Hamlet. I loved how clever it was in modernizing the story. I loved the narrator Ophelia, who I felt was the perfect "every-teen" of sorts--she was relatable in that she didn't always make the smartest decisions, and she was still figuring out who she was and who she wanted to be. I loved that the book was about growing up in the public eye, and for anyone obsessed with the royal family, Prince William and his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton, etc, this book gives a great peek inside what life close to the royal family might be like, from the paparazzi, the scrutiny, the privilege,  etc. I loved how it was sexy, smart, and full of juicy drama and angst.

The agent was getting other interest for the book, so as soon as I read it I asked for other editorial readers; as I felt Poppy was the right imprint, I specifically asked for reads from some of the Poppy editors, who started reading immediately. One called me an hour later just to tell me how awesome it was and how much she was enjoying it.

The book ended up going to auction, which we won, of course!

Working with Michelle has been a joy. She's a Shakespeare geek, a teacher, wickedly funny, and a great reviser--one of the things we worked on was to flesh out the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia. She added a key scene where they vacation in Florence, and I think one of the last scenes of the book she added in was of how these two childhood friends started dating in the first place. We also worked on some key scenes from the original play which weren't quite working in the modern context. One of my main objectives was to make sure that the story made sense even for readers not familiar with the original play, and I think we achieved that.

This books was such fun to work on, from the sexy cover design by the amazing Gail Doobinin (the girl's skirt on the ARC was actually even shorter than the one pictured here! We used a little Photoshop magic to make it a little less scandalous. Michelle talks about the cover design process here), to the perfect tagline courtesy of my former assistant Connie Hsu: "First comes love, then comes madness"--I came up with our second choice, which ended up on the jacket flap: "Sometimes love will make you crazy."

Coming up with a new title was a challenge. We didn't feel Ophelia Live! was working, and there was already a YA book of a few years earlier titled Ophelia. We debated whether to put Hamlet's name in the title or not--we weren't sure if that was a selling handle or if it would be a turnoff to teens. Some other title options were: Ophelia + Hamlet; Ophelia loves Hamlet; Crazy Sexy Love; and Mad Love.

Over at the blog Emu's Debuts, they celebrated the launch of Falling for Hamlet with a whole week of posts, including an interview of Michelle, Joan, and me here,

Read more interviews of Michelle here and here (the latter is in the Washington Post!) to see more behind what inspired her to write this story.

Falling for Hamlet just came out last month. It's always exciting when a new book comes out, but even more so when it's a debut, because everything is brand new and exciting. I hope you read and fall in love with Falling for Hamlet--although if you read it, you'll probably find yourself falling for Ophelia instead!

Beyond the Book: CLARA LEE AND THE APPLE PIE DREAM

Beyond the Book: CLARA LEE AND THE APPLE PIE DREAM by Jenny Han, illustrations by Julia Kuo

Description:
Clara Lee likes her best friends, her grandpa, kimchi, candy necklaces (her signature look!), and the idea of winning the Little Miss Apple Pie contest.

Clara Lee doesn't like her mom's fish soup, bad dreams (but Grandpa says they mean good luck!), speaking in public, or when her little sister is being annoying.

One day, after a bad dream, Clara Lee is thrilled to have a whole day of luck (Like!). But then, bad luck starts to follow (Dislike!). When will Clara Lee's luck change again? Will it change in time for the Little Miss Apple Pie contest?


I'm extremely behind in my Beyond the Book posts--this book pubbed back in January, in fact! But better late than never, right?

I first met Jenny Han at a panel at the Asian American Writers Workshop--she was on a panel with Grace Lin, Justina Chen, and I think David Yoo, too (or maybe that was a different panel...). I had known of Jenny already, as we had been the under-bidder for her wonderful first novel, Shug, which had gone to auction. I hadn't been the editor bidding, but had been one of the editorial readers and had loved it. My assistant at the time, Rebekah, was also a huge Jenny Han fan, and so I purchased a copy of Shug for her (I already had my own copy) and asked Jenny to sign it. Jenny was really friendly and seemed interested to know me. I think we may have bonded over cupcakes or Karaoke when we spoke. And so, when I ran into her again at a Kidlit Drinks night, and then another, our friendship was further sealed. We bonded some more over Pinkberry after Kidlit Drinks, and then started going to Karaoke together. And we started talking books, too. It turned out that she was working on a book for younger kids inspired by her grandfather. Unfortunately, her publisher (S&S) had a project too similar in age/concept already under contract. Well, unfortunate for S&S, perhaps, but yay for me!

I loved the idea of Clara Lee from the start. Clara Lee was a Korean-American girl living in a small, Gilmore Girl-esque town. Jenny envisioned it as a young chapter book with illustrations; Ramona Quimby was one of her inspirations. As Jenny got the manuscript ready for her agent to officially submit to me, we talked excitedly about working together. "I hope I don't hate it!" I joked one night. But of course, I didn't. I loved it. I fell in love with Clara Lee's voice first, her personality, and then her family, her friends, and her town. It felt real, and the book was touching, thoughtful, and also hilarious--especially Clara Lee's relationship with her younger sister, Emmeline.

Thankfully, everyone at Little, Brown loved the project, too, and I was able to offer a contract. While Jenny revised, I set out to find the perfect illustrator. Jenny, her agent (Emily van Beek), and I emailed around different ideas. We thought we had an illustrator lined up, but were starting to run into some scheduling issues. It was around that time that I attended the North American Taiwanese Women's Association conference with my mother. I was selling some of Grace's books for a fundraiser when a friend came up to me and looked at the books. "You know," Annie said, "I have a friend who's a wonderful artist. She would be a great children's book illustrator." Now, you can probably imagine how often I hear this, but I'm always open to possibilities, and so I asked her to tell me more. "She works for a greeting card company," she said. "Her art is so beautiful! It's so cute!" And so I asked her to email me her website. I'm so glad that she didn't forget, because when I visited Julia's site and saw her art, I fell in love. I mean, look at this art!

Jenny fell in love with her art, too. And thus a team was born! Julia was in NYC last Fall and we were able to all have lunch together, along with Julia's new agent, Emily van Beek!

We had Korean food for lunch, which was very fitting. And delicious. Yay!

Before Julia started on the art, Jenny sent me a few pictures to share with her as inspiration for Clara Lee, Emmeline, and Grandpa. I couldn't resist sharing a couple of the pics with you. Here's little Jenny:

awwwww!

And here is Jenny's Grandpa with two cousins:

awww x 3!

This is one of Julia's cover sketches, which turned out to be very close to the final book cover!

Here are some of the interior spots and full-page illustrations:

All in all, it's such an adorable package. And there's even GLITTER on the cover! The glitter was actually Jenny's idea--and I'm so happy we were able to make it happen. It's the first book I've ever edited that has glitter, even!

Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream was originally titled Clara Lee, Dream Genius in Training. I love the latter title, too, but it didn't turn out to be the most accurate title for the book. Also, we were afraid that it was a little too similar to the title Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee. But who knows, if Jenny Han writes more Clara Lee books (and I hope she will...although she's a bit busy with her YA novels right now...), maybe we'll get to use that title eventually!

As Jenny says on her blog:

This book was originally an assignment for my Writing for Children class at UNC, and it was called Grandpa’s Best Girl.  It was about when your grandpa gets sick and has to go live in a nursing home and doesn’t live with you anymore. Yeah.

This new version is a chapter book and not at all sad and is mostly adventures and happy times with Grandpa in the garden.  There is dream interpretation and even a Little Miss Apple Pie pageant.  It is pretty much a valentine for my grandpa who died when I was 15, so no one is allowed to say anything bad about it.  Just kidding! 

Listen to Jenny Han read an excerpt of the book, and also listen to me interview Jenny here!

Beyond the Book: Dave the Potter by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier

Beyond the Book:
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier

To us
it is just dirt,
the ground we walk on...
But to Dave
it was clay,
the plain and basic stuff
upon which he formed a life
as a slave nearly 200 years ago.

Dave was an extraordinary artist, poet, and potter living in South Carolina in the 1800s. He combined his superb artistry with deeply observant poetry, carved onto his pots, transcending the limitations he faced as a slave. In this inspiring and lyrical portrayal, National Book Award nominee Laban Carrick Hill's elegantly simple text and award-winning artist Bryan Collier's resplendent, earth-toned illustrations tell Dave's story, a story rich in history, hope, and long-lasting beauty.

I'm way behind in writing my "Beyond the Book" posts--I have two Fall 2010 picture book I haven't yet written about, and two winter novels waiting in the queue. So, I'd better get cracking.

Dave the Potter, as you probably know by now, just won the Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration. What you probably don't know is that this book has had a long road to publication. Now, the beginning of this publication story is not my own, so I apologize in advance if I recount any of the details incorrectly. But to the best of my knowledge, here you go.

The author, Laban Carrick Hill, first came to the Little, Brown list with the nonfiction book and National Book Award finalist, Harlem Stomp, which Megan Tingley had acquired in the early 2000s (back when I was still assisting her). When editor Jennifer Hunt joined Little, Brown in 2002, Megan passed the book to her to handle, and Jen finished up the editing, and also acquired and edited Laban's follow-up America Dreaming. Sometime during all of this, Laban told Jen about a slave named Dave who not only made amazing pots, but also wrote poetry. He had first heard about Dave the Potter at a conference on the Middle Passage, and then later saw one of Dave's pots end up on the TV Show "Antiques Roadshow," and his curiosity was piqued.

There wasn't too much known about Dave at the time, but Laban was inspired by what he was able to find. He wrote a poem that honored the spirit of Dave's life. He and Jen went back and forth to refine the text and shape the story.

Apparently our acquisitions committee didn't see the vision at first, because it took two tries before we were able to sign up the text.

I'm not positive on the timing, but I believe it was a good five years later that Jen asked me if I would be open to handling the book going forward. They had approached several illustrators who, for various reasons, were not able to sign on, and Jen, who was now Editorial Director in charge of fiction, wasn't editing many picture books any more and didn't feel she was able to give the project the attention it needed.

I was intrigued, but hadn't read the text before, so I read it before accepting, of course--although, truth be told, even if I didn't like the text, I would have said yes. (Part of your job as an editor is to take on whatever is assigned to you, even after you've risen beyond the assistant/associate editor level.) But thankfully, I found it beautiful, profound, and deceptively simple. I was excited to work on the book.

My first task was to find an illustrator, and as I read the text, I knew it would be perfect for Bryan Collier, an artist I had long admired. I ran the idea by Laban, who told me that Bryan had also been his first choice, but when Jen had initially inquired about his schedule, he had been too booked up to consider new projects. Well, as so much time had passed, I thought it would be worth asking again. After getting the go ahead in-house, I called up Bryan's agent, Marcia Wernick, who said that Bryan was open to start a new project in less than a year, so I sent along the ms. She called a few days later to say that Bryan was really interested in the project, but wondered if there was any back matter material to read. I sent along the rough author's note that Laban had written. A few days later she called again and said that Bryan wanted to know if the author's note was final. I said no, that it was unedited. Bryan didn't want to sign on until it was farther along. Laban was extremely impressed at Bryan's thoughtfulness before committing, and was happy to work on revising. I also talked to Jen about the direction she wanted it to take. We decided to focus on Dave's achievements as an artist and poet, and how he would still be considered an accomplished artist in his own right, that his art transcended his circumstances.

After a few rounds of revision, Bryan officially signed on officially. Hurrah!

Six months later, Marcia called me to say that Bryan was ready to start working on Dave the Potter. I hadn't been expecting him to start for another six months, so I was surprised, but thrilled. We invited Bryan to come in for lunch to meet the team.

As soon as I met Bryan, I was charmed. I had met him once in passing at a conference, but didn't know him beyond that. But he was warm, friendly, and passionate. And he gave the best hugs! I knew it was going to be wonderful working with him.

Bryan told us that he was planning on taking a trip down to South Carolina where Dave had lived. He had read a book, Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of Slave Potter Dave by Leonard Todd (incidentally, this book had not been published when Laban had originally written the text). Bryan went down to Edgefield, SC, and met a potter who owned some of Dave's original pots. Bryan took photos, watched several pots being thrown, and toured the town. I loved that Bryan threw himself into the book, and that the research he did complemented the research Laban had done five years earlier.

Speaking of Laban's research, as so much more was now known about Dave and his life than when Laban had first written the text, we had to go back and make a few adjustments. We added to the extensive back matter that talked about Dave's life, and we also added both an author's note and illustrator's note where they both talked about their inspiration and research.

The final book is a real testament to the hard work and passion of its creators. They met for the first time at ALA Annual last year:

As I mentioned in my ALA wrap-up at the time, we had a breakfast in honor of Dave the Potter and had several of Bryan's original pieces on display:

This is one of my favorites, and was in the running to be the cover image:

This is a close-up (bad quality, sorry) of one of the paintings. If you look closely, you can read the hidden message...

It's really some of Bryan's best work. I'm so pleased he and this book was recognized for it.

To be sure, a picture book about a slave potter is probably not the most commercial of subjects for a picture book, and is perhaps not for very young children, but I think kids interested in pottery and poetry will be drawn to this book, and as the NY Times stated, this book can work as "a gentle way for adults to introduce slavery to young children."

Read this entire review in the NY Times.
And read this great interview with Laban in School Library Journal 
To see photographs of Dave's pots and to read his poems, visit Leonard Todd's website.

Beyond the Book: THE CANDYMAKERS by Wendy Mass

Beyond the Book: THE CANDYMAKERS by Wendy Mass

Description:

Four children have been chosen to compete in a national competition to find the tastiest  confection in the country. Who will invent a candy more delicious than the Oozing Crunchorama or the Neon Lightning Chew?

Logan, the Candymaker's son, who can detect the color of chocolate by touch alone?

Miles, the boy who is allergic to merry-go-rounds and the color pink?

Daisy, the cheerful girl who can lift a fifty-pound lump of taffy like it's a feather?

Or Philip, the suit-and-tie wearing boy who's always scribbling in a secret notebook?

This sweet, charming, and cleverly crafted story, told from each contestant's perspective, is filled with mystery, friendship, and juicy revelations.

I haven't done a "Beyond the Book" post in a while, and I'm afraid I've neglected my Fall books thus far. But yesterday I attended a wonderful event that centered around Wendy Mass's new novel The Candymakers, and that was incentive enough to kill two birds with one stone and write about the event as a "Beyond the Book" post.

Yesterday's event was part of the Thalia's Kids' Book Club series at Symphony Space. It started by a wonderful reading from The Candymakers by actor Maxwell Beer, who plays Jeremy Fink in the movie of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life (which we hope will release in 2011).

Then, author Rebecca Stead (When You Reach Me) asked Wendy a series of questions, starting with something to the effect of, "What's with you and candy?" referencing the fact that candy seems to play a role in many of Wendy's books. Wendy shared some childhood memories of candy: her parents never really had candy in the house, so of course Halloween was especially exciting, and she had such fond memories of coming home for trick or treating and dumping out all of her candy and sorting and counting it all. She also recounted how she and sister would make "Starburst people"--they would soften the candy in their hands and then mold them into shapes. Incidentally, as some of you know, I have my own weird relationship with candy, and when we first started working on the book together Wendy and I shared our obsessions with candy. Wendy eats a lot of candy now as a grownup, especially since her new office is five doors down from a new candy shop in town. But hey, that's one of the perks of being a grownup--as Wendy put it, she doesn't have to ask her parents for permission to eat candy any more.

Another question Rebecca askes Wendy was, "What were you like as a kid?" to which Wendy responded, "I was weird! I think kids are weird. My own kids are weird, and I love that and think we should embrace our weirdness."

After Rebecca was done with her questions, she asked Wendy to give the audience a writing prompt. Wendy said that when she was writing The Candymakers, she sent out a questionnaire to kids and asked them to invent a candy, and then she used their answers in the book. And so, she asked the audience to write for five minutes about what kind of candy they would want to invent, and then the kids were asked to volunteer to read what they wrote. I have to say, I myself was stumped when faced with the prospect of inventing a candy out of my own imagination, so I was really impressed with all of the answers. There were several that "exploded in your mouth" including one candy that was supposed to shoot out of your mouth and then explode like fireworks. There was some candy designed to fool teachers: invisible gum so that teachers couldn't prove that you were chewing gum and give you detention, and candy that looked exactly like a pencil so that your teachers didn't know you were eating candy. There was candy that made your tongue change colors to match your outfit. There was root beer float candy, chocolate caramel tacos, and more. Really great stuff. Here's a video of two of the candy ideas:



And then it was the kids' turn to ask Wendy questions, and once again, I was really impressed with their questions. And also with Wendy's answers!

Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A: Wendy said that she believed it was Paula Danzinger who said that ideas come from three places: experience, observations, and imagination. Wendy likes to eavesdrop on people, including on moms and daughters in department store dressing rooms.

Q: Who is your favorite character in The Candymakers?
A: Logan, because he's such a sweet character, and has such an amazing sense of wonder.

Q: How do write characters?
A: Wendy answers the same ten questions about her characters as when she first started writing. Some of the questions include "What does the character look like," "What are their favorite hobbies," and "What are they afraid of."

Q: Do you write your books chronologically?
A: Wendy will generally write the beginning scene first, and then the very end, and then go back to the beginning and then write chronologically, but always working towards that end scene. She's also the type of author who has to make sure that each paragraph is the best it can be before moving on and writing the next paragraph.

And after the Q&A, Rebecca and Wendy signed books for a looong line of people:


I first started working with Wendy with Heaven Looks a lot Like the Mall, then Every Soul a Star, and now The Candymakers is our third novel together. As Wendy mentioned yesterday, The Candymakers was initially titled The Candymaker's Son and it revolved mainly around Logan, the title character. But after one full draft, we both realized that the story wasn't quite working, and that the supporting characters needed a voice, too. And so Wendy went back the drawing board and worked on what pretty much became a brand-new novel from four perspectives. It's a beautifully-crafted novel with rich, layered characters (and candy) and lots of surprises. And, of course, lots of candy descriptions and candy making.

And so, if you were to create your own kind of candy, what would it be? I think mine might be called "Blueberry Surprise" and would be a candy I could eat in layers, because I always loved eating candy corn in layers, and also eating the chocolate from the outside of peanut butter cups first. So, the outside layer would be a hard candy Nerd-like layer, followed by a milk chocolate layer, a malted layer, more chocolate, and then in the inside would be a blueberry. Or something like that. And it would be zero calories or fat. And would contain your daily dose of vitamins and fiber. Ha.

What would your candy be?


P.S. I just realized that it's a little ironic that I'm talking about a children's book about candy after our discussions last week about obesity. This is actually something Wendy and I struggled with a bit while working on the book, but in the end felt that candy is one of the joys of childhood, and balance is key. Wendy made all of the candy in the book organic, with all-natural ingredients, and although the kids do eat things like chocolate pizza for lunch, they also eat a well balanced diet and are also very active!

Beyond the Book: SORTA LIKE A ROCK STAR by Matthew Quick

Beyond the Book: SORTA LIKE A ROCK STAR by Matthew Quick

Here's the description:

Amber Appleton lives in a bus. Ever since her mom’s boyfriend kicked them out, Amber, her mom, and her totally loyal dog, Bobby Big Boy (aka Thrice B) have been camped out in the back of Hello Yellow (the school bus her mom drives). But Amber, the self-proclaimed princess of hope and girl of unyielding optimism, refuses to sweat the bad stuff. Instead, she focuses on bettering the lives of her alcoholic mother and her quirky circle of friends: a glass-ceiling-breaking single mother raising a son diagnosed with autism; Father Chee and The Korean Divas for Christ (soul-singing ESL students); a nihilist octogenarian; a video-game-playing gang of outcasts; and a haiku-writing war vet. But then a fatal tragedy threatens Amber’s optimism—and her way of life. Can Amber continue to be the princess of hope?

With his zany cast of characters and a heartwarming, inspiring story, debut YA author Matthew Quick builds a beautifully beaten-up world of laughs, loyalty, and hard-earned hope. This world is Amber’s stage, and Amber is, well…she’s sorta like a rock star.

I've mentioned this on the blog before before: the first time I read the manuscript for this novel, I was on the subway, and I had just reached a very tragic, very emotional part in the story and found myself suddenly with tears streaming down my face, actually sobbing, tears mixing with snot (no, not a pretty picture). And it was at that very unattractive moment that I realized, I must have this book. I couldn't wait to get off the subway and finish reading.

There's more to the story, though. I was on the subway on the way to visit my boyfriend in Brooklyn, and as when I got to my stop, I was completely lost in thought, caught up in the world of Amber Appleton. As I walked down the street I mptoced there were a bunch of people walking towards me, and I moved out of the way. But then I got caught in one of those situations with one guy where we both move in the same direction over and over and end up in an awkward street dance. But I finally dodge to one side and get around the guy, annoyed to be taken out of my reverie, when he reaches over and grabs my arm, scaring the sh*t out of me, and says...

"Alvina?"

It was my boyfriend. Yes, I was so lost in thought that I didn't even recognize my own boyfriend. Well, he was off to get pizza so I turned around with him apologizing and explaining why I wasn't paying attention, still flustered and emotional from reading the tragic scene, when all of a sudden I hear another male voice say,

"Alvina!"

This time it was illustrator Christopher Myers walking a dog with a friend. Still flustered, I say hi and try to be normal, but at this point I wonder who else I'm going to run into on the street. And I really just want to go up to the apartment and read the rest of the novel!

Anyway, the latter part of this experience doesn't really have anything to do with the book itself, except that I always remember these encounters when I think of falling in love with the novel.

And so, the book. Oh, the book. The second half of the book lived up to the first half, and the next morning I immediately called the agent to tell him how much I loved it.  My editorial readers all loved it, too--in fact, we were all speaking like Amber Appleton for week's after reading the book. True? True. Sucka!

So, let me confess something to you. Sometimes editors can get jaded. And sometimes we guard ourselves for defeat. It's only natural--you get burned, you get hurt, and so you guard your heart. I had gotten used to having books I loved get turned down by our acquisitions committee, and so I had adopted the "hope for the best, but prepare for the worst" attitude. But this time I decided I was going to go all out, I was going to put my heart on the line. I was not going to take no for an answer.

And so as I prepared my presentation for the committee, I decided to compare falling in love with the book with falling in love with a person. I started off with something like, "Although in real life it takes me four to six months to say 'I love you,' in this case it was love at first read." I went on to say that I wanted to marry the book. I also said that whereas in real life you can't really expect the person you fall in love with to change, the great thing about falling in love with a book is that it CAN change, with the help of editing. And on and on. It was a well-received presentation, but then I had to brace myself for the committee's reaction.

Well, there isn't much suspense here, because you all know that we published the book, but I will say that I had to fight off some other members who also wanted to marry the book. Then again, publishing is a polygamist business, so it's all good.

I generally pitch Sorta Like a Rock Star as Juno meets Stargirl. Juno because of the sharp, distinct voice (although truth be told, I like Amber's voice better than Juno's), and Stargirl for its uplifting message of optimism and hope.

Why do I love Sorta Like a Rock Star so much? Let me count the ways. I love it for the character and  voice of Amber Appleton, who truly makes the world a better place. I love it for the fantastic cast of characters, from the Korean Divas for Christ, to the haiku-writing Private Jackson. I love it for touching me to the soul. For making me cry my eyes out, and then leaving me rejuvenated and exhilarated at the end.

I think Justina Chen said it best in her blurb:

“Every sentence in SORTA LIKE A ROCK STAR beats with hope and heart. If there ever was a manifesto for living with your heart wide open, for embracing exuberance, for choosing YES and WHY NOT, this book is it.  And Amber Appleton? She is the ambassador of sassy optimism.  This is a must-read, must-quote, must-hug kind of book, the best kind of book there is.” Justina Chen—author of NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (AND A FEW WHITE LIES)

So far it's received a starred review from School Library Journal, and many glowing blog (and podcast!) reviews.

Watch the trailer here:


Matthew (aka "Q") and his wife, author Alecia Bessette, have started a beautiful new blog called Quest for Kindness, which ties into the message of Sorta Like a Rock Star perfectly.

Seriously: read this book. You'll be better for it. It is "voice-y," for those of you who have trouble with that, but I urge you to stick with it. You won't regret it. Just make sure you have lots of tissues handy.  True.

Beyond the Book: SHARK VS TRAIN by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld

Beyond the Book: SHARK VS TRAIN by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld

First, watch the official trailer:



Then, watch the unofficial trailer (filmed at our company Halloween party last year):


Shark: me
Train: Maria Mercado, also the designer of the book
Narrator: Connie Hsu

How did we get to this wackiness? Well, it went like this:

I'd been corresponding here and there with author Chris Barton for probably over five years--and by "corresponding" I mean that he would send me a manuscript and then I would decline it, but invite him to send more. During that time he eventually found a fantastic agent, who sent me a manuscript titled "Shark vs. Train." I was intrigued by that title. And when I read the manuscript, I was intrigued even more. Heck, I was more than intrigued, I was in love. It was so wacky, so deliciously random and bizarre, and best of all, it was so childlike and child friendly.

The concept is this: a train and a shark battle it out in different environments. For example, who wins when they're underwater, in Shark's natural habitat? Shark, of course--Train helplessly sinks to the bottom of the ocean. But Train wins on the train tracks, while Shark struggles to pull heavy cars. But then Shark wins at a pie-eating contest, and Train wins in a burping contest. The battle goes back and forth until towards the end you realize that neither one is winning. This is one of my favorite "nobody wins" pages:

Train: Sure would help if we had thumbs. 

Shark: Yep.

I knew that it might be hard to imagine the final product without illustrations. And so before I brought this to our acquisitions meeting, I had to think very carefully how I would present the project. I wanted to make it clear how one should think about the book, and so this was how I positioned it on the proposal:

Handle: Celebrity Deathmatch meets the World Wrestling Entertainment as a shark and a train battle it out

This is what I placed at the beginning of description:

WARNING: this picture book manuscript is wonderfully bizarre, and requires imagination

And because I knew the book was so visual, I decided to ask two of the designers here to do a quick sketch for some of the scenes. Then I literally cut and pasted them into the manuscript that was distributed. Arts and crafts, anyone? Here is an example (my apologies for the quality--didn't have a scanner available):

And so how did illustrator Tom Lichtenheld come into the picture? Little, Brown had published two of his books previously, What Are You So Grumpy About? and What's With This Room? I became Tom's contact editor after his original editor left the company, and we had been discussing possible future projects when Shark vs. Train crossed my desk. Tom was immediately one of the illustrators I thoughts of. And when I asked Chris who was on his dream illustrator list, Tom was also one of his choices--it felt meant to be! ALSO a good sign: Tom, who lives in the Chicago area, happened to be in NY the week before our acquisitions meeting, and even though we generally don't ask for an illustrator to commit to a project before we sign it up officially, I decided to just run it by him to see if he would be at all interested. Tom sat in my office and read the manuscript and chuckled all the way through it. A good sign. He went home and did some character sketches for the book, even though he knew we had yet to sign it up. Also a good sign. These sketches were also included in the materials I distributed to our acquisitions committee.

Shark vs Train VS the Acquisitions Committe: Who will win?
Both were winners! The committee approved the project, and we made an offer. But wait...another publisher was also bringing the project to their acquisitions committee, and they also made an offer.

Little, Brown vs. Other Publisher: Who Will Win?

Well, duh.

We won the text in a two-round auction, and then officially approached Tom to illustrate. He accepted with the caveat that he could work closely with the author on the text, something that Chris agreed to readily. This was an unusual process, because generally the author and illustrate do not collaborate directly. Every book "takes a village" to create, but in this case, it was a true collaboration in every sense of the word, from Tom and Chris, to me, the designer Maria Mercado, our art director, editor-in-chief, production manager, etc etc. Tom and Chris met in person to work on the book. Tom, Chris, and I had many many conference calls to hash out the different scenarios. I would talk to both Chris and Tom separately as well. Tom and Maria would go back and forth regarding the design. Even the final cover and the bright green color was a collaboration--the original cover design was yellow, but when we saw a mock-up of a catalog cover that our marketing designers had done, we decided that the green with lightening bolts was the way to go--it was a eleventh hour change. So, what do you think, was it a good choice?

The beginning was another challenge. This was a book that not everyone "got" right away, and we felt we needed a framing device that made the match-up make sense. Why were Shark and Train battling it out in the first place? It came down to two options.  The first was an ellaborate comic-style sequence that had Shark and Train meeting in an antagonistic way:

But we settled on the perfect opening of two kids playing with toys. After all, Chris's original inspiration for the book was watching his two sons play. So this felt right:

Check out this great post about Shark vs Train over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, including a ton of outtakes that didn't make it into the final book. The possibilities are endless!

I love this book, and I think little boys (and girls!) are going to love it, too. And of all of the picture books I've edited, this is the one that all of the men in the office ask about. One in particular come into my office on several occasions asking if the book was in yet. He pretended to want it for his baby daughter, but I knew better. But here's a picture of the little fan:

So, are you Team Shark or Team Train? Visit the website to vote!

Shark vs Train has received three starred reviews so far:
"This inspired pairing, executed with ingenuity and packed with action and humor, is a sure winner." --School Library Journal, starred review

"This is a genius concept." --Publisher's Weekly, starred review

"A glum train in smoky dejection, or a bewildered, crestfallen shark? It's hard to choose; both are winners." --Kirkus, starred review

Beyond the Book: GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD by Karen Healey

Beyond the Book: GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD by Karen Healey

The description:

In less than a day I had been harassed, enchanted, shouted at, cried on, and clawed. I’d been cold, scared, dirty, exhausted, hungry, and miserable. And up until now, I’d been mildly impressed with my ability to cope.

At her boarding school in New Zealand, Ellie Spencer is like any ordinary teen: she hangs out with her best friend, Kevin; obsesses over her crush on a mysterious boy; and her biggest worry is her paper deadline. Then everything changes: In the foggy woods near the school, something ancient and deadly is waiting.

Debut author Karen Healey introduces a savvy and spirited heroine with a strong, fresh voice. Full of deliciously creepy details, this unique, incredible adventure is a deftly crafted story of Māori mythology, romance, betrayal, and war.

As I've mentioned on this blog, my very first agent lunch was with Barry Goldblatt. And if I think about the success rate of submission to acquisitions of any agent, he would be number one. The first thing he ever sent me was GEEKTASTIC by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci. The most recent submission/acquisition was The Diviners series by Libba Bray. And in between? He sent me Guardian of the Dead. There may be another submission or two somewhere in between all of these that I've turned down, but my memory is failing me. So: We're three for three! And wow, what a three they are.

Barry called me first to ask if I liked urban fantasy--up till then, I hadn't published any fantasy on my list. But yes, I did like it, and I'm glad he called to ask first rather than assume. Then again, that's why he's a good agent. He knows these things.

I first read Guardian of a Dead when I was going through a "reading slump"--I hadn't read a submission that I had loved in at least a few months, and I despaired that I would never again find love. Well, I fell in love with this novel.

I was absolutely blown away by the voice. It was strong, fresh, and authentic. And I fell in love with the main character, Ellie. To be frank, she's overweight and not as put-together as she would like, but she’s also a martial arts master and is just plain kick-ass. In fact, I can't think of a better adjective to describe her than kick-ass. It really fits.

I loved the setting: New Zealand. And I loved that overall the book was different. Yes, it's urban fantasy, and yes, there's a romance, but there's not a vampire, werewolf or zombie in sight. No angels, either. As for fairies...well, kinda. But you've never seen fairies like this before in YA lit!

Did it have some problems? Of course. The main issue being that in that draft that I read, Ellie was in college, and acted as such (lots of casual sexual encounters, drinking, etc.). But I knew all that was editable, and fell in love with all the things it had going for it: delicious horror elements, incredible action and adventure, mystery, magic, humor, romance, betrayal, monsters, and of course an epic battle at the end.

The submission came with two amazing blurbs from two NY Times bestselling authors, which certainly didn't hurt: Libba Bray said:

It’s been a long time since a debut novel grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go. Quite simply, GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD is my favorite kind of read—creepy, funny, sexy, smart, and sometimes just downright, pull-the-covers-up-to-your-neck-and-pray-for-morning frightening. This book completely rocked my socks.

And Holly Black said:

Smart, hilarious, and wholly unique. Healey makes juxtaposing totally modern characters with numinous and ancient magic look effortless.

I acquired the book in auction while Barry was also selling to an Australian publisher, as Karen was a New Zealander living in Australia. The Australian publisher is Allen & Unwin, and we agreed to edit the book together, which was an interesting and rewarding process, and we were lucky to all be on the same page about what we felt needed to happen. Their posts about Karen on their Alien Onion blog are here. It's been a great experience! Great synergy. And may I just add that Karen is a fantastic reviser?

Some other things this books has that makes it unusual/special:
-an asexual character (I know--whoa!)
-a fantastic multicultural cast, including a strong Chinese New Zealander gal, Iris.
-because Karen borrows from the Maori culture for the mythology of the book, she had several cultural consultants read various drafts to make sure she got it right. Or, at least, as right as she could hope to achieve.

If you read the cultural consultants post I linked to a few lines above, you'll know that Karen is a great blogger as well. And I've loved her writing about the process--I've been in the publishing business for a while, and I sometimes forget that for a debut author, the whole process is all shiny and new. It's great to see it all in that light again.

Here are a few of my favorite of her blog posts about the book:

Karen revises
Karen reveals the cover
Wherein Karen muses on reviews
Karen waits
Karen receives the final books! (complete with great photos)
Karen discusses covers and the Cover Fail controversy

She's also very fun to follow on Twitter!

I absolutely adore this novel. It's so durned good. Really. Read it! Others have, and they've liked it! A lot! Here's what some other authors and reviewers have to say:

“Guardian of the Dead is funny, heartbreaking and always interesting: Ellie is one of my favourite heroines.” – Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon’s Lexicon)

“A fresh and original urban fantasy debut with none of the usual suspects. More please!” –Justine Larbalestier (Magic or Madness series, Liar)

“Guardian of the Dead is an action-packed tale with an uncanny balance of romance and mystery. I found myself mesmerized by the legends and stories woven into modern-day New Zealand.” – Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush)

"Debut novelist Healey pulls readers in immediately with Ellie's funny, occasionally profane and often self-deprecating voice. The smart, strong protagonist is supported by a cast of equally intelligent peers. Fast-paced adventure and an unfamiliar, frightening enemy set a new scene for teen urban fantasy." --Kirkus

"Dynamic...Ellie is both inspiring and enjoyably real." --Romantic Times

The official pub date is this Thursday, April 1, but I've heard that it's already out in stores (although I have yet to see it in the wild myself). I'm so excited to introduce Guardian of the Dead to the world. Karen Healey certainly has a bright future ahead of her, and I'm honored and excited to be with her on the journey.

Guest post: Beyond the Book--HAPPYFACE by Stephen Emond

Guest Post: Connie Hsu

Beyond the Book: Happyface by Stephen Emond

I'll always remember my first--first acquisition, that is: Libby's beautiful Blow Out the Moon. And so, with the recent publication of my assistant's first acquisition, I asked if she'd like to do a guest post. Connie's first acquisition was not the typical "agent sends in a submission, editor acquires said submission." Nope. Connie WORKED for this one. And what an acquisition it was. Happyface is a beautiful, awe-inspiring, unique book--each page has fully integrated text and art. The book itself and its creator, Stephen Emond, are both absolutely brilliant. And with that, I'll let Connie take it away. (P.S. Connie is brilliant, too)

****

Hello, Blue Rose Girls readers! I’m excited and honored to guest blogging about HAPPYFACE by Stephen Emond, a young adult novel that just came out this month. Not only is this is my first post on Blue Rose Girls, but it’s also a post about my first acquisition ever.

To give you the full back story of HAPPYFACE, I will need to take you all back in time with me, to a time when Brangelina only had four kids and Lehman Brothers was still in business. It was February 2007, and I was less than a year into my job as editorial assistant at Little, Brown (my first job in book publishing, in fact). I was volunteering at the LBYR booth at the New York Comic-Con, where I met Stephen Emond, who was signing his EMO BOY comic book series. I walked up to his booth, picked up EMO BOY, read it, liked it, and decided he should write a book.

I was young, green, and naïve, so I approached him with the line, “Hey, do you want to write a book?” I didn’t even have a business card or anything proving that I was from Little, Brown, but for some reason, Steve believed me. He said he was definitely into YA, and that he had ideas galore (I later found out he didn’t). A few weeks later, Alvina and I met Steve for lunch, and he had seven ideas on hand, each concept typed up on full-color one-sheets with art.

Steve had many amazing ideas, running the gamut from a metaphysical sci-fi fantasy romance adventure involving a re-imagined Greek underworld to a realistic story, told through journal entries, about a boy, a family tragedy, and how he reinvents himself to hide from his painful past. It was called HAPPYFACE, and there was something about it that felt really raw, honest, and compelling, even though the description was under 300 words. It spoke to both Alvina and me, and we agreed that he should pursue HAPPYFACE.

After nearly a year of developing the outline, shaping the story, and working on art and design, Steve finally had a full outline and 70 or so pages with the text and art fully laid out. Like DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, the text and art complemented each other, and each page/spread as its own design. At this point, Steve wasn’t signed up yet—he had done all this fantastic work on spec, and now it was up to me to bring it to our acquisitions committee. I was a wreck. What if it didn’t pass? What would I tell Steve? Where would I hide so he couldn’t hunt me down and make me pay for wasting a year of his life?

Fortunately, it passed! (and I nearly passed out when I heard the news)

At this point, Steve had about six or seven months to write the rest of the story and complete all the art. Keep in mind, he’d done about a quarter of the book over a year, but somehow, he did it! (I promise you, I didn’t threaten him! Just made whip cracking sounds over the phone.) He had somehow transformed from comic book guy to YA super hero.

And then… the design process. When we went into this, we knew we couldn’t just run the text and drop in art, which is what’s done with most other books, even ones with art. This wasn’t an option with HAPPYFACE. The art didn’t just sit alongside the text; some pieces actually worked as pieces of dialogue or had to correspond to a specific line. There was spot art, comic strips, sidebars, doodles, and taped-in I.M. conversations and e-mails, and this meant that each page had to be designed and laid out separately. Steve took the helm in navigating us through these confusing waters, showing us how he wanted each page laid out, and our designer, Ben Mautner, would go through and make sure everything was in its right place.

The process of keeping track of every piece of art (I believe there are over 400 pieces) in a 320 page book is pretty difficult. I remember slamming my head down on the typeset pages while reviewing them, with joy and happiness of course.

Then off to the cover. We had discussed using interior art, or something that would let the reader know this was an illustrated novel, but everything felt too young or clunky. Finally, Ben shared this cover, and it was simply brilliant. The face looks hand-drawn, the yellow cover really popped, and unlike the typical circular face, it was a full bleed cover. He then had the idea of adding a paper texture to the background, to evoke the sense of a journal and of a sketchbook.

And then one night, he had a dreamed about a partial cover, a preprinted case, and an unrequited love with a vampire.

Well, actually, I don’t know how he came up with this, but I’d like to think it was really dramatic. Ben thought it would be neat to have a partial jacket with just the smile; the jacket would wrap around a preprinted case. When you remove the jacket, ta-da! Sad face underneath. It’s both surprising and a great way of playing up one of the central themes in the book. It’s also just cool. When he demonstrated this at our jacket meeting, people actually applauded. And Ben actually bowed.

Meanwhile, some incredible authors agreed to review HAPPYFACE and contribute blurbs—Scott Westerfeld, Adam Rex, Michael Buckley, and Hope Larson all said wonderful things (thank God). Their support for Steve’s YA debut was phenomenal. Shout-outs and fist bumps!

It’s still hard to believe that it’s actually a book. We were at Steve’s book launch party on Saturday at RJ Julia Booksellers, and it was amazing to see how two naïve but hopeful people could meet randomly at Comic-Con three years ago and have a book today.

 It’s a real live book! In real live stores! And it’s gotten starred reviews from PW and Kirkus! Real live reviews!

“Whimsical, thoughtful, boyishly sarcastic, off-the-cuff… achingly beautiful.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[An] engaging and absolutely heartfelt tale.”—Kirkus ( starred review)

So I feel like I have a lot to be happy about, from finding an immensely talented, easy going, and nicest-guy-on-Earth author, to having the best support system in the world named Alvina Ling. She encouraged me the entire way, gave me the best advice (“Stop whining”), and even schlepped up to Connecticut with me in the rain for the HAPPYFACE book launch. If that can’t put a grin on my face, I don’t know what can.

*****

Aww. Thanks, Connie! This book has been such an amazing journey, and I'm so thrilled it's being well-received. Seriously, you have to see this thing in person, it's a work of art.

And now, for a little bonus, here's a fun teaser trailer we filmed at an office Halloween party. Yes, that's Connie behind the mask, and yes, that's me singing (cringe). Enjoy!