It's not brain surgery

Back in July 2002, my company relocated us from Boston to New York (us as in the Children's Division, Bulfinch Press, International, and Production--42 positions in all). Leading up to the move and afterwards as well we were neck-deep in work and behind all of our schedules because of the move and all that entailed: time off for people to search for apartments, for the actual move, distraction because of all the changes, trying to figure out procedures and who had already done what, because whole departments had to be replaced (of the 42 positions affected, only 12 people made the move) and new people trained. Our submissions piles were sorely overlooked, we were acquiring very few new books, and we all just wanted to make sure that the books that were already on our list were published, and published well.

And then suddenly in the Fall we were down two more people and books were reassigned, even though we were all already overworked. That was a truly stressful time. The first 9 months of moving to NY was a nightmare in terms of work. I would work till 7 or 8 every day (leaving only because I had a significant other waiting at home waiting for me for dinner), would bring work home for me, read manuscripts in bed every night, pile them up under my dusty bed, go into the office almost every weekend. There was a period of a few months that I honestly wondered if I could stay in this job that I had normally loved. And I knew that I had it better than most. My consultant friends and lawyer friends working 60-80 hour weeks, but then again, they were getting paid literally 3 or 4 times as much as I was. I knew I was getting somewhere in my career, but it was all just getting me down. Our concerned and well-meaning HR manager would walk around asking us if we were okay, but we were all so busy that we didn't even want to stop for a moment to answer the question. One day she stopped by my cubicle and asked how I was doing and I just looked at her in a wild, frenzied, "I'm about to cry" way and she said, "Well, remember--it's not brain surgery. Nobody's going to die."

Now, I know she meant well by saying this, but it was the absolute last thing I wanted to hear. I felt that she was denigrading my job, telling me it wasn't important, that nobody would die if I didn't do it. My job WAS important, because so many people's dreams and livelihoods were at stake here. And it was important for me to do a good job, because that's all I knew, that was how I was raised. I hated her at that moment.

But the funny thing is, I say that sentence to myself all the time now. It's not brain surgery. It makes me stress less. (And it made me feel sorry for the real brain surgeons out there.) Nobody is going to die if I don't read this manuscript tonight. Everything can be done tomorrow. Sure, I still get stressed, I still feel guilty if I don't meet my deadlines, I feel bad if I keep an author waiting, or if an agent sends me a snippy email. My job is such a huge, important part of my life, and I feel so blessed to be doing what I do, but it's not worth killing myself over, sacrificing my personal relationships for.

And things got better. I was able to go to my boss and say, "I need to talk to you about my workload" and that was all I needed to say--she knew right away, she was probably wondering what took me so long to complain. "I know. I'm so sorry. We're working on it, we're hiring a new person soon, it will get better." and it did. My new boss now says things like "I don't know how you do all that you do! We need to watch out for signs of burnout with you." When I told my fellow editors from other houses this, they all looked at me, jaws dropped. "I would cry with happiness if my boss said that to me," one said. "Just knowing that she knew what I was going through would make all the difference."

And it does. I know I'm lucky working where I am, doing what I do with the people I work with. I think it every day.

society of illustrators original art

The Society of Illustrators show is happening at the end of next month. It's the original art show which displays what the judges think are the best-illustrated books of the year. I checked out all the books last year and there was quite a variety. I can't say that I would have picked the same ones... and some of the choices were a bit enigmatic, but it's always worthwhile to check out the show (I also can't complain since I was in it!). It's really interesting to see which pieces look better in person and which don't. I think my artwork looks better in person. I paint quite large (for an illustrator) and sometimes my art doesn't reproduce that well (especially the dark pieces that reflect light from the scanner).

If you happen to be going to the opening, please find me and say hi! I'll definitely be there taking advantage of the free wine (which may be a dangerous thing). I can also buy extra tickets so maybe this time I'll bring my posse!

www.societyillustrators.org

What do you all think of these shows and awards? Do you agree with the choices? Disagree?

I might have more to say later this evening after my run, so stay tuned....

meghan

food for thought

Alvina has written an interesting post about race on her personal blog which I wouldn't want Blue Rose Girl readers to miss. Being a "multi-cultural" (ah, dreaded label) author/illustrator, I found it especially thought provoking.

Go to : http://bloomabilities.blogspot.com/2006/08/do-you-know-your-own-mind.html

That thing with feathers

Black Beauty grows old (and Ginger dies!); Mattie never is nice to Wanda Petronski, and joins the other girls in egging her on about her “hundred dresses”; Lyra causes her best friend’s death; Anne Frank goes off to a concentration camp …. but all these books still left me with a feeling of hope -- about people and possibilities. Great books do this not with platitudes or PC messages or Walt Disney happy endings, but because of the way their (very real and believable) heroes and heroines react:

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are good at heart,”

or

“Yes, she must have [really liked us],” said Mattie, and she blinked away the tears that came every time she thought of Wanda standing alone in the sunny spot in that sunny spot in the schoolyard, looking stolidly over at the group of laughing girls, after she had said, ‘Sure, a hundred of them – all lined up…”

or

“The first ghost to leave the world of the dead was Roger. He took a step forward, and turned to look back at Lyra, and laughed in surprise as he found himself turning into the night, the starlight, the air, and then he was gone, leaving behind such a vivid little burst of happiness that Will was reminded of the bubbles in a glass of champagne.”

Maybe it has nothing to do with the way the characters react, maybe it’s just something the best writers show us or induce in us about the gallant human spirit. Anyway, I feel bigger-hearted and more hopeful after reading them.

“Hope is the thing with feathers –
that perches in the soul.” – Emily Dickinson

And how about that word “perches”? Pretty perfect. That some people write that well – and that some girls now still read and love her poetry – gives me hope, too.

weird things never finished

So I was checking my website stats as I do on occasion and saw one hit for "the other website." I though, "What on earth is that?" and then I remembered!

http://www.meghan-mccarthy.com/theothersite.html

What scares me is that someone found this! It's hidden darn it! I didn't even fix the typos.

This is an example of ambition going nowhere. Or A.D.D. Or who knows what. Perhaps I was feeling a little devilish that day. Needless to say, the other site never happened. Instead I decided to put that "other stuff" on what is now "the lounge" which is also currently neglected (except for the fireside chat).

Here's another thing that makes me sad that I haven't finished--



Have any of you started any projects that just never happened? Have you wished that you finished? Do you start new things as a form of procrastination? I know I do!

meghan

p.s - what's with that "head on... apply directly to the forehead" commercial and what is it advertising??????

Obsessing

What kind of person becomes an author/illustrator?

Reading everyone's responses about the question of the week last week (what distracts you) brought up some interesting points that I've been turning around in my head lately... I find it fascinating that almost everyone's response was the same, that we are highly distractable until fully engaged with a project, and at that point completely unable to pull away from it. Maybe this is true of other professions as well, or maye we all have ADD, but I've noticed that just about ALL the artists I know are the same way... there is endless procrastination and then TOTAL IMMERSION. Every second of the day is spent, consciously or not, plugging away at some problem, trying to resolve a color choice or a turn of phrase. There is no time for making sure your clothes match or tying your shoes. A can of chili will do nicely for lunch because all you have to do is turn a can opener, then you can get right back to work.

I've always sort of gone back and forth in my opinion about this way of working. Part of me longs for a more balanced life- where I can spend my day concentrated, focusing on writing or painting, and then put it aside and go to the movies or a dinner party and talk about politics or the weather.

Then another part of me feeds off the creative frenzy. In some way I even enjoy the way it simplifies life, makes all problems about one problem- creating something unique and beautiful, something original.

The conclusion I usually come to is that I don't know how much choice there really is. I think if I didn't obsess and hone in a project to the exclusion of all else I would never muster the energy to get through it, to push myself, to make something I felt proud of. And there is something sweet in that one last dash to my desk to look at my drawings before bed.

One day maybe life will shift around and I won't have the luxury of immersing myself like this, so I may as well enjoy it now. Even if my roommates look at me with a confused expression as I step out of my studio, one shoe on, the other somewhere else, my hair in a mess, my eyes half glazed...

Hope and Beauty

Children’s books ooze with themes of hope. No matter how dreary or depressing the subject matter, it’s a seemingly unbreakable rule that the children’s book reader is left with a sense of optimism.

Yet, that is not the case for the children’s book creator. Who knows, perhaps we funnel all our hope into the books, leaving none for ourselves. But the nature of our profession, between the rejections and the rat race of marketing, is one that easily leads to despondency. It’s so easy to wallow in a pit of gloom when others have legions of fans, posters, billboards and awards while your books go quietly out of print as if they never existed. Or, worse yet, when they never even get published and aren’t allowed to see the light of day. Suddenly, the hours, days and years of slaving for a project just seem so…pointless.

But they’re not. In one of my most favorite picturebooks, Miss Rumphius, the grandfather says to young Alice, “You must do something to make the world more beautiful.” Alice spends her life trying to figure what to do, in the end realizing that her way is to spread lupine seeds over the earth.

Well, our books are our lupine seeds. Yes, some die, some never take root and many of them are only seen by a handful of people. But the beauty they have brought to the fabric of the world is immeasurable by a calculator or cash register. And it doesn’t matter if our books are only one or two out of the millions out there, does the commonplace nature of a daisy make it less lovely?

When things are rough, many times I say to myself, “I should quit making children’s books, I should do something else…” But the truth is-- what would I do? What else could I do to make the world more beautiful? And I realize that there is nothing else I can do because there is nothing else I want to do-- which means there is nothing else I was meant to do. And that, in itself, gives me hope.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: What outside influences do you use to keep yourselves focused ?

Our question of the week is:What outside influences do you use to keep yourselves focused?

This question will be answered throughout the week so keep checking back!

ALVINA:
What outside influences do you use to keep yourselves focused?

This is a somewhat ambiguous question--so many ways to answer it! When it comes to my job, it's all about people. I'm influenced by my coworkers and wanting to be good to work with and do a good job; by the authors and illustrators I work with, not wanting to let them down; I'm influenced by the librarians, teachers, parents, booksellers, and others who will read the books I work on; I'm influenced by the knowledge of the reader I am and the memory of the reader I once was as I child; and lastly I'm especially influenced by the child reader that I'm trying to reach, what I think they will love.

I also do have some inspirational quotations up in my office to help me keep things in perspective. One is "Follow your compass, not your clock" which is something I heard at a talk given by Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon. Someone had said this to her when she was trying to make a big career decision amd was conflicted, and I love to think about it when I get frustrated with work, or start thinking that I should be at a higher level, etc. I think, my clock might be saying I'm ready for something else, but my compass is telling me what is most important.

Another quotations is on I commented on in Grace's "Hope and Beauty" post above. "It is Simple. We are where we should be, doing what we should be doing, otherwise we would be somewhere else, doing something else."

And one last quote is from college. I think my roommate Grace (a different Grace!) penned it when we were stressing about midterms or finals. "Feel a sense of iner peace. Do your best. It's never too late!"



ANNA:
One thing that always brings me back to focusing is looking at work that inspires me, and reminds me why I wanted to make books in the first place. This is one of my all time favorite books. It awes me on so many levels. The quiet, perfect pacing, the understated storytelling, the somewhat unresolved, haunting ending.

This book brings me back to my desk for other reasons as well- my older sister gave it to me as a birthday present when I was applying to college. Chris Van Allsburg taught at RISD, and this was one of the deciding factors in my decision to go there to study illustration. So I guess this book also reminds me of all the hope and excitement I felt taking my first real step towards being an illustrator.

GRACE:
Well, I like to write when things are completely quiet with no distractions; I do have a music mix on my ipod I listen to when I paint.

But the one thing I’ve always done is make a folder for my work (I posted a photo of a couple of them to the left). I have a penchant for beautiful paper, making folder portfolios gives me an excuse to buy and use it (though I have a lot more paper than my folders need!). Usually I make the folder at the start of a project—as an incentive to fill it! The folder is a visual reminder for me to keep focused.

Here is my most recent folder made for the art of Lissy's Friends! I just had to post it because I love that bunny paper.



LINDA:
Definitely other people's art. I can get really inspired by a landscape, most especially skies and clouds, but often I end up feeling overwhelmed with the idea of trying to capture glorious reality. Seeing what choices other artists have made to come to their own conclusions of beauty is what gets me motivated to try my own version. I've been most certainly overwhelmed with the prospect of painting the landscapes of northern Tibet for my next book, until I found Nicholas Roerich's paintings of the same thing. His simplified paintings burst with colour, vastness, and desolation. Now I'm itching to get painting again.

Also, music. I could not work without music. Before I paint, I turn it up, I dance like crazy, I spin a baton, I get energy moving in my studio and my body, and then I sit down, and funnel it into my hands. (Did I just admit that in public?)

do you google?

I have a booksigning tomorrow... er...today (it's going on 3am) and I might not be able to post later, so I'll post before bed.

this is my question--
How many times a week do you google your own name?
Is there another person by the same name who shows up a lot? Does he/she irk you?

I'm sooo immature. I often think it would be nice to pay off the other Meghan McCarthy's and tell them to get a different name. There's an M.Meghan Mccarthy (a film maker) who obviously doesn't really have Meghan as a first name! (hey, just use your first name will ya? What could it possible be? Mulva?) and there's a Meghan McCarthy staff writer. (stop writing about budgets and staff meetings because it's boring! Okay?)

So come on folks, fess up! I know you do it too!

meghan

quiet births

Many months ago I painted the last painting of a picture book, got on the train and dropped it on a white desk in the lobby of a New York publishing company.

Suddenly, two days ago, a heavy cardboard box shows up on my front porch in West Haven, CT. What the heck is it? Was I up at 3am bidding on eBay in my half sleep again last week? Oh no, it's 20 copies of my 6th book that I worked on for a year and a half.

Books are born without a lot of fanfare. Even my own family has gotten a little jaded about them. I never expected that when I dreamed of being an illustrator. It turns out if you want fanfare you have to make it yourself. The problem is I'm always about as tired as any new mother who's just given birth. Finding jobs, managing a business and painting is already more then a full time job, how can anyone fit PR person and party planner in there on top of it all?

But they do. I marvel at what the other Blue Roses are able to accomplish. I also think being the only non-writing Blue Rose gives me a slightly different relationship to my books. I get a lot of emails from new illustrators wanting to know how to get into the business or what my technique is, but the only 2 pieces of fanmail I've ever gotten were from children who confused me with the author. Doing a booksigning often requires repeated lengthy explanations about the difference between a writer and illustrator and how that arrangement works out. Which I love doing, but sometimes I worry I'm a consolation prize.

I swore the last time I had a book out I wouldn't let it go without throwing it a party, but here it is, and I'm caught unprepared again. Maybe even just a potluck in my backyard would do. Anyone want to come?

PROMOS!

I wanted to post a comment about the - how do you promote yourself - question a while back, but never did. This sat I'm doing a signing at a library. OF COURSE it's outside and OF COURSE it will rain. This is what happens. But anyway, this time I'm going to bring (if I buy ink that is!) new promo bookmarks I've made. I've found that at every signing I go to, people ask for "a card" or "my website" and I am NEVER prepared. I've made my own bookmarks that will hopefully sum up my career since day one (scary! Is that possible?) Below is a picture—





Another promo idea that worked TOO well—
I had the idea to make keychains for my book The Adventures of Patty and the Big Red Bus. I thought it would be the promo that wouldn’t die. People would essentially travel with it and other people would see it. So my brilliant idea was to give them away for free. Okay, that’s simple enough, right? So I posted “free kaychains” on my website. Here’s the problem—I was and IS inundated! I have bags and bags of envelopes like Santa! This WOULD have been a brilliant marketing tool if I hadn’t decided to make the keychains myself. This involves printing out two different images, gluing them together, cutting them, and then placing them in the plastic. Problem #2—the plastic parts didn’t hold up for more than a day! So my solution was to glue the plastic parts together. Now I have a million steps AND each kaychain was costly!

Lesson learned. Make sure you are able to make the promos! Make sure if you advertise that they’re free that you can fill the demand. NEVER assume no one will want something that is free. I feel SOOO guilty that I still have mail from a year ago! It eats away at me. I wish I could fill the orders but I have two books due at once! The mail continues to sit… and sit… and sit…

meghan

Analogous life

I've been thinking in analogies lately. This week, running has been on my mind, because I'm running in the NYC half marathon on Sunday, and I've been thinking about how running compares to getting published. As I've mentioned in some of the posts in my personal blog, one of the attractions of running for me is the fact that it's perfectly measurable. I can run 1 mile, or 10 miles, and nothing can take away that achievement. After November, I hope I'll be able to say that I've run in a marathon. That's an achievement that won't be able to be taken away. Being published is like that. Even if you only publish one book that goes out of print in a year, you're still a published author, and I think that's one of the great appeals of it all. Well, perhaps you published and non-published authors can comment on this...

But I'll also say that I no longer run to be able to say I've done it, just as most writers don't write to be published. I run because I find joy in being outside, feeling solid ground beneath my feet, breathing hard, pushing myself, feeling the breeze, feeling the sweat run down my face, being alive. From what I know (I'm not a writer myself), writers are the same way--they write for the joy of it, for the pain of it, because it makes them sane (and insane!), they write because they have to write.

Okay, I'm stretching this analogy a bit, I'll admit. Another analogy I was pondering recently: on Monday I walked to work eating blueberries. I start thinking: Life is like eating blueberries. Sometimes it's predictable--the big, plump blueberries are usually sweet, and the small blueberries are often sour, but I'll eat them anyway in the hope that they'll be sweet, although sometimes you don't end up finishing them because the sourness scares you off. But then every now and then a small blueberry is incredibly sweet, sweeter than a big plump blueberry, and that gives the most joy and makes you keep eating."

Cheesy, I know. But I liked this better than "Life is like a box of chocolates."

More: During our workshop on revision at the SCBWI conference, Justina Chen Headley compared the author-editor relationship to a marriage, and I agreed. We talked about how communication was extremely important, just as in a marriage. But then I thought about it a little more and said later on, "For the editor, it's a polygamous marriage." Editors love all of their authors, but can't devote all of their time to just one. (Many authors are polygamous, too, of course.)

In my editorial meeting, we also use the marriage analogy. If the response to a project is positive but not over the moon and the editor is trying to decide whether they're passionate enough to push it further, we ask, "Do you love it? Would you marry it?" They might just like the project a lot, but not love it enough to marry it, and if they're not prepared to marry it, then they shouldn't sign it up. (Unless, of course, the project is extremely rich, i.e. is going to make you a lot of money. Then you might make an exception and marry for like, not love.)

What analogies do you use in your life?

poor pluto

This isn't really children's book related, except that it's unsettling when things we've always accepted as facts are changed. Like brontosaurus not existing, and now Pluto is no longer a planet!

And also a funny tidbit, someone found our blog recently by searching for "Pursuing Blue girls." I wonder if they were looking for something dirty...

Sometimes it’s easier than you think

Last week, I sent in a ms. for a children’s book – my name won’t be on it, and I’m not getting royalties, and the publisher probably wouldn’t want me to name it here anyway. So I won’t. It’s the second book I’ve ghostwritten for this artist and publisher (and of course, but I better say it anyway, the artist is not one of the BRGs! They write their own books!).

My usual method is to procrastinate and agonize about that and (once I finally settle down) write most passages over and over – but for some reason I didn’t do that with this project. I just calmly did the research at odd moments here and there (well, maybe it wasn’t quite THAT effortless, but that’s how it seems now)….and when I was ready to write, I did. (I put that in bold because I think it’s important.) I didn’t fiddle or fuss, when I knew something I wanted to say, I poured it into my laptop or Neo. Once, I think. Maybe I wrote some parts a few times, and I did a clean up at the end, but the point is that I didn’t agonize over any of it. I thought about what was interesting in the research and then wrote it down when I was in the mood to do so. I alo told the artist the main idea I had for the fictional part of the story and she loved it – and it was fun to talk about it with her, too.

When I was done with the ms., the artist and I went over it together (I thought if we did it together it would be easier and go faster. It did!), and amicably crossed things out– my goal had been to get rid of half. But:
“I LIKE the page about Lincoln!” she said. I said we could at least take out the fact that the statue of him in the Capitol is missing the left ear (that was its state when Lincoln died and the sculptor decided to leave it unfinished.) “I think that’s really interesting!” she said, sketching it. There were a few conversations like that, but we did take out a third of it.

I went home, rewrote a few things the next day, and the day after that, rewrote a little more and sent it off. I liked it; but had a (slight) sense of unease. It couldn’t be THAT easy, maybe it was all garbage, was I deluding myself? (etc.) But about a week later I got an email from the editor saying she loved it and thought kids would be “really excited” about it.

I’m going to remember this incident. Maybe it can always be this easy – and even if it can’t, agonizing doesn’t help! So, I have some new rules (as if I need more rules!). But these may really HELP me and I believe in the almost-magical power of writing things down or saying them out loud. This blog is both. So – although these may be incredibly obvious to others, here’s what I’ve learned.
1. Don’t wait to write until I have “enough time,” or a long stretch of uninterrupted time. That will never happen. (Until I really get into it and then no one CAN interrupt me, because I won’t hear or notice them.)
2. DO wait until I know what I want to say and am sure it’s interesting to me.
3. Don’t rewrite as I go along – just keep going and clean it up at the end.
4. Don’t worry about what other people will think of it: just please myself -- at least until the first draft is done! Don’t even worry now about what I will do then -- hey, maybe I’ll read it over and like it a lot!
5. Maybe when it’s time to take things out, get someone to sit with me the way this artist did? It made it SO much easier and more relaxed to just sit there in a café together, crossing things out and talking as we did it…

I hope I remember these things and act on them – it really boils down to trusting myself to know what I want to say and then just saying it.

Once ( a long time ago!) I made a list of things to avoid in future boyfriends and showed it to a new friend who, instead of commending me, started laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
“That you would have to remind yourself of stuff like this.” (I don’t remember what was on the list but I can imagine). Maybe these writing rules are equally obvious to others….but I DO have to remind myself of them – WANT to remind myself!

This is a really long post…but no one has to read these things! And I do promise to make my next one shorter. But I won’t edit and rewrite: I’ll just pick a shorter topic.

Score 1 for the quiet stories

Over the years, one of the comments I often get about my work is that it is quiet. It is an interesting label to ponder, particularly because we live in such a "loud" culture. It seems to me, we are surrounded by loud. Tv's are loud, traffic is loud, advertising is loud- there are very few moments in the day when we sit calmly and do something quietly, reflectively, thoughtfully. What more perfect for quiet reflection than reading a book? Of course I love adventures and thrilling plot lines as much as the next reader. But I am drawn to making books that satisfy another need, books that offer depth read after read, that let you breathe page to page.

It is a challenge for sure, some (not all) publishers feel that if a book isen't "loud" enough to scream its way off a book shelf then it won't sell. With that in mind, I get particularly excited with art with a "quiet" aesthetic is commercially successful.

Okay, so its not quite a book I'm thinking of, but it relates to storytelling so I'm including it on this blog anyways! This weekend I saw 'Little Miss Sunshine,' and it made me really happy. If you had to describe the plot in a short sentence, you could say it is about a family on a road trip to a beauty pageant (don't worry- I won't ruin it for you if you haven't seen it). In a world of movies (and books) about wizards and ghosts and kids being shrunk down to ant size, it is just really refreshing to see a story with very little plot at all that is just as funny and witty and entertaining. The story is essentially an exploration of the characters and their relationships with eachother, its revealing and touching and I felt really captured the essence of being a kid in a complicated family.

Now this is not a kid's movie per say, there is a lot of swearing and pretty inappropriate kid subject matter. But my point I guess is that I just find it really inspiring when directors and writers find a creative way to say a lot with a little, to get a big point across without over the top plot wrangling. Like any good book, the audience is allowed to be an active participant in the unveiling of the story, that feels like it tells itself.

http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/littlemisssunshine/

Pride

As I mentioned earlier, after my whining about my Amazon rankings, I’ve begun to feel twinges of concern. It's not that I'm not proud of my work or that I'd ever put it down (okay, maybe I would, but I've tried not to do that in front of people). It's the "semblance of sucess" that I worry about. A lot of good marketing is about making it seem like your book is selling like hotcakes, that your fans are rabid and you are just the hottest thing out there, even if you're not. Many marketing gurus see it as prophetic actions, using overstatement as a blessed commandment.

But, in one the books that I loved as a child, Jenny Sam and the Invisible Hildegarde, one of the main characters says,

“…there are two kinds of pride. One is false pride, and it makes you care about the wrong thing, makes you dress better than you can afford to, and pretend to be something you’re not. The other makes you grateful for what comes and too proud to pretend.”

And I think that is what I wrestle with when it comes to marketing. I don’t want to pretend to be something that I’m not. I want to be proud of the work I’ve done, proud enough to be honest of its shortcomings and its failures.

But this does not sell great quantities of books. So, someday, perhaps I will have to learn to swallow my pride.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: What distracts you the most?

Our question of the week is: What distracts you the most? Answers to be given throughout the week so keep checking back (and feel free to comment).

MEGHAN:
When I read Linda's I thought––"Yes, same thing!" Then I read Grace's and Alvina's and Anna's and Libby's and I felt the same way about theirs, too. I have ADD as well. I was diagnosed with it in the 4th grade because I was little miss daydream. I had a very hard time reading, etc--still do! I'll never forget going to the doctor and being tested for ADD but not knowing that's what I was being tested for and thinking it was an intelligence test--what a nightmare! Explain what's going on to your kids! (yes, I'm getting off track already) I was also hyperactive. The key to ADD is harnessing it and using it to your advantage. One symptom is the ability to SUPER concentrate on some things. That's what happens with me. I can focus on one thing and not get up for hours and hours--that's how the books get done! However, if I'm in distraction mode EVERYTHING distracts me. I'll be painting and the next minute I'm hoping up to turn on music and then I'm deciding I want to start a novel and then I find myself in the kitchen getting a drink... then I forget about the drink and find myself on the computer writing an email... only I don't finish it because I'm back at my painting...then I'm back at the email because I wouldn’t want to forget about that!... then I'm getting out the house paint because I've decided the walls would be better blue... but not for long. That's my behavior a lot of the time. When I'm like that it's almost impossible to get anything done. Go to my website for a good display of ADD at its best. When ADD is GOOD you start what you finish!

LINDA:
Often, everything. A breeze through an open window. A good song. The sudden remembering of a missed appointment. An aching forearm. My dog barking. A scrap of paper on the floor with an interesting word I must at that moment look up in the dictionary. A strange smell.

Other times, nothing. When I'm on a roll, and I'm either not able to get something right in a painting, or, everything is going right in a painting, I can sit for 8 hours straight without knowing it, and suddenly realize I'm dying of thirst and have had to pee for 4 hours.


GRACE:
my husband, reading blogs and blogging (ahem...okay, gotta go!).


ALVINA:
Same as Grace, except for the husband part.

And life, in general. Not wanting to miss out on anything. Then again, I like to think that work distracts me from life, rather than vice versa.


ANNA:
Oh there are so many things! Email mainly. Playing with my new computer. Thinking about how to organize my day and how long each task will take, making lists and charts about what I want to do instead of just doing it!!

LIBBY:
I have ADHD, something I never realized until I volunteered in a school for kids who had been kicked out of regular public school. The class I visited every week was all boys, aged about 9 to 11, and I felt completely at home with all of them. I went once a week for 3 years and at some point realized that most of them had ADHD and I did, too.

So almost everything distracts me. I get distracted (and this is not an exaggeration) walking into the kitchen to get a cup of tea. The only way I can NOT get distracted is to get REALLY INTO what I'm writing -- and one of the good (or bad!) things about ADHD -- which I may blog about sometime soon! -- is that once you get really into something, almost notning can get you out of it. In this state, I go into the kitchen to get a cup of tea (or something) and forget why I'm there--I'm thinking about what I'm writing. So I go back to my desk. Then I remember what I went in for. I go back, forget, etc. -- sometimes it takes 3 or 4 trips to get it right. Unfortunately this is not an exaggeration.

But the question was: what distracts you MOST? Probably -- email and being online (any kind of screen time is really fatal!). A close second might be the amount of time wasted trying to decide about big things (stay at my job or leave it, stay here or move etc.) and little ones, like the most efficient way to organize my time and obsessively listing, planning, trying to figure things out. Fortunately, once I get really into a book, I fall into a routine and then there is nothing to decide about -- all I do is write and when I'm not writing, I think about it. But if I have other reponsibities (like a job) this is hard to do. ANd things that BREAK the routine (trips, houseguests etc.) are distracting. I am trying to find better ways to deal with all this than having life be a constant choice between writing novels or not going anywhere! (NOTE: I don't need all this space and time to write nonfiction or do my ghostwriting work, only to write novels. I say "novels" in the plural because even though I've only published one, I've written several.)

Since I always feel like other people's reactions are more interesting than my own, AND maybe to make myself feel better about needing so much time and freedom to really write, I'm going to close with a quote from Jane Austen. Usually, her sister Cassandra did the housekeeping -- which meant not cooking and cleaning but ordering the meals etc. -- but when Cassandra was away, she, Jane, had to do it. On one of Cassandra's absences Jane Austen a letter about the distraction of housekeeping:
"I can not write when my head is full of mutton and orange wine."
She meant ordering the making of it, not that she was befuddled from drinking it!

You asked.

Anna

Anna was the second Blue Rose Girl I met. As she wrote already, she, Grace and I were in a children's book class together at RISD. I was readjusting from a year in Rome and discovering I was failing with watercolor, my favorite medium. The next semester I would give it up altogether and embrace acrylic wholeheartedly, but that semester I was brooding about it.

In Rome the days were spent wandering the streets drawing from life. Back at RISD, captive in a small dirty white classroom, I was struck with Anna right away because of her fantastic face and peaceful demeanor. I preoccupied myself with drawing her during crits on the sly. I'm not sure I even knew her name for a while, and I don't think she ever caught on to what I was doing.

I didn't get to know her until years later by internet, when we started a listserv for RISD illustration grads, and eventually met again in person. It turned out I liked her as much as I liked drawing her. And though I'd always admired the classical sensibility of her assignment work, her professional illustration portfolio had become stunning in the short time since graduation. Her stoic little family of cats, foxes and mice live in suspended magic, drawn with a delicate and wonderfully self-confident hand, a rare combination just like Anna herself.

Grace, Anna and Meghan all have a consistent, unidentifiable spirit woven through the worlds they manifest on paper. I've known and looked at their work for so long, I wonder if it's evident to others how much I'm influenced by them.

I delayed this entry for so long looking for the pictures I drew of Anna 12 years ago. The dig uncovered dozens of sketchbooks and old inspirations I'm glad to find again, but Anna is eluding me. So I post without them before I'm in danger of proving my reputation for procrastination correct, and offer blue roses instead.

HIPPO! NO, RHINO

The second book I was planning to write about is Hippo! No, Rhino by Jeff Newman, which is, like, one of my favorite picture books EVER, and not just because I edited it.

Today is the Sixth Carnival of Children's Literature, this time hosted at Castle of the Immaculate, and through it I found this lovely review of Hippo! No, Rhino.

The publication story of this book is fairly straightforward--one of our designer's, Saho, had a friend whose boyfriend was an illustrator, and Saho asked me if I'd like to look at his book ideas, so I said yes. Hippo! No, Rhino was one of the ideas and I instantly fell in love with the project.

This almost-wordless book starts off with a clueless zookeeper named Randy mixing up the signs and putting a sign saying "Hippo" at Rhino's cage. Poor Rhino! His expression of dismay is priceless. Here's how the text goes after that:

Blue lady and old man in green: "Hippo."
Rhino: "No, Rhino!"
next page
Rhino: "FIX THE SIGN-O!"
a couple pages later...
Green teen and girl with glasses: "...Hippoooo"
Rhino (nicely): "Noooo....Rhinooooo."
next page
Rhino (not as nicely): "THAT'S NOT MINE-O!"

You get the idea. The art is bright, vibrant, and retro, reminiscent of such classics as The Little House and Eric Carle (as suggested in the Publisher's Weekly review). To me, it's the perfect picture book. Fun and distinct art, it stands up to repeat readings (there are so many clever details in the art), and the illustrations and text are perfectly matched. Since the moment I saw this book, I felt it had the potential to become a classic.

Hippo! No, Rhino should be available at your local independent bookstore! (yes, that's a hint)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

In the Break

Our Fall list is starting to come out already, and I've been meaning to write about two of my summer books. I'll try to do one tonight, and one tomorrow.

The first is YA novel In the Break by Jack Lopez. VOYA calls it a "captivating novel by an author who is a surfer about surfing, adolescence, friendship, and loyalty." Kirkus says: "Lopez's debut shares much of the atmosphere and elements seen in urban fiction, and he nails the conversations between Juan, Jamie, Amber and their friends with a gritty, dead-on teen-speak that surges through the pages, giving extra shots of hang-ten adrenaline to the already fast-paced plot."

This is the publication story of In the Break:
Right after our move from Boston to NY in 2002, an agent I had never worked with before called me and asked if I’d be interested in reading a surfing novel. I said sure, send it in. Now, because Little, Brown was in the midst of our move from Boston to NY, our submissions piles were being sorely overlooked, as we struggled to keep all of our books on schedule despite being shorthanded and having about ¾ brand-new staff. So I had a reader review many of my manuscripts including In the Break (which was then titled Second Break), and the reader wrote up a reader’s report recommending that I give the novel a second look. So I placed it in my very large “to read” pile, and promptly forgot about it. A whole year (yes, a WHOLE YEAR!) after the manuscript was sent to me, I found the manuscript in a pile, and sheepishly called the agent. I told her that I still hadn’t read the novel, but another reader had read it and liked it, and I planned to read it right away if it was still available. Now, I don’t know why she never followed up on the manuscript—I won't name names, but she was mostly an adult editor, so maybe she wasn't as invested in this manuscript, or perhaps she too busy herself, but luckily for me it hadn’t sold in that long time. So I took it home to read, and althought I thought it needed some work, something about it really caught my fancy--the rawness of the writing reminded me of The Outsiders, one of my favorite books. And even though I've never surfed, the descriptions of the water and surfing were so beautiful and compelling. It had all of the drama that I loved reading about when I was a teen--violence, romance, tragedy. I wanted to publish it.

So I brought it to our editorial meeting and three other editors were interested in reading it--a good sign! They all had editorial concerns, many that were similar to mine, but all felt that it was a project worth pursuing--one compared it to the movie Y Tu Mama Tambien (which I still haven't seen!). We decided to bring the manuscript to our Publications Committee meeting with a revision letter accompanying it to show the committee the edits we felt needed to occur before publication.

Happily, the novel was accepted, and after a last-minute cover change when one the chains was unhappy with our original cover (long, frustrating story--but isn't the cover fantastic? The whole design is perfect, thanks to Designer Alison Impey. Props to Alison, and thanks for her patience...), it was just published this July. There are many things I love about this book, but one interesting thing to note is that the author, Jack Lopez, is Mexican American, and the narrator of the book, Juan, is as well. But although there are some cultural details throughout, his ethnicity does not play a large role in the book, and I'm happy that this hasn't been pigeonholed as simply a "multicultural book." In fact, the reviews so far, which have been great, have not even mentioned his ethnicity. While I think there is still need now for ethnic-identity driven books, particularly when there isn't already a lot out there--such as Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) for biracial teens--I hope there will be more and more books that feature main characters of color where their ethnicity is not the main subject of the book, and reviewers do not choose to direct the book towards a specific niche audience.

In the Break is an adventure novel with substance, and it should appeal to both boys and girls, teens and adults. It deserves a wide audience. And I just got happy news yesterday--it was chosen as a Book Sense pick. Yay!

Visit the author's website here.