After the Sale - Part 1

Many of you out there in blog world might like to know what it’s been like for me “post-sale” of the novel formerly known as SING TO THE WIND (we’ll get to this point shortly.)

Let’s see if I can recap.

I received an e-mail offer late September.

Agent took a week or so negotiating.

Once we’d arrived at a yes, the announcement was scheduled for Publisher’s Marketplace and I was able to blab to the world.

That, of course, was all very exciting and my social media world was abuzz for a few days. When it died down, I felt lucky I was working on another book.

Because the next phase was:

Wait

WAit

WAIt

WAIT

Seriously. I waited and waited, and kept myself locked into the new world I’d created and then, damn, I finished that book, too. And still no edit letter.

So I started brainstorming ANOTHER book. And around the same time, I asked my agent if she might nudge my editor and I got word that it would most likely be March before I got the edit letter.

In the meantime, I joined two group blogs of other 2014 debut kidlit authors, OneFour Kidlit and The YA Valentines. Both have been tremendous resources for stumbling blindly through the path to publication with fellow authors. Since my book was shifted from summer of 2014 to fall of 2014, there are many writers boldly paving the path ahead of me. Phases I’ve not yet entered like copy edits, and cover designers, and first pass pages are being tackled by winter 2014 authors already. It’s like a how-to book for newbies!

Okay. Back to March. The days rolled by and still no edit letter. I got 5k into a SEKRIT MG project (errr, yeah, my agent doesn’t do MG) and finally, on March 30th, the letter arrived via e-mail.

My editor and I had discussed much of what she wanted changed before the offer, but it’d been so long. Six months, in fact. I don’t know, I sort of thought maybe she’d decided it was perfect the way it was. Uh. No.

And the title. The wise folks at Harper Collins decided SING TO THE WIND sounded too young for my audience. My editor had a list of title ideas in the letter and that was its own delightful little mind blow.

A few days after that, I received my marked up manuscript in the mail - old-school style. Hand-written notes for page after page after page. I wanted to vomit. How was I going to pull this off? Don’t get me wrong, it was THRILLING to get this package and I LOVED the old school nature of it, but really, all these changes? In two months time?

Well, I tackled it the only way you can tackle anything daunting. One bite at a time. My editor and I brainstormed back and forth via e-mail on a few issues and I dove in.

Major changes included, losing a subplot (relatively easy), recasting a character in a different role (a bit more challenging), and finding bigger stakes/motivation behind the mistake my protagonist makes in the second half of the book (super challenging). Along with the big picture changes were smaller sentence level changes, refinements, and additions of certain types of scenes. 

And now, it’s done. Well, done for now. I’ve sent it to my agent for a read and then will send it to my editor and we’ll go through it again. The only date I know is set in stone, is September 1st. That’s when the manuscript is due to the copy editor.

Okay, back to the title. I must admit. I was a bit attached to Sing to the Wind. It’s a phrase from the last line in the book. It was my subtle nod to Margaret Mitchell. It’s what the book’s been titled since early on (it was known briefly as Through Hikers, and jokingly as the Hillbilly Slut book) so it was hard to wrap my head around a new title. At first No Place to Fall seemed so generic, but after polling my students and OneFour Kidlit folks, it seemed stronger. My students all said they’d pick a book with that title up (I gave them a choice of 3), other YA authors thought it sounded right for the age group, and most importantly, the team at Harper was behind it.

SING TO THE WIND officially became NO PLACE TO FALL in early May. Which was also the time I got to answer an e-mail about my cover ideas! 

So bring on the next phase!

And I’ll try to keep you posted!

What's Up Wednesday

Today I'm jumping in on this weekly meme I saw on Katy Upperman's blog. I've been missing you all but need a short and sweet and low-stress blogpost. So here goes!

What I'm reading: 
I just finished Beth Revis' Science Fiction trilogy with her Shades of Earth. It was a fun, action-packed sci-fi adventure and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire trilogy. Book Three wasn't really my favorite but I had to follow Amy and Elder though to the end. Now I've got two books going, The Art of Racing in The Rain (loaned by my neighbor) which so far is told through the POV of a dog named Enzo. It didn't hold me enough right of the bat to keep me from picking up a second book from my TBR pile which is Rachel Cohn and David Leviathan's Dash & Lily's Book of Dares. I loved Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and this book has all the same markers combined with quirky New York dialogue and wit. I'm going to fly through it I'm sure.

What I'm writing:

If you're a regular visitor you know that the only thing on my writing plate these days is my edit of Sing To The Wind - the book soon to be known as something else. These first round edits are due early June. I'm making good progress, but the panic is starting to set in a wee bit. A day off work may be in order one day soon.

My old school hand-marked manuscript is on the left, what I've gotten through is to the right.

What Else I've Been Up To:

See above. Hah. Well beyond that, I've taken stitches out of a horse's rear end. Mowed some grass. I'm going to hear a five man quartet this weekend. (So you caught that did you? I don't know either!) The fun new project for this week and maybe the remainder of the school year is my morning commute picture. Now that I have a nice phone with a good camera I've been snapping one pic a day and posting it before I start work. Perhaps I'll start a hashtag - I think I will! #morningcommute will be it if you want to check out future photos.

What Inspires Me Right Now:

I received an amazing appreciative letter from a former student this week. It's fueling me through this dreaded end of the year and inspiring me to continue being the teacher she wrote about in her letter. Do you want a quote? Here you go:

"At times I honestly felt like you supported me even more than I believed I could myself. So thank you so much for sitting there with me and talking about anything. Really, just thank you so much. I can't accurately express what it meant to me."

No Becca, it's me who can't accurately express MY THANKS. Wow. You know?

So, what's up with you?

Hanging on for the Ride of My Life - And a Blogging Break

My edit letter has arrived for Sing To The Wind (which will have a new title). So, I bid you adieu until June. If I'm inspired to talk about my process or something I may pop back in, but no promises. I'm sure y'all will handle the blog world just fine without me!

If there's a post I shouldn't miss - shoot me an @jayerobinbrown over on Twitter and I'll try and swing by.

In the meantime....here I go!
dives into revision cave

Taking Back the Things You've Said

In my case, the statement, "I'll never write a historical because I hate research."

Because guess what? In my wide waiting space to get going on edits for Sing To The Wind I needed something to keep me from going insane. I tried pre-writing blog posts. I beta'd some manuscripts. I read all the time anyway, so reading was no big switch.

Eventually I caved. And started a new project. And yes, it's a historical. Not only a historical but a Middle Grade.

For about a year, this girl Maddie and her mule, Pricilla, have been bouncing around in my head. I knew their story had something to do with the building of the Carolina, Clinchfield, & Ohio railroad line. I knew it was a story about a girl on the verge of adolescence, living with only a father. I also knew it was a story about isolation and loneliness. And the quiet beauty of Appalachia.

Well, the final chinks of the puzzle sort of fell into place. They've been there all along but like actual puzzle pieces, sometimes you don't see they fit till you've moved them around the card table a time or two.

And here's what I'm discovering. I am obsessively researching: the area where the setting is, the small towns nearby, the dates, general history, everything to give this fictional story a real life backbone. I even took a drive yesterday to see what remained of one small town and I have a hike scheduled in about a week to hike into the community that used to be, but has now returned to the earth. And I can't wait to get over to our local history museum during open hours.

The best part is the excitement of starting something new!

(Note: I do have another Young Adult idea but with Sing and Popsicle waiting for stuff to happen, I just didn't feel like I could dive into another teenage girl's brain. Maddie is different enough I can use her as a distraction)

What's new with you?

Inspired by Other Women Artists - Thursday's Children

I've been on the planet long enough to rack up quite a collection of "Amazing Women" crushes. Each one of these people inspired me at a certain point in my life. Their common denominator is a certain joie-de-vivre and middle finger salute to society as a whole. So here they are:

Colette

This French writer and actress was one of my favorite writers for a period. Her work was looked down upon much the way some women's fiction or romance novels are looked down on in our day. But she didn't care! She loved life! Loved love affairs with whomever she fancied. She had a thing for French Bulldogs and Russian Blue cats neither of which she was ever without and both of whom she wrote about. One of her books, Un Dialogue de Bêtes or Dialogue of Animals, is told by a cat and a dog. She spoke to some part of my twenty year old soul - something about how being free-spirited was quite all right.

Georgia O'Keefe was the first female American painter (besides Mary Cassatt) to actually show up in male-written Art History textbooks. She's also one of the first women painters to end up in major museums, and thank goodness, while she was still living. I love that she was an art teacher when she started out, and that she was totally comfortable leaving Alfred Steiglitz (her photographer husband) in New York while she moved to the landscape of New Mexico. Georgia O'Keefe was a purist to herself - that's what inspires me about her. She knew what she wanted and she wasn't afraid to make it happen.

Another French writer, Anais Nin. I went through my Henry Miller and Anais Nin phase shortly after my Collette phase (interestingly enough, Anais Nin was one of the writers who poo-poo'ed Colette). But something about this women's strength and beauty with words wormed its way inside. Anais managed to hang onto herself in the midst of Henry and June's debauchery. Like any good writer, she seemed to take everything from a place up on the wall, observing, letting life settle, then acting. Her mysterious, careful approach is one I've long admired, though not always replicated.

Beatrice Wood or Beato

Beato is an American potter who only died in 1998. She was born to a society family in NYC but kind of waved her elegant hand at the whole thing. She insisted on going to France for art school until World War 1 forced her return. She became Marcel Duchamp's lover and is sometimes called "The Mama of Dada" for her work during that time on Duchamp and Roche's magazine, The Blind Man.

What I love about Beato is her joy at the world around her. Everything she did was infused with a sense of youth and gaiety. One of her most famous quotes  about her longevity (she lived to be 105) was "I owe it all to chocolate and young men."

I came so close to meeting her, even drove to the mouth of her driveway in Ojai, California, but appointments to meet her and see the studio were set months in advance and we were there on a whim. But my mother did get to meet her, and bought signed copies of her autobiographies for me.

If you've never heard of Beato, I suggest you read her stories. Especially if you are interested in art and spirituality.

So, what about you? Do you have a crush on someone from history?

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When Books Get All The Hype

One of the joyous things about Twitter is book recommendations. When a book takes off on Twitter it's like everyone's talking about it and you absolutely must go out and read it.

Two recent books that come to mind are CODE NAME VERITY and ELEANOR AND PARK. I've read both (well I'm a few chapters shy of The End for the latter but should be done at time of posting) and all I can say is, meh. (I have amended my thoughts on this below since I finished Eleanor and Park - but figured the post was still good enough for conversation ;0))

Not really meh. They are both wonderful books in their own right. But neither is making me breathless. So it has me wondering, where does the hype come from?

I have a theory. These books hit the marketplace when people are needing different. And both are different.

CODE NAME VERITY is a very well-researched historical, about a female pilot and a female spy in World War II. It's written in dual POV and there is no romance. All quite different from the usual 1st person present lusty teen hotness we see in YA. Is it a good book? Yes. It's very good. I had author envy as I'm not a researcher and could never write historical fiction. (famous last words, right?)

Did this book live up to the emotional hype for me? No. And I was disappointed. I love a good tear jerker. But unlike Patrick Ness in the Knife of Never Letting Go who made me BAWL or Nina LaCour who had me chugging down tears in Hold Still, I shed not one drop.

ELEANOR AND PARK is another beautifully written gem. Rainbow Rowell is a subtle, delicious writer who with perfect timing creates a perfectly nuanced relationship. But this book is also different. It's dual POV, 3rd person, and set in the 1980's. Because this was my time period, the book in ways feels like an adult has written it for adults of that time period. As I read about Eleanor's physical self-loathing, I think about myself at that age. I looked great in a bikini but thought I was obese. Do I care about these characters? Absolutely. Like I said, it's a gorgeous book. But here's the thing. I've been able to put it down every single night after a chapter or two. I'm not with these characters. I'm not intensely emotionally invested. Did I think I was going to be based on the hype? Yes. (Edited to add: I finished Eleanor and Park, I was wrong. I DO THINK IT WAS WORTH THE HYPE - it's just what I expected was different than what I got. Definitely a hug the book sort of a book!)

So, in conclusion, does the hype kill the book? I don't know. The hype drove me to buy the books. It set up expectations. If I'd discovered each of these on my own would I feel different about them? Who knows. They're both five star books based on the writing - but emotionally? Definitely not for CNV. I'll let you know when I come to the end on EP.


What do you think about how hype affects your reading habits?

Inspired by the Silence of the Drive - Thursday's Children

I'm a lucky girl. I can sometimes count on one hand how many other cars I encounter between leaving my house and the fifteen minutes it takes me to get to the highway. Then once on the highway it's another fifteen minutes of barely-there traffic to the high school where I teach.

The drive is often shrouded in the fog that dips into the valleys. Some mornings a brilliant red sky will lift over the mountains. Other days I dodge deer like falling acorns. Usually, I forget to turn on the radio. I stop for school buses and whisper hello to the paint horse who stands like a statue in the corner of his small paddock. The automatic turns of the steering wheel and the thrum of the tires on the road are fertile white noise for creativity.

The silence of this drive is one of my best brainstorming times. If I'm deep in the heart of a story, this drive is filled with nothing but creation.

Then when my brain is full, I turn on some great music, or NPR (which is inspiration for a different Thursday post :0).

Anyone else love the brainstorming therapy of a long, quiet drive?