Read, Write, Repeat.

This fall, I was fortunate to sell my first picture book manuscript — Sophie’s Squash — to Schwartz & Wade, an imprint of Random House Publishing. (Full, enthusiastic details of this event were shared here.)

And now, just a few months later, I’m doubly fortunate to say Schwartz & Wade has acquired another of my picture books, Sharing the Bread.

It’s awesome news. In fact, I’m still beaming.

But I’ve heard a lot of comments like this:

“It’s cool you sold your second book so quickly after your first. It must only have taken you a few weeks to write.”

Um … no.

I’m sure there are authors who dash off a manuscript in an afternoon, read through it the next day, smile, add a few commas, change a word or two and send it off to editors who greet it with shouts of delight and fight for the right to publish it.

But that’s not me.

So I thought I’d share the evolution — so far — of this 310-word story.

The initial idea.

Three years ago, I was in a meeting. It had nothing to do with food, families or cooking, but out of somewhere, these words popped into my head: “Mama be a cooking pot, cooking pot. Big and round and black and hot. Mama be a pot.”

That’s stupid. I thought. How could someone be a pot? (As you can tell, I’ve got a pretty critical internal editor.)

My internal editor wasn’t done lecturing me either. Writing a rhyming book is HARD. And you are not a rhymer. Remember that awful rhyming story about okra you spent months slaving over before you realized it was awful? Hmm? Well? Do you?

But I kind of liked the rhythm, so I jotted the words down. During the next few weeks I played around with them until I had several verses about a family making a meal together. At first, each family member was pretending to be some part of the meal. I vaguely thought the story might be something kids could act out.

Early editing.

But thanks to the wise counsel of my internal editor who was, I believe, making gagging noises, I realized this was not a good idea. So I had the family gather the ingredients and cook the meal without any play-acting. Mama was no longer a pot.

Not knowing what else to do with the story, I sent it to my critique group at the time. They didn’t love it. So the story sat on my hard drive, largely ignored, for a year while I worked on other things.

It might have stayed there forever if I hadn’t needed a manuscript to send to another critique group I belong to. I didn’t have anything new, so I dusted the story off and sent it out, cringing a little as I did.

Are you kidding? asked my internal editor.

But these group members liked it. “You need to work on this some more,” they said.

More revision.

So I did. I used their feedback to make the verses stronger and the rhythm better. I consulted rhyming dictionaries and tried to be as creative as possible. I shared it with a few other writing friends and took their suggestions to heart. I spent lots of time staring off into space tapping out the story meter with my fingers to make sure it was correct. My cat thought I was playing. My family thought I was crazy.

When the story was as good as I could make it, I sent to to someone with a well-deserved reputation as an excellent rhymer for a paid critique. Her response echoed my second critique group’s, “I really like this. I think you should work on it some more.”

Fierce revision.

She suggested a more traditional rhyme scheme and shared a few books written in a similar vein. Even though I sighed at the thought of the work involved in changing my rhyme scheme, I knew her advice was valid. So I read the books, ripped my story apart and started rewriting. And re-rhyming. And tapping my fingers on my desk. Again.

The new story revisited both my critique groups, several writing friends and a few family members. I made more changes. Eventually, I sent it back to the rhyming expert. “I think you can sell this,” she said.

But don’t cue the balloons.

I was tempted to celebrate. After all, this writer said the same thing about the manuscript that eventually became my first sale. Then I remembered it had taken several years and several more revisions before that sale occurred. Still, I sent out some submissions.

I heard back more quickly than usual. One form rejection. One note saying this wasn’t quite right but to send other things that I wrote. One note saying it was lovely but too quiet to stand out in the marketplace. This last editor did mention that the story might do well with a holiday or educational hook.

By this time, I had acquired an agent, Ammi-Joan Paquette. She and I decided to add a holiday angle to the story by having the family prepare Thanksgiving dinner instead of an everyday meal. Joan also showed the manuscript to Anne Schwartz of Schwartz & Wade. Anne liked it, thought a Thanksgiving angle would be helpful and asked me to work on it some more.

What rhymes with turkey?

So I dug in again. Only to realize that not much rhymes with turkey. (“Jerky?” “Murky?” “Perky?”) Or with stuffing. Or mashed potatoes. So I put the Thanksgiving words in the middle of the sentences so I could rhyme more common sounds at the end. I pruned. I polished. I pulled out large chunks of hair. But, I persevered.

(By the way, I was going to post a photo with this blog showing me in the throes of revision. But when I revise, I run my fingers through my hair and end up with what my husband calls “edit head.” It is not an attractive sight.)

Joan liked this version, and sent it off to Anne. Anne liked it but shared an email full of further suggestions. So, in response, I varied my rhyme scheme slightly, added a refrain, deleted two stanzas, added a new one and reordered some of the others. The updated version went back to Joan. She had a few more ideas. I incorporated those, and Joan returned it to Anne.

Whew!

By this time, my internal editor and I were afraid we had used up all our chances to get this right. Personally, I was amazed at how much better the manuscript had become from the first time I’d thought it was done. But would Anne agree? Would it be enough?

A few days later, Joan called. Anne liked the manuscript and wanted to acquire it. To paraphrase Ernest Thayer, “There was joy in Mudville.”

But I’m still not done.

Anne wants me to work on it some more. I just got her line edits in the mail today.

And I seriously can’t wait to see how much better my story — and the ultimate book — will be after this next rounds of changes.

I’ve had two pieces of good news recently, and I’m sharing them now because I’ve only just stopped breathing deeply into a paper bag.

My first piece of good news.

I sold my first book! From the slush! To one of my all-time favorite publishers!

It happened after four years of writing, revising and submitting MANY manuscripts and receiving 126 rejections. (Not that I was counting.)

Here are the details:

Which manuscript?

Sophie’s Squash, a picture book. It’s probably the fourth or fifth one I wrote. And it was one I had revised and reworked at least 10 times. But it was worth it, because the story got drastically better each time.

To which publisher?

The amazing Anne Schwartz and the lovely Lee Wade at Schwartz & Wade, a Random House imprint. Have I mentioned I adore their books and the other authors they’ve published? Well, I do. A lot. And I’m still having trouble believing I’m going to be part of their list.

Want to see why I’m so excited about working with them? Read this interview they did with Ilene Cooper at Bookmakers.

Want to see all the cool authors they’ve published like Candace Fleming, Lenore Look, Jenny Offill and Patricia McKissack? Check out this link.

Where’s that paper bag? I think I need it again.

How did it happen?

I had a day off work and had just gotten home from exercising. (A shout-out to my friends at Phitness Plus.) I was sweaty and sticky, so when the phone rang and the caller ID said, “Random House” with a 212 area code, I thought perhaps I was a little light-headed from the crunches I’d done.

Plus, I didn’t recall sending anything to Random House. But when the person on the line said, “This is Anne Schwartz from Schwartz & Wade and you probably don’t remember sending us Sophie’s Squash …” I knew exactly what was going on.

I had sent them the manuscript in early January, and they called eight months later. For all my nonwriter friends, waiting that long for a response is not unusual in the publishing world.

What makes this more unusual is I had sent the book to them after I saw a website that said they accepted unsolicited manuscripts. Apparently, this is incorrect. Anne said they normally don’t look at slush, but they had just gotten a new editorial assistant and decided to have her go through some.

That assistant pulled my manuscript on a Wednesday, and Anne and Lee called me on Friday. So … wow! (I’ll even say it backwards. “Wow!”)

When will the book come out?

I don’t know. The illustrator has to be chosen first. And I have edits to do. Once those two things happen, I’ll know more about a release date.

Now, my next piece of big news.

I also have an agent. The awesome Ammi-Joan Paquette from the equally awesome Erin Murphy Literary Agency!

Pause for a moment while I take a few more deep breaths into that bag … There, I’m feeling better now.

Again, I feel extremely lucky. Joan, whom I heard speak at the Spring 2011 Iowa SCBWI Conference, represents a lot of people I am very impressed with. And, she’s a very good writer herself – with a picture book (The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies) and a middle-grade (Nowhere Girl) already published and a young-adult novel (Paradox) set to come out in 2013.

And, I really like the way she talks and thinks about writing and books.

Finally, some thank-yous.

I could not have written or sold Sophie’s Squash without the help, advice and support of many people. So a thousand thank-yous to:

Two wonderful people who got me on track early in my writing efforts.

Authors Jill Esbaum and Linda Skeers. I attended their picture book retreat soon after I decided I wanted to get serious about writing for children. I brought my earliest draft of Sophie along.

They were very encouraging, but said that the plot needed work. So we sat down and brainstormed what could happen. They supported me and offered advice along the way — even when I didn’t seem to be making progress. They definitely made me a much better writer.

My writing friends and critique partners.

Everyone listed below looked at various versions of lots of my stories, some of them many times. They’ve made me a better writer, too.

Sharon Hart Addy, Kate Carrigan Blackwell, Carolyn Cassel, Andrea Donahoe, Kim Falkenstein, Ned Gannon, Susan Herr-Hoyman, Janet Larscheid, Ellen Lawrence, Kiz Leppert, Pat Lessie, Joanne Linden, Bridget Magee, Lisa Morlock, Cathy Stefanec Ogren, Norene Paulsen, Eve Robillard, Jessica Vitalis and Jeff Waltz.

Thanks also to all the fun and talented folks at the Wisconsin and Iowa SCBWI conferences who have always been welcoming, positive and willing to share their expertise.

My family.

I’ve always heard you shouldn’t trust your family’s opinion of what you write. After all, they love you and can’t be objective about your work.

That’s probably true.

But families are great at telling you to keep trying, reminding you that you have what it takes, not getting mad at the time you spend at the computer and feeding you chocolate when a particularly painful rejection arrives.

So thanks to Faye Clow, Dick Miller, Gwen Miller, Lynn Miller, Mark Miller, Sonia Miller, Pam Wells, Allen Zietlow, Jean Zietlow and Tom Zietlow for believing in me during the journey so far and celebrating these recent milestones with me.

This post probably makes it sound like my writing journey is at its end, but I know it’s really only beginning. I also know writing and publishing books can take a while. But that’s all right with me. I think it’s going to be a fun, fun, trip.

As long as I don’t misplace my paper bag.

I’m taking a brief, end-of-summer break from blogging.

But, never fear, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work going on that will result in a plethora of new book-related posts in a few weeks.

So I hope you enjoy the end of the summer, and I’ll see you soon.

When I was a kid, I thought it would be the coolest thing ever to spend the night in the library.

It would be so perfect – just me and all the books. I could tuck myself into a corner with a huge stack and read for as long as I wanted with no interruptions.

Sadly, I grew up before getting to fulfill that dream. But when I heard that the Verona Public Library was holding a sleepover for 100 children and their parents, it all came rushing back.

I could spend the night. In a library. Surrounded by books.

So I arrived, humming the Frank Sinatra song:

Fairy tales can come true,
It can happen to you –
If you’re young at heart.

And it was wonderful. Not, perhaps, exactly like my childhood dream. I wasn’t by myself after all. But I was there, with the books, and my daughter, her friend and her friend’s mother.

And the event was extremely well organized. Kids could sign up for the summer reading program, explore the library in a scavenger hunt, listen to a comedian, watch a movie, make crafts or play wii games. And they did these things remarkably calmly thanks to the team of red-shirted librarians who shepherded them from event to event.

And one lucky family would get to camp out in this castle.

There was even time to read before the lights went out at 11 p.m. and we fell asleep amid the stacks. (The castle went to another family, alas and alack.)

And, trust me, I made good use of the chance to read and discovered some cool new picture books.

My favorite of the night was this one — Little Piano Girl : The Story of Mary Lou Williams, Jazz Legend by Ann Ingalls and Maryann Macdonald (Houghton Mifflin, 2010):

Two other good finds were Henry in Love by Peter McCarty (Balzer + Bray, 2009) and Oh, No! Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World (Hyperion, 2010) by Mac Barnett:

So my recommendation is this. If you ever get the chance to spend the night at the library, you should do it no matter how old you are.

But, be aware. The younger you are, the better you’ll feel in the morning. I needed a nap the next day.

I like lists.

Whenever I take those personality tests, I come out as a confirmed list-maker. I think it gives me the illusion that I have some level of control over my life.

Plus, there’s something so satisfying about crossing off an item on my list. It’s over. Done. Time to move on.

I hesitate to admit this, but I’m even one of those people who will add items I’ve already completed to a list just so I can cross them off.

Lately, I’ve seen lots of posts and articles and heard lots of conversations about words that annoy people. Maybe they’re over-used. Maybe they show the user is trying too hard. Maybe they’re words that break commonly held beliefs about proper language use (turning a noun or adjective into a verb, for example). Maybe they’re just … really stupid.

Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, even puts out an annual list of words it thinks should be banished. The 2010 list includes nods to pop culture (“chillaxin’”) politics (“stimulus”) and corporate life (“transparency” and “shovel-ready”).

My personal list of words that should be banished includes:

• Synergy – If people are really trying to sound impressive, they say “synergistic.”
• Utilize – Try “use” instead.
• Key – It’s fine as a noun, but adds no value as an adjective.
• Strategic – Sounds important, but is it really necessary?
• Within – “In” almost always works instead.
• Prior to – “Before” is much more conversational.
• Disconnect – OK if you’re discussing electricity, plumbing or computers. Not OK if you’re talking about ideas as in, “I sense a disconnect here.”

Please note that I’m talking about an ideal society. I know many of these words won’t go away. I edit articles every day that contain lots of these words. I try to reduce their use, but sometimes they’re still in the final copy. And I can live with that.

So here’s YOUR chance. What words would you be happy never to see in a manuscript or hear in conversation again?

Books are some of my favorite holiday gifts — to give and to receive. Here are some that passed under our tree this year.

• Lost Time by Susan Maupin Schmid
• Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes
• Christmas Mouseling by Dori Chaconas
• Perfectly Arugula by Sarah Dillard
• Several of the Science Solves It series
• Several of the Rainbow Fairies series by Daisy Meadows
• The New Moon Movie Companion

What books did you give or receive this season?

Our house is counting down to Chrismas, so I wanted to take a few moments to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season.

The picture above was made by my daughter, Sonia, as part of a poster contest for her school. I thought it made the perfect Christmas greeting. I especially like how one of the sheep is so overcome by the angel’s glory that it has basically passed out on the ground.

If you want something more, listen to Phillips Brooks, who wrote this:

Everywhere, everywhere, Christmas to-night!
Christmas in lands of the fir tree and pine,
Christmas in lands of the palm tree and vine;
Christmas where snow-peaks stand solemn and white,
Christmas where corn-fields lie sunny and bright;
Everywhere, everywhere, Christmas to-night.

I hope you enjoy Christmas wherever you are.

I’ll see you in January.

Books are my all-time favorite holiday gift, but I also like things that are book-related.

That’s where the American Library Association (ALA) Store comes in. They have a paper catalog, or you can visit them online. They carry all the cool reading posters you see in libraries, plus reading and book-related clothing, prizes and stocking stuffers.

Their obvious audiences are librarians and teachers. I’m not either of those things, but I still love their site. In fact, the two posters on my office wall, came from them.

The first one, shown at the left, is by noted children’s illustrator Kadir Nelson. He is a two-time Caldecott Honor Award winner, and he also won the 2009 Coretta Scott King Author Award and the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball (Jump at the Sun, 2008).

Below to the right, is one by illustrator Rosalind Beardshaw. She’s written and illustrated several children’s books. This poster comes from a picture book called Lola at the Library (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2006) written by Anna McQuinn.

What I like most about the ALA Store is that they have something for everyone. They feature the work of a wide variety of authors and illustrators plus celebrities. Whether you like “House” or The Disney Channel, “High School Musical” or ”The Hobbit,” The Food Network or the NBA, you’ll find something for you.

And their products are wonderfully diverse — both in the people they feature and the languages that are available —  showing, without a doubt, that books are for everyone.

Visit their site as part of your holiday shopping.

What books or book-related items are you planning to give this year?

So you’ve written. You’ve edited. You’ve revised. You’ve analyzed every last word for sound and meaning. 

If you work in corporate America, you’ve had subject-matter experts and lawyers review your work. If you don’t, your critique group has shared its feedback.

You’ve pondered, pruned and polished again. You’ve worried and wondered.

Are you done?

That depends.

Have you thought about how your copy looks?

Is it … accessible?

If you aren’t sure, set your carefully crafted prose aside and then – a few hours later – glance at it again like it just appeared on your “to-be-read pile” for the first time.

What do you think? Does it look like something that would be easy to breeze through? Or does it look like … work?

People are busy. If your copy isn’t something they asked for and are eagerly awaiting, they don’t have much incentive to plow through it if it looks off-putting. Just like plating is important in fine dining, accessibility is important in writing.

What can you do to make your copy more accessible? Try these tips:

- Use a font that’s easy to read. I like Times Roman for print and Arial for e-mail.

- Make your point size big enough. You can’t go wrong with 12-point.

- Add white space. Have one-inch margins. Use short paragraphs. Nothing makes a manuscript look less inviting than seemingly unending paragraphs of dense gray type.

- Use subheads and bullets, if possible. Subheads, bullets and sidebars give readers logical places to enter your manuscript. They help skimmers skim and draw in busy or reluctant readers.

- Have a short, catchy first sentence. And set if off by itself if you can.

- Use black type on white paper.

- Bold key words. But remember, less is always more.

Lots of writers think accessibility doesn’t matter. But it does. I edit lots of stories in my day job, and when there’s a stack on my desk I often go through and do the ones that follow these rules first. They just look friendlier and like they’ll cause me less pain.

I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I sent a brief e-mail out at work recently and got the following response:

“Nicely formatted and written. There’s nothing I like more than an Arial 12-point e-mail with judicious use of bold and bullets. So easy to read.”

And that, after all, is what any writer wants.

I love libraries. My family goes at least once a week, and we even stop at libraries when we’re on vacation or out of town.

Madison, Wisconsin and the surrounding area is blessed with a lot of great libraries — each with its own look, feel and charm. Because there’s not a library really close to my house, I visit several different ones depending on what part of town I’m in and what type of experience I’m in the mood for.

Having said that, the library I’ve been spending most of my time at is the Verona Public Library. It’s a lovely, newer library with a design inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. The staff is friendly, they have a great picture book selection — especially nonfiction — and there are beautiful, sunny areas to read. There’s even a castle inside with nooks and crannies for kids to curl up in.

But all those charms are overshadowed by my favorite thing about this library. This is the street it’s on:

I mean, how perfect is that? Where else would a library be?

Do you have a good name for a library street? Leave a comment.