I had an amazing author visit to Paris Elementary School in Taylors, South Carolina, today.
You know it's going to be a good day when you are greeted with this sign outside the school.
And another one inside the school!
Students in Mrs. Boebel's class.
With my new BFF, Mrs. Boebel
Students in Mrs. Boebel's class wrote and performed a skit of How to Steal a Dog
I love the set they made for their skit.
Khamari, Aydan, Reid and Cooper performed an original rap for me. I LOVED it. My favorite line was: "She is the best I see. She's better than Jeff Kinney."
And as if that wasn't enough, they showered me with gifts!!
THE most amazing decoupaged birdhouse you've ever seen!!!
The amazing Mrs. Boebel
The birdhouse now has a place of honor in my office to remind me of this wonderful day:
They gave me trail mix cookie mix in Bertha's canning jar (from Wish)
And gummy worms to thank me for making them bookworms!
Even Martha and Ruby got gifts.
Thank you to the thoughtful student who gave me these to keep the dogs safe in the car!
Waiting patiently for their cookie. (Thank you, Kylie!)
Ruby loved the toy.
And flowers
Thank you, Paris Elementary, for this amazing day!!!
"Dead matter" refers to all of the paper left over after a book has gone to press: the original manuscript with editor's and copy editor's comments, the various rounds of revised manuscripts, etc.
It's always fun to take a look at the minutiae involved in getting a manuscript into tip top shape. And, alas, I often realize some of the mistakes I make over and over again. Sheesh.
You can see some past Lessons from Dead Matter HERE.
I just got my dead matter back for Wish and thought I'd share some of the mistakes I made - almost always involving hyphens and compound words. Minutiae, minutiae.
Redheaded is one word, not hyphenated. Bread-and-butter pickles IS hyphenated. Ta-da is hyphenated. (I know, I know....I'm questioning that one, too)
Meat loaf is two words. (But, hey, meatloaf still looks right to me)
Lunch box is two words but tailpipe is one word.
Hot dog is two words but bottlecap is one word.
Popsicle is capitalized.
Jibber-jabber is hyphenated. Now, according to Yankee copy editors, barbecue is spelled with a "c". I don't care what they say, in North Carolina, we spell it barbeque. And after 26 years, I STILL don't get the correct spacing for ellipses. So there you have it. Dead matter..
