A Way with Words

I adored my editor Frances Foster for many reasons. Her humor, her smarts, her genteel manner. She also had a lovely way with words...always eloquent, tactful, and respectful.

In my ongoing quest to purge my office of STUFF, I came across some correspondence that showcased her way with words perfectly.

Back in 2000 (FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!!! How can that be?),

Frances received a letter from an elementary school media specialist about the use of the word "hell" in my book Me and Rupert Goody.

It reads, in part:

I am faced with a real problem. Several times in the book, the character of Uncle Beau uses language that parents of elementary age children would find offensive. More and more, I am finding that this is an issue with well-written books for children this age. If the inclusion of such language were an integral part of the story, that would be at least justifiable. In this book, it is gratuitous and could easily have been deleted.

What will I do with the book? I cannot recommend it to students at my schools. The language is unacceptable - and it occurs only a few times! I am passing the book on to the middle school where students - and their parents - might not be offended. I regret having to do this as the story is appropriate for fourth and fifth graders.

What can you do? I would suggest that, when you edit books in the future, you become aware of such gratuitous language and suggest to authors that they, too, become sensitive to the inclusion of such language. No one is opposed to freedom of expression but let us be more sensitive to what language is necessary and what is not.



Frances responded in the most perfect way. Her letter reads, in part:

I can certainly appreciate the sensitivity of your position as a media specialist. We may, however, disagree on whether or not certain language is integral to a story. I don't think it's so easy to separate language from characterization, and in my opinion, there is nothing gratuitous in O'Connor's depiction of Uncle Beau. His every word and gesture make him totally believable. I suppose the occasional "hell" could have been edited out, but it seemed so utterly true to Uncle Beau's voice and character.

Are you aware that School Library Journal gave Me and Rupert Goody a starred review and a Best Book of the Year ranking? It was also named an ALA Notable Children's Book. Those recommendations, of course may not carry any weight with parents, but they do suggest that not everyone has found the language unacceptable to fourth and fifth grade audiences. 

I couldn't have said it better myself.

P.S. If it had been an e-book, the librarian could have used this Clean Reader App (eye-yi-yi) .

Memory Lane

Ever since I sold my first book a million trillion years ago (okay, okay...1991), I've kept scrapbooks of book-related stuff.

I call them my Ego Books because during those times when I'm feeling insecure and inadequate, like a has-been and a loser (You know you've been there, right?), I can whip one out and thumb through it and I sometimes feel better about myself. (Saves me a ton of money on therapy.)

I read the nice letters folks wrote and see how blessed I am to have lovely, supportive friends and to have achieved some wonderful goals, I'm back in my groove.

So I recently decided to look through them.

Here are some of the highlights from the first one, which is 1991 to 2000.

This is my very first acceptance letter. It was for a biography of Maria Montessori. I remember that day so well. I was over the moon excited:

 This is a letter from David Freaking Small, y'all!! He did the cover art for my first novel, Beethoven in Paradise. I wrote him a note thanking him, and he wrote me back. I love that he told me how lucky I was to have "that great lady, Frances Foster" as my editor and FSG as my publisher.

This is my very first review of my very first novel (Beethoven in Paradise). It's a little hard to read because it was faxed to me. (Remember fax machines?) It's a Kirkus POINTERED review, which back in the day, was their version of a starred review. (Anybody remember those pointered reviews?):

This is a note from my son telling me I did a good job. Awwww. Better than a starred review!

This is a letter from Cynthia Freaking Rylant, y'all!!! We corresponded after I sent her a copy of my second book, Me and Rupert Goody:

This is Cynthia Freaking Rylant telling me that my novel "was lovely." Swoon. (I cropped out her signature cause I don't like to post that on the internet, but trust me, it's her. In fact, she signed it CYNDI RYLANT.

And this is from School Library Journal. Me and Rupert Goody was named a Best Book of 1999. I was beyond thrilled for that!

So, those were good years and I am blessed.

Saying Goodbye

As part of Operation Purge (i.e., getting rid of stuff), I'm sending all of my old drafts and manuscripts off to the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota.

LOTS of stuff in my closet

Sorting, sorting, sorting

Organizing

Packed and ready to go

 

I confess to feeling a wee bit sad because most of those manuscripts have Frances Foster's handwriting on them.

But now, hopefully, others can read and enjoy her amazing wit and wisdom.

And that's a good thing.

And now I have much more room in my closets, so maybe I should go shopping!

Frances Foster

Tomorrow I'm heading to New York for the memorial service for my editor of 18 years, Frances Foster.

She was the best of the best.

I was blessed.

So today I'm reposting this Macmillan blog about:

The Fantastic Partnership of Frances and Barbara

For Frances

Today I pay tribute to my brilliant editor of 18 years, Frances Foster, who passed away Sunday morning at the age of 83.

It was my honor and privilege to have worked with her on ten books during those years.

She was smart, funny, gracious and wise.

She gave the world wonderful books that will live on and enrich readers for many years to come.

When she was honored at the Eric Carle Museum a few years ago, her authors were asked to write a short piece called What I Learned From Frances Foster. Here is what I wrote (with some inside jokes that only Frances will get):

I've learned the difference between walking UP the sidewalk and walking DOWN the sidewalk.
I've learned not to panic when a letter from her begins with the words, "Brace yourself."
I've learned not to panic when a phone call begins with the words, "I have a little niggle."
I've learned to appreciate humility when I receive an email stating: Thank you for reminding me how bad Fame and Glory really was before I got my mitts on it."
I tried to learn from her the proper use of ellipses, but I still don't get it.
I've learned patience, open-mindedness, tact, an appreciation for the creative process, and the importance of compromise.
And to quote the ending of some editorial correspondence I sent to her a few years ago, "As always, thanks for your insight, instinct, smarts, humor, respect, patience and safety-mindedness." (The latter being a reference to a BB gun scene that I initially thought was hilarious but was reminded by someone wiser that it was very unsafe.)
 

You can read about her amazing career HERE.

Big Apple

I'm off for two whirlwind days in the Big Apple.

I'm meeting my agent, Barbara Markowitz, for the first time in EIGHTEEN years!! Yes, I said 18. I know, I know.....hard to believe. But she lives on the West Coast and I live on the East Coast and it just hasn't happened - until now!

I'll be visiting with my great team at FSG.

I'll be visiting my dear friend and editor, Frances Foster.

I'll have a lovely dinner with my lovely son.

Yay!

It was a setup (Part 2)

Today I continue in my teachy-preachy mode - discussing setup.

If you missed Part 1, please go now and reread. It will be on the

test.

To recap:

The setup answers the following questions:

• Who are the main characters?
• Where does the story take place?
• When does the story take place?
• And the most important question of all: What is the story about?

To continue examining examples (um, can a preachy teacher say that? I don't think so) let’s take a look at Holes by Louis Sachar (edited, by the way, by my editor, Frances Foster).

The book opens like this:

There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large

lake here, the largest lake in Texas. That was over a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland.

There used to be a town of Green Lake as well. The town shriveled and dried up along with the lake, and the people who lived there.

During the summer the daytime temperature hovers around ninety-five degrees in the shade - if you can find any shade. There’s not much shade in a big dry lake.


Setting, setting, setting. Sachar jumps right into the story with the where. 

The reader is immediately drawn into a “dry, flat wasteland.” The image of a “shriveled and dried up” lake that is “ninety-five degrees in the shade - if you can find any” is front and center in this setup.


Let’s continue:

The only trees are two old oaks on the eastern edge of the “lake” A hammock is stretched between the two trees, and a log cabin stands behind that.

The campers are forbidden to lie in the hammock. It belongs to the Warden. The Warden owns the shade.

Sachar is starting to hook us right here in the setup. 

There is something not right about this camp. 

The reader is beginning to suspect that this is not a pleasant summer camp. 

Why? 

One word: warden. There’s a warden at this camp. Not a counselor. Not a director. A warden.


The setup continues:

Out on the lake, rattlesnakes and scorpions find shade under rocks and in the holes dug by the campers.
 
Holes dug by the campers?

Camp Green Lake does not sound like a summer camp that kids would want to go. It does, however, sound like a summer camp that kids would want to read about. Sachar has definitely hooked the reader.

So far, we know where the story takes place and we are getting a strong suspicion that this is not a realistic story. It already has a bit of a “tall tale” aura to it - with a dried up lake and scorpions and a warden and campers digging holes.

The second chapter begins on the third page:

The reader is probably asking: Why would anyone go to Camp Green Lake?

Most campers weren’t given a choice. Camp Green Lake is a camp for bad boys.

If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.

That was what some people thought.

Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. The judge said, “You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake.”

Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before.
 
Now we know that Camp Green Lake is a camp “for bad boys” and that the main character is Stanley Yelnats. 

During the next few paragraphs, we learn that Stanley is on his way to Camp Green Lake because he was convicted of a crime. But we also learn:

Stanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was all because of his no-good-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!
 
Sachar then goes on to explain the Yelnats family curse.

We know what Holes is about: A boy who has been sent to a camp for bad boys and who is the victim of a family curse.

But what about the when of the story? 

This is one of those stories that doesn’t really need a specific when. 

It is timeless. It could be current. It could be historical. It doesn’t really matter.

We are only five pages into the story - FIVE PAGES, PEOPLE! -  and the setup is complete. 

The reader is off and running.

Well done, Louis and Frances.

Things I Love Thursday

I love that I've had the opportunity to work with one of the best editors in the business.

Last year, for a surprise celebration honoring FSG editor Frances Foster, her authors were asked to write a short piece about what they have learned from her.

Here is what I wrote:

What I've Learned from Frances Foster

I've learned the difference between walking UP the sidewalk and walking DOWN the sidewalk.

I've learned not to panic when a letter from her begins with the words, "Brace yourself."

I've learned not to panic when a phone call begins with the words, "I have a little niggle."

I've learned to appreciate humility when I receive an email stating: "Thank you for reminding me how bad Fame and Glory really was before I got my mitts on it."

I tried to learn from her the proper use of ellipses, but I still don't get it.

I've learned patience, open-mindedness, tact, an appreciation for the creative process, and the importance of compromise.

And to quote the ending of some editorial correspondence I sent to her a few years ago, "As always, thanks for your insight, instinct, smarts, humor, respect, patience and safety-mindedness." (The latter being a reference to a BB gun scene that I initially thought was hilarious but was reminded by someone wiser that it was very unsafe.)

Thank you, Frances, for everything.

More about my lucky partnership HERE.

Nostalgia

I've had a great time following all the goings-on from ALA in Chicago....

....which led me to reminiscing....

....which led me to THIS.

 

Things I Love Thursday

I love my brilliant editor, Frances Foster.

18 years

10 books

Am I lucky or what?

Frances Foster (left) and me

 

You can read about 

The Fantastic Partnership of Barbara and Frances

Here

You can read more about Frances

Here 

The Author/Editor Partnership

My FSG editor, Frances Foster, and I discuss our working relationship during the creation of The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester -

over on the Macmillan MacKids Blog.

My trip to New York

Last week I took the train down to New York.

I visited the office of my publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux:

Which is very conveniently located next to this!

With the most amazing cupcakes I've ever seen. (Take note, Grace Lin.)

And this is pretty handy located next to a children's book publisher:

I loved snooping around my editor's office. This is an amazing painting by the brilliant Peter Sis, who thought she needed a window (back when she had a windowless office):

I loved seeing all of the books in various stages of production, tucked away on a shelf, waiting to become real books and fly out into the real world.

Of course, I was particularly interested in these two:

Here I am (right) with my brilliant editor, Frances Foster.

And I finally got to meet Lisa Graff (left), associate editor, author, and blogger (Longstockings). (See how much fun Lisa is having?)

Frances and Lisa and I had a wonderful lunch. First we debated the possible shape of cavatappi. Then we had some great conversations about writing, books, and the importance of dressing well when taking airplane trips.

After saying goodbye to Frances and Lisa, I went to my son's senior thesis photography show (Parsons School of Design). It was wonderful. (Those art school kids work hard!)

And I was very proud.

My brilliant editor

A lovely little piece in Publishers Weekly about my amazing editor, Frances Foster (FSG), among others.