My Visit to Madison County Schools

I recently spent two great days visiting schools in Madison Country North Carolina. WISH is on the North Carolina Elementary Battle of the Books list.

Getting ready to speak to students at Mars Hill Elementary

Being introduced at Mars Hill Elementary by Melanie Morgan, Library Director at Madison County Public Library

My greeters, tour guides and bodyguards at Brush Creek (l to r) Elizabeth, Bella, Jordan and Phoenix

A nice greeting from Brush Creek Elementary School

Brush Creek 4th Graders displaying their copies of WISH

Speaking to students at Brush Creek Elementary

Signing books at Brush Creek

The beautiful mountain setting of Hot Springs School

4th and 5th graders at Hot Springs School

Some great drawings done by students at Hot Springs School

More great drawings from Hot Springs students

THANK YOU, MADISON COUNTY!!

Love this Wish Trailer!!

Check out this amazing trailer for Wish

Made by the amazing Charlii

In Ashley Hayball's 4th grade class

at Amelia Earhart Elementary School

in Indio, CA

Thank you, Charlii!!!

Lessons from Dead Matter

"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..

 




 

#TrueFriends and a Great Giveaway

Back in this blog post I told y'all about a writing retreat I went to a couple of years ago.

It was at the beautiful vacation home of Kirby Larson.

(l to r) Kirby Larson with Winston the Wonder Dog, Susan Hill Long, Augusta Scattergood, and me

The amazing result of that writing retreat is that ALL FOUR of the manuscripts that we worked on there were published this year!

 
So we decided to keep the Sisterhood united and work together to help our books wing their way into the world.

We have some #TrueFriends goodies for you!

Here are 4 quick videos from us, telling a bit about our books.

HERE is a fun activity kit.

And...drum roll, please...a fantastic giveaway!!

Go HERE to enter to win books and/or a Skype visit.

The Sisterhood

In June of 2014, Kirby Larson invited Augusta Scattergood, Susan Hill Long, and me to have a writing retreat at her beautiful vacation home in Washington state. We all jumped at the chance.

What a special time we had!

Here we are with Winston the Wonder Dog. (l to r): Kirby, Susan, Augusta and me

Writing all day.

Then critiquing (so important).

Then breaking to watch the sunset and drink a little wine.

And here's the coolest part:

All four of the manuscripts we were working on at that retreat were published this year!

What are the odds? Seriously.

Here they are: 

AND Augusta's book and my book are publishing on the SAME DAY (August 30).

What are the odds?

Here's the fun part: we call ourselves the Butterfly Sisters. Here's why (as I remember it....we might all have variations of the story).

In an early draft of WISH, I had a scene where the main character hurls some very harsh words at her friend. Harsh and sharp. I then wrote that she wished she could take those words back...scoop them up like butterflies in a net.

My brilliant peers pointed out to me that that metaphor didn't seem appropriate for gathering harsh, sharp words.

Dang it! They were right. 

But I loved that phrase so much I was determined to keep it. I just moved it to a more appropriate place.

So we had a running joke about butterflies.

And all four books have some sort of reference to butterflies. (Go read the books and see if you can find them.)

So there you have it. 

AND...this year Kirby invited us to have another retreat. BUT...Delta Airlines dealt me a lousy hand and cancelled my flight. So I couldn't go!!!

But we got together to critique the best we could:

Long Live the Sisterhood!

Student Blurbs for WISH

I adore these blurbs for WISH from Patrick Allen's awesome 4th graders in Colorado.

"This is the best novel of the year!" --Kinsey 

"Soon it will have a New York Times best seller stamp on it!" --Norah

"I WISH it were out sooner!" --John

"Wishes might not come true, but reading this book made mine come true!" --Michael

"Great mix of comedy and emotion. This book makes wishes come true!" --Caleb/Hannah

"Now I know what to wish on." --Ben

Old Dog New Tricks

I've written ten novels and I've approached revision the same for all of them.

After feedback from my editor, I just dove in head first.

Sometimes working in chronological order.

Sometimes skipping around.

Usually fixing the easy stuff first.

Saving the harder stuff for last.

But for my latest work in progress, I'm taking a new approach and I think I like it!

First, I read through my "to do" list of revisions about a gazillion times, so that I had most of it firmly committed to memory.

Then, instead of diving in head first, I took a deep breath and very slowly, methodically read through the entire manuscript.

As I read along, I used Post-It notes to mark the parts I wanted to change or where I wanted to add something.

When I was done.....eureka!

I had a forehead-thwacking DUH moment!

This was a much better approach to revision.

Here's why:

First and foremost, I got a very clear BIG PICTURE of the story as a whole......not just in bits and pieces.
 
I was left with a pretty clear idea of just how much work I was facing.

I could work in chronological order of the story, which helps me keep the flow going in the right direction vs. a more choppy approach of working out of order. 

I could move those Post-It notes around a bit, changing where I wanted to add new material, if necessary.

I also printed out a calendar to use to mark the days of the story....for my timeline. 

Never did that before.

But I like it!

So there ya go!

Old dog....

new tricks.
 

A New Book!

So excited to share this news (from Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf):

Janine O'Malley of Farrar, Straus & Giroux has acquired world rights for Wish, a novel by Barbara O'Connor. Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has made the same wish since fourth grade, hoping that someday it will come true. When her irresponsible parents cause her to be sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains to live with family members she doesn't know, she needs that wish to come true more than ever. Publication is planned for fall 2016; Barbara Markowitz of Barbara Markowitz Literary Agency did the deal.