It’s a beautiful day spring day and the sun is streaming through my office windows. This is the reward we rain-soaked Vancouverites get after months of slogging through puddles.
I’ve had my nose to the grindstone, working on a proposal for a new book idea. I think I may have finished it tonight. Hooray! It’s for 32 page children’s nonfiction book (probably only a 2000 word manuscript), but the proposal and sample text turned out to be 13 typewritten pages long. Crazy! But it takes a lot of convincing these days to get a publisher to sign on to a book.
For many years, I rose early and did my best writing of the day in the morning hours, but life seems to have have turned upside down. Now my most productive writing time is at night, when the house is quiet and the phone rarely rings. I used to marvel at the stories of so many writers who worked at night, and couldn’t imagine how they kept their eyes open, let alone found the right words for the page. Now, I’ve turned into one of those writers, busily working while everyone sleeps. Shh….
These days, I’ve been thinking a lot about how writers work, and how we perpetually inhabit multiple time zones: the past, present and future. To keep ourselves working, we must always be imagining and proposing new projects to our publishers (the future). We are also busily researching, writing and working hard on a current writing project (the present). And finally, we are enthusiastically promoting recently released books that appear new to our reading audience, but actually feel old to us — possibly written up to two years ago (the past). What’s it like straddling the time zones? Exciting, rewarding, hectic, and a little bit crazy. But that’s the nature of the job, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
I’m deep in research mode, which is one of my favourite parts of writing a book. These days I’m spending a lot of time “dreaming” about what my new book will look like, playing (in my mind) with different formats and voices, and digging into research in the various wonderful ways that the book requires. And fortunately for moi, this new book idea requires me (beyond reading books) to go on field trips, visit markets, watch things grow, and cook and eat delicious local food. I feel my waistline expanding as I type. 🙂
Here’s a photo of some of us from the Phoenix IRA (International Reading Association). Beginning from the left are three authors: Mary Casanova, Margriet Ruurs, and moi, and one of our most enthusiastic audience members, Monica Scarborough.
My blogging pal and fellow author, kc dyer, has a brand new book titled A Walk Through a Window.
When I was at Maywood School this week, the students asked me some of the best, most thoughtful questions I’ve ever been asked. Below is a sampling of what they asked (with my answers in parentheses). Above is more lovely art from the Maywood School hallways.
I’d like to send a sincere thank you to Brenda Hain, librarian extraordinaire, and to all the staff and students at Maywood Community School in Burnaby. I spent the last couple of days in
Brenda’s library, meeting her intermediate students, and talking about books. It was an amazing time! Thank you to everyone for your kind welcome, and your great enthusiasm. You have a very special school.
