Confessions of a Soon-to-be-Published MG Author

My debut novel in verse, EVERYWHERE BLUE, arrives on June 1, 2021, from Holiday House.

I'm very proud of this book, especially because it's taken me nearly 50 years to get here, and because I had to survive two ruptured brain aneurysms to do so.

But with less than six weeks left before my book launches, I have a confession to make.

I never want to read it again!

This is the one thing I never predicted. Before I had an agent or a book deal, I never imagined not wanting to read my own words ever again. 

It went through at least twelve drafts between 2015 and 2019, when I submitted it to Barbara Krasner. Barbara made me revise it yet again before she offered representation on Sept 24, 2019.

She sent it to ten editors, and one, Sally Morgridge at Holiday House, loved it and made an offer on October 22, 2019. 

Yes, you read that correctly! It really was that fast! (Although, since I've been writing for fifty years, it wasn't fast at all...)

Then I had one major revision to do for Sally. Which wasn't actually that major. She did want me to add more poems, mainly about Strum, but also about Maddie's best friend, Emma, and Eco Club. Altogether, I added around 3000 words.

A hint of something from EVERYWHERE BLUE.
This butterfly is hiding a secret inside its closed wings.

So that brought us up to about 14 drafts.

And still we weren't finished.

There were:

          Line edits.

          Copy edits.

          Page proofs.

That was three more times I had to read through my entire novel, with less and less time for each stage. I had three months to complete the revision (completing it just before the pandemic began in March 2020!), only ten days to read through the copy-editor's remarks, and about a week to look over page proofs.

Some of the other 21ders warned me this would happen.

You reach a point where you're sick of it. And then, by the time you're reading the page proofs and it's basically set in stone, you start to second-guess your own writing. Why did I use that word? Why not this word? 

Oh, I wanted to throw out whole sections and start all over again!

But I can't do that. It's finished. 

And this is what the butterfly looks like when its wings are open!
It's a blue morpho, and it features prominently in EVERYWHERE BLUE

I'll be taking a break from blogging for a while.  Please look for my interview on Jone Rush MacCulloch's blog on April 23rd. 

You can always find me on Twitter (@JoanneRFritz). 

Or you can visit my website and sign up for my occasional newsletter (in fact, it's so occasional it hasn't even started yet!). 

You can even preorder a signed copy from Children's Book World! 

Thank you for being here!

My agent journey

source: Giphy

As John Cleese of Monty Python used to say, "And now for something completely different..."



I have an agent.


Bear with me while I repeat that. I have an agent! How did this happen after all these years of writing?

Starting with my second novel, written in 2010/2011, I've queried a few agents at a time. Perhaps 25 total for that second novel, and around 35 for my third novel, written in 2012/2013. Despite a few encouraging rejections, the reaction was mostly silence. I know, I know, you're supposed to query at least one hundred agents, but I felt in my heart if 25 or 30 rejected me, there had to be a reason!

So I stopped even trying to query agents with my fourth (admittedly wretched) novel.

My fifth novel (i.e. my current one), a middle grade novel in verse, felt different to me when I first starting writing it in late 2015. And not only because it's a novel in verse, a form I feel I'm meant to write. The story fell into place in a way that hadn't happened to me before. For the first time, I didn't get stuck in the middle. I'm a pantser, but the plot spontaneously appeared as I was writing. (Note: I don't recommend writing this way. I'd much prefer to be a plotter!)

In 2016, I attended a Highlights Foundation Workshop on Novels in Verse. With the inspiring leadership of authors Kathryn Erskine and Alma Fullerton, I managed to write a new draft that seemed to work.

A second Highlights workshop, in 2017, with the same mentors, but mostly different attendees, helped me bring my novel in verse up to a higher level with, by then, the fourth or fifth draft. Only three of us, Barbara Krasner, Leah Rosti, and I, attended both workshops. Filled with inspiration again, I continued to revise.

Then, that September, I got sick.

Most of you know my survivor story by now. If not, suffice it to say I lost more than a year of my life due to a ruptured brain aneurysm (my second!) and a Grade 4 bleed.

Writing, and even reading, went by the wayside.

After recuperating, I went back to my novel in verse and revised it yet again. I had feedback from some writer friends and even some friends who are not writers! Then I learned that Barbara Krasner, my fellow workshop attendee and the author of several published books, had become a literary agent with Olswanger Literary. Leah Rosti had signed with her, so I decided to submit my novel in verse to Barbara, not really expecting much of a reaction.

She loved it!

But she gave me eight suggestions for revising it (again), most of which were small changes. When I completed this newest revision, I sent it to her...

and kept my fingers crossed. A few weeks later, she offered representation!


Yes, I'm still pinching myself.

The lure of the shiny new idea

If you're a writer...

You've probably had this happen to you. You're slogging away at revisions on your last manuscript (in my case, written in 2016 and revised a few times in 2017 before I was laid low by illness). And you're trying to make it better, stronger, more compelling, when you're struck by... THE SHINY NEW IDEA!

Yep. That's what happened to me. I quickly started a new notebook for ideas and scribbled down everything that occurred to me. It filled, oh, about three pages.

Then I waited....

And waited... Days went by. Then weeks.

And nothing else occurred to me. Having a shunt in my head makes me feel like all the creativity is being sucked out of my brain.

When a Shiny New Idea fizzles, what do YOU do?

On Returning to the Highlights Foundation -- no longer a rookie, but still learning

Some of you may remember my blog post from last year about my first Workshop at The Highlights Foundation. I was such a rookie I didn't know how to find my cabin and I especially didn't know how to juggle my minor characters or add humor to a serious novel. I learned so much and came away impressed and vowing to return as soon as possible.

That blog post received thousands of page views, more than any other blog post in my seven years of blogging, except, oddly enough, my Yorkshire post. In the latter case, I suspect kids writing book reports on The Shakespeare Stealer found it, shall we say, helpful. But in the former case, my Highlights blog post must have touched a nerve. It seems every children's writer longs to attend a Highlights Foundation Workshop (or Unworkshop). And it undoubtedly helped that Highlights posted a link to my post on their facebook page. Thank you, Highlights!

The Barn at the Highlights Foundation -- where magic happens!

This month, I was thrilled to again attend a workshop and again, it was Novels in Verse (an Advanced version), with returning faculty members Kathryn Erskine and Alma Fullerton, plus returning guest author Padma Venkatraman. They're all delightful human beings and fabulous writers who go the extra mile to coach and encourage their students. They told me to dig deeper and add more emotion so that was what I worked on, along with combining two characters into one to streamline the story a bit.

I learned so much from them and was so inspired that my novel soared to new heights in only four days. What impresses me the most about Kathy and Alma is although they divide up the twelve attendees and each mentor six of us, both of them read all twelve novels! I don't know how they do it.

Hello, Cabin 9, my old friend! New name holders and easy-to-see Cabin numbers this year.

I also don't know how I accomplished so much. There must be a magical time warp in those cabins that allows writers to achieve more in a few short days than we ever could at home. Whatever it is, I hope they keep it up!

My smartest move this year was adding an Unworkshop Day after the Workshop was officially over on Thursday (oh, how I wish I'd added two!). I got a chance to go on the tour of the Highlights offices in Honesdale, ate another delicious dinner, and then hunkered down in my cabin and flew through my revisions in close to four hours of hard work that evening. It was almost a mystical experience, sitting in Cabin 9 late at night, typing away on my laptop and seeing my characters grow stronger with every tweak.

As I write this, I've been home only a few days and already I want to go back. Not just for the writing inspiration and camaraderie, but for the fresh and delicious food:

Lunch! 

Dessert (baked apples - yum!)

And for the fun of the Word Garden. I was thrilled when the rain stopped and I could play in it. Moving word rocks around is therapeutic and led to more than one new line for my novel.

Here's a tiny hint of what my novel in verse is all about:

Ready to sign up yet?

On visiting the Highlights Foundation for the first time... and my impressions of the Novel in Verse Workshop from May 2016

Some of you have been waiting patiently for this post. Sorry it took so long! I was a tad distracted (see my previous post).

Some of the cabins at the Highlights Foundation.
Mine was the second from the left.

How to sum up my first visit to the Highlights Foundation?

In one word: magical.

In many more words: The entire experience inspired me, from the first Saturday gathering of 14 strangers (twelve attendees plus two faculty members) over wine and cheese to the last goodbye hugs with all my new friends on Wednesday. I couldn't imagine a more caring, encouraging group with which to share my first Highlights workshop. I'm honored to have spent time with these talented and creative people (many of whom already have books published!). By the last day, we felt like a family. 

Yet I had a somewhat rocky start -- emails going astray for months, a cabin mix-up the day I arrived... There's always a story behind the story, right? Do you know what it's like to wander around a big rural campus in search of your name on a door, hoping to find it and not finding it? Agh!  

The lovely Jan Godown Annino (check out her wonderful blog) tried to help me solve my dilemma that first afternoon.  I'm afraid I was (unintentionally) a little short with her. I'm a timid driver and I'd just spent three and a half hours driving on unfamiliar highways. Not my favorite thing to do. So I was a wee bit cranky when I arrived, only to find someone else in what was supposed to be my cabin! Indeed, I almost felt Highlights didn't want me there. 

Silly, I know.

Of course, all was not lost. The indomitable Jo Lloyd took charge and put all things right, finding my name sign and canvas welcome bag (containing the schedule, among other papers), and assigning me to a different cabin, which worked out perfectly. I fell in love with Cabin 9 and it became my home for 4 nights. 

Cabin 9: my writing cabin and my sleeping, reading, and day-dreaming cabin

Inside Cabin 9: rustic but charming, and always quiet.

As we must do when confronted with unexpected situations, I adjusted my attitude and rediscovered my sense of humor (and I'm happy to say I became great friends with Jan Godown Annino!). That evening, I enjoyed meeting and getting to know all my talented fellow attendees, along with our fearless leaders, Kathy Erskine (author of the National Book Award-winning Mockingbird, and of Seeing Red, Badger Knight, and other novels, along with the upcoming verse novel Hidden Power) and Alma Fullerton (author of verse novels Libertad, which I reviewed here, Burn, In the Garage, and others). 

On the third day, we were joined by guest author Padma Venkatraman (I was excited to meet her because I'd already read all three of her novels, Climbing the Stairs, Island's End, and A Time to Dance). 

By that third day, I'd had conversations with every single attendee, even the reticent (and gifted) Ray, the only male in our group. Ray's powerful picture book in verse moved us all to tears when he finally read it out loud at Group Critique. 

Group critique every afternoon at 4 was followed by wine and cheese at 5:30 and then a delicious buffet dinner at the Barn. 

Getting ready for dinner

Wine and cheese time in the Barn!

The food at the Highlights Foundation is worth the price of the workshops. It's true! Always fresh, local, and delicious, and prepared by the most talented chefs you'll find. They even take into account your dietary restrictions and bring you a special plate if needed. I'm sorry I didn't think to take more photos of the generous buffets. This one below is a simple lunch. There were always plenty of salad and veggie choices as well as comfort foods like lasagna. Ingredients were identified (writing with chalk on the black tablecloth: ingenious!) so you could avoid known allergens.

Eating this wonderful food made us all feel healthy-- and quite spoiled! No cooking, no clean-up. It's a writer's dream. Highlights even provided snacks and coffee, tea, or soft drinks in the Barn at any hour of the day or night, though I was usually too full to consider it.

When the rain finally blew away, we could play in the word garden:

An attempt at poetry

or take a brisk evening walk, led by Kathy Erskine, a walk which helped jump-start my brain for more writing that night.

My writing desk and reading chair

Our mornings were filled with informative workshops held in the classroom corner of the Barn. My favorite moments were mostly visual. I will never forget Kathy Erskine crawling around on the Barn's hard stone floor to demonstrate how she got into her character's head in the medieval tale, The Badger Knight, when Adrian hid under a pew at Carlisle Cathedral. And Alma telling us how she got into her character by huddling in a snow drift for hours with no coat or shoes. Wow! Talk about dedication. 

After Padma joined us, she described binding up her leg for a day and trying to walk around. That was how she got inside her character in A Time to Dance, her moving verse novel about a dancer who loses one leg in an accident.

Our afternoons included plenty of free time to write. And write is what I did. Inspired by my one-on-ones with Alma and Kathy, I managed to write four new poems for my verse novel in the time I was there, and many more since I came home. From my one-on-ones and from comments in Group Critique, I learned that I need to flesh out the minor characters more and add some humor to what has turned out to be a serious MG contemporary novel.*

I came away with a renewed sense of purpose for my novel in verse and a sense of lasting camaraderie with an amazing group of people. I'm sorry I don't have people pictures, but check out the Highlights Foundation site (at least, for now) and you may catch a glimpse of our group.

If you've never attended a Highlights Foundation workshop, please keep it in mind for the future. It's a must for any writer. And they do have scholarships. Just ask!

Personally, I can't wait to go back.

*Oh, you thought I was going to tell you what my novel is about? Sorry! That will have to wait.

Musings on writing my fifth novel

Yes.

You read that right. I'm nearly finished writing the rough draft of my fifth novel. In the past nine years, I've written four MG novels and one YA, in addition to more than a dozen picture books. And no, in case you're wondering, I don't yet have an agent or a book contract. I've had fourteen publication credits to date, but they're all poems or flash fiction or micro fiction for adults.

Still, I keep writing for children and teens. Perseverance is my mantra.

But I have to admit, Novel #5 is, well, a little different. In what way?

Read on.

I started an idea notebook for my fifth novel back in the late spring of 2015, so nearly a year ago. After gathering ideas, and working out character sketches and a setting and a conflict, I wrote three chapters. Almost immediately, I became stuck. Something didn't feel right about it. So I put it aside and revised my fourth novel instead.

And then, in September, after reading Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton (even though it wasn't the first verse novel I read), I had an epiphany.

This new novel? The one I was stuck on? It was meant to be written in verse.

I spent two months reading and studying verse novels and then in November 2015 I started writing Novel #5 all over again.

Am I crazy? Well, this doesn't feel crazy. It feels... right. Since making that decision, the process has changed for me. Writing a verse novel is the hardest thing I've done as a writer, but at the same time, it's like I've grown wings. I look forward to writing every day, which is something I never did with a rough draft before. Rough drafts are usually agony.

I've been accepted into the Highlights Foundation workshop on Novels in Verse which will take place in May. Who knows where this will lead? Maybe nowhere. But maybe, just maybe, something good will happen.

For the rest of April, in honor of Poetry Month, I'll be looking at a few of the verse novels I've studied in my quest to learn this new (for me) form.

Over the past few years, I've read, in approximately this order:

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
42 Miles by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
May B. by Caroline Starr Rose (this made me first fall in love with verse novels)
Pieces of Georgia by Jen Bryant
The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle
Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
Because I am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas
Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli
Another Day as Emily by Eileen Spinelli
Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton
Blue Birds by Caroline Starr Rose
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Libertad by Alma Fullerton
Mountain Dog by Margarita Engle
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

(I've also read Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, which is actually an autobiography, and The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, which some consider prose poetry.)

What verse novels do you recommend? All suggestions are welcome.

The opposite of inept -- and other words

"Words," he said, "is oh such a twitch-tickling problem to me all my life."

— The Big Friendly Giant in Roald Dahl's book, The BFG

I've been feeling a bit inept recently, for various reasons. ("Why, no, it has nothing to do with my Twitter account being hacked!" *coughcough*)

At the same time, I've been working on a poem, and I needed a word that was the opposite of the word echo. I started daydreaming about words like inept. One thing led to another, and I made all kinds of lovely discoveries by Googling "words with no opposite".

Who knew there were so many?

Well, P.G. Wodehouse, for one, who wrote in one of his Jeeves novels, The Code of the Woosters: “If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”

But does anyone actually use words like ruly, kempt, or ane? Is funct the opposite of defunct? Is ept a real word, as opposed to inept? 

Aren't words fun?

And although the poem I'm writing has absolutely nothing to do with this, here's an amusing rhyme attributed to J.H. Parker in 1953 (I found it several places, including here and here):

A Very Descript Man
 by J.H. Parker

I am such a dolent man, 

I eptly work each day;
My acts are all becilic, 
I've just ane things to say.

My nerves are strung, my hair is kempt, 
I'm gusting and I'm span:
I look with dain on everyone 
And am a pudent man.

I travel cognito and make 
A delible impression:
I overcome a slight chalance, 
With gruntled self-possession.

My dignation would be great 

If I should digent be:
I trust my vagance will bring 
An astrous life for me.

What do you think? Would you ever use the word ept? And can anyone help me come up with the opposite of an echo? I'd be eternally grateful.

Annual event at Children's Book World -- and Writing advice from Jerry Spinelli

I was in heaven on November 1st. Or, more precisely, I was at Children's Book World, in Haverford, PA for their annual Author and Illustrator night.

My only regret (besides the fact that I forgot to take photos - kicking myself, here) is that I didn't have enough money to buy a book from each of the more than 30 authors or illustrators present. And of course there wasn't enough time to talk to all of them.

This is actually a photo of Ellen Jensen Abbott from a previous event at CBW in October!

But I did talk to my friend Ellen Jensen Abbott, my friend K.M. Walton, and also Tiffany Schmidt, E.C. Myers, Ame Dyckman, Jen Bryant, Elisa Ludwig, Lisa Papp and Robert Papp, Lee Harper, and Jerry Spinelli and Eileen Spinelli.

These were the books I purchased that night!

Also in attendance was my friend Ilene, whose YA deal (as I.W. Gregorio) was just announced in Publishers Marketplace. Yay, Ilene!

(Note: Yes, most of these authors are either YA or PB authors. But never fear, MG champions, because next week, I'm planning to attend a middle grade event sponsored by Children's Book World - you can read about it here! And this time, I'll try to take pics...)

Best conversation of the evening: I told Jerry Spinelli that I just finished the rough draft of my third novel the day before. And I asked, "What advice can you give me?" He said, "First, treat yourself to a milkshake because you've done something most people never do. You've finished a novel."

Then he told me to wait THREE MONTHS before tackling the revisions. As I thanked him and walked away, he said, "Remember! Three months!"

So I'll take your advice, Jerry. I'm letting it marinate until the end of January. And I'm already writing my fourth novel. But if there's anything I've learned in my years of writing, it's that there is no right or wrong way to revise a novel. Just like there is no right or wrong way to write a rough draft.

How long do you wait before revising a rough draft? Do you put it away and let it simmer? Or do you dive right into draft two?

On Writing and Having Fun

Katherine Applegate

The truth is, you have to have fun with it. It is fun. You have to do it because you love it, and if you love it, the rest will come. I think people forget that. They get tied up in questions of "Will I be published?," and at the end of the day, it's just about words on paper. And that's the part we all love--most of the time.   

                 

– Katherine Applegate, 

on winning the 2013 Newbery for The One and Only Ivan, 

as quoted in Shelf Awareness January 29, 2013.         

Writers, what do you think? Is writing fun for you? Or do you tend to get caught up in the wishing-to-be-published blues?   

A Winner -- and a new look at an old favorite

I'm happy to announce that according to random.org the winner of the hardcover copy of Will Sparrow's Road by Karen Cushman is:

Kat Owens
 

Congratulations, Kat!  Expect an email from me asking for your mailing address.

 ___________________________________________________

I've been querying my second novel for about a month now and some of the very kind personal rejections I've received have said they prefer funny boy books for MG, as opposed to dark and serious contemporary stories. 

Ahem. So... I've written a lot of messy notes and character sketches and about 35 pages of a new middle grade novel. Yes, I'm attempting a humorous story this time. Go ahead, make all the jokes you want. I'll wait.

......

Yeah, I knew I needed lots of research. So for a month I've been re-reading every funny book on my shelves, from Diary of a Wimpy Kid (strangely, not as funny this time around) to Flush by Carl Hiaasen (he can be over-the-top funny), to Wendy Mass's books. I'm a big fan of Wendy Mass. So I re-read 11 Birthdays (paperback published 2010, hardcover 2009, from Scholastic, for ages 9 to 12). And I'm happy to report I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. 

Amanda and Leo, best friends who happen to share a birthday, have to repeat their 11th birthday until they get it right, a la Groundhog Day, the movie, or Help! I'm Trapped in the First Day of School by Todd Strasser. I love the town Wendy has created, Willow Falls, where unusual things sometimes take place. It's the real world, with a touch of magical realism. And this is exactly the sort of thing I'm going for.

I love this kind of research!

Wendy Mass's website

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is the brainchild of Shannon Messenger. See her blog for the links, or visit my sidebar.

On Writing and Learning

“I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow.”  

          --  Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler in E.L.Konigsburg’s Newbery-award-winning novel, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler  (p.153 in the paperback version)

 

Of course, she wasn't talking to Claudia about writing, but I think the quote applies just as easily to what we do, as writers. The more I write, the more I need to learn about writing. And many people have suggested I buy this craft book or that one. Sometimes I do. There's a great deal to be learned from books like Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass or Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell or my favorite, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. 

 

But there comes a time when you need to stop all the studying and let it "swell up inside of you." Let all the advice simmer; let your own ideas marinate so you can feel something. What do you think? Have you learned something invaluable from a craft book? Do you depend on craft books or are you finding your own way?