A Lovely Rejection

Just after Christmas I sent Jimmy and Cinder off to Orca Press in BC to see if they were interested. Last week I received an email from the acquisitions editor saying she had enjoyed the book, especially the "delightful" Cinder. Unfortunately they didn't feel it fit with what they were looking for at the moment but she encouraged me to send it to other publishers as it may fit their current needs.

I forwarded the email to a freelance editor from Halifax who helps me and she called it a  "lovely rejection", It certainly was more pleasing than the previous publisher I sent it to, who had actually asked for it, and I have never heard back from them again. I guess the fact that this editor actually sent me something personal is a very good sign that I'm on the right track.

Speaking of which, it just never hurts to speak to people in a book store. I was at Cover to Cover books in Riverview (my favorite store) a few weeks ago and there was an author doing a book signing. So I chatted with him for a bit, bought his book, and then had a nice discussion about writing with him, I mentioned I was trying to find a publisher for Jimmy and Cinder and he asked if I had tried a publisher here in Riverview. I told him I hadn't realized there was one. He gave me the name, I looked it up on-line and there it was: Chocolate River Publishing.  I checked out their website and saw that they were fairly new, had four or five books under contract but none were even close to the fantasy genre I was writing in.

Rather than send a full query, I sent a short email saying what type a book I had and if they would be interested in seeing it. If so, I would send a proper query according to their guidelines. About two hours later, I get an email back from the publisher saying she was familiar with my previous two books and to send her the manuscript right away. Actually she told me to drop it off to her house.as I actually know her. My younger son, Fraser, was in her son's wedding party! Here, I didn't know this lady was a publisher! All this from speaking with another writer at a book store.

So I have dropped Jimmy and Cinder off to her and we will see what happens. If she isn't interested, I think I'll change tactics and look for an agent instead.

Where do you get your ideas?

I'm sure you have all had this question asked of you; "Where do you get your ideas?"

I'm not sure about you but I sometimes find that hard to answer. Not because I don't want to, but because I'm not always sure. Ideas come from everywhere, and nowhere. I'm, much to my dismay, not a real disciplined writer. I admire those writers I read about that get up every morning at 5 am so they can write for two hours before everyone else gets up. Frankly I don't have the energy to do that. I just write when I can find the time during the day.

I always have a couple of magazines and two or three books on the go at any time and read whichever I feel like at the moment. My manuscripts are much the same way. There is the primary one - the next I hope to publish - but there are also four or five others that are at the research stage or very preliminary stage that simmer on the back burner. Sometimes an idea pops up that works for one of those "back burner" stories and I jot it down. (I always have paper handy for this - always!) These things float up when I'm listening to music, walking somewhere, biking or just using the old 1000 yard stare sitting in my back yard. I never know what will trigger it or when it will happen. (See above note about paper.)  These little tidbits go into the appropriate file for that particular story.

So, by the time I move a story from the back burner to the front one I will have all these random notes collected for it and I'll be damned if I can remember where they came from. So when I get asked the question I really mean it when I say I don't know.

It is what it is.

Vacation so close I can smell it!

Tomorrow evening, around 5 pm, AST, my wife and I will start a week of holidays. We were unable to follow our customary practice of taking a week off in late April or early May. This was due, in part, to all of our children being in Europe while we, poor deprived parents that we are, looked after a couple of grand-cats. So we are ready for a little R&R at the cottage.

Please understand my vacations are a bit odd in that I take lots of work to do with me. This includes my current manuscript, my portable "office" which contains all things real estate plus the cemetery stuff. Oddly enough, our extended family owns a cemetery and I, the one with the flexible work schedule, have the pleasure of managing it for little pay.

So it is a working vacation, but working while sitting in the shade with a cold drink, beats the hell out of the office any day.

Maybe I'll get "Jimmy and Cinder" finished and ready to send out.

Back From Hackmatack

I'm back from the Hackmatack Children's Choice Awards.  I didn't win but I certainly felt like one.  A huge shout out to the Hackmatack Board of Directors and all of the volunteers who made the participating authors feel special.  Writing can be a very solitary profession and the opportunity to speak with the "Hackmatack Kids", and socialize with my peers gave me a real mental boost.

Thursday evening (May 9th) we all met at The Economy Shoe Shop, a pub in Halifax near to where we were staying, to have a wee nip, share a little food and a whole lot of conversation.  I found this to be great since I have had few opportunities to meet other children's authors .  Between Thursday evening and Friday morning I had a chance to speak with Catherine Austen who won the category I was in - English fiction - for her book "How to Survive Grade 6".  This was her 5th book but her first Hackmatack nomination. I also had a great chat with scientist Don Downer, from Newfoundland, who is the author of "Selby the Lobster and Mike Dias, from Victoria, who wrote "Scandal in Port Angus".  On Friday morning, Cary Fagan shared a signing station with me. Cary is from Toronto and wrote "Banjo of Destiny".  These are people I would probably never get a chance to meet except at an event like this.

Friday morning was very special.  Somehow the volunteers managed to corral about 300 grade 3 to 6's into a big meeting room at Pier21 and the awards ceremony started.  Each author was lead in by a "standard bearer" who carried a small staff with a picture of the cover of their author's book on it.  My standard bearer was a grade 5 student named Katerina.  She did a very good job and later on she introduced me to the audience using a speech she had written herself.  A really awesome job.

After the awards were given out, all the authors were taken to tables set up to sign autographs.  I gave away a large number of my "Emily Finds a Dragon" bookmarks and met a lot of kids.  It was great and for an hour or so we all felt like celebrities.

I have to mention two other people who helped to make the experience special for me.  One was my "tour guide" for Wednesday and Thursday - Joanne Head who is Deputy Director of the Western Countries Regional Library.  She had arranged for me to speak at the library in Yarmouth and the library in Lockeport, guided me to the Waverley Inn in Halifax and generally kept me out of trouble during the event.   She also told me that these books were short listed from all of Canada, not just Atlantic Canada so that made me feel pretty good.

The second person is Marianne Ward, one of the Hackmatack Board of Directors and an independent editor.  She is interested in looking at "Jimmy and Cinder" and perhaps working with me on it.  I had a great chat with her and look forward to the possibilities that may arise.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and one I look forward to doing again.  Maybe "Jimmy and Cinder" will be good enough to get me there for another try.

People watching

I'm sitting in Pearson Airport, in Toronto(a.k.a. center of the known universe), waiting for a flight to Ottawa.  I love this airport because it is very busy and gives ample opportunity to one of my favorite pastimes.  People watching.

People watching is a great pass time for any writer as it gives you lots of fodder to develop characters.  Pearson is filled with characters.  Toronto is the most ethnically diverse city in the world and they are all represented here at Pearson.

When I see someone that really catches my eye I take careful note of how they walk, stand, dress, speak (where possible) and file this away in my ever present journal for future use.  Looking for a grizzled old guy to be the ferryman in your next novel?  He'll probably walk by in the first ten minutes you're here.  Maybe a space raider for a SF novel.  He, or she, is here as well.

I read an article a few days ago about making maximum use of your day by never "killing time" since you are given a fixed allotment of it and you shouldn't waste a minute.  So, for a writer, people watching becomes a great way to fill up those 10 and 15 minute intervals in your day with a productive exercise.

I have to go.  Here comes the ferryman I was waiting for.