Book Review: SUNRISE by Mike Mullin

WARNING: This week’s book is actually edgy YA and is filled with adult content. It's absolutely not appropriate for younger readers and adults should view it as the equivalent of an ‘R’ rated movie.

First Paragraph(s): I left the farmhouse in the darkest hour of the night to make a weapon. The light from my oil lamp drew a pitiful circle of gray against the snow around my feet. Other lamps and torches shone here and there amid the ramshackle refugee encampment surrounding Uncle Paul’s farm, fading pockets of humanity in the chaotic dark. People huddled within the lights, cleaning guns and sharpening knives.
By sunrise I’d reached the dead forest behind the farm and cut a jahng bong. A staff was a ridiculous weapon for the coming fight, but it was the best I could do.

Hello there, Esteemed Reader. I know the blog has been slow and it's going to stay that way for the rest of the year. In addition to Little Ninja duties including a two-hour drive for daycare, I now have author duties. I have more books to get to readers by the end of the year and they take priority over blog posts. And every time I review a book here, I get requests to review ten more books and I hate turning writers down.

But of course I'm going to make time to review Sunrise, the final installment of Mike Mullin's Ashfall trilogy. I spent Saturday at Kids Inc bookstore here in Indianapolis and at Mike Mullin's house for the Sunrise launch party. If you read this blog, you know Mike Mullin and I are good friends and fellow members of the YA Cannibals critique group. Many of the readers of my book All Together Now were first attracted to it because of Mike Mullin's blurb. He's thanked in the back and there's a character in the story named after him (and characters named after the other Cannibals and Courtney Summers). I'm thanked in the back of Sunrise and Ashen Winter and I hope to be thanked in the back of Mullin's upcoming release as well as thanking him in the back of all my books. 

I tell you all of this upfront so we can agree I'm not an objective, impartial reviewer (not that I ever am). And it's a shame, because Sunrise really is the best book in the Ashfall trilogy. If I'd never met Mike Mullin, I'd tell you that. I spent an hour or so chatting with Mike Mullin's number one fan Saturday and he convinced me that Mike's an even better author than I thought he was. This young boy read Sunrise on a trip from Illinois to Indianapolis specifically to attend the Ashfall launch party and he was more excited about Mike's book than I've ever seen any reader for any book. If he were writing this review, he'd tell you to immediately go out and purchase your copy of Sunrise and if you haven't read Ashfall or Ashen Winter or Darla's Story yet, then both of us envy the hours of wonderful reading you have ahead of you.

But seeing as how my review can't be trusted, why don't we do this instead: I'll talk a little about the book, then we'll talk mostly about the critique process and a little about publishing. Sound like a plan? Ready, break!

It's one year after the events in Ashfall in which the Yellowstone supervolcanoe erupted and wiped out a whole lot of people as well as covered the countryside in great piles of ash. The survivors wage war on each other, naturally, and engage in all manner of nasty behaviors such as rampant cannibalism, rape, robbery, and senseless murder. Good times. And of course, like Ashfall and Ashen Winter, Sunrise is a love story. 

Since Tanglewood rolled out the revised cover for Ashfall in which two hands clasp each other, and then the cover for Ashen Winter in which the hands are separated and reaching for each other, I've been teasing Mike that the cover for Ashfall 3 should just be two bloody stumps. But the cover of Alex and Darla holding hands in front of a sunrise is also nice and quite brilliant in its own way. 

Alex and Darla have been through hell in the two books previous and things only get worse for them in Sunrise, which is what keeps those pages turning themselves, yet their very real love for each other is palpable in every paragraph. It's inspiring in the face of so much bleakness and their relationship is what invests readers in Mullin's world. The lesson for writers: you can get away with a whole lot of nasty business if you keep a warm and fuzzy center:)

So do Alex and Darla come out at the end of Sunrise happy and together, or does one of them die tragically but poignantly? Me, I'd have killed them both:) But readers will have to buy the book to find out as I'm not going to spoil Mike's incredibly satisfying conclusion to the three-and-a-half-ology fans have been waiting for. But I will say this: I got a little teary-eyed toward the end of Sunrise and so will you. 

By way of a plot summary, let us marvel at what a fine job Mike does of delivering exposition in chapter one and catching up return readers as well as giving newcomers a hope of following the story (why would you start with book three?):

The eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano had plunged Iowa and Illinois into chaos. Communications went down. Air travel ended. Roads became impassable due to the ashfall and brutal winter it triggered. Towns were on their own. And now, eleven months after the eruption, the towns of northwest Illinois had begun waging war on each other.
Almost two weeks before, a few hundred men from Stockton had attacked Warren. A short, sad battle ensued. The Warrenites lost their stored food and their homes. Many lost their lives. The survivors fled to my Uncle Paul’s farm. Mom, Darla, Alyssa, Ben, and I had arrived yesterday, finding the farm transformed into a rough refugee camp.
Today Warren’s mayor, Bob Petty, planned to lead a counterattack. The adult refugees would attempt to retake Warren and reclaim their food. Everyone was hungry. Replacing the stockpile of frozen pork stolen by the Stocktonites would be impossible. All the slaughterhouses and nearly all the farms had been shut down for months. If the counterattack failed, most of us would starve to death.
Apparently the term adults didn’t include me, despite the fact that I was sixteen.

Alex has really come into his own in Sunrise and in some ways I'm sad this is the end as I'd like to read more about him. One of my biggest notes for Mike when I wrote my critique for Ashen Winter was that Alex was frequently too passive and some of his poor choices annoyed me (the version I'm referring to isn't available as Mike sorted those and other cannibalized issues by the final draft pre-publication). In this third volume Alex is anything but passive:

Would Ed even do it? I lifted my gaze to Ed’s face. The flat look in his eyes told me yes, he would. He shrugged as if to say get on with it.
I nodded. “Do it,” I said. “Cut his throat.”
Ed’s grip tightened on the knife handle.
“W-wait,” Cliff stammered. Ed checked his cut. A thin line of blood, dark and viscous, appeared along Cliff’s neck. Two black runnels parted from the line, trickling toward Cliff’s collarbone.

Now there's an Alex I can get behind! I don't want to give away too much of the plot because if you're reading this and you haven't read Sunrise, odds are good you're going to. But Alex has come a long way in a year and in this book, he's a force to be reckoned with. Thankfully, he's the good guy.  

The way you know you're in a good critique group is you get honest feedback. The YA Cannibals can sometimes be too honest, perhaps, and it's not uncommon for one or two of our sessions per year to end in tears. I've never let them see me cry (though it's been hard a couple times) and I've never seen Mike cry, but I wouldn't have wanted to be him on the day we cannibalized the first draft of Sunrise.

Bear in mind, at the time of that critique, Mike was the only published member in the group. His first two Ashfall books sell so well he no longer has a day job and he's won multiple awards. Not for nothing, but he's kind of a big deal. It's a good critique group and more publications are forthcoming (I'll review them here, of course) and there's not a slacker among us. But Mike Mullin has been the big man on campus.

I tell you this not just because I know Mike is reading and blushing, but because I think it's worth noting that on the day we tore apart his baby, his final culmination of years of work, he took it like a professional. Mike is neither arrogant nor foolish and he knows that no matter how successful he is, the process is the process. We raked him over the coals, convinced him to drop an entire subplot (trust me, you'll never miss it), and rewrite entire long sections of the book. I wrote "boring" all over certain sections--I'm helpful that way.

Mike Mullin isn't driven by ego. He takes his success in stride and sometimes it catches me off guard when readers approach him with a sense of awe because to me he's just my friend Mike. But to readers he's a great deal more and the Ashfall books have meant a lot to a lot of people, myself included. He's taught me more about writing and the business of being a successful author by his example than just about any other one source I could name.

What he taught me in the case of Sunrise is what it means to be a professional writer. Mike didn't protest during his critique session. He took notes and put them to good use. It's not that Sunrise wasn't great from the first draft (it packs a second act surprise I love more than anything and I won't spoil it), but it wasn't perfect. Even with all the awards and success, Mike Mullin still puts his pants on one leg at a time, and he still writes a first draft, revises, gets feedback, revises again, and again, and again. He takes his medicine no different from the other cannibals and even appreciates it. I know because he said so in the acknowledgements:

I have a whole round table of literary knights in my corner: my wife, Margaret, slayer of unnecessary dialogue and prepositional phrases; Robert Kent, champion of the action scene; Lisa Fipps, warrior of word choice; Shannon Lee Alexander, chevalier of characterization; Jody Sparks, the emotional knight; and Josh Prokopy, the squire. Thank you all.

Well, check that out. I'm thanked first after the author's wife (**cabbage patches, raises the roof**). Sunrise is a family book. It feels like someone else's kid I used to babysit all grown up. I didn't raise the child, but I'm still proud, the way I feel about all the cannibal's books and the way they may feel about mine.

That's pretty much the end of the "review." I'm going to hit you with some of my favorite passages from Sunrise and of course encourage to buy your copy immediately, preferably using the link below:) And if you get a chance to see Mike Mullin in person, and as he's always on the road, you might--do it! Not only will you get to see him break a brick with his bare hand, you'll witness how an author can also be an entertainer and one-man spokesperson for his book.

But before we call it a post, I'd like to point out Sunrise's dedication:

To Peggy Tierney, for believing

Why it's our old friend, the managing editor and founder of Tanglewood Publishing. You know I'm a Peggy Tierney fan and I very much enjoyed chatting with her Saturday about publishing and rumors surrounding a possible Ashfall movie (fingers crossed). If I were going to risk being published traditionally, I'd want an advocate like Peggy in my corner.

You regular Esteemed Readers know I don't bash editors or even the traditional publishing model. I love literary agents and editors and I believe there are a lot of really smart, talented people working in publishing with a love of authors and books, which makes us natural allies.

Unfortunately, there's also a lot of sharks in suits, unfair practices, and unseemly behavior that goes on in modern publishing. I don't chronicle such things at this blog because frankly I don't have time or even that much interest. But I know a lot of writers and I've heard enough sad stories to be convinced that indie publishing is the safest route for my own work until the big five collapse into the big one. If you're interested in the sordid details of publishing, I highly recommend reading JA Konrath's remarkable (though often controversial) blog, The Newbie's Guide to Publishing.

Writers should be wary of publishers. No small number of agents have told me they spend large amounts of their days just trying to get publishers to pay their writers royalties owed. I considered linking to some recent stories of publishers behaving badly, but I don't want to confuse the point, which is this:

Whatever you may hear of other publishers, Tanglewood has done right by my friend Mike Mullin. Peggy Tierney has been there for all three books of the Ashfall trilogy and has given Mike the support all authors should expect but often don't receive from their publishers. Mike is the hardest working author I know and he's done plenty of promotion on his own, but Tanglewood has helped him build his career in a way most writers could only pray for.

When's the last time you saw an author dedicate a book, let alone the final book in a series, to their publisher? To me that's impressive and if you're a writer seeking a traditional contract, that ought to give you hope.

As always, I'll leave you with some of my favorite passages from Sunrise:

As I stepped into the tiny foyer adjoining the living room, I noticed the smell. Sweat and a fecal stink blended with the stomach-turning stench of rotting wounds.

“Don’t go,” [Redacted] pleaded. “I love you.”
“I’ll never leave you,” [Redacted] said. “I love you too.”
Three hours later, she was dead.

A dark figure rose from behind a monument, and suddenly there were dozens of people popping up from every hollow, tree stump, and stone marker on the hill above us. I screamed a warning, but my voice was drowned out by the roar of incoming gunfire.

In the dark, we raced through the main floor of the house, crashing blindly into unseen furniture, looking for a staircase. Finally I spotted a dim ray of light. I ran toward it, my empty gun held at shoulder level in front of me, commando style—at least I thought it was from what I’d seen in video games.

Darla choked back a sob, and I stood, wrapping her in my arms. Pretty soon I was crying too, crying for my dead father, for my estranged mother, for the whole disaster the world had become. Somehow it felt right to let it out there, in that greenhouse, our tears watering the kale that kept us alive. Only survivors are allowed the luxury of sadness.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own. 

Book Review: WRITING CHILDREN'S BOOKS FOR DUMMIES by Lisa Rojany Buccieri and Peter Economy

First Paragraph: For many, dreams of writing or illustrating a children’s book remain just that—dreams—because they soon find out that writing a really good children’s book is hard. Not only that, but actually getting a children’s book published is even harder. If you don’t know the conventions and styles, if you don’t speak the lingo, if you don’t have someone to advocate for your work, or if you or your manuscript don’t come across as professional, you’ll be hard pressed to get your manuscript read and considered, much less published. 

Today, we're discussing our first ever nonfiction book, Esteemed Reader, but it's one I think you might find useful. I certainly did and I wish this book had been available when I started writing books for children and was far closer to being a dummy than a Ninja:)

Truth be told, I put this review off a bit as I'm not quite sure how to go about it. First, the book took me a time to read. A reference book is not easily plowed through like a fiction novel (I'll be lucky if Doctor Sleep, released Tuesday, lasts me to the weekend, and I'm reading two other books simultaneously for this blog). Also, there's no narrative to discuss and picking out favorite descriptions seems to me to be missing the point:)

The book is wonderfully organized and indexed. I've been a big fan of the For Dummies books for years and I've got six of them already in my home on topics I've been interested in. Among my favorites are English Grammar For Dummies (not that you'd know it if you read this blog) and Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies For Dummies, both equally useful in their own ways. I've even taken a shot at editing them as Wiley Publishing has a hub I pass every morning on my way to my day job.

If you've read a For Dummies book previously, you have a pretty good idea what to expect already and Writing Children's Books For Dummies doesn't disappoint. It gives us a concise overview of both writing a book and publishing it and features an interview with our old friend Peggy Tierney as well as cover shots of Ashfall and Ashen Winter, which made Mike Mullin happy when I told him. 

Between the interviews and the advice sprinkled throughout, this book is valuable to a hardened Ninja as well as a newbie. But much of the book is dedicated to the basics, which is as it should be. These portions may not be of interest to you, Esteemed Reader. As you're reading a blog called Middle Grade Ninja, you presumably know what middle grade is. But everyone has to start somewhere and this book is great for a new-comer. Still, whether veteran or newbie, you have to love this definition of middle grade:

Middle-grade fiction and nonfiction books are what many of us remember reading from our childhoods. These are the first books we read that were long and detailed and complex and dealt with subject matter that was much more intriguing (and potentially much more divisive) than most children’s picture books.

And if you're curious how that differs from young adult, this book's got you covered:

Young adult books fall into two main age groups: YA appropriate for children ages 12 and up, and YA for children 14 and up. While each YA novel differs from the next, we can attribute the split in age ranges most of the time to five issues: sexual intercourse, foul language, drug use, extreme physical violence, and graphic abuse. Those YA novels that overtly and unashamedly deal with these topics are usually saved for the older kids. 

If you lack the funds to attend a writer's conference, pick up a copy of this book. Better yet, read this book, then go to a conference. If you've been writing for years, you might not expect there to be anything in this book for you, but you'd be wrong. There are plenty of fresh ideas sprinkled in among the basics:

If you haven’t recently spent any time around children, why not head back to school? You could be there in an official capacity, perhaps as the coach at a community center or a nearby school, or even as a teacher at your local church or synagogue. Many volunteers give their time and expertise for altruistic reasons, and you can say you do, too, while secretly gathering material from children by hanging out with them in a way benefiting both of you.  They get an adult to oversee and guide activities, and you get to observe them on the sly, mercilessly using them for the material and ideas they contribute to your idea notebook.

If the ideas won't do it for you, surely the advice of experts will. I love this quote from an interview with book buyer Jennifer Christopher Randle: 

Middle-grade fiction has little to no illustration to support it. I always ask myself, “Can I see it?” If I can’t picture my protagonist in the story he’s starring in, then I would pass. I have a very active imagination, so if I can’t picture your world, what chance does a ten-year-old have?

I'd recommend Writing Children's Books For Dummies to anyone and I'm glad to have a copy on my shelf. Do yourself a favor, Esteemed Reader, and get your own copy. As always, I'll leave you with some of my favorite passages from Writing Children's Books For Dummies:

Although we wish the world of literary agents was all fluffy bunnies, sweetness, and light, we’re here to tell you that it can sometimes be ugly. Although many children’s book agents and agencies are completely reputable, ethical, and honest, there are some whose primary goal is to devise efficient and effective ways to separate you from your hard-earned cash.

Of the many grown-ups who stand between you and your audience (children), agents and acquisitions editors or publishers are the first ones you must impress. An agent serves as the eyes and ears for the publishers and acquisitions editors—and all three are looking for the same qualities: a unique, well written, absolutely worth-the-effort, gotcha! manuscript. 

A great way to understand how children in your target age group think is to read them and then have a question-and-answer session. You can do this with children who are as young as three or four years of age, depending on how verbal they are and how accustomed they are to speaking in front of other kids (preschoolers are ideal for this kind of exercise because they love to raise their hands , give their opinions—often in great and meandering detail—and listen to themselves speak to an adult who actually cares what they have to say).

Don’t overuse the passive voice (“to be” verbs). If you want to keep your characters interesting, your plots active, and your writing strong, avoid overusing the passive voice.

According to the Association of American Publishers, children’s and young adult e-book titles surged 475.1 percent from January 2011 to January 2012, to a total of $22.6 million. Long story short, if you’ve been thinking of self publishing your own e-book, we would say that you are at the right place at just the right time.

  

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own. 

NINJA STUFF: Why We Write (Part One)

Esteemed Reader, I could tell you no small number of horror stories relayed to me by my many writer friends over the years. Stories of unsold, unread books, unfair shakes, and of writers toiling in obscurity to an early pauper's grave after a life during which the sun never shone and babies never laughed:)

Not every writer who dreams of being published will be, and certainly not everyone who wants to be a widely read writer will be. If you doubt it, let me refer you once again to Peggy's Tierney's straight-shooting interview. If you don't remember the quote, here it is again: 

If you are wondering why it is so hard to get published, the answer is in the numbers. Even a tiny publishing company like Tanglewood gets, literally, THOUSANDS of manuscripts a year. I have an acquisition editor just to deal with them. Out of those thousands that she reads, she passes on to me maybe forty to fifty manuscripts. Out of those forty or fifty, I maybe pick one or two.  

It’s not over. Even if it is published, it is competing with thousands of other books published, many by established authors -- authors who already have a name readers are looking for. There are only maybe 200 slots for new children’s books in a particular format for any one season and 5000 books that publishers are pushing to fill one of those slots. Did I mention that it’s a tough and competitive business? Yes, it is.  

I want to be Han Solo (who doesn't?). I want to say "Never tell me the odds!" and pilot the Millennium Falcon into the asteroid field and to heck with the consequences, let the chips fall where they may. But those are long odds, even for the most optimistic of writers. 

Now don't you get me wrong, Esteemed Reader. I've talked with Peggy and I know she's no negativist--quite the opposite. She's combing those manuscripts because she wants to find the next Ashfall and create another literary super-star like Mike Mullin. She shares those numbers with us not to discourage would-be authors, but because she was good enough to give us real-world, hard-learned practical advice. If you haven't read her full interview, make sure you don't miss it as it's incredibly useful, funny, and charming.  

Read all the editor and literary agent interviews posted here and at other sites and what you will find over and over again is sincere people who want to help writers make their dreams come true because that's their dream. Honest and for reals. I may be prone to buying some conspiracy theories, but I will never believe editors and literary agents aren't on our side. 

Yet, I know you've been discouraged, Esteemed Reader. I know you've met with disappointment and hard knocks. I know how hard you've worked to hone your craft and I know how bad it hurts you every time rejection comes, despite that tough skin you've tried so hard to grow. Rejection and heart ache are not simply risked by being a writer, they're guaranteed. 

And here's something to consider that really hurts: You ever read a bad book? The Ninja has read plenty (not the ones reviewed here) and in light of Peggy's quote, those bad books were published in place of an untold number of manuscripts that might've been good or at least better than the garbage that made the cut. Which begs the question: is the publishing world based entirely on a meritocracy? Surely only the best books get those few publishing slots available because that is just and good and right, right? 

Right!?! 

And to top it all off, writing is hard. If it weren't hard, all the big mouths who talk about doing it one day would actually do it. Every morning before my 10-hour shift at my day job, I'm up at 4:30 am, hopping on the elliptical machine while my coffee brews, then I'm here in my writer's loft staring at the empty page and not leaving until it has something on it--which usually takes 2-3 hours, 1 of which is spent writing, and the other 2 of which are spent raking my fingers through my hair trying to figure out what to write. 

So why do we do it? Why, why, for God's sake, why? 

I don't for sure know why you do it, Esteemed Reader (you might be crazy), but I can tell you why I do it and why the writers I know do it. We do it because we love it and we can't not do it.

There's a ravenous hunger in me that gives me no rest until it is satisfied by crafting words on the page and by getting the stories that are too big to keep inside me outside. If Peggy had said the odds were five million to 200, or even five gajillion to 200, instead of a mere 5000 to 200, I would still write because it's what I do. It's what I'm made for and everything else I do from working my day job (at which I'm decent) to feeding and clothing myself is to enable my writing (and to have a lovely life with Mrs. Ninja). 

If I should die in a pauper's grave unpublished and unread, so be it. I will still be happy to have been a writer and I will not regret having spent my mornings creating worlds meant for readers, but loved most by me. For all the pain writing has caused me, and to be sure, there's been some, it's given me far more than it's taken. To love is to be hurt, and I love writing.

And I'll tell you a secret: the numbers don't mean a thing. Know them, then forget them. Not all manuscripts are created equal and here's how I know: I've written some bad books. I love them, of course, but they're bad--they just are. My first manuscript was a big deal to me, but editors did the right thing in rejecting it and thank goodness--how embarrassed would I be now if my first manuscript were someplace other than my shelf where it might be read by people who are not my mom?

And I sent out mass form queries to every editor whose address I could find in Writer's Market, queries addressed to "Dear Editor." And my terrible query was taking up time in an editor's day (probably not much) that could've been spent reading your better query. 

Later, I had a manuscript that was of a quality as to be considered by publishers, but still not quite there. Ultimately, it wasn't published  and again, thank goodness. The abysmal sales of that book would've wrecked the possibility of my publishing a second, better book. And again, that manuscript was clogging the system and taking up space where your better manuscript might've gone. 

And most writers competing are beginning writers. Go to a conference and get to know the unpublished writers there. Many of them will be attending for the first time. Why? Because most readers want to be writers and trying your hand at writing is a natural outgrowth of loving books. But a year or two of rejection tends to separate the real writers from the audacious amateurs. These folks stop writing and if they're still at conferences, they'll be the ones with the sour grapes stories. 

I think we can whittle the odds down considerably by remembering this. If you have the strength and the courage to weather the beginning phase of seeking publication, however long yours lasts, you become something more: competition. 

Check back Wednesday for Why We Write: Part Two. Same Ninja time, same Ninja channel...

7 Questions For: Editor Peggy Tierney

Peggy Tierney founded Tanglewood Publishing  in 2003, just after her move to the Midwest. Peggy has been a children's book editor and publisher in the UK and in the US since 1995. She has a degree in comparative literature from the American University of Paris, has lived to read since she first learned her alphabet, and has a teenage son who is constantly inspiring her to find good books for reluctant readers.

Tanglewood has published many popular titles, some of the most recent being Chester the Brave by Audrey Penn, Ashen Winter by Mike Mullen, Night of the White Deer by Jack Bushnell, Kiss, Kiss, Bark! by Kim Williams Justesen, Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan by Hildi Kang, My Dog, My Cat by Ashlee Fletcher, The Rock of Ivanore by Laurisa White Reyes, and The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Mermaids by Ammi-Joan Paquette.

To learn more you can read this interview with Peggy or a short piece she wrote on the founding of Tanglewood.

I had the good fortune to meet Peggy and her charming husband at the launch party for Ashen Winter by my good friend and critique partner, Mike Mullin. I've also seen first hand the remarkable work she's done in transforming Mike's very good manuscript into an excellent published novel. Peggy is warm and friendly, but with a steak of no-nonsense in her that has clearly helped Tanglewood and its authors to thrive. I consider the advice she's given me to be invaluable and I'd recommend her to any author fortunate enough to have their book published by Tanglewood.

And now Peggy Tierney has the distinction of being the first editor to face the 7 Questions:


Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Here are my top three favorites as a child:

Misty of Chincoteague - I loved this story so much that my best friend and I were wild ponies nearly every recess.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Pippi Longstocking 

Top three contemporary adult books:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I think I enjoyed, no relished every single word of every single page of this book--even the footnotes. I didn’t want it to end, which almost never happens, as I’m already thinking about the next book I want to read before I finish the present one. Not this book. I read it again a few months later. And then I read it again a few years later. I’m now afraid she will be another Harper Lee - who publishes one outstanding novel and stops.

Atonement by Ian McEwan. Other writers have tried to capture the notion of the past being always with us, but no one has quite conveyed so well the idea that at any moment in our lives, we are the sum total of our past. And the unexpected ending nearly made me weep at its perfection, at the limits in both art and life. Sigh. 

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. Not only is Barbara Kingsolver a masterful storyteller, her character-building is amazing. Each of the three voices was so unique, so real. And I also loved the theme of a person going to a foreign country and thinking that they won’t have to change, that the country will adapt to them. My time living overseas gave me insight into this, and she captured perfectly what I learned: Assimilate or die.


Question Six: What are your top three favorite movies and television shows?

Movies: The Wizard of Oz, Pulp Fiction, and Elf.

TV: Northern Exposure, Mad Men, and Downton Abbey. If I am depressed or stressed out, I watch The Gilmore Girls. I want to live in Stars Hollow. Intellectually I know it doesn’t exist, but emotionally I want to think it does exist somewhere, kind of like Santa Claus.


Question Five: What are the qualities of your ideal writer?

What every editor/publisher wants: exceptional writing skills and inspired story ideas, open to feedback, willingness to promote themselves and their book. It’s a happy bonus if I really like them as a person; editing a book is a journey that an author and editor take together, and it helps if we connect as people. Some of my authors have become close friends, and one author is extended family at this point.

Question Four: What sort of project(s) would you most like to receive a query for?

For age range, the YA market is glutted right now and the picture book market is still tough, so something for ages in between would be easier to get signed than YA or PB right now.

For subject matter, I think an original and genuinely creepy ghost story would always be good. But with so much supernatural stuff out there, I’d like to do more realistic fiction. The problem is that so few adults can write realistic teen fiction - I have my own teen who has made that very clear to me. I have heard the word “lame” a lot. Some adults think if they throw in some slang and some sex and/or drugs, that will make the book cool. No, actually it won’t. Not unless it sounds like a real teen’s approach to either.

Another thing I’d love would be to get some really interesting nonfiction, especially history or biography. Is there a David McCullough for kids or teens out there? If so, please send me your manuscript.


Question Three: What is your favorite thing about being an editor? What is your least favorite thing?

I am not trying to dodge the question, but my favorite thing is: editing. I love digging into a story, to see and hear and feel what they are trying to do and hope that I can help them do it even better. 

My least favorite: writing marketing blurbs.


Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Develop a thick skin. You are going to be rejected a lot, from the agents who don’t like your manuscript to the reviewers who don’t like your book. It’s a tough and highly competitive business.

If you are wondering why it is so hard to get published, the answer is in the numbers. Even a tiny publishing company like Tanglewood gets, literally, THOUSANDS of manuscripts a year. I have an acquisition editor just to deal with them. Out of those thousands that she reads, she passes on to me maybe forty to fifty manuscripts. Out of those forty or fifty, I maybe pick one or two. 

It’s not over. Even if it is published, it is competing with thousands of other books published, many by established authors -- authors who already have a name readers are looking for. There are only maybe 200 slots for new children’s books in a particular format for any one season and 5000 books that publishers are pushing to fill one of those slots. Did I mention that it’s a tough and competitive business? Yes, it is.

If you are determined to pursue publication, then I would say to never underestimate the importance of your cover letter. The synopsis should be a wonder of conciseness while still capturing the essence of the book and creating interest. If a synopsis is long and rambling, I assume the book is going to be the same. 

The writing in general should sparkle every bit as much, if not more than the manuscript; I will start reading the manuscript already convinced that you are a good writer. Tell me who the book is written for, and how it fits into that market, i.e., what book is this like but how is it different? Tell me your background. While I love to hear about a writer’s passion, keep it professional and don’t sound like a diva. Let me know how hard you will work to make your book a success. In other words, sell yourself to me;  that helps me to sell your book to others.


Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Shakespeare of course. I have so many questions, I really need a weekend with him. Did he know he was creating great literature, or was he just trying to provide great entertainment, not consciously intertwining so many themes, so much richness? Why did he leave his bed to his wife in his will? Who were the sonnets written for? If not Shakespeare, then Flannery O’Connor for a chat about human nature and spirituality. And I think we would laugh a lot, and I do like to laugh.

I’m so lucky that I have some truly great writers at Tanglewood, and I’ve been to lunch with almost all of them and gotten to ask them about process and inspiration (though I never asked them who they were leaving their bed to in their will). One of my authors--and her family-- lived with me for two months, recovering from an illness.

I notice you didn’t ask about having lunch with an EDITOR (ahem). That would be my ultimate dream: to have lunch with Ursula Nordstrom. 

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