Notes from a Publishing Marathon

Part One

How It Began

Many moons ago, back when blogs were new and I was trying to figure out how the medium worked, twice a week, like a serial, I posted portions from Dear Alderone, a middle grade novel I’d written about a girl who has to keep a journal for her freshman English class in high school.

It was a fun experiment. Best of all, I met some phenomenal people who read the book as it developed and connected with me because of it.

One of those was the amazingly talented improv musician Stan Stewart.

Some years later, when an updated, expanded version of Alderone was picked up by a publisher, Stan celebrated with me.

He not only celebrated—he wrote and recorded an entire album to correspond with key characters and story elements. (I told you he was amazing!)

The result was lush and evocative and gorgeous. ::sigh::

The plan was to use the album as a companion piece; a soundtrack, of sorts, for the book. “Music inspired by DEAR ALDERONE.”

Alas, it was not to be.

Trick or Treat?

With a locked cover, a launch date, and promotional plans in place, the publisher went through a major restructuring that resulted in a swing to the fringes of normalcy. Overnight, they went from publishing “clean” books to publishing ultra-conservative evangelical lore.

The original cover for the book that never was.

(Case in point: they insisted that all references to Halloween be removed from the book. A pivotal scene set at a Halloween dance at a public school in the mid-1980s was suddenly taboo.

“Just change it to a ‘harvest party,’” the editorial notes said. “And remove the scene with trick-or-treating. And eliminate any mention of costumes.”

And don’t get me started on how they wanted to eliminate the entire B story… That’s a rant for another day. )

Ugh.

We parted ways, citing “creative differences.”

It was devastating.

So many people had gone the extra mile to making the book a success. In addition to Stan’s concept album, a director friend had filmed and edited 7 short promotional sketches, a boy band had allowed us to use their original song in a sketch, and several editors had agreed to review Alderone in their magazines.

We had an offer on the table for the electronic rights, but my agent wanted to shop it around a bit and see if they could land another publisher.

[Narrator’s voice: to the best of my knowledge, this promised “shopping” never happened.]

Alderone has been in stasis ever since.

But I love this book.

I love the characters in it—they are as real to me as my own friends and family.

I love the people it has already connected me with. And I continue to hold out hope that it will one day find its place in the world—while actively working to make that happen.

To that end...

Since August has five Thursdays, I’ll post an update (Part Deux) on the 29th.

Stay tuned!

In Other News

I walked outside the other day to hear the melodious er-er-errRRRrr of a juvenile rooster.

Which surprised me, since all of our chickens are hens.

A bit of digging around in the brush revealed…

The tiniest bantam rooster there ever was.

Errol, the micro-roo

The size of a chipmunk, this little guy somehow blew in from somewhere. None of our near neighbors have chickens, so his origin story is still shrouded in mystery.

Nevertheless, he has adapted to our place as if he grew up here. “Errol” has the personality of a slightly overweight, mostly cherubic 10 year old boy with glasses that are a little bit too thick and hair that refuses to stay combed.

Thank you to whomever dumped him on our farm. He is a delight.

Recent Reads & Other Diversions

I just finished Terry Pratchett’s Making Money, the 37th Discworld novel.

Igors! Con artists! Self-loathing clowns! Lecherous shades! Sympathetic despots! Ancient A.I.! Only Pratchett could make such things not only readable, but compelling as well.

I loved it, as I love nearly all of his work (I never could get into his Long Earth collaboration, I confess). No one makes me laugh as reliably as Sir Terry does.

I haven’t been reading for fun as much as I usually do, however, because I’ve been noodling around with sketching.

Sawyer begrudges the loss of my lap to the sketchbook.

Are the results any good?

No. (Noses and chins are currently kicking my proverbial butt.)

Do I care?

Also, no.

I’m enjoying using a different creative corner of my brain. Progress, not perfection, is the key!

What is exercising a different creative corner of YOUR brain lately? Send me an email or leave a comment and let me know!

Till the 29th…

Be well!