Release Day is a recurring blog feature to give a shout-out to Tenner books on their official debut day.
Escaping the Tiger is a middle-grade novel by Laura Manivong loosely based on her husband’s own escape from Laos with his family. It’s gotten some terrific reviews which you can check out on Laura’s website.
Congrats, Laura!
The most surprising thing to me in the publishing process for The Mark was how much editing is done after a manuscript is sold. As a first-time author, I’d assumed it would just be minor changes – copy edits, maybe tweaking a few plot points – since so much time is spent polishing the novel before submission. Not so. These minor changes happen, of course, but they’re rounds two or three or four or even later.
Since, I’m in the thick of edits for The Mark’s sequel, Vision, I thought I’d post a little about the process.
Round One. This is where I am with Vision right now. For both The Mark and Vision, my editor gave me the notes for this round verbally. Big picture stuff. For The Mark, it was things like making Cassie, the main character, younger, speeding the pacing, reworking the ending and more that I’m forgetting – or blocking out. For Vision, it’s eliminating about seventy-five pages from the beginning and writing a new seventy-five or so toward the end to re-focus the story on a particular plot line.
Incorporating these notes feels a little like knitting a sweater for someone who outgrows it before you’re done. You know what it’s supposed to look like. Some parts of it you can keep, but a bunch of it has to be unraveled, re-knit and pieced back together.
I started Vision’s edits at the back-end, writing the new scenes. It took about two weeks of letting my editor’s feedback sink in before I started to see how I wanted to develop the story. Now that part is written and I’m ready to go back to the beginning and figure out how to cut seventy-five by looking for scenes can be shortened or eliminated to get to the main plot line faster without losing important elements of the story.
Already, I can see how to get rid of about twenty pages pretty easily. The other fifty-some are going to be a bit of a struggle. I’ll go scene-by-scene assessing each. Is it necessary? Can its point be accomplished some other way, by adding a line or so to a different scene? Can it be collapsed into a flashback or one of those “catch-up” type paragraphs that recaps something that happened previously rather than having the whole scene play out in the story?
Maybe it’ll wind up being less than seventy-five, maybe more. And some parts of the story that I really like might get cut because, though they may be good, they might not add enough or might slow the pace more than they’re worth.
Once I’ve re-worked the beginning, I’ll read the manuscript start to finish a few times to find spots that feel “patchy” – where the pacing is off or the characters, timelines or voice inconsistent. Then it goes out to readers before going back to my editor by the due date. Late-April suddenly feels very, very close.
Then there’ll be at least a Round Two, probably Round Three before Copyedits…
Book Briefs: an interview series where authors talk about…what else? Books!
Jessica Leader is a fellow Tenner. Her debut middle-grade novel, Nice and Mean, will be published by Simon and Schuster/Aladdin MIX on June 8.
What book are you reading right now? The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (a lacuna is a gap or opening, in case you, like me, had forgotten)
Your favorite children’s book: Ogads! Just one? I plead the fifth. But E. Lockhart’s The Boy Book and Edward Bloor’s Tangerine come to mind.
Your favorite non-fiction book: A Primate’s Memoir by Robert Saplosky (Who’s nuttier: the orangutans or the guy who’s studying them?)
Your favorite classic (read: book they made you read in school) book: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. And I will add that in the movie (which no one will ever make, because the book is 500+ pages), Dmitri should be played by Will Ferrell.
The last book that made you laugh: The Five Children and IT by E. Nesbit. Magic in a big British family. A classic!
The last book that made you cry: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.
The last book you recommended to a friend: Boys R Us, part of the Clique series by Lisi Harrison. I think these are way underrated and should start getting nominated for awards.
A novel you’ve re-read (and re-read): Vegan Virgin Valentine by Caroline Mackler. Overachiever reevaluates her life. Plus lots of descriptions of cheese. Yum.
One sentence that gives the gist of your book best: A truly nice girl and a truly mean one face off in their middle-school video elective.
Avoiding spoilers, a 1-2 sentence passage from your book that you really like:
I snapped my pen shut. If Sachi had come up with the Victim/Victorious idea, Mr. Phillips would have been like, “Oh, Sachi, you are a genius, let me have your autograph.” Instead, he was trying to make me feel like I had twisted her arm, when in reality, her idea reeked of squeege. Did teachers talk about who to like and who to be mean to? I lay my arms across my desk and rested my chin on my hands. I hated school. I just hated it.
Learn more about Jessica and Nice and Mean at her website: www.jessicaleader.com.
Thanks, Jessica!
Release Day is a recurring blog feature to give a shout-out to Tenner books on their official debut day.
The Line by Teri Hall is out today. This is another one that caught my eye way back in the early days of the blog, when I first joined the Tenners. You can read the first chapter and also a bit about The Line’s being optioned for television on Teri’s website.
Congrats, Teri!
I’m guest posting today at Beth Fish Reads as part of her Literary Road Trip feature that spotlights Pennsylvania – or in my case, former PA – authors.
Check it out for the story behind a Reading, PA landmark and my thoughts on literary symbolism.
The deadline for claiming prizes from The Mark’s Online Launch party has come and gone and Prize #4 is still sitting here. Sooo, I’ve drawn a new winner from the original entry bucket for the YA book choice and $15 Starbucks gift card and it is…
Brodie (@peacelovevegan)
Congrats, Brodie! Instructions for claiming are in your inbox and the remaining books are everything in the picture except for Liar and The Hunger Games.
Thanks again to everyone who participated in the launch!
Release Day is a recurring blog feature to give a shout-out to Tenner books on their official debut day.
Amy Brecount White’s Forget-Her-Nots is about fourteen year-old Laurel who discovers she’s part of a secret society dedicated to the magical language of flowers. I read FHN a few months ago – my thoughts are here. FHN has already gone into a second printing and Amy is doing a blog tour to celebrate the release. Find out more at Amy’s blog.
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Also out today is Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins. I haven’t read this one, but have heard LOTS of great things about it, some of which you can see for yourself here and here. Rachel will be out on tour, beginning today, to promote the release. You can find her schedule and other fun stuff at her blog.
Congrats Amy & Rachel!
Release Day is a recurring blog feature to give a shout-out to Tenner books on their official debut day.
Tagged by Mara Purnhagen is out today. There’s a synopsis on her website and some recent reviews here and here and here.
Mara’s launch party is open to the public and will be held this Saturday, March 6th from 1-3 at the Chagrin Falls Library in Chagrin Falls, OH. If you’re local, stop by!
Congrats, Mara!
There’s been so much else going on over the last few weeks, that I haven’t gotten to post about my new-and-improved office that’s increased my zen by about a hundred-fold. Same space. Sadly, same wallpaper. But new otherwise.
Here’s what it looked like before:
Not bad at all. Pleasant. Bright. My own space, separate from the dining room or living room. Nowhere to store anything, though. Computer tower and wires right out in the open where kids could mess with them. Whatever. It worked well enough. It’s where I wrote The Mark and Vision.
However, in addition to bringing me a flip for Christmas, Santa also brought an “office makeover” which I was completely ecstatic about since I’m so cheap I would have complained to Santa for ages about my office having no drawers, but never actually done anything about it.
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Here’s what my office looks like now:
I know. Not nearly as dramatic as what they come up with on TV, but the ahhhh that comes over me when I walk in here is seriously awesome.
I like to be organized. So many parts of my life – and everyone’s - are chaotic. I love that this little corner is not.
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Book Briefs: an interview series where authors talk about…what else? Books!
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is a fellow Tenner. Her debut novel, Eighth Grade Superzero, is available now from Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.
What book are you reading right now? I’m reading Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachman and Design-It-Yourself Clothes by Cal Patch. Re-reading Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas, Creative Knitting by Mary Walker-Phillips and The Spiritual Activist by Claudia Horowitz. I’m getting ready to read AYA by Marguerite Abouet and am very excited about that. I’m just about always re-reading an Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot mystery.
Your favorite children’s book: Noooooo! I can’t pick just one! A Wrinkle in Time is very, very dear to me, as is Till We Have Faces. The Cat Ate My Gymsuit. The House at Pooh Corner and A Bear Called Paddington. The All-Of-A-Kind Family & Shoes series. Langston Hughes’ “Simple” stories. Oh! I read and re-read Julius Lester’s Black Folktales as a child…(can you guess that there might be more to this list?)
Your favorite non-fiction book: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Kathleen Norris’ Amazing Grace, and just about any political biography I’ve ever read. Compassion as a Subversive Activity by David Urion, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop by Jeff Chang, Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography by Pete Seeger and Crossing the BLVD by Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan. (To be continued, heh…)
Your favorite classic (read: book they made you read in school) book: Macbeth
The last book that made you laugh: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.
The last book that made you cry: The same.
The last book you recommended to a friend: A Wish Before Midnight by Zetta Elliot
A novel you’ve re-read (and re-read): I re-read Agatha Christie’s mysteries all of the time.
One sentence that gives the gist of your book best: When Everyone’s looking, will the You nobody knows stand up?
Avoiding spoilers, a 1-2 sentence passage from your book that you really like:
It’s one of those unexpected gift moments, like looking up and finding a mirror right in front of you, and instead of food in your teeth or a booger hanging from your nose, it’s really you, and you like what you see.
You can learn more about Olugbemisola and Eighth Grade Superzero at her website www.olugbemisola.com and on facebook.
Thanks, Gbemi!
