It’s pretty unusual to be wearing a sweatshirt and long pants on a late June day in St. Louis, especially when it was 90 degrees out yesterday. I’m taking advantage of the weather gift to sit on the front porch and work on my next picture book, The Crown Affair. In this sequel to What Really Happened to Humpty, when Jack and Jill tumble down the hill, Jack’s crown is missing. It’s up to Detective Joe Dumpty (Humpty’s brother) to find it by 2 o’clock that afternoon, when the new winner of The Mother Gooseland Games is crowned.
The Crown Affair won’t be out until 2014, which seems like a long time away.
But unlike today’s weather in St. Louis, it’s not unusual for a picture book to take three years or more to get published. Why so long? That’s a topic I frequently discuss in my school presentations, and one I’ll get into here in a future post. But the short answer is that there is much more involved – and many more people involved – in bringing an illustrated book to life.
Besides The Crown Affair, this summer I’m working on my first middle-grade novel, What I Didn’t Do on My Summer Vacation. My goal is to get a rough draft completed by the end of the summer. And, since the students at the middle schools I visited this year made me promise to finish the book and send them a copy when it gets published, I have major accountability factors! But I can’t think of a better incentive to complete a book than having young readers waiting for it.
I’ll be checking in from time to time to update you on my writing progress. I’d love to hear what you’re working on this summer – and who keeps you accountable.
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