The Birth of a Book

Diane has been encouraging The Sisters to help her keep up with this blog. You'd think writers would never run out of things to say, but trying out a new gizmo--like blogging--can be a bit intimidating!

I thought I'd use my blog space to walk you through the process of creating our next book. Our first collaboration, Women of Granite: 25 New Hampshire Women You Should Know, is off to the printers. We should have our first copies in hand within the next few weeks. It's easy to forget all the steps that took us to this point.

Soon, we will begin a second book in the series: For the Commonwealth: 25 Massachusetts Women You Should Know. It'll be some weeks before we actually get down to work as a team. We are currently busy preparing some workshop and conference presentations. When those are over, the serious work of research and writing will begin, right?

Actually, it has already begun. As a small press publisher, it's my job to decide on what kinds of books I'd like to produce. Women of Granite (WOG, as The Sisters call it) was a result of a wish I'd verbalized at a Sisters meeting about a year ago. It will take about that long to get the Massachusetts title done.

I've been hard at work compiling a list of extraordinary Massachusetts women. I've read for hours: books, historic society lists, lists of famous women, etc. The Sisters have sent me suggestions whenever something suitable cropped up in their research. As of today, I have 45 names on the list. I need to cut it to 25 women.

I want a list that allows kids to read about 4 centuries, about 10 careers, minorities as well as white women. Because of the limitations women faced in regards to career choices in the early centuries, I've got a plethora of writers and, if they married rich, philanthropists. Professional athletes don't show up until the 20th century. Not too many scientists, either. Fortunately, religious martyrs seemed to have peaked in the 1600s.

I will attempt to have a basic list of 25 for The Sisters to start with. As we research & interview, we'll find reasons to drop some and add others. We want to present women who faced challenges. We want to present topics kids can read more about. And, The Sisters want to write profiles that fascinate them.

Stay tuned. The process is just beginning!

Mur

Having Fun With Our Books

There are so many fun sites that allow you to share photos and such. I thought you might enjoy seeing more of The Write Sisters' books, so, I created a little slide show at www.RockYou.com.

--Diane

It's Nice to See Picture Books Getting Some Attention

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition there was a short segment on Jane O'Connor's Fancy Nancy series of picture books, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (published by HarperCollins).

Although I've never been a "girly-girl," I've always been a free-thinking girl, much like Nancy. Reading Fancy Nancy for the first time brought to mind my favorite book from my childhood--Kay Thompson's Eloise in Paris. If you like Nancy, you'll love Eloise. Eloise has seen a resurgence of interest over the past few years. I suppose that's good, but I hated seeing her turn into a cartoony licensed character. Ah well...

I hope Nancy doesn't go too commercial, but it is nice to see the media paying attention to picture books by long time writers. I do however want to point out a mistake in the first book. Nancy says, "My favorite color is fuchsia. That's a fancy way of saying purple." Wrong, it's a fancy way of saying purple-pinky-red. I know because fuchsia's been my favorite color for a while now! Fuchsia is delightfully complex--just like little girls are!

--Diane

Creative Fun on Thursdays

Laura Salas, whom some of us know from Chautauqua a few years back, has a great blog for children's writers. Every Thursday Laura runs a poetry challenge--15 Words or Less Poems. She posts a photo for inspiration and invites her readers to create a poem with no more than 15 words (guidelines here). I've become quite addicted to it and now post every week. I love to read the other submissions and am amazed at how people look at the same picture and come up with such interesting variations! Give it a try some Thursday.

--Diane

BUSY BEES

The Write Sisters spent much of the day yesterday going over our presentation for the NE-SCBWI conference (see posting from 2/23/08).

We found that the best way to clarify our group goals was to put them in writing. Here are Mur and Kathy looking through pages of notes.




Here's Sally with her laptop. We've become so dependent on our computers we often wonder what it was like back in the olden days when the group began 20 years ago! Pencil and paper? What were they for? (Don't even get us started on the joys of carbon paper from the stone age!)




Here's our appreciative audience. We hope that when we present on Sunday, April 13, our audience will be a little more active! Sign up for the NE-SCBWI conference here.