Kirby Larson's Blog, page 102

How Many Persimmons is Too Many?

So the editorial assistant has pointed out that in as-yet-untitled-manuscript, I use the word "persimmon" three times. Now, I happen to know that persimmons are very, very good for you. Persimmon is a perfectly acceptable word. I doubt that it could be overused.

Or could it?

I went back and counted (thanks to "Find"). I actually used the word nine times! Sigh.

In my last book, my pet word was "slumped." I won't embarrass myself by telling you how many times it was used.

You must have a pet word...

Thank you, Barbara O'Connor

I love to read about other folks' processes, especially when it comes to revision, and one post from Barbara O'Connor's blog some time back really stuck in my mind. She said she reads aloud her entire novel as part of the final tweaking.

So she has been on my mind as I give the current almost-finished manuscript a bit of spit and polish. In the past, I have read out sections, but never the entire novel. It's taken me several days but you know what? It's been well worth it. Repetitions that my ...

What are you doing here?

You should be at the SCBWI-Western Washington conference, with its star-studded cast of thousands!!

If you are there, let us wallflowers know how it's going.

Kid Lit Drink Night

If you are in the Puget Sound region, come tonight to schmooze at the pre-SCBWI conference Kid Lit Drink night, 7 pm, at the Marriott in Redmond Town Center.

Hope to see you there!

Ten in 2010

It's that time again! Sharpen those pencils to try your hand at 10 word stories. Since I've been deep in a revision, I will confess that my brain is tapped out. I can barely put one word in front of another.

So today is Wild Card day. You get to pick your own word. Next month, I promise, I'll have something more specific to offer (feel free to offer ideas!). But today, it's all yours. Take it away! My ten-worder is inspired by the fact that I still wish I could go back and edit books that have...

News!

I've just learned that Two Bobbies won the Washington Children's Choice Picture Book award! I called Mary to tell her but got her machine. Decided to leave a message but got so choked up I couldn't talk.

I've never had a book honored in this way -- by kid readers (over 95,000 voted in this state) -- and to win a book written with a cherished friend. . .

Well, thinking about it gets me blubbering all over again.

Sniff.

And hooray!

Wordy Wednesday

When I picked up my tall, nonfat extra hot latte the other day, my favorite barista at *bucks told me that her four-year-old had just learned the word, "blustery." Appropriate for our part of the world, but pretty mind-boggling for a four-year-old to use.

Some years back, I picked our darling friend E up from school, then first grade. I asked her what they'd been learning about that day. "Viscosity," she said in her little chipmunk voice, using a term I don't think I learned until college.

When...

No Time At All

Last week, *the* manuscript returned from my beloved editor. Her words: "We're just asking for a few tweaks. It shouldn't take you very long."

Please define "not very long."

As in the time it takes to run a light load in the dishwasher?

Or as in the time it takes to give birth to an elephant?

I love my editor but I'm thinking she thinks "not very long" is in the quick cycle of the dishwasher department.

Whereas I am thinking it's in the elephant gestation department.

Which means I have a ways to go...

Title Tricks

Would you read a book called Tomorrow is Another Day? How about First Impressions?

Actually, I'm willing to bet you have -- but not under their original titles.

Tomorrow is Another Day (l); First Impressions (r)

I am in the (agonizing) process of coming up with a title for a book due out next spring. It's been "untitled manuscript" for so long, I'd almost forgotten I needed to come up with a title for the darned thing! My poor friends and family are being badgered to death as I try out new idea...

Happy Birthday, Grandma

Lois Thomas Wright Brown, age 14. Right before she left school.

My darling grandma would've been 95 today. Hattie Big Sky is my love letter to her and, even though the idea for the book came when I learned that my great-grandmother had homesteaded in eastern Montana by herself as a young woman, the character Hattie is squarely based on my grandma. She got married young, raised four daughters mostly by herself and never let anything stop her.

She could grow anything. Anything. But violets were h...