Jane Yolen's Blog, page 27

May 6-7, 2010:

I seem to be in the Slough of Despond, otherwise known as Revision Hell. Now don't get me wrong, normally I love doing revisions. The idea of revisiting a piece I haven't seen in a while usually energizes me. Time to have a New Vision, Girl!

But somehow everything I had out there has come back for work at the same time. And that leaves me little time to do new stuff. So the new stuff I have tried, felt rushed and ungainly, DOA. If I were triaging, these new pieces would have been set aside...

May 3-5, 2010:

Arrrrrgh:

A benighted child thought it fun to send me an email saying that: "youre books all sukkkkkk"  Now she can't spell and doesn't know grammar and hasn't (a good guess) read ALL my books, but I (the adult) chose to write back and scold her for her overreach etc. Luckily, the return address didn't work and by the time the email got returned as undeliverable, my pique had subsided and I realized that getting into a pissing contest with a school child was plain stupid, so I just...

Interstitial Moment:

While I was driving home from my writer's group today, I thought–and not for the first time–how much I love the women in my group. They are all well-published children's book writers (though some of us also write adult books). So I decided I needed to write about the phenomenon of such critique groups.

There are basically two kinds of such groups. First, there are those groups in which each author reads pieces aloud at the meeting and it is critiqued then and there. Secondly, the group in...

May 2, 2010:

Worked most of the day on the edited Bad Girls, trying to get as much done as possible, but not rushing it. Heidi will get her turn next. Got about halfway through. This next-to-last time with the manuscript (I hope) gives me a chance to read it aloud and hear it again. For me, the ear is as important in good writing as the eye.

I did some more cleaning up of the house. Gave my wonderful cleaning lady six pieces of clothing that are now too large for me and she was thrilled.

The early evening I...

May 1, 2010:

Except for a quick trip into town to get the laundry and pay the last tile bill for the second bathroom, I was at home, doing some house cleaning and rearranging furniture, laundry, putting together the four boxes of birthday gifts to send off to the four grandlings who have birthdays May-August, when I am not around to celebrate with them.  And a lot of writing.

What did I write? Email, mail, a Saturday Night Live-type skit with friend Franny Hoeskstra, for our 50th Smith College reunion...

April 8-30, 2010

Yes I know, I have been a slug, at least as far as this Journal is concerned. But otherwise I have been writing up a storm, traveling around the country, giving speeches, signing books, and playing with friends. That's the short of it.

Oh–you want the long of it as well.

April 8–went into Sturbridge for the Mass Reading Council's annual event with Heidi. We did a presentation on writing together, I received the Mass Reading Council's Lifetime Achievement Award, we signed quite a few books, and ...

April 4-7, 2010:

Spring has sprung a great deal earlier than usual. We had temps in the 90s, daffodils breaking out like the pox all over the garden, the dogwood in full bloom, forsythia cascading down the east side of the house, and the little sun-generated lights lining the path between my house and Heidi's so chock-full of energy, they blazed all night long.

And the birds. Did I mention the birds? Not warbling, but shouting their dawn chorus, even before the light. Maybe they are encouraged by those...

Interstitial Moment:

I have begun a new book, a short novel called Snow in Summer, which is based on a short story of the same name and is a Snow White in Appalachia story. As with any new start, I am uplifted, excited, buoyed up by possibilities. Soon enough the reality of the slog will kick in. Soon enough I will be devastated by how little I know, how hard the road, how difficult a choice I have made. Soon enough I will worry that this is the time the magic will not work. Soon enough.

But right now, everything ...

March 30-April 3, 2010

Ah writing:

I revised three different speeches, adding huge swatches of material. Probably time to write a whole new group of speeches, but honestly I don't think I have anything new to say!

Wrote opening and two (short) chapters of the novel version of Snow in Summer. Agent is working hard on the contract, and I really was not planning to start this till summer. But I had an idea and it started to flow. I have learned not to put a stop-cock into that flood.

Retold a new story for Jewish Fairy...

March 21-March 29, 2010:

Much book work this week:

Finished the revisions (this round) of Curses, Foiled Again. It said Revision 2 on the folder, but in actuality closer to 4 or 5. The main problem was to make the characters earn their endings. I hope I managed that. Sent it off to the editor and the illustrator.

Then Adam and I tackled more of BUG revisions.

Heidi and I got the first section of Jewish Fairy Tale Feasts in to the editor, the introductions and brunch.

I did a revision of A Bear Sat On My Porch Today...