Jane Yolen's Blog, page 29

February 1, 2010:

Another rejection, as well as news that Apple for the Teacher, Adam's and my book of work songs –beautifully produced by Amrams and illustrated with Americana objects from various museums–is going OP. Well, these things happen. All we can do is sigh. . .and move on. The book came out when David was very ill and I didn't have the energy to try and push it as it needed to be pushed.

I worked some on the Joey Dante proposal and sent what I had on to co-author Bob Harris.

Am fighting with the...

January 28-31, 2010:

Thursday was merely a run-up to the SCBWI New York conference where I was speaking. I did a bit of cleaning up of desktop stuff, a bit more writing on Curses, Foiled Again, met with the money man and learned some new stuff about trying to save money, packed, went to sleep early.

Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. Heidi picked me up, we drove Maddison and her friend Hannah to school, and then off onto the highway the three-hour-plus drive to New York. A bit of traffic, an annoying truck or two...

January 26-27, 2010:

Interesting (to me) writing few days. Got one rejection, received the dummy of Tiger Rose Says Goodbye with wonderful sketches by Jim LaMarche, an illustrator I have long wanted to do a picture book with. It means a few revisions, which is what happens once an artist has laid out the entire book. Suddenly things need moving about, changing, deleting, smoothing.

Also, I had to go over (again) the speech I am giving this weekend at SCBWI New York, and then print it and my schedule out.

In fact...

January 18-25, 2010:

The rest of the Minneapolis trip consisted of lunch on Monday with the president of Creative Editions who is doing two and possible more of my picture books. Tom Peterson and I have absolutely meshing ideas about publishing for children and it was delightful sitting with him at Christos, my favorite Greek restaurant, talking business.

Tuesday Adam and I spent all day talking to classes at the Minnesota Friends School because that is where grandlings Alison and wee David go to school. Tiring...

Interstitial Moment redux:

Lee Bennett Hopkins wrote again: "As one starts to think, there are several other editors who come to mind who have created many books, including Pat Ross, editor at Knopf, who created the M&M series as well as picture books and adult books. (JY here: Though–I must quickly add that she left publishing to start a lovely boutique in New York City.)  Susan Pearson, editor at Lippincott, who wrote picture books and an anthology. (Another JY note: A friend and a neighbor here in Western Mass...

Interstitial Moment (additional):

Lee Bennett Hopkins sent this on, to add to the discussion below of editors who write: "Add Beatrice Schenck de Regniers, an editor of Scholastic's Lucky Book Club who wrote quite a bit under her name as was as Tamara Kitt. Also Ann McGovern, first editor of SEE SAW Book Club at Scholastic, who went on to create quite a body of work."

Lee, thanks–how could I have forgotten them? Beatrice wrote one of my favorite retellings of Little Red Riding Hood in rhyme, with the the author addressing the ...

January 12-17, 2009:

Getting ready for a big trip often means that writing takes a back seat to arrangements. (Laundry, packing, lists, bills, cleaning out fridge, stacking piles of things to do on return.) Add to this getting an absentee ballot for the Massachusetts senatorial race to fill Kennedy's seat, bringing soup to a sick friend, going to the movies ("Avatar" again), dinner with Heidi and Maddison, check over and fiddle with speeches, make sure someone will be picking me up at the airport, meeting with...

Interstital Moment:

TAK asked: "how did you go from being an editor to being a published author? Is it common for editors/people from the Other Side of Publishing to have their own work published (and are there any writers who also have jobs in publishing)? "

Well, TAK, I was a writer first and got into editing because I needed money to support my writing habit. But becoming an editor taught me a lot about writing as I had to begin to analyze what I was doing. I was not then (and not really a lot now) an...

January 8-11, 2009:

A slow four days except for writing and various therapies (physical, water), so not much to say. I worked on two new retold tales for Jewish Fairy Tale Feasts (one with cooked carrots, one with roast chicken), fiddled a bit with a fairy book, and worked quite a lot on my website. My back remained in pretty good shape.

Wrote a poem about my first real kiss in which I actually participated (lost in the mist of time here, since I was thirteen and at summer camp.) But otherwise very s. . .l. ...

January 6-7, 2010:

I wrote about the two rejections I just received on FaceBook which occasioned much tearing of hair, renting of clothes, as my fans and "friends" remarked about how awful it was that a Personage Of My Account should still get rejected. And what underlay the over-reaction (a thought that only a few actual spoke outloud) was the destruction of a myth. The myth that says that once one gets reasonably well-known in the field, all is smooth sailing ever after. Which meant, of course, that they...