October 2007 Archives

Yay!!!!!! My editor just sent me a note that she's forwarded the final manuscript to the publisher. She caught a few typos and made a few tweaks (one of which was a misplaced modifier where I had a Jesus statue grinning instead of the antagonist). Now the manuscript gets converted to a publishing file and a copy editor goes through the manuscript to get it ready for printing.

I'll get a chance to look at the galleys, but only to proof them. No major changes are allowed because the pages are set up the way they'll be printed in the book, so a major change would screw up the typesetting and page layouts all the way through the book.

I'm so relieved to have this off my plate. And another piece of good news. The illustrator slipped me the cover for The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher as well as the revamp of The Mystery of the Frozen Brains. They're both awesome. I wish I could post them up here, but I'm not allowed to do anything until my publisher approves of the graphics and adds in the text.

One project down. Ninety-nine more to go.

I'm heading into a meeting with my producer this afternoon to go over the production notes for the script. The Foley artist mentioned a few radio unfriendly sound cues, and I have to talk to the producer about how best to address the notes. Also, I'd like to do a final humour pass to make sure I'm mining everything I can. I'm sure there'll be more changes once the cast gets on board and brings the script to life. In some ways, I wish I could have a reading and then a few days to respond to the discoveries made in the reading. In other words, I wish I had a workshop of the radio play. I guess I'll have time to make on-the-fly changes to dialogue. I'm mostly looking to punch things up rather than visit the structure of the play and the scenes.

Once I have the production notes, I'll cycle through and get this into shape for the actors in time for the November 16 and 17 tapings. I'm getting excited about the performances!

The producer of the Bone House has made an executive decision, which I think is the right call. We're scrambling to find the cast and pull together all the elements for a workshop in Banff and cap it off with a public presentation in Edmonton. There's no possible way we could have done a decent job, and we would have ended up disappointing people with a shoddy reading. Instead, we're just going to focus on doing script revisions in Banff, so that we have something tight and ready to go for the spring of 2008. I'm feeling much better about this because now I have some breathing room to revise the script (and all my other projects). Apologies to those looking forward to seeing the revamped version of Bone House in December. You'll just have to wait.

Now that I'm waiting for my editor's final notes, I feel like I have nothing to do and I wish I could kick back and relax. Unfortunately, I just looked at my list of things I put off so that I could work on the Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher. Sigh. That list looks so long. I have to revise Bone House, polish Fulcrum of Evil, revise Forbidden Phoenix and do a pass on my picture book. That's in addition to my speaking engagements. I don't think I've had a day off since August. I'm feeling the stress, and I think I'm going to have to just give myself some down time.

I'm supposed to do a presentation in Lac La Biche today and tomorrow. What I usually do is cart a whole bunch of work with me and stress about it while I'm in a hotel room. Maybe this time, I'll just bring a book and a crossword puzzle and just enjoy a Sunday night. It is Sunday, right? Sometimes, it's not easy being a freelancer. I have to remind myself to shut down every now and then.

I'm now in wait and see mode. The manuscript is in my editor's capable hands, and I'm hoping she likes it. To be safe, I've also sent a copy to a friend to read to get some feedback and catch any typos. I think the story is pretty clear. I wish I had a scene like the first chapter in this book, but I made a conscious effort to stay away from the mother character in this book so that I could work in my of the dad character. I feel like all three books are building up the characters in Marty's world, and I hope that they'll be strong enough that people will read about them all. I know people will want to see the mom character in the third book, but if I gave more of the same, I'd get bored. Hopefully, in making the change, I haven't bored the reader. Yikes. Second thoughts. Doubts. Hating what I've created. Yup, this is exactly what I go through whenever I send a script off for other people to read. Who said writers weren't neurotic?

My dramatic monologue airs tomorrow on CBC 740 AM. Yay! The piece is called the Zombie Plan, and its about a woman who shoots down a guy who asks her to dance. It's cruel, funny and uses my favourite subject - the undead. On another positive note, I'm going in for a photo shoot for my latest Journal article, and I'm just about finished the polish on The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher. I'm just cycling through to catch all the times I repeat names of characters in dialogue references. Sigh. That's one of my many greatest writing sins. I have many, but that's the big one that I can fix before I send off the manuscript.

Back to work.

Ugh. I know the rest of the working force is probably up by six o' clock, but I am not an early riser. Today, I had to be out of the house by 6:30 am, so that I could make a media call for the Cake Walk fundraiser. I showed up at the Sutton Hotel and tried to be charming and TV friendly. I failed miserable, and ended up getting icing all over my shirt and nearly destroying the cake the Lexus team was building.

For those who don't know about Cake Walk, it's a culinary fashion show with "designer" cakes being rolled down a runway for people to judge. This fundraiser is for the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts, which inspires creative expression in people with developmental disabilities by pairing them up with professional artists in workshop sessions. It's a great cause, and tonight's fundraiser should be fun, but I'm so tired right now.

After the media call, I went to St. Timothy to present to the grade six students. The kids were great, but a bit quiet. I think they might have been late risers too. Anyway, the sessions were fine, except my DVD is not working any more. I'm going to have to figure out why.

I'm debating the value of an afternoon nap versus a workout. I think the bed is going to beat the treadmill.

Wow. I'm so burnt out right now. Just finished cycling through the last 50 pages of The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher. Something happened tonight that was just incredible. I could spot all the logic flaws and character weaknesses in the manuscript, but I could also see the solutions. One of the major problems of the manuscript is that I had a lot of repetition. A major story point was that the protagonist was caught with a lock pick set, but he had a lock pick earlier and wasn't accused of stealing. The fix was simple. I changed the second lock pick to a stolen item so that it looked like Marty was caught redhanded.

The other thing that sparked to life was the cast of minor characters. I started to play out a couple of character moments for people like the oldest driver in the world, The Lint and a group of boys called the Poppers. I'm really proud of this draft. Now I'm going to sit on the draft a day, then cycle through to catch typos on Thursday, so that my editor will have the draft by Thursday night.

Time for bed. So tired now, but it's the kind of tired that comes from doing a lot of good work. I'm starting to finally believe in the manuscript.

I'm blasting through the humour pass on The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher. Finished 50 more pages this morning for a total of 100 pages. Only 50 more to go. I'm finding all sorts of little moments, and I'm amazed at how much fat builds up on my manuscripts. I've carved away a lot of useless repetition and clunky sentences in favour for leaner and more efficient sentences.

I have enough momentum going for me that I might actually go through the last third of the script when I get back from my readings today. I know that tomorrow is going to be a write-off because of a fundraiser I'm doing and a couple of school visits. I'd rather not lose the momentum while I have it.

The great thing is if I finish by the end of tonight, I can have a day to clear my head and then spend all day Thursday just cycling through to catch typos and repetitions. I know this sounds like a terrible cliche, but the characters have woken up and are telling me what to say and how to say it. I just hope that I still have the energy when I get back this afternoon.

Off I go.

Okay, I'm starting to find my legs with the Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher finally. I've addressed my editor's notes, trimmed the manuscript to 35,000 words. Now I'm cycling through to eliminate repetition and punch up the language. So far, I'm about a third of the way through. By Thursday, I should have a pretty good draft to send to my editor for final notes.

On another note, the radio play, Fulcrum of Evil, is picking up production steam. The cast is in place and the folks at CBC Radio have agreed to charge $10 admission with some of the proceeds going to the Young Alberta Book Society.

I still have to barrel through a few projects this week, one of which is the Bone House, which I need to get off my plate by the first week in November. I think I'm building up enough momentum that I can pull it off. Sometimes, the writing comes easily, and when it does, I have to take full advantage of it. Off to teach a lab and then back home to see Heroes.

I cycled through my editor's notes, but I still wasn't completely happy with the manuscript. I started to do a punch up, but then I realized that I also needed to trim the manuscript down. My previous two books were about 35,000 words, but this one clocked in at about 38,000 words. While I'd hope that readers would stick with me for the extra 3,000 words, I wondered if I was being a bit self-indulgent. So, I cycled through the manuscript with a cruel eye and killed off any passages that weren't absolutely essential to story or character. I found a few major sections to chop away, and I lost close to 3,000 words. Rereading the chapters, I'm pretty sure that I didn't lose much. Phew! Better to catch this now than when the book is out and readers are complaining the book is too long.

This is a pretty good exercise for writers to see if they can tell the same story with fewer words. I think this trims away a lot of the unnecessary detritus that accumulates from too many ideas vying for attention. I'm happier with the leaner version of the book.

I still think that I need to do another look through to make sure that everything is firing on all cylinders. I'm thinking this book is less funny, but has a better dramatic thruline. I'd love for the manuscript to have both comedy and drama. I'll take the next few days to go through the manuscript again. I hope to send off the polished version to my editor by the middle of the week. It looks like we should be able to make the November 1 deadline. Yay!

Today, I was speaking to the students at Fort Saskatchewan Elementary, George P. Nicholson and Duggan. Great students all the way around. I presented in the Whitemud Library Branch in the afternoon and was thrilled to see that all the Duggan students had read the book. Yay!

Most memorable moment: During one of my sessions, a very young pre-school girl and her mom popped into the session. The little girl yelled out halfway through the presentation. I wasn't sure what she said, but I made a mention that she must have seen the ugly pants I had to wear.

Anyway, it was a great way to end a very busy week. Now I'm going to cycle through my Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher manuscript and get it ready to go.

Oh, and the big new this week is that I just signed on with a book agent. I'm now officially with Lise Henderson of the Anne McDermid Agency. I don't know what this will all mean, except for the fact that I'll have to do up new business cards. I'll happily get new cards to add my book agent.

Yes! I just got my editor's notes on The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher. She had no major notes. She really liked what I did with the revisions. It's all small stuff and typos. I also have to do a bit of a humour pass to make sure that I've mined every possible bit of comedy in the book. I'm so relieved. Yay!!!

Also, a big shout out to the students at G.H. Dawe. Thanks for posting your comments, and thanks for being a great audience this morning. I had a blast. I also saw a group of students at the Red Deer downtown library in the afternoon. They were cool too. I'm sorry I couldn't remember the name of the school.

My most memorable moment of the day: The boy who played Buddy in the morning had the best crossed eyes I've ever seen. He was a great actor too.

Okay, I'm going to print out the manuscript, eat some supper and go through the edits.

Spent the day at Oliver School and McKee School. I was so happy in the morning session when I talked to the students of the Nellie McClung program. The questions the students asked were totally awesome. I felt like I was in a university classroom talking to students who cared about the writing process. I was very impressed. I was also flattered to see my biggest fan. Apparently, everyone knew she was my biggest fan. I hope my presentation didn't disappoint her.

My most memorable moment of the day: being stuck in traffic while I was trying to get to McKee School. Edmonton needs to sort out their traffic and construction problems.

The students at McKee were great. They have me the biggest cheer when I showed up. I know I'm back at their school for a writer-in-residency in January. Hopefully, this session will charge them up enough to get cracking on their own stories.

Okay, now the waiting game begins. Where are my manuscript notes? I'll be checking email often. Or maybe I'll just go for a run and try to burn off my nervous energy. Did my editor like the changes? Will I have a ton of revisions? Will the book be great? So many worries; so little time.

Sometimes, I wonder if I will make an impact on a student. I mean I spend an hour with a group of students talking about my books and inspirations, but I don't know what they will remember. It's easy to doubt when there is no real follow-up with students. Well, today, I was proven wrong. I received a few comments from students who saw me last year at an elementary school in Lacombe. I was thrilled to see their comments a year later. I have to say that this was a real bright spot in a day. My thanks to the students at L.U.E. for remembering me. You guys are awesome!

On another note, I heard from my editor about Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher. I should get her notes tomorrow. Okay, I had better clear off my other deadlines tonight so I have time to work on the revisions. I'm getting excited to head down the home stretch of the manuscript.

The campaign is going very well, and I'm hearing from a lot of folks that the students are trying hard to win the pizza parties. I'm thrilled to hear so many kids are excited about the book. I've been answering questions on the Kids Read Edmonton site, and I had the funniest message today. One girl asked me to tell her cousins that it was indeed me answering the questions. Her cousins didn't believe her. It's true. I'm not a Snuffle-upagus. It's me answering the questions.

As for my other work, I'm still in limbo, waiting for notes on the Mad Science Teacher manuscript. I'm hoping to get them soon so I can get everything together for end of October. It's going to be an insanely busy October.

Today was a very cool day. I got to introduce Kenneth Oppel for his Edmonton book launch. It was great to see fans young and old show up at his book signing. Some of his fans were adults, who had first read his books when they were in school, but still enjoyed his writing even today.

After the launch, I went for drinks with Kenneth. He was a bit tired from the book tour, but it was great to pick his brain and hear about the Canadian publishing industry. He was a very down to earth fellow, and I was really glad to have met him. Now I can start dropping his name. "Oh, when Kenneth Oppel and I had drinks at the Hotel MacDonald, he said..."

What a day! I had an awesome time talking to the students at G.R. Davis, and I capped off the day with some sight-seeing.

Memorable moments:

A grade seven girl actually gasped when I started talking about the Bone House. She was scared even before I got to the really scary parts. Very cool.

A grade four girl played Max. She was incredibly shy, but she really came out of her shell during the writing exercise and I was so happy she agreed to come up.

The entire group of grade six students refused to leave at the end of the session and demanded an encore. They started to chant "more, more, more." In all my school visits, this has never happened. I have to say that this memory will stay with me the longest.

At the end of the day, I took a side trip to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump and toured the intepretive centre. It was pretty impressive. I could see the mountains in the distance as well as a sacred place for vision quests. I wished I could have walked around a bit longer, but the centre was closing and I was lucky to get in when I did.

Anyway, this was a pretty full day and now I'm totally worn out. I might not work tonight as I know I have a long day tomorrow and Friday with all-day sessions and long drives.

G.R. Davis students rock!!!!!

End of the first day. I visited Granum School in the morning and A.B. Daley School in Nanton this afternoon. Phew! My throat is hoarse, but I had a great time with the students at both schools.

Memories that will last forever:

In the morning session, one teacher look mortified when I told the "real" origin of Graffiti Ghoul. Boy, did she look relieved when I got to the punchline. I also got to work with twins on the Buddy and Max story. They were hilarious.

The afternoon session at A.B. Daley is one I'll never forget. When I asked who had read Graffiti Ghoul, every student raised their hands. When I asked about Frozen Brains, everyone raised their hands. I was so stunned that I didn't know what to do for a few minutes. I've never been to a session where everyone had read both books.

Tonight, I'm going to knuckle down and try to get some work done while I'm away from home. Here's hoping I don't get too distracted by Scrabulous. I have to work on some radio play revisions, an essay and some prep work for Kenneth Oppel's session this Saturday. I'm getting a bit nervous about meeting him. He's a y/a author superstar!

Sometimes, the planets align and ideas fall from the sky. I've been banging my head against the wall about my picture book ever since Orca sent a form rejection. When I reread the manuscript, I kept thinking this could have been written by anyone. Where was my voice?

Yesterday, I was kicking around the manuscript when an idea struck me. Instead of writing the manuscript in first person as if I were addressing the reader, I should make the reader a character. This started me on the road to turning the story into a big story from the kid about his cats and all their faults. I think I might have something here. I'm going to revise the manuscript this week and see if the idea still looks good in the light of day.

Enjoy the weekend. I'm thankful for a chance to sleep!

Actually, I'm pretty happy about a lot of things, especially how well Kids Read Edmonton has been received. I've heard from many teachers about how their students are excited to read the book. I hope the campaign boosts the book's profile enough so that I can build on the momentum for the third book, which comes out in the spring. I'm slowly learning that kid readers love series. I have to start brainstorming another series idea very soon. Maybe the Sasquatch one. Hmmm.

Boy, was I red in the face this morning for the St. Teresa presentation. I was a few minutes late thanks to some very bad judgment about the route from my house to the school. And then as soon as I arrived to meet the organizer, I had a nose bleed. Talk about bad first impressions.

I was able to recover well enough to deliver two presentations to the grade 6 students and then the grades 4 and 5 students. A cameraman from City TV caught the first session, and I was told that he enjoyed the presentation so much that he stuck around to hear the rest of the talk.

I had a great time with the students, and I was so impressed that many of them dressed up as nerds. Solidarity in plaid!!!!

At the end of the day, I treated myself by visiting the editor of the 3 Day Novel Contest. I got to see a little bit of the raw footage, which is still being digitized. We had a good conversation about the series. I'm looking forward to seeing it all put together. Still no air date, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for early spring.

I'm still waiting for the notes from my editor, but I took the initiative today to test drive chapter one of the new manuscript at a local school, Dovercourt. There were about 60 some students in grades 4 and 5. A few had read the previous books, but most were new to my writing. I was really taken by how they reacted to the reading. I tried my best to peek at them to see when they shuffled. The story about the asylum house grabbed their attention, but the hockey stuff seemed to work in bits and pieces. I definitely need to punch up the entire novel and inject more humour, but I think the story is working. The kids were really interested in the house. I can't wait to get my notes so I can pull the manuscript together.

I keep forgetting that author visits are just as much work, if not more, than writing, and that I shouldn't feel guilty that after a full day of author presentations, I don't write anything afterward. Today was one of those endless days, where I started at 7:00 am with a media interview on Global News and then went into a school to do five sessions. I'm totally wiped out now and I just want to sleep. I have to get read for another two schools tomorrow, and I haven't really touched my scripts.

I had a wonderful time at St. Paul School, which is probably why I don't want to work right now. The staff were great and the librarian went above and beyond the call of duty to prep the students for my visit. She organized a mystery contest where students had to guess who was the St. Paul Graffiti Ghoul, as well as had the principal read an excerpt of my book over the P.A. system. It was so cool to show up at a school to find out that the kids were already fans.

I hope the students enter the Kids Read Edmonton contest. I should also tell everyone that the contest to win Oilers tickets on the Kids Read Edmonton website is up and running. Okay, I'm taking a nap and then trying to sort out how I can do some writing tonight.

This morning, I talked to the students at Garneau School, but instead of going to their school, I presented at the H.T. Coutts Education Library. It was very strange to be in a university library talking to elementary kids. The thing that I found strange was that the kids were totally into the session, but the university students looked a bit irked that there was actually school kids in their library. The sarcastic side of me wanted to tell the education students that maybe they were in the wrong profession if they were bothered by kids, but I kept my tongue in check. Anyway, the grade 3 and 4 kids were awesome. They really responded to everything, and I was totally surprised by the grades five and sixes. A lot of them had heard me talk before, but they still asked to hear the clothes shopping story and the cat story. It was as if the kids were tuning into their favourite rerun of a TV series, and I was giving them what the wanted.

In the afternoon, I went over to St. Lucy and presented to the upper elementary students in the gymnasium. Sigh. The gym. I'm always worried about a larger venue, but the staff had a microphone and a great sound system, and the students were totally interested in the session. My only worry was that someone had put an article about 350 people attending the Boissonault reunion near Morinville. Yikes! I wonder what they think of me using the name Boissonault to describe to twin bullies. I don't want 350 people chasing me down.

Tonight, I'm going to get off the computer and try to do some work by hand. I have to revise Forbidden Phoenix and The Bone House, but I wanted to mark up the scripts with notes so that it'll be easier to make the revisions on the computer. I find that when I try to revise on computer before reviewing my notes, I tend to make things different rather than better. I need to see the big picture before I can tinker with the little bits.

The first day of a great week. I spent my time between St. James School and Father Michael Troy Junior High. The students were awesome at both schools. I had a bit of a nervous moment when I showed up and the DVD player wasn't working for my China presentation. I was kicking myself for forgetting to bring a VHS tape in case the DVD player didn't work. Fortunately, the fine staff at St. James sorted out the problem and got everything working just in time for the session. Phew!

At Father Michael Troy, I had the challenge of trying to engage 60 grade nine students in a V-shaped classroom. Talk about tough. Well, not so tough. The students in both sessions were so receptive and cool (and not in that prove it kind a way that I sometimes see in junior high kids).

Anyway, what a fantastic way to kick off Read-In Week. I'm going to do my own part and start reading my zombie novel, Dead Sea tonight.