Betty Birney’s Blog

 For me, the very best thing about writing is on those days when I actually forget I’m writing. By that I mean, I’m so involved with the story that I’m in the action and lose the awareness that I’m outside of the story writing it. It’s a wonderful feeling, hard to describe, but exhilarating. My husband would never walk into the office without a little knock on the door -  first because he’s polite, but second, he doesn’t like to startle me. It’s like waking someone up from a dream. The knock helps. Otherwise I sort of bounce up out of my chair and go “oh!” and he knows that “oh” means I was somewhere far, far away.

But most of writing isn’t like that. It’s about details. I’ve been holed up trying to finish the first draft of a new Humphrey book. This will be a shorter chapter book with illustrations. It’s the same as the other Humphrey books but shorter - which made it a very different writing experience. Blood, sweat and tears were involved. (I finished and my editor’s reading it this weekend.)

I spent at least four days doing nothing but trying to figure out how to get Humphrey into a certain situation at a certain time safely and logically. This is always a difficulty with Humphrey because he’s a very small creature! I finally talked it over with my husband. I thought we came up with the solution, but when I sat down to write, it didn’t work.  We talked again and I got it and wrote it immediately.

I also enlisted Desi the dog for a little research - seen above. Yes, that’s a baseball cap she’s wearing. No, she’s not happy about it, which is why my husband is keeping her in place. But she didn’t argue about it either. I guess she knows research is important, too.

Even after a book is written there are more details to look after. Witness today. I get up really early, so I was at my desk at 6 am (not showered and dressed yet, but at my desk). An hour later, I got pages from my editor, Susan, about the fourth go-round of copy-editing of the next book, Adventure According to Humphrey. The bound galleys are already published but there were four or five more questions to straighten out. The Humphrey books seem to require more eagle eyes proofing them because of the way the names are written and hyphenated. Luckily, a diligent copy editor caught a few more things. I’m always soooo happy when this happens. I hate mistakes in books and I’m grateful to all those who help find and correct them.

Immediately after we straightened that out, I heard from Lucie, my copy editor at Faber, my UK publishers. Surprises According to Humphrey is coming out there  in October and there were still a few lingering issues. Actually, she was mostly answering my questions from the last round of copy editing - such as do kids in the UK understand our A,B,C system of grading and do they know the song Yankee Doodle Dandy? In both cases, they do.

Details are important. So if you think writing is just sitting in an ivory tower channeling the muse … remember Desi in her baseball cap. And yes, it is pertinent.

Two weeks. Eight flights.  Three states. Four hotels. 1500 books signed. 15 schools.

And now I’m home. It was a great trip with few hitches (airline related-only). I’m home for a week and a half, then off for the final trip of the year - to fulfill the Humphrey Drawing Contest. (I have to visit the school of the winner - more about that soon.)

The photo above is from the Cedar Rapids leg of the trip - it was taken by librarian Sally Reck at Indian Creek Elementary in Marion, IA.  I give it three BOINGS!!!

   Sally and Wynelle Lindsley of Bowman Woods arranged this wonderful visit for me. Here I am with Jan Dickinson and Wynelle at their library.
 The kids there performed a GREAT-GREAT-GREAT poem for me and the answer to their question is “Yes, there will be another Humphrey book.”

To that end, ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY is being typeset for next spring and I’m starting the first “shorter” Humphrey book - a short chapter book that will be illustrated. I may have some time off from travel but never time off from Humphrey!

 I’ll catch up with the Bucks County part of the trip in a few days. Let’s just say it ended with a double rainbow!

Last week, I had a terrific time speaking at a writing workshop in Azusa, CA. Yes, I typed that word right. Azusa is about half an hour from my house in L.A.  I had always heard that the town got its name as a slogan: “Everything from A to Z in the USA.” I like that story a lot but I looked it up and it doesn’t appear to be true because the name, or a variation of it, was in the area before the town.

I had a great time there with my fellow writers - 40 of them in third, fourth and fifth grades - all keeping writer’s notebooks and using a writer’s toolbox.  Yes, they had a real toolbox. I think I’ll get one, too.

Then came the questions and answers - always my favorite part of an appearance because I learn what people are interested in and besides, I’d rather talk with people rather than at them. One girl asked her question slowly. “How many times did you rewrite….” Then she paused to check her notebook. I was already excited! Here was my opportunity to hit home how much writers actually rewrite. And I do …. dozens and dozens of times. If I was really lucky, she’d ask about THE SEVEN WONDERS OF SASSAFRAS SPRINGS, which I rewrote more than dozens of times. I even wrote the whole thing in the third person before changing it to first  person. I rewrote each individual story over and over to make each storyteller sound unique. And, at the end, with the encouragement of Caitlyn Dlouhy, my editor, I added - gulp - 100 pages to the story. Now that was a rewrite.

The girl glanced down at her paper and then named the one title I didn’t expect: PIE’S IN THE OVEN. There went my lesson on rewriting! PIE’S IN THE OVEN was a picture book published in 1996. It just went out of print so you can’t buy it (except used copies) but it lives on in a lot of libraries. When I wrote it I was at an SCBWI Conference (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators - highly recommended). I have no idea who was speaking, but I always get inspired at those wonderful conferences and I started jotting down thoughts. I’d wanted to write about my grandmother’s pies and it started to come to me. At the next break, I found an easy chair in the hotel, opened my notebook and wrote out a first draft. I’m actually embarrassed to say it: the words never changed. I still have that notebook and see that I left it as I wrote it that day, sold it immediately and the editor never asked me to change a word, either. (Well, it is pretty short but still, that’s unusual.) The only discussion we had was whether it should be “Pie’s” in the oven or “Pies,” but stuck with my original “Pie’s” because really, Grandma is saying “Pie is in the oven.”

I cannot tell a lie, so I recounted this story and everyone groaned. I don’t blame them. It is not possible to sell a book without lots of rewriting. But I did it. Once. I figure once is all I’ll ever get.  It probably happened because Grandma’s legendary pies were so inspirational. Actually, I think what happened was the strong rhythm of the book came to me right away and carried the writing along.

Things are back to normal now - I’m stuck on not one, not two, but three books. That’s the way writing really works. And yet …. maybe some day I’ll get it right the first time again.

A few more notes about the book:

Holly Meade did a beautiful job illustrating the book and I forgive her for turning me (the narrator) into a boy! She generously sent me a piece of the artwork which hangs in my office. 

The names of all the people (and the dog) are real. They are the names of my grandparents’ neighbors and many family members and family friends. My grandfather was really a fireman. And Grandma baked the best pies I’ve ever tasted …. and made little crusts for my sister and me. We liked the crusts better than the pies, especially when sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. She’s the same Grandma whose stories inspired THE SEVEN WONDERS OF SASSAFRAS SPRINGS. One grandmother, two books and I don’t think she’s finished with me yet!

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READING RECOMMENDATION FOR GROWN-UPS: You can’t really learn to write by reading books. (Reading actual books, like fiction, is probably more helpful.) But once in a while, I look to books for inspiration. One favorite book which conveys the joy of writing is Ray Bradbury’s ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING. I also love a photography book by Jill Krementz: THE WRITER’S DESK. Priceless, especially the photo of Eudora Welty. I also like Welty’s book, ONE WRITER’S BEGINNINGS. And anything by E.B. White and Raymond Chandler (I’ll bet those two were never lumped together before), including their essays and letters.