I debated
whether or not to post this week due to the events on the east coast . I know that some of our friends are without
electricity still, and this seems slightly indulgent…blogging, carrying on. I think
many of us are feeling survivor’s guilt.
This being the
first post of November, a month traditionally reserved for giving thanks, my goal
was to focus on gratitude. Well, this
week’s author Janee Trasler, has this amazing book that really makes you
appreciate our fancy, modern conveniences, like…grocery stores. Caveman: A B.C. Story, (clever ain’t it?),
follows a caveman and his buddies around on what appears to be just your
average cave person day. Although there are only 26 words in its entirty (as it
is an ABC book), they really pack a punch, especially when paired with the
hilarious illustrations. It is one of our silliest books in the house.
But I decided that a main goal of this blog and this series is to get a smile and maybe
even a chuckle or two out of its readers.
And what better way to take someone’s mind off the ickiness that is catastrophic
climate than someone else’s embarrassing moment? Let’s give it a shot, shall
we?
I am grateful
for so many things today: the safety our friends on the east coast, the health
of my own family and friends, the grocery store, two buckets a bucket full of Halloween candy
waiting for me on the kitchen counter… but I am also so thankful to have the
wonderful Janee Trasler on the blog!
Having
just left my job in corporate graphics, I was excited and eager to start my new
career in children’s book. I was also greener than green eggs and ham.
Visit
the library? Take a class? Actually read a picture book? Pshaw. When you’re
walking around with that much blind optimism, you never even see the banana
peel coming.
Within
a week, I had my masterpiece! It was well over a thousand words, had 64
stanzas, and every other line ended in a rhyming “oo” sound. I packed up my
single-spaced manuscript, mailed it to an agent, and waited for my contract.
I have
to hand it to the agent (who did not even represent picture books, by the way).
Somehow, he managed to send my “masterpiece” back to me without a big “SNORT!”
written anywhere on it.
One
picture book workshop and a trip or two to the bookstore later, I knew enough
to be acutely embarrassed.
I
learned so much from that slip. Now, I read a ton of current picture books, I
watch the trends, and I’d never dream of sending anything out the door without
running it by my critique group first (waves madly at the PBJeebies).
If I’d
really researched the market before just barreling in the way I did, I’d
probably have run screaming. It takes a lot of guts and hard work to get a book
published; luckily, I was too green to know it.
