I entered the language arts classroom and took my seat that first day of 8^th grade. Standing at the front was a balding, little man, appropriately named Mr. Reading (although pronounced “redding”). He went through a few minutes of roll calling and introductions and the usual first-day-of-school routine. Then he stopped.

We watched him move to his left and open his small coat closet. We watched him wrestle his desk chair back to it and climb up. He stopped again. Then, with a sense of dramatic flair, he turned his head over his right shoulder and glared at us. “Don’t peek up my suit coat.”

Somewhere amid our giggles and murmurs, he climbed down with the standard Warriner’s grammar book in his hand.

We had a choice, he told us. Either we allow him to integrate a heavy dose of dry grammar into our class’s curriculum, or we could read extra literature-type books and have more exhilarating discussions. Easy choice. Bring on the reading books, right?

The class vote, however, was unanimous. Bring on the grammar. Mr. Reading was a very persuasive man. He explained that if we had him teach us grammar, 90% or more of us would pass the test exempting us from the semester-long 9^th grade grammar course.

Because of him, since 8^th grade, I’ve rarely had to crack open a grammar book. (However, I must have missed the days he taught lie v. lay and which v. that.)

Still, I do own Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. I bought it decades ago as one of the necessary steps toward becoming an author. And it covered writing advice Mr. Reading couldn’t fit into a year-long course.

So where’s today’s book review? I’m getting to that now.

Recently, when I was in Upstate New York, we stopped at the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester. I don’t often linger over the information cards posted alongside the paintings, so I found myself slightly ahead of the others with me. I came upon a small gallery room, displaying Strunk & White’s book in its windowed wall. That got my attention, I went in and found a collection of whimsical drawings, some as odd as Mr. Reading himself.

My curiosity forced me to read the info cards. It seems that a few years ago when I wasn’t paying attention, artist and picture book author/illustrator Maira Kalman created an illustrated version of the quintessential writing guide. She chose dozens of the sentences and phrases Stunk and White used to underscore their rules, then drew her interpretation of those examples.

One of my favorites from the exhibition illustrates None of us is perfect. I also particularly liked The temple of Isis.

Her entire collection of these drawings plus the full and updated Strunk and White text are in The Elements of Style Illustrated (Penguin Press, 2005). More than just the iconic guide, this version enticed me to go through all the writing rules again, simple because of the pictures.

In short, it makes learning fun. Something that Mr. Reading did for us so many years ago.

(This post is part of Barrie Summy's Book Review Club, bringing you many wonderful and varied reviews the first Wednesday of each month. Go HERE to see where you can find the other books highlighted for July.)

I’ve always been one to need my 7-8 hours of sleep a night ... which doesn’t work well when I necessarily go on tears and manage only about 4-5 hours. Some nights it’s due to late hours at the keyboard; others, because I’m so keyed up that sleep doesn’t come. Afterward, there comes the crash period.

I emailed my revision of The Seventh Level  to my editor around noon on Monday. In a perfect world, I would have been able to fall onto something cushiony and stay there for days on end. And have someone feed me grapes. Or at least fetch me carry out. However, family responsibilities and activities have kept me from truly crashing. At least I’ve been able to sleep soundly at night, knowing I achieved my revision goals – substantially slimming down the manuscript while feeling confident about the content changes.

Final Count:

Original page count: 254
Final page count: 201

Original word count: 62,500
Final word count: 52,200
Plotlines lost: 0

Pounds lost: 2

More thoughts later, once the fog clears.

Not that many of you care because this is basically devoid of anything personal or truly interesting unless you’re a numbers person. But it’s nice having this here for my own record.

Late Friday night (early Saturday morning), around 1:15 a.m., after two days of transcribing, I finished typing in my first-pass revisions. I’d scribbled them on the hard copy.

By the numbers:

Before: 39 chapters.

After: 37 chapters. (I combined two pairs.)

Before: 62,500 words

After: 55, 387 words

Before: 254 pages

After: 212 pages

Passes gone through during this round: 1

Passes to go: 2 (one computer; the other, hard copy again)

So that means I haven’t yet reached the 50 page-loss goal they set for me – and I’m not sure I can get there without another set of eyes pointing out where the pace still drags – but, hey, I’m happy.

A very short tale … or maybe a Show & Tell. Just something to keep you occupied while I’m busily rewriting The Seventh Level. (I’m still on my first pass, but have made it to chapter 37 of 39.)
Anyway, I bring you the latest incarnation of The Gollywhopper Games cover.

You may remember that it started off with John Rocco’s wonderful artwork on the ARC ...

Switched to this eye-catching graphic version for the official hardcover which you probably know by now ...

And now that it’s going to paperback (available in August), the art’s back! (I believe, executed by Brandon Dorman … need to find out for sure one of these days because a huge thank you is in order.) 




When I’ve shown it to kids at schools, unofficially, 92% love it more than the hardback. I think it's very special, too.

Double post? I don’t have time for one.

But I always try to make time for a favor.

So here’s my request. If you’re a writer/author who has ever blogged from the POV of your character(s), please comment here or shoot me an email at jody(at)jodyfeldman(dot)com. I have a friend who needs this info for an article she’s writing. Thanks!

If I hadn’t signed up to blog at Kidlit Central today, I wouldn’t have blogged at all. I’m about 15 chapters behind in my revision schedule. And the Spelling Bee in on TV today. Something’s got to give. We’ll see which wins.

And none of this is getting me closer to catching up, so I’m off right now. I may be back before my mid-June deadline. I may not be.

Meanwhile, though, go visit my revision thoughts here.

1. I had so much fun hanging out with Cindy Lord on Wednesday in Columbia, Missouri. You can see her blog for the details of what we did, but she doesn’t mention the homework she had ... signing a set of books for an entire 5th grade at one elementary school plus scads more she didn’t have time to sign after her four Tuesday sessions. Here she is doing that. (Not all books appear.) Me? I’m just having a good time, sitting in a comfy chair, seeing pre-F&Gs of her forthcoming PB Hot Rod Hamster, and chatting all the while.

2. The rewrite panic is over.

3. The rewrite panic has been predictably and repeatedly replaced by horror that my words and thoughts have been misinterpreted.

4. Horror is much too strong a word ... maybe annoyance (oh, and not directed toward Amazing Editor).

5. 167 words cut. Only 12, 333 to go.

It was only hours after Friday’s blog that The Letter was delivered. Exactly how many hours later, I don’t know. I came home after driving 120 miles, dodging semis and their rainspray on I-70 (we’d been at my nephew’s college graduation), to a thick, bubble-pack envelope with my marked-up manuscript and the accompanying editorial comments.

As editorial letters go, it’s rather short in comparison to many. It’s 10 paragraphs on 3 pages – really, 2 pages if it weren’t on letterhead – with the first and last paragraphs reminding me that they still love The Seventh Level. Paragraph number 3 is simply there to set up the next 5 paragraphs, each addressing issues they have with 5 plot points. That’s 9 paragraphs. And while I expected paragraph #2, the terror still struck when I saw it ... or, more accurately, this phrase:

“ ... aim to cut 50 pages.”

I’m sure my editor does not count the solitary line on page 6 at the end of Chapter 1 as a page. She means I need to cut 20% of the words. Bring this baby in from 62,500 to 50,000 ... and, at the same time retain the energy and the nuances and the immediacy and everything they love about the book.

I had a busy weekend so I haven’t yet looked at her guidance on the manuscript itself, pencil scratches that should pull me through this and help me write a better book. But I will look at them ... later ... after I’ve absorbed some of the pow of The Letter, and I’ve moved my indicator needle from panic to determination.

1. Simply, I’m so, so excited to announce ...

The Seventh Level
(Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2010)

More details to follow.

1. It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring.

2. Puzzles are easy; plot is hard.

3. Most kids don’t believe #2.

4. I may finally have an Important Announcement next week.

5. And for Mother’s Day, the ultimate in author-mom support!

So this weekend, I was at one of these ...

Now, I love it when network news has a round-up of graduation speakers. Just in case the speaker I saw, the guy who founded this ...

 

... isn’t on the news, I bring you a few snippets of his address, lines the writer in me appreciated.

* ... have a "healthy disregard for the impossible." (The slogan of a Leadershape, a training program.)

*When a really great dream shows up, grab it!

*What is the one sentence summary of how you change the world? Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting!

However, what will be the most memorable is that even in his position, to be able to afford the best ghostwriters in the world, it was evident that Larry Page wrote his own speech. It may not have been the most eloquent of the season, but better, it was totally heartfelt.

You can read the entire speech here.

As much as people (parents, brothers, probably other school mates) remember me as being the perfect student, well, I had them all fooled. I may have gotten excellent grades, but truth is, I rarely had to work hard.

I was in 7th grade, and the day before we had a book review due – yes, I hadn’t even picked out a book for it – I ran to the school library to find something. The only criteria going in? It had to be short. Once there? It had to be short and seem interesting.

In the two minutes I had, I couldn’t find either. Instead, I checked out The Borrowers by Mary Norton. Now, I had read The Borrowers in 5th grade (all grades are approximate), and liked it just okay enough, but I knew I could skim it quickly and finish my assignment. Which I did. (Oh, and if you’re a kid, you should be holding your ears and covering your eyes. Too late? Then forget what you’ve read so far.)

The result of my lack of effort. I got an A- because, as the teacher commented on the paper, it was well written, but I should have tackled something more challenging.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, it’s the first Wednesday of the month, time for Barrie Summy’s Book Review Club.

 And guess what? Aside from Barrie Summy's very, very, very wonderful I So Don’t Do Mysteries (absolutely cannot wait for the next book in the series) which has already been reviewed in this venue, I haven’t read much worth shouting about. Okay. I haven’t read much. Okay. (Hangs head.) I haven’t finished anything else this month.

So I’m reverting to middle school, and pulling out a title and not because I can re-skim it this morning. In fact, I don’t even own it and the library’s not open yet. But when I read this book about four years ago, I liked it more than “just okay enough.” I loved it. I loved it enough that I often cite it as one of my favorite books when kids ask the question during school visits. (Note to self: Time to buy the book and re-read it. Note to you: I rarely re-read anything.) 

No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman is one of about three books I wish I’d written. It has mystery, drama (literally) and had me laughing out loud. Almost nothing has me laughing out loud.

Enter 8th grader Wallace Wallace (nope, not type-stuttering), star football player. When he tackles, pummels and totally knocks the book he read in English class, Old Shep, My Pal, his teacher (who idolizes the story) is appalled by Wallace Wallace’s opinions. He gives Wallace Wallace a choice: Either rethink those opinions and write a glowing report or take a detention ... away from football and into the middle of the school’s theatrical production of ... wait for it ... Old Shep, My Pal.

That’s all I want to give away. Instead, I want you to read it and allow all the ensuing events to unfold, delicious morsel by delicious morsel.

And yeah, true confession, I did cut the description short because many of the details are fuzzy after all these years, but my impressions and opinions are just as clear and honest and true as Wallace Wallace’s ... which means they’re just fine, in every sense, thank you.

Okay. I am. Thanks to the librarians in North Dakota, I’m at 4. I just got word that The Gollywhopper Games is a Flicker Tale Children's Book Award nominee.



I’m thrilled. I’m honored. I’m still surprised.
Mr. Lubar’s there as well. Wanna meet in Fargo?