Category Archives: Writing
My Book Deal with Sourcebooks!
So . . . on Monday I was at judo practice supposedly practicing a new turn-over with my friend Jenna, but really joking about husbands and their crazy ideas. I noted that my husband has a way of following through with his crazy ideas—like starting our judo club, for example.
"Just think," Jenna said, "If he'd never done that, you'd probably be writing about unicorns or something!"
The Inspiration for Mountain Center, and an Excerpt from Venture Unleashed
Today I posted on my Venture Books blog about my upcoming trip to Idaho and how the judo club there inspired part of my book, Venture Unleashed. Check it out and read the chunk of Venture Unleashed that was inspired by the judo club in McCall, Idaho!
Merry Christmas to Me! ARCs!
Yesterday the Fedex man delivered a mysterious little package to my door. I opened it to find this:
A beautiful ornament hand-made by my editor at Sourcebooks, Aubrey Poole!
And today, this arrived:
Advance review copies of Wonder Light, my first book in print!
This is the first time I’ve seen the spine design, and I LOVE it!
Wonder Light is available for pre-order from any bookstore or online retailer. It releases in hardcover May 1, 2013. There’s more info here.
Sculpting Unicorns—Or, What to Do with No Deadlines
After much stubbornness, the second Unicorns of the Mist book finally agreed to let me title it Herder’s Secret. The first draft is done and off to my editor. The proof pages for Wonder Light have been combed through and sent back to production, and my discussion and activity guide for Wonder Light is with the design team, getting prettied up. And that means . . . no more deadlines! Woohoo!
After writing 2 novels and a novella—Venture Unbroken, Herder’s Secret, and Boundless—not to mention revisions and edits for Wonder Light, Boundless, and Venture Unbroken all in 2012, all under deadlines, I promised myself I’d spend the rest of December writing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
I even made a list, while I was writing away all year, of things to do after deadlines. On that list, right after Christmas cards and dusting the ceiling fan—Play with clay! An old friend’s been calling my name—Sculpey—the king of bakeable modeling clay.
This lump is telling me it wants to be a unicorn!
A Book Without a Name
I blame it on my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. June St. John. Are you out there, June? Mrs. St. John shared two great loves with her class—fountain pens and creative writing. I’d always appreciated the time she let us spend writing stories, but I’d been an avid writer before I came to her class. Until yesterday, I never realized how much Mrs. St. John had influenced the way I write.
She’d get up, walk to the blackboard, and write a short line. We’d all hold our breath in anticipation, fountain pens poised over our papers, waiting to copy the words. Sometimes she’d torment us with a prolonged pause or even erase a word or two and change it to another. Those who were too hasty and had already penned their headings would groan and reach for another page. When she was finished, she’d turn around, cross her arms, grin, and say, “Go!”
And the stories would flow. Because the line on the board wasn’t just a heading, it was the title of a story. An unwritten tale waiting for each of us to tell in our own way. The name of a new friend we were about to meet. I only remember one story title— “Guess What I Found in My Vegetable Soup”—but the joy of writing those stories, then listening throughout the week as classmates read their work aloud, will never be forgotten.
It seems my need to begin with a title is still with me too.
Yesterday, as I plugged away at the sequel to Wonder Light, my upcoming release from Sourcebooks, I realized this is the first time in years I’ve started a book without a title, and the first time I’ve ever been this far into a story and still had no proper name to call it. And it bugs me! It’s like sitting down next to someone—the sister of a friend, since I know Wonder Light inside and out after all the revising and polishing—having a great conversation, really hitting it off, and realizing I don’t know her name.
She must have a name! Wonder Light: Unicorns of the Mist started out as Unicorns of Lonehorn Island, and has since been renamed. But I’m going to take the time to give her sister the sequel a name. Whether or not it’s eventually changed, I need something to call this story. I can’t fully know a book without a name.
Stop Freaking Out!
“What are you doing, Robyn?”
“I’m—”
“You are freaking out, that’s what you’re doing.”
“What? I’m not—”
“Stop freaking out! You think there are so many things to do, but that is not true. Right now, there is just one thing you need to do. You need to write that book!”
A few weeks ago I got that call from my friend and judo mom, Connie. My second round of revisions for Wonder Light was due the day after my judo team was to compete in the Jr. Nationals. Our team needed to supply two mat areas for the tournament, which was taking place five hours away. We were in the middle of running our biggest fundraiser for our nonprofit team, a fireworks stand, which had to be manned 24 hours a day. We were leaving for Jr. Nationals on July 5, as soon as the fireworks inventory was taken care of, and somebody was going to have to pick up a rental truck, load it with all our mats, and drive it to Spokane. To complicate matters, my husband, our head coach, had just made a major career change and was working long hours.
There was no use arguing with Connie, the Great Persuader, or with the truth. Under the surface of calm, of course I was freaking out!
But Connie insisted that everything—in particular, my children—would be taken care of. Between my parents and team members, they were, and extraordinary things got done. I finished my revision early and sent it off to my editor. The fireworks stand had record sales, and the inventory was done before the grand finale of the local professional fireworks show. The mats made it to Spokane, and our competitors broke our team’s previous record, bringing home 17 medals.
Over the last few months, my friends, teammates, and family have filled in running judo practices and taken the time to help me and my husband get passes to visit family members in the hospital on base as they battled serious health issues. One of them even put on a banana suit to help out the new business my husband is working for!
I’m so grateful to have friends and family who believe in me and who are dedicated to supporting each other’s dreams. Most of all, I feel blessed that my kids are surrounded by people who are helping them to grow up feeling strong and loved—and who are there to save them from Mom freaking out!
Guest Post About My Publishing Journey on Operation Awesome
When my friend and author of Deadwood (Pugalicious Press, September 2012), Kell Andrews invited me to do a guest post on the group blog Operation Awesome, I knew it was time to share my publication story. Stop by and find out how I decided to self-publish some books and sign a deal with Sourcebooks for others.
Line Edits, the Horrors of Microsoft Word, and More Good News (Really)!
Soon after getting the news that Sourcebooks wanted to publish my novel, Wonder Light and its sequel, I heard from my editor, Aubrey again. Would it be possible to get the first part of Wonder Light polished right away? Sourcebooks was having a Launch Meeting in less than two weeks.
The Launch Meeting only happens twice a year, and its purpose is to introduce upcoming projects to the whole Sourcebooks team—all the editorial, marketing, sales, and design people. Oh my! Aubrey felt it was important for the team to get a feel for the mood of the book as well as my writing.
I’d secretly worried that Wonder Light‘s misty, mysterious, often tense mood would get lost in some preconceived notion of unicorn fluff, and I was so glad Aubrey was working to make sure everyone got to know my main character, Twig, and the wonder and mystery of Lonehorn Island. But . . . all those people reading it? So soon?
“Sure!” I told Aubrey. “I can do that!”
And then I raided my kids’ stale Easter candy and braced myself for the worst—editorial notes. Which I had to use Microsoft Word in order to see. Yes, dear friends. I used Microsoft Word. For probably the fifth time in my entire life. Quickly I scanned the notes, trying to get the most painful part over with—except that Aubrey’s notes weren’t painful. In fact, they were helpful. Downright uplifting. I almost forgot to be miserable about using Word . . . at least until a few hours into making changes, when I was ready to scream at all the red underlines and annoying bubbles produced by Word’s Track Changes. And why is it that the same font is so much harder to read in Word than any other word processing program?
Ahem.
But it was all worth it because . . . yesterday Aubrey e-mailed me after the Launch Meeting with exciting news. Wonder Light is going to be released not just in paperback, but in hardcover, with an illustrated jacket!
Hallelujah! I’m beyond thrilled, and so thankful for Amazing Editor Aubrey and Sourcebooks’ faith in my writing.
A Bittersweet Week
On the Thursday before Easter, after writing and revising and querying seven novels, I accepted my first offer of publication. What a perfect Easter gift for me! The knowledge that my book, Wonder Light—about a heartbroken little girl who finds not only a baby unicorn in need of her care, but a new life she never imagined she’d have—will soon be in the hands of young readers.
But the next morning, just as I arrived at the ball field for my kids’ homeschool baseball group, I got a phone call from my Dad. My maternal grandmother, Dorothy had passed away. Just a few words, and my joy turned to sadness. I watched my kids running around the field in the sunshine, and didn’t know what to feel. Grandma Dorothy had been doing so well. Just days before, she’d had a rare visit with all five of her children, who’d flown from all over the country to San Diego to see her. One last trip “up fools’ hill” for Grandma and her kids, who have a special knack for laughing themselves silly together.
That Good Friday evening I drew unicorns on Easter eggs with my kids, and thought of Grandma Dorothy, living out the truth of Easter. Victorious over death.
While Grandma Dorothy may be tending the gardens of paradise, her Oakdale, California garden is also very much alive in my memory. To me, as a little girl, Grandma’s yard was a magical world, every available inch overflowing with flowers, vines, and fruit.
In the in front yard, a path was flanked with dahlias the size of dinner plates, and the front porch shaded with a tangle of branches bursting with ripening grapefruit.
In the back, strawberry beds were planted all along the fence, and I played under the plum tree and the grape arbor and plucked berries from the raspberry patch. But my favorite treat was Grandma Dorothy’s sweet, white-golden treasure trove of nectarines.
Grandma Dorothy would come to visit my family while we were stationed at Fort Ord, California, bringing brown paper bags full of her garden’s bounty. Sometimes pecans or persimmons. Those were good, but always, as I lugged bags from her car and into our kitchen, I sniffed that brown paper and hoped to detect the muffled sugariness of white nectarines.
Those white nectarines inspired a poem, which I shared on this blog last year. I posted “White Nectarines,” written so many years ago, in part because I’d been thinking about how short life was. Too short not to share even a little poem about nectarines with the world.
So here it is, this time as a tribute to Grandma Dorothy, whose garden fed my heart and my imagination, and whose passing into new life reminded me of the real gift of Easter.
White Nectarines
by Robyn Russell
Brown Bag
Full and round with
White nectarines
smells of
Ripeness and paper;
My fingers find them
Smooth;
My mouth knows
They’re sweet.
Rumple, crinkle, bite
Again
And again
And I
Am full and round with
White nectarines
And still
So many,
Many more to
Eat!
My Book Deal with Sourcebooks!
So . . . on Monday I was at judo practice supposedly practicing a new turn-over with my friend Jenna, but really joking about husbands and their crazy ideas. I noted that my husband has a way of following through with his crazy ideas—like starting our judo club, for example.
“Just think,” Jenna said, “If he’d never done that, you’d probably be writing about unicorns or something!”
I stopped short. Jenna’s read my martial arts-inspired novels, and she was totally kidding. “I did write a book about unicorns,” I whispered, “and it’s going to acquisitions at Sourcebooks on Wednesday!”
Just like that, I spilled it, then swore her to secrecy.
But now I can shout to the world:
I have a two-book deal from Sourcebooks!
On Wednesday Afternoon, Editor Aubrey Poole called me with an offer for the manuscript I’d called Unicorns of Lonehorn Island, plus a follow-up book, and I’m thrilled to be working with her!
The first book is tentatively titled Wonder Light and will be out in paperback in Spring 2013! Yay! In bookstores and libraries! Woohoo!
