On May 17, 2010 the cat got out of the bag: Publisher's Marketplace announced I'd sold a book. Yay! So I decided to make it public too. This page will document the process. Enjoy!
February 10, 2012 
I'm super excited to announce ONE CAME HOME is coming out on January 8th, 2013.
Let the trumpets sound!
(Photo was taken by my dad years and years ago. It's either my brother or myself -- but I love it.)
December 7, 2011 Kind of excited. Yesterday a friend dropped a promotion idea in my lap (quite literally). I'd never thought of it and it was a gift from above.
Yay!
Now I'm testing it. We'll see if it works.
It looks like this (and this is all I'm going to say):
November 21, 2011 
What it looks like in ChicagoMy editor from Knopf, Allison Wortsche, came to Chicago for the NCTE Conference (a bunch of English professors, students and teachers) and we met!
(Yes, yes there should be a photograph of Allison, not a Chicago scene, but I'm shy about asking editors to stand still so I can rig up a photo. I'm already nervous. Why add to it?)
What's Allison like? She's pretty with a happy smile, and she likes to walk. I love people that like to walk.
We walked for our hour (or so) together. I showed her my secret hangout at the Harold Washington Library. (Not telling.) We went to Sandmeyer's Bookstore, which is in the old publishing district of Chicago -- Printer's Row. A good place to take a book editor, don't you think?
It is great to meet her. It's helpful to be able to visualize there person on the other side of the phone line, to know her body language a little. I liked her. Now I like knowing I like her.
AND -- also this week -- I got an email from my copyeditor, Iris Broudy. (Yes, I found out who she was!) Remember how much I enjoyed her red pencil? Well, she's just as great as that pencil. Maybe someday I'll meet her face-to-face -- I'd like that.
A good Thanksgiving week for me. I'm thankful for the people who are working on my book!
Next up? Still talking covers (and a possible subtitle) and then I think it'll be galleys, which is when it starts hitting the reviewers.
I think. Don't quote me on this. I've been wrong on the order of things before,
November 2, 2011 
Saying good-bye to a lot of little notebooks this week -- 18 little notebooks.
These aren't diaries. They're little idea books, plot-thread keepers, to-do lists, and string-around-a-finger books. As I write, I keep a notebook right beside me. Every day I write the date at the top, and when I get an idea that doesn't fit where I'm currently writing in the story, I jot it down in the notebook. That way I can keep working where I am without getting distracted by something else. When I'm stuck, I freewrite in the notebooks. Sometimes writing longhand is just the thing to dislodge the problem. At the end of the day, I scribble down what I need to work on the next day. There are many, many uses for little notebooks. Maybe the biggest is that it alleviates my fear that I'll forget what I'm doing and where I am in the story.
One Came Home took eighteen little Moleskin Notebooks, one big notebook, and a stack of notecards. Hmm. Not sure that's surprising, but I like statistics. As far as when I started this book, it seems as though I started working on the book in earnest in 2007, but the idea began in 2005 sometime.
Now that I've turned in the copyedited manuscript, it's time to send these off to recycling heaven. Space comes at a premium around here, and I need broad, wide-open space for new books and new ideas.
Yay!
October 27, 2011 
Sent the copyedited manuscript back to Knopf minutes ago. (It's 4:20P.) I made my marks in blue pencil, next to the copyeditors red pencil, next to the editors regular lead pencil and next to the fact checker's green pencil. (I think that's what the green pencil was...) Then I scanned it onto my computer (oh lovely, lovely,SnapScan -- so glad I purchased you this year) and so I now have a full color version of the copyedited manuscript. It's going to be nice to have.
The copyediting process this time (as compared to LUCY) was much nicer. With LUCY I had something like 48 hours to turn it around, and I was bleary and incoherent for a couple of days afterward. This time I was able to go through the suggestions at a solid pace, but not push. Really nice! And I loved my copyeditor too -- felt like she understood what I was trying to do. Her suggestions were good. My editor's were too.
I'm feeling a little nauseous. I'm surprised by this. This book has been relatively stress-free. Overall, I haven'tfelt badly. But we human beings are complex things, and it is pretty much the end of my part. Seems like that might cause a little stress. Time to look at other projects -- that's for certain.
So that's the news. Should have a cover to show you soon. It might even have a tagline... Ha! Yes, just like in those old 1960s, 1970s movie posters. What was Jaws? Something like "Don't swim in the water"? Imagine something like that (I hope)....
