LOST DOG: Last Seen on Page 275 by Eden Unger Bowditch

Okay, it’s true. I lost the dog. I was somewhere on page 350 and suddenly realized- where is Ralph? The last time I saw him was at the castle. Now that we are on the streets of Cairo, the dog is nowhere to be found.

Luckily, we are in the modern era and I was able to search the manuscript and find Ralph. I brought him home- though I would have gladly offered a search reward if I had been facing a perusal of ink-stained pages instead.

Has anyone misplaced a character before? It is amazing how lost one can get in one’s own book. I remember, during the The Ravens of Solemano editing era, while waiting for my editor to send his usual litany of detailed and ever-helpful comments, I was sent a brief email that asked if I wanted to choose a birthday or simply have a character celebrate two birthdays in a period of four months. Oops.

I think of books I’ve read in which a character simply disappears and never returns. Poor character, lost in the ether with no conclusion to bring her home.  Going back through great swaths of text can sometimes be more of a challenge than putting up mental signs for a lost dog.  I can search ‘Ralph’ or ‘dog’ and find him. But when there is an event that must be followed by another, it gets trickier and more challenging. When a search must be initiated Instead of whistling through pages, it is more like being a detective trying to discern who and what happened when and how. Searching requires finesse and wits, which, for me, can be a challenge to find, as well. How many hours have you spent trying to get the words right to Google a book or a film or a quotation or an event or country? The search request must done over and over until you get the wording right to call forth the information needed.

Marissa Burt’s super-awesomely helpful post,  “Thoughts on Scrivener,” Monday, April 27,2015 (read it, if you have not already) struck home for me. I am surrounded by little pieces of paper with notes I can barely read, but which are desperately necessary to retain some modicum of attention to names and places, times and events. To remember who went where and when, I now have birthdays, names, histories, and spots of time on notes to myself. I plan someday to follow Marissa’s lead and move into the 21^st century with virtual Post Its, but until then, I have paper to keep me on the straight and narrow.

So, with the dog safely back in the arms of his boy, I am ready to send the first draft of the third book in the Young Inventors Guild trilogy to my editor- though pressing the ‘send’ button is something I feel like offering a reward for someone else to do.

Taking Your Writing Life Into Your Own Hands by Eden Unger Bowditch

Sometimes, it feels like we wait for others to guide our careers. We wait for our publishers to release our books, for our publicists to procure reviews; we wait for someone else to call someone else to get us into a bookstore that has never heard of us. Sometimes, however, we have untapped power we should consider and take our lives into our own hands.

When the first Young Inventors Guild book, The Atomic Weight of Secrets… was released, I was in the middle of a revolution, living in Cairo. I could do nothing until the following summer. I had ‘book release’ parties months after the book was released! It was a bit chaotic. I had sporadic events booked, sometimes in different parts of the US since I was only there during the summer. It was impossible. After we returned to Cairo in the fall, Bancroft Press, my kind and generous publisher, hired a publicist exclusively to book and take me on very short, intensely packed, book tours. I’d fly into NYC, take a train down to DC and meet my publicist. We’d visit twenty bookstores, shops, libraries, and schools. I’d have visiting author events booked and, in between, we’d visit a ton of bookshops and libraries as a collection of meet-and-greet events just to get the word out. I did three of these four-day adventures. It was exhausting but incredibly helpful. When the second YIG book, The Ravens of Solemano… came out last fall, there were bookstores waiting for the second book, who knew about the series because of our short visits.

Sharing with kids is always a pleasure

I learned that I could do this myself. Since I was in the US last year, I called libraries and bookshops, drove to places I had visited before and new places who were thrilled for the personal touch. I visited science museums and spoke to science and history teachers. I combined a family visit with a library visit in Chicago. I didn’t wait for someone else to do the work. I went out and made contact. When I return for the winter holiday this year, I am visiting two schools that have purchased YIG books, one for the entire 5^th and, the other, for the 7^th grade. Three libraries in Chicago have asked for author visits in the late spring when we come back for summer. As I work on the third book, I sometimes send notes to bookstore proprietors and librarians who have been kind. I hear back from them and they are always enthusiastic. Sometimes I hear back from their bookstore and librarian friends who are now enthusiastic, too.

So, my suggestion:

1. Make a list of who would be good to alert, considering the nature of your upcoming book. Be creative and consider museums and shops and conventions and fairs, in addition to libraries, schools, and bookstores.

Be prepared for bumps in the road.

2. Send an email. Then make a call. Speaking to people makes a big difference. Let them know about the book (s) and find out policy about visiting authors and/or signings.

3. Map out places nearby, places receptive to your calls or places that might be great for a visit. A visit is great. Provide a complimentary copy and/or other items like posters or cards, things to be placed in the store to alert customers.

4. Follow through and stay in touch. Many authors are silent and only make contact through their agents or publishers.

5. Be sure to keep that list for the next book release. Even if someone else is promoting, your name will be on the minds of the book people who are now your friends.

TRILOGY…ONE…TWO…THREE: Thoughts on writing the third book by Eden Unger Bowditch

DISCLAIMER: This post contains subject matter that seems to flip back and forth. It reflects the ambivalence I feel as I pen the third book in a trilogy. It flops from thought to thought and back. Is it great? Is it sad? Is it happy? Is it fun? Is it hard? Is it…so many different things? What I can promise, it is honest.

***

I am knee-deep in the third book of the Young Inventors Guild. 'Knee-deep' does not reveal the times when I am, in fact, in over my head, however. There are times when I am over my head. We all get attached to our characters and the worlds we create around them. By the third book, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the final piece and all that it must contain.

(Wikimedia Commons)

While my publisher and I have discussed the idea of other Young Inventors Guild trilogies along different timelines, these specific characters during this particular time and place are contained in the three books. That means the mysteries are revealed and the story is given closure. It is exciting…and a bit sad. It’s like running to a finish line while loathing the end of the race. It is something you work so hard for, so relentlessly, so long. And, with one swift step or stroke of the pen or finger on the keyboard, it comes to a close.

So much goes into creating a world- heart, soul, love, madness. I find myself referring back to moments in the first two books to be sure I have it right and rediscovering things I’d almost forgotten about that story. The third book takes place in Cairo (good thing I came back!) and I find that I really do have to roam the streets, peruse the venues, explore the ancient markets to reestablish my own connection with a place that hasn’t changed much since my characters were there over a hundred years ago. I am lucky to have the opportunity to explore the very place that my characters will. But there is a sense of finality that goes along with the pleasure of exploring. It’s like a final walk-through, knowing you will close the door behind you and leave that house you built with your own hands, that home you love, forever.

(Gutenberg Image)

I know that, even if I continue and create new Young Inventors Guild books on their own timelines, it will be different. It will feel different, coming back to the first. Revisiting a place that was home is not going home again. That said, it is a wonderful thing to rediscover places where once we did dwell. With that in mind, those of us who have series that will come to a close, enjoy the time in that world, embrace it, and, as the adventure comes to a close, know that these books of ours become part of the world and people will get to enter the story and have a chance to be there. While we write, we are experiencing the adventure for the first time, too. The books then become their own destination. And we, too, can find our way back to visit them.

ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF STEAMPUNK by eden unger bowditch

I had never heard of steampunk before I wrote the first Young Inventors Guild book, The Atomic Weight of Secrets… The cover artist, Steve Parke, said he loved steampunk novels. I had no idea what he meant! Alternative history, Victorian sci-fi, turn-of-the-century invention fiction – that’s how steampunk is often described. Since the Young Inventors Guild books take place around 1903/1904 and are science and invention driven alternative history-type of stories I quickly learned about steampunk! There is some fabulous steampunk MG/YA and older steampunk literature out there. I was invited to be on a steampunk panel of authors at the Baltimore Book Festival a couple years ago with Matt Kirby, Kelly Link, and Gavin Grant. It was an honour to share a stage with them and to learn more about this remarkable genre.

In October I was invited to participate in the International Steampunk Convention in Morristown, NJ and present The Ravens of Solemano… the Young Inventors Guild Book 2. IT WAS AMAZING!!! So many people in fabulous Victorian dress, with inventions and contraptions. Kids of all ages in tophats and waistcoats. And lots of physicists and inventors with much to show. I met a professor from Sarah Lawrence who teaches a course in steampunk physics and invention. There was even a pair of automatons!

Discovering a community that embraces the ideas in your writing is quite wonderful. It was exciting and invigorating to be around so many brilliant minds. I even learned more about the inventions I configured in the books! It was really lovely and definitely food for thought as I move ahead with Book 3.

FACE TIME and the YA/MG READER by Eden Unger Bowditch

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING YOUR NEXT YA/MG BOOK RELEASE

Let’s be honest with ourselves- kids don’t care what the critics say. We can cheer ourselves and pat ourselves on the back, but getting a fabulous review from a critic simply does not impress a kid reader.

Unlike adult fiction (a world where the readers read the reviews and buy accordingly and, thus, books impossible to get through become best sellers because they are the books in vogue to buy) where you can send your book off into the world and visit occasionally, YA books demand full-time attention, loving care, focus, engagement, and presence. Kids want to read, well, a good book, and they will like a book whether a critic tells them to or not. That’s why it can be more of a challenge to write for kids than adults. It is important to tour for any book, but it seems more so with YA/MG. Being out there on the road,speaking to kids, connecting with kids, is truly vital in the world of YA and MG. It is the life’s blood of the YA/MG book. As The Ravens of Solemano (Young Inventors Guild, Book 2) is poised for release in September, my publisher has basically kicked me out of the house and sent me packing. Well, that is not exactly… no, wait…that is exactly true! They have said the spikes in sales and attention on the web were shocking, every time I was on the road for the last book. But last time, I sauntered back to the US months after the release of The Atomic Weight of Secrets to an audience that had to reread the book to remember what to ask. Word of mouth is so important for all books, but more so for kids books. This means kids need to know you’re there. You need to make introductions for your literary baby. Loving care and attention are needed. While The Atomic Weight of Secrets held its own, it was really a neglected child. This time, I am ready to go. ARCs went out last month and events have already been planned. And, unlike with adult books, the long haul is not a fast delivery. A great review can shoot an adult book through the roof, but kids need time to get to know the book. My publisher told me to expect to work hard a lot longer than with books for adults. This was meant to encourage, as well as demand pavement pounding.It means they will stand behind the book much longer than one might expect. They believe that it simply can take longer and that the second book sells the first.

 

So I am ready. After what seems like ages carrying this baby inside of me, Ravens is kicking. I am taking deep breaths and doing yoga stretches. I feel like an expectant mother with a suitcase packed, waiting for labour to begin.