Keeping busy…

Good timing! I turned in my Truth About Truman revision a couple days ago and then the same editor returned my latest Boxcar Children manuscript to me for revision (something to keep my mind off Truth About Truman while I wait to hear back on it). BTW, I get to meet this editor in person for the first time tomorrow! After four original novels and four Boxcar Children books, it’s about time we meet, don’t you think? I met the editor who worked on my picture book at the same house a couple years ago. And I met a lot of the other people there when I went to ALA. But I’ve never met the editor who pulled Trading Places with Tank Talbott (then called Double Trouble) out of the slush pile. And with one exception (an editor at an educational publishing house), I’ve worked on more projects with this editor than any other editor.

Anyway…I started my new book for Pelican Press yesterday (which I’m having a lot of fun with!). And I started on the Boxcar revision today (when I wasn’t out shopping for a bass guitar with Junior High Kid — ye gads! Actually, it’s not as big, loud or expensive as you might think — he’s going to be playing it in jazz band this fall). It’s a pretty substantial revision this time. My editor thinks it’s because I was working so hard on Truth About Truman. I don’t know…I think it’s because I got so excited about writing about geocaching (and possibly introducing new people to the idea) that I focused too much on the geocaching aspect and not enough on the Boxcar Children aspect. I have to remember it’s a Boxcar Children book first and foremost…the fact that the kids get to go geocaching is secondary to the story.

One thing I struggle with when I write a Boxcar Children book is keeping everything wholesome and innocent enough. No one’s ever truly evil in Boxcarland. But this time around one of the notes from my editor says, “need more talk of a THIEF who is trying to ruin things.” Hooray! I get to be more evil! (Well, not TOO evil…)