Characters Inspired by Real People

Lisa Greenwald, over at The Longstockings, blogged about a shirt her grandma gave her. The shirt said, Careful, or I'll put you in my novel. There were some interesting comments about how authors do or don't use real people when they create characters. I definitely get inspired by pieces of real people. But I would never make a character a duplicate of one particular real person. That would be way too weird.

However, I came pretty close to that in THE YUCKIEST, DROOLIEST, STINKIEST, BEST VALENTINE'S DAY EVER. Many years ago, when Jacob was in first grade and Sammy was in kindergarten, I was struck by how different kids can be, especially when it comes to Love. Sammy was so excited for Valentine's Day. He couldn't wait to have a whole day focused on love and hugs and sweetness. Jacob, on the other hand, came home from school on Valentine's Day and promptly began sorting his Valentines into two piles.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Looking for the good ones," he said.

He wasn't even opening the valentines, so I was curious. "How do you know which ones are the good ones?"

"Easy. The ones with candy." And he proceeded to thow away all the valentines that didn't have candy taped to them. "It's awesome!" he said with a huge grin. "It's like Halloween in February."

A story idea started forming in my head. Two views of Valentine's Day: Is it about love? Or is it about candy? What if I turned the typical Valentine on its head? He could be like Jacob: He'd believe that love is yucky, that girls are disgusting, and that Valentine's Day is all about candy. Contrast that with Leon, who, like Sammy, would think that Valentine's Day is all about love. Despite the social reperucussions of admitting you like a girl in elementary school, he would be brave and romantic, true to his heart.

And that's how this story came to be.

So today, I send love to Jacob and Sammy. Thanks for the inspiration, boys!

The Truth About Rejection

I started submitting THE YUCKIEST, DROOLIEST, STINKIEST, BEST VALENTINE'S DAY EVER to publishers in February, 2003. Over the course of 4 1/2 years, I received approximately 70 rejection letters. 70!! (I bet you didn't know there were that many publishers. Truth be told, some of those rejections were from agents, and some were contests I entered and lost.) One of the questions people ask me all the time is, "How do you handle the rejection?"

Here's how I see it:

Rejection is part of the process. You never hear of an author who gets published without first receiving rejection, so you have to just accept it. In fact, you can celebrate it. You are doing exactly what every author does... submitting work!

I give my rejection letters different grades. There's the form letter that comes back without a signature. I give that kind of rejection a C.

There's the form letter with the one line written at the bottom by the editor, something along the lines of: Thanks! or Cute! That rejection gets a B.

There's the personal rejection letter. That's when the editor actually takes the time to write you a whole letter, telling you what he/she did and didn't like about the manuscript. You should seriously celebrate when you get one of those. That means you are getting very close. You just need to get lucky now! That rejection is an A for sure.

A+ rejections come in three varieties:

1) A request to submit another manuscript. Awesome! That means the editor really likes your writing, but there is just something about this particular manuscript that isn't right for their house. Send something new out today!
2) A phone call rejection. Someone liked your manuscript enough to call you??? Holy cow! Good work.
3) A request to revise and resubmit. That's not really a rejection at all! You are so close, you can practically see your name on the spine of the book. Get to work!!!

Of the 70 or so rejections I received for YUCKIEST, close to thirty were personal rejections, half a dozen were requests for revisions, and one editor actually called to reject me after I did a revision for him that he loved. (More on that later.)

I know that rejections hurt. I know it's hard to wait months, sometimes years, to hear back from publishers. But you have to believe in yourself. Dust yourself off. Take another look at your manuscript to see if you can improve it. And send it out again. YUCKIEST changed dramatically over the years I spent submitting it. It got better and better with each revision, and it finally found a home at Harcourt.

Today I am sending love to all the editors who sent me those personal rejection letters. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to give me your feedback. You helped me improve my story and helped me to keep the faith!

Valentine's Week

One of my husband's co-workers celebrates her Birth Month every year (as opposed to just a Birthday), and I love that idea. So, inspired by her brilliance, I hereby proclaim this week: Valentine's Week! All week long, feel free to show the people in your life how much you love them. Cards, flowers, candy, secret admirer notes... whatever it takes. Have fun!

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I guess now is the perfect time to tell you about my forthcoming picture book. It's called THE YUCKIEST, STINKIEST, DROOLIEST, BEST VALENTINE'S DAY EVER, and Harcourt will be publishing it sometime in the near future. (Near future in children's publishing is not actually "near." But I'm not complaining!)

In this story, lovestruck Leon is determined to give his crush a handmade Valentine, but his cynical, wisecracking Valentine comes to life and runs away. It's pretty silly stuff!

Interesting facts about YUCKIEST:

1. I collected over 70 rejections for this manuscript.

2. Leon is modeled after Sammy, and the Valentine is modeled after Jacob.

3. I originally wrote this story for Faith's class Valentine's Day party when she was in second grade.

4. The first time an editor ever called me was to lovingly reject this manuscript.

5. Less than 24 hours after submitting YUCKIEST to Michelle Andelman at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, I received an e-mail from her expressing interest in representing me. About six months later we had an offer from Harcourt to publish it.

In honor of Valentine's Week, I will post more details about each of these facts during the week.

Meanwhile, today I'm sending love to Stacie, one of my readers who sends me terrific e-mails about anything and everything!