I’ve been back to assistant teaching for a week now, and it’s been so much fun telling my students about Cooper and Packrat being picked up by Islandport over the summer. During some of last year’s lessons, I’d highlighted the similarities between their classroom writing and the process I used to write Cooper. They asked very good questions, like: How many times did you have to rewrite it? How long did it take you to write 35,000 words anyway? How the heck did you ever fiiiiind 35,000 words to write? How do you choose the storyline? The characters? Do you really have to do research? Whoa, you make more mistakes than we do, Mrs. Wight! (after seeing a manuscript full of critique notes from a writing friend)
And they kept me going, asking every now and again if I’d heard anything from the publishers. Why did it take so long anyway, they’d say over and over again. I warned them they could be graduated from high school before I sold a novel, but they just wrinkled their noses and laughed at me.
These kids are some of my biggest cheerleaders. And there’s even a few of last years eighth graders who came back from the high school to congratulate me. Soooo many hugs!
Already the new wave of questions flow: How come it won’t come out till August? Will it be an e-book? Will it have pictures? Can we read it first? Pleeeeeease??
*rubbing hands together* So for them to now go through this final process with me . . . it’s going to be so awesome! It’ll be more fun than doing it from my quiet, winter, campground office, that’s for sure.