Hopped Up On Blog

This is the first time that I’ve participated in a blog hop. Basically, it’s a virtual game of hot potato – a blogger answers some questions and then passes it on to the next blogger. I find myself in this position thanks to fellow Hamline writer Anna Palmquist. I met Anna at residency in January. She has a deadpan sense of humor, which is one of the best qualities a person can have. In addition to be a fabulous writer, she is an artist, which kind of isn’t fair for the rest of us. Anna often has good pointers about the writing process, so if you leave this post feeling dissatisfied, then you might find what you’re looking for on her page.

Let’s get down to it!

What am I working on?

Three viable projects emerged from the work that I did during the first semester. The first is my untitled middle grade novel. I’ve written about eighty pages of it. It’s been through several significant revisions already (apparently I do not subscribe to the school of just finishing a draft.) My advisor, Kelly Easton, helped me immensely to shape it. (At the time of this post, her website is “suspended,” which is kind of hilarious, because you can tell she rarely updates the site. I wonder what kind of nefarious activity she was up to in order to have it suspended.)

I feel kind of strange talking about something that isn’t finished, but I’ll give it a go. The novel is about some middle school kids who are tabbed to test a virtual reality gaming system. Each has the task of creating his or her own game. It’s not really science fiction though. Most of the action takes place in real life, though they do inadvertently reveal their innermost desires in the construction of their own worlds. I was hoping to finish the novel by summer residency, but alas, it’s not happening. It has gone through many changes, but I do believe it’s in a far better place now than it was when I started.

I’m also in the process of revising a picture book called The Answers to Everything, in which a mother and father answer their child’s questions about how things work in the world. Each parent has a unique way of answering, and it rhymes (which is scary…hopefully it’s not terrible.) From what I hear, this one is close to being publishable, so I have been advised to revise it and start sending it out in the fall.  I’m not sure about sending a singular PB manuscript, so I may use it in conjunction with another project to query agents.

That other project is called Caroline Kidd and the Nervous New Girl. It’s an early grade chapter book, designed for 1st and 2nd grade readers. This project was the brainchild of my brilliant advisor Kelly. She had me read some early grade readers when I was getting bogged down in my middle grade novel, and then she had me write one. It’s about 6,000 words (typical for that genre,) but for the first time she told me to add content. Usually I am cutting.  The first time I sent her my middle grade novel she asked me to cut 65 pages down to 20. (Which I did, and the novel is far better for it.) I like Caroline. I needs some revision, especially around one plot point, but it might have potential. I’m hoping to have that polished up and ready to send places by this fall as well.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Hmm. It probably doesn’t. I guess I would say that my creative proclivities tend to skew towards the sentimental and/or sweet. For example, I love all of the Ramona books. I love any book that captures the magic of childhood, without freighting the characters with adult problems. In one of the Henry Huggins books, Henry’s big problem is that he wants a bike. That’s it. Remember how emancipating your first bike was as a child? I guess that’s why I’m not writing dystopian YA novels at the moment. I enjoy reading them, but I don’t know if I’m the one to write them (although a few more bogus Supreme Court decisions might catapult me towards that.) I  see myself writing in a similar vein as Beverly Cleary and Kevin Henkes.

Why do I write what I do?

I want to create a safe space for children. When the Olympics were held in Sochi this year, all of my sixth grade students were talking about terrorism. And they were mostly resigned to an attack happening (thankfully, there wasn’t one.) But that just sucks. Why should an 11-year old have to worry about terrorism? I think that adults have become hardened to the world, and that they assume children have too. I want a world where a kid’s biggest problem is figuring out a way to get a bike. And if I can’t have that world, then I’m at least going to write about it.

How does your writing process work?

I have a wife and two children, so I have to schedule time to write. I’m at my best when I can wake up and get right into it. Often, I will go to the library. I secure a coffee. I need the coffee.  My wife is a writer, too. Sometimes, we hire a babysitter and abscond to the library together. We sit there and write, and occasionally scold one another for going on Facebook.  Most of my writing tends to happen on the weekends, though when I’m approaching a deadline I’ll stay up late to get work done.

I’m not much of an outliner. My story exists in my head for a while before I get it down on paper. My best thinking happens in the shower, for whatever reason. Sometimes I’ll jump out of the shower and drip my way to a notebook or my computer to write down a particularly good idea or phrase. When I sit down to write, I kind of just start writing, and I’m not always sure where I’ll end up. Then, someone will say, “I like it, but what is it about?” And then I admit that I have no idea.

My biggest goal is to find a writing group. My wonderful Hamline cohort serves in that capacity to a degree, because often we’re willing to read each other’s stuff. But I don’t have a group that I physically go to, which I think I would like. I’m not one for introducing myself to a bunch of strangers though, so we’ll see where that goes.

Passing it on

I am challenging my wife, the talented Bromleigh McCleneghan, to answer these questions next. She’s a pastor who’s already written a book about faithful parenting. She’s currently working on another book, and the manuscript is due on July 15th, so she won’t be getting to this until after the deadline. Poor kid. Her book is due in six days and I’m leaving for a week to go to residency!  I’ve read some of the chapters, and let me tell you, you’re going to want to buy her book when it comes out. As usual, she’s thoroughly smart and engaging. And I’m not just saying that because I want the book to be endorsed by Oprah, which would cause piles of money to start arriving at our doorstep. It’s really going to be quite good.

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