Last night I went to a wonderful celebration at the YMCA and sat next to a young guy who makes promotional videos for the internet. Here's what he said is the secret to great videos: brevity. You need to reduce everything. If you have 12 good ideas, cut them down to 9. Then look at them again and identify the 5 or 6 critical can't-live-without bits and keep only them.
This reminded me of:
a) the slash-and-cut stage of editing stage of a manuscript,
b) how amazingly short-term our attention spans are on the computer, and
c) Julia Childs standing over a basting pan reducing roast veal juices with a bit of stock and a dollop of butter to make a "sublime" sauce.
I'm not heading into reducing anything right now, least of all my mouthwatering fantasies about good food. Like 150,000 other hopeful, scared, crazy people, I've joined National Novel Writing Month to focus and push forward my novel writing for the month. If you've been too scared or worried to do this, and figure now it is too late: it's not. Join up. See what you can do when you make writing your front-burner obsession of the month. Go on. You can even treat your tired, written-out self to a delicious cooking session à la Julia when you've done your words for the day.
Let me know if you sign up, or already have. I'd love to know I have invisible company at my writing desk!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Book launch: Marching for Freedom interviews
It turns out the book launch for Marching is not just a magical release date. It's also an audio interview and reading by me on Teaching Books on School Library Journal's website.
I read one of my favorite parts, when Lynda Blackmon Lowery is jailed for three days with a group of other teens, and what happens when the girls ask for help.
Want to hear Lynda talk about her experiences? Here's an absolutely wonderful video about Bloody Sunday.
I read one of my favorite parts, when Lynda Blackmon Lowery is jailed for three days with a group of other teens, and what happens when the girls ask for help.
Want to hear Lynda talk about her experiences? Here's an absolutely wonderful video about Bloody Sunday.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The magic of Marching for Freedom launch and a Publishers Weekly interview
Some days are just amazing. I woke up feeling something special was happening, then remembered that today's the day. It's launch day for Marching for Freedom.
I had a great celebratory morning appearing at the Koret Auditorium in the San Francisco library with four other writers. Here's Lewis Buzbee talking with Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Summer Dawn Laurie (tireless coordinator who made all this work seamlessly) and Wendy Lichtman. I missed getting a photo of Hillary Homzie, who was the funniest of all of us, getting the kids rolling in the aisles with her story about how impersonating the Cookie Monster saved her from being mugged.
Our audience was 6-8th graders, who ranged from lively to snoozing (see photo) with one small, totally adorable, girl in Hello Kitty boots who sat listening intently with a stack of books beside her.
When I arrived home, I found an interview I'd done several weeks ago with Kathy Weeks was up on Publishers Weekly. I had so much fun doing this interview. Kathy asked me really compelling questions about the process of putting together the book. Thanks you Kathy for such a great interview and for pulling together so many strands!
Publishers Weekly interview.
I had a great celebratory morning appearing at the Koret Auditorium in the San Francisco library with four other writers. Here's Lewis Buzbee talking with Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Summer Dawn Laurie (tireless coordinator who made all this work seamlessly) and Wendy Lichtman. I missed getting a photo of Hillary Homzie, who was the funniest of all of us, getting the kids rolling in the aisles with her story about how impersonating the Cookie Monster saved her from being mugged.
When I arrived home, I found an interview I'd done several weeks ago with Kathy Weeks was up on Publishers Weekly. I had so much fun doing this interview. Kathy asked me really compelling questions about the process of putting together the book. Thanks you Kathy for such a great interview and for pulling together so many strands!
Publishers Weekly interview.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Book launch takes me to NCIBA
A launch is a little bit softer on the timing. Which is why I got to go to NCIBA yesterday. The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show is where the publishers show their wares, the booksellers browse, and the authors sign. The last time I was at the NCIBA was years ago, when Restless Spirit: the Life and Work of Dorothea Lange published. I was new at all this. I was kinda overwhelmed and scared. The room was huge and noisy, people seemed to loom up in front of me, stand patiently waiting for me to sign a book, then slip away.
This time was a blast. Today I felt like I was in a room full of old friends. There’s a strong community of booksellers just barely keeping their noses above water in these tough times. I saw my pal, Luan Stauss, who runs Laurel Bookstore. I ran into a librarian who whispered she was going to be on the Newbery next year, then grinned. (No, I won’t have any books coming out, so I can’t bribe her.)
I understood this time about the “trade show” part. Malcolm Margolin who runs Heyday Books, (alright, he IS Heyday Books) had a photography book idea he dangled in front of me. I ran into Laura Sheppard who is the amazing Events Director at the Mechanics Library in San Francisco
Can you see how much fun this is?
Here are a couple photos from my day. Mostly, I forgot to use my camera. But I did get this terrific shot of Sara Zick, my publicist from Viking, and she got these of me.Here's something you have to learn to be good at booksigning: writing and talking at the last time. And spelling correctly, which is the part I worry about.
Next up: Thursday Oct. 15, 10 :00 am. I’ll be at the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library for Kidsquake with six other terrific writers.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Book designers: unsung heros of my world
One of the biggest thrills for me in illustrating non-fiction books with photos is finding little-known or never published photos, and seeing what parts of the story the photos can carry. I can get seriously euphoric over finding beautiful, revealing photos. For my new book, Marching for Freedom, I found two photographers, Matt Herron and John F. Phillips, who had done incredible photos of the Selma to Montgomery march for the vote in 1965. They were both awesome about letting me look through their archives.
So now picture this: I have a manuscript in pretty good shape, thanks to the hard work of my editor, Catherine Frank at Viking.. I have lots of photos from the two photographers, and many others I've uncovered. I am also getting pretty tired at this point in the process. I am losing traction as we begin the rush to meet our deadline.
Enter Jim Hoover, brilliant designer. He scoops up all my photos, reads and rereads the manuscript, begins sorting out which photos are the very best. We talk. We shoot messages back and forth. Jim lays out the pages. We try one photo then another. Jim finds photos. More talking and emailing. Catherine runs back and forth from her office to Jim's to weight in, provide fresh eyes. The shape of the book begins to emerge. Jim begs the powers that be for more pages, so that the book will have breathing room for the photos. He gets an okay, we slip in more photos, agonize over what we can't include. Jim chooses paper, tries different fonts, finds a spot for one last photo.
We wrap the whole thing up. Jim pushes some sort of magic electronic button and the book heads off for printing. I collapse on my bed for about two weeks. Jim gets on with his other work that's been stacking up.
So now picture this: I have a manuscript in pretty good shape, thanks to the hard work of my editor, Catherine Frank at Viking.. I have lots of photos from the two photographers, and many others I've uncovered. I am also getting pretty tired at this point in the process. I am losing traction as we begin the rush to meet our deadline.
We wrap the whole thing up. Jim pushes some sort of magic electronic button and the book heads off for printing. I collapse on my bed for about two weeks. Jim gets on with his other work that's been stacking up.So six months later the book gets reviewed in time for the pub date, October 15. I was just sent a copy of the Hornbook review. Here is my favorite part: "Partridge once again demonstrates why she is almost peerless in her photo selection. The photographs have a moral impact as well as a visual one: the stirring cover depicting two high school students, one with an American flag draped over his shoulder, the other with the word VOTE written on his forehead; a four-image sequence in which a young boy is confronted and arrested for holding up a voting rights sign; black men filling out applications to vote in front of a sign enumerating the offensively ridiculous obstacles placed in their way."
Of course I love being "almost peerless" in my photo selection! But I have to say, take a bow Jim Hoover, peerless book designer.
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