Laurel Snyder

(nice example of a “Penny Dreadful”)

So, I’m in the throes of NaNoWriMo, and I have to say… I’m really nervous about what I’ve written so far on “Penny”.  Can I really put copious vomiting, neurotic parent spoofs,  and a child taxidermist in the same book?

Right now everything feels off kilter and fluffy. Everything feels messy.  I know this is only a first draft, but I’m scared.

I wonder if others are NaNoWriMoing books under contract? I wonder if this was a mistake.  If the “serious” nature of work that’s been sold and the zany/spontaneous nature of slamming out 1500 words a day are incompatible.

I console myself with the fact that I always have time to do-over if this is a miserable failure. I also console myself with the fact that I’m a much better rewriter than I am a writer.  Something learned in all those years of poetry workshop makes me a very tight tinkerer, and terrible at just throwing words onto a page.

But right now I’m nervous.

One other, unrelated, note… I’ve been re-reading Gone Away Lake, because there are things I need to learn from it to write this… and I’m struck by the (Joe and Beth Krush) art in the book.  It looks SO MUCH like the (LeUyen Pham) art for Any Which Wall.  Which is AWESOME. But weird.

Allow me to unveil the cover of ANY WHICH WALL!  Which is now available for pre-order on Amazon, about a jillion years ahead of schedule. WOW!)

LeUyen Pham is a genius!

When I tell you just *who* is illustrating my next book.

Yeah, WOW!  (And you haven’t even seen the sketches I got yesterday!!!)

When I was asked, years ago, who my dream illustrator would be for Scratchy Mountains, I said quickly, “N.M. Bodecker.”

“He doesn’t work much these days,” I was told.   “He’s dead,”

Oh.

So I tried again. “Hilary Knight?”

“We’ll try…” they replied with a knowing snicker.  “But dont get your hopes up.”

Indeed, Mr. Knight never responded to any of my fan letters.

So… given that Tenniel is also unavailable, I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED!!!!

YAY!

Pham’s work reminds me of my favorite artists, actually. There’s something funny and smartypants and artsy at the same time.  Something off kilter.  Everything looks a little too big or a little too small, and everything looks like it has a touch of vertigo.  Everyone she draws look like they just heard a good joke.

(Yeah, you could say I aim for the stars… but how else you gonna fall  to the moon?)