Indie Interview: Curious George Goes to Wordsworth

Many a long years ago (okay, maybe not that long) I worked at the Curious George Goes to Wordsworth Bookstore in Cambridge, MA and it changed my life. So when the store recently interviewed me, I thought the least I could do is return the favor.

So, as a part of the Enchanted Inkpot's Indie Interview Series, I bring you Curious George Bookseller Extraordinaries: Katie, Michelle, Natasha and Rachel!


1) Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into bookselling, and about your bookstore?

Michelle: I’ve always loved books – as we all say! I’ve wanted to be a writer, or somehow involved in the book world, since I was in middle school. I had a wonderful opportunity to intern at Houghton in college, and it was fascinating (and a bit overwhelming!) to see how many steps there are in the process of getting books from a writer’s typewriter to a bookstore. But my favorite part about reading books was missing from this kind of office experience: the talking about books, the passing along of a much-loved, dog-eared copy, and that amazing feeling when you’ve connected the right book with the right person. This store is constantly supplying me with that opportunity, from my colleagues to parents and kids themselves sharing their recommendations and their reactions to my own recommendations.

Since we are a small, local, independent operation, we really strive for that personal approach: we really know our books, and we want every kid, student, grown-up, whoever, who comes in here to find that book that they cannot put down even for dinner. I can’t describe that feeling when someone comes back to us and says, “That was just what I wanted! What’s next?” The same goes for our toy selection; our buyers have children themselves and we wouldn’t carry something that they wouldn’t give to their own kids. We want people to come here for toys they remember from their own childhood, to pass on that joy they remember from say, a classic Fisher Price telephone, or a giant shark stunt kite on a perfect March day. We love our books, our games, definitely -- there's not a day goes by that one of us isn’t buying something for ourselves -- but we love those kids running down our stairs yelling, “THIS IS SO COOL!” just as much.

2) How do you view your role as an independent bookseller? What do you find most rewarding about your job? What is most challenging?

Rachel: I think indie bookselling is all about personality and personalization. I talk to a lot of customers who really value our recommendations, whether they live in the area or just stop in once a year when they’re visiting relatives in Boston. My job as an indie staffer is to keep a library in my head of what’s new, what’s classic, what’s good, and what’s on the shelf, so that when someone comes in asking what my favorite new picture book is or what to give to a sporty 13-year-old girl, I can find them something they’ll be really happy with. That’s my favorite part -- when someone comes in knowing who they want to buy for but not really knowing what to get, and I can find just what they’re looking for. On the flip side, sometimes it’s hard to make just the right suggestion to customers who don’t know who they’re buying for. Gender and approximate age are good starting points, but I always feel like I could find the perfect thing if I just knew more. I even practiced my handselling skills on my family last Christmas, and even the most book-phobic of them really enjoyed what I picked out.


3) How can readers and authors work with and support independent booksellers?

Natasha: Readers can always stop by or read our blog to see what’s going on in the store. New events like book clubs, signings, readings, and parties (especially with the holidays coming up) are always going on. If you have read a great book, tell the bookseller! It’s always nice to hear from customers what they love, so we can recommend favorites to similar readers. We just set up a “Kid Pick” review board for kids to let us know what they think of books they’ve been reading. Authors can always drop a line on their blogs or websites to grab their books at a favorite local, independent place. They can keep in contact with stores when they have the time to participate in signings, events, or even just to ensure that booksellers have their books. We love it when authors stop by and sign whatever we have on the shelves!

Readers and authors alike can always help independent bookstores the same way: word of mouth. If you love us, tell your friends! If you think of a book you love, tell your friends to pick it up here! If someone you know needs to find an awesome gift, send them here!

Katie: We have a lot of scheduled author events, with a signing and usually an activity, where kids get to interact with their favorite author or illustrator. Readings, drawing activities, discussions, writing workshops – really, any way that an author or illustrator can reach out to their audience, at the venue of a local independent bookstore, benefits everybody! As Natasha mentioned, we also love to have authors and illustrators just drop in to say hi and sign stock. We’re all book lovers as well as booksellers, so the staff tends to get flustered and fangirly about these visits! But it’s also a great opportunity for me as event coordinator to broach the idea of an event or guest blog spot with that person.

If authors sell their books from their websites, they can put a link on their site to IndieBound rather than a chain online bookseller. Independent stores register with IndieBound, so customers can order online directly from their local indie bookstore with the same convenience of other online shopping.

4) Can you tell us about a few of your recent favorite YA or MG fantasy books?

Rachel: There are so many! Ash by Malinda Lo is excellent, as is The Good Neighbors graphic novel series by Holly Black (the second installment just came out). There’s also the Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness (The Knife of Never Letting Go is in paperback now and The Ask and the Answer just arrived in hardcover), which are more sci-fi than fantasy, but exceptionally good reading. For the middle grade set, I really love The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh and Savvy by Ingrid Law.

Katie: I tend to read a lot of supernatural romance and “creature feature” YA fantasy! Shiver by Maggie Steifvater has an unusual take on werewolves. Not only is the romance in that one compelling (I have such a crush on Sam!), but the plot is nail-bitingly suspenseful. Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy is a great series about demons and angels. Right now I’m in the middle of The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead, and I’m hooked. Blood Promise, the fourth in the series, came out earlier this month. I’m probably the world’s biggest Neil Gaiman fan, so I’m constantly recommending his books for middle grade through adult. Odd and the Frost Giants will be here soon!

Some other titles on my looooong to-read list are Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, The Swan Kingdom by Zoe Marriott (a MG “Wild Swans” retelling), and the third in Nancy Farmer’s Sea of Trolls trilogy, The Islands of the Blessed.

5) What's the most memorable experience you've had bookselling?

Katie: Other than some "kids say the darndest things!" moments and authors/illustrators dropping in to chat, a lot of bookselling is pretty episodic. A customer asks a question, you pull together your resources -- the store's inventory, your coworkers' brilliant brains, quick online research, and most importantly, your own internal database of awesome books -- to try to answer that question to the best of your ability and give the customer as many good options as you can, and hope that they will find something that is just what they're hoping for. Then there's another question! But when you can find someone "just what they're hoping for," the feeling is memorable even if the actual incident doesn't stay with you that long. We have many loyal customers who have been on the other side of that experience, and who keep coming back to us for that reason. And we enjoy the challenge of the unusual question. Often the booksellers are learning from each other and discovering new favorites, right along with our customers!

Just as we have learned from you! Thank you, ladies!

surprisingly social

I lead a pretty quiet life. As I said in an interview at jama rattigan's alphabet soup blog my average day goes like:

I wake up, eat, check my email and surf the net under the guise of "industry research," which usually meanders its way to "book idea research." Then, when I am horrified at the amount of time I have spent sitting on my bum "researching" (probably while eating at the same time), I go outside and ride my bike or go to the gym for an hour or two. Then I return home and either write, draw or paint -- trying all the while not to get sucked back into "researching." Of course I inevitably do, and the rest of the day is filled with the back and forth battles of concrete work vs. pretend work. This usually goes on until I go to sleep at night, unless I am seeing friends for dinner or someone comes over. Depending on deadlines and/or the next day's schedule, I go to bed at around 11 p.m. - 2 a.m. Of course everyday errands such as cleaning, groceries, etc., get jumbled in, but all in all, I have a pretty quiet life. I hope that wasn't too disillusioning!

But recently, I have been surprisingly social. Meeting rock star illustrators like Melissa Sweet:
who gave an inspiring talk at the North Shore Reading Council meeting. Other than oozing with envy over her studio (it's a whole separate house!), I loved when she talked about taking a risk with each book that she does.

But before I could ponder too much on that, I went to a school visit at the Gordon School in RI, where they treated ME like a rock star:
They even made a little photo essay about the day. Thanks, Gordon School! You were great!

But no sooner had I recuperated from the visit, that I took off for VT to have lunch with rock star author An Na (and her beautiful daughter):
and then an event at the rock star bookstore The Flying Pig:
which is a celebrity to me because I am a regular reader of the Shelftalker blog. Here I am with rockstar blogger Josie Leavitt:



And from there...I went to bed and slept for 10 hours before I returned to my quiet life. I was tired. I'm not used to all this excitement!

Planning for a deadline

Since the art for Disappearing Desmond is due in a week (final stretch!), I thought I'd talk about how I pace myself with a picture book deadline. This book is 40 pages with self ends and has many, many illustrations in it... I laid it out with a lot of spots and vignettes and square-ups of all sizes. So to keep it all straight, as soon as the sketches got approved, I printed out thumbnails of all the pages that look like this:



I wrote the date I planned to do each painting above its thumbnail. I don't always follow this plan, but it helps to have an idea of how much I need to accomplish each week to make the deadline. Of course sometimes paintings take more or less time than expected... there are several with this book I've repainted entirely. But again having an overview helps make such an immense amount of painting seem less overwhelming.

So I go along, beginning each painting on the planned week. Once I've begun an image I put a check on top of its thumbnail. I say begun because I don't usually finish all the paintings til the very end. I'll usually go as far as I can until I reach a point where I am not sure what to do next. Usually at some point I will get stumped by which color or pattern to choose. So to keep myself from ruining or overworking the painting, I put it aside and move on to the next one. I like to hang these half finished paintings around my studio, so I can keep them on the creative back burner.



Then once all the paintings are on their way, I go back and finish them all off. This is where I am now, I've planned these last couple weeks to fill in all the details left in each piece. Finishing them all around the same time helps me be consistent; when I've worked in sequence sometimes by the end I end up with a style that has shifted somewhat. When a piece is finished I turn the check above each thumbnail into an x. I know, I'm ocd that way.

I'd be really curious to know how other people plan, or don't plan, this all out- how do YOU do it?

Look at page 147 of Jerry Spinelli's new book

Alvina must have given him the book -- but Alvina, did you know he quoted it?

Do you outline?

Do you make an outline when you're writing a novel? And when you do, how long and detailed is it?

I "write long," as editors say, and always find myself cutting out over half of early drafts --because I include a lot of details that I don't need AND because the story not only becomes more focussed but sometimes completely changes as I write it. So it seems that making an outline, especially, a really action-oriented one, one sentence per chapter, could really save a lot of time and keep the story on track.

Or does that make things too forced? I'm really curious about how other people do it!

Right now I'm doing it both ways--writing a novel of my own without an outline, and a work-for-hire ghostwritten novel with one. I'm also forcing myself to write the work-for-hire book IN ORDER -- and am already straying from the outline. I have to admit that this is part of the fun of writing -- being surprised by what the characters do and say. But I know from experience that it results in 8 or 10 drafts where (in my imagination, anyway) other people would write 1 or 2 or 3.

My best friend writes for TV and there, they beat out every script before they write it. And it is THEY: a group of writers sit in a room, discussing every scene until they have an outline that lists every scene -- who's in it, where it takes place, what happens. Then and only then is the story given to a writer, or writers, to actually write.

After I finish the work-for-hire project I'm going to beat out my novel -- and count myself lucky that I'm doing it alone, without a roomful of people complaining about or criticizing every idea. Or would that be a good thing? Maybe I should imagine them, too -- I know enough writers well enough to be able to guess pretty accurately what they would say.

Toucan Talk: An Original Animal Mask Poem

Today, I posting a poem that I wrote many, many years ago...then put aside. I worked on it again for one of Tricia's Poetry Stretches at the Miss Rumphius Effect last May: Monday Poetry Stretch - Animal Poems.

Here is my new version of my mask poem about a toucan. It may revised again. One never knows when one is finished with a poem

TOUCAN TALK

by Elaine Magliaro

I’m Toucan. I’m more beak than bird.

In profile I may look absurd.

I sport a bill that’s giant-size.

It’s true. I don’t hyperbolize.

It’s strong and filled with rigid foam.

It’s like an airy honeycomb.

It doesn’t weigh me down. It’s light!

It’s sharp.

It’s colorful

And bright.

It helps me to attract a mate.

It’s perfect female birdie bait!

It’s really great for plucking fruit

From trees—and self defense, to boot.

A useful tool, it’s versatile—

A beak that truly fits the bill!

********************

At Wild Rose Reader, I have a review of The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination, a wonderful new anthology that connects science and poetry. It was compiled by US Children's Poet Laureate Mary Ann Hoberman and her good friend Linda Winston.

My poem of the Week at Political Verses is HOT DOG!: A Turley Blawg Verse.

The Poetry Friday Roundup Is at Wild Rose Reader Today!

feeling guilty part II

So I am once again feeling guilty (I think if you polled people who work at home you'd find that a large number of us experience this!). I am wearing my "pajamas" -- really my work out clothes because I didn't feel like getting dressed since I'm going to the gym later. I've been watching TV (not really, but it's on) and looking up facts on the internet all afternoon. I am, in fact, getting "work" done, but I put work in quotes because it doesn't feel like work to me. Since I work 3 days at BN I feel like that is what real work is--being tortured. The job really does feel like torture sometimes. Customers can be very difficult and I often feel like a social worker because there are quite a few mental patients who frequent the store.

Today, however, I am on break from that. I'm doing what I want to do. Somehow, though, it doesn't feel like work! I suppose that's why I feel guilty.

I don't want to say much about what I'm working on because I don't want to be copied, but I will say that it involves recycling old material that didn't make it into previous books.

meghan

Saturday at the Flying Pig!

Celebrate National Bookstore Day this Saturday with me at the Flying Pig Bookstore!

Saturday, Nov. 7th, 1 pm
Flying Pig Bookstore
5247 Shelburne Rd.
Shelburne, VT

local but can't make it? Reserve an autographed copy and pick it up later! Call: 802-985-3999

Hope to see you!!

love this too

check out this coolness

red dress

I was going to do a post about the Smith College event that Anna & I attended, but fellow author Jeannine Atkins did such a nice write-up on her blog I thought I'd just link there!

So since I'm not writing about that, I can spend more time doing my most present distraction: SHOPPING!

Okay, even when I was young there were two things I loved reading about in books. Food (which is why I loved Farmer Boy) and clothes (which is why I loved Ballet Shoes). I loved reading the descriptions of what the characters wore, their imaginings of the perfect party dress, and pretty clothes that they sighed over.

Which is why I claim that as one of the excuses for my current preoccupation: looking for a new dress. I have to admit, just like the girls in the books I read, I love pretty clothes and looking at them (trying them on is a different story--sometimes a bit disheartening--which is why I love online shopping)).

So, even though I have plenty of time to look with my Today Show appearance scheduled for Dec. 4th, I've been hunting relentlessly. Some suggested the blue dress but I think I would like something red, something that will be bright and lucky...something like this:

which is my recent splurge (though I can still return it). It's a bit dressy compared to what other authors have worn, but I feel like it's unlikely I'll be on the Today Show again so might as well go in my nicest duds! What do you think?

Disappearing Desmond continued

Apologies for the late post, I spent the morning in Connecticut at a school visit, and the afternoon at a book talk given by the lovely Alison Morris at the Smith College Campus school- a follow up to the book fair yesterday where Grace and I presented and signed with a bunch of local author/illustrators. It was a busy day considering I usually sit at my drafting table all by my lonesome (with the possible company of my cats), and a needed break before the final stretch to my deadline.

Anyhow, here is the conclusion to last week's post about one of the Disappearing Desmond paintings. Just a few more to go, all the art will be done less than two weeks- eek!

When we left off I had just started to repaint the figures over the background layers:



Next I filled in the snowman and Desmond, dressed in blue to blend into the shadows:



Then I worked on the two figures behind him, beginning patterns on their clothing:



More layers, on the trees especially:



And the finished painting: