Last week, I got to do something so extremely cool that I came home ready to gush about it, and then I had a truly crazy weekend, and then a copy-editing deadline popped up, and then my brain was kidnapped by the first chapters of Volume Five, and now, a week after the fact, I am finally able to commence gushing.  So: Last Thursday, I got to attend the initial read-through of my very own play, “Under the Bed.”

It’s a longish one-act abut middle school and fear–two elements that go together, in my experience, like math homework and erasers–and it will have its “world premiere” (yep, we’re gettin’ fancy here) at Twin Bluff Middle School in Red Wing, Minnesota, on November 2nd and 3rd.  The cast and crew of the show, who are in grades 5 – 7, are clever and funny and enthusiastic and creative, and considering how constantly the read-through made me chortle to myself, I am sure–thanks to all of them–that the show itself will rock.

More updates to come as the play develops.

Between “Under the Bed,” school and Skype visits, store events, and other bookish things, my fall schedule is rapidly filling up.  I’ll be spending all of next week in the elementary schools of Stillwater, MN, courtesy of the wonderful people at Valley Bookseller.  Those are private events, but if you’d like to come to a public one, you can catch me at the Waupaca Book Festival on October 12 – 13.  I’ll be visiting schools, signing books, and speaking on a panel with amazing writers like Pat Schmatz (Bluefish), Geoff Herbach (Stupid Fast), and Marissa Meyer (Cinder).  Then, sometime in the pre-Halloween season (perhaps my favorite part of the whole year), I’ll be reading, signing, and chatting at Karma Gifts in River Falls… More info to come when I know the specifics.  And if you’re in the Winona, MN area, I’ll be at The Book Shelf at 10:00 a.m. on November 18 as a part of their Kids’ Day celebration.  (To know what’s coming up, appearances-wise, you can always keep an eye on my schedule at my appearance calendar.)

Now back to work on Volume Five.  I can hardly believe I’m here.

We didn’t plant this.

Last year there were the pavement pumpkins, sprouting from the compost bin and stretching their massive vines across the driveway.  This year we have the stowaway sunflower.

I noticed the stem when it was already a few feet high–all right, I’m not a good weeder–poking up from our front flowerbed. ‘That looks like a sunflower,’ I thought, and didn’t weed it.  It grew taller and taller, unfurling leaf after leaf  until we both started to believe it might spike up into the clouds and become a fire pole for golden goose thieves and angry giants.  When it reached 12 feet or so, it finally opened its (slightly wonky, but cheerful) yellow face.

I suppose the seed was dropped or buried by some forgetful little animal, but I prefer to imagine that it was planted by a squirrel with a horticultural bent– one who visits people’s flowerbeds, decides where there should be a splash of color or a burst of foliage, pats a few seeds into place, and moves on.

For other things that make me happy, see this review in Beyond Books: http://beyondbooks.ca/?p=5427

Just finished a round of line edits on my second/third/eleventy-hundredth  draft of Volume Four.  Generally, when I revise, I try to look at my work as a reader rather than as a writer–I pare down sentences, I pay attention to sound and rhythm, I look for logic holes, I think about pacing–but this time, perhaps because of some recent blog-surfing, a few particular writing “guidelines” kept looming up in my mind.

People are always asking writers for writing advice, and writers are always giving writing advice.  Often this advice is contradictory, but a few conclusions seem to be ubiquitous these days.  Conclusions like these:

– Adverbs are bad.

– The word ‘suddenly’ is especially bad.

– Using synonyms for ‘said’ is bad.

– Using lots of adjectives is bad.

Boo, I say to all of this.  (And I say it like the old woman shouting at Buttercup in The Princess Bride.  Bow down to her!  The queen of filth!  The queen of putrescence!) Boo.

There’s a core of truth to all of these suggestions, of course.  But the problem with so many rules like these is that they deal with stylistic choices.  And style is individual, it’s subjective…and stylistic rules are often arbitrary.  Saying that adverbs are evil is like declaring that painters shouldn’t use pale yellow–or, if they do use it, it should be used sparingly (adverb!).  I say, if that pale yellow speaks to you, or speaks for you, you should probably use it.  Maybe you should even use it lavishly, wildly, and unrepentantly (adverb, adverb, adverb!).

I just read a blog in which a writer/teacher complained that writers tend to describe the actions of their characters’ eyes too much–that they are always looking, staring, watching, blinking, gazing. Well, yes.  They are.  Unless they are blind, your characters will always be doing something with their eyes.  Do you have to describe what they are doing at every second?  Heck, no.  If it makes sense for your story, or your style, or if it conveys a character’s thoughts/feelings/attitude, should you use it?  Yes.  (I had to tell myself this, because simply reading that blog made every bit of eye-related action leap distractingly off of the page at me as I went through my latest draft.)

If you subscribe to any single source of advice, you will start to write to please that source.  We’ve all done this: You have a teacher who says you can’t start a sentence with a preposition; you stop starting sentences with prepositions.  You have a teacher who circles every form of the verb ‘to be’ in your writing, and suddenly your work is crammed with interesting action words.   A professor who sneers at similes?–Similes gone.  The style of your writing changes.  And maybe the style it changes to isn’t really yours anymore.

Here’s a piece of writing advice that I wholeheartedly believe, and it comes from Neil Gaiman: Remember, when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right.  When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

So, sweeping, prohibitive writing advice?  Use it cautiously (adverb).

This is one more New Orleans photo–one of my favorite tomb angels in Metairie Cemetery.  I love it because the book in her lap looks much more like a novel than a bible, and the expression on her face isn’t mournful or transcendent, it’s just vaguely bored.

A few months ago, I posted pictures of an incredible work-in-progress: Artist Tiffany Vincent’s hand-crafted recreation of the McMartin grimoire, as described in Spellbound. Now, I have the real (almost) finished book right here in my very own office, and it is DAZZLING, as you can see.

In what might be the very best twist of all, Tiffany left the pages blank and unbound, so that I can bring the book to schools and book events to have young (or not so young) readers concoct and contribute their own McMartin spells.  I can hardly wait.

(Happy author, with book.)

If you would like hear and see more of the creation process (and I know you would), visit http://www.curiousgood.com/?p=858

Another wonderful gift: This review of The Second Spy, which appeared in the Star Tribune’s summer roundup of teen/tween books by Minnesota authors.

Two other reviews have recently–and belatedly–come to my attention.  This review of Spellbound comes from a blogger in France, and this write-up of The Shadows is thanks to a blogger in Indonesia.  From what I can decipher/translate/guess, they both seem very positive.  Fly, my little world-traveling books!  Fly!

New Orleans in mid-July was awash with flash floods, mayflies, and 30,000 Lutheran teenagers on a leadership convention.  This made for a rather different visit from our last one–but it was just a wetter, crowded-er kind of marvelous.  We ate too much, bought too many books, and walked too many miles to count.  One of my favorite stops on this trip: The fascinating, slightly stomach-turning pharmacy museum on Chartres, in the Vieux Carre.  Aldous McMartin would have been right at home in this place.

(Why stomach-turning?  Well– I’m not showing you the jar of live leeches, the antique syringes and bone saws, or the trepanning device.)

I came home to some great news: THE SHADOWS has been nominated for the 2013 Washington Library Media Association’s Sasquatch Award, which might be the best-named award its been up for yet.  Thank you, Washington readers!  (Just so you know, I’m always looking for reasons to visit the Pacific Northwest…)

A new interview and a very kind review of THE SECOND SPY have been posted at the beautiful book blog Cracking the Cover; go and visit!

Finally, Wisconsin/Minnesota folks (Minnesconsinites?), remember that I’ll be at the Valley Bookseller in Stillwater this Saturday–that’s July 28th–at 2:00 p.m. to read, chat, and sign books.  I’d love to see you there.

First, because there’s a deadline:

Head over to Novel Novice!  One lucky entrant who submits a favorite line of dialogue from THE SECOND SPY (before the end of July) will win a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card.  Go now!

I’m typing this entry from the corner of Bourbon and Conti in New Orleans, so it’s going to be short on words and long on pictures.  Thanks again to all the readers, friends, and family who came to the Red Balloon for THE SECOND SPY’s release party.  You make a girl feel awfully lucky.  If you couldn’t make it to the event, but you’d like a signed book, the Red Balloon should have copies of THE SHADOWS, SPELLBOUND, and THE SECOND SPY in stock (at least for a while).

(In answer to your questions: Marble, and delicious.)

Tonight’s the night of the release party for THE SECOND SPY at the Red Balloon in St. Paul.  (7:00 p.m.  Cake.  Come on down.)   It will be great to pause and celebrate a completed book for a little while, because I’ve been in Revision Land for so long, moving back and forth between BoE Four and the YA/Shakespeare project, that I’m starting to forget how it feels to start or finish anything.  Okay–I know how to start things, and returning to that phase usually feels exciting and fun, but finishing things is another thing entirely.

Maybe this is because I’ve started thousands more writing projects than I’ve finished.  Maybe it’s because I’m not sure what ‘finished’ means, when we’re talking about a story.

Writers ask each other this question all the time: How do you know when a book is done?

I’ve heard some snappy answers.  Answer 1: When your deadline arrives. Answer 2: When your editor says it’s done. Answer 3: When you can’t imagine changing one more word without crumpling onto the floor in a drooling, wailing ball.

Here’s my own non-snappy answer: I’m not sure a book is ever done.

Revision Land isn’t land at all.  It’s a river, a pool, a sea.  Story is fluid.  You can see it taking shape as it ripples around you; you can shift it and separate it; you can solidify parts of it, freeze it in place.  But you can always open that folder, or that notebook, or that file, and let the writing melt again.  It can take on any shape or color or speed or temperature.  It can flow in infinite directions.  Sometimes you manage to capture a line that feels just right…but then something next to it changes, and that line isn’t just right anymore, so you alter it again.  And you realize that the line you thought was perfect could be perfect in a thousand different ways.

Deciding, too soon, that a piece of writing is DONE sets you up for trouble.  You freeze it all in place and back away.  You’re afraid to touch it.  The thing you’ve created feels brittle, fragile, tenuous.  Changing a single word seems impossible, and removing a line–or a whole chapter–would bring the whole thing crashing down.

Thinking of your work this way makes revision terrifying.  Or impossible.

When you’re working on a book, you rewrite on your own, for months or years.  Then you revise with an editor, for more months or years.  Then you work with a copy editor.  Even after galleys are printed, there are more little changes to make.  When at last the book is published — then, yeah, it’s ‘done,’ in that you don’t get to change it any more, even if you want to.  (At least that’s how it usually works in publishing.  I recently talked to a self-published author who entirely rewrote and re-released his first book after its original printing because he wasn’t happy with the story.  I can’t even wrap my head around this type of freedom.  It’s probably a good thing that I don’t have it.)  At that point, you just hope that all of your work and thinking and changing and dreaming have coalesced, and that the story you’ve caught on paper feels real and whole to someone who reads it.

The more I’ve learned about writing and rewriting, the more liquid it all becomes.  I’ve rewritten the entirety of that YA/Shakespeare project nine times now, and changed it in huge ways, and with each rewrite, I’ve liked it more — it’s felt closer to right, closer to done.  But I know I could write it nine more times, or nine hundred more times, and capture new shapes and colors and glints of light in the water.

Then, on revision 901, I would crumple up in a drooling, wailing ball.

The wait is over — The Books of Elsewhere, Volume Three: The Second Spy is now available in a bookstore (or on a website, or via an electronic device) near you!

Here’s one place to start shopping: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780803736894/jacqueline-west/second-spy

Make sure you look under the dust jacket:

And here’s a release day interview at the blog Novel Novice: http://novelnovice.com/2012/07/05/celebrating-the-second-spy-with-jacqueline-west/ Please read, comment, and share it with anyone who might be (even vaguely) interested.

Tomorrow, it will be back to work on Volume Four…but for now Ryan and I are heading to St. Paul for a celebratory sushi dinner.

Here’s the final Friday clue about the contents of THE SECOND SPY:

Now, on to the events!

OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE: Thursday, July 5.

ONLINE RELEASE PARTY: Thursday, July 5th.  Keep an eye on the  blog Novel Novice; they’re planning some surprises to celebrate the release of THE SECOND SPY.  Read the announcement here…and then please join us for the big day!

ART FESTIVAL: Saturday, July 7th, from 12:00 – 6:00.  You can find me at Red Wing’s Anderson Center for the annual Summer Celebration of the Arts.  I’ll have all three volumes of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE (and Cherma too) with me to sell and sign.  I won’t be giving a reading or a talk, but if you feel like spending that Saturday wandering around a gorgeous estate, listening to live music and browsing local art, please stop by my table and say hello.

BOOK RELEASE PARTY: Friday, July 13th, at 7:00 p.m.  I’ll be at the Red Balloon Bookshop (891 Grand Avenue, St. Paul), and I would love it if you were there too!  There will be an art contest for kids, I’ll read from the THE SECOND SPY, I’ll chat and answer questions,  books will be available for purchase and signing, and there will be CAKE.  That’s right.  CAKE.

BOOKSTORE EVENT: Saturday, July 28th, at 2:00 p.m.  I’ll be visiting the beautiful Valley Bookseller in Stillwater, Minnesota to read, talk, and sign books.  Join us!

First things first:

I have a slew of good news to share…

– SPELLBOUND has been selected as a Midwest Booksellers Choice Award finalist!  You can read the list of amazing nominees here: http://midwestbooksellers.org/book-awards/.  Winners will be chosen in October.  Whee!!

– THE SECOND SPY made the Summer 2012 Kids’ Indie Next List, where it’s in incredibly exciting company (See ‘Ages 9 – 12’): http://www.indiebound.org/kids-indie-next-list

– A new interview, conducted by Anne Nesbet (author of THE CABINET OF EARTHS) is available for your reading and commenting pleasure at The Enchanted Inkpot.  Please check it out, and then wander around in the inky depths for a while.  There’s a lot of great stuff to discover.

I’ve just wrapped up a revision of the soon-to-be-titled Shakespeare-ish YA project, which taught me not only how many different ways I can approach and reassemble one story, but how many words I can type in a single day without starting to misspell EVERYTHING.  (Apparently my maximum is around 20,000.  Then my arms start to go numb, and I can’t remember how contractions work anymore.)  Now, I return to Volume Four of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE…