Kristin Butcher... has novel ideas

I was just talking with my editor for Zach & Zoe Bully and the Beagle, and she informs me there has been a change of plan. Instead of releasing the novel as a spring book, the publisher has decided to make it a fall book. I can't tell you exactly when in the fall, but as soon as I find out, I shall post it in my blog.

Get set, everyone. My third book of 2009 will be published very soon. In just a few more weeks, readers can catch up on the adventures of twins, Zach & Zoe Gallagher. This time, they find themselves in the uncomfortable position of simultaneously trying to be responsible dog-sitters for a vacationing neighbour and peace-keepers between the beagle they are looking after and their bully cousin who has come to visit for a week.

Page proofs are in the process of being finalized, and then it's off to the printer. After that, it's just a matter of time until the book reaches the stores.

Here's what the cover looks like. 

At the risk of generalizing -- because I know there has to be someone out there to whom this doesn't apply -- writers are masters of avoidance. What are they avoiding? Why, writing, of course -- which makes absolutely no sense, since I have yet to meet a writer who doesn't love writing.

It is a perplexing conundrum -- no two ways about it -- but nevertheless it's true. A writer will grasp at any excuse to avoid sitting down in front of that computer to write. Get a cup of coffee. Do a crossword puzzle. Clean the bathroom. Water the plants. Collect the mail. Mow the lawn. Read the cereal box. Play computer games. Check facebook, My Space, and Twitter for the thirty seventh time in two hours. Take a shower. Hunt down a piece of lint under the couch.

Take me for instance. I have to revamp and send away a book proposal. And it has to be done TODAY. The task has been weighing on my mind so much that it has plagued my sleep for the last three nights. (I actually do some of my best writing in my sleep.) Anyway it woke me up at 4 this morning, begging to be written. So I dragged myself out of bed and turned on the computer, ready to go. Almost. First I had to use the washroom and toddle out to the kitchen to see if the contents of the fridge had changed in four hours while I was sleeping. Then I had to download my morning spam and see what was happening on facebook. Apparently Anita Daher in Winnipeg wasn't sleeping either. Of course, I had to do the daily online jigsaw puzzle and see if my Mahjong skills were up to snuff in the middle of the night. But I told myself I would get writing as soon as I was victorious.

Damn! I won the very first game.

But if nothing else, I'm an honourable woman, so I shut off the game and got to work and reworked the whole first section of the writing sample. I'm not unhappy with it. It'll be fine. Now I just have the second bit to attack. But I need to think on it a bit first, and update my blog, and now I'm feeling a bit sleepy, and ...

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

You got that right, Mr. Dickens! Yesterday, while slogging my way through the copy edit from Hell, my blood pressure sky-rocketed. I am not exaggerating. Halfway through the edit, I had to leave for a doctor's appointment, and -- as doctors are known to do -- mine took my blood pressure. It was 160/90. The copy edit was clearly bad for my health. Wine and salt may also have been contributing factors, but I'm laying the blame on the copy edit.

But it's done now, and I'm hoping my blood pressure is returning to normal. Unless, of course, elation is capable of eliciting the same effects as anger and frustration, because at this moment I am ecstatic! My copies of Return to Bone Tree Hill were just delivered -- two weeks early!! Whoever heard of a book being published ahead of schedule? Well, this one was, and it looks terrific! I couldn't be happier. (Check out the trailer for the book. It's on the home page of my website.)

This is my second published book in as many weeks. At the end of February, Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers was released. I haven't even had a chance to soak that one in, and now I have another. Yahoo!

But I'm still working hard. I spoke with one of my publishers today about the proposal I had submitted for a new non-fiction book. Except for some tweaking here and there, it seems to be on target, so with a little luck I'll be up to my ears in research again very soon. Who doesn't love that? In addition, I'm busy trying to finish what I hope will be another book in the Currents Hi-Lo series from Orca Books.

I'm writing as fast as I can, people. So, if you just keep on reading, we should be good to go.

Well, maybe not quite, but I do have a video trailer for Return to Bone Tree Hill, the murder mystery scheduled for release at the end of March. The trailer is on the Bone Tree Hill Book Page and also the main page of my website, as well as Facebook and You Tube. Oh, yeah, people, it's out there, so give it a look-see and let me know what you think.

Personally, I'm thrilled with it. When I initially thought about doing a trailer, I had grandiose ideas about what it should be. We're talking major motion picture! But when the time actually arrived for it to be made, I realized there was no way my ideas could come alive without a hefty financial investment, which just wasn't going to happen. So I scaled back my dreams and came up with a pretty bare-bones script and a couple of images. Then I turned it over to my son and begged him to do something magical.

AND HE DID!!! He took my ideas and tweaked them so that they morphed into something fantastic. The trailer is a mere 33 seconds long, proving beyond a doubt that less is more. The trailer simultaneously arouses curiosity and trepidation. How can readers NOT want to read the book?

I am so pleased. 

So I'm busy working on the proposal for a new book on Secret Societies with Annick, and the doorbell rings. It's the mailman with a box of books. It's Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers -- hardcover and soft! How can I not stop what I'm doing to check them out? I spent the better part of 2008 researching and writing that book. New books are so exciting, especially when their arrival means they will be showing up in bookstores any day! Woo-hoo!!

Of course, I'm excited about the book proposal too. But what happens to me when I start on research is I discover way more stuff than I can possibly use -- much of which is not suitable for a book for kids. Too much information is a dangerous thing. It's also very difficult to pare down to a size I can actually use. 

Well, it's official -- we finally have a title for the next Zach & Zoe book. It's Zach & Zoe -- the Bully and the Beagle. I just finished the final content edit this evening (I hope), which means we finally move on to the copy edit, and the art department gets busy creating the cover. According to my editor, the book is scheduled for a May 1st release, which is earlier than I anticipated, but that means I can promote it when I go to Winnipeg in May. It's all good.

After being away from writing for six whole weeks, it's tough to get back into work mode. But I have so many projects started or about to be started, as well as launches and book talks coming up, that I can't afford to procrastinate. With so much swirling around in my head, I was beginning to run in circles, so I decided to make up a To Do list. At the moment there are 26 items on it. I attacked the list diligently yesterday and managed to cross nine items off it, but I also added two more to the bottom. I have a feeling it's going to continue like that, but as long as I keep slogging away at it, I think I can win.

Golly -- it's hard to believe that it's been almost six weeks since my husband and I set out on our great Snowbird Adventure. But it has been, and tomorrow we start the hard drive for home.

We've had a fantastic time. We marvelled at the sand dunes and rocky cliffs of the Oregon and California coast and watched surfers in Carmel. We rode the trolley car up Rice-a-roni Hill in San Francisco and saw the sites from Fisherman's Wharf. We spent a day rediscovering the kids inside us and losing our stomachs on the rides at Disneyland.

I love to write, and I often sit in front of the computer way too much of the day. But at some point a person needs to refuel the inspirational tanks, and this extended holiday is doing exactly that. As my husband and I have made our way south, we have literally stopped to smell the roses. We're not in a hurry to get anywhere. We only need to enjoy where we are and what we're doing at any moment. So during our trip I've been soaking up everything and taking hundreds of pictures (almost everyday) to remind me of this experience when my memory starts to fade.