I watched Jeopardy, the trivia tv show, only once during April. During that one episode there was a clue about eels and I was so excited, but dear reader, I did not solve the clue. The question was like, “Blah blah blah, eels swim to this North Sea…” and I was like North Sea… the North Sea? The North Sea is a sea in the North.
But here’s the deal with me and trivia clues in general, if there’s a first answer that feels like a true possibility, I will not come up with the correct answer because my mind will be laser-focused on the first word association answer that sounds sort-of right. The North Sea is a sea, and it is in the North. Boom. Wrong according to Jeopardy.
The correct answer was the Sargasso Sea, and I was like duh, of course. This is like the mysterious oceanic home base for so many eels. It’s like that moment in How to Train Your Dragon where all the dragons are bewitched and return to dragon island with their fish tributes. That is what I imagine eels are like when they swim to the Sargasso Sea. It’s very unscientific. This is your periodic reminder that I am just a lady with an internet connection and not an eel expert— can’t even answer Jeopardy clues on eels correctly.
Anyway, back to Jeopardy and eel clues. I was like, wait a minute, the Sargasso Sea is considered North??
Like what would you consider a North sea? Like what seas would make you think, ah yes, this is a northern sea? Because I was thinking a northern sea would be sharing water with the Arctic Circle… like the Baltic Sea and North Sea type of North, and the Sargasso Sea is definitely sharing water with the Bahamas.
But this feels like we all could use a geography or oceanography refresher since I apparently need one:
The Atlantic Ocean is split into the North Atlantic Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean. The Sargasso Sea is in the North Atlantic Ocean (But ahem, not what I would consider North). But maybe because I live in a more northern state? (Is this a very self-centered way to think about directions?) Or is it because the Sargasso Sea is also near a lot of southern states? (Is this a very US-centric way to think about directions?) Is the equator all that matters here, or is there a moment when something is generally considered North? Or is this all relative?
I feel like this is close to spiraling into a SHE WORE A CROWN AND CAME DOWN IN A BUBBLE, DOUG. Like, THE SARGASSO SEA IS NORTH OF THE EQUATOR. IT’S A NORTHERN SEA, EIJA.
Forget directional rules and the ocean and please enjoy this photo of a garden eel. I love him. My daughter sent it to me. Isn’t he cute?
Real Mermaids and Smart Lights
I had a very mermaid storytime at Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane, Washington with a couple of amazing mermaids. Auntie’s is a downtown Spokane staple, and one of my favorite book stops in the Lilac City! It was so fun to watch the kids listen to the mermaids and talk with them after the show— a once in a lifetime moment to share a reading with mermaids.
When I first found out about my book being included in this interactive initiative, I was really excited but I didn’t really know that smart lights existed. Did you know about smart light bulbs? Or smart color changing light bulbs? Penguin Living Stories works with Philips Hue Bridge smart lighting thingamabob system, and then you’d need a color changing light bulb that works with the Hue Bridge.
I do not have any of these things, but I’m so curious what sounds and lighting effects happen with The Good Little Mermaid’s Guide to Bedtime when you read it aloud with these devices. I really want to know what happens when you read, I AM A PREDATOR!
I’ll be joining my friend, Tara Karr Roberts and new writer pal, Christian Perry, and many more at Pop-Up Prose in Moscow, Idaho on May 18th at the best local place to get lunch (or warm pita bread if you just need a lil snack). I love Mikey’s and am excited to participate! I have no idea what I’ll read, something shelved and weird.
Stay up-to-date on all book news and events and hit that subscribe button for monthly updates and random eel info from yours truly.
Reading New Books and Lurlene McDaniel
There are just so many good books. Steve Sheinkin is an instant read for me, I love all of his non-fiction books which are so well-written and well-researched. Once More with Feeling is for any and all musical theatre nerds out there, and I’m really enjoying Andrea Beatriz Arango’s emotional middle-grade novel in verse, Something Like Home.
March Madness was wild, I loved watching the college women’s games, and am forever grateful for Hanif Abdurraqib’s writing and perspective on life and basketball, and how a book about basketball is really about life. But honestly, as a lifelong bball fan, I will always believe that basketball is also about life.
I also picked up a Lurlene McDaniel book, Too Young to Die, from a local little free library. It was emotional, cleanly plotted, there was a high school crush and a college-age boyfriend, some hot air balloons, a PSAT test, and even a death all in 166 pages. Incredible.
I know there are always side conversations happening in kidlit-land about teen books needing to be for actual teenagers, and the need for shorter books, straight to paperback options, or more affordable books. I am fully aware that Lurlene churned these books out, but wouldn’t it be nice to have 200 page paperback stories for teenagers?
I would also join a bookclub that only reads books from your youth. Where can I join an Animorphs bookclub or Sweet Valley High (which I’ve never actually read) reading group. A bookclub where you revisit some pop-culture titles from your tween era, everyone could read the same book or pick like one author and see what happens. Could be fun. Please let me know if you do this, bonus points for an accompanying PowerPoint presentation.
I also love how the eels on this page are like, “yes, floss your teeth, you are divine, you have beautiful gleaming teeth, you must brush them.”
Nici’s illustrations in The Good Little Mermaid’s Guide to Bedtime are so excellent, and it’s really fun to make up what all the other fish are thinking throughout the story. Highly recommend commentary from all the fish while you read.
Mermaid Book Events
Since The Good Little Mermaid’s Guide to Bedtime published on March 5th, I’ve been busy doing book store visits and author signings, which have been a blast! It is very exciting to see a book you wrote on a shelf in a bookstore. I am so grateful.
I started off my mini book tour at Wishing Tree Bookstore in Spokane, Washington, a beautiful bookshop in the South Perry District. I love doing storytimes, and it always feels so special to connect and share a storytime with kids and families.
At the event, I’ll share a little bit about the writing process and how this unhinged mermaid story evolved to become this final physical book, and I’ll read the story and sign copies. I’ll also have coloring sheets! If you’re local, I’d love to see you out there.
Next Saturday, on March 30th, I’ll be at Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane, Washington, with a couple of mermaids! Auntie’s regularly hosts mermaid storytimes, and I’m so excited to have mermaids join me for my reading— I can’t wait to meet them!
If I’ll be in your neighborhood for the next couple of events, I’d love to meet you! Be the first to find out about events and book news.
How does anyone have time to read when a book is being released?
That is a great question, but it helps to read mostly picture books, which are lovely and short and just the right amount of story and escape. And it helps when a novel is written by a middle-grade writing master, like Erin Entrada Kelly or Anne Ursu.
Thanks for reading the Eel Report Newsletter, can’t wait to share more with you next month!
This newsletter’s eel report is all about Lough Neagh, a large freshwater lake in Northern Ireland. Lough Neagh almost sounds like lock knee, lock neigh? People have fished for eels at Lough Neagh since the Bronze Age. If you are like me and don’t know or remember when the Bronze Age was, it was about 5,000 to 2,000 years ago. It’s when humans produced and used metal for the first time. I can’t keep those kinds of facts in my head because there won’t be enough room for new information about eels and internet memes.
Anyway. Lough Neagh is the largest wild eel fishery in Europe. The waters are publicly owned, but the bed and soil of Lough Neagh are owned by Lord Ashley, aka the Earl of Shaftesbury. Nicholas Ashley-Cooper is the 12th and current Earl of Shaftesbury (he used to be a DJ in New York, this is like incongruent for my brain) his brother Anthony Ashley-Cooper was the 11th Earl, and their father, also Anthony Ashley-Cooper was the 10th Earl, but he was brutally murdered by his wife and her brother. A dwindling number of Earls, like a dwindling number of eels in the waters of Lough Neagh. Sorry to the Earls and also the eels. Lough Neagh really does have low eel numbers and algae blooms and plenty of sand extraction. Perhaps it’s all related, but at least the eels won’t be thrown into a ravine in the French Alps like the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury. But maybe it’s worse to have your habitat slowly ruined over decades until it’s uninhabitable? I’m not a scientist, nor an eel expert, nor do I have any authoritative knowledge about the complicated ecosystems of water ways in a warming world. I didn’t even know when the Bronze Age was until ten minutes ago. I do have library cards for four different libraries, and I am very good at using them.
I don’t know how you segue away from that, but late January is when I go wild with library holds because it’s when the American Library Association presents its youth media awards. Sometimes I have read and loved books that get honored— this year my friends Claire Forrest and Ari Tison had books recognized; I cried, texted, and then I went to work and tried to act normal. I love library youth media awards mornings, they are a big celebration for children’s literature.
Usually, I find books that I haven’t read and some I’ve never heard of when the awards are announced, and some I want to read again, and then I put all of the books on hold. My library holds list is so long, and I’m still working my way through those books. The reading has been fantastic.
I stopped by Green Been Books while I was visiting Portland earlier this month and got some excellent book recommendations, like bookseller favorite, Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang and A Daydreamy Child Takes a Walk by Gianna Rodari and Beatrice Alemagna. So I’ve mostly just been reading. January and February were also excellent for rom-com movie watching marathons and Nora Ephron reading. Which I always recommend.
New Picture Book & Book Events
This newsletter is really supposed to exist so I can tell you about my own books and writing, not eels or Earls or what I’ve been reading— but I like sharing all those things. We are officially two weeks away from book publication day on March 5th for The Good Little Mermaid’s Guide to Bedtime.
I have fun events lined up all throughout March. I’m kicking events off with a reading and signing on March 10th at Wishing Tree Books in Spokane, a kid-centric bookstore in the South Perry District.
Still ironing out details on another Spokane event towards the end of March, so make sure you’re subscribed to stay on top of all the book news and event updates.
My author copies of TGLMGTB arrived last week, I can’t wait to share more details and Nici Gregory’s incredible illustrations.
As we get closer to publication date, more book reviews for The Good Little Mermaid’s Guide to Bedtime have rolled in and I’m so happy with the response!
“This book is utterly original, delightfully dark, and as twisted as a branch of undersea coral.”
– Booklist
Pre-orders are a great way to help authors and their books, The Good Little Mermaid’s Guide to Bedtime is available to pre-order everywhere that books are sold. I’ll have door hangers and stickers for my local indie and at events.
Thanks for reading this little newsletter— I appreciate all the support. Hope to see you at an event this Spring!
My very important eel update is that I saw one at an aquarium. Here we are together, just a couple of pals hanging out and breathing deeply.
And also, some scientists have discovered that the shock from an electric eel (not actually an eel) has the power to genetically alter fish. Pretty wild, no? Just out here casually altering the DNA of other fish— extremely superhero (or villain!) (or X-men) behavior.
The Good Little Mermaid’s Guide to Bedtime (TGLMGTB)
My first book had a title that was two words long, and this next book is seven words long, which I am learning is quite a lot of words for a title! First trade reviews for The Good Little Mermaid’s Guide to Bedtime are slowly rolling in, and I’m delighted with this review from Publishers Weekly. A little blurb below:
We’re just under two months away until publication day, which means I’m getting book events finalized! More details to come, but safe to say that there will be one virtual event, and that March weekends are filling up with book events both near and far. And that there will be some seafaring book events with friends!
My local bookstore, BookPeople of Moscow, practically raised me. I’m so grateful for their support and to be doing an event with them after everyone is looking for fun things to do post-Spring Break. I’ll be signing pre-orders at good ol’ BP, and sharing event details soon!
To stay up to date on events and all things eels and reading, hit that button below:
If you like to track your reading, you can add The Good Little Mermaid’s Guide to Bedtime on The StoryGraph or GoodReads. Also, you can request your library purchase a copy, which is fun, and then everyone with a library card can read it. Libraries are the best.
Shows and books that I’ve enjoyed
I love the Netflix Formula 1: Drive to Survive series. It is so dramatic, competitive, and petty. It’s a ridiculously expensive sport that didn’t have a spending cap until recently. Honestly, it’s a great series, and my instagram feed is now half Formula 1 memes and updates from the ridiculous and luxurious travel updates from the drivers and principals. This Culture Study podcast convinced me to watch it, and I’m now obsessed. If you want to speculate about what’s next for Guenther Steiner, please message me asap.
Amy Poehler’s Podcast, Say More with Dr? Sheila, but you have to say “Doctor?” with a question because Dr? Shelia is not a doctor. It’s improv couple’s therapy and it’s a mess but in all the good ways.
For the past couple of years, I’ve picked a book to send to my oldest childhood friends— usually it’s something that reminds me of our collective adolescence. This year’s pick was, The Only Way to Make Bread, by Cristina Quintero, illustrated by Sarah Gonzales.
It’s a lovely book about the process of baking bread, all types of bread, and the importance of sharing bread, which is why I sent it to my oldest friends for all my memories in all of our different homes and kitchens, and how we always knew which day was a bread baking day.
I would just like you all to know that the Dave Matthews Band essay ranking his romantic hits in Samantha Irby’s newest book is hilarious and turned into a whole afternoon of DMB. Maybe you need an hour or two of DMB on a dreary January afternoon??
Wild and Distant Seas by Tara Karr Roberts, takes a minor character from Moby Dick, Mrs. Hosea Hussey,and spins her story into a novel of four generations of women searching for their own home, history, and answers. It’s lovely. You do not need to have read Moby Dick to understand the novel. And there’s a whole section set in historical Moscow, Idaho.
Time-Management Writing Update
I haven’t newsletter-updated in awhile, but I haven’t had much to update! I’ve been slowly reading and trying to find the right concoction of time and brain space that allows for writing, reading, revising, life, etc.
I feel like I’m in a good idea gathering phase. Which is like a nice, exploratory creative phase— a no commitments, just vibes type of phase.
This January, I’ve been having fun going through Tara Lazar’s StoryStorm for picture book idea generation. With schedule changes this past year, I haven’t been able to meet with my local critique group, but I’ve hopped back on the 12×12 picture book challenge and am excited to join that picture book community and write lots more picture books in 2024.
On a fun, exploratory project, I’m sending notes back and forth with my writing buddy because maybe writing something together is more fun than writing on your own.
Thanks for reading, expect more regular updates on picture book news and event details! Cheers!
Thank you for reading The Eel Report & Other Things. This post is public so feel free to share it.
Every eel report newsletter begins with something about eels because there’s always something about eels, because they’re mysterious and strange. I don’t know if there are any Mainers here, but if there are, what’s going on with the baby eel fishing quotas? Are eels something that everyone in Maine is familiar with?
Did you all know that baby eels aka elvers are a delicacy? I feel like I included tinned baby eels in my holiday round up. But did you know that baby eels are a lucrative fishing export? Baby eels are a more valuable export than scallops or lobster, which I feel like is an important thing to know. A pound of baby eels is worth more than $2,000! That’s wild.
More here from the AP news on the high prices for baby eels, a major export out of Maine. Maybe by my next newsletter, I will find out if Maine fisherman got the approval to up their quotas so that they can harvest more baby eels (and make more money). I’ll keep you posted on any eel conservation efforts and upping eel quotas in Maine like I’m Steve Kornacki in khakis.
For less business-y eel news and some ocean related fun, one of my favorite instagram accounts is @mister_tinu who always has great ocean photography—sometimes there are eel photos!
Also, not about eels, but I read this article about a colossus whale—like the heaviest animal ever, heavier than a blue whale, whale—and you should read it also. It had a teensy tiny head, and a big giant body. It’s wonderful.
Artificial Intelligence Can Eat My Shorts
I’ve been postponing writing this newsletter because well, number one I revised a novel and now I’m jumping into querying that novel, which is my main priority. But also, I’ve had a bunch of book-related topics that I wanted to explore and wasn’t sure what to tackle for this newsletter.
I read this great article in LitHub in support of more weird books for kids, and of course I want to talk about darker and strange books for young readers. They’re some of my favorite books, and I want more of them, and I want to write more of them.
I saw the Barbie movie and I loved the playfulness of the staging and set design and the importance of dolls and playing. I’ve been thinking a lot about how kids are experts at imaginary play, and I want to write about dolls and playing and books for kids that showcase all of that. Thanks, Barbie!
I think there’s something to be said for calling AI, artificial intelligence. It’s an artifice. Words have power, and we should remember that. It’s deception. It isn’t genuine and I think that using the abbreviation creates distance from the fact that using artificial intelligence is manipulating other people’s writing, other people’s artwork, other people’s voices and appearances, and it is a deception. For me, the novelty has worn off.
And as we are finding out, it’s often data culled and trained on original work without the permission of the initial creator. It’s theft, beloveds, and if it’s the future, then catch me on my way to Ludditetown.
If you want, you can skip my artificial intelligence rant for an author interview and cover reveal for my next picture book at the end of this newsletter. A picture book that I wrote, and that so many people worked on to try and make it the best book that we could. I’m serious! The final pass pages for my next picture book have almost 80 comments from nine different editors and contributors—this is all fine-tuning before the book goes to print! All well after the book had been initially drafted, revised, workshopped, critiqued, edited with an agent, and then initial edits and story conversations with my editor when it was acquired and rewrites again after that. And then that process repeated itself with the illustrator who had their own creative process, visual character and story developments, edits, and changes.
Books look like a singular achievement, a singular product, but it takes a village and time (it takes years!) and expertise and so many people working behind the scenes to make them happen.
So, I guess I am inclined to be passionate or upset when there are articles like, make a picture book in 72 hours using AI! No thanks. Absolutely not. That’s not a picture book, that’s theft, and it’s bad.
Have I played with artificial intelligence generators? Have I tested them out? No and I don’t really want to. I’m sure there are a number of ways that I’ve helped train AI with my data that I wasn’t necessarily aware of, and I’m not really interested in doing that on purpose.
All the tech companies embracing artificial intelligence makes me want to crawl into a hole and delete everything that I’ve ever shared online so that I am not feeding artificial intelligence data with any of my writing or narrative voice. I’m not there yet. I’m holding off because I genuinely like social media. I love soccer twitter. I like the eel historian guy. I like this silly newsletter even if it is very randomly sent out. I like my online twitter (RIP) and threads water cooler moments with writer friends, writer friends who I only see once or twice a year irl if I am lucky.
As an author, social media is a way to promote and market books, connect with teachers and librarians, connect with readers and build your book community. It is also, frequently, a double-edged sword. I often think about a comment that I believe Julie Falatko made, like, “do I want to write tweets or do I want to write books? do I want to be good at social media or do I want to be good at writing?” My apologies Julie if I got this wrong! Her newsletter is great, she is rarely online, and is a wonderful role-model and writer.
Would that we all could be Suzanne Collins and write some absolute bangers and then disappear from the digital realm forever. She is living the dream.
I think the pressure for newer authors to be online to grow their audience and have some kind of social media presence to make connections with peers and the book community is a very real pressure. I don’t know if anything authors do actually helps with marketing, but anyway, I’m trying not to turn this into a general discussion about author support and publishing as a business—I only have so many hills to shout from in this newsletter!
Before people log on and play with artificial intelligence there should be some deeper questions and reasons exploring why. I don’t think just because I can is a sufficient answer. Why am I doing this? Who does this harm? Am I exploiting anyone? What’s the meaning? What’s the purpose?
I feel like when I’m writing, or writers in general, we’re all looking for meaning—it doesn’t always have to be serious—but looking at the heart of the subject, the why. Why am I writing this? What does this mean? Why do I feel called to write this story or poem this way? Is this the best way to tell this story? Is this the right word? Is there a better word? What point of view should I use? What narrative devices? What poetic techniques would help? What’s the structure? What’s the setting? What moment am I trying to capture? How do I feel when I write this? How do I want my readers to feel? And before all those questions, the really important ones . . . Who are my readers? Who is this for? Am I the person to tell this story? Is this my story to tell? Am I exploiting anyone?
Writing is a million and one decisions and choices and to pretend otherwise is a scam.
Earlier this summer, I was listening to Laurel Snyder talk about picture book writing, and she said, “there are best practices for good books. There are no best practices for great books.”
There is no data or formula for writing a great book, because great books are built on human ingenuity, creativity, heart, craft, and connection. They often surprise us and make us feel all the things, because those books are teeming with heart and use the tools that writers spend years and decades developing through practice. And then those great books are carefully ushered in with a team of editors and readers that all believe in making the best book possible. There’s no easy button for that.
Whenever I’m workshopping or critiquing stories with other picture book writers, the thing that comes up the most is, what is the heart of the story? In picture books, you have to be concise due to the format and word count constraints. Every line or every choice needs to reinforce the heart of the story, that thing that is what the picture book is about, that one true thing that carries through the whole story, that’s the heart. And that usually takes time and practice to create and discover.
I read that Google was promoting its own artificial intelligence program, (hello, please enjoy this bonus article), and that you could connect their AI with your own google drive documents so that the AI program could learn about your writing to help you revise—what patterns are present, what words, what phrases in your own writing . . . an artificial intelligence in tune with your own quirks and voice! Just what you wanted!
Again, no thank you. Who asked for this?
The reality is that if you’re a writer or you want to write, you need to do that yourself. Having trusted readers and critique partners helps! If it sounds like work, that’s because it is work. But it’s necessary work. It’s good work.
You need to sit with your pages and ask yourself, what phrases do I overuse? What patterns in theme and word choice are present? What’s the summary? What am I exploring? What’s the synopsis? I know writing a synopsis can be painful, but it can also be an excellent writing tool and something that you’ll be asked to write and you should know how to to do it. All those things that the google AI can do, you can do, too, as a critical reader and writer.
Dig through your own writing and reading; critically reading and editing your own writing is part of how you learn. That’s why it’s so important to read and analyze other people’s writing and look at what craft tools they’re using and how they make it work. It’s how you learn to write. Sure, you can ask artificial intelligence to help you with that, but then you haven’t gained any insight through the process. The only way out is through, and that process is how a draft becomes a book, it’s how writing skills develop, and like most good things, it takes time and effort. It’s work.
There’s this great essay in The Sun, called Run Home, by Margot Steines. It’s about running and the author’s relationship with her dad and what running and running marathons means for them both. But there’s this moment where I was like, hmmm, this is also about writing.
Substitute run with write, and you have it. “Why write? The only real answer is: Because you told yourself you would. Because that’s how you learn who you are—by telling yourself things and seeing if you can will them into being true.”
Writing and publishing is a marathon. It’s not easy, people do it because they want to do it, usually because they love it. Or because they love what writing let’s them learn about themselves and what they think. Writing is hard and frequently difficult, but it’s also a joy and a gift to be able to sit down and explore all the things—to perpetually learn about yourself and this world.
Much more eloquent writing on artificial intelligence:
Normally, I list all kinds of books from picture books to adult fiction that I’ve been reading and that I recommend, but I’ll do it a little differently this time.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang is my most recent read, and since artificial intelligence is built on theft, lies, and entitlement . . . I highly, highly recommend Kuang’s newest novel which explores all of that (minus the AI) along with privilege, systems of power, and race in this thrilling and messed up satire. R.F. Kuang is brilliant, brilliant.
I thought I’d throw in more book recommendations on artificial intelligence that I want to read, and some books on the craft of writing that I have found helpful.
My kids are all getting old enough where they are very picky about what they read, so here are some titles that my youngest has really enjoyed this summer. The whole Sinister Summer Series is to die for! *ba-dum-tsssshhh*
Author Update and Cover Reveal
The cover for my next picture book is out in the world! I had a lot of fun working with the Tundra team to put together a cover reveal and interview over on their site. Check it out for all the details on wild first draft shenanigans.
And if you don’t want to read the interview . . . drum roll, please . . . here is my next book! It’s illustrated by the amazing Nici Gregory and published by Tundra books. So many people worked on this to try and make it the best book possible, and I’m incredibly proud of it. Also, there might be eels. Or eel-shaped fish, I’m only a fake arm-chair eel expert, which is not an expert at all! It publishes on March 5, 2024, and is available to pre-order wherever books are sold, or you can pre-order a signed copy at my local independent bookstore, BookPeople of Moscow.
Thanks for Being Here on the Internet Together
If you liked reading this, bless you. You can share it with friends and family and whoever you might think wants to read my rant about artificial intelligence or stay up to date on my author news and writing ramblings. It gets ramble-y! and grammatically questionable, which is why editors and copy-editors should never be replaced with robots or artificial intelligence. I’ll have more news and events coming up in the Fall! Cheers, book friends.
Thanks for reading The Eel Report & Other Things! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
I like to begin this newsletter with something about eels. Because there’s always something about eels, even if you haven’t thought about eels before or in awhile. Sometimes it’s about eels in general, but today it’s about video games and eel pits.
Animal Crossing had a moment during the pandemic and especially during lockdown, but like many popular things, it has taken me at least two years to catch up to what is cool, and I just started playing Animal Crossing-New Horizons this Spring. If you haven’t played Animal Crossing, it is a simulation game where you can “build” a house, create a community, and gather shells, wood, catch fish, and other things and exchange them for money in a cute, little, capitalistic world.
Dear Reader, now that it is a new month, it means that there are new Animal Crossing species to catch. And you know what that means? It meeeeeaaanss… that I caught a spotted garden eel, screamed, and took a photo to document the occasion.
Thank you, Nintendo, for including eels. I love Animal Crossing. Very late to the party, but a huge fan.
My favorite thing about the eel section of this newsletter is when the eel information and highlights come from friends and family. My friend Claire sent me a link to an eel pit video, and I was like, eel pit? What. Is. This.
It’s a pit of eels. A pit of eels in an old rainwater cistern underneath a garage that Cow Turtle converted into a fish pond. You just need to watch the video yourself.
This is also the kind of thing, where I immediately needed to know more. So luckily for me, and all of us, there’s another video explaining the eel pit.
Incredible names for eels and gars. My personal favorite, the spotted gar named, “Jason.” But also a big fan of, American Eel, “Crunchy Wrap Supreme.” When I saw that Cow Turtle added sturgeons, I was like, oh my gosh, he has eels AND STURGEONS! In fourth grade I wrote a report on sturgeons, and have remained a fan ever since. I hope you enjoy both of these videos, they are 100 percent worth it.
If you were going to name an eel, what would you name them? I started a list:
For fun, you can write you own eel names. If you want, you can send them to me. I feel like there should be more eel names referencing the Brontë sister’s novels.
Books sort of about the Creative Process and Book Joy
I read and loved a handful of books for adults that were also about characters writing or creating something, and it felt enough like a theme to group them all together even if the books maybe don’t feel like they’d go together. But I loved reading about characters struggling through the creative process in Romantic Comedy, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and I Have Some Questions For You. Character’s addressing the ethics or importance of what they were creating, the process, the way social media access and fame was always lurking on the sidelines or in some moments front and center. Excellent books.
Clint Smith’s poems about new parenthood and fatherhood sprinkled throughout his newest poetry collection, Above Ground, hit me so hard in the parenting memories and made me ask myself, Eija, why didn’t you write more poems when your children were so little? I am sure I can try, but some of these poems took me back to 2am diaper changes and toddlers in the grocery store that I felt smacked with the intimacy of these new parent memories and poems.
Books take a long time to make, from ideation to writing, to holding the final book in your hands kind of moment, which is why celebrating books by friends and colleagues feels special in all types of ways. This spring has felt like book joy and book celebrations one after the other witnessing friends from graduate school publish novels. These four books: A Bit of Earth, Shannon in the Spotlight, Saints of the Household, and Where You See Yourself, are the books I’ve been reading and cheering on from my fellow Hamline alums this spring. I am a million times biased, but also, the writing is really good. These books are really good! Heart and bookshelf full.
This is also my reminder to: support your local public library, attend board meetings if you can, vote in library board elections, get informed about what’s happening with book bans in your own community, and to please support books by marginalized authors who are overwhelming affected by the book bans.
Eija Book Updates and News
I found out on April 1st (not a joke!) that Crocodile Hungry had been shortlisted for the Joan Betty Stuchner Oy Vey! Funniest Children’s Book Award, a Canadian book award celebrating funny books for kids.
I’ve been reading all the nominated books and am honored to have Crocodile Hungry included with so many great titles. Looking forward to celebrating with all the nominees this weekend on Frog Jumping Day!
I did not know about Frog Jumping Day, but Frog Jumping Day is a day to hop around like a frog—amazing, will definitely do, but also a reference to ye old humor boomer, Mark Twain, and his frog jumping story.
I can’t wait to share more about my NEXT picture book, so subscribe if you want all the details. It’s so good. Like I can’t believe how it is turning out.
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Being Organized and Rewriting All the Things
Last newsletter, I let you know that I finally revised and sent a longer project off to my agent. And since then, I have received notes; thought about the notes, and realized I needed to rewrite the manuscript again. So I pitched the rewrite to my agent and her assistant, received their blessing, and jumped back in.
There’s this moment during the revision process where you realize the work that needs to be done, and there’s like a standing on the edge of the pool moment, before you finally take the plunge.
So that’s how the Spring went. Writing and rewriting.
And then I started organizing all my picture book files. For any and all picture book authors out there, I’m so curious how you organize your files and drafts. I try and save every new version as a new document, but this all depends on my level of commitment or abandonment— it is a huge range!
I guess this is where I share that I also keep a spreadsheet of all my stories and picture book drafts, with inspiration, dates, structure, theme, progress, etc. A spreadsheet totally separate from a submission list, but you can link spreadsheets if you want to get wild and organize files and create spreadsheets in-between projects. Join me!
Anyway, I’ve been doing an inventory of all my picture book writing, and I decided to reorganize and sort stories out by whether I think they are:
Dead projects (died in submissions or no ticket on the submissions train);
Shelved (more purgatory like);
In the process of drafting but I don’t have a full draft yet (ideas I love but that need more work, research, and writing);
Currently revising (yay! not dead or shelved yet!);
I need to revise (I know it needs work, but not ready to go there, and also not ready to send to purgatory);
Ideas that have been abandoned that never became full drafts (v sad. and v weird file folder tbqh).
A sample of what my picture book folders look like:
I am hoping this isn’t bad luck to send out folders and titles of unpublished picture book manuscripts and ideas out into the universe, but I also like to think about that moment in Big Magicwhere Elizabeth Gilbert writes about ideas finding the right author. I hope someone writes a cute and fun pickleball picture book about an active grandma absolutely killing it on the pickleball courts, I’m sending that idea out into the universe. I don’t think I’m the author to do it.
On the horizon, more writing and problem solving for me this Spring and Summer. I know this writing business is a marathon, or more like twenty marathons stacked on top of each other. Cheers to everyone running all the writing marathons, we might be bananas, but I hope we’re all having fun. Or at least I hope we all have very organized files while we figure out what we’re doing!
If I don’t see you next month, it’s because I’m finally reading all the Discworld books (in numerical order!) or finally reading The Broken Earth trilogy. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m revising and writing. <3
I like to begin this newsletter with something about eels. Because there’s always something about eels, even if you haven’t thought about eels before or in awhile. Sometimes it’s about eels in general, but other times it’s just me thinking about eel news. Today is about eels news updates.
A large eel washed up in Texas, and was described as “straight out of hell,” when what I think they really meant was, “straight out of the ocean.” I do think the ocean is terrifying and mysterious, but I don’t know, I think maybe hellish is too far? I haven’t read The Soul of an Octopus, but I’ve been reading a lot about souls in general, and do eels have souls? And if they do, where do their souls live? Another eel mystery.
So, we don’t have eels where I live and we’ve already talked about lampreys, but we have rivers and streams and I feel like everyone where I live in Idaho understands the importance of salmon as a keystone species that indicates the health of our river ecosystems— and even beyond rivers. It’s a whole thing. Salmon’s nutrient rich bodies decompose and then birds will eat their carcasses and then the soil and trees near rivers get all kinds of great nutrients specific to salmon that they have from their unique trip to the ocean and back. Also a reminder that I am not a scientist, just a woman who once took a fish class to graduate from college who also happens to have an internet connection and a newsletter. But if you want to read more about nutrient rich salmon carcasses, you can do that here, here, and here.
Anyway, every time I read something about eels I learn new information. And after reading this article, I had this image in my mind of an excavator digging up silt from the bottom of a stream and then plopping that down to find eels and other silt-dwelling animals in the mucky muck muck. Eels in excavators.
I think I shared an article in this newsletter before about a truckload of eels cruising along somewhere in Pennsylvania to be rerouted to their habitat (this is not the same as the truck that spilled eels and eel slime in Oregon), and I hope that as I continue to have eel news notifications, that someday I’ll read about eels taking rides in all types of transportation and construction vehicles. I think it might be possible.
I don’t know yet how eels on a plane or eels on helicopters might come to fruition, but I will be really excited when that happens. Maybe I will write EELS ON A PLANE, for fun, or maybe I will get an eel news alert one day with that headline and I will shout, “Enough is enough! I have had it with these catadromous eels on this catadromous* plane! Everybody strap in!”
*I guess airplanes could maybe be considered migratory. But sorry to all my readers but planes don’t spawn or migrate from fresh water to the sea. I don’t know. This is not a scientific newsletter, especially in this moment.
Book News
Crocodile Hungry is officially one year old!
I celebrated with sour patch candies and turmeric chicken. To celebrate you should read John Martz’s Newsletter, Notes from Beyond, for a behind the scenes peek at his illustration process for Crocodile Hungry.
I’m very grateful for John’s sense of humor and incredible illustrations. The team at Tundra has been incredible to work with, and I feel very proud of the book we made together. I can’t believe it’s been out there in the world for one whole year! This calls for cake.
A couple weeks ago, I got the best news that Crocodile Hungry would be included in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Canada program! The DPIL partners with nonprofits to deliver books straight to young readers’ homes. It’s a wonderful program and I’m honored to be a part of it to help boost early childhood literacy and to play a small part in hopefully developing a love of reading. ILY Dolly. Thank you.
I get asked pretty frequently about what’s next or what’s my next book. I don’t think I can share too many details yet, but I can say that I saw rough sketches for the next picture book. The illustrations, they are eel-y amazing! If you are not subscribed, you might want to so you can catch any author updates and cover reveals.
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Reading Life
I love reading a book that I know would make a fantastic movie. That is precisely how I felt reading Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. It begins with an extravagant retirement party for four aging assassins— four women who have given decades to a private assassin organization. The ladies soon discover that their all inclusive retirement cruise is actually an assassination attempt but they’re the marks.
Imagine Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Yeoh, Viola Davis, Jennifer Coolidge, Angela Bassett, and Catherine O’Hara as longtime friends and assassins who have to kill or be killed. I know I said there were only supposed to be four assassins, but I got carried away with the casting possibilities. Anyway, sign me up. I am ready to watch this right now.
I cried my eyes out reading Aviva vs. The Dybukk an incredible middle grade novel about friendship, community, and grief. Himawari House is a new household favorite— turns out my children and I all love slice of life graphic novels. Frizzy is a great middle grade graphic novel about identity and celebrating yourself, and Wash Day Diaries is an excellent adult graphic novel counterpart about friendship, community, and wash day rituals. And of course I’m including some new picture books that I’ve found to be special stories published in this new year, including a picture book by my friend and critique partner, Amanda Henke!
Last year reading was a challenge (okay at this point, everything was a challenge), and I’m really trying hard to make time to read this year. Send book recommendations my way. My TBR list is ridiculous along with my library holds and check-outs. But I’m reading at least some of those books I bring home!
I had grand plans of sending this newsletter in January, or now that I have more time for writing, maybe even sending this newsletter twice a month! But I have not done that. Instead I worked on a neglected writing project that was not a newsletter at all. Juggling projects and jobs and all the things means sometimes I gotta prioritize the writing writing. Sometimes, the eel reports have to wait. “Enough is enough! I have had it with these catadromous eels in this catadromous newsletter!”
I think I’ve been pretty candid in this space about failing to write during 2022. I know there are peaks and valleys especially in creative pursuits, but last year was like a below sea level valley!
The good news is that the project I was directed to revise, I finally did. And for the past few months I’ve been deep in that revision and writing thousands upon thousands of words. Enough words that I could send it to my agent and say, sorry this took me so long!
So now I’m in that in between project phase, where I have more neglected revisions from other projects but also shiny new ideas. And I’m going to use this newsletter to take a breath before I jump back into deep revisions and problem solving on a novel I started back in 2019. A novel that was too closely set to current times, and then as I was trying to revise it a pandemic happened. I had no idea what that meant for real life let alone my characters in their fictional world where they looked up to Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate. So I set that project aside because I didn’t know how to fix it. Maybe this spring before the forsythia blooms I will figure out how to fix it.
Hopefully I’ll see y’all next month, but if I don’t, I hope it’s because I’m thousands upon thousands of words into revising this project with the finish line in sight.
A fun thing about this newsletter and my little eel obsession, is that people send me eel news. I highly recommend telling everyone about your weird interests. It is delightful to be sent an eel article with a “thought of you!” or “you might be interested!” OF COURSE I AM INTERESTED.
Anyway, this is how I found out earlier this week that there have been a few new fish and eel discoveries this year near Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park. Look at this new to everyone blind eel covered in “loose, transparent, gelatinous skin.” Apparently, the female of this blind eel species give birth to live young! Nature!
Imagine a little tiny baby blind eel being born and being like, MOTHER, to this strange and beautiful eel. Ocean animals are the most mysterious.
There are more eels that were discovered, but I’ll let you decide if you want to click through and look at their pictures; the congridae eel in the article is especially memorable (extremely ugly imo and very gnarly). Fun fact, the congridae eel family includes garden eels, my personal favorite type of eel.
Winter Weather Reading
I’ve been cozying up with mostly picture books and some longer fiction perfect for escaping the snow and wintry weather outside.
Rise Up with a Song is about composer and suffragette, Ethel Smythe, and written by Diane Worthey, who is a talented violinist, teacher, and one of my picture book critique partners! It’s her second non-fiction picture book about a woman who carved her own path in music.
I loved the sweet pictures and story in Dress-Up Day, the emotions and relationship to food and home in I Hate Borsch! and enjoyed how Twinkle, Twinkle, Winter Night is a inclusive celebration of winter.
I was ready to pack my bags and head to Seoul in I Guess I Live Here Now, Claire Ahn’s debut YA novel. I love books that make me want to travel and explore and kick-off a whole bunch of research, like learning about hanok houses along with main character, Melody.
The Holidays are Here!
Which means it is time to buy books and give them away. An extreme sport I like to play and a specialized skill on my resume. I had a blast recommending books as a visiting author and guest bookseller at BookPeople of Moscow for Small Business Saturday. Here is a nice little photo of me in the picture book room, getting ready to recommend all the books.
Honored to be featured and grateful to BookPeople for having me on such a busy day! If you want a signed copy of Crocodile Hungry for the holidays, just make sure to let staff know and I’ll be down there!
Sparky’s Studio and a Room of One’s Own
I stumbled upon the Charles M. Schulz museum while visiting family in California, and it was one of my favorite things on a long weekend family visit and touristy soaking up of the California sun and red zin. I love seeing where people work. The ways that the space is uniquely theirs. Below is Charles “Sparky” M. Schulz’s studio recreated in the museum, exactly as he had it at One Snoopy Place (a combined office and studio space for Schulz). I love that the pencil sharpener is on the wall at the height that it is. I love that it’s not near the table, but directly above the waste bin which is overflowing with crumpled paper. The hockey puck paper weight, photos taped to the wall, the inks, brushes, and pencils, the beautiful curated mess of it all.
I do not have a One Snoopy Place, but I have a desk in a basement, which is less of an office and more of a room with a furnace, boxes, and a desk in the corner. But, realistically, I do most of my morning writing at the dining room table, and if I have time to write on the weekends or evenings, that’s when I sneak to my desk in the basement. When the work is unknown, which it often is, or filled with creative wanderings, it helps to be grounded in the familiar. Whether I’m at the table or my desk, both spaces feel like the right place to think and write, which I’m guessing is what Schulz was looking for. The right place to be creative.
I’ve got a few projects to take care of before the end of the year. It’s been a weird year creatively, and I’m hoping to finish 2022 with some great writing momentum. Wishing you all the cozy reading time in this last month of the year. Thanks for reading and enabling my eel obsession.
Books Obvi, Eel and Crocodile Hungry Themed— basically everything you could ask for and more
Gifts for the Eel Lover in Your Life (me)
Look, this is an extremely niche shopping guide, but I know it’s for more people than just me because the amazing eel zippered case in the lower left corner is actually perfect for holding knitting needles and guess what— I don’t knit. So this can’t be just for me. Also huge shout out to the Parramatta Eels, an Australian professional rugby team. I am about to be your biggest fan once I understand how rugby works. Scratch that. I am already a fan. And will learn about rugby asap. How amazing is this corduroy golfer hat?! Absolutely incredible. Shock me like an electric eel MGMT on bubble-gum pink vinyl incredible.
This is a lot of books but I feel like there’s something here for everyone.
10 picture books— okay one Daisy Hirst board book sneaked into this list. Some beautiful beautiful books are here, like the near wordless, So Much Snow, and Sophie Blackall’s incredible, Farmhouse. And of course there are some silly books like the retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Rick the Rock of Room 214.
5 middle readers, including 2 graphic novels, and my favorite book that I read this year, The Patron Thief of Bread by Lindsay Eagar.
5 books for teens including historical fiction, a Jane Austen retelling, and a horror (and I do mean horror) story collection in Man Made Monsters.
7 books for adults, but I bet if you pick up Inciting Joy and The River You Touch as a gift package you could give those two titles to everyone you know. Seriously.
Crocodile Hungry Gift Guide
This was too fun to make. Like maybe I have a problem, but really I think it’s because I grew up reading all the fun magazines with my sister and sister-friends and there’s no way on earth I could pass up the opportunity to make a gift guide for all the kids who love Crocodile Hungry.
This gift guide is New York City’s hottest club. It has everything: cabinet-style toy fridge, tiny metal shopping cart, wooden eggs that are one-hundred-percent too hard to bite, a cute little kale plushie, a pretend pizza you can serve up on bamboo plates, and even a very special handkerchief for when those tears are sure to fall. So many great ways to take the details in Crocodile Hungry and turn them into imaginative play, or help you stay hydrated, satiated in style, and snuggled up with your favorite reader. Happy Holidays! Happy Gift-Giving! Wishing you all the pizza, laughter, and tears of joy this holiday season. <3
Thanks for all your Crocodile support and love, it’s been a dream to see this book become a physical book-book this year. I’m so grateful for all the people who have helped it on its journey from critiques to revision to illustrations and bookstore sales and reviews. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Seasons change and I’m finding my creative footing again
Eel Report
We’ve had our first snow of the season, but making that first snow more shocking is how the weather shifted from beautiful, sunny autumn, practically no sweater or jacket necessary to almost winter in the span of a few days.
I know my plants and trees with their leaves still attached and heavy were not ready for that first snow. I saw it in the ways the branches bent over to touch the ground, or the maples in the park who lost entire limbs, their leaves just beginning to shift to yellow. I know that the trees changing and the season shifting doesn’t have to do with eels, but it made me wonder what happens to eels when it snows. Where do they go when the temperature drops?
Dear friends, I’m excited to tell you that the eels, they burrow when it snows. They burrow and hibernate in the mucky mud mud. It is not nearly as romantic as a little bear cave with leaves and picture book story coziness, but still good and as you might expect from eels, shrouded in a bit mystery. Some eels will burrow deep, like dig your grave twice levels of deep. How do they do that? While the eels are hibernating, they shift into a state of torpor, or complete inactivity. Isn’t torpor a great word? Latin with Middle English origins: lethargy, listlessness, to be numb, inactive.
That first shock of snow also has this effect on me. Minus the mucky mud mud.
Reading
You would think that a little newsletter hiatus might mean that I have a wealth of books and reading to share, but the reality is that between work, parenting, and all the things the past few months, I didn’t have too much time for reading or writing. In a normal year, I usually read somewhere around 100 books, usually more if I’m counting all my picture book reads. This year, I’m not even to that halfway mark, and my reading list is still mostly picture books! *cries*
Stepping away from book world and working outside of book related industries affected my reading for sure. It’s the first time in over a decade I haven’t worked in a library or a bookstore. To be fair, the drop off in my reading probably has more to do with lack of time than daily proximity to books, but it’s the first year in a long long time where I’m not quite sure if I have a good pulse on what books are new or having a moment. As CJ McCollum put it perfectly, “I’m trying, Jennifer!” I’m trying.
Here’s a little round up of what I’ve read and really liked over the past six months.
Creative Life & Writing
Whenever I’m lost or the creative well has run dry, visual art has been able to lift me out of that funk. Experiencing art is always a reminder to pay attention, to look at the details, notice textures, to walk through the world with a sense of wonder and curiosity.
I’m lucky to live in a place with a great arts community. I’ve seen some really inspiring art shows in the past month and was reminded at an event that joy leads to play which leads to art. I’m forever on a quest to remember to play and find joy in my writing for children— I think that’s where my best stories live.
I recently attended a solo art exhibit of Pamela Caughey’s work. It’s abstract and textural, often each piece a mixed media exploration— the kind of work you wish you could touch and feel how each stroke, each shape was made. At the exhibit, there was a video showing Caughey’s artistic process that really resonated with me as I was preparing to teach a picture book writing workshop at the 6th Annual Spokane Writers Conference.
The wonderful thing about preparing an informative session is all the ways that it can reinforce my own understanding of how to write picture books. For me, sometimes writing can become a bit tunnel-y, and I have to give myself permission to play with the tools that I have.
While being filmed in her studio, Pamela Caughey described playing, just making marks and adding color. Then she paused and described a phase, a moment when the marks and the color combination made an ugly image, an ugly composition. And that was just part of the process. She said, “oh, this is ugly,” but then she kept going.
Caughey described those initial marks as play and then a necessary shift to thinking, and how when you’re thinking about the marks you’re making, the colors you’re using, the composition you’re building, you’ve gone from playing to exploring, and that shift in the creative process towards building a composition.
I loved watching Pamela Caughey paint, and how she took a moment to recognize the ugliness in the process, but that she kept making marks. She shared that it’s the fundamentals of design that are the foundation to get you out of the weeds. When you get stuck, when you get challenged, the main thing is to keep going. You can watch Pamela Caughey talk about art and see her paint on her youtube channel.
As I taught this picture book class, I shared Pamela Caughey’s wisdom. It’s the fundamentals, it’s the tools of the craft of writing that can help get a story unstuck. Whether that’s exploring a new structure, or reimagining what a shift in point of view might do for your story, it was a reinforcement of the craft of writing. A reminder to lean into the tools that are already there just waiting for the writer to play, to explore, to make new marks.
Thank you for reading this little Eel Report & Other Things Newsletter and joining me on this eel-obsessed and creative journey. Happy writing and making and exploring the world. I’ve got a holiday gift guide— eel and crocodile themed—coming up later this month!
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