best names for eels and best books I’m reading

Animal Crossing and Eel Pits

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.

I’ll be cheering on more books from HamFam friends as the year goes on with these titles: Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic, The Wishing Machine, and Wand.

Sort of book things but not books that I’m reading: always trying to stay on top of what’s happening right now with book bans across the county. PEN America is a great place to get information on book bans.

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.

Thanks for reading The Eel Report & Other Things! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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 Magic where 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

May 12, 2023

eel been busy baybee

As always, the eel part of the eel report

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.

Anyway. In other eel news and excellent eel pun headlines, I thought it would be nice to share a story about eels and environmental and ecosystem health. 

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.

Thanks for reading The Eel Report & Other Things! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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!

Spring titles from friends that I can’t wait for: Ari Tison’s Saints of the Household, Claire Forrest’s Where You See Yourself, and Kalena Miller’s Shannon in the Spotlight.

That writing life 

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.

February 18, 2023

aka how I spent the end of November

Eel Messages

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.

About his studio, Schulz said, “I have the feeling that working in the same room is the only guarantee of keeping going. Somehow, a change of scenery makes working more difficult, but sitting down in the same place each day turns on the creativity.” I’ve been thinking about this sentiment since visiting, and how closely it aligns with Steve Job’s block mock-turtleneck uniform. “The way he [Jobs] settled on a uniform to reduce the number of decisions he had to make in the mornings, the better to focus on his work.” 

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.

MGMT Oracular Spectacular, Parramatta Eels Corduroy Golf Hat, The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson, Holographic Eel Vinyl Sticker, Parramatta Eels Beanie, Giant Moray Eel t-shirt, Gourmet Baby Eels, Eel Linocut, Zippered Eel Pouch

Eija’s Book Gift Guide

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

Wooden Fridge, Mushie Snack Cup, Bamboo Salad Plate Set, Metal Toy Shopping Cart, Stacking Tree, Flamingo Nalgene Water Bottle, Haba Wooden Eggs, Crocodile Hungry, Crocodile Puppet, Vivacious Vegetable Kale Leaf, Child’s Handkerchief, Wooden Pizza, Flamingo Muslin Baby Quilt, Berkley Flamingo Art Print

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!

If you’re new here and you’d like to continue to get eel and writing updates, go ahead and smash that subscribe button. Let’s all become eel experts together.

“mayday” sounds like the French word m’aider, which means “help me”

Mayday mayday mayday. A distress call— which feels extremely on the nose this May. But May should be a time for renewal and flowers— I mean, it is May! I love Spring and the celebration of the renewal of life. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite season because it can be so wet and cold and muddy, but symbolically, it’s my favorite season. I’m just patiently waiting for the forsythia in my yard to be in full bloom, and I like to think of the forsythia as a promise of more life and color to come. No distress. Just flowers. And eels. Or not eels this month.

Lampreys Return to our Rivers

I’ve seen a few articles this Spring about the Nez Perce Tribe working to return lampreys to the Snake River water system in Idaho. And I know this is an Eel Report, and lampreys are not eels, but sometimes we have to talk about what’s not an eel.

Lampreys are not eels. They are slender fish, so maybe they look like eels, but I personally feel like lampreys have more in common with TREMORS and Kevin Bacon than they have to do with eels. Lampreys have round sucker mouths or as the Columbia River InterTribal Fish Commission described it, “jawless sucking disc mouths” (google if you dare) and they latch onto bigger fish and suck out their blood and bodily fluids because lampreys are long little parasite fish. Isn’t that gross? 

Another fun lamprey fact is that they have cartilage skeletons like sharks! Lampreys are more closely related to hagfish (also eel shaped but not eels) and sharks than they are to eels. Lampreys, like Salmon, are anadromous fish that migrate to the ocean and then return— but unlike salmon, they don’t always return to their natal streams, they return to places where they think they’ll be successful in spawning. And it’s hard to return to streams when there are a bunch of dams in the way.

THIS IS NOT A LAMPREY REPORT, this is an EEL REPORT, but sometimes when we’re taking a moment to think about the renewal of life and spring, it’s important to think about lampreys (who are not eels), their important role in our river ecosystems, and recognize tribal efforts to return lampreys to tributaries they can’t reach on their own because protecting our ecosystems is also about trying to encourage that renewal of life. Which is my favorite thing about lampreys— that they’re important for the ecological health and life of our river systems, even if they are a little bit of a nightmare Tremors Kevin Bacon fish.

Reading 

My reading was a bit all over the place this past month and a half, but I feel like there’s something here for everybody in this most recent round-up of reading.

Crocodile Hungry and Writing

Crocodile Hungry has been out in the world for over three months! I have celebrated by periodically checking my sales which I don’t think is particularly healthy or helpful. And I ordered a ridiculous customized ring— for marketing purposes! Or for my own entertainment! Both of those can be true, I think.

Order Pizza! Anyway, I’m trying to be better about chatting about Crocodile Hungry when I’m in new bookstores and I always feel a little salesman-y about pitching CH to bookstore staff when the book is not in a store I’m visiting. But I am proud of this little book that I made with John Martz and the staff and crew at Tundra Books, so I am working at being better about talking about it like I’m a proud picture book maker. 

I have been writing! A little bit. New picture book stories, and jotting down notes and ideas on how to resolve issues on some other manuscripts I’m working on. The progress is small, but it’s there, and that’s what I need. A little bit of progress. 

Writing is very much a silver lining business. Writing lives off of hope. And I guess I find myself thinking about things and experiencing the world that we live in and being frustrated and angry, but also looking for hope. In life and in writing. The writing has not gotten any easier, but I am grateful that the act of writing can be hope seeking, in both practice and pursuit. And I guess that’s where I’m at. Looking for a little bit of hope. And lampreys.

Until June,

– Eija Sumner

It’s elver season in Maine, beloveds, where’s my notepad.

Okay, another eel report! It really is elver season in Maine, so get your dip nets and elver licenses. Or lottery. Idk. Maybe in a future newsletter I will tell you about the time I thought I would go clam digging with zero knowledge or clam digging experience. But I’ll save that for when I run out of eel content.

This is How I Breathe, Jennifer

I don’t remember why I was talking about moray eels on a highway in California, but I was sharing that moray eels always have their mouths open because their gills are like inside their bodies.

Imagine me telling a story to my old college roommate, but also trying to demonstrate eel-like mouth breathing while sitting in the passenger seat of her SUV. She’s honestly seen weirder from me. It’s fine.

So all the meme-worthy or just surprised and a little bit terrifying photos of moray eels with their mouths open is because that is how their fish bodies breathe.

“Most fish breathe by closing and opening their gill covers to force water over their gills. Moray eels don’t have gill covers, so they constantly open and close their mouths to breathe.” (Source)

So some basics: 

Fish breathe through their gills. Most fish have gill covers. Gill covers help protect fish organs, but they also help pump and move water over the gills. Moray eels do not have gill covers, so to move water over their gills, they keep their mouths open. They are mouth breathers. Mouth Breathingᵀᴹ to Live (would be an excellent title imo). It’s science. Maybe it is not evolution? Because gill covers are a big part of fish evolution? Or evolution in general? I don’t know.

But the important thing is, that no matter how weird they look, those eels are just breathing. They might bite you, but they might just be breathing. Which basically describes my cats or all cats. Or the past few years. I just look like this, but I am breathing. This is how I breathe, Jennifer. Move along.

Crocodile Spon

It’s been over a month since Crocodile Hungry published! It is really fun to get photos and videos of Crocodile Hungry being shared with little ones. That is the best part of all this picture book making process. Photos of classrooms with crocodile hands and little videos of kids reading along. Reading magic and Joy. It’s good stuff.

If you want to pick up a copy of Crocodile Hungry, I’ll personalize copies from BookPeople of Moscow. Or if you are a library user, you can always request your local library to purchase a copy.

Tundra Books, the publisher for Crocodile Hungry, created a #TundraTime Activity sheet to go along with the picture book if you’re looking for an activity or the beginning of a discussion guide, check out this free download. 

Crocodile in the Canadian News

When I wrote Crocodile Hungry, I was hoping it would be a fun read aloud for story time, so I was honored and delighted to see Crocodile featured here with other active read aloud titles. 

“It’s impossible to read this book aloud without changing your voice to a growly tone that suits the crocodile’s abbreviated speech pattern as he looks for a meal.”

One hundred percent recommend reading Crocodile in a growly Cookie-Monster like voice.

Reading 

I haven’t been reading a lot this past month. I think it’s the uptick in family activities and the arrival of Spring, but I’ve mostly had brain power for only picture book reading. But that’s okay, because all these picture books pack so much depth and emotion that they more than make up for their shorter page and word count.

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill was my only novel reading in March. A book I read slowly but that meant so much to me in seeing how a community rebuilds itself. With so much going on in the world right now (and in the past five years), I love that Kelly gave readers this generous book— a how-to in care, community, and repair.

Rodney was a Tortoise by Nan Forler and Yong Ling Kang is a very Canadian book. There’s Crokinole! (my favorite obsession, aside from eels). And Budgies (which are parakeets). But there’s also sadness, grief, and friendship, which goes beyond all borders.

Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Yas Imamura is a beautiful book about finding hope and humanity in a place meant to crush both of those things. It’s a true story about the author’s grandparents finding each other and love in Minidoka, a Japanese Internment Camp in Southern Idaho.

John’s Turn by Mac Barnett and Kate Berube is just a perfect picture book. Mac Barnett does a fantastic job of not overwriting, so that Kate’s illustrations can carry the bigger emotional moments. I love the vulnerability and joy that John shares as he dances on his day to share his gift with his class.

Varenka by Bernadette Watts is my mom’s favorite picture book. Shout out to my mom who reads this newsletter, and always sends me edits after it has been published. I leave those grammar errors in this newsletter for you mom. Varenka has been out of print for forever, but my mom was beyond excited to tell me it’s being reissued later this year. NorthSouth is reissuing this timely story about war, wartime refugees, faith, and what it means to stay behind and care for whoever may need shelter.

Just a Smidge of Writing

With Crocodile Hungry publishing and preparing for what that experience would be like along with classroom visits and bookstore events, I didn’t really worry too much about writing the past month or two. No pressure, the book release was taking precedence, and I knew my writing time and energy wouldn’t realistically go towards writing new things or revising older projects.

So how do you return? How do you begin again after a break?

If I had answers, I would willingly share them and package them up with a large bow just for you. But I’ve been trying this writing thing for long enough that I know that the habits and practices frequently change. Just when you think things have been figured out, a routine shifts, a story becomes stuck, you become bored, and writing becomes nonexistent. And new practices and new routines need to be developed.

So this Spring, I’m working to discover new writing practices. Trying 10 minute exercises to begin again and find the words. Even if those exercises ARE the writing practice and not a warm-up. And I’m going to celebrate those moments, those words on paper, and new story beginnings.

Here’s to new rituals, new beginnings, and catching writing time no matter how slippery that can be. Thanks for reading.

– Eija Sumner

Book Launch Month and then the Next Month Sneaked In There

Eel Report Newsletter, bebes! This was supposed to go out in February, but February is so short that this newsletter sneaked it’s way right into March. Wild how that happens sometimes.

Eel Ted Ed (this is very fun to say aloud)

We’ve now reached the part of programming where I am the tired substitute and rather than discuss eels, I’m just going to show you a video. Classic substitute move. I feel like some of the facts I’ve shared about eels in the past are also in this video— but this has animation and a great narrative voice. So there you go, watch this video kids, your teacher and regular eel programming will continue next month.

This Book and Writing Thing

Crocodile Hungry is out in the world! It’s on bookshelves! It’s been so fun seeing photos of kids with their copies and indie bookstores all across the United States with Crocodile Hungry on their shelves. What a gift! Thank you all for your support. Every photo I’ve been sent of a kid with their copy of Crocodile Hungry has been like a little magical zing through my phone. So grateful. 

I had a virtual event to kick book events off with my friends, authors Jonathan Hillman and Lisa Riddiough in a triple book launch hosted by Red Balloon Bookshop. It was so fun to chat picture books and celebrate Jonathan and Lisa’s books, Big Wig, and, Letter’s to Live By, along with Crocodile Hungry. 

One of the questions that Aimee Lucido, our moderator, for the Red Balloon book launch asked was why we write for kids. And I’ve been thinking about that question since.

Kids are the best readers. They’re smart, generous, and adventurous readers, and young kids feel things so immediately— as readers they’re willing to explore emotions and willingly go places where maybe adult readers might be more hesitant or skeptical. Kids will go there. They want to talk about big emotions and explore all the things that adults have learned to sweep away.

Writing for kids can also be permission to play. To try and find that childlike wonder in the ordinary world, to try and see the world in a way where everything is new and filled with possibilities— whether imaginary and real. 

I know lots of children’s lit authors write for the kid they were, a book that they would’ve loved or needed, and I feel that. But for picture books, I feel like I’m doing my best writing when I am playing, where in my very first drafts, the story meanders in unexpected ways because all the possibilities are available to me— whether real or imagined and I’ve rediscovered some kind of kid logic that my brain still knows to be true.

I feel like when I write for kids, I am putting my best version of myself out there— uninhibited, willing to play and find the magic in everyday, and not afraid to feel all the things. What a dream come true.

Reading Life

Reading this past month while being so busy has been a challenge, but last month when I read, The Genius Under the Table, it kicked off a whole subject to explore— so I’ve been reading some Cold War and Eastern European books this February. And of course, some picture books to balance it all out.

Steve Sheinkin is brilliant, and he writes incredible non-fiction for kids (and it’s really great for adults too, btw). Fallout, about the Cold War is another well-researched and tightly plotted book by Sheinkin. Chance by Uri Shulevitz feels prescient as young Uri documents his and his family’s journey as refugees across the USSR and Eastern Europe during WWII as they fled to escape the Holocaust. I’ve been working my way through Maria Reva’s short story collection, Good Citizens Need Not Fear, which spans the years leading up to and immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union. Darkly funny. Again, there are so many connections and moments where I feel like these books are in conversation with each other— moments that The Genius Under the Table shares with Good Citizens are really something else. I’ve slowly been reading Black Square, which is more like a travel-memoir of Ukraine and Russia, or a travel-memoir while working with the Red Cross and AIDS awareness and healthcare. Mina and Bathe the Cat are both delightful in totally different ways, from the dark humor and suspense in Mina to the fun and absurdity of Bathe the Cat. I love them both.

Crocodile News

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind with a book release, virtual book launch, some school visits along with all the everyday parts of life. I’m so grateful for all the support from family and friends. I get news from Evan, my wonderful publicist at Tundra Books, keeping tabs on what’s happening with Crocodile.

“With its tongue-in-cheek humour (canned ham called “Oink”, for instance), short action statements, and bright illustrations, this hilarious book is sure to appeal to young children of all ages. [. . . ] Crocodile Hungry is a quick but satisfying read with a conclusion that most Canadians will appreciate.” Highly Recommended.

– Roxy Garstad, CM: Canadian Review of Materials

The line, “a conclusion that most Canadians will appreciate,” feels extremely Canadian to me??? I don’t know but I love this review. And Canada. I dream about butter tarts and crokinole boards.

Crocodile Hungry was on Canada’s CTV Your Morning Show. I was geo-blocked from watching the link, but my wonderful writer buddy Lisa from Manitoba sent me video footage! Here’s the blog post from Vicki VanSickle, Tundra’s Marketing and Publicity Director, who recommended Crocodile on CTV.

I want to quote the whole book review from School Library Journal, because I thought was so nice. But I’ll keep it short.

“This deceptively simple book will delight readers of all ages. It succeeds so well because the author creates a character and story line that run counter to all expectations. [. . . ] Giggles guaranteed in this hilarious easy reader; a nice piece of overturned expectations, sure to delight.”

– Sally James, School Library Journal

Last month, I said Crocodile Hungry was going to be in Australia later this year. And I was sort of right and sort of wrong. Publishing and rights contracts are confusing sometimes. Crocodile Hungry is going to be published in Australia and New Zealand, but I’m not sure on the date yet— definitely far enough out to plan a trip! *eyeball emoji*

I love that I am writing a correction in my own newsletter. Every newsletter is a correction, beloved. Let’s get existential about this eel report newsletter on a rainy Thursday morning.

Events!

I’ll be reading Crocodile Hungry and signing books at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre on Saturday, March 5th at 11:00am. The Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre is Moscow’s premier historic, downtown, community performing arts venue. BookPeople of Moscow is hosting, my friend and bookseller, Liela, will be there selling copies of Crocodile Hungry. My friend and fellow kid lit author, Annette Pimentel, will be there to introduce me— her wonderful non-fiction picture books are at BookPeople.

If you want to pick up a copy of Crocodile Hungry, I’ll personalize copies from BookPeople of Moscow, but I like to recommend picking it up from you local indie bookstore if you have one near you. Indies are the best. Make friends with your booksellers, ask them where the good books are and the weird ones, too. Or if you are a library user, I’d appreciate asking your local library to purchase a copy.

Big hugs, quiet walks, letters to your reps, and news breaks when you need them during these wild time. Thank you for reading this newsletter. Cheers to you and yours.

– Eija Sumner

a little less about eels and more about traditional publishing, forgive me

I know this is usually about eels at the beginning, but it’s also going to be about writing. If you are really here for the Eel Content™ and Eel Content™ alone, here is a beautiful tin of gourmet baby eels in olive oil:

This is where I admit that I am not a huge fan of canned fish. Maybe this Eel Report will become a spin off of a horribly produced video series of me eating tinned fish delicacies. Probably not.

Maybe you’re not here for eels at all, but are interested in writing and children’s literature. I promise, we will get there. Maybe you’re not interested in any of the above, but you are supportive of me and my weird endeavors. Thank you for your ongoing support and for being here. 

Swapping Eels for Writing Thrills 

Sometimes writers like to talk about voice, like it’s this undefinable thing but you know it when you read it. But so much of voice is the rhythm and cadence of the sentences, the word choice and how the words are put together. This is not to be confused with grammar. Grammar is *shudders* something else. 

I feel like voice is something that comes up often in writing circles and workshops. Voice is something readers want. Does the story have voice? We can’t always say what voice is, but we know we want it! And we know when we hear it!

Which is why I was delighted to read this article about eels (okay, Eel Content™, here we gooo!) which feels like it should be read in a movie trailer voice with explosions in the background. The title alone is amazing. I think it’s a delightful example of voice, informative and informal writing, and keeping your audience in mind.

I personally loved the “Swapping Guts for Gonads” sub-header. I did not know that eels’ anuses shrink to prevent water loss as they journey back to the ocean to breed. Learn something new everyday, a minuscule eel anus factoid for you this morning. Minuscule eel anus is really hard to say. You should try saying it four times fast.

I think it’d be a fun writing exercise to take a story, an idea, or something you are working on and write a pitch that is to be read in an exciting movie trailer voice, and then write it again like it will be a lifetime movie special, and then write it like it’s the end of a pharmaceutical ad and speed read it. I wouldn’t spend too much time on this, maybe a couple minutes each, just to see how the writing shifts and changes. Maybe in a later newsletter, I will do all of these with Crocodile Hungry. We’ll see.

Event Announcements

I have a virtual book launch with some wonderful friends, Lisa Riddiough and Jonathan Hillman, moderated by the brilliant Aimee Lucido. Red Balloon Bookshop, based out of St. Paul, Minnesota, is hosting the event on February 16, 2022. Mark your calendar, save the date, and practice your time-change math skills! 

If you order Crocodile Hungry from Red Balloon, I’ll be sending them book plates with my author signature. If you DO order books from Red Balloon, and you want the book personalized, please let them know when you order, and I’ll coordinate with the wonderful staff at Red Balloon Bookshop.  

Lisa, Jonathan, Aimee, and I are all Hamline University grads from different graduating classes, so this is gonna be like a smorgasbord of Hamline kidlit support and love. If you do attend, I suggest planning on eating cake. Every Red Balloon event I’ve ever been to involves cake. I know virtual events make this more of a challenge, but I had a spice cake around the holidays that I am still thinking about, so maybe I will have a spice cake to celebrate.

I have an in-person event, hosted by Book People of Moscow, at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center on March 5th in Moscow, Idaho. If you’re local, save the date! And maybe Omicron will be more of an Omicant by then. Hahaha, I am so sorry. 

Book People of Moscow is my beloved local bookstore, and whether you’ll be able to make it to the event or not, they’re the place to pick up signed copies of Crocodile Hungry!

A Little Story about Making a Book

I’ve had a few people ask about the process of making a book or publishing a book, so I thought I’d share a little bit about my experience in The Making of a Traditionally Published Picture Book. 

I wrote a first draft of Crocodile Hungry probably in 2013. There was a time when I tried to illustrate this story, but we don’t talk about drawing, no no. We don’t talk about drawing!! Nooooo. Encanto is on a constant loop over here and it is amazing, my ability to illustrate, less so. 

And then I kept writing other stories. And writing and revising more stories. And when I felt like my writing had improved and that I had enough picture books to query literary agents, I started to query literary agents. A query is sending out a letter and pitch introducing yourself and your writing along with a picture book manuscript, hitting send, and then pacing around the neighborhood and sweating profusely. Again, just my experience.  

If an agent likes the picture book manuscript that a writer queries with, then the literary agent will usually request more picture book manuscripts to read before offering representation. As far as I’m aware, this is industry standard, and a picture book writer should have at least 4-6 polished picture manuscripts before querying agents. I think I shared 10 (TEN!) picture book manuscripts with my agent before she offered to represent me because either I am an overachiever or because my writing is all over the place so my agent needed to see a wider range of stories. Award winning author, Laura Ruby, once said very kindly, that my body of writing had range, so let’s go with that one, although I freely admit that my writing is all over the place. It can be both, I’ve decided.  

Anyway, my agent offered to represent me and my writing back in January 2019 and then I revised Crocodile Hungry with my agent to get it ready to go out on submission. 

Being on submission is like the querying process all over again, but instead of querying agents, your agent is submitting your manuscript to editors at different publishing houses. 

It’s exciting and stressful and an illogical amount of inbox refreshing. There is also a decent amount of rejection. You simultaneously develop a thick skin and also a creeping sense of self doubt. Walking around the neighborhood helps. I don’t know if profusely sweating helps.

My editor from Tundra Books offered to acquire my manuscript— there’s a lot more involved here with acquisition meetings within the publishing house and comparison analysis on potential market and sales but that’s the editorial and publishing side of things— and then my agent called me on a sunny day and we yelled into our phones for a bit while I walked around my neighborhood. Again, more profusely sweating. That was in April 2019. 

My editor thought John Martz would be the perfect illustrator for Crocodile Hungry and he is, like I can’t wait for readers to find all the funny gags and great details hidden in the illustrations. I worked with my editor to revise the text, and John began work on the development of the characters and the visual story. 

There were proofs and a little more revising, a few small changes to the text and the art, an internal review and report (I cried when I read this, I’ve never been more proud and/or seen as a writer), and then everything went to print in the summer of 2021. 

And that’s the story and (my) experience with the traditional publishing of a picture book! And it’ll be a real physical book on shelves all over North America in just over two weeks. 

If you are reading this and you live in Australia, I am so sorry, but you’ll have to wait until April 18, 2022, for Crocodile Hungry. Maybe we can all agree to meet in Australia after April 18, 2022 so we can say that we’ve seen Crocodile Hungry in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres which feels like a big deal.

Books I Read and Loved this Month

I like to list all the books mentioned in this newsletter in an Eel Report BookShop page, so it’s all nicely cataloged and easy to reference. Also there’s a book list for a ghost newsletter that was never sent in September & October, which I find mysterious and elusive, like what happened to that newsletter?! It lives in draft form only, but the booklist lives on! Such is writing sometimes. A week ago, the American Library Association held the Youth Media Awards and that’s such a fun place to build a reading list heading into the new year to pick up celebrated titles. The Genius Under the Table and Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued both received honors from the ALA last week.

Happy reading, writing, and learning about whatever keeps you curious!

the eels made it over some dams and so can we, beloved

I think the last time I started drafting this newsletter I didn’t actually send it. I don’t know why, probably exhausted from the panini or I didn’t have good eel information. Or maybe because I haven’t really really sat down at my computer in forever? There are so many roadblocks and difficulties in trying to write and making time to be creative or even time to just be, and I’m feeling that more than ever this past year or two years. So it’s been a minute. And I’m fine with that.

Eel News You Didn’t Know You Needed

This newsletter always starts off with a little bit of eel research and eel news, and I stumbled upon this article about eel population restoration on the Susquehanna River. I’ve mostly lived in western states in the US, so eel population struggles are new to me, but the first political slogan I really remember was, “Can Helen Not Salmon!” A slogan chanted over the radio waves trying to unseat Idaho congressional politician, Helen Chenoweth, who would hold Endangered Salmon Bakes because she didn’t believe that Idaho salmon should be listed as an endangered species in the 1990s. This is when Snake River sockeye salmon populations were near extinct, like only eight (8!) Snake River sockeye salmon returned to Redfish Lake, and Helen was like, but we’ve got canned Salmon so who cares?! Maybe this 90s political slogan is aging me, but you know what else is aging?? THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER. 

I’m kidding. I mean not really. If you live near the Susquehanna River, I apologize for throwing the river under the bus and over the dams in this newsletter. I’m sure it’s fine. We love a restoration project here at The Eel Report. I have heard about salmon populations and river health my whole life. But I thought this eel article was really interesting because there had not been a huge effort to save the eels or increase the eel population. I am assuming because people don’t like eels, or because eels have a bad reputation, or maybe because people don’t eat them in the US nearly as much as they used to. The article mentions extensive efforts and money invested to save the American Shad— btw Shad is like the equivalent of a fish named Kevin and I can’t handle it— but fascinating that with minimal resources biologists began a project a decade ago to catch little elver (baby) eels stuck at dams on the Susquehanna and truck them upstream. This has boosted eel populations and in turn helped boost the entire health of the river, and hopefully will boost future eel populations and the ecosystem as well.

Boost is the word of the month this December. Is the river boosted? I don’t know, but I am! Get boosted!

I love to think that somewhere there could be an entire truck of little eels catching a ride upstream. Nature is wild. Or humans trying to save nature while simultaneously destroying nature is wild. 

Let us take a moment and remember this overturned truck of slime eels from 2017.

Before we continue, here is my disclaimer that my eel report is mostly me just reading random news and books about eels but that I am just a person on a couch reading stuff on the internet and I am in no way an expert on eels. Just a fan with an internet connection and a newsletter, which if we’re all paying attention to everything happening right now, this is an extremely dangerous place to be— like should I even share my half-researched eel information? Maybe I haven’t sent another newsletter because I’m having an existential crisis about authorial ethics and expertise?? 

Basically, please read about eels from more qualified people than me. But also, it really is fun to shout, CAN HELEN NOT SALMON!! which is something I totally did in second grade. 

Here’s a clip of Nicole Kidman and Jimmy Fallon not really touching a Fire Eel but almost touching a Fire Eel. The Fire Eel did not ask to be touched by these celebrities!

Crocodile Hungry Picture Book Debut So Close

It is TWO MONTHS until Crocodile Hungry publishes on February 15, 2022. Exclamation Mark! I’m excited and nervous and feel like I should be doing something. I am mostly refreshing my email. I am not sure how that helps with anything, but refreshing your email plays a much larger role in writing than I ever imagined. 

Maybe I need to reread Waiting is Not Easy! by Mo Willems or Waiting for Godot or Kevin Henkes’ Waiting.

You can preorder Crocodile Hungry at BookPeople of Moscow and I will totally sign it and the lovely people at BookPeople will ship that book to your door. It’s magic.

Writing Life

For me, right now during this moment in history, the only writing I have been able to do has been extremely planned. 

I’ve written beat sheets and character sketches. I’ve outlined and completed the dreaded but necessary synopsis. It works. I know it’s supposed to work, but it really does work. I’m kind of mad at how good pre-writing and planning works! There are still things I need to figure out, but I had the framework and the tools. So when I did have time to write, I wrote. I feel like I finally discovered outlining, which omg took me long enough.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like I have as much time to write, or maybe I feel like I don’t have as much time for anything. So being prepared, doing this prep work has given me some much needed tools to move forward.

I feel like my brain is having to relearn how to be creative, and for longer projects that means I have to outline, I have to give myself the tools to be able to do this writing thing.

I’m still figuring out what this means with picture books. Usually, picture book drafting starts off as playtime and develops from there. But how do you play while the world falls apart? Or how do you play while you try and hold things together? I’m still figuring this out, but I think the obvious answer is that I need to play. We all probably do.

So I guess in 2022, I hope I plan the hell out of my writing while also giving myself the freedom to play. To look for joy when I see the world, and to give myself all the time and patience I need to find my way back to this creative work. 

Thanks for reading this mess of a newsletter and for supporting me. Stay tuned for more regular newsletters as I share book launch details and the countdown to publication day really truly begins!  

Also, let’s celebrate one more time that the American eel population in the Susquehanna River reached a record high this year. Go eels, baybee!

Recommended Reading

And on to my favorite part, aside from the eels, the book recommendations! And it’s a lot, but it’s the end of the year so I feel less bad about celebrating books I have read and loved since the last newsletter.

You can find all these titles and maybe a few more over here. Thanks for reading this newsletter. You can always subscribe or share. I’ll see you next time for Crocodile Hungry updates, events, and reveals. Cheers!