Here’s the latest on my new book. Not the one with Gus, the reality-insecure hero. I don’t have any news about that one. It’s out in a couple of months. You can probably pre-order it now. But I can tell you a bit about the book I’ll be working on this year (and next) with brilliant co-author Melanie and hard-working editor Anne.
What I can tell you is that it’s official. Scholastic backed a skateboard full of money up to my house and dared me to say no. I signed the contract a couple of days ago.
Mel and I had a praxis meeting. (We didn’t call it that. We called it, ‘How we’re going to write this one.’) We decided that our old approach – the way we wrote Autumn Bird And The Runaway - was wrong. And when I say we I mean Mel. I said Uh huh.
Last time things were too casual, she said. Too ad hoc, haphazard, ex tempore, ad lib, seat of the pants, scary.
Uh huh, I said.
She did not like me handing over a chapter with the last line, ‘And you’ll never guess what happened next’ when we hadn’t discussed what would happen next.
Uh huh, I said.
The new book – working title is Camp FUNDament - pretty cute, eh? - is going to be more planned. We’ll know where we are going, when the plot is going to turn, how the stakes are going to be raised, what the high point and takeaway are going to be.
And there won’t be any last-minute changes of plan. No chapters that end with a surprise gunfight, or striptease, or stampede. Right, Richard?
Uh huh, I said.
But I had my fingers crossed.