Posts by slthomson@earthlink.net

Frogs Research

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Aug 26, 2021 in Children's Literature, Nonfiction | 0 comments

When I told my mom I was researching a children’s book about frogs, she was skeptical. How many books about frogs are there already? What could possibly be new and different?

I present to you…the Suriname sea toad. After the female lays the eggs and the male fertilizes them, he nudges them onto her back. Her skin grows up over the eggs. Each egg hatches in its own little skin pocket. The tadpoles develop into frogs there. And finally…they’re big enough to venture out into the world.

It’s horrifying to watch. See, mom?

Cover Reveal!

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Aug 20, 2021 in BOOK: A Pandemic Is Worldwide, Children's Literature, Nonfiction, PIcture Books | 2 comments

And here it is: the cover for A Pandemic Is Worldwide, to be published in February 2022!

So much gratitude and respect for the illustrator, Taia Morley (do check out her website here), who managed to take on this sobering topic with such grace. The art conveys the seriousness of the situation without letting it get grim.

I have to confess to some sadness, as well. When I first proposed this to my editor, Tamar Mayes at HarperCollins in the summer of 2020, she had a little hesitation (which I shared). A trade book is not a quick undertaking. Even rushing it (which we did), it wouldn’t be on shelves for a year and a half. Would pandemics still be relevant, we wondered? Would the world have moved on?

I’m sad to say–I’m heartbroken to say–this book will be relevant and needed and timely in February of 2022.

Odd E-Mails

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Jul 9, 2021 in BOOK: A Pandemic Is Worldwide, Illustration, Nonfiction, SERIES: Let's Read and Find Out | 0 comments

Infographic-in-progress. Note HUGENESS of the Black Death.

Sometimes when you take a step or two back from a project, you can’t quite believe you are writing serious, professional e-mails to a colleague that go like this:

The page looks empty and the pandemics themselves seems kind of inconsequential in all that space. I mean, the Black Death should be HUGE…. We do need to do something about the circle for COVID…. Right now it’s about the same size as the 1918 Influenza, when it should really be between the Third Bubonic Plague and Ebola, closer to Ebola.

This is what it looks like when you’re finishing up a picture book on pandemics and you need to get the final infographic just right.

Rejections

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Jun 25, 2021 in Writing Process | 0 comments

Low-cost rejection therapy

A part of every writer’s life, for sure. And there’s a half-myth, half-truth that they get easier with time and experience.

Well, in some ways they do. One thing that working as both an editor and a writer has taught me is that one editor’s “no” is not a verdict on the quality of the manuscript. One editor’s “no” doesn’t preclude another editor’s “yes.” And some manuscripts just don’t hit the market at the right time, even though they are reasonably good in themselves. It’s a combination of skill and timing and luck each time, and if the luck isn’t there–well, it just isn’t.

But every now and then there comes a rejection that really stings–of a book I particularly love, at a moment when I particularly need an injection of hope. A writer’s career is built on hope, after all–you write a book (or at least work up a proposal), putting time and energy and skill and love into it, and then you hope it will spark the right kind of response from someone and they’ll want to pay you some money for it. (Truly a terrible business model.) Sometimes it just doesn’t work out.

Then it’s time for long walks, hugging the pets, sweet tea, and patience. The sting wears off eventually, and it’s back to work on the next book, sending hope out into the universe, crossing your fingers that you’ll get some back.