What David Baldacci and I have in common

Ten years ago this month my very first book,  Here's What You Do When You Can't Find Your Shoe burst upon the children's literary scene.  I was prepared for a deluge of requests to speak about my book, autograph books, and be interviewed about this landmark publication.  My family and I were preparing to go on a trip for spring break and so I booked several book signings in the Florida town where we would be staying.  One of my signings was at a Books-a-Million store the Saturday before Easter Sunday. Perfect, I thought.  Lots of parents wanting an autographed copy of a brand new first edition zany poetry collection from yours truly for their darlings' Easter baskets.  I sat in a prime spot, visible to all customers coming in to the store.  Wearing a smile and a cute pair of bunny ears on my head, I beamed at the giant pile of my books on my tiny table.  My husband had even surprised me with a brand new Waterman pen for my first autograph session. 
Two hours later, my bunny ears were drooping as was my spirit. I had signed one copy for a customer, and two for book store staff people - pity sales for sure.  I sighed, thanked the Books-a-Million employees for their kindness, and headed out.

I was reminded of this experience when I recently read an article in the Savannah Morning News about my literary cohort, esteemed author David Baldacci.  According to staff writer Dash Coleman,  Baldacci was scheduled last month to speak to a group of Armstrong Atlantic State University students as part of the sixth annual Savannah Book Festival.  15 students gathered in the showroom of the Southern Motors on Broughton Street to hear him.  To be clear, Mr. Baldacci's crowd beat my crowd.  But to be fair, the article goes on to say, "...After meeting with the students, Baldacci headed to the sold-out Trustees Theater where he brought the festival to a close..."  But 15 students? In a car dealership showroom?? I am sad to say that made me smile.  My guess is that before he went to the Trustees Theater, he must have put on some bunny ears.

Thank You, Theodor

Dear Dr. Seuss,

it is truer than true,

the person I'm thankfullest for

would be you.

The people who know me best, incorrigible rhymeaholic that I am, will not be surprised that Dr. Seuss is who I feel most indebted to and most inspired by during this month of giving thanks.  I wanted to grow up to rhyme just like he did.  And back in 2003 when a reviewer of Here's What You Do When You Can't Find Your Shoe called it "...high-spirited verse of the light variety, enhanced by Seussian silliness...", I knew I could die a happy woman. 

Growing up, loving Dr. Seuss was a family affair.  My sisters and I were performing The Big Brag here in 1967 at our grandparents' house.  You can't really tell, but it was standing room only.  We brought the house down, or perhaps it was just the Christmas tree that later came down behind my sister Anne during an encore performance... 
Dr. Seuss' "unique nonsense books for children" were right up our alley.  In a family of eight children, who wouldn't love a story about a woman who had 23 sons and named them all Dave?  We loved every Sneetch and Lorax, every Umbus and Thnad. It was all so wonderfully silly.  Green Eggs and Ham? The Cat in the Hat? We loved performing the stories just to be a part of them, albeit briefly.  At the time I remember thinking the rhyme made it easier to memorize, or perhaps it was just that we'd already read our lines over and over and over again because we loved how Seuss tickled our tongues.
Fast forward now to me the children's author, rhyming along poem by poem.  I finally get a contract for my first book with Caitlyn Dlouhy at Atheneum and am thrilled. But what does she tell me that very same day? That rhyme is nearly impossible to sell since so much of it is done so poorly.  Curses! But I am not daunted.  That same year Hooray for Diffendoofer Day is published, begun by Dr. Seuss but completed by Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith.  And in the back of the book, the most fabulous thing I've ever seen.  Reproductions of original  notes for the book - rough drafts that showed Dr. Seuss searching for just the right word, trying out different names for the school, for the teachers, crossing out some, adding others, scribbling and scratching along until he got it just right.  I don't know why I'd ever assumed that he just wrote one perfect version of everything, but this evidence of the trial and error way that even the great Dr. Seuss wrote made me feel validated. Rhyme didn't come so very easily to him all the time either! So I still love rhyme and I still write rhyme and I still get to read Dr. Seuss.  Have you seen the new/old The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories?

Yes, woe be to he

who is rhymeless and Seussless

for such an existence

is utterly useless.

Be thankful this Thursday

for turkey or goose,

while in my own home

I'll be thankful for Seuss.