I’m not sure I’ve ever been so relieved to finish a book in my life! I don’t mean “Gone in a Flash”, which I’m now unbearably relieved to get back to. What I’m referring to is “One-Hundred Feet of Snow”, my one and only children’s book. I expect it will remain so, as this genre is not where my heart lies. However, having already written this one, it did seem a shame to let it go to waste when the opportunity to publish it was so readily available.
We didn’t get a lot of snow where I grew up, but as luck would have it, one of those rare occasions during elementary school occurred after spending the previous evening reading aloud to my siblings. That prolonged pastime wreaks havoc on the throat, unlike ordinary conversation, so the next morning I could barely talk. I’m sure I sounded as though I was coming down with something, so instead of going to school with the rest, I stayed home, watched the snow fall outside the window, and wrote a book.
I wrote a lot as a kid, but this was the story that seemed best fitted for the “written and illustrated by” contest my high school art teacher announced to the class my senior year. I really wanted to win! It would mean a scholarship, and getting my book published. So, I spent most if not all of that year preparing it for submission. My art teacher, Mrs. Mattson, was incredibly supportive, so art class was spent working on the colored pencil illustrations, as was much of my time outside of school. I’ll never forget the incredibly painful calluss that resulted from that excessive amount of drawing! It was agonizing, but I had a book to finish, and there was a deadline looming. During creative writing class I finished transforming the original manuscript into rhyme, and though my memory’s grown a little vague on some things, I recall the support of other teachers as well.
At last my work was finished, and submitted. And then, we waited. And waited! Eventually we learned there were several thousand entries that year, so when the winner would be announced was impossible to calculate.
When the results were in, much much later, “One-Hundred Feet of Snow” received honorable mention. While everyone else thought that was really something, Mrs. Mattson understood how I felt. I was disappointed! Honorable mention, and the letter accompanying it that said it was very difficult to choose the winner, was no consolation. Emily Byrd Starr (the main character in a series by L. M. Montgomery) referred to nicely worded rejection letters as “damned with faint praise”, and that pretty much summed up how I felt.
“One-Hundred Feet of Snow” was filed away, and that’s where it spent the next thirty or so years. It would still be in the filing cabinet right now, if not for my sister. She has spent those years, among other things, asking when I was going to publish it. She asked again recently, so I decided to get it out and see if it was publish-ready.
Well, it wasn’t. The colored pencil transferred from one page to another, and the rubber cement that held the cover photo to the dust jacket, left it badly stained. I don’t know what came over me, possibly the desire to never be asked again when I was going to publish it, but I downloaded an art app to my iPad. And then, I spent the next two weeks (that would be the past two) rescusitating the original illustrations and bringing them into the present century. I enjoyed learning to use the app, a lot, and future book covers will be a breeze after this! I took a break and redesigned the cover of “The Lodge”, which I’m absolutely satisfied with now.
I might have enjoyed reviving the drawings for “One-Hundred Feet”, if only I didn’t feel incredibly driven to finish. I’m in the process of making all of my books available on Barnes and Noble, and that’s a lot of irons in the fire. Jack and Charlotte are still having Sunday dinner at the Ryland’s, too, and are ready to move on to something else. I’m very relieved that now, they can. I’m also relieved to have “One-Hundred Feet” completed, and hope kids will find it entertaining. If they get any sort of message out of it, it might be that sometimes when you get what you want, you don’t want what you got, but the story wasn’t written with any sort of moral conclusion or message in mind. It was just written by a kid in elementary school, developed by a senior in high school, and the artwork revived and put into book form by a mystery/suspense/romance/inspirational/supernatural fiction author. That’s quite a combination, but I think altogether we did pretty good.
I’ve been thinking about the disappointment of not winning that competition all those years ago, but if I had, my life would be entirely different. I would have gone to an art institute instead of college. I would most likely have become a commercial artist, since that was the plan. I would not have the family I do now, nor would I have had the privilege of knowing Fox, Maxim, and Indy. I wouldn’t have Star, or Arctic, or share a house with the inscrutable Pandy. I might not be a writer, either. So thirty some odd years later, I can honestly say… I’m glad I didn’t win!
“One-Hundred Feet of Snow” will be available on Barnes and Noble in both paper and hardback September 1st. I’ll post the link when it’s available.