A Little Tour

I was tapped recently or, more specifically, "tagged" by my friend Dana Sullivan to keep the ball rolling on what is called "The Next Big Thing" -- a blog tour aiming to raise awareness of authors and their work. It started in Australia and has now gone international.  
Here's how it works:

Authors answer ten questions about their new, next, most recent picture book/novel/collection/whatever before tagging a few authors who agree to do the same thing one week later. Then author participants spread the word through Facebook, Twitter, and other online venues.

    

The debut of HENNY is still a little way away, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to give her a little shout out. Brace yourselves--when the book IS released (February, 2014), you will all be hearing about it...ad nauseum ;)

So here goes:
Sneak peek at the cover:

(cover design by the inimitable Lucy Ruth Cummins!)

1) What is the working title of your next book?
      um...HENNY?  ;)

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

      A couple of years ago, I started drawing birds with arms.  I think it all began with Herr Vogel:

     A few months later, my first version of Henny appeared.  She has obviously morphed :)
  I remember at the time, I just thought a bird with arms was funny.  

3) What genre does your book fall under? 

      HENNY is a picture book.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
       Daniel Day Lewis would play everyone.  I think he could handle it, don't you?

  

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
      From the announcement in PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY: "HENNY tells the tale of a young chick who is born just a little different from everyone else in the barn, and learns how to use her special gift to come into her own."  

       

6) Who is publishing your book?
     Simon and Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
      This is hard to answer because I think HENNY really evolved over a year or so.  However, when I actually sat down, I think I pulled the first book dummy together in a morning.  My amazing agent, Joanna Volpe of New Leaf Literary and Media, weighed in with a few suggestions, and then HENNY was born!  

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

      HENNY is a strong character-driven story perhaps in the spirit of the incomparable OLIVIA or Paul Schmid's incredibly beguiling  HUGS FROM PEARL .

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
      Henny did.  She made me do it ;)

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
       If the reader's interest isn't piqued by a chicken with arms, then I'm not sure what will.  

Now for the fun part--
Here are two talented author/illustrators I've tagged...so be sure and look for their blog posts next week!

Courtney Pippin-Mathur 

Anne Belov