At the end of week #1 of PiBoIdMo, I’ve successfully met this week’s goal: eight new ideas, three of which continue to feed the muse. My weekly volunteer session in my granddaughter’s second-class yesterday bumped my idea count from five to eight, thanks to one-on-one sessions in the hallway. The project I was helping the kids with was hysterical. Thank you, students, for making me laugh!
But when I checked in with Norman, he seemed a bit discouraged. So I asked how his writing challenge was coming.
“I loaned my car to Beverly and Beauregard Bunny. They have more ideas than I could come up with. I got off the StuWriStoMo hill. Everyone passed me.”
“What is StuWriStoMo?” I asked.
“Stuffs Write Stories Month. We have our own Stuffsbook page. I read Beverly’s post.” Norman groaned. “Beverly came up with 413 1/2 ideas.”
“You’re not competing with the bunnies,” I said.
“Beauregard wrote 93 picture book manuscripts this week. He stars in all of them. Pig and Elephant are way ahead, too. Pig is illustrating Elephant’s ideas as they come.”
“Have you written down any new ideas?”
“One,” said Norman. “It’s called I WANT MY BANANA BACK. Beauregard Bunny steals my banana. So I ask around to see if anyone has seen it. No one has. And they’re too busy to help me look because they’re eating banana bread. Made from MY BANANA! And then I find Beauregard Bunny selling suspicious-smelling cookies at his bakery. By the end of the book, the bakery is shutdown.”
“What happens to Beauregard Bunny?”
“Why are you asking?” said Norman.
“Because this sounds like plagiarism.”
“No, it doesn’t. There are no hats in my story. Please do not ask me any more questions. I would not eat a bunny.”
“Okay, well I expect you’ll be hearing from Jon Klassen soon.”
“Great! I’ll tell my agent at Bossy Frog Literary that Klassen will write a blurb for the book jacket. Agent Bossy Frog #2 calls my manuscript ‘fresh’. He’s preparing to submit it to fifty-seven editors. By the end of next week we’ll have an auction.”
I put aside the much-needed discussion on How to Choose a Good Agent, and headed to my writing room to find a book on craft. I carried it outside to Norman, who was making a How to Spend My Advance for I WANT MY BANANA BACK list.
While Norman spent the afternoon reading, I still have concerns.
His #2 idea is called MAKE WAY FOR GORILLAS.
Have a great and inspiring week, everyone!