Not the football player. The author. She’s been out of print for a while, but has a loyal following of girls who were teenagers when her work came out, and we’re still waiting for the last Night World book, #10 (#9 was published in 1999). If you’ve peeked at my library, you’ll notice that I have every last one of her books. She was my favorite author all through high school, and I’m still dying to find out what happens in book 10.

The reason she stopped where she did was because a child in her family got really sick, and she couldn’t finish the last book or pursue publication during that period. And now that her work has gone out of print, she’ll need to change books 1-9 (they were leading up to the millennium, which was 7 years ago) and finish with book 10, and get them reprinted.

To help with that, NightWorld.net, which is still pretty disorganized because of a loss of data a few years back, is running a letter-writing campaign. I already sent in my letters, and I’d love it if anyone else who has read or wants to read Ms. Smith’s work would join in the effort.

(more…)

So I’ve been writing on another book instead of editing the first one.

Is this some sort of weird, twisted form of procrastination, or is it just me taking a well-earned break? I seriously need to finish editing Isabelle’s chapters 1-3, but I’ve had recent breakthroughs for my boy, Jamie, that I’ve needed to get down on paper.

The rush is that I promised my Bible study group I’d make them my grandmother’s chicken and dumplings when I finished the Isabelle book. And “finished” is an amorphous term that means different things to different people. For me, it means revising the imperfect ending. For most people, I’m finished when I put “The End” down, no matter what comes before it.

I’m just kind of blocked on the Isabelle ending right now, and I’m making dumplings next week for the Tannerettes, the mother and aunt of my husband’s best friend (who are driving in for the guy’s graduation), which will make me not want to make dumplings again too soon.

Anyway, sometimes writing takes forever, and you really shouldn’t rush if rushing means the quality suffers. I know this.

I’m just so ready to start querying. Seriously. *sigh*