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A year ago to the day we launched We Tell Stories, an experiment in digital storytelling developed with ARG designers Six to Start. Over the course of six weeks, six writers told six stories based on six classics - but unlike their (and our) usual publishing output these stories were told online, using digital tools to create what we hoped would be engaging, fresh and radically different narrative experiences. 

Best of all, perhaps, we learnt that it is possible for old school publishers to get out there and play with the cool kids without having our glasses stolen and stamped on. These are challenging times for traditional media companies - as Penguin author Clay Shirky writes; 

'the core problem publishing solves — the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of making something available to the public — has stopped being a problem.'

Yesterday I was asking an American book blogger if, following a week spent hanging out with UK publishers, she could see any major differences between publishers in the US and those over here. "Yep," she said, "depression." In the US apparently, "morale is low" and there is a feeling that the publishing of fiction, in particular, is ailing. If the internet hasn't won already, it is believed, major damage has been inflicted on non-web based forms of entertainment.

Previous posts here, here, here and here for example, have considered that while the internet might indeed be transforming the cultural landscape, it's not yet time to roll over and die. Yes, the game is changing, but we still want to be players, still believe that there is a market for quality fiction, and still think that if you tell an interesting enough story, whatever the medium, it will be read.

Over the last 5 weeks nearly 150,000 people have read the digital fictions we've presented at We Tell Stories, and with the release of this week's installment this incursion into web-based fiction is coming to an end. We've learnt lots of things along the way. We've discovered that our authors are interested in new challenges and have enjoyed writing outside their comfort zones. That game designers are as interested in strong narrative as book editors. That there is an interest and an audience for new ways of telling stories. That we shouldn't be frightened of the internet, but instead should critically examine the possibilities it presents to create new forms of narrative, new audiences and new opportunities for our authors and their work.

We Tell Stories has been a great project to work on, but the challenge now is to learn from and take forward some of the ideas that have been raised and use this platform to make further, bolder online incursions. Being a publisher is not just about selling and distributing books, it's about selling and distributing stories and ideas, and these can take many forms.

As Mohsin Hamid writes, 'There are always at least two ways to tell a story.' The game is afoot...

Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher

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If you're planning a trip to Paris in the next few days and find yourself on the gorgeous new concourse at St Pancras station, keep an eye out for some seemingly odd behaviour. You might notice people counting their steps, or making strange and random phone calls near the statue of Sir John Betjeman or otherwise looking baffled.

Please, don't be tempted to call the authorities if you see any of this, for it is likely that these individuals are playing along with our newest project, We Tell Stories. Part game, part exercise in digital storytelling, this launched this with Charles Cumming's thrilling Google Maps adventure. A new story, by Toby Litt, will go live next Tuesday and, I can assure you, this will be something completely different. And if you look at the site and still can't work out why people are wandering round St Pancras, then perhaps you are not looking hard enough...

Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher

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A brief history of my reading Linda Urban's A Crooked Kind of Perfect: I had prepared myself not to like the book; I'm not a big fan of drama in kids' literature and the content lent itself to drama (mother works all the time, father has OCD, she's an outcast at school) so I feared that the book would take itself too seriously.  But one of my favorite bloggers, ShelfTalker, raved about it so much that I grudgingly checked it out of the library.

Congratulations to Shannon Hale for winning the YA fantasy award for Book of a Thousand Days! 'Tis much deserved.

And thanks to the judges for picking a winner out of our brilliant shortlist. Congratulations to Linda Urban who won for A Crooked Kind of Perfect.

For a full list of all the winners, visit the Cybils blog.

The first thing I'd like to draw your attention to is Becky's fabulous interview with Linda Urban, author of A Crooked Kind of Perfect:

A Crooked Kind of Perfect is about a girl who dreams big—really big. What were your dreams at age eleven? Did you ever want to play the piano?

I wanted to be like the heroine in whatever book I was reading at the time. It seemed to me that my favorite books were about girls who were unappreciated or underestimated but were eventually recognized for being the most beautiful or talented or magical or whatever. I did, at one time, think that playing the piano might be that thing for me, but I really was no musician. And besides, we had that organ.

Today I am happy (interpret that ecstatic if you want) to bring you my interview with Linda Urban. She is the author of A Crooked Kind Of Perfect, a novel that was so so so good, that I had to read it TWICE within the same week. You can read my review of A Crooked Kind of Perfect here. It has been nominated for a Cybils. And it appeared on the Amazon's Best of 2007 list. Be sure to visit her official site and her livejournal site.

What inspired you to write A Crooked Kind of Perfect? (Or How did you come to write A Crooked Kind of Perfect?)

I was having a conversation with the author/illustrator David Small about music and told him about how my dad bought an organ instead of a piano. I told him how my dad was seduced by the fancy rhythm switches. David said how he could just see that illustration. A few weeks later, as I was driving to work, the first line of a picture book popped into my head and I had to rush into my office and write it down.

How long did it take you to write?

You’ll notice I said picture book above. The first incarnation of this story was as a picture book. It wasn’t until about a year later that I started it as a novel. Once it started, it came fast – a couple of months, tops, for the first draft.

Do you have a favorite character? A favorite scene?

I love all the people in the book. Except maybe Joella Tinstella. And I wish I had a Wheeler in my fifth grade life.

I think the last scene is my favorite, but I also like Emma’s Really Big Shoe – that excruciating birthday party. Poor Zoe.

Will we by any chance see another book featuring Zoe and Wheeler? (I could even see one told from Wheeler's point of view.) I’d love to see how (or should I say if) this like like relationship develops!

People have asked for a Wheeler book and for an Emma book. Right now I have plans for neither, but I won’t say never.

Do you, like Zoe, dislike the excessive use of exclamation points? Was that scene with the manual or brochure drawn from real life by any chance?

Yes!!! I think they spring from a culture in which we are always being encouraged to Get Excited!! – usually about some new product.

I’ve read tons of brochures like the one in the book, haven’t you? You know “Welcome to the exciting world of your new GDS (Garbage Disposal Supreme) – the first kitchen waste system with Sansismear!” Yeesh. It is a garbage disposal. I’ll be excited if it works. For now, just calmly tell me how to install it without losing a limb.

Zoe’s song choice of “Forever In Blue Jeans” seems so perfect. She, of course, didn’t know the words to the song. Didn’t understand the message. Was that song choice an easy one for you? Did you choose it because of the lyrics—the message—or was it because it is one of your favorites?

I used to think it was “Reverend Blue Jeans” when I was a kid. The song just sort of appeared there on the page. Zoe needed to pick a song to play and, since she didn’t know any of the songs in her song books, she needed to have a reason to pick one over another. Zoe figured that Neal Diamond was as close as she was going to get to a diamond tiara, so she went with that. But Forever in Blue Jeans just sort of appeared. It wasn’t until later that I thought about the words and how much they might add to the novel.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect is about a girl who dreams big—really big. What were your dreams at age eleven? Did you ever want to play the piano?

I wanted to be like the heroine in whatever book I was reading at the time. It seemed to me that my favorite books were about girls who were unappreciated or underestimated but were eventually recognized for being the most beautiful or talented or magical or whatever. I did, at one time, think that playing the piano might be that thing for me, but I really was no musician. And besides, we had that organ.

How much do you love the cover of your novel? (I personally think it is one of the funnest covers of the year.)

I think it is a great cover. Isn’t it amazing how a simple image gets at the heart of things?

Who has been your biggest supporter during your writing journey?

My editor, Jeannette Larson, has been wonderful. She puts up with lots of lunatic email.

My two biggest supporters are my friends Myra Wolfe and Marla Frazee. Myra was my writing buddy through that book and every Friday she read whatever it was that I had written that week, and I did the same for her. That kept me writing. And Marla is just about the most inspirational person I know. I’ve been honored to watch her books in progress and have learned so much. And she laughs at my jokes.

Are you excited that your novel has been nominated for a Cybil?

I am. The Cybils readers and judges are so well read and so up on current trends in children’s literature. Just to have those women spending time with my novel is an honor.

Does award season (best-of season) make you nervous or excited as a writer?

I guess all of that. Mostly, I’m trying to keep my head in my current writing. Still, my bookstore experience tells me that a couple of Best Of list mentions or a big award cam bet the difference between a book that has a significant shelf life and one that is slated for post-Christmas returns.

Are you writing another novel? Can you tell me anything about your work in progress? (Personally, I hope this is just the start of a very long career!)

Aw, thanks. I can’t really talk about my work in progress, to do so squeezes the juice right out of things. I am glad you’d like to see another book from me. Will a picture book do for now? I’ve got one called MOUSE WAS MAD coming out from Harcourt in Spring 2009-ish.

What is the best part about being a writer?

When the story is working. Those hours spent “in the zone” are just plain magic.

Is this something you’ve always wanted to do? Something you’ve always dreamed of and worked for?

I loved writing when I was a kid, but I really didn’t think of it as a career possibility. My parents raised me to be more practical than that – and also, I never met an author. I kind of thought that all the books had already been written. I knew plumbers and hairdressers and policemen and secretaries. So while I had wild someday dreams of writing a novel like Jo March did, I also knew those dreams were as impossible as becoming a princess or a fairy or any other fantastical thing I read about.

Have you heard from any fans—any readers—since the publication of A Crooked Kind of Perfect?

It is so cool to get email from people who have read your book. Most of those notes have been from grown-ups: writers, teachers, librarians, booksellers. I love that. The kid letters are really great, though. I got one that said: You must be like so rich!


Who are some of your favorite authors? What are some of your favorite books?

There are books I can read over and over: Sarah, Plain and Tall; Granny Torelli Makes Soup; Maniac Magee; Missing May; Stuart’s Cape; Charlotte’s Web; Donuthead; Toys Go Out; Rules; Tale of Desperaux . . . you want more? Newish on my list: Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis, which totally knocked my socks off. The authors of those books are among my favorites.

Dang! That doesn’t even include the picture books. I love Marla Frazee’s work as author and illustrator. I’m also a sucker for just about anything David Small puts a pen to, especially those books written by his wife Sarah Stewart. Other books I love: How to Make An Apple Pie and See the World, Miss Rumphius, Roxaboxen, Andrew Henry’s Meadow, Some of Each, Little Bear’s Little Boat, Owl Moon, Apples to Oregon, The Great Gracie Chase.

I do, sometimes, read grown-up books, too. Especially those by Wendell Berry, Ann Tyler, Richard Russo, and poet Billy Collins.

What were some of your favorites at Zoe’s age?

I read Little Women at that age and wanted to be Jo. I had a serviceable bedroom at the time, but dragged a card table and a folding chair into the unfinished, uninsulated room above the garage, so that I could write in the cold, like Jo did in her attic. Also, I had a real connection to the Little House books and read them over and over from the time I was eight until, well, yesterday.

Finally, and a bit off topic, If you had twenty-four hours, a time machine, and a limitless supply of money, what would you want to do?

I’d probably spend twenty-three hours trying to figure out where to go, forty-five minutes mad at myself for waiting so long, and fifteen minutes in line to buy a snack.

Title: A Crooked Kind of Perfect
Written by: Linda Urban
Hardback: 211 pages
Ages: 8 to 12
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-15-206007-7
Release Date: 2007

Zoe Elias aspires to be a prodigy piano player and holds onto her dreams of Carnegie Hall. She believes that if she can only get a baby grand piano her wishes will come true. She is dismayed that her father buys a Perfectone D-60 electric organ instead of a beautiful piano. Not only does Zoe have to deal with her disappointment, but she is dumped by her best friend Emma. Before she knows it, Zoe accepts an invitation to play in the Perform-O-Rama organ contest. Determined to do well in the contest, Zoe practices after school every day.

Zoe’s family consists of herself, her mom, and her dad. Mom is always at work and Dad is a recluse. His favorite pastime is taking mail diploma courses from Living Room University. The times he does venture out result in chaos. He always gets lost and has to call Eastside Wreck and Tow for directions every time. What’s a girl to do?

Friendship is found in the most unexpected person, Wheeler Diggs. Wheeler is from school and his family life is not exactly what you would call “perfect” either and he develops an endearing friendship with Zoe and her father.

Linda Urban creatively brings Zoe and company alive through their quirks and responsiveness to their circumstances. You will be intrigued from the first words to keep reading this fine novel about perception of families and how everything is not what it seems.

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Reviewed by Donna McDine, Middle Grade Book Reviewer for the National Writing for Children Center

Want to know more about Linda Urban, who blogs here on LJ as lurban and who also wrote A Crooked Kind of Perfect, which is getting a lot of attention? Point your browser right here.





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Some of you have already had the pleasure of meeting the author of A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT on kellyrfineman's blog this week.  If you haven't seen her interview, it's terrific.  If you did see Kelly's post, you can consider this your second date with Linda!   I'm doing a presentation on my upcoming historical novel SPITFIRE at this weekend's Burlington Book Festival, and Linda's talk on CROOKED is right afterwards in the same room, so I wanted to invite her here for a visit first.



Whether they're adults or kids, people who love reading and writing always want to hear the story of how their favorite books came to be.  What was the inspiration for A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT and how did it grow into the middle grade novel it is today?

It started as a picture book.  I was telling author/illustrator David Small about my childhood fantasy of playing classical music on a grand piano and how my dad got seduced by the rhythm switches of a mall organ.  David said, "I can just see the illustrations for that!"  A few weeks later I wrote a picture book, but the voice and pacing were all wrong for a picture book. It wasn't until two years later that I gave it a try as a novel.  That's when the story took off.

Many of my blog readers are teachers of writing, and they're always looking for ways to help kids with revision.  Would you share with us a few of your favorite revision strategies?

Nothing beats reading your work aloud.  That's when you hear all the word repetition and discover the rhythm of the piece.  For me, writing is about capturing a sound, a voice, a mood.  I can't be sure I've done that until I actually hear the work.

On to the fun stuff now....

Why Neil Diamond?

Many people think I picked "Forever in Blue Jeans" for some sort of cheese factor, but really it is a very sweet, very earnest song that fit Zoe's story perfectly.  She has to see past the cheese of it, past the disappointment that her competition piece is not the perfect classical composition she had imagined herself playing, and come to love this simple, honest melody.  The lyrics underscore that. 

We live in such an ironic age, enamored of kitsch and edge.  People are made to feel foolish for feeling things with their whole hearts.  If there is anything that I can do to let kids know that it is okay to express what honestly matters to them, I'm all for it.  Hence, a little Neil Diamond.  

The desserts described in A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT sound perfectly delicious.  Are you a great dessert chef, a great dessert eater, neither, or both?

I bake some.  Cookies and breads mostly.  I have a lot of admiration for people who make beautiful desserts.  When you and I spend hours on our writing, part of us is thinking that maybe we'll find a few words that will live on beyond us, bound in a book, available forever and ever and ever.  A pastry chef can put her heart into a cake - hours of work - and then the whole thing gets swallowed up and that is that.  You really have to care a great deal about making art when you know it is only going to last thirty minutes.

And your favorite dessert is...?

Apple pie.  Yum.

What books -- for kids or adults -- have you read and loved lately?


I just finished Elijah of Buxton, the latest historical by Christopher Paul Curtis.  What a genius that man is.  He starts by letting us meet Elijah at his most silly and, as his Mama would say "fra-gile", falling for an elaborate story about "hoop snakes", playing a practical joke, and getting one played on him in return.  It is hysterically funny and perfect for grabbing the attention of young readers.  In a few short pages you can't help but know and love Elijah.  And then, slowly, and without losing humor or character, we are introduced into the deep and lasting horrors of slavery that have shaped the lives of the townspeople of Buxton.  The effect is devastating. You've got to read this book.



What can folks expect if they come to see you at the Burlington Book Festival this weekend?

I plan to read a little from A Crooked Kind of Perfect and talk with kids and grown-ups about writing, perfection, and getting over the fears that stop us from doing those things that really matter to us. 


If anyone LJ friends are in the area (or up for a road trip!), I know that Linda and I would both love to meet you.  Here's the scoop on our presentations:

Burlington Book Festival
Waterfront Theatre, Burlington, VT

11:00 AM-12:00 PM

KATE MESSNER

Join Kate Messner for a trip back in time to the American Revolution on Lake Champlain. Kate will read from her middle grade historical novel Spitfire, set during the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776, sign books and present an interactive multimedia slide show about the real 12-year-old who fought in the battle. Kids will be invited to taste the food and try on the clothes of an 18th century sailor, handle artifact replicas and design their own powder horns to take home.

Waterfront Theatre Black Box, 3rd Floor

12:30-1:30 PM

LINDA URBAN

Linda will debut her new book for young readers (ages 8-12), A Crooked Kind of Perfect. Listen to excerpts and find out what it's like to write and publish a novel for kids.

Waterfront Theatre Black Box, 3rd Floor

...I'm photographing my feet.




Why?  Because Linda Urban (lurban) asked me to, and she's a very cool writer person. 

(My mother, who reads my blog, is now saying, "Well, if this lurban person asked you to jump off a bridge, would you do that, too?") 

Well no.  Plus, it's also because I really loved her book, A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT, and if my fuzzy striped feet help her get the word out, then it was worth almost falling off the piano bench while I leaned over to take the photo.  You can read my review of the book here.

If you check out my friends list, you'll see just what kind of power Linda has (or how much people like Neil Diamond...hard to tell) because there are cool socks showing up on blogs as far as the eye can see.  (Hey, Linda...does this kind of make you want to ask people to do other crazy things to see if they'll really do it?) 

Linda would like to see your socks, too, and if you post them on your website or blog (or send her a photo), she'll enter you in a contest to win a signed copy of her book, a pair of toe socks, and Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits. (If you've already read CROOKED, you will NOT roll your eyes at that.)

I know it's early, but I want to let everyone know about the Burlington Book Festival coming up next month.  Burlington, VT hosts an incredible book festival each fall, just as the leaves are changing color in New England.  If you live in the Northeast (or even if you don't but you really, really like autumn leaves and books), it's worth the trip.  Most of the events are being held at Waterfront Theater on the shores of Lake Champlain.



I'll be presenting  on Sunday, September 16th at the Children's Literature Festival.  Here's my blurb from the festival website:

11:00 AM-12:00 PM

KATE MESSNER

Join Kate Messner for a trip back in time to the American Revolution on Lake Champlain. Kate will read from her middle grade historical novel Spitfire, set during the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776, sign books and present an interactive multimedia slide show about the real 12-year-old who fought in the battle. Kids will be invited to taste the food and try on the clothes of an 18th century sailor, handle artifact replicas and design their own powder horns to take home.

Waterfront Theatre Black Box, 3rd Floor

Right after my presentation, Linda Urban (lurban) will read from A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT and talk about the journey of writing and publishing a children's book.  (Even though Linda says it will make her nervous, my kids and I are definitely going to be in the audience!)

Also on tap for the Sunday kids' day... Tracey Campbell Pearson, James Kochalka, Anna Dewdney, Harry Bliss, Jim Arnosky, Barbara Seuling, Marie-Louise Gay, Barbara Lehman, and Warren Kimble.

And the rest of the Book Festival is nothing to scoff at either, with writers like Chris Bohjalian, Howard Frank Mosher, Russell Banks, and Joyce Carol Oates speaking on Saturday, September 15th.  The full schedule is posted at the festival website now. If you're in the area that weekend, please stop by the Children's Literature Festival and say hello! 

My review for A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban (lurban ) can be found here at Teens Read Too.

It's the first time I've seen this book cover. It's really cute. But I prefer the striped toe socks on Amazon.

Book release date: September 1!