Rising From the Dead
The connection between disease and vampires is closer than you might think. This is a sad and eerie story about a graveyard of buried children in Rome. Faced with an outbreak of malaria, the community tried to find a way to stop it…by rituals that were supposed to keep the dead from rising.
“It seems when humans are faced with the unknown, it’s been a very common reaction throughout our entire history to react with fear….I really feel deeply for this community that was dealing with this epidemic when they had no understanding of it,” said an archeologist working on the site.
The journalist who wrote the article didn’t mention that similar burials were reported in the 19th century in New England, when people were trying to control and understand outbreaks of tuberculosis. This was the inspiration for my ghost/vampire/mystery, Mercy.
Read MoreWNY Children’s Book Expo!
So excited to be traveling to this event. My first time there–it looks like a lot of fun!
Nov. 10 in Buffalo, NY. Click HERE for a schedule of events (I’m presenting a poetry-writing workshop at 2:00 if you want to come and write poetry!)
Read MoreWhat I’ve Been Reading
Or rather, what I am about to read–I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK I AM MAKING LITTLE SQUEALY NOISES. I CAN’T WAIT I CAN’T WAIT I CAN’T WAIT!
Nerdy Author Night
Nerdy Author Night is always a fantastic event–great authors and illustrators, enthusiastic readers, lots of cool books for sale! Don’t miss it!
Morse Street School in Freeport
Friday, September 28, 2018
6:00-8:00pm
Park at Morse Street School or in the LLBean parking lot, come on in, and enjoy a Nerdy Night!
Read More
What I’ve Been Reading
Yep, it’s as good as everybody says it is.
I feel like I could stop there, but for the record: the plot is tight and compelling, the tragedy is painful but not so overwhelming you quit reading, and the characters–from Starr with her fears and doubts and struggles and courage, to her father with his anger and remorse and defiant love for his family, to Uncle Carlos, a police officer finding the line between honesty and commitment and disillusionment–are all so real you feel as if you lived in Garden Heights and walked past them every day.
Read MoreMorals Clauses
Morals clause from an old movie contract. If you lose “the respect of the public” you lose your job.
I had an interesting chat with my agent yesterday. We’re awaiting a new contract from Little, Brown, and she said that it should be fairly straightforward unless they include a morals clause.
I was confused. It is 1940? But (as happens fairly frequently) I am behind the times.
It turns out that a lot of publishers have responded to the #MeToo movement by inserting morals clauses in contracts. These basically say that if (between the time that the contract is signed and the book is published) the author behaves in a way that is inconsistent with his/her previous behavior, the publisher has the right to cancel the book. And (here’s the kicker) pay back the advance.
It’s clear where this is coming from. In recent cases (like this and this) publishers have cancelled books or dropped contracts when an author’s harassment of women or engagement in hate speech has come to light. And a publisher has to eat costs when that happens. I get that.
But…the way these clauses are written is alarming. The language is so broad that it basically says that a publisher can cancel a project and demand repayment of the advance if an author does anything the publisher does not like.
I can think of lots of behavior that publisher might not like–or that they might have disliked not so long ago. Voting for the wrong candidate, say. Dating or marrying someone of the wrong race or gender. Getting arrested at a protest. Joining a union. Becoming a member of the Communist Party. Contracting HIV. Remember when getting married was grounds for firing a teacher?
In the standard publishing contract, the publisher already has broad power to cancel a project for any reason, up to and including that they just don’t like the manuscript very much. They don’t need a morals clause for that. But normally, unless an author has done an astonishingly poor job, the advance is not repaid. That’s what publishers are trying to change.
I’m not a fan.
I’m not a fan of my publisher deciding when my behavior is or isn’t acceptable. (It’s their job to decide this about my manuscripts, not my actions.) I’m not a fan of writing clauses so broad and sweeping that they apply to a wide range of behavior and speech when the publisher (for now) is only trying to combat a narrow one.
Mostly, I’m not a fan because what these clauses do is take power out of the hands of authors and hand it to publishers. Considering that the children’s book field is made up mostly of women, this is especially ironic. Taking power away from individual women and putting it in the hands of large corporations (mostly controlled at their highest levels by men) is really, really not what the #MeToo movement is about.
So what’s the answer, if it isn’t a morals clause? I’m not really sure. Except to remind publishers that humans beings are messy, unpredictable, and sometimes dreadful. And so any enterprise that involves making contracts with human beings is going to involve some risk that they will behave in ways you don’t like.
Perhaps that’s just a risk that publishers have to live with.
Read MoreNew Book!
Little, Brown has accepted a new picture book manuscript called Brown Is Warm, Black Is Bright, all about the joys and beauties of these two gorgeous colors. (Ever noticed how often books on color actually leave out brown and black? What’s up with that?) I’m so happy this book has found a home! Can’t wait to hear who the illustrator will be.
Here is my favorite stanza. (Picture a child curled up in bed with a beloved pet.)
Read MoreBrown is warm
and soft and breathing
curled up next to me.
Sarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Thomson focuses on newfound connection, magic, and suspense to conjure a fast-paced, heartwarming mystery. Thomson’s world is populated by resourceful protagonists, fanciful creatures, and quirky supporting characters.”
—Publishers Weekly