From: SRigg37889 at aol.com <SRigg37889>
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 1995 10:19:21 -0400

Hello--this is Sharon Creech (formerly the 'unknown') attempting to join you (attempting I say because I can not really believe that cyberspace includes Lake Chautauqua. . .) I have had a thumpingly grand time reading your postings on WTM and hope to respond to all those intelligent comments, though it may take me some time to catch up.
     I'll begin with the latest posting, KT's question about the early drafts of WTM which did not include Salamanca or the Hiddles. Lord. It is a long story which I will try to condense.
     In many ways WTM is a result of much that was happening in the book world from 199093. My first draft was a slim, humorous (in my opinion) sequel to ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS, my first children's book (pub. in UK in 90 and to come out here this fall). It was basically what-happened?ter-Mary-Lou-turned-in- her-summer journal. This version was called CHICKEN KISSES (a title I'd still like to use one day...). Off to my British editor it went (we are pals), but she was leaving the company.
 Recession hits. New editor says, hm, yes, perhaps, cutting our list, hm, how about expanding this?
     Second draft: I was intrigued by the idea of developing a new character, Phoebe, so off I ran with that idea. Her story evolved as I was missing my grown children who had recently dashed off to the US for college.
 Thus the kernel of the missing mother (separation of mother and children) idea. Still, I was primarily in humor-mode. Two other influences were in the air at the time: I'd read Ishiguru's REMAINS OF THE DAY (better than the movie!) and wanted to explore a repressed character (as his butler is repressed); and secondly, I'd seen the play SHIRLEY VALENTINE. In this draft, originally, Phoebe's mother leaves her family after seeing that play!
( My editor objected to that contemporary reference--are you listening, Perry?)
 To the editor--or rather another new editor as the second one had left.
 Mmm, yes, perhaps, cutting our list, mm, how about expanding this? What are you really trying to say? Etc.
 Grr. I remember going home from this editor visit (from London) by train, growling, fed up. I was ready to trash the ms. But these things work on me, and a few days later, I thought okay, what DO I really want to say? I'd recently rediscovered the fortune cookie message in the bottom of my purse
('don't judge a man....'); I was desperately missing my children and family and the good ole USA. A voice (really) filtered through my brain: 'Gramps says I am a country girl at heart and that is true . .'
       I was off and running, spurred by childhood memories of visits to our country cousins, and a trip to Idaho, and resurrecting myself as Indian-girl and tree-climber, etc. etc. (See acceptance speech for better explanation...) Early on I saw the parallels between Sal's more serious story, and the humorous stories of Phoebe and Mary Lou, and so as I wrote I weaved (wove?) them together, letting ideas from one segment spark ideas for the next, experimenting in counterpoint, if you will. I liked the notion that the lighter, humorous stories, would balance and offer relief to Sal's story, which on its own, I think, would be too heavy, too melancholy, at least for my tastes.
   And by now the book had been snatched up in the usa, where the editor said, mm, nice, but CAN YOU CUT??? Argh.
 There! Enuf for now. I promise to keep my other posting more concise, though it is hard, hard, to give brief explanations for these things.
Received on Tue 25 Jul 1995 09:19:21 AM CDT