OK, 1100 words, another story from my difficult point of view. Verse. For children (so say I, many will disagree).

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Now, The Ship's Cat, published 1977, 1400 intricate words, comparable to mine in difficulty, actually, probably worse. Written by Richard Adams (Watership Down), illustrated by Alan Aldridge, a renowned artist. Whoa! No wonder it got published. 32 pages, 13 full page illustrations, 1 spot illustration, I'll use it as a template. And try to stick to it and not let the designer me get out of control.

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I've yet to lay out the text, see where breaks makes sense. I'll try to package it with fewer illustrations, ten, maybe, and to pad 32 pages with snazzy endpapers. I love special touches like that. I have three hundred fewer words. I heartily dislike the point size they set the copy at. And I despise the overbearing, gimmicky font. Something has to take a back seat here, and it can't be the illustration. There is no sophistication here, design-wise. I know it's for children, but really. The vehicle for such stunning illustration needs to be a whole lot spiffier.

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Sly, The Poem (no title yet), about Sly's oddball childhood (kittenhood?), ostracized, withdrawn into books, a dreamer, made him into the adult independent thinker depicted in the novel. It will be up sometime tonight. I got in mind three small changes while out in the garden, ran in to make them, only recall two. I hope the third will come to me shortly.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/14/2015, 11:30 PM--

After more fiddling, I finally got the poem up. I see I'm on a blog post today, so I'll take advantage of the publicity. Another of my difficult things, I pretend it's for children and will try to foist it on the market as such with illustration. Very short, about 1100 words (what you see in the word count includes an explanation of pagination.) I will eventually have footnotes. Tons of stuff could use a bit of explaining, and I'm hooked on footnotes. You can get away with murder.

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FYI: A few lines I am still working on. "One sad ham" has to go. I had "mash you flat" in there and realized flat was repeated. I only inserted "splat ... sad ham" a few hours ago and it needs some serious thinking about. I'm not crazy about "behind ... Hind" either. I'll get it, sooner or later.

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I'm a sad ham right now, trying to fix this up. Sad ham, I like it. I'm going to use it somewhere. Not here.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/22/2015, 10:50 PM--

Any piece of verse is an on-going thing. I have pieces I've worked on for years, each fresh look narrowing in on what I believe to be the weakest spot. Here's my replacement for 'sad ham': 

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A piece of work is my boy Herk. He knows his quills thrill imbeciles. He ought to flee, but the scaredy-cat freezes, furls, the ninny curls up in a small, neat knot, a ball. That's just plain plumb deranged. It's dumb! To coil's no shield from them that wield a club to pound into the ground whoso they choose to circumfuse.     

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Circumfuse is an actual word, meaning liquid surrounding, inundating something. I pull my own meaning out of it: to surround, confuse/misuse/abuse/amuse (oneself). I give myself permission to do it, to make up my own meaning, which will be explained in, yes, a footnote. I'm something of a literary anarchist.

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I may have a tee-shirt made up: Literary Anarchist. Hmmm . . .  how about Literary Anti-Christ. I like that too.

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'Sad ham' will be gone tonight. This is how I work, get something in, then walk it back. Catch it now, tonight I dump it.

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--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/23/2015, 2:15 PM--

Gee, thanks, Amber. I just popped back to add a thought. Another tee-shirt: Sad Ham. Maybe people will stop to ask what it means, and I'll be able to talk up my books. 

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This here Sad Ham signing off, for now. 

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I will be back.

You're sad? You didn't take my comment the wrong way, did you? I meant it as a compliment!

Might have been poorly executed, though. Sorry about that

I really do enjoy reading your posts--you've got more tenacity than most people, and that's great.

Also, congrats on being picked for Book Country's Ten Writers To Watch For blog. Loved the blurb they did about you

Hey, congrats to you too.

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No, I'm not really a Sad Ham. I was only temporarily a sad ham when I couldn't come up with a replacement verse. One of my characters is the sad one. But, I can see it now. In the words of Arlo Guthrie in Alice's Restaurant: "Maybe we can start a movement."

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Picture this: 'Sad Ham' stickers pasted all over,  NYC subways, etc. My website name underneath. Wouldn't you be interested in finding out what 'Sad Ham' is? I sure would be.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/23/2015, 2:32 PM--

In the words of Mark Knopfler, he uses this phrase constantly, in songs, in interviews . . . "pick up the ball and run with it." That's me too, I get hold of an idea, I run with it.

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Which explains my writing, eh? Whatever the thought, I drive it into the ground.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/23/2015, 2:38 PM--

Glad someone gets it. Amber, you are just great!

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'Sad Ham' signing off for real now. I have two hours to work in the yard, before I have to go to work. 

I'm going to put everything beck to what it was before I started messing with it. I have a domino effect of three or four areas that were all better previously to my replacement solutions, all changed because of one repeated word in the original. 

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/24/2015, 7:07 AM--