Love Revealed - The Fix-It Man Blog Burst

I mustn't give too much away. There are enough marvellous revelations about The Fix-It Man today as it is thanks in huge part to our sensational collection of Blog Bursting hosts. However, in the essence of a short sweet bubble burst, here are a few insights that didn't make their final cuts.

Inspiration for:

A baby, a bowl, a daddy and many, many tubes of Superglue

First draft generated:

April 2014

Number of drafts and rewrites:

17

Number of title changes:

None -truly

Number of thank you cards I would have to send to those who helped get this baby off the ground, before it was published:

At least eight, not counting the husband who kept working to feed us throughout my creative confinement.

Ante-publication awards won:

Kids' Book Review Unpublished Picture Book Manuscript Award 2013 - shortlisted. Now that it has a real cover and pictures, it might win some more.

 Location of author when the contract confirmation call came through...finally:

Westfield car park attempting a one handed reverse park with less than one nugget of mobile battery power left. It was a herculean achievement, not side swiping parked cars, accidentally taking out an OAP or blubbing into the phone but I managed, as you do with significant life moments.

Amount of consultation between Nicky (illustrator) and I about the text / illustration fit:

None - in the sense that Nicky was spectacularly brilliant at divining my exact intentions. She just seemed to intuitively get the emotion and meaning of the narrative.There was very little deviation from her first roughs to finals in terms of ideas and symbolism used. There was, however a lot of delicious discussion over a multitude of details; the type of tiny, easy to miss yet potently significant things that little readers have a real eye for.

Days until publication release:

Three 😀

Number of launch celebrations: 

Three (rule of three 😉) View them all, here.

Real life encounters with the illustrator, Nicky Johnston:

Three (we think). Nearly all of The Fix-It Man collaboration was done through emails.

One word summation of the entire process of creation for The Fix-It Man:

Sweet Deliverance (okay that's two, but so is Blog Burst)

To unearth more scintillating insights about our new picture book (including Nicky's works-in-progress post), please join the party. Pop into these beaut Blog Sites, today. Be sure to say hi from me. 




Comments

Ramona said…
Love this post Dimity - so much si I clicked all three boxes: funny, interesting & helpful! :-)
28 February 2017 at 11:09
DimbutNice said…
Good on you Ramona :-D That does sum up my writing evolution,though.
28 February 2017 at 11:24
Unknown said…
Congratulations, Dim! I can't wait to read it. Loved this post about your book baby journey. I ticked all 3 boxes, too. :)
2 March 2017 at 06:16
DimbutNice said…
Sweet Jacqui, so appreciated. I can't wait for you to cradle a copy in your hands either. :-)
2 March 2017 at 09:10
Jean Wilson said…
Great book for children. Such books are good for them. It teaches them the skills of building new relationships. Parents can read pages to them everyday. I am also sharing best children's books about self esteem
28 December 2020 at 16:59
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