This one has already had a long history. I completed my first draft in early 2007, sold it to Eerdmans two years ago this month, and made a research trip to Mississippi and Louisiana this past spring, along the way visiting the plantation where he was born, the mansion where he was a house slave, and the old Mississippi capitol building, where he began his political rise in his early 20s and soon thereafter served as Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

My first immersion in my research materials occurred close to five years ago, and in conjunction with revisions and my research trip, I’ve gone back in up to my neck over the past year. But as of late July, with the completion of a revision, with the addition of a brief author’s note and “for additional information” section, the manuscript is done (or “done,” as I’ve come to accept through my experiences with my first three books), awaiting the illustrator’s half of the magic. So, that was that, right?

Not quite. I love researching, but after two deep dives for this project, I’m not interested in doing a third when The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch is published. Reconstruction itself is a major presence in this story, and I don’t want to have to reacquaint myself with the details — which are as complex as they are essential to an understanding of U.S. history — in order to get the facts just right when producing essays, articles, blog posts, etc. in support of the book’s publication.

So, I’ve written them now. I’ve produced a detailed bibliography that will most likely be published only online. I’ve put together a five-page timeline tying together key events in John Roy Lynch’s early life with the milestones of Reconstruction in Mississippi and on the national stage. And I’ve written a few long pieces about the subject and my writing of the book, all ready to be removed from cold storage in a couple of years, give or take.

My final act has been to go over my research contacts for this project to make sure that everyone has been properly thanked (well, as properly as is possible before there are copies of the finished book to send out) for their contribution to my efforts to tell Lynch’s story. Sure enough, I found a couple of key people that I had overlooked, so I’ve sent thank-you notes to them. My momma raised me right.

Now, I wait for the illustrations. And move on to the next thing.

I was in author heaven last week, first with a couple of terrifically productive days in Natchez, Mississippi, and Vidalia, Louisiana, researching my upcoming picture book biography The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, and then rounding out the week at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg for the 44th Annual Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival.

Wonderful hosts. Terrific speakers, including Derek Anderson, T.A. Barron, Phil Bildner, David Diaz, Gary Schmidt, and Roger Sutton. (And those are just the ones I caught in their entirety: I missed Joyce Carol Thomas entirely and quite reluctantly had to leave for the airport partway through a sidesplitting story from Carmen Agra Deedy.) Marvelous food (and plenty of it). And a tour of the amazing de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection.

One of the other Hattiesburg highlights was seeing, for the first time, hardcover copies of Can I See Your I.D.? True Stories of False Identities, which officially goes on sale this Thursday. My own box of author copies arrived in Austin while I was gone, along with the nifty bookmarks I’ll be giving away this week at the Texas Library Association conference.

Here’s a peek, along with a hope that if I didn’t get to see you last week in Mississippi, I’ll get to see you this week in Texas!

I’m delighted to announce that Eerdmans Books for Young Readers will be publishing The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, the story of a man who in ten years went from teenage field slave to Reconstruction-era Congressman.

If you’ve seen Eerdmans’ recent Caldecott Honor-winning biography of poet William Carlos Williams, A River of Words, you’ll have a good idea of why I’m so excited to be working with them in telling Lynch’s exceptional story.

I’ve begun working with a designer friend on my full-fledged website, and I’ve taken a first crack at the content that will appear on my home page. This will come as a shock to anyone who has ever read an early draft of mine, but I’m trying to err on the side of brevity.

So: 113 words. My name, the navigation links, and the site-design credit included, that’s the total word count for the text I want to appear on my home page. There are certain things I want to clearly get across, and tons of text just seem to get in the way.

(By comparison, the home page of one veteran writer of nonfiction for young readers has 1,470 words. Another author, with her first book due out next month, has just 66 on her home page.)

Those of you authors with home pages already out there: What’s worked for you, and what hasn’t?

This past week has been packed. I saw the first preliminary sketches for S.V.T., scored free access to a high-dollar historical database I need for my impostors research, and came up with a fresh direction for another project of mine. Meanwhile, my picture book biography of J.R. has freshly gone out to a batch of editors. I got word that my brand-new picture book manuscript, Bell, is about to go out as well.

Also, I received printouts of The Day-Glo Brothers that I get to share with Bob and Joe Switzer’s family, and that pleases me to no end.

On top of all that, Austin SCBWI has scheduled me for my first presentation to the group, after years of me benefiting mightily as an audience member for such presentations. Got plans for September 12, 2009?

Finally, a few links that I’ve been stockpiling:

Via this GeekDad post on Transforming Picture Books into Film (“I have nothing kind to say about SHREK. When you look at the work of William Steig then turn to the ugly Dreamworks product, one can’t help but be saddened.”), I found out about this site offering free animations of Newbery and Caldecott winners, among other children’s titles.

The 2008 Cybils judging panels for nonfiction picture books and middle-grade/YA nonfiction titles have been announced. From personal experience, I can tell you that the folks involved are in for some spirited discussions, tough choices, and good times.

Austin author Julie Lake‘s latest publication credit puts her in some pretty fancy company. Check out the lead letter to the editor in the October issue of The Atlantic…

Official word that publication of The Day-Glo Brothers is 12 months away, at which point I’ll start working in earnest on a full-fledged author website. (My wife, by the way, has been justifiably raving about this one.)

An editor’s verdict on J.R.

The posting of the complete schedule at the Texas Library Association conference.

After the holidays, when I’ll try to convince some of my local author friends to let me tag along on their school visits.

The right time to pick the brains of the librarians at the elementary school just down the street.

The right time to try my hand at writing a “Cadenza” for Horn Book.

The right time to pitch a children’s nonfiction panel for the 2008 Texas Book Festival.

The right time…

Not long before, I’d been thinking about The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing and The Invention of Hugo Cabret and the similarity of the structure of those books’ titles — The Intriguing Noun [or Adjective-Noun Combo] of Catchy Character Name — with the title I came up with for my J.R. manuscript (The Blankety Blank of Blank Blank Blank).

Now I’m wondering, is this an overused approach? I bet there are other such titles I’ve missed. Which have you noticed?

Submission (or revision) news on J.R. and Arbor.

Word on whether, where and when I’ll be traveling to do some on-site research for one project or another.

The Cybils post-mortem. Get your comments in now.

The receipt through Interlibrary Loan of an obscure figure’s autobiography — a book that might well be a crushing bore but might also inspire yet another research project. The two are not mutually exclusive, you know.

Official confirmation on a couple of fun pieces of news that I can share with you all.

The arrival of my very first issue of Horn Book, which I ordered over the weekend. It seems like it wasn’t very long ago, when I was first getting started in this business, that subscribing to Horn Book seemed like a total cart-before-the-horse extravagance.

With J.R. out the door and Pasta still making the rounds, I’ve recently turned my attention to Arbor, a middle grade novel that’s been in the works for about a dozen years. Half of that time, it existed only in my head, but that still leaves a long history of development on paper. I’ve been happy with Arbor for a long time, too, but parts of it still aren’t clicking with editors, so I’ve gone back and worked some more on the first few chapters, where I think the problem lies.

Then there’s James, a biography I began researching about five years ago. On Monday, I read four “final” drafts of considerably different tellings I’ve tried along the way in attempts to make the story resonate enough with editors for them to want to help me shape it further. The most recent draft, which I last touched a year ago, I like very much. Still, I may be on the verge of yet another approach to James’ story.

The thing is, I don’t mind. I feel like my writing has come a long way over the years, but I really want these old projects to come with me.

The ending of J.R., still. I’m now on the third version, since version 2 — dashed off Friday evening while waiting for my takeout order of cheese enchiladas — turned out not quite as brilliantly as it seemed to at the time.

Arbor, again. I’ve been working on this middle-grade novel for years, and the latest round of editorial feedback showed that it’s still not quite where it needs to me. What’s funny, though, is that the main thing I need to work on is something that hardly of the editors mentioned at all — my main character. I figure that when your main character doesn’t seem to register with editors one way or another, that’s not such a good thing.

P.O.’s return to circulation.

The right time to travel a few hundred miles east for some on-site research for J.R.

Anything that may develop from an animation studio’s recent out-of-the-blue inquiry about one of my projects.

TLA!