Imagine it: you come to the Loft for a book discussion only to be told that not only will you be talking about the book, but that the book’s author wants to join in and answer YOUR questions! This is exactly what happened a few weeks ago when we discussed The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo.
Though there was no shortage of questions, Ferraiolo was kind enough to say that if we thought of anymore, we could send them his way. These are the questions generated by the discussion after we hung up with him.
Q. How much of the book changed after your editor said that the ending didn’t seem to follow the rest of the book?
A. My agent, Stephen Barbara, suggested a lot of the
changes (before he even sent it out to editors). He was the one who
mentioned that the ending didn’t seem to fit the character trajectory, and that the voice seemed to shift in the second half of the book. So a lot of the second half of the book changed.
Q. How much time passes between the end of The Big Splash and the sequel, (oh yeah, did we forget to mention he’s working on a sequel due out next fall!!!!)?
A. So far, the next book takes place a couple of weeks after the events of
the first…so that what takes place in the first book is still fresh, but
we’re a little further down the road, and we can start to see some of the
bigger ramifications of what transpired…..
Q. How much involvement did you have with the awesome cover?
A. Because of my background, (Ferraiolo won an Emmy for PBS show WordGirl), Chad Beckerman, Amulet’s art director, kept me pretty involved in the process. He and the artist, Nathan Fox, are extremely talented. Chad took my notes into consideration, but my voice was but one of many. Ultimately, it was Chad and Nathan who pulled off the awesomeness that is my cover…
So there you have it. We read the book, loved it, and somehow in this crazy world, the author found out, and the rest – like last week’s lunch special – is history.
