Backstory: The Scoop on Poopendous!
Now that The Butt Book was out and selling like hotcakes, I cast about for the perfect follow-up and I thought that, perhaps, a children's book in verse about poop would be the ticket. In fact, what more fertile topic could there be for one's "number two" picture book. And when the word "poopendous" came to me out of the blue, I knew I had both the title and the final spread for my next book. Curiously, just like with The Butt Book, I now sat down to write a memorable, rousing ending first before working my way back through the manuscript.I did reams of research for Poopendous! You'll see that it's flush with fascinating nature lore, delivered in rib-tickling rhyme. When I finished writing Poopendous!, I submitted it to my publisher with great expectations. However, to my titanic disappointment, they passed on it. You see, it's a puppy-eat-puppy world out there in children's books and not easy to get published, even when you have a highly praised, top-selling book under your belt. So I was left with a glorious manuscript but no publisher. And then the most miraculous thing happened. A dear old friend from the University of Georgia, where I matriculated a lifetime ago, found me on Facebook and reached out to say "Hey!" When she saw that I had written a popular children's book, she mentioned that I should contact a friend of hers, a fellow UGA alum, who had himself written a few children's books and who now lived in these parts, too. I did, and he kindly offered to contact his editor at Blue Apple Books to see if she would be interested in looking at my new manuscript. And the rest is history. Joyous, joyous history.
And to top off the miraculous serendipity, when my editor at Blue Apple Books left shortly after acquiring Poopendous!, I soon got an email from my new editor with a round of suggested revisions. And my new editor turned out to be someone I had once worked with and someone for whom I had the greatest affection. I had even sent her an inscribed copy of The Butt Book after it published the year before. Together, we beat Poopendous! into tiptop shape. And I know you'll have as much fun reading it as I did writing it. After all, poop is truly quite . . . poopendous!