Archive for EXIT 13

FAN MAIL WEDNESDAY #336: The Fate of EXIT 13

 

This one sort of stopped me cold, wondering how to reply, writing to an adult teacher and also, at the same time, 22 third-grade readers. How to tell them that the world can be a sad and disappointing place?

How to let down a reader? 

But one of my core beliefs as a writer for young people is that children can deal with anything. And they do, in their actual lives, all the time. Friends move away. Invitations are never sent. Pets grow old and die. So I just try to be authentic, and age-appropriate, and honest. 

And, of course, long-winded.

Here’s the email I received . . . 

Hello!

My name is Kaelyn D____ and I teach 3rd grade in Michigan. We have just finished the second Exit 13 book as a whole class. It has kept my students on their toes!
They were so sad to see that there wasn’t a 3rd book out quite yet, I told them I would do my best to let them know if one comes out soon. 
They have loved the mystery and being able to make theories about what happens next and compare it to what really happened. I told them I would try my best to reach out and at least let you know how loved those books are in my class. Seeing them so engaged and excited about reading is my favorite! So thank you for writing these novels!
We hope to see another book and hear about Ash and Willow’s adventures moving forward.  
Thank you so much,
Kaelyn D____ and her 22 third graders! 🙂 

I replied . . . 

 

Dear Kaelyn D____ in Michigan, and to your 22 miraculous students,
Thank you so much for your kind letter. For reasons that I’ll explain, it made me both happy and sad.
I appreciate that you read and enjoyed both books. I loved writing them and I’m very proud of EXIT 13. There’s a section in Book 2 where the chapters alternate between Ash in the woods and Willow in danger back at the motel. The book jumps back and forth between those two characters and I thought it worked really well, building tension and suspense. As a writer, I felt like yes, this is exciting. After writing all these years, I’ve finally learned enough to pull this off. Real adventure and mystery. A page turner!
You might know my Jigsaw Jones books. In those mysteries, all 42 titles, I stay with Jigsaw’s point of view all the way through. The camera, so to speak, never leaves Jigsaw. But in the EXIT 13 books, I was able to shift the focus from one scene to the other, back and forth, and it was exciting to toggle between them. I hoped that it would be exciting to read, too.
I worked a similar trick — or literary device — in my book Blood Mountain. There’s a sister and brother, Grace and Carter, who get lost in the mountains. Once they became separated, I was able to do that same thing as in EXIT 13, where I leap from one scene to the next, keeping the plot moving but also building suspense.
I think of it as a magician trying to keep a number of plates spinning in the air. Have you ever seen anything like that? Maybe you can find an example on Youtube. There’s a little video titled “Plate spinning routine by Henrik Bothe” that gives you the idea. You want to keep all the plates spinning before they come crashing to the floor.
That’s what it’s like to tell a rousing story!
By the way, I have three children. Nick is the oldest. But my two youngest, Gavin and Maggie, are only 18 months apart and grew up more tightly together. I guess I like that dynamic between a brother and a sister. There’s friendship and rivalry. 
Where do we get ideas? From our own lives, of course. That’s the beginning, anyway. Then you add imagination. Make stuff up.
(I wonder if you’d like my “Scary Tales” books? You might want to check those out from the library.)
When I started the series, I was hired by a publisher, Scholastic. The editor asked me to write two books, though we both hoped there would be more. I planned for more. I certainly had enough ideas for at least six overall. After all, I got these characters into the motel, I had to find a way to get them out. That was the job. But at the beginning, I had to get the ball rolling.
Anyway, here comes the sad part, because it’s about the business of publishing. I wrote the first book, The Whispering Pines, and it was offered on Scholastic Book Fairs. While that was happening, I finished the second book, The Spaces In Between. But before the second book even came out, before anyone in the world read it, Scholastic had already decided that sales were not strong enough for the first book. They did not want a 3rd title. 
It didn’t matter if the books were good or not. The only thing that mattered was how many people bought the first one in those first two  months at the Book Fairs. When sales were not robust enough, they pulled the plug. It was not a home run. No more books, gone, goodbye. 
The series was over before it ever got a chance to catch on. 
Unfortunately, that’s publishing these days. It’s also true, I guess, of television shows and songs on the radio and the arts in general. Instant success or they move on to the next thing. We are forever moving on to the next thing.
It’s hard and disappointing. A writer puts so much into his books. Heart and soul. Sigh. 
I had notes for a 3rd and 4th book. Ideas I wanted to pursue. The alien visitors. The strange, somewhat damaged animals in the forest that needed rescuing. I had the notion that the McGinns were brought to EXIT 13 for a reason. That there was a mission to complete. And that once Ash and his family understood the mission, and succeeded, once they figured out the deep mystery, they’d be “allowed” to leave EXIT 13. 
I so much wish I could write those books for you. But without a publisher, there can be no book. Hopefully you were able to enjoy the first two in the series. I know it’s a true bummer that I was unable to finish the larger story. I’m really sorry to disappoint readers. Believe me, it’s the last thing I ever wanted to do. 
Publishing is a tough business. As someone once wrote, “It’s a bunny eat bunny world.”
But summer is almost here. There’s so much more to do in this life — more to read and write. I’m grateful to you, Ms. Davis, for sharing my work, and this letter, with your class. They are lucky to have a teacher who loves books, who reads out loud, who shares that enthusiasm for the written word. We’re both book lovers, you and I, and that will always connect us. Thanks for everything. 
Forever your friend,
James Preller

Author Meets Reader: A Photo and a Thank You

Book store signings strike me as things of the past, except for the isolated few big names in our business who don’t seem to need the boost at all. Lives are busy, schedules conflict, and most of the public’s attention goes only to the best & the biggest who sit atop the cultural pyramid. Who seriously has time to be at a bookstore at 1:00 on a Saturday?

I mean to say: they can be depressing if you aren’t prepared for the inevitable disappointment. 

For punishment, I was forced to stare at a prominent, centrally-located, in-store display of the new children’s book by by literary lion Matthew McConaughey.

I mean to say: This is Gemma and she traveled a good distance to meet me at a bookstore in Schenectady. It’s not nothing. In fact, it’s a lot more than nothing.

She first encountered me on a Zoom thing that Scholastic created around Jigsaw Jones: The Case from Outer Space. She came hoping to buy more Jigsaw Jones titles — there are 14 currently available — but alas, there were none in the store. Sigh, oh sigh. Gemma rallied, however, and grabbed Exit 13: The Whispering Pines. She would not be denied and her mom, from what I could gather, was constitutionally unable to say “no” to a book. 

Thank you, Gemma!

LOCALS: Come See Me This Saturday, 10/21, at the Open Door Bookstore!

I’ll be signing a range of books, I imagine, but mostly we’ll be celebrating 50 years of the fabulous Open Door bookstore. What an accomplishment, what a service to our community. 

For this visit, we’ll be focusing on some of my spookier titles — Exit 13 and the “Scary Tales” series — but there’s also just a big, wonderful, glorious store to visit and support. Put your money where your values are. 

Please stop by and say hello.

A Few Dates on the Calendar

There’s this in Chappaqua, NY . . .

Okay, I know, it looks a little weird — but roll with it, people. 180 children’s book authors & illustrators, but it’s the readers who make it all possible. They are the ones who excite me. 

I’m doing another Festival in Maplewood, NJ, on the following day — Sunday the 31st — but can’t locate any promotional materials. Concerning!

And there’s this . . . 

It’s amusing, this flyers that schools and event organizers whip up. I mean, the photo of me that they select. This one must be 10 years old. I imagine a graphic artist googling images for “James Preller” and looking through them, shaking a head, thinking, “No, no, ack, not this! No, no . . . hmmm, I guess maybe we could go with this one.”

Anyway, swing by. It’s Halloween season. Maybe something scary will inspire some page-turning. The Open Door is an amazing store and 50 years is an incredible accomplishment. Talk about a survivor. 

Oh, Look! Here’s An Article on Yours Truly from the Albany Times-Union!

My local newspaper, The Albany Times-Union, just ran a feature article about me.  

Yes, I find that vaguely horrifying but also a good thing, I suppose. 

It’s nice to be seen.

It’s funny, in this business people will commonly say things like, “If this book reaches just one kid, impacts just one child, it’s all worth it.”

And I always think: Yeah, no. 

I’d like to reach a lot more than that. 

Articles like this help. 

Thank you, good folks at the Times-Union newspaper for making this happen. Just one question: What’s a newspaper?

Ha, ha, ho. Sorry, that hurts. 

Naturally, it took me 48 hours before I could actually force myself to read Jim Shahen’s piece. Today I wrote and thanked him for making me not look too much like a total blithering idiot. Some writer!

Anyway, perhaps my out-of-town fans will enjoy reading this . . . 

Delmar author James Preller releases newest children’s book in “Exit 13” series

Photo of Jim Shahen Jr.
Delmar resident James Preller has been living in the Capital Region for about 33 years and writing novels for kids of all ages at a prolific rate for even longer than that. Most famously known for the elementary school-reader “Jigsaw Jones” mystery series, he’s the author of more than 80 books that run from picture book to young adult in appropriateness.

His most recent work, the middle-grade mystery-thriller “Exit 13: The Spaces in Between,” came out at the end of July. “The Spaces in Between” is the second installment in the “Exit 13 series” (Preller describes it as a hybrid of “Schitt’s Creek” and “Stranger Things”) which tells the story of siblings Willow and Ash McGinn. On a family vacation, they’re forced to stop at the Exit 13 Motel where spooky mystery surrounds the business and its employees. Various confounding events to keep the family from checking out and resuming their trip, forcing the McGinn kids (and their goldendoodle Daisy) to get to the bottom of it all, lest they stay stuck at the Exit 13 forever.

The quick-paced, supernatural series is a tonal departure from “Upstander,” the book Preller released immediately preceding “Exit 13.” That one deals with the heavier issues of having a sibling struggle substance abuse and being a participant in bullying. For Preller, being able to explore different genres, themes and difficulty levels has been crucial in enabling him to sustain his writing career.

“I published my first book in 1986; I was 25 then, and I’m 62 now. I’ve spent more than half my life as a published author,” said Preller. “It’s kind of a lot, when you think about it. I’m a little unusual in the breadth of my work. Whatever memo there is about branding yourself, I missed it.

“The master plan, to the extent that I have any control over it, is to write quasi-literary middle-grade novels, but also have something more commercial for mass-market release,” he continued. “I’m a survivor, I just keep scrambling around and I’m fortunate to keep coming up with new material.”

A Long Island native, Preller was drawn to children’s literature shortly after graduating from SUNY Oneonta in 1983. Upon graduating, he moved to New York City and waited tables at Beefsteak Charlie’s to make ends meet while seeking lofty literary goals.

Soon after, he got a job at Scholastic and his professional ambitions took a turn.

“I liked to write poems and took myself very seriously, but poetry wasn’t going to pay the bills at all, plus, I wasn’t very good at it,” he recalled. “I got hired as a junior copywriter at Scholastic and I saw ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ I realized what a kids’ book could be: anything. A world of possibilities opened to me.”

In 1986, he sold, wrote and published his first book, the picture book “Maxx Trax: Avalanche Rescue” about a truck that takes action when an avalanche threatens to destroy the energy station and imperils his family.

“Maxx Trax” eventually sold 1 million copies and Preller’s writing career was underway. He left New York City for the space to start a family in a more affordable climate here in Albany County. From a work standpoint, Preller’s output was varied, writing a mix of early readers and film adaptations — “Space Jam,” “The Iron Giant” and “Godzilla” — for Scholastic. From 1998-2007 or so, he struck gold with the 42-book “Jigsaw Jones” series. Since then, Preller has balanced the lighter, preschool-and-elementary-aged material with books that reflect more serious themes.

If there’s a throughline from “Maxx Trax” to something like “Upstander,” it’s that Preller tries to base all his work in reality. For his first middle-grade novel “Six Innings,” he relied on his own family’s experience with pediatric cancer as a reference. To add verisimilitude to the mountain hiking-based “Blood Mountain,” he regularly corresponded with a park ranger in Lake Placid. Even “Maxx Trax,” has a real-world connection: Maxx, like Preller, is the youngest of seven siblings.

“Every book is different and has its own challenges,” he said. “A lot (of the interest in mid-grade literature) was my own children getting older and wanting to write some things with a little more depth and grit in their content. I can go into deeper things than I can with ‘Exit 13’ or (the spooky story series) ‘Scary Tales.’

“I tell kids when I speak at schools, that even if you aren’t writing about a human, whether it’s super-powered trucks like Maxx Trax or writing about a dragon or a wombat, you’re still drawing upon your own emotions and experiences,” Preller added.

With the new “Exit 13” out in stores, Preller is now looking ahead. He has four more books under contract — a middle-grade novel dealing with a student-athlete coping with post-concussion syndrome and three picture books — that will keep him busy well into next year. And there’s another idea or two percolating for beyond then.

If Preller has it his way, he’ll sustain this level of activity for years to come, and hopefully continue inspiring kids to read.

“I’m 62 and live in a town with a lot of state workers who are retiring,” he said. “Do I want to still be publishing new books at 75? Absolutely.

“I have no ideas or high hopes when a book comes out and I’ve learned to let go of the outcomes,” Preller continued. “I’m very aware that this is entertainment and I just want to give the reader the best possible experience, so they’ll go, ‘Oh, I’ll read another book.’ ”