Guess Who's Been Sleeping On Our Futon!

No, it isn't Goldilocks who came to Montreal and slept on our futon (not too hard, not too soft... just right!).

It's Christie Harkin, publisher and children's editor at Fitzhenry & Whiteside, a Toronto-based publishing house. 

Like me, Christie was speaking yesterday at the Imagine A Story conference, organized by YesouiCanscaip, and held at Dawson College here in Montreal.

So, not only did I get to hear Christie speak (together with Toronto literary agent Patricia Ocampo), I also had the pleasure of Christie's company over the weekend.

And because, dear blog reader, I am always thinking of YOU, after supper last night (prepared by my husband, hey thanks, Mike!), I took out my pen and notepad and asked Christie whether she had something clever to say that I could share here. "Say, 'Monique has a chocolate drawer!'" Christie answered. But I knew, dear blog reader, you'd want more than that! So I asked Christie to tell me what, for her, makes a manuscript jump out from the slush-pile (the industry term for the pile of manuscripts that arrives every week in a publishing office).

Christie's answer surprised -- and pleased me.

Here's what she said:

"One thing I look for when I acquire any kind of children's book is one sentence or phrase or paragraph that just makes me stop. If I find more than one of those beautiful sentences, I'll find a way to make the book work," she said.

Then Christie gave me an example of what she meant. When she was reading a manuscript by Natalie Hyde, she stopped at the line, "But there will be cake." That manuscript became the novel Saving Armpit, one of Fitzhenry & Whiteside's greatest successes.

I'd say there's a message there for all writers at every stage of our careers: we need to give readers (and editors) lines that will make them stop...