{"id":917,"date":"2011-04-22T09:29:45","date_gmt":"2011-04-22T13:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=917"},"modified":"2011-04-22T14:59:07","modified_gmt":"2011-04-22T18:59:07","slug":"behind-the-scenes-back-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/miscellaneous\/behind-the-scenes-back-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Scenes: Back Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several weeks ago, Jessica Tedder, the editor of Square Fish, the imprint at Macmillan which is putting out Birthmarked<\/em> in paperback, sent me a friendly email about a bonus section for the back of the book.\u00a0 Such a bonus section, aptly called \u201cGo Fish\u201d for this imprint, typically includes an excerpt from an author\u2019s upcoming book (in my case, Prized<\/em>), a Q&A with the author, and some discussion questions.\u00a0 Extras!\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested in production timing, the paperback of Birthmarked<\/em> will be released in October, so we\u2019re about six months out.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Extras!<\/p><\/div>\n

For starters, Jessica included 33 questions of this ilk, inviting me to answer as few or as many as I liked:<\/p>\n

*What did you want to be when you grew up?<\/p>\n

*What was your least favorite thing about school?<\/p>\n

*What sparked your imagination for Birthmarked<\/em>?<\/p>\n

*What challenges do you face in the writing process, and how do you overcome them?<\/p>\n

*Which of your characters is most like you?<\/p>\n

*What\u2019s your idea of fun?<\/p>\n

*If you could travel in time, where would you go and what would you do?<\/p>\n

*What would you do if you ever stopped writing?<\/p>\n

While I\u2019m sure many writers can whip off fascinating answers to such questions, my sorry little mind baulked.\u00a0 Instead of answering them, I started pondering how I could come up with back matter that was true to who I am. I wrote a little essay, then turned it into a list, then scrapped it, then salvaged a paragraph, then scrapped it again.\u00a0 In short, as usual, I had to write in order to discover what I thought.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always liked extras at the back of a book, because when I finish reading a good one, I don\u2019t want it to be over.\u00a0 I want to stay with the writer a little longer and ponder some of the ideas behind the story.\u00a0 I long for a little insight into how the writer thinks in real life, not just in fiction.\u00a0 My favorite extras make me feel like the writer is my friend, because a person who can write a book I like would also, I hope, like me.<\/p>\n

To create extras like that myself, I\u2019d have to put some heart onto the page.\u00a0 So I circled back to questions.\u00a0 This time I chose ones that real people had asked me, ones that were innately interesting to me.\u00a0 Similarly, I drew on discussions I\u2019ve had with real people as I came up with my ten pondering questions, and I kept those in the first person, too. \u00a0I tried to put in new things that haven\u2019t been covered here in the blog or in interviews, and I wrote like I talk to my friends.\u00a0 I relaxed.\u00a0 I assumed my reader would understand my humor.\u00a0 I wanted to know what a reader, one who\u2019d come that far, thought.<\/p>\n

In the end, I\u2019m pleased with my Go Fish back matter. There\u2019s a bit of tinkering still to do, but it\u2019s good.\u00a0 It\u2019s extra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several weeks ago, Jessica Tedder, the editor of Square Fish, the imprint at Macmillan which is putting out Birthmarked in paperback, sent me a friendly email about a bonus section for the back of the book.\u00a0 Such a bonus section, aptly called \u201cGo Fish\u201d for this imprint, typically includes an excerpt from an author\u2019s upcoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-behind-the-scenes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":925,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions\/925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}