The tale of my first book

Justin, from Fres­no writes, “What was your first book and how did it get written?”

1. When my eldest son, Shaun, was three, we had a fair­ly famil­iar bed­time prac­tice. He would get on my lap, and ask me to tell him a sto­ry. I would ask what the sto­ry should be about. He would try to sug­gest impos­si­ble things. “Tell me a sto­ry about a cray­on.” “Tell me a sto­ry about the rain.” And I did.
2. I was a doo­dler. An Eng­lish friend of mine liked my doo­dles. She wrote a guide to New York City for kids, and asked me to illus­trate it. She took her book (and my art) to a pub­lish­er and offered both to an edi­tor. The edi­tor said, “I’m not inter­est­ed in your book but I would like to speak to the illustrator.”
3. I called the edi­tor, and she said she would like me to illus­trate books for her. I explained I was a writer not an artist. “Then write a book, illus­trate it and give it to me.”
4. I recalled the sto­ries I had told Shaun, put them togeth­er, did some art­work, and sent them to that editor.
5. Only to learn that she was no longer with that publisher.
6. Sent book to anoth­er edi­tor. Was told the art wasn’t good but she was inter­est­ed in the sto­ries. Well, not really.
7. Sev­en pub­lish­ers lat­er the book was accept­ed by an edi­tor at Doubleday.
8. I sug­gest­ed an artist, and the edi­tor agreed.
9. The edi­tor retired. By the time the book was pub­lished, two more edi­tors took over the project.
10. The artist, who had not fin­ished the art, dis­ap­peared in Mexico.
11. The pub­lish­er found some­one to fin­ish the art. I nev­er was told who that per­son was.
12. The book was pub­lished in 1970 (Things that Some­times Hap­pen) to fair­ly pathet­ic reviews. Sold very few copies.
13. Twen­ty years lat­er, an edi­tor at Simon and Schus­ter found out about the book, and decid­ed to reis­sue it, with new art (by Mar­jorie Price­man), and only some of the stories.
14. The book was repub­lished in 2002 and got very good reviews.
15. It is still in print.