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“And from that point on, the only parts of my once potential soul mate that were still visible were his feet. But I didn’t have to see more than that to know what was going on in that dressing room!”


This was my favorite illustration.  Not only was it removed, but so were the words that went with it! A lot of other words were taken out too.  And a lot of characters!  But then different words were added back in.  All of these additions and subtractions equal the revision process. Who knew writing involved so much math!

“Hopefully, if I tell her I had diarrhea or something, she won’t want many details. Most people don’t when it comes to diarrhea.”

“In the end, it amounted to a box of baking soda (too lame to build a volcano, though), some packets of Kool-Aid, and a bag of curly pasta. Einstein couldn’t come up with an experiment that uses those things.”

“For example, I heard that all of the guys at the other middle school have to line up after gym and reach for the stars. Then the coach goes down the line and sprays every pit with Right Guard.”

You know how when you write something you have a picture in your head? I wanted to make sure the readers of my book had the same funny images in their heads when they read it as I had when I wrote it. So I drew some pictures and submitted them with my manuscript. Most of these pictures didn’t make the cut! (Remember, I only have enough talent to be frustrated by what I can’t do!)  But I thought it’d be fun to share some of the outtakes with you.  Or would those be take-outs?  Hmmm.


Here are a few of those illustrations and the texts they attempted to illustrate.