The Pickle Blog

Noel, John and Nate blog here about creating and serializing the book Pickle, Colored Rocks and Toad. While this project is Noel's brainchild (and she does all the writing), John has logged countless hours creating the book cover, Flickering Candle Press image, and all the thumbnails and sketches you see on the site. Nate too has slaved away designing and maintaining this web site and the server.

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Dillon's Illness	14 May 2007, 11:52 PM ET
by Noel Dillon's illness was a big deal to the caravan leaders because they were familiar with--and always on the lookout for--typhoid fever. Typhoid was (and is) a deadly disease. It spreads quickly by infected mosquitoes and by contact with infected people. (You can be a carrier of the disease but not be sick--like "Typhoid Mary" of the last century.) One of its telltale symptoms is the appearance of red spots on the torso of the infected person. After several days, I'm sure Amin was relieved to discover that Dillon hadn't come down with spots--he must have become sick from exhaustion.
Caravans in the Desert	7 May 2007, 10:52 PM ET
by Noel Today a Saharan desert traveler no longer relies on camels to go great distances. Now you travel by truck, a four-wheel drive vehicle that can dig into the ever shifting sands and not get stuck. Of course, you have to be well-supplied, with plenty of water and food and a global-positioning device. You can even, if you are brave enough, travel alone today. At the time of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798, none of this was possible. You had to travel by caravan, and that took lots of time, time for the actual traveling and often even more time waiting for a caravan to organize before heading out. Because desert travel was so dangerous and difficult back then, the more people in your caravan the better, especially if they were soldiers. Certain places in the Middle East were gathering places for caravans, Cairo (Al-Qahirah) among them. You would travel to Cairo and then ask around for news of caravan departures. You might wait around for six months before one finally got organized and headed out! Once you did join one, you had to surrender your weapons (pistols, swords, etc.) to the caravan leader who made you swear your loyalty to him. This was because caravans sometimes encountered tribal wars during the long trip, and the caravan leader had to be sure that you would be on his side in case a battle broke out! The caravan leader also served as a judge if there were disputes, and he also determined punishments for criminals.
Desert Dangers - Scorpions	13 March 2007, 11:33 PM ET
by Noel By now you’ve read about Prince and his troubles. He was stung by something, probably a scorpion. But he could have just as easily been stung by a trapdoor spider or bitten by a desert rattle snake called a sidewinder. (Amin didn’t notice any puncture marks when he was treating Prince’s leg so it wasn’t a snake bite.) I have since learned some interesting things about scorpions. They are arachnids from the same family as spiders. Who would guess that by looking at those pincher-like claws?! They are nocturnal and feed at night. After her eggs hatch, the female scorpion carries hundreds of tiny scorpions on her back. Wouldn’t that be a sight to see!
A Sneak Peak	9 March 2007, 3:37 PM ET
by Noel Imagine you’re at the movies, watching the trailer for Pickle, Colored Rocks and Toad. Here’s one of the scenes you might see: It is just after dusk on the banks of the Nile. A purplish orange ribbon is fading from the horizon. A couple of stars poke through the dark fabric of the night sky. A breeze lifts Dillon’s hair. Next to him sits Amin who is watching and listening warily. They are waiting for Todd. Nearby a group of upturned fishing boats seem to cower in the growing darkness like large frightened animals. Suddenly the breeze brings men’s voices and the clotted sound of many footsteps. Amin leans back and slowly, stealthily draws his sword. “Soldiers!” Amin hisses. From this distance they can see a shadowy column of men moving in their direction. Dillon looks frantically about for some place to hide. In desperation he drags himself over to a boat, lifts it, and slides beneath it. “Amin!” he whispers. “Here!” So where is Todd? Why are they waiting at the riverbank for him? Who are these soldiers? And what are they doing there in the dark? Do Amin and Dillon get caught? Keep reading to find out!
Pickle listed on Google today	7 March 2007, 11:03 PM ET
by Nate Pickle, Colored Rocks, and Toad can now be found on Google. (Finally!) It took us three months, but we're on Google, now... This means easier access to this site for those of you using the Google search engine, the Google Toolbar and similar widgets. Hopefully it means more people will find the site.
Tid bits on the Sahara	26 February 2007, 11:25 AM ET
by Noel If you’ve been following the blog lately, you know that Jules and Shavval are in quite a “pickle” (pardon the pun—I couldn’t resist), but guess what? I don’t know how I’m going solve their dilemma! I’ve been struggling with this for a couple of weeks now, and I’m not sure what to do. So today when I sit down to write about them, I’m going to be flying by the seat of my pants, sort of. Since I’ve started this project, I’ve discovered that I’m more comfortable writing about things I know or things that I can research by reading about them, concrete stuff like the Sahara desert, for instance. In my research about the Sahara, I learned some interesting things. I read that the word “Sahara” is an Arabic word meaning “vast emptiness.” I love the word for the way is just flows off the tongue and for the images it conjures up in my mind: soft hills of sand, camels, a night sky milky with stars, exotic destinations and peoples. Speaking of camels, I’ve learned some interesting things about them too. You’ve probably come to believe as I had that camels store water in their humps, but that’s not true. They store fat there, and they live on that fat when they travel long distances in the desert. I also learned that African camels have only one hump. In this way they are unlike Asian camels which have two humps. (The Asian camels are at home in the Gobi desert which, if I’m not mistaken, is larger than the Sahara.) And here’s an interesting tidbit for you boys out there—did you know that camels can spit with such force that they can knock a person down? I guess you wouldn’t want to make a camel mad at you, would you? In my next entry, I’ll give you some clues about some of Todd and Dillon’s upcoming adventures.
Plan C, sketch 6	25 February 2007, 2:48 PM ET
by John Almost done with the chapter 6 ("Plan C") thumbnail. . . [ click to enlarge ]
Plan C, sketches 3-5	11 February 2007, 1:25 PM ET
by John More progress on the chapter 6 ("Plan C") thumbnail. . . [ click to enlarge ] [ click to enlarge ] [ click to enlarge ]
Pickle listed on Yahoo, Altavista	10 February 2007, 12:00 AM ET
by Nate         Web surfers can now find Pickle, Colored Rocks, and Toad on a few search engines. Over a month ago I "suggested" our site to a number of search engines including Yahoo!. As of this week this website is now listed on the Yahoo! and Altavista search engines! This blog is also listed on the Blog Catalog. We're still waiting on Google, MSN, Dmoz (the open directory project) to add us to their databases. Hopefully these listings will help others find our site. I'll keep everyone posted on our progress.
Plan C, sketch 2	9 February 2007, 1:24 PM ET
by John Polishing the thumbnail for chapter 6 ("Plan C"). . . [ click to enlarge ]
Plan C, sketch 1	5 February 2007, 4:00 PM ET
by John This is the sketch Noel chose for chapter 6 called "Plan C." This is as rough as it gets. You can see parts of my notes that I wrote down from our meeting. The figures in the chairs are Jules and Shavval. Can Jules and Shavval escape? Read chapter 6 to find out! [ click to enlarge ]
About John	31 January 2007, 11:35 AM ET
by Noel Are there any aspiring artists out there? If so, you’ll definitely want to check this out! John is going to show us his artistic process in future blog postings, using the sketch of his thumbnail for Chapter 7. (Here’s your chance to get a sneak peak at what’s going to happen in the future. . . .) All of his thumbnails—the small pictures at the beginning of the chapters—start out as pencil drawings. For each chapter, he sketches about four or five different scenes which he shows me at our next meeting. He has them in a sketchbook like a notebook. (John, Nate, the webmaster, and I meet at a coffee house to review and discuss them.) I love this part because it is awesome to see his interpretation of what I’ve written. Most writers don’t get to see this process because the book publisher handles all these kinds of details with the illustrator. The writer sees only the final product and in most cases has had no input in its creation. So I’m really lucky. Anyhoo, I think John said that he has a five-step process starting with the sketch to finished product. Nate will post each step here so that you can see the progression. So check back here to see John’s drawings.
More on the Fun Part of Writing	26 January 2007, 2:34 PM ET
by Noel This is a follow-up to yesterday's blog about whether I thought writing was hard. I said it was hard sometimes, but that it is also easy and fun. The fun (and easy) part was when I workshopped chapters of my book in progress with a group of middle-grade students. (Do your teachers have you .workshop. your drafts of a given writing assignment with other students? Usually this means you sit in a group of other kids and you read your writing aloud to them. Then your group members ask you questions like .What was the name of the monster that came out of the woods?. or else they comment on what you wrote by saying something like "I liked it a lot, especially the part when you wrote about your Aunt Betsy falling up the stairs . . . .") Every other week for about a year and a half, I drove over to a small school by my house and met with the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students there and read them a chapter from my book. (I knew one of the middle-grade teachers and the principal there and I phoned one day and asked if I could do this and both of them said "Sure!" and that's how I started.) We met in a big room and I would stand in the middle of all of them and read aloud. When I was finished reading, the kids got to ask me questions. The girls always wanted to know when Shavval was going to kiss Jules. The boys wanted to know if Dill and Todd would ever find Prince again. I also got to ask them questions. I asked for help on naming the chapters. They really enjoyed that. Some of them knew about horses and helped me with Prince. I also remember asking one time whether they ever talked about their religious beliefs with their friends. A lot of them said they tried to but that they always ended up in a fight. (Has this been your experience too?) When we were done, I always passed around some candy to share. Sometimes I'd run into these kids at the grocery store. They'd come up and ask me more questions such as whether Todd was going to get into trouble or when Mr. Waldermulder was coming home. Other times, when I'd go on-line, some kids would IM me to ask questions too. On my very last day there, we celebrated by eating ice cream sandwiches and going outside for pictures. I have a couple of pictures of me and my "crit group" outside--one was the "serious" one where we are all smiling and the other was "goofy" where the kids are making faces and Indian fingers behind people's heads. After each visit, my mind was always whirling with new ideas and I was always ready and excited to write some more!
Is Writing Fun?	25 January 2007, 10:18 AM ET
by Noel One student wrote to tell me he thought writing was hard and worse than doing math problems. He wondered if writing my book was easy for me. I understand what he means. Some days writing is very hard for me. Writing chapter 4 was very hard because I am introducing a new character--the intruder--and I have to "flesh" him out. (Is he tall, short, muscular? What color eyes does he have, what color hair? What kind of personality does he have? Is he mean? What does he do for fun? Is he a bad guy?) But I do - and did - have a lot of fun writing this book. I'll tell you about the really fun part tomorrow.
Reader email	23 January 2007, 9:25 AM ET
by Anonymous in Baltimore Chapter three was the coolest
An invitation for Scott Simon	18 January 2007, 12:33 PM ET
by Noel Today I invited Mr. Scott Simon, host of National Public Radio’s show, Weekend Edition Saturday, to visit us here. Mr. Simon is a great fan of Daniel Pinkwater, a well-known author of children’s literature who is a frequent guest on the show. Mr. Pinkwater is also serializing a novel on-line called The Neddiad. So everyone in favor of Mr. Simon coming to visit should e-mail and say “Yay!”
The seed for the book	17 January 2007, 9:08 AM ET
by Noel One reader recently e-mailed me to ask where I got the idea for this book. First, I need to explain that for me, at least, fully developed plots and characters and beginnings and endings and all that just don’t jump out of my mind and onto the page. It would be great if they did because it would sure save me a lot of time. I think it’s very much like planting a little seed in early spring, nourishing it with all the right things such as water, sunlight, and maybe fertilizer and keeping predators away such as rabbits so that it grows into a beautiful flower in the summer time. So let me start by telling you about this “seed.” Several years ago when I was teaching a writing class, I used a book with my students that contained an essay called “The Long Egyptian Night.” When I read it, I was totally carried away. You know this feeling—you go to the movie on a bright sunny Saturday afternoon and get swept along to Hogwarts or Narnia and then when the movie is finished, you come back out into the sunshine and everything seems changed somehow and you look at things differently. That’s how it was for me, reading this essay. I love traveling and seeing new places, and learning about different people and cultures. I had never heard of the Mamelukes before. I didn’t know that they took long trips by caravan, across the great Sahara desert to the Caucasus region and purchased boys from poor families to bring back to Cairo and train as warriors. I thought Holy Cow! This is interesting stuff! So the gears in my brain began churning . . . .

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