[Ms. Juley's 7th Grade ELA Class]

Good Afternoon Mr. Korman, 

My 7th graders recently finished a whole-class novel study of your book, "The Juvie Three." They LOVED it, and it has led to a lot of great discussions in our classroom over the past few weeks!

As we were learning more about you as an author, some questions came up regarding what a day in the life of an author might look like.

Here are some of our big questions:

• What does a typical day of writing look like for you?
  • How many hours a day/week do you spend writing? 
• Do you set aside time in your daily schedule to respond to the reader's forum/the messages that are posted here?
• How long is the process, from beginning to end, of writing a book? 
• Do you pre-plan your stories, or do you make them us as you go? 
• How many rounds of editing does a book typically go through before publication? 

I know that's a lot of questions, and we understand that you may not be able to answer them all, but we appreciate any information you may be able to provide! Thank you very much! 

Sincerely, 

Ms. Juley and her 7th graders! 

Hi, Ms. Juley & 7th Grade,

Thanks for posting. I'm glad THE JUVIE THREE went over so well with you! It's classified as a Y/A, so you're reading right up there!

Your questions: A typical day of writing would be a 9 to 5 affair, with time off for lunch. So many of my friends and family are NOT self-employed, so I try to keep normal business hours -- more or less a 40-hour week when I'm not travelling.

My time with the fan mail and the website is usually evenings, and into the night. I'm a bit of a night owl.

From beginning to end, the average book takes me between 7 and 9 months to complete te first draft.

My stories are VERY well planned before I put down a single word. Planning is everything. You can't say anything properly unless you know exactly what you're trying to say. And you can't know that unless you plan.

I don't know about other writers, but I go through 2 rounds of editing. The first is after I hand in my first draft. Then I receive editorial notes. They tell me what changes are preferred, and also what I did that might have been done better. The second is for the finished product. And there is a third -- copy editing for dumb typos, bad spelling etc.

OK? I hope that's everything. If not, you know where to find me -- right here!

                                               Thanks, people!                                                    -----Gordon Korman-----