Jon Etter

A couple years ago (yeesh–where has the time gone!) Whitnall Middle School was nice enough to have me in to run some Writers Workshops and give presentations for the students. A few weeks later, the librarians who arranged my visit reached out and asked if I’d be willing to record a couple short lessons to help the young writers I worked with build on what they’d started in our workshops. Of course, I was happy to do so. What I recorded for them is posted below. Feel free to share them with any young writers you know, and if you are interested in arranging a school visit, please pop over to my Contact page and we’ll see if we can work something out!

Nope, I have not been resting on my laurels. Mostly because I have no laurels on which to rest. I had to sell them to buy eggs, and not many of them at these prices.

Anyhoo, I currently have a children’s picture book (as opposed to an adult’s picture book, which should totally be a thing) making the rounds of publishers in the hopes of finding it a home, and my young adult horror book is currently in the hands of my agent who will use her unparalleled editing skills to help me make it good enough to send out to publishing houses, probably by this summer. As for what’s next, I’m currently taking a little time to figure that out while I focus my energies on teaching a couple new college credit classes that I’m very excited about. That said, I definitely am getting the itch to start something new and probably will once the school year is over and done with.

As always, thanks for reading!

-Jon

Recently I’ve gotten several questions from people wanting to know what I’m working on, if I have any books coming out, and if there will be any more Dreadful Fairy books, so I decided to finally get off my duff and write a post. (Actually, I guess I got on my duff to do that since I don’t have a standing desk, but you know what I meant.)

On the Dreadful Fairy front, I’m sorry to report I haven’t written any more books for the series and there are currently no plans for more in the future. My deal with Amberjack Publishing was for three books and no more, and since they haven’t approached me to see if I would write more, it looks like it will remain no more than a trilogy. If by some miracle the books become a big hit in the future and some publisher offered to publish more, I’d love to revisit Elfame, Shade, Ginch, the Professor, and the whole dreadful crew (and I do have a few half-baked ideas for more books, which is all I’ve ever really had for any of the books in the series) and crank out a few more. So if you want more dreadful fairies, go pick up a few thousand copies of each book and/or get Disney/Pixar to greenlight the movie adaptations (I’m partial to beginning with animated versions and then follow those up with live-action remakes like Jungle Book and Little Mermaid, but I’m not greedy–I’ll settle just for one or the other as long as eventually there’s a Dreadful Fairy ride at Disneyworld).

While I have not been working on any more fairy books, dreadful or otherwise, I have still been writing. Since finishing the revisions on Yet Another Dreadful Fairy Book, I’ve actually written two middle grade historical fiction books and a children’s picture book. The first book didn’t find a publisher, so my agent and I have decided to mothball it for now and try again at some future date. The second historical fiction novel is currently making the rounds of publishers, although things aren’t looking good–lots of rejections so far and my agent has told me that at the moment “children’s historical fiction seems dead in the water”–so that one’s probably also doomed to be tossed into storage for a few years. And no luck with the picture book yet, but I’m still holding out a little hope, even though my agent says that the children’s lit market right now is the toughest its ever been for her entire career as an agent.

In spite of fears that I might never get another book published, I’m still plugging away. I did take 9 months off from writing last year to work on getting my National Board certification for teaching, which I did achieve (for those of you who aren’t teachers, that’s actually a really big deal and I’m quite proud of it), but I’m back toiling in the word mines on a YA horror novel that I hope to have finished, revised, and in my agent’s hands for review by the end of summer. After that, I’m not sure. I have a number of ideas for picture books, middle grade, YA, and adult fiction but I haven’t yet decided what to work on next. I’ll try to keep you posted, but if history is any indicator, you probably won’t hear from me until I have a few more projects done and making the rounds.

In the meantime, I am available for readings, workshops (like the ones I did at Whitnall Middle School last spring), writing conventions, boat shows, tap dance recitals, and anything else you’ve got in mind–just get in touch via the Contact page.

Thanks for reading, thanks for the support, and thanks for caring!

–Jon

Almost a year ago, Whitnall Middle School was kind enough to invite me to be their writer-in-residence for a day, which included several writers workshops for the kids and presentation to all three grades. In the lead up to that day, their librarians asked if I would be willing to record a promo or two to show during their advisory period. Below is what I came up with.* I meant to post these soon after my appearance there, so, timely as ever, I’m posting them not quite a year later.

*Note to other authors making promos for school visits: If you show a cat in one of them, approximately half of the questions you get will be about the cat, especially “Did you bring him with you?;” “Why not?”; “What’s he doing right now?”; and “Seriously, why couldn’t you have brought the cat with you?”

I’m honored to report that Yet Another Dreadful Fairy Book has won honorable mention (basically second place) for the Council for Wisconsin Writers’ Tofte/Wright Children’s Literary Award! In addition to a small cash prize, the award comes with a one-week residency at the Painted Forest in Valton, Wisconsin, which will be a great opportunity to either finish revising the middle-grade historical fiction book I’m currently working on or, if I finish that early, tackle a brand new book project. Not too shabby for a children’s anti-war satire that is the third book in a trilogy!

For those of you who have asked what Quentin Q. Quacksworth, Esq. looks like (since he, of course, refuses to show up to any public events related to Those Dreadful Fairy Books), here he is in all his whiskery glory. This picture was taken right after he won that Blabby Award for Narratorial Excellence for Honest Jim and the Do-Right Lads that he’s always going on about. He has said that that was the happiest moment in his life, and you can sure tell it by the look on his face.

Now you see what I’ve been dealing with for the past four years…

Well, Yet Another Dreadful Fairy Book is out in the world and it has been my pleasure over this first week of its release to host a book launch party (complete with home craft project) on Wauwatosa Public Library’s Children’s Department’s Facebook page and do a reading/book talk/Q&A with Mystery To Me Bookstore via Crowdcast. In case you couldn’t join us for one or both of those, you can still watch the recording. Below are links to both events.

Mystery To Me Crowdcast

Wauwatosa Public Library Children’s Department Book Launch

I’m excited (but also a little sad) to announce that today the third and final installment of Those Dreadful Fairy Books, Yet Another Dreadful Fairy Book, is now available in stores and from online retailers and anywhere else you can get books! When I wrote A Dreadful Fairy Book four and a half years ago, I had already failed to land an agent or publisher for the first book I had written (it’s still unpublished but I might circle back to it eventually and see what I can do with it) and wasn’t terribly optimistic about Dreadful doing any better. “Oh, well,” I told myself at the time, “At least I’ve written a story that my kids, wife, and friends enjoyed, and I had a lot of fun doing it.” And then I moved on to the next project.

I never could have guessed that my little book of ill-behaved, misfit fairies would land me an amazing agent (Adria Goetz), that it would find a home at a wonderful publisher (Amberjack Publishing), or that that publisher would become an imprint of an even bigger (and also wonderful) publisher with even wider reach (Chicago Review Press). And now, as of today, I’ve had three books published and have completed an entire series. For those of you who have asked, that’s it for Shade, Ginch, the Professor, and all the other residents of Elfame, at least for now. My agent is currently trying to find a home for a middle grade historical fiction book I wrote and I’m currently working on another one, which will probably be followed by a horror book for kids since both of my kids have been lobbying for me to write one for a while now. But I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point I step into a ring of toadstools and find myself back in Elfame once again.

Before I go and do something more productive than this (or perhaps less productive), I need to take a moment to thank a few people. First and most importantly, I need to thank my wife, my kids, my parents, and my friends for all the love and support they’ve given me in my writing endeavors and life in general. Adria Goetz, for being the best literary fairy godmother a writer could ask for. All the wonderful people at Amberjack Publishing and Chicago Review Press for all the hard work they’ve done getting the books published, out into the world, and letting people know about them, with special thanks going out to Dayna Anderson, who against all good sense and sound judgment thought it would be a good idea to sign a Mister Nobody from Nowhere like me to a three-book deal, and to Cherrita Lee, my editor and partner-in-crime for the whole series–the books wouldn’t have been the same (or nearly as good) without her. Adam Horsepool, for all the wonderful artwork in the series (his rendering of Shade on the first cover and his illustration of the Questing Beast are particular favorites of mine). All the libraries, bookstores, schools, and festivals who have been kind enough to host me and promote the book. And most importantly, all of you out there who have read the books. Thank you all for helping my childhood dream of someday having books sitting on shelves in libraries come true!

…until Yet Another Dreadful Fairy Book, the third and final (maybe?) of Those Dreadful Fairy Books will be in stores, popping up in mail boxes, and on library shelves! To tide you over, enjoy these awesome illustration from the book by my partner-in-crime, Adam Horsepool.

We have a final cover for Yet Another Dreadful Fairy Book, the final book of Those Dreadful Fairy Book. Check it out:

Based on Yankee Doodle, 1775 by A.M. Willard