Last term, Ooligan Press was delighted to debut Eliot Treichel‘s first novel, A Series of Small Maneuvers. The book was met with great critical reception—our Starred Review in Publishers Weekly reappeared in their December Round-Up—and we finished the term with events in Portland at Powell’s on Hawthorne, in Sunriver at Sunriver Books and Music, and in Eugene at Tsunami Books. Ooligan’s work on this title is wrapping up, and our team will segue into a new project, which means this will be our final Start to Finish post for Small Maneuvers—we made it!.

Beginning this winter, our next project will be Ruth Tenzer Feldman’s newest book, tentatively titled Seven Stitches, as Ooligan’s winter 2017 YA title. The book is a companion to her earlier Ooligan novels, Blue Thread and The Ninth Day, and bequests Feldman’s mysterious prayer shawl to a new generation of women.

Late last year, Feldman submitted her manuscript to our acquisitions department, who sent it through a round of developmental editing. The submitted manuscript was used to develop a pitch, which Ooligan voted to acquire at the end of November. The book was assigned to our team, and we began work on the project at the beginning of the winter term. Our first step as a team was to welcome Feldman back to Ooligan and start getting reacquainted. As new students, we haven’t had the pleasure of working with her yet. Her answers to the author questionnaire will help us understand her personality as an author, know her vision for her new book, and get a sense of her updated bio. Currently Feldman is working on the revisions suggested by the initial development team, and we’re beginning work on our marketing plan for the book. When we get the revised manuscript back, we’ll make any final developmental tweaks or changes and begin copyediting … our first steps toward turning the original manuscript into a finalized book!