Yesterday I had the chance to visit the Derby Middle School and High School in Derby, Connecticut. They share a building on a hill next to a state park — a truly beautiful setting. After the bell, I met with a whole bunch of middle and high school students in the library and talked about becoming a writer and writing No Castles Here, in particular. We raffled off a copy of my book, ate some delicious cookies provided by the PTA, and had an all around great time.
I have one embarrassing disclosure. I was asked a lot of fun and intelligent questions by all the students, but I couldn’t answer one: “How many chapters are there in your book?” I should know the answer, shouldn’t I?
Well, in lame self-defense, I used to. Then, at some point during the long editing process, my editor suggested that since all of my chapters have titles, how about leaving off the chapter numbers? I thought this was a fine idea. We subtracted and added chapters, and, well I lost track of the number.
So the answer is: there are 39 chapters in No Castles Here. I promise to remember that!
