'The best thing you can do for yourself after you've sent a book in to a publisher and you don't know what will become of it is to sit down and write another book,' she said. While she awaited Durell's reaction (which was clearly a positive one) to Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Blume wrote a follow-up tale, this one centering on Peter's nemesis, Sheila Tubman. I was crushed, since I'd had such a good time writing it.' I loved the idea and spent the summer writing it, but when I sent it to my agent, she said that she didn't think that this was what Ann had in mind at all but would send it along to her anyway. 'Ann liked the story well enough, but suggested I expand it into a chapter book. This was a huge event in my life,' she explained. 'Ann invited me to lunch and I was incredibly nervous.

The character of Fudge was inspired by my son, Larry, and the plot was inspired by a newspaper article about a toddler who swallowed the family's pet turtle.'īlume originally wrote the first Fudge story as a picture book and showed it to her agent, who offered to introduce her to Ann Durell, then publisher of Dutton Children's Books. 'I had never published anything and didn't know if I ever would publish anything. 'I was just starting my writing career,' she recalled. Speaking by phone from her summer home on Martha's Vineyard, Blume reminisced about the genesis of Fudge. Retailers' high expectations are understandable: more than 75 million copies of Blume's books have been sold worldwide, and her work has been translated into 26 languages.

She reported 'across-the-board enthusiasm' for the new title from booksellers and such healthy advance orders that a first printing of 250,000 copies is on order. Stephanie Lurie, president and publisher of Dutton, and the editor of Double Fudge, noted that the timing of this latest caper is 'serendipitous,' as it coincides not only with the 30th anniversary of Fudge's debut but also with Dutton's 150th anniversary.

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