Then I realized that letters and words needed punctuation to make sense, and as luck would have it, that’s exactly what the story needed, too. Weeks and months went by, but I had nothing. Titles like THE UPPER CASE and CAPITAL CITY shouted at me, but I couldn’t get the tale to work. Since I had written about numbers first, the next subject became obvious: letters. Once 7 ATE 9 hit bookstores, it began selling well, so I decided to work on a sequel. The first draft spilled out in a few hours. (An imaginary ring, of course-I don’t smoke.) Decked out in fedora and tie, Private I features all the drippings of a classic noir gumshoe. Then the image of Private I drifted in on a ring of cigarette smoke. Suddenly, I imagined a thriving city full of anthropomorphic numbers, happily going about their day, except for 6. What’s a punchline that every elementary school kid immediately recognizes? Then it hit me like a ton of class clowns: Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven ate nine! The 3 rd Book in the 7 ATE 9/PRIVATE I Seriesħ ATE 9 began with a brainstorming exercise I wanted a punchline for a title.
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