Twenty years ago this fall, I went out for a jog and came back with the idea for (and the first four competitions in) my New York Times bestselling book Shark vs. Train. That was a pretty remarkable development in my life, but last month brought another such development involving the same book.

Early drafts of Shark vs. Train (which Tom Lichtenheld illustrated, and which Little, Brown Books for Young Readers published in 2010) were among the 80 pounds of materials that I sent to the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

The notion of my work being part of a university archive is still taking some getting used to, and I’m definitely not used to hearing myself express that out loud (or even in writing). I can use all the practice I can get, so…

This month I’m giving away four signed copies of Shark vs. Train, whose early drafts are now part of the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi, to readers of my Bartography Express newsletter (folks can sign up here).

If you’d like to be one of the winners (of a signed book, not of 80 or even 20 pounds of my archived material), by the end of this month either say so in the comments below or contact me directly, and you’ll be in the running. (Bartography Express subscribers with U.S. mailing addresses only.)

Good luck!

And by the way, did I mention that my old stuff is now part of a university archiv-

Nope — still sounds weird to say.