Slushbusters

A coward no more! (I hope.)

2011-08-12T06:05:00.001-04:00

I had a marvelous time at the SCBWI conference in Los Angeles last week. I was able to hang out with friends from Chautauqua, the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program, and my too-cool-for-school mentor Harold Underdown.

I had no trouble repeatedly walking through the lobby of a swanky LA hotel dressed as a monkey. (---->)

And yet, I have been an abject coward, because I really don't like to talk about my book.

When asked, I said that I wrote YA. (Which is only a little more specific than saying I write for children.) When pressed, I said it was a fairy tale adaptation. (Which is kind of true, but not really.) The truth is, I don't like to tell folks what my book is about because I am afraid.

I'm afraid I won't explain it clearly and concisely.

I'm afraid someone won't like it if I do manage to be clear and concise.

I'm afraid.

That fear is one reason why I gave the worst elevator non-pitch to an agent, ever.*

So I have resolved that by Sunday I will have written out my story in four sentences or less. Doesn't matter whether I call the description a pitch, a hook, a log line, or give it a Dickensian name like Estoria Quattlebush. From Sunday on, whenever someone asks what my story is about...

I. Will. Tell. Them.

How about you? Is it easy for you to talk about your story? Hard? I'd love tips for making it easier or stories that make me feel better about myself.

* He made small talk about staying on the floor right under the penthouses. I said the first thing that came to mind: "But you'd be the first to die if we had a fire." He had a funny expression on his face the next time he saw me. I don't blame him.

And .... GO! Time to apply for the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program

2011-08-11T11:48:00.004-04:00

If you have talked to me about writing for more than a few minutes, you would have heard me go on ...

and on ....

and on about how wonderful it was to be part of the:

Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program

(There should be Star Wars style music right now.)

The Mentor Program matches writers and illustrators with mentors who work with them for six full months. Amazing mentors who are authors, illustrators, and (this time) agents.

A few things you should know:

It's all about the revising.

If you don't want someone to tell you how to make your work better, or if you don't like revising, this isn't the program for you.

It's your chance to be fearless.

Your mentor will help you think about your project in new ways. Be prepared for the ride.

It makes you part of an amazing community.

Each mentor picks about three mentees, so there were over twenty of us in the Mentor Program. Those people and their mentors have become awesome friends.

So go to the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program page. If you have any questions for me, let me know. I'd be happy to tell you more about my experience in the program.

Odds and ends- and two sites you should visit

2011-06-15T12:18:00.004-04:00

This is my first blog post in ... I don't even know how long.

Not surprisingly, it is the first day of summer break for this teacher. Even less surprising, it is rather late in the day. (Hooray for sleeping in!)

This past week, I finished a revision workshop with Cheryl Klein, the ridiculously talented senior editor of Arthur A. Levine Books. Be sure to visit her resource-packed website! There's so much good stuff on the craft of writing and revision. Or just buy her terrific book on revision: Second Sight.

Two teacher workdays after that amazing weekend, I'm settling in for a summer of writing. I started, of course, by catching up on blogs while eating breakfast and found this amazing speech by Holly McGhee, owner and agent of Pippin Properties.*

So there you have it.

Odds and ends: summer has begun and I already started it with a lovely retreat.

Two sites to visit: Cheryl's website and Kathy's website.

Now I'm going to change out of my PJs.

Many thanks to Kathy Temean for posting it in her Writing and Illustrating blog!

We're here, and we're reading.

2011-05-31T11:04:00.009-04:00

We've all been pretty quiet on the blog lately, and unless something changes, I expect that to continue. We'll still post from time to time as we have something to share.

Our SCBWI friend Kathy Erskine has a new book coming out this week. You may remember our interview with Kathy last spring when her book Mockingbird was first released. Since then, Mockingbird has won a bunch of awards, most notably the National Book Award.

The buzz on Mike has begun, and we can't wait to see what people say about it. Meanwhile, you can read my take on it over at Searching for A Good Read, which I wrote after I read an ARC Kathy sent me.

One for the archives

2011-04-14T10:57:00.007-04:00

Back in 2008, when the Slushbusters blog was still new, Steph shared a post about how she started a critique group. If you read the whole thing, you can see that she mentioned posting fliers in the local libraries. That's how I found the group. I was browsing in the children's department of our Central Library and saw the flier.

That was over four years ago. I emailed the address on the flier, Steph wrote me back, and a few weeks later I attended my first critique group meeting. It was a good thing I emailed too, because by then the group was meeting at Panera. It didn't come out in the scan you see above, but Steph had written in pencil to "Please call before coming as we sometimes have to cancel."

The fun part now is that I had a meeting at the Central Library last week, and the flyer was still there. I took it down. It's funny for us for a few reasons. First, it's amazing that no one had removed it in all this time. Second, it's been years since we either met at the library or did any writing exercises. (Sorry, Steph!)

We used to do a five minute writing exercise at the end of every meeting. Back then, there were usually only two or three of us at a meeting instead of six. Critiques took a lot less time. Also, as we've gotten to know each other better, we usually have too much to say about each other's work and chat too much about other stuff to have any time left over. The other night I swear the staff at Panera were circling our table, trying to hint that we should wrap it up, but we were still offering comments to Joan on her latest chapter.

Anyway, I'm keeping the original sign. It's a great reminder of how and where we began, and how far we've come, even on the days it doesn't feel like that.

Monday morning review

2011-03-21T10:56:00.004-04:00

Since I posted about the Virginia Festival of the Book last week, I felt I should tell you all about it. I forgot to bring the camera, and I still haven't figured out how to get pictures off my phone, so if you need pictures, you'll have to visit the festival website and see the official ones.

Friday evening Sarah and I went to Sweet Reads, the dessert reception to honor Ashley Bryan and meet all the children's authors participating in the festival. Fran Slayton and her friends at the Charlottesville Catholic School did an incredible job coordinating the event.

I bought a couple of books, chatted with some librarians from other branches in our system, and caught up with a few SCBWI folks. Ellen Braaf, our SCBWI Regional Advisor, made the trip from northern Virginia. We always enjoy seeing her. I talked with local authors Kathy May, Kathryn Erskine, Anne Marie Pace, and Fran. Several of the Slushies have taken Kathy May's class on writing for children, and she always is so encouraging, even though it's been awhile since I was her student. Sarah and I are super excited for Kathy Erskine, because she's going to be on the faculty at Chautauqua this summer. How cool is that?

The focus of the evening was the presentation for Ashley Bryan. Fran listed a few of his many accomplishments in children's literature, and Nikki Giovanni and Kekla Magoon, who both know him well, spoke about him. Then Mr. Bryan rolled up his sleeves and did what he does best--poetry. He did a recitation where he walked among the children on the floor, and then had them repeat back his lines. His warmth and humor were wonderful.

Afterward, people had an opportunity to meet all the authors. With 29 of them there, there weren't even long lines to get books signed. I had a special request to ask Jacqueline Kelly to sign several copies of The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate for me, and she generously agreed.

Saturday morning, Sarah and I met our friend and blog follower Kristi, who had come in with her husband from Richmond for the day. After a few minutes catching up over coffee, we went to our separate panels. Sarah and I went to the one on picture books, featuring Jacqueline Jules, Kim Norman, Susan Stockdale, and Charlottesville's own Anne Marie Pace. Each of them talked a bit about how their books came to be.

Sarah and I walked to the next panel with Kristi, Adam, and Ellen Braaf. We had a beautiful sunny day to stroll over to the Village School, where five YA authors read from their books. The panel featured John Connolly, Jacqueline Kelly, Valerie Patterson, Tammar Stein, and Steve Watkins. Each of their books was very different, and not a vampire or werewolf in sight!

Sarah had to leave right after that. I had lunch with Kristi and Adam, and then we went to the second half of the first pages critique panel featuring the Mosely Writers. We all felt their critiques were kinder and gentler than those we've seen at other conferences. I realized that those panels are usually editors and agents. I think the difference is that a writer has been on the other side of that very public critique, and an editor's job is to really push to get the best work out of someone.

By the time that panel ended, I was ready to go home. I visited with a few folks in the lobby of the Omni before I left. All in all, a great day at the festival.

It's that time of year again

2011-03-17T10:33:00.012-04:00

Around here, a sure sign of spring is the Virginia Festival of the Book. If you've been following us for a while, you'll remember that the Slushbusters usually try to meet up and go to some of the events as a group. While the festival lasts five days, we do have jobs and families and other obligations, so we generally make Saturday our big festival day.

This year, there's a Friday night event we're going to. If you're in the area, and you haven't heard about it yet, (which is hard for me to believe, because those of you in Charlottesville are usually pretty aware of this stuff) check it out! All the children's and YA authors attending the festival will gather to honor Ashley Bryan, eat dessert and sign books. What more could you want in an evening?

There are several other events geared toward children's authors. Saturday morning, there will be a panel on Picture Books. Saturday at noon we'll have to choose between panels on writing historical fiction for kids and books for young adults. Why do they always schedule two things I want to attend at the same time?

There are more events on publishing and book signings and speakers and the book fair. It's impossible to get to everything. Especially since this is also a time when we get to catch up with some of our writer friends who will be in town from Richmond, Northern Virginia, and elsewhere. If you'll be around, let us know. We'd love to meet up.

Clearing, freshening, changing

2011-03-01T10:57:00.005-05:00

This morning I've been working on critiques to the sound of men talking about everything from where to get a good sandwich to the Charlie Sheen interview on TV. Punctuate that with a very squeeeaaky paint roller, the metallic creaks and clacks of boots on ladders, and the scent of fresh paint, and you have my morning.

We're planning to move. Not far, just to a different neighborhood. So we're having some work done on the house to get it ready to sell. And in the middle of it all, I've been packing. Clearing out closets to be painted. Donating stuff we don't want or need anymore. Putting our extraneous clutter into a storage unit, so the house will look clean and fresh and more spacious for showing.

All this has taken a lot of time away from my writing. That's okay, though. Although I'm compulsively creative, and need to make something every day in order to feel right with the world, sometimes it doesn't matter what that something is. I've never been one of those writers who must write every day. When I'm in a good place with a project, I have decent self-discipline, and will sit down and produce. Other times, I can go months without writing, and put my energies into something else. I always return to the writing. At best, I get some distance from my project. At worst, I have an excuse for procrastinating. This is the beauty of working without externally imposed deadlines.

So in the middle of all this chaos, what lessons can I take that I can apply to writing?

Editing is good. Whether it's your coat closet or your book, get rid of the stuff you don't need. I know we all know this, but a reminder never hurts.

Sometimes you need a change. It may be as small as a fresh coat of paint, or as significant as a new office window overlooking a new neighborhood.

Eavesdropping is fun. Most of the conversation in the background of my world today has been about what to do when, the order in which they're going to do things. Ceiling first in the living room. Drywall taping in the hall. In between, the dangers of cigarettes and too much diet soda.

Earplugs are useful. I got this one from Sarah. She wore them on one of our trips to a conference, and wasn't awakened at all by the noise in the hall of our hotel. I took a page from her book and used some this morning when I was trying to read and critique through all the background noise. Entertaining as eavesdropping is, it doesn't get the critiques done.

Mostly right now, I'm grateful that my office is one part of the house that doesn't need work. Yes, I cleaned out the closet in here too, but at least I can be in here and not feel like I'm getting in anyone's way. It's an odd feeling to be in some stranger's way in your own house.

Advice forgotten, advice remembered

2011-02-03T11:38:00.007-05:00

As writers, we get a lot of advice. We get it from the classes we take, from the blogs we read, from the authors who have gone before us, from editors, and from our peers. In that great sea of advice, we choose the bits that stand out to us, that resonate with our mission. The rest we tend to ignore.

Today I've gone back to some advice I heard a few years ago. It was two pieces of advice, really. One was about following the structure of an existing picture book to help you develop a sense of pacing for writing one. The other was similar, to copy a picture book, word for word, to help you get a feel for the rhythm of it.

I've decided I need to take a break from the endless revision of my novel, and work on something short for a while. I've got this manuscript for a picture book that I've been fiddling with on and off for about four years, but which has been inside my head for maybe 20 years.

Today I took that advice about the structure. I was reading Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book the other day, and I had an epiphany. This story I'd been struggling with for so long has a very similar structure to something else. Not a surprise really, as it's often said there are only so many plots in the world. But nice to have finally figured out which one it goes with. I had tried to do this with the same story before, but the structure of the books I was following didn't mesh with it. I think I've got it this time.

So I've spent the morning copying the original. Just to get the structure into my head. And now I'm working my own words and characters and story into the structure. It's fun. I'm not sure how good it will be when I'm done, but either way, I think I've learned something.

Reading to Kids

2011-01-26T01:36:00.000-05:00

Is there anything better than reading to kids? Walking behind waterfalls ispretty cool, and I do love chocolate. But really, reading to kids is right up there in my favorite things to do. Kids are so responsive, so eager, and so easy to please. And I love doing all the funny voices; I am a theatre teacher, after all.

I am so excited right now because my son is about to turn four, and we have recently opened a new chapter in his reading life. We're reading chapter books. Some of them don't have pictures for at least six pages. And he is totally okay with this! He's actually loving it.

When I asked him if he missed reading books with more pictures, he said, "It's okay because I see the pictures in my head."

We started on the Lighthouse Family series and have moved on to the Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. We'll be reading those books for a while. Today, we began Little House in the Big Woods. Of course, now Alexander wants to find a hollow log and put a roof on it so we can smoke the deer meat we get when we go hunting.

I'm so excited to read all the books I loved as a kid. I'm thinking we'll get to Pippi Longstockings soon, and the Wizard of Oz should be fun.

What I want to know is...What books do you love reading to your kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews/neighbors/etc? And what books did you love having read to you when you were a kid?

Dated Language

2011-01-19T13:29:00.006-05:00

I've been reading The Maltese Falcon, and I've come across a couple of words I had to look up. I like it when this happens. It often means one of two things. Sometimes it means the writer is stretching the language, using a more obscure word, which I like because it pushes me as a reader. Lisa is the Slushbuster most likely to use a word I don't know, and I love that. Other times, it means that the writer used a word that was common at the time the book was written, but isn't common anymore.

One of the words I had to look up from The Maltese Falcon was Levantine. Now, I had pretty much figured out what it meant from context, but I looked it up anyway. And a little bit sadly, I looked it up online, even though my dictionary is on the shelf right above my desk. I can look up now and see it as I type this. (Hi, Webster's New World Dictionary. Nice to see you. You're dated too, but I love you, so you get to stay there.)

I figured that if the story was written today, Hammett would have used the term "Middle Eastern" or more specifically "Syrian" or "Lebanese." Whichever. The use of the word Levantine helps define the time period in which the book was written.

Some words disappear because of technology. Anyone dialed a phone and gotten an answering service lately? Saved your work to a floppy disc? No? Some words change because of popular culture. When was the last time you listened to records after you got home from having a malted at the drugstore? Has anyone our age ever done that? Has anyone under the age of 30 ever gone to a video arcade with a pocketful of quarters to play Pac-Man or Zaxxon?

Political correctness changes a lot of what we write. The use of Levantine made me think of that other dated word that's been in the news a lot lately. Now I don't want to get into a whole "should they or shouldn't they" discussion about whether or not it's appropriate to substitute the word "slave" for "nigger" in Huckleberry Finn. I'm just observing that what is common usage in one time and place becomes inappropriate in another. In our age of political correctness, it happens a lot. For hundreds of years it was appropriate to use the word "cripple." But in the last 50 years, not so much.

I repeat that I'm not trying to start a heated discussion. But sometimes, when I write, I wonder what words will disappear in a generation or two. Or change. Desktop now means what you see when you turn your computer on, not the computer itself. A blackberry is no longer assumed to be something you eat. On the flip side, these evolving words are useful for writing with historical context. So when I tell you one of my books has a main character who was really happy to get an Atari, you know it is set in the 80's.

Clearing out in the new year, or why what you read really does make a difference.

2011-01-04T10:48:00.005-05:00

Happy new year, everyone! We've been a bit quiet over the holidays. I can't believe how many of the other bloggers have been writing every day through the madness. Good for you!

I've just finished a round of critiques for this evening's meeting. They were revisions to stories that Slushies have been working on for a while. I love these kinds of critiques, because I get to see how far the story has come since I first read it. One of them was a story that had been shelved for a while, but it's one of our favorites, and it definitely deserves a fighting chance, so I'm glad it's back in revision-land.

I've been working on a project at the library the past week or so, which I thought might interest you. I've been weeding our young adult fiction. Weeding is kind of the library version of inventory. We check the circulation on each item. If it hasn't been checked out in say, two years or more, we give it a good, hard look and evaluate whether or not it deserves to stay on our shelves. With the limited space in a small library, sometimes we have to be brutal. There are other factors, such as whether it is an award winner, or if the author is generally well-known, or whether or not other branches have the book. But the main criteria for keeping something is if someone has read it recently. Even one checkout can make the difference.

This is where you come in. If you checked out one of these books I'm looking at, you may have inadvertently cast a vote as to whether it stays or goes. If you recommended that book to a friend, and she checked it out, between the two of you, the circulation just went from a zero to a two in the past year. Another vote for keeping the book. If you recommended it to a book club, therefore increasing the circulation of every copy in our system, well, you've likely just insured the book will stay on our shelves for quite a while.

Before I worked at the library, I knew I could request they purchase a book. That was as far as I thought my influence as a patron went. I don't think people consider their role in keeping their favorite books on the shelves once the library owns them. So recommend a favorite to a friend!

Our characters

2010-12-22T01:44:00.002-05:00

This is terrific advice.

Surprise me

2010-12-04T22:17:00.011-05:00

I never thought I'd mention Harry Potter and The Karate Kid in the same post.

Of all the talk within the children's writing community about Harry Potter, there is one I remember the most. A speaker at the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI conference (I think it was Bruce Coville) said the biggest draw of the series was that there was a surprise on every page. They were never just jelly beans, or portraits, or even bathrooms. In the world Rowling created, even the most mundane objects or activities were surprising.

The world was wondrous.

In a much smaller way, The Karate Kid remake surprised me. When I saw Mr. Han working on a car, I expected to hear"Wax on, wax off." I never did. There were the obligatory training montages, but one was punctuated with the young hero flexing and posing in front of his mirror. Nothing huge, but another small, funny, surprise.

(That the movie surprised me at all is incredible. This post is being written by someone who remembers trying to balance on one foot before delivering a brutal, match-ending kick. I also remember seeing half the playground trying to do the same thing during one second grade recess. We considered ourselves successful if we didn't fall down in the attempt.)

I knew what was going to happen in the remake. I knew all the plot points it needed to hit. Yet in many small ways, the movie didn't do what I thought it would- and so it kept my interest.

I'm in the middle of rewrites, and I keep coming back to the importance of surprising the reader. No conversation, description, or character should be just what the reader expects. That's easier said than done, but it forces me to dig a bit deeper into whatever I'm writing. It's also a way to measure the effectiveness of what I've just written. I feel that I can move on when something unexpected is revealed, even if it's a small something.

What about you? What books surprised you in big or small ways? How do you keep your own writing fresh?

And did you ever try that kick after watching the first Karate Kid?

Turning off the editor

2010-11-30T10:29:00.005-05:00

One of the things that has changed as a result of my taking my writing more seriously is that I pay so much more attention to everything I read. The editor in my brain is always working. If a book I'm reading is particularly gripping, I'm able to turn it off. But other times, I just want to take a pencil to the book I'm reading and fix stuff so that I can read it the way I want to.

Last night I was reading one of those pencil books. It wasn't a book I had chosen, but my book club is reading it right now. Strunk and White would have had a field day with it. Single sentences take up six or seven lines on the page, and are so convoluted, full of commas, semicolons, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that even though they are grammatically correct and properly punctuated, they are exhausting to read and by the time I have finished reading one I have to go back to the beginning because I've forgotten what it was that I was reading about while I was trying to decipher all of it like a sixth grader diagramming sentences in middle school English class. How is it not exhausting to write that way?

I wonder if I enjoyed this kind of book more before I automatically edited inside my head.

Lurking

2010-11-19T10:20:00.006-05:00

You may have noticed I've been a bit quiet lately. I've had some family stuff going on the past few weeks, so I haven't been blogging. But I've been lurking on your blogs (that sounds so evil, doesn't it?), and keeping up with what's going on in the rest of the world.

One thing I just have to mention is that Kathy Erskine's book Mockingbird won the National Book Award this week! The Slushbusters have come to know Kathy through our local writing community, and we're very excited for her.

Another thing that's happened is that I've had a resurgence of communication with some of the friends I made at Chautauqua over the summer. I'm not sure what's up with that, but suddenly I've gotten several messages and emails from the gang. I appreciate everyone staying in touch. Right now, while I'm out of my writing groove, it helps to know these guys have my back when I'm ready to jump back in.

I'm on a major reading/audiobook tear right now. We had a Rapunzels meeting yesterday, during which we discussed The Jade Dragon by Carolyn Marsden and Virginia Shin-Mui Loh. The group is younger this year, as some of the older girls have outgrown us, and we've got a lot of new girls. This is where it's challenging choosing books, because the age range of the club is 9-13. Some of the older girls weren't sure they wanted to read a book with such a young character, but they all liked it after they did. If you want an example of how to make a simple problem feel like high stakes, read this one.

My big new excitement in audiobooks is that our library is launching Overdrive, which will allow us to download audiobooks using our library cards. When the "checkout" period expires, the file becomes unusable, but meanwhile, it can be transferred to an MP3 player or burned to CDs. So cool, especially now that I have a car with a docking station for my ipod.

So, like my Chautauqua friends, even when you haven't heard from me in a while, I'm here.

Last Lines in Kid Lit

2010-11-16T18:40:00.004-05:00

I love Sporcle. Today they posted a quiz about last lines in children's books. I scored 11 out of 20, which was still in the 90th percentile. Please, please, someone do better than I did!

Getting in and then getting out

2010-11-06T21:59:00.005-04:00

I'm going to see "The King's Speech". The movie is about King George VI, the younger son who never thought he'd be king. Hitler is conquering Europe, and the UK needs to hear from their king. George can't speak without stammering, yet he is expected to speak to his country in a radio address. (It can't have helped that Hitler was an amazing orator.)

The trailer captured me. I think many of us write because we can't get the words to come out right the first time.

Or the second.

Or the third. But I digress...

I read this article about the movie today, and in the article was a link to an interview with Colin Firth who plays King George. He says that as an actor, his job is to get in and get out: to understand his character's dilemma, but not concentrate on expressing it. Rather, he should focus on the character's determination to get out.

He argued that if an actor concentrates too much on portraying the problem (in this case, stammering) then the audience sees an actor trying act. But Colin's goal is to pour his energy into portraying his character's struggle against the dilemma. The actor's effort should be towards portraying the fight, not the enemy.

He said it enables the audience to connect with the character. Few people want to follow a character whose energy is spent getting into his personal hell. But an audience is willing to walk with a character fighting his way out of one.

I've been banging my head against the wall with revisions. I have so much to do, precious little time, and even less creativity. But Colin's point made sense to me as a writer. I'm working to figure out the tension that pulls my MC through the story. That's huge. But once I clarify that dilemma, I need to go back to my MC's fight against it.

And speaking of fights- I need to go wrestle my own dilemma into submission. I'll let you know how it goes...

Mid-Atlantic SCBWI Fall Conference

2010-11-01T20:41:00.002-04:00

This was my second time to this wonderful conference and, like last year, I was not disappointed. Ellen Braaf, the regional advisor, gives everyone a warm welcome. You immediately feel right at home. Being elbow to elbow with a hundred or so other like-minded writers for a whole day was just as inspiring the second time. This conference is high energy and high quality.

First in the queue of speakers was author Kathy Erskine. She presented GREAT writing tips. Using “great” as an acronym for her five elements of good writing. An agent panel followed her. We all love to hear what agents are looking for. Chapter books and books for boys were mentioned quite a bit. One of their recommended website was http://absolutewrite.com/. The website is for all types of writers. It has how-to articles, interviews and a business section. Andrea Tompa, Editor at Candlewick Press, compared revising your writing to wood carving. You get the big picture first then carve away to the details. The keynote speaker was author Lisa Yee. She had us in stitches. Winner of the Sid Fleischman Humor Award, she could be a standup comedian on the side. There was also a book buyer panel. What an interesting idea to hear the perspective of the buyers. The panel included a public librarian, school librarian and owner of an independent children’s bookstore. The conference ended with an editor’s question and answer session. All in all many worthwhile speakers and panelists plus good food and company.

Dropbox Anyone?

2010-10-20T14:33:00.003-04:00

I'll confess right up front that I'm terrible about backing up my documents. I was using a memory stick for a while but only remembered to do it once a month or so. Then there was the emailing-novel-to-myself phase. I remembered to do that about twice a month. I checked out some of the online services that you pay for (mozy, etc), but I'm so cheap I just can't stand paying for things if I don't have to. (Actually, I think they offer 2 gigs free now.)

But still, I thought there must be another way.

I just discovered dropbox. I'm not terribly tech-saavy, so this may be old news, but I'll share anyway. You go to dropbox, download it, and a folder will appear on your computer. Anything you put in this folder can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet.

They market dropbox as a way to organize your files across multiple computers, phones, etc, but all of the files you drop in your dropbox folder are also instantly uploaded to the internet. So, if your computer breaks and your phone bursts into flames, you still have access to your files via "cloud computing."

Now, when I sit down to write, I open Chapter 18 from the dropbox folder and work on it. When I hit "save," the doc is saved not only on my computer but also on the internet. I don't have to remember to back up. I don't have to do anything special. I'm loving it.

So, what do you use to back up your writing and how do you like it? Ever tried dropbox? Have concerns I haven't thought about?

In the middle of the night

2010-10-13T09:27:00.003-04:00

You know how sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night with what you think is a brilliant idea for your story? I did that last night. I thought about it for a while, after having trouble falling back to sleep. I thought about it long enough that I remembered it this morning, even not having written it down.

The problem is that in the light of day, it's not really such a good idea. It basically removes all but the simplest conflicts from my story, leaving it kind of old-fashioned with no real stakes for the main character. What is it about three thirty in the morning that makes us think we're brilliant?

Obstacles

2010-10-07T18:09:00.003-04:00

You know how we're supposed to write obstacles that get in the way of what our main character wants? I'm having a lot of those lately. Right now, for instance, I want to go to the James River Writers Conference tomorrow. But the obstacle is that I have a drippy, sniffly, chest-rattling cold and really should stay home. If I'm feeling up to it by Saturday, I may just do a one-day visit.

Alison will soldier on tomorrow as the sole Slushie. If you'll be at the conference, tell her hello. She's awesome. She called to check on me, and I'm hoping she takes some notes for a post-conference sum-up of her own.

My head hurts.

Short and Sweet

2010-10-05T10:27:00.004-04:00

We've all got a lot going on this week. Sarah is preparing for her trip to the Nevada SCBWI, where she is going to participate in their mentor program. Alison and I are going to Richmond for the James River Writers Conference. I've looked at the list of registrations, and I know we'll see a couple of you there.

JRW offers a five minute agent "elevator pitch" session to conference attendees. I haven't had one in three years. Two years ago the agent I was supposed to pitch couldn't make it due to illness. JRW arranged a substitute, but it was an agent who didn't handle books for children. I gave up my time slot to someone who might have a book that agent would represent. Last year I didn't have project I wanted to pitch.

So here I am, trying to tighten up my log line. I know what my book is about, and I can get it down to a sentence or two. I've rehearsed it enough not to ramble, but not so much that it sounds like a memorized speech. But I'd like it to sound more punchy, you know? So that's what I'm working on this week.

We'll post a sum-up of the conference next week.

People really do love books.

2010-09-27T11:58:00.012-04:00

I went to the National Book Festival on Saturday. I was impressed. I knew it would be big, but I didn't know it would be this big.

Due to delays in the Metro system, we got there later than I had planned. I missed the first panel of authors I wanted to see. I stuck around the children's tent, though, long enough to listen to Margaret Peterson Haddix and Linda Sue Park speak about the 39 Clues Series. They talked about the joys and challenges of writing a series with a lot of other authors.
One young person asked them their advice for future authors. Linda Sue gave one of the best and most original answers I've heard. She suggested aspiring authors attach themselves to a losing sports team. The constant cycle of hope at the beginning of a season and disappointment at the end is good practice for the life of an author.

After the presentation I headed over to the book signing area, where they were both signing books. They were to be in Tent 8, over there on the left. See all the people standing in lines?
That's not the whole line. If we turn to the right, you can see some buses back there. That's about where the lines ended. I decided I didn't need my books signed that badly. We went to the Pavilion of the States tent instead, stopping to peek in a few other tents along the way. I said hello to Fran Cannon Slayton, who was representing both Virginia and West Virginia. The crowds were so dense I waited in line to say hi, and then moved out of the way for some other folks who wanted to talk to Fran. She looked like she was having a great time.

By the time we finished at the States tent, we were done with the crowds. So we retreated to a nice, quiet museum with flush toilets and air conditioning. (The high in DC on Saturday reached 97!)

I'm glad I went to the Book Festival, but I much prefer the intimate setting of writing conferences.

Repeating relationship

2010-09-25T23:50:00.003-04:00

I just finished reading an interview with Dan Harmon, the creator of the show Community. Both the interviewer and Dan talked about having "every relationship between every character different".

Now that's interesting.

For those of you who don't watch Community, it's a show with a large cast, and it would be so easy to have repeating relationships: multiple friendships between characters based on common interests, several mentoring relationships, or attraction between peers, etc. But it isn't that way at all. I should take more time to describe the show, but I'm going to move straight to writing.

I realized- in a blinding flash of insight- that it's easy for me to do that with the secondary characters in my MS. I might have several pairs of characters that relate the same way towards each other. Guess who's going to go back, look at all the relationships she's created, and make sure she's not being lazy with how her characters relate to each other?

One of the things that pulls me further into a story is surprise. Shouldn't the way my characters interact be surprising as well? (Not surprising as in: "Golly, Jane, I had no idea you enjoy roller derby in addition to your work CPA." Instead, the surprise should come from a weak person exhibiting strength, or from discovering a stoic character has a well developed sense of humor.

My story will be so much stronger if a character is strong with one person and vulnerable with another. That's the way we really are. I have people I'm cheerful around, and a few who will know if I've had a bad day. I might be serious with one person and never have any substantial sort of conversation with another.

Yes, the concept of non-repeating relationships is pretty basic, but it stood out to me. Had anyone else ever thought of that before?

It's National Punctuation Day!

2010-09-24T10:35:00.004-04:00

I would be remiss in my duties as resident grammar geek if I failed to mention National Punctuation Day.

How should I celebrate?
I know!
I'll write a blog post-a brief one.

Anyone can participate in Punctuation Day; you could write a haiku. (See the website for details.)
There are other ways to celebrate: reading up on punctuation, decorating with it...
I have some ! and ? magnets in my office, of course.

What would we do without punctuation?

The end of the beginning?

2010-09-23T11:15:00.005-04:00

This one is not about a story. Well, it is a story, but it's not my story. It is the publishing story.

Yesterday I visited the Library of Congress for the first time. We took the guided tour. All of it was beautiful and fascinating, and it contained far fewer books than you might expect. In total, we saw two books up close. Just two.

The first was the Giant Bible of Mainz. It is hand scribed on vellum. It is illuminated. It was written in 1452 and 1453 and the work took fifteen months. It was produced in or near Mainz, Germany, right around the time of the Gutenberg Bible.

The second book we saw was the Gutenberg Bible. It too was produced in Mainz, Germany in the 1450's. It represents the massive revolution in books that came as a result of Gutenberg's use of movable type. In the same amount of time it took the Mainz scribe to complete one copy of the Bible, Gutenberg printed about 180 bibles. A massive revolution.

The Library of Congress calls the Mainz Bible "The End." It calls the Gutenberg Bible "The Beginning."

Standing there, looking at these books, I couldn't help but recall Stephen Roxburgh's talk at Chautauqua about digital books, e-books, and print-on-demand publishing. And I wondered when the Library of Congress is going to look at the Gutenberg Bible as the end of the beginning. Given that most people can view it, as you may have just now, online, perhaps they already do.

Is anyone going

2010-09-20T23:00:00.008-04:00

To the National Book Festival? I plan to. I have never been, but I've wanted to go for a couple of years now. In my likes-to-be-prepared way, I've printed out the schedule and highlighted the authors I'd like to see speak. I'm going with a friend, and I hope she chooses some authors she'd like to see as well. We may visit the Library of Congress. I've never been there either.

I find it heartening that this kind of festival is going on right now. In the midst of all the buzz about some guy in Missouri calling Laurie Halse Anderson's book Speak "soft pornography," followed by panicked book banning in schools, it's reassuring to know people are still embracing books. Of course, if you've read any kind of book blogs this week, you know the community of authors and librarians has jumped up to support Speak and everything it represents, which is basically the ability to stand up for yourself.

Just by coincidence, I've been listening to Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451 this week on audio. It's about--get this--book burning. Yup. A dystopian world in which firefighters don't prevent or end fires, they start them. To burn the books. I can't help but wonder what Bradbury thinks of all this nonsense of one man trying to censor the books of a community.

Banned Books Week is next week. I bet every one of you reading this has read something that was banned in the last decade. Speak is already on that list, by the way. So if you can, celebrate by reading a banned book. Or even better, attend a book festival!

Objectification of writers

2010-09-17T23:15:00.004-04:00

I don't know about you all, but after this week, I needed a blog post like the one I found tonight:

Offended by Rank Objectification of Writers

Apparently, some folks had twenty reasons why writers were great folks to date. I'm a writer, and I'd say I'm fairly date-able (on good days ... if you give me enough warning). However, these folks gave all the wrong reasons for dating a writer.

Enjoy! And if you have any thoughts/anecdotes on dating writers or just being one, please share!

Where do you write?

2010-09-13T10:44:00.005-04:00

I'm one of those people who needs a routine for things. I don't sleep well if I'm not in my own bed, and I need a dark room. I've never been able to sleep on airplanes, and the first night in a new place is often a restless one.

Writing is the same way. I like to write at home, at my desk in my office. Preferably with the windows open for some fresh air, but I only get to do that in spring and fall. If I even take my laptop down to the kitchen table, I don't feel as productive. If my desk is too cluttered, I can't work well until I clear it. I think it's a Pavlovian thing. My brain perceives this space as a work space.

Sarah is different. She likes to write in cafes. I'm amazed by her ability to do this. I'd find that so distracting. I'd be eavesdropping on conversations and constantly pulled out of my writing by the sounds and movement around me. I can't even read in a cafe. If I'm alone and need something to do while I drink my coffee, I can knit. The most writing I seem to be able to accomplish in public is postcards. I'm a big fan of postcards.

When we were in Chautuaqua, of course, I had to write somewhere other than my own desk. Fortunately, our inn had several porches to which we could retreat. I found the smallest, most secluded one on the side of the house, facing neither the street nor the lake. The one with the fewest distractions.

I've heard of people who make a playlist for writing. That amazes me too. I know I'd be singing along with parts of the music. My only playlist is crickets. And sometimes the dog barking.

Are you a routine kind of person, or can you write anywhere?

Can you relate to Beaker?

2010-09-07T22:43:00.004-04:00

You know the first thing I thought when I saw the video? This is what I do to myself sometimes. I swear there are times when I can feel the barbs pop up around me.

I am not saying that we shouldn't work on our craft. We should. Always.

However, there's a big difference between "I need to tighten the last three chapters" and "What am I doing? I'm embarrassed to even read this."*

This video was a good reminder for me: the best way to end up burnt out and weeping over my computer is to pay attention to the harpies. We gain the strength to improve when we refuse to listen to them.

Sometimes ... that means telling our own self to shut up.

Now let's go give Beaker a hug.

*I was sitting at Barnes and Noble, hammering out the first draft of a scene and praying that no one could read over my shoulder.

Research and the right word

2010-09-02T11:35:00.005-04:00

Last night we were watching television, and the host of the show used the wrong word. It has been bugging me ever since. I'm not going to mention what the show was, because I'm not a television critic, and I have no idea whether the host or a producer or a writer chose this word, and all of that is beside the point anyway. If you figure out what the show was, good for you!

My husband and I went to high school in Syracuse, and he is a graduate of Syracuse University. We know the area.

Syracuse sits on the edge of Onondaga Lake. This is what Wikipedia has to say about Onondaga Lake:

Today, Onondaga Lake is a severely polluted lake. Onondaga Lake has been described as one of the most polluted lakes in the United States, primarily due to industrial dumping and sewage contamination.

I know Wikipedia isn't the most reliable source for information, and you shouldn't use it as a primary reference. But pretty much anyone who has lived in Syracuse in the past half century would agree Onondaga Lake isn't their first choice for a place to swim.

During the opening shots of the show, a photo of the lake flashed on the screen, while the host described Syracuse as "known for its...pristine lakes." Wrong. Word. Choice.

There are other lakes in the Syracuse area which may be more accurately described as pristine. Skaneateles Lake and Green Lake come to mind. But no Syracuse resident would ever use that word to describe Onondaga Lake. Even given the massive efforts to clean up the lake, once spoiled, it will never be pristine.

This underscores for me the importance of good research and good word choices. If you have a setting you're not familiar with, it is important to get the details right. Get a local to check your work. If you're writing about a sport you don't play, a profession you're not in, or a place you've never visited, make sure the people who know the ins and outs aren't going to immediately see that you don't. You don't have to be an expert, but you have to look like one.

And as for the word choice, I might have gone with "picturesque." Pollution aside, there's a nice park, and it's still pretty to look at.

Outlines

2010-08-30T11:24:00.003-04:00

I've never been much for detailed outlines. I like to have a starting point and an ending point in my head, and have fun getting from one to the other, not exactly sure where the path along the way will twist and turn. It's funny, actually, because in the physical world, I'm a lover of maps and plans.

I was asked during my time at Chautauqua to turn in a chapter outline. I believed I had one saved on my computer, so I didn't think that would be too much work. I was wrong. I did have a saved outline, but it was from over three years ago, when I first started writing this book, and didn't even have an inkling of all the characters. The first couple of chapters were okay, but the rest was completely outdated. So I wrote a new outline as homework.

Now, that outline is outdated. I think this is why I didn't like outlining to begin with. It's hard for me to stick to them. I'm working on a new one anyway, trying to create a framework that puts more action into my plot. But I'm so easily distracted this way. I find little spots that are going to require new research. Then I immediately want to know if the information I need is accessible, so I check the Internet. I get sucked into that, and the next thing you know, it's time to leave for work. I bookmark the relevant pages, and close the computer.

For some reason, this doesn't happen in the same way when I just write. I know I'll need to come back and research, say, the public transportation schedule in my setting, but I don't need to do it right then. When outlining, I want to know. I think this is a way of avoiding doing the outline in the first place. But I think having the outline will help in the long run. I just have to finish it.

Call for a book review blogger

2010-08-25T09:47:00.003-04:00

I'm also part of a book review blog over at Searching for a Good Read. We review middle grade and YA books, because we read a lot of them, and we love them. One of our bloggers has recently left the group, so we're looking for a new blogger. She read a lot of YA, so we'd like to find someone else who does too. If you're interested, check out the post over there. If not, check out some of the reviews. We try to keep a mix of new stuff and classics. Thanks!

Submission remorse?

2010-08-23T10:16:00.002-04:00

As soon as I mailed out my submission last week, I thought about submission remorse. I sent out three chapters of a book that still needs revisions. It needs some new research and rewrites of whole big sections. Now, up until I got some new ideas for improving it, I thought this thing was done. I've sent it out before and gotten some pretty positive feedback. And this particular submission was sent to someone who specifically said not to worry about polishing it. So why worry?

We want to send our very best work out into the world. Somehow, submitting was so much easier a few years ago, when I was less educated about what that meant. I submitted a lot more work, probably because I was writing shorter pieces and not putting them aside to review later. As soon as I got a Slushbuster stamp of approval, into the mail it went. Not once during that time did it occur to me that I may have submitted a piece too early. Heck, I checked the caller ID on my cell phone every time it rang, thinking I was getting a call from an editor. Hah!

Sometimes the more you know, the more you question yourself.

Manuscripts ... and a surprising lack of theme music

2010-08-18T22:55:00.004-04:00

You know that moment in the movie Little Women when Jo finally finishes her manuscript? The one when she ties the papers together with string and tucks a crimson flower under the bow?

I did not have that moment.

I spent my moment in the foyer of the Post Office...

pulling apart a shopping bag...

so I could use the brown paper to wrap the box...

that held the manuscript...

that I had to mail to Harold Underdown.

It's been a crazy few days. School starts next week, and I am up to my eyes in planning Algebra.

Was my manuscript lying lovely and pristine, all printed up, waiting to be mailed out and begin its life with my mentor in the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program?

Oh no. I'd just gotten back from Chautauqua. So of course, I kept revising and patching and and putting in completely new parts. I still haven't done as much revision as I would have liked on this MS. It's a complete read, but it's not a good one yet, especially the last third. That really bothers me- never mind that this whole program is about, you know, REVISION.

So when I got the word that it was time to mail the MS, I had some cleaning up to do that kept me up till the wee sma's.

I finished the cleanup today after work. I searched my MS for ???. (That's my placeholder for when I can't find the right word or for names I have yet to choose.) Then I replaced each ??? with a word, any word. I felt like that little Dutch boy plugging the leaky dike.

Off to Kinkos. Ten minutes later, I had the full MS in a box. I then grabbed an excedingly dull pair of store scissors and began hacking at the box so that there wouldn't be two inches of clearance between the papers and the top of the box.

Across the parking lot to the Post Office. They have an automated mailing machine that looks like something out of the Jetsons. I needed to wrap the box, hence the wrestling match with the brown paper shopping bag.

About the time that I centered the lopsided Kinko's box on the ragged brown paper, I thought of Jo and her flower. I also wondered whether it was horribly disrespectful to Mr. Underdown to send a MS in brown paper that hadn't even been cut with scissors.*

Suffice to say, there was no moving theme music.

But here's the truth. It was still pretty amazing. I've never seen my entire MS printed out. I've never mailed it to someone who wanted to read it. Do you know how cool it was to write "Harold Underdown, New York, New York" on that brown paper package?

I don't think there will be much theme music or flowers in my writing career. I foresee a lot of scrambling and a lot of chaos.

You know what? I'm good with that. I think most of us who write are.

So ... I'd love to hear about your writing moments. What are they like?

*I did fold down the edges, though, so it shouldn't look too bad.

Speed meeting

2010-08-18T10:48:00.004-04:00

Last night at our meeting, five Slushbusters, three laptops, and piles of paper and notebooks crowded around and onto a table in Panera. The wireless connection was spotty. Sarah and I were both trying to connect to Skype so we could bring Lisa in. When we finally connected, we talked fast. I think we were afraid we'd lose her. Well, not her, exactly. The connection. You know what I mean.

For a meeting that covered some 50+ pages of work from two different Slushies, a few comments about work I'd already gotten feedback on, plus Joan's pictures from her trip to Alaska, we were very quick. Even after Lisa signed off. We usually critique her first, and let her talk to anyone else she needs to, but by then she usually needs to go be a mom again.

I got to thinking about how pared down critique can be. I learned at Chautauqua to look more at the big picture. The problem with a story is often not in the line edits, which we Slushies like to point out, one by one. It's in the overall thing. Like my WIP. Sure, there are line edits that need to happen, but the main thing wrong with it is that the plot needs more action. Most of the comments point to that in one way or another. Not all of them, certainly. There are still moments of confusion because I didn't clarify something. Or the voice sounded too adult for an eleven year old protagonist.

As we become better writers, we not only grow more efficient on the page, we grow more efficient in what we have to say about what others have written.

Nothing like social networking to shrink the world a little

2010-08-13T12:28:00.006-04:00

Nicola Morgan, YA author, is conducting an experimen t. She's set up a facebook page to see how many followers she can get in just two weeks. For every 50 followers, she's giving away a book. She will share the results of her experiment with a workshop she's teaching.

I am a big fan of social networking. Look how many of you I've gotten to know just from writing this blog! And I think facebook is really cool. It allows you to discover a lot about your friends, including how many people you know in common.

In the grand demonstration of how small the world can be, I have an example. Today is only the second day of Nicola's experiment. She asked people to let her know how they found out about her author page. The first person to comment on that is a woman living in Costa Rica. She happens to be the sister of one of my high school friends and a friend of my husband. I'm pretty sure neither of them knows Nicola, and I know for certain that my husband has never read her books.

This stuff happens all the time. One of my sister's friends in Atlanta was a classmate of my husband's brother in Syracuse. One of my new Chautauqua friends from California knows one of my local author friends. I love finding these connections.

I know Nicola's intention is to demonstrate how social networking can help authors. But sometimes, I like to just look at this stuff and say, "how cool is that?"

If you liked Monday's post

2010-08-12T11:11:00.002-04:00

Our friend Hanna has some more of Patti's nuggets of wisdom on her blog this morning.

When one of our friends posts things I haven't gotten around to, I feel like the group of people contributing to our blog has expanded. I love having all these peers to count on for pointing out the details I missed, or phrasing the same information in a different or better way.

This has been one of the best things about working on a blog as a group as well. If you haven't yet checked out the article in the 2011 Children's Writer's and Illustrators Market about group blogs, please do. Yes, the Slushbusters are mentioned in the article. But we don't make any money by telling you about it. We didn't even get a free copy of the book. It's just some good information, and I'm happy that Carmela Martino is highlighting some of the many great blogs out there. I follow a lot of the others she mentioned. Our peers are an incredible resource.

If you're one of those bloggers out there sharing what you're learning, thanks. We appreciate it.

First Pages Critiques

2010-08-09T19:23:00.006-04:00

I just entered the James River Writers conference First Pages Critiques. It's my favorite part of the whole 2 day conference. They have actors read a submission, then the panel, usually editors and agents, say whether they would keep reading past the first page or not and why. You get a green card or a red card from each person on the panel. They do about 20 submissions, but time really flies. The actors do a really great job bringing these pages to life.

I won't tell you which story I sent the first page of, since it is supposed to be anonymous. Of course, any Slushie who attends the conference with me (in October) will know and recognize it. Hopefully I will get at least one green card!

Who am I kidding?? What I am hoping is that an agent on the panel will say, "Not only would I keep reading, but whoever wrote this, please see me after the panel."

Let's not go too far though. Asking to read the whole manuscript may be too big of a dream, since I only have a few pages written.

Back to hoping for a green card....or two....

Come to think of it, they don't read every one they receive. Fingers crossed they even read it...

Post its

2010-08-09T13:01:00.004-04:00

Patti Gauch has been an editor for a long time. She is also an author. She probably knows more about children's literature and publishing than just about anyone. She is also a phenomenal reader, which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. When she gives you good advice about writing, you really want to pay attention.

This morning I worked for a while on transcribing my notes from our workshop sessions. I filled a whole notebook, so it's taking a while. I discovered that I enjoyed reading my notes from Patti's sessions almost as much as I enjoyed listening to them the first time.

One of the things Patti said was that we should write inspiring things on post-its and stick them above our desks. Or wherever it is that we can see them when we write. I've done this for years. I have some sticky-backed index cards I like to use. My favorite is written in fat black sharpie letters: "Finish!" E.L. Konigsburg.

Some of my post-its are lists of things to avoid, like weak modifiers. (just, so, such, very, etc.) Some of them are things the Slushbusters have said. (Give the hero the last word.) I have an index card with Freytag's pyramid, and one with Joseph Campbell's Hero Quest. And I have a couple of quotes from books about writing, such as Stephen King's On Writing and Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic. Finally, I have quotes from my own characters. Most of those are things I want the character to say at some point, but haven't gotten to that place in the story yet.

Patti gave us a few more. My favorite is "Am I sassy enough?" I also love "I have the permission to let go to story, to let go to what is within me." I have added those, as well as her other gems, to my post-it wall above my desk.

Do you have any little quotes you put up to inspire you?

The fun part

2010-08-04T09:48:00.003-04:00

During our second critique meeting at Chautauqua, Juanita Havill told me that the revisions I need to work on are the fun part. I have to agree. Now that she's helped me find a place to begin my revision, the ideas are coming quickly. The Slushies are going to see big changes in this new draft.

One of the things writers hear all the time is, "Kill your darlings." I've had to do that this go around. There was a whole journal thing my character was doing, but Juanita asked whether it really served my story. It was interesting. There was a twist to it. But she was right, I didn't need it. So I let it go. I'm now changing that "kill" for "euthanize." Let it go. It's like hanging onto the clutter from your past. It doesn't serve the life you live now. That fondue pot from the one fondue dinner you made twelve years ago? Let it go.

The other thing that is starting to happen is I'm liking my characters more, and letting them be more themselves. I have to thank Patti Gauch for that one. She dared to ask, "Am I sassy enough?" And, now that I think of it, she advised us to let go too.

I decided the other day that too much happened at Chautauqua over that week to sum it all up here. My notes, while helpful to me, may not be the most entertaining for you to read. But I will continue to post little snippets as I apply them. If you want more about what happened, check out the blogs of Nora and Louise.

Hanging out with the cool kids

2010-08-01T00:00:00.003-04:00

There's a saying that if you can't be interesting yourself, find interesting friends.

I have taken that advice to heart.

The first interesting person of my acquaintance is our own Michelle. She is in the 2011 Children's Writers and Illustrator's Market. Carmela Martino* wrote an article about group blogs and asked the Slushbusters a few questions. Not surprisingly, Michelle's quote made it into the article ... that made it into the book (p. 69!) ... that we just bought from Barnes and Noble!

How cool is that?

The other interesting person I'll soon be acquainted with is...

Harold Underdown

Yes, Harold Underdown!!!

I was accepted into the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program. Harold Underdown will be my mentor for six ... entire ... months.

Hear those squeals of joy? I'm just hoping that I can pull myself together soon.

*You should definitely swing by Teaching Authors blog.

A sign?

2010-07-29T22:52:00.004-04:00

Last week when I was at Chautauqua and having all that trouble printing, I made a mistake. I was frustrated, trying to add printers, change default printers, and generally do whatever it took just to get something, anything, to hand in. While trying to print a chapter outline that my mentor had requested, I left several jobs in the print queue for my printer at home. Which, in my rush, I totally forgot about. So this week, when I went to print out some Slushbusters critiques for our meeting, guess what happened? Yup. I now have multiple copies of said chapter outline.

The most important information I got last week about my manuscript was to spend more time looking at the big picture. My mentor helped me see that my plot needs some work. Theme is clear, characters are pretty good, voice is good. Plot. Needs. Help. I was told that this is the fun part. Boy, I sure hope so! Regarding it as the fun part is way better than thinking of it as more work I have yet to do on this manuscript I've been working on for over three years.

I had been considering marking up my hard copy of the manuscript. I'm not a pen-in-hand kind of reviser. I'm more of a read-it-on-the-screen-and-delete girl. Now that I have on my desk all these copies of the very outline I need to revise, I'm thinking it might be a sign.

Tomorrow, the red pen and I have a date with at least one of those copies.

Remember those people I mentioned the other day?

2010-07-26T11:29:00.005-04:00

One of them is our new buddy and Chautauqua Inn-mate (not inmate!) Nora Macfarlane, who deftly summarized our week on her blog. Last Monday morning at breakfast, we were told to write down the names of all the books the faculty mentioned in their presentations. I did, but haven't yet typed them up into a list to work from. Nora has.

I spent much of the day yesterday readjusting to the real world. You know, the one where there is no breakfast buffet. So sad. But there is air conditioning, and for that I am grateful.

This morning was all about critiques for tomorrow night's Slushbusters meeting. I already see where the things I learned at Chautauqua are coming up. I just hope my fellow Slushies will take my notes well, because I have far more of them than usual! I feel all editor-y. Now I want to go and work on my own book!

I Write Like....

2010-07-25T15:40:00.003-04:00

Someone I know recently sent me to this website, I Write Like….

You enter in a sample of your writing and the site tells you what famous writer you most write like.

I’m not to willing to swear on this site or attest to its accuracy. But I thought it would be fun and possibly enlightening…

I entered 8 different writing samples of my own writing -- pretty diverse choices.

Apparently I Write Like:

George Orwell
Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow
James Joyce
Kurt Vonnegut
Cory Doctorow
Robert Louis Stevenson
Cory Doctorow

Well, obviously I’d better go and read some Cory Doctorow…or maybe I’ll go type in some Jane Austen to that site and see what happens…..bruhahahhhahahhaa…..

Check it out and let us know who YOU write like…..

Humming in my head

2010-07-24T20:54:00.003-04:00

No, it isn't music, although Chautauqua has plenty of that. It's the buzz of all the words heard, read and written over the past week. I'm going to take a few days to process and look at my notes. When the background noise quiets, I'll find the best bits of what we learned at Chautauqua and share them with you.

No more words today

2010-07-22T23:48:00.003-04:00

A different kind of goal

2010-07-21T23:06:00.004-04:00

One of my goals at Chautauqua has been to talk to a lot of different people. I am a chatty person, but usually in a large group like this, I tend to meet a few people the first day, and they become my group. That hasn't happened here.

There are roughly a hundred attendees and around 20 faculty at the workshop. My goal coming in was to meet and have a conversation with at least half of each. I'm defining conversation as the give and take, "Where are you from, what do you write, what do you do when you're not writing," variety over just saying hello. If I ate a meal with someone, sat next to them at a workshop, or walked with them from place to place, and had a chat, that counts.

We have a booklet with everyone's photo and a brief bio. I love that. It gives me a kind of checklist to work from. I'm just about at my goal, too. I may have surpassed it. I haven't counted people yet today.

Sarah and I sat together at the first couple of meals after we got here. By mid-morning Sunday, we were both okay with splitting up and doing our own thing for a while. Later that day, Becky from Texas saw me at dinner and asked where Sarah was. She was surprised we weren't joined at the hip. But that's cool.

Most of our new friends know we came here together, but we've each met a few folks the other hasn't. And that's great. Because as important as all the writing is, the people are even more so. We may find new beta readers or blog followers. In fact, I'm sure we will. I know there are at least a handful of people I plan to stay in touch with. So, new friends, if you're here, hi. I'm glad I met you.

The library

2010-07-20T16:53:00.006-04:00

This is the library, taken from the center of Bestor Plaza. I had no intention of going there today. But in the grand tradition of libraries, they helped me when no one else could.

Our opening session today was presented by Patti Gauch. She read from a number of wonderful books, giving us the common theme of "a catch in your breath." We were excited to see Kathy Erskine's Mockingbird up on the dais. It was the last book Patti read from, and I actually heard a couple of gasps from the audience. Listening to Patti read made me want to lie on my stomach on the floor, propped up on my elbows, chin in hand, and listen. I didn't. I stayed in my chair.

We had about an hour and a half free after that, and I wanted to print my work from last night to give my faculty reader time with it before our meeting tomorrow.

I went to the business center. Unfortunately, they don't have wireless printing. More unfortunately, I forgot my flash drive. No problem, I think. I can email my work to myself from my laptop, open it on their desktop, and print it. But the internet was down. I asked if I could connect directly to their printer. Nope. The young woman helping me apologized. I felt worse for her than for myself. She sent me to the library.

For once, I was on the patron side of the desk, repeatedly going up and reporting my computer's various error messages as I tried to log in to their wireless system, tried to add their printer. I had to download a driver. Reset my default printer. Check the time...getting close to lunch. Really want to get this done, no more time until late in the day.

Finally, I got it printed! Wonderful, wonderful library. New system for me, same summer reading posters as at home. Thank you, Chautauqua librarians.

Sarah just headed over there to print her work. Cross your fingers that she gets it printed before the bus leaves for dinner!

Photo of the day

2010-07-19T23:48:00.003-04:00

This is the Hall of Christ building, where most of the Highlights workshops take place. We get our lunch in the basement, too. All those folks you see are our new writing buddies.

Too busy to say much, but

2010-07-19T17:35:00.002-04:00

I know some of you are curious. Sarah and I both had our first manuscript critiques today. Juanita Havill is my faculty reader. She couldn't be nicer, and even though I have things I need to work on, her manner of delivery was very gentle.

I got a little time to come back to the inn and write. I love that this laptop has a button to turn off the internet altogether! I sat on the balcony at the back of the house, overlooking the lake, and worked on a new outline while listening to the rain. That was literally the only rain we've had since we woke up this morning, so the timing couldn't have been better. It was clear out during all the times we had to walk between activities.

This afternoon we attended three fantastic workshop sessions. More on those later, when I have more time. I see from my perch on the front balcony that some of our new friends are heading out to dinner. I'd better go look for Sarah...

Wow

2010-07-19T00:00:00.002-04:00

Boy, are those Spinellis smart.

We had a barbecue today, and while everything was being prepared, Jerry and Eileen Spinelli talked to us. (How amazing is that!!!!) They asked each other the questions they hear most often and then answered them.

My favorite takeaway was about ideas. You know I hate the concept of ideas equaling stories. I am convinced that good books are all about the execution of an idea- not the idea itself.

However, Eileen made an excellent point about why new authors especially focus on finding ideas. It isn't that they don't have ideas.

It's that they don't trust them. They're not sure it's a good idea. They're not sure it's grand enough. But Eileen said writing is not a case of capturing grand ideas so much as "the ability to pull the grandness up out of an ordinary day."

So take a second look at a few ideas that you have. Maybe they're ideas for new stories, or maybe they're ideas about how to make your current work in progress better. But give them a chance. Give them something cool to drink and sit down and chat a while. You might discover your ideas aren't so bad after all.

Let us know: how do you treat your ideas? What do you do with them? Have you found it easier to trust yourself the more you write?

Books! Banquet.

2010-07-18T07:30:00.013-04:00

I wanted to upload a picture of the books we got in our bags, but for some reason, it keeps coming up sideways. No idea why. It's the right way up in the folder on my desktop. I've tried six times to flip it. This will have to do for now.

We enjoyed meeting many of the other attendees last night at the opening banquet. Patti Gauch was the faculty member at our table, and she and her husband Ron were very friendly. Donna Jo Napoli gave the speech, and was very motivational. We met a few people we'd talked to on the chat boards before we came, and now we're about to head out to brunch and meet some more.

The Road, and the end of it.

2010-07-17T16:56:00.004-04:00

Six am. That's what time Sarah arrived to pick me up this morning. I was ready, and we got on the road. It was an uneventful trip overall. At lunchtime, we were somewhere in Pennsylvania, just approaching Interstate 80, when I consulted the GPS.

"Look, there's a Denny's, just about two miles off the highway," I said.

"Great!" Sarah followed the directions.

We found ourselves in a residential neighborhood. The GPS said, "Recalculating," as we missed our turn.

I looked at all the run-down, wood-sided houses in need of a good paint job. "This doesn't look like a place where they'd build a Denny's.". Sure enough, there was a Denny's. But not the chain restaurant.

It was a biker joint. And pretty full for 11:30 on a Saturday. We decided to risk it. Good sandwiches, friendly service. A million choices of appetizers. What more could you ask for?

By 3:30 we were here. We met the infamous Roger, who we've been chatting with on the discussion board for weeks. He directed us to where we could leave our bags, and we headed inside for a brief orientation. Then, packed book bags in hand, we went to park the car. After a longish walk to the Chautauqua Inn, we're having a rest while we wait for the luggage to arrive. I hope it gets here soon. We want to leave for the Opening Banquet in about an hour. Meanwhile, I'm sitting on the balcony outside our room, enjoying the breeze. This is what it looks like from where I sit.

And we're off

2010-07-17T07:00:00.001-04:00

As of this posting, Sarah and I are on our way to Chautauqua for the Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop. We'll post as often as we can during the week. From the looks of the itinerary they sent us, we're going to be very busy, so I may just put up a few photos to give you the general idea, and then sit down and write more when we get back. We'll see how it goes.

Getting to know you

2010-07-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

One of the cool things about this whole process of preparing to go to Chautauqua has been their process of getting to know us. They sent us a two page questionnaire a couple of months ago. It had the basics of where we went to school and stuff like that, but also a few great questions to help them get to know who we are. They then used that to match us with our faculty mentors, and to create a brief bio of each of the attendees, so we can get to know each other and identify folks we share common interests with.

My favorite question they asked was who is our favorite character in children's literature and why. I hadn't considered this before, but it's very telling. We all want to create characters that readers will relate to, but it's the characters we've read that inspire us, and likely brought us to this place to begin with.

I came to my answer pretty quickly. I chose Claudia Kincaid, the heroine of From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. She's practical. She's a planner. She wants to be appreciated, and she's willing to go the distance to earn that. She wants to run away from home, but she's not willing to give up comfort to do so, and finds a way to make that work for her. She also wants to make a difference. And perhaps most importantly, she immediately recognizes that she can't do it all herself. She knows where her own weaknesses lie, and enlists her brother Jamie to help her with the aspects of her plan she can't handle herself, mainly money.

Do you have a favorite character in children's literature? Who and why?

Thank you.

2010-07-13T12:15:00.002-04:00

Thanks to any of you who took the time to vote for the Harry Potter Alliance in the Chase Community Giving. They won! I can't wait to see what they can accomplish with $250K.

And it all started with a book. You never know what lives your characters will go on to lead once they leave you.

Packing for preparedness

2010-07-11T22:10:00.004-04:00

I've started packing for Chautauqua. (Stop laughing, Slushies!) Today was my last day off until we go. I didn't pack my clothes or anything, but there's so much I want to take that I'm prepping a few different bags.

I organized my new, smaller laptop bag with a notebook, pens, and a couple of books I'd like to have signed. I put together my knitting project for the car trip. I like to make a little kit with everything in one place: yarn and needles of course, but also the pattern (cabled socks), some safety pins, a crochet hook (for dropped stitches), scissors, tape measure, post-its for keeping track of where I am on the pattern, and also some beads, because this pattern has a few beads in it. I packed my mini-pharmacy: cough drops, ibuprofen, bandaids, small tube of sunblock, all those things you never know if you'll need, and I like to keep on hand.

I haven't earned the title of "Our Lady of Perpetual Preparedness" for nothing. You have to keep earning a title like that year after year, on road trip after road trip. And no, I don't bring a huge bag. Just a small sampling of a lot of stuff. My purse is like Mary Poppins' carpetbag. Ask anyone. Although, I've yet to figure out how to get a floor lamp in there. The best I can do is a small flashlight.

For once, I'm not worried about maps. Sarah went to AAA and she's got that covered. Plus, we're bringing the GPS.

And if you haven't voted yet for the Harry Potter Alliance in the Chase Community Giving, please do. The link is still over there on the right margin. These guys work really hard for a lot of great causes. They were still in first place the last time I checked, but the second place organization has made a huge comeback over the weekend. You have until midnight Monday to get a vote in. Thanks!

Harry Potter and Helping Out

2010-07-08T08:23:00.005-04:00

I'm in the middle of a summer cold, and I'm not feeling inspired to write anything original today. But I wanted to mention something where you, the kidlit community, can help out. It only takes a moment, and the results could be big.

Back in February and March I told you about the Harry Potter Alliance. They raised enough money for Haiti to send not three, but five airplanes full of supplies. They collect books do donate to kids around the world. They use children's literature as inspiration to work for positive changes. And they've got the support of many folks in the children's literature community, including J.K. Rowling herself.

They need more help. This is an easy one. Chase Community Giving is donating $250K to the organization with the most votes. Currently, HPA is in first place. I'm hoping you, the members of the kidlit community, keep it that way. The deadline to vote is July 12. You can get all the information here. I'll keep the link up over there in the margin until voting is completed.

And beginning today at noon EDT, if you can, head over to their livestream. They've got a super secret plan in the works.

This has helped me...

2010-07-03T13:46:00.006-04:00

I'm in the middle of huge revisions on my MS. I've lots of time to work now that school is out.

But more important than that, I have a deadline. I applied to be part of the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program. Program participants are matched with a mentor who will work with them for six months (six months!) to get their MS on track.

I'll know by August 1 if I've been accepted. If I am accepted, I'll have to send my mentor my MS within a week of the notification.

So, I've been hauling though my MS, revising the new second half that I wrote last year. This is not a pruning, polishing sort of revision. This is digging in, up to my elbows, so I can extract gems from the rough draft and arrange them in some sort of compelling order.

I'm halfway through, but it's been exhausting work. Several times I've finished revising a chapter and not been able to tell whether it's been an improvement. I'd lost my vision, which is a big part of revision (six letters, by my count).

My tendency is to push on through, to show the MS who's boss, but Steph mentioned a piece of advice that Alisha Niehaus gave her: if a scene is giving you trouble, write a few scenes past it, and then come back to it.

Yes, it is ridiculously simple, but it has been saving my bleary-eyed self. When I get tired, I lose perspective of what's working, what's necessary. Every time I've worked a few scenes ahead, it's given me a better idea of what needs to happen to set up the scene I've moved ahead to. Then I'm able to return to the difficult scene, weed out the unnecessary, and emphasize what's working.

So, for those of you who are working hard, who (like me!) will be as pale at the end of this summer as you were at the beginning, consider skipping ahead when you hit a wall. I'd also love to hear any other tips you might have for tackling a difficult stretch of writing.

Camp 3 (Sunday morning) at the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Novel Revision Retreat

2010-07-02T06:00:00.001-04:00

We woke early in the Big Meadows campground despite our late night s’more party (lol! ended by 10 PM). The clouds hugged the Blue Ridge Mountains, or so we thought. Within half an hour the sky was clearing and the day turned sunny.

Over breakfast we talked about what a great party it had been. Though only three of the participants at our writing retreat attended, among them was Alisha Niehaus, Senior Editor from Dial Books for Young Readers.

In her Last Chapter session, Alisha mentioned the standard elements of tying up the narrative and emotional arcs. But also how authors can create a little mystery by opening doors for their characters in the final chapter. This engages the reader’s imagination at guessing what will happen next. Alisha suggests your think of the last chapter as a playground where you and the reader can have a little fun.

Other tidbits gleaned from Alisha on writing: salt heavily with pungent verbs and lightly with peppery adjectives, coming of age is often your focus, and your plot should move the characters through their emotional arc by building events and challenges.

I was very glad I attended the retreat and would recommend it. But I personally suggest you camp. It adds flavor to the retreat.

Camp 2 (Saturday afternoon) at the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Novel Revision Retreat

2010-07-01T06:00:00.002-04:00

My two fellow campers and myself sat through the downpour, happily dry in the Big Meadow Lodge but with worries about our campsite. The storm tracked along the Blue Ridge Mountains and put it directly over our tents which were comfortably snuggled among the trees of the Shenandoah National Park. But who could pull themselves away from the second craft session on First Chapters to the futile task of saving our camp? Our tents were staked down, so no threat of Wizard the Oz II. Fellow Slushbuster Stephanie, the engineer amongst us, had strung up a tarp over our picnic table the day before. It withstood a very windy night so we hoped it could survive this summer thunderstorm.

Again Alisha Niehaus, Senior Editor from Dial Books for Young Readers led the session. Her advice on what needs to be in your first chapter came in three pitches: show who the characters are emotionally, plant a seed of where the plot will take the reader and create a clear and unique voice. Hit all three and you’ll have the bases loaded.

On the matter of voice, she described it as heart, made from melding together the voices of the author and characters.

As examples Alisha used two novels she edited, showing the before and after rewrites. This was a real treat of the s’more variety. The two books were Savvy by Ingrid Law and The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. Her edits included changes in plot to build more tension, scaling back characters so as not to overshadow the main character, creating other characters and, of course, grammar corrections.

Camp 1 (Saturday morning) at the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Novel Revision Retreat

2010-06-30T06:00:00.002-04:00

The three happy campers awoke to a beautiful day along the Skyline Drive only to discover the showers were coin operated. A mad scramble for quarters ensued. After showers and breakfast around the picnic table we headed for the Big Meadows Lodge for the start of the craft sessions.

“Visualizing Your Novel: Mapping Narrative and Emotional Story Arcs” was first at bat. Alisha Niehaus, Senior Editor from Dial Books for Young Readers led the session. All of the sessions were well thought out, expertly presented, and allowed time for writing exercises and discussions about writing problems and solutions. Alisha hit a homerun. She plotted a typical narrative arc, which of course looked like an ever-increasing mountain range while the emotional arc was a smile with happiness on one axis and time on the other. Juxtaposition the two graphs over top of one another and you have a slightly askew, gaping mouth complete with jagged teeth. (After all, she called it visualizing your novel.) She suggested you use events and roadblocks (narrative) to get the main character through the emotional arc. Two things to consider: what events will build and how the events could make the character grow. She reminds us to make the reader frustrated. This will involve them more deeply in the story. The classic plot she stated is to move your characters on a journey outside their comfort zone in order for them to mature.

SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Novel Revision Retreat – Base Camp

2010-06-29T06:00:00.003-04:00

Recently I attended the Novel Revision Retreat sponsored by SCBWI Mid-Atlantic chapter. It was like going to camp with 20 of your best friends. Nineteen participants plus Alisha Niehaus, Senior Editor, from Dial Books for Young Readers converged on Big Meadows off the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park.

The Big Meadows Lodge has a rustic look from a bygone era, much like a New Deal WPA work project with its hand-hewn logs. From its great room there are stellar views of the Shenandoah Valley below. This was where our retreat began on Friday night with a get-to-know-ya session.

Three of us (myself, Caroline, and fellow Slushbuster Stephanie) opted to camp. The campground is located adjacent to the lodge. This turned out to be a bonus when Alisha came to our s’more campfire party. My long-time friend and tent mate Caroline suggested the party. Alisha jumped right on it. Turns out as a kid she camped with her family in her home state of California.

Some of the purists insisted on real sticks for roasting their soft, white puffs of pure sugar. They wanted nothing to do with the new-fangled metal prongs, which looked like miniature pitchforks. But all strived for a toasted golden brown confection. The flame-broiled mishaps occurred but were quickly discarded into our bonfire.

Once the s’mores hit the stomachs talk turned to writers, good books and just about any topic you could imagine. This went on for hours. No, we did not end with campfire songs but we were three happy campers.

Stayed tuned for details about the craft sessions in next three blogs.

An accidental story?

2010-06-28T08:26:00.008-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a letter on behalf of my dog. My niece and nephew, ages 4 and 6, are coming to visit from out of town. They haven't been here in two years. My niece is somewhat afraid of dogs. She likes small dogs, but it takes her a while to warm up to large dogs like mine.

To prepare her for the visit, I sent them both the book Why Do Dogs Do That? I'd had a copy for years, left over from my preschool teaching days. When I thumbed through the book, I realized I needed to personalize doggy behavior specific to Coal. So I wrote a letter to go with the book. I wanted the kids to make a connection between their own feelings and actions and Coal's. Like in this paragraph, for example:

Coal went to doggy school, so he’s very good at listening to directions. He can sit, lie down, stay, and wait to eat a treat. He loves to go on walks, and gets very excited if he is going somewhere, either in the car or just on a short walk. Sometimes when he is excited, he jumps around and he may bark to let us know he’s happy. Don’t you jump around and get loud sometimes when you’re excited?

Apparently, the letter was a hit. My niece listened to my sister read the whole letter, and even laughed at parts. Afterward she said, "Mommy, I didn't used to like Coal, but now I do." So now, instead of being afraid to come visit, she is excited.

The true test will be when they arrive today. But here's the funny part: everyone I've mentioned this to thinks I should turn this letter into a picture book manuscript.

The weird thing is I feel kind of defensive about it. We all know of people who, with no knowledge or interest in writing and publishing for children, say, "I made up a story and my friends and family think it would make a good book. How do I publish it?" Right? I feel like I should know better. That it takes more than a ten minute pass at the computer to make a picture book.

But then again, armed with the knowledge I have, I could revise this, and maybe come up with a publishable story. Right now, it's way too long. 563 words, to be exact. But I may work on it. Who knows? I may have written an accidental picture book.

Wandering through nonfiction

2010-06-24T11:33:00.006-04:00

I'm still reading more than I'm writing these days. Partly to prepare for Chautauqua. I'm also reading the junior version of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World, One Child At A Time By Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin, Adapted By Sarah Thomson and Foreward By Dr. Jane Goodall. It's our first nonfiction selection for my tween reading group at the library.

I think a lot of us who read and write fiction tend to forget about the nonfiction out there for kids. Looking around the library, I'd say the amount of space devoted to each is pretty equitable. If you put all the picture books together with the middle grade books, they take up about the same space as the nonfiction. Maybe a little more.

Some kids read a lot of nonfiction. Boys in particular. I've learned that boys (and men!) like to read about things they can do. They like books about sports, or cars or sharks or how to draw superheroes or take digital pictures. Once they get interested in a subject, they will check out everything we have on it. The girls who read nonfiction tend to stick to the pets and crafts, but usually have one or two nonfiction books mixed in with a stack of fiction. Of course kids occasionally check out a biography or a random book about Argentina or Neptune, but I think those are mostly for school.

Every time the Rapunzels read a book, we display related reading at the meeting. Usually it's nonfiction. For Becoming Naomi Leon last week, we put out books about Mexico and books for children about alcoholism. For Strawberry Girl last month, we displayed books about Florida, growing sugar cane, and of course, strawberries. The girls never check them out. They're happy to discuss the nonfiction aspects of the books we read, but they don't usually want to take it further. And that's fine. We aren't school, after all, we're a book club. But now I'm wondering what will happen when we start with nonfiction.

13 to Life Blog Tour with Shannon Delany

2010-06-20T00:00:00.005-04:00

Welcome to Shannon Delany's Start Your Day with Serial Tour! Shannon's debut novel (and first in her YA paranormal series) 13 to Life started as a winning cell phone novel written in serial segments. During the tour you can read bits of the book in order. Miss a day? Hop to Shannon's blog and check the link to the blog tour calendar in her sidebar. (Our bit of the story is at the end of the interview.)

There will also be a contest* that will close at the end of the tour. Winners get a bunch of stuff.

So much good stuff! Okay then, let's dive into the interview:

I was intrigued that 13 to Life began with the Textnovel.com contest. What was it like, writing with such immediate feedback? Do you miss that sort of feedback now?

I enjoyed the feedback I got (and the participation of people in some of my polls which challenged me to bend to what the public hoped for next in the story). When I need feedback now I call on my CPs and Betas and occasionally post snippets on Twitter. I want to get back to Textnovel.com, though--it's a great site.

That brings us to the next question. How do you get feedback on your current projects?

My husband, CPs and Betas are great about giving feedback to me with my current projects. Everyone but my husband does an NDA and then gets email attachments to read and make comments on. And my CPs and Betas ROCK!

Has there been a particularly helpful critique? How did it strengthen your writing?

All of my CPs and Betas are very different in what they bring to a critique. I had one CP who was great at grammar. Robin is tremendous about looking at the feel and mood and romantic elements, while Carla and Annette are terrific about scoping out the humor and overall pacing. My husband and father are more about the story's flow and how it (literally) sounds as they listen to it read by a robotic voice while they're on the road. Their motto is basically: If it sounds great read by a robot, it should sound even better when people read it themselves. My agent, Stan Soper, also reads and makes suggestions. I have a great team really.

What sort of books did you read as a teen? How have they influenced your writing today?

I was a sci-fi, fantasy and mythology girl. I loved Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, Robin McKinley, Shakespeare and Andre Norton. I think reading them helped me understand voice and character (The Ship Who Sang and The Hero and The Crown were awesome) and the depth of a world--without having to reveal all of the world's depth in the very first book (hint, hint).

You've blogged about how you never thought you'd never write about werewolves, even though it's turned out to be "enriching". So I have to ask, what made you write about werewolves in the first place?

Frankly, I was seeing a sea of vampires and (although they're awesome in lots of ways) I have a great respect and fondness for wolves. And the legends of werewolves have as rich a history as vamps (easily). I wanted to know where the werewolf heroes were and so I wrote some myself.

Your website biography says that you began writing in earnest when your grandmother fell ill. If it's not too personal, what did you write? Were you writing with the intent of getting published?

I was only a kid then, so I was writing about unicorns and volcanos erupting. I dreamed of being published as a kid (and first got published when I was still in 8th grade) but wasn't serious about it.

It's totally off topic, but you raise heritage livestock in upstate New York. I'd love to know more how you ended up in such unique work.

I like to believe I'm a relatively independent thinker and the idea of being self-sufficient (our animals and land produce a variety of products for us) is very appealing to me. Going back to more traditional breeds of livestock (and plants) is also a bit of a fascination for me--there are reasons certain breeds have lasted this long and (although I'd NEVER say it's easy work) farming's good and grounding. There's nothing better to check your attitude as an author than to have to scrape manure off your boots before you come in your front door. ;-)

(Love it. Nothing like manure to ground a person.)

And now... the promised 13 to Life snippet.

13 to Life: Chapter 3, part V (used with the author’s permission)

He blinked at the challenge and before he could speak, the bell rang, four hundred students leaping up from scattered tables and rushing towards three sets of doors. I allowed myself to be swept away by the mob, drifting and dodging along and keeping my head low as I raced through the corridors and took stairs two at a time.

More about Shannon and her series can be found at http://ShannonDelany.com and http://13toLifeSeries.com.

*Shannon's hosting several contests during the Start Your Day with Serial Tour. The big contest will award one lucky winner with a royal amber pendant, pietersite jeweled bookmark, stuffed wolf, 13 to Life mousepad, pen, tote, signed poster, personalized copy of 13 to Life and both of the 13 to Life pins. All you need to do is comment at 13 of the blogs hosting Shannon during her 30 day tour. Everyone who does so will be entered into a random drawing. Winner may be international.

Inspiration and Depression

2010-06-16T08:24:00.001-04:00

Since I write for children, I've lately been consumed with reading nothing but MG and YA novels. After a full year, I decided it was time to read something for adults. Enter Michael Chabon and his book, the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

This is an amazing book! I feel I am in the hands of a master.

He uses words like crepuscular, gelid, furcate, hirsute, revenants, and spavined, half of which I had to look up. (I won't say which half.)

As I'm reading, I'm thinking this is what I'm striving toward, this is superb writing. And then in the very same breath of thought, "Who am I kidding?" I can drool over the language all I like, but I'm never going to write like this. I'm having conflicting emotions. Awe and inspiration on the one hand. Defeat and depression on the other.

He did win the Pulitzer after all, and I'm just trying to finish my novel and get it published, so I suppose I should lighten up. Still, it's nice to see the possibilities and to dream...

...about one day using words like verisimilitude, aquiline, and chary in my own writing some day.

One step closer

2010-06-14T13:13:00.004-04:00

Last night Sarah and I Skyped each other. This is funny, because we were probably within five miles of each other. But given time constraints and the desire to have a face-to-face conversation, it worked.

We wanted to go over our workshop choices for Chautauqua. There are about three different sessions offered during each time slot, and we were asked to choose a priority order. We wanted to check in with each other before submitting our final choices. As usually happens in these situations, we found some time slots that offered more than one workshop we really wanted to attend. Other time slots offered choices that didn't particularly jump out at us.

In both cases, we took the approach of working as a team. If two workshops we wanted to attend were going on at the same time, we each listed a different one as our first priority. We're hoping to be split up, and then we can swap notes. In the other case, we looked to what we might be able to bring back to the group as a whole. I may not be especially interested in early readers or writing about nature, but Steph and Joan are.

Each time we learn more details about the week, it feels just a little more real.

In other news, Steph and Joan went to the SCBWI Mid Atlantic Revision Retreat over the weekend. We're hoping they have lots of good information to share.

Do you use Google Reader?

2010-06-11T11:17:00.002-04:00

I do. I love it. It helps me keep track of all your blogs without having to bookmark them or remember which ones I've checked when.

But one thing that it misses is the look of the blogs themselves. Last night I changed up our template. Call it a spring cleaning for the blog. If you're reading this in your Google Reader, you may want to pop on over to the actual blog.

And thanks, Google, for the new design templates. I had fun playing with them!

More thoughts on critique groups

2010-06-09T09:48:00.006-04:00

My blog buddy Christine Fonseca has a guest on her blog today. SM Ford (aka Susan Uhlig) gives her thoughts about joining a new critique group. Check it out!

Speaking of critique groups, the Slushbusters had a productive meeting last night. Remember when I said last week that we were all working on stuff? Well, almost everyone had work to submit for last night's meeting, which is rare for us these days. Most meetings, about half of us have work to be critiqued. Alison and Steph had submissions, even though they couldn't make it to the meeting! In those situations, we use track changes and insert comment in Word and email their work back to them, rather than having a physical discussion about it.

The Slushbusters use a few different techniques for sharing our critiques with each other. Most of us make notes on the document in Word, print out the pages, discuss our ideas/cheers/criticisms at the meeting, and hand over the pages. If a Slushie has submitted a long piece of work and I don't have a lot to say, I like to copy the paragraphs I have comments about into a separate page to print and bring for discussion, but I still email the entire submission back, so they can see my suggestions within the context of the whole. I always do that for Lisa's work, because she's not physically at our meeting anyway. There's no point in printing out more than I need to make comments.

When we talked to Lisa last night, I got to use Skype on my new laptop for the first time. It worked great, once I figured out how to add another wireless connection. This computer has a wireless button that can be turned off, which it was. Oops! It took me ten minutes to figure out. And the Slushbusters consider me the techie one!

Can you spell competition?

2010-06-07T10:12:00.007-04:00

In addition to being a grammar geek, I am a serious spelling junkie. I was one of those kids who always participated in the school-wide bee, practiced my words from the little green book and dreamed of winning enough rounds to get to Washington, DC. I placed fourth in my school in sixth grade. My elimination word was "enthusiasm." I added an "a" right before the "m" at the end. In seventh grade I placed second in my school and got to go on to the county bee. My elimination word was "carillon". I had difficulty knowing whether it was the "r" or the "l" which was doubled. I have never misspelled that word since, not that I have much occasion to use it.

Friday evening our nation crowned a new spelling bee champion on national network television. I watched and shouted at the tv. It is my Superbowl. My husband laughed at me when I asked the television "Is that from the French?" or encouraged the spellers to ask for a definition or language of origin. But by a half hour in, he was picking favorites to win. I love that spelling is now treated like a sport, broadcast on ESPN. The pressure is real, the training for the kids who make it that far is just as intense.

Not only has spelling made it to national television, it has become a movie star. In 2006, Akeela and the Be e brought spelling to the big screen. But many people don't know that it was an indie film star first. Last night we watched Spellbound, which is a documentary following eight kids from around the country as they prepare for and compete in the National Bee. If you missed the live broadcast on Friday, this movie has a lot of the same footage from the 1999 Spelling Bee.

And if you're feeling the need to test your own skills, try the test on the Spelling Bee website. Sadly, I wouldn't have made the semifinals this year.

It's always quietest when everyone is working

2010-06-01T12:43:00.006-04:00

At least, I like to think so. We've been quiet on the blog this past couple of weeks, but I think we're all engaged in our own work, which is a good thing.

I, for one, am reading like crazy. Not only am I checking out new work to review on Searching, I'm looking at an assortment of work by the faculty of the Highlights Foundation workshop. This is a good time to be in the library almost every day! I know it's unreasonable to try reading everything, but I want to at least be familiar with some of those authors' books. I'm skimming a bunch, and reading a few that really strike me.

Steph and Joan are gearing up for the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI novel revision retreat. It's in the Shenandoah National Park, which is practically our own backyard. I took these photos when I was up there with my husband around this time last year. And while I don't think the writers will be hiking out to the waterfalls, those mountain views are visible from the lodge where the retreat is held. Who wouldn't be inspired by looking at that? I can't wait to hear what they learn there. If I wasn't going to Chautauqua, I'd have signed up myself.

Summer is almost here, and those of the group who are teachers will probably have more time to write. At least, that's the plan, if we can only keep our butts in the chairs!

Woo-hoo for Elana Johnson!

2010-05-24T20:59:00.004-04:00

Terrific news!

One of our followers, Elana Johnson, has a book deal! Her YA novel, Control Issues, has been acquired by Simon Pulse.

So please, everyone, swing by her awesome blog and congratulate her!

Yay! Chocolate all round!

The amazing thing about sumissions for critique

2010-05-22T12:02:00.003-04:00

The Slushbusters meet twice a month. We decided long ago that we couldn't possibly critique a submission from each of us at every meeting, so we capped it at five people's submissions. Each meeting, someone has to "opt out." This is never a problem. Someone always has something they want to work on some more, or is out of town or has some other reason for not submitting pages. Only once in a great while have we had to choose who would opt out. We originally made it all official, deciding ahead of time who would submit for the next meeting, but so rarely is it a problem that we don't even talk about it anymore.

The other thing we don't talk about is that we have never not had something to critique. Any time I have to opt out, the day of the upcoming meeting creeps closer, and I find myself wondering if we'll have anyone's work to discuss at all. We always do. This, I believe, is one of the small miracles of our group. We complement one another in so many ways. One person's weakness is another person's strength and all. But it even happens in timing. One person's dry spell is another's flood of work. Amazing.

I hope I didn't just jinx us by bringing it up.

Take a break! How well can you...

2010-05-18T00:00:00.001-04:00

... name children's books by synonym?

I found a great game today. You're given a list of title synonyms and expected to enter the real title. So The Feline in the Fedora would be The Cat in the Hat.

The only drawback is that you must enter the title perfectly- correct spelling, everything. But it was a pleasant diversion and I think you'll like it.

If you want, come back here and let me know how it went- how many correct in how long. I won't share my score- I discovered the game in the middle of a task and had to stop (the game- not the task!) and ran out of time.

Enjoy!

Books to Treasure

2010-05-17T13:32:00.009-04:00

I have a new baby and a three year old. (And there's my wonderful husband, too.) They're the first grandchildren on both sides of the family, so they're getting spoiled with way too many toys. I've started telling people that if they absolutely must buy things for my kids (and sometimes you just gotta), they should get books.

But there are a lot of not-so-great books out there, ones that I get sick of reading. What can I say? I'm picky about my children's literature.

So, I'm creating a list of books I want my children to have, books I loved as a child, books they will treasure for years, books they will save for their own children.

There are the picture books: Goodnight Moon, Blueberries for Sal, Where the Wild Things Are.

And then there are ones for as they get older. Beautiful, illustrated, hardcover editions of Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, the Chronicles of Narnia, the stories of Hans Christian Anderson, and on up through Beverly Cleary, Charlotte's Web, A Little Princess, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Oh, the list goes on and on. But I need help. Which books would top your list? Quick, before we get another toy that makes horrid bleeping noises. We need more books!

Torn between two manuscripts

2010-05-15T11:04:00.004-04:00

Since I finished a full draft of a middle grade novel during NaNoWriMo, I've been working on revisions of it. I think it's going pretty well. I've had some good feedback from the Slushbusters, and I think it has potential.

But now my head has been turned back to my completed other manuscript. It's one I've sent out to a couple of contests, had critiqued at a conference, queried with a few agents. I had let myself stop thinking about making too many changes to it for a while.

Until now. I'm taking it to Chautauqua. I think it's better for me to submit a manuscript that I've done as much as I can with, and get a professional opinion, rather than taking something that still has flaws I know how to fix.

But now I'm distracted from my WIP. It's like I don't want to be too committed to it, because I know I'll have to switch gears soon and work on the other one.

I didn't have this problem when I worked on shorter pieces, but for some reason a novel requires a higher level of emotional commitment for me. Does that happen to anyone else?

Heads-up: the postage rates may change before your SASE is mailed back to you

2010-05-11T10:24:00.007-04:00

Sometimes I am still shocked by how slowly the children's publishing industry moves. Seriously.

I got a manila envelope in the mail yesterday. I recognized the address label on it as one of my own. A SASE. I haven't sent out anything small enough to fit in that envelope in a long time. It was a rejection letter and returned manuscript. A picture book manuscript.

Now if you've been reading Slushbusters for a while, you know that I primarily have been writing for middle grade. I'm working on the second draft of my second middle grade novel manuscript. So I started questioning myself when I opened this envelope. Did I see something on a blog or in a publication a few months ago that prompted me to send out this story? I just couldn't remember. So I checked the computer.

I queried this publisher in January of 2008. They apparently asked to see the MS, because I have a follow up letter dated March 15, 2008, which acted as a cover letter for the manuscript when I sent it. They've had it in hand for over two years. They do have an explanation, which I guess falls under the category of "good rejections" They were waiting to see if their list would have an opening to accommodate my story. They have decided to go with something else.

The lessons in this?Keep track of your submissions. Once you submit something, don't rest on your laurels. Please. Keep writing and working and growing and living your life. I know that once you put that perfect, neatly printed envelope in the mail for the first time, you want to wait by the phone. Don't do it. Even if they think they're interested, you never know. And for goodness sake, buy "forever" stamps. The last thing you want is to get a rejection letter with postage due. Trust me.

Staying connected

2010-05-06T11:27:00.004-04:00

In keeping with the theme of my last post, I thought I would share a couple of the ways children's writers can stay connected. Many of you probably know these already, but some of you may not, and sometimes we need to be reminded, as I did this morning.

Last night I finally signed myself up for the message boards for our upcoming workshop at Chautauqua. There hasn't been a whole lot of activity there yet, which is okay. No one likes to be the first kid to jump in the pool. Well, except Sarah, and she was in fact the first one in besides the workshop staff. Go Sarah!

I spoke with our local SCBWI coordinator Anne Marie Pace this morning. She reminded me that people on Verla Kay's blueboard are active posters of all things kidlit, and I should look there to find more workshop attendees. She was right! I haven't been a participant on the blueboard so far, and I tend to only check the SCBWI boards if I'm looking for specific information, but both are tremendous resources for information and connecting with other writers.

I should mention that you do need to be a member of SCBWI to access the discussion boards. It is well worth the money, though, because you receive information about conferences and events in your area as well as the national ones, and you often get a discounted rate at events if you are a member. And you get the bi-monthly SCBWI Bulletin magazine, which is full of good information. Verla Kay doesn't require a paid membership, but you do need to set up an account.

For any of you who are still looking for critique partners, I'd check the boards. You may be able to find folks in your area, but you may also find some online partners, which may work just as well for you.

Happy connecting!

Long time, no blog. How've you been?

2010-05-04T11:55:00.003-04:00

I discovered over the last couple of weeks how very much we Slushbusters, and probably the whole writing community, really stay in touch via the internet.

I was out of town for six days. I had my laptop with me, but the place where I stayed didn't have wi-fi, and we were so gosh darn busy I only got to a local library once to check emails and blogs while I was away. Then I was home for three days, barely got caught up, and left town again for two days more.

Now that I've landed, I realize how much I missed everyone. I missed one Slushbusters meeting. Just one. But I feel like I haven't seen the gang in ages. I realized it's because I missed out on all the day to day emails that circulate among the group. Now, we're not all emailing each other all day long. We do have lives. But we check in. Maybe not daily, but every couple of days someone has a question or a submission or some news.

The same thing is beginning to be true of my new blog group over at Searching for a Good Read. The group sends quick emails to ask a question or give one another a heads-up that a post is forthcoming. When I returned from being away, I felt like I was out of the loop.

Since I've gotten home, I just want to communicate! I'm reading blogs, commenting, checking facebook. I didn't find that I desperately needed the Internet while I was away from it, but it is good to feel connected again. Does this mean I'm a writer?

How did I forget to post this?!?

2010-04-30T22:00:00.002-04:00

I've decided I'm going to blame every bit of idiocy that I can on that fact that I've been a bit busy lately. (And believe me, there's been a lot of idiocy.)

Ready?

Here goes. Our good friend (and chocolate lover) Steena Holmes is hosting a OMG blog contest with Stina. There are prizes including a query critique, a first pages critique (by Michelle and I) and ...

chocolate!!!

I apologize for the failing to point you towards the contest earlier, but hope I've mentioned it in time for you to still take advantage of it. You have till May 3.

First Page Friday, sort of....

2010-04-30T07:13:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone! A while ago, I sent a submission to Nicola Morgan's Submission Spotlight.

Guess what posted today?

So if you have some time, run on over to her post and leave your feedback. It's going to be a crazy day at work, but I can't wait to read all the feedback when I get back...

In the meantime, if you want to contribute to our own little first page posts, see our rules here.

Need a laugh?

2010-04-28T22:29:00.005-04:00

You have to check these out. They're the 2009 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

For those of you who don't know, Edward Bulwer-Lytton had a way with words. He coined the phrases "the pen is mightier than the sword" and "the great unwashed". He wrote The Last Days of Pompeii.*

He is probably most famous, though, for the first line in his novel, Paul Clifford:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Now isn't that proof that you can't win them all? You might write lines that linger in culture and novels that are still in libraries. Snoopy might plagiarize you!

And ... you might also write a first line so heinous that it spawns a contest where folks try to write equally heinous first lines.

First lines you should go read. Here. Now. And don't forget the grand prize winners from the past twenty-six years.

If you're feeling particularly cheerful, please come back and paste your favorite first line in the comments section.

*Facts lifted shamelessly from Wikipedia.)

Relax

2010-04-26T22:00:00.007-04:00

Hear that? That's the sound of me taking a deeeeeeep breath.

It's been one of the those months. I've been crazy busy at work. I have some upcoming projects, and I've been worried that I might screw them up.

I haven't had time to write as much as I'd like, and I wanted to have all this work finished by Chautauqua.

And silly as it sounds, we lost a follower today.

I am all about discipline, pressing through, and being committed to one's goal. However, I think it's very, very easy to mistake uptightness for passion.

Uptightness leads to ulcers, deep disappointment with myself and my perceived lack of progress, fear about the future, and a feeling that somehow ... some way ... I should be doing more. A lot more.

It involves copious amounts of chocolate that one is too nervous to even enjoy.

Passion, on the other hand, allows me to pour myself into my writing and write with abandon. Not compulsion. Not fear. Not a need to prove myself. It reminds me that I started blogging because of the awesome folks out in cyberspace (and you are awesome!). Not because I was trying to win a popularity contest.

(Passion also involves lots of chocolate, but you're relaxed enough to taste it.)

It's pretty easy for me to be kind to others. With myself? Not so much, sometimes.

I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who struggles with this. So ... here's a reminder to all of us to be gracious towards ourselves.

I feel better already. : )

p.s. Please, please don't think I'm complaining about losing a follower! (I didn't even try to figure out who it might have been.) I only mentioned it because it made me realize how silly I'd been. I've been so worried that person might wander back and think I was ragging on him/her...

What do you hear?

2010-04-24T21:38:00.005-04:00

I've been driving a lot lately. The school I work at is nearly 20 miles away- and then I've been providing homebound instruction after that. More driving!

Thank goodness for books on MP3 player. (Your local library might have a few Playaways. Check. Them. Out.)

But I digress.

You know how you're always told to read your manuscript aloud when editing? Well, listening to other books has been eye-opening as well. Here's what has stood out to me:

Passive verbs are boring. Really. A bunch of passive verbs* sounds boring. The language is vanilla, but it often goes hand in hand with similarly constructed sentences. They all have "he/she/they - is/was/were" pattern. It's mind-numbing to listen to sentence after sentence like that. After a while, I'd end up fixing the sentences.

Aloud. To an empty car: "'The water sparkled.' Okay? Not 'The water was sparkling.'"

Aren't I glad no one was watching me.

Don't spend too much time describing your character's internal state. In one story, the author would occasionally give a physical description that showed what the character felt. And then he'd tell us what the character felt. And tell us again. Of course, this much-described emotion occurred during tense parts of the novel. So instead of finding out what happened next, I had to listen through several more sentences about the character's inner state.

I confess that such mistakes led to excessive eye rolling, an occasional pound on the steering wheel, and loud pleas to the author to just tell me what happened next, already.

Repeated words. I don't always notice if I read the same word in a paragraph.** But I sure notice when I hear it again and again. This also applies if only one word is used in a specific situation. Someone might always be referred to as foreboding, or mysterious, for instance. Time for a thesaurus, folks. If I know the word the author is going to use before I hear it, that word is waaaaaaayyy overused.

I've loved listening to books while I drive. If you're curious, I never stopped listening because of the above mistakes. I think it was partially because the plots were interesting, and partly because I was a captive audience.

None of the mistakes are new to me (or you, I imagine). However, it's one thing to tell or be told about those mistakes. It's different when you experience them. I don't want anyone who reads my story to have a similar reaction.

I'd love to know whether you read your manuscripts aloud and if that helps you. What do you notice? And if you do listen to books, are there any aspects of the writing that rub you the wrong way?

* any form of "to be": is, are, was, were, etc.

** My fellow Slushies would point out that I don't notice if I write the same word repeatedly.

Alot of laughs

2010-04-23T16:52:00.002-04:00

I found this link over at the Pub Rants blog. Enjoy the much needed humor- and the introduction to the Alot.

And if you feel like it, come back here and share your language/ grammar peeves in the comments section. Extra points if you provide an explanation that allows you to be civil when you come across the mistake. (I like the eagle/no caps explanation myself.)

SCBWI on Sunday

2010-04-20T09:32:00.006-04:00

Alison, Steph and I went up to the Fairfax area to the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI New Member Welcome on Sunday. This is a smallish event, but one worth going to. After all, three years ago, I met our very own Sarah at one of these events. She overheard me talking about my critique group with the woman sitting next to me. I had only been in the group a few weeks, but we were small then, and needed more members. She tapped my shoulder, said, "Excuse me, did I hear you say you were in a critique group in Charlottesville?" and the rest is history.

Sunday's event featured a panel of authors Amy Thomas, Caroline Hickey, Laura Nielsen, and Paulis Waber. SCBWI Regional Director Ellen Braaf moderated. The discussion topic was The "Bunny Eat Bunny" World of Children's Publishing. Authors and illustrators will share their inspiration, motivation,and expectations and help you find yours.

One of the things that stood out to me about expectations was when Caroline said that she expected it to get easier once her book was published, but it gets harder. You have to sell your book and continue improving.

Ellen asked about mistakes the authors had made. Amy mentioned that she had to do a major rewrite because she didn't know all the questions she should be asking her editor. In the end, the book was better for it. Lisa said you have to be able to pitch "of the moment" with a hook, even if you don't necessarily write that way. Laura's mistakes were primarily private ones, except once when she was lost on the way to a school visit, arrived just before her presentation was to begin, and met with a hysterical librarian. Paulis said her mistake was not starting as an author earlier in life. Ellen mentioned going through all the work of making up a dummy of a picture book to show she understood pacing. While that's a good exercise for yourself, an editor doesn't need it.

Ellen asked the panel what motivates them, what do they see as the rewards of writing. Amy loves to see her work in print. Caroline likes getting emails from readers who related to her character and felt the story was about them in some way. Laura got to speak at the school where she went to second through fourth grade. Paulis is motivated by her own improvement. Ellen enjoys beginning with a huge amount of information and finding a way to boil it down into an article or a book kids will want to read.

Among the do's and don'ts the authors mentioned, Caroline said she makes sure she's wearing either her writing hat or her editing hat. She even does each task in different places so she can write without self-editing, and edit with fresh eyes. Paulis said to not look over your shoulder too much to see what others are doing.

In addition to the discussion, we had some time to meet new people and catch up with some we already know. I've been following the Longstockings blog for some time, so I was glad to meet Caroline in person. And the volunteers served delicious cake and strawberries. What's not to love about an afternoon talking about books and eating cake? Oh, and I almost forgot, Steph won an SCBWI tote bag as a door prize. Congratulations, Steph!

We're going to Chautauqua!

2010-04-17T22:32:00.004-04:00

Exciting news!

Michelle and I both applied for scholarships to the Highlights Writers Foundation Workshop in Chautauqua, New York.

We found out this week that we're both going! There was a bit of drama in the whole process. I found out a while ago that I'd been awarded a scholarship. But Michelle didn't hear anything for weeks.

And weeks.

She discovered Friday that her e-mail notification had been sent 12 days ago; she just never got it.

As you can imagine, there was rejoicing all round, as the picture clearly shows.*

Now I know there are some Highlights alumni (hi, Tess and Fran!) out there- and perhaps even some folks who will be attending this year. Please identify yourselves! And I'd love to hear any comments you have about the whole experience.

*I'm the tall one, and Michelle (like all grammar experts) is the cool one with shades.

First Page Friday, #5

2010-04-15T23:15:00.001-04:00

Yay! We have more first pages! Many thanks to Steena of Chocolate Reality for contributing them. We do ask, given the name of her blog, that you eat chocolate while working on your critique. (Or at least think chocolately thoughts.)

It's a rough, I know, but sometimes you just gotta do what needs to be done.

And on that note, here are Steena's first pages.

Megan's hand rested against the closed door. The silence coming from inside the room cried out to her, calling her with its lonely song. Today she would give in to its haunting melody, embrace it and pray she would never hear it again.

As she twisted the handle, she closed her eyes knowing the sight would break her heart. Tendrils of light spread along the carpet and crept up towards the ceiling. The soft pink curtains were open, the sunlight engulfing the room with its welcoming warmth. I keep them closed. She eased her way into the room, one step at a time, her toes sinking deep into the Berber carpet while keeping her gaze fixed on the open window ahead of her.

Princess decals decorated the rose colored walls, pictures of Cinderella, Ariel and Belle intertwined with stickers of sparkling crowns, steeple castles and framed crayon drawings. A sad smile settled on Megan’s face as she viewed the pictures her four year old drew with loving detail. Her favorite frame held a picture of a castle, complete with a queen and king, both wearing extra large crowns over their poufy hair while they held hands with three tiny little princesses. The last picture her daughter had drawn, right here in this very room.

Megan reached the bed and set her hand upon the wood frame as she closed her eyes. She could hear Emily's squeals of delight when, at the age of two, she found her princess bed in her very own princess room. Soft white sheers hung over a handmade wood frame. They draped across the top, where tiny little stars had been ironed onto the sheers, and they hung over the ends, and down the sides. Soft pink fabric encircled the side pieces, creating an opening on either side of the bed for the little princess to enter at will. In the evenings Emily would ask for the curtains to be drawn. She felt safe inside her bed. Megan wished she were there now.

Her hand caressed the white coverlet as a single tear wounds its way past her cheek. Megan climbed onto the bed, her body weary and curled in a ball, wishing the pillow still smelled of baby powder. She closed her eyes, wishing she could imagine her daughter lying beside her, but the image seemed distant. She pictured Emily's tiny body snuggled up against her chest. Megan's arm ached to hold her, her hand wanting to smooth her baby's soft blond hair. The curly hair of a stuffed lamb met her fingers instead. Megan pulled it close, bringing it to her face. Her tears soaked its fur as silent sobs shook her body.

It's National Library Week!

2010-04-15T11:34:00.006-04:00

This year's theme for National Library Week is "Communities Thrive @ Your Library." That's certainly true at my library. I think of all the mini-communities we have that meet within our doors: adult and children's book clubs, viewers of independent films, home school groups, Girl Scouts, moms, teens, volunteers. All of us are part of the larger community, but the library has helped us find people with similar interests.

In the digital age, the library is so much more than just books. I have mixed feelings about technology. I dislike technology that is isolating, putting one more machine in between myself and real people. I hate calling a customer service number, for example, and pushing button after button in search of a live person. On the other hand, technology that unites us makes me happy: social networking, blogging, Skype. I love that we now have the ability to share ideas, information, photos and even real-time video with people halfway across the world.

For many people the library is the only place they have access to these technologies. Not to mention the infinite access to information. Want to learn to play banjo or knit or set up your own website? Not only do we have a book for you, but we can show you how to view an instructional video online. Need more? We've got a DVD you can borrow. I love finding out how people were helped by resources we've shown them, whether they're as traditional as books or something more twenty-first century.

If you haven't visited your library recently, this is the week to do it.

Process and Emotion

2010-04-13T21:30:00.001-04:00

I’ve been thinking about the role that my emotion plays in writing.

Now I’m not the overly emotional type when it comes to writing. I’m horribly pragmatic about it. So pragmatic that few things irritate me more than folks asking about Process with a capital P.

(This is different from process, which just means, how do you get your thoughts on paper?)

But there are those who mean Process. And that irritates me because Process implies glamour, genius, and weekly dates with your Muse who gushes about your prose and how you surprise even her.

Capital-P Process is a horrible concept because writing is really just ... writing. It isn’t glamorous and you rarely feel like a genius. In fact, you learn all the ways in which you are far from genius. Your Muse arrives only after you’ve been pounding out dreck for quite some time, hoping to discover the heart of a scene.

Even then, she’s a little tetchy and asks for a cup of coffee because you can’t expect her to look at your work until she’s had a bit of caffeine.

The process (lowercase p, mind you!) of writing isn’t always euphoric. As Nathan Bransford blogged, it's often more about willpower than anything else.

And yet...

I’m learning that the best part of my stories are the ones that engaged me on a deep emotional level. I know I’m on the right track when I’ve gone over a scene a million times, and hit the point where I care.

We all have those scenes that wrote themselves and just sing. But I also have just as many scenes- scenes necessary to the story- that are easy to leave at good enough, at merely well-written. I’m learning to do some unglamorous digging until I find that one aspect that moves me to curiosity, anger, or compassion.

Because, really, if I was bored writing the scene, why won’t a reader be bored reading it? Yes, writing is about the process of getting (and keeping!) your butt in a chair. But the point of that work is capturing scenes that speak to the heart and mind.

Writing should never be an choice between work or emotion. It should always be about both.

So what about you? What role does emotion play in your writing? How do you keep at it day after day until things are just right? I’d love to know how you do it. It’s amazing all the different ways we get our stories on the page.

Kathy Erskine Author Interview

2010-04-12T07:00:00.002-04:00

Today we want to welcome Kathy Erskine. Kathy's newest book, Mockingbird, is coming out this week. Some of us are fortunate to have met Kathy through our local SCBWI, and we saw her recently at the Virginia Festival of the Book. I asked Kathy a few questions about her writing.

Your new book, Mockingbird, deals with some very emotional issues, such as a school shooting, and a character who has Aspberger's coping with her brother's death. How did you choose to write about these characters in this situation?

I wanted to write a novel told through the eyes of a child with Asperger's because of my daughter. I'd written bits and pieces but didn't really have a framework for it. In trying to process the horrible Virginia Tech shootings, I knew I had to write something about it, but nothing too direct, just the feeling of what it might be like dealing with the aftermath. I thought about how hard it was for anyone to deal with, and yet how much more difficult it would be if the person you lost was the person you relied on to navigate your world. That's how the idea of Caitlin's losing her brother in a school shooting came about. It was a middle school, not university, but the idea of dealing with senseless violence is the same.

Do you outline, or are you more of a seat-of-your-pants writer? How do you go about organizing your story?

I wish I could be more organized but characters and scenes just come to me, completely out of order, and the hardest part of writing for me is putting everything in sequence. Sometimes I make an outline after the fact to try figure out where things are now and where they should go. Other times I write an abbreviated version of every scene on a sticky note and go down the hall posting them, then start moving them around until they make sense. It's not a particularly efficient process but it helps having the entire story visible in one place.

How different is the final book from your original idea of it? Who influenced the differences?

Mockingbird is not particularly different from the way it came out, and any differences were influenced first by my critique group (pointing out scenes that weren't really necessary for the story), next by my editors (who have a very light touch). In Quaking, there was much more revision and reorganizing to be done. Again, my critique group helped a lot, and my editors were great about pointing out places were the manuscript had problems, but also great about not telling me what to do, instead telling me that it needed work and I should think about how to resolve the issue. It's amazing what you can fix if you think about it long enough!

How does critique fit into your writing process? Do you prefer to get feedback as you go along, or would you rather take your manuscript as far as you can on your own before showing it to others?

In my earlier manuscripts, I really felt like I needed feedback all along the way. Now I'd rather write a whole draft and let people look at it. If I get stuck, of course, then I definitely ask for help.

Was there one piece of advice along your journey as a writer that you found most helpful?

Yes. Don't give up! Seriously, I was ready to give up early on because I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. In reality, I was (incrementally) improving my writing ability and my knowledge of the craft and the industry. The overnight success experience is rare and even when it happens the person who looks like a success can have a very hard time getting a second book written and published. So try not to get discouraged--just work on your craft and do get to know the industry and the players by attending writing conferences.

Mockingbird is your third book. How has the publishing process changed for you since your first book?

I think a publishing house is a little readier to accept you if your previous book has done well or garnered some recognition (state reading lists, ALA lists, etc.). But even if you don't have that, it helps if you can show that you're connected with the reading community via blogs, etc. because publishers can't advertise every book equally. If you're willing to do some advertising yourself, that's a plus for both you and the publisher.

Of all the possible readers in the world, who would you most like to know had read and loved your book?

Whichever kid (or adult) needed it the most at that point in time. After I wrote Quaking, a Muslim mom wrote to me about how her preteen and teen girls read it, along with her, and she was so grateful because they (and she) felt like someone finally understood what it was like for them after 9/11 (when they were ostracized and even attacked because of their religion). If they were the only 3 people in the world who read my book, it would've been worth it.

Are there any questions you wish you'd been asked and are dying to answer?

Just for fun (but also I'm serious):

1. Where do I get my best ideas? In the shower! Or on a walk.2. What gets you through the roughest times? Coffee and chocolate.3. What do you do when you get stuck? Take a break (see #1 or #2, above). If you can afford it, get a massage! It's absolutely amazing for freeing up your creative ideas.
Thanks for having me! Hope to meet you all in person!Kathy

Searching for a good read?

2010-04-10T23:50:00.004-04:00

I just joined our longtime follower BJ Anderson, along with Christine Fonseca, and Jana Warnell on a new project. We're going to review middle grade and YA books on a new blog, Searching for a good read?

The blog is up and running, and BJ is still adding some finishing touches, such as our bios and pictures. She's already written a few book reviews, and I promise there are more to come! I'll be posting a middle grade review this coming week. I hope to see your comments over there too.

Editing Opportunity from Dear Editor

2010-04-09T10:44:00.006-04:00

Dear Editor is a website that aims to answer questions about writing. The editor in charge is Deborah Halverson, author of two books for teens. Deborah spent two decades as an editor at Harcourt Children's, but now works freelance, teaching authors how to improve their craft. She is offering a contest to her readers. To celebrate the one month anniversary of the website, she will edit a middle grade or YA manuscript.

Pop on over to Dear Editor to read the rules of the contest. The deadline is April 14. Good luck!

Oh, and it is Friday. We don't have a submission to critique for First Page Fridays today. If you'd like to send something, we'd be happy to post it next week. See the rules here.

Review of Ferradiddledumday by Becky Mushko

2010-04-08T11:18:00.006-04:00

Ferradiddledumday: An Appalachian Version of Rumpelstiltskin by Becky Mushko, copyright 2010, folklore, ISBN 978-0-9842449-1-1

Becky Mushko’s Ferradiddledumday is a delightful variation of the Grimm’s fairy tale of a young girl spinning straw into gold. Becky has taken this European story and given it an authentic Appalachian flavor.

Throughout her story one learns about the plants and animals common to the Appalachian Mountain ecosystem, as well as the farming practices and culture of the Blue Ridge Mountains of the 19th century.

Unlike the original version where the father’s boasting puts the young girl’s life in jeopardy, here the economic struggles common to this era and place threaten the family homestead. Like the Grimm’s version, the young daughter must give her first born to the leprechaun-like creature unless she can solve the mystery of his name.

The illustrations by Bruce Rae are as rough hewn as the hard scrabble life of the Appalachian people.

Becky includes a study and discussion guide for teachers who are studying folk tales. This guide covers multiple disciplines: literature, geography, history and science.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this tale because of its authenticity to the life and times of Appalachia. Also there are sufficient differences between this and the Grimm’s version that makes it an interesting read.

The author provided a copy of the book for this review.

Nicola Morgan's new book!

2010-04-06T10:16:00.002-04:00

I think many of you know Nicola Morgan's website. (For those of you who don't, you need to visit now. It's a great resource for writers. And she loves chocolate and wears amazing boots.)

Nicola's new book, Wasted, is being released May 3rd. She just started a blog dedicated to Wasted with all sorts of giveaways and other good stuff. So, run on over and visit.

I know Nicola won't need it, but we wish her all sorts of luck with this new release!

Author Interview with Jame Richards

2010-04-05T07:00:00.005-04:00

Jame Richards is a member of the Class of 2K10. Her debut YA novel, Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood is historical fiction. Here is a synopsis of the book, which will be released April 13, followed by the author’s interview.

Celestia is the vacationing sixteen year-old daughter of a wealthy Pittsburgh businessman, and Peter is a local teen from the opposite end of the social strata. Peter has temporarily escaped the start of what will likely be a life in the coal mines -- like his father -- by finding work at the resort for the fabulously wealthy of Pittsburgh which is situated on the edge of man-made Lake Conemaugh. We know from history that the dam creating the lake -- perched 450 feet above Johnstown, Pennsylvania -- will fail on May 31, 1889, and that over 2,200 people will perish thanks to the destruction caused by the sudden release of 20 million tons of water. Nearly a year before that fateful event, while Celestia is summering with her family at the resort on the lake, she meets Peter. These two teens are among the characters who narrate in prose poetry this tale of the filthy rich and exceptionally poor as the clock ticks down to the day of disaster.

You mentioned that all your vacations as a child were spent visiting museums and historical sites. Did you visit the site of the Johnstown flood as a child with your family? If so, did it leave a lasting impression on you? Can you describe that impression? No, we didn't visit Johnstown in ye olde browne station wagon, which means it may very well be the only national monument, park, tomb or museum that we missed. But I do think that, in general, all the historical sites we visited prepared me to be a writer of historical fiction. They definitely made a lasting impression: for example, I often dreamed at night that I was fighting in the Revolutionary or Civil War, or that I was hiding from soldiers in a false cupboard. The past felt very real and alive to me---still does. I could walk into any restoration or living history museum and start carding wool or something.

Was there something in your background/education that made you such a good writer of verse? This answer also goes back to my childhood and my parents. Both my parents are extremely creative, they have extensive vocabularies and they are always reading. So I had access to as many books as I could consume and my mother often read the same book at the same time. Everyday was book group in our house: at the breakfast table, we'd analyze our dreams and see how our nightly reading seeped into them, then we'd try to predict where we thought the book was going, etc. We still do this, just over the phone now. And I mention dreams because I think the language of dreams is similar to that of poetry (and literature, in general). Symbolism. Emotion. Transformation. Don't you wake up sometimes and say, "What a dream! That would make a great book!" As far as my education, I think I probably had the same exposure to poetry that most folks get in a public school and liberal arts college. For some reason I didn't shut down when I heard the word "poetry" the way others seemed to do. I love stories and I'll take them in any form. I didn't really plan to be a poet, but when I decided to try writing, poetry came naturally.

Other than the genre that you already write, what other sort of book would you like to attempt? A picture book would be ideal for my poetic style---I hope---but I haven't crossed paths with the right story idea yet. I'm trying my hand at a middle grade historical fiction work in progress, but usually when I try to write MG, it gets older and older until its YA by about page three. Contemporary YA sounds good, too. I love to make people laugh, so I'd like to try humor, or humorous elements. I guess I'm open to any genre.

At what point in the writing process do you prefer to have other people read your work? Do you want feedback at the first draft stage, or once you’ve done all you can with it and don’t know where to go next? In the past, I've always tried to make everything as perfect as possible before showing anyone, but I don't think I'll have time for that going into the future. I write very slowly! So, I'll need to know if something's not working far sooner now. I'm getting much more comfortable with showing early versions to my critique group or mentor. My word of caution to other writers: don't spill the whole story to your group before you write it! Save the energy for the page.

What is the question you never get asked but are always dying to answer? Q: What's your super power and what's your Kryptonite? A: My super power is telling apart all kinds of diet cola. My Kryptonite is artificial cherry flavor (shudder).

Thanks, Jame, for visiting with us! We wish you great success with your book.

A low grade fever?

2010-04-01T09:59:00.002-04:00

I think I have a touch of spring fever. I know the dog does. He's out on the deck, watching squirrels flirt with each other in the trees in the backyard.

I have been kicking around a great idea for a blog post for about a week now. Have I written it? Nope. I'm in revision of a pretty intense section of my book. The next chapter is one of my favorites because of the frustrations of the MC. Am I working on that? Nope. I have a stack of books out from the library, many of which were written by the authors I saw at the Virginia Festival of the Book. They read excerpts, and I really do want to read more. Am I reading? Nope.

This morning, I am sitting here with all the windows open, listening to squirrels chattering and the occasional caw of a bluejay against the background noise of chirping songbirds. I'm a little chilly, but in that good springtime way that is not enough to make me want to put on a sweater. All I really want to do is tactile, sensory stuff. I want to knit and bake bread. So I'm giving myself permission to do that. The bread is rising on the counter. I started a small knitting project last night, which I plan to work on for a while before I go to the library today.

I guess I'm taking a kind of sick day. Spring fever counts, right?