A coward no more! (I hope.)

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

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

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!

Reading to Kids

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?

Our characters

This is terrific advice.

Surprise me

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?

Last Lines in Kid Lit

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!