By: Danette Haworth,
on 11/21/2012
Mom: Are you going shopping Friday?
Me: NO! NO WAY! NEVER EVER EVER ON BLACK FRIDAY JUST SAY NO!
In honor of the Christmas season's soft opening in October, I join retailers in starting my elfin activities on (pre-)Thanksgiving. Even YouTube knows how much I love this video--I'd typed only BRU when YouTube filled out Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band--Santa Claus Is Coming To Town! (Start at 1:10)
By: Danette Haworth,
on 11/20/2012
It's almost tomorrow.
By: Danette Haworth,
on 11/20/2012
Well, most of us like Scrabble, and if you're anything like me, you like to win. My sister-in-law played on Words with Friends a word with no vowels. In preparation for turkey day, I am committing to memory a few words with no vowels; these are especially important because not only will you score with a challenging rack of letters, your opponents will likely challenge you and lose their turn, heh heh.
If you search the Internet for "words with no vowels," you'll find quite a few lists. Don't be hasty, though. Double check these words to see of they're in your dictionary, otherwise, you'll be the one taking a zero. If you come other across words you want to use, make sure they're not abbreviations, acronyms, proper nouns, or hyphenated words.
Here, from MW Eleventh Edition, are words to confound and conquer your loved ones with:
By: Danette Haworth,
on 11/16/2012
It's getting toward that time of year when lists start popping up: what's in, what's out. Let me be among the first to put up my List of Words and Phrases and Ideas that Don't Need to be Used Anymore:
List of Words, Phrases insert Oxford Comma and Ideas that Don't Need to be Used Anymore
--really? (intoned sardonically)
--"ish" (overused, not fresh)
--Not so much. (Not so clever.)
--Derisive comments about Twilight and the actors. (Hasn't everything been said already? Get over it.)
--Obama's birth certificate (Please, not four more years of this.)
List of Always Cool
--the word "cool"
--"Live long and prosper." Also, the Vulcan hand greeting/farewell, the Vulcan nerve pinch, and--if you can achieve it--the Vulcan mind meld
--William Shatner
--Leonard Nimoy
--Star Trek
--allusions to Arrested Development
--Mitch Hedberg
--playing guitar
--physically/mentally strong female characters who are also nice, such as Sarah Walker in Chuck. I want to kickbox like her.
--my brown boots, twelve years old. They are so cool.
By: Danette Haworth,
on 11/13/2012
Barnes & Noble CRM, Geoffrey Shoffstall talks about in-store author events: how store personnel prepare for the visit, and what authors can do to make their visit successful before, during, and after the event. Please check it out!
By: Danette Haworth,
on 11/12/2012
Middle-grade author Chris Tozier and I had the pleasure of participating in Lake Forrest Prep's Book Fair at Barnes & Noble Colonial Plaza. By the way, if you didn't have the chance to make it, the store has signed copies of Chris's Olivia Brophie and the Pearl of Tagelus and signed copies of my books, A Whole Lot of Lucky, Me & Jack, The Summer of Moonlight Secrets, and Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning.
Chris has an unusual story behind the inspiration for Olivia Brophie. Enjoy!
By: Danette Haworth,
on 11/2/2012
My son's teacher tasked the class with writing poems. My son, child of a writer, composed a poem rejecting a poem. I am so proud.
By: Danette Haworth,
on 10/31/2012
Growing up Air Force (and BTW, I've learned you're not supposed to cap AF in certain contexts, but for me, Air Force will always be capped), I grew up not holding on to things, space-taking memorabilia that ends up needing to be dusted every now--the only attention you'll only give it later.
This is part of the pragmaticism that flows in my Air Force dress blue blood.
My daughter has more remnants of her short life than I do of a life lived in three countries, including seven different US states before I was fourteen. My sister marvels at the stories I tell of our childhood. She doesn't remember this stuff, and she's older than I am. But my head was the only container I could keep my mementos in: the bear, chain around his neck, who walked down the main road--a dirt road, traveled by as many donkey and carts as by autos--he walked down the dirt road with his owner on Sundays and if you threw money in their general vicinity, the bear would dance for you. That was in Turkey. I remember the bear and the dust and the dirt road.
I remember England, too, and to this day I don't know why I had to share a room with my brother when it made more sense for me to share a room with my sister. We rode the train from Ipswitch to London to see Buckingham Palace and I waited for the queen to lean out of a window and wave to me, but she never did. The changing of the guard was boring to my five-year-old self. Better was my dad's shrill whistle, two fingers in his mouth--he stopped traffic with that whistle. The double-decker bus stopped for us and we ran, happily climbing to the top. This was even better than that boring old castle with a queen who never came out.
I'm all grown up now, with children of my own. I can't stand clutter. My wedding gown, dry cleaned at a fee almost the cost of the gown itself (though not to worry, I had no train and my mother taught me to be frugal), lies unseen, shrouded in blue plastic, boxed in cardboard, tucked away, forgotten in our closet. There is no one in the house who has any sense of curiosity about it. I weigh the same as I did then (not bragging, it's just the way it is); I feel no need to try it on, admire it, or gaze at it with feelings of any sort.
But in my head, oh, in my head: my mom had pleurisy when she flew down early to help me the week before my wedding. She spray painted and beribboned a hundred and fifty tiny candy baskets. She took birch tree branches and laced them with white Christmas lights and placed them around the reception hall. Even though they were divorced, my dad flew down about the same time. I remember how that felt, the wishing that they had never divorced because I knew, we all knew, my dad still loved my mom. He had a bad back, so he got the guest room and my mom got the couch. This was when I rented a house with my brothers and sister. One night, my dad talked about grandkids. It wasn't embarrassing. I wanted him to have grandkids--he was going to be a great grandpa. To this day I remember THAT conversation and I remember him crying over the phone two years later when I called late one night to tell him his first grandchild had just been born and I remember him sending me an airplane ticket when she was five months old just because he heard her laughing on his answering machine, and I remember he died three weeks after our visit.
I still have the shells from his twenty-one gun salute.
I never look at them.
I rarely visit my brother's grave. He is not there.
Photos are painful.
My daughter isn't going to wear my dress. Why am I keeping it? I threw out the portion of cake we kept because by our first anniversary, it was freezer burned and tasted awful. The dress is a dress; it isn't the fabric of my life--just a couple hours of my life, a costume, almost.
I got married. I am married. I plan to stay married.
But I need room in my closet for other things.
By: Danette Haworth,
on 10/26/2012
My editor sent me this nice review for A WHOLE LOT OF LUCKY from BCCB:
You’d think winning the lottery would solve all your problems in an instant, but sixth-grader Hailee finds out it isn’t that easy. She has to go to a posh new school, for one thing, a circumstance that she did not foresee or desire, but her parents want her to have a better education than they had. Her new cell phone also brings new conflict with her parents, as she immediately becomes addicted to texting and checking her Facebooks updates. Her biggest challenges, though, are moral ones—now that she has access to the popular girls who live in the big houses, will she continue to do what she knows is right for her, like joining the Library Club, or sacrifice her principles to earn the favor of girls who don’t share her values? Hailee has a fresh, quirky outlook, peppered with wryly humorous observations that ring both wise and age-appropriate. Her direct questions to the reader as she ponders moral questions create a friendly intimacy, and readers will be gratified that she doesn’t always make bad choices, even when it’s tempting to do so. She’s got a down-home relationship to church on Sundays that threads through her decision-making in ways that many readers will relate to, and the changes that the lottery win makes in her daily life are small enough to insert a healthy dose of reality into that cherished fantasy. She also bookishly sets her emotional troubles in the context of familiar middle-grade novels, a trait that amps up both her likability and her credibility. Readers will definitely feel as though they have made a new friend in Hailee.
By: Danette Haworth,
on 10/25/2012
Loss of My Wedged Black Flip Flop
O, wedged black flip flop
to all you did match
That's why I packed you
and closed the latch.
Suitcase open
still early dawn
left was there
right was gone.
I called the airport
I filed a claim
They said they didn't have you
and that is my pain.
Right is still missing
Left is now home
I look for you always
The web I do roam.
By: Danette Haworth,
on 10/22/2012
i love the book me and jack so much i am doing my book report on it so if you could write back that would be so cool i love the book me and jack--Riley, age 10
By: Danette Haworth,
on 9/6/2012
Hailee Richardson is on the lower rung of her neighborhood’s economic ladder, but things take a turn when her parents win the lottery. Though Hailee sees big houses and a horse in her future, the story plays out more realistically. While three million dollars is a lot of money, it’s set up to come in installments over decades, so a new lifestyle isn’t in the works, except for one thing. When Hailee learns that her parents are transferring her to the exclusive Magnolia Academy, she tries to fight it, but soon enough she becomes intrigued with what it offers, even as she tries to redefine her relationship with her neighborhood BFF.
Haworth does an excellent job of portraying the modern kid’s life (cell phones, Facebook) mixed with evergreen problems like trying to fit in with the popular crowd and cheating on tests. She also makes the smart decision to have the lottery win be a plot point that propels the story into places that will interest kids most, rather than be its center. The fact that religion plays quietly and comfortably into the narrative is another plus. Booklist
By: Danette Haworth,
on 8/22/2012
When you live in a tropical state, this kind of entry doesn't actually surprise you:
By: Danette Haworth,
on 8/17/2012
We sat by the window after getting our ice cream. Peeling green paint revealed an old peach underneath, and a spider. I let coffee and chocolate ice creams mingle in my mouth. I wonder, I thought, if he's a jumping spider.
Boing!
He jumped like a flea, his trajectory my direction.
Why are daughters always so embarrassed when their mothers scream in public places?
By: Danette Haworth,
on 8/17/2012
The Kindle edition of Me & Jack is &1.99! Get it while it lasts!
By: Danette Haworth,
on 8/11/2012
At Jack Kerouac's House, Writing Poetry
I remember staying up too late the night before, watching an episode of a detective show on my laptop, and then a second, and
I wanted to watch a third but
I told myself No, it's almost two a.m. You'll be too tired in the morning.
I remember I accidentally woke up before seven. Six shots of espresso moved like sludge through my veins.
I remember Jack's house was on the Christmas tour a few years ago. I asked the host to show me where Jack sat when he worked. The floor slants down in that room. His mother slept in a cramped bedroom just off, and he slept on a cot near his work, I think. I remember I sort of felt sorry for Jack. I could feel him hemmed in that room, his success hemming him in. That day was hot and sticky even though it was December, and I wanted to absorb Jack but too many people coming in and out and the walls closing in, the blinds were closed, and I didn't know how Jack could work like that.
I remember the first poem the writer-in-residence had us write was an "I remember" poem.
When I remembered my bossy sister and my grandma's ten brothers and sisters throwing money at us, the other writers at the workshop laughed and that made me feel good. I remember other people wrote about sad things and that made me cry, which made me feel good, too.
I remember the big white dog with brown eyes who looked into mine and made me miss my own dog, even for those few hours.
And I remember driving home, climbing the stairs, closing my door, and secretly rereading my first poem just so I could hear the laughter again.
By: Danette Haworth,
on 8/4/2012
For me, the writing of a story almost always begins with voice, a voice so strong that it carries with it the gender, age, location, and disposition of the character. All I have to do then is think of what could be the worst thing that could happen to that character. If the voice is strong enough, I can drop the character into any situation and know how she’ll react. That’s where the real work begins: finding the right situation to exploit the voice in my head.
By: Danette Haworth,
on 7/30/2012
by the GSF Committee. It is sponsored by the Children’s Library of New Hampshire. The name “Great Stone Face” comes from the Man in the Mountain, which is the most historic landmark that was in New Hampshire. This year’s Great Stone Face books are really, really good."
By: Danette Haworth,
on 7/23/2012
A WHOLE LOT OF LUCKY [STARRED REVIEW!]
Author: Haworth, Danette
Winning the lottery does not turn out as sixth-grader Hailee Richardson had imagined. Yes, she does get the new bicycle and cellphone that were high on her list of needs, but she also gets sent to a different school, prestigious Magnolia Academy. New and nervous, Hailee becomes consumed with Facebook and is targeted by an older risk-taking classmate who threatens to get this previously good kid, who doesn’t even swear, into trouble. Soon she’s alienated a new friend and said something terrible to an old one. Dramatic and imaginative, Hailee is both quick-witted and quick to justify herself. In her first-person, present-tense narration, she promises to tell readers the truth, and she does, in her lights. But readers will see through this unreliable narrator, recognizing her jealous moments and her social insecurity. They may even be relieved by her father’s “intervention,” which curbs her cellphone addiction. Hailee’s love for the hard-to-control bougainvillea vines and the ever-changing swamp maple outside her Florida window reflect her own issues. Her parents’ sensible approach to their newly acquired wealth contrasts nicely with their daughter’s exaggerated dreams. Haworth effectively captures the self-consciousness, self-absorption and limited experience of a preteen, and the seductive charms of Facebook friendships for that age. Realistic, modern and still familiar, this is a middle school story both children and their parents should read. (Fiction. 9-12)
Kirkus Reviews
By: Danette Haworth,
on 7/11/2012
OMG, Internet people! I just listed my little giveaway of one ARC for A WHOLE LOT OF LUCKY on Goodreads and discovered my publisher already has a giveaway listed--TEN ARCs ARE UP FOR GRABS ON GOODREADS! Eleven, if you count mine! Check out my website for a sneak peek of the first three chapters. Enter here to win! Enter both! I just put mine up today, so it'll be active in a couple days. Good luck!
By: Danette Haworth,
on 7/11/2012
By: Danette Haworth,
on 7/9/2012
It was announced, then cancelled, then sent to me by special email--Sinbad the comedian is coming to Orlando this October!
I sweated it out buying my tickets on Ticketmaster--a stopwatch appears on the sidebar and counts down how many seconds you have left to fill in your information before T-master decides you're taking too long and zeroes you out. I was upstairs and had the wrong credit card! I slid down the banister, took the stairs in a flying leap, and blurred my fingers, tapping in my name, rank and serial number.
Hey, Sinbad, we're coming to see you!
By: Danette Haworth,
on 6/18/2012
By: Danette Haworth,
on 6/15/2012
Hi conference goers!
I'm excited because I'm attending the SCBWI FL Mid-Year Workshop tomorrow. I'm excited because I can't wait to rub shoulders and talk shop with other writers. I'm interviewing Donna Gephart tomorrow for my second iPhone video, and Christina Farley is interviewing me. I'm critiquing manuscripts, and later I'm going out for dinner.
If you're going to a conference, anywhere, anytime, you've got to be prepared, no matter what stage of your career you're at. I say, stick to the basics. This is what you should have in your laptop bag (in addition to your laptop), because you won't always have time to run back up to your hotel room:
By: Danette Haworth,
on 6/14/2012
There are some people in publishing so well known to us online or through reputation that they are rock stars at conferences. I'm pretty sure Nathan Bransford and Kristin Nelson have wigs and fake noses in their laptop bags--how else to get through the madding crowd? I sat at the same table with Arthur Levine for dinner after a conference and he asked to look at my book. He touched it! This was like nirvana for me. I told my own editor about Mr. Levine's and my little exchange and she reacted the same way I did!
It's exciting to recognize people in publishing, but it's important to remember that although you feel like you know them, you don't, and they don't know you.
Conference tip #3: DON'T BE A STALKER, part 1
Love those :D now I'm going to be throwing down the gauntlet this weekend ... to my hubby - let the scrabbling begin
Yes, let the scrabbling begin!