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My latest book, Picture Yourself Writing Poetry, is out from Capstone, and it's all about photopoetry. Y'all know how I love to use images as poem-starters, so this assignment was was really fun for me. The book is full of great images and simple, engaging poetry activities. It's aimed at 3rd-6th graders, and I can't wait to use some of the ideas in it on my school visits.

Libby has the Poetry Friday Roundup at A Year of Literacy Coaching. Have fun!

My first YA novel, Starting from Here, is still a little over a year from publication and not yet out in galley form. But in the last month, it's started to squeeze its way into the world.

For a writer like me, who keeps her writing projects very close to the vest, this has been especially daunting. I never share partial drafts with other people, and I'm extremely selective about who gets to read and critique the finished ones. For the most part, my friends and family have resigned themselves to the fact that they won't get to read SfH until Fall 2012, even though many of them have been hearing about it for years. (Gold stars for your patience!)

Then, with my last round of line edits, my editor asked me to give SfH to some LGBTQ teen readers for feedback. Does the book authentically reflect contemporary teens' experiences being out at school and so on?

For weeks, I put this off. I'd come this far; wasn't it a bit late to change anything now? Besides, while I know lots of kids through my job, I don't know any queer teens (that are out to me, at least). Etc. Finally, I had to face the truth: I was scared. More than scared: terrified.

Some writers of YA books claim they "didn't know they were writing a YA book." They wrote the book they wanted, and agents or editors decided it was YA. That's fine, but it's not true for me. All along, I have known I was writing a book for teens, especially teens like I was back in the early/mid-1990s. Figuring out that I wasn't straight. Looking for myself in books at the library and bookstore. Sometimes finding such books, more often not.

In other words, while I hope all sorts of readers will find and appreciate Starting from Here, young LGBTQ readers are the ones I especially hope to reach. Theirs are the experiences I wanted to echo as I wrote this story. And so, in a way, I value their opinions more than any other readers. If I struck out with them, where would that leave me?

Still, I want my book to be as good as I can make it before it goes to press, and sometimes that means opening the door to outside opinions, no matter how scary the prospect. So, I asked some friends to connect me with queer teens they knew, and my book's previous readership suddenly doubled in size.

When I received the initial responses in my email, I cried. After the first two, I stopped crying, but I was still overcome. Everyone I sent it to devoured it, reading it two days or less. These young women used words like "amazing" and "wonderful" and "this feels like my life." The characters felt real. One reader said she cried during a tough scene between the main character and her father. Another reader said she was left wanting to know what happened next, after the book ended.

I don't say these things to boast--not remotely. Instead, these comments leave me so humbled. It's so incredibly hard to be a teen, and it's even harder to be a queer teen battling social norms and homophobia, both internally and externally. That hasn't changed in the past 15 years. These young women told me a little about their personal stories, and they inspired me with their bravery, intelligence, and strength. For them to deem Starting from Here worthy of a new generation of young queer readers is an incredible honor to me.

As I struggle to write my next book, I find myself mired in self-doubt more than I would like. That hasn't changed. But even on the days when I don't have faith in myself, I now have faith in Starting from Here. And I can't wait for it to fly into the world next fall.

Here it is ... the cover for the paperback release of  New Gold Mountain scheduled for September.
... and still going strong.

Look what the wonderful Sarah has created for the Bio Page of Sounds Spooky!

Just sent off the biog copy for Sounds Spooky.

Christopher's early years were spent near a large old rumble-tumble falling down house which he would often visit (but only as far as the fence) and he was forever creating stories of spooky happenings there.

Now he lives with his wife in a very old and sometimes crotchety, inner-city Sydney terrace. There are often creaking floorboards, knocking windows, rustling curtains, tapping sounds and scratching roof noises that happen for no reason at all ... but there are no ghosts there - or are there?

Christopher has written the words for a children's musical, an animation and many fiction and non-fiction books. He has been a classroom teacher in schools and at the zoo, and he really enjoys playing with words and creating stories. He also loves bats, snakes and especially dragons!

Its a happening thing!

Finished revising one of the color pieces for Ollie And Logger, which is the first dummy book I’m polishing up for submission (my New Years’ resolution due date: April 1st!).  And… well… it’s an improvement.  I’m happy with Logger, the brown turtle, since he’s in the style of the first color piece I revised.  But wow, painting a plastic bag floating in the ocean is CRAZY hard!!

I heard a quote recently of an artist who wouldn’t accept any manuscripts that contained “horses or bicycles” (smart move).  Well, from now on, no more stories about amorphous objects in water, either.  Just say no.

How about another round of your helpful insight?

I’ve a couple of novels that have previously had agent representation and good reactions from editors, but no sale. So I plan to jump onto the Kindle bandwagon and publish them in that form for $1.99 to see if I can build an audience. They will be available in paperback, too.

But I have two titles I like for one of the novels. They're on the cover designs that follow the blurb -- which do you think would be best for this story?

It’s 1958, a time of innocence—Jesse Carver is a terminally shy teen filled with self-doubt when he and his best friend score jobs as summer hands on a ranch in Texas hill country.

At the ranch, Jesse meets Lola Braun, the boss’s daughter and a firecracker of a girl. His attraction is instant, but, he believes, doomed for failure. Then, on his second day at the ranch, a ranch hand is brutally murdered.

Life piles on—a jealous foreman torments Jesse to drive him off the ranch, and Lola’s mother wants Jesse gone after she sees a spark growing between her daughter and one of the summer boys.

In this coming-of-age story laced with love and murder, Jesse and Lola struggle with death and passion in ways that transform him into a young man and launch her toward womanhood. Recommended for adults (particularly those who were teens in the ‘50s and ‘60s) and for young adult readers.

I know this isn’t much information, but it’s about all a reader will get unless they read sample chapters.

Please vote for the title that interests you most. I know that neither cover will interest some of you, but your vote will still be helpful. So are your comments.

Thanks.

Which title interests you most?online survey

Comments, please?

For what it’s worth.

Ray

Revisions, revisions, revisions!  It has been a year since I worked on Ollie And Logger In The Deep Blue Sea, the early reader book that I illustrated (and my mother wrote) for my first semester senior project.  I love the story and feel good about the pacing of the sketches as a whole. But as I look back, I was deeply dissatisfied with a couple of things. The characters seemed awkward, stiff and bloated, their faces falling short of the natural cuteness I was going for. And on top of that, all the color work I did wasn’t working either. Try as I might last fall, I was not getting the lightness and fluidity of underwater scenes, and all the pieces look overworked.  That’s the hardest part about watercolor – knowing when to stop, because once you go too far there is no going back, just starting over.

Despite my self-criticisms, I am confident that we have something marketable with Ollie And Logger – it’s just a matter of revising.  So I spent my three-day weekend reworking the characters and the first color piece . . . and here are the results of the makeover!

1 Comments on The Great Turtle Makeover, last added: 10/14/2010