Hello from the New England SCBWI conference in Springfield, Mass.

I love when ideas swirl in the atmosphere and effervesce in one place and then another.

Yesterday, I led a workshop on voice in nonfiction and was delighted to see so many faces in the audience. I had them create an Image System (basically a vocabulary list of words pertaining to a specific theme or subject), and suggested that they practice my daily Haiku writing exercise to strengthen descriptive muscles. Today, Sharon Creech talked about poetry and how disparate ideas connect to create something new. Her novel in verse, I Love Dogs, features Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, The Eagle. Then I went to Leslie Bulion's (http://www.lesliebulion.com) workshop on poetic form and she featured The Eagle. I suppose it's not mind bending considering I am at a writer's conference, but I've been exploring poetry recently -- even participating in the Oak Orchard Review Poetry Open Mic Night to celebrate April as Poetry Month, so it is reaffirming my search for the creative right-brained stories that lurk inside of me.

Last year, at this very conference, I was told by an agent that I needed to loosen up  -- to turn left when I wanted to turn right. So today, I look back at that cross roads with a sigh and look forward to the right, to the stories that need to be told.

Today's Haiku --

One syllable short
One glass of wine too many
Where's my cup of tea?

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The best way to capture the past is to step back into it -- visiting the places you are writing about. Last week Fran and I toured Monticello, the mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson.  There is no better way to get into a person's head than to walk the red Piedmont soil and marvel at the blue rolling hills off in the distance. Now I know why he called it his "sea view."

But stepping back in time also takes a healthy dose of imagination, too. Mulberry row, where slaves lived and worked, is empty now. I have to imagine the lane busy with boys making nails, and the air  thick with smoke from the forge and the cook house. Instead of the two white women driving a four-wheeler from tree to tree in the orchard, I have to envision perhaps two black men carrying a ladder and saws to trim the branches.

The past is not black and white, either. Old photos make everyone look somber and give the impression that history was fuzzy and dull. But people wore shades of red and blue, laughed and danced.  One of the more startling things I noticed at Monticello was the neon yellow dining room. Not what I would have expected had I not known how much he appreciated light and air.

Hustled through the house with other tourists it was hard to really see everything, but then again, it gave me a more accurate portrayal of a house filled with children, servants, and family.  And when I return, I can dig deeper, look closer, and reveal even more.

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Saturday night I saw Glorious! a hilarious play by Peter Quilter at the O'Connell & Company theater. Based on a true story, Glorious! is the life of Florence Foster Jenkins the worst singer in the world (check her out on Youtube). Florence, born in 1868, was the tone deaf daughter of a wealthy banker who forbade her from taking music lessons. She so loved opera that she eloped just to get away from her domineering father. Many years later she inherited her parents fortune and began a singing career. Still tone deaf and rhythmically challenged Florence performed her first recital at the age of 44.

Of course the play features her most bizarre quirks like she interviewed anyone who wanted to purchase a ticket, and created her own costumes favoring wings, tinsel and tiaras. After a taxi crash Florence discovered that she could hit higher notes, and sent the cab driver a box of Cuban cigars to thank him for increasing her range.

Although ridiculed with bad reviews and called 'First Lady of the Sliding Scale,' she had a cult following that included Cole Porter, Talula Bankhead, and Enrico Caruso.

Her peak came in 1944, when at age 76, the Diva of Din played Carnegie Hall - to a standing room only crowd.  Some in the audience jeered, some laughed, but most admired her remarkable zest for life, her courage, and her singular passion for music.

At one point in the play, Florence, played by actress Mary Kate O'Connell (who portrayed Florence's joy and jarring arias brilliantly) said,  "People may say I can't sing. But no one can ever say I didn't sing."

And that line, which might have been her mantra, reminded me how important it is to be unwavering in the pursuit of one's passions. As a writer you are constantly getting knocked down with written rejections -- and if you're like me, you actually keep them so they continue to taunt you every time you open up a file drawer!  It is easy for your passion to waver each time you're faced with the choice to sleep in or get up and write (will anyone care?), or when you start a new story (is it worth the effort?), read aloud in a critique group (will they like it?), type up a cover letter (it is right?), stuff a manuscript in an envelop or attach it to an email (is it ready?).

Be courageous and take a cue from Florence. Be selective of your audience. Don't send a manuscript to just any editor. Check out their blogs and interviews online, read the books they've published. Find out what they like, what they want, so you'll have fewer boos and more bravos.

Dress up your prose -- not with tinsel and tiaras, but with the best writing you can create-- vigorous verbs, dynamic details, and kick ass characters.

And when someone helps you raise your game with a bit of advice, a research lead, or a personal editorial note, show your appreciation. Build your fan base. Start now to fill Carnegie Hall.

Despite all the obstacles that stand in your way (most of which are in your head), make sure that when the literary-equivalent-of-the-fat-lady sings, no one can say you didn't write.

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I may be behind the times, but I have added lesson ideas for Farmer George Plants a Nation to my website just in time for President's Day.

I am not a teacher, so I'm not fluent in lesson-plan-ease, but I do love to think up ways to use Farmer George as a jumping off point for teaching about seeds and soil, or discussing how agriculture was such an important element in creating a free nation. In this confusing time of Common Core and changing standards I hope it helps to have an author's perspective on where the information came from, how they write, and how their work fits into the larger picture.  I think Farmer George can be used in social studies or science class, and I'm hoping that any teacher who uses Farmer George will let me know what they did and how it went.

Please add your voice to the discussion of how nonfiction books can be used in the classroom.

I'll be adding lesson plans for For The Birds next.

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Not too long ago I was sitting in the audience listening to a distinguished writer talk about her craft when she segued into “What Not to Do!”  Then I saw her pick up one of my books.

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You might be interested in reading Susan Kuklin's blog post at INK about Ethics in Nonfiction.  It summarizes a panel that Susan sat on with Meghan McCarthy, Deborah Heiligman, and Sue Macy at the New York Public Library. I wish I had been there. 
http://inkrethink.blogspot.com/2013/01/ethics-in-nonfiction-for-kids.html.

All I can add is -- ditto.

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Several months ago I had a critique with an editor who read the first ten pages of a mid-grade novel I had been working on for several years.  He could tell from my writing that I wasn't a beginner, but there was something about my writing that stopped him from loving it, even though he liked the concept. We talked a bit more and when I confessed that I was primarily a nonfiction writer, he said, "Ah, that explains it," and advised me to go right when my brain told me to go left.  My writing was too stiff, he said. I need to be freer, get out of my comfort zone, go wild.  

I had nearly forgotten about that critique until I went to a workshop given by Andrea Page a fellow member of the Rochester Area Children's Writers and Illustrators.  Andrea was presenting "A Writing Workshop for the Right Brain."  Normally, this is the kind of program I would flee from because I've always believed that if you're going to write, then write. You don't need creative exercises.   But I went, partly because I didn't have choir, which normally occupies my Thursday evenings, and partly because I have to lead a workshop of my own in a few months and was curious how to handle writing assignments within a class setting.  

I'm so glad I did.  Thanks Andrea. Because I realized that the reason  I have disliked free writing and seemingly nonsensical exercises is that I am more left-brained than I'd like to believe.  I prefer to write for a reason. I prefer to be more organized, which surprises me since I am the least organized nonfiction writer I know (just visit my office).  I suspect that most nonfiction writers are more left-brained than right-brained.  What do you think?

And if this is so, that is probably why I have more trouble writing fiction than my nonfiction. So, the big question is: can I ditch my dislike of free-writing and incorporate it into my daily routine (which doesn't exist) in an attempt to pull myself away from the gravitational pull of my left brain and fling myself toward my right hemisphere?  I will try.  I would love to someday zip back and forth across my corpus callosum (the part that connects the two halves, Sibby) and really go wild with my writing.

It might take a while. I'm not very disciplined. But stay tuned to see what happens.  

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Hi,

Happy Holidays!! (Note: I prefer to wish everyone, no matter what their spiritual outlook, a happy time as they celebrate their own beliefs -- just saying.) Anyway -- No matter what you celebrate, this is traditionally a season of gratitude, and I think nonfiction writers have a lot to be grateful for these days.

I could start with the Common Core, but that may or may not become a boon to our business. Instead I am grateful for a job that allowed me to stay home with my children for 20 years.  Yikes! When I say it like that it seems like a long time, but boy did it go quickly.

I'm grateful for the technology that allows me to write and revise so easily.  I remember my Mom, Margery Facklam, writing her first books using carbon paper and a typewriter.  I wonder if she was more thoughtful in her revisions compared to me who goes back and forth with a click of a key.  Plus, she actually knew how many times she revised.  I'm just constantly revising.

I am thankful for a community of writers who support one another.  Children's writers are, by far, the most supportive people I know.  We don't think of other writers as competition.  They are colleagues struggling with the same difficulties.

I'm thankful for true stories unveiling themselves everyday - in the news, in my life, in other books. For the Internet that makes preliminary research effortless, and puts experts in my living room.

I'm grateful for new purple pens.  And new notebooks with gleaming white pages.

For libraries and librarians, and especially kids who love reading nonfiction.

What are you grateful for?

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The other day I had my first Skype session with college students.  Of course there were technical glitches - I couldn't hear them - but after a few minutes, switching laptops and tossing the dogs upstairs, I finally connected with some of our future science teachers in Wyoming.  What could I possibly tell them? What did I think they should know about nonfiction books?

I discussed how most nonfiction books (at least mine) are written to satisfy the author.  We're curious people, constantly asking why, where, what, how, and getting excited by a topic until we have to say, "Hey look what I learned."  I mentioned that good nonfiction isn't a regurgitation of general facts, but a thoughtful presentation of stories woven together to create a full picture of an event or a life or a concept. I can’t remember who said it at the NSTA conference last year, but someone said it beautifully when asked what the difference was between text books and nonfiction – the answer came down to two things – the passion of the author, and that text books leave you with no questions, while nonfiction leaves you wanting to know more.  I didn't say it beautifully, but you get the gist -- Good nonfiction inspires, excites, it leaves room for the reader to imagine, question, explore.

I also babbled on about the Common Core and how NF writers are excited to have this opportunity open up in the curriculum.  Writers and librarians have known forever how to use our books in the classroom, but the sad reality is that it is easier and sometimes mandated to use text books.  And what's ironic about that, is that most text book companies these days purchase the rights to reprint sections of writer's award-winning NF books and magazine articles, so kids are reading quality writing, but the they are hand-fed the questions and the answers so there is no room for imagination and exploration.

 

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I woke this morning to the sound of the generator, which means I can write today.  Yeah! What a better way to wait out a hurricane than with a flurry of words, great food, and no interruptions.  On Saturday, I    drove down to Highlights in Honesdale, PA for a four day writing retreat, not knowing what the impending storm would make of my plans.  As the winds picked up, and the news got more sensationalized, we decided to ditch the cabins and hole up in the Main house where the generator would kick on automatically, and where we wouldn't have to get our feet wet when we ventured out for meals.

Turned out to be a great plan.  Spent the entire day yesterday re-crafting a mid-grade novel, and when we needed a nosh, who should show up but a male model with a culinary degree. I kid you not! Jo Lloyd, you think of everything!

Oh, gotta go - he made omelettes.
 

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The other evening I attended the launch party for a new online literary magazine.  The Oak Orchard Review will feature writers and artists from Western New York, especially those who have a tie to the Oak Orchard creek area in Orleans, Niagara and Genesee counties. In their submission guidelines the editors mentioned that they look for a clear sense of voice, concrete imagery and compelling figurative language, and I realized how universal those three elements are.  And how connected the universe seems to be.  That same day I received an acceptance to speak about voice, imagery and language at the New England SCBWI conference next May.  So, it seems like a good topic to discuss here. 

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I am always looking for great ways to connect kids to the urgency of conservation.

I think Dan Brubaker did a great job on the Think Elephants International blog - What Is Dr. Seuss Teaching Our Kids About Elephants? Revisiting the classic children’s book: Horton Hears a Who! at:
http://thinkelephants.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-is-dr-seuss-teaching-our-kids.html?showComment=1347896499221#c5665702590053115692

Fran listens to Am

I hope everyone hears the call of the elephant.  But more importantly, I hope everyone acts as well!




                                                                                                   

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Every once in a while I will dream the perfect story.  Have you ever done that? You know in your dream that it is a gem, sure to be a hit, so perfect it will write itself.  But then you wake up and jot down what you remember and see cavernous holes in your plot - like nothing happens, or there is no antagonist.  Still I love those dreams, because like the NY lottery commercials say, "Hey, you never know."

Last night my dream took on a new and disturbing twist. Yes, I did have the perfect story.  In my dream I became the main character.  I was yellow -- not afraid -- but head to toe a golden hue. And I could fly.

But as the writer, I could not write it down. I felt the lift of air beneath my glowing body, and remembered a few heroic deeds, but I could not capture words on paper. To save the flimsy wisp of storyline before it evaporated I tried to give it life by speaking it out loud.  "What if a genie...." (I know it sounds as lame as Tiny Tim, but that's what it was, and let me tell you it would have been a best seller!)

More words would not come. I had to solidify this flimsy form on paper.  Clutching a ragged scrap of paper and a pen, I hurried from room to room in a mansion with white floors, white walls, and white furniture looking for a quiet place where my fading fiction would show itself. But this girl kept interrupting. "What are you doing?" It was no one I know and no one I ever want to meet, because she popped up everywhere. I locked myself in the bedroom and she opened the door. I hid in a corner of the bathroom and she appeared instantly. She even found me perched on the highest shelf doubled over near the ceiling.

In the nanoseconds that I had to myself before the girl would appear, I'd scrawl a word or two, but my useless hand gripped the pen like a 6-month-old trying to hold a spoon.  My illegible letters dribbled away and dissolved with each attempt.

Then miraculously my husband appeared.  Surely he could write the story down if I dictated it to him. So I began.  "What if a genie...." But he wasn't writing.  Instead he was checking out something on his giant poster board computer.  "Why aren't you writing this down?" I cried. "I am," he said and held up the poster board.  On it was a list of random words. Cabbage. Doorstop. Porous.

I awoke depressed and exhausted. Never in my 20 years had I had a writer's block writing dream. It disturbed me. I don't have writer's block.  I'm writing this blog and this morning I worked on my elephant book.  Then I thought about my fictional story that I've been working on for several years.  I hadn't worked on it all summer.  I was blocked on that.  I haven't nailed down my character yet.

But nothing in my dream was helpful. I know that my character is not and cannot be a genie.  And I know he shouldn't be yellow.  I also know that I don't want to linger within those white walls.  I guess the dream gave me a nudge.  No answers, but a nudge to keep going.  And one more thing that popped into my brain a few times today and made me smile -- I love that flying feeling!

Follow your dreams!

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Good morning!  Last week was busy with school visits, and everyone was hyped up because of the gloriously warm weather.  Spring sprung so fiercely it jumped right into summer, and the kids' internal clocks jumped right along with it.  Even so, I had several great discussions about how to take a boring, assigned subject and make it exciting for them, and led some rowdy but imaginative storytelling to create new adventures of Joshua the Giant Frog. 

But I wonder when I leave a school if what I have said, or what we have done as a group has made an impact. Do teachers refer back to anything I said days or weeks later?  Do classes revisit the tall tales we wrote together to expand, revise or illustrate?  Do my books ever get pulled off the shelves again? 

In light of the new core curriculum's focus on 50% nonfiction, I would like to think that FOR THE BIRDS might be used to introduce lessons on scientific observation, a bird unit, or even an art lesson.  FARMER GEORGE PLANTS A NATION might have been read in February to celebrate President's Day, but it is even more appropriate to launch a spring project of planting seeds, experimenting with soil, light and moisture conditions.  Farmer George celebrates Earth Day!

I would love to know what librarians and teachers do with my books.  Are they useful?  Do they inspire lessons?  Or do writers have to help bridge the gap between the old standards and the new?  Teachers are way too busy with the everyday chaos of kids to keep up with new curriculum ideas, like finding ways to use nonfiction in the classroom, that are tossed out every few years.  I know many writers provide activity sheets on their websites, but should we do even more? 

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Writing is such a solitary endeavor that it is a great treat to talk to people with like minds. I loved hearing that Loree and Pamela both had aspirations to be a scientist as I did, and like me put those dreams aside for marriage and children. Some people may condemn us for “settling” or giving in to traditional pressures, but those people do not realize that we have the best of both worlds. As nonfiction science writers we are every bit as driven and committed to science as we would be if we wore a lab coat. Our commitment is to make science accessible to children, who are the most receptive and eager to learn it. One science teacher I met at NSTA mentioned a research paper that stated most scientists got hooked on science when they were 8 or 10 years old. I love to hear that. Because I feel like it is my job to dangle that well-baited hook in the water with my books, and I’m sure my fellow panelists would agree.


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April has been a month of conferences and school visits. Each week I’ve been away from home, in a hotel, and I now don’t envy my business-suited brothers as much as I once did. But these trips have also been a blessing.

At the NESCBWI conference a woman introduced herself and recalled meeting my mother, Margery Facklam, many years ago at another conference. The woman was alone, new to the world of children’s writing, homesick, and feeling isolated in a sea of writers until my mother, speaking at the conference, invited the woman to have ice cream. In a little pack of writers old and new, published and unpublished they sat in the grass, talked and laughed, and the woman felt right at home. “I’ll never forget that,” she said to me.

At the ASJA conference, when my panel was over, I was tired and ready to put my feet up, but I made myself go to the little reception they were having at the end of the day. I wandered, quite alone in a sea of writers, until I pushed myself toward a partially full table and asked to sit down. Then another woman joined us and suddenly we were a group. After pulling out business cards and sharing titles, the woman gasped, “Margery Facklam?” “Yes, that’s my mother,” I told her.

And she shared with me how my mother drew her into the world of writers. Years ago she saw my mother on a local news program, called the TV station and asked for more information. Before HIPA and identify theft, the TV station gave her my mother’s phone number. Mom talked to her about writing, offered to look at her manuscript, and even invited her to join a critique group. “She made me feel like a real writer,” she said.

There is a saying that you should be an angel to at least one person every day.

My mother was an angel to many people in the writer’s world and I am blessed to hear the stories, especially in a time when my mother’s memory is failing her. I can remind her of past places and faces so that she still feels connected and right at home.

But it makes me wonder – was I an angel to anyone at these conferences? I have stepped into my mother’s shoes as writer, speaker and mentor – but how successfully have I filled them? At the conferences I spoke at, did I inspire? Did I draw them in? Did I make them feel at home? Did I encourage them to continue writing?

Perhaps years from now I will know, or perhaps I will never know. I just hope that, like my mother, I will be someone’s angel everyday.

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I had the great pleasure of being on the faculty of Highlights Foundation's Whole Novel Narrative Nonfiction Workshop, along with Elizabeth Partridge, Susan Campbell Bartoletti and Carolyn Yoder.  A whole week talking about nonfiction writing -- while we ate, while we walked in the woods, while we shared a glass of wine, and I know some people didn't even sleep much.  It was a great week!

A Few Highlights --

About writing nonfiction kids remember -- "If there is no emotion, there is no memory." Nancy Bo Flood (author of Sand to Stone).  "Finding the heart, connecting, and making it meaningful is about as easy as getting on a bull and staying there."

Red-spotted newts in the woods

On research -- "Keep looking for veracity.  Try not to assume. Question and verify." Betsy Partridge
 author of March to Freedom.

An Oriole's nest

"Yes, and..."  Be open to anything.  Susan Campbell Bartoletti

The deep hoot of a Great Horned Owl

For me the best part was feeling the enthusiasm that each writer brought to their projects -- giving voice to a Nagasaki survivor, revealing little-known facts about famous Americans, telling about forgotten tragedies and more.  It made me eager to get home and get to work on my own projects.

Thanks everyone!!

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Saw this link on Rosi's blog The Write Stuff http://rosihollinbeckthewritestuff.blogspot.com/2012/05/invest-in-yourself-youre-worth-it.html#idc-container, and liked what it had to say.  Even after twenty years in the writing business, we all need a reminder that we hold the keys to our success.  Unfortunately, I often forget where I put my keys!!
Check both links out - http://puttylike.com/starving-artist-meet-web-2-0/.

By the way, I had the pleasure of working with Rosi on her manuscript at Highlights. She made amazing progress on her manuscript, and I agree that it will be ready to submit soon.  Can't wait to read it when it comes out, and interview her on her process.

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Sorry to be away for so long, but I was up to my elbows in research! 

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I have been working on a proposal for a book on Asian elephants, and made a newbie mistake.  I proposed my project too early.  In my eagerness to share all the amazing things that I learned while working with Thai elephants, I sent off an email proposal without a key bit of information.

I may have made more than one mistake, but the one that I noticed today was that I neglected to mention the existence of a book that could be considered competition to mine.  I don't think it is, but that really is the judgement call of the editor and whether or not a sales department feels that it could sell a book about elephants when two other books were published last year.  So, how do you judge those books and how to report that information to your would-be editor?

Well, the book that I forgot to mention in my proposal is all about one aspect of elephant life -- communication.  Although it does touch on intelligence, it is not a book about the intelligence of elephants.  Plus, the book focuses on African elephants, and only occasionally mentions Asian elephants.  Another mistake I made was not making the case strong enough in my proposal that Asian elephants are significantly more endangered than their African cousins, even though they are the species that inhabit almost every zoo in the World.  Asian elephants have a long history entwined with humans and that history is exactly why Asian elephants are often thought of as large domestic cattle.  But they are not.  Even today, most elephants that end up in captivity were caught from the dwindling wild population.  Once healthy adults were captured to work as logging elephants, but today, the most sought after are the babies to fuel the tourist trade.  And for every baby caught in the wild, there is a good chance that the mother, and several aunts were killed in the process.

Sorry for that rant -- but the point is, in my proposal I needed to make the point that a book about African elephants should not be looked at as competition to one on Asian elephants.  I shouldn't assume an editor would know that.  And neither should you.  So, next time you are proposing a new book, take your time and evaluate your competition.  Even though it may seem like you are giving an editor a reason to reject the project, you job is to present the market such as it is and then explain how your book is so different that they have no choice but to buy yours.

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