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Kudos and Thanks to my courageously-honest fellow TeachingAuthors JoAnn, Carmela and Laura - and to our TeachingAuthors readers as well - for sharing their understandable publishing and marketability concerns once they begin writing a story.
My filing cabinet too overflows with as-yet-sold manuscripts.
The adjective as-yet-sold speaks volumes about my optimism and Faith.
I’ve always believed that my Writer’s Story – and any story in which I’ve invested – would eventually bring that “inevitable yet surprising satisfactory resolution” required of all stories.
I truly am the Susan Lucci of Children’s Books.
I fortunately have what editor Ted Solotoroff once called endurability, as referenced in Dani Shapiro’s STILL WRITING: THE PERILS AND PLEASURES OF A CREATIVE LIFE.
I write stories that grab my heart and won’t let go. Period.
I write them one at a time, for however long it takes, in between teaching and coaching and speaking since I bring home the bacon, ’til each is ready for editorial submission. I also revise them, again, and then again, for however long it takes, ’til each is ready for yet another editorial submission.Prolific I am not. Do I creatively envision the manuscript as a published book while I write and revise, listing likely publishers when I come upon them?Of course.Do I imagine an editor’s offer or a stellar review or the look of surprise on a Doubting Thomas’ face.You bet.And when Reality arrives, when my story still fails to see the light of day? I tuck it away...for another day.In other words, for whatever reasons, sane, sound or not, once I’m invested in a story and begin writing, I keep on going, no matter the current market place. Period.
(Morgue Files/lightfoot)I first wrote my first published picture book THERE GOES LOWELL’S PARTY! some ten years earlier as an easy-to-read titled CALLING 'ROUND ABOUT THE RAIN. I couldn’t give up on either Lowell or the Vance Randolph Ozark tales I’d studied in college. I wrote and revised THE CONFE$$ION$ AND $ECRET$ OF HOWARD J. FINGERHUT for at least 7 editors over 12 years before Holiday House published it. I believed in Howie and his story whole-heartedly.A year came and went while an agent worked unsuccessfully to place my newest baby board book TXTNG MAMA TXTNG BABY with a publisher. I withdrew the book and lo and behold, my Sleeping Bear Press editor phoned to tell me of their new ownership and yes, they were looking for a first-time baby book! Times change; markets change; publishers’ needs change; editorial staffs change.
My filing cabinets hold three of my favorite picture books: LOOP-DE-LOOP LEO, about a little boy who’s afraid to go out-and-about on his nursery school teacher’s looped rope; SING A SONG OF YITZY, about a little boy who longs to travel with his Papa’s Klezmer band; and my first book ever, CATCH A PATCH OF FOG, about a little boy who always has a piece of him hanging out when he plays Hide-and-Seek. Wouldn’t a patch of fog be the perfect solution?
The Truth is: I found my own courage writing Leo’s story; I learned each of us has a song to sing writing Yitzy’s tale; and my fog catcher’s wondering proved to be mine: Maybe I was someone worth finding?
In other words, writing my stories helped and helps me see the light. Period.
And those Aha! Moments sustain me and keep me keeping on.
I’ve always known: the right story at the right time helps the reader discover, uncover, recover his own story.My writing has taught me: the same is true for the writer too.Each of my stories, whether sold or not, has proved to be for me the right story at the right time.Maybe, like Laura, I’ll soon consider epublishing, or better yet, independently publishing one or two of my tucked-away stories. I’ve helped several of my writers successfully do both.
I know that like JoAnn, I can’t help but return to several of my much-loved unsold picture book texts and restructure them, reshape them, turn them on their sides, to see if there’s a better story-telling way to draw editorial interest.Like Carmela, I’ll always keep my eyes and ears open for homes for my stories.Meanwhile, I’ll continue to share my unsold manuscripts and their publishing histories with my students, so they can see the light, and Cubs Fan that I am, keep believing in my stories.Yet another perspective (minus Morgue Files photos of filing cabinets and light bulbs I couldn't upload!)Esther Hershenhorn
Last week, Mary Ann, Carmela, and April responded to an
Ask the TeachingAuthors question submitted by Joanna Cooke about the pros and cons of getting an MFA.
Here's my story...
The summer after I graduated from college, I moved to Los Angeles to be an unpaid intern on my favorite TV show,
Days of Our Lives. That summer, I remember watching the Democratic National Convention and the Olympics, eating scads of S'Mores with my awesome roommate, Gretchen, meeting tons of soap stars (both nice and not-so-nice), and attending my first national SCBWI conference in Marina del Rey. On the last day of my internship, when I'd already shipped my belongings home and signed up for a medical transcription course at the local community college, I was hired to be a lowly writers' assistant.
For four years, I made coffee, fetched lunches, made thousands (millions?) of copies, talked to brain surgeons, answered questions from fans and actors and writers alike. I also negotiated a four-day, ten hour/day work week so that I'd have a full day each week to actually write. I was hired to ghost write a Nancy Drew mystery and had the opportunity to work with the fabulous Olga Litowinsky. I sold a children's biography. And I slowly began to realize that I was never going to get a shot at writing for the show.
Ultimately, I decided that I'd given my soap writing dream a good go. I didn't have to live in Los Angeles to write children's books. It was time to go home.
In Maryland, I took a variety of part-time jobs. I wrote some articles and two more Nancy Drew novels. But the hard truth was, I was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of a top-tier college; yet I was in my late twenties, living with my parents, and working as a secretary (a job for which I was overqualified on paper but utterly underqualified in practice). While I was a published writer, I did not feel comfortable calling myself "a writer" -- or much else, for that matter.
Then one day I saw an ad in the monthly SCBWI bulletin for the low-residency MFA program at Vermont College. The program was in its infancy then. I'd never heard of it. But when I saw the list of faculty, I knew that I must apply. I was desperate for a jump start, direction, affirmation, anything!
Now, I fully realize what children's book writers typically earn in terms of salary. I was quite clear that it was unlikely that I'd ever recoup the money spent on my graduate education. I told myself it would be a spiritual investment.
I could not have imagined how truly magical my experience would be. During my second residency, I received an email (there was no cell phone reception, and only one pay phone on the whole floor) stating that
Days desperately needed a writers' assistant, and would I come back ASAP? I said only if I'd have a shot at writing, and they said fine. I found an apartment, flew home from Vermont, packed my things, and a week later I was back at work in L.A.
The day that Marion Dane Bauer called to tell me that my novel had won the Houghton Mifflin Award was the same day that I learned I would get a scriptwriting contract on
Days.
The year that Houghton Mifflin accepted my novel for publication was the year my now-husband and I started dating, and the year it was published, we got engaged.
To say that Vermont College changed my life would be like saying having kids changed my life. I truly was a different person when I graduated.
Not to say that it was all perfect and wonderful. Juggling the program with a full-time job was often exhausting. I had one difficult semester where I did not really "click" with my advisor. I had to take a semester off because my job did not allow four weeks of vacation in the same year. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer during my last semester -- had surgery, radiation, moved back to Maryland, and yes, still graduated!
Some unexpected benefits: When my daughter comes home from school gushing over a book by Phyllis Root or Carolyn Crimi or Susan Fletcher, I get to say, 'I know her!' And nearly a decade later, I am still in touch almost daily with my classmates.
I also remember the MFA being touted as a "terminal degree" that would allow one to teach at the college level. Being a total introvert, I didn't think I would ever pursue this course, but ta-da, here I am. And now, yes, I can definitely say I've earned back my monetary investment.
Nowadays, there are other MFA programs as well as options for great instruction -- McDaniel College's online certificate program (highly recommended), UCLA Extension, and Mediabistro.com courses, for example. But to this day, I crave the monthly deadline pressure and the immediate feedback of a large, knowledgeable, supportive writing community.
For anyone looking for a fresh start, a jump start, or a new beginning, the MFA could be for you.
L'Shana Tova -- Happy New Year! -- Jeanne Marie
A big THANK YOU to all the readers who entered our latest giveaway contest--see the end of this post to find out who our winner is. And stay tuned for more fun giveaways in the coming weeks.
As
Mary Ann posted on Monday, this week we're answering an
Ask the TeachingAuthors question submitted by Joanna Cooke. Before I share my comments on the topic, I want to remind readers that if you have a question you'd like us to address, either about writing for children/young adults or about the teaching of writing, you can use the link in our sidebar to submit your own
Ask the TeachingAuthors question. Please keep in mind, though, that our posting schedule is usually set several months in advance, so we may not be able to address your question right away.
Now, back to our current question: Joanna asked us to share some of the pros/cons of getting an MFA. Mary Ann has already discussed one of the biggest advantages: your growth as a writer. I'd been freelance writing for years before entering the
Vermont College MFA program. Like Mary Ann, I'd also attended conferences and taken workshops related specifically to both fiction writing and writing for children and teens. (Unlike Mary Ann, I was already active in the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and had served as publicity chairperson for the Illinois chapter for a number of years. That's how I met Esther Hershenhorn!) Yet I didn't understand just how much I had to learn until I started at Vermont College. I'd enrolled with the intention of polishing a young adult novel I'd already written. After getting my first adviser's feedback on the manuscript, I realized that I wasn't skilled enough as a writer to tackle the major revisions the novel needed. I chose to work on several other projects instead, and eventually wrote a draft of the middle-grade novel that was later published by Candlewick Press,
Rosa, Sola.
So, for me, the number one "pro" of going through the MFA program was learning to be a better writer. When I look back on those two years, I'm still amazed at how much my fiction writing improved in that time, and also at how I learned to read so much more critically. However, another important advantage for me was a HUGE increase in my writing productivity. I wrote more in those two years than in any similar period before or since. In addition to starting and finishing a draft of my novel, I wrote several polished short stories and about five picture book manuscripts--all on top of the program-required critical essays and thesis writing, and teaching part-time. The monthly deadlines, and knowing my adviser was waiting to read and critique what I'd produced, really helped me stay on task.
One of the biggest "cons" of going to graduate school, at least for me, was the cost. It is a significant investment, and not an easy one for me to make. Interestingly, that turned out to also be a "pro" for me--I was determined to get the most for my money! As a result, the expense made it easier for me to say "no" to distractions and other demands on my time, thus raising the priority of fiction writing in my life. That, too, contributed to my productivity.
I could say plenty more about considerations when deciding on pursuing an MFA, but I'll leave that for April and Jeanne Marie who will also be blogging on the topic. Meanwhile, I want to remind readers that we have links to information about MFA programs in our sidebar, under the heading "Graduate Programs in Writing for Children and Young Adults." As Mary Ann mentioned, when we started at Vermont College, it was the only school that offered a graduate program devoted to writing for children and young adults. That's no longer the case. If you know of any programs we missed in the sidebar, please let us know and I'll add links to them as well.
And now, time to announce the winner of an autographed copy of
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems, edited by Heidi Roemer and Carol-Ann Hoyte. Our winner is:
Karen Casale
Congratulations, Karen! (Please respond to the email I sent you so we can get the book in the mail right away.)
If you didn't win, I hope you'll consider buying a copy of
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems. As I mentioned
in my interview post, a portion of the proceeds from both the paperback and e-book editions will be donated to
Right to Play, an international organization that uses sports and games to educate and empower children facing adversity. The book is now available for purchase
directly from the publisher, FriesenPress. If you're a librarian or bookseller, you can also order the book through Ingram. For more ordering information, see the official
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems website
And stay tuned for more fun book giveaways here in the coming weeks!
Happy writing!
Carmela
It's Ask a Teaching Author time again. This week's question is from Joanna Moore who wants to know our thoughts on MFA writing programs.
I have an MFA in Writing for Children from Vermont College. Bottom line, my time in the Vermont MFA program was the best two years of my life. At that point, I had been writing for thirty-something years, but I knew something was missing from my work. How did I know that? I knew because my rejection letters all said the same thing..."you write really well but..." But what? Nobody would tell me. My MFA program did.
I had been searching for that missing "something" a long time. I went to every writer's conference I could find (although for some reason, the Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators--SCBWI---never showed up on my radar.) I read "how-to" books, lots of them. I still stumbled around in the wilderness, looking for answers. Through a series of incredible events, I found myself at Vermont College in the first MFA program dedicated exclusively to children's writing.
Did I find my answers? Yes. Is an MFA like Willie Wonka's Golden Ticket? No. Having an MFA does not guarantee you a book contract, an agent (I still don't have one) or a Newbery medal.
What you
are guaranteed is this; if you keep an open mind and take advantage of every learning opportunity, you
will be a better writer and teacher.
I can only speak about my experience as a graduate of the Vermont College Summer Class of 2000. I don't know if the Vermont program has changed, or anything at all about other programs. Taking that into consideration, the one-on-one intensive mentoring at VC was invaluable to me. As a low residency program, nearly all of my work was done through monthly mail packets. (At the time, e-mail was not as widespread as it is now, and most of my faculty mentors did not even have email accounts.)
I turned in a set number of pages of "new work"-- a goal agreed on between my mentors and I during the on-campus sessions -- and a certain number of pages of revised work. The packets were returned with copious notes and suggestions for revision. I have worked with any number of editors over the years, and while my editors are all geniuses (really!), none of them has given me the attention and focus of my Vermont mentors. There is a good reason for this. As a student, I shared my mentor with no more than four or five other students. An editor has any number of ongoing projects, even though you always hope that
yours is the most important. My four Vermont mentors--all successful and renowned children's authors--spoiled me with their extremely thorough critiques.
MFA programs are not for everyone. I am blessed that there was a time in my life when I had the time, money and energy necessary. I went into the program with a specific goal; I had the idea for
Yankee Girl, but not the slightest idea of how to write it. I wanted to do justice to my idea, whether it was ever published or not. I knew almost nothing about plot, setting and characterization. Two years and four mentors later, I knew a lot more.
I'm still learning.
Don't forget that the deadline for
entering the giveaway for the poetry anthology is 11 pm CST, Tuesday (as in
tomorrow!)
Posted by Mary Ann Rodman
As Mary Ann
mentioned on Monday, today we're sharing part 2 of our answer to an
Ask the TeachingAuthors question posted by Sandra Stiles regarding resources for teaching young writers. But first, I'd like to congratulate all the writers who tackled
NaNoWriMo in November. Whether or not you managed to produce 50,000 words, I commend you for attempting the Herculean feat. I'm still in the midst of the pseudo-NaNoWriMo project that
I blogged about last month. So far, I've added about 23,000 words to my work-in-progress. That's 3,000 words short of where I'd hoped to be by now, but I still have a couple of weeks until my December 15 deadline. Wish me luck!
Now, back to answering Sandra Stiles's
Ask the TeachingAuthors question. She asked for help in planning her after-school writing class. On Monday,
Mary Ann mentioned some books with activities to inspire young writers. Today I'd like to share websites with lesson plans and other resources. Here are six, in no particular order:
Many children's book publishers also provide teacher resources and lesson plans on their sites, including:
Candlewick Press,
Scholastic, and
Sleeping Bear Press.
Here in the United States, the school year is drawing to a close. Around this time last year, we received an
Ask the TeachingAuthors question about end-of-the-school-year writing activities. Unfortunately, we weren't able to address the question in time. To make up for that, we'll be providing a series of end-of-the-year
Writing Workouts this week and next. If you're a teacher, you'll find the first below.
If you're a writer, this may be the time to look ahead and think about how summer will affect your writing schedule. Summer is a very productive time for some writers. Many of my adult students are teachers and librarians who look forward to summer vacation as a time to catch up on their writing.
Not for me. Maintaining my writing routine during the summer months is often a challenge. When my son was young, the challenge was not to let my writing interfere with his summer activities, and vice versa. Now that he's grown up, that's no longer an issue. But teaching has become one of
my summer activities. I teach several week-long writing camps for young writers, along with adult classes. I love teaching, and I'm always revising and fine-tuning my camps to keep them fresh and fun for my young students. That takes creative energy, as well as time. I'm not complaining. It's just something I need to allow for when I set my summer writing goals.
I'd love to know how other writers deal with this seasonal transition. Will the end of the school year affect your writing schedule? Does taking a vacation refresh you as a writer or do you feel you've lost your momentum and have to start over? Do you have any tips on staying creative during the lazy, hazy days of summer? Please share your ideas via our comments.
And don't forget: today is the last day to enter our giveaway drawing for an autographed copy of April Pulley Sayre's picture book
Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! See
JoAnn's last post for details.
Blogosphere buzz:
Congrats to our own JoAnn Early Macken on the fabulous review of Waiting Out The Storm in The Washington Post this weekend. (She might be too modest to mention it, but I am not! She also happens to be in excellent company.) If you'd like to win a copy of this terrific read-aloud for young kids, post a comment here by 11 pm Thursday, CST.
Thanks to Mary Roy for the following question:
"I am writing a children's story for the first time. I've published articles in local magazines and special sections, but not yet a book. I am starting at ground zero with this story. I feel that I probably need a class. For certain I need direction, and that's really what I'm asking for. Where should I start? How do I develop the basic story into a charming book for children?"Mary, this is a question that bears repeating and is something I still ask myself all the time.
One good place to start is this
post by Esther Hershenhorn.
I will echo her sentiment that one of the most important things to do is read, read, read. Study what's out there. Has a topic similar to yours already been covered in a published work? How did other skilled writers solve the same problems you face in your own writing?
I like to visit the bookstore (support indie bookstores!) and see what's new -- what books are being marketed heavily, which ones are facing outward, etc. It is always fun to find a friend's book on the shelf and give it a little marketing boost by making its place more prominent. :)
Bear in mind that what is trendy today (hello, vampires) will almost certainly be well on its way out by the time anything you write now could be published in, say, two to three to four years.
I also go to the library. They might not have the best selection of what's new, but they almost always have the classics. Check out the works of
Esme Raji Codell and
Anita Silvey for books every children's author should know.
Google is also my friend, and I often search on
http://www.amazon.com/ or
http://www.indiebound.com/ for card catalog-type information so that I can get a general sense as to what books are "out there."
Do you know whether you are writing a picture book, a middle grade novel, or a YA? Do you have characters in mind? Plot? Beginning, middle, end? I find it hard to begin writing until I have a somewhat solid sense as to all of the above, even though these elements may change significantly in the writing process. There are so many ways to go about fleshing out a story -- of course you have to find what works for you. You already have good writing habits, or you would not be a published author. You will likely find that many of these habits apply to writing fiction as well.
When I write mystery novels and soap operas, I outline. In fact, all TV writers and screenwriters outline (or write treatments, as they're ca
Mary Jo C. writes, teaches, and works for a nonprofit young writers’ organization. She asks, “How do you organize all of your projects, both the paper files and the computer files, without things falling through the cracks? How do you keep up with markets you’d like to pursue and the deadlines for submitting?”
Thank you for the questions, Mary Jo! They made me take a close look at my own organization methods. My work, like yours, is made up of a number of segments whose relative importance varies over time:
- writing
- teaching
- freelance/work-for-hire writing projects
- school visits and conferences
- miscellaneous (blog posts, marketing, publicity, volunteer work, special projects, etc.)
For each type of work, I try to keep track of my progress and my plans. Some systems work better than others. First, the more successful ones.
My calendar functions as my short-term To-Do List. I update it and refer to it daily. I slip notes about important events such as school visits inside the back cover. I also keep a long-term list on a legal pad. I look at it and update it about once/month, when I transfer urgent items to the calendar.
I have learned (the hard way!) to stuff tax-deductible expense receipts and payment stubs in file folders as soon as I receive and record them. I keep the Income and Expense folders on top of a filing cabinet next to my desk where I can reach them easily. I also keep a small notebook in the car to record mileage—trips to the library or office supply store as well as longer research travel. It all adds up. At tax time, everything is right there.
For my classes, I keep records of attendance and grades in Excel charts and report them online. I keep textbooks, handouts, and all necessary daily records in a separate tote bag for each course and grab that bag on my way to class. Sometimes I walk out the door with a purse and several tote bags, but at least I know I have everything I might need. (I also keep library books in their own tote bag.)
For my submissions, I created a Word table that lists manuscript titles across the top and editor names along the side. When I submit a manuscript, I enter the date in the cell where manuscript and editor meet. If a manuscript is returned, I add an R after the date and submit it elsewhere. If it is accepted, I delete the column from the table. I can easily see which manuscripts are out and which editors have something of mine to consider. I keep a copy of the table clipped to the outside of a file folder that holds printed copies of cover letters and manuscripts.
I rely on e-mail to communicate with everyone: students, department chairs, people requesting information about school visits, writing group members, editors, etc. I create folders in my Inbox for categories such as teaching, writing, and work, and I add subfolders within them for each class, publisher, or project. (Documents on my computer are organized in a similar way.) I recently started using a second e-mail account strictly for teaching. I am always trying to clear out my Inbox. I rarely print an e-mail, but I do mark important dates, phone numbers, and deadlines on my calendar.
* * * * *My explanation for the less successful methods is that I operate under the principle that I remember what I see.
Work-for-hire projects typically require research that results in many pages of printed or photocopied information. Until a project is completed, these papers tend to pile up, so I group them together in one spot, usually on the floor. What I don’t do religiously enough is sort through these piles as soon as a project is completed and file or recycle all that paper. I usually return library books in time to avoid huge fines.
My own writing in progress is stacked on a file cabinet next to my desk in a teetering pile that includes everything from scraps of paper with a few words scribbled during the night to a ring bind
Today, I'd like to follow-up on Mary Ann's response to an Ask the TeachingAuthors question submitted by Pam. Pam asked: "In MG and YA novels, do you ever use diction from other cultures or parts of the country in your characterizations? Or do you focus more on a character's actions, behavior and gestures to define them?"
When writing my middle-grade novel, Rosa, Sola, I 
had the challenge of trying to portray the speech of recent Italian immigrants. Members of my own immigrant family speak with heavy accents and often intersperse Italian words, or Anglicized Italian, with English. If I tried to reproduce such speech in my novel, readers would have a difficult time deciphering it. As Mary Ann pointed out in her post, such dialogue "can be murder to read."
Instead, I used several techniques to portray my immigrant characters' speech:
- I occasionally interspersed relatively easy-to-pronounce Italian words with English, structuring the dialogue and conversation so that those words could be understood in context.
- As much as possible, I used cognates of English words to make it easier for readers to guess a foreign word's meaning.
- For the characters with the heaviest accents, I tried to keep their sentences short. I also structured their speech in nonstandard ways.
- I included a glossary of the Italian words and phrases that appeared in the text.
For example, here's how I handled the first occurrence of the word
sola:
Mrs. Morelli returned before AnnaMaria did. "I'm sorry, Rosa." She took the baby from Rosa. "AnnaMaria should not have left you sola."
"But I wasn't alone." Rosa smiled up at Mrs. Morelli. "Antonio was with me."
Because many readers are familiar with the word "solo," they might guess that
sola means alone. But even if they didn't, they could surmise the meaning from Rosa's response. Similarly, for the title of this post, I'm hoping you guessed that
patate means potatoes. Initially, I'd planned to say "Please pass the
piselli," but I chose
patate because the word looks more like "potatoes" than
piselli does "peas."
Like Mary Ann, I also had to be careful regarding the historical accuracy of my dialogue because
Rosa, Sola is set in the 1960s. The
online etymology dictionary is a great resource to help insure historical accuracy. For example, if you look up the word "groovy," you'll learn:
As teen slang for "wonderful," it dates from 1944; popularized 1960s, out of currency by 1980.
My current work-in-progress, a young-adult novel set in 18th-century Milan, presents even greater challenges when it comes to dialogue. Unlike the characters in
Rosa, Sola who speak a mixture of Italian and English, my Milanese characters speak only Italian. Therefore, it really isn't appropriate to intersperse Italian words in their dialogue. While I have read books that do, I try to avoid it. For example, to me, it doesn't make sense to write:
Luigi said, "Please pass the patate."
when, technically, it should be:
Luigi said, "Passami le patate per favore."
So in my novel set in Milan, the only time I have Italian dialogue is in complete (very short) sentences, such as:
When Maria passed him the potatoes, Luigi said, "Grazie."
I still use Italian words in the narrative at times, to help remind readers of the setting, but I avoid mixing them with English in the dialogue.
I hope this discussion has satisfactorily addressed Pam's questions. If we haven't answered
your Ask the TeachingAuthors question yet, please be patient. We plan to tackle our backlog in September. Meanwhile, we hope you'll use the link in the sidebar to keep those questions coming!
The above title’s question is a variation of this week’s Ask the TeachingAuthors question,"What’s the connection between Life and Fiction?”My answer?Real Life works its way into our writing and words, invited or not, intentionally or otherwise.And how could it not? We’re reservoirs of life events, memories, emotions, collectors of people, places and things. Sometimes, Life serves up a story on a
Love it!What a great Vermont story. Mine is less dramatic, but I adored my Vermont MFA years. I graduated four years ago, but not a day goes by that I don't think about that time or use what I learned in my writing life.
Wow. Wonderful story. I have an MA in acting (which quailified me to work at the Dole Pineapple Cannery) but I enjoyed the scholarship and the degree.
Susan
Gee, Jeanne Marie, even though I was there with you, I didn't know you were going through all this at the time. Thanks so much for sharing your story with us.
Well, JeaneMarie: your fellow Hiver Phyllis Harris will have to share the MY Heroine Status I awarded her this Spring with YOU, now that I know YOUR amazing story!
My, oh, my, oh, my.
Your Fan Esther, who thinks she was at that Marino Del Ray SCBWI Conference with you....
Wowee, JM. So inspiring! An MFA could well be in my future...when my kid's in med school. :-)
Oh, gosh, Esther, wouldn't it be funny if we were both at that conference? I think that was the one where I heard Patricia Reilly Giff, among many others. Joan Bauer? Wish I'd met you then!
And Susan, I think I took a field trip of the Dole Pineapple Cannery in kindergarten. :) I love pineapples! I took an acting class in L.A. because I thought it would help my writing, so I happen to think you have a very useful degree.
April, I think you absolutely made the right decision to enjoy that family time while you could. The MFA is definitely consuming. And gosh, it all really does go by so quickly!