By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
Cynsations“Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live.”
--Tuck Everlasting
'Tuck Everlasting' Author Natalie Babbitt, Of Hamden, Dies At Age 84 by the Associated Press from The Hartford Courant. Peek: "Babbitt's literary career started in 1966, when she illustrated a children's book written by her husband and was encouraged by its editor to continue writing and illustrating children's books herself."
Obituary: Natalie Babbitt by Shannon Maughan from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "The subject matter—is living forever a good thing? —was somewhat controversial when the book [Tuck Everlasting] was published in 1975, especially in schools, but strong word-of-mouth and support from educators and librarians helped it grow into an enduring favorite."
Tuck Everlasting author Natalie Babbitt dies at 84 from The Guardian. Peek: "The 1975 novel, which has sold over 3.5m copies...has been adapted into two movies and a Broadway play..she was a National Book Award finalist for
The Devil’s Storybook in 1975."
Cynsational NotesShe received many honored including a Newbery Honor for
Knee-Knock Rise (FSG, 1971) and the inaugural E.B. White Award in 2013.
By
Carol Lynch Williamsfor
Cynthia Leitich Smith's
CynsationsIn the early part of last year, Rick Walton, one of my best friends and a prolific picture book writer, was diagnosed with a terminal and aggressive brain tumor.
For many years before this diagnosis, Rick battled early-onset Parkinson’s disease.
Recently, the tumors returned (after a surgery that left Rick partially paralyzed) and as I write this, my friend, my hilarious, clever, word-twisting friend, lives out his last days.
I’ve wandered around the house crying far too much, visiting Rick when I can.
This world of grief is something we all experience in one way or another. No one is exempt from sorrow. It makes up a part of who we are and so grief finds its way into many of my novels. My characters grapple with love lost, death, abuse. I write about life. The sad part.
Writing about grief, telling the true story of a sorrowing character, is tremendously important.
Readers need examples of survivors. But what happens when that grief becomes too much for the writer?
These last few weeks, as Rick has become more and more sick, has found me not wanting to write unless I must. I don’t believe in the muse nor do I believe in writer’s block. Writing is hard work and we must work to get words on the page.
I do think, however, there are drags on our creativity—events that can eat up our words almost before they are formed. That’s where I am now.
Many years ago, it seemed my worlds crashed around me. I went through a divorce, lost the home I’d raised my girls in, ended up moving every few months trying to find a place for my children and me to settle. I was desperate for a place to call home.
At the same time, four people in my life died, money became more and more scarce, a close relative experienced two psychotic breaks, a drugged neighbor kept trying to break into our rented house . . . and when I thought I could bear no more, I went to two unrelated funerals in two days.
I felt overwhelmed with grief. At one point I finally cried out to my God, “I believe in you but do you believe in me?” That accumulated sorrow led to my young adult novel
Waiting (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman, 2012).
But
but
there were other times
other events
other devestations
when my heart and my body, and my spirit even, felt unable to do
anything, including write.
There were times when I wept alone and in the open.
Times when I wondered if I could draw in a breath.
Then, I despaired.
I found myself hoping for courage and the ability to do what I had to do: write.
Here are a few things, past the hoping, that helped me get the courage to do the hard thing of finishing a novel. I:
- Prayed. Talking to God is an important part of who I am. I spent hours talking, weeping and talking some more.
- Exercised. I took off walking, and talking, alone. This exercise permitted my body to breathe and to relax, to rid myself of layers of grief.
- Shared the pain. There seemed a time when even a grocery store checker asking me how I was brought on my sharing. That speaking up lightened the load, made it feel possible for me to keep going.
- Gave myself room and time. It’s okay if the words don’t come right away. They will come.
- Trust yourself. You will write again. It will happen. The next thing you know you’ll find yourself allowing new characters in your life, then wrestling in that awkward middle part of the novel, then typing those triumphant words, THE END.
Every day since the news that Rick will soon die, I’ve gone to see him. I hold his hand, talk to him about my own life, read him messages from those who love him and can’t travel to Utah to tell him goodbye themselves.
But I haven’t written.
Nothing creative.
Not my blog, not either of the two novels I should be rewriting, not on the mid-grade or YA novel I started this summer.
I’m waiting.
For words.
For peace.
For the sorrow to not be as heavy.
I wish you all could have known Rick Walton as he was years ago. You’d love him like I do. He’s pretty darned fantastic. I’m going to miss him.
My best friend. My Rick.
More from Carol Rick Walton passed away peacefully, with his mom and sister by his side, three days after I completed this writing.
Cynsational NotesRick Walton's books included
Frankenstein: A Monstrous Parody, illustrated by Nathan Hale (Feiwel & Friends, 2012);
Girl and Gorilla: Out and About, illustrated by Joe Berger (HarperCollins, 2016), and
Bullfrog Pops! An Adventure in Verbs and Objects, illustrated by Chris McAllister (Gibbs Smith, 2011).
A legacy of inspiration, remembering Utah children’s book author extraordinaire Rick Walton by Ann Cannon from The Salt Lake Tribune. Peek: "In the end, the people Rick inspired will go on to inspire others who will inspire others who will inspire others. And because he adored people as much as he adored words, his circle was large. His influence will be felt by individuals who may never know his name." See also
How Writer Rick Walton Inspired Utah's Literary Wellspring by Rachel Piper from The Salt Lake Tribune and
Utah Children's Authors Build a Community from Publishers Weekly.
About Carol Carol Lynch Williams, who grew up in Florida and now lives in Utah, is an award-winning novelist with seven children of her own, including six daughters.
She has an MFA in writing for children and young adults from
Vermont College, and won the prestigious PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship.
The Chosen One (Griffin, 2010) was named one of the ALA’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and Best Books for Young Adult Readers; it won the Whitney and the Association of Mormon Letters awards for the best young adult novel of the year; and was featured on numerous lists of recommended YA fiction.
Carol’s other novels include
Never Said (Blink, 2015),
Glimpse (Simon & Schuster, 2010),
Miles From Ordinary (Griffin, 2012),
The Haven (St. Martin's 2012), and
Signed, Skye Harper (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman, 2015). See also
Sisterhood, Body Image, and Sexual Abuse | Carol Lynch Williams on “Never Said” by Shelley Diaz from School Library Journal.
By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
CynsationsFrom
Barbara Seuling's Author Website: "...children's book editor, author, illustrator and teacher. For several years Barbara worked as an editor for Delacorte Press and Yearling Books at Dell Publishing Company. Later, she moved to J. B. Lippincott & Co.
"As author and/or illustrator of her own books, Barbara became a featured speaker at many educational and writers' conferences and served for many years on the
Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators' Board of Advisors. She taught writing at
Bank Street College and at
The Writer's Voice in New York City before establishing The Manuscript Workshop in Vermont..."
From SCBWI: "One of the SCBWI's earliest members her sense of humor shone through in the many books she both authored and illustrated. Two of her more popular series were her
Robert books, and her wildly successful Freaky Fact series, including
Elephants Can't Jump and Other Freaky Facts About Animals (Dutton, 1985)."
Obituary: Barbara Seuling by Shannon Maughan from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "Outside of her own children’s book projects, Seuling used her extensive publishing experience to lead small private writing workshops. Her adult nonfiction title
How to Write a Children’s Book and Get It Published (Wiley, 2004), first released in 1984, was considered a key read for aspiring authors and is currently in its third edition."
Cynsational Notes |
| I read the 2nd Edition |
 |
| Popular series by Barbara |
In 1995, when I decided to begin writing for young readers, I was living in downtown Chicago. I didn't know anyone in the business. I'd never heard of SCBWI.
I walked to a bookstore on Michigan Avenue, to a shelf of writing craft and publishing information books in the basement, pulled a dozen or so titles, sat down on the floor and began looking through them. I bought two or three.
Barbara's (Scribner, 1991) was the one that most clicked.
I read it cover-to-cover, highlighter in hand, and then I re-read it. I learned from the book, formed a plan for moving forward with the dream that would become my life's work.
Thank you, Barbara, for helping me take the first steps of this journey.
By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
CynsationsAuthor
Lois Duncan, died in June while Cynsations was on summer hiatus.
Lois Duncan Obituary: Bestselling author of fiction for young adults, including the thriller I Know What You Did Last Summer by
Julia Eccleshare from The Guardian. Peek: "She was born Lois Duncan Steinmetz in Philadelphia, and grew up in Sarasota, Florida. Lois wanted to be a writer from childhood, and submitted her first typed manuscript to Ladies’ Home Journal when she was 10."
Obituary: Lois Duncan by Shannon Maughan from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "After attending
Duke University for a year... She entered her YA project Debutante Hill in Dodd, Mead & Company’s Seventeenth Summer Literary Contest and earned the grand prize: $1000 and a book contract."
Lois Duncan, 82, Dies; Author Knew What You Did Last Summer by Daniel E. Slotnik from The New York Times. Peek: "Though her books had their share of violence, Ms. Duncan said she was 'utterly horrified' when she saw the [1997] film adaptation of
“I Know What You Did Last Summer,” which...turned her novel, about a group of teenagers desperately trying to conceal an accidental killing, into a horror tale in which the same teenagers are systematically dispatched by their hook-wielding victim." Note: To clarify, I heard Lois speak about this at an SCBWI conference. It wasn't the violence per se but rather the way it was trivialized for cheap thrills. Her novel had a strong moral center that was absent from its film adaptation.
I Know What I Read That Summer by Carmen Maria Machado from The New Yorker. Peek: "Her prose is unfussy and clean. She centered her books on young women, and her writing considers themes that have come to obsess me as an adult: gendered violence, psychological manipulation, the vulnerability of outsiders."
By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
CynsationsHarry Mazer: Obituary from Legacy.com. Peek: "...died on April 7, 2016, 71 years after he leapt out of a B-17 bomber that had been shot down over Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, during the last mission of World War II.
"Harry was one of the few survivors of the crew, a story he loved to tell and re-created in a fictionalized form in his young adult novel,
The Last Mission. He received a Purple Heart and an Air Medal with four bronze oak leaf clusters for his service."
Cynsational NotesHarry was married to fellow children's book author
Norma Fox Mazer for 69 years, until her 2009 death at age 78.
By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
CynsationsObituary: James Cross Giblin by Shannon Maughan from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "Publisher, editor, and award-winning children’s book author James Cross Giblin died on Sunday, April 10, following a long illness."
James Cross Giblin, 82, Wide-Ranging Author of Books for Children, Dies by Margalit Fox from The New York Times. Peek: "...for many years also a prominent children’s-book editor and publisher, was known most recently for his biographies for middle-grade and older readers, among them
The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (2002), which won the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal from the American Library Association;
Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth (2005); and
The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy (2009).
Goodbye, Jim by Roger Sutton from
Read Roger at The Horn Book. Peek: "Back before it was even a Thing, Jim was writing narrative nonfiction about the damnedest things–windows, milk–and had the gift for conveying his own enthusiasm for his topics to readers who never knew they could find, say, chairs, so interesting."
By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
CynsationsLouise Rennison (1951-2016), author - obituary: 'Queen of Teen’ whose comic novels captured the horrors and occasional triumphs of adolescence from The Telegraph. Peek: "Louise Rennison, the author, who has died aged 64, was the creator of Georgia Nicolson, the 14-year-old protagonist of such young adult novels as Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and Startled by his Furry Shorts; the series achieved sales of 2.6 million in Britain alone."
Goodbye, Louise Rennison – you captured the hilarious horror of girlhood by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett from The Telegraph. Peek: "Rennison understood the unique, farcical horror of being a teenage girl."
Five Things All Louise Rennison Fans Know to Be True by Jillian Capewell from The Huffington Post. Peek: "Thanks to Rennison, I added snogging (kissing), nunga-nungas (breasts), lurrrrrve (self-explanatory) and away laughing on a fast camel (still working that one out) to my repertoire."
"My Hero: Louise Rennison" by Philip Ardagh from The Guardian. Peek: "...there is comfort in the fact that her laughter lives on through the pages of her books. She was a class act and one funny lady." See also
Literary Agents Pay Tribute to Rennison from The Bookseller.
This captures a lot of the essence of Barbara. I remember being with her at a signing when a guy in motorcycle leathers and tattoos started walking toward us. Barbara froze, thinking it looked like someone she knew from her past, double-murderer. But it was a different old biker, and they had a fine time swapping stories. I remember another time she was reiminiscing about how she and a girlfriend jumped out of some guy's truck with all his money. They used it to buy coke and shoot up, but they didn't have the right needles, so they had to improvise.
I felt like a choir girl in church.
How many other people could pull off such a turnaround? I would guess most of the people she knew in her teens were dead before they were 30.
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Truly, truly sad. A beautiful talent sums it up. (And, a beautiful activist.)