After many late hours, many cups of coffee, and many experiments gone haywire, it’s finally arrived. That’s right, folks! I’m delighted to announce the release of my sixth book in the DOYLE AND FOSSEY: SCIENCE DETECTIVES series, The Case of the Terrible T. rex, for children ages 8-11. (Of course, I couldn’t have done it without the help of Drake Doyle and Nell Fossey, the sharpest science detectives in the fifth grade!)

As part of my book’s release, I have several juicy tidbits to share. First, I’m excited to say that Publisher’s Weekly just published an article about my research for The Case of the Terrible T. rex. Woo-hoo!!! Click here to read.

Also, in celebration of this momentous occasion, Drake, Nell, and I have developed a book trailer. We invite you to share it with your friends, with teachers, educators, budding scientists, and readers of all ages. If you share it with at least five friends, please let me know. I’ll enter your name in a drawing for a FREE AUTOGRAPHED COPY of The Case of the Terrible T. rex!

Thanks so much to all you Doyle and Fossey fans!!

– Michele

After many late hours, many cups of coffee, and many experiments gone haywire, it’s finally arrived. That’s right, folks! I’m delighted to announce the release of my sixth book in the DOYLE AND FOSSEY: SCIENCE DETECTIVES series, The Case of the Terrible T. rex, for children ages 8-11. (Of course, I couldn’t have done it without the help of Drake Doyle and Nell Fossey, the sharpest science detectives in the fifth grade!)

As part of my book’s release, I have several juicy tidbits to share. First, I’m excited to say that Publisher’s Weekly just published an article about my research for The Case of the Terrible T. rex. Woo-hoo!!! Click here to read.

Also, in celebration of this momentous occasion, Drake, Nell, and I have developed a book trailer. We invite you to share it with your friends, with teachers, educators, budding scientists, and readers of all ages. If you share it with at least five friends, please let me know. I’ll enter your name in a drawing for a FREE AUTOGRAPHED COPY of The Case of the Terrible T. rex!

Thanks so much to all you Doyle and Fossey fans!!

– Michele

I’m tickled, I’m delighted, I’m over-the-top-thrilled, to announce my new Teacher’s Guide to accompany my latest release, THE CASE OF THE CROOKED CARNIVAL, book five in the Doyle and Fossey: Science Detectives series. The guide has a language arts section, followed by a science unit. The science unit has four sections: sound and amplification, invasive species, magnetism, and resonance. It’s filled with tons of ideas, activities, and reproducibles, perfect for classroom use or homeschoolers. School is right around the corner, and this is a super fun way to teach science! (Grades 3-5)

Click here to download the classroom guide.

“Accessible, understandable, and hilarious science for the youngest problem solvers.” — Kirkus Reviews

I’m tickled, I’m delighted, I’m over-the-top-thrilled, to announce my new Teacher’s Guide to accompany my latest release, THE CASE OF THE CROOKED CARNIVAL, book five in the Doyle and Fossey: Science Detectives series. The guide has a language arts section, followed by a science unit. The science unit has four sections: sound and amplification, invasive species, magnetism, and resonance. It’s filled with tons of ideas, activities, and reproducibles, perfect for classroom use or homeschoolers. School is right around the corner, and this is a super fun way to teach science! (Grades 3-5)

Click here to download the classroom guide.

“Accessible, understandable, and hilarious science for the youngest problem solvers.” — Kirkus Reviews

I’m pleased to have one of my colleagues, author David Patneaude, as a guest on my blog. The first time I met David was in the mid- to late-nineties, when we were both just beginning our literary careers. Along with another YA author, we showed up for a book talk at Elliot Bay bookstore in downtown Seattle. The three of us milled around nervously, waiting for the throngs of fans to arrive. Alas, like so many painful, early booksignings, no one came. We blamed it on the hot summer day . . . of course, no one in their right mind would go to a book talk on a hot summer day. From that day forward, though, David and I have forged a nice writerly relationship. I respect David, not only for his kindness, but for his thoughtful, meaningful books that touch on deeper issues. David’s most recent book, EPITAPH ROAD, was released earlier this year.

1. The premise in Epitaph Road is intriguing, to say the least. How did you come up with your idea?

It definitely wasn’t an overnight process. Like all of my stories, it evolved out of a spark of an idea. A lot of thinking, a lot of false starts, a lot of backtracking, a lot of writing, and more than a lot of revision. I think the spark came from asking myself that old What if? question, and this time the question was, What if women were in charge—not just a few here and there trying to out-macho men, but really in charge? How would that happen? And what would things be like? So what prompted that What if? in the first place? Disappointment, I guess. And frustration. And embarrassment. All generated by the way the world is being run and has been run over the past few thousand years. And who has been running the world all that time? Men. What if they were no longer a factor?

2. Though Epitaph Road is set in the future, it seems that it would have required an enormous amount of research. Did you find the research more difficult or time consuming than you had first anticipated?

I think I went into it a bit blindly, driven by the story and characters, convinced that I knew a lot and could fake the rest. Neither of those turned out to be true, of course. I knew a little and decided that faking it wasn’t really an option if I wanted to do the story justice and give it that old verisimilitude thing. So research, especially during the revision process (even after I got into the process with my editor at Egmont), became a big part of what I was doing. We can’t know what the world will look like ninety years from now, naturally, but we can look at the past and present and extrapolate and make educated guesses. I did a lot of that. And there are experts who make predictions about stuff like population growth and future numbers. The Internet gives you easy access to those kinds of statistics. Studying the past was fun. My trips into the past for information for some of my other books (THIN WOOD WALLS, in particular) have given me an appreciation and fondness for history I never believed I would have. What I don’t appreciate is that those guys running things seem to have no ability to learn from the past.

3. What was your biggest challenge in writing Epitaph Road?

I’ve heard this before, and it turned out to be true for me. When you’re writing anything set in an era unfamiliar to the reader, your biggest job is to build the world they’re entering. I think this is especially true of speculative fiction set a significant period into the future, especially a post-apocalyptic future. Very little remains the same. A good deal of time has to be spent building the framework for this future place in the reader’s mind. How much? That’s the tricky part. Overkill isn’t good. You

I’m pleased to have one of my colleagues, author David Patneaude, as a guest on my blog. The first time I met David was in the mid- to late-nineties, when we were both just beginning our literary careers. Along with another YA author, we showed up for a book talk at Elliot Bay bookstore in downtown Seattle. The three of us milled around nervously, waiting for the throngs of fans to arrive. Alas, like so many painful, early booksignings, no one came. We blamed it on the hot summer day . . . of course, no one in their right mind would go to a book talk on a hot summer day. From that day forward, though, David and I have forged a nice writerly relationship. I respect David, not only for his kindness, but for his thoughtful, meaningful books that touch on deeper issues. David’s most recent book, EPITAPH ROAD, was released earlier this year.

1. The premise in Epitaph Road is intriguing, to say the least. How did you come up with your idea?

It definitely wasn’t an overnight process. Like all of my stories, it evolved out of a spark of an idea. A lot of thinking, a lot of false starts, a lot of backtracking, a lot of writing, and more than a lot of revision. I think the spark came from asking myself that old What if? question, and this time the question was, What if women were in charge—not just a few here and there trying to out-macho men, but really in charge? How would that happen? And what would things be like? So what prompted that What if? in the first place? Disappointment, I guess. And frustration. And embarrassment. All generated by the way the world is being run and has been run over the past few thousand years. And who has been running the world all that time? Men. What if they were no longer a factor?

2. Though Epitaph Road is set in the future, it seems that it would have required an enormous amount of research. Did you find the research more difficult or time consuming than you had first anticipated?

I think I went into it a bit blindly, driven by the story and characters, convinced that I knew a lot and could fake the rest. Neither of those turned out to be true, of course. I knew a little and decided that faking it wasn’t really an option if I wanted to do the story justice and give it that old verisimilitude thing. So research, especially during the revision process (even after I got into the process with my editor at Egmont), became a big part of what I was doing. We can’t know what the world will look like ninety years from now, naturally, but we can look at the past and present and extrapolate and make educated guesses. I did a lot of that. And there are experts who make predictions about stuff like population growth and future numbers. The Internet gives you easy access to those kinds of statistics. Studying the past was fun. My trips into the past for information for some of my other books (THIN WOOD WALLS, in particular) have given me an appreciation and fondness for history I never believed I would have. What I don’t appreciate is that those guys running things seem to have no ability to learn from the past.

3. What was your biggest challenge in writing Epitaph Road?

I’ve heard this before, and it turned out to be true for me. When you’re writing anything set in an era unfamiliar to the reader, your biggest job is to build the world they’re entering. I think this is especially true of speculative fiction set a significant period into the future, especially a post-apocalyptic future. Very little remains the same. A good deal of time has to be spent building the framework for this future place in the reader’s mind. How much? That’s the tricky part. Overkill isn’t good. You

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my colleagues, Holly Cupala, regarding her debut novel, Tell Me a Secret (TMAS). Marketing diva that she is, Holly has just released her book trailer, and is throwing a virtual party with plenty of party prizes! Here’s what people can win:

Signed TMAS books!

TMAS t-shirts!

Fan-made bracelets by Hannah S!

Music that inspired the book!

Sneak Previews!

Bookmarks and Handmade Magnets!

and…

A Tell Me a Secret handmade necklace made by Gypsy Wings!

HOW TO WIN? Share the Trailer Love!

1. Click here to go to YouTube, then click the Share button to send to your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or blog! 5 pts each

2. Click here to tell us where you posted and enter to win!

Plus Holly will be featured at readergirlz for the entire month of August, with a live Twitter chat coming up! Hope you enjoy the trailer, and thank you so much for being part of the virtual tour and party!

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my colleagues, Holly Cupala, regarding her debut novel, Tell Me a Secret (TMAS). Marketing diva that she is, Holly has just released her book trailer, and is throwing a virtual party with plenty of party prizes! Here’s what people can win:

Signed TMAS books!

TMAS t-shirts!

Fan-made bracelets by Hannah S!

Music that inspired the book!

Sneak Previews!

Bookmarks and Handmade Magnets!

and…

A Tell Me a Secret handmade necklace made by Gypsy Wings!

HOW TO WIN? Share the Trailer Love!

1. Click here to go to YouTube, then click the Share button to send to your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or blog! 5 pts each

2. Click here to tell us where you posted and enter to win!

Plus Holly will be featured at readergirlz for the entire month of August, with a live Twitter chat coming up! Hope you enjoy the trailer, and thank you so much for being part of the virtual tour and party!

Ten-year-old Liam gives fossil-hunting a try.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I’d like squatting in the dirt all day long under the hot Montana sun, chipping away at dirt or at a rock wall with my dino-hammer. PaleoWorld warned me when I signed up: “This is not a tour.” They weren’t kidding. If one doesn’t like heat, bugs, dirt, thundershowers, squatting, sitting on rocks, or hammering until your arm falls off, then maybe a visit to an air-conditioned dinosaur museum would be a better choice.

Some people didn’t tolerate it too well; after five minutes of chip-chip-chipping with the ol’ sweat drip-drip-dripping, they’d sit and yak with their neighbor, or check their watch to see if it was lunchtime yet. Not me, man. Turns out, fossil-hunter blood flows through my veins. I was content to dig for eight hours a day, heat or not, fueled by the anticipation of discovery.

Violators have been warned!

At first, the discoveries were modest: croc teeth and croc skin (called scute), dino dung (coprolite), small therapod teeth, mini-vertebrae, fish scales, weathered fossil bone, hadrosaur teeth, tortoise shell, and pieces of triceritops frill. But then came the day when we went to one of Jessica’s must-watch microsites.

Now Jessica Martin is PaleoWorld’s intrepid, ever-patient paleontologist and field leader. For the past three years, she had been dutifully keeping an eye on this area as it was sloughing off large pieces of rib bone. Three times a year she scouted the area, looking for the source — the dinosaur embedded in a sedimentary layer, eroding off bits of bone as it gradually became exposed and weathered. . . .

So on this day, while prospecting, I spotted a bone sticking out of a hillside and sounded the dinosaur-call. Jessica hurried over to the spot and, while clinging to the side of the hill, announced that it was, indeed, fossil bone. She called for her tools. The excitement was palpable. Would the bone continue into the hillside, or was it just a little piece temporarily embedded in the surface on its gravitational journey to the bottom? Jessica chipped away at the hillside while I stood alongside. At 10 inches the bone was still going strong. At 14 inches, still going. Finally, at a whopping 20 inches, the bone came to its natural end. Ecstatic and anticipating a soon-to-be-completely-exposed dinosaur, we named our discovery, Judy.  We even held a little Judy-celebration party which consisted of big smiles, plenty of woo-hoos, and the dancing of jigs. (Although identification is not yet absolute, we believe the bone to belong to a carnivore. A BIG carnivore!)

The next day, which was to be my final day, we precariously dove back into the hillside with our rock hammers and excitement, officially creating site #4 for PaleoWorld. Seven of us chipped and hammered away until the opening was so large we could stand in it. In the course of the day we uncovered a perfectly preserved tooth belonging, again, to a BIG carnivore! Possibly and hopefully, the same one! It was a thrilling end to what, I hope, is only the beginning. . . . I’ll keep tabs on the team and on “Judy” through their daily logs at www.paleoworld.org

Ten-year-old Liam gives fossil-hunting a try.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I’d like squatting in the dirt all day long under the hot Montana sun, chipping away at dirt or at a rock wall with my dino-hammer. PaleoWorld warned me when I signed up: “This is not a tour.” They weren’t kidding. If one doesn’t like heat, bugs, dirt, thundershowers, squatting, sitting on rocks, or hammering until your arm falls off, then maybe a visit to an air-conditioned dinosaur museum would be a better choice.

Some people didn’t tolerate it too well; after five minutes of chip-chip-chipping with the ol’ sweat drip-drip-dripping, they’d sit and yak with their neighbor, or check their watch to see if it was lunchtime yet. Not me, man. Turns out, fossil-hunter blood flows through my veins. I was content to dig for eight hours a day, heat or not, fueled by the anticipation of discovery.

Violators have been warned!

At first, the discoveries were modest: croc teeth and croc skin (called scute), dino dung (coprolite), small therapod teeth, mini-vertebrae, fish scales, weathered fossil bone, hadrosaur teeth, tortoise shell, and pieces of triceritops frill. But then came the day when we went to one of Jessica’s must-watch microsites.

Now Jessica Martin is PaleoWorld’s intrepid, ever-patient paleontologist and field leader. For the past three years, she had been dutifully keeping an eye on this area as it was sloughing off large pieces of rib bone. Three times a year she scouted the area, looking for the source — the dinosaur embedded in a sedimentary layer, eroding off bits of bone as it gradually became exposed and weathered. . . .

So on this day, while prospecting, I spotted a bone sticking out of a hillside and sounded the dinosaur-call. Jessica hurried over to the spot and, while clinging to the side of the hill, announced that it was, indeed, fossil bone. She called for her tools. The excitement was palpable. Would the bone continue into the hillside, or was it just a little piece temporarily embedded in the surface on its gravitational journey to the bottom? Jessica chipped away at the hillside while I stood alongside. At 10 inches the bone was still going strong. At 14 inches, still going. Finally, at a whopping 20 inches, the bone came to its natural end. Ecstatic and anticipating a soon-to-be-completely-exposed dinosaur, we named our discovery, Judy.  We even held a little Judy-celebration party which consisted of big smiles, plenty of woo-hoos, and the dancing of jigs. (Although identification is not yet absolute, we believe the bone to belong to a carnivore. A BIG carnivore!)

The next day, which was to be my final day, we precariously dove back into the hillside with our rock hammers and excitement, officially creating site #4 for PaleoWorld. Seven of us chipped and hammered away until the opening was so large we could stand in it. In the course of the day we uncovered a perfectly preserved tooth belonging, again, to a BIG carnivore! Possibly and hopefully, the same one! It was a thrilling end to what, I hope, is only the beginning. . . . I’ll keep tabs on the team and on “Judy” through their daily logs at www.paleoworld.org

While researching a book, I often am drawn to investigate a subject in more detail. Something has intrigued me. I must know more. . . .

This happened most recently while researching my book, The Case of the Terrible T. rex, book six in my Doyle and Fossey, Science Detectives mysteries series. I was neck-deep researching paleontology, including compiling a list of museums of natural history, and places where kids could go on summer dinosaur digs. As I investigated the dino-digs, I thought, I want to do that . . .

So here I am on the Levrick Homestead, thirty miles north of Jordan, Montana. Which is to say, in the middle of nowhere. This morning I packed sunglasses, sunblock, water bottle, TP, rain gear, camera and video equipment and headed off with a team of paleontologists, students, and amateur bone diggers like myself. In good spirits, we bumped our way along rutted tracks into the far north of Hell Creek basin, where some of the finest dinosaur fossils have been discovered, including the first Tyrannosaurus rex ever found in the world. (Prior to that, we never knew T. rexes existed!)

With picks in hand, we went to work on one of the excavation sites. For a while it was nothing but the soft thuds of our picks. As our intrepid leader, Jessica says, “There’s something about the sound of picks hammering in the early morning.” It’s a musical melody that rings of adventure. You never know what you will find . . .

Every now and then someone would stop and say, “I think I found something.” Sometimes it was nothing more than a rock. Sometimes a rather nondescript fossilized bone. But throughout the day, covered with dust as the Montana sun bore down on us, we unearthed mini-treasures millions of years old: fish scales, a rib bone, a toe bone, turtle shell, dinosaur teeth and dinosaur dung. . . .

I’ll be here for the next seven days. I’ll try to blog, but I’ll admit, I’m pretty wiped by the time we get back to camp. (Plus the Internet is touch-and-go.) In the meantime, I’ll keep playing that musical melody– discovering history, and having an adventure of a lifetime.

While researching a book, I often am drawn to investigate a subject in more detail. Something has intrigued me. I must know more. . . .

This happened most recently while researching my book, The Case of the Terrible T. rex, book six in my Doyle and Fossey, Science Detectives mysteries series. I was neck-deep researching paleontology, including compiling a list of museums of natural history, and places where kids could go on summer dinosaur digs. As I investigated the dino-digs, I thought, I want to do that . . .

So here I am on the Levrick Homestead, thirty miles north of Jordan, Montana. Which is to say, in the middle of nowhere. This morning I packed sunglasses, sunblock, water bottle, TP, rain gear, camera and video equipment and headed off with a team of paleontologists, students, and amateur bone diggers like myself. In good spirits, we bumped our way along rutted tracks into the far north of Hell Creek basin, where some of the finest dinosaur fossils have been discovered, including the first Tyrannosaurus rex ever found in the world. (Prior to that, we never knew T. rexes existed!)

With picks in hand, we went to work on one of the excavation sites. For a while it was nothing but the soft thuds of our picks. As our intrepid leader, Jessica says, “There’s something about the sound of picks hammering in the early morning.” It’s a musical melody that rings of adventure. You never know what you will find . . .

Every now and then someone would stop and say, “I think I found something.” Sometimes it was nothing more than a rock. Sometimes a rather nondescript fossilized bone. But throughout the day, covered with dust as the Montana sun bore down on us, we unearthed mini-treasures millions of years old: fish scales, a rib bone, a toe bone, turtle shell, dinosaur teeth and dinosaur dung. . . .

I’ll be here for the next seven days. I’ll try to blog, but I’ll admit, I’m pretty wiped by the time we get back to camp. (Plus the Internet is touch-and-go.) In the meantime, I’ll keep playing that musical melody– discovering history, and having an adventure of a lifetime.

I’m thrilled to have Holly Cupala as my guest this week. Her first novel for young adults, Tell Me a Secret (HarperTeen), is scheduled for release on June 22, 2010. Holly was kind enough to send me the first two chapters. Ten seconds after I finished devouring it, I was pre-ordering the book online! Author Lorie Ann Grover says Tell Me a Secret is “beautiful, complex and refined, in layers and sections like a stained glass window.” Award-winning author, Justina Chen, says it’s “insightful and very, very real. Thousands of girls are going to find such solace in this story.”

Holly is a long-time acquaintance from SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). I frequently saw her at our local chapter meetings “way back when,” learning the craft of writing, immersing herself in language and story. It’s a joy and a privilege to see her perseverance come to fruition. Congratulations, and thanks for joining us, Holly! 

How did you get started in writing? Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

First of all, thank you, Michele, for inviting me to visit your blog!

I think my first documented instance of fiction (the first my mom saved, anyways), was from circa first grade—a donut goes on a voyage, strolling down Candy Street, Pizza Street…you see what captured my attention back then. The stories continued, culminating in two teen romance novels in eighth grade. This was before I actually experienced teen romance. Afterward, I wrote some achingly forlorn poetry and short stories.

In college, I thought I wanted to write for adults so I studied literature. When I was just about to go on for my PhD and a teaching job, I realized I had abandoned my love of writing—and specifically, writing for a younger audience. So I joined SCBWI, took some classes and formed a critique group, and spent some years learning the craft.

What was your inspiration for TELL ME A SECRET?

I thought I wanted to write and illustrate picture books—I had this (I kid you not) 1,600 word epic rhyming picture book about the sun, moon, and stars. I still can’t believe they didn’t kick me out of SCBWI for that. But even though I wasn’t getting to the heart of anything meaningful, I value those years for teaching me how to write.

The story had to come from something much harder—first, the loss of a dear friend’s older sister, followed by the loss of our first child at birth. I almost gave up right there, but some very encouraging friends wouldn’t let me. TELL ME A SECRET fell out of the sky as a fully formed idea. I knew it was the book I was supposed to write, I just had to find the courage.

Miranda’s story isn’t mine, but much of her emotional journey came from the path I walked. I originally meant for the story to end differently, but it didn’t turn out that way—both stories finished with far more hope. (Our second little one just turned five!)

TELL ME A SECRET is your first novel for young adults. Describe the moment you first learned that the book had sold.

I was just about to catch a flight to the SCBWI conference in L.A., 2008! My agent sold it to the editor of my dreams, one I didn’t even dare hope would love my novel, in a two-book pre-empt. So I’m pretty sure I didn’t get on a plane. I flew myself, on a cloud of bliss.

Who inspires you?

I’m thrilled to have Holly Cupala as my guest this week. Her first novel for young adults, Tell Me a Secret (HarperTeen), is scheduled for release on June 22, 2010. Holly was kind enough to send me the first two chapters. Ten seconds after I finished devouring it, I was pre-ordering the book online! Author Lorie Ann Grover says Tell Me a Secret is “beautiful, complex and refined, in layers and sections like a stained glass window.” Award-winning author, Justina Chen, says it’s “insightful and very, very real. Thousands of girls are going to find such solace in this story.”

Holly is a long-time acquaintance from SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). I frequently saw her at our local chapter meetings “way back when,” learning the craft of writing, immersing herself in language and story. It’s a joy and a privilege to see her perseverance come to fruition. Congratulations, and thanks for joining us, Holly! 

How did you get started in writing? Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

First of all, thank you, Michele, for inviting me to visit your blog!

I think my first documented instance of fiction (the first my mom saved, anyways), was from circa first grade—a donut goes on a voyage, strolling down Candy Street, Pizza Street…you see what captured my attention back then. The stories continued, culminating in two teen romance novels in eighth grade. This was before I actually experienced teen romance. Afterward, I wrote some achingly forlorn poetry and short stories.

In college, I thought I wanted to write for adults so I studied literature. When I was just about to go on for my PhD and a teaching job, I realized I had abandoned my love of writing—and specifically, writing for a younger audience. So I joined SCBWI, took some classes and formed a critique group, and spent some years learning the craft.

What was your inspiration for TELL ME A SECRET?

I thought I wanted to write and illustrate picture books—I had this (I kid you not) 1,600 word epic rhyming picture book about the sun, moon, and stars. I still can’t believe they didn’t kick me out of SCBWI for that. But even though I wasn’t getting to the heart of anything meaningful, I value those years for teaching me how to write.

The story had to come from something much harder—first, the loss of a dear friend’s older sister, followed by the loss of our first child at birth. I almost gave up right there, but some very encouraging friends wouldn’t let me. TELL ME A SECRET fell out of the sky as a fully formed idea. I knew it was the book I was supposed to write, I just had to find the courage.

Miranda’s story isn’t mine, but much of her emotional journey came from the path I walked. I originally meant for the story to end differently, but it didn’t turn out that way—both stories finished with far more hope. (Our second little one just turned five!)

TELL ME A SECRET is your first novel for young adults. Describe the moment you first learned that the book had sold.

I was just about to catch a flight to the SCBWI conference in L.A., 2008! My agent sold it to the editor of my dreams, one I didn’t even dare hope would love my novel, in a two-book pre-empt. So I’m pretty sure I didn’t get on a plane. I flew myself, on a cloud of bliss.

Who inspires you?

For me, picking out a new book is as simple as reading its first page. Does it grab me? Do I want to read more? Do I want to read it badly enough to: a) check the book out? b) spend my hard-earned money on it?

As writers, it’s our job to draw the reader in, to make them care enough to keep turning the pages. One of the tricks-of-the-trade is to ask a story question. Story questions are statements that beg answering, situations that must resolve. Story questions can be monumental or minuscule and are woven throughout a story from beginning to end. When a story question is posed at the beginning of a book, it is called a hook. In general, hooks should occur within the first few sentences of the beginning of a story. Here are three examples of hooks (all first sentences):

• “The morning the wagon came to take Monette away, the air was biting crisp and a sheen of frost covered the canefields.” — The Dreaming by Michele Torrey (manuscript) (The hook: Why is a wagon coming to take Monette away, and where is it going to take her?)
• “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.” – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (The hook: How did Jem break his arm?)
• “It was almost December and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.” — The Giver by Lois Lowry (The hook: Why is Jonas beginning to be frightened?)

If you think about it, the word “hook” describes the art perfectly. We “hook” the reader; we cast a line baited with some yummy curiosity, a juicy worm that will pull the reader along, sometimes mercilessly. . . . They want to know the answer, they must know the answer. . . . Some story questions are quickly resolved, and rightly so. It would be a gross misuse of pacing to wait the entire novel to find out why the wagon is coming to take Monette away. As the story questions are resolved, you must introduce new story questions to take their place. Yet other story questions aren’t resolved so quickly, and some carry through the entire book. Jonas in The Giver only gradually begins to realize the extent and reason for his fear. It isn’t until the end of To Kill a Mockingbird that we discover why Jem broke his arm.

Now, compare the above examples with story openings that lack a story question:

• The yard was freshly mowed and the smell of baked bread wafted from the open window.
• Bored, Jeremy sat down to play with his toy soldiers.

These hook-less examples wouldn’t entice anyone. So unless you have a hook coming in the next sentence or two, or at least by the end of the first page, folks like me will likely put your book down and continue the hunt. After all, folks like me want juicy worms.

If you’re feeling some literary friskiness, try your hand at writing some hooks with these exercises:

1. Write a one-sentence “hook”

Examples:

“As soon as his mother arrived home, Jack knew he was in trouble.”

“Cassie knew the lump under the carpet was alive.”

2. Write a story opener with a hook

Example:

“It was an old photo, wrinkly-yellow, thumb-printy and dog-eared. Melanie traced Grandpa’s outline with a finger. Tears welled. If only I’d listened, she told herself, angry as on the day she’d thrown Mama’s best dish on the floor where it slammed and splintered, slivers under her slippers for weeks. If only I’d listened. He’d told me where to find the map, but I was too busy. And now it was too late. Grandpa was gone. All Melanie had left was her shoebox, stuffed with a few old photographs, a dried pansy, and a piece of fishing line. Not even a roof over her head. . . .”

Feel free to post your hooks. Most

For me, picking out a new book is as simple as reading its first page. Does it grab me? Do I want to read more? Do I want to read it badly enough to: a) check the book out? b) spend my hard-earned money on it?

As writers, it’s our job to draw the reader in, to make them care enough to keep turning the pages. One of the tricks-of-the-trade is to ask a story question. Story questions are statements that beg answering, situations that must resolve. Story questions can be monumental or minuscule and are woven throughout a story from beginning to end. When a story question is posed at the beginning of a book, it is called a hook. In general, hooks should occur within the first few sentences of the beginning of a story. Here are three examples of hooks (all first sentences):

• “The morning the wagon came to take Monette away, the air was biting crisp and a sheen of frost covered the canefields.” — The Dreaming by Michele Torrey (manuscript) (The hook: Why is a wagon coming to take Monette away, and where is it going to take her?)
• “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.” – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (The hook: How did Jem break his arm?)
• “It was almost December and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.” — The Giver by Lois Lowry (The hook: Why is Jonas beginning to be frightened?)

If you think about it, the word “hook” describes the art perfectly. We “hook” the reader; we cast a line baited with some yummy curiosity, a juicy worm that will pull the reader along, sometimes mercilessly. . . . They want to know the answer, they must know the answer. . . . Some story questions are quickly resolved, and rightly so. It would be a gross misuse of pacing to wait the entire novel to find out why the wagon is coming to take Monette away. As the story questions are resolved, you must introduce new story questions to take their place. Yet other story questions aren’t resolved so quickly, and some carry through the entire book. Jonas in The Giver only gradually begins to realize the extent and reason for his fear. It isn’t until the end of To Kill a Mockingbird that we discover why Jem broke his arm.

Now, compare the above examples with story openings that lack a story question:

• The yard was freshly mowed and the smell of baked bread wafted from the open window.
• Bored, Jeremy sat down to play with his toy soldiers.

These hook-less examples wouldn’t entice anyone. So unless you have a hook coming in the next sentence or two, or at least by the end of the first page, folks like me will likely put your book down and continue the hunt. After all, folks like me want juicy worms.

If you’re feeling some literary friskiness, try your hand at writing some hooks with these exercises:

1. Write a one-sentence “hook”

Examples:

“As soon as his mother arrived home, Jack knew he was in trouble.”

“Cassie knew the lump under the carpet was alive.”

2. Write a story opener with a hook

Example:

“It was an old photo, wrinkly-yellow, thumb-printy and dog-eared. Melanie traced Grandpa’s outline with a finger. Tears welled. If only I’d listened, she told herself, angry as on the day she’d thrown Mama’s best dish on the floor where it slammed and splintered, slivers under her slippers for weeks. If only I’d listened. He’d told me where to find the map, but I was too busy. And now it was too late. Grandpa was gone. All Melanie had left was her shoebox, stuffed with a few old photographs, a dried pansy, and a piece of fishing line. Not even a roof over her head. . . .”

Feel free to post your hooks. Most

We’ve all read them: books that stupify the senses for the first few pages or — ack! — the first few chapters. Like the literary troopers we are, we wade through those mind-dulling pages, meanwhile muttering incantations, It will get better . . . Any minute now something wonderful will happen . . .

If even the pros fall prey to such yawningly slow beginnings, how much more susceptible is the novice writer? Very, as it turns out. Often novice writers begin their stories thinking that they have to tell us everything up front in order for us to understand what’s going on. I’ve read middle grade manuscripts in which twenty or more characters are introduced in the first chapter alone, not because those characters were necessary to the chapter, mind you, but because the writer was under a “can’t-leave-anything-out” evil spell. The irony is, these tell-all openings are less intelligible than if the writer used a “need-to-know” approach.

So where should you begin your story? The general rule of thumb is to begin your story at the moment your character experiences a dramatic life change:

• On the day the girl’s father mysteriously disappears.
• On the day the high school valedictorian opens the letter from Harvard, declining him admittance.
• On the morning of the fire.

You would be surprised at how little information is really needed before the story is off and running. The Newbery Honor book, HATCHET, by Gary Paulsen, makes a great example. Chapter one opens with the teen character, Brian, the sole passenger aboard a single engine plane bound out of New York. Already we know something unusual is happening. Where is Brian going and why? Soon we discover his parents have divorced; it was messy and there is a secret involved. Paulsen doesn’t divulge the secret, because keeping secrets creates suspense. So we keep reading . . . We soon learn that Brian is headed to his father’s home in Canada for the summer. We’re flying over northern Canada now and, even if we hadn’t read the back cover, we have a gnawing sense that something bad is about to happen . . . Paulsen uses the escalating suspense as an opportunity to feed us tidbits of information. When we have enough information to understand Brian’s situation, the endless custody battles, to feel sympathy for Brian as a character, sure enough, the pilot has a heart attack and we are, henceforth, riveted . . . in it together. We crash-land in a freezing cold lake with a dead pilot beside us. It’s a fight for survival and no one knows we’re here . . .

Note that Paulsen begins the story on the day everything changes for Brian — the day the plane crashes, leaving him stranded in the wilderness. Note also that Paulsen frames his beginning– who his character is, why we need to care about the character, what the character is doing and why — within the context of a scene. We learn all this while Brian is flying, while a cold certainty comes over us that something bad is about to happen. Present scene, overlayed with backstory, creates a perfect balance for a perfect beginning. Once the plane has crashed, Paulsen continues to weave backstory into the present survival story.

Now, just so we’re clear, the beginning didn’t have to work this way. Paulsen could have thrown you immediately into the action: the plane crashes. The challenge for Paulsen would then become how to introduce Brian and make us care. It can be done, but it’s tough. Or, Paulsen could have had just the plane ride, followed by the crash, followed by the backstory. All or nothing: action / inaction. The challenge for Paulsen would then be to avoid stupification. To pace the story appropriately so that it had a compelling balance of action, thoughts, dialogue, and narration. So while the beginning didn’t have to begin the way it did, it was neve

We’ve all read them: books that stupify the senses for the first few pages or — ack! — the first few chapters. Like the literary troopers we are, we wade through those mind-dulling pages, meanwhile muttering incantations, It will get better . . . Any minute now something wonderful will happen . . .

If even the pros fall prey to such yawningly slow beginnings, how much more susceptible is the novice writer? Very, as it turns out. Often novice writers begin their stories thinking that they have to tell us everything up front in order for us to understand what’s going on. I’ve read middle grade manuscripts in which twenty or more characters are introduced in the first chapter alone, not because those characters were necessary to the chapter, mind you, but because the writer was under a “can’t-leave-anything-out” evil spell. The irony is, these tell-all openings are less intelligible than if the writer used a “need-to-know” approach.

So where should you begin your story? The general rule of thumb is to begin your story at the moment your character experiences a dramatic life change:

• On the day the girl’s father mysteriously disappears.
• On the day the high school valedictorian opens the letter from Harvard, declining him admittance.
• On the morning of the fire.

You would be surprised at how little information is really needed before the story is off and running. The Newbery Honor book, HATCHET, by Gary Paulsen, makes a great example. Chapter one opens with the teen character, Brian, the sole passenger aboard a single engine plane bound out of New York. Already we know something unusual is happening. Where is Brian going and why? Soon we discover his parents have divorced; it was messy and there is a secret involved. Paulsen doesn’t divulge the secret, because keeping secrets creates suspense. So we keep reading . . . We soon learn that Brian is headed to his father’s home in Canada for the summer. We’re flying over northern Canada now and, even if we hadn’t read the back cover, we have a gnawing sense that something bad is about to happen . . . Paulsen uses the escalating suspense as an opportunity to feed us tidbits of information. When we have enough information to understand Brian’s situation, the endless custody battles, to feel sympathy for Brian as a character, sure enough, the pilot has a heart attack and we are, henceforth, riveted . . . in it together. We crash-land in a freezing cold lake with a dead pilot beside us. It’s a fight for survival and no one knows we’re here . . .

Note that Paulsen begins the story on the day everything changes for Brian — the day the plane crashes, leaving him stranded in the wilderness. Note also that Paulsen frames his beginning– who his character is, why we need to care about the character, what the character is doing and why — within the context of a scene. We learn all this while Brian is flying, while a cold certainty comes over us that something bad is about to happen. Present scene, overlayed with backstory, creates a perfect balance for a perfect beginning. Once the plane has crashed, Paulsen continues to weave backstory into the present survival story.

Now, just so we’re clear, the beginning didn’t have to work this way. Paulsen could have thrown you immediately into the action: the plane crashes. The challenge for Paulsen would then become how to introduce Brian and make us care. It can be done, but it’s tough. Or, Paulsen could have had just the plane ride, followed by the crash, followed by the backstory. All or nothing: action / inaction. The challenge for Paulsen would then be to avoid stupification. To pace the story appropriately so that it had a compelling balance of action, thoughts, dialogue, and narration. So while the beginning didn’t have to begin the way it did, it was neve

March by Geraldine Brooks


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In the classic, LITTLE WOMEN, we, as readers, become intimately acquainted the four “little women,” and their mother, Mrs. March. However, we know little about their father who is away from home, serving the Union army as a chaplain during the Civil War.

In her Pulitzer prize-winning book, MARCH, author Geraldine Brooks writes from the perspective of Mr. March. She bases his absent character upon what is known of Louisa May Alcott’s actual father. (LITTLE WOMEN is based upon Ms. Alcott’s family life, Louisa May being the impetuous, aspiring writer, “Jo”.) While MARCH is slow to start and seems to initially flounder about without a sense of direction, it soon sharpens into a compelling, focused narrative. Mr. March’s abolitionist idealism is juxtaposed against the realities of slavery and the depredations of war, an idealism which eventually costs Mr. March his innocence. Ultimately, it is a story of love and war, betrayal and heartbreak. The imaginative, heart-felt story, the poetic language and rich tapestry of setting, make MARCH a classic in its own right.

View all my reviews >>

March by Geraldine Brooks


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In the classic, LITTLE WOMEN, we, as readers, become intimately acquainted the four “little women,” and their mother, Mrs. March. However, we know little about their father who is away from home, serving the Union army as a chaplain during the Civil War.

In her Pulitzer prize-winning book, MARCH, author Geraldine Brooks writes from the perspective of Mr. March. She bases his absent character upon what is known of Louisa May Alcott’s actual father. (LITTLE WOMEN is based upon Ms. Alcott’s family life, Louisa May being the impetuous, aspiring writer, “Jo”.) While MARCH is slow to start and seems to initially flounder about without a sense of direction, it soon sharpens into a compelling, focused narrative. Mr. March’s abolitionist idealism is juxtaposed against the realities of slavery and the depredations of war, an idealism which eventually costs Mr. March his innocence. Ultimately, it is a story of love and war, betrayal and heartbreak. The imaginative, heart-felt story, the poetic language and rich tapestry of setting, make MARCH a classic in its own right.

View all my reviews >>

Next week I’ll be a part of the faculty at the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Spring conference in Portland, Oregon. Besides teaching various workshops, I have the privilege to participate in a WOW panel. In WOW, attendees pre-submit the first page of a manuscript. The first pages are read aloud (anonymously) and in random order, after which Scholastic editor Anna Bloom and I must respond. Distilled to its blunt essence, a WOW session asks the question, “Would you turn the page?”

Sounds straightforward, but alas, nothing is so easy. Aspiring writers aren’t the only ones who wear their hearts on their sleeves — even us old stogies can be like trembling rose petals waiting to be crushed. Responding to the pages in the WOW session will require honesty yet compassion. It will require an ear for good storytelling, recommendations for revision, mixed with the bunny-eat-bunny realities of the children’s publishing industry.

A few weeks ago I attended a “First Pages” session at an SCBWI conference in Redmond, Washington, in which Elizabeth Law of Egmont USA Publishing and literary agent Michael Bourret commented on the first pages. They must have read forty first pages, and out of those forty I could count only two in which I personally would have turned the page, and even those two didn’t blow me away. As I sat there, I kept wondering what was missing from those other thirty-eight. The answer was myriad and complicated, but also simple and at the heart of writing itself. And while I can’t answer my own question in the space of this one post, I propose to teach the elements of story beginnings in a series of weekly installments. So send a quick prayer up to the powers that be for my WOW session in Portland, and meanwhile, stay tuned . . .

Maybe I’m tootin’ my own horn here, but I just have to say that the writing community here in the Pacific Northwest is pretty dang awesome. Not only are we a creative, friendly, and professional bunch, but we’re generous too.

Not long ago, I asked my local writing community for book donations to help orphans in Tanzania. (Orphans Africa, a non-profit 501 (c) 3 charity which I co-founded, was having its first gala dinner and auction and we needed auction items.) Two days after I broadcast my plea, I received some beautiful autographed books. That was only the beginning. Over the next few weeks, autographed books flooded into my local post office, eliciting raised eyebrows from the postmaster as I walked out each day, arms piled high. Picture books, novels for children and adults, self-help books, inspirational books, chapter books for young readers . . . the writers of the Pacific Northwest sent their very best. Their generosity literally brought me to tears.

So this is my official group hug. To each of you who gave, thank you and God bless you. And for those of you who attended the auction and purchased book baskets, wow! We raised over $17,000 at our auction, enough to nearly complete a kitchen and dining hall at our nursery and primary boarding school for orphans! Even now, our official group hug is reaching across the ocean to embrace children who otherwise wouldn’t have a chance at a quality education. It is essential to their well-being to know that people care about them.

The following authors generously donated books. As an extended group hug, I invite you to visit their websites, peek around, and post your accolades and appreciation. They deserve it.

Kobbie Alamo

Andrea Torrey Balsara

Anjali Banerjee

Carole Stevens Bibisi

David Bouchard

Martha Brockenbrough

Royce Buckingham

Dia Calhoun

Janet Lee Carey

Nina Durfee

Marilou Flinkman

Heather Vogel Frederick

Kathryn Galbraith

Ron Hirschi

Peg Kehret

Judith Laik

Kirby Larson

Margaret Lippert

Susan Marlow

Clare Hodgson Meeker

Gretchen Olson<

Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Even as one who has spent considerable time in Africa, “in the trenches,” so to speak, one who has many African friends, I cannot say that I truly understand Africans. Their different ways of thinking, their cultures, their perceptions, often leave me, a white Western woman, bewildered and exasperated. Should I spend the remainder of my life among them, I believe I would always be aware of the vast gulf of understanding that stands between us and my own ingrained and presumptive Western ideologies. That’s why it’s invaluable to run across a book that helps me to understand, as much as I am able, the African social and familial ideologies that so fundamentally differ from my own.

SAY YOU’RE ONE OF THEM by Uwem Akpan is a collection of five short stories, each written through the point-of-view of an African child. From the genocide in Rwanda to the epidemic of violence in Nigeria, the children narrate the events of their lives — the prejudices and fears, the joys and the horrors, through writing that is both vivid and stark. Born and raised in Nigeria, Akpan has truly captured the voice and heart of Africa’s children. Through their chatter, their confusion, their longings, and their grief, the children communicate universal needs: to be loved, to be secure, and to be happy.

When we allow ourselves to be as children, willing to give love and be loved unconditionally, then we embrace these universal needs as fundamental human rights. And when we do that, all ideologies that before stood like fortressed walls between us, crumble into dust.

Michele Torrey
www.orphansafrica.com

View all my reviews >>

If you’ve been thinking that I’ve dropped off the edge of the planet, you’re right. I’ve been embroiled in some nasty computer issues. (Look closely enough, and you’ll see bald patches on my scalp where I’ve torn out my hair.) It all started about a year ago when I bought a new PC with a Vista operating system. Over the next few months it acted like a child throwing a tantrum. I took it in to the doctor for analysis, and it came back just as ornery as ever. So when I heard about the Windows 7 upgrade, I thought, yippee! My troubles are over! So in November I happily changed my operating system to Windows 7, not knowing that in that little green box was the devil incarnate, just waiting to send me and my computer to techno hell.

I’ll spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say that my new/old PC now lies smoldering in the dust heap, while I type this on my spanking new Macbook Pro. But I couldn’t leave the PC world behind entirely, no indeed. After all, the wheels of the publishing industry turn on PCs. It’s comply or die. So I solved my dilemma with a MAC program that allows me to run a virtual PC in my MAC. It’s literally two computers in one, and I’m loving it. I feel like I’ve awakened from a sweating, gripping nightmare to see the sun peeking over the horizon and hear the birds chirp.

All this has got me thinking. Just how and when did my life became so interconnected with computers, the Internet, and email? Just when did my entire day get flushed down the loo if my computer froze or had to spend a week with Dr. PC? Anymore my days consist of dozens of emails, electronic manuscripts, copyedits in WORD, htmls and pdfs and jpgs and tifs, chirps and tweets. In fact, there’s so much techno “support” for my career that I can hardly get any writing squeezed in there.

I’ve begun to pine for the good ol’ days, days when authors used ink pots and quill pens. When they didn’t have spell checker and actually had to get off their butts to pull the dictionary off the shelf. Mary Shelley was only twenty years old when she finished her novel, FRANKENSTEIN. As the story of its creation goes, it was a contest between friends as to who could write the scariest story. (Apparently they were holed up in some villa near Lake Geneva. The weather was nasty.) Now mind you, the contest was not who could watch the most movies, or who could post the most tweets, or who could text the fastest, but who could write the scariest story. Kind of scary when you think about it. A whole bunch of people choosing to go to their separate rooms and simply write. With old-fashioned ink on old-fashioned paper. Probably illumined by the light of an oil lamp. On a hard chair.

Thinking of Mary Shelley, I sometimes wonder if I’ve lost my center. Any time a piece of machinery can hold the key to my happiness/success/productivity (circle one), then something’s seriously out of whack. I don’t know the answers. I’ll think about it. I think it’s all tied up with future progress somehow. Like we’re all headed somewhere important and only computers can take us there. Meanwhile, I’ve got some tweeting to do. And laundry. But this evening I think I’ll kick back and read FRANKENSTEIN. Should be easy enough. After all, it’s on my Kindle.

In response to yesterday’s blog post (Historical Research Q&A), someone asked me the following:

Q: I’m wondering how to best organize and keep track of my research. I could do it by putting everything in computer folders, say one for each location. Then, I’ll need a plot and subplot folder, one for laws of the period, a character folder…it goes on. How do you keep it all organized and accessible? Of course I am documenting my sources so I can find them again. So I guess my question is more about how to manage what I find. I want the information at my fingertips, but don’t want to write an elaborate index.

This is a toughie, but I think I’ve got it licked. How best to do it might depend upon the size of your project. Someone has suggested using Microsoft OneNote or similar program. This is probably a good suggestion, especially if the project is fairly modest in size. However, my research methods predate Microsoft OneNote, so I’m afraid I might be a bit antiquated in my methods. Antiquated or not, I’ve developed a method in which I can keep years of notes organized and accessible at a moment’s notice, using WORD, or a similar program.

When I first receive material, let’s say THE CIVIL WAR by Geoffrey Ward, I start by entering it into my Bibliography (Bib), the first document I will create. Every subsequent work I study goes into the Bib. This way I never lose track of what I’ve read, and my Bib will be comprehensive and ready to send to an editor if they ask for it. I include websites, journal articles, newspaper articles, etc., in my Bib. Once I’ve recorded THE CIVIL WAR book in my Bib, I start reading.

When I find some tidbit I want to keep, for example, info on the Battle of Port Hudson, I create a WORD document called “Port Hudson.” I’ll file this document under a more general folder I’ve created called, “CIVIL WAR.” In the Port Hudson document I then notate my source plus the corresponding page number. If it’s a small paragraph of info, I’ll just type it into the document. Better yet, my computer has speech recognition software, so I just read the paragraph and let my computer do the work. When finished my Port Hudson document will look something like this:

CIVIL WAR (Ward) 137: The battle of Port Hudson was one of the major  . . . blah blah blah.

Then, as I read on, whenever I run across additional information on Port Hudson, I’ll add it to the Port Hudson document. This is true even as I move on to other sources. All Port Hudson material, regardless of source, will end up in that document.

If the document starts to get cumbersome– now, let’s say, it’s 20 pages long– I might further divide it into subdocuments, organized under a new folder called Port Hudson (a subfolder of the CIVIL WAR main folder). In this case, examples of sub-document titles might be: General Dwight, Day of Surrender, Daily Life, Siege, Rations, and so on.

A year later when I need information on what my character might eat at the battle at Port Hudson, I open my Civil War/Port Hudson/Rations document, and there is all the information I want, with all the various sources documented, including page numbers in case I ever need to go back and reread something. When you organize in this way, years of research can literally be at your fingertips in SECONDS.

When you first start researching you might be a little hazy as to how to organize and what to name your folders. Not to worry– just do the best you can, knowing that as you go along you can further refine your folders and documents.

Sometimes there are entire chapters (or more) of a source that I want to keep on hand. Rather than dictate twenty pages into my computer, I’ll do one of three things: 1) Depending on how important the source is and how much I think I’ll use it in the future, I may purchase the material. In my WORD docum