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Thanks to you, in just the first 73 days of this holiday quarter, we’ve already sold millions of our all-new Kindles with the latest E Ink Pearl display. In fact, in the last 73 days, readers have purchased more Kindles than we sold during all of 2009. We’re grateful for and energized by the overwhelming customer response.
Thanks! May you always Find your Way!
Thank YOU, too! The Kindle version of my teen fantasy, The Wayfinder, has been in the top rankings of Amazon this week, reaching a 3500+ rank for a couple days. Thanks! It’s fun to see this book find its way to Kindles that might reach teens.
If you have ordered a Kindle for a teen, teacher, friend or yourself, you can preload it with The Wayfinder by downloading here. Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still read it with a free app for your PC. Here’s where you can give it as a gift. Or order for a Nook here. It’s priced at $2.99, a bargain!
Promotion. I’m targeting several promotion efforts over the course of this week. The Wayfinder is featured today on Kindle Nation Daily. When the Amazon sales rank went under 10,000, I started to publicize that success, with Tweets, posts on Facebook and other lists that I’m on.
THE DREAM OF PUBLISHING MEETS THE REALITY OF PROMOTION
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Expires at midnight 8/20/2010.
You’ve just sold a book and are facing the task of book promotion and publicity. Like all of us, you hope that your book will gain a wide readership. You want appreciation for your literary work, you want your career to jump-start, so you can write more books, not just this one. You’re hoping your name will soon be a household name and fans will anxiously be waiting for your next title.
But your publisher has a low budget for promotion and publicity for your book. Maybe you’re a mid-lister and you feel ignored. You understand that it’s hard to break through the cluttered media and capture the attention of readers. Really, all you want is to be able to explain your book, to tell the story behind your writing it, so the reader will understand it better.
No, what you really want is to forget all the publicity stuff and just write.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was one, simple, easy way to get word-of-mouth started? Let your readers spread the word for you. Readers telling readers about your book, until they turn it into a best-seller, a classic. Fans telling fans about your book until there are enough fans they even start anticipating your next book.
In this uncertain world of publishing, there are no guarantees. But the online world has given us possibilities, especially book videos or book trailers. Think about how many times you’ve gotten email from a friend with a link to an exciting video. You watch it, right? Give people something to talk about with a great book trailer!
I’ve also added a blog to the Book Trailer Manual site and plan to post weekly updates, such as new sites to submit trailers to, hints/tips on how to create better trailers and how to use it in marketing.
To subscribe to it you can do one of two things:
If you already subscribe to Fiction Notes through email, then click at the bottom of the message to update your profile. Add the Book Trailer Manual newsletter to your subscription.
If you don’t subscribe to any of our newsletters, you can do that here.
You’ll receive emails whenever the blog(s) are updated, with a copy of that posting. So convenient!
This weekend, my new how-to book is released. To accompany The Book Trailer Manual, I’ve started BookTrailerManual.com, a blog about book trailers.
Here’s links to the first few posts:
If you have a new book trailer, I’d love to feature it. But I don’t want to just showcase the trailer: instead, I’d like to interview you or let you do a guest post about how to make trailers, where to distribute, solving problems related to trailers, reviews of software, etc. Send me an email at darcy at darcypattison dot com.
I rarely post personal things, but good news is made to be shared. This story begins a couple years ago when I was looking at what I was writing and realized I’d like to also write something about nature. I started looking for picture book ideas on nature and looking a possible publishers. I found an innovative company, Sylvan Dell Publishing.
Besides great marketing to the education market, they also market well to trade, especially the gift and specialty bookstores of parks and museums. Last year, I went to Sanibel Island, Florida and the local bookstore there stocked many of their ocean/beach related books. There is a wilderness area on the island to preserve the mangrove islands and various wildlife and the bookstore at the park also carried SD books.
So, I wrote a story for them and the editor, Donna German liked it. Here’s another place they are innovative. Instead of acquiring books throughout the year, they hold manuscripts until near the end of the year. German does regular culling of mss every month or so, but winds up with about 50 manuscripts she likes. Then, the company goes through a rigorous decision process before acquiring the ten manuscripts which will comprise their next list. This process allows them to balance a year’s list in many ways. Realizing that this is a different way of deciding on manuscripts, SD accommodates the author’s needs: if your mss is being held for the annual acquisition meeting, you are still free to submit elsewhere. If you are interested in submitting, you MUST read their guidelines, as they are also unique. Expect a fast reply.
I decided that I liked their innovations in marketing to both education and trade markets, in both English and Spanish, in both hardcover and paperback. I submitted!
New Picture Book: Prairie Storms, August, 2011
My picture book, PRAIRIE STORMS, has been accepted by Sylvan Dell for a August, 2011 release. It is the story of how animals survive a year of storms on the prairie.
The illustrator will be Kathleen Rietz. I LOVE this picture, “Symphony in a Pond,” and can’t wait to see how this talented artist does the various storms and animals in the book.
Picture Book = Adventure
This picture book is already an adventure. My research on the prairies ranged far and wide, and mostly it was about those places in Kansas and farther north. But SD asked for an author’s photo, preferably something related to the topic of the book. That’s easy for someone writing about a dog. But the prairie ecosystem has dwindled so much that authentic prairie is hard to find.
Still, I took a look around and found an option. In Arkansas, the eastern alluv
Today, I’m chillaxing (see Def. #1). I deserve it, I think you’ll agree. I finished the 3rd major revision of my novel yesterday. Wahoo!
Don’t worry, plot will be back on Monday.
My plan for today is to Chillax
So, here are the chillaxy things I plan to do today:
Behind the scenes Blog Tweaks. Finish tweaking the newly installed Events plugin, which nicely produces an Events Page, listing my speaking engagements. This year, I’ll go to Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, Texas, Upstate New York and Alabama. If you’re anywhere close, come! And be sure to introduce yourself!
Read YOUR blogs-here are some gems I’ve recently bookmarked.
So, many more great posts – who can list them all? But be assured, I’m reading your posts today!
Read my daughter’s new blog, Sticks, Rocks and Dirt. She’s a vegan. People often ask her–seriously unable to fathom this dietary lifestyle, “What do you eat?” Her standard answer is “Sticks, rocks and dirt.” Hence, the blog. She’s living now in Denver and loves the whole “eat locally” philosophy.
Brainstorm. Work on my new Friday Ideas word: clumsy.
Talk and listen, listen and talk. Meet a friend for coffee.
Clean my office? Nah, I’ll do that next week.
Shameless Commerce Division – More Blog Tweaks
As the Car Talk guys always say, this is the Shameless Commerce Division. I now have several eBooks available. I’ll be tweaking the lousy thumbnail images, which I never seem to get right:
As freelance writers, we often need to look for creative ways to generate income to pay those pesky bills. One solid way for me has been to teach professional development sessions in the summer, continuing education classes for teachers which are required for renewal of their certification.
Teaching Professional Development Classes for Teachers
In my area, this is the time of year to send out proposals to schools and to our state’s education service cooperative (or regional centers for professional development). Now is when they are planning and scheduling summer classes. I’m offering to custom tailor a session to their needs, but I’m also giving them these specific sessions which I could teach:
Paper Lightning: Prewriting Activities to Spark Creativity and Help Students Write Better.
Based on my book, Paper Lightning, this session covers prewriting activities for the full range of writing tasks including all essays and writing fiction, with special attention to activities that fulfill the prewriting portion of the writing standards in the English Language Arts Curriculum Standards. This includes moving from oral to written language, selecting a topic, narrowing a topic, how prewriting can help make essays longer and more in-depth, organizing information and ideas, and more. Drafting, editing, revising and publishing standards will be addressed as appropriate. (3 or 6 hours; K-8) Download sample pages from Paper Lightning.
Write a Picture Book
This session encourages a teacher’s own creative writing by developing a picture book idea into a finished manuscript. The session covers the genres of picture books, picture book standards, plot, characters, and language. Text is put into a dummy format to simulate a picture book format.
(3 or 6 hours; for any teacher)
What’s New in Children’s (or YA) Literature
I’m also current on new releases in children’s literature from kindergarten through young adult and would be glad to develop sessions for your teachers on any topic, any grade level.
Tips on Developing Professional Development Classes
Talk to your teacher-friends to see how many hours of professional development are required, where they usually take these hours and what are their favorite classes to take.
Find contact information for those in charge of professional development. This might be at a local school district, it might be a school principal, or the state department of education might have this information on its website.
Study your state’s language arts curriculum standards with an eye toward what you could teach. I focus on the writing standards, but you may prefer to focus on the reading standards.
Evaluate your strengths/weaknesses in areas covered by the curriculum standards. What could you effectively teach? What would you like teaching? Can you tie this into one of your books, for example, teaching history teachers about Hitler’s Germany?
Develop a solid proposal that fills a need in the teaching community.
Emphasize the curriculum. Usually by tying your proposal into curriculum standards, you’ll hit a sweet spot.
Provide teaching level targeted. Is this class for K or 8th grade teachers? If not already evident, also spec
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My novel, The Wayfinder, is now available in two different digital versions. You can still find used copies of the book on Amazon, Abebooks and other online stores. In addition, you can download the novel from Amazon’s Kindle store and from Mobipocket’s Ebook store.
Amazon’s version requires the Kindle, Amazon’s exclusive ebook reader. Mobipocket can be read on almost every ebook reader or on a free desktop reader (a fast download).
I hated it when, about ten years ago, my local library went to the online digital version of the reference book, Books in Print. I tried to look up something about quilts. There were about 5-600 entries beginning with Quilt in the title, and in the paper version, I’d just flip a couple pages and Voila! 2 seconds to find what I needed. In the online version, I had to go through about 30-40 screens before I came to the end of the Quilt titles. Wasted time. Are digital versions or ebooks still a waste of time? Maybe.
Are Ebooks Viable? Yes.
When are ebooks used the most? When traveling.
Friends report that they love to load up several ebooks and keep the weight down in their luggage. Ebooks are used in schools, when textbooks are changed often, as a way to reduce costs to the student. Ebooks are here to stay and will probably co-exist with paper versions for a long time.
We’re going to read ebooks, that battle has been won. The next question is this: are dedicated ebook readers the best option for reading ebooks? Should you buy a Kindle or Sony ebook reader (or some other brand) as a Christmas gift?
Dedicated Readers, iPods and Screens. The biggest problem with reading ebooks has traditionally been the inferior quality of screens and the eye-strain of reading from a screen. In some ways, this is a McGuffin, because, well, we all read online right now, and many of us read many hours a day from a computer screen.
Enter e-ink. It is supposed to be a higher quality, less eye-strain and should be available in color in another year or so. So, let’s agree that the screen-quality problem is about to be solved, or else call it a moot point.
What Happened While You Were So Self-Absorbed. But there’s a complication when deciding on how to read ebooks: technology hasn’t stood still while e-ink has been developing. We now have the iPhone and other smart phones. Here’s where I think the current discussion of ebooks goes wrong. I mean, how many pieces of technology do I want to carry around? The answer for most of us is, not many. Which is why the Apps market for smart phones is so dynamic right now. If I’m carrying around this smart phone, which is always hooked up to the net, then why not do everything on this one piece of equipment.
Optimal Screen Size for Multiple Tasks. Which changes the problem from screen quality to screen size. What is the optimal size screen for multiple tasks? For me, most smart phones fail this test. I want huge, 18″ or bigger, flat-screen, best-quality-I-can-afford monitors. But you can’t carry THAT around with you. And now, we’re down to this question: what size screen is the best compromise for portability, flexibility and easy viewing? What’s the best compromise of features and quality?
Do you see what has changed? My requirements for an ebook reader has been changed by the advent of smart phones. I now want one piece of electronics that has instant, almost-everywhere access to the internet; the screen must be large enough to read comfortably (very important), so I have flexibility in choosing what tasks I’ll do on this device; it wouldn’t hurt either, if it also included a keyboard in a usable size, instead of the teensy-tiny Blackberry and other smart phone keyboards.
Netbooks. For me, the answer is a NetBook.
Can you read ebooks on a netbook? Yes.
Is the netbook dedicated to one and only one task of reading an ebook? No. It’s versatile.
A Celebration of States. Last week, right before Thanksgiving, I visited the El Dorado, AR school for a celebration of the states. The GT classes had been studying the US states: each student made a “suitcase” using a cardboard box the size of a boot box. They painted, collaged, and decorated it with images about and from their assigned state. Inside, they put pictures of famous people, flags, state bird, state flowers, selected items and puppets. In addition, each student had a short oral presentation on their state.
To support their hard work, I was there to talk about The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman, my story about a wooden man who crossed the US to connect a family. It was great fun to talk to these students because they knew the US map so intimately.
Congratulations to all the students who worked so hard on their state boxes!
I’ve been chugging along on my novel revision, enjoying how the scenes are coming together. But it’s time to stop and take a wider look at the structure of the novel. Sigh. I’m not pleased. I was enjoying the pace of revisions and starting to enjoy the rhythm I had established of reading and marking up a scene at night and re-writing it the next day. But the scene I was reading last night has that major plot point that I’ve got to solve before moving on.
It’s time to pull out Novel Metamorphosis and go back to the basics: Write down the basic plot points for this subplot, pinpoint where it changes from the last draft and re-plot. It must be done now, before the plot begins to spaghetti out of control–if it hasn’t already.
Placeholders in a First Draft
My plot problems are caused by a complication which my readers found unbelievable. Even when writing that first draft of the novel, I probably knew I’d face this in the revision. But I didn’t know what else to put there. I like the idea of placeholders, ideas or chunks of writing or simply a phrase which hold a place in the story until I can come back and spend time replacing it
When I come back to re-evaluate the place holder, here’s my criteria:
Unique, fresh, unusual. I’m looking for something to “stand out in today’s crowded marketplace.” I’m thinking about how to push in some direction that is unexpected, different. (How many ways can you even say, unique, fresh, unusual, different? Even THAT expression is tired.)
Appropriate and fits story. I’m lazy, too. I want something that fits the current story with the least amount of change involved. I go for unique first and do huge revisions if necessary. But really, why would I wish extra work on myself? Sometimes, just a bit more brainstorming will unearth an alternative that works and involves the least revising.
So, that’s my plan for today: fire up the ol’ brain cells and try to find my way out of the maze of novel plotting.
I’m going through a couple of transitions right now.
I’m moving my office up to the third floor of our Victorian house that serves as office for myself and my DH’s business. In relation to that, I note that Art Slade, Canadian author extraordinaire, has a treadmill desk. Why am I mentioning this?
Because I’m going walking, too. I bought a used treadmill that is very quiet and have set it up as a computer desk. I’m trying it!
I’m looking at mapping programs to find one that will let me set up my own route across the US or somewhere else.
Second, my youngest son starts college next week. He moves into the dorm next Sunday; oddly, that also means he moves out of our house that day. I never thought of it that way when I went off to college, but it’s true. I’ve no idea of what that will mean overall, but it will change.
Third, I’ve started a second Facebook. Thanks to ALL of you who asked me to be your Friend. The first Facebook account will be just local friends and family. The second is for all of you! If you want to friend-me, look for the one that has a picture of Oliver K. Woodman as the profile picture. That also means that if you’re on my friends/family account, I’ll ask you to move to the other one. Please don’t be offended by this: I want to see pictures from my kids and their friends and I want to be freer in what I share with them. I’ll still share all my good news with you!
Halversons Take Oliver to Portugal, Spain, France and London, England
One of the nicest things about working on the Oliver K. Woodman books were my editors at Harcourt. They were smart, efficient and experts in making a picture book’s text and images come together.
Deborah Halverson did most of the editing work on Searching for Oliver K. Woodman. Then — well, her life took an interesting turn: she had triplets. Yes, three sons.
Add to that, she sold two YA novels of her own!
Add to that, she decided to stay home with her sons and enjoy them and write.
Add to that, her DH decided to do a year as an exchange teacher in England.
You saw it here first! Oliver has a new website and he’s having lots of fun this summer!
Geotagging: A Social App for Geography Fun
Our knowledge of geography is becoming more sophisticated: If you own a smart phone, like the Apple iPhone 3G or some Blackberrys, the phone will automatically adds geotags – location information – to every photo snapped. But can Americans locate those places on a map? Not likely.
Echoing every major study of geographic knowledge in the U.S. or Great Britain over the last decade, Americans performed dismally on the 2007 Facebook application, “Traveler IQ Challenge.” Out of 193 nations, US players ranked 117th.
2006 surveys indicate that over 70% of US high school graduates couldn’t answer these simple questions correctly (See answers below):
What is the most commonly spoken native language in the world?
What is the largest Muslim country in the world?
What country is the largest exporter of goods and services?
Can Technology Help Teach Geography?
Children’s book author Darcy Pattison says, “I like writing stories for kids that incorporate maps and geography knowledge. I don’t know why I’m drawn to these stories, since I’m not a good navigator. Maybe it’s because maps are a form of storytelling, too.”
The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman, a story about a wooden man who travels across the country to connect a family. In the sequel, Searching for Oliver K. Woodman, Oliver starts cross-country again, but when he’s lost a wooden woman, Imogene Poplar, P.I. searches for him.
It’s not surprising, then, that the main character of her books, Oliver K. Woodman, is the subject of a new Flickr Map Project (www.oliverkwoodman.com/map-project) designed for elementary students.
The Project encourages anyone interested to take a paper Oliver along on their travels and photograph him at landmarks. The key is to geotag the photos and upload them to a Flickr group site: (www.flickr.com/groups/oliverkwoodman).
Geotagging is simply marking a photo as belonging to a specific spot on a map. While smart phones can geotag photos automatically, you don’t need that much technology to participate. In fact, Flickr’s method of geotagging by allowing users to drag-and-drop a photo onto a map is more educational for kids. To correctly geotag, a student must accurately locate a place on a map.
Interactive: Photos + Maps = Better Learning
There are 35 million + photos already on Flickr and even more on GoogleEarth, the other major online photo-geotagging site. Isn’t it enough just to send students to view those geotagged photos? No.
“Geotagging photos is a great interactive tool for learning geography,” Pattison says. “Like other social applications, it depends on the community to generate content. It encourages interest, participation, and facilitates learning.”
Students will be more engaged:
“Aunt Jane took this picture in Athens, Greece.”
“I took this photo at the best climbing tree in town.”
“Our class uploaded and geo-tagged ten photos. Let me show you the one I geo-tagged.”
High interest character. Linking the activity to a favorite children’s book character like Oliver K. Woodman just adds to the fun. Teachers can use the FREE Lesson Plans (zip) available with the project to teach an integrated unit of language arts, math, social studies, art and more. The Oliver K. Woodman Map Project is a small step towards improved geographic knowledge through social apps and is perfect for the elementary school student.
Download the Pattern Now! (pdf)
Answers to Quiz: 1. Chinese, 2. Indonesia, 3. United States.
Coming in May: The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman in Paperback
Dear Friends of Oliver & Imogene:
Shhh. It’s a surprise! To celebrate the paperback edition of Oliver’s story, I have created a new group on Flickr.com,(http://www.flickr.com/groups/oliverkwoodman/) the photo sharing website, that will help teachers use the book more effectively in the classroom.
The point is for schools, teachers, and families around the US to post pictures of Oliver or Imogene in their towns. Teachers will then have an interactive map with photos from around the United States and the world!
Only two requirements: Each photo must be Geotagged, so it will show up on the Group Map. And if you post a student’s picture, you must have parental permission.
The official rollout of the website will be May 1. Before the party begins, I’d like to have some photos already included on the site.
If you have photos of Oliver or Imogene, then upload and geo-tag your photos! Even one photo from your town will add to the fun. Instructions for uploading and geotagging are available on the website when you join. But rest assured: it’s simple!
Ask one other teacher, librarian or family member to join, too. Forward this posting to a friend.
Visit the Flickr site on May 1 to see where Oliver & Imogene have traveled.
Thanks!
Darcy
P.S. Please forward this posting to just one other person. Even one more person adding one photo from a different location will help make a difference for Oliver.
P.P.S. Or Stumbleupon this posting to help others find the fun!
It’s released under a Creative Common license 3.0 which allows you to distribute it freely, but not to modify or build on it, no commercial uses and it must be attributed to Darcy Pattison. A link back to my site is appreciated, but not required under this license. So, feel free to download it, hand it out at conferences, pass it on to a friend, post it on your website, and use it to help you revise your novel.
And here’s a secret: That good looking kid on the cover? That’s my DH.
Chapter 3 of my story, The Wayfinder, is available today on www.BookviewCafe.com
Book View Cafe is a consortium, of over twenty professional authors with extensive publishing credits in the print world, who want to connect readers to story. Every day, new content available nowhere else will be served up on Book View Cafe: short stories, flash fiction, poetry, episodes of serialized novels, and maybe even a podcast now and then.
Work from Professional Authors
Book awards for this distinguished group includes Nebulas, Hugos, Locus awards, and much more
Exclusive Access to Selected Fiction
FREE experimental work, out-of-print work, new work
For a fee: exclusive access to expanded work, or subscription to all of an author’s work included on the site.
Archived Fiction: For a list of archived stories, access an Author’s Bookshelf from the pull-down menu of author’s names on the home page
Fresh Daily Reads
New fiction daily – start your day with a new story each day
Short stories, flash fiction, poetry, episodes of serialized novels, and occasional podcasts
I just got back from a fabulous trip to Indiana, where I participated in the Books to Bridge the Region program, which encourage everyone in the seven-county, northwest Indiana region to read one of three books on the topic of a journey or a quest. This year, they featured my book, The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman .
Highlights of the Trip
I did six events, four schools and two public events, talking to about 1000 people.
Publicity. The Books to Bridge program handed out 500 “treasure bags” to every public and school library in their area with copies of lesson plans (Download FREE here.), and (when appropriate) a free copy of OLIVER. In addition, one of their partner literacy programs handed out to students/families 38,000 red clown noses for their “Stick Your Nose in a Book” initiative and included book marks that told about the Books to Bridge events, including those I participated in. Wow! What great initiatives to encourage literary and reading!
They tried to take Oliver to every business in their town and get some sort of picture.
At the retirement home, the lady shown read THE JOURNEY to Oliver; but before she would do that, she insisted she go back to her room and change into her “Sunday best.”
The dentist’s office had great fun giving Oliver a dental check up. They even sent the library a bill for cleaning his teeth; the library, of course, paid the bill with Monopoly money.
Not shown, Oliver went to the hardware store, where they snapped his photo in the nuts & bolts bin, where he was checking out new hardware for his foot joint.
LaPorte Public Library. Patrons have checked out cardboard Olivers all summer, taken him on trips and returned with photos. Oliver even made it as far as the Great Wall of China!
Schools. Of the schools I visited, it was fascinating to see how such a wide variety of people loved Oliver and responded to this wooden man. Kindergarten through high school and a wide range of racial and economic groups — all the students I spoke with loved asking Oliver questions. (His favorite color is brown, because he has brown eyes; his favorite book is Pinnochio.)
Thank you, Books to Bridge the Region committee members for a fabulous, memorable trip to Indiana!
I just got back from a fabulous trip to Indiana, where I participated in the Books to Bridge the Region program, which encourage everyone in the seven-county, northwest Indiana region to read one of three books on the topic of a journey or a quest. This year, they featured my book, The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman .
Highlights of the Trip
I did six events, four schools and two public events, talking to about 1000 people.
Publicity. The Books to Bridge program handed out 500 “treasure bags” to every public and school library in their area with copies of lesson plans (Download FREE here.), and (when appropriate) a free copy of OLIVER. In addition, one of their partner literacy programs handed out to students/families 38,000 red clown noses for their “Stick Your Nose in a Book” initiative and included book marks that told about the Books to Bridge events, including those I participated in. Wow! What great initiatives to encourage literary and reading!
They tried to take Oliver to every business in their town and get some sort of picture.
At the retirement home, the lady shown read THE JOURNEY to Oliver; but before she would do that, she insisted she go back to her room and change into her “Sunday best.”
The dentist’s office had great fun giving Oliver a dental check up. They even sent the library a bill for cleaning his teeth; the library, of course, paid the bill with Monopoly money.
Not shown, Oliver went to the hardware store, where they snapped his photo in the nuts & bolts bin, where he was checking out new hardware for his foot joint.
LaPorte Public Library. Patrons have checked out cardboard Olivers all summer, taken him on trips and returned with photos. Oliver even made it as far as the Great Wall of China!
Schools. Of the schools I visited, it was fascinating to see how such a wide variety of people loved Oliver and responded to this wooden man. Kindergarten through high school and a wide range of racial and economic groups — all the students I spoke with loved asking Oliver questions. (His favorite color is brown, because he has brown eyes; his favorite book is Pinnochio.)
Thank you, Books to Bridge the Region committee members for a fabulous, memorable trip to Indiana!
On Monday-Wednesday next week, I’ll be in NW Indiana for the Books to Bridge the Region program.
Oliver Adventures
The Books to Bridge the Region program asks everyone in the NW Indiana area to read a book about a journey or quest. My book, The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman is the featured picture book. The young adult book is The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and the adult book is Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson.
I’ll be doing about eight presentations in the area. Look at the Books to Bridge the Region for a schedule of events. If you’re in the area, please come and introduce yourself!
FREE Lesson Plans: If you use The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman or Searching for Oliver K. Woodman in your classrooms, you can download FREE Lesson Plans (zip file).
He’s been to a retirement home, visited the dentist (no cavities!), received his own library card and checked out Pinocchoi (his favorite book) and much more!
On Monday-Wednesday next week, I’ll be in NW Indiana for the Books to Bridge the Region program.
Oliver Adventures
The Books to Bridge the Region program asks everyone in the NW Indiana area to read a book about a journey or quest. My book, The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman is the featured picture book. The young adult book is The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and the adult book is Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson.
I’ll be doing about eight presentations in the area. Look at the Books to Bridge the Region for a schedule of events. If you’re in the area, please come and introduce yourself!
FREE Lesson Plans: If you use The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman or Searching for Oliver K. Woodman in your classrooms, you can download FREE Lesson Plans (zip file).
He’s been to a retirement home, visited the dentist (no cavities!), received his own library card and checked out Pinocchoi (his favorite book) and much more!
So, I’m sitting here procrastinating. It’s been six weeks since I’ve really worked on my WIP novel — life has been full — both hard and exciting!
Procrastinating, as in doing some Vanity Surfing and checking out reviews of my books.
And I find something totally strange on the reviews of Novel Metamorphosis. Livvy Livvy reviewed the book and didn’t find it particularly helpful. Shrug. A Review is a Review is a Review.
UNTIL
Livvy Livvy updated her review and made several incorrect assumptions.
So, here’s my response to her Update:
Livvy Livvy–
A few facts:
I have not removed material from my website (www.darcypattison.com)
(Note: If I ever do, I’ll make a big announcement of the fact!)
The audience for this book is not beginners.
The book did not begin with my blog.
In fact, the book is based on eight years of teaching Novel Revision retreats nationwide. If you read the Foreword by Kirby Larson, you’ll see that the retreat — and the attitude toward revision that I teach — helped her revise Hattie Big Sky, the 2007 Newbery Honor book, one of the highest awards in children’s literature.
Reading this book will not help revise a novel. The only help comes when a writer does the work.
The exercises do help novelists revise, as my eight years of teaching have shown. Often the most benefit is from an exercise that the writer thought s/he understood, but hadn’t really tried on his/her novel. Head knowledge alone does no good.
Complete each exercise — the work of revision will improve the novel.
How to Write a Picture Book
Our knowledge of geography is becoming more sophisticated: If you own a smart phone, like the Apple iPhone 3G or some Blackberrys, the phone will automatically adds geotags – location information – to every photo snapped. But can Americans locate those places on a map? Not likely.
