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Okay, so when I was a little kid, we got to my grandmother's house on her birthday.
"Open your necklace, Nona," I told her.
This often told family story always reminds me how hard it is not to tell people something I'm really excited about!
Well, for the past few weeks something very exciting has been happening, and now I can finally let it out...
My picture book, "Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night?" is going to be published by Random House!
Maybe I didn't keep it such a secret after all. You all probably heard my screams of joy when I got the critique and emails that brought me to this exciting moment-- even if you live nowhere near New Jersey.
Right now, it is all so exciting, but also rather unreal feeling. I have been working and dreaming for this for seven years (I went back through my old writing emails to trace my path to publication), and now it is actually going to happen.
I am sure there will be lots to do in the weeks and months ahead, but today is a day to celebrate.
So please take a virtual piece of cake and a virtual scoop of ice cream and join me in my celebration! I look forward to joining all of you in yours real soon! :o)
Lately I've been thinking a lot about how writing is all about believing. As writers, we are naturally dreamers. Even though the odds are incredibly stacked against us, we believe that our stories will find a home. That all our efforts will make a difference in the life of a child.
But our believing must begin long before that.
When the glimmer of an idea first pops up in our mind, we must believe. We must believe enough not to dismiss it as silliness or as having no future. We must believe in that idea enough to care for it and nurture it. Like a seed in a garden.
And when that idea grows into an unwieldy manuscript, we still believe. While it may frustrate us like a toddler throwing a tantrum, we strive to have the patience to turn it into the manuscript we believe it can be.
Yes, writing is all about believing. And believing isn't as easy as clicking some ruby red slippers. But still, we writers are awfully good at it.
And when we're having trouble, sometimes we just need a reminder from our fellow writers. A reminder that we and our stories are worth believing in.
So I'm curious, when the going gets tough, how do we all keep believing?
As I sit down to write this post, my first post of last year feels fresh in my mind. Last year, as the entire writing world seemed to be making wonderful productivity resolutions, I was just a few weeks away from giving birth. With expectations of sleep-deprived nights in the months ahead, increased productivity seemed an impossible goal. So I resolved to lower my expectations for a bit and appreciate the wonderful roller coaster my life was about to turn into.
So now as I look back on 2009, I can appreciate:
*the birth of my beautiful baby boy!!!
*my oh so grown-up 3-year-old who is now all potty trained and helps me pick out baby food and bibs for his baby brother
*the many doctors, therapists and generous family members who have helped our baby to make some wonderful progress through a very tough year
* and the WONDEFUL AGENT I just signed with--
Wait! Did I just say agent?
Yes I did!
Somehow in the middle of this crazy year, I managed to revise some old manuscripts, create some new ones and sign with the incredibly awesome...
Teresa Kietlinski of Prospect Agency!
With all her experience designing picture books, Teresa is the perfect agent for me. And for those of you who read about my submission indecision malady,well, needless to say, a smart, energetic agent like Teresa isn't going to let my manuscripts just sit on my hard drive. We're going to revise them and get them out onto editors' desks. Hurray!
Here's hoping next year's New Year's news is even more exciting! (I won't say it out loud, but you all know what I'm hoping for. :o) )
Today is Jon Scieszka's last day as our first ever National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. How incredible that such a position exists. And how incredible that they chose Jon Scieszka, the absolute perfect man for the job!
When I sat down to write this post, I went to Jon Scieszka's website to see a list of his many books. I was amazed to see how many of them I had experienced personally:
For me, first there was MATH CURSE. What a wonderfully funny math book! I used to have my third graders solve some of these very silly problems as a very motivating math lesson.
Then there was the TIME WARP TRIO series. These chapter books are hilarious! And so motivating for the reluctant readers I worked with in my private practice!
And then there was TRUCKTOWN. Oh how my three-year-old loves TRUCKTOWN! He loves all the characters, was thrilled when a book in this series came in our Cheerios box and chose to give his cousin two books from the series as his Chanukah present.
On top of all that, I found some books that I loved personally. Knowing my love for children's literature and writing, our local librarian recommended I read Scieszka's memoir, KNUCKLEHEAD: TALL TALES AND ALMOST TRUE STORIES OF GROWING UP SCIESZKA. Such fun! Read it if you can!
And the other day I found Scieszka's awesome introduction to the world of modern art, SEEN ART?. My kids are still way too young for it, but I couldn't resist getting a copy for the future (and for me to enjoy write now!).
Sorry if I've rambled into lots of mini book blurbs here, but I haven't covered half of Jon Scieszka's books. And his influence has gone far beyond the books he has written. It has extended into his efforts to motivate boys to read with his wonderful website, "Guys Read" and, of course, all his amazing efforts to connect kids and books during his year as ambassador.
Wow! Talk about inspiring! Talk about making a difference as a children's writer!
Thank you Jon Scieszka!
When I first started getting serious about writing, the part that often seemed the trickiest to me was coming up with a great idea. I would focus on each story or poem as though it might be my last because I could never imagine coming up with an idea as good as my current one.
Recently, I've tried to be more proactive about coming up with ideas, and I think I've gotten better. But this month, fellow children's writer and blogger, Tara Lazar, has come up with an awesome challenge for those of us who "write too short" for NaNoWriMo.
The idea of Tara's challenge is to spend the month of November generating picture book ideas. One idea per day to be exact. It's a challenge, but it's do-able. And you can join in at any time. (So don't worry that the month is part gone!)
What's really great about this challenge is that it's causing me to look at the world around me much more actively. Everything is a potential idea. And by the end of the month I'm going to have an amazing list of story possibilities. (Actually, it's already looking pretty inspiring.)
So, to add my part to PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month), here are a few of my favorite ways to "catch a new idea":
*DO SOMETHING NEW-- for me it was studying cello and taking a jazz class. I'm not at all talented as a musician, but the experience of learning something new as an adult seems to stimulate my brain. (And maybe being such a novice helps to give me a bit more of a kid's perspective.)
*LEARN FROM MY CHILD'S PASSIONS-- Okay, I never thought I'd write a book about trucks, but after living with a truck obsessed three-year-old, I've got two truck manuscripts in the works.
*LET FRIENDS AND FAMILY "CATCH" IDEAS FOR ME--There are those times when I say something in a joking way, and my husband or my mother says, "You should write that.". And, on at least two occasions, they were right!
So, those are a few of my favorite techniques. Where do you get your ideas?
P.S. Don't forget to check out Tara's blog for all sorts of amazing posts about how to generate great picture book ideas!
Yesterday, my son and I checked out LIBRARY LION by Michelle Knudsen,illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, from the library. What a wonderful book! It all starts when a lion shows up at the library and wants to listen to story time-- a fun and fascinating premise.
As I read this book aloud, I thought about the trend toward fun and fascinating picture book premises that I'd noticed when I scanned my son's bookshelf before last night's bedtime story.
Here are just a few:
LITTLE PEA by Amy Krouse Rosenthal,illustrated by Jen Corace-- the story of a pea who doesn't want to eat his dinner (candy!)
KITTEN'S FIRST FULL MOON by Kevin Henkes-- the story of Kitten who thinks the full moon is a bowl of milk and tries to drink it
CLICK, CLACK, MOO: COWS THAT TYPE by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin-- the story of cows who get hold of a typewriter and start typing Farmer Brown demanding notes.
I could keep going here, but noticing these books and their incredibly cool premises made me think about our incredibly challenging job as writers. Most of us want to write books as unique and memorable as LIBRARY LION and the others I've listed. But writing books like this takes... the courage of a lion!
What will people think of my crazy premise? we may wonder. Is it too different? Can I really pull this story off and make it work?
The other day, I got tempted back to a "safe" story. My husband read it and yawned. He knows and loves my best stuff, and this, he told me, wasn't it. It was too sappy, too boring, too predictable.
I sulked for a bit. But then I went back to a fun, quirky idea that really fascinated me. And I tried to take it to its fun and quirky ultimate extreme.
I'm not sure how I did with it yet. That's one of the hardest parts of writing, I think. Believing in what you did before we get "the call" validating our efforts. But, at least I know that I took a risk. And that risk might just let my writer's voice roar.
I'm curious, what books do you think roar like a lion? How do you find the courage to let your own writing roar?
Recently I've been revising a manuscript, and it's been a lot of fun.
Fun? Revision? That got me thinking.
When I first started writing "fun" wasn't a word I would ever have used to describe revision. "Torture" was more like it.
I hated cutting a paragraph from a treasured piece of prose. I hated changing my opening page. But, most of all, I hated being told my beloved first draft (or second or third or fourth) wasn't perfect.
So, what made me change?
The more I think about my change in attitude, the more it comes down to having a real vision for my manuscripts. The word vision isn't in revision by accident, I realized. When I really know what kind of changes I want to see in my revised manuscript, making changes to it is fun instead of painful.
Those changes can include making more varied poetic forms in a poetry collection or allowing the readers to get a better sense of my main character in a picture book manuscript.
I think the most frustrating part of revision for me now is when I know that a manuscript needs a change, but I can't figure out what. I've got a manuscript like that now, and it's driving me crazy. But, at least now it's driving me crazy because I want to revise, not because I don't.
Sometimes putting a manuscript aside gives me the distance to find a new vision for it. And, of course, wonderful critiques can always help to challenge me to bring a manuscript to the next level.
So, how do you find your vision for revision?
It finally happened. I kept hearing talk about it. There was the column about it in Business Week. Then came the cover story in Time. And then my critique group buddy said that people came to our blog because of it.
It almost seemed like the universe was telling me to check it out. So check it out I did, and now I'm on...
Twitter!
I admit it. At first the world that is Twitter was pretty overwhelming. But, like the immersion approach in a new language, I quickly began to catch on. And, for a children's writer, Twitter has tons of exciting offerings.
So here's a quick list of some of the highlights of my first month on Twitter:
***As soon as I got brave and tweeted my first tweet (did I say that right?), @taralazar sent out a public greeting and invited her followers to give me a warm welcome. (Thanks Tara! :o))
***After that wonderful welcome, @CarinBerger started following me. When I checked out her bio, I saw that Carin was author of The Little Yellow Leaf, an amazing picture book that we have in our living room. I wrote to tell her what an amazing book it is and she wrote back!(Yes, I admit to hero worship when it comes to children's book authors.)
***I've been finding links to incredible kidlit blog posts. Like @ThruTheBooth and a wonderful series of posts on poetry and @halseanderson and her incredibly motivating, "Write Fifteen Minutes a Day Challenge"!
***Unfortunately I can't be at the SCBWI LA conference right now. But with Twitter, I'm getting fun and detailed updates from everyone who includes #scbwi09 in their posts-- including the wonderful official posters like @PaulaYoo.
***I get insights from editors and agents when they read through their slush piles and tweet about things we writers shouldn't be doing.
***I get wonderful poetry tweets from @KidsPoetLaureat (Mary Ann Hoberman).
***I get cool posts from a chicken! Thanks @elvispoultry!
***And I get posts from John Quincy Adams! (Yes, you read that right. John Quincy Adams. The Massachusetts historical society is posting actual diary entries.)
So, as I tweeted to one of my critique group buddies, "I think I'm starting to get the hang of this Twitter thing". But I'm sure I've still got a lot more to learn.
What do you think of Twitter? Are you on it or staying away? If you're on, can you give me any great tips? If you're not, why?
Quick question here: How many times have you polished the opening page of your latest manuscript?
If you're like me, and many other writers, the answer is probably, "Too many times to count."
As writers, we are always told how important those opening pages are to catching a reader's (and an editor's!) attention. Whether we're at a "First Pages" session at a local writer's conference or reading Noah Lukeman's excellent book, "The First Five Pages," we get the idea of how critical that perfect start is to our current wip.
But what about that perfect ending?
In my opinion, not all published manuscripts live up to this even greater challenge. But when I read one that does, that sense of perfect completeness is incredibly satisfying.
Recently, I finally got around to reading Gennifer Choldenko's excellent middle grade novel, "Al Capone Does My Shirts". I could easily write essay after essay about the many fine examples of the writers' craft Choldenko provided me with in this wonderful story. But, what stood out for me most was the absolute perfection of her ending.
I'm going to quote the last 3 perfect words below:
Done, it says.
Doesn't sound like much, does it? But for me, it was perfect. (And, if you read the book, I'm guessing you might have thought so too.)
I'm curious, what endings have you loved?
P.S. As an extra special ending for today's post, I just wanted to make sure everyone knows about Cynthea Liu's exciting auction. There are incredible prizes up for bid (think editor and author critiques!) and all the money earned through the auction goes to buy book boxes for kids at a Title 1 Elementary School. The auction deadline has been extended until July 8th, so take advantage of the extension to get your last bid in!
Once upon a time there were three bears-- Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear-- who lived in a small cottage in the forest. One day, they were about to eat their porridge, but it was too hot. So they went out on a walk to give it time to cool.
Uh oh! They forgot that today was the day their critique groups were coming over!
Well, the critique groups came over, chitchatted and started their meetings without Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear. Then along came Goldie Writer with her rough draft. She heard the groups meeting and couldn't resist the temptation to sneak inside.
First, she sat down with Papa Bear's critique group. When it was her turn, Goldie Writer read her manuscript aloud. Then she waited. All the bears in Papa Bears critique group told her what was wrong with her manuscript. And, according to them, there was a lot wrong! "It was boring," said one. "It was confusing," said another. "I just didn't like it," said a third. Could her manuscript really be that bad? Papa Bear's critique group was too hard.
So Goldie Writer moved on to Mama Bear's critique group. When it was her turn, she read her manuscript aloud. Then she waited. "Oh, how nice," said one bear. "Just lovely dear," said another. "My grandchildren would just adore that story," said a third. "Oh, I'm sure a publisher will pick it up any day now," said a fourth. Goldie Writer's head was spinning. In this group, nobody told her anything was wrong. Could her manuscript really be that perfect? Mama bear's critique group was too soft.
So Goldie Writer moved on to Baby Bear's critique group. She read her manuscript aloud for the third time. "I really liked your main character. She was spunky and likeable," said one bear. "Yes," agreed a second bear. "And the opening to your story had me completely hooked. I couldn't wait to read the next page." Then a third bear chimed in, "I completely agree," she said. "But you might want to look at your ending again. You had me kind of confused there." And a fourth bear added, "And take another look at your dialogue on page 4. It feels a little too much like an info dump to me there." Goldie Writer grinned. They liked it! And they gave her real ways to make it better. She couldn't wait to get home and start revising. Baby Bear's critique group was just right!
At that moment, who should come home, but Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.
Papa Bear found his critique group steaming. "There was a girl here and her story was soooo awful. Thank goodness she's gone!" they said.
Mama Bear found her critique group happy but confused. "There was a girl here and her story was just lovely. Where could she have gone?" they wondered.
Then Baby Bear found his critique group. "There was a girl here who wrote a very intriguing story... and now she's a member of our critique group!"
**********
And so, in this badly fractured version of this traditional tale, Goldie Writer continued to return to the bear's cottage on the first and third Friday of every month. And she continued to leave filled with inspiring ideas of how to make her good manuscripts even better. And they all lived happily ever after!
The End
I just wanted to make sure everyone knows about Cynthea Liu's wonderful library loving challenge. Leave a comment on her blog and she'll make a generous donation to a library in need. Click on the link below for details:
http://www.cynthealiu.com/2009/03/bloggers-library-loving-challenge/
Plus you can still join in on the fun of Cynthea and her famous bunny Snoop's cool Red Light - Green Light Contest. Check out how to enter at:
http://www.writingforchildrenandteens.com/2009/03/26/918/red-light-green-light-we-love-libraries-begins-tonight/
The contest has been going on for a while, but there is still one picture book free-tique slot up for grabs. And Cynthea's free-tique's are incredible! Plus she's offered some feedback to every manuscript entered in the contest.
And the coolest news of all is...
my picture book #187 just won the first picture book free-tique slot! It's cool to have gotten enough "green lights" to reach the final page. And it's even cooler that I'm going to get Cynthea's opinion on how to make the manuscript better. (She helped me transform an easy reader several years ago after another wonderfully fun round of Red Light- Green Light!)
For this year's second Passover Seder, we're planning to get together with a large group of family friends. This year the "kids' table" (a group of young adults in their twenties) has been put in charge of running the ritual-filled event.
Instead of the often traditional round robin reading of paragraph after paragraph from the Passover hagaddah, this group has planned something fun and outside the box. We're all going to be dividing into groups to discuss pre-assigned discussion questions.
My favorite two discussion questions were the following:
***What's your "Red Sea" today and how are you going to cross it?
***Where do you find your burning bush and what's it been saying to you lately?
I can think about these questions on so many levels. But the more I think about it, the more they make me think about my life as a writer.
For me, the Red Sea, makes me think of all those moments when I think I'm completely stuck. I just can't go on. Maybe it's a revision I need to make but can't figure out how. Maybe it's finding the time to write with a testing toddler and an infant with feeding issues. Maybe it's the search for that perfect idea.
Whatever the challenge, at the time I first encounter it, it seems as though there is no way I can possibly rise to meet it. Oh how I wish I had the clarity of God speaking to me in a burning bush to let me know how I should proceed... or that I should proceed.
Unfortunately, we writers don't get the benefit of a whole lot of burning bushes. Acceptances and publications are incredibly exciting, but (for me at least) there always seems to be stretches in between these wonderful events.
So often in that first draft or submission process, it feels as though there's nowhere to go. We are faced with our own personal Red Sea. In order to cross it, we must believe in ourselves enough to take that first step into the waters.
We keep writing through the muddle of a middle or get that manuscript out in the world for yet another time. And once we take the risk, the waters will part.
Maybe we'll feel like we're drowning at first. But eventually they do. We revise that ending till it shines or get an acceptance from that magazine we dreamed of breaking into.
Wishing us all luck in crossing our own writing Red Seas and congratulations to those (Mazel Tov, Valerie & Meg!) who've recently found their own burning bush!
Getting published in Highlights had long seemed one of the greatest possible achievements to me as a children's writer. So you probably heard the screams a few years ago when my SASE came back with a contract accepting three of my poems about the Jewish holidays.
Well, the first one is now out in this December's issue and I'm so pleased and excited I just had to share!
I can't type it here myself because I sold all rights to Highlights but I was thrilled to find a link to it online. Please check it out: The dreidel's dance.
And, as usual as a writer, as I'm celebrating my good news, I still get to aspire to how far I have to go as I read Eileen Spinelli's incredible Christmas poem in the same issue! Please check it out: The Christmas Story.
I'm honored to have an autographed poster of Eileen's beautiful poem, "The Joy of Reading," on my son's bedroom wall (the one thing I ever won bidding at an auction!). She is such an incredible poet!
Celebration and aspiration... two of the emotions that keep me going as a writer. Please let me know when I can celebrate (or aspire) with you!
P.S. Make sure to check out all this week's wonderful Poetry Friday posts at http://wildrosereader.blogspot.com/.
When many writers are starting out, they think that picture books look easy to write.
They're not!
I will attempt to show how challenging this process can be by following the trajectory of one of my current picture book manuscripts from the initial idea stage to its current state.
Step 1-- The Idea-- I make what I think is a joke about two oddly juxtaposed ideas and my husband (wonderfully supportive man that he is) says, "That sounds like it could be a picture book!" I laugh and store the idea in the back of my mind. At the time, I have no clue how to turn this interesting sounding idea into a story.
Step 2-- Weeks (or is it months?) later, inspiration strikes. I draft a few verses about some funny characters. Each verse is scribbled on a post it note. The post its end up buried in my nightstand.
Step 3-- The projects that have filled up the majority of my time now completed, I'm looking for something new to start on. I pull out my nightstand post its and attempt to cobble together a rough draft. But I quickly realize that my main character is entirely unsympathetic. (She eats people!) Time to go back to the drawing board.
Step 4-- I attempt to leave revealing my main character for the surprise ending, keeping the beginning and middle of my story for the fun of my very quirky idea.
Step 5-- With a complete draft finally in hand, I bring my manuscript to my wonderful critique group for feedback. They are incredibly positive about my ridiculously quirky idea. Unfortunately, one member points out that while it's cute, there's not much of a plot. She's right!
Step 6-- I add a mysterious subplot (and an alternating rhyme scheme) to my manuscript. I also cut out all but my best scanning verses from my earlier draft.
Step 7-- I hear a wonderfully inspirational editor at a conference, and she likes quirky! I polish up my manuscript and send it off into the world.
Step 8-- Five months later, I receive a kind note from said editor indicating that it is a "cute story" but "hampered by the rhyme", "Ever considered writing it in prose?" I'm considering it now!
Step 9-- How to change a rhyming picture book into prose? I struggle with this challenge, eventually deciding to write out the plot of my story without worrying about how it sounds.
Step 10-- I soon decide my new prose version needs a protagonist to follow my "mystery" from beginning to end. After several attempts, I invent a character who seems to fit the bill. Then I attempt to polish up my story yet again.
Step 11-- I bring my new prose draft back to my critique group. While they still like the idea, some of the charm of earlier drafts seems to be missing. And I need to plant some more clues and clarify some points that were clearer in the rhyming version.
Step 12-- Back to the drawing board once again... to be continued (hopefully with a happy ending!)
Whew! That took even longer to do than it did to write.
So, I'm curious... What wonderful (or crazy) revision stories do you have?
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Congratulations! I thought I heard a faint scream not too long ago. :-)
Way to go! Enjoy it!
Yay, congratulations!!
Yay!!!!
This news deserves a scream loud enough to wake ALL the diggers in world no matter where they sleep at night!!
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU DESERVE IT. YOU'VE WORKED HARD!
So that's what that noise was! Congratulations. {helping herself to a big piece of spice cake with caramel frosting and a side of vanilla frozen custard. mmmm. Great party!}
Congratulations!!!! How exciting! :)
Thank you all so much for joining the party! I just knew those screams would be loud enough that some of you would hear them.:o)
Gale-- I'm pretty sure my scream did wake all the diggers in the world! No one could have slept through it!
And AnneB-- I'm so glad to know that I'm such an amazing cook and hostess in my virtual parties! Maybe someday the skills will transfer to my real world parties too! :o)
HUGE congrats! Let us know when you have an illustrator and pub date!
I wondered what that noise was....A great big HUGE congratulations, Brianna! Random House...WOW!
Thanks so much, Bish and Corey!
And Corey, I promise I'll let you all know as soon as I have an illustrator and a pub date! But beware, you may all hear another scream before I get to share the news more officially in a blog post. :o)
Happy pub date to you, happy pub date to you, happy pub date, dear Brianna, and an exclamation point too!
Brianna,
Congratulations on your first book deal! I enjoyed your story about the necklace very much. This is my first post here and what a great day to join in. Cake and ice cream all around. It is a day to shout out!
Linda A.
Hmmm, even in NC I could hear you scream!! I'm so happy for you Brianna, this is AWESOME NEWS!! Are you practicing your author signature so you can dash it off at all your signings? Savor the moment, you earned it!!
Brianna, congratulations!!! Bet the moment is even sweeter because it was seven years in the making. Enjoy your well deserved success!!
So happy for you!
Hooray! I love hearing your good news, it makes me feel like it really can happen for me, too! (and I'm approaching seven years since I first subbed a p
Brianna:
This may be your first, but it's the first of many to come! I look forward to hearing many loud screams from you!
Thanks so much for the congrats, guys! This party is so much fun!
J.L.-- Love the song!
Linda-- Thanks so much for posting! Please come back again soon!
Robin-- Oh no, author's signature? I'm going to be in trouble. :o)
Nandini-- Yes, seven years does make it sweeter. If I had gotten a contract right after I started out, I can't imagine I would appreciate it in the same way.
Meg-- Thanks!
Constance-- It really can happen for you too! You never know when that right manuscript is going to find the perfect editor's desk!
J.A.-- Hoping to lose my voice again sometime soon! :o)
Congratulations!
Congratulations!! What wonderful news. I'm late to the party . . . hope there's cake left!
Thanks so much, Marcia and Susan!
And Susan, there is definitely cake left! What flavor would you like? (I'm partial to chocolate myself!)