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First, let me give a big congratulations to Michelle H. who won the CWIM giveaway! I know you will enjoy it.
You know, it isn’t often that something truly innovative comes along in education or publishing.
But when it does, look out!
My post today is about one such unique project called
The Nonfiction Minute (NFM).
Check out the website at www.nonfictionminute.com
Each school day on The Nonfiction Minute website, a fascinating 400-word nonfiction article is published. Each article is written by one of two dozen award-winning nonfiction authors. The articles cover subjects that are as different as each author and include topics in history, sports, popular culture, space, math, government, music, and everything in-between. Related photographs accompany each article. NFM articles can be used to teach content, as well as reading and writing.
But, wait, there’s more.
Every Nonfiction Minute has an audio file of the author reading his or her own article. In this way, young readers or struggling readers can listen as they read along. This feature allows the NFM to work across all age groups from primary grades through adulthood.
But wait, there’s more.
The Nonfiction Minute is FREE! That’s right ladies and gents, FREE.
This revolutionary idea is produced by a group of nonfiction authors called Authors on Call, which is a subset of a larger group known as
iNK Think Tank.
Each article is written by a professional nonfiction author, then edited by a top-tier professional nonfiction editor, Jean Reynolds.
To be fair, I must declare my disclaimer: I am a member of iNK Think Tank, Authors on Call, and I write for The Nonfiction Minute. However, the few articles I’ve written are a small part of the 170 Nonfiction Minutes that will appear in the line-up this school year. I’m part of an ever-growing audience of NFM readers. Every day, the articles written by my fellow authors fascinate me. They capture the imagination of the reader with expertly crafted text in only 400 words.
Vicki Cobb, award-winning author and founder of iNK Think Tank says:
"The Nonfiction Minute illustrates a variety of voices. Authors are not homogeneous. Readers will get to know each author as they read the article then hear the author speak. This too is a learning experience as it demonstrates to students how various authors look at the facts and filter what to use. Kids will see there is a big difference between what they read in a textbook and what they read in The Nonfiction Minute."
This is the second school year for the NFM. Since the beginning there have been around 300,000 page views, from 90,000 unique visitors. Readership is growing fast as more teachers find out about the NFM. At present, there are around 1200 page views per day.
Responding to the needs of teachers who commented they would love to have advance notice of the coming week’s topics on the NFM, Authors on Call provided a way to do just that. Now teachers can receive an email on Thursday of the previous week that lists the article topics for the next week. This way, teachers have time to plan how they can incorporate NFM into their teaching plans. To sign up for advance notice, teachers simply sign up through the website to receive the email--which is, again, FREE.
Great teachers all across America are finding ways to use the NFM with their students. Here are two examples from teachers I know in Arkansas that demonstrate how one article can be used in a variety of ways. These two teachers used a recent NFM I wrote titled “The Near-Death Experience of Football.” The article deals with the deadly 1905 football season when America considered banning the game, and President Teddy Roosevelt called coaches to a meeting in hopes of saving football. The same article, two different teachers, two different age groups:
Melissa L., a media specialist in a tiny rural school, explained how she used this NFM with her 5th grade students:
"I have a big screen tv at the front of my library (got it before we began purchasing Smart Boards) which is connected to my computer. So I pull up the website at the beginning of each period along with any other peripheral webpages on info that I think may come into our discussion afterwards (for instance, this week I pulled up what the Ivy League Schools are on Wikipedia and we looked at their names and the years they were founded as well as Google images of football uniforms around the early 1900's - which led to a discussion of the dangers of even SIMPLE injuries in the days before "modern medicine."). I also pull up a tab with a page for the author that has an image of the books that he/she has written - to introduce the kids to that person before we begin the Nonfiction Minute. Then I turn up my audio and enlarge the words on my screen as big as I can so that at least the closest ones can read along (as I scroll) while the author reads aloud. When done I then close that screen and have the discussion with questions about what we just listened to and learned - and any peripheral discussion (as I just mentioned). In all it takes 5-10 minutes at the beginning of class."
The next example is from Cassandra S., an 8th grade English teacher:
"I'm using this article and another one like it to discuss Teddy Roosevelt's involvement with saving football (leading to a discussion and writing prompt about presidents exerting personal preferences into national policies) which will then lead us to discussing Andrew Jackson's controversial decisions upon election and again...accountability for presidents and their personal motives. (This second portion is to supplement my struggling readers in the American History class while focusing on argumentative writing in mine)."
What I love about the above samples is that each teacher used the same NFM and found creative, effective ways to use it that fit the needs of her students. Perhaps best of all, these amazing teachers guided their students in a way that encouraged them to use critical thinking skills.
Gone are the days when nonfiction equals boring. Finally, nonfiction texts are available that are fun, fascinating, and free. We the authors of The Nonfiction Minute hope great teachers around the country will use our work to promote a passion for learning.
So, spread the word about this truly innovative project.
Teachers and students will enjoy every minute.
Carla Killough McClafferty
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I only recently discovered the
Dear Teen Me site, where young adult authors post encouraging, honest, heartfelt letters to their teenage selves. For this series of posts, we
Teaching Authors are writing to our younger selves, inspired by those letters.
When our kids were still small, I started writing for children—poetry and picture books, fiction and nonfiction. I carried a pocket notebook around to keep track of ideas. The notebooks piled up in my desk drawer until I dumped them all into a box that I’ve been slowly weeding out.
Here’s what I’d say to that young mother:
Remember the notebooks! Yes, you carry one around most of the time. You’re always jotting down a favorite word or a quick observation or something funny one of the kids said. From time to time—especially when you’re stuck—stop and see what treasures you’ve gathered. Ideas and stories and poems are in there! Go back and find them!
The same thing with pictures. Look through them once in awhile. Remember the silly, wonderful, brave things you did. In another unsorted box, I just found this one of me and our (little!) boys on a camping trip. Priceless, right?
More weeding ahead!
Charlotte S. is the winner of our latest Book Giveaway, the autographed copy of Write a Poem Step by Step. Congratulations, Charlotte! Your book is on its way!
Enjoy!
JoAnn Early Macken
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 6/26/2015
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Howdy, Campers--and Happy Poetry Friday (original poem and PF link below)!
This is the last of our series about punctuation and related topics. Bobbi started us off with For the Love of Comma (her post was mentioned in Quercus), Esther offers A New Mark of Punctuation (sort of)...,Carla illustrates her point with specific examples from her books in How You Tell the Story Makes a Difference, and Mary Ann pleads, Can We Give the Exclamation Point a Rest?
* * * *
When my son was four, he was lying on the floor leisurely looking at a book one morning when I rushed in. "C'mon, honey--we've gotta
go!"
"Okay, Mommy," he said marking his page, "lemme put it on pause."
Don't you love that?
my kiddo...who will be entering medical school in January
Put it on pause. Commas, line breaks and periods give pause; they remind us to breathe. Like Bobbi, I love commas. My summer present to you: three things about commas to make you smile:
1) A few years ago, I bought my mom (a true Punctuation Queen) this plaque.
(Mom loved it.)
2) When my son was in elementary school, I read poetry to his class once a week. I was trying to be like my teacher,
Myra Cohn Livingston: I wanted to share poetry with no strings attached. As I read, they listened, just listened. Nothing was expected of them. I read every poem twice.
At the end of each year, I gave them each a collection of the poems they loved; in third grade, this was one of their favs (make sure to take a big breath before attempting to read it aloud!):
Call the Periods
Call the CommasBy Kalli Dakos
Call the doctors Call the nurses Give me a breath of
air I’ve been reading all your stories but the periods
aren’t there Call the policemen Call the traffic guards
Give me a STOP sign quick Your sentences are running
when they need a walking stick Call the commas Call
the question marks Give me a single clue Tell me
where to breathe with a punctuation mark or twoFrom
If You're Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand; Poems about School by Kalli Dakos, illustrated by Brian Karas (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1995) 3) We're told so much about the health benefits of deep breathing; of taking time to slow down.
Remember to Breathe, they say.
And just think: as writers,
with our very own fingers, we have
magic power. Add a comma, push the pause button.
Applause for the Pauseby April Halprin Wayland
A comma,a breaking linea period.
A day off,a week awaysummer.
poem (c)2015 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.
* * * *
And finally, congratulations to TeachingAuthors' latest Book Giveaway Winner:
Poetry Friday is at
Carol's Corner this week--thanks for hosting, Carol!
As I said,
TeachingAuthors is taking our annual Summer Blogging Break after this post (our
sixth annual blogging break, for those of you who are paying attention). We'll be back in
two shakes of a lamb's tail--which technically is Monday, July 13th. So, grab your towel, dive into the pool, and swim a few laps while we're gone ~ TTFN!
posted on a summer's day by April Halprin Wayland--with help from Eli (dog), Snot (cat), and Monkey.
No matter how my writing students define “success” – perhaps beginning a picture book, completing a novel, earning an advanced degree or maybe winning a grant, their stories of success gladden my heart.
Today I share my former student Stefanie Lyons’ Success Story to celebrate this month’s publication of her debut novel DATING DOWN (Flux), a YA novel in verse, with hopes her story will gladden your heart too.
Thanks to Flux’s generosity, one lucky TeachingAuthor reader can win a copy of DATING DOWN simply by entering our Book Giveaway which runs from today May 4 through midnight May 15.
(Please see details at the end of Stefanie’s Q & A).
I first worked with Stefanie independently almost 15 years ago on a middle grade novel that still plays in my head. We worked together again in 2008 in my University of Chicago’s Writer’s Studio Novel Workshop. I was honored to recommend her to the Vermont College’s MFA in Writing for Children program in 2009 and of course, cheer her on as she completed her graduate degree.
Stefanie describes herself on her website as a writer of all things young adultish. The tag line for DATING DOWN is a grabber: When a good girl falls for a bad boy.
“She thought she loved him. She thought she could change him. She thought if she just believed in him enough, his cheating and his drugs and his lying would stop, and she'd be his and he'd be hers and they'd love each other forever.
But for Samantha Henderson, X--the boy she will not name--is trouble. He's older, edgier, bohemian . . . and when he starts paying attention to Sam, she can't resist him. Samantha's family and friends try to warn her, but still she stays with him, risking her future and everything that really matters.”
The Booklist review lauded Stefanie’s musical, poignant verse, calling the story “lyrical and heart-wrenching, exploring the emotional vicissitudes of love, sex, and drugs.”
Kirkus recommended the book to fans of Ellen Hopkins. “Turbulent love via turbulent poems.”
She’s also appearing on my First-Timers Panel at the Chicago Printers Row Lit Fest the weekend of June 7 and 8.
Take heart and hope from my interview with Stefanie and be sure to enter our Book Giveaway for a free copy of Stefanie’s DATING DOWN.
And thanks to Stefanie who's out and about connecting with her readers for taking time to share her Success Story with our readers.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Your unswerving focus from the year 2000 on to learn and hone your craft coupled with your non-stop efforts to grow as a writer, is note-worthy. What’s kept you going all these years? How did you come to know and believe what I shared in my 2009 VCFA recommendation: i.e. Stefanie Lyons was seated on the Right Pew in the Right Church.
What has kept me going all these years was the thought that I couldn’t quit. I’m a very
stubborn person when I want to be! Also, writing was something that took ahold of me from a young age and never let go. (Maybe it’s more stubborn than I am.) Writing is how I find fulfillment. It’s my joy. As for me being seated in the Right Pew in the Right Church, as you put it, I would rephrase it to say that I made sure I was in the Church and never got up from the Pew. It’s a story of tenacity, mostly.
Can you share with our readers how DATING DOWN, a YA novel in verse, came to be – and the revisions it underwent, under the guidance of first your agent and then your editor?
I was in grad school when I started DATING DOWN. I needed something to turn in and found this in a folder in my house. I pulled it out and thought, “Well, this isn’t as bad as I remember.” I revisited it and sent it in. My advisor loved it and helped me pare the voice into a more traditional verse novel. At the time, it was a prose/verse hybrid. My agent didn’t weigh in on this novel because it was already in the hands of Flux when we met. But that’s another story.
You’re an enthusiastic member of the debut 2015 debut author blog Fearless Fifteeners. How has this group helped you grow as an author now out in the world bringing her book to readers?
I’ve learned so much from them. Honestly, they’ve made this journey so fun. Having a group of writers going through the same debut experience at the same time has made the scary stuff a bonding experience and the highs that much higher. They provided a place where I could ask the dumb questions without bugging my editor or agent. How do I request my book be stocked in independent bookstores? Where do I go to make bookmarks? How do you sign your name to readers? Stuff like that. And the cheer-leading on release day. Banding together to do panels. These things have made all the difference. It has been the #1 most defining thing that has shaped my debut year. And that’s saying a lot.
You – also – have a solid career in advertising! How do you balance your days so you have time to write – and – promote?
Priorities. Some things are more important than others. Like sleep. Who needs it?
What’s that One Thing You Wished You’d Known when you began your Writer’s Journey?
How truly wonderful the Children’s Writer’s community is. And how much I’d grow just by befriending them. I always considered writing as a solo sport. It is quite the opposite, actually.
. . . .
Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below to win a copy of Stefanie Lyon’s YA novel in verse, DATING DOWN. You can enter between now and midnight, May 15, 2015.a Rafflecopter giveaway 
Congratulations, Rosi H! You won THE DEATH OF A HAT by Paul B. Janeczko!
Animal stories have always been popular. Ancient peoples told stories of mythic animals depicting universal truths about humanity. Over two thousand years ago, Aesop told the story of the fox that coveted a bunch of juicy grapes, of the frog who wanted to be king, and of the proud town mouse who visited his country mouse cousin.
Animal stories have always been some of my favorites reads, including Anne Sewell’s Black Beauty (1877), Robert C. O’Brien’s Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1971), Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion (1941), and the quintessential animal story, E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1952).
And this year, I’ve found more to add to my collection!
Lumpito and the Painter from Spain (Pajama Press, April 2013): Monica Kulling’s poetic narrative retells the story of a special friendship with sparse eloquence. Dean Griffith’s rich, vivid watercolors capture the luscious landscape, the bold personality of the painter, the soulful expression of Lumpito as he dodges Big Dog, and Lump’s sheer delight as he finds his new home. A gorgeous and rewarding tale of love, and a perfect read-aloud for a rainy – or any -- day!
When Emily Carr Met Woo (Pajama Press, August 2014): Monica Kulling is the master of biography. Her series depicting little known inventors, Great Ideas, remains one of my favorites on the topic. However, it is when her biography showcases the iconic relationships between human and animal that her poetic narrative truly shines. This book follows eccentric Canadian artist Emily Coo, who lives in a camper she calls Elephant. She takes her puppies for walks using a baby carriage.
Folks called the painter a strange bird! One day Emily Carr adopts a small lonely monkey, whom she calls Woo. And the fun begins!
(Paperback, Luminis Books, 2013):
Marcia Strykowski’s coming of age story is a wonder. Amy Anderson is the shy protagonist. The quirky Miss Cogshell is dubbed Old Coot by the town’s children. And the mysterious Craig, the most popular boy in class who doesn’t have any real friends. One day, Craig finds a stranded, injured seal pup and asks Amy to help him, and the three come together to save Pup. This book reminds me in many ways of
Hoot, the 2003 Newbery Honor by Carl Hiaasen.
Snow Ponies (Paperback, Square Fish Reprint, October 2013): First published in 2001, the book begins “On a cold, gray day, Old Man Winter leads his snow ponies outside. "Are you ready?" he asks. Using her signature quiet, poetic narrative,
Cynthia Cotten captures the magic of winter as Old Man Winter takes the snow ponies across the frigid landscape. As the ponies gallop, faster and faster, everything they touch turns white with snow. This is a poetic masterpiece, and a perfect read aloud.
It’s Raining Bats & Frogs! (Feiwel & Friends, August 2015): What’s a witch to do when a rainstorm threatens the Halloween Parade?
Rebecca Colby’s book doesn’t come out until August, 2015, but I can’t wait! I loved Rebecca’s previous book,
There Was a Wee Lassie Who Swallowed a Midgie (Floris Books, May 2014). Her language in this retelling of the familiar tale of the the old woman who swallowed a fly was so much fun! Rebecca used the Scottish landscape to tell the story about “a wee Lassie who swallowed a midgie, so tiny and squidgy!” I have no doubts this one will be just as entertaining!
“Why did you do all this for me?' he asked. 'I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' 'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.” --
Charlotte's Web, E.B. White
What are your favorite animal stories?Bobbi Miller
Even though today is Wednesday, this isn't a Wednesday Writing Workout post. (We'll be back with more workouts in January.) I just wanted to share a quick update regarding our Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving challenge. This year was the first time we ran a book giveaway in conjunction with our series of posts expressing our gratitude. Last Friday, when I posted my wrap-up linking to posts by other bloggers who joined in our challenge, I didn't realize that a number of our readers had shared their "gratitudes" in their giveaway contest entries. It wasn't until I reviewed all the entries this past Monday that I saw them. Their gratitude was so uplifting I had to share them with you.
When asked to "Tell us three things you're grateful for," here's what they said:
- Family, children's books, great blogs to follow!
- I'm grateful for my family, my awesome poetry friends, and for my wonderful life. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if it all is real.
- I am grateful for my family, friends and God for my life.
- Health, loved ones and faith top the list today!
- My job, my friends, and my family
- Wonderful family, immediate and extended, fabulous friends from way back and from recently, and writing for the sake of writing. Thankful, happy, humbled.
- I'm thankful for: the cornucopia of rich SCBWI IL and beyond authors and Illustrators sharing their skills and knowledge with us; my family that perpetually allows me to pour myself into my writing and art; and nature that is a constant well of inspiration for all that I create!
- Thankful for family and thankful for the snow
- I'm grateful for 1. my hubby, 2. currently having no obstacle, be it physical, mental, emotional, or practical, to enjoying every simple joy in life that I could wish for, and 3. having no obstacles (except for my own inefficiencies) to exercising creativity in many ways every day.
- I am filled with gratitude for my loving home and family, more than five years of being cancer free, and my opportunities to make a difference.
- I am grateful for: A wonderful network of writers through SCBWI. My two challenging, supportive writers groups: one in Illinois and one in Virginia. My family, who provide inspiration, encouragement, ideas, and yes--distractions.
- I'm grateful for health, happiness and heaps of good books to read--and WRITE!
WE'RE grateful so many of our readers took time to share their "gratitudes" with us!
Congratulations to our giveaway winner,
Margaret Simon, who shared her wonderful "Thanku to Roux" along with a student Thanku at her blog,
Reflections on the Teche on November 8.
Thanks again to everyone who participated.
Happy writing!
Carmela
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 10/3/2014
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Howdy, Campers!
The winner of our latest autographed
book giveaway is....KAY S! Congratulations, Kay!
Today is Poetry Friday and the fabulous
Jama Rattigan is hosting. A poem from my first verse novel is waiting for you at the end of this post. The poem is about...
Creativity!
In case you've missed
TeachingAuthors' series on Creativity,
JoAnn started us off with kindness and community, Jill left us on a high note with
5 secrets of creativity, Esther got our juices flowing with a
Writing Workout inspired by punctuation, Carmela offered "
4 Ways I Boost my Creativity", and Mary Ann, back from a TA sabbatical (yay!),
grants us permission.
My turn!
Here are four reasons why I think you should give up trying to be creative:
1)
Don't you dare tell me what to do; 2)
Get miserable; 3)
Find someone so frickin' honest you want to hit them.4)
Write weird things. Other peoples' brains are are loony as yours. Trust me.1)
Don't you dare tell me what to do. For me, authentic ideas come most easily when no one is expecting a product; when I let myself play with words...the reason I fell in love with writing.
If you're our regular reader,you know I've been writing a poem a day since April 1, 2010. I send them to my best friend, author
Bruce Balan, who sails around the world in a trimaran, and he sends me his poem. (BTW, Oct. 2nd was Bruce's birthday. Since it's past his birthday, kindly sing to him
the Birthday Song...backwards.)
Bruce can always smell if a poem is an assignment. "It's stiff," he'll write. "It's not you."
After I shake my fist at his sail mail critique, I pretend I'm not writing on assignment. I toss out everything I think I'm
supposed to write and stand on my head...because I WANT to stand on my head. That's when words begin to flow from my heart.
%2Bby%2BApril%2BHalprin%2BWayland.JPG) |
| Me, writing a poem...okay, not LITERALLY on my head... |
2) Get miserable...(if you're already depressed, think of it as a big mud hole of ideas made especially for you!) Some of my deepest, truest words are written when I am in a muddle of misery...or when I think back to some terrible time in my life, feeling every heartsick, petrified or bewildered feeling. (Why would anyone want to bring back life's worst moments in living color? You think writers might be just a teensy bit cuckoo?)
So, how can you stimulate creativity in students? Make sure there's misery in their lives. When I read my students the tender book,
I Remember Miss Perry by
Pat Brisson, illustrated by
Stéphane Jorisch (about the death of a beloved elementary school teacher), the topics they choose to tackle are much deeper than if I give them time to write without reading it first.
3)
Find someone so frickin' honest you want to hit him. I write better when someone who believes in me and who is on the writing path with me (usually Bruce) reads my work and tells me his truth. (Sometimes I want to throw darts at him for his stupid, doo-doo head honesty--good thing he's in Thailand right now.)
Exhibit #1--recent correspondence between us:
From: Bruce To: April Subject: RE: poem for September 25, 2014 Hi You,This feels more like a very short story than a poem.Doesn’t have your heart in it. It feels like an assignment.Love,B
(See what I mean? Can't he just pretend a little bit that he likes it?)
From: April To: BruceSubject: Re: poem for September 25, 2014
Well, damn.
I read it again tonight and see that you're right. But maybe I can do something with it. But maybe I can't.
Not sure it's worth it.
I am so tangled up in my novel. I wish I could hire someone to sit with me and figure the darn thing out.
Why do we do this, again? I forget.xxx,April
From: Bruce To: April Subject: RE: poem for September 25, 2014
"I wish I could hire someone to sit with me and figure the darn thing out."Unfortunately that is not possible. I, too, wish I could hire someone to fix so many problems but those problems always seem to be ones I need to deal with…not someone else.I hate that part about writing.B
4)
Write weird things. Other peoples' brains are as loony as yours. Trust me. Go ahead, unlock the heavy wooden door in your brain and let the odd stuff out.
 |
| Let the odd stuff out (this odd stuff is from morguefile.com) |
For example, here's a poem I thought no one would get. I wasn't even sure
I got it. And listen to this: my editor didn't throw it out--it's in my book,
Girl Coming in for a Landing--a novel in poems (Knopf 2002)!
WRITER: CREATOR
I want to
make something
beautiful.
Peaches.
If I could
make peaches--grow them
from my pen...
or stretching my palms
up to the sun, watch as
they grow from my lifeline,
that
would be something
beautiful.
drawing and poem (c) 2014 by April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved. Okay, I'm done. I order you to be creative.
GO. And remember, Poetry Friday is at
Jama's today!
Posted by April Halprin Wayland, who thanks you for reading all the way down to the end.
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By:
Sherrie Petersen,
on 7/28/2014
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The best part of summer is having time. Time for reading, time for vacation, time for kayaking, time for baking, time for redesigning the website. I’ve been doing all of these things. You’ll see the website redesign soon, but I have to say, my family is definitely more appreciative of the baked treats I’ve been […]
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 6/27/2014
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Howdy, Campers!
Woo-woo! The winner of Joan Bransfield Graham's new book, The Poem that Will Not End is Rosi Hollenbeck, who happens to be the SCBWI critique group coordinator for Northern and Central California. Congratulations, Rosi! You'll find Joan's Wednesday Writing Workout here and my interview with her here.
Today we conclude our series on Writing What We Want to Write versus Writing What is Marketable (or, as I like to call it, WWWWWWWM). Each of us is taking turns thinking aloud about Marion Dane Bauer's terrific post, The Creative Mind, in which she writes convincingly about WWWWWWWM.
It's also Poetry Friday at Buffy's AND it's the start of TeachingAuthors' Summer Blogging Break--woo-woo!
First, let's review what
TeachingAuthors have been saying so far this round:
JoAnn began the conversation by sharing her monarch haiku project and the new direction in which she's taking it;
Carmela talked about how hard it is to work so long on beloved projects that don't sell...but finds redemption;
Laura writes that it's a matter of prioritizing, e-publishing, sharing poetry love and more: and writing coach/writers' booster
Esther sees the light, rewrites, submits like the devil, and stays optimistic. Her post has helped
me stay optimistic, too. In fact each of these posts has.
So...wow. I've been mulling over how to talk to you about this one. It's potent. And personal.
Just like each of my blogmates, I've sent out countless manuscripts that have bounced back again and again and again and again. *Sigh.* I'd be a
great boomerang maker.
For example,
Girl Coming in for a Landing--a Novel in Poems (Knopf) took me ten years to sell. Then it won
two major awards. Editors who rejected it said, "Teens don't read. And if they
do read, they don't read poetry." As Esther reminds us: "Times change; markets change; publishers' needs change; editorial staffs change." Oy--is that ever true.
More recently, I finally found a way to fictionalize the story of
the flood which destroyed my family's farm and how we rebuilt afterwards. I'd been taking this picture book manuscript out, rewriting it, and putting it back in my bottom drawer for years. Last year I was invited to join a dynamite critique group; I took a risk and showed them my story. At this Magic Table I learned what my story was missing and how to strengthen it.
 |
| This is what happens at our Magic Table. Sort of. |
I was elated. I sent it to my fabulous agent. She told me that picture books these days must be short. VERY short. Picture books used to be for ages 3-8 and could be as long as 1500 words. These days, editors want picture books for ages 3-5.
After 650 words, editors roll their eyes, my agent told me.
I told the Magic Table this. They helped me shorten it. I sent it flying out my door again.
Editors said that it was too regional. I went back to the Magic Table. They said,
What about all the floods around the country? What about your themes of resilience, problem solving, weather, storms, climate change and life cycles for heaven's sake? You've just got to help them see this. You'd got to help your agent sell it.SO...I hired a curriculum specialist...and resubmitted the story complete with Supplementary Materials including Themes, Common Core-related English Language Arts activities, Science-related activities, and a Glossary.
(
Huh! Take That, I say with all those Capital Letters!)
And it's still not selling.
And yet...I believe in the Power of the Table. I do. I love this writing biz. I do. And I love my gang around that table. So what else can I do but believe? I keep on keeping on.
I wrote a poem recently to our group, to our leader, to the Magic Table. It was reverent, in awe of the smarts and wizardry at the Table.
But today I changed the poem. Maybe it's not a Magic Table after all. Here's the revised version:
AROUND THIS TABLE
by April Halprin Wayland
It's magic, you know.
Impossible feats of metaphor.
Six of us around this rosewood table,
savoring tea.
Spilling over our pages,
foreshadowing, fortune telling,
drawing stories
out of the shadows of these drapes.
The illusion of allusion.
A prophecy of sorcery.
The tinkling of full moon necklaces.
Shamans jingling bracelets
dangling from our sleight of hands.
But…are we clairvoyant?
Are we soothsayers,
sorceresses, sorcerers?
Maybe it's all just make believe.
Believe.
poem copyright © 2014 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.I am boldly stealing the following EXACT WORDING (and formatting) from today's Poetry Friday host,
Buffy Silverman because it's 12:15 am here in California...and because it applies to Buffy, to me, and to many other poets in the kidlitosphere you may know (thank you, Buffy!):
In other poetry news, I recently submitted a poem to a children’s poetry anthology being prepared by Carol-Ann Hoyte on food and agriculture, and was happy to learn this week that the poem was accepted. I’m in good company with many other Poetry Friday folks–look for the anthology in October of this year. TeachingAuthors will be taking our annual blogging break--we'll be back Monday, July 13th. See you then!
Four TeachingAuthors on summer break.
Written by April Halprin Wayland who thanks you for reading all the way to the end.
By:
Sherrie Petersen,
on 6/17/2014
Blog:
Write About Now
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...one winner, that is. Without further adieu, the winner of the Grasshopper Jungle ARC is...
Congratulations, Danielle! I'll be sending your book out later today. I hope you enjoy reading it! And if anyone is looking for some more good reading, Lucy Silag from Book Country interviewed me on their blog today. This Penguin community for writers is a great place to meet critique partners and get your work read in a public forum. WISH YOU WEREN'T is an Editor's Pick this month (yay!) and I was thrilled that they wanted to profile me.
If you'd like a chance to win your very own copy of WISH YOU WEREN'T, don't forget about the other two blogs I mentioned yesterday. Sheri Larsen at Writer's Alley interviewed me and she's giving away a print book and an e-book. And the delightful Rosi Hollinbeck, a reviewer for the San Francisco Book Review, posted her review of WISH YOU WEREN'T on her blog, The Write Stuff, and she's giving away a print copy.
Oh, and one more thing! If you live in Santa Barbara County and want to learn more about writing for middle grade readers, I'm leading a workshop at the Solvang Library with three other authors: Valerie Hobbs (Sheep), Gwen Dandridge (The Stone Lions) and Kimberley Troutte (Saving Miner's Gulch). The workshop is on Saturday from 1 to 3:30 and we'll be doing a book signing from 12 to 1pm. To find out more, you can visit the library's website. I'd love to see you there!
A big thanks goes out to Renee from Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Katie from Youth Literature Reviews for organizing last week's blog hop. I found a lot of blogs I'd never read before and discovered some new books as well. It was nice to meet so many new people who are interested in books for kids – the perfect way to celebrate Children's Book Week!
If you didn't win a copy of Wish You Weren't (names are on the image below), don't worry. I'm also doing an interview and giveaway over on Dianne Salerni's blog, In High Spirits. You can enter the Rafflecopter there for a chance to win one of two copies up for grabs.
Next week I'll have a book review for Marvelous Middle Grade Monday. Until then, have a great week!
.
Howdy, Campers!
First of all, I'd like to apologize for pushing the "publish" button instead of the "save" button when I was composing this post yesterday. As a result, my weird and clearly unfinished post went out to our subscribers above Carmela's wonderful Wednesday Writing Workout (which I highly recommend reading.) Oy!
Onward...to Poetry Friday!
My poem is below. :-)
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Breaking News: the
American Library Association is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Award at its
annual conference! Right now--
right this very minute!
Here's one fascinating fact from the
ALA's beautifully put together scrapbook of all things Caldecott:
Until 1958, an artist could not be awarded more
than one Caldecott Medal unless the committee's vote was unanimous. In
his letter responding to the news, Robert McCloskey expresses his
surprise at winning the award a second time.
Except for his first
picture book and his last one, Robert McCloskey won either a Caldecott
Medal or a Caldecott Honor for every picture book he published.
Here's a 1:03 minute video of last year's Caldecott honor winner, John Rocco, talking about The Phone Call...the moment he learned he'd won the Caldecott honor for his book, Blackout:
and here's a funny-weird 1:49 minute video about getting ready for
this year's Newbery/Caldecott banquet...
And, yes, it's Poetry Friday! My poem was inspired by Carmela's
Wednesday Writing Workout, in which author
Melanie Crowder suggests that sounds can spark writing ideas.
But where to start--what sound? How about applause--applause for all Caldecott winners (and those hard-working Caldecott committee members)? There are so many different kinds of applause, including
this and
this--which is the applause
before a concert begins. That's the sound that stuck with me. Here's my rough draft:
INSPIRED BY THE SOUND OF EXPECTANT APPLAUSE
by April Halprin Wayland
On stage:
tune strings,
star in the wings.
In your seat:
fleet squeaks,
copious creaks.
Clap-clap-clap!
Toe-tapping beat,
Impatient feet!
Rise in your seat,
stomp on the floor,
awaken your core!
And even before his wild art starts,
roar
for more!
poem © 2013 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved
TeachingAuthors will be taking a vacation from July 1-July 12, 2013. Ta-ta! Bye-bye! Take time to write! See you soon, Raccoons!
By April Halprin Wayland, who thanks you from the bottom of her little heart for reading all the way to the end.
Returning to my recent obsession with
outlining, I would like to offer a cool
exercise from author Alicia Rasley that allows you to lay out the key points of your novel in a mere thirty minutes. It covers many basics that I typically consider for months and collects disparate pieces of information in one place. [I suspect that this would be a great exercise to complete in preparation for NaNoWriMo.] The timer aspect is also compelling in that it requires you to figure out all of the broad strokes in short order before you are tempted to sit down and try to fill in the details.
I particularly appreciate the fact that this exercise focuses on making the main character likeable and helps you figure out where to begin telling your story. While I have not yet tried this particular approach to the outline, it also seems that it would be extremely helpful in determining how external and internal conflict intersect (a particular difficulty of mine).
If you try this technique, please let me know how it works out for you. Look for me to do the same. Happy outlining! --Jeanne Marie
Congratulations to Jan Godown Annino, whose entry was chosen by the Random Number Generator to win an autographed copy of Write a Poem Step by Step!
Thanks to all your helpful suggestions, I'm adding a number of books to my Must Read list. Here are the titles contributed in the Book Giveaway entries:
Wild About Words said, "The book that influenced my writing was STORY by Robert McKee -- really helped with story structure and character arcs."
Robyn Hood Black said, "One of my favorites . . . now is Georgia Heard's AWAKENING THE HEART."
Joyce Ray said, "I also love poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge."
moonduster said, "The Artist's Way was required reading for a class of mine in college and it was wonderful at helping me embrace my creativity."
jan godown annino said, "In addition to poem crazy, which I shared last year with my poetry critique group, I am grateful for several titles. One I'd like to be bold & mention is THE CREATIVE HABIT by Twyla Tharpe. This choreographer & dancer of great stature provides us a lively guide that I try to reread every year. When she talks about collecting her posse, it makes sense for children's literature folks to especially note that this group of her advisors included Maurice Sendak. Her tips lift me up."
Linda said, "Another book I still refer back to is Lee Bennett Hopkins' Pass the Poetry, Please."
skanny17 said, "One of a number of books that influenced my teaching of writing was Write from the Start by Donald Graves and Virginia Stuart. (An oldie but a goodie.) After that all of Nancie Atwell's work and Lucy Calkins's early works such as The Art of Teaching Writing and Living Between the Lines were very helpful. Georgia Heard's books also were a big influence. Naming the World: A year of poems and lessons by Atwell is very helpful for teachers."
Karen said, "One book that influenced my writing is Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets by Paul B. Janeczko."
Lisa said, "The book I love to use for teaching about using one's unconscious mind when writing is Writing the Natural Way" by Gabriele Rico."
Thanks again to all who entered--I'm glad to see so much support for writing and teaching poetry! And thanks again to the Teaching Authors for inviting me here for the Write a Poem Step by Step Book Giveaway and guest post!
JoAnn Early Macken
TeachingAuthors Schedule
The TeachingAuthors will be taking a winter break until January 2,
2013. They'll return with a special announcement regarding the blog in
2013.
Happy holidays, everyone!
A big "thank you" to all who entered our latest giveaway. We enjoyed learning about your favorite chocolate treats. :-) The winner of the
2013 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market is:
Sandy Brehl
Sandy blogs at
Unpacking the POWER of Picture Books. Congratulations, Sandy! And thanks again to
Mary Kole for her guest interview.
And now to wrap-up our current
TeachingAuthors' topic: critique groups, and critiquing in general. Last Friday,
Jill opened the discussion with some excellent tips for when you're critiquing a manuscript in a group setting. Mary Ann focused on
advice for one-on-one critiquing. Jeanne Marie
emphasized the importance of looking at first drafts at the "global level," instead of nitpicking them. And both Mary Ann and Jeanne Marie talked about the value of asking a writer: What made you decide to write this particular story?/Why did you choose to write about this topic? Today I'd like to share a bit about what to do when you receive conflicting feedback.
In the facilitated critique workshops that I teach, we follow the critiquing model I learned at Vermont College. The format is described in this
guest post by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. There are two unique aspects to this format that are specifically designed to help keep the writer from getting defensive:
1) The author remains silent while others discuss his or her work. When you think about it, this makes sense. When you submit a manuscript to an editor or agent, you're not there to explain the choices you made. The manuscript must succeed on its own. Also, an author who remains silent is more likely to really
hear the feedback because he or she isn't sitting there thinking about how to respond to what's being said.
2) After a round of sharing positive feedback regarding what's working well, instead of telling an author what's "wrong" with the piece or what needs "fixing," critiquers share questions about the manuscript. I've found it takes some practice for my students to learn how to express their comments in question form, but here are a few examples:
“Is the narrator a boy or a girl?”
“What time of day is it? What season?”
“What happened to the dog?”
“How did the narrator feel when that happened?”
“Why did the mother react so strongly to such a minor accident?”
“Why didn’t the mother react more strongly?
I do allow my students to preface their questions with an “I” statement to indicate points in the story where they were confused or found something unclear. For example:
I was confused here. I thought the narrator was a boy. Is the narrator a boy or a girl?
I couldn’t picture this scene. Is the main character sitting or standing here?
I didn’t understand exactly what this sentence means. Could you clarify?
However, not all questions are appropriate. I discourage critiquers from trying to tell the author how to "fix" the story via their questions. As critiquers, we may not see or understand the author's goals. Therefore, I believe questions like "Why don't you get rid of the mother character?" aren't as helpful as "What purpose does the mother character serve?" The first question puts the author on the defensive. The second question leads the author to think more deeply about the story. It may be that the mother
is important, but the author hasn't shown why clearly enough yet.
When I facilitate critique workshops, I remind students that all feedback is subjective, including mine. Just because I'm the "teacher," that doesn't necessarily mean my comments are "better" or more valuable than anyone else's. I also encourage students to share their opinions even if they disagree with me and/or with their fellow students--it's important for a writer to know different readers may react differently to the manuscript.
So, when you're the author, how should you handle contradictory feedback? My advice is to latch on to the feedback that feels "right" or "true" first. For example, let's say that while drafting your piece you wonder if a section of dialogue sounds too mature for the character's age, but you leave it as is. Then, when you bring the piece to critique group someone asks: "How old is this character? I think his dialogue sounds old for a 9-year-old." Even if another critiquer responds, "I disagree. His dialogue sounds just right to me," I'd go back and revise the dialogue.
On the other hand, if you're not sure which feedback feels "right," you can go one of several ways. You may decide to go with "majority rules"--what do most critiquers agree on? OR, if there's someone in the group whose opinion you particularly respect or tend to agree with, then you might go with that one individual's response, even it it's the minority opinion. In the above example, if the person saying the dialogue sounds "just right" is a third-grade teacher who works with 9-year-olds on a daily basis, I wouldn't revise. OR, you may decide that the contradictory feedback is a symptom of a deeper problem that requires you to go back and revise something earlier in the story. Perhaps your character is precocious, and mature dialogue is part of his personality. In that case, you may want to go back and check whether his dialogue has been mature for his age from the very beginning. If his precociousness is important to the story, you might want to include other signs of it, besides his dialogue.
Keep in mind that the more critiquers you have, the more likely you are to get contradictory feedback. Sometimes, that's a good thing, but not always. I've seen writers revise over and over again thinking they will eventually satisfy all their critiquers. The problem is:
You can't please all your readers all the time. If you don't believe me, go to
Goodreads and look at the reviews for
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Alongside this bestseller's many 4- and 5-star ratings, you'll see reviews with only 1-3 stars.
As I said earlier, reading is subjective. While critique feedback can be invaluable, in the end it's
your story, and yours alone.
Happy writing, and Happy Poetry Friday! Today's Poetry Friday round-up is at hosted by
Ed DeCaria at ThinkKidThink.
Carmela
Thank you to all who entered our latest TeachingAuthor giveaway. See the end of today's post to find out who won an autographed copy of Eileen Meyer's debut picture book, Who’s Faster? Animals on the Move (Mountain Press).
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| Image courtesy Microsoft Clipart | |
When MA posted on Wednesday, she thought she would be the last TA to talk about research, but we're not quite done with this subject. I agree with what my fellow
TeachingAuthors have already said about the importance of research in fiction. So, instead of beating that dead horse, I'm going to share three research resources some of you may find helpful:
1. Consult an expert
Jeanne Marie's post reminded
me of an important resource many writers, including me, shy away from:
talking to an expert.
As Jill wrote in her post, that expert can be a family member or friend. But what do you do when you don't know anyone with the background to answer your questions? I look for professionals in the field. Most often, they are the authors of books or articles I've come across in my research. So far, I've contacted two such experts for information related to my historical young adult work-in-progress--both university professors. Because of their positions, their email
addresses were easy to find on their university websites.
From my experience contacting subject matter experts for my nonfiction work, I knew that most experts are happy to share their knowledge. These two professors were no different. One was able to answer my question via email. But he also expressed his pleasure at learning of my project and asked me to keep him informed of my progress. The other professor agreed to a phone interview and spent over an hour talking with me. He did more than simply answer my questions--he also provided information about additional research sources for my project.
Of course, I did my homework before contacting these experts. I didn't want to waste their time by asking "stupid
questions" or anything that could be answered by reading the right
references. If you need an expert's help and have never contacted one before, I suggest you do some research (either online or via books about nonfiction writing) on conducting effective research interviews first.
2. Visit your setting virtually
In last Wednesday's post, Esther discussed using maps and photographs in books to "travel" to the location of her picture book. Nowadays, we have
Google Earth to allow us to take virtual tours of locations around the world. And this past weekend, while attending the SCBWI-Wisconsin Fall Conference, I learned from a fellow attendee that another great resource is the
U.S. Geologic Survey website. I haven't had a chance to explore this site in depth yet, but it appears to include historical topographical maps of U.S. locations as well as satellite images from around the world.
3. Watch a video demonstration
It never occurred to me to use
YouTube as a research resource until I was trying to find out about cat tricks for my
I Fooled You short story, "Big Z, Cammi, and Me." Thanks to YouTube, I was able to watch videos of cats that had learned to "
High Five" with their paws, a trick my main character teaches his cat, Big Z. More recently, I've watched re-enactments of eighteenth-century dances and step-by-step demonstrations of how to dress in eighteenth-century clothing.
Do any of you know of other resources, besides traditional library references? If so, please share them with us, either by posting a comment or sending an email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com with "Research Resource" in the subject line. Please note: several readers have emailed us about problems with Blogger's Word Verification software when trying to post comments. I've temporarily turned off Word Verification to make commenting easier. I'm hoping we won't be flooded with Spam as a result. I'm afraid that if we are, I'll have to turn WV back on. But for now, please "comment away"!
And finally, time to announce the winner of Eileen Meyer's debut picture book,
Who’s Faster? Animals on the Move (Mountain Press). The winner is:
Karen Kobylarz,
who submitted her entry via email. Like several other readers, Karen guessed that the fastest animal is the cheetah. Here's the correct answer from Eileen:
The peregrine falcon is the fastest creature in the animal kingdom, with dives clocked at well over 200 mph. Try to catch that bird!
Thanks again to Eileen for her wonderful
Student Success Story interview. And thanks to all our readers who entered the contest.
Happy writing!
Carmela
.
…
shishh-shishh-shishh (in a nod to
Mary Ann's post on sound, this is the sound of shuffling through all the entry names on strips of paper in a pail with my eyes closed and then pulling one out)
Irene Latham! How appropriate for Poetry Friday—congratulations, poet Irene!
Life is what happens to you / While you're busy making other plans,
John Lennon wrote in his song Beautiful Boy.
I have been working on the election for more than a year and have put my 14-year-old-novel-that-scares-the-dickens-out-of-me aside. You know the one--the one that's supposed to be in bookstores everywhere by now. At least that was the plan.
Every day my stomach twinges; I wonder if I'll ever finish it. If I'm capable of finishing it.
Don't try to force anything. Let life be a deep let-go.
See God opening millions of flowers every day without forcing the buds
~ Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
PATIENCE
by April Halprin Wayland
.
"Come in," I say to my almost-book.
But it stays outside,
in a halo of porch light.
It will not take off its coat or paisley rain boots,
though I offer it a place on the couch
and a cup of hot tea.
It seems comfortable out there,
watching rain
dripping off the roof.
So I go about my days, my nights,
researching, running, writing.
Wrestling with wildlife.
Every now and then I tilt my head
to look out the window
at my almost-book on the wooden porch.
It's out there still,
in no hurry,
surrounded by the fragrance of tuberose.
poem (c) 2012 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.
Writing Workout: Wrestling with Demons
In the poem above, I told an embarrassing truth that haunts me.
It's October...nearly Halloween.
I dare you to do the same.
And remember to write with joy.
.
We had LOTS of great entries in our latest giveaway contest--see the end of this post to find out who our winner is.
As Jill shared last Friday, for our current TeachingAuthors topic we're talking a bit about our daily lives/routines as writers. Before I discuss my routine, I have a confession to make: I don't want to be writing this blog post right now.
It's not that I mind the topic, or that I dislike blogging, because I enjoy these posts and the opportunity to connect with you, our blog readers. It's just that I've been working hard, keeping "butt in chair" for the past few weeks, trying to finish the revision of my young-adult historical, and I'm almost done--"almost," as in, to start this blog post, I had to stop at page 274 of a 280-page manuscript! I really wanted to keep plugging away without interruption until I reached the end AND worked through Chapter 1 again so I could send it off to my Beta
readers.
Ironically (given today's topic), I would easily have made it through those last pages if regular life hadn't intervened with a minor household crisis this afternoon. But that's a topic for another day.
However, since I'm being brutally honest here, I should also note that these last few weeks have really been more "fun" than "work." That's because I FINALLY got through the revision of Chapter 12--the pivotal chapter where the two formerly antagonistic main characters realize they're falling in love! Once I had that chapter working to my satisfaction, I was on a roll: tweaking scenes, pulling threads, deepening sensory details, adding imagery, polishing language, etc. The stuff I love to do!
If you've been following this blog for awhile, you know it's taken me a LONG time to get to this point with this current work-in-progress. In fact, I've been ready to give up on this novel countless times. Back in June 2011, I blogged about how having a "writing buddy" turned out to be the key to my getting a finished draft. But that draft still needed a lot of work--work I hope to have finished by the end of this week. Hooray!
[By the way--my blog post about having a "writing buddy" led me to write a freelance article on the topic for the
2013 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (Writer's Digest Books), edited by Chuck Sambuchino. The book was just released on September 21, and is also available in ebook form.]
So, what IS my typical day like? I blogged about my "ideal" day back in
June, 2009, and that ideal hasn't changed much, though I
rarely live up to it.
I find I'm most productive if I get up around 6-6:30 in the morning and get to work as soon after breakfast as possible, without checking email or Facebook. Since I have a hard time resisting email, I set a timer and don't allow myself to look at it until after I've put in 2-4 hours of work, depending on what else I have going on that day. After email and lunch, I work another 2-4 hours, though I take an exercise break in the middle of the afternoon on most days. (If you haven't read about the recent studies citing the dangers of prolonged sitting, you may want to read this Forbes article:
Why Sitting at Work Can be so Deadly.]
I should clarify that "work" varies depending on my teaching schedule and my work goals for the week. I'm not currently teaching any classes, so the "work" time these days may include:
- writing/revising my current historical YA novel-in-progress (that's almost done!)
- researching/planning where to submit a novel I recently finished co-writing with another author
- writing a blog post, like this one, or planning future blogging topics
- pitching/querying new freelance writing projects
- writing/researching freelance writing projects
- updating my website with information about upcoming classes, publications, etc.
Weeks when I am teaching, my "work" time includes lesson planning, publicizing classes, and reviewing student work.
Depending on how much time I spend on email and social media, my typical work day is usually 5-8 hours long, Monday through Friday, plus 4 hours or more on Saturday. (I often teach on Saturdays.) If I'm on deadline, or on a "roll" as I have been the last few weeks, I may put in some extra time after dinner. But I can't do that for an extended period. I agree with what
Jill said on Friday, that we need to have time away from our work to gather the material that will enrich our writing.
I know many of you have full-time jobs that make it pretty much impossible to spend 2-4 hours per day writing. The good news is, many writers who have much less time to devote to their writing are still able to have successful careers.
Esther recently mentioned a new blog by Carol Coven Grannick called
Today I Am a Writer. In one of her first posts, Carol talks about how productive she's been by following the simple tenet of
devoting the First, Best Hour to her work. As Carol has discovered, knowing we have a limited amount of time can sometimes help us stay focused. I'm a believer in
Parkinson's law--work often
does expand to fill the time allotted for its completion.
But even if an hour is more than you can muster, you may be surprised at what you can accomplish by writing simply fifteen minutes a day. Every August, award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson hosts the
"Write Fifteen Minutes a Day Challenge" on her blog. Here's an excerpt from what she posted on
the last day of the challenge::
Life happens whether you are writing or not. You don’t have to wait for the right time, or that Muse-blessed idea or a fellowship to a writing colony or a winning lottery ticket or anything. You just have to give yourself permission to take seriously your writing dream.
So I hope you'll give yourself permission to take your writing dream seriously. Why not start today, by setting aside some regular writing time?. Even if you missed Anderson's Fifteeen Minutes a Day Challenge last month, there's nothing stopping you from using her posts to work through your own month of writing fifteen minutes a day.
Day one begins here.
And now, time to announce the winner of Lisa Cron's
Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence (Ten Speed Pess). Our winner is:
Mary Jo
Congratulations, Mary Jo! (Please respond to my email so we can get the book in the mail right away.)
If you didn't win, never fear--we have more giveaways coming SOON!
And now, I'm going back to my novel.
Happy writing!
Carmela
A big THANK YOU to all the readers who entered our latest giveaway contest--see the end of this post to find out who our winner is. And stay tuned for more fun giveaways in the coming weeks.
As
Mary Ann posted on Monday, this week we're answering an
Ask the TeachingAuthors question submitted by Joanna Cooke. Before I share my comments on the topic, I want to remind readers that if you have a question you'd like us to address, either about writing for children/young adults or about the teaching of writing, you can use the link in our sidebar to submit your own
Ask the TeachingAuthors question. Please keep in mind, though, that our posting schedule is usually set several months in advance, so we may not be able to address your question right away.
Now, back to our current question: Joanna asked us to share some of the pros/cons of getting an MFA. Mary Ann has already discussed one of the biggest advantages: your growth as a writer. I'd been freelance writing for years before entering the
Vermont College MFA program. Like Mary Ann, I'd also attended conferences and taken workshops related specifically to both fiction writing and writing for children and teens. (Unlike Mary Ann, I was already active in the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and had served as publicity chairperson for the Illinois chapter for a number of years. That's how I met Esther Hershenhorn!) Yet I didn't understand just how much I had to learn until I started at Vermont College. I'd enrolled with the intention of polishing a young adult novel I'd already written. After getting my first adviser's feedback on the manuscript, I realized that I wasn't skilled enough as a writer to tackle the major revisions the novel needed. I chose to work on several other projects instead, and eventually wrote a draft of the middle-grade novel that was later published by Candlewick Press,
Rosa, Sola.
So, for me, the number one "pro" of going through the MFA program was learning to be a better writer. When I look back on those two years, I'm still amazed at how much my fiction writing improved in that time, and also at how I learned to read so much more critically. However, another important advantage for me was a HUGE increase in my writing productivity. I wrote more in those two years than in any similar period before or since. In addition to starting and finishing a draft of my novel, I wrote several polished short stories and about five picture book manuscripts--all on top of the program-required critical essays and thesis writing, and teaching part-time. The monthly deadlines, and knowing my adviser was waiting to read and critique what I'd produced, really helped me stay on task.
One of the biggest "cons" of going to graduate school, at least for me, was the cost. It is a significant investment, and not an easy one for me to make. Interestingly, that turned out to also be a "pro" for me--I was determined to get the most for my money! As a result, the expense made it easier for me to say "no" to distractions and other demands on my time, thus raising the priority of fiction writing in my life. That, too, contributed to my productivity.
I could say plenty more about considerations when deciding on pursuing an MFA, but I'll leave that for April and Jeanne Marie who will also be blogging on the topic. Meanwhile, I want to remind readers that we have links to information about MFA programs in our sidebar, under the heading "Graduate Programs in Writing for Children and Young Adults." As Mary Ann mentioned, when we started at Vermont College, it was the only school that offered a graduate program devoted to writing for children and young adults. That's no longer the case. If you know of any programs we missed in the sidebar, please let us know and I'll add links to them as well.
And now, time to announce the winner of an autographed copy of
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems, edited by Heidi Roemer and Carol-Ann Hoyte. Our winner is:
Karen Casale
Congratulations, Karen! (Please respond to the email I sent you so we can get the book in the mail right away.)
If you didn't win, I hope you'll consider buying a copy of
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems. As I mentioned
in my interview post, a portion of the proceeds from both the paperback and e-book editions will be donated to
Right to Play, an international organization that uses sports and games to educate and empower children facing adversity. The book is now available for purchase
directly from the publisher, FriesenPress. If you're a librarian or bookseller, you can also order the book through Ingram. For more ordering information, see the official
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems website
And stay tuned for more fun book giveaways here in the coming weeks!
Happy writing!
Carmela
It seems like lately I’ve had a lot of books and posts on my theme of “helping women (and children) around the world” instead of kids’ books. This is another great book today, part of a WOW! Women On Writing blog tour, that empowers women and inspires us to figure out what is important in our lives. Destiny Allison wrote an amazing guest post to go along with her book (see below) about how hard it is to be a SAHM and WAHM too! (Now that school is back in session, I do plan to blog a bit more on the children’s/YA book scene AND also I plan to add one more post a week that focuses on things to do with my book coming out, but more on that later. . .) I have either an e-copy or print copy to give away of this really cool book with a title I LOVE–Shaping Destiny. If you are interested in winning this memoir, please leave a comment (or question for Destiny) below by Sunday night 8/26 at 8:00 pm CST. I have a synopsis and guest post by Destiny below, so don’t miss those!
I also have the winners of my giveaway of Hollywood and Catholic Women from last week. The winners are Cathy Hall, Marybeth, and Becky Povich. I’ll be emailing each of you about this prize! Congratulations and thanks for stopping by and commenting on my interview with Kathryn. She has written a fascinating book. Now on to. . . Shaping Destiny!
Synopsis of Shaping Destiny:
Shaping Destiny is the inspiring story of Allison’s life from the creation of her first sculpture to her acceptance into a prominent Santa Fe art gallery. The book, which recounts her journey from traditional female roles to self-actualization and independence, is told with three voices: the emotional, the intellectual and the instructional. Though she had no formal training, Allison moved quickly from small, Plasticine clay sculptures to an apprenticeship at a foundry to teaching in a small museum. Along the way, the author wrestled with shedding and then reclaiming family. To add to the extended metaphor binding her story to the theory and language of sculpture, Allison infuses an ample dose of popular philosophy in lessons culled from childhood days spent with her father. The 22 lessons at the beginning of each chapter intend to guide readers’ passage through the complexities of clay and life; each lesson works with the idea that art is a process, as is life.
The Unique Challenge of Being a Woman Artist
Guest Post By Destiny Allison
It was late. The children had long been asleep. My husband was working an overnight shift and I had the house to myself. The dishes were done and put away. Sundry toys, bottles, blocks and bears were back in their appropriate places. For a moment, chaos was tame.
Ahhh, silence, that vast, sweet quiet! It was soft as the skin of my infant, tender as my toddler’s kiss, and limitless as the dark sky sparkling with distant stars outside my window.
As I settled in front of the sculpture I had waited all day to contemplate, I heard only the sound of my own breath. It was rhythmic, a peaceful rise and fall as calming as a sea breaking on distant shores. Finally I was alone–able to engage in my passion and give voice to that part of myself rendered small in daylight hours. Tonight, for a little while, I would speak.
I looked at the tiny face of the clay woman in front of me. With the tip of my finger, I stroked her tangled hair and traced her round belly, full breasts, and the lines of her arms. There, that was it! That was what had been bothering me all day! The proportions were wrong. Her arms were too long for her body. Ape-like and heavy, they robbed this woman of her grace. I grabbed my knife and savagely cut through skin, sinew, and bones. This was a flaw I could fix. This I could render right. This small woman would be the woman I was not–forever still, forever wise, forever. . .
Before I could finish the thought, a piercing wale of unspeakable agony shattered the quiet of my mind. My baby was awake. I sighed and put down my knife. I turned off the light above my table and wearily climbed the stairs, unfastening my bra as I went. My baby was hungry. He was wet. He needed something only I could give him–the sustenance of a mother’s love, the sustenance of my body, mind and soul.
Fast forward twenty years and not much has changed. Today, though I make my living from my art, there are always interruptions. My husband calls me to share some news. My sons, now grown, still need me. Someone has lost something and has to find it RIGHT NOW. Someone wants to know if we are cooking dinner tonight or if he should fend for himself. There are dishes to be done, dogs to feed and walk, beds to be made, and floors to be swept. Because I don’t go to an office or have a “real” job, because I love what I do, it is hard for my family to know that I am not always available to them.
I am better now at shushing them–a low growl in my throat, as I start to respond, gives them the distinct impression that their interruption is not welcome. They are a little more careful about what they ask and when. Still, they are my family. I am mother and wife. I love them. So I do like women the world over. I turn off my machines and give them a minute or an hour. Like a soldier learns to sleep whenever he can, I have learned to work when I can. And work I do because over the years, that small voice of a woman rendered quiet in daylight hours has grown strong, incessant, and exacting. She will be heard. She will shout out to the world. Nothing will stop her.
*******************************************************************************************
Isn’t Destiny great? What terrific writing! If you want to read more, please leave a comment for your chance to win or visit her book page on Amazon by clicking below. If you enter the contest, please leave your comment by 8/26!
The WOW! advanced writing a middle-grade novel online class I teach starts on 8/23. It’s for anyone who has at least three chapters of a middle-grade novel started (or an entire draft is good, too). For more information, please see the syllabus on the WOW! classroom page or email me at margo (at) wow-womenonwriting.com. Thanks!
.
Howdy, Campers!
Happy hot and glorious summer! I'm loving this hotter-than-usual Southern California summer: lying on hot cement by the pool in a wet bathing suit, barefeet, no sleeves, long days, bright mornings, driving with all the windows down, sleeping with all the windows open, taking Eli to the dog park early because he's black and brown and otherwise he gets too hot to romp like a pony, cold drinks with just the right kind of crunchy ice...I can go on listing all the things I love about summer.
Speaking of lists, we have a winner of
Sylvia Vardell's book,
THE POETRY BOOK OF LISTS! If you were on vacation, Sylvia was our
Mystery Guest Author on August 3rd. It was very exciting. And so is announcing the winner, who is...dum-dah-dah-dum...Carl Scott! Yay, Carl!
And now onto the topic we TeachingAuthors have been discussing:
GETTING THROUGH TIMES OF DROUGHT
OR HOW I FILL THE WRITING WELL.
(Sorry...I didn't mean to shout.)
Mary Ann posted about finding at least three things to write in her journal each day that trigger her curiosity.
Carmela posted that she replenishes her writer's well by taking herself on an artist playdate. And Carmela tells us about her friend,
Leanne Pankuch, who writes a page a day.
My contribution is the following poem, inspired by our topic.
DROUGHT
by April Halprin Wayland
We writers,
we've been through Hard Times.
Dry times.
The Long Drought.
Dry? Oh my.
We place our plates upside down,
glasses bottom side up,
so the winds won't blast dust into 'em.
Our typewriters go thirsty on parched parchment.
We've got scrawny stories—or none at all.
Ideas simply
evaporate.
We hear that on the outskirts of Amarillo,
crows built a nest from barbed wire—
the only thing they could scavenge
from burned-out fields.
Those birds made a nest
from barbed wire?
Well, Sir, then so can we.
And then: we'll crow.
poem © 2012 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.
WRITING WORKOUT: Vitamins
11 Comments on We Have A Winner! And We Have A Writer's Drought Poem for Poetry Friday!, last added: 8/19/2012
The winner for the signed copy of Sandy Green's "The Tide Changers" is.........
Jodi Moore
Jodi Moore.
Thank you for commenting and sending your well wishes to Sandy for the success of her new MG novel.
Please contact me through my website (link in the blog's upper right hand corner) to send me your mailing address and I will forward it to Sandy.
Thanks everyone.
Best,
Gayle
PS. Stay
By:
Administrator,
on 3/4/2012
Blog:
Margo Dill's Read These Books and Use Them!
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I am happy to announce that Krysten H. won the copy of Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin. Thank you to everyone who left a comment and got excited about this new YA book and debut author as well as her informative post! 
If you didn’t win, consider purchasing the book for a teen in your life.
Today, I am going to preview a book I am SUPER EXCITED to share with you, but I’m not going to actually share it with you until Thursday. Can you wait that long? Plus, when I do share it, I am also going to be hosting a giveaway for it–you can win it as an e-book or as a hard copy. I will be giving out ONE. The book is. . .
Stranger Moon by Heather Zydek
It’s middle-grade and published by Moth Wing Press.
It has adventure and humor. It has kids that still play together and like to be outside. It has secret clubs and bullies and strangers. I don’t want to tell you too much because I plan to reveal the plot and how you can use it with kids on Thursday. But I will provide a link to it on Amazon, and I am telling you that it is amazing. You will love it and your children/students will love it. I plan to give it 5 stars on Amazon, so stay tuned–you could win it!
To find out more about the author, visit: www.heatherzydek.com
Mark your calendars and come back on Thursday, 3/8 to enter the giveaway for this book!
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 1/27/2012
Blog:
Teaching Authors
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Howdy, Campers! Author and illustrator Barney Saltzberg is a generous soul, and in his Friday the 13th interview, he offered an autographed copy of his fun and amazing book, BEAUTIFUL OOPS to one of our readers.
And the lucky, randomly chosen winner is...
Sarah Albee--yay, Sarah (who's an amazing author--check out her
website)!
Here's Sarah's
Beautiful Oops:
My oops moment happened when I was a very junior editor at Sesame Street. I was editing my first big book, a SS songbook (because I was the only editor in my dept who could read music and play piano). I went over to Jeff Moss's house (composer of Rubber Duckie) to show him some song arrangements, and when we got to People In Your Neighborhood (his song) we both stared at the composer credit, which read Joe Raposo (his long-time rival and writer of Bein' Green, among many others). Jeff was notoriously curmudgeonly, and I knew there was a good chance he would flip, even though of course it was just galleys and there would be plenty of opportunity to change it. So I quickly made a joke about it (along the lines of how interchangeable he and Joe were, whatevs). After five tense seconds, he grinned broadly. And we became fast friends.
So...drawing the winning name, watching the exciting
announcements of the ALA awards (I felt as if I were in the audience!) and reading
Carmela's,
Mary Ann's,
JoAnn's,
Esther's, and
Jeanne Marie's fabulous and thought-provoking posts about awards, got me to thinking about winning...
...which inspired this poem for Poetry Friday, graciously hosted today by Jim at
HeyJimHill!
WINNINGby April Halprin Wayland
I sit under this treeto sit under this tree.
Congratulations, Carol Grannick, winner of our TeachingAuthors Book Giveaway of Leonard Marcus' THE ANNOTATED PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH!
Here's Norton Juster's synopsis of the last chapter of THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, as typed by his mother Minnie for his editor Jason Epstein at Random House and shared by Leonard Marcus in his recently published annotated volume:
“Milo then says goodbye to his friends, heads for home and after one more detour in the land if illusions he reaches the tollbooth and his room. The next day when he eagerly rushes home from school to take another trip he finds that the booth has disappeared as mysteriously as it came. In its place is a letter which tells him there are many other little boys and girls who have to use it also and that now he must find the lands beyond by himself. At first he is very unhappy but then he realizes that he doesn’t have time to be because there is so much to do.”Carol Grannick is now sufficiently equipped to discover The Lands Beyond.
Thanks to all those TeachingAuthor readers who entered. I know they are busily engaged in all that there is to do!
Esther Hershenhorn
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April - A poem of anticipatory-applause! And applause for you! Audiences can be so grateful, and this fact fills me with hope. I really dig that first stanza - that tuning - it almost feels like we're given a listen into the dressing room. Thank you! My hands beat for you for today and for everything here at Teaching Authors! Have a glorious summer break. Happy PF!
John Rocco's smile throughout his video was proof of the power of Caldecott. Loved the rhythm and joy iof poem....enjoy your summer break!
Bravo! (Sound of loud applause here.) Thank you for sharing all the Caldecott info, too!
Catherine
Love the ending of your poem, "roar, for more"-exactly like the sound. And thank you for all the Caldecott info. I hope they'll tell more about this morning! Happy vacation, April!
I love your celebratory poem. It has such great sounds.
Enjoy your vacation!
Such joy and a wonderful upbeat rhythm in your poem, April. Love it! I join in the applause for the Caldecott anniversary. Thanks for the great info!
"Awaken your core" - I love that! Your poem takes me back to my days of playing in the high school orchestra. There is a sense of anticipation that builds to the roar at the end. Lovely!
Clapping here too!
Great Poem! Loved the climbing rhythm crescendo right up to the end.
Dear Amy, Tara, readingtothecore, Linda, Katya, Jama, Robin, Ruth and Michelle--thank you for coming by. Me and my blogmates appreciate your reading our posts SO much!
xxx
Oh, rats. I meant "My fellow blogmates and I"...
I swear, I should have gotten a ticket from the Grammar Police...
Such fun!
Thank you for bringing this fantabulous 75th event to us.
And in such a fetching, poetic way.
In my writing, such as my 1st ch. book I sent out (fingers crossed) this wk, I think about how to weave sounds into the story.
But... duh.. never realized I can use a sound as a writng prompt or poetry starter. Now I have a new idea, to write a poem about a sound. Thank you!!!
Her is my impromptu poem inspired by this post.
Wheee!
What is that?
Feeling free
You and me
At the beach
In the park
On a walk
in the dark
Up a hill
Down a street
Moving on vacation feet!
- Jan Godown Annino
Happy vacation to the always fantabulous Teaching Authors!
Love your poem. I can hear it loud and clear. Thanks for the info on the Caldecott.
I also want to thank Jan for her response sound poem about vacation. Such a world of talent in this Poetry Friday community!
Hooray for the Caldecott's 75th!
Love your poem!
Its refreshing!
Thank you!
Jan--three cheers for sharing your poem with us!
And Margaret, Mary Lee and Teresa--we really appreciate you reading and commenting on our posts--thank you.
<3