Category: On Writing

The Literacy Evangelist strikes again! Jen is collaborating with some awesome people to create the PBS Parents Children’s Book Blog! Wow. PBS is getting a really great resource in Jen and all of our awesome kidlitosphere folks, including MotherReader and Susan from Wizards Wireless who is hoping someone can help name the blog. Head over if you have some ideas.

Nice people occasionally get super awesome book covers. (The reverse is also true, but then it has nothing to do with karma, and everything to do with the little black dots on the sun.) Check out Laurie Halse Anderson’s cover for Wintergirls.

Are You There, God? It’s Judy! Check out the classic cover for that book! I really like the reissue cover for Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Just the titles bring back memories. Good times!

“TRYING is such a huge step. You can’t get anywhere until you try. Hearing the truth is FRIGHTENING. I once received very similar advice…basically: write was is true. Write what scares you. Find out WHO YOU ARE in your wip, and dig deep. At the gut level, there must be fear and love.”

Kellye Carter Crocker is at the Tollbooth today, where they’re talking about what keeps a writer in her chair. I’ve really enjoyed the Writing Secrets series lately — some of the truths and secrets really resonate. And speaking of resonating, Liz in Ink is figuring out for me how the world works, and then encapsulating it in blog form. Thanks, Liz!

I first got a heads-up for this very cool necklace Etsy site from from Sara’s Gifts For Readers and Writers, and now via Betsy’s Etsy ravings, I’m back at the amazing Lioness’ Den Etsy page. The necklace that reads, “Go, my book, and help destroy the world as it is,” kind of gives me chills. The one that reads ANTAGONIST, though, that one I could see wearing that on days when people need to KNOW the mood I’m in! Everyone has been pairing books with other gifts — for the older reader or writer, I could see giving these necklaces away with the books from which they quote. Or, find a book to give from Chicken Spaghetti’s Best of 2008 book list.

I’m struggling to write today — a guy named Paul is drilling a hole through the three foot thick sandstone wall outside the living room… it’s a bit loud. And cold, since he’s opened the window and outside it’s 37°. However! Soon I will have hot running water, so all will be well!

A Letter In Response To My Young Friend Who Wrote And Asked Me What “The Basics” Were To Writing A Book:

Dear M:

The basics of writing a book are to remember that every story has a beginning, middle and an end. You’d think that would be the easy part, but most people can only start, and never finish.

Think about what you want to write. You might make an outline or even just a list of the things you want to cover so that you remember them all and can touch on them in the way that you want to as you write.

The next thing you have to do is decide to whom you’re telling the story.

Find your audience. Think of one person in the world – a real person – to whom you’re telling the story. And then sit down and type it up. Double space, just like for a school paper. You should use spell check and grammar check so that your grammar is as intelligent as possible.

Every day when you start to write, read what you wrote the day before out loud to yourself. Make the corrections you need to so that it sounds good.

The other basic thing you need to do – while writing – is to read. Read the type of books that you want to write. This will give you some idea of style and the right vocabulary to use. It will also get you familiar with the names of publishers, if that’s the plan for down the road. You can make a list of the publishers, and then research them online to see what their requirements are, and how to approach them. (Every publishing company has Author Guidelines online; it’s just a matter of searching the site ’til you find them.)

Basically, that’s it – you write until you reach the end. It’s ideal to have a group of writers around your own age to read it for you, and discuss it with you – or a writing teacher/English teacher from school can help.

Publishing a book is a different matter, but writing a book – once you decide you’re going to do it – can be pretty uncomplicated. Not easy – but it’s a pretty straightforward job. The most important thing is that writers… write. Every day. So, it’s a matter of discipline, of sitting down and just doing it.

Hope that helps,
T

(I’m pretty sure that did not help. I think what the author of the letter wanted was for me to tell them, step-by-step, the fail-safe, what-I-have-to-do to get published. I think she figures since I did it, it must be easy. I could have told her that, yes. But see, that’s not what she asked, was it?

See, this is what happens when you ask a teacher a question and you’re not specific…

It’s time again to celebrate another fabulous success! Congratulations Justina Chen Headley on your starred review at PW for North of Beautiful! Justina — and now Jackie — have introduced me to the notion of geocaching, and since it’s in the novel, I think it’s going to be a VERY cool.

Justina’s just back from a sadly truncated year in China, and this is a great welcome home! Yay!

A second but equally BIG YAY goes to our friend C.K., she of the just-being-interviewed-at-Cynsations fame, and the Best Books of 2008 kudos from Kirkus. Woot! Woot! Don’t miss the book trailer for I Know It’s Over at the end of the interview.

Miss Piggy’s beauty routines and a Home Depot barn are possibly secrets to a stunningly gorgeous person. That, and hot chocolate and Arnold Lobel books. The irrepressible illustrator Cece Bell is stopping by at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast during her blog tour of Bee-Wigged, which sounds flat out hilarious.

Happy Thursday!

…you’ll want to read this piece in the Telegraph, which talks about how story is central to who we are. Narrative is never going away, huzzah, and it seems that someone else was as baffled by the whole MIT plan to “keep meaning alive” with their “Center for Future Storytelling.”

EDITED TO ADD: Oh, dear. A writer for SLJ is discussing why boys don’t read. And once again, I’m sad to report assumption and stereotype are lining up. Via Miss R again.

Also — check out the cover of Cynthia’s newest vampire novel, Eternal. Oh, my.

Three things to say yay about:
           1.) No one has fallen down the stairs thus far today (my little signs of “ICE!” are still on the doors of the building — seriously necessary, since the stuff DIDN’T MELT YESTERDAY, and the wee ice trucks don’t come up on the sidewalk and a blizzard is forecast for Thursday),
           2.) Actual writing was accomplished and the ship of the novel is being turned toward the shore at long last (and YES, I know you’re sick of hearing about it. Sorry.),
           3.) And Sarah Beth Durst has two more books coming out!!!!
From her blog:

I am delighted and thrilled and so unbelievably happy to tell you that I have just signed a contract for two new YA fantasy books with Simon & Schuster!!! Yippee!!! My new beauties are called (at least until the titles get changed, as they always do) ICE (coming Fall 2009) and IVY (coming Fall 2010).

We love her first two books around these parts, so new books is REALLY something to look forward to with glee and much Snoopy dancing!

The EPICALLY cool Judy Blume is someone most of us admire greatly, and much to our excitement, she’s blog touring. She started out Big A little a’s December with a great interview Monday, and talks a bit about her writing process with Little Willow here. Stay tuned for her chat with Book Evangelist Jen and the 7-Imps later this week.

Judy’s not the only one blog touring — the adorable author-illustrator Maxwell Eaton III was seen this week scarfing Cheerios and marshmallows with the ladies at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast (and may I just say The Nefarious Bunnies is such a good name for a band) and today has guest blogged at The Well-Read Child with the cutest little cartoon about how to engage reluctant readers.

Everyone has been talking so wisely about book giving this year that it nudged something in my memory this morning… about my father.

Now, my blogosphere buds know from my father already: he of the no-fiction, only KJV, laying-down-the-law sort, he of the no-fairytales-there-is-nothing-good-about-daydreaming-pick-up-a-dishtowel-stop-wasting-time kind of mentality. He has never mellowed, but learned, and tends to come down with his hobnailed boots on other things, with my younger sibs. At least, they seem less fraught than I was, but then, they’re different types of people than I am. And this is good.

But I remember when my sister turned nine or ten, and I’d just sold my first book to a major publisher*, and her birthday came up, and my father was looking on as she opened the gift I brought her. It was… Barbie clothes, which galled me (because I hate Barbie), but delighted her, since she was deeply into them at that point (although I am gratified to report that she abruptly threw her dolls away about two months ago — no prompting — she said it was “time”) — and it confused my father. “I thought,” he said mildly, off-handedly, “that you’d get her something more bookish.”

::doink:: Somewhere a cartoon anvil fell on my head.

I found that comment unbelievable. Completely surreal. Books were a field I had to die on, constantly as a kid. I felt I had to hide them, tuck them under couch cushions and go back to folding clothes — standing up, thank you, it’s lackadaisical and slovenly to fold laundry sitting down — (And yes. He used the word “slovenly.” Yes, thank-you, I did totally blow the language section of the SAT out of the water.) I constantly had to defend my right to privacy, to daydreaming, to unconstructed hours of time (which is why writing sometimes makes me feel deeply guilty. Shouldn’t I be Doing Something? Like taking a twenty mile hike, which is what he does for entertainment?) in which I could read and dream and launch forth into other worlds.

So, who was this guy asking for books for his kid?
Could he be made to want books for himself?
And, if he wanted them, what books would you get for Mr. KJV, a man who read aloud to me all my life, but read instructive things rather than entertaining things?

I want to take a moment to give a shout-out to Tricia and Susan and everyone else who participates in Nonfiction Mondays for helping me love nonfiction. I give great kudos to MotherReader, whose MotherReader Suggests list on the right hand edge of her blog I read and reread long months before I ever “spoke” to her; and to Colleen’s years worth (no, really, I read her archives once) of books organized by interest and topic and gift-worthiness. Thank you to every single one of you who reads and reviews (or… suggests, if the word “review” is still too scary sounding). I have the tools in my hands to give some really excellent gifts this year.

Still, it’s kind of terrifying.

Giving the gift of a book not only tells the recipient something about a topic, it tells them something about what the giver thinks — of them. It says to them that someone thought about them and their interests, or thought them smart enough or good humored enough or enough the same to share their favorite stories. It’s a tremendous compliment, in a way, to get a book — be it a graphic novel or a romance, or a comedy or a tale of polar expeditions. It’s a passport that says, “Oh, I know you’ll like this place — tell me all about it when you get back.”

I still don’t know what books to get for Mr. KJV, but I started slowly — for Father’s Day, he got Kadir Nelson’s baseball book, which is gorgeous and lovely, and was possibly thought of as a strange gift… but if nothing else, he can look at it with my nephew, and think he’s just reading to a child. That’s surely safe. He asked me, once, if I knew anything about E.R. Braithwaite, the “To Sir, With Love” guy. I should have thought, “biographies!” but I told him the titles of the other books Braithwaite wrote. Duh. I think I’ve been being given some hints, through the years, but I’ve just never seen them, or taken him up on them.

And now I have an excuse to lay down a shaky piece of lumber to begin building a bridge.

Suggestions — specially from those of you who know from KJV — and you heathens, too 😉 — welcome.

*Ah, yes, geeky old me, making it sound like dog-years ago. But it was. Remember it takes almost three years to put one of those puppies out; it was purchased way back in 2006. Possibly the end of 2005. I could look it up, but who cares?

I’m feeling pretty good today, despite watching people fall down just outside my building, and having to put up “watch for ice” signs on the front doors so there would be no more accidents. (New Northern shopping list: *must* invest in rock salt). I finally made a little headway on my manuscript, and am cheering on Sara from afar as she comes in on the home stretch on her line edits. Go, Sara!

Okay — apparently C.S. Lewis was writing a cosmological treatise with the whole Chronicles of Narnia thing. Each of his seven books is alleged to be related to a …planet. So, if you’re keeping score, the allegorical thing is out, and three-dimensional chess is in.

Just when I was asking about books for babies, Lorie Ann comes out with readertotz! Especially if you’re an ECE teacher, check it out.

Ever heard of Book View Cafe? It’s a cooperative, nonprofit website supported by over twenty authors who have books published in print, who are also wisely giving themselves another arena of expression. YA fiction and more is served up a chapter a week, and if you’re the type of person who likes to read online, you can read a chapter a day in your Google Reader. And now no one has an excuse to say they don’t have time to read.

Meanwhile, Whidbey announces their monthly fiction contest — very, very short fiction this time because after this November we’ve just had, who’s got the attention span to write a longer story? “Enter December’s Whidbey Student Choice Contest for a chance to find $50 under your tree and a publication on your resume. Remember to keep the word count under 1000.”

A Happy and frosty cold first of December to you, people! November in Glasgow ended on a self-congratulatory note, as the temperature dropped to its coldest in November since 1985. Yes, round of applause, please. Being from a warm westerly place, I’d never before seen an ice mist. I have seen one now. It is not nice, though the air does rather sparkle!

Ah, another well-meaning person is talking about young adult literature! Hie thee onward to Miss Rumphius’ blog, and log in on the great debate: why do you read?

This conversation was sparked by the very well-meaning Caitlin Flanagan and her piece in The Atlantic titled, What Girls Want. As soon as I a.) read the title, and b.) realized that most of the article was a long run-up to a highly positive critique of the Twilight series, I realized we have some deeply fundamental differences on men and women — but I read it anyway.

The gist of her article is that young women are the best readers out there, because they need fiction to escape into — to ignore the world whilst they work out Those Big Questions. During their “sulks and silences” they’re thinking.

Obviously, a.) boys don’t think, b.) boys have no inner lives, c.) she’s just wrong.

This was a stunning piece — as in, I’m stunned and, like Miss R., not quite sure how to respond…

Meantime, I’m in search of opinions — I’m looking for books again — for babies, which is totally beyond my frame of reference. What’s the happening one and a half year old man reading these days?