February 14, 1996 (Megan is 15)

Well, gotta call N now and see what she thinks.

Which is basically nothing. She didn’t think it really mattered which in a way kinda ticks me off. I mean, she talks about X twice as long and I don’t say, well, I don’t think whatever really matters. I might say I don’t think it means something (in regards to whether he likes her or not), but saying it doesn’t matter is like saying it doesn’t matter to her. And it wasn’t like she was saying it so I shouldn’t let it bother me. She said it like she wanted to get on to some other topic. Don’t get any ideas neither — I’d only discussed it with her for about 5 minutes or maybe ten. It just annoys me. She never seems to care about my confusion over B but she expects me to explain everything about X to her and to listen to countless pointless stories about him…

Maybe I’m ignoring things I’ve done and forgotten but it seems like when I don’t want to do something for her, she’s all self-righteous like “I would do it for you” but when she actually has to do something for me she doesn’t want to.

I’m probably totally misinterpreting this, but oh well.

–

An Introduction to Flashbacks
The Flashback Cast
The Flashback Timeline

Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.

EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT BEING A GIRL I LEARNED FROM JUDY BLUME edited by Jennifer O'Connell
Women authors express how Judy Blume's novels helped their childhoods -- and adulthoods. Reading this made me want to reread so many JB books that I haven't touched since 5th grade. Although the essays relied heavily on a couple of JB's works, they were well-done and entertaining.

This blog is really neglected these days. :( BUT, good new is part of the reason is I'm busy submitting "Tapestry Threads" again! Got a bunch of leads from the two SCBWI conferences, so pursuing those while there's still time.

Anyway, here's what I burned through in November. Can you tell I have an addiction now?

Life on the Dirt Circuit by Mark Sieve
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
My Life in France by Julia Child
The Other Side of Blue by Valerie O. Patterson
Night Shift by Stephen King
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (reread)
Far from You by lisa_schroeder
Wintergirls by halseanderson
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Once Upon a Curse by E. D. Baker

Charlaine Harris:
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
Dead to Worse

Normally, we buy House Blend. Lots of it. Because coffee is pretty much my beverage of choice. After all, a study out this summer showed that drinking five cups of coffee a day could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer's disease. Okay, so the study subjects were mice. But I can use all the memory I can get. And my dad had Alzheimer's.

But the last time I was at the store I decided to get some Breakfast Blend. It wasn't until I opened it up that I saw the key words on the package. "Half-caffeinated." I didn't even know they made Breakfast Blend in that version.

What kind of crazy person wants half the caffeine? Especially in the morning, when you are trying to be awake. Either you want caffeine or you don't. It's like smoking a "light" cigarette. Or reduced calorie beer. You've got to make a choice and stick with it.

And my choice? Since coffee is so expensive, I'm drinking the coffee. Reluctantly.

Jennifer Boyd, Librarian for Borah High School Library in Boise, Idaho sent this double-shot debut library entry featuring Neesha Meminger's SHINE COCONUT MOON and Carrie Ryan's THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. I love it when the Debs get together!!

Are you a library professional? You can enter to win 46 brand new YA & MG novels for YOUR collection! See this entry for details.

Although I may always have the dream of being published myself (and I continue to write and work toward that), I'm so thankful today for all of the amazing books already published (or soon-to-be published) which I get to read. And it's especially wonderful when they are written by people I know or with whom I'm acquainted. So, with no further ado (ha), here is a list of some amazing writers I've had the privilege to read this year (some pre-published, some almost-published, and some well-published): ( under here, as it's lengthy )
So thank you, my friends and writing acquaintances, for bringing such amazing worlds to life -- I've enjoyed them immensely!

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is gift giving. I love giving things away. So, that's what I'm doing here today!

Below is the item (or items, as it were) up for grabs: one pair of mittens with a cabled knotwork cuff, designed and made by me! The wool's 100% alpaca, so the mittens are super soft and warm (the picture doesn't capture the beauty of the wool, sadly..).



If you'd like them to be yours, leave me a comment below and if you want to leave me a tidbit about a favorite gift you've received, please do so! I will ship overseas, so no worries about entering if you're from places abroad.

I'll be accepting entries until 6 PM PST on Friday, December 4, so don't delay!

I used to long to belong to a group of published writers who shared common concerns - how to handle a bad review or make the best of a good one, what to do about cover art you don't like, how much to charge for a Skype visit [Okay, okay, full disclosure: back when I started doing this longing, there was no Skype].

For a while, I attended a local monthly lunch of authors - but they all wrote sci-fi, and sometimes the whole lunch would be taken over by discussion of which was better, Battlestar Gallactica or Star Trek? [Full disclosure: I have never seen Battlestar Gallactica.]

But then I met YA author lkmadigan. [Full disclosure: this was back in the day before she even had an agent, but that soon changed.] And she introduced me to lisa_schroeder. And through them, I met sararyan. And eventually, we stared meeting once a month, meetings that included Christine Fletcher, author of Ten Cents a Dance [a really great historical; Emily Whitman, author of the Booksense number one pick Radiant Darkness;
Suzanne Young, who also has a book coming out next year called the Naughty List; and Alexa Martin who also has a book coming out next year. My contribution to the group has been to invite Nancy Coffelt, an amazing jack-of-all-trades who does art and writes and has picture books and a great YA novel called Listen.

I am so happy to have peeps! And you should read the latest news about LK Madigan here! Full disclosure: Although if I were Lisa and I had such great news, I would be telling everyone from random strangers on the street to my mom.

Okay, so it's only December, but you know what that means...registration for the SCBWI Eastern Pennsylvania 2010 Pocono Mountain Retreat is OPEN!  Just click here to go to the registration website and get things started.  OR head over to our chapter website to download a PDF brochure.

Registration will be open until February 20, 2010 so maybe Santa will put a little something special in your stocking!  I hope to see you all there!

Going to see the New Moon movie reminded me that from the moment I read the first book- and for sure by the second- I was in favor of pairing Jacob… with Alice. And, yes, I sort of overlooked the whole Jasper/Alice love connection, but I loved both characters and could not see any substantive reason why my two favorites shouldn’t be the books’ OTP (One True Pairing). Both are good-natured, loyal, and occasionally funny… and they hate each other at first smell! Alice can’t use her powers when Jacob is around! Jacob would be consistently befuddled by Alice’s perky fashionista ways! They are natural-born enemies.

If that’s not a set-up for a romance novel, I don’t know what is.

And besides: he’s preternaturally hot (temperature-wise). She’s cold. Together, they could reach body-temp equilibrium.

For seriously, I rest my case.

I'm not blogging. Promise. Just posting a little congrats to my friend, lkmadigan . Her wonderful, funny, poignant, fresh, older YA novel FLASH BURNOUT is a finalist for the William C Morris YA Debut Book Award (dear non-bookish readers: it's a very big deal)



That cover will look so pretty with a new shiny sticker on it

Congrats, of course, to all the finalists. Winner will be announced at ALA in Jan. Woo Hoo!!!!

Come tomorrow, I'll be posting an original villanelle here along with six of my poetry friends, the same crowd who worked on a crown of sonnets last year. I blame Liz Scanlon for finally making me tackle this form again - it's one that thwarted my prior efforts, which involved two that I never finished and one that I finished, but will never share because, well, it sucks. But I digress.

Today I thought maybe I'd post about what a villanelle is. It's a nineteen-line poetic form that relies on a specific end rhyme pattern and also requires you to reuse two lines of text. A lot.

History of the form

The form is a song-based form that entered the English language in the mid- to late 1800s, had a brief bit of popularity (usually written in iambic tetrameter at that time, although there is no particular required meter for villanelles), then faded into disuse for about 40 or so years until the 20th century, when it regained popularity with folks like Dylan Thomas, creator of perhaps the most famous of all villanelles, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, and later with Sylvia Plath in poems such as Mad Girl's Love Song, and still later with people like Theodore Roethke and Elizabeth Bishop, whose One Art is nearly as well-known as Thomas's poem. I'm also a big fan of Wendy Cope's Some Rules, which includes this closing couplet: "Stop, if the car is going 'clunk.'/Don't answer e-mails when you're drunk." Most (but not all) twentieth-century poets opted to write their villanelles in iambic pentameter, which is what I used in the one you'll see tomorrow, although other of my sister poets have used different meter here and there.

Discussion of the form

The villanelle uses two recurring lines and features six stanzas - 5 containing three lines each in a sandwich-like rhyme scheme (ABA) and the sixth having four lines (ABAA).

The first and third lines of the poem are used as the last two lines of the poem, plus each of them is used twice more in the middle of the poem as ending lines to three-line stanzas.

The first and third lines must rhyme.

The words that end the middle lines of the stanzas are supposed to rhyme with one another.

This results in a rhyme scheme of AbA' abA abA' abA abA' abAA', where A is the first line of the poem, A' is the third, a are lines that rhyme with the first and third lines, and B stands in for the middle lines, which all rhyme with one another.

Here are the first three stanzas of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, so you can see how this works in practice:

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

In this example, "Do not go gentle into that good night" is A, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" is A', the first lines of the second and third stanzas get a designation of a and the middle lines ending in "day", "they" and "bay" all rhyme with one another, savvy?

The final stanza of Dylan Thomas's poem is as follows:

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

See how the recurring lines are put together as the last two lines of the poem?

Advice on how to write a villanelle

This is one of those forms where repetition can quickly become tedious if you've chosen bad first and third lines, and also one of those forms where you have specific requirements to follow, so it's best to write the template down the side of the page, like so:

( Villanelle blank template )

And then, it's best to fill in that closing couplet first. I'm not saying it's what Dylan Thomas did, since I don't know that for certain, but if he had, the first words written for his villanelle would have been "Do not go gentle into that good night./Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Once you've got your couplet down, fill in your template with all the As and A's, like so:

( Villanelle template with repeating phrases filled in )

Once you've got that set, start filling in the blanks, being sure to use the relevant rhyme scheme. You should know, by the way, that some modern poets use slant rhyme and/or feel free to alter their repeating lines a bit by, say, using homophones (e.g., hear/here, red/read) or by replacing some of the words in the middle of the line. In One Art, for instance, Elizabeth Bishop alters her first line - "The art of losing isn't hard to master" - to "the art of losing's not too hard to master" in the final stanza. And her third line goes through these variations:

Stanza 1: "to be lost that their loss is no disaster."
Stanza 3: "to travel. None of these will bring disaster."
Stanza 5: "I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster."
Stanza 6: "though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

The villanelle I'll be sharing tomorrow is nowhere near as fine as the ones I've provided links for you to view, but it is the first working villanelle I've written.

Peace out.

(originally posted 2-12-06)

who watches American Idol and thinks of this writing thing we do.

So many of these people WANT to be singers. Even if they don't have one ounce of talent in their tiny baby toe. And so Randy or Paula or Simon will say, I think you better find something else, 'cause singing just ain't for you. And sometimes, the person is shocked, which is shocking in and of itself. And we sit around and go, well, duh! You can't sing!

So, we get rejection after rejection, and we start to wonder, is that what they're telling ME? Is this their way of telling me, this just ain't for you honey?

And after much pondering, I think not.

My thought is that a great singing voice is probably one of the few things we can't really improve upon. Either you're born with it or your not.

Some might say sports is another thing, as we watch the Olympics and stand in awe of what these people can do. But no one is born a gold medalist. Each and every person at those games has worked hard and long to get there. And how many of them will go home without a medal? A lot. Does it mean it ain't for them? No way. Maybe they have more to learn. Maybe they need to practice more. And maybe, luck just wasn't on their side this time.

I know I have more to learn. I know I need to practice, every day if I can find the time. And I know in the end, luck plays a big part in all of it. The right place at the right time and all that.

Lots of times I'll read a good book and get depressed because, geez, I want to write like THAT. But the thing is, I'm seeing the best part. I'm not seeing the earlier drafts where parts didn't make sense. I'm not seeing the parts the author cut because they were crap. I'm not seeing the 10-page letter the editor wrote that told the author all the things he/she needed to do to make the story better.

Sometimes I can't even get myself to open my current WIP because I get into that whole mindset of, "what's the point? It isn't any good, I have no clue what I'm doing, there's nothing special I can offer that the world doesn't already have, blah, blah, blah."

When I'm feeling down about it all, and those ugly, negative things are going through my mind, I remind myself that it's my ugly ego trying to protect me from getting hurt. It's a constant battle, getting that ego to shut up, let me tell you. The best way to shut it up, I've found, is just open the document and WRITE. And then another letter comes in the mail and my ego says, "See, I told you so." Oh yes, I know, it's so fun, isn't it?

I try to tell myself, so what - I'm going home without a yellow piece of paper taking me to Hollywood. So what - I'm going home without a medal today. So what - another editor said "NO" to me and another hundred people in her stack.

I'm going to keep learning. I'm going to keep practicing. And I'm going to keep writing. With each word typed on the page, we get better. With each book we read, we get better. With each idea comes the possibility that maybe THIS ONE is the one that some editor or agent will fall in love with.

Don't. Stop. Believing.

http://ericberlin.com/?p=3243

A few years ago my friend Scott Weiss appeared on Jeopardy!. As Final Jeopardy approached, he realized an unusual set of circumstances was at hand: He was in the lead (with $13,400), and both of his opponents were tied for second (with $8,000). The normal bet for Scott at this point would have been $2,601 — enough to bring him to $16,001, or one dollar more than his opponents could possibly attain. But Scott saw an opportunity at hand, and took it: He bet $2,600, and when all three contestants answered Final Jeopardy correctly, the result was the first three-way tie in the history of the show.

The reaction to Scott’s strategy was varied, and also predictable: Acclaim for his sportsmanship, combined with jibes at what some thought had to be a mental error and others simply considered a dumb move. But here, almost three years later, is the strangest reaction of all: A twelve-song musical retelling of the saga — set, for some reason, in Ancient Greece. You can download the whole thing for free, or stream it online. I assume if it’s successful, they will follow up with the story of Michael Larson.

Shannon Hitchcock interviewed me for the Winter Issue of Sprouts, the lovely, full color magazine put out by NJ-Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

An online version is available on Shannon's blog HERE.

Anyone Watching Survivor? Something is happening on that show that I have tried to include in a few of my manuscripts.

You see... there's this contestant named Russell.



He supposed to be the villian. And at first... I hated him. Dumping out canteens and playing the other contestants for fools. But as the weeks went by... things changed. Now I find myself rooting for him. Hoping he'll survive another week.

It's not easy transforming a villian into someone the reader will cheer for. But, at least for me, Survivor has accomplished just that.

Oh. And I found a good article on Becoming a better Writer. Here...

http://cbiclubhouse.com/2009/11/four-steps-to-becoming-a-better-writer/

Nothing shocking... but it's all good stuff we need to be reminded to continue to do. I do love this quote though...

And those who see writing as a skill that is never quite mastered, requiring a lifelong devotion to the learning process, will be most successful.

Four Steps to Becoming a Better Writer

Nov 30th, 2009 | By Laura Backes | Category: The Writing Process
Great writers aren’t born – they’re made. Here are some of their secrets.
I was recently asked "Can I get published as a children’s book author if I’m not a good writer?" I was caught off guard at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated the question. The sender is aware of her limitations, but dreams of getting published anyway. She’s not suffering under the delusion that she’s the next J.K. Rowling, and I appreciate that. She’s going to look at her work with a critical eye, and search for ways to make it better. This is assuming that it’s possible to learn to write well. I believe that it is.

Very few writers have the natural ability to create vibrant, relevant, compelling stories right out of the gate. Most have to work at it. And those who see writing as a skill that is never quite mastered, requiring a lifelong devotion to the learning process, will be most successful. Where this gets tricky is that unlike other skills – such as baking a cake – there is no foolproof way to learn how to write. So while I can’t give you a one-size-fits-all method, I can offer up some ideas on how you can find the path that works best for you.


Read, read, read. Why are editors always telling aspiring authors to read piles of children’s books? Because they provide a concrete representation of what works. Be sure you read good books (check reviews or ask a librarian or teacher for recommendations). By simply reading, you’ll grasp the ebb and flow of a story, how a character is introduced and developed, the types of conflicts appropriate for each age group, how to build tension in scenes and chapters, the relation of sub-plots to the main storyline, how dialogue moves the plot along, and much more. You’ll experience firsthand how a skilled author utilizes sensory images to immerse the reader completely in the story. By comparing several authors writing for the same age group, you’ll hear different literary voices.

I suggest reading books similar to those you wish to write, as well as books one level younger and one level older. So, if your goal is to write a middle grade mystery for ages 8-12, also read mysteries for ages 7-10 and 10-14. In this way, you’ll become educated about precisely what makes up a middle grade novel and how it’s different from fiction for older and younger readers. You might even discover that your story isn’t really for middle grades after all.

Another reason for checking out a lot of quality books is that you need a yardstick against which to judge your own work. You’ll learn which "rules" can’t be broken and those that have a bit of wiggle room. For example, you’ll be hard pressed to find a 60-page picture book in the stores, even by a well known author. If your picture book’s that long, you’ll have no choice but to rework the story and fit it into 32 pages. However, you can experiment with unconventional characters and unexpected viewpoints. And the older the reader, the fewer rules apply. But no matter what you do with your plot, characters or writing style, make sure you know why you’re doing it. Don’t write the story in present tense unless it needs to unfold in real time for the reader. Don’t incorporate flashbacks unless they’re vital for understanding what’s going on in the story now.


Find a system that’s right for you. The first step toward learning to write is figuring out the best way for you to learn. Some authors I know are very left-brained; they love charts and graphs and lists. They thrive on tracking their scenes and plotting out their book on every level before they start to write. Those left-brainers will study published books and count the words per page, note which scene contains the plot’s catalyst, chart out where the tension rises and falls in each chapter. Others prefer to learn more intuitively. They read books, absorb the different writing styles, and maybe jot down a few notes with overall impressions or key points they want to remember. They have a general idea of where their own story is going, and aren’t afraid to experiment and take detours along the way.

If you’re not sure where you fall on the spectrum, try different approaches and see what feels right. Remember that there is no one way of doing this, and every method has its pros and cons. Plotting out your story beforehand can prevent you from wandering off track, but the lists can become an evasive technique to keep you from actually writing the book. Letting the words spill onto the page with no grand plan feels very creative, but usually results in huge first drafts that have to be significantly trimmed and shaped. If you write long enough you’ll discover your weaknesses and devise ways to work around them. Maybe you outline first, then put it away while you write your first draft. Maybe you lay out your scenes on a plotline after each chapter, then revise as needed before moving on to the next chapter. If your dialogue tends to wander in circles before coming to the point, you’ll learn to get it on paper and then tighten it in the second draft.


Recognize your strengths. Some authors are brilliant nonfiction writers but are unable to sell a fiction story. Others write wonderful picture books but are overwhelmed by all the layers to a novel. Instead of trying to force a style that isn’t you, start with what you’re naturally good at. You don’t have to publish fiction to be a successful author. You may dream of writing picture books, but if you have a knack for relating to teenagers, maybe young adult novels are your future.
Uncovering your strengths involves experimenting with differnt writing styles and age groups. If you don’t know where to start, think about the kinds of children’s books you most like to read. Then fiddle around with writing dialogue or scenes for the same age group. If you’re naturally drawn to nonfiction, make a list of topics that excite you. Start by writing about one of the subjects in the style of some of your favorite children’s magazines.


Practice, Practice, Practice. Over the years I’ve worked with writers who have gotten published through sheer force of will. They’ve gone over manuscripts again and again, taking them from mediocre to polished. They’ve set aside ideas that simply didn’t work and turned to something new. And they never submitted the first or second draft to an editor, because those manuscripts could always be improved. They weren’t very good writers when they began, but they learned. And you can too.

Learn about Barbara O'Connor.

When and where do you write? Why does that time and space work for you?

I'm a morning person all the way. I love the early morning and am always freshest and most creative then.

Honestly, I don't think I could write at night if I had to. My mind simply cannot get into the flow of creativity and, like most writers, I certainly can't force the writing. It has to flow naturally and I have to be in sort of a zen-like state, with a fresh, clear, and energized mind.

I have to have total quiet, which makes things difficult sometimes. I'm easily distracted by noises and movement, etc., in the house when I'm trying to work. The best case scenario is being home completely alone. But I do have family so that doesn't always happen.

I was working on a book last summer while we were having some walkways and retaining walls installed in the yard. It nearly drove me crazy knowing those workers were out there while I was trying to write. They weren't even being noisy! (And you can imagine how popular I was with them when I asked them nicely to keep their radios turned way low. Ha!)

As for place, the ultimate dream writing spot for me is on my screened porch in the summer. I love (and am not distracted by) the birds and butterflies. I have honeysuckle on a trellis on the side of the porch, and hummingbirds come often.

But I live in New England and time on the porch is short. During the winter, I retreat to my office inside. I like it there and have a lovely desk that was handmade by a friend, loaded with photos of loved ones and my bird nest collection.

I'm frightfully organized, so that space works well for me because it has all my files and labels and drawers and containers and all the things a frightfully organized person loves. I even have a wonderful vintage wooden "in" box.

If you were writing your recipe for success, how would you proportion out the time and effort you spend researching, writing, marketing manuscripts, dealing with business correspondence, doing online promotion, doing real-space publicity, speaking at events, and/or teaching/critiquing? What about this combination works for you?

Oh, boy....I love this question because I wrestle with this all the time--trying to balance all the stuff necessary for a successful writing career, besides just writing.

In a perfect world, my recipe would be:

1 heaping helping of writing
1 pinch of speaking at events
1 pinch of speaking to kids

Mix and enjoy.

But, of course, this is not a perfect world. Those other ingredients (online promotion, business correspondence, etc) are necessary and important.

It would be wonderful to pay someone to do the things I don't enjoy and am not good at, but that belongs in that fantasy perfect world, too. So I'm learning that I just have to suck it up and jump in there and do things that need to be done.

I'm trying to stop being so frustrated by having to take time away from writing to do those other things, but I confess that I haven't exactly mastered this yet and find myself frustrated more often than I'd like.

I'm still working on learning to say "no," particularly when it comes to events and travel. I do a lot of school visits, which takes up a huge amount of time. So other speaking engagements need to be chosen wisely. I love going to events where I can connect with other writers (like SCBWI conferences) or librarian/teacher conferences where I can make connections and promote books.

Another area that uses up a huge amount of time (and cuts into my writing time) is preparing marketing materials, (like brochures), making sure my website is up to date, blogging, Facebook-ing, tweeting, etc. I try to use shortcuts (like preparing a week's worth of blogs at one time and setting Blogger to post each day), so that helps. But, still, it does take time.

That being said, the online sites have helped me make wonderful connections with teachers, reading specialists, and other authors, and there is a lot of value in that.

So, that's a round-about way of saying I haven't found the perfect recipe yet, but I'm working on it. And I still think that, while marketing is important, the best thing I can do for my career is to write another book. So I try to keep that in focus at all times and remind myself that I'm a writer--and writers write books. (Step away from Facebook, Barbara...)

In your own words, could you tell us about your latest book?

I have a middle grade novel that is literally hot off the press. It's called The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Frances Foster, 2009).

Popeye is bored. Every day is the same, waking up in the little house on the gravel road in the small town of Fayette, South Carolina. Then one morning everything changes. A shiny silver motor home gets stuck in the mud in the gravel road, sending Elvis and his passel of rowdy siblings into Popeye's usually uneventful life.

When Elvis convinces Popeye that all they need is a small adventure, the two boys set out to find one. Boats on a creek, a girl with butterfly wings, and mysterious messages all add up to a small adventure that brings big changes to Popeye's boring world.

The story was inspired by a blog post by Tamra Wight, author of The Three Grumpies, illustrated by Ross Collins (Bloomsbury, 2005).

She posted a photo of a boat her son had made from a Yoohoo drink carton. I loved it!


Cynsational Notes

From Barbara's site: "The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis...has received three starred reviews (Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal)!"

Watch a book trailer for The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis.



The Craft, Career & Cheer series features conversations with children's-YA book creators about positive aspects of their creative and professional lives.

Great cause and great song!

I am a little nervous about the school visit today. Since the middle of August, my children's writing workshop students have written stories from picture book to young adult. Today, we are walking to a local elementary school near campus, so they can read their picture books, fairy tales, and middle grade chapters to the different classes of kids and talk to the kids about writing stories. It sounds great in theory, and I'm hoping it will all magically come together. I had a great talk with the principal in September, and I wrote to her again in November, and she wrote right back that December 3rd was just perfect! I sent her the program Monday, but received no reply...

Then I called the school yesterday to talk to her and had what can best be described as a not-very-reassuring talk with a harried secretary who said flatly, "She's not here."

I asked, "May I leave a message?"

"I don't know if she'll be back today."

"I'm a UAB professor, and I'm bringing my children's writing workshop to read to different classes tomorrow, and I just wanted to touch base about the program."

"Does she know y'all are coming?"

"Yes, she does."

"Well, then see you tomorrow."

"May I just leave a message?"

"I don't know if she'll be back today."

"I understand that. But I'd like to leave my number for her."

"Just a minute. Okay."

I give her my cell phone number, which has a California area code. The secretary doesn't like this one bit and says, "Excuse me. Is this a long distance number?"

"It's my cell. I just moved here."

"We can't make long distance calls. It's not allowed. Do you not have a local number?"

"My cell is the best way for her to reach me."

"We can't make long distance calls."

And so I thanked her and gave her the main office English Department number and thanked her for again her time, gritting my teeth the whole time.

What decade are we in? 1978? 1985? The phone call lasted approximately two minutes.

So I'm nervous about today...I told my students to dress warmly. It's going to be a brisk walk. At least we'll get some exercise if the school bars the door.

So I'm nervous...

TOMORROW IT'S SEARCY, ARKANSAS at the crack of dawn for VOICES FROM DOWN YONDER...
http://www.smartstepliteracylab.org/id23.html

And here is the program for today:

English:


French:


English:


French:

We all know and love carriejones.

Today, I saw this in Shelf Awareness:

"Cutting Up Playgirl: A Memoir by Carrie Jones
First published in England, this book's original subtitle was "A Memoir of Sexual Disappointment" and due to its indelicate subject matter, the author, "a successful publishing executive," writes under the pseudonym Carrie Jones in order to protect her anonymity."

Just to be clear, I'm pretty sure this is NOT our Carrie.

aka Writing scenes out of order, because it makes you feel so good!

I tend to write my novels in a linear fashion. X happens, followed by Y, Z, etc. In my mind, that's the way the story unfolds and the best way to capture it on my computer. But, day before yesterday, while writing my Morning Pages, it suddenly occurred to me that I was missing a scene. A Very Important Scene that I hadn't even realized I needed! Wow... talk about a wake-up call!

When I got back from the gym (having given this idea an hour to percolate), I opened my file and stared. Okay, where am I going to put this scene? I started at the front of the file and began looking for the right spot to insert said scene. While scrolling through the ms, I felt the inspiration for the scene slipping away. I couldn't let that happen. The iron was hot - I needed to strike! So, I did something completely out of character for me. I opened up a new file and wrote the scene (which is actually going to be a full chapter.)

Like having a chocolate truffle for breakfast - this out-of-sequence writing was delicious! And, I am happy to say, the concept of the chapter and the tidbits I shared were extremely well-received by my crit partners at our meeting yesterday. Then, this morning, joy of joys!, I found exactly the right spot to insert this chapter - woo hoo!!!

This probably won't keep me from continuing as a mostly linear writer, however - like the occasional truffle for breakfast - I am now open to writing scenes out of order - knowing it can be delectable!

http://thejjkblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/borders-in-braintree.html

A little late for a post on a Halloween, I know, but I left my camera at the store and only recently got it back. Stacey at Borders in Braintree, MA really threw herself into the role of hostess to a Lunch Lady event. At the costume party, she was Lunch Lady and dished out helpings of dirt pudding to the guests waiting in line for a signed book. I don't think I stopped laughing once!

Santa's elves arrived in the Forest early this year!

They brought the news that WINTERGIRLS has been named a Publisher's Weekly's Best Book of the Year, Kirkus' Best YA Books of 2009, Booklist's Editor's Choice of 2009, the 2010 Texas Tayshas High School Reading List and nominated to YALSA's 2010 Quick Pick List! It has also been nominated to the 2011 Grand Canyon Reader Award by the very nice people in Arizona, who were kind enough to nominate...


CHAINS as well, on the Tween List for the Grand Canyon Reader Award.

Each one of those lovely lists feels like another filled stocking in front of the fire!

REVISION TIP #3

Many people struggle to find a way to look at the larger picture of their novel. They can line edit a page or take a chapter to their writer's group, but managing the unwieldy novel is hard.

Here is what I do.

1. Get the largest piece of paper you can find. I go to an art supply store and buy an enormous artist's pad for this task.

2. You need to carve out three hours of concentration time. Turn off the internet and phone. Loan your dog and children and partner to nice people who will return them fed and watered after the the three hours. Chain off the driveway so delivery trucks and friendly people who don't understand what you mean when you say "I'm working" can't drop in.

3. On one of your massive sheets of paper, list every chapter in your book. Describe the action in the chapter in one sentence.

4. Now prepare a separate action list. (This one will take up a couple of sheets of paper. (Did I mention that you 'll need to clear off the kitchen table for this? And maybe the floor?) This list will break down each chapter into the scenes. Keep it brief! F. Ex.: "MC (main character) drops homework in fish tank. Fish die. MC hides them in flower vase. Mother sees them and flips out."

5. (This is the fun part) With a colored pen or pencil, go through the detailed chapter list and make notes about the emotional arc of your MC and the important secondary characters. Also, make sure that changes in mood are properly motivated, and that conflicts are set up. You might use different colors to represent different plot elements.

6. The threads of your novel are laid out in front of you. Step back and study it. Do your characters have reasonable emotional responses to the actions in the chapters? Do the building levels of conflict appear in the right order? (I often move scenes around at this stage.) Which scenes and/or chapters can you completely remove from the story without affecting anything else? What characters can you eliminate? Do you have any characters that can be combined because they serve the same purpose in the story. (I do this a lot.)

7. By the end of this process, your papers will be covered with notes, stickies and lots of colored arrows.

8. Sit down with the giant map of your novel and apply the changes to your manuscript. I like to do this on a hard copy first, then type in the changes.

9. Don't forget to unchain the driveway and let your loved ones back in.

Dang, this is a long blog entry. Still with me? Questions?

First off there is a sneak peek of CAPTIVATE (Yes! A new one) here. Please check it out if you have time. The people in charge of the website get really happy when the traffic numbers get high and then they think I am a good self-promoting author, which I really am not. Sigh.

You know, I always thought that being a writer would somehow transform me into a much more glamourous version of Carrie Jones.

This has not happened.
This was me in my poor girl bed with my hand-me-down stuffed animals that made me sneeze in a very un-glam way but I still loved them.

I am still hoping that the glam will come.

Let me give you examples from the past seven days:

1. On Thanksgiving I went to get the bread basket from the top of the refrigerator. But instead of grabbing the basket I managed to dump a basket of catalogues and mail and phone books on my head.

It was kind of exciting to watch them all splat down.

2. On Monday I was sitting in the Y parking lot. It was dark. My cell phone only had one reception bar. It was rainy. I was waiting for the Emster to get out of swim practice. My cell phone rang. It was Julia Whelan.

Julia looking smiley

Julia Whelan is an actress. She is so famous she has her own WIKIPEDIA entry. Some day I would like to have my own WIkipedia entry. OH! Wait! Maybe then I will be glam.

Anyway, she was on her lunch break and she was taping the voice-over for the audio book of CAPTIVATE, my next book. And she is in LA where it is sunny and warm and glam. And I am in the Y parking lot where it is dark and cold.

Julia looking glam.

And she goes, "Can you tell me how to pronounce (Insert unpronouncable phobia name here)."

And I go, "Um... um... Ah..."

And she goes terribly politely, "How about (Insert unpronouncable phobia name here)."

And I go, "Um... ah... I think it's a hard p."

And then she asked for things on certain page numbers and our page numbers didn't jive and I was hunkered over the book in the very dim light of the car when Em came in and shut the door and started to help me and I said OUT LOUD, "Did you find it, hon?"

And then I realized that Julia Whelan probably thought that I was calling HER hon. Which resulted in me babbling and trying to apologize and her being all gracious and kind, which only made me babble more.

Because the truth is that even if I do ever get a WIKIPEDIA entry I will still be this goofy-looking person with bad taste in clothes and big glasses. Yep. There's no hope.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1790000379/post/1330050933.html?nid=3713

SLJ kept me informed when the letters objecting vehemently to the November issue of the magazine started rolling in. By "rolling i...

Haven't posted here in a while. Hope everyone's well! I thought I'd x-post this writing related post from my lj:

One of the clean-up rules I use in writing is something I learned as a freshman in high school. I had an odd English writing teacher by the name of Br. Brian Casey. He was a short, stout hobbit-looking guy who was prone to screaming. Not hobbit-like. He also had one of the worst hairstyles a human male can wear: thick frizzy hair worn long to the base of the skull and parted on the side---starting from the top of the ear. It often flew out into the air on the other side of his head and he would paw at it through class. The class was focused on creative writing, and much of what he taught has stuck with me, the most important being the "Really Very Beautiful Rule." The rule, in short, is don't use those three words. They don't mean anything. They don't add anything.

What is the describable difference between "cold" and "very cold?"
What is the describable difference between "hard" and "really hard?"
If "beautiful" describes Megan Fox and Reese Witherspoon, what does that word mean?

Br. Casey's point was that we should think about how to describe things meaningfully to get our images across. Use similes. Use synonyms. Describe scenes that evoke images and feelings. Let the reader see what we see.

After I finish writing something, I do a word search for those three words. Br. Casey had zero tolerance, which, when teaching high school freshman howto write, isn't a bad idea. I don't go that far. I think the words work fine in dialog because people talk that way. I also think they have their stylistic uses. Probably the most important take-away, though, is that it prompts me to think "Could I have described this better?"

90% of the time, Br. Casey was right. At least on this point. That hair, though, was another matter entirely.

The temperature here is dropping… rain is coming down in a constant, nasty little drizzle… it may or may not snow/sleet later this week… and it only brings out this little monster in me:

I was thinking today about growing up in central Arizona, and how different and foreign it must seem to the kids who grow up in the Midwest and the North East not to have snow, or to be told repeatedly by local and state governments not to have real Christmas trees because they dry out so quickly and become fire hazards, or to drive around neighborhoods and salute the brave souls that tempted fate by putting full lights on their cacti. At the same time, I also miss our winter traditions at W&M–the Grand Illumination and Yule Log were both slightly traumatizing in their own way (the former slightly more so for Carly), but man did I love them.

That’s not to say that NYC hasn’t gone Christmas crazy. Take a gander:

The Christmas Market in Union Square

Macy’s First Floor Believe-theme:

The huge sparkily Swarovski star across the way from the Rock:

Some creative decorating in Midtown:

Of course, that’s barely the tip of it! I promise I’ll vlog the insanity that is Christmas in NYC… until then, here’s my December playlist. All Christmas, of course!

Originally published at alexandra bracken. You can comment here or there.

Please check out this video of the amazing Jessarae performing his new song "Without You (It'll Be All Right)" -- inspired by my book, POSITIVELY. Doesn't everyone want to inspire a song? I'm so thrilled my book was honored this way.

Teen said that for World Aids Day, there was a booth at school that gave out buttons that said: "Dry Humping Saves Lives" and "Masturbation Doesn't Break Hearts." There were also free condoms.

I'm glad to see one thing hasn't changed. Someone (probably an adult, I'm guessing) still calls it "dry humping."

http://www.megcabot.com/diary/?p=1243

Busted!

I was kind of trying to keep a low profile about my adult Summer 2010 release because

a) I'm still tweaking it (it’s kind of hard to finish a book when your husband breaks his ankle!), and

b) I have two other releases (Glitter Girls and Runaway) before it even ...

I've got two chapters nearly done. So far so good. Now I'm going to take several chapters/scenes and crunch them into one. Hopefully that will remove a lot of nonessentials and excess wordage. (The professional commentary I've gotten says that it isn't necessarily wordy, but apparently the pacing is slow. So, I'm getting out the big pruning shears.) Wish me luck!

I've been thinking about tribes lately, and how I seem to belong to a number of them. I get people here like my husband doesn't because they ARE my tribe. I probably attended sports and band events they were present at (representing different sides, of course. :) DH can't quite reconcile that with the NJ tribe--which involved going on vacation to places like Martha's Vinyard (and no, we didn't see anyone famous--but we did see a rabbit and Plymouth Rock, eat clam chowder and act up while visiting church on the island, which resulted in my mom getting her wallet stolen...Those are the important things when you're five. :) The tribes I share with DH are the LDS culture/intermountain west one (my mom and both his parents are from Idaho--we said we're Idahoans born in exile) and the expatriate one. And I guess the grad school/academia one. And of course I'm part of the children's writing tribe. What tribe(s) are you a part of?

And sort of, but not really, tribes-related, I've realized that a lot of love triangles in books don't work for me. It's not that I can't believe someone would end up in that situation--I've known people who have--but it's hard for me to sympathize. You might get entangled if you like someone and someone close to them likes you, and you don't want to hurt any feelings but everyone is sewn up in an unhappy circle of unrequited love. But I can't sympathize with a character who honestly thinks they're wildly in love with more than one person at the same time. I mean, hello? I want to shake them--if you are in that deep, sweetie, you should have figured things out by now. But then, I was not the girl who liked a different boy every week. I rather suspect that I'd be in Hufflepuff because loyalty is rather important to me. (But not at the expense of integrity, I add. "My country, right or wrong," as I once saw on a billboard, is not my motto, for example.) Anyway, I was trying to think of ways that a character could be in a triangle without making me want to throttle them, and I thought that maybe they could have been in two different tribes, each time not thinking they would be anywhere else ever again, and then the two worlds collide, and now they have a problem. I do find Facebook confusing for that very reason--too many worlds in which I was very submerged, and now they appear all at once and I don't even know what language to post in, let alone anything else. The same topics are not equally interesting to all tribes.

Thoughts on tribes, triangles, and tossing useless scenes welcome!

Not to brag or anything, BUT I AM DONE WITH ALL MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.

Yes, it is my annual tradition to get it all squared away BEFORE Thanksgiving. If you still have some shopping to do, why not head over to your local indie bookseller? You never know what fabulous books you'll find like the ones in the SCIBA Holiday Catalogue. . .


BTW, the book on the cover is called THE CHRISTMAS MAGIC by Lauren Thomson. The illustrator is the talented New York Times bestselling Jon Muth, seen here on right with illustrator/author/celebrity judge Mark Teague and mucho award-winner Walter Dean Myers on left . . .


Speaking of books, this week I'm working on the copyedits of BOBBY THE BRAVE (SOMETIMES), the sequel to BOBBY VS. GIRLS (ACCIDENTALLY) . . .


It's all done digitally and looks like this . . .


However, it can get confusing because of where to click and not click and STET and not STET. So, I thought, I know . . . COFFEE!!!

Um, now I am not a COFFEE!!! drinker, but Starbucks had this Peppermint Mocha La La Delish Latte Just For Lisa, so I got one. Only, it didn't help my copyediting because COFFEE!!! does strange things to me . . .

. . . but ooooOOOooooh, is it good!!!

Speaking of strange, our friend and illustrator of the BOBBY books, Dan Santat . . .


. . . went out of town recently. He asked us to babysit his pets . . .


Oops. That's not Dan's pet. It's Son's water buffalo. I KID YOU NOT!!! Here's another great gift idea . . .


Heifer International lets you give life-changing gifts to hungry families around the world. Son used his own money to buy a share of a water buffalo. I bought really cool animals which I cannot mention because some of the people reading this may get them as gifts in their names.

Oh, back to Dan. He's got this in is office . . .


It's a wall! It's a chalkboard! It's a chalkboard wall!

Too cool.

And finally, since we're in the giving and receiving of gifts mode, look! Look! Yes, it's Karen B. Schwartz , the Grand Prize Winner of Lisa Yee's 42nd Annual Bodacious Book Contest with her Bodacious Book Contest Grand Prizes, including the coveted petrified orange . . .

Subscribe to Lisa Yee's Blog and get her fresh baked blogs e-mailed to you!

Email:

Or you can click this for a RSS feed...

If you recall, there are FOUR contests in which you can get copies of Radiant shadows.

1. Enter on Goodreads (thru Jan 12, US & Canada)

2. A WL casting video (I'm posting these over on my YouTube page). (NOW thru Jan 12, US & Canada)

3. A Radiant Shadows trailer/tease (I'm posting these over on my YouTube page). (NOW thru Jan 12, global)4. Voting and going viral. On January 12th, you can enter up to SIX times. To enter, ON THAT DATE you will
Winners will be chosen via a randomizer (US & Canada).

What this means--

You can enter on Goodreads now, and you can submit videos now, and you can post links now, and on the 12th of JANUARY you can vote for a top pick and tell where you've linked a WL or RS video.

Check back on the blog on Friday for a special update on entering. (HINT: I just got permission to expand the RS teaser contest by sharing excerpt of RADIANT SHADOWS on here.)


----------------
* Members must have 20 posts to read the excerpts.

Look at what I found! The perfect gift for:

1.) A girl
2.) Who loves books
3.) And has pierced ears

http://www.etsy.com/shop/smallbookcompany

(I tried embedding an image, but it didn't work. Seriously, it's worth the click to take you to these cute earrings!)

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/morris/morrisaward.cfm#2010finalists
Congratulations!
PS. I told you Flash Burnout was awesome. ;)

Here's L.K. Madigan's adorable reaction to the nomination: http://lkmadigan.livejournal.com/160065.html

I'm so excited for Malinda Lo, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl and the other finalists.
All such beautiful books.
What a dream come true for a debut novelist.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1790000379/post/1740050974.html?nid=3713

I have to wait a whole MONTH to know this???? Library of Congress, thy name is cruelty.



New National Ambassador for Young People&rsquo...

Hey LJers,

I just wanted to let you all know that we are going to be performing some mogilefs maintenance over the next few days. We will be upgrading our current version to latest stable as well as changing some db config information to better handle the amount of files we are currently hosting. This shouldn't cause a big impact on site stability, but you may see some minor delays with userpic / scrapbook images appearing or other requests associated with our mogilefs. We would love to not have that happen, but unfortunately with some of the steps we need to take we have to cause a delay with images. I figured this was a better solution than taking down all of LiveJournal because well lets face it, we all need our daily LJ fix ;)

Thanks,

http://cwim.blogspot.com/2009/12/jane-yolen-is-added-to-scbwi-winter.html

Jane Yolen is Added to the SCBWI Winter Conference Lineup...

The 11th Annual SCBWI Winter Conference already has a terrific lineup--and it just got a little better. SCBWI announced yesterday that author Jane Yolen has been added to the roster.

Jane, who's been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century, and is the award-wining author of numerous children's books, fantasy, and science fiction, including Owl Moon, The Devil's Arithmetic, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?, will offer the closing keynote address.

I remember seeing Jane speak from a wheelchair at the 2006 SCBWI LA conference after a night in the emergency room. She still knocked our socks off!

There's still time to register for the SCBWI event--click here. Early registration rates apply until January 4th.

If you can't make it, you can follow the conference as it's happening with full SCBWI TEAM BLOG coverage on the Official SCBWI Conference Blog.

And if you'd like some Jane Yolen wisdom you can carry around in your bag, check out her wonderful book Take Joy.

I love this time of the year when we get north winds and clear, cold days. This morning, I woke to the first true frost of the year (we've had a couple of days with a touch of frost, but this is the first day when everything was silvery white) and decided I needed to go into the woods:



More under the cut....( Read more... )

Seriously, every time I sit down to blog, all I come up with is BABY BABY (sometimes Princess) BABY.
It's too bad I didn't write this book...
(seriously, it's too bad. This book rocks)

I realize some people don't want to hear the particulars of the final weeks of pregnancy, so I'm going to bounce from the blog until baby is here. I will, however, do what I did last week and post some old entries this month. I'm also going to do a giveaway for my FINAL PRINCESS FOR HIRE ARC come Jan, so stay tuned. Finally, I just did a post on the tenners if you want to check it out

If revising during December (like I am) give yourself only 24 hours in which to complete your shopping.

(Like I did.)

::crosses off the last item on gift list, pulls manuscript back out::

I've had a blog entry on my writing process (which laurenbarnholdt asked about when I put out a call for writing questions at the beginning of NaNoWriMo) more or less done and sitting in a file on my computer for weeks, but I've been so entrenched in school stuff, that I haven't had time to post. And, coincidentally enough, the specific school stuff I've been working on has involved a lot of writing and revising of the academic variety, which has made me think a lot about the ways that my creative writing process and my scientific writing process are similar and the ways that they're different.

Since I've been in epic-writing mode on the aforementioned school stuff, I thought that rather than posting the one massive blog entry on my process, I might post one factoid at a time- and try to update more often.

So here it goes:

Fact About My Writing Process #1: Sometimes, it's hardcore (and sometimes it's not)
( Read more... )

And for those of you who aren't interested in reading about my writing process, I give you: A Random Picture From Halloween.


I am faery. Hear me roar.

Everyone at the party I went to kept asking me if I was a vampire. And I kept being all like "Wings, yes. Fangs, no. What part of that says vampire to YOU?"

Did you know there is no autosave feature the way there is in Word? While this in no way negates by hatred of Word, this is vital information for folks to know.

Especially if Pages suddenly quits working.

And you lose two hours of work.

But, you tell yourself, you just did those two hours of work, so it's not so bad. You can recreate them much faster.

And then you realize that the editorial letter you have been making comments on for TWO FRICKING WEEKS is also gone. The one that had all your reasons and explanations for the changes you made, written as you made them. The one you never actually, um, saved. So there isn't even a backup of any sort.

I found this shareware - if you are in a similar situation, you might want to download it. I set it to back up every five minutes.