Never Stop Believing

We're on day six of the Swine Flu and hopefully it will be history by Monday. We've been watching movies, sleeping a lot, and eating chicken noodle soup and jello. Shannon and I must have caught the adult version which isn't near as bad as the children's. We've experienced dizziness and extreme fatigue. I ran a low grade fever one day, but it wasn't too bad. Caroline was hit the hardest. Her fever reached 103 for a couple of days and was still 100 this morning. She caught the vomiting part too. Ben's fever broke Wednesday night and I'm hoping Caroline's will tomorrow. I emailed my Spanish professor and was told not to come to class last night. The only stinky thing about trying to spare my classmates is the fact that I missed the review for an exam. I've tried a couple of times to get the notes, but so far I haven't found anyone to respond to my emails.

I've spent the last few days cat napping and watching movies with the kids. One of our favorites is Remember the Titans. Not only is it an emotional movie, but my father has a personal memory that makes this movie even more special. My parents moved from Alexandria, Virginia to Roanoke, Virginia in August of 1971. My father taught at Howard Middle School which feeds into T.C. Williams. When he moved to Roanoke, he took a job at Cave Spring High School, teaching U.S. Government, American History and coaching the track & cross country teams. When Andrew Lewis played T.C. Williams for the state championship at the former Victory Stadium, (the old Roanoke Stadium) Dad said that he was the only member of Cave Spring High School to sit on the T.C. Williams side. He said that he knew many of the players, and he couldn't help but cheer for "his boys."

Here's another tid bit of interesting history for writers. While watching the bonus features included in the DVD, I learned that Denzel Washington, and several other members of the cast took salary cuts because no one believed in the film. The writers went through oodles of rejections because no one thought it was good enough for Hollywood. I find that fascinating since the movie is such a blockbuster hit! That speaks volumes, doesn't it? When we believe in our work, eventually it will pay off. On that positive note, have a wonderful trick or treating weekend!

The Calm Before the Storm

Isn't God the Master artist? I took these last Sunday evening. It was the calm before the storm. Both of my babies have the Swine Flu so I won't be writing much this week. Ben came down with it yesterday, and Caroline came home with a fever today. I'm not going to take her to the doctor because Ben's doctor told me last night that there isn't a thing I can do but to ride this out. In my generation it was the Chicken Pox. I remember lying on my bed, wearing one of my father's white T-shirts. I had whelps all over me, and my mother kept telling me not to scratch. I have several scars on my back from that horrible virus. Thankfully, we have vaccines for the Chicken Pox now. I suppose when I'm a grandmother, my children will tell tales to their children about how in 2009 they caught the Swine Flu. Every generation has its own idiosyncrasy, but thankfully the sun still rises and sets, and this too will pass.

"There are Some Mysteries Within a Book that Should Remain Mysteries" DiCamillo

I rarely post twice in one day, but I have to get Kate DiCamillo's webcast into words.
This was the first time that I've ever "attended" a live webcast from my living room. I didn't know what to expect, but soon discovered that it's a lot like being there in person. The interviewer did a great job introducing DiCamillo, but she never introduced herself or from where they were broadcasting. That's a detail that I would like to have known. I gathered that it must have been in New York or New Jersey because several children introduced themselves and stated where they attended school.

Kate DiCamillo shared quite a few golden nuggets of writing wisdom. Like Richard Peck, she doesn't think that writer's block exists. She says that she has bad writing days, but found that when she pushes through them, the story unlocks. She compared it to running. She says she runs two miles every day whether she feels like it or not. Likewise, she writes two pages every day whether she feels like it or not. I giggled at the fact that she has Christmas lights around her computer to trick herself into thinking that writing is fun.

I was happy that the interviewer asked the question I submitted. I was curious as to where she gets the names of her characters. She said that they pop into her brain so she keeps a notebook with her at all times. She said that she sometimes rides the city bus for hours at a time so that she can listen for more story ideas. However, her editor at Candlewick Press didn't like her main character's name and she had to change it mid-way into The Magician's Elephant.

I found it interesting that she never once spoke with her illustrator, Yoko Tanaka. Yet she said that Tanaka's character sketches are identical to how she pictured her characters in her mind. I can relate with this. When my first fiction story appeared in The Friend, I never met my illustrator either. I was amazed how Caleb looked exactly how I pictured him.

DiCamillo said that she got into writing after a couple of college professors encouraged her. She went to J.C. Penny and bought three black turtle necks. She went to parties where she'd hear people say, "There's Kate - she's a writer." But then she realized that she'd never get published without actually writing something. She writes early in the morning before her "You're a loser...who are you to think you can do this?" voice gets out of bed. I love that fact! Afterwards, several children stepped up to the microphone to ask her some questions.

• Why do you always write about animals?
• I've tried to leave them out but they keep showing up.
• Do you have a pet?
• I am a part-time dog owner. I babysit my friend's dog while she goes to work.
• Have you seen the movie, Despereaux?
• I have - which did you like better, the book or the movie?
• I haven't read the book.
• How many times do you re-write a book?
• Usually eight or nine drafts.
• Why does the name Gloria keep showing up in your books?
• It's my favorite name.

And the last question is my favorite. Every single one of us can relate with it. Someone asked her,

"What is your favorite part of your books?"

Kate replied, "Walking into a library and seeing my name on the spine."

The Ugly Pumpkin

I couldn't resist this book. I bought it for Caroline but I think I laughed harder than she did. The Ugly Pumpkin was published in 2005, and it is written by Dave Horowitz. There are tons of seasonal picture books out there...many with the same themes. But this one stood out. This is a great story for anybody, but especially for the child who feels left out and different. It definitely earned the Tate Five Star Award for the following reasons:

• Great pacing and rhyme
• Art that leaps from the page
• It made us laugh
• It's priced right - $6.99!
• It's more than a Halloween book - it's seasonal, mentioning Thanksgiving too.

The Magician's Elephant Webcast

Just a reminder that Kate DiCamillo's live webcast is tomorrow, October 25th at 4p.m Eastern time, 1 p.m. Pacific. Click here to register!

Have a Super Weekend!

Filling in the Gaps: Educators, Librarians, and Children's Writers

Today, I'm following up on some thoughts from my previous post, Pumpkins and Reading Statistics. I had no idea when I started writing this research paper, The Effect of Harry Potter on Literary Culture, that it would ignite such a fire inside me. Thank you for such thought provoking comments! I did some more digging over the weekend, and I'm astonished at what I've found. I think we as writers focus so much on our craft, the publication process, querying, agents, etc... that we lose sight of our ultimate goal. We write children's books for children. These precious kids should not be viewed as simply a means to an end. Children's books are written for children, and its characters have the potential to impact future generations.

Kay Williams, a writer for NewsBlaze interviewed Dr. Ben Carson, in February of this year. For those of you who are not familiar with Dr. Carson, he is the director of pediatric neurosurgery at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. He grew up in a single parent home - his mother, one of 24 children, married when she was 13 and later find out that her husband was a bigamist. She had a third grade education but continued to work three jobs to stay off of welfare, all the while raising her two sons. The following is a snippet from that interview:

"KW: Still, there must be something very exceptional about you to transcend such humble beginnings to become one of the world's leading brain surgeons.

BC: I think that one of the keys for me was that, early on, I developed the big picture. When I was in the 5th grade, my mother turned off the TV and told us we had to go the library regularly, borrow two books apiece and submit written book reports to her. I started reading a lot at that point, first about animals, plants and rocks, then about people. And I read a book about Booker T. Washington called Up from Slavery. It talked about how it had been illegal for slaves to learn how to read. Yet he taught himself to read, and he read every book he could get his hands on. And he became an advisor to presidents.
I was very impressed by that story, and by the story of Joseph in the Bible, because he was sold into slavery by his own brothers. Did he cry about his lot? No, he eventually winds up the prime minister of Egypt. What that says to me is that it doesn't really matter where you are, you can make something out of any situation. And it really helps you once you develop that sort of mindset. Even after I became a physician and the director of pediatric neurosurgery at the #1 hospital, there were still people saying, "You can't do that" and "Oh, no one's done that." Thankfully, I had long since developed a mindset that I didn't get discouraged by such negativity."

You can read the entire interview by clicking here.

What an impact that mother made on her son's life. What if everyone took children's potential that seriously - can you imagine the difference we could make in our communities? To say that the responsibility is awesome is quite an understatement.

I stumbled upon a website that I think every children's writer ought to visit, Teacher Magazine. Yesterday's post is profound. It was written by Donalyn Miller also known as the Book Whisperer. This woman sounds remarkable, and I wish we could get her to speak at a writer's conference! She has a new book out called, The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child. I've ordered it and as soon as I finish reading it, I'll post more about it. One of the positives about being a mother and a children's writer is the fact that by jumping in and out of roles I'm able to see the bigger picture. And I see that educators, publishers, librarians and writers need to work together for the sake of the children...not the industry. There are holes in our system that need filling. And one of the largest gaping holes that I see is that young boys are getting left behind.

I first discovered the problem when my son started preschool. But I did not realize its magnitude until recently. But the more I research, the more I talk with other parents, and the more unconnected dots I discover, the more I'm disheartened. Donalyn Miller says,

"Considering the data (and we all know it is about the DATA these days), boys score lower than girls on standardized reading tests and report less motivation and interest in reading. I often wonder how much of the disengagement many boys have for reading stems from classroom instruction designed by predominately female English teachers, though. Wehn every class novel and reading activity filters solely through the predilections and worldview of a female teacher, boys can become demotivated and believe that their personal interests and opinions are not valued in English class. It is clear that when selecting books to read aloud, purchasing books for a library, or designing lessons, we must be mindful of the boys we teach and our latent prejudices about the reading material we offer to students. Boys want the same thing that every reader wants --to open a book and find themselves in the pages. As teachers, invested in creating readers, we owe it to our boys to help them find such books."

In my last post, I wrote about the statistics released by Scholastic's 2008 Kids and Family Reading Report. 89% of children say that they enjoy reading books that they choose for themselves and the report also indicated that half of all kids surveyed stated that there aren't enough really good books for boys/girls their own age. Hello? Those numbers are huge! We need to identify these missing link, and fill in the gaps. Are publishers not communicating with libraries? Does this have to do with budget deficits? Are teachers so concerned with passing the SOLs that reading gets tossed aside? We as writers need to pay attention to these holes, and we need to be proactive in how we approach this. I'm blown away by this information and I'm itching to get my hands on more.

I've been digging all weekend for every academic resource that I could find on how J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter influenced our literary culture. There hasn't been a study performed in the United States, but The Federation of Children's Book Groups in the U.K. performed a study in 2005 that surveyed 1000 British children, ages 8-16, and 59% of them stated that they believe that Harry Potter improved their reading skills and 48% of them stated that Harry Potter is the reason that they currently read more. Are boys not included in this group? Are educators not paying attention to these numbers?

These thoughts have been simmering in my brain for months, and this latest writing assignment brought them to the surface. SOL or no SOL, money in the budget or not, we need to think about the needs of our children. In fifty years or less, we'll be gone. What will we leave behind?

Pumpkins and Reading Statistics

This weekend Caroline and I are enjoying a girls weekend. Shannon and Ben left yesterday with several friends to ride 4-wheelers in West Virginia. It was 43 degrees when I awoke this morning so I can only imagine how cold it is where they're camping. Caroline and I bundled up and visited the local pumpkin patch. We bought several pumpkins and gourds from the local farm over the hill. Later this afternoon, we plan to paint our toes and a few of these pumpkins before the boys return.

But while Caroline is engulfed in the Wizard of Oz, I'll post about some interesting statistics that I'm including in a paper that I'm writing for my rhetorical studies class. Whenever I can make my classes work for me, I'm all over it. And since I have to research, I may as well research children's literature, right? My paper is about how J.K Rowling's Harry Potter has impacted young readers in the past decade. The Sorcerer's Stone was first published in 1997, so it's actually been twelve years. However, Scholastic teamed up with Yankelovich (a consumer trends research company) in 2008 and released some very interesting stats that I think anyone involved in children's literature will find interesting.

• June 11, 2008 75% of kids age 5-17 agree with the statement, "No matter what I can do online, I'll always want to read books printed on paper"


• 62% of kids surveyed stated that they prefer to read books on paper rather than on a computer or hand held device.


• Yankelovich found that children reading for fun declines after age 8 and continues to decline into the teen years.


• Heather Carter, Director of Corporate Research for Scholastic stated "Despite the fact that after age eight, more children go online daily than read for fun daily, high frequency Internet users are more likely to read books for fun every day. That suggests that parents and teachers can tap into kids' interest in going online to spark a greater interest in reading books."


• Kristen Harmeling, Senior Researcher at Yankelovich stated "Kids are very forward-thinking about ways technology can complement book reading. They envision a time when most books are read digitally and when they can tag and share parts of books with other people online, making online reading a gateway to social activities; yet they still want printed books."


• One of the key reasons kids say they don't read more often is that they have trouble finding books they like - a challenge that parents underestimate. Kids who struggle to find books they like, are far less likely to read for fun daily or even twice a week.


• Parents have a strong influence over kids' reading. The percent of children who are read to every day drops from 38% among 5-8 year olds to 23% among 9-11 year olds.


• 89% of children state that their favorite books are the ones that they pick out for themselves.


• 68% of children say that they read for fun.


• Half of all children say that there are not enough good books for their age.


• Parents who read for fun are six times more likely than low frequency reading parents to have kids who also read for fun daily.

All of this information can be found on the Scholastic website at the following address: http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/news/readingreport.htm You can watch the Scholastic presentation by clicking here. It's divided into approximately twenty minute segments.

California Dreamin'

While surfing the Publishers Weekly website this morning, I stumbled across a blog post by Alison Morris that made me chuckle. Over the summer she hosted a contest in search of the cutest bookstore cat name. Pictured above is the winner, ISBN. Don' t you just love it? ISBN resides at the Recycle Bookstore West in Campbell California. Since it's a whopping 44 degrees here in Virginia, I thought he might share some of his radiance.

Thomas Nelson Publishers Partners With Author Solutions

My inbox is flooded with loop email from ACFW. Thomas Nelson made an announcement today that has rocked the industry. Looks like they've formed a partnership with Author Solutions, Inc. and formed a print on demand publisher called WestBow Press. According to Reuters,

"Thomas Nelson will monitor WestBow Press titles for the purpose of entering into a traditional publishing contract for those that perform well."

Michael Hyatt, Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson says, "With the creation of WestBow Press, we will be able to help more authors realize their dream of being a published author while discovering more diamonds in the rough to add to our roster."

Does this make the slush pile bigger, smaller or neither? And by the way, Rachelle Gardner posted on the loop that she will be blogging about this tomorrow. This should be interesting.

From Kindergarten to Bavaria...The Power of Setting

I received my copy of The Writer, and there is an interesting article called Power Your Story with a Sense of Place, by Philip Martin. He begins the article with a quote from Eudora Welty.

"Every story would be another story, and unrecognized...if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else."

I've chewed on this concept all weekend. And during my morning workout, I toyed with moving the setting in my WIP from a place I've visited once or twice, to a place in the Appalachians that I know very well. You wouldn't believe how the story took off! The new setting added depth to my character, and gave the plot a mystic twist that it lacked. I wouldn't recommend doing this with a 50,000 + word manuscript, but I'm still in the outlining stages so tweaking is a way for me to explore and strengthen the plot.

Martin lists nine elements to consider while working through the setting. And one of those key elements is to use the setting to anticipate the mood. Pictured above is Neuschwanstein Castle, located in Bavaria Germany. Walt Disney modeled Cinderella's Castle after this German beauty. Don't you see the resemblance? The town of Bavaria looks just like Fantasyland in Walt Disney World. The buildings and shops look like illustrated pages from Hansel and Gretel. It's the perfect storybook setting for Disney's Peter Pan and Snow White. When I walked up and down Disney's streets with my daughter Caroline, she thought we were actually inside Peter Pan's backyard. I'm fascinated by the fact that the setting separates a good story from a great story. For example, what if the Wizard of Oz had been set in Alaska instead of Kansas? What if Harry Potter had to take a dog sled instead of a train from platform nine and three-quarters?

Last week I worked at my desk for too long. I've been bogged down with papers, Spanish tests, and shop invoices. Sometimes it seems like the harder I work, the more my to-do list grows. But Caroline's birthday was last Saturday, and on Friday her Kindergarten teacher invited me to bring cupcakes for her classmates. Being the annoying type A, goal driven person that I am, I hesitated...I know, I know I'm a bad mom. But if the truth be told...yes, I hesitated! However, I woke up Friday morning, made 50 chocolate cupcakes and brought them to her lunch on Friday.

It was a beautiful day and we ate outside. At my children's school, the Kindergartners are paired with 5th grade buddies and 12th grade buddies. And this past Friday, the Kindergartners got to eat lunch with their 5th grade buddies. Caroline's buddy is adorable. Her name is Julia and I had a ball watching her interact with Caroline. After I distributed the cupcakes, the girls joined another group of girls and I sat in the grass, listening to them talk about their day. Caroline felt like a queen sitting with the "big girls", and I enjoyed their middle-grade dialogue. I also learned a couple of life lessons. If I don't place myself in different settings, then how can I place my characters in exactly the right one? I become so task-oriented that sometimes I forget to take a walk outside of my writer zone. Do any of you relate to this? I jump from mom mode to wife mode to writer mode and back again. But sometimes I need to take a breather. I needed that lunch visit with my daughter. It was good to go Kindergarten and immerse myself in her world. Sometimes it's good to go to Bavaria too. We all need to add a little spice to our roles... even if it is through the Travel Channel.

Editing in Reverse

Today I watched WDBJ Seven's News at Noon, with Kimberly McBroom. I don't normally watch T.V. in the middle of the day but I desperately needed a diversion from my Spanish paper. Writers block in English is tough, but writers block in Spanish is impossible! I fixed myself a sandwich and clicked the remote just as McBroom announced the latest poll results concerning Obama's healthcare reform proposal. The poll results weren't that funny, but the story that aired on its heels made it hilarious. It was a video about a 42 year-old gorilla in Miami that received cataract surgery, normally reserved for humans. Some healthcare reform!
I seriously doubt that WDBJ meant for it to come across this way, but it did and I almost choked on my sandwich.

Over the past two years, I've sat in several writing workshops and English classes. But this year I've learned a new editing technique at ODU. Has anyone ever edited backward? You start at the end of your story and then read it in reverse, checking for sequence errors. The first couple of times I tried it, I got frustrated. But then I found it very useful, especially when working on a nonfiction piece. By reading in reverse, I'm able to catch things that I missed the first 200 times I edited it. Granted, I'm not sure if it would have made any difference whether or not they aired the cataract surgery before the healthcare reform bill, but if this had occured in a novel instead of a news broadcast, I would have tossed the book.

Journalism is a demanding field, and I assume this was just another editing error...or perhaps it wasn't. Either way, it shed an entirely different light on Obama's healthcare reform bill and it gave me a good laugh for the afternoon.

Writing in First Person

Lately I've read a couple of novels written in first person. It makes for an interesting read. I've read oodles of short stories and novellas in first person, but I haven't read very many longer works in this form. I'm finding that sometimes they work, but for the most part it's disaster. My fiction professor at Hollins used to get this look on his face when one of us toyed with first person - it's dangerous ground. However, I know that sometimes it makes the story more powerful. I'm not going to name titles because I don't want to bash anyone's work, especially a reputable author, but I'm wondering if any of you could recommend an outstanding piece of children's fiction written in first person. I've read so many "off the wall" titles, that I'd love to get my hands on a good example.

I toyed with this idea when I wrote Attack at Fleetwood Hill, but I used first person as a writing exercise in order to better define my character. Once I learned more about him, I returned to third person but kept the story in his point of view. I've found that one of the biggest restrictions is in the dialogue, and I cringe when I read someone's thoughts and then the writer inserts what they are doing. For example,

Jake gives me a puzzled look.
"If this goes through, what do you think they'd call the store?"
I shake my head.

It's so annoying! And once my editor claws come out, there goes the book. I never pick it back up again. I know what works and what doesn't work, but for the life of me I can't figure out why. Is there a magic formula for writing in first person? I mean some things are a given, like memoir. But for the most part, some work and some don't. Writing is musical like American Idol. If the singer hits one bad note, he's voted off, and if I find one quirky phrase I lose confidence in the author. What are your thoughts?

The Magician's Elephant...Brilliant

I ignored my homework. I ignored my housework. I didn't cook supper. I didn't do the dishes. I stopped when I got to the end. Then I cried. One word sums up Kate Dicamillo's new novel - Brilliant.

This is the reason I love children's literature. The minute I started reading, the words took me back to my Kindergarten class in 1975. There I was, sitting Indian-style on the multi-colored carpet. I was too little to see over the sea of heads in front of me. I always sat on the edge so I could play with the part of the carpet that unraveled. Then if the teacher held up the book to show a picture, I could lean to the right and catch a glimpse of it before she put the book down.

DiCamillo has a rhythm like no other. Her words sing pictures and when I read them, I forget I'm a mom reading to my kids. She makes me feel like a child again. And take a look at these character names: Peter Augustus Duchene, Vilna Lutz, Madam LaVaughn, Leo Matienne, Adele, and Sister Marie of the Orphanage of the Sisters of Perpetual Light. Aren't they incredible?

This story is about hope, perseverance, tragedy, love and magic. It's beautiful. I watched a video on her website in which she talks about the book. I found it interesting that when she writes, she doesn't think about theme. She said that she learns about her themes through her critics. She is doing a live webcast on October 25th at 4p.m. Eastern, 1p.m. Pacific. You can sign up with questions for her on her site.

"Magic is always impossible," said the magician. "It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic." DiCamillo

Sort of sounds like the writer's journey, doesn't it?