Ya Gotta Love Squidoo!

This link came across my desk this morning. Don't you just love Squidoo? If you're not familiar with it, it's a site where folks can post articles. For example, this one is about "Picture Books about Bears" and features a few favorite titles of the author's. And of course, Blackberry Banquet is featured!

Click here to find a Squidoo article that I wrote called, Ten Things to Do with a Children's Book.

You can find almost anything on Squidoo---now keep in mind that anyone can post an article, and there's a sort of "honor system" that people write about things with which they actually have some expertise--in other words, reader beware! I wouldn't want my doctor gleeming info from this site about practicing medician, if he's written a book and wants some book promotion ideas, then let him have at it!

A Lecture Everyone Should Hear or Read

As you know, I had the priviledge of having Kathi Appelt as my advisor last semester at Vermont College. Last year, at the summer residency, Kathi gave a fabulous lecture that left me saying, "Everyone should hear that lecture. Every single person in the world. Especially if they're a writer and/or educator."

Well folks, I've got great news. Kathi's lecture, Blurring the Lines, is available online on the Hunger Mountain website. Please-please-please click here to read it (it's long, but worth every second of your time). Hunger Mountain is the journal of the Vermont College Fine Arts program. I was so happy to see Kathi's lecture in print, as I could savor it slowly (yes, like fine wine or Belgian chocolate).

In Kathi's poignant writing style, she gives us so many things to consider--as writers, parents, teachers, humans. With compassion and the knowledge of the scholar she is, she discusses the reactions to her award-winning novel The Underneath, the importance of reading, embracing your past, the overuse of standardized tests in today's schools, becoming more humanitarian, censorship, Ferdinand the Bull and the importance of blurring the lines that we often put up to distinguish "us" from "them." I laughed, cheered, and even gasped at times. You will be enlightened, comforted, and want to become a "book whisperer."

Here is one of my favorite quotes:

I’m worried that our children, expert test takers by the time they reach fifteen where every answer is true or false, will not have Ferdinand or the little old woman eating mush or beautiful Ginger [Black Beauty] because tests have taken over and the language of their childhood will always be age appropriate and standardized. It will be too conscious and not conscious enough. And someone whom we could drink a beer with will stand in front of the world and say, “bring it on,” without the ability to imagine the ramifications or the feelings of others, someone who forgot Ferdinand.

This is a beautifully written lecture/essay. Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back and enjoy...

Good Golly, Where Is the Time Going?

My goodness, I looked up at the calendar (which was still on February so I flipped it) and saw that we're halfway through March already. Ack!!!

WHERE is the time going?

Oh wait...I turned in my second packet today. Surely THAT'S where the time went. Into my packet preparation.

But I now have two more essays done, six chapters of my novel turned in and a bibliography (check-check-check!). Oh, and this time around I included a structural summary of my novel-in-progress. I think structure is *finally* starting to sink in with me. Finally!

I'd like to say I've earned a couple of days off to relax, catch up, and flip the rest of the calendars in the house, but with spring break next week (which translates to husband and kids being home), there's no time to rest. Gotta get as much done as I can this week. But maybe I can solicite some help in flipping the calendars next week. Of course by then we'll practically be in April. Maybe we should just skip March...

West Boron Elementary, Here I Come!

Tomorrow I'll be heading down to Boron, CA, a small town in the high desert just south of where I live, to help the students of West Boron Elementary School celebrate Read Across America Day. I'm so excited about my visit--I love speaking to students about the writing process and getting them excited about reading. I still remember my fabulous fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Barnes, and how she turned me onto reading. Talk about a keystone year!

How are YOU celebrating Read Across America Day?

THIS is Why I Write for Kids

Okay, I'm sitting here, teary-eyed. Truly touched.

Check out this article in the Chelsea Standard (it's short).

All I can say is: THIS is why I write for kids. It's just that simple.

MINI-VIEW: KATHI APPELT

MINI-VIEWS:
Pint-sized interviews that leave you smiling.

KATHI APPELT is the author of over thirty books for children and young adults. Her book, MY FATHER’S SUMMERS (Henry Holt, 2004) won the Paterson Poetry Prize for Young Adult Literature and was selected as “Book for the Teen Age,” by the New York Public Library, as well as a “Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers.” Her picture book, BUBBA AND BEAU, BEST FRIENDS was given the Irma and Simon Black Award for excellence in children’s literature.

Her first novel, THE UNDERNEATH, was a finalist for The National Book Award, a Newbery Honor book, and the winner of the PEN USA Award for Children’s Literature.

Ms. Appelt is on the faculty in the Masters of Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She and her husband Ken live in College Station, TX. For more information, check her website: http://www.kathiappelt.com/.

You're a master of picture book writing, whether it be non-fiction (MISS LADY BIRD’S WILDFLOWERS, ELEPHANTS ALOFT) or fiction (BATS ON PARADE, or your newest title, BRAND NEW BABY BLUES), to prose (the BUBBA AND BEAU series) to rhyme (ALLEYCAT’S MEOW, OH MY BABY LITTLE ONE). Can you tell us about your process? Are there some things that you consistently do with every story or is each one a new journey its own right?

What a good question! And oh, if only I had an answer. To be honest,

I used to pay a lot more attention to process than I do now. I hope that this lack of attention-paying is because I've just gotten more used to writing rather than a laziness on my part, but I'm not so sure about that. Certainly, each book has its own path. Some come a lot faster to me. Some, not so much. Most of my stories require multiple drafts, and we're talking multiple, like fifteen, twenty, more. I think I rewrote Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers about fifty times.

If there is, in fact, a common process element, it's that I always begin with something from my own experience and life, even it means bats or cats or hound dogs. I'm also really kind to myself when it comes to early drafting. I try not to be too judgmental about what shows up on the page, at least not until I've gotten a couple of drafts down.

I also never talk about a book in progress. It's a superstition of mine. I learned this when I was a graduate student--that if I talked about a project before I had words on the page, then I found that I couldn't write it. My brain was already convinced that the project had been completed. And it's funny because when people start to tell me, "I have an idea for a book," I'm quick to say, "No, don't tell me. Write it. Then we can talk."

You're also an accomplished writer for older readers with many books for teens on writing, poetry and novels, including THE UNDERNEATH, which won a 2009 ALA Newbery Honor. Could you briefly share with us how winning a Newbery Honor affected your life? Can you tell us a little about your next novel?

In a million ways, writing The Underneath changed my life. Just the writing itself was where the change occurred. It's hard to explain, but I felt as though I had to simultaneously step out of my own skin in order to get the story down, but at the same time I had to dive as deeply as I could into the darkest realms of my own life in order to find the true story. Winning the Newbery Honor was amazing. Truly. It was a gift. I'm still amazed by it.

Next novel: Keeper. It's due out in mid-May and is about ten-year-old Keeper who lives with her foster mother, Signe, along the Texas coast. Keeper believes that her real mother, Meggie Marie, is a mermaid because the last time she saw her, Meggie Marie swam away. So, the book is Keeper's quest for her mermaid mother, who may or may not be a real mermaid. There's a companion dog and an errant seagull who go along for the ride. August Hall has created some beautiful art for the interior and his jacket is drop-dead gorgeous. I told my editor that I want to blow it up and paper my bedroom wall with it.

What's your favorite children's joke?

Hah!
Q: What do you have when you have snakes on the windshield?
A: Windshield vipers!

Hee-hee! Thanks so much, Kathi!

Semester Two: Packet One. Done!

I turned in my first packet for this semester over the weekend. This semester my advisor is the fabulous Laura Kvasnosky. Whenever I turn in a packet I never quite feel like I'm done until I receive the feedback from my advisor. So, I sit on pins and needles, eagerly anticipating...

...until, TA-DA! My amazing advisor (at a lightspeed pace) sends back a complete and thorough set of comments about my entire packet of work. I love this aspect of the semester because I find out specifically what is working with my writing, and more importantly, what I need to learn more about--craft issues, suggested readings, revision tips, etc. It's like going to the candy store for writing-improvement.

This morning I fist-pumped and yelled, "YES!" when I read Laura's comment that I'd successfully used "objective correlative." (chuckle if you will, but this was new to me). I loved seeing her revision suggestions for my picture books--seeing how I can sculpt my stories into better pieces of art. I wrote an essay comparing dialogue in beginning readers and picture books; I knew, with her being an expert at this, that she'd have a lot to say on this subject. I definitely have a lot to think about on that topic and am looking forward to having a discussion with her about it.


Yes, packets are a stressful and joyful part of the Vermont College experience. To me, they're like a compass. They give direction and the hope that I'm heading the correct way.

Now, onto re-reading Laura's comments so they can sink in even more...