Through The Tollbooth

Want to write a great voice? Listen.

2012-02-29T02:01:03Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

On Sunday night, Meryl Streep won her third Academy Award for IRON WOMAN. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie, but Streep is amazing as Margaret Thatcher. It’s not only the makeup and hair that makes Streep look like the former prime minister, it’s the voice. Streep nails it. Just like she did with her roles of Julia Child, and Sophie, and Baroness Karen vo Blixen-Finecke. All are amazing performances. In fact, Streep is known as the actress than can do any accent like it’s her own. How does she do it? And what does that mean for a writer creating voice in a character?

Once, during an interview right after the Golden Globes, Streep said she tries to really understand inside how the person speaks, then she goes to ethic neighborhoods and hangs out in cafes “to corroborate” what she’s thinking. Her process is pretty simple. She listens. People speak with a cadence, a pacing, a certain way of phrasing words, and Streep is a master at hearing that rhythm.

We’ve all heard how a voice comes to a writer and whispers in his or her ear. For the rest of us, we can learn something from Streep’s technique. Listen. Find people who have similarities to the characters you’re writing, and corroborate if the voice in your head sounds like the voice on the page. Listen for voices in the coffee shop, in the grocery store, or in the mall. For most of us, one day in a middle school or high school would probably be an audible experience worth writing about!

Think about how your character’s voice should sound from the inside. The slang. The syntax. The inside jokes. Listen for the breaths, and the beats, and the pauses. Listen for what’s said and isn’t said. Listen.

Continue listening with your eyes. Read John Green and Nancy Werlin and Franny Billingsley and Laura Halse Anderson. Let yourself be influenced by great writers you admire. Pay attention to how they put voice on the page. You don’t need to note every noun and comma, but notice the flow of the language. The sound on the page.

I love the line from Michael Chabon’s The Wonder Boys, “Above all, a quirky human voice to hang a story on.” Listen for that quirky human voice everywhere. To write a really great voice, listen. Just listen.

Got Voice? Augusta Scattergood Does!

2012-02-26T17:26:13Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

I first met Augusta Scattergood in 2005 at the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature One-on-One Conference. I was nervous and wide-eyed seeing all the editors and agents who attend this day long event held each year in October. Augusta was a kind face in a big crowd, and we started talking books and writing over breakfast. It’s a friendship that’s lasted through all the ups and downs of writing and publishing. First off, Augusta is whip smart and reads with the critical eye of someone who loves children’s books and knows the literature as a former librarian. Plus, she writes with a voice that is funny and warm and real. And you have to admit, Augusta has the perfect name for a children’s author! Augusta’s first novel for young readers, Glory Be, is just out from Scholastic Press, so I’ve invited Augusta to the Tollbooth today as I spend the week talking about voice. The narrator of Augusta’s book rings with a true Southern voice, so let’s see how she did it!

Richard Peck says there’s a whiff of Carson McCullers in Glory Be. I’m a huge McCullers fan and wondered if she was the inspiration or muse for Glory’s voice?

I’ve always heard character voices in my head! I was a librarian. I read aloud to kids, helped with classroom book discussions, book-talked all the new books. But when I left my school to write full time, the voice I heard was from my own childhood in Mississippi. While I’m honored by Richard Peck’s comparison and appreciate having even a whiff of McCullers in my writing, unlike Glory, I cannot tell a white lie. She was not really my muse.

For your readers who might not know about author endorsements, also knows as book blurbs, at least in my first experience the publisher, or perhaps your agent, asks authors to write the kind, generous words for the back of the book jacket. I was completely blown away when I read mine for the first time. Richard Peck, Barbara O’Connor, Kathryn Erskine. These esteemed authors actually read my book and took the time to write these amazing words. Wow was all I could think.

You say in the author’s notes that the story is fiction, but it seemed so authentic to my own Southern childhood. Are there parts of the book that echo your own childhood?

There are so many things from my own childhood. I have a younger sister, and she’d say I’m a lot like Jesslyn. Bossy and controlling.

I was in the Pep Squad and actually had a college roommate who twirled a fire baton. I was envious, but alas it was beyond my skills.

Truly embarrassing confession: Many of the things about Elvis are straight from my life. I was a huge fan. This Christmas my niece gave me a small plaster-of-Paris Elvis bust that’s now in the Junk Poker box I show to kids in schools. (The statue replaces the large one my mother tossed out when I left for college.)

The food, the heat, the swimming pool noises and smells—all came straight from my Mississippi summers. Even some of the names. “Brother Joe” was my good friend’s daddy, the Methodist minister across the street. The family name was bestowed on the Hemphills before I ever met you, Helen. But, yes, we do have those deep Southern roots.

Darn! I thought you named Glory for me! Glory’s relationship with her father is a special one in the book, with a nice blend of love and exasperation. Did that relationship come easily to the story?

What were the hardest relationships to “get right.”

Originally Brother Joe was a minor figure. A shadow who mostly existed to tell Jesslyn no on occasion. I’d played down his fatherly role in an attempt to show Emma in charge. But the more I worked on it, the more important he became to the story and to Glory. Thank you for noticing and no, it did not come easily.

Relationships are so important in writing for young readers. I find when a plot line isn’t working, I go back to the relationships and dig deeper.

The two sisters’ story was probably the easiest. But Laura and Glory gave me the most to think about. Laura didn’t do much in the earlier versions. Perhaps because I didn’t know any Yankees when I was Glory’s age! What did they do besides talk funny and wear black socks and clodhoppers? Glory sure didn’t know what to make of her at first. But I worked hard on that part. Soon I realized they were just two girls getting to know each other, and they became good friends who loved Nancy Drew and the Beatles.

Tell readers a little bit about your writers’ groups in New Jersey and Florida. Did they see bits and pieces of the novel as you wrote it, the whole manuscript, or both?

Writers’ groups are crucial to my literary endeavors! My New Jersey group started out with six women who wanted to learn more about writing. Our writing goals were widely disparate. One published personal essays. Another was a poet. Another a novelist with books published in many genres. I mostly wrote book reviews and essays.

Originally Glory Be was a short story for adults about a wedding planner who babysat the preachers’ daughters. It wasn’t long before I realized that was not what this story was meant to be. In the middle of this figuring out, we moved to Florida. I panicked. How could I live without my critique group!

Since moving, I’ve been in three critique groups. Actually, they kept disbanding, and I hope that had nothing to do with Glory! I’m now in an SCBWI group of fellow children’s writers, a perfect match. They see chapters, sometimes multiple times. I also have an amazing online critique partner whose skills complement mine perfectly.

The hard part about a critique group is that you can write a sparkling chapter or scene. Your characters may sing. Your settings glow. And then there’s that scary PLOT thing. Which can be hard to discern when you proceed slowly, chapter by chapter, with days or even weeks between readings.

You mention in the author’s notes the help of trusted readers and resources to make this book so authentic. What advice would you give to new writers just dipping their toes into a manuscript?

The most important thing, of course, is to read. I had a headstart on that, having been a book reviewer and a school librarian (for a very long time). I suspect reading aloud to kids helped me get the rhythm of sentences, the sound of words, the flow of paragraphs and pages.

I still read my own writing out loud. When nobody’s listening, of course.

When writing historical fiction, especially for kids, I strongly believe you need to be sure your information is correct before you even begin to add it to the novel. I listened to oral histories for the words and stories of real people who’d lived during Freedom Summer in the South. I read a lot of non-fiction about the period. And when it came down to it, I reached out to friends and family. Especially in the final stages of editing, I needed help with crucial parts of the story. Emails and phone calls flew! Do you say doodlebug or roly-poly? Fireflies or lightning bugs? And the more serious questions, what happened in your community during those historic times. Would Glory have stood up and spoken out like she did? I knew I didn’t. But I discovered it was something a lot of us who grew up in the early 60s wish we’d been brave enough to do.

When I began to think like Glory, to worry about swimming pools and libraries closing for no reason, I knew I had a story.

It’s a wonderful book, Augusta. I can’t wait to give it to some of the fifth grade students I’m working with here in Nashville. They just finished reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963, and I think this is a terrific companion novel to that book. You can see Augusta in person if you happen to be near Oxford, Mississippi! She’s be signing books at Square Books Jr., one of my favorite bookstores, on March 1 at 5 pm. Have fun, Augusta, and thanks for hanging out with us in The Tollbooth.

On Wednesday, we’ll talk more about voice. How does a writer “make it real?” Come back, y’all hear!

Eat Dessert First!!!!

2012-02-24T12:01:47Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

This was possibly the best advice I ever received.

Eat dessert first.

In other words: write the scenes you want to write. Then go back and write the other scenes. (The ones you don’t want to write.)

For me, these are usually the scenes with high dramatic tension or a lot of action. When I was writing BEYOND LUCKY, I loved working on the soccer scenes as well as the scene where Ari finds the card. I liked writing the humorous scenes, too. Now that I am working on something new, I find myself doing the same thing. I’m writing scenes where my main character confronts conflict and tension. I have a theme. A point. A destination. So now I’m putting my character in a situation, and I’m letting the characters talk. Writing is (almost) fun for me this way. If I had to write linearly, I’m not sure I could get to the point of worrying about all the other stuff: flow, sequence, critical information…..

So today, let’s eat dessert first. Then I challenge you: write the scene you WANT to write…the one that you can’t wait to get to.

Most Inspiring Molten Chocolate Cake

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate (splurge for the good kind)
2 sticks unsalted butter
4 large eggs PLUS 4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 T flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter your ramekins. (There’s never enough chocolate or butter in your life…like there aren’t enough great scenes.)

combine butter and chocolate. Melt together in a double boiler over barely simmering water. Stir and remove from heat.

Beat eggs and yolks. Add sugar. Beat until doubled in volume. Beat in chocolate mix, then flour. Divide batter into ramekins (I use six for this recipe) and cook 11 to 14 minutes. The sides should be set. The middle should be soft.

TO SERVE:

Although you will be tempted to eat this the second it comes out, give yourself enough time to create either a nice raspberry sauce…some whipped cream, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

It’s not bad cold the next day.

Now WRITE THAT SCENE!!!!!!

100 page soup

2012-02-21T13:19:28Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

Yesterday, I wrote very briefly about my personal correlation: cooking and writing. For me, they go together. I get into “creation” mode and we eat better.

(Unfortunately writing and cleaning seem to have the opposite relationship.)

Cooking special dishes is also how I celebrate writing milestones.

When I’ve gotten through a tough section of a story, I tend to make something chocolate.

When I’ve finished a draft, I usually crave brisket.

My favorite milestone is getting to page 100. Why? Well, it always amazes me when I realize that I’ve written 100 pages. When I’ve gotten that far, I know I have a story…not just an interesting character. I can’t help being amazed that once again, the creative process has actually worked!!!!

So to celebrate page 100, I treat myself to Thai Seafood Soup. I like it because it’s spicy and full of citrus. (I began developing this recipe when I first moved to Hanover, NH. I love YAMA, but I really miss good Thai food.) If you have loved ones sensitive to spicy food, cut back on the peppers…or watch steam rise from their scalps. When my kids were small, and esp before I had any success at all, I wanted to include them in the process, in these milestones. This is a commitment (living the writing life) that we have all made…and I never forget that.

ENJOY!

Sarah’s super spicy Thai Seafood Soup

Seasoning Mix: (Taken from Paul Prudhomme’s Fiery Foods That I love):

1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp ground ancho chili
3/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp white pepper

Mix these seasonings together.

The rest:

2T unsalted butter
2 cups fresh white mushrooms
1 stalk lemongrass, sliced thinly
2tsp fresh garlic
2tsp fresh serrano chilis
4 T (or more) lemon juice
2T (or more) fresh lime juice
3 T fish sauce (a combo of prepared fish sauce, sugar, lemon juice and pepper…let it sit an hour.)
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound shrimp
1/2 pound scallops
1/2 pound salmon, skin removed
1 pound calamari, cut into rings (I like tentacles, too.)
silver noodles, prepared

For the end:
cilantro
chopped zuchini, red pepper, onion. peas bean sprouts

What to do:

melt butter in a saucepan. Add mushrooms, lemongrass, serranos and seasoning mix. When that begins to stick (about 2 min on high heat), add juice and fish sauce. Cook five minutes until thick. Then add stock. Bring to boil. Add fish and cilantro. Again, bring to boil. When fish is cooked, add vegees. Add extra lemon and lime to taste. Ladle into individual bowls with silver noodles, cilantro garnish, and some bean sprouts. Make sure you have a BIG pitcher of water.

Hints:

I halve the cayenne. For my husband. Because he is the one who has made it possible for me to stay home and write…..

Happy eating…and don’t forget to celebrate the milestones with your loved ones!!!

Cooking and writing

2012-02-20T17:37:57Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

When I am drafting a new manuscript, I do a lot of cooking.

Actually, when I’m revising I cook even more.

When I’m cooking, I’m creating. I’m thinking. I’m playing music. All these things let my subconscious ramble (and gives me enough space to think about something besides politics!!) When I cook, I think. I smell. I imagine details. My family thinks I’ve done something with my day!

(Let’s face it…sometimes we need some product while we’re in the process!)

If you aren’t sold yet, eating well also serves my creative process. I also write a lot better and faster when I take care of myself!

When I’m writing, I NEVER diet.

So this week, I’m going to share some of my favorite recipes that help me write. An appetizer. A main course. A salad. and a special celebration dessert.

Here’s your appetizer:

Sarah’s AMAZIN’ humus!!!

2 cups canned chick peas, drained
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh garlic
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (This is the SECRET ingredient!!)
1 tsp cumin
1/3 cup tahini
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, plus lemon zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
parsley for garnish

Basically, put all this stuff in a food processor, season to taste, and eat. For years, my friends invite me to pot luck dinners JUST so I can bring the humus. It’s REALLY good with pita. Or tabouli. Or next to a piece of grilled tomato.

It’s also the kind of snack that can sit right next to the computer as I’m writing.

Bon Appetit, and happy writing!

Kill Your Darlings, but Keep Their Shadows

2012-02-08T20:25:54Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

Sometimes I feel like I’m wielding a machete or a flamethrower when I’m revising a book. Pages burn into ashes. Sentences blow away like the seeds of a dandelion clock.

There are times we must remove our Darlings. (“Remove”: a sterile word for “cut” and “kill,” which implies blood is involved.)

We may remove a word.

A sentence.

A scene.

A desire.

A motive.

A character.

Or another element of the story.

The revision may be substantial, and it is like we are pulling the warp threads out of a plot or sending the keystone from a character arc tumbling to the ground.

The art of writing involves knowing what needs to stay and what needs to be removed.

A positive spin: We are deleting cutting rescuing our Darlings from a place they don’t belong as we find the best way to tell our story.

What happens to the words we delete?

Scenes we eliminate?

Characters we yank from the pages?

Our Darlings may go on to another life as we tuck them away in our mental “use later” file or into a “cut from book” file in the computer. We can save an awesome turn of phrase to use at another time later. We can borrow and steal elements from a deleted scene for another story. Not a word we write is wasted.

When I remove words/ sentences/scenes/characters from a story, what else happens?

Example One: In my novel, River, I cut a significant secondary character. She wasn’t pulling her weight. (Truth be told, she didn’t want to be in the book.)

When I revised, elements of her character that were critical to moving the plot forward shifted to two other secondary characters.

Example Two: [These opening sentences are taken from one of my picture books that I wrote while at VCFA while in the picture book semester. This book was a finalist in the 2010 SCBWI Barbara Karlin Grant competition.]

1. “We climb our mountains from the inside, up and up we climb.” (First draft—when I was desperately trying to get words on the page so I could make my VCFA packet deadline.)

2. “Today we will conquer a new peak, the highest peak in the mountain range.” (2^nd draft.)

3. “Today we are explorers. We cross the bridge toward the mountains wild . . .” (Final draft, after numerous revisions.)

Only two significant words remain in the final draft: “we” and “mountains.” The concept of going “inside” shifts to a spread later in the manuscript. The word “explorers” in the final version captures the idea I wanted to express in the earlier versions.

Ghosts and Shadows

The essence of what is cut removed often floats around and squeezes into other sentences or parts of the book. At times, deleting and writing more words acts as a palimpsest: not all that was removed is fully erased. Vestiges remain.

Even when we kill our Darlings, they live on as ghosts and shadows. Aspects of what we removed remain in the pages. In essence, although what we cut is no longer there, ghosts of those words will haunt our pages and flit between sentences.

What is your experience with the traces and shadows, the ghosts of your Darlings?

~Sarah Blake Johnson

The Loving Heart

2012-02-06T02:00:03Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

Hello, Boothers!

I just read Gary Schmidt’s Okay for Now—a party I know I am late to, but one I am so glad to have joined. I loved this book like I haven’t loved a book in a long time, by which I mean I was entirely immersed in the world of the book, entirely invested in its characters, and entirely in love with the author’s writing. And, most importantly, in awe of the book’s loving heart.

And, indeed, in doing a mental rummage of books-I-love, books I adore so much I’d sleep with them tucked under my pillow, I realized that, for me, this loving heart is almost always the thing that sets apart a book I love and ache for and think about over and over again from the books I love or admire in a regular sort of way. Alison McGhee’s Rainlight, for example, a novel told from the points of view of multiple characters who are dealing with the death of a man each of them loved, is a book so full of sadness and depth it could only have been written because McGhee was willing to love her way into the heart of each character and make their feelings come alive in ours.

Similarly, Jane Gardam’s A Long Way from Verona—her whole oeuvre, actually—is deepened by the same intense compassion and understanding of her characters. We feel the anguish and lovesickness and grief of teenaged Jessica Vye as deeply as she feels it, simply because Gardam must have been willing to love her, too, all the way from the inside out.

What’s to be learned from this? A lot, it turns out. For me, it’s been the key to what is the hardest part of writing for me—coming up with a plot. And the only way that works for me to figure out what can actually happen in a book in is to try to live up to the example of writers like McGhee and Gardam and Schmidt by working very hard to have a loving heart that understands my characters and feels what they feel, loving them wholly from the inside. Because how they feel drives what they do, and what they do is what turns into a plot. So, loving hearts ahoy! And thank you, Gary Schmidt, for such a gorgeous example.

The Loving Heart

2012-02-06T01:54:03Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

Hello, Boothers!

Greetings From The SCBWI Conference!

2012-02-04T19:32:43Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

Tollbooth friend Tim Martin joins us again this weekend to report on the recent SCBWI conference in New York–

The SCBWI winter conference in New York: thoughts from one tuckered out, dog-tired (but still-smiling) attendee.

The SCBWI winter conference came and went like an invigorating whirlwind of ideas, insights and connections. As usual, there were scores of diverse industry folks (including, this winter, people working in digital storytelling and marketing), and an inviting collection of breakout sessions of which we attendees could sample three. This seemed, at first, restrictive, but I think it pressed us to be specific and focused on our areas of passion and interest.

So, here are my picks of a few key moments, and the things that stayed with me as I jetted from the conference on my way home to Los Angeles:

Connections. SCBWI, along with all its regional and international tentacles, and associated writing groups, bloggers, and specialty discussion groups, has always been the nerve center for accessible networking between writers. The Society primarily functions as a community, and the twice-yearly conferences act as testament to this collective spirit. To that end, this winter get-together encouraged attendees to get to know their regional advisors, consider a submission to an editor, get involved in panel discussions, ask that burning question, and, of course, make that accidental connection over bagels and lox cream cheese. You know, the one that may just nudge a writer’s fortune in some unexpected direction.

Breakout sessions. A good assortment of topics were covered, from “Non- Fiction” (Ken Wright of Writer’s House) to “Diversity and Multiculturalism” (Stacy Whitman of Tu Books) to “Narrative Fiction” (Alvina Ling of Little Brown). For an attendee, it’s always hard to select from the list, and I found it worthwhile to check in on friends who had chosen alternative sessions, so as to get a gist of more themes, and more conference content. Many sessions were craft oriented (revision, dialogue, pacing and exposition), and some had an illustrative component. It was also interesting to see less conventional session topic selections, such as “Ebooks and Apps”.

The breakout sessions I chose were generally broad in scope, and tended to be genre related. Sarah Davies from The Greenhouse Literacy Agency took us through the subject of “thrillers” in an action-packed, spine-tingling, lightening-speed hour. She’s an inspiring speaker: passionate, articulate, and informative. She blended solid crafty talking points with the commerciality demanded from many agents such as herself.

In the second session, Arianne Lewin from G.P. Putnam put a spin on the topic of “fantasy” by focusing in on the first two pages of some well-known recent bestsellers. How did the authors manage to convey the fantasy world without too much exposition? What part did dialogue and action play?

In my final session, Tara Weikum of Harper Collins led us through the first sentences of evocative YA books, and gave her suggestions to what makes this early impression a key to each novel’s success.

Digital. Most presenters deduced that the current state of digital storytelling was still in its infancy, and one which is likely to become more “associated” material to books rather than “cannibalistic”. That said, it is a fast growing industry, and all publishing houses have digital advisors with plans to embrace any opportunities that present themselves as good ideas and/or money makers. Writers were encouraged to think about how their books could be redesigned for “enhanced” purposes, and how their stories could cross platforms so as to maximize all possibilities.

Promotion. Yes, the message that came through was that a writer’s website presence is mandatory, and blogging and twittering are encouraged (particularly if you are promoting a book). However, it is not a great idea to force these social media avenues if you’re not “that person.” Nothing like a stale one-blog-a-year, or a lackluster Facebook page that doesn’t really tell anyone anything. Friday’s “Marketing Intensive for Professional Writers” outlined how writers can use social media to our best advantage. The making of trailers, websites, and other promotional platforms were discussed and demonstrated. The term branding was bandied around (no-one seems to wholly embrace that word), although it became evident to me that, from a marketing perspective, that is what we writers should all be doing. As soon as an author’s name is registered as a dot com, she is stamping herself with a brand that begins to shape her professional identity. Any subsequent websites, blogging articles, and, of course, the writer’s work itself, begins to further sculpt their personal brand. It seems sensible to hone this identity than confuse or downplay it, as, ultimately, it is going to help increase book sales and readership.

Trends. Agents and editors are generally reluctant to forecast trends, and they usually fall back on the important mantra of “write the book you need to write, and write it well.” But there were some hints at shifts in the near-future publishing market. A “mash-up” or blurring of genres is being seen. Why not sci-fi morphed with supernatural and a slathering of romance, for instance? Some are also seeing themes, writing style and genre returning to a “classic” feel, although this seemed a very vague notion. There appears room for more very young middle grade stories (for, say, 2nd graders). In addition, “best seller hits” are intensely hunted down, so “commerciality” is becoming the new norm writ large. Most importantly, the strongest trend is that editors must not just love a book, but EVERYBODY must love the book (including sales, marketing, Barnes & Noble, etc). Books have to find a place in the marketplace. Those stories that have a global reach tend also to be more attractive to those marketing them (this may be the reason the fantasy genre continues to do well, as it tends to deal with plots beyond local issues, and thereby may appeal to a wider audience.) Beyond all this, each speaker made clear that the Bottom Line is, of course, great and engaging storytelling.

Focus. Kathryn Erskine’s final keynote lecture set out an abundance of ways we should, and can, focus our frail, skittish selves to get down to the business of writing. Candles were offered to calm us (a “transition ritual”); ways to fjord off unwanted interruptions of the human kind were recommended; headphones were suggested; playlists were proposed … and the list went on. But in our world of multitasking and distractions, focus is one of the hardest undertakings to achieve and keep. Kathryn’s point was that focusing eases the writer into a deeper state of imagination and consistency. Left and right brain sides speak to each more smoothly, threads are better connected, and, needless to say, progress is better made.

Awards. In a surprise announcement, Jane Yolen eloquently presented a new SCBWI award to be given annually to mid-list authors. It seemed an appropriate and over-due recognition, although her description of the “death-cycle” was pretty sobering. The Tomie DePaola award was given to Yvette Piette Herrera, with Laurie Eslick as runner up. In addition, two illustration students, Davin Choi and Eunhye Seo, won the Student Illustrator Scholarship. Finally, the Portfolio Showcase – where 185 illustrators competed – culminated with Mike Curato as the winner. Mike had entered a wonderful art piece of a tiny white elephant yearning over an elaborate iced cake in a shop window. Runners up were Wook Jim Jung and Lori Nichols.

Unwind. SCBWI parties bring out the “wild” in the writers, or at least show up those enthusiastic networking skills. Who says writers are shy and unforthcoming? In any case, it’s a testament to the Society’s accessible and welcoming nature that these parties turn out to be really fun. I was tugged between the lavish cocktail event, the Australian regional contingent (my country of origin), the GLBT discussion group (growing in greater numbers and diversification every conference), and the VCFAers (who gathered en masse for a fantastic Italian dinner on 42nd Street). If I didn’t know how to “network” before the conference, I could certainly do it two days later.

Tim Martin is a third semester student in Vermont College of Fine Arts’ Writing for Children and Young Adults program. He is based in Los Angeles and his website is: www.timothyjohnmartin.com

Self Marketing Part II: Discussion and Activity Guides

2012-01-26T08:13:44Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

As we continue our discussion about self-marketing, I want to talk a bit (well, more than a bit) about discussion, activity, and teaching guides. Should you have one? And how can a guide help you market your book? To give us a bit of insight, I welcome to the Tollbooth today Debbie Gonzales. Debbie is the author of eight “transitional” readers for New Zealand publisher, Giltedge. A Montessori teacher, former school administrator, and curriculum consultant specializing in academic standards annotation, Debbie now devotes her time to various freelance projects as well as serving the Austin SCBWI community as Regional Advisor. She earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

First, Debbie, welcome to the Tollbooth! Can you tell us a little about the business you run creating discussion and teachers’ guides for authors?

You’re familiar with the adage “Write what you know,” right? Well, that’s what I’m doing. I pull from my years and years of teaching and curriculum development experience and pour it all into these cross-curricular book guides. I make guides like the ones I wish I would’ve had when teaching. Science, math, crafts, creative writing, analysis, games – you name it, I put it in. They’re becoming so popular; I’m having a hard time keeping up with the demand. That’s a good problem, right?

When did you decide to start cross-curricular book guides?

I got started making these when a friend and YA author was told by a librarian that she needed a book guide made to compliment her latest book, one that met the Texas educational standards. She and I got to chatting about it and I told her I’d be glad to make one for her. Soon after, her book found its way to be listed by the International Reading Association. (I’m not saying that my guide got her on the list, but it sure didn’t hurt anything.) The rest is history.

What types of guides do you create?

Picture books, chapter, middle grade and YA, you name it. I’ll do it. I create three basic types of guides for any and all genres. One is an Activity Guide, which is packed with lots of manipulative learning games applicable to all areas of the curriculum. I just finished a really cool Research Activity Guide for two non-fiction books about dogs and horses that were such fun to make! The guide features activities focusing on anatomy, map skills, research skills, poetry writing and a bunch of other things.

Another type of guide is the basic Discussion Guide. This one works quite well for YA novels. I document quotes that, I think, resonate with meaning, and then imagine kids thumbing through the pages to find the selected phrases, reading them aloud over and over again. I like to not only create questions that are inspired by the text, but those that cause the reader to consider their own emotional response to the story.

Lastly, I make longer, more in-depth guides that are a combination activities and discussion that typically end with a special art project or a Reader’s Theatre script. These guides are designed to provide discussion and activities that will span over a 6 week period of time – a teacher’s gold mine!

A collection of guides I’ve created are posted on my website. Stop by and take a look. I think you’ll like what you see there.

When it comes to self-marketing, why do you think it is important for authors to invest in discussion and teacher guides?

I think any way we can make our books appealing to gatekeepers – teachers, booksellers, librarians, parents – the better. Guides demonstrate the academic soundness of your book to the educator. They show gatekeepers that you’ve taken their needs to heart and want to help make their lives a little easier. They elevate enthusiasm for reading by providing fun and interesting activities. When kids engage in learning on a multi-sensory level, they’ll always remember that book and the way they connected with it. I like to say that guides help keep your books in the hands of those that teach, and in the hearts of children that read them.

Should all authors consider having a guide to go along with his/her book? Or do you feel the guides work best for books more aimed at the school and library market?

It all depends on the author’s intended market. If you’re interested in letting folks know a little bit about your book, oftentimes authors devise a list of summary questions and post them on their website. That works. Even a few intriguing discussion questions written on a promotion brochure flap is helpful. You’re handing these things out at book signings anyway, right? Why not devise a little academic hook and lure those educators your way?

However, if you hope for your work to find a place in the classroom, I do think that a well-crafted guide is the way to go, something packed with clearly written lessons, easy to adapt to a learning situation. Why, just the other day I attended an open-house for an Austin magnet school and was wowed by the innovative ways the teachers were using The Book Thief as a teaching tool. Maps. Art activities. Journaling. Brilliant! You can bet I was taking some crazy notes, too.

Once a guide is made, how would you encourage an author to best use it?

Naturally, post it on your website, which would be the first thing to do. One illustrator couple I worked for is binding several copies of their new guide and making them available for giveaways at ALA. Most authors bind them nicely and give them out to teachers during their school visits. Some folks mail a copy of the guide, along with a thank you card, to schools who have booked school visits with them. Many folks film dramatize Reader’s Theatre scripts and post bits on YouTube. Lots of authors use the craft 3 ideas as activities to be done by the kids during book signings. Even librarians get into the act by using discussion questions for reading group interchange. The ideas are endless!

Go ahead and get a guide for your books, from me or any of the other clever guide creators out there. Do it. You’ll be glad you did.

All right, Tollboothers, let’s talk discussion, activity, and teaching guides? Do you have ‘em? Want ‘em? How have you used them to market yourself?

–Teresa Harris

Self-Marketing Part I: Blogging 101

2012-01-24T02:40:14Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

Ask most published authors how much their publishing house did to market their books and they’ll probably say, “Not much.” And it’s true: Unless you’ve established that you will make your publishing house bazillions of dollars, or they’re willing to bet that you will (first-time authors with huge advances, anyone?), you’ll probably get a standard marketing plan. Though this standard plan varies greatly from house to house, I think it’s fair to generalize and say it boils down to “Not much.”

So, what can we as authors do? Market ourselves! First, let’s talk author blogs. I’m no expert in this arena, but I have in the booth today YA author and blogger, Nova Ren Suma, to lend me hand.

Nova is the author of Imaginary Girls (2011) and Dani Noir (2009), which is being reissued as Fade Out for the YA shelves in June 2012. Her next YA novel is 17 & Gone, due out from Dutton/Penguin in 2013. She can be found at novaren.com, on her blog distraction99.com, or on Twitter as @novaren, distracting herself endlessly.

Nova, your blog has such a cool name! Care to share your inspiration?

I started my blog distraction no. 99 in 2005, before I wrote YA fiction, and before I published any novels. I named the blog for the fact that I was so easily distracted, figuring the blog would be one more distraction I didn’t need (and, imagine, this was before Twitter)!

How long have you had your blog, and what was your impetus for starting it?

At the time I started blogging, I was a recent MFA graduate struggling to publish literary fiction for adults, and I used the blog as an outlet for myself and as a way to connect with other writers. I most often blogged about writing itself—the process, the low points and the high points—and sometime during those years my identity as an unknown, struggling writer shifted. The blog has been witness to me discovering YA, becoming a ghostwriter, publishing my first book under my own name, finding my first literary agent after I thought I’d never have one, publishing my first YA novel, and then promoting my books.

Promotion, you say? Can you tell us a bit more about how you use distraction no 99 for promoting yourself and the work of other writers?

It’s when promotion came into the mix that my interest in the blog and its focus shifted again. I would much rather do anything else—even a sink full of dishes—than be actively promoting myself. We all know how dirty that can feel. So when promotion started ruining blogging for me, I decided to reinvent distraction no. 99 into something else. Now I continue to talk about my writing process (as much as I can talk about, since so much now needs to be kept under wraps), and I talk about things like writers’ colonies and integral publishing moments, but what I most like to do is focus on other writers and their books. I never do book reviews. Instead I interview authors and feature them in my themed blog series.

Building a community is so integral to the process of blogging. How have you gone about working with other authors to do so?

Over the years, I’ve connected to many other writers who blog, and a community naturally formed among us. Now on distraction no. 99, you’ll find author interviews, including in-depth “writer-to-writer” interviews with authors I admire about books I’ve loved, and a new debut interview series featuring short Q&As with ten debut YA authors per season. The next round is coming up in April, featuring ten Summer 2012 debuts I’m excited to read. (I’m keeping which books I chose a secret until April!)

Plus I’m doing blog series on different topics, with featured guest blogs on themes like “What Scares You?” for October, and “What Inspires You?” during NaNoWriMo. The current blog series I’m running is called “Turning Points” and features different authors (mostly YA, but other writers, too) revealing the turning points in their writing careers. It just started this January, with inspiring posts from Gayle Forman, Sean Ferrell, Saundra Mitchell, and many more. It will be ongoing, with new guest blogs three times a week, into the spring, or for as long as I have authors’ stories to publish.

From a self-marketing perspective, how do you feel your blog has helped you build a group of potential readers and, dare I say, fans?

I didn’t expect this, but somehow all that passion and writerly angst and self-musing I pour into my blog appears to resonate with people. I’m often contacted by people who discovered me through my blog and then went out to buy my books. Somehow, some post I wrote on my blog made them think they’d like my fiction, too. How amazing is that?

I’ve noticed that there are some things that keep people coming back: Reveals, for one. (My blog about exploded the day I revealed the Imaginary Girls cover.) And giveaways. People love giveaways. But I don’t like having just a giveaway and throwing books at people, so I try to time them with important moments or connect them with the blog series. Many of the authors involved in the current Turning Points blog series are including giveaways with their posts, and I do hope this will entice some people to come over who may not necessarily have visited my blog otherwise. And of course it’s important to tease and publicize new content on Twitter and Facebook—otherwise, you’ll be missing many readers who might not find you.

But in general, I’ve noticed that readers seem to respond to honesty. The posts that most resonate with my blog readers aren’t the posts where I’m telling people about what book event I’m doing next or what journal reviewed my book or whatever. They’re the posts that pull the curtain aside and show the real person behind all of this. Those are also the author blogs I most love to read.

A blog is great for self-marketing, but you’ve used yours for so much more. What would you say is your favorite part about blogging?

I wouldn’t keep blogging if it was to only market myself and my books. I keep the blog because it’s been a part of my life for years, and I can’t imagine being a writer without it. Blogging is a creative outlet for me and, more and more, a way to talk about authors I love and books I want to read. I’m excited about being a part of the YA community, and these new features on my blog are my way of showing it.

That said, I hope anyone who comes across this interview will consider checking out the Turning Points series that’s currently running. I love plugging it, because these posts aren’t by me—they’re by other authors, and I have to tell you, I think they’re fantastic.

You can follow the guest blogs in the Turning Points series here.

Thank you so much for having me on Through the Tollbooth and asking me such great, thought-provoking questions!

You’re welcome, Nova. Thanks for stopping by! On Wednesday, we’ll chat with Debbie Gonzalez, who runs a business making school and discussion guides for books ranging from picture books to young adult. In the meantime, do any of you blog? If so, how do you use your blog to self-market? Or, conversely, how do you use it just to have fun and meet other authors?

–Teresa Harris

All The World (all of Vermont College, for sure) LOVES Marla Frazee!

2012-01-19T22:02:26Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

This winter Vermont College of Fine Arts is lucky to have Marla Frazee joining us as a Writer of Distinction. She’s an author and illustrator of spirited and structurally exacting picture books, and her work includes The Boss Baby, A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, and the Clementine series for which she did the illustrations. Marla brought to the college her thoughts and experiences in an informal talk where she demonstrated the elaborate and often miraculous way an author and illustrator can work together, dog bites and all. I interviewed her about the commonalities and collaborations between writers and illustrators during the gaps we both had between lectures, workshops and lunch (+ breakfast, dinner, snacks, wine pit …)

Firstly, I asked how she was enjoying her spell at VCFA:

Marla had heard about the college for so many years and loved being here during this frenetic residency. Living within a whole lot of writers was, of course, a little unfamiliar, but she delighted in hearing writers talk about their stuff: their work, their craft and their world.

In what ways does illustration lend itself to collaboration?

Marla believes an illustrator’s job is primarily to interpret and serve the writer’s text. But it can also go further. Marla is a lover of music, and has had some interdisciplinary collaboration with her illustrative work. For example, she collaborated on a presentation with a singer-songwriter friend on her Woody Guthrie book New Baby Train, reading the book aloud whilst songs were played beforehand.

What’s her process when illustrating and writing her own projects?

Ideas generally come to her as a “need”: she doesn’t sit around forcing them to pop out. Usually, an idea comes to her as a visual cue: sometimes as a character (as with Boot and Shoe, and The Boss Baby); as a concept (Walk On); or as a visual experience (Roller Coaster). A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever drew its life from an experience of sorts: it was a “thank you” note to good friends. However they begin, her stories evolve in much the same way: a lengthy process of outlining, storyboarding, revising and editing.

When a picture book is being devised, how does the illustrator/writer partnership generally work?

After the illustrator receives the writer’s text, it is initially worked on fairly separately from the writer’s involvement. The illustrator breaks the text down visually, interpreting it with illustrations that speak both with, and alongside, the text. Various formats and page spreads are tried, and all of this is brought back to the editor. At this stage, the editor will sometimes share the illustrator’s thinking and progress with the writer, and occasionally the writer is often inspired to make changes based on how the illustrations are interacting with the words. Here, the collaboration primarily plays out as being between the writer’s words and the emerging book’s pictures.

What are the commonalities between illustrators and writers?

Marla suggested the revision and editorial process is often very similar. However she is also aware of differences between the two. For one thing, the writer’s work is often pre-contract, whilst an illustrator’s work is post-contract. Marla therefore sees illustrative work as, partly, a type of “product” – involving decisions with regards front cover design, font, layout, size, and format. These aspects have a commercial component inherent in the illustrator’s work: they implicate the book’s marketing possibilities, and where the book may be placed on the bookstore’s shelf.

VCFA thanks Marla for her wondrous work, generous presentations and readings. She definitely added to the tapestry of talent present at this winter’s residency.

Tim Martin is a third semester student in VCFA’s Writing for Children and Young Adults program. He is based in Los Angeles and his background also combines illustrated and written projects. His website is: www.timothyjohnmartin.com

Vermont College of Fine Arts Writers in Residence – Q&A with Libba Bray

2012-01-18T10:06:42Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

One of the wonderful things about residency is meeting the Writers in Residence. A few days ago, Peter talked about visiting author/illustrator Marla Frazee. Today, I will bring you highlights from a Q&A that I did with Libba Bray last week in which she talks about writing process, humor, and the well-plated NECI food.

What are some of the challenges you face when you write?

The hardest thing for me is to accept that my process is my process. Because my process is chaos. I look at someone like Holly Black, who is such a genius… She’s like the matter to my anti-matter. And I look at that and think, “Why can I not be more like Holly?” But the answer is, because I’m not Holly. This is how I write. This is how I do things.

What do you do to try to accept your process?

The number one thing that I do, and you guys are building it here, is having a community of writers that you can turn to when you’re at that point when you cannot see your way clear. I cannot tell you how many times I have sat with dear friends like, Gayle Foreman or Barry Lyga or Robin Wasserman or Jo Knowles and said, “Let me just talk this out. Help me talk myself off the ledge.”* In the process of talking it through, you discover a lot more than you think that you will.

I know that people have a lot of questions about humor. We’ve had a few lectures this residency about it. In your work you have a natural tendency towards humor, how did you find your voice?

I grew up in a very funny family. Humor was so integral to who we were. If you made someone laugh, then that was a good thing. They were a tough audience. I remember reading, Woody Allen, Tom Robbins and Douglas Adams, and of course Monty Python was huge. I really enjoyed Absurdist humor and satire.

Whatever story you are writing, dictates how humor is used. So, in the Victorian Trilogy, it’s Victorian and it has a British sensibility, so the humor is, if you excuse the pun, corseted. It has to serve the story. It was really fun for me to write Bovine and Beauty Queens, which is like putting on my favorite pair of jeans. That’s more in line with how I tend to see the world on a daily basis. I tend to be over the top.

In recent semesters we’ve been discussing the writer’s responsibility when writing about someone else’s culture. How did you approach this when writing Beauty Queens?

I interviewed people, such as a friend who is African American and had gone through the pageant system. I called her up and we had a nice long conversation about everything from the pageant system and racism to African-American hair care.

Ultimately, it comes down to, as always, doing your due diligence of finding out who your characters are, finding the heart and the humanity. Be an observer of the world–can you just imagine how something feels? It always gets back to human nature.

You’ve been in Vermont for 24 hours. What were your first impressions of the college, the community, the food?

The food is well-plated.

I was jokingly saying Vermont College is like Brigadoon, because I’d heard about it but I’d never been here. It always felt like this mystical place. I know a lot of Vermont College grads, so I was really nervous about going. I didn’t know if I got game to be at Vermont College. I’m a little jealous because I’ve never had that experience, so it’s amazing to be here. It’s like being fed in this community. Everyone is so friendly and incredibly smart and there’s a sense of camaraderie. I’m so looking forward to being here for a few days.

What do you hope to bring to your discussion to the students?

I really believe in being present and listening. Really, I don’t come to something with an agenda. One of the hardest things, is that I feel that I’m not worthy because I don’t have teaching experience and I never really feel like I have the authority. My answer would just be, “That thing you are writing is awesome. Write that thing you are writing.”

So, I hope that I can be responsive to whatever people might personally want to know. That lecture that April gave about outer yearning and inner yearning, sometimes I think that there is an outer question and underneath there is an inner question. So I hope to be useful.

***

Indeed, she was. Libba immersed herself in student life, participating in Q&A lunches with students, in workshops and lectures, and really got to know us one on one. By the end of her stay, she seemed to know everyone’s name. I know that people appreciated her authenticity and wisdom.

*Many thanks to Ingrid and Tristan for talking me off the ledge.

Melanie Fishbane is a third semester at VCFA Writing for Children’s and Young Adults program.

And then they were there…

2012-01-16T03:21:11Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

Those post-dystopians, the VCFA Class of January 2013, has announced their name.

THE DYSTROPIANS!

Cynthia Leitich Smith Rules!

2012-01-13T10:42:40Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

What happened at the Vermont College of Fine Arts yesterday?

The day began with two wonderful lectures by graduating students. Listening to my peers always blows me away. The writers in this program know so much, and they have so many ways of tackling craft issues. It’s a very humbling, yet enlightening experience.

Next on the agenda was a presentation by visiting author/illustrator Marla Frazee. She took us through her illustration process. As someone who’s drawing experience doesn’t include much more than stick figures, it amazed me how much work it takes to make the words and pictures blend into a single story.

Faculty member Mark Karlins came next. Do you know your antagonist like the back of your hand? No? Call Mark. He’s got the recipe for success.

Lunch: Ravioli Extravaganza!

In the afternoon, I caught up with our two new faculty members, April Lurie and Matt de la Peña, about how they ended up teaching at VCFA and how they hope the experience will inform their own writing.

April Lurie: “I live in Austin (TX), and I’m friends with Cynthia Leitich Smith and Kathi Appelt. They’ve both spoke very highly of the program, so in a way, I’ve always wanted to be here… Writing is a really inward experience, so I’m looking forward to collaborating and helping students. Being in this situation is a win-win. I can learn just as much from my students as they can learn from me.”

Matt de la Peña: “I served on panels with Coe Booth, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Rita Williams-Garcia, and I’m like, what is going on at VCFA? They were saying great things. I decided to give it a shot… People want to write literature here. It’s not just about the sale… You don’t understand how much teaching teaches you, just by talking it out. Seeing a student round the corner of their journey, that’s exciting. It’s the reason we’re in books, to make art.”

They are both so gracious and intelligent. What amazing additions to our community!

Dinner: Enchiladas (at least we all ate them).

And, to close, faculty readings followed by student readings. Pure magic.

Peter Patrick Langella is a third semester student in VCFA’s Writing for Children and Young Adults program. Like Tim Wynne-Jones, he adores NECI cookies.

Montpelier? Venice? Where’s Tim Wynne-Jones?

2012-01-12T15:31:53Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

???

If you’re a current or former VCFA student, you probably know that faculty member Tim Wynne-Jones is a staple of each residency, and although his laughter is not ringing out in the chapel this January, there is still a lot of buzz going around about him.

His latest novel, Blink and Caution, won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. As if that wasn’t awesome enough, Tim was also made an officer of the Order of Canada. He’s also been nominated for the 2012 Hands Christian Andersen Award. Tim is in the middle of a year-long trip to Europe, where he’s having all sorts of wonderful adventures that sadly have taken him from us for a semester. Since he can’t be here in person to tell us all about his latest successes (and other useful things), we’ve come up with the next best thing: an interview.

While we’ve tried to capture as much of Tim in a single blog post as we possibly could, his accolades just seem to keep coming and coming, so if you’re looking for the latest word on his writing and other neat things about him, we encourage you to visit his website: http://www.timwynne-jones.com/

Q: 2011 was a great year for you, with awards and nominations for Blink and Caution, and being inducted into the Order of Canada. Can you tell us a little bit about your process with the development of Blink and Caution, and what about it you think resonates with so many readers?

A: Phew! That’s a lot of questions all rolled into one innocent looking sentence. Okay, where to start. I’m never sure what it is about a story that someone else will like or that will resonate with them. I only know one reader very well and that’s me, so I try to write a story that I would like to read and that resonates with me. If I’m not deeply satisfied with what I’m writing I assume no one else will be interested in it, either.

As for my process in writing B & C, I’ll refer you to my acceptance speech for The Horn Book Award, which was published in the January Horn Book.

Q: For those of us non-Canadians who aren’t familiar with the Order of Canada, can you tell us a bit about it?

A: Well, it’s pretty exciting. Not quite like a knighthood — no swords are involved — but a special honor that comes complete with a nice insignia, presented at a ceremony at the Governor General’s Official residence. the GG is the Queens representative in Canada; if she happened to be in the country, she’d be the one giving the award out. There were 66 people given the O.C. this year and there are three grades: Companion, Officer and Member. There was only one Companion named (a former politician). I’m an officer but I don’t get to wear a uniform — just this little pin I’m supposed to wear on my lapel at any official type event. Guess I’ll have to get a lapel, now. Oh, which reminds me. At the investiture I’ll have to wear a tuxedo. I promise to send out pictures!

Q: What does an honor like this mean for your career and creativity?

A: Who knows what it means for my career? But as for my creativity, it could be deadly. Accolades are very nice, don’t get me wrong, and we all long for them. But they can really get in the way of the gritty process of writing. Nobody is “important” in the writing mine. Just your characters — just the story. You don’t go into a story with your ego on.

Q: You’ll be sitting out this semester. Is there anything you’re going to miss about rez?

A: I’ll miss you guys! All of you. You’re my social life. (I’m actually a hermit when I’m at home. A hermit AND a curmudgeon.) So when I come to rez it’s party time. Okay, Being in Venice is taking the sting out of not being there. I’ll admit it. And the day of the party? We fly to Barcelona. So… But seriously, when I looked at the schedule I was pleased to find myself feeling sad. What I mean is that as much as I need and want this semester off after eleven years, I’m already looking forward to coming back next July.

Q: How’s it going abroad? Can you give us some of your major highlights?

A: Let me refer you to my wife’s great blog

Q: Anything you’re working on now that you can tell us about?

A: Well, that’s the thing; I’m not writing at all. I should be worried but I’m having too much fun. And I guess I’m on a big intake thing. I wrote a blog for Write at Your Own Risk. If you didn’t see it, here’s the site

Go to the archives for October 26th. I have something to say there about what it’s like when the well runs dry, which is kind of important for a writer to know.

Q: Where does a story start in your head, with a character or a situation?

A: With one scene I can’t wait to write.

That’s it? It’s over? You’re finished with me just like that? Oh. Okay. Bye then.

Hey everybody, have a fabulous Rez. And eat a NECI cookie for me.

Rachel Lieberman is a third semester student in VCFA’s Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She lives in Tampa.

Residency Soreness

2012-01-11T18:32:47Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

I am sore!

Nothing major… just an old VCFA injury acting up again. My arms are stiff, my shoulders ache, there is a kink in my neck and my back is throbbing. It seems to happen the first few days of every residency. I thought it would be better during the winter semester where I can wear large padded sweaters and an extra layer of thermal underwear… but I was wrong. The old injury flared up again.

You see, I have officially hugged more people in the last two days than I have in my entire life combined. I don’t even hug my mother this often. I hugged every one of my eighteen classmates (possibly some of them twice). I hugged the graduating class and congratulated them on getting to this point. I hugged the 4^th semesters because they deserved it after surviving their critical thesis. I hugged the 1^st semesters and welcomed them to the VCFA family. I hugged the 2^nd semesters because I couldn’t leave them out. I hugged my advisors. I hugged my past and present critique advisors. I hugged every other faculty member because they could one day be my advisor. I hugged Melissa and Shannon for making this residency possible. I think I even hugged the President of the college but I am not sure (it may have been some stranger).

I am officially hugged out!

My arms are now stuck in a permanent circle. I look as if I have been carrying a large wooden barrel around campus. It is officially impossible for me to take notes with my arms locked in an oval.

Oh well, I guess it is simply a hazard of residency. It is nothing a warm NECI meal, a good night sleep on a tiny mattress and an evening in the wine pit can’t cure. In a few days I will be back to myself again.

That is until it is time to go home and the hugging begins again!

Jeff Schill is a third semester student in Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing For Children and Young Adults program.

Brigadoon Reappears in Vermont

2012-01-10T13:16:51Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

The Vermont College of Fine Arts winter residency is in full swing. Here at the Tollbooth we’ll post missives from the residency every day. First off Sheryl Scarborough joins us–

Brigadoon Reappears in Vermont

Stardate: January 2012… soon (this semester’s graduating class) The Keepers of the Dancing Stars will boogie their way out of our hearts and into the world of children everywhere. They are such a dynamic class we will be sorry to see them go. Meanwhile, the new fourth semester class The Secret Gardeners are sowing the seeds of a creatively themed bash as the stars of children’s books. They’re hinting at a great harvest of food for us to enjoy. Yay! The “Threes” (of which I am one) will be springing their name on the group at some pre-destined moment. All I can say is stay tuned, all will be revealed. But one clue leaked early in the form of a QR code (included, in case you’re interested.)

We arrived on campus early this time and enjoyed watching this tiny island of creative chaos awaken to the infusion of so much joy and camaraderie. It’s our private Brigadoon that only comes alive for 10 days – twice a year.

Julie Larios delivered the opening lecture “Once or Twice Upon a Time or Two: Thoughts About Revisionist Fairy Tales” in which she challenged us about the notion of living happily ever after – or even getting what you want. While she was speaking about our work, her message applies to our lives as well and particularly to our lives at VCFA. We come here with the words “I wish” etched in our hearts. But as Julie says, “It’s the journey, not the wish fulfilled that matters.”

So true, right?

For VCFA grads that have passed through before us we thank you for the traditions you’ve left behind – both somber and silly. We cherish and revere each one and prepare to pass them along with glee our journey continues. And so, another REZ begins.

Sheryl Scarborough is in her third VCFA semester in the Writing for Children and Young Adults program and even though she barely remembers getting through last year she thinks of it as the most wonderful experience of her life.

Exponential Growth In Happiness To You

2012-01-09T05:18:11Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

May your happiness grow exponentially in 2012. I’m not sure mine will and, anyway, predicting the future feels jinxy. But one can be optimistic at the New Year. Heliotropic, say. A professor of mine once called Anne Elliot in Austen’s “Persuasion” heliotropic; Anne always turned toward the light, she said. I would like to be heliotropic.

This should be a big interim year for me. My book won’t be out until 2013, but I plan to use this unwanted time to investigate creating an eBook to go along with the physical one and perhaps to redo my website – at least to revise it to include fun activities for children when they visit in 2013. Otherwise, I hope to write more. Writing gave way to illustration in 2011, and I’d like to strike a better balance in 2012. I’m working on a (mostly) wordless picture book. Does the story-telling aspect of that project count as writing? I will optimistically, heliotropically, say that it does.

I have a solo art exhibit this month at my local library. It features many – but not all – of the illustrations from my book. It’s been a lot of fun to watch people try to figure out the story from the pictures I did include. I’ve been meaning to make a short video of the art on the wall and will post it here if I film it in the next day or so.

Write in the New Year

2012-01-02T10:00:06Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

I have a woodworker in the family who hand carves wooden spoons. Such a simple tool, yet so evocative. People seem drawn to these spoons. They pick them up and fondle them. Rub their thumb in the polished wood bowl. Handle them like a charm.

Perhaps spoons are elemental, and mean more to us than the object itself. Aren’t spoons the first tool we’re handed as a child? Our baby selves bang it on the high chair tray. Dip it in the bowl put out for us. Bring it to our mouths on our own. Then, wonder of wonders, with Mom and Dad watching, we can feed them, too.

In this way, spoons are an expression of becoming ourselves.

For writers, words are like spoons. They shape us, even as we shape them. They’re elemental, yet stay with us forever. They feed us so we may one day hold them out as nourishment to others. And yes, we can use them to bang on our highchair trays.

I’d like to suggest my favorite New Year’s writing goal. Mold a spoonful of words into a short story. Writing a short story can help you find your sea legs when you’re a novice, and be a homecoming when you’re a pro. You can return to the form again and again to learn more about your art. It’s small but it’s a grand experiment. And in a few short weeks you can hold it in your hands.

Short stories are the ground where you can borrow, you can weave, you can practice and you can breathe. You can be edgy, soulful, playful, and sad. You can uncover character, setting, and scene. Follow the thread of a single theme. Manipulate myth. Extend a metaphor. Pick a poetic palate. And find the roundness of plot and finite satisfaction.

A short story can tilt your world. Call it the wordsmith’s equivalent of jazz, in writing a short story you are the musician, sending out a call and waiting for the response. It’s the writer’s listening place. Hang out here and see what moves you.

For me writing short stories has been tough yet magical. In their pages I’ve learned and practiced craft, since the form is truly, as Rust Hills says in Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular, the place where “Everything must work with everything else.” They’ve given me another avenue of published work. And they’re a place to sometimes stumble upon the start of a novel.

The characters in my novel The Lucky Place began as a short story (morphed to be sure), but nonetheless first came to life in 12 pages. And in the odd twist of fictional fate, this just published piece started as a few lines six years ago. The characters themselves have since gone on to become another novel, but my original inspiration languished until I pulled it out this December. I knew it wasn’t a story then, it was barely an idea, but when I read those few lines I felt that tug. The one you get when you know you’ve got the seed.

Not every seed can be a novel, but you can grow just as much as a writer through writing short stories. This one allowed me to experiment with imagery and non-linear time jumps. It allowed me to consider an element that intrigues me, the difference between writing for children and writing about them, since my protagonist is a child who isn’t telling a story for kids. Best of all it allowed me to go to that listening place we all journey to as writers.

So consider ringing in 2012 with this resolution, write at least one short story this year. It’s a great tool, not really so simple, that can bring you to a listening place of your own.

zu vincent

art by jody brooken

The Heroine’s Romantic Journey

2011-12-19T17:25:24Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

When the editor told me she wanted me to rewrite the novel and ramp up the romance, I quailed. “We love romance,” she wrote, “The drama, the uncertainty.”

Uncertainty. She’d really caught the shaky essence of new love, but I didn’t have a clue how to capture it. I know how to write action and adventure, how to keep the obstacles coming until the hero fights the final battle. But romantic uncertainty? How would I even plot that beyond Boy Meets Girl, etc.? Wasn’t it just a lot of angst and neurotic, teary, self-talk?

When in doubt, I read. And several YA romances later, I realized that romance is just the Hero’s Journey from inside the heart.

The hero/protagonist lives in her Ordinary World untouched by love, when one day, bam! She meets The Guy. She doesn’t expect to meet anyone, and she’s attracted to him, but this feeling is like entering a new world.

It’s her Call to Adventure, but she’s not sure about taking it, because she’s so surprised and he isn’t what she expected. She’s thrown off balance, because she thinks she knows the person she wants, but now she’s met someone who’s completely different.

So she pulls back and Refuses the Call. But he keeps talking to her and she’s tempted to let herself feel something. So she Crosses the Threshold into vulnerability and love.

It is a time of Tests, Allies and Enemies.

She doesn’t trust how she feels and she doesn’t know if he feels the way she does. There are circumstances and personal histories, exes and rivals she doesn’t know about. She’s afraid he might be involved with someone else, and she wants to protect herself, because she doesn’t want to be humiliated and can’t bear being hurt.

But at the same time, she senses he may understand her in a way that no one else has ever done before. And she lets herself fantasize about what things could be like, because love is Arthur’s sword, the Holy Grail, the kingdom’s crown.

She’s lost in this new land, trying hard to navigate, and looking for clues in every gesture, how close he leans in to her, if he pulls away. Her girlfriends weigh in on everything he does, and like courtiers to the heir apparent, not all of them have her best interests in mind.

Then a moment appears when something is definitely happening and she can sense it. The relationship is about to change and she’s ready to take a chance and lay her heart completely bare. LIke a deep symbolic Cave, she approaches, knowing the danger of getting her heart broken. She’s ready to kiss him, even if he doesn’t kiss her.

But when that kiss doesn’t come, because something incredibly horrible comes between them, she pulls back. Love has turned into an Ordeal.

She doesn’t want to get hurt like the last time. She can’t count on this other person, what he’ll do or won’t do. She’s not even sure that he’s the person she thought he was.

Fight or flight. She has to choose.

And when she does choose love, when she fights for it, she Seizes the Sword and claims his love. She is magically transformed and forever changed. She understands love in ways she never did before.

Curious about the hero’s romantic journey? Check out Jennifer Smith’s THE STATISTICAL PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT (2/12), Daniel Handler’s WHY WE BROKE UP (1/12), and Jandy Nelson’s THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE (available now.)

The Ghosts of Writing Past

2011-12-15T20:02:02Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

Hello, Tollboothers!

I am sorry this post is coming up so late in the week! Blame life! Blame the holidays! Oh, heck, don’t do that. Blame me for not having my act together enough to balance both those things. I really do apologize.

So I recently turned in my final (let’s hope! I think it’s my final. It’s supposed to be the final. Let’s hope Other People thinks it’s my final) draft of my YA novel. And as I was biffing and banging through the ten billion mistakes in the manuscript, I realized that the book itself was full of ghosts. And that I was going to have to perform a series of Exorcisms.

Now, I was pleased about this, because I enjoy wearing black voluminous garments and also chanting menacingly. And while I would also have liked one of those incense-flinging thuribles and maybe also some kind of bell to wave, sadly, all that really proved useful were a pencil and my fingers, for typing.

I’m sure you all know what I mean by ghosts. Ghosts are parts of the book that are holdovers from drafts past. And some of those ghosts are friendly, some are disruptive, and some just hover disturbingly about. I had all those kinds of ghosts in my book. And a person has to be merciless in getting rid of the ones that mess things up.

Friendly ghosts are wonderful. For me, a friendly ghost is one left by a murdered scene (killed like a darling! Scalpeled right out!)— a scene that used to be in the book and played out in its entirety but has become, in this later draft, just a shorthand referenced memory between two characters, a reference that now (hopefully) adds an impression of depth to their relationship without a reader having to have been there herself to witness that growth.
But too many ghosts in my ms were the disruptive kind, like the time I forgot I changed where a character lived and then had everybody showing up where his house used to be. WHOOPS! Or the time I cut out a character but then up he popped in that one part I forgot he was in and startled everyone considerably.
The disruptive are fairly easy to fix, though, if dull. The ghosts that really irritate me are the ones that do the hovering, grinning ingratiatingly, trying to hide behind the furniture, yet unwilling to Go to the Light. By this I mean the ghosts of changes in pacing, timing or sequence, things that, in this draft, happen at different times of day than they used to, so that now the reader is left with the upsetting impression that the characters eat breakfast and then go straight to bed for the night, or the characters seem to talk psychically about thing they haven’t….done yet. These are difficult because by the time a writer is at her a billionth draft of a thing, it’s hard to see a single word in the book for what it is, much less all the small logistical problems. Because the ghosts of all the drafts are crowded in our heads, too, and so every word in the book is so familiar you can read it before your eyes do.

This is why we need friends who are brainy. Friends who are willing to reread your first thirty pages twice in two days (hey, Jessica Leader! You look pretty today!) and can help you see where you thumped a note twice and skipped three more. You need an exorcising sidekick, someone whose thurible you can borrow and who doesn’t mind holding the spellbook open for you to do your menacing chanting properly. Just make sure the black robe you provide for her is very flattering.

Kids to kids.

2011-12-02T20:55:05Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

I found a really interesting web site today for teachers called novelinks.org whose aim is to put out “instructional routines and ideas for teaching the novel.” I wanted to see what they did differently than the typical educators’ guide, so I looked at their resource list for Deborah Wiles’s book EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS. Novelinks offers a full spectrum of materials, from a concept analysis to readability guide, but what struck me as a bit startling was that EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS was tagged at a seventh grade reading level. All of my fifth grade students read it in fourth grade, and frankly while I love this book a lot, the book seems a little young in terms of how much it might interest a seventh grade reader. I checked Scholastic’s Book Wizard, and it shows the book’s level at mid-year forth grade reading. Comfort, the narrator of the story, is ten years old, so a fourth grader reading EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS makes much more of sense. A seventh grader? Not so much.

Kids want to read books that look age appropriate, even if they are reading far below grade level. Many of the students in my class who are struggling readers clamor to read the whole Percy Jackson series. The books are entertaining and easy reading, and you won’t look dumb if you are reading one of them. Every book in the series is hefty (from 300-400 pages), with cool covers. They are fantasy stories with lots of action. Not babyish at all.

Peer influence is huge for middle school readers, and I see it all the time in class. Kids tell other kids about the good books they’re reading. They share copies from home and the library. They love being the “first” to discover a book that their peers will want to read. But the books they recommend to one another are books that are shoo-ins: Funny, interesting, mysterious, quirky. And from what I see, kids really do want to read about kids their own ages (or older…that’s even better almost).

I don’t see kids recommending literary novels to each other. It’s a generalization, but literary novels don’t seem to interest the kids I teach. They don’t pick them up to read on their own in reading workshop. I book talk, do read alouds, and show book trailers (when I can) of the literary novels I love, but for the fifth grade kids in my class, those novels are the books teachers teach.

What’s the take away from this week? For me it means killing a lot of darlings in my writing and getting to the story. It means honing characters that are readable because they are really interesting, even for struggling readers. And it means writing with vocabulary and sentence structure and chapter lengths that appeal to kids. I need to stop trying to be so literary. (Which I think I do because I want to show adults that children’s writers are good writers too…but that’s another story).

I need to focus on telling a good tale for kids. It’s simple, but those 5^th graders can be pretty demanding. Maybe I’ll just ask Rick or Brandon if they wouldn’t mind reading my next manuscript to give me a few pointers.

Action…and promise

2011-11-30T21:16:20Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

So why do kids love books like the Percy Jackson series or Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven books? Maybe the answer is in the reading level. In the last few years, best practice for teaching reading has incorporated something called the reading workshop. Instead of reading one book (usually selected by the teacher) as a whole class, students can read whatever interests them. For my class of sixty-one students, I have about forty different books being read on any given day.

The Percy Jackson books and Fablehaven series are written for students reading at a late fourth grade to beginning fifth grade level. The books have relatively easy vocabulary and are structured for the upper elementary reader. Characters are not quite as complex and story lines not quite as complicated as some other books for middle school readers. That doesn’t mean the stories are wildly fun and entertaining!

Many of the Newbery books offer up more difficult reading. The latest Newbery winner, Moon Over Manifest is geared to a mid-year fifth grade reading level. To give you a perspective, Newbery winners When You Reach Me and The Graveyard Book are geared to late-year fifth grade readers. While Moon Over Manifest is a dear story and one I liked very much, it’s hard for my students to care about Abilene until they have read the first fifty pages or so. Few of them have been able to stick with the book that long. It moves too slow. And that’s a common theme I hear with Newbery books. My students think of them, generally, as the books that teachers want them to read, not books they want to read. Why is that?

For one, action. When I read the opening of Fablehaven, things are already moving. Here are the first two chapters of the book:

Kendra stared out the side window of the SUV, watching foliage blur past. When the flurry of motion became too much, she looked up ahead and fixed her gaze on a particular tree, following it as it slowly approached, streaked past, and then gradually receded behind her.

Was life like that? You could look ahead to the future or back to the past, but the present moved too quickly to absorb. Maybe sometimes. Not today. Today they were driving along an endless two-lane highway through the forested hills of Connecticut.

Kendra is going somewhere. Everything is a blur. Life is moving fast. The children in my class totally get this idea. It’s their reality. I know what you are probably thinking…The Graveyard Book is totally action at the beginning of the story. But my students don’t like it. It’s weird they say. Maybe it reminds them of the news, but they don’t want to read it. It ends up in the return bin a lot.

Second, the big ideas of both Percy Jackson and of Fablehaven are intriguing. Percy is an ordinary middle school kid who is really a god. (What boy wouldn’t want to be Percy?) Fablehaven‘s book jacket blurb tells us that all the mystical creatures are gathered at a hidden refuge to prevent extinction. The protagonist of the story, Kendra, just happens to be the granddaughter of the refuge caretaker. What fifth grader wouldn’t want Kendra for their BBF? You just know something exciting is going to happen. Both of these series have the wonderful premise of a good story.

So from the beginning there is forward motion and the promise of something amazing. That’s great storytelling, and children in my classroom are devoted to this series.

I visited Brandon Mull’s web site, and he has some interesting videos for parents and educators (and writers!). Click here to go to Brandon’s web site, then scroll down to the video, “What Makes a Great Book.”

How to grab a 5th grade reader…

2011-11-28T12:21:33Z

Originally published at Through the Tollbooth. Please leave any comments there.

Last summer at Chautauqua I gave a lecture on middle school readers. The presentation was based on research and interviews of middle school students, so it had some solid information, but it didn’t have the benefit of my experience this fall. Since late August, I’ve been teaching reading and writing full time to a class of sixty-one fifth graders here in Nashville. So, this week I thought it might be helpful to share my insights into fifth grade readers, the books they love, and how to write for that particular audience.

Let’s begin with the history of ten and eleven year-olds. As they were born, Y2K changed how we thought about history, and September 11 changed the world into a dangerous place. As these children were learning to read, a little company called FACEBOOK was starting up, and the word google became a verb. Download, digital, wireless and virtual became our new vocabulary. Blogs, wikis, social networks, and Twitter became our new communities. And did I mention? We’ve got an app for that. You fill in what “that” might be.

As these kids moved into elementary school, TV became reality, videogame profits soared beyond box office revenue, and Harry Potter took his place in the canon of children’s literature. We went to war twice. We witnessed a near collapse of the US financial market. We elected an African American as 44^th President of the United States.

Today’s middle school readers are tech savvy and news weary, living in the golden age of knowledge, with the steepest growth of information in history, doubling in size every 12-18 months.

Any wonder why these kids crave action and adventure in the books they read? To them, life is much bigger than their schoolyards or neighborhoods. They witness the world in action everywhere, and they want to be part of it.

When students asked me to help them find a good book, it’s not the Newbery award winners they want. (Even The Graveyard Book finds its way quickly into the classroom return bin quickly. The exception to this is Louis Sacher’s Holes. Most students devour Holes.) Fantasy, mystery, adventure or funny books are the stories these children love. A few read historical fiction. Very few want nonfiction (unless its science related). Children want escape. Ask any of the readers in my classroom, and they’ve read Percy Jackson. Rick Riordan’s stories are plot driven adventures that are easy to read—mostly written at 4^th grade reading levels. It’s a winning combination.

So what does all this mean to a writer? I think it means getting really good at the plot driven novel. Be willing to take readers on a wild ride. Pushing the boundaries on possibility. Telling a really good story. Sounds like everything you know already, but the assignment is to do that with a character that’s immediately engaging. And could you make it funny while you are at it?

Next time, we’ll take a look at some of the most popular books in my class—the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. I’ll do an analysis of the first book in the series and share with you the five elements of a great book from Mull’s point of view. Until then, keep writing!