Missing CD

I'm looking for Libby Donovan, who won an audio version of On the Road to Mr. Mineo's back in October.

Today I found CD #3 in my car and I'm hoping it wasn't missing from what you received.

If so, please contact me.

If anybody reading this knows Libby, will you please give her a head's up?

Two Things on Tuesday

Thing One

Look what I got!

 

Paperback edition of On the Road to Mr. Mineo's

Thing Two

 

Skyping with students in Ecuador.

Don't you love how Skype makes a big world smaller?

 

 

And the winners are....

The drawing for the audiobooks was done in a highly scientific and technologically advanced method.

And the winners are:

Thanks to everyone who entered!!

(Note to Portia: I don't have an email address for you. Will you contact me barbaraoconnor at mac dot com?)

Auditobook Giveaway - On the Road to Mr. Mineo's

Reminder: I'm giving away TWO audiobooks of ON THE ROAD TO MR. MINEO'S.

Just leave your name and email in blog comments or email to me barbaraoconnor at mac dot com.

Drawing is October 1.

 

Audiobook Giveaway: On the Road to Mr. Mineo's

Hey, y'all!

I'm giving away two, not ONE but TWO, audiobooks of On the Road to Mr. Mineo's

Just leave your name and email address in the comments section or send to me at barbaraoconnor at mac dot com.

 

I'll be drawing the winners on October 1.

Give it a shot.

What have you got to lose?

Lessons from Dead Matter

I recently received the dead matter for On the Road to Mr.

Mineo's, so I figured I might as well continue my traditional "Lessons from Dead Matter" blog post.

[Note: "Dead matter" is the term used by the publisher for the stacks and stacks of the manuscript during various stages of production. It is, indeed, very dead.]

I wrote about my Lessons from Dead Matter for Greetings from Nowhere here.

And for The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis here.

And The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester here.

It's a little depressing to see that after writing lots of books, I'm still making the same stupid mistakes. But, hey, that's what copyeditors are for, right? Or is it copy editors? I can never remember.

So, here are some of my lessons from dead matter:

1. Why can I never, ever remember that the following words are one word? (I think I need an editor for that sentence.)

• backyard
• flowerpot
• shirttail
• cornfield
• toolbox
• pigsty
• streetlight

And the following are hyphenated:

• flip-flop
• hickory-nut
• chicken-wire
• run-down

 And that lawn mower is two words.

And it's screened porch, not screen porch.


For this book, it was suggested that we hyphenate gol-dern so as not to confuse it with the word "golden." (I know, I didn't get it either.)

It was also decided that this is the correct version of:

ding-dong doodlebrain

(And I am once again reminded of how good I am at insulting people.)

2. After much debate, diddly-squat won out over doodly-squat and hyphenation was required.

3. Sometimes you sit in a chair and sometimes you sit on a chair. 

For example:
"She plopped down in one of the lawn chairs" was changed to "on one of the lawn chairs."

But "How he longed to go back up there and sit in the lawn chair and play cards all day" was left as is. 

*scratches head and ponders this*

4. I'm forever disagreeing with decisions about commas - not because of correct punctuation, but because of the sound of the writing.

For example, there was a lot of discussion about the following sentence because of the doors of the van being left open (but that's a whole other thing....):

Luther took his fishing rod out of the back of the van, and he and Edsel went inside the restaurant to eat pork lo mein.

I don't like that comma there because I didn't want a pause in that spot. I wanted the sound of the words running on. But either I lost or I gave in, I don't remember which.

The same goes for the following, only it's the opposite situation:

But now, a little glimmer of sadness was starting to buzz around him like a pesky fly.

Copy editor took the comma out. I liked the pause it created, but I agreed to take it out. (See how agreeable I am?)

5. We had a great discussion about the phrase gold-ern criminy cripes.  Evidently, both criminy and cripes are euphemisms for Christ. (Who knew?) Would I get run out of town for using those words in a children's book? Well, the words are still there and I'm still in town, so there you go.

6. Some Southern expressions prove just too confusing for the average bear, so I give up and take them out. One of them is the expression pure-T, which means 100% or completely. Here's the original sentence from the manuscript:

I know she's pure-T red-hot mad at him.

The copy editor wrote in the margin, "purty?"

[Note: I think my Southern writer pal, Augusta Scattergood, says pure-D, instead of pure-T. The Dictionary of American Regional English actually has both. But it shows pure-T as being more prevalent in the Carolinas, which is where I'm from.]

7. Dear Copy Editor: Please leave the word hisself alone.

8. A giant hickory-nut tree casts shadows that move in the warm breeze, like fingers wiggling over the dandelions in the lawn.

Was changed to dandelions on the lawn.

I still don't like it.

9. Stamp her foot was always changed to stomp her foot.

10. And last, but this one is very, very important, there are no periods after:

Ploink

Ploink

Ploink

So there you have it: Lessons from Dead Matter

Through the efforts of author Bobbie Pyron, over thirty authors (including me) have come together to honor Catherine Violet Hubbard, a little girl with a big dream: to provide a sanctuary for homeless animals. Tragically, that dream was cut short when Catherine was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.


Since then, Catherine’s parents and The Animal Center in Newtown have set up a fund to raise money for the Catherine Violet HubbardSanctuary. 

So....want to bid on a signed copy of On the Road to Mr. Mineo's (or lots of other choices)?

Then go HERE now and do it!!

Ultimate Summer Reading List

Read Kiddo Read's Ultimate Summer Reading List

is

HERE

 

Writing Tip Tuesday

Remember that Gloria Estefan song, The Rhythm is Gonna Get You?

[This video takes a couple of seconds to start...patience....]



  


Dang.! She makes me want to be a hot, Cuban chick. But, um, I guess that's not gonna happen.   

So...anyway... Rhythm of writing is important to me. I know when the rhythm is off. I know when something is needed to make the rhythm better.  I almost NEVER leave blanks in drafts - you know, typing in [INSERT SOMETHING HERE LATER]. I hate doing that. But sometimes, I just have to. I know something is needed and I just can't come up with the perfect thing but I need to get on with the writing. And often, that something has to do with rhythm.   

For instance, in The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester, there is a scene where the main character and his friends are looking for something beside a railroad track. Here's what I wrote:  

 They found a bicycle wheel with broken spokes. They found a bullet-riddled stop sign. They found the bent-up frame of an aluminum lawn chair. They found a mildewed, mud-covered sofa cushion. They found a grocery cart with two missing wheels. They found cinder blocks and broken bottles and ____.   

I knew that the last sentence needed three things to make the rhythm right. But I just couldn't think of the third thing.... ...so I left a blank. Which is what made me think about rhythm in writing. (By the way, I did later fill in that blank with rusty cans.)   

But now that I look at that, I'm thinking I have too many sentences - I should delete one - or maybe even two...but, dang, I like all those things. I hate murdering my darlings.   

Anyway... Here's another example. I spent quite a while on the following paragraph because, once again, I knew I needed three sentences (after the first one), each starting with an -ing verb:

 Maybe he should be swimming freely around Graham Pond. Gliding gracefully through the water. Floating among the rotting oak leaves that had settled on the surface. Sunning lazily on the moss-covered logs along the edges. 

I also knew that the word logs needed an adjective. It was just a rhythm thing.  

Kids often ask me why the pigeon, Sherman, is a one-legged pigeon. The answer? I needed the rhythm of "one-legged."  

So here's my point: Pay attention to the rhythm of your writing. 

Some writing voices/styles have more rhythm than others - but no matter what your voice is, there is some sort of rhythm in there.

Maybe it's the balance of short and long sentences.  

Maybe it's the length of paragraphs or even chapters.  

Maybe it's the word choice.  

Maybe it's all of the above.  

Write with an ear to your own personal rhythm and learn to recognize when it is "off." The rhythm is gonna get you.

Best Books of the Year

I'm excited to report that On the Road to Mr. Mineo's has been named one of School Library Journal's Best Books of the Year!

 

A lovely review

I love this review of On the Road to Mr. Mineo's in the Christian Science Monitor.

 

Mr. Mineo brings home the silver

This is a wall in my office displaying Parents' Choice Awards I have won in the past.

That empty space on the lower right has just been filled!

On the Road to Mr. Mineo's has won a Parents' Choice Silver Award. 

A Star for Mr. Mineo!

A starred review from School Library Journal for

On the Road to Mr. Mineo's!

Gr 3-6–Nestled in the scenic South Carolina countryside is a quiet town called Meadville. Summers are ordinary, but wonderful, filled with bike rides, swimming lessons, and the antics of imaginative children. Stella is eager for adventure and longs for a pet to be her constant companion. She spends her days with her best friend, Gerald, on the roof of his garage conjuring up “good ideas” that usually bring some type of misfortune on him. One typical day, an unexpected visitor arrives–a one-legged pigeon that sets Stella on a mission to catch it and claim it as her own. However, she is not the only person eager to catch this fickle rogue. There are many others, equally as determined to snare the elusive bird. This heartwarming tale of a town coming together in an unexpected way will delight readers. Children will eagerly follow the twists and turns in this story of friendship and loneliness, giving and receiving. O’Connor sets the stage beautifully from the very beginning, painting the small town in brilliant colors with her descriptive imagery. Older elementary students will easily relate to the nuances of the relationships between older and younger children as well as the angst of sibling rivalry. The theme of everyone working together to achieve a common goal is strong, and the ending is touching and satisfying.

On the Road to Mr. Mineo's - Reviews

 

Some reviews of On the Road to Mr. Mineo's

From Horn Book:

"With total authorial control, O'Connor brings it all together, first creating a quiet, satisfying adventure and then an apt conclusion for peaceful, laid back Meadville. Here it is the subtlety of character and setting, rather than action, that rules the roost."  --Betty Carter

 From Kirkus:

 O'Connor weaves the fabric of her tale from each of these separate threads, moving back and forth among points of view, sympathetic to nearly all (except Levi and company). As in The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis (2009), she condenses long summer days down into their essence, quiet but humming with an undercurrent of childhood energy

From Publishers Weekly:

O'Connor's understated third-person narration moves languidly among the children (and some adults) in town - including Mr. Mineo, the homing pigeon's actual owner - in a story that beautifully captures the feel of a small Southern town and its residents.

From Book Page:

"...a gem of a story...Barbara O'Connor's gift in storytelling is her restraint. Holding back allows the reader to fill in a bit, making the story more personal. Her talents make On the Road to Mr. Mineo's an unforgettable trip."  --Robin Smith

And some blog and other reviews:

Kirby's Lane  

Sal's Fiction Addiction
A Book and a Hug 

                                                          

Reader reviews

I'm delighted that I've been getting such nice reader reviews for On the Road to Mr. Mineo's. 

Just this morning I heard from this little cowboy.

Things I Love Thursday

Pigeon sugar cookies!

To celebrate the publication of On the Road to Mr. Mineo's

Thank you, Angela!

Happy Birthday to On the Road to Mr. Mineo's

Today is the official publication date of

Wanna read....

...the first chapter of

On the Road to Mr. Mineo's?

Click here.

 

Hello, I think I love you....

The day before we left for N.C., my trusty UPS dude (Rick) brought me this.

After TWO years, people:

New Teacher's Guides!

I'm delighted to reveal three new teacher's guides!

Click here for guide to The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis.

 

Click here for guide to The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester.

 

Click here for guide to On the Road to Mr. Mineo's (coming in October).

Many thanks to Tracie Vaughn Zimmer and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group.