Wanna feel old?

How to Feel Old in One Easy Lesson:

Make many, many trips up to your son's sixth floor walk-up apartment in New York City carrying giant armloads of stuff after spending many hours buying giant armloads of stuff at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Then spend many many hours putting together Ikea furniture - with lots and lots of parts and little wrenches and screws and weird visual-only instructions that nobody uses anyway.

Then spend many many hours carrying large armloads of cardboard (from the boxes that the Ikea furniture came in) down to the trash cans on the first floor (and of course, walk back up to that sixth floor apt).

I'm not sure which I burned more of: calories or cash.

Big Apple

I'm off to New York City for a few days to help my son move into his new apartment in the East Village.

Maybe this one will be bigger than his current walk-in closet, um, I mean, apartment.

I'm all about that Dixie Chicks song: WIDE OPEN SPACES. Those itty bitty New York apartments are just so, well, itty bitty.

I've come a long way, baby

This is the first book I ever wrote. Age twelve.













Here's what it says: "Aw, Mom! I'm right in the middle of a keen western and you ask me to dry the dishes. How 'bout Skip, he's not busy?" complained Dixie Johnson, combing her brown fingers through her long blond ponytail.

"Drying dishes isn't a boy's job. Besides, Skip's busy and all you do is sit around the house all day," remarked her mother.

"I wish I was a boy," complained Dixie as she struggled into the kitchen. "Anyway, I do lots more things than Skip. I dust, clean my room, make beds, clean the stables, feed the horses, and so on and so on and so on."



We've come a long way, baby. (Although, come to think of it, I'm still dusting and making beds. Luckily, no stables to clean.)

P.S. Wanna hear something weird? My mother-in-law's name is Dixie. I mean, what are the odds?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I'm not one of those authors who is superstitious about discussing a new book idea or a work in progress.

But sometimes, I just don't know enough about it to even talk about it. It's like trying to describe a dream to someone - when some things are kinda hazy.

I'm still in the hazy place with my new one - but one thing is for sure. I can never ever start a book without a title. AND, most of the time I have the title before I have the story. For instance, with Moonpie and Ivy, that's what I started with and only that. I had no idea who Moonpie and Ivy were.

AND, I never ever change a title. I'm always fascinated when authors do that - or, even more fascinated when they write the whole book with no title!

For me, the title is the very essence of the book. It is the heart and soul of the book, in some ways. The story would have no heartbeat without the title.

For me.

I know every author works differently.

So, with that said, here is my new title: The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis.

Now, here's where I am with that: I know who Popeye and Elvis are. I have a very clear image of them and the other secondary characters.

I'm just not too clear on the small adventure part (the, um, PLOT).

So I'm wondering, for most writers, which comes first: the story or the title? The chicken or the egg?

Shut up and write

I had my last school visit of the year yesterday in Rhode Island. It was a great day with super kids but now I am so ready to say YAHOOOO!

I can finally stop talking about writing and actually write.

My summer goal = finish (ha!) first draft of mid-grade novel and revamp web site

Raw writing

When I saw this website (I can't remember where I found that link, so I can't give credit where credit is due....sorry...maybe Fuse 8?), I had to read the book. I mean, how can you not?












I've only read three stories so far - but one word comes to mind about Ms. July's writing: raw. No self-conscious rules, no points of view or story arc or show, don't tell, etc. Just heart on the sleeve, raw writing. Granted, it's kinda, well, "out there." But we sure do have room on our library shelves for "out there" writing, I think.

I'm likin' it - a lot.

I'll let you know how I feel when I finish the rest of the book.

Never Steal a Dog

Like most writers, I get asked often to donate books for various fundraising events. And like most writers, I don't have a warehouse full of free books in my backyard. So, like most writers, I have to say "no" once in a while. (Hey, you writers out there - you do say "no" once in a while, right? Don't tell me I'm the only stingy tightwad in the world....)

But recently I was asked to donate a copy of How to Steal a Dog to a fundraiser for the Animal Protective Foundation. Children were going to be writing essays and making posters about being kind to animals and winning books for a prize. Now, we all know I would surely burn for eternity if I said no to THAT. And being the animal lover I am, well, of course I had to donate a book.

I mean, I dare you to say no to this:













Or how about saying no to this (his name is Romeo, by the way):













And here are the winners:

My one and only Harry Potter post - ever

Fuse 8 said in a recent post that every kidlit blogger is contractually obligated to write at least 2 Harry Potter pieces per week. Alas, I will be breaking that contract. (Although, maybe children's author blogs aren't the same as kidlit blogs?)

I am not a Harry Potter person. I've read the first two and after that.....not so much.

I just finished copyedits for my next middle grade novel (Greetings from Nowhere). One of the secondary characters was named Clyde Riddle.

FSG's world's-best-copyeditor, Elaine Chubb (who RETIRED May 1!!! Elaine, how could you???), pointed out the fact that many children may relate the name Riddle with Harry Potter - and in a negative way.

Who knew?

I confess that at first I sorta kinda doubted her. I mean, were kids SO into Harry Potter that they would get hung up about the name of a secondary character? But I ran it by an author message board comprised of many well-respected folks and they all agreed with her.

So....I had to CHANGE his name. Now, understand, that's a big, big, big deal for me. I never ever ever change names of characters. Names are really really really important to me. I can't even START a book until all the character names are perfect. So to change one was PAINFUL.

But, I did it.

There. That's my Harry Potter post.

Yeah, right...

Them: What do you do?

Me: I'm a writer.

Them: Really? What do you write?

Me: Children's books.

Them: Oh, wow. I've been thinking about doing that, too! I've always wanted to write a children's book.

The Other Them: I've written lots of children's stories. My 4-year-old loves them. Maybe you can help me get them published.

The Other Other Them: My third cousin's girlfriend's sister wrote a book and found this publishing company that just loves it and is going to publish it. She just has to send them a one-time processing fee of $10,000 first.

The Other Other Other Them: My nine-year-old has written the most adorable book about a talking tadpole named Timmy. Her teacher thinks it's fabulous. Maybe you could give her some advice on how to get it published.

Me: Sigh

As a result, I confess that I've developed a rather cynical response to the ole I'm-a-writer, he's-a-writer, everybody's-a-writer stuff (especially children's writing since, you know, it's so much easier and all).

But recently I ran into a guy who had done some carpentry work at our house and when he introduced his wife to me, he added, "She's a writer, too."

There it was, rearing it's ugly head: my "yeah, right" attitude. But I think I hid it well and politely asked about her work. She told me she had published an adult novel a few years ago and was in the process of working on another.

Yeah, right.

But, out of curiosity, I got a copy of her book.

It totally blew me away. The writing was wonderful. The voice fresh and distinctive. The settings vivid. The characters nothing short of amazing. The story riveting.

I was knocked off of my "yeah, right" pedestal and landed with a "lesson learned" thud.

I hopefully redeemed myself by writing her a gushing, glowing, raving, I-so-admire-your-work note.

That book, by the way, was Outside Valentine by Liza Ward.









Lesson learned.

P.S. to Liza: I'm sorry, okay? Lesson learned.

My best friend, Cyndi

One of my favorite blogs is Shrinking Violets, Marketing for Introverts. There was recently a post nominating Cynthia Rylant as the Coolest Introvert in Children's Literature.

I TOTALLY second that vote. I adore Cynthia Rylant. She's my literary crush, no doubt about it.

I consider her my ultimate, all-time, tip top, A-one inspiration of all time. Missing May spoke to me like no other book. Her voice. Her sense of place. Her heart.

So when my book, Me and Rupert Goody, was published, I sent her a copy and told her how much she had inspired me. I told her that she had continued the chain of creative spirit. (Good line, huh?)

Well, guess what?

She wrote me back! I mean wrote - as in by hand - on pretty pink note paper.






I've blurred the signature cause, well, this is the nasty ole internet and all. But trust me, she really wrote me. She said all these nice things about my book. Like, she thought my novel was "lovely." I mean, who else could use that word in a normal sentence and sound normal?

Oh, and she liked the goodness of the characters' hearts. Isn't that just so Cynthia Rylant?

And get this, here was her favorite line in the book (I'm not making this up): "I ain't eating another pinto bean as long as I live."

AND she signed the note CYNDI RYLANT.

Not Cynthia.

Oh no - not for me, her new best friend.

It's CYNDI (that's right, with a Y and an I)

And check out that little heart. I mean, come on!

So, Cyndi, if you're out there: Keep up the good work (and call me - we'll do lunch.)

Characters to die for

I find obituaries to be a wealth of inspiration for characters. For instance, I often scour the obituaries from my mother's hometown newspaper (Fountain Inn, South Carolina) for some good ole Southern names.

I'm getting ready to start a new book (I swear, I really am...tomorrow). Some of the characters are still a bit foggy. Yesterday there was an obituary that brought one of them immediately into focus.

In the obituary, a friend of the deceased commented that she "believed in fresh air and sensible shoes." I love that!

But the best part was when one of her relatives said that there was something by her bedside just a few days before she died: a chronology of the kings and queens of England that she was memorizing again.

First of all, I love that she was memorizing the kings and queens of England. How cool is that?

But the best part is that she was doing it again. So, she had done it once already, had forgotten them at some point, and was doing it again! I mean, double cool.

I am so using that.

Tracking blogs

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to track blogs conveniently, but here's a nifty web site that does that for you. Each time the blogs you enter into it have a new entry, it shows up in bold. It's one-stop blog-viewing.

The site is called Bloglines.

(For you Live Journalers - you can add non-LJ blogs to your friends if you have the feed address. Gee, I sound so wonderfully geeky like Mitali.)

And, of course, there is the wonderful, jacketflap blogreader, where you can also enter all your favorites.

But if anybody knows a better way, let me know, would ya?

New newsletter from Farrar, Straus & Giroux

FSG Notes

Nasty or noble?

Okay, so there's this web site that tracks Amazon rankings. It gives you the best, worst, and average rankings for whatever books you enter. But the coolest thing is that it keeps your customized list of books in order of rank - and updates constantly (and I mean constantly - trust me, I've checked.)

Now, if you are a nasty person, you list your book along with other books that came out at the same time or books by people you don't like, or books by people you do like, and then you take great gleeful delight when your book rises to the top, pushing those other books down, down, down, squashing them like a bug.

But then again, those other books might be squashing yours like a bug. So nasty people just have to take their chances in the bug-squashing department.

And if you are a really nasty person, you order lots of your own books just to get the cheap thrill of taking the others down. (But then, that's kind of economically stupid just for the sake of a fleeting bug-squashing high.)

But, of course, a noble person like me just sits back and cheers when other books rise to the top - and I don't worry one little iota if my book becomes a squashed bug.

I mean, we can't take these things personally, right?

Fifth grade writers again

I'm still in the midst of a fifth grade writing workshop. They're writing biographies of a parent or grandparent. Today we worked on openings. Check out this one:

The broken windows let in a cool breeze.

If that doesn't grab ya, I don't know what would! I can't wait to see what the heck those broken windows are!

I mean, these are fifth graders, people!

Oh - and another one started out like this:

Flip, flip, flip. Jane Doe turned the pages of a book. As a child, Jane always had a book glued to her hand.