Blogging for a Cure Week 5

The schedule for week five of Blogging for a Cure (Robert's Snow fundraiser for cancer research) is in the sidebar to the right.

Feelin' the love

I'm conducting a biography writing workshop with fifth graders at a wonderful school in Canton, MA. This is my fourth year at that school.

These folks are 100% committed to this program and are a joy to work with. And the children reap the rewards by producing terrific biographies of parents and grandparents, experiencing the pleasure of mastering a new skill and "kickin' it up a notch" with their writing.

Yesterday those good folks gave me a birthday party - complete with the best dang cake ever!

I am so feelin' the love!

(Going around table, starting on the left, are: Nancy Mark, Margaret Mansfield, Betsy Persson, Jennifer Henderson, and Jan Chamberlain)

Children's Literature Network

Check me out on Children's Literature Network, planting the Barbara Bushes.

I heart eBay

Look what I just bought on eBay:

Turkey for Thanksgiving

Look what came to visit my birdfeeders! Gobble, gobble, gobble.

The Fabulous Moolah

Okay, I confess.... I had never heard of The Fabulous Moolah until today. (Oh yeah, like you have...)

She was a wrestling champion who died yesterday. I heard an interview with her on NPR today. The woman is awesome!

First of all, she's from my home state (South Carolina) - from a town I've never even heard of: Tookiedoo (don't you love that!).

When she started her career, she was known as Slave Girl Moolah.

She is one bad dudette. She talked on and on about how she never follows the rules of wrestling and how she loves to wrestle men and choke 'em and gouge their eyes and hit 'em below the belt.

I am so using her in a book some day.

Discipline

How disciplined was I today, you ask?

Well, see that package?

That's a brand new MacBook laptop.

Unopened.

Untouched.

Waiting patiently.

Now THAT is discipline!

Nipped and tucked

Making progress. Twenty-six chapters all neat and tidy - color-coded with those cute little pushpins.

My timeline all worked out.

Copyedited to the max.

But still one little itty bitty problem - a great big nasty note to myself in the last chapter that says:

SOMETHING GOES HERE.

But what?

As I raced toward the ending, something misfired.

Something fell off the wagon.

Something isn't right.

But what?

Writing Tip Tuesday

How to Kill a Story in 16 Easy Steps

Step 1: Start the story too early.

Step 2: Take too long to set up the story and introduce the central question.

Step 3: Add too much back story.

Step 4: Have an unclear central question (i.e., the reader isn’t sure what the story is about).

Step 5: Tell the story with narrative instead of showing it with action and dialogue.

Step 6: Have no turning points (i.e., the story moves from one scene to another in a straight line).

Step 7: Continue on too long after the climax.

Step 8: Have an undeveloped character with unclear (or no) motivation.

Step 9: Tell character traits, tell character feelings, tell setting (instead of showing).

Step 10: Make sure the character is not active in moving the story forward, is not instrumental in solving the problem, and does not grow or change by the end.

Step 11: Switch points of view.

Step 12: Add too much interior monologue.

Step 13: Add unnecessary words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes, characters.

Step 14: Repeat yourself.

Step 15: Explain yourself.

Step 16: Use too many dialogue tags, tags that explain (e.g., he apologized), tags that don’t denote speech (e.g., she sighed; he smiled), or tags with –ly adverbs (e.g., she said reluctantly).

Robert's Snow Week 4

The schedule for week 4 of the Robert's Snow fundraiser is in the sidebar to the right.

OMD

Remember how I told you I had OMD (Obsessive Manual Disorder)?

Here's more proof: Saturday we had some major weather here in New England (the remnants of Hurrican Noel). We lost our power from about 3 in the afternoon until about 8 o'clock the next morning.

I am not a good pioneer.

I will never be seen on Survivor.

I need electricity.

So about 4:30 - it's getting very dark in the house (and very COLD).

My husband is taking a NAP. (I haven't taken a nap since I was three years old.)

What did I do?

I read the manual to my new computer printer (with a HIGHLIGHER!!).

I'm not kidding.

(Oh, and I also played a few hundred games of Super Mario on my Nintendo DS until the batteries wore out....)

Blogging for a Cure Presents Robin Brickman

Today I am honored to feature a good friend and brilliant artist, Robin Brickman. Robin is one of the generous artists participating in the Robert's Snow project to raise money for Dana Farber cancer research. Her beautiful snowflake will be included in the online auction.


(There are many more artists participating in this event, so please check them out.)


Robin has been illustrating children's books for over 20 years. She is perhaps best known for her breathtakingly beautiful and detailed cut-paper collages of nature books for children.

Her books have been recognized with many awards, including a Reading Rainbow selection, IRA Teachers Choice, the Giverny Award for best children's science book.


Her books include A Log's Life (Simon and Schuster), Beaks, and One Night in the Coral Sea (Charlesbridge).





She has a new book coming out in February 2008 that is magnificent:













And now, an interview with Robin:

How did you get involved with the Robert's Snow project?

I am a member of PBAA http://www.picturebookartists.org/, an internet children's illustration group. The snowflake project was announced by Grace Lin on that group's website, when it first started in 2005. I had already been interested in a fund-raiser involving my art, but I wanted to contribute to one that would have higher or national visibility. As the story behind Robert's Snow became known I was truly moved to be able to contribute. I'd like to mention that the snowflake I made for the 2005 auction was created in memory of Mathias Jessup Bartels, who died suddenly at the age of 17. Purchasing that snowflake became a focus for many people who knew and loved Mathias. It was given to his parents and the contribution of the purchase price went to Dana Farber for cancer research.

How did ten-year-old Robin answer the question: What do you want to be when you grow up?

I was going to be a lot of different things, like a veterinarian or interior designer, but I kept coming back to art. I considered art conservation in college, and although I have a great deal of patience for fine and careful work, I did not excell at the math and chemistry needed for that profession. All these years later, however, I bet I could do it.

What are some of your earliest memories of creating art?

I have always loved making things with my hands: sewing and other fiber arts, jewelry, paper-making, bookbinding, stained glass, callligraphy, and illumination. All of these interests came into play when I started to illustrate stories and science.

Tell us a bit about your college experience?

I did decide on a major combining botany and art, something I continue to do even now!

Your road to children's book publication in six (or ten or a hundred) easy steps?

I don't know of any sure fire road to pubishing success other than developing a solid portfolio that is truly your own style and one that will impress your professional peers. There are wonderful books and groups available for information that did not exist when I started out. However, there are so many people trying to get going in this profession, sometimes it helps to not know how hard or unlikely it is. Finding what resources work for oneself, is trial and error.

Any particular inspirations, heroes or mentors?

What helped me was joining WMIG http://www.wmig.org/, twenty years ago. The monthly meetings, at one another's studios, are a mixture of critique and inspiration. I created my 3-D technique in part to impress that very skilled group of illustrators.

Will you share with us the story behind your most recent published book?

My next book is WINGS! It is a sequel to BEAKS! Sneed Collard has written a wonderful set, and these two books are a part of that.

Anything in the works at the moment?

I am working on a few book ideas of my own and being both author and illustrator is my next goal.

Anything you've learned along the way that you can share with newbies?

Persistence and optimism is key! When things don't work out, find the right people in your life to help you get going again.

And now, drum roll, please.....Robin Brickman's beautiful snowflake:

Go place your bids at Robert's Snow.

Wahoo!

I did it! I typed those two little words.

You probably can't read that. So I'll enlarge those words here:

But, all you writers out there know, this is hardly "the end."

But, hey, it's a start!

Texas Bluebonnet Award

How to Steal a Dog has been nominated for the 2008-2009 Texas Bluebonnet Award.

Giddyup!

A rite of passage

Yesterday I performed a satisfying ritual. I put all the notes and manuscripts and revisions and letters pertaining to Greetings from Nowhere into a labelled box and put it up on the shelf with the others:

It's kind of scary how organized I am, isn't it?

I love those boxes. They come from Ikea and they're cheap and perfect and have those great little label holders on them. So satisfying.