What I want for Christmas

Oh yeah - hours of fun and wasted time! (Caution: Site has sound.)

Tree books

Well, these are cool!









Thanks to BB-Blog for this.

The Sevens Meme

I've been tagged by Jennifer Thermes for the seven-facts-about-myself meme. (I love Jennifer' s blog, by the way.)

So here goes:

1. I am ridiculously organized and have an almost-fetish for containers, files, boxes, labels, baskets and anything that smacks of organization. (And I can put my hands on the receipt for heating oil from 1998.)
2. I can't go to sleep without reading something (but it usually ends up only being about a paragraph).
3. When I was pregnant, I craved General Foods International Coffee - Cafe Francais flavor only - and have had it nearly every day for the last twenty years. I take it everywhere I go. I even took it to Europe with me. (pathetic, huh?)
   
4. I've been known to go back and check the stove burners after I've already gotten in the car.
5. The only time I ever tried to write a picture book, I failed miserably and turned it into a novel.
6. I ADORE dogs. Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em.
7. I've always wished I could have been in a Broadway musical (but I can't sing worth a darn).

Now, I think most of my blog friends have been tagged for this already. But if you're reading this and HAVEN'T been tagged - then, tag - you're it!

Writing Tip Tuesday

Okay, so you've set your story up, giving the reader some backstory, revealed the central question, and nailed a catalyst (inciting incident) to get the story going. Then you've moved the story along, scene by scene, each scene revolving around the central question. You've tossed in a few turning points to keep the pace and tension up. (All these discussed earlier...)

Now you're there....

at the climax.

I only have three significant things to say about the climax:

1. It must answer the central question or solve the problem raised in the setup.
2. It needs to happen just before the resolution.
3. Once you reach the climax, get the heck out of the story.

That last rule is so important, I'm going to repeat it:

Once you reach the climax, get the heck out of the story.

It's THE END.

You're done.

Finished.

Close the book and go home.

Do not linger, dawdle, or loiter.

The reader doesn't want to hear from you any more.

Got it?

Nothing will ruin the ending of your story more than continuing on longer than you need to -

- and once you have reached the climax, the only thing that's needed is the resolution, which I'll discuss next week.

P.S. To give you an example: In Moonpie and Ivy, the climax of the story is when Pearl's mother returns. From that point on, the story moves very quickly - almost racing to the end. But I knew that the climax created an emotional impact that would have been diffused or totally lost if I had gone on much longer after that. I knew I had to GET OUT OF THAT STORY. So they got in the car and drove away. The End. No loitering for me.

I smell a rat

When I teach writing workshops with kids, I remind them to think about the five senses when showing setting, incorporating details, etc.

Sometimes we brainstorm things we see, taste, hear, etc.

When I get to smell, I'm always a little amused at how well I can fake it.

I have no sense of smell.

Never have.

Can't smell a thing.

But experience and observation have taught me enough about smells that I'm pretty good at faking it. (Although sometimes I have to ask my critique group if a smell is accurate or makes sense.)

I've learned about things you are supposed to smell.

Out of curiosity, I went back through some of my books to see examples of how I faked, er, I mean, incorporated smells.

From Moonpie and Ivy:

They sat like that for a while, Ivy stroking Pearl's hair, Pearl keeping her head on Ivy's bony shoulder, smelling her bacon-grease smell. [Ivy works in a diner.]

Pearl pushed her face so deep into the pillow she could barely breathe. Then she sniffed as hard as she could. Nothing. Not even the tiniest trace of Shalimar. Pearl had sniffed that pillow every night, and every night the scent had faded a little more.


From Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia:

Then she came out and sat beside me on the porch again. She smelled like medicine. [She had been caring for her elderly father.]

You think Harlem's gonna like this pie? I said, breathing in a whiff of sweet cinnamon smell.

She pushed the afghan aside and came over to me. I smelled her talcum powder and I knew I was about to feel better about myself.

From How to Steal a Dog:

...his breath smelled like tunafish.

That tunafish odor swirled around us inside our beach towel tent.

I put it [a letter] up to my nose and sniffed. I could actually smell my teacher, Mr. White. Sort of like soap and toothpaste and coffee all mixed together.

Robert's Snow

Final phase of bidding starts Monday, December 3.

I'm such a geek

There's this cool new feature of Apple's new operating system (Leopard) called "Back to my Mac" where you can share screens. So, here is the screen from one Mac on the screen of the other Mac (does that make sense?).
Now, I don't really know why you need to do this - but, hey, it's so much fun!

(And - you can just drag things from one computer to the other without using firewire. Now THAT is useful!)

Phase 2

Okay, now off to my editor.....gulp....

I hate this part....waiting....waiting...wondering....nervous...what was I thinking?...this thing stinks....and I call myelf a writer!....

Dead matter

I usually enjoy each phase of a book's life. But there's something about getting that package in the mail saying, "Enclosed herewith is your dead matter" that gets me every time.

R.I.P.

Amazing fifth graders

I teach a fifth grade workshop in which the kids interview a parent or grandparent and then write a three-chapter biography.

We talk a lot about the importance of good beginnings.

We also talk a lot about how a biography is a story - so that while it is based on fact, it should be written in a story-like way.

Check out some of these samples of opening paragraphs of biographies written by fifth graders:

• Thwack, jump, 47. Thwack, jump, 48. Thwack, jump 49. Sherry was a born jump roper. Ever since she was born, August 6, 1949, Sherry had been an active child.
  

• Pink balloons fluttered in the breeze on the mailbox at 27 Hawkins Place.
  

• Stroke, stroke, dab, dab. An artist was at work. A masterpiece was being painted. Sonia Hutchins had a passion for art.

• As Jake climbed to the top of the tall pine tree, he could make out the large water tank in the distance. Welcome to Concord was painted in red on the side.
  

• Six-year-old Karen Hastings dashed out to the car, anxious to be on time for her tennis lesson. Ever since she was born, June 9, 1952, Karen had loved tennis.

• Patricia Ann Garrison was born in the middle of March of 1957 and was the middle of five. She slept in the middle bunk, played in the middle of the street and loved the middle of summer.

I mean, we're talking FIFTH GRADERS, folks!!!

P.S. That last example was written by a rough, tough hockey-playing fifth grade boy. I think it's pretty remarkable.

Writing Tip Tuesday

Stories are more interesting when they don't proceed in a straight line from Point A to Point Z.

They are much more interesting when they veer off course from time to time.

These off-course veerings (is that a word?) are known in script-writing as turning points.

Turning points help keep the momentum of the story up and add interest.

A turning point might:

• Turn the action or the focus in a new direction
• Raise the central question or problem again
• Be a critical action on the part of the main character, or
  
• Be when the character makes an important decision or comes to a critical realization

An example from my book, Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia, is when Harlem walks out of the spelling bee.

An example from How to Steal a Dog is when Georgina and her family arrive at the abandoned house and find that it has been boarded up. Another turning point occurs when Georgina goes back to the old house to feed Willy and he is gone.

So, surprise the reader once in a while. Throw in a turning point to shift the action into a new direction.

Robert's Snow

The second round of auctions begins today at Robert's Snow.

There it goes....

My manuscript....on its way.....to my agent.....

....and now....the waiting......

Christmas tree tradition

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to the Christmas tree farm we go to every year to tag our tree. We take the dogs so they can run. There's a cranberry bog there. The man who owns the tree farm loves to ballroom dance. He lives in the house he was born in over 80 years ago.

This is the shed with the tags and the saw to cut the tree down. You just leave a check on the workbench:

Thanksgiving

I definitely had many things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving....one of which was the day I shared with my family at an amazing restaurant. We don't have extended family nearby, so for the last few years, the three of us have been going down to Cape Cod.

This is the view from the front door:

A cookie house replica (which was actually a "melba toast" replica):

The front porch:

My plate at the buffet dinner. Where's the turkey? Where's the stuffing? Where's the cranberry sauce? Who cares!? There's the sushi. There's the oysters. There's the shrimp. There's the mussels. There's the crab cake. There's the.... you get the picture. And I went back for seconds. (Hey, this was a buffet!)