My kinda room

I love this room.

100 Titles for Reading and Sharing

The New York Public Library has released it's annual list of 100 Books for Reading and Sharing.

On that list?

Greetings from Nowhere!

Oops

If you read this blog with a blogreader and an entry came thru with a pic of Greetings from Nowhere and no text....

...that was a mistake.

Heh...



Thank you, ever-vigilant Gusty.

Keeper of the Sanity

Look what my friendly (well, actually, he's kind of grumpy) UPS guy brought me today:

Compliments of my favorite geek, Empress of the Universe and Self-Proclaimed Nose-Nerd, Sarah Miller.

Why did I receive such a gift as that?

Because I am Keeper of the Sanity....which means I endured countless hours of endless whining and...UM...

no...

wait a minute.

I didn't mean that.

What I meant was that the Sarah and I had meaningful and profoundly wise conversations about the process of writing.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

But here is the irony which gave us both a good chuckle:

I have no sense of smell.

None.

Zippo.

Nada.

So I can only imagine the scent of Paperback.

It's a nice scent, right?

If I smell horrible the next time you see me, please tell me.

But thank you, Geek-Girl....

Iowa City Part 8

I had the pleasure of meeting Iowa author Dori Butler.

Dori (left) and me

And a group of Iowa authors came by to see my presentation. I finally got to meet Jill Esbaum, my online buddy. I feel like I've known her forever but we finally met for the first time.

(l to r) authors Jill Esbaum, me, Dori Butler, Wendy Henrichs, Sarah Prineas


And then we went to dinner and talked about books and writing and school visits and all that stuff. So much fun.

(l to r) Dori, Britt Deerberg, Wendy, Jill, Sarah

These gals were all so smart and funny and warm and friendly.

I love Iowa!

How funny is this?

Check out my friend's granddaughter on Halloween:

Jane Fonda!

Iowa City Part 2

Iowa City totally rocks!

(Thanks for the posters Horn!)


I met the kids at Horn and Roosevelt:

The kids from Roosevelt made these great posters of my book covers:

(l to r) Joan, me, Anne Marie

Me with Iowa City students

By the way...

If you noticed that judge's gavel on the bookcase to the left - in the second photo (of video-guy Scott) - that was given to me by my family because of my deep love and affection for Judge Judy.

Some people think I'm kidding when I tell them I tape Judge Judy every single day.

But there's my proof.

I told ya so.....

Hollywood is not calling...

On Saturday Scholastic Book Fairs came out to film a video of me for their author DVD series for How to Steal a Dog.

Here is producer Larry and sound-guy Juan:

Here is video-guy Scott:

Here is Larry pretending to be me so they can test the lighting:

Trust me, despite the sign on that trunk, I will never be a Film Star.
I think I'm going to have to stick to writing.

Hitting the road

I'm heading to Iowa City, Iowa on Sunday for a week.

I'll be doing a residency as a component of a Community Reading Month that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

I'll be speaking to students from 19 Iowa City schools.

Past author residencies for this program have included Ashley Bryan, Pat Cummings, Jerry Spinelli, Brian Jacques, Gail Gibbons, Chris Crutcher, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Lynn Reiser, E. B. Lewis, and Peter Catalanotto.

Last year's author was Deborah Wiles, so I have some big shoes to follow!

No, wait a minute, that's not the right expression. You FILL big shoes, not follow them, right?

And I am certainly not implying that Deborah Wiles has big feet.

She's a Southerner. I'm sure she has lovely little feet.

It's a hard act that you follow, not big shoes.

I have a hard act to follow.

But I'll give it my best shot.

My two minutes of fame

Scholastic Book Club is coming to my house this weekend to film me for their Author Video series for How to Steal a Dog.

I am, of course, flattered.

But....a little worried.

First of all - it takes four hours to film a two-minute video.

Second of all, they are bringing a CREW and, um, want something interesting.

A crew?

Interesting?

This is part of the info I received from them:

The best is when we go on location to places that relate to your book. Recently we took an author out on a boat with alligators while another was filmed in a cheese store in NYC.

Uh oh.

What the heck am I going to do?

Me at my desk?

Nah.

Me at my computer?

Nah.

Me watching Judge Judy.

No way.

Me playing my African djembe drum?

I don't think so.

Heating up some Lean Pockets for dinner?

Guess not...

Me with Hello Kitty?

Thanks for the suggestion, Sarah, but I don't think so.

Me stealing a dog?

Hmmmmm.

That might work...

I don't know about this......

At least I got new slippers.

Revisions

A couple of noteworthy revisions from last week's writing workshop - fifth graders working on "show, don't tell."

Before: He loved football

After: He loved the feeling of making tackles and running for touchdowns.

Before: He was shy.

After: He didn’t start conversations and tried to stay unnoticed.

Before: It was spring.

After: The snow was beginning to melt and the bears were waking up.

Off to a good start

When I teach biography writing workshops, I spend a fair amount of time talking about beginnings.

I know that the first sentence is often hardest.

The students have three pages of interview questions in front of them and sometimes have no idea where to start (writing biographies of a parent, grandparent, etc.).

I give them four choices - and cite examples of each:

1. Start with action.

I suggest that they look at their interviews in the section where there are questions about childhood activities, hobbies, sports, chores, etc. I give them an example of how they could choose one of those activities to start the chapter.

Yesterday, a fifth grade boy chose to start his biography with the answer to the interview question: Who was your best friend and what activities did you do together?

The answer on his interview sheet was: Packy Kennedy; we climbed trees

That student started his biography like this:

Feeling the breeze in his hair, hands sticky with sap, Carl Martin looked down at his best friend, Packy Kennedy.

2. Start with setting.

I give them examples of how they can show the setting - perhaps the season - maybe the geographic location.

One student started her biography this way:

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.

3. A hook that makes the reader curious.

I give them several examples of this, including the opening of my biography of Isadora Duncan (During the summer of 1887 in San Francisco, California, visitors to the seaside were sometimes met by a rather unusual sight.)

One student started his biography:

Jan had a little secret.

4. Get the baby on the paper.

That means just starting like this: John Smith was born on June 2, 1953 in Rome, Georgia.

This is the "last resort" beginning - but it offers a comforting safety net to those students who just can't manage a snappy, creative beginning.

I always notice a look of total relief on the faces of some children when I tell them it's okay to start like that.

And I remind them that maybe they can think of a different way to start later on - but YOU CAN'T FIX WHAT YOU HAVEN'T WRITTEN - so get the baby on the paper.

FSG November/December Newsletter

FSG November/December Newsletter

Writing Tip Tuesday

From Rosemary Wells in an essay entitled: The Well-Tempered Children's Book (From Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children; Zinsser):

Writing about anything is a mistake. The only books that work are those which fly through the air - the ones you let happen, not make happen.