On the Road to Mr. Mineo's

 Macmillan's Fall 2012 Catalog

 

 

Lisa Graff blog tour schedule and give-away

My friend, author Lisa Graff, will be stopping by Greetings from Nowhere on Thursday, April 19.


Be sure to stop by for some fun stuff from Lisa and a chance to win a copy of her new novel.

Here is her blog tour schedule:

Tuesday, April 10: Mundie Kids

Thursday, April 12: Smack Dab in the Middle 

Sunday, April 15th: Pragmatic Mom Blog


Monday, April 16th: Novel Novice


Tuesday, April 17th: Mundie Kids


Wednesday, April 18th: From the Mixed-Up Files 


Thursday, April 19th: Greetings From Nowhere


Friday, April 20th: Reading Everywhere

Things I Love Thursday

My beautiful, beautiful desk that was handmade by a friend.

Dear Barbara O'Connor

Dear Barbara O'Connor:

Are you a septugenarian?

Do you have any living relatives?

Writing Tip Tuesday

According to scriptwriting "formulas", one of the critical elements in the setup of a story is the central question.

• The central question is simply what the story is about or what the problem is.

• The story should ask a question in the setup that will be answered in the climax.

• The central question should be revealed as early as possible. (This is particularly true for young readers. They don't want to have to keep reading and reading to find out what the heck the story is about. In fact, if you take too long to reveal the central question, they will stop reading and go watch Sponge Bob.)

• The central question must be clear. (Again, if it is not clear, young readers will go watch Sponge Bob instead.)

• Once the central question is raised, everything that happens in the story after that should revolve around or relate to that question.

• The climax of the story answers the central question (e.g. solves the problem).

Recycled from October 30, 2007

Fiction Questions for $400, please

This is a very cool Jeopardy game for children's books.

(Choose "1 team" and click "Start.")

(My favorites are Fiction Authors for $400, Fiction Questions for $400, and Really Tough Questions for $300.)

Easter

The raw bar

The plate

The view

Custard in an eggshell

And what's Easter without the bunny?

My 5th anniversary

I started blogging FIVE years ago today!!!

I started on Livejournal. 

This was my third entry. (My first two were boring.)

I still love that woman!!

This was my first Blogger entry for Greetings from Nowhere.

I've blogged almost every weekday since 2007.

Do the math.

1300 blog posts.

Phew!

Dear Barbara O'Connor

From a fan of How to Steal a Dog:

Dear Barbara O'Connor:


I like Mookie because of his three fingered hand when he waved with his three fingered hand.

Things I Love Thursday

PG, this one's for you.

 

Chance made us neighbors. Hearts made us friends.

Scholastic Storyworks

I had the great honor of being a judge for this year's Scholastic Storyworks' Create-a-Character Contest.

Thousands of students all over the country submitted their ideas for a character: name, physical description, hobbies, problems, etc.

I chose a winner and wrote a story using the character.

How could I not choose a character named Roy Rigatoni, whose hobby is reading?!

Click here to read the story.

But in case that doesn't work, here are a couple of sample pages:

Writing Tip Tuesday

One of the most critical elements of the setup of a story is the catalyst (sometimes called the inciting incident).


The catalyst begins the action of the story.


It is the moment the story begins. The reader now knows what the story is about.

• The catalyst should come as early in the story as possible.
• The strongest catalyst is an event or action, but it can also be situational (a series of situations that add up to reveal the story).

I'm a firm believer in jumping right into the story. The longer you take to let the reader know what the story is about, the more you risk losing her.


(Often, however, the reader needs to be grounded in setting and character before the story action begins. In those cases, the catalyst won't necessarily be in the first page or two - but a tad later. The operative word here is tad. You'll want to get the action going ASAP.)


During revision, take a look at your manuscript and see if you can literally point your finger to the very spot where the action of the story starts.


Then ask yourself if that spot is as close to the beginning as possible.


Next, take a look at everything that comes before that spot and ask yourself if it can either come later - or be deleted altogether.


Remember my experience with David Small pinpointing the catalyst of my story - which was two chapters later than it should have been? 

A lesson I've never forgotten.

Recycled from October 16, 2007

The Big Kahuna Round

It's here at last: the final Big Kahuna Round of School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books:

Click here

The Perfect Author Visit (Part 2)

 Continuing from Part 1 of my visit to Hampden Meadows School in Barrington, Rhode Island:

Group #4

Group #5

Group #6

Group #7

Group #8

Group #9

This group showed me pictures they had drawn.

They wrote me lovely, heartfelt thank-you notes.

They gave me flowers.

This group represented the whole 4th grade to thank me.

The Perfect Author Visit (Part 1)

If there's anyone qualified to write the book: How to Host a Perfect Author Visit, it would be librarian Jane Austin and the 4th grade teachers of Hampden Meadows School in Barrington, Rhode Island.

There is nothing more rewarding to a children's author than visiting a school where the students are prepared and excited. 

This greeted me at the door.

The library walls were filled with great drawings of characters from the books. They showed the characters' hopes, dreams and fears.

The students had made an author study chart of my books, showing the genre, purpose, characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme of each book.

They made these wonderful booklets with main characters, setting, "hot shot" words and phrases, book teaser, theme, problem/solution and a plot mountain.

And HERE is the first group.

And the second group.

 

And the third group, showing me their wonderful booklets.

 
To be continued....