PiBoIdMo 2011!

Look sharp, notepads, Post-its, napkins, keyboards, and recording devices. November is right around the corner. 

Picture Book Idea Month 2011 starts this Tuesday!

Go Purple! Or, "Go, Purple!" — Honoring Spirit Day

You may be aware that October is National Bullying Prevention Month — and today marks the second annual Spirit Day, for which supporters are asked to wear purple (social-network avatar-tinting works, too!) to honor the memory of any child who felt they had to take his/her own life in order to end the pain and suffering s/he experienced as a victim of bullying. Acknowledging the young lives lost is a pretty powerful reason to "go purple" and just stop and think about what you can do to help the situation.

Of course the most powerful tool we have to fight bullying is education. Teaching children and adults about the problem, how to handle the problem, and — when possible — how to prevent the problem is essential to making a dent in it. There are many fine organizations dedicated to addressing the issue (I am partial to this one) and many educators and parents out there doing their part. But the issue is so pervasive that it can seem too big to tackle.

One no-brainer thing you can do to help educate a child, or even yourself, about the effects of bullying? Give or read — or give AND read! — a book written for kids that highlights the topic! Children can learn so much from both novels featuring realistic bullying situations and nonfiction books that offer strategies for dealing with the issue. Positive books about friendship also help kids internalize what to look for and accept (or not) in peer-to-peer relationships.

Some titles I recommend to read, share, and discuss:

Blubber by Judy Blume

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories, edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones

Frenemies: Dealing with Friend Drama by L. L. Owens (Yes, this is mine; and, no, this is not why I blogged today. I added it to the list because I realized it truly is relevant to it — and the cover is purple-purple-purple.)

Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord

Letters to a Bullied Girl: Messages of Healing and Hope by Olivia Gardner, Emily Buder, and Sarah Buder

The Skin I'm In by Sharon Flake

Speak by Laura Halse Anderson

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead 

Why Is Everybody Always Picking on Me? A Guide to Handling Bullies by Terrence Webster-Doyle

Now. Let's hear it for the kids Spirit Day helps us remember. Let's resolve to help the kids still with us.

What can we do? Give them a book. Start a conversation. Let them know we're here if they want to talk. Step in and help them when they need us to. Lead by example. Don't be a bully. Step up and say something when we see bullying. Go purple if we feel like it. And remember to shout (or just think really hard), "Go, Purple!"

KidLit Quote of the Week #4

"Who's big fat bright idea was it to do a weekly quote feature on this blog?"

—Lisa L. Owens

That's funny, right?

I'm around. Handling some pressing workaday deadlines and spending spare moments prepping for a writers retreat I'm attending in a few short weeks.

Also: The holidays seem to be here already. I know because I just ordered some Christmas lights and have urgently realized I need to book my holiday travel plans A-sap.

And: Work on the big site-blog merger continues!

KidLit Quote of the Week #3

As I continue working on my YA historical novel, this quote speaks to me:

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

—Scott Adams

I've been in full-on flow several times with this book, writing down a path I didn't mean to take — a luxury I don't normally indulge in during write-for-hire work. (NO time in that process for anything but 1-2-3 get it done.) And often I worry as I go that I will have to completely scrap whatever detour passage I've written.

This is not in the outline, I tell myself. It doesn't fit in and I shouldn't be writing this knowing I'll delete it later. Or worse, I realize, Aackk, this is better than what I'd planned and now I'll have to reshape everything else (deleting other baby passages) to accommodate it.

It's so tempting to think of text swaths you change or cut as mistakes. But one of the most important thing I've tried to internalize in surrendering to the "vomit draft" process this year is that whatever you're writing — good crap, bad crap, ugly crap, crap-crap — the THING is *that* you are writing. The rest will take care of itself if you let it (aka doing more writing + careful revising).

It can be hard to look at a first draft and especially to show parts of it even to the most supportive of readers without wanting to shake everyone (read in this case: wanting to shake myself) until you know they know this is your early writing, that you intend to get it all "right" during revisions. But once you do it, the looking at it turns into one of the most satisfying steps — with the fixing-it part probably more more fun than anything else.

So, while I see and agree with Adams's POV, I do take issue with calling anything (or any part of anything) you create a mistake. There are no creative mistakes, people!

Is it a mistake to add too many stems to the vase? No. You can't tell exactly how many flowers fit just so until you throw some into the arrangement and step back for a look-see. You can't determine the perfect way to display the ready-made art you bought until you slap a few configurations onto the wall and take a few distanced ganders. You can't make a satisfying pot of soup without tasting and reseasoning . . .

And you can't really craft your story until you write what wants to come out and let all the pieces show you — by being on point, off track, or seamlessly fitted — what to pitch and what to keep.

Now, off I go to write some stuff I might just end up trashing later. (And, reminder note to self: You will trash it, and you will like it.)

Streamlining

Last week I cruised over to my author site to do a little maintenance work. The only problem was that mere maintenance wasn't going to cut it. Fact is, my site has been in "overhaul" mode for well over a year (okay, two years this month!), and I just couldn't get excited about completing the work I'd started.

That was not the first time this had happened.

But. It was to be the last.

I finally fully realized that I wasn't motivated to implement the changes I'd put in motion because deep down I knew they wouldn't solve the main problem — that maintaining both a stand-alone author site and a separate blog doesn't work for me anymore.

So in the weeks to come I'll merge the separate entities to create one Blogger-hosted site found at my typical (redirected) author site's URL.

It can be done, it shall be done, and it will be grand.

KidLit Quote of the Week #2

Time again for a KidLit Quote of the Week! Last week's entry was on the practical side (the funny one, too), while this week's is all about inspiration — and motivation.

"Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead."

 —Louisa May Alcott

I consider raising the bar for yourself one of the most important guiding principles a person can embrace, and because I am a writer with ever-expanding writerly aspirations, I feel Alcott's articulation of it directly applies to my work. And, yes, to my sense of self, too.

It can be hard to walk that talk some days (and, no need to pretend — it's difficult some several years at a time), but I know that when I do "look up," the beauty is right there for the seeing and helps light the path I need to travel.

EFA's Fall Lineup!

I still serve as education chair on the Editorial Freelancers Association's Board of Governors, and I am happy to share that the Fall 2011 Education Program is all set — with registrations streaming in at a nice clip!

None of this season's classes are directly related to children's writing, but I know many children's authors also freelance in other areas, and I thought readers might like to at least check out the offerings. They include

• Proofreading: Online class starting 9/29
• Basics of Editing and Proofreading: NYC workshop on 10/21
• Getting Started in Editorial Freelancing: NYC workshop on 10/22
• Basics of Websites for Freelancers: NYC workshop on 10/22 (Note that those registering for all 3 NYC workshops via the combo option receive a 20 percent discount!)
• Tips & Tricks: Editing with Adobe Acrobat: Webinar on 10/26
• Rev Up Your Marketing Machine for 2012: Webinar on 12/7

Let me know if I can answer any questions about the lineup!

KidLit Quote of the Week #1

I've decided to do a weekly post in which I share one of the countless quotes I've collected about writing and books. I'll focus on quotes by children's authors, quotes by others about writing/creativity that I think can apply to writing for kids, and passages from children's books.

Why start this now? How about "Because it's Tuesday." It'll be fun!

This inaugural KLQOTW is by an author I admire for his versatility and inspirational personal story. I saw him speak at either an IRA or NCTE conference in the 1990s (ah, the books* he signed for me say the year was 1997), and his advice on finding success as a children's writer is timeless:

"Stay out of the refrigerator, read good books, steal good ideas, develop good writing habits, and marry wealthy."

—Jack Gantos

Good one, huh. And in a Universe-is-funny COMPLETE coincidence, I saw after I wrote this post that Mr. Gantos's latest book, Dead End in Norvelt, releases in hardcover today.** I will be buying that soon!


*Jack's New Power and Desire Lines
**A little synchronicity report for Artist's Way lovers.

Book a Virtual Visit with Skype Authors and Help Fund Education Charities!

Just in time to celebrate "back to school," I am thrilled to help spread the word about Skype Authors!

This newly launched author group offers virtual visits to schools, book clubs, and, really, any organization looking for an easy and inexpensive way to host an author talk. (And, yes, I'm one of the authors — and I am so pleased to be in such excellent company.)

Suzanne Williams formed the network to benefit schools right here in the U.S. — while adding the goal of raising money to help support education efforts worldwide. To that end, each of us at Skype Authors has pledged to donate 25 percent of our virtual-visit fees booked through our site to a select charity each school year.

For the 2011–2012 season, we've chosen to contribute to Camfed, an organization that supports girls' education initiatives in Africa. Watch this brief introductory video about Camfed's mission to see why, as narrator Morgan Freeman says, "When you educate a young rural girl, you give her a voice."



Would your school or organization like to book a Skype Authors virtual talk for HALF OFF the regular fee? You can if you win our Half and Half Contest running through October 1! All you have to do is surf over to our site and comment on this September 6 blog entry. Two lucky commenters chosen at random will receive a half-off Skype visit — and the entire half-priced fee you pay will be donated to Camfed!

I'm excited to be part of this new venture, and I hope to see you on the online video phone soon.

Every Day. Every Day. Every Day.

Can you tell that I'm starting to reconnect with this blog? I can  feel that connection reforming, and that makes me smile. I wasn't sure it would come back, to be honest — but I thought it could, hoped it would. My affinity for blogging seems to be creeping back in naturally, which I view as a positive.

I do know why this is happening, and the reason is pretty straightforward: because I've been writing. You know, I almost added just there "writing with a capital W," but that's not what this is. It's writing in lowercase. writingwritingwriting.

Writing with the Cap on is something I've done, and like mad, for the past several+ years now. But that writing has been my WorkWriting. Which, on so many fronts, is the same dang thing as writingwritingwriting while also managing to be completely different. The need to writewritewrite on my own — for my own satisfaction, life processing, and growth — is part of my makeup. WorkWriting is part of my (enjoyable) writer-editor Job. If I had to, I could pick another job type and be just fine.  But I couldn't do any other job or actually be myself without writingwritingwriting — not for the long haul, anyway.

So, now, after, oh, let's say a three-and-a-half-year pregnant pause, I feel like a part of me has come back to life. I did P-L-A-N in early 2009 to force such a return to Me and my writing-for-life ways, but apparently that sort of scheme does not work, no matter how serious you are about it (and I was deadly so). Good to know.

Proof that my real writer's self is re-emerging? Right now I'm in the middle — yes, the honest-to-goodness smack-dab MIDDLE — of writing a YA historical novel that's been wanting me to write it for a very long time. It's loosely based on an 1890s family that first captured my interest in the 1990s. After writing an article about them, I filed away the research thinking I'd someday take a deeper look with a proper book-length work. Adult nonfiction, I assumed. (I wasn't yet writing for children, nor had I even considered that I might.)

In the later 90s there was a day (literally) where the possibility of my writing a chapter book on the family was real. I had a contract to write several titles of my choosing, and I considered lobbying for this subject matter. Ultimately, though, I decided to save it for later to write something-I-didn't-know-what that would feel special enough to do the idea justice. For a time in the early aughts I thought maybe a screenplay was the way to go (ha! that went nowhere). Then, in 2009, I had my a-ha moment (please don't tell Oprah I said that w/o asking), during which I realized that this baby had to be a YA novel, both for its own sake and mine.

Since figuring out what the project should be, I've started the writing a few times: Tentatively in 2009 (my nonwriting life derailed it with one swift kick); enthusiastically but misguidedly in 2010 (wrong POV, too many characters competing for main, my heart and mind still focused elsewhere); and then again this spring-into-summer of 2011, when I restarted from near scratch and promptly — and gratefully — managed to hit my stride.

Now that Fall 2011 is knocking, I have zero qualms about saying . . .

This thing is happening. 

I think it couldn't happen before because (a) I wasn't ready to risk it, and (b) it actually WAS happening all along. Oh, I know. Sorry. Bear with me, if you can.

What I mean about that "b" is that this book is part of me. Its inspiration has been keeping me company for nearly 20 years. It was with me before I knew for sure what I was going to be in this life. Perhaps some part of me wanted to keep it safe until I found that out — so that I'd know for sure what it should be. Whatever else was going on, I never didn't want to write the book. So the way I see it,  Somehow, something was always brewing to further the project.

This book is like every other book I've written, except that I've been writing this one every day. Every day. Every day. And no matter what happens with it when I'm done — will it sink? or possibly stink? — I know that the constant companionship it has given me makes the whole experience valuable enough that I'll feel happy with the result, whatever it is or isn't, and wherever it takes me or doesn't.

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Dearest readers: Whether you read that whole post or simply skipped ahead to see if I did indeed embed the video of every writer-of-a-certain-age's favorite writing-struggles song reference, I salute you.

Please now enjoy — with my compliments — Elvis Costello and the Attractions singing "Everyday I Write the Book" from Punch the Clock.