Weekly Reading

I found this little gem in the library this week. My childhood dreams have come true!

The Dot & the Line*, Norton Juster

I saw the academy award-winning short film of this book as a little girl and thought it was the most clever thing I ever saw.  I never saw it again, or even knew it was originally a picture book written in 1963. And then there it was in the little board book section of the library, even though it's not a board book. I actually attempted a very long time ago to write a book based on that film I'd seen but I just couldn't get it to work out quite right. Good thing!

This book is subtitled Romance in Lower Mathematics, and my kids don't understand a word of it, but they love it all the same. I had to dig the library's copy out of my 4 yo's bed where she ferreted it away last night.

Suzy Goose and the Christmas Star*, Petr Horacek
A very cute and intriguingly illustrated Christmas book. Yes, my kids insisted we check out a Christmas book in January.

Boo: Little Dog in the Big City, J H Lee and Gretchen Le Maistre
If you have a puppy lover, this book is for you. Photos of a fluffy puppy in all sorts of clothes doing all sorts of things...quite a long book, actually.

Little White Rabbit*, Kevin Henkes
My Garden*, Kevin Henkes
Simple, beautiful picture books by one of my favorite author illustrators. Both of these feature beautiful color pencil drawings and focus on imagination. My kids wanted to talk about each of these when I was done reading.

How Many Fish?, Caron Lee Cohen and S D Schindler
Hello Kitty: What Will You Be A to Z?

*Highly Recommended

The Thing About Writing Goals

The thing about resolutions and goals is that if you make them, AND go so far as to write them down, AND THEN actually make a stab at accomplishing them...you may still not reach your goal. It's the sad truth. But you will do something, and it will be more than you would have otherwise. And by "you", I of course mean, "me".

So by way of accountability, here's my little roundup of the goals I posted in the cabinet last January.

What I said I'd do:

Writing Time
I wanted to write ten hours a week, but said I'd at least write every day. I have been writing daily for months now and make at least ten hours a week. YAY ME! Sorry. I'm a little proud of this little success. I can't tell you the juggling and balancing...

Nonfiction
I wanted to submit at least one fiction book. Well, that died on the vine, but it did get me writing a great deal last January. A friend said that a nonfiction book has to include things not easily found on the internet, and then it just all seemed like too, too much work. What's not on the internet? Okay, that's a cop out, I know. Really, my fiction urges flooded out the rest. That's the truth. I did write an outline and three chapters and get a critique.

Write The Truth About...Something
Yeah. Not feeling it. I did ponder and outline and such, but all my ideas were much bigger stories. I promise, I did give it a stab though.

Submit Sophie's Pig...now called Pig Art (a picture book)
Done, to several agents. An important truth: you can write and submit, but you can't make someone publish you, that's out of your control. So, though things didn't turn out the way I'd like, I'm happy that I've done what I can do on that.

Write up my 30 Picture Book Ideas
I think I did this...not sure anymore. What I do know is that I wrote up about eight of my best ideas and sent four or five to an agent who is holding on to them but not marketing them. They are my best picture book work so I figure if they're not grabbing attention then I'll not bash my head on that brick wall any longer. I do promise myself to write any picture books that come forcefully to mind but all my ideas have been novel ideas for a very long time.

So with all that writing time I promised myself and no nonfiction or picture books to write I have been working on a YA novel which brings me to my 2014 goals.

Writing Time
I'd like to bump it up to twenty hours a week. One or two of the children may have to go into foster care...KIDDING! Sort of.

Publishable Novel
I want my novel in publishable shape by summer at which point I'll start submitting it and outlining a second book in that series (a girl can dream...especially a writer girl) and a completely new book--I have lots of possibilities I'm excited about there. I will start writing the completely new book in the fall when the kiddos head back to school.

And that's it. Easy.

Oh, and I have a super secret goal. If it works out, I'll let you know... Shhhh. I'll write that one down in private somewhere.

So now you. What's your goal? Write it? Try it. Or be Yoda and do don't try. No matter what you'll be farther down your path than otherwise. May you enjoy the journey.

Weekly Reading

I read the BEST book today that I just can't stop thinking about.

Cozy Classics: Moby Dick* by Holman and Jack Wang.

Seriously.

It's a board book. It's twelve pages long. It's twelve WORDS long. Favorite book of the month!

I laughed so hard when I read it that people around me in the library backed away. These authors have a sense of humor and serious editing skills, not to mention a way with felt. My favorite word? Leg. You'll just have to check it out for yourself, if I ever take it back to the library that is. Actually, I'm going to buy it and only then take it back to the library.

These authors have also happily written Pride and Prejudice, Les Miserables, and many, many more.

Other books have included:

The Kings of Clonmel, John Flanagan

Number Eight in the Ranger's Apprentice series. Looking forward for promises to be fulfilled in the next book. This series is a wonderful fantasy adventure (much more adventure than fantasy) set in medieval England (more or less). Total escape books with characters you can't imagine not actually existing as flesh and blood after you read them.

The Last Siege, Jonathan Stroud

Completely different than anything I've read by him. Contemporary teens dealing with loneliness all together in a ruined castle. I love reading authors' other works to discover how they've developed and changed over time, or what they can do with different topics.

Artists in Their Time: Andy Warhol

Hey, sometimes you just need to know more about Andy. Now I do. I have several more nonfictions to read about him. Considering dying my hair white because, you know, if it's going to happen anyway, why not pretend it's what you always wanted?

And let's not forget the picture books:

Lots of Spots**, Lois Ehlert
Leaf Man*, Lois Ehlert
Warthogs Paint, A Messy Color Book, Pamela Duncan Edwards/Henry Cole
Diary of a Fly*, Doreen Cronin/Harry Bliss
Lilly's Potty
Wiggle*, Doreen Cronin/Scott Menchin
Cool Daddy Rat*, Kristyn Crow/Mike Lester
Roar, A Noisy Counting Book**, Pamela Duncan Edwards/Henry Cole

*Highly recommended.
** Highly recommended by my 4-year-old.

Must. Write. New. Posts.

There. Now it's a goal.

Remembering Laura Andersen: Pre-Publication Style

When I planted my stake in "second tuesdays" on the blog Cabinet of Curiosities, I didn't realize I'd have the honor of posting on Laura's Book Birthday, as we call them around here. Laura is a fellow Cabinet member, the reason the Cabinet exists, and a dear friend. This is a great day to be a Curiosity and the perfect time to reminisce.

If you read nothing else of my post, read this:

 

You'll be so glad you did.  

And in thinking of Laura, I'm remembering back way too many years to the very first writing class I ever took, which was online, and somewhat scary for some reason. As I posted an introduction to me, which was really just sort of a silly bluff of an intro, there was Laura, laughing at my jokes, being kind, accepting my weirdness, and writing suddenly wasn't as frightning. 

I remember the first time Laura posted a chapter for critique. It was astounding, beautifully written, way beyond anything anyone else was posting. I quickly became a ruthless, eagle-eye critiquer just to have something to offer this woman. The truth his, her characters were already vivid. Her plots, twisty and surprising. Her language gorgeous, fluid and effortless to read. It was amazing she hadn't been published already. Of course, she hadn't submitted anything yet. I always felt from day one it was a privilege to read her beginnings. It was a given that I would be honored to write something like this someday.

I remember the struggles when Laura thought she might not be meant to be writing. What writer hasn't walked the edge of that particular cliff? I reacted, embarrassingly, with anger. Didn't she realize she already was a writer? It's just who she was. She couldn't give up. "Laura not writing" just didn't compute in my world. Not very nice of me, since it is after all, Laura's world not mine. But I am to this day very glad she stuck it out, novel after novel after beautiful novel, in a life that hasn't been full of peaceful gazebos and gobs of free time. Laura claims to be a plucky writer and even without my silly tantrums, she would never have given up.

I remember Laura reading a chapter of mine for the first time at a critique group. In a spontaneous, English accent. "I don't think I can read any other way!" she says. At any rate, she made my chapter sound fabulous. I can't wait for her reading tomorrow at her book launch party.

And I remember when I first read The Boleyn King and I thought, THIS is it. This is the one. This cannot NOT be a published book. And Laura felt it was The One as well. And after a couple more novels, suddenly, it is. And Laura is taking the published world by storm as we all knew she would in that first class. 

God bless, Laura. Thank you for being you, through it all, everywhere, and for sharing yourself with all of us and the world. We are very lucky to have you. 

I Want My Gazebo

Way back before we had children, my husband and I vacationed in New Orleans' French Quarter. Somewhere thereabouts is a little gazebo. On that gazebo is a plaque that explains how Mark Twain used to sit there for days on end writing novels while someone brought him his meals.

I turned to my husband and said, "Even I could write a novel if I could sit around all day while someone brought me my meals."

Now, I can barely fathom how anyone writes novels without someone else around to care for them while they do.

Mark Twain was a very lucky man.

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

My latest post on Cabinet of Curiosities. A collaborative writers' blog I share with my dear friends.

Where do you get your ideas? This has to be the most asked question every writer hears. Luckily, it's a fun one to answer. Ideas abound absolutely everywhere, but I didn't always believe that.

When I was a teenager I attended an event featuring George Lucas (you know, that guy who did Star Wars and Indiana Jones?) and someone asked him The Question.

Oh yes, I thought. That's brilliant. I can't wait to hear this!

I was in total awe as he replied that coming up with ideas wasn't the problem, that he, in fact, had many more ideas than he could ever hope to work on. I sort of tuned out just then, right when it might have been wise for me to listen. That's why he's a brilliant film maker, I thought. I could never be like that.

Turns out, I was wrong. Not about the film maker thing, but about the having too many ideas thing. When you open your mind, it's frankly hard to shut them out. Most of the time anyway.

Idea Starters

Dreams: Twilight. Need I say more?

Fears: Ray Bradbury was a big proponent of this. I managed to churn out a middle grade novel involving a terrifying nightmare I had of Santa Claus kidnapping me in his UFO as my parents joyfully waved goodbye to me on Christmas Eve. It's not as marketable as Twilight. Who knew?

What ifs: "We need a vision of what the world could be." Another thing George Lucas said at that aforementioned event. I think he meant it as a positive idea starter, but millions have been made off of all the horrible ways the world could be, too.

Spin Offs: We've all seen them. A peanut novel hits the big time, suddenly there are scads of peanut novels. Some possibly bigger and better than the original. Shakespeare was fond of borrowing ideas and improving upon them. No shame in that.

Combinations: Take two or three of your pet ideas and twine them together. Sometimes the happy creation ends up wildly better than the sum of its parts. Sometimes it just kind of ends up to be a mess...but we're not focusing on that right now.

Character: A fabulous character can make the whole book. You think of someone, plop them into a world and let them go. It's nice when your characters do all the work. Which, okay, they never do, but it's nice when they do a lot of it.

And let's not forget: ideas people say you should make into a book, books you always wanted to read but don't exist, silly things your kids say, jaw-dropping news stories, historical tidbits, re-interpretations of archeological artifacts...okay, maybe I'm getting a little too weird here. The point is, ideas are a blast and they are all around. 

Idea Inviters

One thought here. Write them down. All of them.

Yes, you know That Idea won't work. Yes, you know it's probably been done better. Yes, you worry it's dumb.

That's not the point. Write it down. Do it now.

My muse gives me good ideas when I acknowledge all of her efforts. If I squelch her whisperings, she gets miffed, scared, dejected, and leaves me. When you open yourself up to ideas, get ready to receive them.

Plus, in retrospect, some of them are not as bad as you thought.

Idea Killers

I recently read something Jonathan Stroud said about a story just begun being weak and needing protection. I have heard this thought from more than one author. I suggest protecting your idea, fleshing it out, strengthening it, until it's ready to see the light of day and the critical eye of readers. 

This includes protecting it from yourself. 

You know that rewriter in you? The idea stage is not the time to invite her to the party. The idea stage is fun, it isn't about where to put your ellipses. Just like a baby needs the basics to grow, your idea does, too. Later that baby can learn to ride a bike, but give it some time to develop with your loving care before getting too demanding.

Others would disagree. They feel stymied without an audience to give them feedback, any feedback. 

So, if my nurturing sort of advice doesn't work for you, pay attention to what kills your ideas. Then hide, run from, or fight that evil influence.

Because without your idea you'll never get to The End. 

So open yourself up to ideas, write them, nurture them, and get ready to answer The Question yourself. Over and over and over :) Luckily, as I said before, it's a fun question to answer.