Two BRGs in the NY Times Book Review today!

Congratulations to Grace and Meghan -- and good for the NY TIMES, too, for GETTING IT. That's not always the case with reviews!


Read the reviews (and see better pictures) for POP here and LING AND TING here.

What's the most torturous part of writing?

Grace wrote awhile ago that first drafts were "the most torturous part" of writing for her, and explained why and how she broke through the barrier.

They definitely are for me, too: revising I can brute through, whether I'm tired, whether I have an idea or not--but that first draft! In the past, anyway, I haven't handled first drafts as well as Grace does. I LOVE writing first drafts while I'm inspired; but there always comes a point when I am not, and when that happens, I babble. I just write nervously, the way I might once have talked nervously at a party (I've since learned to be quiet in those circumstances).

But when it comes to writing, I babble, then get very discouraged by how awful what I've written is, so discouraged that I sometimes stop. This is the worst thing to do! It's better to just sit there, not writing, until I think of something true to say, something I want to say, something I find interesting. And if nothing comes up: just sit -- and eventually, something that moves the story along again will come to me....it doesn't have to be great, just something with some life (energy? sincerity?) to it -- something that's truly part of the story, that is. An irrelevant scene or detail -- no matter how charming -- doesn't count. And it definitely doesn't have to be well-written --writing (including details to bring the scene to life for the reader the way it is for me) I can fix later, too. But it has to be something *I* find interesting and believable-- something alive to me that keeps the story moving.

A side note -- I'm having a hard time defining exactly what I mean by "alive" or "sincere" -- it's that quality in a book that makes it feel real while you're reading it....that makes you almost forget that you're reading words on a page and feel "in" the world of the book. Its opposite is contrived--when you can see what the writer is trying to do or force; and a lot of modern writing feels contrived to me. MINE does, when I'm babbling and forcing! And that's the hard thing about first drafts -- if the book is ever going to be any good, some part of it has to just COME. It can be worked on and fixed later, but if there isn't some spark of this inspiration or whatever it is, the book will never be any good.

I think one reason writing every day, at the same time, is helpful is that after awhile your mind learns that you're going to be sitting there waiting, so it might as well come up with something. If it doesn't, it's not going to get to go to the beach or have a little snack: it's going to be just sitting there, facing the page (not email, not a Web site, not cute dresses on ebay, the page that needs to move the characters along.

I really hope to be able to report at some future point that I did this and it worked....but in the meantime: What's the most torturous part of writing for you?

fashion fight!

So, On the Red Carpet at ALA has put up their Fashion Statement movie showcasing the attendees' finery. Viewers can vote on their fashion favorites. Even though I am the first one showcased, I was the last interview of the evening--it was just about midnight when I was filmed which is why I am babbling incoherently. I am never very good on camera anyway, but at that time of night I was especially unintelligible. I tried to tell the story of the dress but it came out rather jumbled. Sorry, Cindy!

Anyway, I think I am at a disadvantage for the fashion favorite voting. Not only am I inarticulate, I am so short that no one ever gets to see my whole dress. The skirt is the prettiest part, don't you think? Boo.

VIDA: Women in Literary Arts

I've joined this exciting new group as part of the children's literature committee, invited by children's author Laurel Snyder. Being a woman writer is complex no matter what genre one is writing and I'm glad that a group has formed to address those issues.

This is an e-mail from the co-founder of the organization, Cate Marvin:

Dear Friend,

It’s quite strange to realize it was only a year ago I sat hunkered down in my sweaty apartment writing an email that seemed to blast right out of my head.

If you received this missive, you’ll know I’d spent the evening folding a LOT of laundry – an endless chore made worse by the fact I was not only folding my laundry, but also that of my 8 month old daughter (any parent will attest that the act of sorting a mountain of brightly patterned shirts, socks and pajamas is in itself a certain hell). After projecting myself into the mindset of the narrator of Tillie Olsen’s seminal short story “I Stand Here Ironing,” I allowed myself a couple glasses of wine. This, I believe, was a key factor in my committing the most grievous of email sins.

For not only did I send my email to numerous people— worse, I concluded my missive with a most lamentable statement: “Feel free to forward this to anyone and everyone you think might be interested.”

This email, titled: “As I Stood Folding Laundry: Women’s Writing Now,” was spurred by my disgruntlement over the fact an AWP proposal I’d submitted--addressing a rhetorical means of dissent in contemporary American women’s poetry--had been rejected. In my email I worried aloud about whether this panel had been dismissed because of its distinctly feminist overtones, while also noting certain trends I’d observed in the literary world: specifically how male literary achievements are so often deemed more important than those of women with regard to publication, criticism, reviews, awards, etc.

While this disparity had long seemed obvious to me, I’d never before had the nerve to speak to it openly.


My email went on to describe my fantasy of creating an association that would serve to unite women writers, across genres, aesthetics, ethnicities and generations. Indeed, in the simple act of conceiving such an organization’s potential, I got so fired up that evening it seemed to me perfectly reasonable that I send my thoughts to every female writer I knew.

The following morning my in-box was full.

In less than twelve hours, I’d already received numerous replies—some from female poets I considered so awe-inspiringly important I was stunned to see their names appear on my computer’s screen; others from women writers I’d never met, who wrote compelling accounts of their own frustrations, each one expressing a desire to create a national forum for the very issues my email had addressed.

I was awed by the response. But I was also afraid. Because I recognized that I’d unwittingly taken on a responsibility to remain true to all that I’d written only the night before. I realized I would not only need to acknowledge the immediate support with which my proposal had been received, but that I must also embrace it.

I discovered that it was due to the poet Erin Belieu’s initiative that my email reached the astonishing number of people it did. It was she who sent my email to some forty established female poets, who then sent it on to the female writers they knew. It was due to Erin’s initial enthusiasm that my email went, as they say, viral, ending up on blogs, listservs and in newspapers throughout the country.

So it only seemed fair to turn to the culprit who had so thoroughly disseminated my thoughts. I didn’t in fact know Erin Belieu well personally, but I knew she had a reputation for gumption and guts, something this fantasy organization was going to need to get off the ground.

One short phone call later and I now had a co-director. It was that day that Erin and I co-founded the organization that began as WILLA, and has now transformed into a different name--VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.

[To create a more distinct identity and preempt possible legal issues, WILLA 
is now VIDA. We are confident that we've already begun to grow into our new 
name and feel that "VIDA" better reflects the vitality of our organization.]

So I write to you a year later from a poorly air-conditioned room while suffering the advances of a particularly persistent mosquito. I still have laundry that needs sorting. However, I can say that my life as a female writer been not only been invigorated, but deeply altered, in the best sense of the word, by the email I almost regretted sending a year ago.

VIDA’s had a great first year. A few of many highlights include our mention in the New York Times for calling out Publisher’s Weekly “Top Ten Best Books of 2009,” and their egregiously “female-free” list. VIDA also hosted a number of readings and conversations, including our AWP Evening of Burlesque, Roller Derby And Literature, which turned out to be just as thought provoking and fun as we’d wanted our debut to be. We’ve recently been asked by AWP to be a sponsor of next year’s conference in Washington DC and are busily scheming to make our follow up just as memorable.

There are many more things under way for VIDA this year: we have a spiffy new website and blog (www.vidaweb.org) with articles and features you’ll want to check out as well as a new Facebook page where you can find out about VIDA events and join the thousands of people there who’ve entered into our conversation. We’re also moving along in planning a national conference for those who want to support and know more about literature written by women. It’s heavy-lifting, but we’re devoted to making this enormous and financially complicated project happen. More information will be coming about this soon.

Thank you for reading this. I hope that you will once again: “Feel free to forward this to anyone and everyone you think might be interested.”



Your friend,



Cate

--
Cate Marvin, Associate Professor
Department of English
College of Staten Island, CUNY

Co-Director, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts
Co-Director, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts
catemarvin.com
vidaweb.org

North Andover Public Library on Wednesday

This Wednesday (the 11th) I'll be giving a presentation at the North Andover Public Library to celebrate the Go Green theme in Massachusetts libraries this summer. I'll be talking about the making of What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe? and showing lots of sketches and artwork. Come join us if you can!

The Details:

2:00 to 3:00 pm
Stevens Memorial Library
345 Main St. North Andover, MA 01845
978-688-9505

OH NO! Eyewitness Charity Auction

Like Grace, I recently sent off my piece for author/illustrator extraordinaire Dan Santat's Eyewitness charity auction for 826LA, featuring his new book OH NO!. He sent the manuscript for this very clever story to a variety of illustrators to interpret in their own way. Check out all the pieces here!

The work will be shown at the Nucleus Gallery in LA from August 14-17th, and then auctioned off on ebay beginning on August 23rd. Don't forget to check out the book too, which Dan illustrated brilliantly!

charity

This is a painting I am doing for my friend (and amazing illustrator/author) Dan Santat's Eyewitness Auction to benefit 826LA. It's a great charity and I'm glad to be a part of it but I have to admit that participating in it has been a bit of a lesson for me.

Because this is my 2nd painting for it. My first one I painted hurriedly while in the midst of writing my first draft of "Dumpling Days." And it was bad. Really bad. But I just couldn't paint anything of quality while consumed by first draft concentration as well as schedule (I was already a month late). But it was such a great cause that I wanted to help with that I threw my subpar painting into an envelope and mailed it out.

But it gnawed at me. I realized it wasn't even that the charity deserved more (though that would've been a more selfless reason), it was a point of personal pride. I was embarrassed to think that people would see my name on that piece of artwork. As the days passed, it bothered me more and more and finally I asked Dan if he could withdraw my piece. Which he did quite graciously.

So, as soon as my first draft was finished (and after I bought my cherry sheets) I got to work on a new one. I'm glad to say I'm much happier with this one. It's not my greatest work (unfortunately. the subject matter of chaos & destruction is not my forte) but I am not ashamed of it and I'm proud it's a part of the project.

However, this was a learning experience for me. I love creating art for good causes, it's something I will always feel strongly about. But, I've also realized that I need to be able to do it right. I have to be able to devote the time to it or else it's better to decline. People have asked me if I ever plan to revive Robert's Snowflakes and while there are many parts of me that want to, I realize that all of me has to be dedicated for it to happen. And, right now, there are parts of me that want to do other things instead.

"It could have happened"

For Adam's birthday, he has a party and all that but he and I always have our own celebration, too, and we always do the same thing. We go to the beach -- always, East Beach on Watch Hill (picture to come). The waves are huge and we swim. Then, we have dinner -- always, at the same restaurant. Dinner always ends with icecream, and then (it is his birthday after all) we walk to The Candy Shack, a store that sells nothing but, as Adam put it when he was six, "pure candy."

Adam begins Middle School at the end of August, and is looking forward to "more freedom." At his current school, "the teachers watch us every second."
"What if you have to go to the bathroom?"
"Someone stands in the hallway and watches us."

He also complained about reading. They "make us" read, and "don't let us" choose the books -- instead, they assign them. He said he was glad that they hadn't had to finish the book that was assigned at the end of May (because school ended). I asked him what he had read this year, and he said,
"I can't remember. I hated all of it. I only remember books I like."
Pressed, he said that there was a lot of fantasy. He "hates" fantasy.

I asked if he had ever read a book he enjoyed, and he said he was reading one now, a "non-fiction" book called ELEVEN. It's about a boy who lives with his grandfather and (while he's looking for presents) finds a newspaper article that someone with his name was kidnapped when he was three. So the boy thinks maybe the person he THINKS is his grandfather kidnapped him, and (helped by a girl in his class) decides to find out.
"This really happened?"
"WEll -- no, but it could have happened."

I said something like "That's fiction -- it's called realistic fiction," and he said that was the kind of book he liked.

I'm not claiming this is a trend or anything -- Adam is unusual in many ways; but lots of times I think all kids now want to read is YA or fantasy, and it's enormously reassuring to me that there are children who like books about things that could have happened -- and that those events are so real to them that they count as non-fiction.

And at the risk of ruining the punchline: if any teachers are reading this, is is true that teachers assign only ONE book? And if it is, couldn't there be a list, with books from different genres on it?

A New ALA Award for Children's Poetry??? What Do You Think?

At Wild Rose Reader today, I have Children’s Poetry and the Cinderella Syndrome—which I originally posted at Blue Rose Girls in October of 2006 before I became a regular contributor to this blog. I was inspired to re-post my two-part article after reading Betsy Bird’s Baby Wants Another New Award: Poetry Time!—in which she discusses the idea of a new ALA/ALSC award for children's poetry. A number of people—including some children’s poets—have left comments about the poetry award at Betsy’s post at the School Library Journal site.

I thought it might be a good idea to continue the discussion of an ALA/ALSC award for children’s poetry—and to find out people’s opinions on the subject. Do you think a new award for children's poetry would be a good idea? Let us know what YOU think. You can leave comments at Children's Poetry and the Cinderella Syndrome or at Baby Wants Another New Award: Poetry Time!

********************

Laura has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Author Amok.

ART

I finally turned in the art for my book about Balto. Here are a few finishes. I took photos of a few more but didn't notice that they were blurry. Darn!

because of or in spite of?

real cover vs. a cover for an alternate universe

Last month, there was some controversy with the repackaging of my friend Cindy Pon's books. While I understand the repackaging, it makes me sad. As I mentioned earlier, Cindy's Silver Phoenix is kind of a YA/Adult version of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, in that it is an Asian quest-fantasy with a female protagonist.

I thought one of the things that made Where the Mountain Meets the Moon the success that it was, is that the cover was so different from anything out there right now. But it seems in general, having an obviously minority character is not considered very marketable. I admit, I think my emotions about the Last Airbender, stemmed from the realization that the odds of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon becoming a movie are slim at best. It's just a hard sell with its ethnicity a strike against it in an already tight market.

So it makes me wonder--would my books have been more successful featuring non-Asian elements on the cover? Pretty much all of my books are Asian-American with obvious Asian covers, a conscious choice on my part. I'm delighted, honored and proud when my books are embraced. But being a multicultural author has always been a double-sided sword. On one hand there are some who feel "you got it easy, your culture is getting you published" and on the other side there are those who feel "those books will never be bestsellers, mainstream America doesn't read your kind of books."

For me, I realized the only way I could hold such a double-sided sword was just to stop fighting with it. And so far, it seems to be working. I'm extremely grateful that I've been able to build a career out of my books. I wouldn't change anything and have no plans to; but when something like Cindy Pon's cover redesign happens, I always wonder if the success I have had is because my books are multicultural or in spite of it? If Where the Mountain Meets the Moon had a different cover--say, with just a photograph of a misty mountain, would it have reached even more people? How would things be different?


**just to be clear, my publisher has NO intention of changing the cover of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon; the 2nd "alternative" cover is just a pretend mock-up to illustrate what my book could look like if it were "whitewashed"

San Fran digs

This has been a year for change in many ways. I finished two book projects long in the works, moved to Northampton, MA from Boston, and am now starting a family. But the latest big news is that we'll be traveling to San Francisco for 9 months so that Bruno (my fella) can do an internship for his graduate program. So in addition to getting ready for the baby and the launch of Disappearing Desmond in a few short weeks, we are madly apartment hunting!

We've been scouring Craigslist for a one bedroom in the city that will take cats and let us have a 9 month lease. If anyone has and leads or suggestions for finding a place from a distance any advice is most welcome!

Reading nostalgia

I am on a much-needed vacation right now (two weeks!), and am at my parents' home in Southern California. My parents moved into this house when I was in college, so although it's in the same city where I lived for five years before leaving for school (eight grade through high school), I never actually lived in this house, except for a few summers. But I still have "my" room, and I still have my stuff. The books on my shelves are an odd mixture of books--I'm not sure how they all ended up here, but every time I'm home I do enjoy perusing the shelves and remembering the books I read as a kid and teen and young adult. The lower shelves are mostly the books I read for school in college, but the upper shelves are the books from when I was younger. Here's a sampling of one shelf. I love the absolute randomness, from fantasy to science fiction, to romance, to classics, more movie and TV tie-in books than I realized I read, and to the Cheerleaders series, the books Grace and I shared because of the Asian-American character featured.

 And, of course Stephen King. I think I read every Stephen King book published starting in 8th grade.

You may have noticed a few Hardy Boys books on the shelf. When we were in 6th grade, I think, Grace and I were at the bookstore with another friend, Abby. We were perusing the shelves and came across the newly repackaged Hardy Boys books, and read the back copy of one:

We were unbelievably tickled by the phrase, "blown to bits before their eyes" in relation to a girl being killed in a terrorist bomb. Who writes this stuff, anyway? (Well, now I know.) We laughed and laughed over that line, and on my next birthday, the book was one of my gifts. And I ended up actually reading and enjoying the book and bought and read a few others in the series. I had a crush on Joe Hardy.

What I was really looking for on the shelves this time was the book Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink (the author is better-known as writing Caddie Woodlawn, another book I loved as a child). A few weekends ago, while at the beach with Libby, I put my fingers in the sand and remembered the scene where one of the girls pondered if sand could perhaps be used as a substitute for baby powder. (Don't worry, she didn't actually try it.) This is the cover of the book I owned:

Have any of you read this? I loved this book. Wish I knew where my copy went...it's not on the shelves in my bedroom. I'll continue to hunt through my parents' house while I'm here.

One thing I really miss in my life is re-reading books I love. I reread books all the time as a kid. I'm sure I've read Baby Island at least three times. Perhaps I should allow myself to reread at least one book each year without feeling guilty that I'm not reading something new and not reading submissions. I think it would be good for my soul. If only I could find Baby Island while on vacation! I'd read that.

Pain and elation

I've been doing a book with someone old, wise, Zen, and supremely talented. It's not up to ME to blab things out about other people, so I must keep him anonymous; but I have to share this story.

The book we're working on is really complicated, and kind of driving everyone crazy, including us and (though they've been too polite to say so) I think probably all the people at the publishing house who are working on it, too. So the other day he and I were discussing the situation and he said,
"Every book I do brings me elation and pain."
Then he gave this little laugh he has and added,
"We're in the pain part now."

He went on to say that you can't have one without the other,and it's all part of the process of creating something new. If you try to make it easy, if you try to avoid the pain, you'll just keep doing the same old (safe) things -- and you won't grow as an artist. Or get to the elation, either.

Next time I'm tempted to take the easy way out on a book, I'm going to take a deep breath and remember that -- and also remember, it's only pain, one part of the path to elation.

On a less lofty note--last weekend we had what we all agreed was our prettiest table ever - and Grace's best butter cream icing ever, too:

Thank you Blue Rose Girls for a really happy birthday!

The Romance of Middle Age by Mary Meriam

I thought I’d check out Ted Kooser’s site American Life in Poetry this morning in search of a poem to post today at Blue Rose Girls. I didn’t have to spend much time looking for a poem. I loved the first poem I read--Mary Meriam’s The Romance of Middle Age, which is the site's “current column.”

In Kooser’s introduction to the poem, he writes:
Rhyming has a way of brightening a poem, and a depressing subject can become quite a bit lighter with well-chosen rhymes. Here’s a sonnet by Mary Meriam, who lives in Missouri. Are there readers among you who have felt like this?

The Romance of Middle Age
by Mary Meriam

Now that I’m fifty, let me take my showers
at night, no light, eyes closed. And let me swim
in cover-ups. My skin’s tattooed with hours
and days and decades, head to foot, and slim
is just a faded photograph. It’s strange
how people look away who once would look.
I didn’t know I’d undergo this change
and be the unseen cover of a book
whose plot, though swift, just keeps on getting thicker.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

***************

At Wild Rose Reader, I have an original list poem titled Things to Do If You Are a Castle.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Live. Love. Explore!

rewards

I finished my rough draft of "Dumpling Days" late at night on Friday (really, Saturday morning) and I was euphoric. The first draft is always the hardest for me. The next step, revising, is comparably quite fun. Even though revision usually takes longer, it's that initial output that is torturous for me. I always hit a point where I yield to poor quality, over-sentimentality and any other writing sin you can think of just so I can "get the thing out!" (I depend on the revision process to get things in readable condition.)

So, finishing my rough draft (emphasis on "rough") was a big accomplishment for me. I was absolutely thrilled when I wrote "The End" and the first thing I did afterwards was to go online and buy some bedsheets.

But not just any bedsheets.

I bought these sheets that had surprised me in a catalog a couple days earlier. When I saw these sweet, cherry-patterned sheets on clearance I almost jumped (okay maybe I did jump, just a little hop).



Because in one of my old sketchbooks (I have a lot of them!), dated 1999:


was a ripped catalog page with almost the exact same sheets:


I had coveted cherry-patterned sheets over 10 years ago but was too poor purchase them. In 1999, with my extremely modest first book income (as well as part-time bookstore clerk wages) the luxury of matching sheets (no matter how pretty) was a frivolous expense. Rent and ramen noodles was all I could afford then, so the 2nd best thing was to clip the catalog pages and keep them as a little dream.

That I made come true 10 years later! A nice little personal reward, don't you think?

All things blue rose

This weekend some of us Blue Rose Girls got together to do some celebrating. There was a lot to celebrate... birthdays for Libby and Alvina, Grace finishing the first draft of her new novel, and my little BRG baby on the way.

There were of course blue rose cupcakes created by Grace:



And blue flowers on the table:



Baby on the way was given the most adorable little blue rose outfit, complete with headband (!):





Then we went out to do some shopping. I've been wanting to make a mobile to go over the baby's crib, something like this (pic via Greyhood):



When we were out and about Libby, Grace and I spotted these lovely Vietnamese "prosperity hens":





Aren't they sweet? We all got some to hang around the house. I am working on how to convert mine into a mobile...

Growns up and growns up!

As reported by Publisher's Weekly two weeks ago, we've had two promotions at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (LBYR) recently. Connie Hsu and Kate Sullivan were both promoted to Associate Editor. Hurray!!! Extremely well deserved. Kate is the editor of the Morris Award and Lambda Literary Award finalist Ash by Malinda Lo, as well as the upcoming The Duff by Kody Keplinger. She had been assisting the Poppy imprint for over four years, and will now move over to LBYR to develop a fiction list, focusing on YA novels.

And as faithful readers of this blog probably know, Connie has been my assistant (first as Editorial Assistant, then as Assistant Editor) for over four years (read her Beyond the Book post about her first acquisition, Happyface, here), and she is absolutely fabulous. She has been invaluable in her editorial contribution to virtually all of my titles, especially Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Curious Garden, Wabi Sabi, and Shark vs. Train. Aside from Happyface, which, incidentally, has three starred reviews and is on its third printing, her second acquisition The Adventures of Nanny Piggins by Rachel Spratt is a hilarious, delightfully wicked Middle Grade adventure pubbing next week, and it also just received a starred review! So, you see, it's confirmed. Connie is a star. Connie will be focusing on picture books and novelty books in her new role, as well as selected Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction. She especially loves illustrated novels.

I don't mean this to be patronizing at all, but I couldn't help but think of that scene from the movie Swingers, "My little baby's alls growns up." Connie herself has been joking that she's a "grown up" now. I remember feeling the same way when I became Associate Editor.

For those of you not in publishing, just know that the promotion from Editorial Assistant to Assistant Editor is huge, because you go from "Assistant" as the noun to "Editor" as the noun. But the promotion from Assistant Editor to Associate Editor is really the most important jump, because the word "assistant" is completely gone now. You are no longer anyone's assistant. You are now an editor.

And with that comes some separation anxiety, admittedly. Especially on my part. But I'm very lucky to have a wonderful new Editorial Assistant, Bethany Strout, who comes to us from Writers House. I'm excited to have her on my team. We just discovered that Bethany coincidentally grew up in the town next to New Hartford, NY where Grace grew up, and where I lived for three years. She used to go to the same mall, even. Hurray for Sangertown Square! What a small world.

Here's to exciting new beginnings and chapters! I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of lists Connie and Kate both develop. And perhaps in a few years we'll be reading a guest "Beyond the Book" post from Bethany talking about her first acquisition!

Congratulations all!

It's Wedding Pictures Friday at Blue Rose Girls

This will be an Un-Poetry Friday at Blue Rose Girls this week.

I decided to post more of the pictures that I took

during our fabulous "wedding weekend."

Everyone LOVED the wedding cake (pictured above)--

especially Grace and Squatchie!

One of Sara's bridesmaids took this picture of me dancing!

She also took this picture of me and Sara at the hotel

before we headed off to the church.

I never knew a mother-of-the-bride could have SO much fun

at her daughter's wedding!

Sara and Jerry will return from their two-week honeymoon

in Ireland on Sunday.

I can't wait to see them again!

********************

At Wild Rose Reader, I have an original list poem titled Things to Do If You Are a Mountain.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Language, Literacy, Love.

class notes

I've been entrenched in the writing of my new novel ("Dumpling Days") and while it's always roller coaster, every time the ride feels different. What's interesting this time is when I mention the age range (7-11) I am writing to non-book people, I get a distinct feeling of disappointment in my ambitions. As if by now I should have graduated to writing real books, older books or at least cooler or hipper books that could rival "Twilight."

I always smile politely, as I do understand their idea of success. And who knows, maybe someday I will. But I have a feeling, in terms of writing, that the young middle grade novel will be the book I will never graduate from.

Part of my "lecture" for the Pine Manor class I taught about writing the Middle Grade Novel:

Why write middle-grade novels, especially young middle grade? One can say you have more restrictions in terms of subject matter, audience and even respect than other genres. But I think it is one of the most important forms,if not the most important form, of children's literature. These are the books that change a child that can read books to a child that LOVES to read books. What they call a "reader," a true life-long book lover. The picturebook is rarely read independently and the YA reader has already decided whether he or she likes books. The middle-grade novel is the one that can create a transformation.

Mattapoisett Free Public Library on Friday

If you are in the area, come visit me at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library on Friday at 11 am, where I'll be giving a free presentation for kids about my work as part of their Go Green summer reading program. I'll be focusing on how I made What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe? and showing some of the recycling craft activities in the book. Hope to see you there!