CRIBS HERE I COME

Based on my jealousy of not being in the absolutely fabulous and funny video below, I've decided to make my own video based on Cribs the MTV show that shows famous people's homes and workspaces. I love seeing other people's homes and workspaces. As of now, I just finished watching my nightly 2:30 am installment of Cribs, and that's when it came to me. I need my own mocumentary!

So, uh, stay tuned. I might need to buy a new video camera.

In the meantime, if any of you have any cool photos or documentary type things on your spaces let me know so that I can look. Thanks

meghan

Ready for our close-up

So when friend and fellow author/illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka recently called up the Blue Rose Girls and asked if we would make a cameo in a little movie he was putting together, we were totally flattered to be part of what was bound to be yet another fun and ingenious project (his Monkey Boy video from a few years ago was a total riot).

So we got together and brainstormed a spoof on Sex and the City (I'm Charlotte, can you tell?), only with cupcakes instead of Manhattans... we are of course pretty bad actors, but we had a blast doing our skit.



When we saw the final product, we were blown away by the absolutely hysterical movie he put together, featuring such book legends as Tomie dePaola, Jane Yolen, Mo Willems, Jon Sciezka and Tony DiTerlizzi.

Jarrett played the movie at the SCBWI conference in NY this past Saturday.

Watch the full video here.

I especially love Tomie dePaola's part and Jarrett jumping around on the beach at the end, so funny!

if only i could open my big mouth

So I've finally checked out some of the award winners. Grrr. I want to say what I think! As you can imagine, I don't have a good opinion of them all. In fact, there are some big criticisms that I'd like to make. Sigh. But I can't. I won't bash a fellow-author or illustrator's work publicly. So I guess that's that. That's why when we BRG have discussed doing book, reviews I've always said "no." Perhaps one of these days I can launch an anonymous blog. Then I can say what I really want to say. Until that day comes... 

I guess this is a meaningless post.

On the topic of awards--a big congratulations to Sean Qualls! Yay Sean! Now there's a guy who deserves it.

meghan

FLOW for writers

I'm guessing that everyone reading this has been in what some people call flow --in that state of total concentration, when you're so absorbed in what you're doing that it seems effortless. Whatever you're doing (even something really hard) seems to be happening without any conscious direction from you. If you're ski-ing, you're flowing down the mountain, your feet making the turns by themselves....if you're writing (painting I bet is the same?), you forget where you are and are surprised when (hours later) you look around and see your room.

It's the most amazing, fun state of being in the world, when you're in it -- and I'm not in it nearly as much as I used to be. I thought if I looked at the book about it I might be able to figure out how to get there more often.

It said that SOMETIMES it happens all by itself (you're traveling and see an amazing view or something) but that usually, you are doing "a task." And usually, you:

1. Believe that you have a chance of completing the task

If "completing the task" means "finish this novel as fast as I can" flow is unlikely. So I made each day's task a specific scene. (Of course, I could write more than one -- but I HAD TO write one.)


2. "Concentrate completely on the task. This is made easier when" (he says and *I* say, when there's no email! Not checking it is so hard!):

3. "The task has a clear goal."

For this week, my goal was pretty simple: write what interests ME, not what I think I "should" write. Next week, I may make specific goals for each scene.

4. "The task provides immediate feedback."

This is where reading it to someone whose judgement you trust RIGHT AWAY would be great. But, I (like most writers) really know when something I"m writing is good and when it isn't. Sometimes I don't WANT to know -- but I do.


The next four (I think) are a result of the first four, so there is nothing I can do to make THEM happen but do the first --so I'll just quote the book. It is FLOW by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi (YAY! someone with a name harder to pronounce and spell than mine!):

5. "One acts from a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of daily life."

6. "Exercise a sense of control over your actions"

....this is a really impossible one for writers, I think, because at least for me, it's when I'm NOT in control that the best things get written - they just sort of pop out. But, I know they are more likely to pop out when I'm at my desk, writing, (or HAVE written and am going for a walk) than if I am, say, at a party.....maybe just sitting down and doing it, the good old "butt in chair" rule (or BIC, as Jane Yolen said in Jarret's video), satisfies this one? I can control THAT.

7. "The sense of self disappears."

8. "Time disappears."

So, after all that, I STILL didn't get into Flow -- I had a lot of unavoidable distractions (job-hunting). I'm going to keep trying. Making a specific, do-able goal for the day did make getting to work easier. And what I read of the book was interesting (I'm not one to read a self-help book all the way through).

Another thing he talked about that really related to freelancing is pressure: how pressure can both increase and inhibit flow, but this post is already long enough. I might post about that next week, especially if I have progress to report.

FLOW: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE

Children of Our Era by Wislawa Szymborska

It’s been hard to ignore politics—especially in recent months. Then again, I guess everything and every era is rife with politics. Here is another poem by Wislawa Szymborska—one of my favorite poets.

Children of Our Era

by Wislawa Szymborska

Translated by Joanna Trzeciak

We are children of our era;

our era is political.

All affairs, day and night,

yours, ours, theirs,

are political affairs.

Like it or not,

your genes have a political past,

your skin a political cast,

your eyes a political aspect.

What you say has a resonance;

what you are silent about is telling.

Either way, it's political.

Even when you head for the hills

you're taking political steps

on political ground.

Even apolitical poems are political,

and above us shines the moon,

by now no longer lunar.

To be or not to be, that is the question.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

Here is another stanza from the poem that I’d like to point out because it resonated with me. It brought back a memory of the 1970s and the discussions that took place prior to the negotiations that were held in hopes of bringing the Vietnam War to an end.

Or even a conference table whose shape

was disputed for months:

should we negotiate life and death

at a round table or a square one?

Now read the following excerpt from a 1977 interview in U.S. News & World Report.
When I think back to the Vietnam negotiations, and of the many months that we spent arguing about the shape of a table, about the speaking order, about whether there would be flags or not, when all the time killing was going on, it has left a rather deep scar.

Here’s a link to the interview: Interview with Secretary of State Vance in U.S. News & World Report, 7 November 1977

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At Wild Rose Reader, I have some winter-themed original poems.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Adventures in Daily Living.

February:small graces

This is the painting that will be auctioned for for February's small graces. The auction is tentatively scheduled for the 2nd week in February, so I made the painting a bit Valentine's Day themed. Stay tuned for more details (and of course, spread the word!)

www.smallgraces.org

Happy Chinese New Year!

So I am in Texas for a week of schools visits, so I am a bit belated with the Chinese New Year wishes. Please visit Elaine's excellent post for Chinese New Year book suggestions (including my new favorite, The Pet Dragon). To make up for it, I plan on watching Gund Kwok's lion and dragon troupe will perform in Boston when I get back (on Feb. 1st around 10 or 10:30 a.m. at the main stage on Beach Street). It's the country's first and only all Asian-women's Lion and Dance troupe and they're based in Boston. I received an e-mail from one of the members inviting me, and I admit to be extremely intrigued. Doesn't it sound like a great idea for a children's book? It just seems like there should be something there. Anyone suggestions?

Or maybe it's just a good idea for a new hobby!

my B&W art - anthropomorphism?

Perhaps some of you have noticed (or not) that I don't do anthropomorphic stories or illustrations. No talking animals. No animals wearing clothes. None of that. When animals are in my books they seem like they could talk -- Show Dog for example -- but they don't. I give them voices via the narrator, but that's as far as I'll ever go. I wasn't actually aware of this myself until Alvina pointed it out to me. Go figure.

Anyway, because of this, my B&W art also doesn't contain any animals wearing clothes or seeming like they could. I illustrated a donkey, but he is an animal in all his glory--naked to the world, void of clothing, housing and excessories.

Anyway, I thought I'd give anthropomorphism a try. I will never do a book like that myself but I'm willing to illustrate other works in B&W (no picture books).

So here is my pig:

AWARDS

I've ceased to pay attention to any of them. After leaving the kids' dept. at B&N and becoming a cashier I stopped obsessing about the whole thing. I never liked what was picked. The art awards, for example, I thought were either a famous illustrator trying something new (so they needed a pat on the back) or something that got a lot of hype and seemed artsy so the committee thought they needed to award it something. The books that I thought deserved the Caldecott never got anything. And here's a question--why do the same people always win over and over again for doing the same thing?

As for me--I'll probably never win one of the big awards because my books don't fit nicely into one of the categories. Lets take the Sibert for example. I hate to say it but every one of the books that has won that I've noticed seems to cater to adults---they look like oversized coffee table books with illustrations here and there and tons of text. Forget me trying to read one of them as a kid... I can't get past that stuff as an adult! Could I write a long-winded nonfiction book and try to win the award? Yes. Will I? No. My goal is to make learning seem effortless and fun. I want my nonfiction to read like fiction. I want kids to read my books and to want to discover more. I want my books to be the jumping off point for more learning and discovery instead of trying to pack them with every bit of information out there. The challenge in writing a nonfiction book for me is what am I going to leave out? When researching something it's hard not to want to put it all in there. But kids can't digest it all easily. It's too overwhelming that way. That's why I leave a lot out. That's why I make mine simple.

Anyway, perhaps I'm frustrated that I'll never get anywhere and I'm sure I shouldn't bash other people's accomplishments, but heck, this is the blog for honesty right?

meghan

Awards, Priscilla, random things...

I have to admit I have not read most of the ALSC winners this year (I am always behind on my reading), but I am thrilled to see two illustrators I love get recognized; Beth Krommes and Melissa Sweet. I ADORE their work and think its really great to see "quiet books" get some attention! When I worked at Houghton Mifflin way back when, I got to see original art from some of their books in person and it is GORGEOUS. I especially loved Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women and Grandmother Winter.

Speaking of awards (nice transition eh?), I just found out that Priscilla and the Hollyhocks has been chosen as a 2008 National Council for Social Studies Notable Trade Book! Hurray! The book will be featured at the NCSS Exhibit in Atlanta in November, as well as in the NCSS magazine. Its my first illustrated book gone *notable* so I am very excited.

Okay back to the drawing board! I am working on a new project I'm very excited about, will show sketches soon.

Newbery & Caldecott News

And the winners are:

2009 ALSC Award Winners

B&W

I finally finished putting the portfolio together. Check it out here.

ALA Midwinter 2009

I won't have time to post tomorrow morning--I'm meeting my colleagues at 6:15 am for breakfast, and then it's on to the press conference announcing the big awards. Finally, the wait will be over.

This was my first time to the ALA Midwinter conference, and I must say that there's definitely a different feeling to it. There are very few authors in attendance, so I've had more time away from the floor, and have had the opportunity to sit in on some of the committee meetings that are open. (The "major" awards are closed, of course.)

Today, I sat in on the BBYA (best books for young adults) session where they invite local teens to attend and talk about the books they've read on the list. Not all the books are talked about, and there were a few that stood out as the most popular, at least in terms of the number of teens who read them and wanted to talk about them. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, Gone by Michael Grant, and The Host by Stephenie Meyer were the titles that had at least 7 readers. Many books had no readers, so that was saying a lot. Of course, the comments were quite mixed, and I was impressed at how articulate, poised, funny, and passionate the teens were. It was also fascinating to sit in on the committee meeting afterwards and hear how different they reacted in some cases from the teenagers.

I'll try to write more later in the week, but for now I'll leave you with a few pictures from our booth. This year, the booth had a Curious Garden theme in honor of Peter Brown's books. We wore cute gardener aprons (made by Zoe!) and gave out seed packets, signed posters, and had flower and plant details throughout the booth. Very cool.

And I always love these book display towers that my colleague Andrew is an expert at making:

Here's a video of the tower:

Impressive, eh?

Whatever happens, it's been a great conference. On Saturday morning we gave a librarian preview of a selection of our 2009 books, and I'm really excited about everything coming out this year. Here's to 2009! Onward and upwards.

Tip (or mini-post)

I'm one who rewrites a LOT -- probably, too much. But it's just how I do it....and I recently discovered a way to get a fresh look at a ms. after many, many rewrites.

I was reading something over for what I hoped would be the last time; but I wasn't really reading. I was just kind of looking at the shapes of the letters and admiring them. I get really attached to fonts and this ms. had been written in one of of my two current favorites, Big Caslon. So I changed it to a font I REALLY HATE, Courier.

I made it big, so it would be extra-obnoxious. And guess what? After awhile I started really reading and noticing all the little things that needed to be fixed.

But maybe this only works if you really get attached to fonts? I always have; even when I was a child I liked some fonts way better than others. Then I hated Bodoni, which is now my other favorite font -- probably I didn't like it as kid because a magazine I disliked used it for everything. I really liked Times Roman and Baskerville; but maybe just because favorite books used them.

ANyway, I notice fonts! This so-called tip may be totally obvious to others who do, but it worked for me.If anyone has any other tricks for looking at something with a fresh eye I'd love to hear them!

a new portfolio

I'm working on putting together a new portfolio. A B&W one so that I can hope to get interior work for MGs, YAs, etc. I put the whole thing together on my website but you can only see the thumbnails for now. It's a big project to put up the images and link them all together. Anyway, if you want to see the thumbnails go here: BW portfolio

Elizabeth Alexander: Poems & Videos

Read about Elizabeth Alexander at Poets.org.

Read about Elizabeth Alexander at the Poetry Foundation.

Praise Song for the Day

A Poem for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other's
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

Here are excerpts from other three poems by Elizabeth Alexander:

From Blues

I am lazy, the laziest
girl in the world. I sleep during
the day when I want to, 'til
my face is creased and swollen,
'til my lips are dry and hot. I
eat as I please: cookies and milk
after lunch, butter and sour cream
on my baked potato, foods that
slothful people eat, that turn
yellow and opaque beneath the skin.
Sometimes come dinnertime Sunday
I am still in my nightgown, the one
with the lace trim listing because
I have not mended it. Many days
I do not exercise, only
consider it, then rub my curdy
belly and lie down. Even
my poems are lazy. I use
syllabics instead of iambs,
prefer slant to the gong of full rhyme,
write briefly while others go
for pages. And yesterday,
for example, I did not work at all!
I got in my car and I drove
to factory outlet stores, purchased
stockings and panties and socks
with my father's money.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

From Ladders

Filene's department store

near nineteen-fifty-three:

An Aunt Jemima floor

display. Red bandanna,

Apron holding white rolls

of black fat fast against

the bubbling pancakes, bowls

and bowls of pale batter.

This is what Donna sees,

across the "Cookwares" floor,

and hears "Donnessa?" Please,

This can not be my aunt.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

From Race

Sometimes I think about Great-Uncle Paul who left Tuskegee,
Alabama to become a forester in Oregon and in so doing
became fundamentally white for the rest of his life, except
when he traveled without his white wife to visit his siblings—
now in New York, now in Harlem, USA—just as pale-skinned,
as straight-haired, as blue-eyed as Paul, and black. Paul never told anyone
he was white, he just didn’t say that he was black, and who could imagine,
an Oregon forester in 1930 as anything other than white?
The siblings in Harlem each morning ensured
no one confused them for anything other than what they were, black.
They were black! Brown-skinned spouses reduced confusion.
Many others have told, and not told, this tale.
When Paul came East alone he was as they were, their brother.

You can read the rest of the poem here.

Elizabeth Alexander Videos



A Reading by Elizabeth Alexander (The Online Newshour Poetry Series, January 13, 2009)

Elizabeth Alexander Describes Inauguration Plans (The Newshour with Jim Lehrer)

Video of Elizabeth Alexander Reading the Inaugural Poem

Elizabeth Alexander on The Colbert Report

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Just for Fun—One of my Irish friends sent me a link to the following video the other day:


NO ONE AS IRISH AS BARACK OBAMA (Corrigan Brothers)




Here are the beginning lyrics:

O'Leary, O'Reilly, O'Hare and O'Hara
There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama

You don't believe me, I hear you say
But Barack's as Irish, as was JFK
His granddaddy's daddy came from Moneygall
A small Irish village, well known to you all

Toor a loo, toor a loo, toor a loo, toor a lama
There's no one as Irish As Barack O'Bama

He's as Irish as bacon and cabbage and stew
He's Hawaiian he's Kenyan American too
He’s in the white house, He took his chance
Now let’s see Barack do Riverdance

Toor a loo, toor a loo, toor a loo, toor a lama
There's no one as Irish As Barack O'Bama

From Kerry and cork to old Donegal
Let’s hear it for Barack from old moneygall
From the lakes if Killarney to old Connemara
There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama

You can read the rest of the lyrics here.

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At Wild Rose Reader, I have reviews of three winter picture books for very young children that were written in verse.

Laura Salas has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.

history

Some recent poems and sketches

These are some poems (still in progress) from the sequel book proposal for What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe? I've been working on. Shoe will be on book shelves in just two months!



Solomon’s dad
had an old tin kazoo,
it was shiny and small
and broken.

It sat high on a shelf
painted robin’s egg blue,
a gift from his aunt
in Hoboken.



Sue eats cereal for breakfast
and cereal for lunch.
Her favorite kind to snack on
is banana crispy crunch.

There are boxes in the cupboard
and boxes in the sink.
Sue will have cornflakes at dinner time,
with chocolate milk to drink.

hoping, and praying, and wishing

A week from today, we will know the winners of the Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, Coretta Scott King Awards, and more. I will be in beautiful Denver at ALA for the announcements, and I have very mixed feelings about it. Last year Grace and I were in China during the announcement, and therefore were literally far away from it all, and I really didn't have too much invested in it, except to think/hope that Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of the Part-Time Indian would win the Printz (it didn't). This year, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein, illustrated by Ed Young, will get a mention. I'm not really superstitious--I tend to believe in the power of positive thinking, but in this case, when I know that it's completely out of my control at this point, I go back and forth with how to feel.

It's won the gold or honor in a few Mock Caldecotts, although didn't place in others (one said that the illustrations lacked "warmth"--hmph). I've seen bloggers say that it would either win the gold or get nothing, (yes, I'm a bit obsessed), and Fuse #8 declared it the front runner. Eek.

I don't know if it really IS the front runner, but I know it's a contender, and to be honest, it's a bit of an odd feeling to be in this situation. I do realize that this is not a bad position to be in--and I'm honestly happy to be here. It's always been my goal to edit books that are up for discussion for awards. It's just that I'm used to editing quiet books with modest expectations that surprise my publisher (although not to me) when they do extremely well. I prefer to be in the position of the underdog.

Well, all will be revealed next Monday. Think positive thoughts for Wabi Sabi (unless you hated the book, in which case, think neutral thoughts!)!


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In other award news, I'm proud to say that Tony Abbott's The Postcard has been nominated for an Edgar Award!! Somehow, it's more satisfying to have a book that both I and the author have worked especially hard on be recognized, which is definitely the case here. Congratulations to Tony and the rest of the nominees!

Google ads

I've had a Web site since 1999 - and most of it was made ten years ago. The weird thing about marketing is that you never know what's going to work and what isn't. While I was putting in all the moves for cat's cradle, with a photograph for each one, I thought:
"Why am I doing this? No one is ever going to read it."

People did read it though - and that became the most popular page on the site. It gets about 30,000 visitors a month. But -- does this Web site help my children's book career? Who knows. The site costs $19.99/month -- so it's cost me about $2500 over the years....and this week, I decided to make it earn its keep with Google ads.

How this works:
1. You submit your site to Google
2. When you're accepted, choose the ad formats you want
3. Paste the code for the ads onto your pages (theoretically, this just takes a second - and so it would, if I didn't start cleaning up the rest of the page once I see it!). You can choose exactly where they go, but you have no control over the ads' content, beyond barring pornography.
4. The ads themselves then just appear-- they are supposedly related to the page's content.
5. Once you've earned $10, Google starts sending you checks.

My ads have only been up for three days, so it's too early to tell how much money I'll be making, or even what the ads are like.

Some are clearly connected to the content -- on my Cinderella page, one of the ads was for a TV show about Cinderella. Some of the connections are harder to see -- the Sleeping Beauty page featured an ad that said "End Tax Worries." (I love that way of ending tax worries, going to sleep for a hundred years!) The story "The Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was" had an for some kind of eye-wrinkle cream.....and, my favorite: the page where I show kids how to make hovercraft has an ad for REAL helicopters!

Alas, when I went back to take a picture of this ad -- which showed several helicopters, including a bright red one-- it had been replaced. I think the kids who are interested in how to make hovercraft might have been curious about how much a real helicopter costs -- *I* was!

Sadly, one of my favorite stories ("Jack, the Clever Thief" -- if you haven't rea a witty, romantic, Irish folktale) attracted ads for religious stuff. No way to block those....so I may take the ads off that page.

Most ads were for things like this:



Can you read that? It says "What does the length of your fingers say about your personality?" I was tempted to click that one myself. But, I didn't --you're not allowed to click the ads on your own site. You're also not supposed to tell people to click the ads. (But if there is a huge surge after this post....thanks guys!)

So, how much can you make? There isn't a simple formula for how much you get paid per click -- each click pays really differently depending upon -- what? I don't know. So far, I've had 16 clicks; one paid 62 cents, one paid 6 cents, some paid between one and two cents each, and some paid between 4 and 5 cents each. (They only report the number of clicks per day and the total per day.)

I've made 95 cents so far. Nevertheless, I'm going to persist with this, maybe even add some pages to my Web site and put ads on them; right now, I only have ads on 12 of the 100 pages. If I could get 60 cents a day, the site would be self-supporting. Is this revoltingly commercial of me? Will it make potential readers avoid my site? Will I lose all my recommendations? (The site is on lots of good lists.) And if anyone sees the ads, and has suggestions for better places to put them -- or thinks some should be removed -- please tell me.