Plotting, one approach

 Yesterday while driving, I heard a great interview with one of my favorite writers, Laura Lippman.
I'm still waiting for AFTER I'M GONE from my library reserve. I may have to break down and buy my own copy. 
As soon as I finish The Goldfinch. (more to come on that book!)



You still might be able to catch the Lippman interview on the Bob Edwards show. 
There's this, from his website:

Monday, February 24, 2014:  Laura Lippman wrote her first seven books while working fulltime as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. She left journalism in 2001, but kept a deadline driven writing style, publishing a book nearly every year. The latest, After I’m Gone, revolves around a cold case investigation into the disappearance of Felix Brewer.

Although I've long been a fan, I actually met her at my one and only  
Writers in Paradise conference.
As we sat in a big circle, she talked plotting.

She calls her method the "distant shore school of plot." She always knows what's happening across the water, at the end. She knows the one big secret, but we (her readers) don't and even the protagonist doesn't. Although she knows the ending, she's also a fan of what she calls "Landmine Fiction" (don't you love that?). The zingers that go off along the way to that distant shore.

Here's an earlier NPR interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8983711
(You can actually listen from that link.)

More on her plotting:
If you think about a book as a journey you're going to take across water, and you're standing on one shore, and you can see the other side, and so you set out and you think you know where you're going, you can see it, but the water itself may surprise you. The currents may run more swiftly than you expect, or it may be shallow, you may run aground, and then as you get closer to the other side, it turns out that some of the things you thought you saw and you thought you knew are different.
You thought you saw a horse, and it turns out it was a dog, something like that, and so while you have a sense of where you're going, you are prepared to be surprised and to have the journey be quite different from what you thought it might be when you set out.

That process can be true of drafts 1-3, with discoveries still occurring. I believe very strongly in what I call the organic solution, revelations based on what the story has revealed so far. 

Much of the above is from this interview. 
(But oh how I wish bloggers/ websites/ whatever would not make their background black... )

http://www.spinetinglermag.com/Laura_Lippman_Interview.htm

Como Mississippi Library Friday, Feb 7, at 4:30

How Writers Choose Their Characters or More Precisely How Characters Choose Their Writers, Author’s talk and booksigning with Augusta Scattergood

I'm totally excited about this event. These are the great kids and their equally great librarian who jumped into action when the NPR BackSeat Book Club people called.

Here's a little from librarian Alice Pierotti's press release about Como Reads:


EMILY J. POINTER PUBLIC LIBRARY ANNOUNCES 2014 COMO READS
Inspiring our community to pick up a good book . . . attend a program, talk about the book with a
neighbor, create a community of readers! 


Como, Miss., Jan. 24, 2014- Emily J. Pointer Public Library, a branch of the 5 county, 13-branch First Regional Library, announces its second annual community read! This year’s book selection is Glory Be, by Mississippi native Augusta Scattergood. 2014 Como Reads will culminate in a week’s worth (Feb 1-7, 2014) of programming exploring the book and a main theme of the book – civil rights in smalltown Mississippi, circa 1964. 

Backseat Books

What a great idea! A book discussion, on the radio, for kids who are trapped in the backseat with nothing but- Alas and Hallelujah! - a REAL BOOK.

Michelle Norris's NPR Backseat Book Club has chosen some fun books, some serious ones, some award-winning novels for kids ages 9-12-ish.

And this month, July 2013, guess what they read?

GLORY BE!

When my buddies at Scholastic got the word, they were as excited as I was.
Such an honor. Such a thrill. Such an unexpected surprise!

That's my fabulous publicist from Scholastic, Emma Brockway, on the right.
With Brooke her summer intern- from Georgia!-who went with me to the taping.
Thanks, guys!

We traveled to the NPR studios in NYC.
 (Little known fact: A Tomato Plant Grows in the Window)

And a bunch of my kid readers in Como, Mississippi, got to be the Little Interrogators, as my friend Carl named them (Yes, he's an attorney. Surprise!).

Well, those interrogators were fabulous. The Como Public Library is truly remarkable.
When the show aired last week, their amazing librarian, Alice Pierotti, scheduled a listening party.
About 50 people listened in from the library. Wow.

Here are a few of the questions they asked:
 - Did you write the book to tell what your life was life?  Were you around in 1964? - Jy'kerria Barnett
 - Why did you decide not to illustrate the book? - Sylvester Bowden Jr.
 - Where did you start writing stories? Kelmisha Jackson
 - How was Glory so brave even if the grown ups around her were not? Cofield Collins
 - When you wrote the book, did you keep having to write it over and over? - Owen Collins


More pictures, from the big recording day!

Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Sandra Knispel records one of Kelmisha Jackson's questions.
From left are Knispel, Owen Collins, Cofield Collins, Jy'kerria Barnett, Jackson and Sylvester Bowden, Jr.

One of my very favorite pictures!

Of course, it being radio and the run time being SEVEN minutes instead of the HOUR they taped me, not all of those questions made it to the air.

But they were terrific questions, as were the others sent in by young listeners.

Here's the link to listen to the show. 

(I think the very well-spoken young lady reading Glory's part has a serious future in radio.)

For even more pictures, check out the Facebook page of the fabulous Como Library:
https://www.facebook.com/comolibrary

Whoa! NPR!

Pretty exciting day here in WUSF land (Tampa public radio).
Here's the link to my 7-minute interview on Weekend Edition.

Pinching myself on an hourly basis now.



http://www.npr.org/2012/01/07/144829261/glory-be-a-tale-of-the-south-for-young-adults

Car Talk Wisdom

Don't you just love it when you turn on the radio and there are the Car Talk Guys? I mean, I know about Saturday mornings, but this afternoon? An unexpected treat.

Not sure what they were talking about when I tuned in, but I caught this and laughed to myself for the rest of my errand-running.

"A friend is somebody who helps you move.

A really good friend is somebody who helps you move a body."

Best Beach Books Ever

If it's not too late to read at the beach-- and for my friends in New England, I'm not sure you've had your summer yet so maybe there's time--here's a great list of books to consider.

From NPR's recent poll to listeners and readers: What's your favorite beach read?

So what have you been reading this summer? Beach or not.

Olympic swimmers

I spent a lot of time at swimming meets. Not swimming, watching. My husband and my two daughters all swam competitively. So naturally I had one of those "NPR driveway moments" today when I just had to sit in the car listening to the fascinating discussion of the dolphin kick. Research for USA Olympic swimmers based on dolphins. I am not kidding. It seems to be working out quite well for Team USA.