Nerd for the Day!

One of my favorite things to do is nerd out about books.

I'm always proud to be featured on the NerdyBookClub blog. 

CLICK HERE for my most recent post about choosing names for your characters and places.

I constantly borrow names. In fact, tomorrow I'm driving to Wachula Elementary School down a road named Moccasin Hollow Road.

(Whoa! I'll be on the lookout for critters on that trip. )

School visits are a great place to discover interesting character names. 
Can't you just imagine this girl in a story?

What are some of your favorite borrowed names?

Laughter is the Best Medicine

“No matter what happens,

somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.”

— Dave Barry

Kids like funny books. Or at least they like a little humor mixed with their wizards or mysterious strangers or mean grannies. Or even their humpbacked whales in a non-fiction picture book.

Today I read this excellent post from Joanne Levy, via the Nerdy Book Club people. If you hurry on over and read it yourself, there's still time to enter the giveaway. (Deadline, January 15)
https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/writing-not-so-serious-books-by-joanne-levy/

Google "writing humor" and you'll find some excellent tips. 
I particularly like THIS ONE which involves all five senses.

I've written about HUMOR before.  
Most recently, THIS POST, with pictures. And tips!

My all-time favorite advice, however, might just be this post from Sarah Albee.
In a Teachers Write post, she shares some of her favorite things to read while she's trying to write something to make her own readers laugh. Or at least smile.

"One of my favorite humor writers, PG Wodehouse, is the master of extended metaphors. Whenever I want to write “funny,” I read Wodehouse. Here are a few of my favorites:
She looked at me like someone who has just solved the crossword puzzle with a shrewd “Emu” in the top right hand corner.
Jeeves lugged my purple socks out of the drawer as if he were a vegetarian fishing a caterpillar out of his salad.
Unlike the male codfish, which, suddenly finding itself the parent of three million five hundred thousand little codfish, cheerfully resolves to love them all, the British aristocracy is apt to look with a somewhat jaundiced eye on its younger sons.
Try it with your work-in-progress. Check the sentences that don’t yet zing. Is there a comparison you can make that’s unexpected? Can you swap in a more surprising verb?"
 

Thanks, Sarah! I'm off to give it a try! 
How about you? Any secret tips for writing funny?

A Template!

To write your novel with!

Of course, there's really no such thing.

But recently I found this "advice" buried deep in my files.

Here's the link:

http://www.authormagazine.org/articles/thayer_james_2009_12_16.htm

And remember my Nerdy Book Club post about TEN THINGS I'VE LEARNED FROM KIDS ABOUT WRITING A BOOK?

Remember that dog?

Here's a funny thing from that article by James Thayer about your Main Character:

1)  They are kind when it counts. Not always, and maybe not mostly, but when it is important, the hero will do something kind. If nothing else he will adopt a dog, a common fictional device to salvage otherwise irredeemable heroes, which is called the Adopt A Dog Technique.

 I'm totally good with that.

Who's Reading Your Book?

This month has been Skype month. 
No, not an officially designated celebration, it just happened that way in my world. 

I love talking to kids about writing, reading, history, genres, characters, the truth or not the truth. So many great questions. Skyping has given me the chance to spread book love to places I've never been.  
(In my flipflops.)

But I got a question yesterday that truly stumped me.

Sixth Grade Boy in Wisconsin, to me: 
"Who would you recommend your book to?"

Now see, the librarian in me should be all over that.

But I stammered and hemmed and hawed.
Finally I mentioned a few authors I love, as in "If you liked THIS book, you'll like THAT book."

I think I mentioned kids who like books that take place in the past. 
But that's so not true. 

(True confession: My first draft of THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY wasn't even set in the past!)

Maybe I mumbled something about Books With Heart.

Because really and truly, one of my favorite tweets in the whole world had recently taken my breath away:

And just like that, my book had become

#heartprintbook

Be still my heart.

But the librarian in me still wasn't happy with my answer to that boy in Wisconsin.

And the writer in me didn't want to leave it at that.

There's been a lot of discussion recently about Boy Books v. Girl Books.
And judging a book by its cover.

What does the cover say to a reader about to choose a book?

Is that old adage about boys not reading books about girls while girls will always be okay with reading boy main characters hold?
 I doubt it. I've had tons of boys who love GLORY BE.

At a recent Book Fair, a student told me he'd read DESTINY five times already. He wasn't a baseball fan and he can't play the piano. 
Had some wise librarian or teacher had handed him that book because she knew his reading taste?

Do we need to stop pigeonholing books and kids' book choices?
Will all young readers eventually find those HeartPrint books for their own hearts?

Are kids' books just for kids anymore?

Based on this guy who has discovered and loved a few middle-grade novels, I'd say no.

I'm still thinking of a good answer to the question that sparked this blogpost. Who WOULD I recommend my own books to?

Writers- Have you been asked that question? 
Do you have a perfect answer?

I used to think I was pretty good at Readers Advisory. 
But when it's your own book, something feels different.


You might also like these posts about Skype:

Fun Skype in Georgia

Skype 101: the View from Here

And these about some of my own Heartprint books:

Kwame Alexander's Crossover

An Abundance of BOOKS

Hound Dog True

Top Ten...

While I was gone, celebrating books and librarians and enjoying a few Chicago snow flakes, my Nerdy Book Club blogpost went up.

Here's the link to the TOP TEN THINGS I'VE LEARNED FROM KIDS ABOUT WRITING A BOOK. 

https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/top-ten-things-ive-learned-from-kids-about-writing-a-book-by-augusta-scattergood/

It was a fun thing to write. I love those Book Nerds. 
And dogs, too. My number ONE thing I've learned.

Happy Book Birthday! THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY

A few days before Christmas, I got to actually hold the book in my hot little hands.
My fabulous, fantastic editor, Andrea Davis Pinkney, sent a few early copies, and such a sweet note.

 The best part about seeing the Real Deal? Besides the gorgeous cover, designed by Elizabeth Parisi and Sara Wood?

The great quote from Kirby Larson on the back. Wow, I'm swooning down here!

I think I'll spend the day appreciating all the amazing things that have happened to me since my brilliant agent, Linda Pratt, said let's do this! It's not often that we slow down and enjoy the moment, is it?

So happy Book Birthday to me and my book. I think I'll eat some cake.

But first, a HUGE thank-you to all my Scholastic team, my Twitter friends, Facebook buddies, and fellow Nerdy Book people who've embraced this book since it sneaked onto a few shelves over the weekend. And even before. It's scary birthing a book.
I can't thank you enough. (But I'm happy to share the cake.)


I think it was you, T.J. Shay, who got the first glance. And sent me scurrying off to my local Barnes & Noble to check it out.

(Okay, yes. My book is near the bottom. But they're alphabetical! And no way is a librarian going to mess with the ABCs of bookshelf arrangement.)

They had already sold a few, according to the nice guy who let me sign what was left.





There were others who caught a glimpse before today.

And shared on Twitter.

 John Scovill @Johnlit360  ·  Dec 31
Here it is @ARScattergood : ) 

Tweets! Too many to mention! 

Like:
Michele Knott ‏@knott_michele Jan 4

Last holiday #bookaday was an amazing one @ARScattergood The Way to Stay in Destiny. All kinds of awesome!!

Such fun seeing your book baby in amazing company, no? 
2015 is going to be a big reading year for me!

@CarrieGelson  Jan 3
My #mustreadin2015 list is great! http://bit.ly/1rQpD7k  @LieslShurtliff @ARScattergood @marburyjack @nielsenwriter

@MrSchuReads  Dec 31
. @ARScattergood You're hanging out next to @sharonmdraper

Hey, I love hanging out with Sharon Draper. 

He saw it at one of my favorite Indies: Anderson's! 

Another big thank-you to my fellow book bloggers who've said lovely things about this novel. 

And to Amazon for choosing it as a best January release for middle-grade readers.

I guess you could say THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY has been celebrating all week.
And I'm good with that.

Off to find cake.

NCTE- wow...

I'm just back from my very first National Council of Teachers of English conference.

Speechless at all the amazing book love floating through that convention center.

I shared a panel with the fabulous, famous, funny

NERDY BOOK People.

Here's a link to all of our PowerPoint presentations:

http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/the-nerdy-book-club-shaping-reading-identity-through-community-story-and-choice/

(See the little arrows on the bottom left? Just click through to see all the slides. They may not make a lot of sense without the fabulous presenters standing in front of you, but you'll get a sense of what we shared.)

Here we are! Scary Book Nerds!

I also got to talk about my Book-To-Be, THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY, at Scholastic's amazing brunch. Sharing the stage with Jennifer Nielsen and Christopher Paul Curtis, while we acted our pants off.

More to come as I wade through the weekend. 

Truly, it was an honor to meet so many remarkable, hard-working, smart teachers with such brilliant ideas. 

Nerdy Books: Top Ten

Do you follow the folks at the Nerdy Book Club?
They welcome bloggers, teachers, writers, librarians.
Their posts are about everything and anything bookish.

I'm especially drawn to their Top Ten lists.

Top Ten Reasons to Marry a Nerdy Book Club Member.
Top Ten Book Characters Who Would Be Awesome Friends
Top Ten Ways to Research.

See what I mean?

Here's one I just read:
TOP TEN OR SO QUOTES ABOUT READING.

This is my favorite:

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” – Mortimer J. Adler. I’d rather discuss one book with a student for twenty minutes than listen to a student rattle off a list of all the books they’ve read.

I'll be sharing the room with a whole bunch of Nerdy Book People at the National Council of Teachers of English conference in a couple of weeks. Can't wait.

The Meaning of Maggie

Here are some of the things I love about this book.

The cover.

(and not just because it has a library card and date stamper on it. But that's part of it.)

Maggie's attitude toward her sisters. How it changes and is so very true to real sisters.

The wisdom she develops as the story progresses.

And certainly not least of all. The book trailer. Wow.

Click HERE to see what Mr. Schu has to say and to read Megan Jean Sovern's interview. 

Click HERE to read my thoughts on whether something that takes place so recently is truly historical fiction. 

Linda Urban just wrote the greatest blogpost about The Meaning of Maggie. CLICK HERE to go there. 

(My copy was from the library. I was lucky. I understand there's a long reserve list now. If you've read it, do let the rest of us know what you think. If you haven't read it, get thee to a library or a bookstore asap!)


Here's Maggie's amazing trailer. Enjoy!

Nerdy Book Club People!

I love this blog.
Guess who's their guest today? 
Me- Nerd for a Day!
Click over there and read a bit.

Here's the link:
https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/where-in-the-world-am-i-by-augusta-scattergood/