Could this be more fun?

The first hardcover of GLORY BE has arrived!



It took a bit of a detour on its way to St. Petersburg, FL.


First it stopped off in Madison, NJ where my nice neighbor rescued it from potential drowning on my front doorstep.

Then my great friend Al retrieved it and sent it my way. Triple bagged!

Now, here it is. TaDa!

Front!

And beautiful back cover, with all my lovely quotes.

Sigh.

Please note I used my extensive librarian skills to open the book properly. No cracking this baby's spine.

Oh wow. Look at that image on the spine. Love.

She's sharing the shelf with some pretty special books. I still can't quite believe this.
Won't be long before Glory's out in the world. Exciting times!

Fall Books for Kids

I loved having an assignment from the Books Editor at the Christian Science Monitor. She sent me a stack of great new books. She tied them together around the theme of Friendship. I got to write just enough to entice readers to buy or check them out from the library.

I guess I have to confess that my favorite among the group was HOUND DOG TRUE.
 How I love that book! The wisdom, the characters, the writing. So good.

Click here for the list.


All are terrific, for different reasons.

Anybody out there with a great new fall book to recommend?

Sunshine State Awards

My Florida writing friend, Shannon Hancock, frequently blogs about the winners of our state's Best Books award. Until I met Shannon, I didn't know much about the list. I was a newcomer to Florida. But there are some terrific books, divided by reading levels, on these lists.

This week I stumbled upon THE MAILBOX at our public library. I knew nothing abut it, but it was on the Sunshine shelf so I checked it out.

Wow is about all I can say. The writing is so accomplished, the descriptions so beautiful--I can see it reaching a very large audience. Not just the middle-grade kids, ages 9-14, that it's supposedly aimed at.

A unique story about a boy who somehow manages to survive a horrendous childhood, foster homes, and now is living with his Vietnam Vet, crusty bachelor uncle. But that's just the beginning. Cryptic notes left in his mailbox, a very loyal dog, a caring teacher. Oh, and did I mention topnotch writing?

So much to commend about this terrific book for middle schoolers. I think boys would especially like this one.

Grownups, too.

Sisters

“A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double.” —Toni Morrison

When I first submitted my about-to-be-published middle grade novel, GLORY BE, I assured my hoped for agent that it was a book about sisters. I still think the story is about Glory and her sister Jeslyn. Of course, now I know it's about sisters and a whole lot more.  But sisters are complicated. And that's why I love this quote. And that's why I still think my book is about sisters.

Here's a picture of my inspiration for my novel. My sister, Jane, and me. Oh, and my brother somehow squeezed in between us. Since he and my sister are twins, he managed to do that a lot.


But it was Jane I remember playing Junk Poker with. Jane I remember those afternoons at the park. Me tormenting her, mostly. My tomboy sister! 

Happy thanksgiving to all my family, and to yours.

 

Debut Author Thanhha Lai Nabs National Book Award for YA Lit

Delighted this book was the winner. Although I also liked Okay for Now and Chime, two other finalists for the National Book Award.

I reviewed this one for the Christian Science Monitor earlier this year.

Click here if you'd like to read my 2-cents worth.

And here's School Library Journal's take:

Debut Author Thanhha Lai Nabs National Book Award for YA Lit

Check it out!

My new website's up! And yes, that's me with the skinny pigtails.

http://www.augustascattergood.com/

Elvis and I

I won't go into my elusive career as an 11-year-old Elvis impersonator again. Everything you might want to know, but probably don't, is right here.

Because of my early fascination with The King, I knew I'd love Shelley Pearsall's book: ALL SHOOK UP. Only peripherally is it about Elvis, however. 




Here's the story.
Josh must stay with his divorced dad while his mom takes care of his grandmother. Dad lives in Illinois. Boy resides in Boston. Dad is the disorganized type. Mom super organized. Dad just lost his job. Mom knew nothing about this. Dad is now an Elvis impersonator. Josh is mortified.

That may be the story in a very small nutshell. It says nothing about the funny writing, the terrific voice, emotions, experiences of a 13-year-old boy thrown into complete disarray by something he has no control over. Or the wise, clever Ivory. And her friend Digger, the tree-hugging artist wearing a spiked dog collar. And Gladys. What a fabulous secondary character. Small part, large role.



Some of the things I adored about ALL SHOOK UP.
1. The use of Elvis appropriate tunes/ lyrics, as between-chapter breaks.
2. The tiny Elvises decorating the (bottom) page numbers.
3. The way Josh changes in the book.
4. Funny lines: ex. "As we headed down the hall, I could tell people were noticing that I was walking beside a girl who looked like an unraveling brown carpet..."

Thank you to the Cynsations blog where I first read about ALL SHOOK UP.

How had I missed this book and this writer? Now I'm looking forward to dipping into a few more by Shelley Pearsall. Another great boy voice, in a book with appeal to a wide age span and multiple reading types. Kids who loved Al Capone Does My Shirts, The Absolute Value of Mike, or Okay for Now should be handed this one for sure.

Movie Time

I'm so honored by the support Scholastic has given my book, GLORY BE. These snippets of upcoming books were created for librarians, which makes them even more special to me.

(Click here to go there.)   That's me on the Middle Grade tab, not too far into the clip.

Note the carefully arranged backdrop.  (Except for the view of my kitchen through the open door. Whoops.) The fig my friend Marge gave me. The books I was reviewing at the time.

 And I loved sharing one treasure from my Junk Poker box: wallpaper from Elvis's house. Details shall remain secret but I unearthed the wallpaper from a scrapbook buried deep into an old footlocker. Thank you, sophomore college roommate Lyn Martin, who lived in Tupelo.

Also inside this box is a real skate key- courtesy of Christine and Jane. And postcards and crackerjack prizes from Glory's secret life as a gambler.

Dreaming up things that Glory and her big sister Jesslyn kept in their boxes was a special way of creating their personalities.


What tricks do you have for seeing your characters as real people?
What's in your character's special box?

Writers Most Wanted List: Revision Technique

I was sent a copy of REAL REVISION: Authors' Strategies to Share with Student Writers by the publisher.

There are so many things to love about Kate Messner's terrific new book.

Here's just one tiny thing that I must share:




Words (As in Seen on the Post Office Wall: Most Wanted) we should avoid (like the plague- whoops! We should also avoid overused poetic devises and cliches.)

There's an entire section titled CUT! CUT! CUT!  and this is just a small part, but easy to consider.

In the later stages of revision, have you used these a zillion times too many?

Looked like/ seemed like

Just

And

Rather

Began to

As though

Then

But

Always

Glanced

In that moment

So

A bit

I guess

Maybe

That

Very

Really

A Thing I Love

This is what I'm looking at on my counter this morning. A gift from a friend's tree. It's still dark outside so the picture doesn't do the grapefruit justice. But I can't resist sharing my morning's writing inspiration. Cute leaves, no?

My Day Job

This week it was my turn at A Good Blog is Hard to Find, my group blog filled with a whole bunch of amazing Southern writers. CLICK HERE if you want to go there. The theme was What Would You Be if You Weren't a Writer: Tell us about your day job.

I shared one of my favorite recent Facebook finds. If you have no time/ interest in clicking over there and reading about How I Became a Librarian, enjoy my illustration for the day.

A little break to dance.

(Not breakdance.)

“The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first.”

“Part of the joy of dancing is conversation. Trouble is, some men can't talk and dance at the same time.”
 Ginger Rogers

Yep, I've been googling. It's research. Dancers. Dog names. Now back to writing.

Part 2 on Previous Post, re: BOY BOOKS

If you haven't had an opportunity to read  my previous post and click on the link  about writing books for boys, here's another teaser from David Elzey's interesting take on writing books for boys.

There are readers, many of them boys, who will pick up that book and judge it by its girth, by its font size, by the amount of white on the page. As a former bookseller, if I had a dollar for every boy I ever witnessed fan a book’s pages as a method for deciding whether or not to read it, I’d have enough money today to buy a small publishing house.
Thomas Newkirk in Misreading Masculinity notes that, for many boy readers, “unless you are reading fluently in late elementary school, getting an assignment to read a two-hundred page book will just defeat you.”
Mind you, that’s not two-hundred manuscript pages, that’s two hundred final printed pages. With middle grade boys that means hewing closer to the 20,000 word range as opposed to the 30,000 or 40,000 words that has been typical for middle grade books.

I know writers wring their hands about word count/ page count/ size. 

I like what I've heard writer Greg Neri say more than once: "A book needs to be what it needs to be." Or something close to that. Meaning, you can't force a YA novel into a picture book format. Or a long fantasy into a short adventure? The book will tell you what it wants to be. Eventually. That's a key word. It may take a while. You may have to wait.

But when you start the revision part, whittling down, getting rid of the excess, does that 20,000 word range surprise you? Do you even notice? Or is it all about writing the book that needs to be, not worrying about the size.

(And just a note from somebody--me-- who knows a lot more girl readers, up close and personal, than I do boy readers: I've seen a fair number of girls fan books, check for page numbers, and put them aside.)

Thoughts on size, and whether it matters, anyone?

Off the top of your head, recommendations for short boy books?

Most of the books by Barbara O'Connor?

The Liberation of Gabriel King, by K.L. Going?

What else?

Boy Books

Yes, it's long. But anybody interested in creating a boy character, a boy-preferred novel, or in cultivating boy readers needs to read this post. Seriously good stuff.

Originally written as part of his Vermont College thesis, this is David Elzey's expanded version.  
Click this link for his blog.

(This is what happens when I decide to clean out emails, straighten file cabinets, tidy my desktop. I find amazing stuff I might have overlooked. Don't you just love when that happens?)

My rainy Saturday gift to fellow writers. Here's a bit of what he says about boy readers. If this doesn't make you click that link, you may be missing a whole segment of your reading population:

They’ll say they hate books and reading, and the next thing you know they’re driving books like Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series onto the bestsellers list.

They’ll ask for something exactly like what they just finished reading, a beginning reader series like the Time Warp Trio or Geronimo Stilton, and then quickly lose interest because they’ve discovered and become bored with the formula.

They’ll read a page of grade-level text aloud in a halting stammer, then read the sports section of the newspaper as smoothly as professional television announcers.

The conundrum that is a boy reader is enough to drive any adult mad.

Meet Your Characters: Refrigerator Doors

Remember all those Getting to Know Your Characters exercises. Fact Sheets.
What did he eat for breakfast?
What's her favorite color? Music? Relative?

I mostly hate doing that.

One question I sometimes think about is what's in your character's fridge? Bacon? Organic food? Leftovers from Whole Foods.

But here's another thing I'm pondering: What's on your character's fridge?

(Unless your character has a stainless steel refrigerator. That may just ruin my theory of getting to know people from the interesting things posted on refrigerators.)

My own always had pictures of my kids, my pets, emergency phone numbers, quotes and funny pictures.
What do you think? Can you learn about a character from a refrigerator door?
One I recently visited was filled with emergency numbers, pictures, all the usual. But it also told me another thing or two:

She collects these great Snoopy comics.

For sure, she's dog lover.






And a character begins to take shape.





(Note to friend: Don't worry. You are not becoming a character in my novel.☺)

More Thoughts on Book Reviews: The Art of Fielding

It seemed like a perfect book. Baseball, but literary fiction. High praises from every single reviewer. The New York Times review was long, intriguing, and included the phrase: slow, precious and altogether excellent first novel.

A baseball book that really wasn't about baseball.

So last night when I finally finished all my Required Reading (6 YA/Middle grade novels for review, 2 grown-up Southern books), I grabbed my Kindle (at over 500 words, The Art of Fielding seemed like the perfect e-book).

I read two sample chapters and liked it. I was poised to hit the "buy" button, but it was quite late and the book's still $12.99. Buy or wait? I scrolled through the 40+ reader reviews.

Okay. I know I've come close to blasting reader reviews on this very blog. But these were not only mostly articulate, they were signed! And almost all really slammed the pre-pub hype surrounding this novel.

I decided to wait. Maybe give it a try from the library. Anybody else read The Art of Fielding?
And I wonder if a lot of those reader reviews were from disappointed baseball fans. I suspect this book is about a whole lot more than sports.

Happy birthday, Dr. Jack!

 If ever there were a real character in my life, my daddy was it. I could write a book about him: his colorful language, his love of animals, his musical talents, his amazing medical education and skill.

Recently I re-read a funny story Eudora Welty, a woman of his generation, told about herself. As a young child, she loved to sit in the backseat of the family car, her mother and her mother's friend on each side, for drives around Jackson. "Now talk," she'd say, and of course, she'd listen.

That's the way I felt about Sunday dinners around our family table: "Now talk!"
All I wanted to do was listen.

I still have people I don't even know tell me how much they loved Dr. Jack. Maybe he'd set a broken arm, perhaps he'd delivered them (for a while, he was the only doctor in our little town who delivered babies), stitched up a cut, charmed off a wart (yes, he did). His medical talent was legend. His training was as a chest physician; he considered himself a country doctor.

He married late by today's standards, and sadly, died young. Today would be his100th birthday. In honor of this momentous occasion, I'll share some memories.

Once he brought a pet monkey into our family. Our mother refused to let it into the house. A patient of his took it and raised it, naming it "Jackie." In fact, he frequently claimed to find exotic pets on the side of the road. We had rabbits, parakeets, Dobermans, a chihuahua (supposedly good for my allergies, justification for owning this tiny canine even before they became celebrity pets), a very large long-haired Persian cat. He adored four-legged things so much that once he anesthetized an injured fawn and set her broken leg, in the same office where he treated his human patients.

Besides the colorful language, my dad had a few other questionable traits. He smoked White Owl cigars. This was before the Surgeon General's report came out and physicians collectively chose to oppose smoking. After that, Daddy stopped, and encouraged his patients to follow suit.

The only time I've ever really written about my father was a Christian Science Monitor essay a few years ago. It was mostly about Elvis, but I did write this about my dad:

Music was in my blood. My father had lived in New Orleans before settling into the life of a small town country doctor. With him, I sang along with Louis Armstrong’s “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?” on the radio. Before I could walk, I danced on the tops of my father’s polished shoes to the beat of Fats Waller’s band. I thought Blue-Room-of-the-Roosevelt-Hotel, where my dad had worked as a ticket taker to earn college spending money and free admission, was an elaborately exotic word for a place I longed to visit.

In the picture below, that's Dr. Jack, back row, middle, the handsome young man hanging with his college friends, all dressed up for dancing at the Blue Room.

(I wrote this blogpost originally for a different birthday but since I've been thinking a lot about Daddy today, I'm replaying it. Just rereading it makes me smile.)

SOUTHERN LITERARY TRAIL

Without even realizing I was on a literary tour, I've visited several of the spots:

Eudora Welty's house in Jackson
Faulkner's in Oxford
And now Flannery O'Connor's last family home in Milledgeville, GA.

Having reread THE HABIT OF BEING last winter, I set my sights on visiting Flannery O'Connor's hometown. Fortunately we have gracious friends who grew up in Milledgeville. Our host had even spent time sitting on the front porch of Andalusia as a young boy fascinated/ freaked by the peacocks a while back. Great tour guides. I hope we get invited back to explore via the trolley and poke around inside the church where the evil General Sherman stabled his horses. (Oh, the horror!)

Call me a southern author groupie if you must, but something about seeing how O'Connor faced her typewriter to the wall so as not to be tempted by the beauty of nature outside her first floor window spoke to me. Though how she plotted to the tune of peacocks remains a mystery.

Eudora Welty's garden and home are must-see spots in Jackson.
Oxford, MS, sports a statue of Faulkner on the Square, though he was not universally loved by his home state.
A great way to travel the south. I plan to check out a few more spots on the Southern Literary Trail.

Who out there's visited some of the many author birthplaces, homes, gardens open to the public?
Inspiration? Voyeurism? An excuse to eat fried okra and turnip greens at your author's favorite cafe?


Here's a post from my reading of The Habit of Being.
And another, here- random thoughts about writing like Flannery.

Tales from School, Part 1.

Remember the class I visited last month to present the Glory Be ARC their teacher had won on my blog giveaway?

I now have fan letters.

Which is completely amazing and a little weird. Having been on the other end of Author Visits for my almost twenty years of school librarianing, it's quite eye-opening to sit in the interviewee chair. Since they hadn't read the book, I shared my road to publication, my writing advice, and answered their very inquisitive questions.

I can't resist sharing a couple of the kids' wise comments. More to come, of course.

I think your book is going to be really popular. You helped me when you said you kept trying and didn't give up. Now when I get frustrated I don't rip up the paper. I punch my pillow and keep on trying.

It has been nice to actually meet the woman that Mrs. C. has been going on and on about for the last few weeks. I really wonder if the book Glory Be is as good as you said it was.

and one more for today:

Thank you for coming to the class... I am glad that you are giving our teacher the first copy of Glory Be. Being an author must be great.

Your #1 Fan

PS I like your hair cut.

Out of the mouths of babes and all that.

Great Book Reviewing

Since I kind of trashed reviewers with an ax to grind in this recent post, I'd like to take my hat off to the professional writers and the lovers of reading who know good books and know how to write about them.

Here's one fine example, in my recent UNC alumni publication, ENDEAVORS. Click here for their review of Minrose Gwin's book, Queen of Palmyra.

My favorite line:

"Some stories burn hot, cooking down quick and clean to a tidy, well-timed end. And some, like this one of Gwin's, smolder like a pot forgotten on the back of the stove."

Seen on a bumper sticker...

In anticipation of The Drive:

And this one, from a friend in Atlanta:


You don't have to go fast, you just have to go.


Related posts: Bumper stickers

More Periods, Less Conjunctions?

Although this writing coach doesn't specialize in writing fiction, Ann Wylie's advice frequently makes me sit up and take notice. I also love some of the less well-known quotes she digs up. Like this one, from one of the many writing books next to my desk:

“There’s not much to be said about the period, except that most writers don’t reach it soon enough.”

William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well

If you write for business, you may already know about her writing newsletter, but this one caught my attention. Click here to read what she says about Shorter Sentences.
(You may need to scroll around a bit, but her site is worth it.)

Now, excuse me while I depart the blog. I believe I have some conjunctions to "search and destroy."

Click here for my older post about Ann Wylie's newsletter, with a link to another website where I just wasted quite a few precious minutes. But totally fun minutes.

Just another ordinary day...

(I wish!)

Lunch with my editor today, a special treat. I got there early and popped in the Scholastic bookstore downstairs. Kids everywhere! Loving the books!
Now keep in mind, I'm trying to be Cool Author Lady. Not starstruck tourist.

But it does kind of take your breath away.

First stop? I'm drooling over Brian Selznick's new fabulous book, WONDERSTRUCK --smack dab in front. Which by the way I'm totally dying to read.

(Sorry about the photos. As I said above, trying to be C.A.L. and didn't want to be so obvious in my photo-snapping.)

Then I moseyed over to another enticing shelf. All sorts of familiar faces and names on these books.

Yep! There you are Kimberley! Front and center!

And then I had to pinch myself. Will my very own book be in the S section come January?!
Swooned all the way upstairs. Awestruck, starstruck, AND Thunderstruck.

Celebrity Guest

That would be me. At least, if you take the word of Ms. Casey's 4th graders. She was a winner of a GLORY BE Advanced Readers Copy. I popped in yesterday to say hello to her brilliant students.
They don't know me. They didn't know I was going to be there. They have not read the book. But I felt like a celebrity when I presented them with the book.

Here is why I think they are brilliant:

1. I packaged the book with ribbon, stars, and stickers. I showed them the stickers (guitars) and told them the book takes place in 1964. I asked if they had a guess about why I'd given them shiny guitar stickers. About 5 hands shot up, all with the right answer: ELVIS!

2. We talked about the cover art. One bright boy nailed it. "Maybe it's about a swimming pool that wouldn't let black people and white people swim at the same time."
Wow.

3. They know a lot about history. They can define historical fiction.
4. They asked amazing questions, and not just whether my name was really mine or not. Though we did talk about pseudonyms and they know the word.

Impressive bunch. This is the huge poster right at the front door.  No wonder they are so brilliant.

Book Reviewing, or whatever you want to call it

I love Eudora Welty's short stories. But I know not everybody "gets" her. Just now I was trying to decide which edition to pick as a gift for someone, and I was rambling around the Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.

This is what bugs me about random commenters, whether it be rating restaurants, TVs or news stories on websites. You don't know whom to trust. Is what you are reading coming from somebody who has a clue as to what they are saying? A reputable voice? A furious customer? Does it matter?

Eudora Welty is arguably one of our most esteemed writers. I could go on forever listing her awards and accolades. Yet, not everyone cares for her stories as much as I. (Though how could anybody resist her famous photographs? This lady looks exactly like my grandmother...)

My point? If you don't know what you are talking about and you really don't "get" something, should you just stay-the-heck off the review sites?



Am I being snarky? Does anybody agree with me? Can any good come from this review? Other than maybe giving us something to chuckle about at our Book Group discussion? True confessions- The 15-word description of a favorite story of mine, Why I Live at the P.O., did make me smile. For about a second.

This is what some random Amazon reviewer person says about the most famous of Welty's stories. At least he adds a disclaimer: "Everyone's taste is different."
I'll say.

What do you think? Helpful or mildly humorous? And what's the point,

(:

Do not read this book unless you like short stories or are required to do so. Each story is like reading the exposition of a novel, which is the most uninteresting part. Here are some of what the stories are about: 1) A woman who lives at the post office and has male relatives who wear dresses 2) A man who's wife said she drowned herself because he came home late, so the man went to look for here body in the river AND 3) Two mentally challenged people who want to get married and one is a xylophone player If these sound interesting to you get the book. They certainly weren't for me. Yet everyone's taste is different.

Great Beginnings

Today I re-read a truly terrific piece of advice from a blog all Middle-grade writers should have on their radar:
FROM THE MIXED UP FILES. Click this link and you'll be taken there in a blink!

In the numerous comments to Sarah Aronson's fun-to-read, helpful post about beginning sentences, one writer quoted Richard Peck:

He claims he always throws away his first chapter when he finishes his first draft and then  
“writes the chapter that goes at the beginning. Because the first chapter is the last chapter in disguise.”

Richard Peck may be onto something. But now that I've re-written a first paragraph, oh maybe FIFTY times, I don't think I'll throw it out just yet.

But you never know.

Hearing Voices

It's my turn over at my Southern Writers group blog. I'm pondering voice, big-bosomed English teachers, bug men, Louisiana bayous, nabs, New Jersey lady preachers. You name it, they are speaking to me. Much as I'm trying to shut a whole lot of them out.

Click here if you want to go there.

We Have a Winner!

Because so many of you entered my Giveaway for the GLORY BE Advanced Reader Copy, I decided to part with two of them. I'm saving one forever and have one to share with my Tampa Bay critique group who guided me through most of the revisions. (Thanks, Teddie, Sue and Melissa!)

It's drizzling outside so I didn't photograph the drawing this morning. But I tapped into my completely unbiased neighbor's goodwill and the lucky winners are...

PAT CASEY

and

CHRISTINA DIAZ GONZALEZ

I know how to find Pat. Christina, I'll look for a message on Facebook with your mailing address, please. 

Thanks, everybody, for your enthusiasm. Pat and Christina, I hope you like GLORY BE!

Free! Free! GLORY BE!

As promised, I'm starting the week with a giveaway of a GLORY BE Advanced Reader Copy.

I'll make this simple. Just leave me a comment on the blog or on the Facebook update.


I'll give everybody a week, and the completely-unbiased-by-a-neighborhood-kid drawing will be next Tuesday.

Thanks for entering and GOOD LUCK.

Things I Love, for a special reason

 I'm not the kind of cook who needs expensive kitchen tools.

This one wouldn't be a Thing I Love, except for the story. I love it for a special reason. It came from Paris.

My friend Kay and I bought garlic presses on the trip we made after our first stay together in Paris during the weeks around September 11, 2001.

There's a long story attached to that experience, too long for a blog. Involving family and friends in airplanes, in Washington DC, in New York. All petrified when they couldn't get in touch with me or my husband. Finally finding me, finally sending emails, cheering us up with reminders to have Berthillon ice cream and long, beautiful walks.



That story had a happy ending. But Kay and I had sad memories. So as soon as we could, we went back to Paris. We revisited our apartment and our internet cafe, the museums, the patisseries. We found garlic presses. They are pretty amazing, for a kitchen tool.

Now, every time I use this, I think of Paris. The memories are very happy now.
This may seem like a frivolous post about a garlic press. Really, it's about more than gadgets, or even Paris.

Related Post: September 11

Circle of Secrets

 Since Kimberley Griffiths Little and I now share a publisher (Scholastic), I was able to score an advanced reader copy of her new middle-grade novel,  
CIRCLE OF SECRETS,
coming in October.

Once again, she's nailed the Louisiana bayou setting. This time, in addition to the magic surrounding the story, there's time travel, or is it a ghost? Or maybe it's just the imagination of a young girl who's trying to figure out why her life is falling apart.

Shelby Jayne's mother walked out on her and her dad, but when Dad is sent overseas for work and Grandmother is not well enough to care for the 11-year-old, she must move to her mom's house on the bayou.

 There were many things I loved about this story.
I can never resist a mysterious bottle tree. And a new girl in school who's figuring out how to put the class bullies in their place? Good for her!
I predict this companion book will garner as many fans as The Healing Spell.

Related Post: The Healing Spell

ARCs!!!!

The UPS guy's working late tonight! Look what just landed on my doorstep. Oh, wow.

ARC= Advanced Reader Copies.

The Real Deal.

R My Name is Rachel

I'm using Darcy Pattison's Random Acts of Publicity Week to catch up on my blog book reviewing. One suggestion is to publicize a friend's book, and I'll do that later in the week. But Darcy also suggests we use our Acts on books we love. I love this book.


Patricia Reilly Giff is no stranger to book love, let me just say. And she doesn't really need my random act, I'm sure. But last night I picked up this book (sent from Random House) thinking I'd skim a bit. I couldn't put it down.

Oh, you might say, do we need another book set during the Depression?
(For the record, I also loved Turtle in Paradise, for the same middle-grade audience.)
Yes, we do. If it's R My Name is Rachel.

This new novel of Giff's is a love story, a survival story, a family story. The writing is exquisite. Like this, from Rachel, digging the garden:

Overhead, the sun is strong. It's much too hot for the hat. I toss it over my shoulder and hack some more. And then I start to get into the rhythm of it. Dig, dig deeper, turn the weeds up, the soil up.
And after a while, I throw myself on the warm earth. I grab a long brown weed and yank it. And then another.

A lot of things happen in this story. Bad things you'd expect from a family struggling during a time that sounds sadly like today in many ways.

And talk about flawed characters- Rachel and her sister are not exactly shining examples of sisterly love.

I love to see intriguing, amazing facts tucked into novels-- things kids take away from a book quite innocently. Edible ferns. Goats who digest curtains. Snow so high it plugs up the chinks in a house.

It's also quite short. Very easy to read. A page turner. And includes a big shout-out for kids who love to read, as Rachel does in the story.

If you want to join the fun and publicize a friend's book or a book you love, you can check out that link up there to Darcy's FAQs on the topic. Or you can just head to your Facebook account, your Amazon reviews, Goodreads or wherever you like to share book thoughts and give them a holler!

Who's in?

Quote of the Day

 Did you ever stop to think... and then forget to start again?
A.A. Milne


Jay's birthday card, from Barbara and Al...

Things I Love- so much!

How I love my friends! Especially the ones who just sent me this amazing gift.

It's an adorable satiny bag, large enough for my iPhone and a few other necessities. With a swingy little cord that fits around my wrist, if need be. And a cute black and white checked ribbon on the zipper. 

Oh, I adore everything about it. So I guess today's Things I Love would be Leslie and Barbara this bag they sent.

Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve friends like this!

Here's the website info, from inside the bag. Click on that link to see all the neat things from Tory Nicole.

I see it's called a wristlet, which makes me love it all the more. It sounds like something Pooh would carry his honey jar in.

I hope every time I reach for my bag someone will ask me about it. I can tell them about my book and about my writer friends.

Oh, wow. I've been smiling all day.

Related posts: Life and Art
My Meme
Another Thing I Love

What I'm Reading During Hurricane Watch

A few years ago-- okay a long time ago-- I started married life with a Navy Hurricane Hunter in Weather Reconnaissance Squadron 4, based as NAS Jacksonville, Florida. Back then, we were totally tuned in to hurricane season. And this was before the Weather Channel.

 But while living in the northeast, I kind of ignored hurricanes. We worried more about blizzards.

When we moved to Florida, it all came back to me. Especially during 2004, a Big Season for storms. We normally aren't in Florida during hurricane season. We button our little house up, move everything out of harm's way, and head back to New Jersey. But that summer of 2004, we were in St. Petersburg and passed the storm hunkered down with our dog and our family. I seem to recall learning how to play Texas Hold 'em in that storm.
 
Hurricane Irene, through a strange set of crazy circumstances, found me in Florida, and the hurricane barreling toward my New Jersey condo. Go figure.

Thanks to nice neighbors who popped over there yesterday, the plants were secured, the flag removed, the packages left on the doorstep safely put away. My New Jersey basement, maybe not. I'm keeping a weather eye out, as they say.

But today, I'm saturated with this post-hurricane 24/7 coverage. So I decided to  re-read Jennifer Holm's TURTLE IN PARADISE. Remember the hurricane? The Florida Keys, 1935.

Here's a little bit of it, from Turtle's point-of-view:

Raindrops belt the shack like spitballs. The storm is scarier than anything I've ever been in before because the shack is so flimsy. I keep waiting for it to blow away- and us with it.

Then the rats crawl over their feet. What kid wouldn't just love hearing that scene read aloud? The roof cracks and the boys are crying. Turtle starts singing that stupid Shirley Temple song.
About the Good Ship Lollipop. And the boys join in.

The wind howls, but the Diaper Gang of Key West belts out a song as the angry storm washes everything away.
It has a happy ending for the kids. I think it would be a perfect book to share with young readers, post hurricane.

I'm reading it again to see how that gifted writer put it all together. How funny I think Turtle is. How well Holm pulls the history in, the details, the music, the language.

I love what the Story Sleuths said about the book in their postings. (Click here to go there. Note to Story Sleuths- come back! I loved your in-depth looks at books!)

I already blogged a bit about TURTLE IN PARADISE when it first came out. I reviewed it on my friend Joyce's "history" blog. If you go to my earlier blog entry about the book, you can read my review.

I was inspired to write this post by Kate Messner's blog invitation.
Maybe you were too? Hurricane thoughts anyone?

Back-to-work Supplies

I spent most of my career living life on a September to June schedule. Yes, I was a school librarian.

So even now, September seems like a new beginning. When I see moms with those lists and kids gleefully choosing notebooks, pencil boxes, just the right markers and themed binders, I feel an overwhelming need to purchase some paperclips. Or at least a new red pen.

Today's post from a Facebook friend about her Top Ten Writing Tools of the Trade inspired me. Since I agree with many of her top ten, I'll let you click over there and won't repeat. HOWEVER, one of her top ten may be something the rest of the writing world hasn't discovered. So I'll share right here.

And since I can't say it any better than she did, I'll just quote her word for word:

 FLIP DICTIONARY.  It’s not a thesaurus—exactly—but it’s similar, kinda.  It will help you find the term or word that’s eluding you.  It might even get you thinking of a whole new story to tell.  I just can’t emphasize how totally awesome it is.



I found out about this Flip Dictionary from another writer.
Sometimes a writer friend gives you a gift and never realizes how much you appreciate it. So all these years after she told me about this book, I'd like to say thank you to Selene Castrovilla.

I met Selene at a New School class we took together and again at a terrific Highlights Founders weekend. I still remember her holding up her very obviously loved Flip Dictionary and sharing it with the Highlights group.

So my Top Ten Tools of the Trade would include my trusty Flip Dictionary, my absolute favorite colored paperclips (Thanks, Teddie!), my Office Depot black pens (cheap and good- often oxymorons), my collection of writing books (though I'm thinking I should move away from the craft books and just start revising already?).

And one more writing tool that I don't think I could live without. Truly. And anybody who reads my blog knows what I'm about to say. Yeah, that's it. SCRIVENER. Yes, I'm a broken record (does anybody even say that anymore??) on this one. But I'm not sure I can write another novel without my trusty Scrivener software. I know I don't want to try.

Does September seem like a new beginning? Are you ready with your writing tools?

The Name Game

1965? Hand jive? Man, could we dance. (Or not.)

Okay, now that you're inspired-

I usually don't have trouble coming up with a character's name. In fact, that's where I start. With a name or two, definitely a place and a time.

But unlike some of my fellow writers who shall remain nameless, for me all that can change in a heartbeat.

Take Cletus, for example. Cletus, you say? Yes, a real boy from my past, going into a story kind of from my past. Missing May, one of my favorite middle grade novels of all times, featured a boy named Cletus. I thought it was a perfect name.

But then a few teachers and young moms perused the manuscript. Cletus was deemed unsuitable. So I named him after two "Franks"--one is a favorite life-long friend, the other a new little boy in our extended family. Both really nice people! And I like his new name even better: Franklin (Franklin Cletus Smith, in my mind's eye), Frankie, AKA Frankfurter when teased. A character I love a lot.

Problem solved.

Move on to the next. Now mind you, naming characters can totally change their personality. Glory's big sister in my forthcoming novel GLORY BE was originally called Virginia. Not for long. A very wise writer in my critique group pointed out that naming characters after states, in children's books, can be confusing. I thought about that name and it seemed way too milktoasty for this big sister. She became Jesslyn. She became more daring. An aspiring fire baton twirler, sneaking away to visit Elvis's house in Tupelo, standing up to Old Lady Simpson who wants to close her public pool.

If you're stuck on a name, or a place name, there are websites that will generate a name for you.

If you love Scrivener as much as I do, perhaps you've tried their very own Name Generator? I've never actually chosen a name this way, but I did play around with Scrivener on this and see how it might actually work.

And if you care to know more, I attached more links in this post I wrote about Character Names.

Do It Yourself?

Have you ever thought of publishing your book yourself? Have the stigmas attached to the process disappeared? Is this true of every genre?

A few years ago, I was part of a committee who published a book of oral histories for our local historical society. TEN ON A TOBOGGAN had an easy distribution system (the historical society, our local library, area giftshops).
There were three of us and a whole organization behind this book. It took a year to gather all the oral histories and ready them for book-making.
It was a fun experience. We hired two professionals to guide us. We used a company (IUniverse) experienced in the business.
Most importantly, we were all sticklers for the English language and proof-readers to a fault.

That's my biggest complaint with the self-published books I've read so far. I just reviewed one this month for Delta Magazine-- a more or less fictionalized memoir/ short story collection. Could that guy have ever used a good editor!
For somebody who mostly reviews commercially published books (that would be me!), it's painful to read blatant grammar, punctuation, and even literary faux pas on the printed page.

But DOT TO DOT is a middle-grade novel, written by an author whose first book was traditionally published. I seriously doubt any of these amateurish mistakes have been made on this one. The cover is fabulous, don't you think? The topic is interesting and age-appropriate.

Now she's sharing her secrets- good and bad.
Kit Bakke's article should be read by anyone who's thinking of self-publishing a book. All the details, right there for the clicking.

A few disclaimers. She's a friend of a friend, though I haven't met Kit. We have corresponded some during her road to publication. I haven't read this book, but now I'm intrigued. Here's an excellent review of the book, quite complete.

Her first book is titled Miss Alcott's E-mail. Here's Kit's website, for info about both books.

Scrivener, again...

I'm beginning (yet again) a new/ old project. Just writing that makes me realize why I love to write in Scrivener. There's only one way to tame a New/Old Project.

Here's what I love about Scrivener.

1. I like order (hey, I was a librarian for a long time, and a mostly organized person even before that). I like putting all my notes, research, chapters, thoughts in one place.  I'd dread delving into this if I didn't think Scrivener could tame the notebooks, notecards, ripped out newspaper articles, and false-start chapters I have.

2. One thing I love best about the software is how I can make document notes, all the words I've cut, all my wanderings and musings, right on the side of the chapter I'm writing. Yet, if they get unruly, I can make them disappear with one click.

3. If I mess up, all is not lost. If I remember to take a SNAPSHOT of the previous version, it is there for the asking later.

This morning I followed a link from Facebook and stumbled on this, from a thesis writer.
To to read the entire blog, click here.

Her blogpost is titled Is Your Computer Domesticating You?

It’s hard to be messy in a clean way
As I write I have ideas – some of them don’t relate to the bit I am writing at that specific moment, so I often ‘jot notes’ on my documents as I go. At the moment I use the comments function in Word to do this, which makes my documents look messy. In fact, so messy that I often turn the comments off just so I can see what I am doing.
But – out of sight is out of mind and the ideas can easily get lost when they are invisible. In addition, the format of the comments is uncomfortable to read. By contrast each of the Scrivener fragments I write has metadata attached to it where I can jot to my heart’s content.

My thoughts exactly.

And that cute little button at the top of this blog? Arranging words is a nice thought. But that's not all it takes. I've arranged these new/old words before. This time, I need all the help I can get- Scrivener is just the beginning, but what an excellent place to re-start.

Now, back to work- all of us!


Related post (with picture and another Scrivener link!): I Love Scrivener, another reason

Glory Be Birthday

My upcoming novel's main character, Gloriana June Hemphill, and I share a summer birthday. As a kid, I didn't like having my birthday when school was out and nobody was around. Glory doesn't look forward to her birthday unless there's an open swimming pool nearby. She and I also share a love of water and swimming parties.

This past weekend, it was MY birthday.  No pool party, but a cake.

Not just any cake! This amazing cake.

Look closely and you'll see that even the edges of the pages look real.
It was a delicious marble cake with buttercream icing.

Here's what it looked like by the end of the day...

Sad.

POCKET MUSE #2

I've spent the morning with my new book: THE POCKET MUSE: Endless Inspiration, by Monica Wood. I wrote about these books last week on my group blog, A Good Blog is Hard to Find. I called that post Write Like a Hummingbird

because-- well, click on over there and find out why.

Check out all the places I've marked already. And I'm only about a third of the way through.

A few sample quotes, from the author (there are also quotes from famous writers, though perhaps not as many as in Book #1. Then again, that's not what these little books are all about):

In a writing life, things are always about to happen. 

If you keep your hat in the ring, sooner or later somebody's going to need a hat.

There's also one of the best pieces of advice about choosing titles I've ever read-- on p. 97. Perhaps more to come on that topic later. 

Or you could just buy the book. It's really a bargain. The perfect size for travelers. 

And if you aren't a writer? I'd recommend it just for thinkers.

Peaches!

In honor of the delicious summer peaches at all our NJ Farmers' Markets-- not to mention the end of the blueberries-- here's the article from the Christian Science Monitor I wrote a couple of summers ago. Includes an easy "mock" cobbler recipe that's so easy to make I could do it on a tiny kitchen table with a questionable oven.

(However, mine didn't rival Aunt Lynn's cobbler topping,  made with real cream, butter, sugar. I need that recipe from our family dinner last week!)

(Photo from Morguefile, thanks to Jeremy Wrenn)

Writing Quote of the Day

"When there's no wind, row." 
 Judith Viorst.

(Writing advice via Geraldine Brooks. Now, I need to take that advice and get moving. How about you?)

Writing Thought for the Day

 


"The only way I can write is to shut out all those guide book suggestions about through-lines and character arcs and theme and let my subconscious do its wild, unpredictable thing. Rules are for revisions."

from Linda Urban, whose new book HOUND DOG TRUE sounds like just my kind of story.

(Related Post: Practicing to Be Perfect)

Things I Love

Figs! 

For so many reasons.

And when I can't get to my sister's to pick her figs and the New Jersey Farmers' Markets just sold their only basket, I have these ceramic beauties my daughter brought me from her summer studying in Florence.

Her cousin showed us the shop. I bought two. But they are heavy-ish, and we pack light in our family. So imagine my surprise when my daughter came home with more figs--and even two peaches--  for my birthday that year.

They live in the bowl I gave my mother the spring my husband and I lived in California.
It's mine now.

Many things to love in this picture.

Here's a funny (I hope) blast from the past about My Great Fig Fiasco, my first blog post ever on the Southern Writers Blog: A Good Blog is Hard to Find.