TubTalk

http://laurelsnyder.com/2009/11/28/there-is-a-squirrel/

http://laurelsnyder.com/?p=488

Inside our walls.

We can hear him snoring at night.

No kidding!

I’m liking this day after Thanksgiving. The extra plates and cups are clean and seem are even put away. The refrigerator holds leftover turkey and vegetables and a spare bowl of my friend Jess’s chai butternut soup which tastes a bit like dessert – oh, vanilla! She said she made this and the pumpkin pie she brought from the actual tough-skinned vegetables, which made her feel more grateful.

The house is clean by my standards, and the novel I’ve worked on for a few years, with some projects in-between, is kind of done. My standards for that are of course higher than for how much is too much dog hair on the couch. I’m still fiddling with words and dreaming my way into some scenes, but there is a beginning, a middle, and end, something someone besides me might read and comprehend.

Thanksgiving is over and I know there’s a new season right ahead. I got out some cookie recipes and my clippers to start cutting greens. I’m making those lists. And I’m thinking how very little actually becomes “over.” I can move past a holiday on the calendar and put my manuscript in an envelope, but now I’m using the day to look back and peek ahead, and feeling happy for this peaceful time that’s just between.



Harvest wreath made by my husband, Peter

I had hoped to have a new poem up today but I didn't quite finish it. So I went looking through my archive for something to share and came across some poems that were cut from my book Hugging the Rock. If you've read the book you may remember a pivotal time for Rachel, the main character, when she goes grocery shopping with her dad. In an early version of the book I had this poem of Rachel shopping with her mom to show the differences. But in the end it was too much of a flashback and didn't add anything new to the story.


GROCERY SHOPPING WITH MOM

At the grocery store
mom stops to talk to everyone.

She scoops up new babies
sings them lullabies
nuzzles their peach fuzz heads.

In the produce aisle she spouts advice
races off to give her coupons to the old man in the wheelchair
then slips a quarter into the rocket ship
for a skinny kid in a baseball cap.

She tosses boxes of cereal
into the cart
then dances away
chasing a guy blowing a harmonica.

I put four boxes back on the shelf
and trail after her.

In the pet food aisle
mom talks fast
her hands pointing everywhere
and nowhere
until the guy smiles
cups the harmonica
close to his mouth
and plays a sweet tune.

The guy tucks a bag of dog food
under one arm
and they both walk off
still talking.

My mom marches beside him
right through the checkout stand
and out the door
and never once looks back at me.

I wait over an hour
watching the ice cream melt
and drip onto the loaf of bread
and a jar of pickles
wondering what is
in me
that makes me
so invisible
to her.

--- Susan Taylor Brown
All Rights Reserved

The round-up is at Becky's Book Reviews today.

I am thankful for a great many things today - family, friends, health, ability to be home writing - but I wanted to speak specifically to a single recent experience.

Earlier this week I went on a retreat with a few writer friends and a few writer/artists strangers who are now friends. We gathered at the beach mostly with solitary intentions and yet, it seemed, the magic of where we were and the creative energy of those gathered had other ideas.

We came with no agenda, no speakers, nothing that absolutely had to be done.

Groups of two and three started to form. Individual work turned into freeform group writing fun. Books and art were shared. Gifts were acknowledged, praised. We were validated as professional creatives. Meals stretched for several hours as we lingered over coffee and tea. We sat by the fire and talked long into the night. We laughed (and some of us cried) and took a great many pictures.

Our backgrounds, our journeys to be writers, were of course very different.
Our passion however, was very much the same.

I am so grateful for the time spent with these fabulous and talented women. You have to understand that it isn't because someone took me aside and said a particular thing to me. It isn't because of anything we saw or ate or did. I think it might be because of what they didn't do.

They didn't say "do this." They didn't say "don't do that." They just listened. And accepted.

It rocked my world from the inside out.

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you. Thank you for all the times you read my blog. May your bellies and hearts be full of everything you need.

Time is running out for teens 13-18 to enter the $1000 book trailer contest! Please help spread the word to teens and teachers and librarians. The deadline for submissions is December 15th.

Please feel free to copy and paste from this post or if you want to link directly to the FreshBrain sign-up page, you can use this tiny url: http://tinyurl.com/rocktrailer

Create a video book trailer for the novel "Hugging the Rock" by Susan Taylor Brown.


Put together a cast and act it out, create an animation, or use photos with text set to music - it's up to you. Be creative. Have fun. Make people want to read the book.

More details can be found at the Freshbrain.org website: http://tinyurl.com/rocktrailer

SUMMARY OF RULES
- U.S resident only between 13 and 18 years of age (as of the close of the contest)
- 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length and in a standard video format (.wmv, .mov, .avi, .mp4)
- Your own creation, NO copyrighted material
- Include a brief description of the process you followed
- Deadline for entries is 12/15/09

JUDGING
Judging will be based on the following criteria. Please see the official rules for more details.
- Creativity (50%)
- Consistency with the book (25%)
- Fit and finish (25%)

AWARDS
- The winner will receive a $1000 scholarship!

Help the Mt. Diablo branch of California Writers Club raise money for their Young Writers Contest for middle grade students. If you shop at ANY Barnes and Noble Bookstore from Nov. 28 through Dec. 4th and present their voucher (http://tinyurl.com/yf3ypfx) they will receive 10 - 25% of the amount of your purchase to help fund their yearly writing contest for middle grade students.

For the first time this year, you can also use the ID on the voucher to shop online at the Barnes and Noble web site or any other B&N store in the nation.

Since I got home from NCTE Saturday night, I've been devouring books. This happens to me when I've just finished a big project (I turned in the final revision for SUGAR ON SNOW after an afternoon of work in a Philly coffee shop!) - I have a sudden need to go on a reading binge before I move on to something else, so that's what I've been doing. I've finished Cynthia Omololu's fast-paced, compelling YA debut, DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, which comes out from Walker in February. Then it was Bonnie Shimko's upcoming MG novel, THE PRIVATE THOUGHTS OF AMELIA E. RYE, which releases from FSG this spring and has a main character with one of the greatest voices of all time. Really. And finally, Elizabeth Partridge's MARCHING FOR FREEDOM, an amazing narrative nonfiction account of the children and young people involved in the Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. All of these books are wonderful in wildly different ways, and I'll be blogging about them all soon in more detail. For now, I'm just thankful to have read them.

I'm also thankful for these kids...



...who joined me for an author presentation at Dodge Memorial Library in Rouses Point, NY on their day off today. One boy, who was already waiting on the carpet when I arrived to set up my projector, looked up and asked, "So you write books?" I nodded and handed him copies of my two regional historical novels as well as THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. He started flipping through one of the books, and his eyes got huge. "You wrote ALL THIS?" Sometimes as authors, published or unpublished, we forget what an accomplishment that really is.

And one last thankful moment...that came in my email from a teacher in Kansas. Her school library did a great project where kids got to create pumpkins that looked like their favorite book characters. Guess who this is:


Yep...it's my main character from THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. See the resemblance?



I love the way this reader/pumpkin artist captured Gianna's crazy red curls and her creative spirit, and mostly, I'm honored that she connected with the character enough to turn her into a pumpkin. Moments like this, so wonderfully quirky and unexpected, have been the very best part of this book journey. Much to be thankful for, indeed.

I hope your Thanksgiving is full of wonderful people, good food, and great books!

Tweaks and enhancements

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Send some lovin' thanks to your friends with our holiday vgifts!

Photos of the week

We're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.

Check out this week's photo poll and more fantastic user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you!

stirlingbennett asked: Did you ever read back over your first draft and just shudder? Wonder how you could have ever been pleased with it? If so, how did you deal with it? Was your confidence in your ability to make it better just so strong there was no stopping you, or did you have to talk yourself into believing you were, indeed, a good writer and this draft was not the end?

2K9 authors answered:

J.T. Dutton: I definitely always shudder when I reread my first drafts. Afterwards, I plod into the kitchen and lay my hot face in the cold mashed potatoes. Writing is constant balancing act of self loathing and self love.

Beverly Patt: Actually, many times my first drafts contain some of my freshest material. It's when I go over and over something that I have the potential to crush the life out of it!

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: It depends on the day you ask me. One day I may feel completely confident about my first draft, the next, I wonder what in the world I was thinking and am ready to delete the entire thing.

Danielle Joseph: I've definitely had times when I've looked at a first draft and thought, whoa, does this even make sense? When that happens I usually give myself a couple of days break from the manuscript and come back with a refreshed eye. I try to break it down chapter by chapter and see what I can do to improve it. If I'm totally stuck, I'll turn to a critique buddy to give it a second eyeball.

Lauren Bjorkman: This is how it is for me: I love the story while I'm working on it. After I put it away, my confidence in it wanes over time, until I'm pretty sure the whole thing is garbage. When I bring it out again, I think...oh, this is better than I remembered. All I have to do is take out these lame bits, develop this character a little more, tweak the plot here and there, and it will be brilliant! My eternal optimism keeps me going.

Cheryl Renee Herbsman: What Kathryn said – only for me it’s not one day to the next, it’s one moment. Seriously. Up and down all day. It’s wonderful! It sucks! It’s genius! It’s inane! And so on…

Ellen Jensen Abbott: This happened to me this very morning. Today was a good day, so rather than the cold mashed potatoes ala JT Dutton, I said, "Whatever. I'll fix it next time around." Sometimes those lame sections serve a very important purpose of capturing the events/moments/scene you need in that spot, even if the writing is lame. Peter Elbow (I think it was him) even used this idea as a technique, recommending the WIRMI. When you can't find the right words you write WIRMI (what I really mean is) and get it out in some way shape or form knowing you will return. If it's a good day, like today, I keep going, relishing forward motion. On bad days, after I wipe the potatoes from my eyes, I word-smith and word-smith and write myself a pep-talk or write myself a diatribe until I can go forward again. Writing is a spiral, backwards, forwards, then backwards again. The important thing is to keep writing.

Edith M. Hemingway: As far as I'm concerned, the first draft is just to get the basic skeleton of my story down on paper--to make sure I have the semblance of a workable plot, characters that I can connect with, and a setting that draws me in. Then the fun begins. I love revision--fleshing out the characters, making the setting come alive, getting to the core of the emotion. That usually takes many more drafts because I think revision needs to be done in layers.

Rosanne Parry: I can't think of any art form that doesn't demand practice. 

I've recently returned to playing my violin because I'm writing a character who plays. I know if I'm going to learn a new piece of music I need to spend time listening to it first. I need to figure out the key and pick out the tune at a very slow tempo. Then I need to rehearse the tricky parts many times over. Then I go back to the beginning and play through the whole piece at the proper tempo. This might take a few days or a few months depending on how hard the music is and it all sounds pretty bad to me when I'm at this stage of learning a song. But once I can play the whole piece through correctly, I go back and work on the "fun" parts of the music--the dynamics and phrasing and all the things that make a song unique and beautiful. 

I'm very fortunate to have a critique group willing to revisit as many drafts of a story as I need. I try to make sure I've taken a story as far as I possibly can on my own before I bring it to my editor, so that we can work on refining the fun parts of the story. It's not that I love my first draft or even any of the in-between efforts. I think I just stick with it long enough because I love stories and know that multiple revisions is what it is going to take to write a good one.

Sydney Salter: No--but I probably should have. I do tend to think my glass is always half-full.

Learn about David Lubar.

What do you love most about your creative life? Why?

I love solving problems. And, really, that's the main job of a fiction writer. We solve our characters' problems.

We have the added pleasure of giving them the problems in the first place.

What is the one craft book that you refer to again and again? Why?

The Art of Answering Interview Questions by Askya Qanda.

How do you psyche yourself up to write and to keep writing?

I don't need to psyche myself up. I love writing.

So far, what's the most fun you've ever had working on a book? Why?

I've been walking around with a giddy grin ever since starting my new series, Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie (Starscape, 2009).


I get to write sentences such as, "Even though I don't feel pain, I didn't want to give birth to a pile of chicken wings," and do dreadful things with defibrillators.

How do you define artistic success?

I write the books I want to write, and I've found an audience. I'm not stuck in a rut, writing the same sort of thing all the time.

(I've always seen Bruce Coville as a role model. He writes everything.)

I've written horror, humor, real life, science fiction, fantasy, YA novels, chapter books, and short stories. As for success, I can make my living writing. I get lots of positive feedback from kids, teachers, and librarians.

You can always look a couple rungs up the ladder. It's easy to fall into the trap of envying someone who just won a big award or got a movie deal. But I'm sitting in my office in sweat-shorts and a T-shirt, listening to a nice CD and answering questions that will appear on a popular blog.

If I want to take a break and play a video game or go for a walk, there's no boss to tell me what to do. I have eight books scheduled to come out in the next four years. Really, I have no reason and no right to complain or to want more than I have.

What do you love most about being an author? Why?

I love making something out of nothing. I love the infinite possibilities of the unwritten book. Paradoxically, once the path is set, I love paring those possibilities into a story that seems, in the end, both inevitable and surprising. And I love answering interview questions like this one.

How do you reach out to teachers and librarians?

First, I have to extricate myself from their hugs. Having accomplished that, I try to speak at lots of conferences. I'm fortunate to have a publisher that takes me to plenty of national events. I'm also fortunate to be invited to speak at lots of state conferences.

How do you approach the task of connecting your books to young readers?

Nails are far too painful, and even staples draw more blood than I'd like, so I've settled for string or those "Live Strong" yellow wristbands.

How have you come to thrive in such a competitive, unpredictable industry?

By some stroke of luck, my interests mesh pretty well with those of the typical sixth or seventh grader.

So far, what has been the highlight of your professional career? Why?

A couple things come to mind. The New Jersey branch of NCTE gave me the first Muriel Becker Literary Award. She was an amazing woman and an important scholar in the science fiction world. As a Jersey boy, that was especially thrilling.

Speaking of New Jersey, another highlight was being asked by the NJ Educational Media Association to give the keynote at their conference many years ago. I've given tons of talks since then, but this really felt like I was coming home.

How do you define professional success?

Years ago, I told myself, "If I could make my living writing short stories, I'd be happy." I really love stories.

Much to my amazement, I actually make a good part of my living from the Weenies collections. The fourth one, The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies (Starscape, 2009), is already in a third hardcover printing.

Everyone in the industry will tell you that stories don't sell, but I seem to have found an exception to that rule and a loyal readership.

In your own words, could you tell us about your latest book?

My Rotten Life (Starscape, 2009) tells how Nathan Abercrombie becomes a zombie after getting splashed with an experimental formula. Throughout the first book, he and his friends attempt to find a cure.

If I may boast a tiny bit, I have to say that the book has the finest ending I've ever written.



What can your fans look forward to next?

Book two, Dead Guy Spy comes out in January. And, after several more books in this series, I'll be working on a fifth story collection. Also, with luck, some awesome blogger will ask me for another interview. A guy can only hope....

Cynsational Notes

The Craft, Career & Cheer series features conversations with children's-YA book creators about positive aspects of their creative and professional lives.

The Eyeball Collector by F.E. Higgins (Feiwel & Friends 2009): a recommendation by Greg Leitich Smith from GregLSBlog.

Seven Characteristics You Need to Get Published by Carolyn Kaufman from QueryTracker.net. Peek: "The first thing every real writer needs is a willingness to learn and grow. All agents or editors—no matter how busy—are interested in quality work."

2009 Cybils Widget is now available from JacketFlap. Show your support by adding it to your blog!

Balancing Acts by Kelly Bingham from Through the Tollbooth. Peek: "How do you take all those reams of writing advice, all the lessons you have gleaned from novels and books on craft, and make them balance out? Because haven't you heard pieces of advice that contrast with one another? Who is right? Who is wrong?"

Top 10 Myths About E-Books from Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent. Peek: "...because e-books are (usually) much cheaper than print books, it doesn't take long before an e-reader pays for itself - since most hardcovers that sell for $25 or more are available for $9.99, all it takes is roughly 20 e-books for an e-reader to pay for itself."

Unlocking Your Potential by Kristi Holl from Writer's First Aid. Peek: "Some of my most brilliant students gave up after a rejection or two and never were published. But I have books on my shelf from medium-talented students who refused to give up on their dreams–books published by large New York publishers."

Congratulations to Nicola I. Campbell, whose picture book Shin-chi's Canoe (Groundwood), "about a little boy leaving home for a residential school, has won the $25,000 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award." Note: the illustrator of the book is Kim LaFave. Sources: CBC News; Debbie Reese from American Indians in Children's Literature.

Attention Central Texans: children's author Dianna Hutts Aston will be reading and signing in the Buda (TX) Public Library in conjunction with Budafest at 1 p.m. Dec. 5.

The Importance of White Space by R.L. LaFevers from Shrinking Violet Promotions. Peek: "White space could be wielded as effectively as the most brilliant prose, and to equally devastating effect. What you leave out is as important as what you leave in."

Altitude and Attitude by Susan Uhlig from Kidlit Central. Peek: "As an adult we think it is funny or cute when kids do certain things. Unless they are trying to be funny, often what they are doing is very serious business."

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers’s "List of Attributes that Make a Good Children’s Book" from Michael Stearns at Upstart Crow Literary. Source: Cynthia Lord.

Winners of Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books: compiled by Michael Thorn at ACHOCKABLOG. Peek: "John Fardell, Lari Don and Keith Gray have been named as this year's winners for the 2009 Royal Mail Awards, Scotland's largest children's Book Prize which is voted for exclusively by Scottish children themselves."

National Book Award Dinner Photo Montage by Lorie Ann Grover at readergirlz.

Writers' Conferences: Approaching Other Writers by Ami from Write Out Loud. Peek: "Once you’ve made a connection, the easiest way to start a conversation is to introduce yourself and ask what type of writing the person does."

Writing While White by Justine Larbalestier. Peek: "What we all have to remember when we write about people—any people—is that the risks of reinforcing stereotypes and thus hurting people is very high. So the onus is on us to do the very best job we can. We also have to remember that even when we do a wonderful job, even if we are a member of the group we’re representing, there are still people who will be offended."

Wasted by Brian Yansky from Brian's Blog: Writer Talk. Peek: "Here I’m referring to the idea that every manuscript does not become a published book even from writers who have published books and even from famous writers who have published books."

Choose Cybils Books for the Holidays from Jen Robinson's Book Page. Peek: "I've always felt that one of the biggest benefits that comes out of the Cybils process is these categorized lists of nominees and finalists. I hope that if any of you are planning to buy children's or young adult books for the holidays, you'll take advantage of this resource."

Cynsational Screening Room

In the video below, "Author Mary Amato demonstrates how she wrote Invisible Lines (Egmont, 2009), her new novel for ages 10 and up."



Take a sneak peek at the film, "Beastly," based on the novel of the same title by Alex Flinn (HarperCollins). Read a Cynsations interview with Alex.

Beastly Teaser Trailer

Trailer Park | MySpace Video

The video below celebrates the New Zealand Book Council: Where Books Come to Life. Note: this is much cooler than I'm making it sound--definitely do click to view. Source: Janet Reid, Literary Agent.



Remember Shayne Leighton, the amazing young filmmaker who created my book trailers for Rain Is Not My Indian Name (HarperCollins, 2001), Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007), and Eternal (Candlewick, 2009)?

Here's a peek at her latest project, "The Incubus." See also a Cynsations interview with Shayne.



More Personally

Happy (American) Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!

Special cheers to readergirlz, Through the Tollbooth, and of course American Indians in Children's Literature for their thoughtful and respectful posts on Native children's-YA literature and related educational considerations!

Thanks to MissAttitude at Reading in Color for featuring the Native American Youth Lit widget from JacketFlap on her blog!

Cynsational Giveaways

Enter to win one of two author-signed copies of Soap Soap Soap Jabón Jabón Jabón by Elizabeth O. Dulemba (Raven Tree, 2009), one of three author-signed copies of My Father's House by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by Raul Colón (Viking, 2007), an author-bookplate-signed copy of Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French (Amulet, 2009) and a contributor-signed copy of Immortal: Love Stories with Bite, edited by P.C. Cast (BenBella, Oct. 2009)!

To enter, email me (scroll and click envelope) with your name and snail/street mail address and type "Soap Soap Soap Jabón Jabón Jabón" and/or "My Father's House" and/or "Operation Redwood" and/or "Immortal" in the subject line (Facebook, JacketFlap, MySpace, and Twitter readers are welcome to just privately message me with the name in the header; I'll contact you if you win). Deadline: midnight CST Nov. 30.

Read a Cynsations interview with S. Terrell French. See also a PDF excerpt of Immortal which highlights my short story, "Haunted Love." The story is set in the same universe as Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007, 2008) and Eternal (Candlewick, 2009) and features new characters.

Cynsational Events

Destination Publication: An Awesome Austin Conference for Writers and Illustrators is scheduled for Jan. 30 and sponsored by Austin SCBWI. Keynote speakers are Newbery Honor author Kirby Larson and Caldecott Honor author-illustrator Marla Frazee, who will also offer an illustrator breakout and portfolio reviews. Presentations and critiques will be offered by editor Cheryl Klein of Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, author-editor Lisa Graff of FSG, agent Andrea Cascardi of Transatlantic Literary, agent Mark McVeigh of The McVeigh Agency, and agent Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Advanced critique break-out sessions will be led by editor Stacy Cantor of Bloomsbury. In addition, Cheryl and author Sara Lewis Holmes will speak on the editor-and-author relationship, and Marla and author Liz Garton Scanlon will speak on the illustrator-and-author relationship. Note: Sara and Liz also will be offering manuscript critiques. Illustrator Patrice Barton will offer portfolio reviews. Additional authors on the speaker-and-critique faculty include Jessica Lee Anderson, Chris Barton, Shana Burg, P.J. Hoover, Jacqueline Kelly, Philip Yates, Jennifer Ziegler. See registration form, information packet, and conference schedule (all PDF files)!

2010 Houston-SCBWI Conference is scheduled for Feb. 20, 2010, at the Merrell Center in Katy. Registration is now open. The faculty includes author Cynthia Leitich Smith, assistant editor Ruta Rimas of Balzer & Bray/HarperCollins, creative director Patrick Collins of Henry Holt, senior editor Alexandra Cooper of Simon & Schuster, senior editor Lisa Ann Sandell of Scholastic, and agent Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger, Inc.

Whenever I come back from being away from home, (whether it's hours or days doesn't matter) Cassie has to give me the one over with her nose, gathering up all the scents from where I've been. Usually it's a quick sniff because I haven't been gone too long. And of course anything that comes in the house with me needs to be sniffed out as well. Sometimes I'll take an old toy with me and put it in my purse so she can sniff it out and be reunited with an old friend.

She'll be doing her sniffing routine and suddenly smell something that she knows, without a doubt, belongs to her. There's such joy for her those moments. She races to her rug with little yips of excitment and then waits, tail wagging like crazy, for me to give her the toy. Once she has it, whatever it is, she runs off to the library to toss it in the air a few times then pounce on it, pinning it to the ground with her paws.

I have something that belongs to her and she wants it back. She doesn't wonder if it is hers. She KNOWS. And once she has that toy back she gives it all of her attention, lavishes it with loving enthusiasm and then, once that reconnection is confirmed, she gives a loud sigh of contentment, dropping her head to the floor to rest upon the toy.

I just got home from a few days away at an informal writing retreat with a group of woman that have had a tremendous impact on my life. Some of that impact was apparent right away. Other pieces will make themselves known over time. And that's as it should be. Not all gold is mined from veins close to the surface. Sometimes you have to put in the effort to dig it out.

When I came home I had a plush toy waiting to be "reunited" with Cassie. I tucked in the pocket of my sweatshirt before I got out of the car. My husband let Cassie out front to meet me and she did her normal Cassie inspection, sniffing me up and down and all around. Then suddenly, she found the toy in my pocket. When I told her she could have it she gently tugged it free and then carried it back toward the house, her tail held high with pride, as if she had just scored a great kill in the forest.

And I guess she had.

By the time I got into the house she was contentedly resting in the library, one paw over the stuffed toy, the other tucked under her chin. She raised her head as I came in the room and then, in that way that big dogs do, she smiled her thanks to me.

Over the years, pieces of me have gone missing. Confidence has faded around the edges of my dreams. Chunks of self-esteem have been lost on the road to survival. My sense of self has been buried under a mountain of "would-ofs," "could-ofs," and "should-ofs."

I want these pieces of myself back.

But I can't expect to pull them out of my pocket unless I promise that I will accept these pieces of me, (however battered they might be,) with joy, that I will lavish them with love and kindness, that I will believe again, in my right to claim what's mine.

I want to smooth the jagged edges and polish them until they shine. That's where the real joy comes from - taking something not so pretty and believing in it enough that suddenly, it transforms right before your eyes, into a thing of beauty.

Learn more about Susan Patron and her latest book, Lucky Breaks, illustrated by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/ginee seo, 2009).

How do you psyche yourself up to write and to keep writing?

When I was eight, I had to keep my little sister captive in the bathtub every night until she got clean. This was my job, and it wasn't easy; she was four and squirmy.

So I made up stories, probably pastiches of comic strips in the Los Angeles Times, in which my sister played a pivotal role.

But here's the trick: I believed that I was retrieving the stories from the bathroom's built-in laundry hamper.

Since people were always throwing their dirty clothes into it, there was a continuous supply of stories, which somehow rubbed off them and onto their clothes. All I had to do was open a little window in my mind and the stories would fly in.

It was my way of bringing forth, every day, a miniature drama or narrative--I wasn't "creating" them, I was "finding" them.

I also discovered that I could deliver a beginning and a middle, but if the end was elusive, it was okay to stop midstream with a promise that we'd find out the ending tomorrow. And the next day I'd sit again on the lid of the toilet, focus on the laundry hamper, and "receive" stories through the little window in my mind, while my small sister sat in the cooling water, sucking her washcloth, waiting.

I know this is odd. It was about creating diversions, ways of tricking myself, so as to avoid the difficult task of "making up" stories--even though that's exactly what I was doing.

When, as a grownup in the early 1990's, my sister casually recounted our old bathtub-stories family saga to the editor of my picture books, he turned to me and said, "Go write that. It's a book--a novel, not a picture book."

I was filled with equal parts joy (he thinks I can actually write a novel!) and fear (how the hell does one write a novel?).

So I tricked myself into doing it by setting down the story as if it were an oral tale, like my picture books--as if it came from the folk tradition and I was just doing a "modern retelling" of stuff I "knew."

(The book was called Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe, illustrated by Abigail Halpin (Atheneum paperback reprint, 2009)).

What I'm saying is, if I were to poise my fingers expectantly over the keyboard every day saying, "now I'm going to write a cohesive, exciting, original, relevant, wonderfully-realized novel," I'd crack open and die, like a rock committing suicide. Instead, I fool around--in a very serious way--pretending that this isn't the important part and I'll just jot down one little scene for now and get to the hard part later.

And if I pay really close attention to what I already "know" about the characters--what I've already written, about how the crabby neighbor always hesitates a second and licks her baby finger before turning a certain corner, for instance--I have to trust that I had some reason for envisioning that, and now my job is to tease it out, to peel off the layers to find out why she licks her finger and how that relates to her crabbiness, because of course it must. I just open the little window in my mind, and it all comes wafting in.

How have you come to thrive in such a competitive, unpredictable industry?

If I have thriven (and thank you for the rare opportunity to use that form of the verb), it's mostly due to respecting the intelligence and sensitivities of readers. This means trying to write a story in which some form of truth (something I need fairly urgently to express) is revealed—not directly, but through the fiction itself. A kind of truth, in other words, that speaks directly to the heart of the reader, and can be expressed only by means of the story.

Add to that a couple of really lucky breaks.

And finally: watching for opportunities and finding them in events that at first appear to be inopportune. For example, I have had a different editor for each of the three books in the "Lucky's Hard Pan" trilogy.

The editor for my first six books, Richard Jackson, announced his retirement after publishing The Higher Power of Lucky (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/Richard Jackson, 2006). I was hard at work on Lucky Breaks, which he had acquired.

The prospect of a new, unknown editor was daunting: I'd known of editors being coerced into taking on projects they hadn't acquired and resenting it; I'd heard about the dire fate of many orphaned books, etc.

Plus, there was significant fear in writing a sequel to a book that had just won a major award; this was by far the most difficult book I'd ever undertaken, and I was already struggling to stay on the project.

The brilliant Ginee Seo agreed to edit the book, and I loved working with her. She got me through that paralyzing insecurity about measuring up to the previous book. She taught me a great deal. (There is a very short piece about this, "A Lucky Break: What My Last Book Taught Me," in "Hunger Mountain," a publication about writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.)

After we had finished our work together on Lucky Breaks and after Ginee acquired the final book of this trilogy, she left Atheneum. My sense of loss and sadness (okay, despair) were mitigated, and I was again hugely fortunate, because I was given the chance to work with another of the great editors of our time, Caitlyn Dlouhy. I'd heard about her formidable editorial talents for years from my friend Cynthia Kadohata.

Caitlyn and I are now working fruitfully and happily on the concluding title in the "Lucky's Hard Pan" trilogy.

Three different editors, each with a distinct style and process, working on three closely related books. I believe that each editor wanted what was best for the book, and I hold them all in highest regard. What could have been seen as difficult and conflicting was for me an opportunity. I guess it's about faith and trust. And 'tude.

Of course I'm aware that the question may refer to a more practical type of action, such as maintaining an online presence and having a Facebook page for your main character. And while these are useful, I resist the temptation to give them tremendous weight, which would invite a correlation between successes and failures and some form of pajama marketing.

Better, I think, to look at craft, to remember that what editors, agents, librarians, book retailers, and readers want is a memorable story.

In your own words, could you tell us about your latest book?

This final book in the trilogy [tentatively titled "Lucky for Good"] brings Lucky face to face with an excruciating moral dilemma involving Miles and his mother, Justine, who returns to Hard Pan. Lucky also gets into serious trouble for starting a fight with an older boy, discovers a strange relative called "Stick," and says the hardest goodbye of her life. Meanwhile, Hard Pan residents join together into an unlikely army, declaring war against the closure, by the County Health Department, of Brigitte's Hard Pan Café.

In facing deep questions of belief and faith, truth and meaning, this concluding book continues to explore the vast, rocky landscape of the human heart. As always, Lucky is brave and foolish, impulsive and tender, vulnerable and determined. Ultimately she forges her own path: Lucky for good.

In the video below, check out a "Chidren's Book Trailer for middle grade novel Lucky Breaks, a sequel to Newbery winner, The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron."



Cynsational Notes

The Craft, Career & Cheer series features conversations with children's-YA book creators about positive aspects of their creative and professional lives.

Tonight, Tuesday, November 24th at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST, author Marlene Carvell will be chatting live at the readergirlz blog - http://readergirlz.blogspot.com Join us as we discuss her novel Sweetgrass Basket, this month's featured title at readergirlz.

Learn more about the author and her books at http://www.readergirlz.com within the November 2009 issue. Also read our roundtable discussion of Sweetgrass Basket and check out my review of the book.

Don't forget to join us next Monday, November 30th at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST for our first rgz RAVE Homecoming. Over two dozen authors whose works have been featured at readergirlz will be chatting live with readers.

Each chat will last for an hour.

Since I put my manuscript into big envelopes for my writing group yesterday, I’ve made some notes about changes I need to make. But I’m calling this the end of a pretty polished draft. It enjoyed working with those last fifty pages, having a nice pile beside me that I poked and prodded now and then, taking out or adding sentences. I feel ready to do more shuffling after my writing group meets, but I’m also making notes about my next project.

And I get to give the novel to my husband, who’s heard about it for so long, who’s watched me at the computer, doing what? He said, “I know it will be good. The only question is will it be good enough for you?”

Last night I happened to be reading Zadie Smith’s Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, which includes a wonderful talk she gave at Columbia about writing. She writes: “Who can find anything bad to say about the last day of a novel? It’s a feeling of happiness that knocks me clean out of adjectives. I think sometimes that the best reason for writing novels is to experience those four and a half hours after you write the final word.” (p.107)

Yes, that was fun: and just in time to hit the grocery stores for a turkey and start thinking about pie.I can knit, and repot the African violets, and stick the paperwhite bulbs into gravel. I can read, get past the first three chapters of A.S. Byatt's scarily thick but intriguing The Children's Book; maybe this will be the winter I read the final (okay, for me that means four) volumes of Harry Potter. And planning out a new project is kind of delicious, too.

I am a writer who is mighty attached to my mocha lattes...so when I heard about Kristina Springer's YA debut, THE ESPRESSOLOGIST (FSG, 2009), I couldn't wait to read it. The premise? A teenaged barista does some match-making with her customers, based on their favorite coffee drinks and ultimately, finds love of her own.

This book made me want to be sixteen again (just for a minute, because most of sixteen was traumatic) so that I could get all my friends together to read THE ESPRESSOLOGIST and then meet them at the local coffee shop to talk about it. Then, of course, we'd start our OWN notebooks to match people up based on their favorite coffee drinks, just like the main character, Jane.

This YA novel is romantic fun at its finest - with great teen characters, a delightful budding romance, and enough humor to make it a sweet, sweet read.

Looking for a great holiday gift for a coffee-lover? Pair this with a gift certificate to the local coffee shop, and maybe slip in a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans. Click on the book cover to order through IndieBound!

On Friday afternoon, I was part of an author panel at NCTE on the topic "Stories and Standards: Pairing Fiction & Nonfiction" along with Loree Griffin Burns, Jenny Moss, and Tanya Lee Stone. We spoke about curriculum connections for our books and suggested other titles that would pair well with them in the classroom. Here's the presentation, via SlideShare.

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Our facilitator for this session was the Goddess of YA Literature herself, Teri Lesesne, (she's professornana here on LJ) who generously posted all of her NCTE presentations to slideshare as well. Check out her SlideShare site for a ton of great book suggestions!

http://laurelsnyder.com/2009/11/23/what-i-think/

http://laurelsnyder.com/?p=487

Fear is a useful emotion.  Fear of judgment is a HUGE waste of emotional energy.

Must remember. Must remember. Must remember…

Since we're already planning Thanksgiving dinner, it seems like an appropriate time for gratitude. Ellen's reflection so beautifully recognized all the individual members of the Class of 2k9; I want to thank you all collectively. Joining this group has been a support I didn't even know I needed. Because I was one of the last to join, in the beginning, all the e-mails and posts were overwhelming; I had no idea who anyone was, or what they looked like, or what they had written. Finally, the website with photos and book covers came online, and each person slowly came into focus -- their writing, their sense of humor, their ups and downs. I loved meeting the small group I met last summer so much and hope that future book tours (so many second books already in the works!) will bring more 2k9ers to San Francisco. Thanks for making me part of this warm writing community, for endless advice and tips from a writers far more savvy and experienced than I was, for cheers and consolations.

I'm happy that redwoods got some much deserved publicity this year -- from National Geographic especially. I'm grateful to anybody who read OPERATION REDWOOD and took something away from it; for booksellers and teachers who brought me into schools to talk with lots of thoughtful, curious and invariably polite kids; for the support of friends and my loyal family; to Amulet for printing the book on recycled paper and sending it into the world.

Wishing all the writers out there the time and inspiration to write your stories -- and wishing everybody a rich and warm Thanksgiving.

65redroses
Eva is a vibrant young woman with Cystic Fibrosis who survived a double lung transplant. Read about her difficult recovery and personal triumphs over pain, isolation, and fear. Back in school, Eva now works part-time in a children's center and enjoys running and cross-country skiing. A documentary on her story, entitled 65 Red Roses, won three awards at the Vancouver International Film Festival.