It's About Character

Thought for the day: 

 “The difference between the right and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug.”

~ Mark Twain

A gift for my writer friends. Writers’ Digest sends me e-newsletters all the time with links to articles. Some are good and some are not worth much time. I think the following two links are very good. Enjoy!

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/7-simple-ways-to-make-a-good-story-great?et_mid=563087&rid=3028165

http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-the-day/writing-a-mystery-novel-creating-a-villain-5-ways-to-justify-a-crime?et_mid=563087&rid=3028165

The WINNER of the copy of Seeing Cinderella from my last posting is Carolyn Pile. I will be getting this to you right away, Carolyn. Congratulations!

I’d like to talk about character today. This is prompted by a couple of middle-grade books I reviewed recently for the Sacramento Book Review. As Donald Maass says in his instructive book, Writing the Breakout Novel, “Most of us do not for very long tolerate people who make us feel frustrated, sad, hopeless or depressed ― not in life, not in books.” Well, that is exactly what I experienced in these two books – the most obnoxious, unlikable main characters I have encountered in a long time, characters who made me feel frustrated most of the time I was reading the books. Honestly, if I hadn’t agreed to review the books, I’m not sure I would have finished them. The stories were not compelling enough to overcome the unpleasantness of the main characters.

I remember hearing at a workshop that writers need to create characters readers will want to cheer for. The main characters in both books were bratty, selfish, and downright mean-spirited nearly the whole way through. I found myself not only cheering for the other side, if you will, but saying out loud more than once, “Are you kidding me?” I wanted someone to come in from the sidelines and straighten those girls out.

Both these books came from large, reputable publishers. This is the kind of mistake I’m not too surprised to see in a self-published book by an anxious new author or from an extremely inexperienced writer, but I can’t imagine how this got past an editor at a big house. For one of the authors, it is her debut novel, but for the other, it is her seventh published book! I won’t be spending any of my time on her other books.

So what is it we can do as writers to build characters who make readers want to get their pom-poms out and jump out and down. According to Donald Maass, “It just requires identifying what is extraordinary in people who are otherwise ordinary.” This, of course, is not nearly as easy as it sounds. Unless we are writing fantasy or science fiction, we want our characters to be believable, which means they need to be fairly ordinary and very human. But I also believe most people have extraordinariness within them, and that is what we need to mine to build characters for whom our readers will want to cheer. I wish I had a good answer to offer here about how to do that, but I don’t. I can only tell you what I do. I try to look for the vulnerability in my character. That will lead me to what gives the character the best chance to become extraordinary by overcoming something that is frightening and difficult for him or her. And that’s where I think the writers of the middle-grade books I read last week missed the mark. They didn’t have characters who overcame anything difficult. Heck, they couldn’t even overcome their own brattiness and selfishness. They never would have even tried. The characters were just plain ordinary. So, writer friends, take a close look at your main characters and make sure the voices you hear in your head are cheering!

I’m not giving away a book this week. I didn’t read anything I want to pass along. Isn’t that sad? You will fare better next week. I have a very funny book to review and pass along. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.

Seeing Cinderella -- A Review and Giveaway

Thought for the day:  

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revis­ing a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.” ~ Stephen King

A gift for my writer friends. Great reminders for manuscript revision : http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/2012/06/devils-in-detail-at-least-when-it-comes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fkidlit+%28Adventures+in+Children%27s+Publishing%29  from author Susan Sipal

The WINNER of the autographed copy of What She Left Behind from my last posting is Jennifer Rumberger. It pays to link my post somewhere for extra entries. Jennifer did and she won! I will be sending that out to you right away, Jennifer. Congratulations! By the way, Jennifer is also a children's author and has a great blog. You can check that out by clicking HERE.

Since today is Father’s Day and I have some family things to do, I’m going to simply post my review for a wonderful middle-grade book I read recently while wearing my hat as a reviewer for the Sacramento Book Review. I was happy to get my hands on Seeing Cinderella by Jenny Lundquist after reading a little about the concept. Sometimes I will read about what I think is a terrific concept for a book and be terribly disappointed by the book itself. Not in this case. Seeing Cinderella delivers. Here is my review from the Sacramento Book Review.

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Callie will be starting middle school tomorrow, and now she has to get glasses! She is given temporary hideous, black-rimmed glasses. Everyone will make fun of her. It’s bad enough she has frizzy hair and freckles. The first day of school doesn’t go well when she finds she is stuck sharing a locker with a Goth girl. When Callie tries her new glasses, she finds she can see people’s thoughts. This is pretty helpful in math class, since she can read the correct answers in the teacher’s thoughts, but other times it’s not always fun to know what people think. When Callie’s best friend, Ellen, starts to pull away and seems to be making a new best friend, Callie is really unhappy with what she sees in other people’s thoughts. Callie is offered the lead in the school play but asks the teacher to give it to Ellen. Then Ellen decides she likes Scott, and Callie has liked him forever!

“Sometimes I really hated wearing the glasses around Mom. A lot of days I felt like she didn’t even see me. Even if she was looking right at me, she was too busy thinking about my dad to really see me. If Mom hated him so much (right now, anyway) and I reminded her of him, then how did she feel about me?”

Jenny Lundquist

Jenny Lundquist has written a gem of a middle-grade novel that examines so many problems faced by kids in that difficult stage of life. Girls especially will love the story, characters, and situations, all of which ring true.

# # #

If you haven’t seen this issue of the Sacramento Book Review, you can click HERE and be magically taken to it. It’s a HUGE issue this time with a large section of reviews written by kids along with the usual reviews of all kinds of books. There’s something for everyone. By the way, the cover review, which is well worth your time, is written by my friend, critique partner, and regular blog reader Elizabeth Varadan. So give it a look.

If you would like to receive a gently-read copy of Seeing Cinderella, just leave a comment on this post, and I will put your name in a drawing. If you would like to have your name in the hat more than once, post a link on Facebook or on your blog, and let me know. I will put your name in once for each. That was lucky for Jennifer Rumberger! But please leave a comment no matter what. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.

A Review, An Interview, and a Giveaway - What She Left Behind by Tracy Bilen

Thought for the day: 

 “You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads.” 

 ~ Ray Bradbury

 (We will miss you, Ray Bradbury!!)

Some gifts for my writer friends. The following are links I think are worth your time. 

I probably mentioned this site a year ago or so, but it bears repeating. Hope Clark offers the best free e-newsletters for writers listing grants, contests, markets, publishers, agents, articles. To go to this site click HERE and click on the Newsletters tab. Check it out.

I read a blog by Anne R. Allen about blogging recently and think it’s one of the most rational approaches to blogging ever. Click HERE to read it.

The WINNER of the autographed copy of Runaround from my last posting is Helen – not Helen Hemphill the author, but Helen the commenter. I will be sending that out to you right away, Helen. Congratulations! If any of you missed the review of two of Helen the author's wonderful books, click HERE.

Now on to the main post. I read a terrific new YA last week. It’s one of those books I carried everywhere with me – hoping for a long line at the post office so I could read a few pages while doing my errands, hoping to catch a red light now and then so I could finish another page or two, holing up in my study and, WHEN I SHOULD BE WRITING MY OWN DAMN BOOK, I shut the door and knocked off a couple of chapters before getting to work. The book is What She Left Behind by Tracy Bilen, and this is a very impressive debut novel.

Sara has been waiting for her mom to come to her senses and for the two of them to leave Sara’s father. He has become a total psycho since Sara’s brother, Matt, killed himself. And now the day they will leave has finally arrived. Sara packs her duffle and leaves it under the bed as her mother instructs her. She goes off to school as if it is any other day, planning to meet her mother at the Dairy Dream at lunch time. This just happens to also be the day that the high school hottie, Alex, pays attention to Sara for the very first time. In fact, more than paying attention, he seems downright interested in her. It’s hard to respond well in these circumstances when you truly believe, as Sara does, that she will never see Alex again.

Mom doesn’t show up. Sara misses the rest of her classes waiting – something that is just not like her – and finally gives up and goes home. She finds everything she had packed is unpacked and put back exactly where it belongs. She tries over and over to call and text her mom, but gets no response. When her father comes home, he tells Sara her mother has gone on a business trip and will be gone a week. He continues to act as if everything is normal – in his psycho kind of normal – which includes acting as if his dead son is still around and late for dinner!

“My dad takes another puff of his cigarette, then flips on the TV and doesn’t say another word – he just sits there and smokes. I want to wave my hands in front of his face and make him tell me more, but he would probably break my arm. So instead I back away.”

In a series of well-crafted flashbacks, we come to know how controlling and abusive Sara’s father has been for a very long time, telling her mother in front of her that she had better not ever even think of leaving – or else. They can’t go to the police. Dad is an ex-cop and has the local cops completely in his pocket. We discover how Sara didn’t only lose her brother, but several friendships as well, leaving her without much of a support system. She does, however, have one good friend, Zach, who is really always there for her. As time goes along, Sara comes to believe something terrible has happened to her mother. It’s up to her to find out. Oh, and all this time she continues to fall in love with Alex.

Tracy Bilen

There is a terrific mystery to be solved by Sara braided tightly with a love story and the great back story of Sara’s family life. This is all deftly handled by Tracy Bilen’s fine writing. This book is one you will want to read. It’s rich and absolutely enthralling. You can win a copy! Just keep on reading to the end to find out how. (Oh, heck. I’ll tell you. It’s the usual way. See the last paragraph.)

Now I’m happy to report I was able to ask Tracy a few questions about her book and her writing, so sit back, relax, and read what she has to say.

I read on another blog (click HERE to read that blog) that you came to this story from an image in your mind of a girl, a suitcase, and a field, and you had to figure out what happened. How did you discover your fictional characters? Are they based on real people?

Finding my characters has always been a slow process for me. I find I start writing with the plot foremost in my mind and drag the characters along for a bit. Then as I get further along, I go back and start adding character details, until by the end of the whole process, the characters feel like real people to me. The characters aren’t based on anyone…of course, as you’re writing, you naturally tend to talk about things that you like and know about, so like Sara, I used to play the shrunken clarinet and I like Ritz Bits, but there are also lots of things about her that aren’t like me at all!

Your writing has such a great, natural flow to it. Do you spend a lot of time planning your writing – outlining and such – or is it a much more organic process for you?

Thank you! When I wrote What She Left Behind I didn’t outline the first draft, I just wrote. Of course, I kept a few things in my mind as far as where I wanted the story to go. After I finished the first draft I wrote down a list of everything that happened in order (so I guess most people would call that an outline!) Then as I revised, I used the “list” to help me reorder events and add to them. I used this same process for the first two “practice” (i.e. unpublished) novels that I wrote. Now as I am beginning to work on new projects I find myself “outlining” a lot sooner (after the first 30 pages or so) – actually coming up with the specific plot details before I write them (imagine that!)

Writing can be a lonely business. Do you work with critique groups or critique partners?

My critique partners have played a huge role in my success. I had tried a couple of “open to anyone” critique groups at bookstores / libraries, but didn’t find the right fit that way. Then at SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) conferences I met some great friends, a couple of whom I exchange manuscripts with via e-mail, and a couple of others with whom I meet with on a regular basis. This feedback, from people writing for the same age group and with similar professional goals, has really made a difference for me.

How was your journey to publication? Long, short, how many rejections? Did you have an agent represent the book or did you sell it on your own? If you had an agent, how did you go about finding an agent?

While it took me writing a few books before I got to the one that would sell, the actual query process for What She Left Behind was in some respects, rather fun. I used querytracker.net to keep track of my submissions (it’s free). I sent out about 50 e-mail queries (sent out in batches of 5 or 6) and received partial or full requests from about a fifth of them. The whole process took about eight months. I say that the process was in some ways fun, because although there was plenty of rejection, there were also the partial and full requests to keep my spirits up. It was always an adventure reading e-mail during that period!

Your main character, Sara, loves to read horror novels. What were your favorite books when you were growing up? Did those books inspire you to write?

My absolute favorites when I was quite young were Trixie Beldon mysteries (discovered in my grandmother’s adventure filled attic) and Anne of Green Gables. Trixie Beldon gave me my love of mysteries (while I consider What She Left Behind to be more of a thriller, it does have mystery elements). Anne of Green Gables was inspiring because Anne is a struggling author herself and I adored her eventual love, Gilbert (just like I adore Alex, the guy Sara falls in love with!) When I was a teen, I loved books by Lois Duncan and Caroline Cooney. Sara’s love of horror was inspired by the movie version of Stephen King’s Cujo which I saw when I was way too young, and his Misery which my mom MADE me read when I was in high school. I don’t think I’ve forgiven her yet!

What is the last book you read?

Right now I’m reading Slide by fellow Apocalypsie Jill Hathaway. It’s about a girl who “slides” into the bodies of others. It’s awesome!

What’s next for you?

I’m currently working on another YA thriller.

What advice would you pass along to those of us who haven’t gotten that first book published?

Try to stop writing. (I know, you’re ready to kill me now – how is that inspiring??!). But I’m serious, in a way. Throughout my writing journey, I tried to stop (why did I want to publish a book anyway?) But I couldn’t stop. I always came back to it. So if you try and stop and you just can’t, you’ll know that you were meant to do it (and that your mind won’t give you any peace if you don’t). So then, go with it. Keep writing. Keep querying. Write something new while you’re querying (I wrote What She Left Behind while I was querying a book that didn’t sell). Join the professional organizations for your genre. Find a critique group with people who write in the same genre or for the same age-group. And don’t give up. Think back to when you were looking for your first (serious) job. It may have seemed impossible at first. You kept trying different things until you hit upon something that worked. And now when you look back on in, it doesn’t seem that bad. The publishing process is probably going to take you way longer than it took you to find that first job. But it’s worth it. And you can do it!

Thank you for so generously sharing your time and thoughts. Is there anything I didn’t ask about that you’d like to tell us?

Thanks for such fun questions! I hope you’ll take a peek at the book trailer for WhatShe Left Behind. I just love how the words hide behind the trees at the end! Click HERE to see the book trailer. It’s terrific. If you don’t already want to read the book, you will after seeing this.

If you would like to receive a gently-read, autographed copy of What She Left Behind, I have good news. Tracy was kind enough to send one to me to read and then give away. Just leave a comment on this post, and I will put your name in a drawing. If you would like to have your name in the hat more than once, post a link on Facebook or on your blog, and let me know. I will put your name in once for each. But please leave a comment no matter what. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.

Helen Hemphill Wrote Some Books

Thought for the day: “The cat sat on the mat is not a story. 

The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.” ~ John Le Carré

Some gifts for my writer friends: The following are some links I think are worth your time.
First is a really wonderful interview with Nancy Bo Flood, the author of no-name baby, which was reviewed here recently. If you missed it, click HERE to read it. And here is the link to the interview with Nancy: http://jayerobinbrown.blogspot.com/2012/05/interview-with-author-nancy-bo-flood.html?showComment=1338607555471#c2005596251607439218
Gotham Writers Workshop sends me newsletters often – mostly trying to sell me on-line workshops – but also having some good tidbits. Recently, I received one with 9 Common Fiction Writing Mistakes. No surprises here, but good reminders and examples. Take a look: http://www.writingclasses.com/FacultyBios/facultyArticleByInstructor.php/ArticleID/103?utm_campaign=ced4d580cb-WEB_JunNL_June15_31_2012?utm_source=Gotham%20Writers%27%20Workshop%20List?utm_medium=email
Anything Stephen King has to say about writing is worth reading. This has an article he wrote about adverbs: http://www.publishingsyndicate.com/publishing_syndicate/newsletters/wow_news_backissues/wn_may12.pdf

Now on to the main post. Last time, I wrote about attending the wonderful Whole Narrative Non-Fiction Workshop at Highlights in Pennsylvania. If you missed it, click HERE. One of the bonuses of attending workshops at Highlights is you will always come home with some terrific books. I received a copy of Peggy Thomas’s remarkable Anatomy of Nonfiction. We also often have authors drop by for visits and they usually bring books which they sign and give to us. At our workshop, middle-grade novelist Helen Hemphill stopped by. I read two of her books and I loved them both. I’d like to tell you about them.

The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones, a terrific historical, adventure novel. It is set in the 1870s and stars (and he is a STAR) Prometheus Jones, who was born to a slave woman in Tennessee the very day the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law. His mother says he is a lucky child, and this seems borne out in many ways through the story. But we, as readers, are never quite convinced that his luck can hold up one more time through all the challenges he faces. It’s hard to believe he’s super-lucky. After all, he is a 13-year-old African American orphan living in the post-Civil War South when we meet him.

Prometheus has a great talent with horses and we meet him and his young cousin Omer as Prometheus is breaking a horse for a couple of local reprobates – the racist, hate-mongering Dill brothers – who refuse to pay him for his work. They finally settle things by giving him a raffle ticket they had bought for the same price they promised to pay him. When the winning number is pulled, lucky Prometheus wins a horse. The brothers Dill claim he stole the ticket. Prometheus and Omer decide it would be a good time to head west. They take the new horse and find a cattle drive to join. Let the adventures begin.

“But just as I feel the hot breath of the buffalo’s tongue on me, out of the dark, an arrow shoots straight into the first buffalo’s eye. Blood explodes from his eye socket, and he makes a low groan and veers off toward the river. One of them Pawnee rides up and jerks me onto the back of his mustang. Another buffalo rushes past us into the moonlit dark. The Pawnee howls into the clamor of the stampeding hooves and looks back at me with his painted white face and a flash of a smile.”

Helen Hemphill

The adventures come pretty much non-stop through the rest of the book. The characters we meet on the cattle drive are colorful, believable, and engaging. Prometheus meets some harrowing challenges on his journey and some are almost more than any person should have to bear, but bear he does. But when he is finally faced by the Dill brothers again and their lies convict him of a terrible crime, it’s hard to imagine how this can possibly end well.

I LOVED this book and can’t wait for school to end so my grandson can read it. I didn’t want to put it down for a minute from beginning to end. This is a true coming-of-age adventure story that every boy and a lot of girls will love. The action is non-stop, the characters fully-formed and beautifully drawn, and the feeling of being dropped into another century is palpable. Get this book. Read it now. You won’t be sorry.

Helen also wrote Runaround, the story of Sassy Thompkins, eleven, who spends all her spare time reading Love Confessions, a trashy magazine. It is the 1960s and Sassy lives with her father and older, very annoying sister Lula, the pretty one. Since the girls’ mother died many years earlier, Miss Dallas, their housekeeper, is also part of the household and there most of the time to help raise the girls. Sassy is ripe for romance both because of her age and because of her incessant reading of Love Confessions. She is mad at Lula for setting up a situation at camp that embarrassed Sassy and ruined any chance she had for her first kiss being the perfect one she’d dreamed of.

“Sassy wiped her eyes in the bend of her arm and lay back into the grass. Sometimes in Love Confessions, the plain girls got the boys to fall in love with them, but then they usually were just pretty girls in disguise. Boon would never lover her. She wasn’t good-looking enough. Mama and Daddy had passed all the pretty parts on to Lula before Sassy was even born. Maybe they never planned on having another daughter.”

Sassy decides to show her sister how grown up she is by getting Boon Chisholm to fall in love with her. He is a bit of a bad boy, Hollywood handsome, and a year older than Lula. Most girls will relate to this story, but especially those who ever made fools of themselves (my hand’s in the air here – isn’t yours?) and have older sisters with whom they ever had disagreements (hand in the air again). Boy, howdy, could I relate to Sassy. I absolutely squirmed reading much of this, but had to laugh at the same time. It’s a very funny book. She goes after Boon with a vengeance, completely oblivious to the pile of evidence around her that Boon sees her as a little girl and is very interested in Lula. Could it get any worse? When things really come to a head, there is a big twist that turns the whole story on its head.

This book is smart and clever. Every chapter is opened with a quote from Love Confessions magazine, the publication Sassy has decided should guide her life. The story is compelling, and, even if it’s painful to read, it’s truly funny and sweet. I recommend it for girls.

I was perhaps most interested in how different these books were. I’ve written two novels – one a contemporary YA that is pretty dark. The other is a middle-grade historical novel that is a coming-of-age adventure for boys. It was confirming to me that one can write books of such different styles as Helen’s two books and it’s not really a question. Good writing is good writing. You don’t have to be stuck in a genre. I can’t wait to read Helen’s third book, Long Gone Daddy. It looks great – and different from the other two.

If you would like to receive a gently-read, autographed copy of Runaround, leave a comment on this post, and I will put your name in a drawing (U.S. only). If you would like to have your name in the hat more than once, post a link on Facebook or on your blog, and let me know. I will put your name in and extra time for each. But please leave a comment no matter what. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.

Invest in Yourself. You're Worth It!

Thought for the day: The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile. ~ Robert Cormier

My daughter Maggie sent the following link. It certainly is food for thought. Don’t be put off by the fact it starts out talking about music. It is really for all kinds of artists – like writers! http://puttylike.com/starving-artist-meet-web-2-0/ Just thought you might find it interesting.

A couple weeks ago I announced Megan had won an autographed copy of no-name baby by the incomparable Nancy Bo Flood. Megan, I’ve tried to contact you three times and haven’t heard back. Please contact me so I can send you the book. Readers, if I don’t hear from Megan by the next blog post, I will draw a new name from those who commented on that post. I also have winners to announce from my last blog post. Jennifer Rumberger was the first to have her name drawn, so she will be receiving The Bell Bandit, and Barbara Watson’s name was also drawn, so she will get a copy of The Secret Tree. Congratulations!!!

When I retired a few years ago, my good friend Jan Paluch, who had listened to me talk about how I wanted to get serious about my writing, sent me a brochure for the Sacramento Writer’s Conference. I plunked down some money and spent a couple of days rubbing elbows with the likes of Erin Dealy and Patti Newman, and John Lescroart.(Yes, THAT John Lescroat!) I met some other newbies and learned a great deal. Out of that experience came my first critique group. I was on my way. I went to the conference again the next year, but it was pretty repetitious, so I started looking around for other ways to further my writing. I took the ICL course and went to workshops and conferences and joined SCBWI. I got better and better at my craft. Every year I invest in myself. I find the best workshops and conferences I can and spend the time and money to make myself a more accomplished writer.

Peggy Thomas

Last week I was in Pennsylvania at a Highlights Founders Workshop. This was my fifth time going to Boyds Mills to learn from the best, and it is paying off in many ways. I have sold some work in the last couple of years. No books yet, but YET is the operative word for me. I know that I will sell some of my books. And that is happening because I continue to invest in myself.

Last week’s workshop was Whole Narrative Non-Fiction. I spent a week with Peggy Thomas, Elizabeth Partridge, Susan Bartoletti, CarolynYoder, Nancy Bo Flood, Barbara Krasner and a wonderful group of attendees. Look at the names on that faculty list! Imagine just being in their presence for a week! I’ll bet between them they have close to a hundred books published. Amazing. We had hours of workshop time every day as well as hours of quiet writing time. In addition, we had all our meals together as well as cocktail time. (You’ve got to love the cocktail hour at Boyds Mills.) In addition, we had an individual talk from most faculty members sharing how the writing process works for each of them.

Nancy Bo Flood

This is a new workshop for the Highlights people and it wasn’t perfect, but they listen well and I’m confident the next time it occurs it will be close to perfect. But I came away from that week with a non-fiction book manuscript I believe will be ready for submission very, very soon. It’s miles better than it was when I showed up. I had lots of help from almost all the faculty. (I didn’t happen to get much time with one faculty member, but had good amounts of time with everyone else.) Nancy Bo Flood also spent a lot of time with me on a poetry project I’m working on. She has such great expertise in that area and was happy to share her time and knowledge with me. I think that project is now almost ready to submit. (Thanks, Nancy!!) I made the comment while at the workshop that if I didn’t have grandchildren in California and if money were no object, I would go to all the workshops Highlights offers. I’m not kidding. They are that good. Check out their offerings HERE.

I received an email recently from Nancy Sondel, founding director of the Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Workshop.  She is contacting people for her Fall 2012 workshop and said she hoped I could join them. I wish I could afford to go, but I just came back from a pretty expensive workshop and am already committed to another later this year. Maybe next year I’ll return to the PCCWW. I went to one a few years ago, and it was a great experience. There are different levels you can sign up for including one which includes a full-novel critique from one of the faculty. This year’s faculty includes editor Simon Boughton (senior VP and publisher; Roaring Brook Press and Farrar, Straus & Giroux), agent Emily Sylvan Kim (president, Prospect Agency), and agent Joe Monti (Barry Goldblatt Literary). WOW! For more information, check out the site HERE.  I really think this is worth your time to explore. I learned so much when I attended and, again, had a great deal of time with wonderful faculty members.

Not all writers’ workshops are as good as these are. One year I attended one of the Big Sur Writers’ Workshop. They are pretty popular. After all, it is Big Sur. They do them twice each year. These workshops are put on by a literary agency, are expensive, and don’t return much on your investment, in my humble opinion. Others may have a different view.

I make sure I attend at least a couple of conferences each year and go to a couple of workshops or retreats as well. I really like the one-day local SCBWI conferences and workshops. They are inexpensive and they seem to draw excellent faculty. And the SCBWI regional people work really, really hard to put on great events. I’ve never been disappointed. Ask around before you make any decisions. Talk to all your writer friends and see what experiences others have had. Invest in yourself, but invest wisely.

My next post will be back to some book reviews and probably some giveaways, so please tune in. And please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.

Two Reviews and Two Giveaways -- The Secret Tree & The Bell Bandit

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Thought for the day:

"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." ~ Robert Wilensky

My gift for my writer friends: http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2012/01/hooks-loglines-and-pitches-what-every.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AnneRAllensBlog+%28Anne+R.+Allen%27s+Blog%29  – Great blog for writers – very helpful information for when you are ready to submit.

My apologies for disappearing for a couple of weeks. We had that horror of horror happen at our house last week. Our laptop died. It was sad and frightening. We have Carbonite, so it should have been no worry, but Carbonite didn’t seem to work as promised, and we were not able to accomplish a restore as we should have. Fortunately, we have lots of redundancies in the world of backups and were also able to get our old computer to turn on for short periods of time – long enough to copy some files on to flash drives. We have a new laptop and now have all our files on it. We are unable to send emails out in one of our email programs, but other than that, we are back up and running. Whew!

So back to the matter of my blog. I have a winner to announce. Megan had her name pulled from the hat and will receive the autographed copy of no-name baby by Nancy Bo Flood. Congratulations, Megan!!

Today I will review two middle-grade books and give away my gently-read advanced reader copies of each. Two reviews, two books, two winners! To make up for two weeks between blog posts. If you love middle-grade books as I do, check out other middle-grade reviews at Shannon Messenger's blog by clicking HERE. She lists tons of them each week. Stay tuned and you will find out how to get your name in the hat.

Minty and Paz are best friends. They have been best friends forever. But as Minty and Paz head toward the beginning of middle school, and they seem to grow apart over the long summer. They live in a neighborhood that has some strange things: a Witch House on the other side of the woods, a Man-Bat that wonders the woods, the ghost of Crazy Ike, and a couple of Mean Boys who seem to live simply to do mean things. One day, Minty sees a flash in the woods and chases a small figure. While looking for the small figure, she discovers another strange thing: a secret tree – a tree that holds secret messages about people in the neighborhood.

Natalie Standiford

Minty spends more time on her own, following the small figure until she finally meets Raymond, a boy near her age who, it seems, lives on his own in an abandoned model home. He has secrets, too. Frustrated with Paz’s disloyalty, Minty decides to work with Raymond to discover the truth about the secret messages in the tree and the people in the neighborhood. She finds the good in many people she thought didn’t have much good in them, as well as finding out how many secrets people around her have. She discovers a lot about her family and her best friend. She finds out Raymond’s secrets and how to help him. Of course, along the way, Minty also discovers much about herself.

“I was learning this thing about secrets: Even if they’re not about you, once you know them, they feel like they could be about you. Every secret connects to something inside of you, whether you know it at first or not.”

The Secret Tree by Natalie Standiford is an exciting and fascinating, fast-paced story middle-graders will love. It is a true coming-of-age story, one worth reading. The characters are relatable and the voice of protagonist is clear, strong, and believable.

* * * * *

Jessie and Evan go with their mother to see their grandmother, who is in the hospital after a small kitchen fire and a bad fall. When they arrive at her home, they find the damage is much worse than they expected. To top everything off, they find that Grandmother’s bell has been stolen! Every year the kids can remember, the ringing of the bell has been a New Year’s Eve tradition, with the oldest and the youngest present doing the honors together.  Clearly, this holiday season won’t be what they are used to.  Jessie meets a neighbor boy, Maxwell, who has strange habits, odd ways of moving, and difficulty communicating. While Evan works side-by-side with the man who has been hired to repair the house, Jessie befriends Maxwell and decides they should become spies and find the bell thief.

When Grandmother comes home, she is not herself. At times she doesn’t know who Evan is, and she makes poor choices that put her in danger.

“She didn’t look like his grandmother. She looked strange, with one arm missing inside her coat and the empty, flopping sleeve hanging like a dead fish. Her knitted cap was crooked on her head, and one strand of gray hair hung down and curled around her neck.”

Jacqueline Davies

Jessie and Maxwell run into trouble when they spy on some “mean boys” in the neighborhood while looking for the bell. Maxwell has been treated badly by these boys and is clearly afraid, but Jessie confronts them. Things get pretty sticky.

The Bell Bandit by Jacqueline Davies is the third book in a series – The Lemonade War Series. This book stands clearly on its own. Even though I had not read the previous two books, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. It is a well-structured mystery that will engage young readers with the story while taking on the difficult issues of Alzheimer’s and autism. Sometimes the point of view is a bit confusing, but overall kids will like this book.

If you would like to win one of these books, just leave a comment here on the blog for one chance and post the link to your blog, Facebook, or other social media and let me know for a second chance. As always, one of my incredibly honest grandchildren will pull the winning names from a hat. Also, please indicate which book you would prefer to receive. If your name is drawn first, you will get your choice. If your name is drawn second, you will receive whichever the first winner didn’t choose.

Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom.