POETRY LIST

I love seeing/listening to the play lists that inspire authors. Sometimes I end up poaching a song for my own play list; at the very least, I get a trip down memory lane or an education.

And of course, I love making my own play lists. My music tastes run the gamut: rock, r & b, folk, roots rock, classical, jazz, pop. I am just old enough to have loved Bob Dylan before he was a "Golden Oldie"... 

... and just young to know that dancing it out to Pink cures most ills.

But you know what else my muse digs?

Poetry.

I've always loved poetry. Reading/speaking/hearing my favorite poems makes me warm inside, makes me dreamy or fired up or achingly melancholy. Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I still thrill to the Eliot lines "Dare I eat a peach? Dare I disturb the universe?"

Or how about Cummings's Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls ... This: "if sometimes in its box of sky lavender and cornerless, the moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy."

I am forever in awe of that line. Forever. It makes me swoon.

And so, for me the act of writing is necessarily accompanied not just by music, but also by poetry. I have created poetry lists for each ms -- poems that inspire the plot, the characters, the dialogue, and most certainly the mood of my writing.

My latest includes these:

1) The Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot
2) Melancholia, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
3) When Lilacs Last at the Dooryard Bloomed, by Walt Whitman
4) The Unquiet Grave, Child Ballad 78

And my play list?

1) Awake My Soul, by Mumford and Sons
2) The Unquiet Grave, by Joan Baez
3) The Unquiet Grave, by Ralph Vaughan Williams
4) Where Was Eva Sleeping, Unknown
5) Mr. Rabbit (From Music Together - children's arranged music)
6) Somewhere Down the Lazy River by Robbie Robertson

Does poetry inspire you? Who are your favorites?

Query First, Please

It's true.
Writing your query first really is the best way to write a book.

For those who call themselves "pantsers", meaning "fly by the seat of your pants", the query may be the LAST thing you write -- because, well, pants.

Looks so lovely and carefree and spontaneous, no? And I love to be all those things, because, well, creativity.

BUT.

What if, in your splendid creative writing surges, you NEVER narrowed your vision of the actual plot because you were so excited by all the action scenes you were coming up with?
Or if you CAN'T ACTUALLY ARTICULATE your character's motivation?

My first book, which I love and am determined to publish one fine day, had those problems and more.

It wasn't exactly a pants book per say -- I'm a plotter. But, because first book and all, I didn't really know what I was doing. I was consumed by the story, by the relationships I was building, by the excitement of writing the thing.

But when query time came, I was lost. Drowning.

Partly because I didn't know how to write the dang thing, had never even heard of one when I began writing the book. But also partly because I didn't really understand the point of my book.

Now -- as a public speaking coach I have always told my students that they need to be able to summarize their speech in one or two lines -- if they can't, they really don't know what they're trying to accomplish and neither will their audience. Which means their presentations are doomed to aimless meandering in the desert. Yes, I've said that in my more dramatic moments.

I have sent students back to the drawing board a million times to distill and understand the essence of their words so they can be pithy and brilliant.

But alas, I listened not to my own advice. I couldn't give an "elevator speech" about my own book.

Lesson learned. Write the dang query first. Figure out what your character is trying to overcome, what the second plot point is, what the catalyst is, and why we care.

And lest we forget and begin to meander in query desert, it really only comes down to this:
Character, Conflict, Stakes.

Here are some terrific resources for helping you nail it:

QUERY HELP RESOURCES 

1)  www.michelle4laughs.blogspot.com
 Michelle Hauck (@michelle4laughs) has a semi-regular feature called Query Questions, which features different agents talking about what does and doesn't work in a query. Nice resource because you can also research agents while you iron out the query kinks!

2) chasingthecrazies.wordpress.com:
Amy Trueblood's blog features a weekly post called Quite the Query. Go read successful queries that landed agents - very helpful to see how others do it! (@atrueblood5)

3) literaticat.tumblr.com
Andrea Brown agent Jennifer Laughran (@literaticat) has an Ask Me Anything section on her Tumblr. She answers questions quickly and forthrightly.

Another Laughran resource is her blog, which frequently addresses query questions/issues:
www.literaticat.blogspot.com

4) Plus there's the master of them all, Query Shark, written by uber agent Janet Reid:
queryshark.blogspot.com
All you have to do is read the blog to figure out what you're doing wrong, but if you're brave, you can submit yours to see if she's willing to critique yours. She's tough, but that's what you need, right?

5) Finally -- an excellent workshopping option and the way I finally got really valuable feedback on that first disastrous query:
The Become an Agent contest.
@SC_Author features it semi-regularly -- next one is probably in January. Agents don't participate -- it's just a terrific chance for writers to pitch in and help each other figure out what does and doesn't work.

Check out his blog:
scwrite.blogspot.com


What do you think? Do you write your query first?

THINGS CHANGE

First, my mea culpa.
My blogging habits have been terribly lax, and I am sorry.

.
 I allowed the summer, then a new WIP and then binge-watching the X-Files for the first time (yes, I'm pretty late to the game) to derail my blog.

Quite frequently, I've had a thought that made me say, "hey! That'd be a great blog post!" And then I do nothing about it. And suddenly another month has gone by.

So here I am, months before the official time to make new resolutions, resolving to be a better blogger.

Onward.... about change.

I've learned this lesson so many times, you'd think I wouldn't be so surprised by it. But this is the first time I've actually begun to acknowledge this truth as it applies to my creativity, not just my life.

When I was in college, I thrived in my major -- poli sci. Out of that rather broad inquiry, I created my own focus: feminist political (largely deconstructionist) theory. I planned to be a forward-thinking, ground-breaking lawyer.

My life was very meticulously planned out: go to Kenya to teach English for one year, come back and attend Boalt School of Law.

Hah. Because yanno, plans that specific always work out, right???????

So this is what ACTUALLY happened:

1) I fell in love with Kenya, for all its beauty and tragedy, and decided to extend my contract.

2) While there, I realized I was better suited to advocate for women by telling their stories. The way I saw it, both could be public service -- but I preferred the pen and its wider public forum to the courtroom.

So, 2 years in Kenya, followed by a Masters in Journalism, and my life looked nothing -- I mean, NOTHING -- like what I'd planned. And it was awesome.

Fast forward to today. Nearly 20 years in journalism, several stints as a teacher/professor/instructor of all things English and writing (and some politics and media thrown in for spice). I became a war bride and then a mother of two.

And I could no longer ignore the muse. She called gently, then firmly, then finally hit me over the head. I hadn't planned on this career step until the kids were older, until I could get some more sleep.

HAH.

I'm working on my third book. My new WIP is a ghost story and I LOVE it. I am having so much fun writing it, it feels like I was BORN to write this book. I've planned and plotted it meticulously because it has a lot of moving parts and I want to be sure I don't get lost along the way.

Over the weekend, my characters hijacked the plan.
I mean, they TOOK OFF and went somewhere I had not plotted or planned.

Wait, what?

And it's not the first time this has happened to me. In fact, it has happened every single time, with each of my books.

Because things change.  Usually without warning.

I don't try to resist the change. I actually never did, in spite of how uneasy it made me -- so now I just have to learn to trust that, in my books, as in my life, my characters will take the lead and they'll do fabulous things. Unless they don't, but that's what revisions are for. (Which is so much nicer than real life, where you don't get that lovely, infinitely forgiving do-over).

Does change wig you out?
What do you do when your characters take over??

Inspiration is Everywhere You Let it Be

Taking your kids to a theme park is part of the parental hazing process -- a necessary rite of passage. Which is why this week, my family drove to Carlsbad, California  to see Legoland.

For kids, this is mecca. That is all.

The kiddoes were over-the-moon happy. They cruised around the park, dipping into the millions of Lego stations to build or play, riding rides, and singing "Everything is Awesome" a lot. A WHOLE lot. And it was fun - in its own special way.  I really truly do love to do things that make my children happy. And spend time together.

The thing is, I'm not a huge fan of theme parks -- they're noisy, smelly, overwhelming. Yuck.

It's the classic irony that as you eddy about from one ride or game to another, carried along by the sea of sweating humanity, much of what you hear and see is crying children. And parents hissing terse admonitions: "We came here to have fun!"

Sigh.
Moment of honesty: I said it once too. *Winces in shame*.

So of course this is the last place I would have expected to wheel right up into a moment of inspiration. Because I had thoroughly forgotten that inspiration is everywhere you let it be.

But behold: Rodin's Thinker - made entirely of Legoes:

Tens of thousands of Legoes superglued (Kra-gl-ed, for anyone who's seen the movie). A work of art lovingly rendered and placed in a central location. Where you couldn't miss it, even if you didn't know what it was.

What's inspiring about a Lego Thinker? The example he sets. You can create beauty out of anything -- even thousands of small pieces of knobby plastic. Which is what my brain feels like most days.

Another moment of revelation -- the beach.

I had forgotten how much I love the ocean. We've been in arid Arizona for 18 months now, and the memory of the breeze, the crash, and the smell have been stunned into submission by the mountains and cacti.

But when we finished with Legoland, we went to the beach ...

Aaahhhhhhh.

While my daughter happily played in the sand and my son and husband romped in the waves. I zoned.

I mean, ZONED. I only got about 5 minutes of that, but it was enough.

Inspiration is everywhere you let it be. The sunshine smell of hot sand, the salt-sweet wind. It doesn't have to come accompanied by a middle-of-the-night dream (although sometimes that's fun) and it often doesn't come on call.

But it can come when you look -- I mean really look, and NOTICE THINGS -- all around you. And when  you don't preordain. As in, "Today I will come up with a brand new, amazing plot idea." (Imagine me saying that in a game-show voice).

More like, "Oh, look. It's Rodin's Thinker. Made out of Legoes." (Imagine me saying that in a Reese Witherspoon You've-got-a-baby-in-a-bar voice).

And then, "Oh, wow. It's the Thinker. Made of Legoes. That's totally cool." That one I said in my own voice.

The Final Post On Why I Write MG

Why do I write MG - and why is my latest work for boys?

The answer is right under my nose and under my feet all the time. He's a creature in perpetual motion, knocking over everything and creating whirlpools of energy in his wake.

My little boy.

Gratuitous picture of my first born. Old picture, but yah, he's still that awesome. And he's a committed, enthusiastic reader. Reading is the one activity for which he is completely still.

I am grateful every day for that - yes, the stillness, but also and mostly, the reading. I do all I can to encourage him. Like that book club he and I started - which, by way, is going like gangbusters.

GANGBUSTERS, I say, and I am beyond thrilled that at least for these young boys, reading is an activity of choice and pleasure, one they look forward to, can truly engage in, and will share with their friends.

That's not true for many boys though, and this is no surprise. Statistics continue to show us that girls outpace boys in reading skills and engagement.  Most schools have a guideline for young readers - 20 minutes a day. But not everyone follows it - and it's mostly the boys who are falling short.

I write MG for boys because I have a Big Dream: to write 1 or 20 of the books that will make boys stay up late and read under the covers with a flashlight and bely the scary literacy stats.

This Big Dream began to crystallize back when when Nicholas began reading chapter books (at age 5) and we discovered Magic Tree House and Geronimo Stilton and so many other fun series for young readers. But when we needed some variety and trolled the library for new books, I saw the deficit: not enough cool boy characters. We devoured these:

And other classics, like this:

My son got to discover the plethora of great stuff out there, both classics and new. But as he discovered the greatness, I discovered something else. It seemed to me there were so many more great series and stand-alones with girl protagonists.

So, BIG yay for my daughter, but what about my son?

Ok, here's the part where I state the obvious lest I be accused of backward, Neanderthal, anti feminist thinking:

I AM NOT SUGGESTING gender must match the reader. How boring would that be. Plus, we all know the whole point of reading is to get excited about and explore people and ideas you don't get to see in your own world.That's why it's so amazingly wonderfully transportive - we as writers know that as well as we know how to blink our eyes. It's an instinctive knowledge.

But. Also.

Part of the draw of reading is seeing yourself in a book. It feels great and empowering when you read about someone else who feels and acts like you do, - you're not alone! And then it gets even better because here's that person like you but also not - who has crazy, exciting adventures that are so much fun to read, you'll spend a whole afternoon inside even though it's a beautiful day outside.

So we need more books for boys in general. But it doesn't stop there. #WeNeedDiverseBooks because so many of the boys who aren't engaged with books also aren't white and middle class in spite of what's on the shelves. The boys having the great adventures also need to be black or mixed or Latino or Asian or Native American. My son doesn't look mixed, but he is - and I clearly am - so when he looks for his family in a book, he rarely finds it.

I want to write the books that engage him and his friends and ALSO reflect his world and his life.

We need more Carter Kanes.

I love the other boy heroes out there -- Percy Jackson - yay! Alex Rider - cool! The Origami Yoda crowd - Hilarious! Toothless and Hiccup - also Hilarious! Plus, duh, there's Harry Potter.

But we need  more. We need to re-engage our boys and we need to bring them all into the tent, not just the white middle-class ones.

What do you think?

More Why I Write MG

THIS is another reason I write MG.

I was this kid.

I read by flashlight LONG after my mother turned out the light ... it was some of the best reading I ever did.

There is no bigger honor than being the author of the book a child cannot put down - and is willing to risk getting in trouble just to finish reading. I want to write a book so good the thrill of reading it is stronger than the possibility of getting caught.

Why I Write MG

I've been thinking a lot about this question lately. Partly that's because the #mywritingprocess blog hop is still alive and well, and I've been reading others' answers to that question. And partly because I've been rereading some of  my old favorites.

It started when I got this hankering to go back to ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, which was hands down one of my very favorite series for many years when I was young.

I still have the books - they're on a bookshelf containing many of my old besties, waiting patiently for the day my daughter may want to read them. (My son's tastes definitely do not run toward that kind of voice -- he's more of a Star Wars, Percy Jackson, and Origami Yoda guy. And he loves Roald Dahl. MAYBE I can get him to read Sammy Keyes. I love the books he loves too - but they're definitely not Anne. He's among the primary  reasons I write MG, but that's the subject of another post)

When I pulled the book off the shelf, it made that delicious sound. You know, the one a hardback book makes when it slides out from between other hardback books? That scrapey, soft sound of anticipation. As I felt the weight of the book fall into my hand I had the SAME FEELING. The one I had all those times I read it as a young girl, the feeling of deep content. I was hanging out with a person I loved, living in her world, talking and acting a little like her - kind of on purpose and kind of because I couldn't help  myself. She's why I always wanted to be a red head.

These books in particular hold a special place in my heart because I bought them myself. I found them in a bookstore and begged my stepfather to buy them all for me because the library only carried the first three of the eight books. He did buy them -- but then made me purchase each one back from him. At the time I thought that was unusual cruelty. I want them now! now! now! But instead, I had to slowly earn the money, babysitting every weekend for months, hoarding dollars and quarters until I could afford a book. Truth told, in spite of my childish impatience, the process made each purchase all the sweeter.

And when I was finally able to fork over the cash and get a new book  -

                                                                  HAPPY DANCE!

Each purchase merited cozy days of nothing but reading, tucked into a corner of the living room or on my bed, blocking out everything in the world but Anne Shirley and Prince Edward Island.

It's that -- the tucking in and coziness and lost-in-another-world  memories -- that fuels my MG writing specifically. The book worm I was and still am today hopes deeply to create and share those exact blissful moments for young book-worms-in-the-making.  This is the age when you either learn to love reading, begin to see it as a necessary part of your life, or not. The books they read now - I hope - will be books they return to again and again, like calling up an old friend on the phone to catch up. I want to be one of those old friends.

Other authors that took me to my happy place? Madeleine L'Engle, E.L. Konigsburg, Louisa May Alcott, Maud Hart Lovelace, Laura Ingalls Wilder, E.B. White.

Who are yours? And why do you write?