Carpe Keyboard

Flashbacks? Useful or no?

2012-02-19T20:20:00.002-05:00

Question for you, CK readers: How do you feel about flashbacks in fiction? Useful? Not? Overused, perhaps? Or used for the wrong reasons?

If you use them in your own writing, why? What purpose do they ultimately serve to your plot? For me, I'm fussing with one in particular -- trying to use it to establish part of a character's personality and show the beginning of a relationship. The seeds of a love story, so to speak, planted with a battered guitar on a hot summer driveway.

Here's a brief excerpt I've been playing with... narrated by Sydney, a teenager on the run with her boyfriend in one of my WIPs.

Neil's Guitar

Neil didn’t know I was watching. Ididn’t move, just opened my eyes enough to see him sitting in the wingbackchair by the window. His quiet humming hadn’t wakened me. Not really, anyway.The song had woven its way into my dream and brought me to the surface enoughto realize Neil wasn’t beside me in bed anymore.

Instead, he sat across the room,his eyes closed. The fingers of his left hand played the chords in the air,close to his chest; his right made vague strumming motions against his thigh.It was a piece he’d written for me as a gift. It was soft and gentle, soothingand haunting. It raised goose bumps up and down my arms every time he played it.

It killed me that we’d left hisguitar behind. He’d been lugging it around – almost everywhere he went – since wewere both kids. He picked it up at a garage sale one day when Gran made us gowith her on one of her “Sale Tours” around town. Gran took forever at thosesales. She’d wander around, picking up this chipped coffee cup or that dentedserving tray, remembering out loud some time when she’d had supper with the owners.It took ages. So I’d hunt for piles and boxes of tools or car parts, and Neilwould hover at the end of the driveway, staring off into space, biding his timeuntil we could leave. He’d never complain – he loved Gran too much to do that.But this one day, he got out of the car and made a bee-line for a battered,black guitar case.

It still had stickers on it fromthe previous owner. Seventies bands and peace signs and one that said “MakeLove Not War” in tie dyed letters. One of the latches was broken. But inside,Neil found his treasure. An old acoustic guitar, missing a string, but stillremarkably in tune for how long it had probably been sitting in a closet. Hepicked it up and held it to him like a baby. And he strummed and fingered thenotes for the opening of Stairway to Heaven. He was thirteen years old and he’dnever told either Gran or I that he played.

I watched him from where I wascrouched by a banker’s box of old paperbacks. Gran watched him from the top ofthe driveway, even waving off Mrs. Cutshall who wanted to reminisce about whenshe last used the limp tablecloth Gran held absently in her hand. Gran noddedonce, and started bargaining with Mrs. Cutshall quietly. I turned back to watchNeil, who had settled down in a rickety old ladder back chair, lined up withseveral of its mates along the edge of the yard. He’d moved on from old rockclassics, to…strangely…children’s songs. He was playing All Around the MulberryBush for some of the little kids, now gathered in front of him. They clappedand danced when they recognized the song.

Even then – the slow smile thatspread across his face as he held that old guitar made me hum inside. Made mefeel warm. Made me want to touch his cheek or smooth the hair out of his eyes.Even then, I was in love with him.

Gran marched down the drivewaytoward him. “Pack it up, Neil.”

“Is it time to go already?” He triedto look bored again as he laid the instrument back in its case.

“Next sale won’t wait forever. Anddon’t put that back. Bring it along, now.” She pointed at the guitar.

Neil stood, holding the case to hischest with both arms. “Bring it?”

“Well, sure. It’s yours.” That’sall she said. Just walked back toward her Chevy and left Neil to stare afterher, wondering if he’d understood.

“C’mon, dude,” I’d grabbed his armand tugged him down the driveway.

Now, sitting here in this dingylittle motel, all I wanted was to give him that guitar back, battered case andall.

He came to the end of the piece andstopped humming. I’d been watching his fingers as they formed the chords, butwhen they stilled, I realized he was looking at me.

“Did I wake you?”

I shook my head.

He didn’t say anything, but lookedout the window and cracked his knuckles, rubbing his thumb over the calluses onhis fingertips.

“I love that piece. Takes my breathaway every time.”

He looked back at me with hisslight smile. “I’ll breathe for you, babe.”

How Many Plots?

2012-01-21T18:39:00.000-05:00

I’ve been reading about lots of journeys lately. Call them quests or pursuits or escapes ifyou will – but they all boil down to a beginning point and a period oftravelling to get to the end, right?

In Ronald Tobias’s book 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them,he reminds us that Rudyard Kipling thought there were exactly 69 distinct plotsin the universe. Aristotle, on the other hand, through there were preciselytwo, from which all other plots could be derived. Writer Carlo Gozzi originallysuggested there were 36 different plots, but Tobias suggests his list could berealistically pared down to 18 distinct plots in use by writers andstorytellers today.

I’m no expert – and would not propose a different number thanthose above; however, lately….well, lately it seems to me all of the stories I’vecome across have been about journeys.

Tobias’s chapter on the Quest plot outlines three differentacts of the story:

· Act One – the Question. A force moves the heroto act, either out of necessity or by desire.

· Act Two – The Path. The journey that connectsAct One to Act Three, the spice, the flavor for the story.

· Act Three – The Revelation. The hero obtains oris denied the object of her search.

Off the top of my head, I can list lots of my favoritestories that fit neatly into this pattern. Raidersof the Lost Ark, Star Wars, True Grit, The Wizard of Oz, Shane, Outlander, Treasure of the Sierra Madre (or any other treasure hunt story). Icould go on and on… I’m sure you could, too.

If pushed, I could start to break down some of these storiesand categorize them differently. Tobias’s book offers 19 other options – like adventure,pursuit, revenge, rescue, riddle, temptation, metamorphosis, forbidden love,and sacrifice.

Is Dorothy on an adventurein Oz? Sure. Does Mattie convince Rooster to help her find revenge for her father’s murder? Absolutely. Does Anakin Skywalker transform from a little boy into one offilm’s best villains while on his journey? Yes.

So while I’m stuck in a difficult patch with my own Work InProgress (see those capitals? After all the months of work…it deserves to becapitalized! Trust me!), I’m looking to other authors and other journey storiesto help me find my way.

Beth Revis brought me Across the Universe – a journeyacross not only space but time. In it, our heroine must travel across theuniverse frozen like a human popsicle. When she is awakened after centuries (butstill decades before the space ship’s landing) her journey takes an unexpectedturn – and Revis uses her Act Two to give us one of the most claustrophobic dystopiansettings in YA literature. I’m not sure Revis finishes the journey in thisstory and am interested to find the sequel so I can see the end.

(On a site note: Interesting to me that many YA storieslately are outgrowing a single book. In this one, I felt like I got Act One andAct Two (in part) before the last page…)

In Erin Morgenstern’s Night Circus, we have crossingjourneys. Le Cirque des Rêves is open only atnight and arrives in a new location without warning or advertisement. Fordecades, Le Cirque is the stage for a hidden competition as two magicianscompete. No sure of what they are competing for, theseorphans-turned-world-makers travel through cities and towns but also journeydown internal paths of understanding and love. Is this a straightforwardjourney plot? No… There is nothing straightforward about Morgenstern’s book.But who wants to read about a trip that moves from home to far away and backagain without some adventure?

Food for thought for this writer, to be sure. Does my WIPneed to have all three acts solidly completed in one book? I think so…althoughif my story leads me elsewhere, maybe I should follow. Does my WIP need tostick strictly to a physical journey? Absolutely not. I think it needs tocombine some of Tobias’s suggested plot types – merging adventure, escape, maturation,and quest together into one complete story.

But can I do it? Can I tell this story? Are there list ofrules I need to follow – “acts” I need to be sure to structure and characterdevelopment points I need before I can move my characters’ journey forward? Ithink the answer to all of those questions is yes… as long as I don’t letmyself get strangled by the rules. Right?

Maybe that first rule of writing (WRITE!) should outweighall structure and plot rules and regulations. If only for a while…until thestory grows a little on its own.

In the meantime, I’m going to ~~queue up a good IndianaJones movie~~ go work on chapter 23. Wish me luck!

Outlines and Re-writes and Edits, Oh My!

2011-12-27T15:47:00.001-05:00

I haven’t been using outlines when I write lately. One of myWIP manuscripts is completely un-outlined. If I dig around in my files, Iprobably have an old plot treatment of some sort that I haven’t looked at inyears. But no working outline. Each chapter is occurring as I sit down andwrite. Kind of organic, really.

My other WIP manuscript has a sort-of outline attached tothe end of the manuscript. Literally…a few blank lines after the last sentence,you would find a bullet list of the events in the plot. I ended up jotting downthe high-level plot points on this one because I found myself getting swept upin the fantasy of this story. There are magic, dragons, and journeys throughdark forests in this book and I’d MUCH rather write all that description thanstick to the action. So – to keep myself honest, I figured having a cheat sheetof the actual EVENTS that needed to take place wouldn’t hurt. I can definitelysay it is handy for keeping me on the right track and keeping my action movingalong the plot curve. This way, I hope I won’t forget any crisis points orevents that will help my characters change the way I need them to as their storyunfolds.

But…even though I do refer to those last pages of mymanuscript when I sit down to work, and even though I just told you it ishelpful…there is something so planned about it. Something the opposite oforganic. Something sort of…well….limiting.

I will say that some hybrid form of outlining (not the romannumeral type from school, but still…) was absolutely necessary when I wrote anovel with a friend. Keeping a fullstory straight as you move it from your head to your laptop or paper is hardenough, let alone when that story is growing and emerging from two writerssimultaneously. It was sort of a magic trick – writing with a partner. And Ilike to think of our ever-shifting outlines and notes and conversations aboutwhat coulda/shoulda/oughta happen next or last or sometime in the book wereorganic in their own right. But we did write those “coulda/shouldas” down so wewere both on the same page (pun definitely intended).

I think I like organic, but might need outlines and notes.

Here’s the other thing I should confess – the organicallygrowing manuscript? It’s been organically growing for years. Really. Years. Theoutlined one with dragons? Moving much faster.

So maybe the outlines are not only a good tool for keepingthe details straight – but offer some sort of impetus, too. An urge. A nudge.If something can be outlined, it can be written, right?

What about you? Do you use outlines? Do you take notes,write up other “tools” like character sketches or plot diagrams when you write?

The Drummer Boy

2011-12-06T19:16:00.001-05:00

I've been stuck with my writing lately -- but was challenged by a friend to write a Christmas story and share it with other writers I know. So...as a gift to myself this holiday season, I've taken time for myself. Time to write when I've been not giving myself that time lately at all.

It is just a first draft -- the beginning of a simple story, but I'll share it with you. I've always loved the Christmas carol "The Little Drummer Boy." Even as a little girl, I loved the pictures in my head when I heard that song -- pictures of a small boy who wanted so desperately to show his love for his new king that he gave the only thing he had: his music.

So -- as inspired by my favorite Christmas carol... a first, unfinished (much work still to be done) draft of The Drummer Boy. Merry Christmas.

“He’s arrived!”

Father heard the shout and stopped walking. The nightwas black as ink, but I was still out with Papa and the goats. I gripped Papa’s thumb tighter so I wouldn’tlose him to the voices in the dark.

“Who’s there?” Papa called.

The figures, dressed in robes that glittered with moonlight,waved from the other side of our little sea of moving goats. When they walkedtoward us, the animals scattered in two directions, moving out of the way andbleating their unhappiness.

I worried about gathering them back up, but Papa kept a holdof my hand and watched only the men coming toward us in the darkness.

“Blessings to you, on this beautiful night,” the tallest mansaid. He smiled at Papa and laid one warm hand on my head. He ruffled my hairjust a little when he took his hand back. This man was not a shepherd, not inclothes that captured the moonbeams and a beard combed soft and full.

Papa bowed his head in greeting. “Kind sir, what brings youthrough our valley tonight?”

“Haven’t you heard? The babe we’ve waited for has come.”

Papa didn’t say anything, but his hand tightened on mineagain. I looked up at his face – the face usually full of laughs and smiles andkisses – and saw something new.

“Papa?” I asked. “Papa? Do we have another baby?”

Papa did not answer. He looked at the visitors, one after theother. “Say it again? Tell me again.”

The tall man smiled again and laid one hand on Papa’sshoulder. “It’s true. We are on our way to welcome him. The world will bedifferent now that he has come.”

I tugged on Papa’s finger. “Papa? Who is coming? Is Mamahaving another baby?”

The visitors all chuckled. Their rumbling laughter sent mehiding in the folds of my father’s dusty robe, but I peeked out of my safehaven and sent a smile to the closest stranger. He smiled back and winked oneeye.

“Where?” Papa let go of my hand and let me cling to hisclothes.

“Not far. Only another day’s journey from here, we think,”one of the men replied. “We are bringing gifts to celebrate his birth.”

“I want a gift!” I said, boldly, from my hiding place.

Laughter rumbled from the men again. “Oh, my boy! He is agift for us all, this new baby.”

“But who is he?”

“The king.” My father’s voice was soft.

“He is our new king,” the tall man said as he kneeled downin the dust. He held out his hand, each finger encircled with a wide gold bandand jewels that reflected the stars.

I looked up and Papa nodded at me with a smile. I reachedout and took the stranger’s hand. He pulled me closer, until I was tucked rightup against his chest, looking out over our herd with him. One long arm pointedup to the sky over my shoulder. “See that star? That is a sign from God that hisson has some to lead us all.” I could feel his voice against my back. Hesmelled of wood smoke and something spicy. I leaned into his warmth andfollowed his gaze up to the bright star.

“God’s son?” I whispered. Papa had told me God would send usa king some day and that king would teach us to love one another. He wouldbring all of God’s love down to us and keep us safe.

“Can I give the new baby a gift, Papa?” I asked from withinthe tall man’s embrace.

Papa’s eyes changed. He looked out over our goats and thedry ridge where we lived. He looked back over his shoulder to where our tents stood,a small fire burning on the horizon. Finally, he looked at the men surroundingme – at their rich robes and jeweled hands.

“We do not have as great a gift as these men, son. We do nothave a gift worthy of a new king.”

“But your welcome will be gift enough,” one of them said. “Hisparents will know you come to welcome him. That will be enough.”

Papa shook his head just a little and looked at me as Istood still tucked in the man’s glittering embrace. “We may not have a giftworthy of a king, but I insist we welcome you for a rest and a meal. Come, son –show our new friends the way home.”

Inspiration, Dedication, Tremulation...

2011-11-23T12:23:00.001-05:00

What inspires you to write?

I’ve had a few weeks away from my keyboard lately. I couldblame it on my daughter’s new equestrian team or my son’s football games or mynew job…but if I’m honest with myself, I think I have been my own biggesthurdle.

If you are a writer, do you ever go through times whensitting down and putting fingers to keys, words to screen or paper, just seemstoo painful? It all seems hard…and in a way, an open door to failure?

Harsh? Maybe… but I’m also my own biggest critic, so whydoes it not surprise me if I turn out to be my own biggest obstacle?

I have two WIPs going on right now – one a middle-gradefantasy and the other an edgy contemporary YA novel. I was on quite a roll withthe fantasy there for a while, but got stuck in an invisible rut that has growninto the Grand Canyon where stories go to languish.

I need to get my creative juices flowing again. I need tofind the energy and the strength to write stories again. I need to write. Then,perhaps, life will find a balance again.

So what do you do when you need inspiration? I used tobelong to a writer’s group where we sat together and wrote “writing practice” ala Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. We’d come up with phrases or evenwords, set a timer, and write until the clock reached zero. Once in a bluemoon, we’d bring along pictures as prompts, just to change things up a little.

Maybe I need a little old-fashioned practice to get acrossthat grand canyon.

Any other ideas?

Spook-tastic

2011-10-23T11:55:00.002-04:00

I’m not much for horror stories. For example, the year I madeit through about a third of The Exorcist with my hubby…I couldn’t go down intothe basement for MONTHS. He literally had to rig a light switch in our kitchenthat would turn on lights and a radio inthe basement so I could go throw in a load of laundry. In broad daylight.

Yep. Not good with horror stories.

I had an encounter with an Ouijaboard when I was 16, which probably explains my fascination and terror when itcomes to stories that have to do with spirits and evil and the like. (By theway, vampires don’t count. Especially sparkly ones. Just in case you wondered.)

TheOuija Board Story, Part 1:

I was home alone one weekend and afriend brought over the board. We joked and teased each other about it, butended up lighting candles and turning off all of the lights. I don’t rememberwhat questions we asked or what the answers were from the board – but I doremember that every candle in the room was extinguished simultaneously for nogood reason. (Gives me goose bumps just to type that.)

TheOuija Board Story, Part 2:

Later that weekend, I was stillhome alone. Just me, my dog, and the cats. A huge thunderstorm whipped up andthe power went out. No TV, no lights, nothing.

I huddled in an overstuffed chairin the family room (my back to the rest of the house) trying to read a book byflashlight. Strange bumping sounds started up in my basement. The dog perked upher head, looked past my chair into the kitchen….and whined. She was not awhiner, this dog.

The bumping in the basement waserratic. The dog started growling. My heart in my throat, I finally worked upthe courage to peek around the edge of my chair toward the kitchen and thebasement door. The light over the kitchen table – which should have been darksince the power was out all over town – was glowing red. By this time, my handswere shaking so badly, I couldn’t hold my book still anymore. The occasional lighteninglit up the entire house with bright white light – but the glowing red in mykitchen was steady. Every time I looked behind my chair, that light was glowing…andsometimes swinging just a little bit.

I was bolted to my chair,terrified to move. To get to my phone, I would have had to pass the openbasement door and walk right through the kitchen. The dog continued to growland whine and I continued to shiver until the power came back on.

I turned on every single light inthe house, pulled the basement door shut and blocked it with a heavy chair, andtried to get some sleep. (What did I think the chair was going to do? Stop someevil from coming up from the basement? GACK! But it somehow made me feelbetter.)

I picked up The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by MichelleHodkin a few weeks ago based on the cover. Little did I know, an eerily familiar scene atthe beginning of Ms. Hodkin’s story would suck me right in. Teenage girlshuddled around an Ouija board… And I’ll just tell you this story gets muchspookier than a glowing red light over a kitchen table!

Keep a flashlight handy. And maybe a generator. Just incase. You definitely want the lights on when you’re reading this one.

Have you read any good October Spooky Stories lately?

A writers' challenge -- and a chance to win a free book!

2011-10-08T16:49:00.002-04:00

I have a challenge for you: Go dig around on your laptop orunder your bed for something you wrote a few years ago. For some of you, itmight be only a few months ago. Either way, dig it out and take a look.

Here are the rules:

1. Be kind to yourself.

2. Be willing to chuckle at your own writing.

3. Look for what you were already doing well.

4. Identify why you are better now at certainaspects of writing craft.

5. Thank your mentors.

6. Dabble in editing the piece. But be sure to saveyour edited version with a new name so you can preserve that writing timecapsule. You may need to go back and look at it again some other day.

It is a great thing to be able to look back for the sake ofseeing how far you have come. But don’tgaze that direction for too long. Appreciate your progress – then continue yourjourney.

Write something new.

Leave a comment below to enter a drawing for a free copy of Seizethe Story – a writing craft book for young adult writers. Tell me how thechallenge worked for you – or comment on what you’ve learned about your ownwriting recently. I’ll draw the winner on Sunday, October 16^th.

Talking with Meg Rosoff, Author of How I Live Now

2011-09-29T19:22:00.000-04:00

If you are a regular Carpe Keyboardreader, you know I had a minor addiction to post-apocalyptic YA fiction a few weeks ago. One of the novels I read during that genre marathon was Meg Rosoff’sHow I Live Now.

Ms. Rosoff generously agreed to a CPinterview. We discussed one of her many novels as well as the writing life sheleads.

Welcome, Ms. Rosoff!

Carpe Keyboard: I thought How I Live Now was a beautiful storyabout family, loss and love. I was particularly interested in the shift inDaisy’s voice from the bulk of the story to the last section where we find outshe’s been recovering back in NY from her war experiences. Voice for YA fictionis such a tenuous thing – and difficult for many writers to feel that they havecaptured an authentic young person’s voice.

How did the shift come about as youwrote this story? Did you plan all along to show Daisy’s changes and growththat way? Or was it more organic and her voice changed as you got to the end ofthe story?

Meg Rosoff: I don't really plan my books, so the voice develops ina completely organic way. The shift in voice was useful to indicate that timehad passed, and Daisy had changed considerably from her younger self.

Why did youchoose to have Daisy fall in love with her cousin? At first, I was taken aback,as an adult reader, when I realized how much Daisy and Edmond were in love. Onthe other hand, their situation and circumstances made their love story seemplausible. Did you have any negative feedback or concern from your agent,editor, or readers about this unconventional love story?

I'm fairly astonished that people endlessly commentedon the cousin aspect of the relationship and not the fact that Daisy and Edmondwere 15 and 14 at the time they were having sex. Almost no one (in the USparticularly) worries about Daisy and Edmond being underage, but lots ofreaders freak out that they're cousins. Marriage between cousins is atraditional method of keeping dowry in the family and not "marrying out"-- it's not illegal in most places (UK and most US states as well) and I wasreally surprised at the reactions by some readers. It never occurred to me thatit would bother anyone.

So much of HowI Live Now was about family. Family to Daisy meant a distant father and anantagonistic step-mother…until she met Penn and her cousins. It was as if, inthe midst of this time of war, Daisy uncovered a fundamental truth about familyin a way that changed her life.

Were youwriting Daisy’s story to send a message specifically about the importance offamily? Were you inspired by your own life experiences or other stories tofocus on meaning of family with this book?

I don't write books with agendas or to send messages.I'm interested in love, the complexities of relationships within families,adolescence, identity and coming of age, so that's what I explore in mywriting.

What toolsdo you use when you write? Do you outline? Plot on index cards? Write charactersketches?

None of the above. I plunge in and see what happens.

When do youcarpe your keyboard? What are your writing habits?

I write almost every day, for most of the hours of theday -- when I'm not walking dogs or riding horses or (occasionally) payingattention to my daughter and husband. Some days/weeks/months i don't accomplishvery much. I'm a very fast writer, so once I know where I want to go, I getthere. Plot gives me a lot of trouble, and all my downtime is spent figuringout where to go next. I also waste a vast amount of time on facebook andwandering around on the internet or blogging (http://www.megrosoff.co.uk/blog/)

Any advice for hopeful writers who wantto “break in” to the business?

Ha! Everyone's saying the book is dead. I don't thinkit is dead, but it is morphing into something a bit different. The best adviceI can think of for getting published is to write something really really good.Publishers are (still) gagging for good books.

Checkout Meg’s blog and her website to learn more about her other stories. You canread up on her latest novel, There is No Dog. Sounds like a great one!

Thanks so much forspending some time with us, Meg.

Yellow tears and skies the color of milk

2011-09-25T09:18:00.001-04:00

I love fall. I love the colors associated with it – the rubyleaves, the khaki colored soybean fields ready for harvest, the blue, blue skyset against the still emerald grasses. When I was a kid, I used to love keepingtabs on the big crabapple tree that stood outside my bedroom window. I watched itshift from its deep green robes of summer to the confetti celebration of fall before myvery eyes.

Maybe this is why, as I’m reading Markus Zusak’s Prinz Honor book, The BookThief, I’m falling in love a little bit with his use of color. Somewhere inmy head, I’ve always known that writing about any of the senses – theexperience of color included – grows flesh on writing. But Mr. Zusak’s colorsdon’t just build virtual flesh. His use of color changes tone. Punches you inthe gut. Whispers secrets in your ear. Sneaks under your skin and raises thehair on your arms.

Mr. Zusak writes of yellow tears and skies the color ofmilk. He shows us “orange and red embers” that “looked like rejected candy” after a horriblebonfire. Liesel, our heroine, sees the “skull-colored part” in Hitler’s hair ata rally. Even light illuminating a man’s deathbed is “gray and orange, thecolor of summer’s skin.”

Here are some others:

“A star the color of mustard was smeared to the door.”

“Still, with red tongues and teeth, they walked down HimmelStreet, happily searching the ground as they went. The day had been a great oneand Nazi Germany was a wondrous place.”

“The book was hot and wet, blue and red – embarrassed – and HansHubermann opened it up.”

Have you found examples of color used to bring such power towriting? Do you consciously work on including color – and other sensory details– in your writing?

Think in emeralds and rubies, sapphires and brass today whenyou sit down to write. Color your sentences with the deep red of blood or theglow of orange from a jack-o-lantern’s eyes.

Or can you color other senses? Can the sting of a bee feel acertain color? Can the scent of mildewed and rotting leaves smell a certaincolor? What about the heat of the sun on the back of your neck or the sound ofrain dripping against a cold window pane?

Write today. Write with all of your senses – and use thecolors of fall as your inspiration.

Landing softly on a hard day

2011-09-11T12:27:00.000-04:00

On this anniversary of 9/11, I find myself searching forsomething soothing. Something that will ease the ache of the horror I remembervividly – even though I was a thousand miles away from the Twin Towers and feltlike a spectator, powerless and destroyed at some level, watching the eventsunfold on television.

Without realizing it, I choose a book last night that help abit. Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting – with its lovely language,gentle plot, and wonder at the power of time and the grace of being able to die– provided a soft place for me to land on this Sunday morning.

Ms. Babbitt’s settings are part of what drew me into thestory. The contrast between the Foster house and the Tuck’s home – along withthe sense of strict order versus jumbled ease… life strangled versus life goingon – is powerful in a way I’m sure I didn’t fully grasp when I read this bookas a child.

Here is the first glimpse we get of the Foster’s house:

“…a square and solidcottage with a touch-me-not appearance, surrounded by grass cut painfully to thequick and enclosed by a capable iron fence some four feet high which clearlysaid, ‘Move on—we don’t want youhere.’”

Later…we see the Tuck home:

“So she [Winnie] was unprepared for the homely little housebeside the pond, unprepared for the gentle eddies of dust, the silver cobwebs,the mouse who lived – and welcome to him! – in a table drawer.”

She goes on to mention “dishesstacked in perilous towers without the lease regard for their varying dimensions”

“every surface, everywall, was piled and strewn and hung with everything imaginable, from onions to lanternsto wooden spoons to wash tubs. And in a corner stood Tuck’s forgotten shotgun.”

In fact, the entire first few pages of chapter 10 (in caseyou have a copy handy) is one of the best, most comfortable descriptions of ahouse possibly in all of children’s literature.

For some reason…the controlled chaos, the clutter, and thewell-loved, well-lived feeling of that house reminds me of my house when I wasa kid. No one ever accused my mom of having a perfectly clean house. (Sorry,Mom!) But it was far better, in my mind, to trip over dogs and toss shoes in apile and move books from almost every flat surface (even to draw hearts andwrite my name in the dust on the dresser tops) than it was to visit the housedown the street, where the living room furniture was quite sadly covered inclear plastic sheeting and no one was allowed to step on the carpet.

And it probably is also worth noting that I might have foundthis story soothing today in part, because I think Mae Tuck reminded me of myown mother. Round and soft, full of hugs and ready to feed anyone who walkedthrough the door. Mae even feeds that mouse living in her table drawer withflapjack crumbs after dinner…something my mom would have done in a heartbeat.

At any rate, I am glad to have found some sense of peace inthis story, on this day.

What Can We Learn from The End of the World?

2011-09-06T19:29:00.002-04:00

I walked away from the public library with a stack of novelsfrom the YA section last week. Only upon checking out, did I realize I had atheme going on: After The Apocalypse. Each novel was about young peoplestruggling to survive and make sense of life after some horrible event (plague,total natural disaster, unknown set of events) almost eliminated civilizationas we know it.

As you might imagine, four novels of the same theme over thecourse of less than 2 weeks was a little much. By the last one, I had startedto see similarities I probably would have missed if I’d read these books overtime with other stories in between.

For example:

· Love story. All of the stories had an element ofYA romance involved. (Apparently, love survives even when white bread and hotshowers do not!)

· Young heroines play a major role – and they areTOUGH. (‘Nuf said. Girls rock.)

· Boys, after the apocalypse, still have strongarms and chests worth resting your hand on. (If you’re a tough girl who reallywants to have a boyfriend in the midst of learning how to survive.)

· Food is really important – and when you’rehungry after a plague or other disaster destroys everything, you’ll eat justabout anything.

· Villains don’t all end up dead when the end ofthe world as we know it comes. Where there are good guys, there are also badguys.

· A journey must be taken, with very little foodor water, over treacherous landscapes (deserts, post-earthquake or post-tsunamiwreckage, behind enemy lines, etc.).

In the meantime, I also learned a little bit about techniquefrom each of these authors.

From Meg Rosoff and How I Live Now – Changing voice in the story is a powerful way to create adistinction between a character’s mental state at different times in theirstory. Ms. Rosoff’s style for most of this novel is very “stream ofconsciousness” and rather rambling. (Took some getting used to, honestly.) Butthe end of the story – clarity is revealed. You discover something about theheroine through not only her words, but how she communicates. Her whole voicecoalesces into something new, which fits in with who she has become.

From Jo Treggiari and Ashes, Ashes – Don’t rely too much on formula or your reader will beable to predict too much of your plot. Unfortunately, I knew early onwho the “betrayer” was, who the “perfect guy” was, and who would be thegame-changer in this journey. Although I thought Ms. Treggiari had great, gorydescriptions of butchering a turtle. (Ick!)

From James Dashner and The Scorch Trials – How to make the second book in a series even faster andriskier than the first. I didn’t think he could live up to the pace andfear-factor of The Maze, but Mr. Dashner ratcheted up the speed, theterror, and the consequences of everyone’s actions in this one. Breakneck pace.I felt like I’d run a footrace through the Mojave Desert by the time I reachedthe last chapter.

From Carry Ryan and The Dead-Tossed Waves – Even zombie stories deserve poetic language. LikeThe Forest of Hands and Teeth, Ms. Ryan continues to use lovely language todescribe a horror of a world where zombies infect humans and society has beenreduced to small pockets of villages connected by fenced-off paths through theforests. In eerie scenes, Ms. Ryan’s storms bring not only the threat of floodand water to this post-apocalypse word – but the threat of the “downed dead”rising from the ocean floor, to awake and seek out victims again.

Have you ever picked a “theme” for a week or a month? Everfocused on a specific genre over and over until you see patterns emerge?

Maybe next week, I’ll pick another literary deep dive. Whatshould I choose?

Who do you think I am?

2011-08-25T21:38:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday, the sermon at my church was about a time when Jesus asked different people “Who do you say I am?” It wasn’t a Bible story I was very familiar with, but it struck a chord with the storyteller part of me. Jesus didn’t ask, “Who am I?” The question was more subtle and more loaded – it was specific for each person asked. “Who do YOU say I am?”

On the drive home, my mind was busy relating this to fiction and story construction. It made me think about the ever-challenging Point of View aspect of writing. Will you write your story in first person, as if you are speaking for the main character? Or will you rely on limited third person, telling the story from a further distance? Will you see events through their eyes, or will you leap to an omniscient third person point of view and see into all characters thoughts – see events from multiple sets of eyes?

But beyond the POV you’ll choose as a writer for your novel or story, think about this: how do your characters see one another? What are the different points of view within your story?

Take a step back, and let your main character ask his supporting cast, “Who do you say I am?” What kinds of answers will you get? Is your main character fleshed out and well-rounded enough for the others to each have a unique view of him?

I happen to be reading Nancy Farmer’s The House of the Scorpion this week, which is a lucky thing. It is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

The main character, Matt, grows from a young child to a young adult throughout the story. He is a clone, living in a fictional, futuristic country built on the out of control drug trade along the US-Mexico border. He embodies the outsider. He is both different from everyone around him, while simultaneously being exactly the same.

If Matt pused within his own story and asked, “Who do you say I am?” to characters at various points in the novel, he’d hear answers like:

· Orphan

· Child

· Monster

· Pet

· Clone

· Brother

· Son

· Friend

· Prisoner

· Promise of youth

· Livestock

· Hero

· Enemy

· Killer

· Runaway

· And student

Nancy Farmer helps readers see her main character through the eyes of others – allowing Matt to have more flesh, more body because the reader can see how others view him. As the points of view change – as Matt grows in both age and in maturity – the answer to the question shifts.

Are your characters so well developed? Have you considered how your cast of characters sees one another? Could you answer on behalf of your various characters, “Who do you say <name of main character here> is?”

As if point of view, all on its own, wasn’t hard enough to tackle, right? I suppose I’m only now learning there will always be a nuance of writing to discover while driving down the highway or a storytelling skill to learn when you least expect it.

Think of it as a version of “job security” for writers. We’ll never stop learning how to tell a story better, will we?

It's that time of year again...

2011-08-20T10:48:00.000-04:00

My kids are getting ready to start the school year again – which means we are all about school supplies at our house. Pencils, paper, flash drives, binders, sketch books…you name it, we’ve got it stacked in the hallway or already packed neatly in new backpacks just waiting for the journey to school on the first day.

In a third grade classroom I explored this week, I found boxes and shelves and bins full of books. (Good sign!) Some titles I recognized, and others I didn’t. Some looked on the newer side, and some were dog-eared and well-loved with creases in the corners of pages and ratty edges on the paperback covers. Either way, it always makes me smile to see a well-stocked classroom library. My kids are in for a year of exploration and literary “newness” that comes from a teacher suggesting books to read instead of mom doing the suggesting.

My third grader is still in love with the How to Train Your Dragon books by Cressida Cowell. Together, we’re reading Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan. I find myself explaining some of the language and we end up having discussions about government leaders, alliances, and why countries go to war between chapters, so I’m glad we’re reading that one together. He’s a book lover (like his mom!), so I’m looking forward to seeing what choices he makes from his teacher’s stash of books.

In his soon-to-be classroom, I noticed books by Mary PopeOsborne and Beverly Cleary. I also saw books with titles and authors I didn’t recognize – which made me want to explore the bins and shelves a little longer, myself. In addition to math handouts, science experiments, social studies assignments and gym class – I hope my son comes home excited about new authors and new stories, gives new writers a try and maybe even models some of his own stories after a new author he’s read in third grade.

I’ve been trying to remember books from my third grade classroom – but they’re all a blur! I know I read a lot. I was always that kid with a book in her hand even on the playground… but specifics of titles and authors run together from my elementary school years. Certainly, I read my fair share of Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Walter Farley, Marguerite Henry, and others. When I was in elementary school, I’d lose myself in novels for hours at a time only coming up for air when I got hungry or too sleepy to keep reading. Of course, I also loved shopping for new binders and pencils – couldn’t wait to get my shiny new supplies all sorted out and organized, tucked neatly into my desk, new pencil box or binder.

Ahh…the first day of school!

What books would you like to see in your child’s classroom? What books to you remember finding (Loving? Hating?) in classrooms when you were a child? What books do you hope to introduce to your kids/teachers/classmates?

Have you told your story lately?

2011-08-14T20:14:00.000-04:00

I was at a professional conference last week, and had the honor of listening to the story of a wounded warrior. This woman – a leader from our military – lost her right arm in an attack on her humvee in Iraq. Now, she is a leader for the Wounded Warrior – an organization dedicated to helping support wounded veterans and their families.

She received two standing ovations from the crowd of well over 1,000 in the audience – one when she took the stage and another after she told her story.

She spoke simply. She spoke with humility and grace. She told her story honestly. We needed, at some level, to hear what happened to her; and not only that – but we needed to hear her voice tell it. We wanted to hear not only the events, but how she felt, how she changed, how her story didn’t end – but continues to this day.

She told us about what the moment of attack was like – the sound of gunfire and the bright flash of light as a weapon tore her vehicle and part of her body to pieces. She told us about lying in the dirt waiting for transportation to a military hospital, and how her fellow soldier (a man under her command) bled into the earth next to her and asked her to tell his children he loved them. She talked about the dozens of surgeries it took to rebuild her body and her journey to becoming a leader and business entrepreneur.

She is strong. She stood up on stage, under lights and microphones, to tell us her story. And her story made me tingle. Brought tears to my eyes when I heard the pain, the calm reaction to such terror, and ultimately the deep desire to continue to tell her story to those who would listen.

There is power in story. There is power in stories as dramatic and heart breaking and inspiring as hers. But there is also power in YOUR story.

Have you told your story lately?

Wanted: Escapism, pure and simple

2011-08-06T14:20:00.000-04:00

In the midst of these crazy (and HOT) days of summer, I found myself looking not only for some escapism in my reading, but also for the feeling of returning to an old friend. I needed to curl up with a story I knew and loved – one with characters I felt at home with and places I could see in my dreams. I put aside my stacks and piles of unread middle grade and YA novels for the last few weeks, and turned, instead, to an old standby.

Two of my favorite stories -- Outlander and Voyager -- are about time travel, history, Scotland, war, love, intrigue, and large red-headed heroes who always (ALWAYS) say and do the right thing at the right time. Gotta love that going back again and again to the story of Claire and Jamie Fraser is sort of like coming home to my favorite, soft blanket and a mug of English Breakfast tea.

Diana Gabaldon is a most prolific writer with talent for not only characters who seem like they could walk right off the pages of her novels, but also for time and place. Her settings are historical and redolent with detail. When I read her stories, I feel like if I tilt my head just right, I should be able to see the stretch of the Scottish highlands where Jamie escaped from prison after Culloden. If I close my eyes and inhale, I should smell the herbs hanging from the rafters in Claire’s surgery at the clan castle.

So…instead of working on my own books or writing blog entries or studying my genre – I’ve been goofing off. I’ve been using my reading time (and writing time) to escape to the highlands for a bannock or two and a glass of ale with my friends, the Frasers.

Do you have books you return to time and again? What about them – the characters? The setting? The storyline? – makes you snatch them up when you need an escape?

As writers, what can we learn from these books?

Or…perhaps we should just find a beach chair or a hammock and read. Escape. There will be time for learning and writing tomorrow.

Surrender to Imagery

2011-07-17T16:36:00.000-04:00

Imagery is descriptive language that not only engages the readers’ senses, but also evokes an emotional response. One of the most famous examples of imagery in poetry is probably the first line of Carl Sandburg’s “Fog” – The fog comes / on little cat feet.

I was pulled into a novel written by Sonya Hartnett this weekend and found myself alternately bobbing and sinking in an ocean of imagery. Some of the language literally caught my breath like the topmost hill of a roller coaster. Some of Ms. Hartnett’s images made me struggle to breathe. The story, Surrender, written in 2005 and awarded the Michael L. Prinz honor, has creeped into my head and seems to want to stay there, curled around the bulges and beating veins of my brain. Lurking like a snake. It is hiding among my own bits of story and snippets of words as if waiting for the right moment to make itself known in a new way.

The story is demanding and horrifying, inescapable and worthy of being shoved into a back corner of a high shelf when you are finished, just in case you feel the story calling to you another day. You will remember it. You will want to revisit the language, the story, and the images so brilliantly used by this writer. Most of all, it is human, this story. Full of contradictions, mysteries, and the honesty of lies told to oneself to keep the peace.

Here are some of the phrases, sentences and images that are echoing in my ears and keeping rhythm with the beating of my heart –

Page 15 – If my visitor walked away now he would seem like a daydream, like touching a tiger’s face in the dark.

Page 40 – His yellow smile – all of him is yellow – patrols the room like a lighthouse beam, falling on my sandy-beach aunt, on jagged-rocky-outcrop me, on the foaming blankets of the sea…

Page 159 – In this room, night is not black but gray. The door is gray, the walls are gray, the air itself is gray. Yet light skates goldenly round the door handle as it spins.

Page 165 – The sky above our heads dashed white with cockatoos.

Page 180 – The morning heat bulged and swore, trapped in the confines of the forest, a bully pinned furious to the ground.

Sort of exhausting, this story. Deep and treacherous and so beautiful. I was going to send it to a friend, but I think I’ll slide it onto the top shelf of my bookcase instead. I’ll keep it until another day when the images call to me again.

Talking with Sarwat Chadda, author of Devil's Kiss...and a Book Give Away!

2011-07-11T20:22:00.001-04:00

The first novel I wrote revolved around Hindu mythology – specifically the stories of Ganesh, the elephant-headed god. I have a soft spot for traditional stories – myths of all types, legends, fairy tales, folk stories and the like.

And I’ll admit I’m a complete sucker for those History channel shows about topics like the Holy Grail or Lost Scrolls or the Shroud of Turin. (Ancient Aliens? Bigfoot? Giant Killer Catfish? Yep. I’ll get sucked into all of that stuff! Sounds so much like the stuff of myth to me.)

So when I heard of Sarwat Chadda’s books about the first female among the ranks of the Knights Templar, I couldn’t find a copy fast enough. Strong girl heroine. Ancient myths. Mysterious organizations with even more mysterious missions? Who could ask for more?

I was thrilled when Mr. Chadda agreed to answer some questions for me about his stories and his writing life. So please welcome Sarwat Chadda to Carpe Keyboard.

*********

Carpe Keyboard: Since I just finished reading Devil’s Kiss, I’m dying to know if the ending was planned. It is unexpected (at least it was to me!) and I love the twist in the prophecy. Now…I don’t want to give too many spoilers in this conversation – but could you tell us if you planned all along to end the book the way it was finally published? Did you plan out the whole plot, or do you work more organically?

Sarwat Chadda: There’s a big divide between writers who plot and those that let the story develop its own path. I’m very much the first group. I usually have a strong idea of how it’s going to end, then work towards it. I must admit, I usually have to rewrite it several times to make sure the story does flow logically, and I can appreciate this is the risk of being too rigid about where you want the story to go. On the other hand I have read a few books where it’s clear the writer has a strong initial concept but isn’t able to deliver the goods at the end. Then there’s the sense of frustration that the writer failed to deliver on the key promise of any story teller, a satisfying ending.

The end is incredibly important and I want to make sure I’ve saved the best till last.

I love it when writer’s pick names for their characters that just seem so….well…so right. How did Billi SanGreal get her name? And what about Kay? An unusual name for a boy, but somehow it fits with his physical description without seeming too feminine.

All the Templars are named after the Knights of the Round Table. I like the idea the Arthur doesn’t exist in Billi’s world but, in centuries in the future, her adventures will be the myths of her world.

Billi’s name is different. I wanted to establish her Muslim heritage, her full name is Bilqis, and that name too has a lot of mythical resonance with the King Solomon legend (Bilqis was the name of the Queen of Sheba and her descendants were said to be the guardians of the Ark of the Covenant).

SanGreal is a name associated with the Holy Grail and the Templars and I wanted to give Billi a mythic quality. Again it’s a conceit, reminding us we’re in a world more ‘heightened’ than our own. It’s got to be painted bigger and more contrasting.

I’ve written before here on Carpe Keyboard about the distinct lack of parents in YA literature. If they aren’t physically out of the picture (dead mom, anyone?), then they are checked out somehow – not capable of having a relationship with the main character. Billi’s relationship with her father plays a huge role in how the plot moves along in Devil’s Kiss. Do you think readers relate somehow to parents being “checked out” or not fully involved in their lives? Why do you think this is such a pattern in literature and stories for young people?

I’m guilty of the dead mom but compensated that by adding a psycho father! The fundamental issue is what right-minded parent would allow their kid to go on death-defying adventures? So I made sure Billi’s dad isn’t right-minded at all. The dynamic between father and daughter isn’t much dealt with in kids’ fiction so I wanted to make sure it was central to mine.

That’s the same reason so many stories are sent in boarding schools, it’s all a way of keeping the grownups out of the picture. It was a challenge to take this new direction, of keeping the adults central to the story without sidelining Billi, but it was worth doing as it gave the story a fresh perspective

What research did you do into the Knights Templar and Christian tradition or mythology to write Billi’s story? I’d never heard of King Solomon’s mirror legend before… and I find it fascinating. (I happen to know a few myths and folk tales that revolve around mirrors…so I guess I’m particularly drawn to this one.)

The mirror story combines several legends. Solomon was master of magic and commanded the djinn and spirits through the power of a ring. But circles are a common motif in sorcery, so I translated that ‘ring’ to mean something circular, in my case a disk. Now the djinn and a form of supernatural creature, similar to angels and devils, and there’s a myth regarding the sorcerer Dr. Dee, who was said to have a scrying device that allowed him to communicate with angels.

I then tied the two things together, the ‘ring’ of Solomon and Dee’s scrying device are one of the same.

And about those weapons…. Sheesh! Billi really is the bad ass warrior she’s advertised to be! Do you have swords and maces hanging around your house for inspiration? Or at least pictures of weapons Billi and the Knights use? (And if they’re hidden in your closet or hung on the walls of your basement…I don’t think I want to know!)

Yes, I have a number of swords from the Middle-East, Asia and Africa. All totally blunt I hasten to add! They’re on display in my weapons’ cabinet with a few other artifacts.

I wanted the stories to be as real as possible so, given that Billi is a weapons’ expert, that needed to be reflected in the book. She would know the specifics so would deal with the specifics. It’s one of the ‘tricks’ of writing and helps make the setting more believable if you can go into specific detail. It could be anything, a car, a street, a building or sound.

This also meant that when it came to book 2, Dark Goddess, I needed to make the setting as realistic as possible. Since the story was set in Russia that meant me going out there and exploring so I could write a ‘street-level’ viewpoint.

You followed Devil’s Kiss with Dark Goddess, another Billi SanGreal story. What can you tell us about your next project? Will we see more of Billi and the Knights Templar?

I’d love to write a Billi #3 but there are no hard and fast plans yet. The next series is part of the same world but introduces a new hero, Ash Mistry. The first book’s due out Fall 2012 from Arthur A. Levine and called ‘Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress’.

Few books have made any use of the amazing India myths or used India as a setting. That’s about to change. It’ll take bad-ass heroes to a whole new level.

That said, it is the same world as Billi and there are plans for her to be in this series too, but not as a central character.

When do you carpe your keyboard? What are your writing habits?

Drop the kids off at school. Try and write 2,000 words a day. Pick them up. Then a bit of paperwork and admin in the evening. Monday to Friday.

Finally, any advice for budding YA writers? (Not that I…ahem…know of any.)

There is only one: Keep writing. Set yourself a word count (500 a day, whatever) and DO IT. Write whether you feel like it or not. The more you practise the better you’ll get. I promise you.

Thanks so much, Mr. Chadda, for your time and for sharing your insights with us! I’m off to find a copy of Dark Goddess...and I’ll wait impatiently for your new stories involving Indian mythology. Good luck with sales! I wish you great success!

One last thing! Mr. Chadda has generously donated a copy of one of his books to Carpe Keyboard readers! If you’d like to be entered into a drawing to receive one of the Billi Sangreal books, leave me a comment below or post a link to this blog on your social network (and then tell me about it). I’ll draw the lucky winner on Monday, July 18, 2011.

(All Carpe Keyboard typical drawing rules apply. If the winner does not respond to me via email within one week of the drawing, I’ll put the book back in my stack for a different give away or I’ll draw another name from this lot.)

Talking with Writer Jay Asher, Author of Th1rteen R3asons Why

2011-07-04T15:13:00.000-04:00

Jay Asher’s Th1rteen R3asons Why recently came out in paperback, after being honored by not only “best seller” status as a hardback, but also honored by many awards for excellence in YA literature.

Clay receives a package in the mail – a box full of cassette tapes with no return address. He listens to Hannah’s story. Her decision to kill herself, and the reasons why she decided suicide was the only answer.

I won’t be able to give the power and grace of the story any further justice…so I’d like to introduce Jay Asher. He was generous enough to take some time to do a Carpe Keyboard interview this month. Welcome, Jay ---

***

Carpe Keyboard: Wow. All I can say is wow. Th1rteen R3asons Why is one of the few books I’ve read this year that has given me chills from beginning to end. Congratulations on your skill – and on getting this amazing story published. Your website lists about 15 (did I count that right?) awards for this book. What are you? Some kind of super writer? Did you channel teenagers day and night while you wrote? I think you need your own theme song. And maybe a cape.

Jay Asher: I would love a theme song! But it'd be slightly embarrassing if they played it before book signings or school presentations. Maybe it should just come on when I open my front door and head out into the world. Yes, that would definitely be cool! But I've never been a cape person. They snag too easily.

The voices you write for both Clay and Hannah are eerily genuine. I felt like I could hear Hannah’s voice on those tapes. Any advice on achieving such pitch perfect voice? Clues? Hints?

Those voices just came to me the moment I started writing. They felt real, so the object was then to get out of their way and let them talk. Sometimes they said things I didn't quite understand, yet sounded genuine, so I kept those lines in. More often than not, those lines became clearer as the story moved along.

One of my favorite details of this book is how you tell Hannah’s story using her distinct voice, but we also get to see Clay’s reactions – Clay’s version, in some instances – of the same events. Why did you choose to have a female character commit suicide, but have a boy character so poignantly receive her story?

My personal understanding of suicide came when a close relative of mine attempted suicide. She was a junior in high school, like Hannah. I'm sure that's why the suicidal character first appeared to me as a female. Then I did some research and found that most people who attempt suicide are female, so I decided to keep the character as I originally envisioned her. Since so much of the dual-narration goes back and forth fairly rapidly, I thought it'd be easiest to visualize that change if the second narrator was male.

There are lots of comments and reviews posted on your website about this novel. Do you think you’ve reached young men or women who might feel like Hannah did? How does that make you feel?

I've heard from many people, teens and adults, who have felt like Hannah. Sometimes they felt like her long ago, but other times they felt like her when they picked up the book. Suicide is difficult to talk about, whether you're feeling suicidal yourself or you think someone you care about may be suicidal. Because of that difficulty, many people who contemplate suicide don't know who to open up to. So they'll pick up a book that mirrors their emotions. Over the years, I've heard from so many males and females who say the book inspired them to seek help. The first step in seeking help is acknowledging that people will understand, and even a fictional story can help people see that.

This may be too personal – but I’m going to ask anyway. Were you bullied or made fun of at any point in your life? Is there a part of you that knows, from experience, how Hannah feels? (Just so you know…as a reader, I definitely found myself remembering some of the more painful memories of high school where children aren’t children anymore and everyone can be a target. My guess is, most of your readers conjure up visceral memories as they hear Hannah’s story with Clay.)

I don't know if anyone gets through life without being bullied at least a little. So yes, I was bullied at times, but it was never too traumatic. In fact, I think I was lucky. It's weird that, since I wrote a book about teen suicide, so many people assume I must've had a difficult high school experience. Nope! I think anyone can write about anything as long as they try to understand people who had different experiences. It shouldn't be difficult to feel empathy for others.

I’ve posted here on Carpe Keyboard before about parents and their role (or lack thereof) in YA and MG books. Where the heck were Hannah’s parents? Was the choice to make them so removed from her story a conscious one? Why?

Initially, it was due to the limitations of this particular story. It wouldn't make sense for Hannah to send the tapes to her parents, so I couldn't let her talk about them too much. But I also didn't want her parents discussed because readers (as well as the characters listening to the tapes) would've read too much into whatever she said. If I made them out to be wonderful people, the story would've been even more heartbreaking than it already is, and I had a certain level of heartbreak that I didn't want to cross. If I made them out to be monsters, then everyone would want to brush aside some of the things she talks about. They would've felt certain scenarios wouldn't have mattered so much if Hannah had a better home life. I didn't want any distractions from what Hannah was saying.

And what about Clay’s mom? She seemed sympathetic, like perhaps she knew somehow that he was going through something hard during that night. But she kept letting him lie to her – letting him distance himself when he was obviously in pain. I was glad she was in the story, but as a mother myself – I wanted to smack her in the forehead. Do you think she had to be relegated to the background in order for Clay to deal with Hannah’s story and his role in it?

Actually, more people tell me they love Clay's mom! Yes, he's lying to her, but Clay knows she's on to him. When they're in Rosie's Diner, he knows he's not getting away with it. But he also knows that his mom's there for him if he truly needs her. He knows his mom cares. I've spoken to thousands of teens since my book came out, and I think there were only three teens who ever asked, "Where were the adults?" But adults always ask that question.

When do you carpe your keyboard? What are your writing habits?

I mostly write at night. When it's dark outside and it feels like the rest of the world is sleeping, that's when I feel most creative.

Finally, any advice for budding YA writers? (Not that I…ahem…know of any.)

If you're writing something serious, and you have a message you're trying to put across, don't force it. Let readers figure it out for themselves by letting them watch the good and bad things your characters do. It's always more powerful when an author makes you feel something rather than tells you something.

***

Thanks very much, Mr. Asher, for taking the time to share some of your insights and writer’s story with Carpe Keyboard. And congrats again on the success of Th1rteen R3asons Why in paperback!

Up the Pamper Pole .... or Writing as an Extreme Sport

2011-06-30T20:13:00.000-04:00

So, this week I spent half a day in the woods with my colleagues from work. I’m part of a marketing team at one of the largest healthcare supply distributors in the country, and I’m lucky enough to have found a place among a small group of talented, smart and caring individuals.

And here’s the thing. We were in the woods for some Extreme Team Building (cue drum roll and dramatic, loud music). I’ve only been part of this team for about 8 weeks, but even I could see after one or two of the challenges in the woods that we work pretty darn well together. We had to figure out how to cross a “river of lava” together using only tiny carpet squares to keep our feet from “sinking.” We had to move each person through a giant “spider web” without touching any of the ropes. In some cases, we had to literally lift people completely off the ground and pass them through holes in the web higher than our own heads. We strapped on harnesses for zip lining across a ravine. And the most extreme activity? The Pamper Pole.

The Pamper Pole is an individual challenge only in that you are physically by yourself as you climb a 35 foot tall utility pole. Yes…you’re in a harness with a belay and a guide to keep you safe from life threatening falls…but you don’t seem to notice the pinch of the harness or the tug of the safety rope as you climb higher and higher on metal loops no wider than your tennis shoe. The pole begins to sway. Your hands begin to sweat. In my case, my arms began to shake and it seemed my breath was suddenly louder than any of the wind or bird song in the woods.

The goal is to climb to the top and then….wait for it….STAND on top of the darned pole! With both feet! (Do I have to remind you that the pole is a standard utility pole? Go on…walk outside for a minute. I’ll wait…… Find a telephone pole. Looks high, doesn’t it? And maybe just a smidge too small to stand on with both feet? Um. Yep. Good eye.)

It gets worse.

Once you are standing up there, swaying in the breeze, your knees knocking and your heart racing, you’re supposed to JUMP INTO THIN AIR and try to catch hold of a trapeze suspended about 10 feet away from the pole.

Seriously. This is what my boss made us do this week.

And you know what? We all did it. Some of us clambered up there like spider monkeys, stood at the top with great poise, and caught the trapeze like one of the Flying Karamotzov Brothers. (Not me, by the way.) Some of us convinced ourselves to overcome nerves and fear and strap on the harness and climb only part way up.

But we all succeeded. And here’s why: we had support. We’d been through a lot already together. Heck, once you’ve crossed a river of lava on a set of tiny carpet squares or navigated your way though a giant spider web as a team, nothing can stop you! You are invincible.

It was freeing and exhilarating, fun and yes…team building…to play these games together. I can’t speak for each of my colleagues, but I know I found myself willing to step outside of my comfort zone over and over – willing to take chances and leap from the side of a 35 foot pole into thin air, knowing that the encouragement I heard from below would keep me safe. Those voices below shouting encouragement and laughter were as much support as the belay and strong rope attached to my harness.

I know. Someone out there is starting to wonder how this ties back to what this blog is all about: writing. Here’s the thing: support is a wonderful gift. With the support of a community or a friend or a team, you are stronger, more powerful, and more talented than you are alone. With support, a writer can move from the harsh grip of writer’s block or the grinding drudgery of self doubt into the beauty and freedom of poetry or the ebb and flow of a long and heartfelt story.

So find a community of writers. Find listeners. Find readers. Find others with like passions for your genre and open yourself to their thoughts. You will find, I am sure, that they can be the harness and rope that will keep you from falling.

Remember: the support of others will make you strong and set you free to write with grace. It will keep you afloat even when you take chances you never thought you’d take. With support, you’ll reach the top of the tallest pole – take on the hardest writing challenge – and stand straight and tall despite the swaying and the wind.

Leap. Your writing friends will catch you.

Namaste... The writer in me sees the writer in you

2011-06-26T14:30:00.000-04:00

According to an TheMeaning and Purpose of Yoga written by Bhole Prabhu, the most important teaching in yoga “states that our ‘true nature’ goes far beyond the limits of the human mind and personality--that instead, our human potential is infinite and transcends our individual minds and our sense of self.…the purpose of yoga is to unite ourselves with our highest nature.”

I’ve practiced yoga for few years. I wish I had time to dedicate myself to a Hatha practice more often. I wish I could get out my mat and come to a seated position each morning or night. But it recently dawned on me: yoga isn’t all about being on a mat. Yoga fits into many parts (all parts) of life, if only you open your mind to that possibility.

I may not practice asanas every day (or even every week lately), but I carry within myself the desire to fold all of yoga into my entire life. When my feet hit the mat, I’m overwhelmed with the sense of peace and the largeness of the world that is within my own body and mind. My heart rate slows. My breathing deepens. My body sinks into the earth while also rising toward sky – I become longer, stronger, and settled in mind and spirit.

And…shocking as this might sound…I’m learning how to achieve these feelings when I’m not on my beloved sticky mat.

I’m lucky enough to have another practice in my life that uncovers my “true nature” and goes beyond the limits of mind and personality. Writing, in fact, helps make my potential infinite.

Doesn’t writing – and reading, for that matter – transcend individual minds and our sense of self? When you write, do you have a sense of moving out of your own self – and becoming part of something larger, more infinite, more mysterious?

Stories are, in my mind, the very life blood of our existence. Without a story, who are we? Writing stories – whether they are our own or stories from our minds – is like yoga in practice. Or it can be.

Open your mind. Sink into Earth. Tell your story.

Om.

Where do you write?

2011-06-19T15:01:00.000-04:00

Where do you write?

I’m wondering because I’ve wanted a writing room in my house for years. I do have a room we call “the office” at home, but it really is more of a glorified closet now than a room where work could get done. Especially creative work.

If you opened the door on “my office” at home right now, you’d find stacks and stacks of junk mail waiting to be sorted, a kitty litter box needed to be cleaned, and general stashes of kids’ school assignments, packages of batteries and maybe a few old socks. The chair and work surface of the desk are completely covered with stuff. Not a good place to retreat for writing.

Sigh.

(Of course, most of the stuff is stuff I put there…so I have no one to blame but myself!)

Sometimes I write on the couch in the living room. It is generally quiet there, especially in the evenings, and there is room for the dog and one cat to curl up next to me. But there isn’t a good place to set a cup of tea or coffee.

Sometimes it is the kitchen table. Excellent on beautiful days when the windows are open and I can turn on the family room stereo. Not so excellent when kids are tromping in and out, tapping me on the shoulder asking for snacks, or when my husband is in one of his “MUST SMOKE MEAT” moods when smoke streams steadily through those open windows and just makes my eyes water. But…there is certainly space on that big kitchen table for my coffee!

I have a big easy chair in my bedroom, and that has been a great site for writing a chapter here or there. It is nap-worthy, though…that chair.

See? Every place I try to write, there are distractions a-plenty! Even today. I’m sitting in my local Panera with a pecan twist and a cup o’joe. Instead of pounding out this great scene in my head – one that involves a cross-dressing warlock who sings showtunes – I find myself entirely distracted by the three little old ladies sitting at the next table. They’re arguing about whether or not it was Hitler who started the tradition of the flaming torch for the Olympics.

I mean really? Google it, people!

And just let me write!

So…where do you write? Leave me a comment, suggestion or other thought and I’ll throw your name in the drawing for a “travelling copy” of The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. (As always, the Carpe Keyboard rules apply – I’ll announce the winner here on CK on Sunday, June 26, 2011. If the winner doesn’t reply to me with their snail mail address within one week of the drawing, I’ll put the book back in my give away stack for a different drawing.)

A Summer Read Worth Crashing on a Deserted Island...

2011-06-12T14:42:00.000-04:00

Do you know about novelist Libba Bray? If you’ve been keeping track of YA lit lately, surely the name is familiar at least. Last year, she won the Prinz honor for her sarcastic and brilliant novel, Going Bovine. Loved that book. Giggled and snorted my way through her irreverent humor, wanted to grab a cup o’ joe with her characters (or at least eat pizza flavored Combos in the back seat while they road-tripped through the South).

So when I heard her new book was coming out, I pre-ordered it.

Here’s the deal. If you haven’t already gotten your hands on a copy, YOU MUST GO GET ONE RIGHT NOW. Do not wait. Do not even finish your coffee or soda or whatever you’re drinking as you read this. Just drop everything and GO GET THIS BOOK.

The cover of Beauty Queens, by itself, is enough of a reason to own a copy. I mean really. The torso of a bikini-clad female body with a bandolier of lipsticks slung from her shoulder to her hip? How fantastic is that? (Of course, the English Major in my head finds anything longer than it is wide…well, you know. Girl’s body covered in hilarious, little phallic symbols just cracked me up. But maybe I’m just a nut.)

Premise: An airplane full of beauty pageant contestants crashes on a deserted island. Think Miss America meets LOST meets some reality show about teenage girls and their beauty products. Think sarcasm the likes of which Jonathan Swift would admire. Think Beauty Pageant Queen (eerily like a certain political candidate and big game hunter who doesn’t know her American history from a hole in the ground) and a corporate sponsor set on taking over the world.

There were scenes in this novel that make me literally crack up. Some I’ll be quoting for weeks to come. Some I read and could only wish that I, too, could someday write sentences that right.

I mean…any story that includes a teenage beauty pageant contestant airplane crash victim who walks around during the whole novel with part of a tray table sticking out of her forehead like the bill on a baseball cap…HILARIOUS. In a dark and sadistic way. But still – hilarious!

And wait til the bodacious pirates arrive! And the Corporate stooges! Who use lady’s hair remover product as explosives! There is a stuffed lemur dressed as a general. Teenage girls building trebuchets to launch high heels as deadly weapons. A maniacal Elvis impersonator. A beauty queen turned avenging super hero (complete with her own comic strips and side kick). A pool of piranhas and two heroes suspended over it with fraying ropes. Trans-sexual boy band members turned pageant contestants…the list goes on and on.

And out of all of this craziness comes a tale of girl power. Woman power. The rightness of our bodies, the true meaning of beauty, and the importance of believing in yourself.

Gulped it down in one sitting.

Thank you, Libba Bray, for your hilarious story and for your insanely right message to the girls (and boys) in the world about their worth. You ROCK.

(Cue pageant runway music. I’d flip my hair if it was long enough and strike a perfect ¾ pose, lifting one hand in a perfect beauty queen wave…)

You’re still reading this? STOP IT. Get your keys. Drive to the bookstore. Look for the bikini-clad woman with the lipsticks slung like rifle cartridges across her shoulder. Beauty Queens.

(P.S. I'm going to see if I can get Ms. Bray to answer a few interview questions, Carpe Keyboard style. Not sure she'll have time for little old me, but we'll give it a go! Cross your fingers!)

First Lines and Popsicles

2011-06-05T14:21:00.000-04:00

Why the heck are beginnings so hard? I’ve looked at the first page of my YA novel in progress so many times, I’m sick of reading it. When my writing partner and I worked on our first novel together, we struggled time and again with our first chapter. We re-wrote it multiple times. I lost track, actually, of how many different versions we had. We’d think it was fixed, then one of us would drag it out again and decide it still needed work. So we’d tear it apart and rebuild, tuck it away and hope it was just right. And then the pattern would start all over again.

Sigh.

Then there is the classic question: To Prologue or Not To Prologue? Also just painful. I mean… Sayantani and I had this fantastic scene of a hunt taking place in the jungle, and it tied back into the resolution of the story so well! And I have a dream prologue that my main character just has to have to set the stage for RLR. But you hear that some agents and editors hate prologues…and it is the first thing they’ll see of your manuscript if they ask for the first five/ten/chapter/whatever. So the last thing you want to do is turn them off by having a prologue, right?

So…in honor of the beginning of Summer, I’m going to take a look at first lines for some of the books I have sitting in either my “to be read” piles or my kid’s summer reading piles. Just had a big trip to Barnes and Noble yesterday with my son, so we’ve got some good stuff racked up for summer reading. Maybe this will inspire me. Here goes:

Middle Grade

Fred & Anthony Meet the Heinie Goblins from the Black Lagoon by Esile Arevamirp and Elise Primavera – “Fred and Anthony hung out a lot together, goofing off and watching horror movies.”

My Rotten Life, Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie by David Lubar – “It’s no fun having your heart ripped from your body, slammed to the floor, and stomped into a puddle of quivering red mush.”

Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-Weiner by Ursula Vernon – “What’s your problem?” asked Danny’s best friend, Wendell, shaking him awake.”

Young Adult

Surrender by Sonya Hartnett (note: This one was a Prinz honor book) – “I am dying: it’s a beautiful word. Like the long, slow sigh of a cello: dying.”

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher – “Sir?” she repeats. “How soon do you want it to get there?”

Blood Red Road by Moira Young – “The day’s hot. So hot and so dry that all I can taste in my mouth is dust.”

So I should go write now. I’ll probably ignore my beginning today and work on something smack dab in the middle. (Middles are easier. Not easy…but easier. At least for me.) It is summer, after all, and too hot to get frustrated on a beginning. But maybe tomorrow…

You, too. Go write something. And eat a popsicle.

Brave Writer

2011-05-28T21:39:00.000-04:00

So…I’ve been working on two new manuscripts over the last…oh…two years. Well, one of them I’ve only just started recently, but the other one – code named RLR – has been a work in progress for a very long time.

It started off with a bang – tons of words over a very short time. Then it slowed to a trickle while I was co-writing and editing a different novel with a dear friend. I still poked around at it, but really didn’t make much progress. Then another wave of frenetic activity where I counted words, set goals and plowed forward. Followed…again…by a period of procrastination.

Well, if the pattern is to hold, it is now time for more focus. More goal-setting. More WRITING on that particular story. And there is a story to tell – one that is still floating in and out of the little gray cells in my head. That’s how I know that it isn’t just a dead end, you see. I can still see the characters, still wonder late at night what Neil would say or what Sid would do… How can I get Neil another guitar after I wrote that he left his behind when he ran with Sidney? What will Sidney do when she finally meets her long lost father? Will the villain catch up to them? The answers are in my head. Now I just need to get the energy and momentum to get them past my fingers and into a file.

But then comes the really scary part. Letting someone else in on their story. Eventually, I have to share it with someone. I’ve taken scenes to my critique group over time, but nothing sequential. They’ve seen a bit of the story here, and smidgen of a chapter there. Not enough to tell if I’m building cohesive characters, let alone a plot that hangs together. Don’t get me wrong…their help is invaluable. They are readers and writers, which is a very good thing to have in a critique group. If your partners are readers, first and foremost, they can offer observations about your style, pacing, word choice, etc. that help tighten paragraphs and force you to think about why you write the way you do.

I’ve found myself wanting something more specific, though. I hoped to find a group or partner who also writes the same genre. I needed someone with experience in YA and children’s lit to take a peek and let me know if I’m heading down a solid path, or heading down a proverbial rabbit hole.

So, I got brave. I’m a member of a website called She Writes. Mostly, I’m a lurker and a blog advertiser. I read other postings from folks in the groups and I promote Carpe Keyboard and my contests, but I’ve never used any of their other features or services. Until one day last week. When I got brave.

I posted a plea on a few of the She Writes groups. A sort of personal ad. “Married 40-something writer seeks other writer(s) of young adult stories. Loves to read and offer sage advice. Looking for honest feedback. Hates pina coladas, but does have an affinity for rain, as long no walking required…”

You get the idea.

Got a response, from another YA writer who offered to trade some pages so we could test out a critique round. I sent her a few chapters. I held my breath for about an hour (okay…maybe a minute, but seemed LOTS longer than that) after I clicked Send. Part of me was worried that she’d hate it. She’d realize in the first few sentences that I’m a hoax. A quack. A woman curiously obsessed with teenagers and their stories, who has very little talent and even less skill with words.

But, because I was being brave, I tried to forget about it until I saw her rather quick reply. She turned around my chapters overnight – reading them and giving really insightful comments! And no…she didn’t hate it. Or if she did, she kept that to herself.

But I’m pretty sure she didn’t hate it because she went on to send me chapters of one of her projects to read and critique. And guess what? I’m loving her story and her style.

Like a blind date in a way. We know nothing about one another, other than what our She Writes profiles say (which is little). But we know that we are writers. And I suppose we can now realize that we are brave writers who seek out comments and critique. Brave writers who want to write better than we did last week, hope to write even better next week. And one of the best ways to get better is to get your work out there in front of readers. Be open to their reactions, ideas, and questions. Take comments seriously – without giving your audience all of the power. It still is YOUR story, after all.

But open up. Seek feedback. Soak it up. Learn from it.

Talking with Rhonda Stapleton, Author of the STUPID CUPID series...and a chance to win her first book!

2011-05-21T14:09:00.000-04:00

At a recent SCBWI chapter event, I had the pleasure of meeting author Rhonda Stapleton. She presented a session about young adult literature and the market today. She talked about what elements make a successful YA novel (successful = high selling!) and story elements to consider if you write YA. And she was funny. Very funny.

I was her “hostess” for the session, which meant that I introduced her to the audience and got her a glass of water. In return, she planted a song in my head by humming it while she was preparing to begin her presentation. A song that is still….STILL…stuck in MY HEAD.

So, thank you very much Ms. Funny Writer Person with your cute bob hair cut and your tattoos and your love of the crazily addictive tune for “The Girl from Ipanema” for taking the time to talk with us here at Carpe Keyboard!

Carpe Keyboard: We met at a recent SCBWI conference in Columbus, Ohio. When you spoke, you talked about YA lit and we had some discussion around the difference between “sweet” YA and “edgy” YA. How would you differentiate between the two? Where do your books fit?

Rhonda Stapleton: My books are definitely on the sweet side. There are no sex scenes, only mild cussing, very light alcohol use, and the focus is more on romance/love than grittier topics like sex, pregnancy, abuse, etc.

For your Stupid Cupid series, you cross over into a little bit of a paranormal-y storyline. Little mythology. Little romance. Did you set out to write something that was based on myth or legend? Why do you think the myth/legend/fairy tale retellings are all the rage right now?

I think people are always drawn to myths, and when an author can find a way to breathe new life into them it helps them continue in popularity. My original plan was to write a heroine who had an unusual job. Being a cupid came to mind. But I made mine different and breathed new life into the "cupid" concept by having her be one of many, and they use technology to make love matches. :D

Do you have any teenagers in your life? Do you use them? Do they shine your shoes, read your drafts, make you dinner, sing to you when the power goes out? Anything? Or do eavesdrop on tables of teenagers at a coffee house to get a glimpse into the lives of teenagers, like many other YA writers?

I have a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy. My daughter has helped me brainstorm, and she's read my books. My son...well, I think my writing is a little too girly for him, haha. I shamelessly eavesdrop on their convos when they are within listening range. I also hang at the mall sometimes and just listen. It's amazing what you hear.

In oh-so-writerly classes and (self-help) books for writers, I’ve read lots about the character’s arc or the character’s journey. I’ve written, here on Carpe Keyboard, about craft topics, like voice and plot and dialogue… Do you follow any specific methods for developing plot or characters….or anything else about your stories? Any advice on craft for writers who are trying to break in to the biz?

For me, plot and characterization go hand-in-hand. And I base them off Deb Dixon's GMC (goal, motivation, conflict). What does your character want? Why? And what keeps the character from getting it? Being able to answer those questions gets me started on my storyline and keeps me focused. My biggest tips for writers: get that book, post-haste. It's amazing, and it changed my writing. Also, read read read READ. Analyze the stories that resonate the most with readers. WHY does it work? What is the character's path? How is the plotting woven? Those things will help you grow.

What did you do when you signed with your agent? Dance around like a crazy person? How about when you heard your agent sold your first novel? Run to the driveway and proclaim your talent to the entire neighborhood? (See…I’m planning what I’m going to do. Can you tell?)

When I signed with my agent I totally went out to dinner to celebrate. And I told EVERYONE. When I sold the trilogy...well, I bawled. haha. I sobbed and sobbed. And then went out to dinner to celebrate. Sensing a theme? lol

Can you tell us about your next book?

I'm working on a couple of different things right now--a teen paranormal that's waaaay more serious in tone, and an adult novel, actually. :D

When do you carpe your keyboard? What are your writing habits?

I started writing in 2004. I used to write daily but it's not practical for me right now since I'm self-employed. So now, weekends are my sacred writing time. My goal is to do 10 pages each weekend day, which is definitely doable. I can break it up as I need to, so I don't always do the pages in one sitting unless I am in a groove.

Thanks, Rhonda, for your time and sharing your talent with us! Good luck on your next works…and keep humming!

To enter the drawing to win a copy of Ms. Stapleton’s Stupid Cupid, leave a comment below! I’ll draw the winner next Saturday, May 28. (As always, if the winner does not email me to claim their prize within one week, the book will go to another winner.)

Inclusion Connections: Corporate America and YA Lit Mixin' in My Mind

2011-05-10T19:50:00.001-04:00

Funny how things happen sometimes, isn’t it? I just finished reading Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler, then picked up Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Both of these are YA novels, recent publications (well, 2006 and 2011), and both have a healthy dose of otherworldliness about the stories. These events alone are not surprising. I read about an average of two novels a week, and many, if not most, of them are YA.

But today I had to attend mandatory training at my new job. The class was called “Managing Inclusion.” Five years ago, it would have been called “Diversity Training,” but corporate America has matured, apparently, beyond simply understanding diversity and moved on to inclusion for all people. This is a good thing. For a lot of reasons.

Again, not a weird or surprising occurrence. Corporate trainer attends mandatory session at work.

But here’s the rub: The combination of four hours of discussion about inclusion versus exclusion and the impact of both on the workplace resonated with me through the literature I’d been reading.

No – neither Delirium nor Frozen Fire is about corporate America… But hang in there with me. I really do have a point.

Part of our discussion in this class centered around how exclusion can be forceful and intentional, but it can also occur subtly without even the excluder realizing what they are doing. On the other hand, inclusion is always active. You cannot passively include someone. You must make an effort to make sure people are included. We also talked about how the behaviors of including and excluding people start very young. We learn very early in life to plop people into buckets, usually based on what they look like. And as we mature, those buckets get more complex, but the main skill is ingrained – we still sort and categorize…and judge.

So I’m listened and participated in this discussion with a room full of adults, all professional, all well-educated, all successful in their chosen fields. And I kept making “connections” (a word used by many a language arts teacher!) back to the two books I named, not to mention to recent conversations around my own dinner table.

In Frozen Fire, Bowler gives us examples of very active exclusion when the people in the town, specifically the teenagers, forcefully exclude a group of travelers from the town. People openly dismiss them and even take violent action against them. Worse yet – the same townspeople show how aggressively a mob can exclude based on rumor and hearsay when they decide one of the main characters is guilty of horrible crimes. Even when presented with undeniable proof that he didn’t commit the crime, he unwittingly proves his differences run deeper than the town ever thought. They are so threatened by this innocent boy, they still pursue him and force him out.

In the beginning of Delirium (on only about 5 chapters in, but had started reading immediately before the inclusion class, so it was fresh on my mind), a group of people live in the “wilderness” between cities. Everyone knows they are out there…calls them the Invalids “secretly” and understands that the government denies their existence because they are harmful and bad.

As I’m pondering the suggested actions I should take to make sure my work team is inclusive and thinking in the back of my head about how these stories illustrate exclusion, I started wondering at how the children of the world…the kids in my own home included…learn about actions that include or exclude. And how they recognize the consequences of those actions.

Recently, a sixth grade girl I know started talking to me about an event in her school cafeteria. The conversation went something like this:

My friend: “Sally got mad when someone tried to sit with us at lunch today.”

Me: “Why?”

My Friend: “Sally didn’t want her there. She doesn’t like her.”

Me: “Why doesn’t she like her?”

My Friend: “The other girl is pretty quiet and doesn’t have many friends. I guess Sally just thinks she’s different. But Sally said right to her face – go away. You can’t sit here with us.”

Me. “That’s horrible! What did you do?”

My Friend: “I made room for her to sit on the other side of me. Sally gave me a dirty look, but I thought she was being mean and hurting the other girl’s feelings.”

So…wow. Yeah. Exclusion right there. And don’t we all remember being the one made to feel the outsider for some reason, if not in childhood, then as an adult? And can I just say how proud I was of my friend – this girl who, at the tender age of 12, had it in her heart to do the right thing even in the face of disapproval from others? So proud.

Do we have enough positive messages of inclusion in the literature that kids pull off of library shelves today? Stories, after all, teach us so much. Stories model behavior. Or as my writing partner would say: Stories are good medicine.

Do we have enough stories with characters who are different – different in color, religion, language, sexual orientation, dress, body size…(The list goes on and on.) Are there enough stories out there where difference is just part of what characters are, not who they are? And is it up to us – as writers, as artists, as people who care about children enough to write books for them – is it up to us to make sure messages of inclusion are … ahem…included in our work? Should we, as a writing (and parenting, teaching, loving, grandparenting, aunt- and uncle-ing, working, living, breathing) community present as many stories with as many different characters as possible to illustrate the power of inclusion through art? And the flip side – the power of exclusion and its consequences?

Imagine the power of stories that model acceptance and inclusion – and how that could change our world.

Food for thought. Keep writing.

Talking with Jake Wizner, Author of SPANKING SHAKESPEARE and Writer of Hilarious Poetry

2011-05-05T20:04:00.002-04:00

Welcome Jake Wizner, author of Spanking Shakespeare and Castration Celebration to Carpe Keyboard! I blogged last week here about the fantastic “boy voice” in Spanking Shakespeare, so I got in touch with Mr. Wizner. He graciously agreed to spend some time answering a few questions about his writing life.

Enjoy!

Carpe Keyboard: I heard about Spanking Shakespeare from another author who was speaking at a writer’s conference. Did you know you were being recommended as one of the funniest YA voices out there?

Jake Wizner: I’ve gotten a lot of feedback about how funny the book is, but it’s always nice to hear that other authors are talking about it. All of the early reviews that came out commented on the book’s humor. I loved that one of the reviews called me the love child of Woody Allen and Judy Blume. One thing that took me by surprise was seeing the cover of my book featured prominently in a textbook as an example of humor.

As an English Lit major in college, I studied quite a bit of the Bard’s work. And even though Shakespeare (Shapiro, not the other one!) obviously has a gift for writing, he isn’t much of a literature lover. How…oh, how?...did you decide to use Mr. Shakespeare’s name for your main character?

I studied quite a bit of Shakespeare in college too, but I don’t think that factored into the name, at least not that I was conscious of. As I recall, I was just beginning the book when my wife was pregnant with our first child. We were in New Orleans, and each day we would make lists of possible names. We knew it was a girl, so Shakespeare never made any of the lists, but we were having great fun thinking up names that none of our thousands of students (we had both been teachers for many years) had ever had. All of which is to say that unusual names were very much on my mind. One day, the name Shakespeare Shapiro just popped fully formed into my head, and I thought, “There’s a name that would cause a boy a whole lot of angst.” And with that, I began writing what would become the book’s prologue.

Some of the events at Hemingway High were so funny, they seemed like they had to be based on reality somehow. Did you ever write posters for fake clubs in order to incite riot in the hallways? Or ever compose (BRILLIANT!) funny poetry for a girl?

I based a great deal of the book, particularly the memoir chapters, on experiences my friends and I had growing up. The actual events are often exaggerated or altered for comic effect, but… my mother did blackmail me into giving away my dog, my grandmother did take me to see a semi-pornographic movie, one friend who was afraid of going to baseball games did get hit in the face at a game, and another friend got stoned before a graduation luncheon and announced it to the crowd. We never put up fake posters in school, but we did amuse ourselves with playing worst-case scenario games. I never wrote funny poetry in high school, but I did write quite a bit of it starting in college. The only time I ever wrote a poem to get a girl, it was a serious one, and it freaked her out. Maybe I would have been better off sticking to humor.

In oh-so-writerly classes and (self-help) books for writers, I’ve read lots about the character’s arc or the character’s journey. I love Shakespeare’s journey from insecure, self-deprecating boy to caring young man. Did you map out a character arc for him either before or during writing? Or do you use a more organic method? When did you know Shakespeare would turn out to be such a young adult at the end?

When I submitted the first draft of the book to my agent, she loved the voice, loved the humor, but had one big concern: Shakespeare seemed to be the same character at the end of the book as he was at the beginning. Somehow I had become so absorbed in writing humorous memoir chapters, I had forgotten to think through the ways Shakespeare would grow and change. It was only when I revised that I seriously thought through how Shakespeare would mature. The key was creating the character of Charlotte, who did not exist in the first draft. Once her story began to take shape, it was easy to see how Shakespeare might change.

What was your search for an agent like? Was there any hesitation on behalf of agents about any of your language or references to sex and … um… bowel movements? I’d love to hear about your journey to publishing…

I had written some of a middle grade novel in a writing class, and my teacher encouraged me to finish it and see if I could get it published. I knew very little about the publishing world at the time, but I had a friend whose father was a children’s book editor and my friend passed the book along. His father loved it, sent me revision notes, and began speaking about drawing up a contract. It seemed like a done deal. I was going to be a published author just like that. But then one thing led to another, my friend’s father left his publishing house, weeks stretched to months, and my friend’s father eventually suggested that I would probably be best off getting an agent. He recommended one person, and I sent along my book saying my friend’s father had referred me. That was enough to get it out of the slush pile, but the agent decided to pass.

My friend’s father recommended a second agent, who showed interest, but wanted to see other things I had written. When I told her this was my first book, she told me to send her something else when I had written it. That something else ended up being 40 pages of Spanking Shakespeare. She loved it – more than the middle grade book I had written – and encouraged me to keep going. She did not express concern about the language or content, though at one point she did advise me to cut a section in which Shakespeare and Neil carry on an extended cell phone conversation from their toilets, describing their bowel movements in great detail. I spent more than two years on the book writing and revising before my agent felt it was ready to send out. The first editor she sent it to passed, but the second editor, who was at Random House, made an offer. It was a thrilling moment.

Can you tell us about Castration Celebration?

I wanted to write a musical, which is a little bit odd because I have only seen two or three musicals in my life and did not particularly enjoy them. But I’ve always loved writing irreverent songs, and I figured that I could write the kind of musical that people who don’t like musicals could also enjoy. I started with the lyrics, and then I built a script around the songs, and what emerged was something outrageous, over-the-top, and really, really funny, at least to me.

I had also been playing around for a long time with the idea of setting a young adult novel on a college campus, because I had spent the first ten years of my life living in a dormitory at Yale. I remembered clearly what kinds of adventures a young boy could have, and I imagined it could be even more fun for kids a little bit older. So that’s kind of how the book came together. Take a group of teenagers, plop them down on a college campus for a summer program where they can be working on a musical, and see what happens.

There’s a scene early in the book where Olivia’s playwriting teacher challenges her students to write not what they know, but what they want to find out. That’s sort of what writing this book was like for me. Whereas Spanking Shakespeare was rooted largely in my own experiences as a teenager, Castration Celebration was really a work of pure fiction.

When do you carpe your keyboard? What are your writing habits?

Since I am a full-time public school teacher and a dad with two young daughters, finding time to write can be challenging. My girls go to bed relatively early, but after a full day of teaching and parenting I’m usually too worn out to concentrate on my writing. My most productive time is during the summer. I will usually write for a few hours in the mornings and then meet my wife and daughters wherever they are for the rest of the day.

Thanks, Mr. Wizner, for sharing some of your writing life with us! I’ll keep an eye out for your next book – since I’m always thrilled to find one that makes me laugh so hard I snort tea up my nose! J

Boy Voices in FEED and SPANKING SHAKESPEARE

2011-04-30T10:23:00.000-04:00

I’m a woman of a certain age. How the heck can I write the voice of a teenager – especially a teenage boy – with any confidence or believability? To tell you the truth – I’m sort of a chicken when it comes to writing boy voices in my stories. I tend to shy away from boys as main characters, and I’ve come to realize that I might do this because I feel like I have no confidence that I could sound, realistically, like a teenage boy. And why should I? I have very little contact with teenage boys right now in my life…and certainly had very little contact with teenage boys even when I was a teenager. (They were the Other Kids in classes and leaning against lockers in the hallway; they tended to smell like sweat or too much cologne, and I always wanted them to be more like Romeo or Luke Skywalker. Yep. Once again … showing you my high level of geekiness.)

Anyway… this week, I accidentally picked up two novels in a row and now I wish to bow to the superior – and very different – ways in which these authors wrote in believable, honest, and sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious voices of teenage boys.

M.T. Anderson, author of the Octavian Nothing books, wrote Feed (a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Los Angeles Times book prize) in 2002. Here is the concept: In a distant dystopia, Titus is a teenager whose “ability to read, write, and even think for himself has been almost completely obliterated by his “feed,” a transmitter implanted directly into his brain.” (Quote from the back matter on the paperback from Candlewick Press.) Feeds are crucial to the lives of everyone on the planet, transmitting a never-stopping stream of advertising and information, 24 hours a day. But Titus meets Violet, a girl who decides to fight the Feed…

Titus’s voice is short and choppy – using lots of colloquialisms and slang from this future world, but also displaying an almost too intimate view into the brain and thoughts of a teenage boy. It is hard to explain, so I’ll give you some quotes to see if I can help convey the cadence and …. Well, voice … voice in Anderson’s novel.

Page 34, Titus and friends at a dance club on the moon: There were about a million people it seemed, and lights, and the beat was rocking the moon. There was a band hung by their arms and their legs from the ceiling, and there was girders and floating units going up and down, and these meg youch latex ripplechicks dancing on the bar, and there were all these frat guys that were wearing these, unit, they were fuckin’ brag, they were wearing these tachyon shorts so you couldn’t barely look at them, which were $789.99 according to the feed and they were on sale for like $699 at the Zone, and could be shipped to the hotel for an additional $78.95, and that was just one great thing that people were wearing.

See that? Anderson’s long, breathless sentences – his words and thoughts running together without a break? This was early in the story, so the language serves to get the reader into the uninterrupted, random feed that the characters experience every minute. Pretty cool. (The writing, not the feed.)

Page 114, Titus talking to his parents after meeting Violet: I was looking out the window, being sorry, and my mother was like, “What’s wrong?”

I didn’t answer for a while. Finally I said, “Do you think I’m stupid? I mean, am I dumb?”

“You’re a non-traditional learner.”

Smell Factor said, “No he’s not. He’s dumb.”

My mother said, “Is this re: Violet?”

“No.”

“Come on. Is it re: her? Because she shouldn’t make you feel stupid. That’s not good.”

“Mom, it’s un-re: her, okay?”

“She should be proud of you.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want my mom to think Violet was a snob. Violet wasn’t a snob. I was just dumb.

So Anderson manages to have the insecurities of his main character still become a focus of how he speaks, acts, and interacts with others… I think this is part of what makes this dystopia feel believable. I read through Titus’s thoughts and hear his conversations with his friends and family…and I think this kid sounds real, even if I’m not familiar with his slang.

Anderson’s Feed was fascinating, in a dark, depressing, we-are-all-victims-of-consumerism-and-advertising-and-techonology sort of way. Some of the language took a while to get used to, and the pacing is a bit frantic – but it all serves to tell the story.

Right after finishing Feed, I picked up Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner. I’d heard of this novel from an author at a recent SCBWI conference. She listed it as an excellent example of voice in teen literature and also as one of the funniest YA books she’d read. To that list of criteria, I’d add that it is a fantastic example of a teenage boy’s voice.

The story is written partly in first person traditional narrative, but has sections of the main character’s senior year thesis (a school-assigned memoir) interspersed throughout. Also written in first person, there is subtle language change and tone changes between the more traditional first person narrative and the chapters written by the main character for his assignment. Both are snarky (to say the least), self-deprecating, raunchy, and totally teenager. Shakespeare (the main character) presents a brutally honest – and absolutely hilarious – look at the life of a teenage boy, including his bowel-movement obsessed best friend, his desperate (and sort of pathetic) attempts at talking to girls, his applications to colleges, his popular younger brother and of course -- his driving need to get laid. I laughed out loud throughout most of Spanking Shakespeare, and especially fell in love with the Shakespeare Shapiro and Mr. Wizner, when Shakespeare writes a hilariously inappropriate poem for a girl he likes. This girl reads long books by Russian authors…so Shakespeare decides to impress her with poetry about famous authors with the hopes she’ll let him get a little “closer” to her, if you know what I mean.

I can’t stand it. The whole chapter made me laugh and giggle and snort; I ended up reading it to my husband and chuckling my way through each stanza… How could you not love a character who could write:

Milton himself was a mischievous louse

Whose favorite hobby was to egg

Shakespeare’s house.

And with whom did Milton engage in

this fun?

Sometimes Ben Johnson, sometimes John

Donne.

(There are raunchier verses – lots of constipation and erection references. Hilarious even to a “woman of a certain age”…trust me. I snorted tea out of my nose while reading…)

Shakespeare Shapiro’s voice is honest. No doubt in my mind that I was inside the head of a teenage boy, doing what teenage boys do when they are getting ready to graduate high school.

I’m pretty convinced I’m not going to write any teenage boy characters nearly this honest and believable any time soon. But it is good to have examples waiting in the wings.

Keep reading…and let me know if you have other great examples of voice in YA or MG lit. I’m always on the lookout!

PS – For more on voice in YA literature, check out this great blog post, Evolving Voice in the Young Adult Novel, by Swati Avasthi, author of Split (Random House/Knopf, 2010), which was nominated for the ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults award for 2010.

Winner of Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles...

2011-04-30T08:50:00.000-04:00

...is Carey_Corp! Congratulations!

Please e-mail your snail mail address to me at karisscott@hotmail.com and I'll be happy to get the book in the mail to you as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading Carpe Keyboard!

Talking with Simone Elkeles, Author of the PERFECT CHEMISTRY (Oh...And a chance to win a free book!)

2011-04-22T10:22:00.000-04:00

Simone Elkeles, author of Perfect Chemistry, Leaving Paradise, Return to Paradise, and other YA novels, graciously agreed to share some of her thoughts on writing – specifically writing realistic YA characters who have (gasp!) sex (!!). Her books have consistently been on the New York Times and USA Today best selling lists, so obviously, the woman knows what she is doing! I hope we can all learn something about writing for the YA crowd and navigating the publishing world from Ms. Elkeles.

Keep reading for a chance to enter to win a copy of Perfect Chemistry…in early celebration for Ms. Elkeles’s upcoming release of Chain Reaction!

Welcome, Simone, to Carpe Keyboard!

CP: Thanks for agreeing to spend some of your valuable writing to answering some questions! I’d like to start by asking if you’d tell us a quick version of your “writer story” – You know…how did you first get published? Do you have a degree in creative writing? Did you do a happy dance when you first signed with an agent?

SE: First of all, thank you for having me!

Unlike most authors I know, I hated reading as a teen and didn't do so hot in English class. I got B’s and C’s in English class most of the time. I have a master’s degree in Industrial Relations from Loyola University-Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Psychology from the University of Illinois. I’ve never taken a creative writing class in my life. I fell in love with reading as an adult – specifically romance novels. I was so in love with them, I started writing them. Once I started writing for “myself” and not a teacher or for a grade, I realized that I loved writing and never wanted to stop. I pretty much taught myself how to write, because they didn’t teach me how to write a book in my regular English classes (they taught me how to write correctly, but not write a book). It took 5 years for me to find an agent and get my first book published. I definitely did a HUGE happy dance when it finally happened! Writing is the best profession and now I can’t imagine doing anything else!

So…you write sexy books for the YA crowd! (And wowzers…you do it very well!) Some might consider sex a difficult topic for this audience, while others think it is just part of life for teenagers and should be addressed in their literature. Do you get much reader feedback on this? Parental feedback? What about your editor?

My goal is to write realistic content and realistic stories. I delve into all the emotions my characters would go through as a result of being confronted with a decision about sex. I definitely get a lot of feedback from readers, and it has always been positive. The covers of my books depict the content inside, so I haven't had any negative parental feedback - just the opposite! One church book club leader even emailed me and thanked me for putting the issue of sex in my books because it sparked an open discussion about it with the book club members. Open discussion is great because you can get all sides to an issue! In the How to Ruin series, Amy chooses to wait for marriage. She's definitely tempted. . . but she chooses to wait. In the Perfect Chemistry series, it's realistic that my characters in the stories would be intimate with each other. There are always consequences to being intimate, though, and I write about those consequences as well!

I found Maggie and Caleb’s relationship a lovely combination of sweet and hot. (Chocolate covered chile peppers come to mind.) I loved that they didn’t pressure each other to have sex and they work through such genuine “real” feelings for each other. On the other hand, they certainly did send sparks flying. Do you think much about how far to go with the sex in your stories? Do you hope your characters are a sort of role model about how people should treat each other in a relationship?

When I write, I don't think that much about lessons or think about my characters being role models - if it happens then GREAT, but I don't write a book with those issues in mind. I just write a love story. As my characters develop, they really dictate the story. If my characters don't have sex, it's because I don't think that would be the decision they would make in real life. I knew Maggie and Caleb had a lot of passion and would definitely want to, but it just never felt "right" at any time when I was writing it. It just wasn't their time yet, but I didn't decide that in advance.

Did you know there would be a sequel to Leaving Paradise when you were writing it? I’ll admit, the ending to Leaving Paradise left me conflicted. I liked that it was not cliché or expected…but I also found myself saying, “What the what? He’s doing WHAT?” (I’m trying not to be a spoiler!) From a publishing business point of view, how does a sequel come about? Did you suggest it or did your publisher ask for it? Either way, I was thrilled to hear more of Caleb and Maggie’s story in Return to Paradise.

I sold Leaving Paradise on a synopsis and 3 chapters. In the synopsis, Maggie and Caleb got together and it was Happily Ever After. But as I was writing it, that Happily Ever After just didn't fit. I felt I'd compromise the story if I'd did that. So I changed the ending, but I hated it. (by the way, Caleb didn't look back as he drove away because he was crying and knew if he looked back that he'd never be able to leave her. It wasn't because he was heartless!) When my publisher wanted a third How to Ruin book, I told them I'd only write one if I could "finish" my story with Caleb and Maggie. I needed to make things "right" with them. They agreed, and I was able to write Return to Paradise which became a NY Times bestseller! Sometimes the author has to manipulate the publisher to do what they want. I was lucky it worked! (don't tell my publisher that!)

Here is a question I ask a lot of authors: I’ve recently learned (the hard way!) that the editing process is where a huge part of the art of writing happens. I think some writers would argue the magic is in the act of writing the first draft. What do you think?

I work so hard on my first draft that I would have to say that's where the magic happens. My publishers might even say that I take too long with the first draft! By the time I start doing rewrites, most of my story is pretty much set. I definitely change things in rewrites, but the magic is definitely in the first draft. Believe me, I have thrown away a good portion of a book and completely started over before! (I wrote Chain Reaction three times...some books flow out of you and some are like wading through molasses!)

What’s next for you? Do you have another work in progress? Can you tell us about it?

Chain Reaction (the 3rd in the Perfect Chemistry series) will be in stores August 16, 2011!!!!! Chain Reaction will be about Luis Fuentes, the youngest Fuentes brother. He’s such a good guy who doesn’t live with the angst that his big brothers have always lived with. Luis is smart, funny, and has big dreams. Just when he thinks he’s got life all figured out, Luis learns some disturbing news about his family that destroys his positive outlook on life and his new relationship with a girl named Nikki.

Finally, when do you carpe your keyboard? What are your writing habits?

I usually work whenever my kids are at school or asleep. I try not to let my writing take over family time, but when I'm under deadline it's really difficult to get everything done! I have an office away from home so when I go to "work," I can really just focus on work and not worry about doing the laundry or starting dinner.

Thanks so much for taking time out of your writing life to share your thoughts and insights with us. And please…keep writing about characters like Caleb and Maggie and the Fuentes brothers…. Your teen (and adult!) readers can’t wait for more!

And for CP readers…if you would like to enter to win a copy of Ms. Elkeles’s Perfect Chemistry, leave a comment below. I’ll randomly draw a winner on Saturday, April 30 and post the winner here on the blog. (If the winner does not respond within one week with their snail mail address, I will put the novel back in the stack for another giveaway event later in the year.)

Religion and Bullies – And What About Not Throwing Stones*?

2011-04-20T09:30:00.001-04:00

It is the Easter season, and this year, I find myself more reflective of the meaning for the holiday than perhaps I usually am. The idea of resurrection and rebirth – of beginning again, after trials (small and large) is hitting home for me this year, so I suppose I’m more aware of the stories of Christ’s ride into town on the donkey, children welcoming him with palms; the last time He ate with his friends, the betrayal and the suffering… and the eventual forgiveness. And the grace throughout it all.

In the midst of my thoughts wandering through my (rather limited) memories of childhood bible stories and more recent Bible Study as an adult, I came across a post on this blog this week about a recent event in schools across the nation for a Day of Silence to help recognize that LGBT teens are the victims of bullies. The post goes on to talk about one response to the event – one sponsored by evangelical and “fundies” – called a Day of Dialogue.

So here is the story as I understand it: Young people want to recognize and confront the bullying that goes on in their schools and communities. They want to “speak out” – in this case through the use of a loud silence – to shine a light on this suffering and hopefully open doors to dialog and to protecting the rights of the LGBT students in their midst. This – to me – is a good and grace-full event. It is about acceptance and protection of others. It is about ending suffering and opening arms to welcome those who may have been marginalized into the community.

The response Day of Dialogue, sponsored by the anti-gay group Focus on the Family, urges young people to download and hand out conversation cards that “invite (them) to have a conversation” about “how He designed the best plan for our sexuality and relationships…” According to Michael Keegan in his post, “One of the Day of Dialogue's organizers is Jeff Johnston, an "ex-gay" activist, who says the event is meant to help ‘people who messed up sexually.’”

So…are the Dialogue kids supposed to be able to speak with authority on God’s plans? Are they supposed to confront other kids in their school – those participating in a day of Silence to bring attention to bullying – and tell them that God’s plan is different? That they are wrong?

If you look at the Day of Silence and Day of Dialogue websites – both events seem to be marketed as non-threatening, peaceful ways to make a point. But there does seem to be something off-kilter, in my humble opinion, to an organization that feels they must counter an event designed to stop bullying by creating an event that is designed to proselytize one specific religious view point.

WWJD? Really? Would He walk up to someone who is trying to stand up for peace and present them with a “conversation card” that informs the reader that God has a plan for our sexuality? Is this not a form of confrontation – one which I think could so easily slip into a more heated “conversation” or even worse – by expecting teens to handle this very sensitive topic in school hallways or parking lots? Do you know of any teenagers who are schooled in the meaning of the Bible, who are – on their own – capable of preaching and teaching, while at the same time maintaining respect for those who may choose to disagree?

When I read Mr. Keegan’s post, I was reminded of an event in my childhood. Not an event related to sexuality, but one related to religion, belief, and even race. As a fourth grader, I was attending a CCD (Confirmation of Catholic Doctrine) class at my Catholic church. Our class was taught by a lay person – a parent from the community – and during one session, the instructor told us that only Catholics would go to heaven. At the time, my two best friends were Jewish and Hindu. The plainly stated “fact” that my dear friends, my playmates and their loving families, would not be welcomed into Heaven was devastating. I returned home that night, tearfully explaining to my mother why I didn’t want to be Catholic anymore. The idea that God had a plan that excluded perfectly good, loving, graceful people for no reason other than the religious text they read or the stories they built their life around was repellant to me, even as a child.

Likewise, when I read about the Day of Dialogue response to the Day of Silence, all I kept thinking was, “Really? Kids are being bullied for all kinds of reasons. People are excluded and judged constantly for all kinds of reasons. Who in the world would think that we should NOT pay attention to that and fix it so ALL children and safe at school?”

One of the suggestions from the Day of Silence organizers was for schools and teachers to display or talk about LGBT literature or other like topics as a way to show support. Along those lines, I wanted to point out some titles I’ve talked about before (and some I haven’t) here on CK that tell stories about LGBT teens or happen to have characters who are gay. Try:

· Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

· Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

· Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

· Ash by Melinda Lo

· Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

· Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

· Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

I realize I am not being silent on the matter. Blogging probably counts as speaking. But if I was still a high school student, I’d like to think I’d be strong enough – and grace-full enough – to have been silent on that day. And I hope I’m teaching my Christian children to accept others – no matter their differences – and always ALWAYS stand up for someone who needs help.

*”Throwing stones” in this title refers to the Bible story in the book of John, chapter 7. Jesus stopped a crowd of people from killing a woman who was accused of adultery. This is the story where the famous line, often quoted as something like, “Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her” comes from. Jesus – using silence-- disperses the crowd and saves the woman’s life.

Role Models – Writers and the Characters They Create

2011-04-19T14:08:00.001-04:00

When my writing partner and I sat down to really dig into writing our first novel, one of the details we agreed on was that the characters should not be just like characters in most other kids’ literature. We wanted them to reflect multi-cultural families – but we didn’t want the story itself to be ABOUT how the girls were of a certain ethnicity. They were going to be just girls…with different names and different skin colors, who spoke different languages and had different family dynamics…but the story would be about their adventures and challenges.

Now, I think I’m more sensitive to the ethnicities presented in the books my kids read, and to the story lines. I love finding a good story that happens to present main characters who aren’t just like me and my kids. In other words, I want my kids to read about different people (all kinds of different) but I specifically love the stories where they see that really, underneath the skin color, able-ness, language, religion, whatever… we are all the same.

Without knowing much about it, I picked up a copy of Lisa Yee’s Bobby the Brave (Sometimes) for my 8 year old son. I liked the art work on the cover…and didn’t have much time to do anything other than read the jacket flap before I bought it. A fourth grade boy who has to overcome weird challenges involving a new gym teacher named Mr. Weiner House (anything about “wieners” is always a big hit with my son!) and encounters with a 27-toed evil cat (cats, are strangely, also a huge hit). It sounded like perhaps I’d finally found something other than dragon books for him to read.

We started reading it together, and I was in love with Lisa Yee from about page 3. Not only is Bobby part of a family comprised of more than one ethnicity (his last name is Ellis-Chan), but that is just part of the story. His family is just his family – sort of in the background for most of the action, like multitudes of other kid’s books. The story is not about how he has a mother who is one color and a father who is another. Thank goodness!

The detail that cinched my desire to be Lisa Yee’s new BFF? The typical gender roles and a little bit turned on their heads for the Ellis-Chan family. Finally…my son could read about a boy whose father was the stay at home parent! A father who, like his own, cooks dinner every night and makes up new recipes (some a hit, some decidedly not). And this fictional Dad was a professional football player before he decided to stay home with his children. So cool! I dare you to find a more perfect role model for a young boy – tough football player turned parent/chief-cook-and-bottle-washer. LOVE this.

Bobby’s mother goes into the office everyday (like me!) but is still an involved mother. And…(here’s another detail I just love) Bobby’s big sister is the star quarterback on the high school football team.

Hooray for mixing it up with the role models and family dymanics!

I’m trying to work in some of this greatness – some mixing of traditional gender roles, etc. – into one of my works in progress. I just wrote a scene this week where a kidnapped prince meets the guard – a huge, tough, stinky, strong woman – who is keeping him trapped in a tall, tall tower.

Not nearly enough, I know…but I figure at least I’m trying!

Have you written non-traditional gender roles or family dynamics into any stories? Have you read any kids’ books lately where the characters were of different ethnicities, but the story didn’t focus on that detail? Let me know!

Water, Whales, and the Letter A: Using Symbols in Stories

2011-04-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

Do you use symbols in your stories?

I’ve always liked this quote from Flannery O’Connor about symbols: “Now the word symbol scares a good many people off, just as the word art does. They seem to feel that a symbol is some mysterious thing put in arbitrarily by the writer to frighten the common reader — sort of a literary Masonic grip that is only for the initiated …”

Yep – that’s me as a writer. A little intimidated by the idea of writing symbols into my stories. Sure that I’ll trap myself – end up making a fool out of myself when the symbol is more like a concrete block landing on the sidewalk instead of the feather I’d hoped for.

According to The American Novel section of the PBS website, a symbol is simply “something that stands for something else.” It can be literal or abstract; generic across many forms and genre of literature, or specific to one novel or story.

You remember the letter A in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, right? And the whale in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick? What about Hazel Mote’s car in Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood? The list goes on and on…

I have a short story buried in my files somewhere in which I tried to use the rose and the rose bush thorns as a symbol for love and pain. (I know… Go ahead and roll your eyes at me. Concrete block, not feather– which is why you’ll notice the story is buried in files and not polished for submission!) There is a delicate balance between writing the symbol in too many times – overwhelming your reader to the point of flogging the proverbial dead horse – and delicately inserting your symbol in just the right places, at just the right times, so that it is subtle, yet still definable.

Readers should recognize that the symbol is present and meaningful without your banging them over the head with it, no? If you ask me, this is a huge challenge! As if we writers don’t have enough to think about with characterization, plot, timelines, tone, theme, etc, etc…

I found a great website with a section called “Symbols: Novel Ways to Express Universal Concepts.” It is a sort of literary geek game – showing a list of literary symbols. Click one, and you get a clue about a famous book that used that symbol. Select the correct book, and you see a brief explanation of how the symbol was used by the author.

Some of the symbols on the site: the letter A, the sea, water, magnifying glass, the color red, and shoes.

The same site also has other challenges for geeks like me – Test Your Literary IQ, a version of the game show To Tell The Truth, and interactive, multimedia discussions of context/hypertext in famous pieces of literature.

I love finding sites like this. They not only get the geek girl in my smiling, but they also stoke my creative fires, get those juices running, and make me want to write!

If you’ve used symbols in your writing – whether or not you think you were successful – tell me about it. I’m hoping we can learn from each other about strategies for deepening our stories and enriching our work by using symbols.

Shameless Self Promotion

2011-04-08T10:43:00.000-04:00

My young adult short story, Prayer for the Dying, won third place in the Phyllis Scott Publishing contest. It is now published in a short story collection called The Landing and Other Short Stories.

The collection contains a variety of short stories (it isn't all YA or children's stories) and is available as a Kindle download today. The hard copy publication will be available via Amazon shortly!

Just goes to show: Be persistent. Keep writing and keep submitting.

I Wanna New Drug...My Recent Addiction

2011-04-04T10:09:00.000-04:00

I’m addicted. Completely, totally, unequivocally addicted.

Patrick Rothfuss is my new drug of choice. Wait…rewind. Patrick Rothfuss’s WRITING is my new drug of choice.

There. That’s better.

Normally, I write about middle grade and young adult authors and their works here, but Mr. Rothfuss’s books are not really marketed that way. A dear friend (who also happens to be a librarian) pointed out to me that The Name of the Wind was noted as a novel that crosses over from “adult” fiction to the YA category, so bear with me…

A few years ago, my librarian friend (see above) suggested I try The Name of the Wind. She has been recommending books to me for over 20 years, so I tend to know when she is serious. And when she gave me this title, I remember thinking I should get off my duff and go find a copy NOW.

She was right. She was so right that I’ve been waiting and watching for the sequel, Wise Man’s Fear, to come out for years. Finally…in March this year…the novel hit bookstore shelves and was rapidly at the top of the NYT bestseller list. (HURRAY for Mr. Rothfuss!! Congrats!!)

Before I dove headfirst into Wise Man’s Fear, I re-read the first book to get my head wrapped back around the story of Kvothe (pronounced like “quothe”) and his life. This is an epic – a book about a man telling his story while a Chronicler records it for history. A lyrical journey into another world – where a boy of eleven learns to survive on his wit, music is fundamental to survival and to the soul, where the University is a haven for intellect and arcanists hold the power of the names of things in the palms of their hands.

Story is the blood of life in Kvothe’s world. Maybe this is why I’ve fallen so far into Mr. Rothfuss’s writing that I can’t seem to come back to the real world.

Here is some “teaser text” from www.patrickrothfuss.com:

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

You may have heard of me.

So begins the tale of Kvothe—from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe as a notorious magician, an accomplished thief, a masterful musician, and an infamous assassin. But The Name of the Wind is so much more—for the story it tells reveals the truth behind Kvothe's legend.

I’ve found myself wondering what, specifically, is drawing me into this story this deeply. I’m a big fan of escapism…so there is that. This novel is practically the definition of escapism in the best way possible. The writing is visceral – you can smell the fire burning in the hearth at Anker’s Inn. You can taste the brown bread, sea salt and bruised apples Kvothe shares with a friend on the rooftops of the University’s buildings. You can feel the thrum of the lute strings in your own fingertips, breathe in the smoky, close smell of the crowd at the Eolian club, and wonder at the sudden weight of coins in Kvothe’s purse after a run of good luck…or hard work…or dangerous risks.

I think, too, the characters themselves have a way of pulling you into their stories. You’ve heard, I’m sure, that your main character should be real. He should be flawed, even if (and perhaps because) he is your hero. And Kvothe is that: flawed, but without a doubt, our hero.

He is also just a boy – struggling to find the answer to a mystery and survive the best way he knows how. He makes decisions that feel like real decisions a boy would make, given his circumstances, his dreams and his mission. He is on a quest at a few different levels, which brings me to another reason I think I’m addicted to his story:

I’ve written recently about the Hero’s Journey as a story structure – and Kvothe’s story fits over this framework, too. His journey is longer than some other examples, and certainly more intricate. Kvothe has a few mentors during the first and second books. No single Obi Wan Kenobi for Kvothe…instead he has his “Old Ben” appear when he is just a young boy. An old arcanist who recognizes Kvothe’s genius and begins his training. They don’t use weapons or talk about “the force,” but Ben (YES…he name is really Ben!) takes our budding hero under his wing and shows him just enough to make Kvothe know he is destined to learn great things and eventually have great power.

Instead of handing him a talisman in the form of a light saber, Ben hands Kvothe a book – a rarity in this world, and especially for Kvothe’s family – that helps him take the right steps forward on his path.

Kvothe has many other teachers as his story progresses, so his “hero’s journey” isn’t packaged neatly – but this makes it all the more exciting to read.

So – I’m in love with these books because of the visceral nature of the writing, the beautifully flawed nature of the characters (especially our hero), and the foundation structure of the archetypal hero’s journey.

One more thing: the platform of how the story unfolds is also one I’ve fallen for, hook, line, and sinker, as they say. The story begins in a quiet inn in a quiet town. The innkeeper, a man known to his customers as a foreigner named Kote, is more than he seems at first glance. Only when he sits down with a historian and begins to tell his story, so we see into Kvothe’s life.

So, at the heart of it all, this is a storyteller’s story. One man telling his own tale so another can record it for history – and for others to hear long after Kvothe is gone. Mr. Rothfuss gives us (the readers) interludes from Kvothe’s life story, bringing us back into the small inn regularly to anchor us to the present time and keep our feet firmly planted in different layers of the same story. Kvothe’s history … and Kvothe’s present. As a structure, it had the potential to be disruptive to the escapism of the novel…but instead, it does act as an anchor and gives the reader a way to keep perspective on the decisions and events of Kvothe’s past.

A storyteller’s story. Tried and true structure. Lyrical writing. Flawed but fascinating hero.

Thank you, Mr. Rothfuss, for sharing your skill and your story with the world! I can only hope to take away some small lesson from your work – to make my own writing more powerful. More importantly, I will take away the feeling of being swept away by a truly epic story, falling in love with a hero worthy of his own epic story, and basking in the language and poetry of your work.

(NOTE: I'd love to put a picture of one of Mr. Rothfuss's books here with this blog post, but blogger isn't cooperating today. Sorry!)

Write. Write badly. Write often.

2011-03-28T14:28:00.000-04:00

As my friend and YA author, Linda Gerber, says on her blog this week – give yourself permission to write stuff that sucks. (Not a direct quote, but that was the gist of her message!)

Seriously. This is something I struggle with ALL THE TIME. I sit down to write – with very little, precious time available between work, kids’ sports, scrubbing toilets, feeding whatever children happen to be in my house at any given time, and cleaning up after a teenage dog and a geriatric cat – and I freeze.

I stare at my laptop. (First closed, then open but not on, then finally…booting up.) I run through an internal monolog that sounds something like this: “Time to write. TIME to WRITE. Ugh. Really? Maybe I should sweep the floor or wash something. NO! Write now! And it will be GOOD. It better be good. I don’t have time for it to suck. Who am I kidding? Of course it will suck! Why did I ever think I could/should/would be a writer anyway? IMPOSSIBLE! Even if it sucks…I need to write anyway…Good God! Why did I tell people I think I’m a writer?!? blah, blah, blah…”

Here is the cold hard truth: Writers write stuff that stinks. We all do. Some of us suck more than others…true. But all writers write that icky, flat, boring, ridiculous first draft. It isn’t the quality of the first draft that makes you a writer…it is the belief that no matter how it turns out, the act of putting words on the page, the faith that the story in your heard and your heart should be told, the certainty that you will keep writing no matter what – these are the things that make a writer.

So LET GO of that peevish inner critic who sits on your shoulder or on the arm of your favorite couch when you get out your laptop. Tell her to stuff a sock in it. Flick him off of his perch with a powerful wave of your pen. (It IS mightier than the sword, you know.)

Breathe deeply for a few minutes. Close your eyes. Sink into your story. Hear your characters’ voices and smell the road dust on their jackets. Taste the elderberry wine they drink and hear the bass line of their music. Then let your fingers do their work. Type or write…pound away or scrawl across the page.

And if it sucks…who cares? After all – you aren’t a writer until you actually WRITE something. Right?

Go on. You can do it. Believe. Carpe Keyboard, for heaven's sake.

Shoo. Go write.

E-Books, Schmee-Books

2011-03-23T09:42:00.000-04:00

I’ve seen many headlines recently, like this one at Huffington Post, declaring that e-books are the wave of the future. Here’s another one about e-books apps specifically for parents and children.

I cringe every time I see one of these articles. I can’t help it! I love books. Real, soft or hard back, filled with pages and with mass and weight and a spine that may or may not be warped in honor of a recent reader’s favorite chapters or scenes.

I love the familiarity of finding a dog-eared page in one of my favorite books – realizing that I’ve tread this path before, that I’ve read these words – perhaps while sipping a cup of Earl Grey or munching a sleeve of Thin Mints.

I still own some of my lit class books from college and I know, without even having to open them up, that they are filled with my sophomoric, philosophical thoughts about poetry, the Romantics, and the symbolism and meaning of Ezra Pound scrawled in the margins. Like little pieces of myself at a younger age…notes and highlighted passages leave a historic trail. My own personal path, worn like the wagon train ruts that still exist in Kansas, through a body of literature that in some way made me into the reader and writer I am today.

Could I have this history if I had only used e-books back in the day? Do typed notes in some app really result in the same sort of feeling? The same…record of history?

Will my kids have the same sort of feeling about actual books as they grow and are educated? Today, their rooms hold collections of books right now, but I suppose the future holds a different type of library for them. Odds are strong, I realize, that as adults they will not have a shelf of old college texts (or even favorite books!) taking up space in their homes. Instead, they’ll have files saved to a thumb drive somewhere…Or whatever media will serve to save electronic files in the future.

An e-reader would definitely prevent further clutter in my house. Right now, every room has stacks or shelves (or both) of books, teetering here, leaning there, threatening to fall over if someone nudges them just the right way. My bookshelf is stacked two volumes deep in places, so I can’t even see the books in the back row anymore.

But what fun to rediscover them! With a layer of dust coating the top edge and the memory of the first read clinging to the uneven page edges.

Some day, I’ll cave and end up buying an e-reader. Not sure which kind yet. Or even when. And once I give in, I’ll probably go whole hog and end up with just as big of an electronic book library as I have a “real” library in my house.

Less to dust. Less to shift from one pile to another. But will it be worth it?

Do you have an e-reader? Do you like it? What are the positives and negatives to using one?

Talking with Wiande Moore about One Moore Book

2011-03-19T16:21:00.001-04:00

Recently, I discovered a new publishing company called One Moore Book online. Having an interest and a firm belief that each of us has our own story, and that our stories – or narratives – have great importance in life, I loved the mission of One Moore Book.

There mission statement says, “One Moore Book provides culturally sensitive and educational stories that highlight the lives of children of countries with significantly low literacy rates. One Moore Book provides literature for children whose narratives are largely missing from the children’s book publishing industry. The books will also serve as a key to unknown people and places for all kids who do not have access to cultures outside of their own.”

One Moore Book is a family company, where the writing, illustrating and the business of publishing are all handled by the Moore siblings: Wiande Moore-Everett, Wayétu Moore, Kula-Facia Moore, Augustus Moore Jr., and David Moore.

They graciously agreed to answer some interview questions about their company and how they got started. Enjoy!

Carpe Keyboard: What is your favorite childhood story? Why is it so special to you?

Wiande Moore (Co-Founder/Writer): I have two favorite childhood stories: the story of Moses, and Jamonghoie. As a child, my mother made it a priority to read to us from the bible, so at a very young age, I enjoyed reading and hearing stories from the Bible that were really much more interesting than the fairy tales we read in school. I also enjoyed hearing Liberian fables and Jamonghoie, one of the books of the Liberia series (orated by my grandmother and written by Wayetu and I) is one of them.

Your mission statement online says: One Moore Book provides culturally sensitive and educational stories that highlight the lives of children of countries with significantly low literacy rates. One Moore Book provides literature for children whose narratives are largely missing from the children's book publishing industry. What moved you and your siblings to publish books for this specific audience? Is there a family story here?

Other than the fact that we are Liberian and of Liberian decent, something I noticed is that a lot of what my mother read to us growing up were stories that were very different from the ones she orated to us from Liberia. The lack of cultural variety in children's literature is standard. Since I've become a mother myself, I find myself doing a lot of the same of what my mother did-telling my daughters stories about different cultures and with people with names and histories that they could relate to. It engages them more and I see their eyes light up when I tell them culturally diverse stories. We chose this particular audience because we wanted to share that same excitement.
Why didn't you go through a more traditional publishing path? Did you try working with established publishers, or did you decide right away that you would start your own publishing company?

My sister Wayetu is actually a writer and she was the one who brought the idea of a publishing company to the 4 of us. It started between her and my other sister, who is an artist. They initially just wanted to publish a children's book-but after research and a lot of hard work, Wayetu decided that it made more sense for us to do our own thing. What we wanted to do was on a much bigger scale than what a traditionally publisher could provide. We have the freedom to create our own timelines, our own content and take charge of our message. We have no limits in what we can do and that is invaluable.

Your family writes the stories and illustrates. So talented! What does a typical book project look like? Does one of you write a story, then ask for a specific sibling to illustrate it? Or do you have an overall plan - types of books needed by specific audiences from which you choose to begin writing or illustrating?

For this cycle, Wayetu outlined exactly what books we would need. I am an educator so she consulted me regarding language, grade level, vocabulary we should use, etc. When all the books were written, we communicated with each other during 5-way phone conferences and decided who would illustrate what based on the strengths of our two illustrators, Augustus Jr. and Kula. We plan on following the same protocol for our next cycle.

And what about editing? Does each story go through a "traditional" editing process where someone other than the writer picks apart the text? Is that hard when you are all so closely related?

We actually edit ourselves. The stories get bounced around before going to the graphic designer so we usually have a lot of perspectives and constructive criticism to fine-tune both the written work and the illustrations. We are all the hardest on ourselves and have always welcomed notes from each other. I understand that the notes are coming from people who love me and really want the best for me, so I don't typically get offended and I think I can speak for my siblings in saying that they don't either.

How do you distribute your books? Do you work with organizations specifically in the target countries or communities?

Our books are available on our website at www.onemoorebook.com, amazon.com, or can be ordered at your local Barnes & Noble. We also work with schools in Liberia and a number of libraries in America. We plan to work with different organizations each time we publish a new cycle.
What is your goal for 2011 for One Moore Books?

Our goals for 2011 include placing the first cycle of books in 50 libraries across the United States, sponsoring all 15 of our partner schools in Liberia, and publishing a second cycle for the children of Haiti.
Could other children's book authors or illustrators help with your mission? How?

We are a small company right now and are not looking for any more creative talent; however, we do hope to add a guest writer or illustrator to our team for each cycle beginning with either our 2^nd or 3^rd cycle.

Once Upon a Time... Or Thoughts on Reading Aloud

2011-03-17T19:40:00.001-04:00

My kids are eight and twelve. They are both “readers” and can most definitely read books of all types by themselves. I’m lucky to have kids who think a trip to the bookstore or library is a treat on a Saturday afternoon. And when they were about four and eight – right when the oldest was really jumping into novels with both feet and the youngest was working his way through the beginning leveled readers – I found myself wondering when our evening read aloud ritual would come to an end.

I was worried that day was close at hand. You see…the evening ritual was one of my favorite parts of my day. Here’s how it went: We’d all get into our jammies. We’d all snuggle into my big bed – usually me in the middle with one kid on either side. We’d prop up with a bunch of pillows and burrow under our favorite down blankets. In the quiet of the late evening, we’d read. OK…mostly I’d read. To them. But also to me.

What is it about reading a story out loud? I think it changes the story somehow. And I think there is more to it than bringing it to life by “doing” the voices of the characters – whispering when they whisper, giving them a lisp if it feels right, or throwing yourself into the CRASHES and BANGS and THUDS that might belong in the story.

There is a magic there. In the voice. In the bed – under the covers and curled up against the pillows. In the little feet pushed up against your thigh and the tooth-pastey smell of kid’s breath right before bed. There is magic in how the story unfurls from your mouth, curling a bit around your tongue before floating into the room, to hover between you and the rest of the world like a ghost or an angel or a movable window to another space.

Perhaps the world would be a better place if grown ups made a habit of listening to a story read out loud once in a while. Turned off the blackberries, turned off the televisions and computers and cell phones. And really listened to a story out loud.

We read every Percy Jackson story like this – tucked in and following Percy through his adventures together. It was great.

And recently – I’m glad to report – I spent the last week snuggled up with my now 12 year old and my 8 year old in that same bed under those same blankets reading Leaving the Bellweathers.

Could they read Kristin Clark Venuti’s book by themselves. Sure.

Did they want to? Nope. They chose to have me read it out loud so we could share the story together.

And I’m so glad.

Do you read aloud ever? When? Do you read out loud to yourself? (I do this when I’m writing…when I want to hear how a particular sentence or patch of dialog sounds.) Or do you have a regular audience?

Talking with Jennifer Donnelly, Author of REVOLUTION and A NORTHERN LIGHT

2011-03-08T18:10:00.001-05:00

I recently wrote about Jennifer Donnelly’s amazing novel, Revolution, here on Carpe Keyboard. I sent her a note to let her know I blogged about her novel. Turns out she was glad to be compared to a vintage wine rather than a soft drink!

Ms. Donnelly generously agreed to spend some of her valuable time responding to a few interview questions about her writing life. So…with no further adieu…I welcome her to Carpe Keyboard!

Carpe Keyboard: To start off, when did you know you were going to be a novelist? Were you inspired by any particular events in your own life or by any specific authors?

Jennifer Donnelly: I always wanted to be a writer, and in fact worked as a reporter for a small upstate NY daily paper, and as a copywriter for Saks Fifth Avenue, but I didn't know I was going to be an novelist until the day I (finally!) got the call from my agent telling me that St. Martin's Press had just offered on The Tea Rose. That night I drank champagne and danced on the table. Quite literally.

I was raised by a mom who was a wonderful storyteller, and many members of my extended family loved to tell stories, too -- so I grew up with this expectation of words and stories. When I got a bit older, I decided I wanted to create a few stories of my own.

Many, many authors inspired me. Some of my favorites are James Joyce, A.S. Byatt, Jeanette Winterson, Stephen King, Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Graham Greene.

I’m a hopeful middle grade/YA writer (as are some Carpe Keyboard readers), crossing my fingers and toes about my agent and her quest to sell my book. Do you have any advice on the writing “biz” for those of us trying to break into the publishing world today?

Write a good book. If you do, and you are persistent and stubborn and absolutely refuse to take no for an answer, you will eventually get published. The publishing industry can be a hard nut to crack...but so what? That's life. Lots of things are hard. You may get discouraged, and that's okay. Rejection is pretty discouraging. Just don't let it make you quit. Make sure your ms. is the best it can be, and your pitch letter, too, and then never, ever give up.

For the story of my first sale, and how I kept going until I sold my first book, check out this link at http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/01/11/my-first-sale-by-jennifer-donnelly-just-keep-writing/.

What is your biggest writing craft challenge? I, for one, struggle so with writing realistic, honest, solid dialog…

It's all a challenge! Everything! I've written five novels now, and it's all still new and scary and overwhelming every time I sit down to write.

When do you carpe your keyboard? What are your writing habits?

Generally I write while my daughter's at school, but I often work nights and snatch hours during weekends, too. Working as a reporter at a very scrappy daily paper, with a big work load and constant deadlines, taught me not to wait for the muse. Sit down, start working, and she will show up.

Thanks so much, Ms. Donnelly, for talking with me and sharing your writing life with us! I hope to have you back soon to talk about your next book.

Wanted: Experienced, Proven Author Willing to Write Clichés for Cash

2011-03-06T17:36:00.000-05:00

I’m a murder mystery fan. Have been for decades. I love them. And I love a good detective character. So like a moth to a flame, I’m pulled toward mysteries in TV shows and movies, too. Combine that with my love for YA literature, and I’ve ended up with quite a few of the cross-over mystery writers on my shelves.

What do I mean by cross-over? I mean writers who have made their name (and quite a comfy living, I suspect) writing mysteries and thrillers for the adult audience…only to have recently turned to churning out mysteries for a younger audience.

I don’t blame them. Heck…I’m jealous, really. I’ll admit it. Not just sort of successful…these writers are already uber-successful in their own chosen genre, and now are taking a crack at the YA market. But are they good at writing for young adults? Or is there another reason for these sudden departures from their normal readership?

This weekend I read a novel by one of these cross-over writers. (Here I’m restraining myself from going all acronym-y on you and calling them … something… for short from here on out. I work in the software industry, after all. I’m trained to use acronyms… even when the results are perhaps offputting. But I digress…)

Here some thoughts on my weekend read – a novel which shall remain nameless (but is one written by someone who usually writes for a more adult audience). It looks like the first in perhaps a series, although I haven’t seen a second on bookstore shelves yet

This writer seems to have gone down a cliché covered path with this one, even though her more adult fare isn’t usually quite so formulaic. Frustratingly…I’ve been told time and again to avoid clichés in my own writing, with the implied (or firmly stated) threat that no editor will ever publish anything ridden with cliché’s in any form.

Apparently, publishing – like the rest of life – isn’t fair.

The following details popped into focus as I read because they seemed a bit too familiar, or were examples of how NOT to write for teens according to many sources I’ve encountered in my journey as a writer.

Why must the main character, if a girl, have long, curly red hair? That’s often a mess? And why must she be too smart for her school and too smart for a “normal” group of friends? Brilliant, too mature for her own peers, carrying a chip on her shoulder, thrown into a new town and a new school. Yep. I’ve heard this one before.

Why must one of her friends be the “strong, silent type” boy – who is good looking, in love with the main character, but too quiet for his own good? One of her other friends is the only black character in the story and his one remarkable skill is…get this…picking locks. Really? (Didn’t know whether to laugh or roll my eyes at that one.)

And Superpowers. I mean really? They have to end up modified DNA that enables them to have a unique set of “powers” – and turns them into a “pack.” Cuz I’ve never read a teen novel where a group of kids could morph into dogs and could read each other’s minds to communicate. Nope.

There are also:

· mean girls….rich, mean girls

· absentee parents (One dead, the other oblivious and keeps saying things like, “We’ll talk about THIS later!” before disappearing for a few dozen chapters.)

· cute puppies (Part wolf! After all, wolves haven’t had their share of the teen reading market lately, have they?)

· technology that isn’t quite realistic all the time

· an environmental message that plops into the plot rather coinkidinkly in time to provide a motive for the crime at hand

· an evil stepmother

· modified versions of the “f-word” – (Frackin’ worked for Starbuck and the pilots on the Galactica…but throwing in “frick” as a curse word used by a geeky teenager just doesn’t sound cool to me. Does anyone say “frick” instead of the real thing??)

Am I a little grouchy about this particular book? You betcha. Why? Well – it is simple really.

Why can an already self-made, wealthy, successful, world-famous author get away with these things, yet a new writer trying to break into the biz would be laughed out of any self-respecting editor’s office for the same sins?

I have this picture in my head of this writer getting a set of instructions from their editor, requesting that they “please write a story for teenagers with the following items included…{insert above bullet list here}. Be sure the characters are mostly two-dimensional. Write it fast. We’ll sell a ton of them.”

This writer and others following the same path will sell a gazillion copies of their YA books and keep turning out even more successful novels for adults at the same time. Why write suddenly for the YA market? My guess is because it is a hot market in an industry that, as a whole, is struggling right now. It is a ticket to more cash, both for the writer and for the publishing house. Put a well-known name on the spine of a book in the teen section of the bookstore, and it will sell. Even if it is formulaic and riddled with clichéd characters and language.

It just has me a bit ruffled this weekend.

Road Trip with Obi-Wan...or a Hero's Journey

2011-03-01T21:00:00.000-05:00

Joseph Campbell

I have a wonderful memory from childhood that involves Joseph Campbell. (Yes. I know. Geek.) My mom and I would curl up – she in her lazy boy rocker and me on the yellow naugahyde sofa (Yes. I know. It was the late 70s, ok?). We would watch Bill Moyers talk to Mr. Campbell during the now famous “Power of Myth” interviews.

Mr. Campbell was like some mythic figure himself – a cross between a grandfather and an oracle…or a priest and the best English teacher. Even at 9 or 10 years old, I remember being fascinated with not only his good humor and great smile, but also with the stories he told. He talked of myths I’d never heard of before – stories from far away and from right around the corner. He introduced me to Odin and the idea of archetypes and the knowledge that there are many more creation stories than just the Book of Genesis. If I could have curled up on his lap and listened to his stories at bed time every night, I would have been in heaven.

Luke Skywalker

It could be…just might be…that his references to Star Wars helped capture my attention, along with the fantastical mythologies he spoke of. At the tender age of 10 or so, I’d already become quite the sci-fi fan (as was my mother) and could recreate the first chapter of the space opera…with sound effects, mind you…using my first edition action figures, my Millennium Falcon space ship model, and my very own official light saber. The idea that someone like Joseph Campbell would reflect on the story of Luke and Leia and Han as part of a mythology was…well…pretty amazing.

He called it a “hero’s journey.” As an adult and as a wannabe storyteller – I find myself having ah-ha moments about the hero’s journey. I’ll be struggling along with some story idea or trying to overcome some plot problem or staring at my work computer wishing I was writing a story instead…and it will dawn on me that if only Obi Wan could step into my story, everything would be ok. If only my protagonist could find her very own Han Solo/Chewbacca sidekick or her very own R2D2 helper, my plot would magically fall into place.

So – the Hero’s Journey looks something like this:

1. Readers get introduced to the hero’s world.

2. The Hero is interrupted; some disturbance pushes him toward adventure.

3. He crosses into a dark world.

4. A mentor appears in the story to help the Hero.

5. The Hero battles evil and darkness. Repeatedly.

6. He has a dark moment within himself. He must overcome his own weakness to continue.

7. The hero is given or somehow obtains a talisman to help on his battles against darkness.

8. He fights a final battle.

9. The Hero returns home – changed by his journey.

According to James Scott Bell in his book Plot and Structure, the journey as described above fits neatly into a traditional three act story. Act One = our introduction, hero is pushed into adventure and crosses into darkness. Act Two = a mentor appears to assist, our hero battles darkness or evil many times, he has a dark moment within himself and is gifted with a talisman. Act Three = the final battle and the return home.

"Old Ben" Kenobi

So…you know I’m a geek about this stuff by now, right? Here is something I love to do: I love to line up stories I’m reading with the Luke Skywalker/ObiWan Kenobi/Han Solo/Darth Vader version of the hero’s journey. I even have notes in many a notebook that say things like “protag’s Obi Wan!” and “Like Luke vs Vader in the cave!” or “Her very own Han Solo…the Dog = Chewie!” in the margins.

There is something soothing about it -- knowing that thousands of other storytellers have followed the same path. It is tried and true. It works. It exists for a reason…and it provides a sturdy, strong platform from which to launch into entirely new stories.

What is your favorite Hero’s Journey? Do you lean more toward Homer’s Odysseus instead of Luke Skywalker? I have my own opinions on more recent examples in the world of YA lit, but I’d like to know yours. Which heroes are your favorites and did they follow a true hero’s journey?

(By the way – if you want a fantastic example of this sort of three act plot, including the steps of the journey, with a very different flavor from the Star Wars version, try Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood. Very dark. Very gothic. Amazing.)

Coke vs. Vintage Bordeaux

2011-02-23T10:01:00.001-05:00

I recently spent a couple of days indulging my supposedly more “grown up” tastes – reading a thriller marketed toward the older-than-YA crowd. The Last Oracle by James Rollins. If you don’t know of his work, he writes thrillers. Mysteries with a race against time scientific/mythologic/religious trail of clues. If Dan Brown and James Bond had a son – he’d tell stories like those in Mr. Rollins’ books.

(FYI…in case you don’t know…Mr. Rollins also has a new YA series out on bookshelves. Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow came out a while back, and rumor has it, more Jake Ransom stories are to come.)

So…as I whipped my way through The Last Oracle, breathless with the speed of events, white-knuckling my way through the drama, rubbing the whiplash out of my neck from the twists and turns in the plot…I found myself wondering what is so different about books written for today’s YA audience versus the “adult” market. I mean…really?

OK – one obvious difference might be the age of the protagonist and his or her posse. The Sigma crew of military scientists in Rollins’s novels are definitely past their teen years. But is that it? Is that the only remaining difference between the YA section of the bookstore and the rest of the shelves?

Not that long ago, I took a class about writing for young adults. Some of the definitive characteristics, according to our class discussion, included young characters, fast paced plots, lots of action, very little description, and realistic kid/teen dialog.

I’ve read plenty of YA books in the past few years. Too many to have kept count. I also spent my teen years reading books marketed toward adults. I was a teenage fan of Robert Ludlum, for instance. Of course, there weren’t really YA shelves in bookstores back in the 80s…so I didn’t have the same options young whippersnappers have today. Anyway… I’m not so sure I agree with the class list of criteria any more. It all seems fuzzier than that, somehow.

Here are some observations:

1. Violence. Lots of it in YA lit. Especially in the dystopian genre, although there is also plenty of real-life violence in contemporary YA lit, as well. Young adults are not shy in their consumption of violent art…nor are editors and publishers shy about putting it out there.

2. Sex. Lots of it. (See comments above.) Seriously. Although the caveat here is that most of the sex I’ve read in YA books tends to be more… meaningful … than is often the case in other novels. Certainly I’ve found many examples of YA authors giving their characters the chance to delve into whether to have sex or not, who to have it with, why to have sex, etc. which can be lacking in more ‘adult’ stories. Weird, right? But good, I think.

3. Relationships. Close ones. Friendships to live or die for. Although many, many adult stories have pivotal, memorable relationships in them…aren’t they often between the protagonist and his or her love interest? How many “adult books” can you remember that told the story of two girlfriends who meant the world to each other?

4. Touchy, edgy, risky themes. The YA lit I’ve read over the last few years has included events like rape and incest, drugs and the seedier side of the music scene, murder and suicide, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender issues… Pretty heady stuff, right? Not light reading for entertainment, but heartfelt stories for life.

Have you heard of Jennifer Donnelly’s most recent novel, The Revolution? I read it immediately after reading The Last Oracle. So here’s the contrast: Pulp fiction, thriller, mythological mystery, saving the world from certain destruction “grown up” book…followed by one of the most literary, poetic, graceful, honest and simply beautiful stories I’ve ever read. The first was from a “fiction” shelf at the bookstore. The second, from the YA shelf.

The contrast took my breath away. Granted—these writers have very different goals, very different styles. It is sort of like comparing Coke to a vintage bottle of wine. One is meant for a quick fix of escapism while the other is meant to be tasted slowly, savored, and pondered.

And I’m caught between being excited that it is the YA book that deserves its own sommelier, while the adult fiction just needs a bag of Fritos…and being frustrated by it. How many readers out there will miss out on Ms. Donnelly’s art simply because of where it is placed in the bookstore? Her story of the struggle with depression, the pain of loss, the quest for forgiveness, the despair of guilt…all part of the human experience no matter what your age…might be missed by readers who would be touched forever by her words. Simply because it has been labeled “for teens” by a publisher.

On the flip side…I’m sure there are young readers out there…perhaps reluctant readers…who might dive into Rollins’ Sigma novels like a cold, deep pool on a hot summer day. Should young readers be denied the adventure, the chase, the nail-biting escape of a novel like The Last Oracle? Heck…they’d even learn about Greek mythology along the way. Not bad, right?

Just interesting…this marketing of stories.

If you haven’t read The Revolution yet…please do. And then throw in a Connelly, Rollins, Crichton, or other “popular adult” author just to keep your balance. Sometimes even the best wine needs a salty snack as a companion.

And the Winner Is....

2011-02-17T13:12:00.000-05:00

The winner of the Chaos Walking series (3 books) by Patrick Ness is.... Esmeralda!! Congratulations!!

Send your snail mail address to me at karisscott (at) hotmail (dot) com. I'll be happy to put the books in the mail as soon as possible! Hope you enjoy them!

Sling Some Slang ... and Win the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness

2011-02-09T08:59:00.000-05:00

In my other life – as a corporate trainer for a large software company – I once had to write a class to teach business people (specifically the techie help desk folks) how to write business-appropriate email messages.

Big fun, right?

One of the lessons discussed slang and jargon in business correspondence. Just so you know: Never use slang in a business message; only use jargon when critical to the meaning of your message.

If you are a normal person, you might now be asking “What’s the difference? Slang, jargon…whatever!” So – to be sure we are all on the same page, here are some definitions a la Wikipedia:

Slang: The use of informal words or phrases that are not considered standard to the speaker’s language; often used as euphemisms for otherwise taboo terms or topics. (Example: That’s freakin’ awesome!)

Jargon: Terminology related to a specific occupation, profession, activity, group or event. (Ex: How many gig is that hard drive?)

And for good measure, here’s another term:

Dialect: A variety of language that is characteristic to a particular group of the language’s speakers; regional speech patterns; perhaps defined by other factors like social class.

(More info on the use of slang and dialect in fiction can be found in this article on Writing-World.com, if you are interested.)

NOW I bet you’re wondering where I’m going with all of this. Hang in there! I DO have a point, I promise!

Have you read Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking books yet? (If not, keep reading for a chance to WIN the ENTIRE TRILOGY!! Or if you are impatient – GO RIGHT NOW AND BUY THEM. Worth every penny!) I was finishing up the last of the trilogy, Monsters of Men, recently and found myself enthralled with his use of slang. And jargon. But mostly slang. And dialect.

Mr. Ness builds a sci fi/dystopian world for us – one that exists on a planet other than Earth at a time somewhere in the future. His characters speak English; however, their dialect has grown and changed (as languages naturally do) over the years of the separation from Earth. Mr. Ness reflects this in the spelling as well as in word use throughout the book. He is so good at it, in fact, that although you might catch the phonetic spellings in the first chapter or two, they become an ingrained, natural part of the speaking patterns of the characters, that you’ll accept them with open arms (eyes?) as the story unfolds. Language that we know and use daily turns on its ear a bit. Sounds within our language become reflected in spelling. And words thought become words heard.

For me, dialect and slang can be hard to separate. They seem to work together toward the same goal: fleshing out the world of the story and the characters. They add flavor and texture; they help the reader feel like they are immersed in the story setting and folded into the action.

For example, here are a few short quotes.

From The Knife of Never Letting Go, page 12 (paperback, Candlewick Press, 2008):

No one knows or can remember what they were ever sposed to be but best guess by Ben, who’s a best guess kinda guy, is that they had something to do with burying their dead. Maybe even some kind of church, even tho the spacks didn’t have no kind of religion anyone from Prentisstown could reckernize.

From Monsters of Men, page 190 (hardback, Candlewick Press, 2010):

There were just two guards on the power stayshun, no more than engineers really, cuz who’s gonna attach the power stayshun when the whole army’s twixt it and the Spackle –

In addition to the phonetic spellings and unusual speech patterns – the dialects extend to even the animals in Mr. Ness’s story. Now…stay with me here. Yes, the animals speak. But not like you’ve seen before. Mr. Ness has Manchee (the BEST dog EVER!) speak through his thoughts – not out loud like a Disney dog. And when he thinks/speaks, you’d swear it was your own dog talking. He is repetitive, focused, and simple – thinking about squirrels or pooping or food, whatever is most important to him in that instant.

Mr. Ness also allows us to hear the language of other animals, and eventually even another species. (Sheep, for instance, mostly think, “Sheep!” while birds think, “Where is safety?” and horses think “Lead!” or “Follow!”) If animals have their own dialects, Mr. Ness went a long way toward capturing what they might sound like.

All of this in contrast to the newcomer – Violet. She is a colonist, straight off of a ship from Earth. Her language is structured more like what you and I hear every day and she is a good foil for us (the readers) as she learns to navigate the different dialect and vocabulary of the locals.

Can dialect and slang be overdone in fiction. YES! I’m sure you’ve read a story of a novel where the language was distracting rather than focused; annoying rather than helpful.

When you write, do you try to use dialect to help establish your characters or their time and place? Do you avoid slang or use it often? How do you decide?

Want to read the Chaos Walking books? You can WIN them here!

Leave a comment below about your experience reading or writing in dialect or using slang in your projects. On February 16, 2011 I’ll randomly draw a name from those who commented. I'll post the drawing results here on Carpe Keyboard. The winner will receive a full set of the Chaos Walking trilogy, courtesy of Candlewick Press!

(Fine Print: If the winner does not respond with their mailing address within one week of the drawing, I’ll draw again and offer the trilogy to another Carpe Keyboard follower.)

Mixed Up Files...Mixin' it up with my writing partner!

2011-02-07T08:05:00.000-05:00

Hey, folks! My writing partner and I wrote a piece on ....what else? .... writing partnerships over at From the Mixed Up Files of Middle Grade Authors. Check it out!