Marcia Thornton Jones's Blog, page 193

How Writing Found Me (Jen Cervantes--june theme)

I wouldn’t define my journey to writing as typical. I wasn’t born knowing I wanted to do it. I didn’t dream about it as a child. The realization came to me much later in life, but not by accident. These things never are.
But then my youngest daughter, Juliana asked me to write her a story one day while she was away at school. I picked up a pen and was hooked (yes, I wrote my first book long hand) and something happened, something other writers would understand. If ever there was a moment of magic, this was it. I set aside her story and began another and as all stories do, it unfolded bit by bit and before I knew it I realized I was writing a book.

Looking back now, it doesn’t surprise me that writing found me. The world of story has always been a part of me. When I was a little girl, I spent many days getting lost in stories and magical tales. I read everything I could get my hands on. I was transported to another time and place where I could dream, explore, and discover.  Now I get to do the same as a writer...and hopefully do the same for my readers. :)

June Theme: Wanting To Be A Writer by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

All I know is, I'm sure it started with stories.



The ones my mom told about her childhood.

The first one I "read" over and over, Dr. Seuss' ABC's.

The ones I told my little sister (when I wasn't threatening her).

The ones I read after those glorious trips to the public library when I came home staggering under a load of books.

The ones that loved me for me by Camille Yarbrough, Julius Lester, and Eloise Greenfield.

The ones I read before I understood them, but "got" anyway (I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.)

The ones I read on days when I was home sick -- especially that bout of scarletina when I went through the Andrew Lang Fairy books and The Chronicles of Narnia.

The one my mom read to me at bedtime under the mosquito netting in Lagos (A Wrinkle In Time.)

The ones I wrote and illustrated for my little sister (when I wasn't threatening her.)

The hours I spent poring over the "story of everything" in the volumes of my Encyclopaedia Britannica set.

The ones my dad told about his childhood.

The ones that shone through tedious "units" at school (Macbeth, Moll Flanders).

The epic love story (Their Eyes Were Watching God).

The ones...



Definitely starts with the stories.

SHORTLY AFTER BIRTH, I DECIDED TO BE A WRITER (HOLLY SCHINDLER)

I've been writing as long as I could hold a pen.  That's really not much of an exaggeration, either.  I was a really shy kid--I used to cry when my parents took me to playgrounds, because I was afraid of having to interact with the rest of the kids.  Sometimes, I wonder if writing wasn't initially a way for a shy girl to "talk."

But it's more than that, too--there's something about making up stories that just fits.  Here are a few early examples:

This is one of my mom's favorite early "stories," about a kicking machine that kicks you when you're mad at yourself...

Another early story, this one illustrated, about a rabbit searching for his next meal.  (He did live "happily ever after" with that full belly of his...)


My earliest fan (Mom, who saved those first stories) is also now my first reader.  She read all eleven billion drafts of THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY--a process that took the story from picture book to full-length novel.  I'm celebrating those fabulous people like my own mom--librarians and teachers and parents--who are right now encouraging their own children to read and play with words.  Get in on the giveaway for a signed copy.  (And, if you're a teacher or librarian, feel free to get in on my giveaway for a Skype visit!)

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June Theme: Wanting to be a writer

by
Stephanie J. Blake


I've always known that I'd be a writer.

THE END.




Just kidding.

Creative Writing came to me naturally when I was in junior high. I wrote a ton of poetry. Most of it was angst-filled and heart-wrenching about my first high school love. I never showed my writing to anyone.

I took a playwriting class my 2nd year of college, and got serious about submitting my poetry to magazines and literary journals. Had a few publications. I got my BA degree in English. My minor was Technical Writing. I come from a long line of teachers and educators.

My father said, "What on earth will you do with an English degree if you aren't going to teach?"

I got a job in telecom. For seven (boring) years, I wrote employee handbooks, policies & procedure manuals, training materials. I drafted proposals and benefits summaries.

It wasn't until I was a stay-home mom of three, in 2005, that I started writing stories for kids. I was inspired by something one of my babies said.

"Mama, if I were a baby kangaroo, I could ride around in your pocket all day."

I wrote a picture book about baby animals. It came very close to being accepted at a small publisher.

I started writing lots of (mostly bad) picture book manuscripts. I wrote a novel. Then, I wrote another one. And another. Finally, I sold THE MARBLE QUEEN.

"Hey Dad, that's what I'm doing with an English degree (and $30,000 in student loans)."

THE END.

Just kidding.

I just sold my first picture book. It's also inspired by my children who are obsessed with zombies.

MY ROTTEN FRIEND will be out next year with Albert Whitman.

Smack Dab in the Classroom: Story Endings, or Did Charlotte Really Have to Die? By Dia Calhoun

Having just finished the manuscript of a middle grade novel--one I've been working on for over three years--story endings are on my mind. Any good writer hopes that the ending of her story is inevitable. That given the choices her characters make, no other ending works as well.

On school visits, kids sometimes ask why one of my novels end one way instead of another. I tell them to go ahead and imagine a different ending, but they have to explain why it is the “right” ending for the story.

This would be a fun writing exercise to offer your students.

Have them choose a book and write a new ending. Ask them to justify why they think their ending is better for the characters. Why it makes a more satisfying conclusion to the plot—and not just because it’s a happier or more ideal ending.

As students think through this problem, they will learn about the design and integrity of a story, and learn that endings are not arbitrary but must be true to the situation laid out earlier.

Who knows, maybe they will come up with something wonderful. Maybe Charlotte the spider didn't really have to die.

Becoming a Writer by Laurie Calkhoven

I was fascinated by books and stories from a very young age. I remember my mother giving my two sisters and I a choice between listening to her read a story and watching a television program. I voted for the story, and I was outvoted.  I also remember my older sister getting a set of Dr. Seuss books when she was learning to read and being desperately jealous that I couldn’t read them myself.  And of course there was the pride and excitement that came with my first library card.

I was a reader. That was established early on. I had a secret wish to be a writer, but I didn’t really believe that it was possible.  And then a teacher turned that around for me with a fifth grade nonfiction writing assignment. I don’t remember what I wrote, but it was definitely fiction.  My teacher, Mrs. Azzolini, pulled me aside and very gently explained the difference between fiction and nonfiction.  Then she told me that I was a good writer. Being a writer when I grew up was something I should think about.

Hearing someone, a teacher no less, say my secret wish out loud and tell me that it was possible was a magical moment. I didn’t wait to grow up—I went home and started writing a novel.  And I’ve never really stopped.

Wonderful, Exciting June (Kristin Levine)

The past month has been an exciting one for me.  I just got back from an amazing trip to New York City where I got an award from the New-York Historical Society (presented by New York City School Chancellor Carmen Farina.)





I also got to speak to a bunch of middle-school students...





...and hang out with two of my very favorite people, my editor Stacey Barney (left) and my agent Kathy Green (right). 



 Even though writing is something we do alone, there are all these people working behind the scenes, on promotions, publicity, cover design etc.  It was so exciting to meet all of them when I got a special visit to the G.P. Putnam's Sons offices!

And the fun continues...

I'm going to be at ALA this year, speaking at a dinner with the amazing Joan Bauer and Jacqueline Woodson.  I'm so honored to be at an event with them and thrilled to meet them both in person.

Finally, I'll also be signing galleys of my new book, THE PAPER COWBOY, Saturday, June 28 at 9:00 AM.  So if anyone else is going to be at ALA please do come say hi!


Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.  Happy writing!!

Kristin Levine

First Rejection, First Triumph by Claudia Mills (June theme)

I had my first major rejection as a writer and my first major triumph as a writer the same year: eighth grade. And they both had to do with the same boy, Dick Thistle, with whom I fell in love on October 17, 1967 (in case you think I might have forgotten the date). I called him Apollo and wrote sonnets to him in the voice of Clytie, the Greek maiden in love with the Sun God who is turned into a sunflower from all the hours she spends rooted in place watching the majestic progression of his chariot across the sky.

Here is one of them, written to him on his birthday, January 10 (in case you think I might have forgotten the date -- I also think of him every year on January 25, the day I was kicked out of class for talking and he walked me to the office, and on April 5, the day we held a dance to raise money for the new junior high water fountain and he asked me to dance; the song was the dreadfully saccharine "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro; I played the 45-speed record over and over and over again for months afterward).

Okay, the sonnet:

To Apollo on His Birthday

My humble words do naught but waste your time.
They are not even fit for you to scorn.
So I do dare to beg, forgive this rhyme.
Pretend my words of love had n'er been born.
Apollo, all my being cries in love,
My starving gaze does feast upon your face.
I worship you, oh god of sun above.
But I must stop ere I forget my place.
All that I want is just to kiss your feet,
To feel your gaze one moment on me rest,
To let our eyes for just one second meet,
And this will make my life forever blessed.
Apollo, on your birthday let me cry
I love you, and for you gladly I would die.

I showed the poem to my friend Judy Harper, making her swear she would not show it to Dick Thistle, but of course she gave it to him instantly, and of course all-too-predictable disaster ensued. In fact, I happened to see, some time later, a list he wrote of things he wanted in a girlfriend, and the list began: 1) isn't blonde; 2) isn't emotional; 3) doesn't write poetry.

So that was my first major rejection as a writer.

But my first major success came when I wrote about the whole experience, including the part where he asked me to make good on my poetic protestations and actually kiss his feet right in the middle of the Algebra I class, and I DID IT. It's an experience so embarrassing I can hardly bear to write about it now. But I wrote about it then, in an autobiographical book I was scribbling all that year, called T Is for Tarzan (further embarrassing revelation: my 8th grade nickname was Tarzan, and I used to do a legendary dance called the Ape Dance).

When I finished T Is for Tarzan, I typed it up on a manual typewriter, with carbon paper to make two copies, and began circulating it among my friends. The book became the sensation of North Plainfield Junior High. There was a lengthy waiting list for people to sign up to read it. Of course, part of the appeal was that everybody was in it, names unchanged, and I wrote everything - EVERYTHING - that happened to all of us that year in wrenchingly honest detail.

When I go back to New Jersey for my high school reunions (I've never missed one), some of the events in T Is for Tarzan have now become questions on the reunion trivia quiz: e.g.,  "Who were the two boys who ran the famous race-around-the-track with Tarzan?" I'm often asked to perform the Ape Dance. The now-grown man who organizes the reunions sent me an email about the last one with the subject heading: "T is for too long since we talked."

So that was my first major triumph as a writer.

It taught me the power of taking even the most cringe-worthy moments in life and writing about them, unflinchingly, unsparingly, as honestly as I could, with what Brenda Ueland calls "microscopic truthfulness." And I've tried to keep on doing that, ever since.

My 5th Grade Teacher Was Losing It! Or, When I Knew I Wanted to Become an Author

“Danette needs to work harder in reading.” -My fifth grade teacher.
Welp, I thought she definitely had me confused with someone else. Either that, or she had gone crazy. Since I always had to have the last word, I set out to the library just to prove dear old Miss. Gotlieb wrong (she was young but dear old sounds better). Funny thing was, while I was doing all of that ‘proving,’ I was hopelessly falling in love with books.
It was in that library where a tiny seed (my dream seed) was planted. I thought maybe one day I’d be able to be on the other side of a book. Maybe one day I’d write one.
With each book I read, the seed grew stronger but life got in the way and stunted the growth of that seed. It wasn't until after I re-met (a story for another time) the man who would become my husband, had two kids, sprouted some grey hair and acquired dogs, cats and lots of goldfish, that that seed began to grow again. Only, this time it was at a fast and healthy rate.

Maybe life, with all of its twists and turns, was actually Miracle Grow in disguise for that seed. 
Whatever the case, thank you, Miss Gotlieb!

Little by Bob Krech

I normally stay on topic with my monthly blog post, but I wanted to share something fun I found out about very recently.

My daughter, Faith just finished her junior year at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. Faith is an English major so when she announced back in March that she had secured a summer internship with a small publisher in Durham, NC my wife and I were very excited for her. When I asked Faith last month if she had visited the publisher's office building yet she said no, that the office was basically "the basement of this guy's house." Totally reassuring to any parent.

As it turns out, Bull City Press is completely legitimate and very fun particularly it you're into poetry. It is headed by nationally known poet and professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, Ross White.  Bull City is a self-described "micro-press" specializing in small poetry and short prose.

Their quarterly journal is called, appropriately enough, INCH. The physical journal itself measures about 5 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches. It consists of just six pages (not counting front and back cover). The Summer 2014 issue contains three poems and one prose piece. Submission guidelines state that poems can be one to nine lines. Prose has to be under 750 words. Their mantra is "We believe good things come in small packages" and they are definitely living that.

When I got my first copy of INCH I found myself reading slowly and deeply, savoring the three little poems and one story like each was the last chocolate in the box. I read and re-read. I let them melt in my mouth just like the last chocolate. The fact that there were only three poems let each one have a depth of attention that I would not normally give if I were reading a larger collection. The prose piece was nuanced and again, let me ponder and revisit, because, well, it was the only one. This small focus really worked for me as a reader. I think it's particularly good for poetry and short fiction.

I love everything about this concept. It is hard to write "small" but it is also a nice way to begin or a great thing to aspire to as a writer. If anyone wants to experiment with this kind of writing (and we all did a little flash fiction a few months back), I'm thinking this is a great venue. I've urged my daughter to talk to them about maybe considering doing something similar for kids. Don't you think that would be cool?

Bull City Press also publishes poetry collections and chapbooks. By the way, Faith's not getting any commission on sales or anything with this, I was just totally won over by the whole approach and wanted to share with you all.

You can find our more about Bull City Press and their publications at http://www.bullcitypress.com