Marcia Thornton Jones's Blog, page 9

Overexposed (Holly Schindler)

It feels sometimes like we're all a little overexposed, thanks to social media. I'm sure this seemed more so to people of my generation who didn't grow up with an online life. When I was in college, I actually knew a guy who didn't have a phone. Now, this was the mid-'90s, so when I say he didn't have a phone, I'm not just talking a cell phone. None of us had cell phones. This guy didn't have a phone in his apartment. If you wanted to talk to him, you had to track him down on campus. 

Nobody really thought much about it. That's how much the world has changed in my lifetime. 

The funny thing about an overexposed image is that you kill a lot of the dark contrast, so the whole thing looks a little blurry. Or maybe more like the details get washed out. 

Sometimes, that's the way a lot of online life feels. Like you only show the best of everything. The finished manuscripts. The signed contracts. The challenges won. 

But if you don't show the darker stuff--the struggle to finish the manuscript, the rejection, the challenges lost--then you don't really get the clearest picture of a life. 

My favorite posts? The filter-less headshots. The wrinkles and the grays. The crooked picture on the wall in the background. The laundry piled on the bed. 

I like messy drawers and doors scratched by dog toenails. I like jackets tossed on banisters. I like muddy shoes in the kitchen. 

I like the full picture. The darks mixed in with the lights. 

~

Holly Schindler is the author of the MG The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky

Interview With Dara Horn, Author of One Little Goat

 

Welcome to Smack Dab, Dara. Tell Us More about One Little Goat.

One Little Goat is about a family at a Passover seder, a ceremonial dinner during which Jews retell the biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt. When no one can find the hidden piece of matzah that traditionally ends the meal, the seder cannot end– and they’re trapped at the seder for six months! (Can you tell I started writing this during Covid?)

Six months in, there’s a knock on the door, and the oldest child answers it. It’s a talking goat– the scapegoat, the one everyone blames for their problems. The goat explains that over those six months, thousands of years of previous seders have accumulated underneath this seder– and now they need to travel through those thousands of previous seders to find this piece of matzah and end their seder tonight. It turns into an edgy and unexpected journey through Jewish history.

Can you elaborate on how your childhood experiences with Passover seders influenced this book? (I love that line in your Author’s Note: “My life and memory were connected to a much larger life and memory.”)

A lot of literature for young readers is some form of portal fiction, where the young protagonist discovers some hole in the universe leading to a world much bigger than the familiar one. I think this is because children’s lives are very limited, and they are looking for that escape hatch into something bigger. What’s amazing about Passover is that it is designed to provide that escape hatch. It’s literally a story about freedom, and it’s also a holiday designed to help children see themselves as part of a long civilizational chain, in which they are making choices and commitments whose resonance is much larger than just their own lives. The Passover liturgy says that  “in every generation, each person is required to see himself as if he personally came out of Egypt.”

This book is shaped by two Passover seders I attended regularly as a child in the 1980s and 90s. First, the seders my parents hosted, in which my parents required me and my three siblings to write plays and skits and songs that brought the story to life every year. This was a creative experience that made me feel very invested in this story. The second seder we usually attended was hosted by friends of ours. It was a large intergenerational gathering of about fifty people seated at a long table, by age. At one end were the old people, including Holocaust survivors who had fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which began on Passover of 1943. The middle-aged participants included some Soviet Jewish refuseniks who had been persecuted as Jews in the USSR. These were two generations of living American Jews who had experienced liberation from anti-Jewish oppression. And then there were the kids, who were on the far end of the table talking about “The Simpsons.” 

I remember sitting at that seder and having the strange sensation that I was sitting in a lighted room on top of a tower of other lighted rooms, filled with all the seders that came before this one– including the seders that the old people had lived through when they were younger, and also all the seders that the old people at THEIR seders had lived through when they were younger, and on and on down to the night before the Exodus. It has stayed with me, this idea. 

You mention that this idea has been with you since childhood. How has it evolved over the years?

For my own four children, I’ve dialed up the creativity dramatically, and the seders I host  now involve things like a walk-through black-lit Egyptian tomb and a laser-swamp parting-of-the-sea. My children are costumed characters in this production, which is different every year, and now they write the scripts themselves. So this story is still central to my family’s life, but I have a parent’s perspective now on the story’s impact.

All of my adult books– which are all about Jewish culture and history in various ways– are about this idea of the past that lives within the present. But in recent years as the darker aspects of Jewish history have become more present in American Jewish life, I’ve also come to see the seder and its message of hope as vital and formative for children. The Passover story is actually really scary, and kids are right up front for it. It’s teaching children to use their own unique gifts and inner resources – part of the ceremony involves a discussion of different children’s personalities – to face whatever the world might present. It’s a kind of preparation for facing that darkness with courage. If I’d written this book years ago, I might not have included so much of that. But now I see it as the heart of the story– not just a young person conquering his own fears, which is a common theme in children’s books, but a young person tapping into this deep historical vein of integrity and courage.

Why a graphic novel?

A few years ago, a Jewish magazine approached me about writing a graphic novel for them, and I started thinking about this Passover seder idea. That project didn’t pan out, but about a year later, I was on a road trip with my family and we stopped in a comics shop. My kids came out with armloads of books, but they all were fighting over this one thick graphic novel, Capacity by Theo Ellsworth. I borrowed it from them and was just completely enchanted by his artwork. I loved the level of detail and the edginess of his style, and also how vividly he turned abstract ideas into stark and hilarious images. I cold-emailed him and pitched the idea, and wow, what an incredibly talented artist he is. His work on this book has blown me away.

What was the collaborative process like? I loved the format–I especially loved all the falling passages. Did you discuss the art with the illustrator?

When I wrote the manuscript I included a lot of “stage directions” suggesting what should happen visually. Theo would send me pencil sketches of a few pages at a time, and we’d go back and forth about what was working and what needed a tweak. Sometimes this involved tweaks to the artwork to better fit the story, but sometimes it also involved tweaks to the story to better fit the artwork. Theo’s visual imagination is of course orders of magnitude better than mine, and he consistently came up with visual ideas that I never would have thought of. 

I’d imagined all these seder rooms stacked on top of each other, for instance, but Theo turned that idea into this vast tunnel of doors, and then created this Alice-in-Wonderland situation where the main character opens the doors and sometimes his head fills the entire door and he’s looking at tiny people, and sometimes he’s tiny and the people are huge, and sometimes the door is a hatch in the ceiling or a trap door in the floor… it’s just so magnificently imaginative. In other instances, he took my ideas very literally— for instance, my “stage directions” called for a doorway made of toys, and then a descent involving “ladders, tunnels, slides” and the passage through a sea that parts as the protagonist jumps in (a reference to the Exodus story). But Theo made these ideas astronomically more hilarious and beautiful than I ever expected. His work is an absolute delight.

How do you envision this book contributing to a child's understanding of their own family history and traditions?

I think all children are looking for that access point to a life bigger than their own, and one access point is through their own family’s history and traditions. The main character in the book is from this vast tradition of thousands of years of Jews who made conscious choices about how to live as free people and how to transmit that liberation story to their children. Some of them make those choices in dramatic historical circumstances; for others, it’s about their private lives. For the main character, these are just his annoying older relatives. But then he goes back in time and meets them as children, and understands something deeper about what motivates them. And then that becomes a broader adventure going much further back in time. 

In Jewish life this intergenerational idea of freedom and responsibility is very explicitly discussed in really formal and consistent ways. But the truth is that you could tell this kind of story about any family, and about any tradition. We are all the beneficiaries of all the courageous choices of the people who came before us. 

Can you discuss the role of humor, particularly the sarcastic goat character, in addressing serious themes?

The goat is the scapegoat– in the Hebrew bible, the people’s sins are symbolically placed on this animal’s head in an annual ritual, which is where the English word comes from. Then this concept takes on a different meaning in Jewish history, as Jewish communities are routinely blamed for the wider society’s problems. 

The goat character in the book is an example of making a horrifying idea openly ridiculous, which is the source of a lot of Jewish humor. The goat in the book has fatalistically accepted that he’s always blamed for absolutely everything, and that acceptance is so blunt and absurd– the main character tells him, over and over, about things that aren’t his fault, “This is all your fault!” and the goat just says. “I know.” The goat likes to cope by hanging out at Sigmund Freud’s seder to clear his head– where of course they don’t meet Freud, but they do meet Freud’s mom, who says of Freud, “He never calls. He never writes.” Jewish history is so deeply absurd that humor is the only way to take it seriously.

What was it like translating your usual adult-oriented writing style to a format for younger readers?

So much more fun! I think I might have struggled with the register if it weren’t a graphic novel, because yes, I’m used to writing for adults. But the graphic novel style is already so playful and literal. There’s no room to muse at length about anything, and even abstract ideas become really immediate. It’s a great lesson in getting a story down to its essence.

Where can we find you online? 

Ha, I like that you think you can find me online! I’m not really on social media– a choice I made years ago for logistical reasons. (When my four kids were little, I found it too hard to maintain a social media presence, give my children my attention, and also do my professional work, so something had to go.) I now feel really lucky to have been able to establish myself as a writer before this was required– especially since I write about Jewish topics, and as all Jewish public figures know, being active online as a Jew means dealing with hate and threats all day long. (As it is, I occasionally get carted around in cop cars for speaking events!) At some point I’ll revisit this. I do like hearing from readers though! Readers can contact me at www.darahorn.com, where they can also find links to my other work. 

What’s next?

My last book in 2021, a nonfiction book about antisemitism called People Love Dead Jews, has basically eaten my life. Especially in the past year and a half, I have been dealing nonstop with this problem in channels that you would not expect for someone who just wrote a middle-grade graphic novel about a talking goat. (For instance, I served on the antisemitism advisory group for Harvard’s administration, and wound up as a witness in a congressional investigation) I didn’t realize that when you write a nonfiction book about a problem, people expect you to solve that problem!  I’ve now been thinking much more systematically about what works and what doesn’t in addressing antisemitism. So I’m now working on another nonfiction book about this, called (gulp) The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living.

I’m also trying to actually do something about this problem instead of only writing about it. I just founded a nonprofit venture called Mosaic Persuasion, whose purpose is to educate the broader American public about Jewish civilization, beginning in K-12 public and independent schools. The goal is to meaningfully address contemporary antisemitism (something that can’t be done by teaching about dead Jews in Europe) and to build the skills we all need to live in a pluralistic democracy. We are very new– we don’t even have a website yet!-- but we’ve already started doing teacher training workshops and are building out other channels, and we’re looking for more schools and groups to partner with. If you’re an educator of any kind (school, museum, nonprofit, interfaith, social-media, etc) and would like to be involved in this effort, please reach out to me at www.darahorn.com. 

At some point I hope to go back to writing novels! It’s a joy to have this book to brighten this dark moment. 

Interview with Dr. DeWitt, Curriculum Specialist for Learning Without Tears

Welcometo Smack Dab in the Middle, Dr. DeWitt. Here at the site, we talk about thelatest reading materials (newest book releases), but rarely if ever address theactual process of learning to read. This is a treat. Can you tell us a bitabout what multisensory learning is?

Multisensorylearning enhances learning by engaging multiple senses at the same time. Thismethod uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities to cater to variouslearning styles and needs in early childhood education. For instance, to learnletters, children can see them, hear the sounds they make, and physically formthem with their hands. This active participation in the learning process makesit more effective and engaging for young learners.

Whatled you to focus on multisensory learning in your own research and work?

Mypassion for multisensory learning stems from a deep commitment to ensuring thatevery child has the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their learning styleor background. Early in my career, I saw firsthand how traditional,one-size-fits-all instruction left many students disengaged or struggling tograsp foundational concepts. I became determined to find a way to make learningmore accessible, meaningful, and—most importantly—fun for all learners.

Multisensoryinstruction naturally became the focus of my work because it meets studentswhere they are, engaging multiple pathways in the brain to enhanceunderstanding and retention. Whether through hands-on activities, movement,auditory cues, or visual supports, this approach ensures that childrenexperience learning in a way that resonates with them. The joy of watching achild light up when they grasp a concept in a way that makes sense to them iswhat continues to drive my work in foundational literacy and early childhoodeducation. As a curriculum writer and subject matter expert, I love creatingresources that empower educators to implement best practices that reach everystudent. I firmly believe that when we equip teachers with effective strategies,we ignite a passion for learning in children that lasts a lifetime.

Whatsenses are specifically involved in this approach to reading? How doesmultisensory learning engage the brain in a different way than more traditionalforms of reading instruction?

Multisensorylearning utilizes visual, auditory, and kinesthetic techniques to engagechildren in the learning process. This approach incorporates multiple senses tosolidify understanding. Children see letters and words (visual), hear thesounds of letters and words (auditory), and use their hands to form letters andwords through movement and touch (kinesthetic).

Multisensorylearning caters to different learning styles and provides a more effective andengaging experience by actively involving children in learning. Thiscomprehensive approach to reading instruction goes beyond traditional visualand auditory methods, engaging the brain in a more holistic way.

Ismultisensory learning a good strategy for instructing children with readingchallenges such as dyslexia?

Yes–multisensorylearning has been widely recognized as an effective teaching strategy forchildren with dyslexia. By engaging multiple senses, children with dyslexia canincrease understanding and retain more information. Multisensory learningprovides the brain with multiple pathways to process and recall information,which can be especially helpful for children who struggle with traditionalreading instruction methods.

Howcan technology be implemented in this approach?

Interactive Activities: Multisensory learning experiences, such asthe Wet-Dry-Try  app,allow students to practice letter formation and improve writing skills.

Student Apps: Use literacy, math, and writing readinessapps to provide additional learning support and reinforcement.

Videos: Author-read or influencer-read book videos can offer engaging auditoryand visual learning experiences.

Ifa teacher wants to incorporate multisensory approaches but has limitedresources, where should they start?

Hands-On Learning:  Providechildren with manipulatives to construct letters and numbers. Start with largersizes, like capital letters, and gradually introduce smaller ones as theydevelop their fine motor skills. For high-quality manipulatives, LearningWithout Tears offers excellent options to enhance hands-on learning experiencesin the classroom.

Writing Practice: Encourage writing practice by incorporatingsimple tools like slates and chalk.

Free Educational Resources: Take advantage of  free online resources like public domainbooks and library services to give children access to  literature and learning materials.

Family Engagement:  Involveparents in their child's learning by providing take-home activities andencouraging them to talk and read with their children regularly.

Whatare some signs a parent can be on the lookout for that might indicate theirchild would benefit from this kind of instruction? What are some simpleactivities they can engage in at home to promote early literacy?

Parentscan support their child's literacy development from an early age simply byengaging in everyday conversations. Talking to your child—describing whatyou’re doing, counting objects, or narrating daily activities like groceryshopping or cooking—helps build their language skills in a natural, meaningfulway. Even simple interactions, like reading books aloud or discussing theprocess of doing something can enhance their understanding of language.

AtLearning Without Tears, we provide take-home activities that make it easy forparents to reinforce learning at home. For example, this week we’re focusing ona specific letter and number. We use formation language in the classroom toguide students, and parents can reference the same language when practicing athome, ensuring a consistent and supportive learning experience.

Howdoes Learning Without Tears incorporate multisensory learning?

LearningWithout Tears integrates multisensory learning by engaging children throughvisual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile experiences, ensuring that alllearners can develop foundational skills effectively.

Forhandwriting instruction, LWT uses hands-on materials like wooden pieces,chalkboards, and textured surfaces to help children feel and build letterformations before writing them. The Wet-Dry-Try method reinforces muscle memoryby having students trace letters with a wet sponge, dry them with a tissue, andthen write them with chalk.

Inliteracy and math, songs, movement, and interactive activities make learningengaging and memorable. The program also emphasizes oral language development,encouraging children to talk, listen, and build vocabulary as well asbackground knowledge through everyday conversations—an essential foundation forreading and writing.

Canthis approach be blended in to be used with more traditional phonics-basedinstruction?

Absolutely!Learning Without Tears complements traditional phonics-based instruction byintegrating multisensory strategies that reinforce letter recognition,sound-symbol relationships, and handwriting. By engaging children throughhands-on, auditory, and movement-based activities, LWT helps solidify phonicsconcepts in a way that supports all learners. For instance, children can formletters using manipulatives, trace them in different textures, and pairmovement with letter sounds to strengthen memory and recall.

Howdoes handwriting factor into reading development?

Handwritingreinforces the connection between letters and sounds, improving wordrecognition and reading development. Research shows that the act of writing byhand strengthens the brain’s ability to process and retain letter shapes andtheir corresponding sounds, making it easier for children to decode andrecognize words when reading.

LearningWithout Tears’ handwriting programs are designed to complement reading throughmultisensory techniques like tracing letters, forming shapes withmanipulatives, and incorporating tactile experiences to build muscle memory.These activities engage the brain in ways that simply recognizing letters on apage cannot, helping children internalize the structure of language moreeffectively.

Byimproving handwriting skills, children gain better control over letterformation and develop a deeper understanding of the relationship betweenwritten and spoken language—key components in becoming strong readers. Theintegration of handwriting with reading activities supports a trifecta ofskills: handwriting, reading, and writing, which work together to boost overallliteracy.

Anycommon misperceptions about multisensory learning you’d like to clear up?

Multisensorylearning is frequently misunderstood as being exclusively beneficial forstudents with learning difficulties or disabilities. This is untrue, as itbenefits all learners by catering to various learning styles and reinforcingconcepts through multiple sensory channels.

Anothermisconception is that multisensory learning is "extra" ortime-consuming. This is also untrue, as it can be incorporated seamlessly intodaily lessons without disrupting the flow of instruction. It is actually a timesaver because children are able to understand concepts sooner due to theinvolvement of multiple senses.

Whenimplemented effectively, multisensory learning enhances the learning experiencefor all students by making it more engaging. This helps solidify foundationalskills that are critical for success in literacy and other subjects.

Wheremight a teacher or parent go to learn more?

www.lwtears.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Youcan also listen to a recent conversation I had with The Inspiring EarlyChildhood Educator Podcast, exploring multisensory instruction and how when doneeffectively it can transform the way children learn and grow. 

~

Dr. Elizabeth DeWitt is a Sr. Adoptions & Curriculum Specialist for Learning Without Tears (LWT) with over 20 years of experience teaching young children and educators. She has had several roles with the company including curriculum designer, content advisor and national early childhood consultant. She has a Doctorate in Education in Organizational Leadership with a concentration in Educational Leadership and a Master of Education degree in Early Childhood Special Education. Before joining LWT, she was an inner-city public school inclusion preschool teacher.

Interested parties should also check out the Learning Without Tears Readiness and Writing Program.

 

Of Too Much Light, and Time: Smack Dab in the Imagination by Dia Calhoun

 

Sometimes when, for all the best reasons, we hyper-focus ona piece of writing, we can over-write it. We give it too much of the light ofour attention, just as a photographic image can suffer from too much light.

Usually, I can’t see this happening until I’ve walked awayfrom the writing for a time. That’s funny, isn’t it, because time is the commonelement here. Too much time in the camera lens—causes overexposure. And we needtime away from the work to see it. This conjours an image of draping a sheetover a sculpture or pulling a curtain over a painting. They—like our writing—needto hide or rest in the darkness for a time before we can see them clearly.Perhaps part of being any kind of artist is understanding how time is anessential part of our work.

Improve Your Prose with This Poetic Exercise (Sandy Deutscher Green)

The thoughtprocess behind writing a novel in verse can help you write tight andinteresting prose without losing the storyline, sacrificing characterdevelopment, or skipping important beats in your narrative. It can weed outtedious detail and infuse your story with emotional and sensory richness.

In verse novels,word placement on the page enhances the theme of the story and mirrors theemotions of the character. Matching the cadence of the scene by crowding orspreading words mimics the emotional range of a character feeling elation,apprehension, trepidation, longing, jealousy, or any of the dozens of emotionsour characters are capable of feeling. Words are sparse and choosing theperfect word encourages you to write the way the narrator is conveying thestory. Do your characters always think or speak in perfect sentences? We oftencommunicate in fragments or clauses.

Writing freeverse is more than dropping articles, punctuation, and not ending a line with apreposition. It’s being conscious of the rhythm the words and stanzas by takingnatural breathing breaks in the text.

If you’re nothappy with your story written in prose, try this. Identify the theme or purposeof your first chapter and rewrite it using the shorter lines of verse. Takenatural line breaks where you would if you were reading it aloud. Read it aloudyourself, use your computer’s read aloud function, or ask a friend to read itto you focusing on the flow of the story.

Inside yourstanzas, you might discover alliteration or imbedded rhyme, where rhyming wordsare scattered throughout the text. If not, you might add them, or not, whateveryou feel is appropriate and would lend interest to the story without becoming adistraction. As a bonus, at the end of the chapter, reread the last stanzas.Your chapter title might be there, if you’re inclined to name your chapters (orthe title of a poem, if you want to keep your story as a verse novel).

Each poemrepresents a scene and must fulfill the same requirements as a scene:

Here's anexercise to tighten the words in your story. Try it on one chapter. I’ve used afew lines as an example:

·      Writeone chapter in prose:

 

“There are some people who live year-roundat the lake,” Ally said. She pointed to a boy, about thirteen years old,playing some sort of video game on a towel. “Like that kid.”

“How come he’s not out here?” I asked. Allthat bouncing and sliding was way too much fun.

Ally shrugged. “All I know is that he’snot very friendly. He never talks to anybody. I think he might already be ateenager.”

 

·      Rewriteit in free verse, concentrating on emotion and reaction:

 

she points to a boy on a towel

absorbed in a video game

older than us

wearing cut offs

a leather band wraps his wrist

 

hairthe color of sand

backcurved like the moon

blendinginto the beach

lonelyafternoon

 

living at a lakeresort

isn’t a vacationfor everyone.

 

·      Switchback to prose from the verse:

 

            Theyear-round boy scowls at him from behind his game. Older than us, he’s wearingcut offs and a leather band around his wrist. His sandy-colored hair blendsinto the beach.

            Anoffer to him to join us dies in my throat. Living at the beach isn’t a vacationfor everyone.

 

If you’re havingtrouble with a scene, this exercise might be just what you need to jumpstartyour writing by concentrating on transitions between scenes, senses,foreshadowing, advancing the plot, and whether the scene resolves the conflict.

Ultimately, yourstory will be one that children will love!

Website: www.sandydgreen.com

Writerand Writing Resources for Adults and Children

Snag a copy of The Haunting of Lake Lucy

On Writing Well: Revisiting the Basics

 

As you may remember, I teach for a MFA Program, working primarily with students who are finishing their creative writingthesis projects. This week, I’m in the throes of grading final projects, reviewingmanuscripts up to 60 pages. For this week’s post, I thought I’d revisit some ofthe basics that keep popping up in these projects.

Over the years, I have gathered quitea collection of articles and handouts that target some basic writing conceptsthat are often overlooked in workshops. I’ve highlighted some of these inprevious posts.

I use these resources for my students,and thought you might be interested in a few of these:

 

Narrative Structure

Backstory and Exposition: 4 Key Tactics. SusanDeFreitas, contributing writer at Jane Friedman’s blog, explores effectivestrategies in inserting backstory into your narrative, explaining, “Landingyour novel opening can be tricky. On the one hand, you need to get the readersucked into the present moment of the story as it’s unfolding; on the otherhand, there’s a lot you need to explain about the past, which is precisely thesort of thing that puts readers to sleep…This info is generally known asbackstory (essential information about the characters’ past) and exposition(essential information about the context of the story). Getting it right is oneof the biggest challenges you’ll face with your novel.”

Story Structure: 7 Narrative Structures All Writers ShouldKnow. As the writers on Reedsy blog offers,“While using a pre-existing blueprint might make you worry about ending up witha formulaic, predictable story, you can probably analyze most of your favoritebooks using various narrative structures that writers have been using fordecades (if not centuries)!”  This blog post explores  seven distinctstory structures that any writer can use to build a compelling narrative.

Narratevs. Dramatize. Alex Donne’s excellent videoexplains the difference between narrating and dramatizing (show vs. tell), andhow you can fix these issues during the revision. Revision is when the magichappens!

Filter Words and Phrases to Avoid in Writing Fiction. AnneR. Allen created an excellent handout that  provides a list of writingfilters, with practical examples of how to replace them. As she states, “All words exist for a reason. Use them wisely to create engaging narrative.”

Purple Prose and the Word Surgeon’s Scalpel. TomBentley at Writer UnBoxed elaborates on how these filter words rob yournarrative of its vigor. Bently offers excellent examples and explanations,reminding writers to “Keep in mind that when you clean upyour writing, you’re not scrubbing it of the voice that makes it distinct anddelightful. You’re clearing your throat so that voice sings out strong and true.”

(Related to NarrativeStructure) Dialogue

How to Format Dialogue. Dax MacGregor offers nice illustrations on how to format dialogue, stating“Whether you are writing a short story, full novel or anything in between, theway you format dialogue is the same.”

The MasterClass in How to Format Dialogue in Your ShortStory and Novel. The MasterClass staff puttogether this excellent handout, stating, “Whether you’re working on a novel orshort story, writing dialogue can be a challenge. If you’re concerned about howto punctuate dialogue or how to format your quotation marks, fear not; therules of dialogue in fiction and nonfiction can be mastered by following a fewsimple rules.

Active vs PassiveCharacters

How Can We Make Our Characters More Proactive?  JamiGold’s excellent handout details how a character needs agency in their story,stating “In other words, passive and reactive characters—those withoutagency—go with the flow, make no decisions, and don’t affect the story becausethey’re always one step behind. In contrast, proactive/active characters makethe story what it is.”

On Passive Characters. MaryCole of Good Story Company explains, “It's hard for readers to engage with apassive character, especially in the protagonist role.”

Five Ways to Tell If You Have A Passive Protagonist (And IfYou Do, How To Fix Them). Jimena I. Novaro’sexcellent discussion offers a study into passive characters, comparing twobeloved novels to illustrate her points, stating “ To illustrate these fiveplaces where you can identify a passive protagonist, I’m going to use two booksthat I love. They’re both good books, but one has the unfortunate flaw ofhaving a passive protagonist, while the other has an awesome, activeprotagonist. The examples for a passive protagonist are from Harry Potter andthe Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling; the examples for an active protagonist arefrom Sabriel by Garth Nix.”

Finding the Emotional Core. Relatedto creating active characters is taking advantage of a character’s emotionalcore. Jo Eberhardt on Writer UnBoxed explores strategies on how to createauthentic characters that readers care about, stating, “Createa character who feels deep emotions, and invite the reader to join them ontheir journey. It creates a bond that can never be broken between yourcharacter and your reader — one that will still exist decades into the future.”

Plot Structures

On Pacing: Faster than the Speed of Thought. DonaldMaass at Writers UnBoxed explains, “Plot pace is generally what peoplemean.  Keep things moving.  Get to the next event.  Don’tmeander around, cut to the chase.  Get to the meat and quickly moveon.  It’s as if story is a double-speed march, or ought to be…As we know,however, story is not always about moving events along rapidly.” 

Good Transitions: A Guide to Cementing StoriesTogether. Amanda Mascarelle illustrates theprocess of creating strong transitions that move the story forward, stating,“Most writers learned in elementary school that a good story requires acompelling beginning, middle, and end. But how does one make the pieces fitneatly together? From my tattered memory of grade school, my teachers skippedthat part. Or maybe I was home with the chicken pox the day we learned abouttransitions—the words and phrases, often subtly deployed, that give storiesshape and tug readers from idea to idea.”

Mastering Scene Transitions. BethHill of The Editor’s Blog discusses how to create effective scene transitions,explaining, “A scene transition takes characters and readers to a new location,a new time, or a new point of view. Transitions can also be used to show acharacter’s change in heart or frame of mind.”

(Related to Plot)Chapter Building

How To Organize A Chapter.NathanBransford explores strategies to create chapters that move the plot forward,explaining “Too many writers treat their chapters like tanks of gas. They takeoff without really knowing where they’re going, drive around aimlessly untilthey run out of fuel, sputter to a stop, and then they start the next chapterafter someone takes pity on them and tows them somewhere new.” Of particularinterest, he offers a very nice discussion on creating cliffhangers that engagereaders, stating , “The key to crafting a great cliffhanger is to construct theclimax of a chapter so that its resolution opens up even bigger questions.Think about the fate of Dumbledore in the Harry Potter novels, Han Solo beingfrozen in carbonite in Star Wars, or “Who shot J.R.” on Dallas.”

How to Structure Chapters of Your Novel: 8 Tips for WritingChapters. In this very interesting discussion,MasterClass explains eight strategies that help writers create reader-friendlychapters, explaining,   “Chapters are the vessels of story structure,organizing the  plot points of the larger work and allowing the reader totake a break and absorb what they’ve learned. A short story can be read in onesitting, but a novel is usually broken up into accessible parts, forming a bookthat can be easily revisited whenever the moment arises. Structuring chaptersin a way that keeps readers immersed in the story is essential tonovel-writing.”

And, related to structuring chapters comes thisessential read on tension-building. Jordan Rosenfeld’s How to Write A PageTurner: Craft a Story Your Readers Can’t Put Down (Writers Digest Books, 2019).From the back-cover:

“Tension is the heart of conflict, thebackbone of uncertainty, the hallmark of danger. It keeps readers guessing and characterson their toes. When you’ve got tension in place, stories leave readersbreathless and wanting more. When it’s missing, scenes feel inconsequential,plots drag and characters meander.” 

Happy writing!

 

-- BobbiMiller

 

Almost Sunset - A Graphic Novel That Brings Ramadan to Life (Holly Schindler)

 

Algarmi's graphic novel Almost Sunset will most surely be an introduction to Ramadan for many MG readers. The opening pages, which depict the hunger Hassan, the main character, feels during fasting, makes the experience very real and understandable, the MC one any MG reader can identify with. 

Beyond offering Muslim readers a mirror in these pages, Almost Sunset also creates a bridge of understanding for non-Muslim readers. A relatable protagonist sharing authentic experiences invites all readers to have empathy and appreciation both for the significance of Ramadan in the Muslim community. 

A must-have for any library, not just during Ramadan but year-round, as an example of the kind of rich storytelling that expands readers' understanding of the world around them.

Interview with Nina Mata, Author / Illustrator of Girls to the Front

Please tell us a bit about how the book came to be. It was writtenduring the pandemic and the #StopAsianHate movement, yes?

 

Yes, how’d you know that? Lol

 

It was a culmination of things. It was growing up getting pickedon from having almond shaped eyes. I witnessed my mom being told to go back towhere she came from on our way to school and keeping her head held high all thewhile she held me with sweaty palms. It’s wanting to protect her now that she’solder and as I watched our elderly get attacked and being blamed for startingthe pandemic. Its wanting to protect my own kid from enduring any of that andteaching her she has a voice and a place to stand. It’s The Black Lives Matterand Stop Asian Hate movements and seeing our communities come together because,quite frankly, we are tired of the BS.

 

I have a quote from the late and great Toni Morrison that I’vealways kept around me since 2016: “In times of dread, ARTISTS MUST NEVER REMAINSILENT. This is precisely the time when artist go to work.”

 

My primary language is visual art. So in March of 2021, filledwith pent-up anxiety and anger, I did the only thing I could do; I made art. Ihad spent my whole life in America feeling like I didn’t belong because Irarely came across anyone in history that looked like me. But were they reallynot there? I was curious to know, so I started digging. And lo and behold, theywere there! It was also Women’s History Month, so I challenged myself to findAsian American women in history and took to social media to highlight sharesome extraordinary women for 30 days.

 

A few months later, my editor reached out and we were talkingabout turning this idea into a book and here we are. The initial idea for thiswas to reassure myself that we did exist in history. But these women did somuch more than that. They prove that our voices matter, that we deserve spaceat the table and we are NEEDED at the front of the room.

 

I lovethe diverse backgrounds and contributions represented here. Athletes, artists,politicians, advocates…What was the process of deciding who to include in Girlsto the Front? 

When you read the book, you’ll notice it’snot arranged chronologically. That was intentional. History is often shaped bypeople enduring mistreatment and fighting against oppression, and some of thewomen in this book lived through similar struggles at different times. To keepreaders engaged, my brilliant editor, Luana Horry, suggested mixing up thestories so that you can flip to any page and find inspiration.

You’ll see familiar names, like VicePresident Kamala Harris, but you’ll also meet women you might be meeting forthe first time like Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, a suffragist who fought for women’svoting rights. And then there are women you doknow, but might be seeing in a different light—like Lucy Liu, a well-knownactress, but did you know she’s also a talented fine artist?

I wanted to showcase the incredible multi-faceted nature of these womenbecause, as a kid, no one ever pointed out these possibilities to me. I want todo better for future generations—to show them that they, too, can take upspace, shatter barriers, and lead.

Choosing who to highlight was by far thehardest part of writing this book. Just when I thought I had my list of 40incredible women locked in, I’d discover three more the next day—then sevenmore by the end of the week. And it hasn’t stopped since. It’s as if, once Iopened myself up to finding these extraordinary women from both history andtoday, they started appearing everywhere—a blessing, but also a reminder thatthere are always more stories to tell.

I just hope this book does for others whatit’s done for me: that it attunes them to the same wavelength, drawing themtoward people who are making a difference simply by being themselves and doingwhat they love.

Who’s your favorite woman highlighted? Why?

Oh, I can’t possibly choose a favorite! Eachof their stories has shaped me in some way—that’s why I chose to highlight themcollectively. Mary Tape, for example, is the kind of fierce advocate I aspireto be for my daughter. Anna May Wong reminded me of myself growing up andshowed me that following your own path is often the best choice. Dr.Chien-Shiung Wu exemplifies how simply loving what you do is enough, and thatpassion alone can create a massive impact to those who see you doing it, farbeyond awards and industry recognition.

Each of these women has inspired me in aunique way, and their stories bring something essential to the conversation. Itwould be impossible to pick just one—they all rock.

You have an additional list of women at the end of the book. Anyof them from that list, or any other women who didn’t make the cut that you’dlike to discuss here? (Or maybe there will eventually be an entire book devotedto that person?)

That’s a wonderful idea! There are so manywomen I’d love to continue discussing, like Mindy Kaling, Senator Mazie Hirono,and historian Dr. Dawn Malabon.

Dr. Malabon had been such a champion inpreserving the rich and deep Filipino American history and ensuring thatstories like The Manila Men,one of the earliest groups of settlers in America, who even fought in battleslike the War of 1812, are taught in classrooms.

The list of incredible women is endless, andI’d love to dedicate an entire book (or several!) to telling their stories.

I’m an author who got back into my art within the past couple ofyears (I’m fascinated by visual storytelling). What advice can you offer forour young artists? 

 

That’s amazing! Welcome back!

Just draw. Keep drawing. There’sno other way to get better at something than doing it repeatedly. If you want to be an illustrator, storyboard artist,or comic artist, take an anatomy class to study how muscles move. If you can,take a life drawing class. If not, practice by sketching a plant or a fruitbowl under different lighting conditions. Don’t try to “fix” what you see—justdraw it as it is.

Most of all, be patient with yourself andtrust your process. Growth takes time, but if you keep going, you’ll see theprogress.

Your portraits are stunning–how do you approach drawing faces ofreal-life figures (rather than fictional characters)?

Thank you so much! I’ve always loved drawingportraits. When it came to capturing their likeness, I started by gathering asmany photo references as possible. For some historical figures, like Mary Tapeor Tye Leung Schulze, only one or two photos existed, so I also researched thefashion and hairstyles of their era to help bring their portraits to life. Thatway, if I couldn’t perfectly capture their likeness, I could at least capturethe essence of the time they lived in.

As for my drawing process, I usually startwith the nose or eyes and work my way outward. I also made a deliberate choiceto have each woman look directly at the reader—as if they were inviting them tohear their story firsthand. I wanted their gaze to hold the reader’s attention,making their presence feel as powerful on the page as it was in real life.

How did you approach writing life stories for young audiences? Howdid you boil it down to a page?

 

I think my writing voice is naturally tuned to younger audiences.I love talking to kids. They have the best questions and insights they ask thebest questions, and their insights are often profound in ways adults don’texpect. Since their vocabulary is still growing, they get really creative withhow they express themselves, which I find inspiring.

 

I also have a 10-year-old daughter whoprefers hearing me tell stories rather than reading them herself. So, I wroteas if I were speaking directly to her—almost like writing letters. I focused onthe key moments that would resonate most with kids—bravery, resilience, and thepower of community—framing them in a way that would help young readers navigatetheir own lives. And I made sure to use accessible language, because there’snothing more frustrating than coming across a word you don’t know, asking agrown up, and being handed a dictionary instead of an answer. (Speaking frompersonal experience! Haha)

 

I love the phrase you included in the opening pages: the purposeof history is to nurture personal identity. Can you speak to that a bithere? 

Sure. As an adult, I’ve come to understand that learninghistory allows us to see ourselves as part of a much bigger story. It connectsus to the past, helps us recognize patterns, and shows us how we can contributeto progress.

But when I was growing up? I hated history!Honestly, I hated learning anything that didn’t feel relevant to my life. I wasan inquisitive kid, and some of my teachers never took the time to explain whyit mattered to know things like what river George Washington crossed. Theiranswers were always some version of, “You need to know this to pass the class.”That wasn’t enough for me.

Now, if a teacher had told me that historyhelps nurture our identity—if they had introduced me to someone like Patsy Minkand explained how she kept getting rejected, how she was told she couldn’t be adoctor or a lawyer because she was a woman of color, and how she decided tochange the system by becoming a congresswoman—that would have stuck! That wouldhave been meaningful to a kid like me, still trying to figure out where I fitand how I wanted to be seen.

Learning about these incredible women as Iwrote this book has actually inspired me to revisit history with fresh eyes.Now I can see that Washington crossing the Delaware wasn’t just aboutmemorizing a fact—it’s a story of risk, bravery, and believing in your ownvision. That’s something any kid (or adult!) can relate to.

What’s next? 

Ah, what IS next? Well, I’ve got afew illustration projects in the works that I can’t wait to share when it’sready.

I’m also writing a lot more now. Many of mycurrent projects are inspired by personal experiences and the stories my Lolaused to tell me. Whatever comes next, my goal is always to grow—push myself alittle further, stay curious, and I always try to avoid complacency.

Where can we find you?

You can find me on my website: www.ninamata.com.

I’m most active on Instagram @ninamataart,

and I try to update my Substack:niamata.substack.com (I’ll get better at it eventually!).

I also post occasionally on Bluesky: @ninamataart.bsky.social.

 

 

Thankyou so much for having me!

Snag your own copy of Girls to the Front!

Book Review: THE TONTINE CAPER

Today I am pleased to share a fun-filled new book written by Dianne K Salerni called THE TONTINE CAPER. I have to admit that before I read this funny and engaging story, I had never heard of a tontine. For those of us who are in the dark regarding this term:

Tontine: A fund through which a group of people contribute with the benefits accruing to the last survivor, or to those surviving after a specified time. 

 With that in mind, Here's my review for this delightful book.

 

 

THE TONTINE CAPER by Dianne K Salerni

I always learn something new when I pick up a book by DianneK Salerni. In this case, I discovered what a tontine was. Many of you out theremay be familiar with the money scheme, but I was not.  Told with wit and humor, this escape to thePocono mountains in PA in the early 20th Century has a delightfulsurprise in every chapter. 

The players gather at the Precipice Inn for what issupposed to be a chance to cash in on the tontine fortune. But nothing is as itseems. In this fast-paced madcap story of money, mayhem, and deception, readerslearn not to trust first impressions. Or even believing what is seen with ourown eyes. Back matter includes a choose-your-own-tontine adventure kids willenjoy.

A delightful escape back in time. 

Darlene Beck Jacobson has never been part of a tontine or any other kind of money scheme. But she does enjoy a good caper.

So Bright, It Fades

It's as if this month’s word, overexposure, has actually exposed one way to explain how ideas come to me. A box like this, for example, was central to my dream last month. I was prodded to step forward and open it, but every step came with with increasing trepidation. I woke up before I was able to see inside, but in those next moments I was filled with a compulsion to explore that idea: what was in the mystery box, and why would it generate such apprehension? I needed to make that a driving factor in some new story. 

Immediately, I closed my eyes to revisit the dream. What came before? Anything after? There was more to the dream, wasn't there? Something that could shed light on this nascent story, right? But the harder I tried to look into my dream, the brighter, the filmier, the move overexposed it appeared.  No! I couldn't let it fade into oblivion.
Time for panic? Definitely not. As often happens with me and new ideas, I was trying too hard to shed light on the box. I needed to step back, allow the mind picture to take on shadows of nuance. Allow details to materialize. Allow other people to enter the scene. And like... that!—(well, not like that, but over a few weeks)—the story began to write itself.
Jody Feldman (The Gollywhopper Games), now has a 30 pages of notes about the box, the main characters, their families, and a very fun setting. Now, she just needs to see if it will all come together. Stay tuned!