Caroline Bock's Blog: Caroline Anna Bock Writes, page 9

Join! YA READS FOR TEACHERS (And Other Adults) reading and discussing BEFORE MY EYES online at Goodreads...Learn more here...

You are invited to a virtual month-long discussion
of BEFORE MY EYES with author Caroline Bock!
Date: March, 2014
Venue: YA Reads for Teachers (And Any
Other Adults!) On line at GOODREADS
Location: The United States
Description:Here is the Goodreads book summary of BEFORE MY EYES:From the author of LIE, a powerful new
young adult novel about a fateful Long Island summer and the lives of three
young people who will never be the same...  REVIEWS: "GRIPPING..." -Publishers
Weekly "GRIPPING, DISTURBING AND
NUANCED." -Kirkus Reviews "Every one of Bock's fragile
characters hides an unflinching inner backbone of steel. Impassioned and
moving." - Elizabeth Wein, bestselling author of Code Name Verity and Rose
Under Fire.  Take some time to poke around Caroline's
web page and her blog.
 The link for the discussion has already
been posted -- we hope you stop by! https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...   Message from Rory M., moderator of the goodreads group, YA For Teachers (and Other Adults): 
I'm thrilled to
have Caroline Bock as our guest this month! Let us know if we should expect you
on the discussion thread -- it is a book that will haunt you!
...and I hope you can join too....Caroline

"UNFLINCHING THRILLER"...BOOKPAGES REVIEW!

BEFORE MY EYES
The starting shot
BookPage® Review by Angela Leeper

In the opening scene of unflinching thriller Before My Eyes—reminiscent of the shooting at Gabby Giffords’ political rally in 2011—a gunman pulls out a weapon at a Labor Day campaign rally for New York state senator Glenn Cooper. Who is the target? What is the motive? And how will the crowd react to and fare the tragedy? To answer these questions, author Caroline Bock takes readers back to the Friday that kicks off this holiday weekend on Long Island and the events that lead up to the gunman’s appearance.
Three young adults give varying perspectives in distinct voices. While all of his varsity soccer buddies have had cushy summer jobs and plenty of free time to party on the beach, Max, Glenn Cooper’s son, has had to keep up appearances as a “common man’s” son, taking ice cream orders at the beach snack shack. In the less affluent part of town, Claire has been babysitting her sister and writing poetry while her mother recovers from a stroke and her father figures out how to pay for the rehab center. Barkley, who has stopped bathing and started hearing voices, has become concerned with the environment and demands answers from Glenn Cooper, even if it means using a gun to get them.
When these three young adults inadvertently become involved with each other Bock shows just how intertwined yet overlooked human connections can be. As the hour of the shooting approaches, the pace quickens as each character’s strengths and weaknesses are revealed. The thought-provoking story broaches such topics as recognizing signs of mental illness, caring for the mentally ill, gun control and the difficulties of each. While Bock doesn’t provide answers, she offers a rich opportunity to start a dialogue on these issues that continue to plague America.
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Caroline Bock is the author of BEFORE MY EYES, her second young adult novel. BEFORE MY EYES is appropriate for mature teens ages 14 and above and adults of all ages. For more go to: www.carolinebock.com.

Before My Eyes

PUBLICATION DAY for BEFORE MY EYES....dedicated to novelists everywhere

PUBLICATION DAY for BEFORE MY EYES
A poem dedicated to novelists everywhere 
Another ordinary day—The sun will rise across the fields.The cold will parse the light,on par for February. My son will forget to zip or buttonAnd I’ll remind him, adding: ‘Put on a hat,’like my father always said to mewhen it was cold or hot.I’ll hear my father’s gruffand it will make me happy in a waythat when he was alive it never did.The teapot will shrill and I’ll hurry it off the stove top, hushing the boiling water.I’ll press my mug, with specks of tea
and milk and honey to my cheek, wondering what to makefor supper, and how I should get to work today writing—I don’t know what.I’ll spot black birds pecking at the ice-patched fields, the school bus ruffling aroundthe bend, and my son loping down the hill to the bus stop, andit will be an ordinary day except for the rushthat every novelist should feelat least once in their lives: today my book will be published.-- Caroline Bock 2.11.14, Look for BEFORE MY EYES everywhere books/ebooks are--starting today.

A POEM for NOVELISTS... PUBLICATION DAY

PUBLICATION DAY
A poem dedicated to novelists everywhere

Another ordinary day—
The sun will rise across the fields.
The cold will parse the light,
on par for February.
My son will forget to zip or button
And I’ll remind him, adding:
‘Put on a hat,’
like my father always said to me
when it was cold or hot.
I’ll hear my father’s gruff
and it will make me happy in a way
that when he was alive it never did.
The teapot will shrill and
I’ll hurry it off the stove top,
hushing the boiling water.
I’ll press my mug,
with specks of tea
and milk and honey to my cheek,
wondering what to make
for supper, and how I should
get to work today writing—
I don’t know what.
I’ll spot black birds
pecking at the ice-patched fields,
the school bus ruffling around
the bend, and my son loping
down the hill to the bus stop, and
it will be an ordinary day except
for the rush
that every novelist should feel
at least once in their lives:
today my book will be published.
-- Caroline Bock 2.11.14,
Look for BEFORE MY EYES everywhere books/ebooks are-- starting today.

WIN A SIGNED FIRST EDITION OF BEFORE MY EYES on GOODREADS

To celebrate the publication of BEFORE MY EYES, my new young adult novel, I am giving away one SIGNED FIRST EDITION via GOODREADS.
Enter to win today!

Deadline is 12 midnight on Tuesday, February 11,the day BEFORE MY EYES is available everywhere books and ebooks are.
"Today I am a lens, a pen, a gun..." BEFORE MY EYES opening paragraph.
Read on!  Caroline

CHARACTER, Do You Have It? Writing Tips and Excercises for Creating Characters

“ In all major genres, vivid detail is the life blood of
fiction…the reader is regularly presented with the proofs—in the form of
closely observed details – that is what is said to be happening is really
happening.” - John Gardener, The Art of Fiction  


“ When people ask me the
personal-experience question, my response is that I write from my personal
experiences, whether I’ve had them or not…I treat it personally; if it is not
personal, I don’t want to be involved. If it is solely intellectual, some
concept of puzzle I’m tempted by, I will explore it until I find the personal
element and something sparks. Having a feeling for my material means sending
myself on each journey, whether I’ve actually been there or not, and it
involves the powerful act of the imagination that good writing requires:
empathy.” – Ron Carlson, Ron Carlson
Writes A Story
I was recently asked to do a professional workshop for middle school teachers. I had never done one before--and so I was told to teach what I know. My first young adult novel, LIE, had ten distinct point of view characters; my upcoming novel, BEFORE MY EYES , has three. I've spent a lot of time figuring out to write compelling, realistic characters. But the older I get, the less I know, particularly about writing. Or, I've discovered how much I still need to learn. One thing I've spent a lot of time is developing characters. I feel like I've spent my whole life observing people but as a writer I've worked at looking, thinking, reflecting, dreaming about the characters I've writing.
Still, I'm a student of writing. So for this workshop, I read a book that an on line group recommended to me from a master teacher -- Ron Carlson. And I re-read a book that my first writing master, Raymond Carver, suggested that I read: The Art of Fiction.   Here are two character-writing exercises,inspired by Ron Carlson Writes a Story
and The Art of Fiction:
1) Take a simple act, say unbuttoning a shirt, pulling on a
sock, pouring a cup of  milk, and write it in slow motion, on that is,
give it two hundred words. Don’t automatically lapse into hyperbole (and
thereby the comic), but think of the effect: make it matter-of-fact, sinister,
gross, full of touch, feel, sight, and smell. Go from a wide lens on the room to a close up on the details. Let the details show you the emotion of the moment.   2) Write two hundred words on a character entering a space
(a car, a classroom, a kitchen, a backyard, etc). Inventory all the sense of
the space as she moves toward the one thing that she desperately wants in that
space. Take your time and describe in detail what the character sees, hears,
smells, senses and knows – and doesn’t know—about the surroundings.                                                                3.  Bonus – Revise one of the above into a
“flash” short story of 500 words. Delve deeper into the character with dialogue
or more details on setting, other characters, and conflict. Read your story out
loud to yourself before finalizing the work. Ask yourself: have you created a
fictional dream or movie in the reader’s mind?Have I created it in my own?
And keep writing! And reading... look for my new novel: BEFORE MY EYES, the story of three fragile young adults at the end of a long, hot summer, from St. Martin's Press in February, 2014! -- Caroline
 

Six random things you don’t know about me…

Six random things you don’t know about me… 
-I can’t stand coffee, the taste or the smell. (I drink lots of tea!).
 
-I’m afraid of Ferris wheels and apartments on high floors
with lots of windows (that’s why I always lived in brownstones in Manhattan). 
-The summer after I graduated high school, I biked from
Hyannis to Provincetown and via ferry onto Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard with
my brother Mark, still one of the best trips of my life. 
-I hiked the High Peaks in the Adirondacks and climbed Mt.
Marcy and Haystack among a dozen other mountains and had my first kiss in a pup
tent with Howard from Brooklyn. I was fourteen and on a three-week backpacking
trip with the American Youth Hostels.
 
-I miss my dad, who passed away last October, every day. He
brought four kids on camping trips every summer. He made a great kugel. He gave
us the world and all the love in it.  
-In Mrs. Murano’s class third grade class at George M. Davis Elementary school in New Rochelle, I wrote my first poem,
and I can recite it to this day: In the woods/where there are tall. towering
trees/tiny. timid animals/rigid, rustling leaves/I stand there/just me.

And one thing I hope you do know... I have a new novel coming out in February! Look for BEFORE MY EYES from St. Martin's Press everywhere books and ebooks are sold!

....Caroline
 
 

20 Answers to the Question: So, What Does a Writer Do, Mom?

My son, who is in middle-school, had to interview someone in the family on his or her profession, so after much debate he interviewed me, his mom, on her second-career adventure as a writer. I would highly recommend this as an exercise for any mother and son because it gave us a chance to talk about me rather than him, though in the process we talked about him too-- about how you get from middle school to anywhere else in this world, which I didn't realize seemed to him an improbable journey. We discussed his aspirations, his dreams, his desire to do big and good things in the world. But since this was an interview with me, here are the answers to the 20-questions he asked about my career -- from the answers you can imagine the questions, or not:  

1.    
My mom is a writer.
2.    
 Her
responsibility is to write at least 5 days a week and to complete edits in the
time designated by her editor.
3.    
She works in my house.
4.    
 She
works indoors.
5.    
She works in an office crowded with papers,
books and notes.  She does a lot of
research on the internet and in the library, and even, travels to locations she
is writing about in her work.
6.    
She loves to read. Sometimes she reads more than
one book at a time. I don’t know how she does this but she makes me go to the
library with her so I can testify to the fact that she read a lot.
7.    
 She
believes that the more she writes the better she becomes as a writer.
8.    
There are no requirements for this job. However,
my mother has a B.S. in English and Communications, worked for twenty years in
cable television, and recently completed her Master of Fine Arts in Fiction
Writing.
9.    
 No,
there is no special clothing.
10.    Normally,
she works 25-30 hours a week depending on deadlines. When she is finishing a
novel, she works all the time and forgets to make us dinner.
11. It’s
a year-round job.
12.  Both
men and women write.
13.  It
can be done anywhere.
14.  My
mother has a high satisfaction in her job.
15.  No,
she’s self-employed. 
16.  No,
because she’s self-employed.
17. She believes you need life experience to write fiction, a love of
novels, and a good command of grammar.  
18.  Yes, she wanted to write since third
grade.
19.  She doesn’t particularly like
semi-colons. She calls them the bastards of grammar. She says it is okay for a
writer to use all kinds of words including “bastards” when writing.
20.  No, she’s self-employed.
Interview conducted by Michael Bock
for a middle school class project.
His mother, Caroline Bock, has a
new novel –BEFORE MY EYES– to be published by St. Martin’s Press on 2.11.14.
More at www.carolinebock.com 
           

Literary Crushes and More As We Sing Auld Lange Synge (Does Anyone on the Planet Know All The Words To This Song?)

This is the time of year to look back, a writer’s dilemma.
It seems like I am always mulling on memories, lingering over
scenes half-remembered, reconstructed as fiction. But as 2013 ends, this is a
happy look back at my literary highlights of the year, as I prepare to pop the champagne and get ready to
sing “Auld Lange Synge" (does anyone on the planet know all the words to this song?!): 
 
Cheers! to My Literary Crush of the Year:Alice McDermott from That Night to Charming Billy and now on
to Someone . I’ve read everyone of her novels and I think Someone is one of her
best – it travels down some of the same streets as the one before – Brooklyn,
Long Island’s South Shore, a young girl looking into her neighbor’s world and
then into her own, an Irish-American girl trying to make sense of the
ordinariness of life. I loved Someone.  
Cheers! To Best Literary Find in My New City – The District of
Columbia: Politics and Prose independent bookstore I met my literary crush Alice McDermott here hand selling
books on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I also attended readings by Edwidge
Danticat and Elizabeth Wein 9also author of the best YOUNG ADULT novels that I read this year CODE NAME VERITY and its sequel: ROSE UNDER FIRE). Best of all, I found a new home to buy books, discuss books, breathe books. 
And cheers to: The Best Books I read with my book club:I love being part of a book club! We read many good books
this year – but I loved the Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaughand Wonder by RJ Palacio and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green -- yes, our book club of women of a certain age love to read young adult novels -- and these two stories made us cheer and cry.  
Best Poetry Find:Melissa Broder –I took an amazing class with her: Grand Theft Poetry and
realized that poetry can be found, stolen, nourished in many places. 
Best Self-Published Book: Tales of a Hungry Life: A Memoir with Recipe s by Maria
Schulz  -- rollicking tales of a
large Italian-Puerto Rican family in Queens – and the recipes are delicious! 
Best Indie Book:Recommended by the imitable workshop leader (at another best
new find: B ethesda Writer's Center ) Mark Cugini : Crapalachia by Scott
McClanahan—“a biography of place” a very peculiar place in Appalachia and the
people there, written in vivid short scenes. 
Favorite “classic” book re-read:
 The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten – read for research, with
naches for the language, which as a kid my father sprinkled around our dining room table. Oy!
Best Movie Based on a Novel:CATCHING FIRE based on Suzanne Collins Hunger Games series, as if you didn't know. But best new addition to the cast: Phillip Seymour Hoffman. This December, the movie just crossed 700 million in box office world wide. May the odds be forever in their favor!
Best Television Series Based On a Novel: House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey and awesome Robin Wright - is based on the novel by same name by Michael Dobbs (interesting a British writer and politician). I am currently binge-watching for the holidays on Netflix!  
So farewell to 2013, I am already looking ahead to 2014 – in
February, look for the publication of my second novel: BEFORE MY EYES (St.
Martin’s Press) on 2.11.14.   I will
not forget old friends…...For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne...
Much more in 2014!! Caroline

LOOK: BEFORE YOUR EYES - Check out the news on my updated website

A snowy blustering day--darkening, storming skies-- all said, a perfect day to work on updating my website. Check it out! www.carolinebock.com.