Kristy Dempsey's Blog, page 5

Looking Back 2010

I'm loving all these retrospectives and it's made me go back and think about this past year in my life. I tend not to do that. Think back. It makes me see all the missed opportunities or times when I could have accomplished more, if I'd just done it. But this was a big year in our lives and when I look back, I'm willing to give myself a little grace and also, I'm really really proud of and grateful for some of the things that were accomplished.  

January

January was spent in a blur of emotion. We were still in the US for what was supposed to be a six month sabbatical. Then my 41 year old husband had a heart attack three days before the beginning of 2010 and we were spinning with shock almost through the whole month. I did several school visits to share ME WITH YOU at schools, a couple of poetry workshops, and took a four day trip to NYC with one of my dearest friends in the world  annemariepace  . We met with editors, saw our agents, and ate some really great food. It was renewing. 

February

More school author visits, family visits, doctor's appointments, kids basketball practices and games, and homework. I do not remember writing in February. 

March
Had hand surgery. Made significant strides on my middle grade novel thanks to the encouragement of writing friends.

April
School visits, coffee with writing friends, continued working on novel (slowly) and took a trip to NYC with my hubby for a church conference. Saw WICKED and had a backstage tour. Ate with Bobby Flay. Took long walks in Central Park. Renewed again.

May
School visits, family visits, NE SCBWI Spring Conference in MA. Flew to Vermont, rode down with  lurban  . Remembered (through many conversations with Linda) why I wanted to write a novel. Felt filled up to overflowing. 

June
Had gallbladder surgery. Applied for a job teaching at the American School in Belo Horizonte in order to have a way to provide for our kids' education once we returned to Brazil. Moved back to Brazil. 

July
Got the job, began working as the Librarian and Creative Writing Teacher at The American School of Belo Horizonte. Feel right at home.

August/September
Writing Lesson plans, settling into working full-time, helping my children adjust to a new school. Overwhelmed, a bit.

October
Husband in America for three weeks. Buckle down and tell myself if I don't finish the novel I never will. Finished the novel. Promptly decided a whole thread would need to be removed when I revise it.

November
Quick weekend trip to America for dear friend's wedding. Began to research Masters programs related to Reading and Writing Instruction. Hosted a massively wonderful Thanksgiving Day lunch with 39 people. Ate too much. 

December

Sang at a wedding. Entered school break. Created a book trailer for my forthcoming picture book, MINI RACER. Realized I had a small window of opportunity to revise my novel. Began revising. Cut 5,000 words. Added 2,000 new ones. Continuing to revise. Will spend New Year's Day (or part of it) writing. Go back to work on January 3rd. Doubt I'll be finished revising by then but will do as much as I possibly can. 

Here's to 2011. I welcome you with hopeful arms. 

National Book Award

 Kathryn Erskine received the National Book Award for Young People's Literature last night for MOCKINGBIRD! 

This week's gem

Elementary school K, speaking as if he were letting me in on a "secret":
 
Ms. Kristy, did you know that you are a "fake blonde"?  Because I can see the darker places at the top of your head. 

Putting aside that even with highlights no one would consider me a "blonde," I pretended to have no idea what he was talking about. :)
  

Congratulations, Kathy!

I'm so happy for dear Kathy Erskine, author of MOCKINGBIRD, and newly announced National Book Award Finalist. Such a deserved recognition for this fabulous book!

Storytelling (a late Poetry Friday post)

Most of you know I have been working at an international school as the creative writing teacher and the librarian. Although it's been pretty much a perfect fit for me, so much about this job has caused me to stretch in my abilities. I do not consider myself a performer (those of you who remember me from middle and high school are laughing now, because you think of me as a drama queen) but in this job I have had to revert back to some long dormant skills of performing and entertaining. 

I have not enjoyed it. 

To be clear, it is only *that* part of the job that I haven't enjoyed. I've loved the rest, but having to perform and entertain makes me insecure and it makes me realize how much I rely on external affirmation. And it's sort of kinda a terrible thing to feel like you're relying on others' approval. And yet, I want to do a good job, so it's a catch-22. 

This past Friday, for our Children's Day celebration at school, I had to dress up as a character (cowgirl for the younger set, spooky witch for the older set) and tell stories for 15 minutes to each group. I was terrified. It is one thing to hold a book and sit in a circle and tell a story to children. It is entirely another to perform those stories for them. I barely ate anything at lunch because I was afraid I'd throw up. 

Thankfully, it went very well, though I'm not sure I'll feel any better the next time I have to do it. (I'm still hoping there won't be a next time!)

I spent some time this morning trying to put what I felt into poetry, my favorite way of reflecting:


Telling Stories

I told stories the other day
to children sitting patiently on blue
carpet, waiting to be entertained, wanting
me to mesmerize them. God, what pressure, I
thought and wished it were all over with –

the storytelling, not life in general, though at that moment
I wasn’t feeling picky.

I spoke of ghosts and ghouls,
cowboys, robbers and chickens, hoping the
children would laugh their wise little belly
laughs and their eyes would shine effortless.
God, I thought, I MUST be good, for children
are not easily lied to, their wide-eyed
innocence runs deep with doubt.
The crinkles in their noses say, Prove
yourself to me. Make me believe your silly
little words.

And so I spoke my silly little words, telling
tall tales as if they were truth, magicking
my own doubts into belief, trickstering
insecurity through bravado. And it worked.
The children laughed until it was all over with –

at the stories thankfully, not at me, though at that moment
I wasn’t feeling picky.

-- Kristy Dempsey (2010, all rights reserved)

Speak Loudly

I'm joining the chorus by singing the same verse others have sung before me, because they said it as well or better than I ever could. I am a sincere fallible Christian, a sometimes-doubting-Thomas who on my best days struggles to articulate this faith that redeems this life for me and on my worst days wishes I could knock some ranting, raving blockhead-in-the-sand who claims to be a Christian off his soapbox. 

If you haven't heard yet, Wesley Scroggins, a college professor in Missouri, has called for SPEAK to be banned. SPEAK is an honest raw novel full of Truth and Story that depicts a character who chooses not to speak after she is raped. She keeps quiet about what happened to her.

I need to be careful. I don't want to imply that I believe Mr. Scroggins is not the Christian he claims he is. It's not my judgement to make. And if Mr. Scroggins sincerely feels led by God and His word to make this call for banning, who am I to stand in his way? BUT I would caution him that a million and one misguided, perverted and abusive things have been done in the name of God. Are those abusive things done in the name of God reason enough for me to abandon my sincere desire to follow God and His word? Do those abusive acts done in the name of religion actually glorify God or my faith, just because someone says their intent was to glorify God? No they do not, just as a book portraying an abusive act of rape does not glorify sex just because someone says it does.

Frankly it's perverted thinking to even imply that a depiction of rape glorifies sex.

 We cannot be motivated to action by what we have fashioned as truth in our minds. We cannot create God in our own image. We cannot hide Truth. We have to Speak. Loudly. And we have to Love even more Loudly. Because rape happens. Abuse happens. And Jesus would not have been ranting and raving about the sex. He would have quietly had his arm around a hurting girl, showing her True Love and Acceptance in the face of her shame and insecurity. (In fact, he DID just that in John 4:7-24 for the Woman at the Well.)

My favorite quote from the posts I've read so far on this subject comes from Veronica Roth:

"Do you want your kids to understand just how beautiful the grace of God is? Then they have to understand how crappy the world is. It's not just 'a good idea.' It's necessary."

Visual and Verbal

 I keep a commonplace book/journal that holds thoughts, quotes and the occasional drawing. 

(Stop laughing, those of you who know I cannot draw a straight line.) (Seriously. I mean it. You're distracting me from telling my story.)

Anyway, I've been trying to paint, just to stretch myself, and for each thing I paint I write a poem. Again, a disclaimer. I am not an artist. But something about taking time to focus on something long enough to paint it lights my desire to use words to describe it. So I'm stretching myself. It's good for me. (It might be good for you, too, this mix of the visual and the verbal?)

I like the way things with words turn out better than the things with paint. But I keep on. And I wanted to share with you the most recent entry. Here is the painting:

Here is the poem:

Do spotted hens
lay speckled eggs
that nest between
their spindly legs?

And do those chicks
have spots that match
the speckled eggs
from which they hatch?

And do their moms,
those spotted hens,
grow dizzy when
a hatch begins

and spots begin
to blur and mix
into a bunch
of scrambled chicks?

--Kristy Dempsey (all rights reserved)


In other news, I am loving my job as a librarian and creative writing teacher and feel like I am reaching in all the ways I need to. But I'd love to know how you all feel you're stretching too. I need to be reminded I'm not in this yoga class alone. :)

Things that make my days

1. After helping cute little 3rd grader find the book he was looking for (on fashion, no less, of which we only had a few and the only promising one was more on costume design than fashion), he came back up to me and said, "Miss? I really do not wish to make you a crazy person, but this book? It is not quite my favorite."   Oh dear L, you do not make me a crazy person. I hope to find a wonderful book on fashion design for you soon.

2. Finding sci-fi books for 10th grade sci-fi fan. Oh how I can think of so many new books we don't have that I know he'd love. It makes me want to spend my own money to buy new books for the school. Which I can't do right now.

3. Snack time. I love snack time. We have good snacks at our school. For free. Things like homemade cheesebread. Ham and cheese croissants. Yummy natural sandwiches with whole wheat bread and lettuce and tomatoes and fancy cheeses. The kids have two snacks and lunch a day. I just take the first snack and lunch. Yum. I am spoiled.

4. My 12th grade and 9th grade creative writing classes. This year is going to change their lives. And mine. 

Huh? What? Wait. My head is spinning with the dizziness.

Yes, I know it's been too long since I posted. Just be glad this isn't Smell-o-vision. I haven't showered since exercise. But I'm really just popping in to say hi and to say I am loving my librarian/ creative writing teacher job. So many books still to log into the system but school is in full swing now. It will happen as it can. 

Writing? Do I have to answer that? Okay. I'm writing. Writing a little. But a little is more than none, right? It will all add up eventually. Right?

Sofa Rules

We have just recovered our sofas. Or rather, we've PAID someone to reupholster and reinforce sofas we bought seven years ago brand new. Seven years? Do your sofas wear out that often? We have three children, and during that time have had two different pets, so it's entirely possible that we are quite hard on our sofas. We also live in a city of four million people with no central heat or air, so the windows are often open, which leads to pollution and dust, which leads to a layer of black dust on just about everything. We'd also been fairly lax in our enforcement of any kind of no-eating-the-vicinity rules. Oh, there were rules. We were just lax. 

So all that to say, now that the sofas are freshly reupholstered, NEW RULES. And my funny-bunny husband typed them up for us and has them ready for all of us to sign. Here, for your amusement:

Sofa Rules


To show our respect and honor to God for what He has given us and to value not His gifts but to value Him we will abide by the “sofa rules” and understand that there will be consequences and punishment for any choice to violate said rules.

Rules:

· No feet on the sofa (attached or un-attached; actually, especially un-attached)


· No jumping on the sofa of any form (jumping up and down, flying through the air to land on it, double-twist lay out triple helix back flips, etc.)


· No food or drinks on the sofa. (I’m referring to pre-digested food but now that I think about it I am declaring the sofa a “no-hurl” zone.)


· No fighting or wrestling on the sofa (with the possible exception of some low-impact thumb wrestling)


· No pens, pencils or crayons or paint on the sofa. (this rules out any planned paint-ball wars that might ever exist in the apartment)


· No un-humanoids on the sofa (this would primarily refer to any future pets that we might have but also could refer to future ET friends or lower life-form boyfriends)


· No sharp instruments on the sofa (primarily pencils, scissors, screwdrivers or knives but also would include swords, battle-axes, machetes, or spears)



“I understand these rules and will hereby agree to them, seek to abide by them and acknowledge that any failure to do so will result in punitive actions being taken that might be unpleasant and undesirable to my person.”


Signed:_______________________________________________________________________________


Signed:_______________________________________________________________________________


Signed:_______________________________________________________________________________


Signed:_______________________________________________________________________________


Signed:_______________________________________________________________________________