Dee Garretson's Blog, page 12

Book Covers – Middle Grade Readers' Picks

Over the past month I've spoken to about 350 middle graders (4th-6th grade), giving a talk called 'Can you judge a book by its cover?' I came up with the idea partly because I didn't want to spend 45 minutes talking about myself, and partly because over the past year I've learned how many authors stress over their covers. It is one of the aspects of publishing that is out of most authors' control, yet we all know a good cover and a good title can be critical to sales.

It has been fascinating to see the responses to my talks. I show the students 10-12 book covers of great books for middle grade, enlarged to almost poster size, and have them choose what they think they would like to read based just on the covers. I chose recently released books because I wanted those they were unlikely to have read yet or had even heard about. After they have chosen, I tell them a little of what the books are about, and ask if any have changed their minds. Luckily many do or my talk would be a failure!

This wasn't a scientific study by any means, but I wanted to post my observations. While the gender division has kicked in somewhat by middle grade, it has been less than I expected. I wasn't surprised to discover no boy selected an obvious 'girl' book as his first choice, but I was somewhat surprised by the negative reaction of most girls to overly girly covers. A few had them as their top choices, but most did not put them in their top three. I was happy to learn that these girls had moved beyond the pink aisle in toy stores.

I know nothing about the cover design process, but I used to teach design principles to my landscape design students, talking about the whole concept of negative and positive space, the idea that less may be more and so on. I'm not sure any of that influences a middle grader.

Here's the top two choices by both boys and girls based just on the covers:

It's obvious that having the image of at least one boy and one girl on these covers has influenced the selection of these, but the students also commented on how they liked the complexity of the covers. They didn't use the word complexity, but that's what they meant when they talked about how they liked all the 'stuff'.

The cover I most liked and thought had a great design was popular with boys, but did not move up the girls' list until I mentioned there was an important girl character in the book. After I told them, many asked me why she wasn't on the cover.

It's been quite a learning experience to do these talks, and to hear the students' opinions on what they like and don't like. I know now from talking to teachers and librarians how hard they work to expand kids' reading choices, and how a great cover would help them do that.

Signed Bookplates for Wildfire Run

One of the many careers I contemplated when I was in school was that of a graphic artist. I decided against it, but have always loved art and design, so I decided to try my hand at attempting some art for bookplates. As you can tell, it's not the art of a professional, but I had a great time working on it. If anyone would like a signed bookplate (and you are thirteen or older), just email me your address at deegarretson at gmail.com. If you are under thirteen, please ask a parent or other adult to email me their address.

Wildfire at Camp David is actually Wildfire Run

Just a quick post here to clear up confusion. Wildfire Run has received three reviews under the old title, Wildfire at Camp David. The reviews were published in the print editions of Kirkus, School Library Journal and Booklist. They are being corrected in the online editions, but the print editions remain. I'm putting this out there in hopes that any Google searches for the old name will bring up this post, so that potential readers can find the book.

Learning to love query letter writing – Practice with FRANKENSTEIN

Most writers loathe writing query letters, and I did too, until I learned how to concentrate on distilling the important parts of the story I was describing. It's hard to judge your own story with all the secondary characters and subplots clamoring for attention, so I've found it helpful to practicing by writing queries based on classic books or movies. In honor of Halloween I decided to do a sample query based on Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN. Before I write any query, I answer some questions:

1. Who is the main character and what about him/her is interesting?

2. What does the main character want at the beginning of the story, and if it changes, what does he/she want later on?

3. Who is the antagonist, or what is preventing the main character from obtaining his/her wants?

4. What are the stakes if the main character fails at obtaining the goal?

Based on how I answered those questions for FRANKENSTEIN, here's the story part of the query:

Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant young scientist, is obsessed with discovering the secret of life.

He prowls the cemeteries and charnel houses of 18th century Bavaria, determined to unlock the mysteries of life and death. After years of work, he succeeds beyond all his expectations, managing to bring life to a creature made from body parts of the dead. The scientist's elation at his success is brief. It disappears the moment the creature opens its eyes and Victor realizes he has created a monster. Distraught at the horror of his creation, he unwittingly lets it escape into the night.

Tormented by the knowledge of the creature's existence, Victor dreads the reappearance of it in his life. He never imagines how terrible the return will be, until the monster murders Victor's brother. When Victor confronts the creature, it vows to kill all of the rest of the scientist's family and friends unless Victor creates another monstrosity, one that could be a companion to the monster in all its loneliness and misery.

Victor is faced with a choice-appease the monster by doing as it wishes, or follow his conscience and face the consequences of a creature set on revenge. When Victor chooses, the monster kills Victor's dearest companions, driving Victor on a hunt that takes him to the icy regions of the Arctic to find his creation so he can destroy it. The chase will end in the death of one or both.

(add closing thank you, etc., etc.)

Actually, both Victor and the monster die in the end in non-glorious ways. I suspect if this story were written today, Victor and the monster would engage in a hand-to-hand battle, the monster would fall into an ice crevasse, leaving Victor to believe the monster is dead. Since the ending should be open enough for a sequel, the monster wouldn't actually die. He'd merely be injured, so that in book two he could come back to take over the world with his army of polar bears angered by global warming.

Notice I didn't mention Victor's fiancée, Elizabeth, who is killed by the monster right after the wedding. Introducing her and the circumstances of her death would show there was a bit of romance in the book, but the complications in doing so would far outweigh the benefit of describing this subplot.

I also didn't mention how this story is told by Victor as he is on his deathbed on a ship trapped in the ice of the North Pole. Again, that would add way too many details. It's not the real setting of the story and it's not important for the purpose of a query letter.

It would be tempting to go into detail about the monster, but trying to explain an eloquent eight foot creature with black lips overwhelmed me, so I didn't attempt it, and I don't think the query needed it. I think I'll try DRACULA next. Another of my movie/book sample queries can be found here:

Halloween Costumes – The Writer Look

I'm not sure why anyone would actually want to dress up as a writer, since those of us who write spend our time making up characters who are usually way more intersting (evil overlords, ninja squirrels, handsome genius rocket scientists with dimples, etc.), but just in case there's a need for costume ideas, I've put together a few.

Neil Gaiman look - black leather jacket, black shirt, black pants, nicely rumpled hair

The would like to be Neil Gaiman look but is poor - Black frayed hoodie, assorted black clothes, uncombed hair

The angstful artiste writer look – See Neil Gaiman look above, except hair needs to be slicked back.

The cat lady writer look – Comfortable, mismatched clothes, stuffed cats attached to both shoulders, cat, real or stuffed, to carry around for conversations about the cuteness of said cat.

The literary look - Draw a bookcase on a piece of posterboard, attach the posterboard to a tweedy jacket with elbow patches, wear glasses

The frustrated writer stuck in revisionland limbo – Ratty bathrobe stuck all over with post-it notes full of cryptic word combinations: "Ernest-skunk?" "bird blood-smells like?" "troll hair?"

I should admit in the interest of full disclosure, I've worn some of these looks when it wasn't Halloween. I'd love to see what others can come up with. Feel free to leave your own costume ideas.

How to Memorize the Presidents in Order, X-Men Style

It's very difficult, at least for me, to memorize the Presidents of the United States in order. I can remember many obscure facts about them, no problem. Calvin Coolidge had a donkey named Ebenezer. Bill Clinton loves crossword puzzles. That's not so useful. When I tried to look up how other people recommend memorizing the presidents, I usually found the advice to make a mnemonic using the first letters of their names. That would be great except for Tyler and Taylor, Polk and Pierce, Grant a...

Book Giveaway and Release Day!

To celebrate the release of WILDFIRE RUN, I'm giving away a copy over on the 'There's a Book' blog. If you'd like a chance to win, please stop by using the book giveaway link below and leave a comment. And thanks to Danielle to hosting!

book giveaway

Why I Need Libraries to Write Fiction

It's taken me some to time to write this in response to recent questioning of the need for libraries in what some call the age of the internet. After I read the story about the Chicago incident and picked up my jaw from the floor, I've been pondering exactly what role libraries and librarians play in my own job.

I write fiction, so some people assume I just make things up. Why would I need a library? Well, I do make things up, but I couldn't have written Wildfire Run without the fabulous...

Query Letters for Practice – The Wizard of Oz

In response to a tweetchat, I decided to post my two versions of query letters for the Wizard of Oz. Writing practice queries based on famous movies is a great way to learn the process, especially to focus on the main points. Notice the lack of mention of secondary characters here.

Effective queries focus on the main character, what he/she wants, who or what is standing in the way, and the stakes if the main character fails.

Twelve year old Dorothy Gale longs to travel over the rainbow to...

Just for fun – Two Wizard of Oz queries

In response to a tweetchat, I decided to post my two versions of query letters for the Wizard of Oz. Writing practice queries based on famous movies is a great way to learn the process, especially to focus on the main points. Notice the lack of mention of secondary characters here.

Twelve year old Dorothy Gale longs to travel over the rainbow to escape her drab life on a depression era Kansas farm, but when a tornado magically transports her to the land of Oz, she realizes life on the other...