Mindy Hardwick's Blog, page 39

Author Interview–Rita Monette

I’m very happy to have middle grade author, Rita Monette join us on the blog today!

Rita Monette was born and raised in Southwest Louisiana. After retiring from her “real” job as an administrative assistant for the State of Michigan, Rita began doing what she always wanted to do…write and paint. Five long years later, Musa Publishing offered her a contract for her debut middle grade novel, The Legend of Ghost Dog Island, which also includes her artwork. Her stories are set in the beautiful, yet mysterious, bayous and swamps of her home state. Rita now lives with her husband, four lap dogs, and one lap cat, in the mountains of Tennessee.

Rita keeps a great blog, TALES FROM THE BAYOU

Or you can visit her website

Join her FB page

Twitter: @ritamonette

 

Moving is nothing new for ten-year-old Nikki Landry. Her fisherman father relocates their raggedy old houseboat several times a year in search of better crabbing spots. However, their latest move has brought her to a mysterious bayou where she feels something is watching her from a nearby island.

Nikki learns of a local legend about something sinister inhabiting those swamps, stealing the souls of dogs…which would explain the strange howling sounds. Papa reassures her there’s nothing on the island but gators and snakes. He would know. He’s spent his whole life trapping and fishing those bayous and swamps. But Nikki and her new friends uncover strange happenings from years ago that may have started the old legend, and town folks aren’t talking. Then her beloved beagle goes missing.

 Join Nikki as she seeks to discover the real truth behind the legend of Ghost Dog Island…before it’s too late.

 

 

You can find the LEGEND OF GHOST DOG ISLAND at Musa Publishing:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

1.    Can you tell us a little bit about your middle grade book: LEGEND OF GHOST DOG ISLAND?

The Legend of Ghost Dog Island is about a young girl whose father is a “swamper.” Nikki’s lifestyle of moving from bayou to bayou in their ragged family houseboat and having to make new friends and start a new school several times a year has made her pretty tough. She’s up for most any type of challenge, especially when her beloved dog, her best friend, goes missing.

 

Besides the main plot of discovering the mystery on the swamp island, Nikki faces many obstacles that are common, even if in a different place and time, to most kids. She faces the consequence of being dishonest. She faces being bullied. She learns about the ups and downs of friendships, and what it takes to be a true friend. She learns to understand and respect her father’s and mother’s struggles. But I think most of all, she learns that no matter what you hear or see, you should always seek the truth.

 

2.      How did your childhood experiences play a part in your book?

 This book is historical in nature. It is based on my childhood, except I wasn’t as brave as the character that represents me. Nikki is much tougher, braver, and more adventurous.  Therefore, the many predicaments she encounters are a work of fiction.

 

3.      You keep a wonderful blog, TALES FROM THE BAYOU. Can you share a little bit about your blog? What is one of the most interesting posts you’ve written?

On my blog, I try to bring in a fellow writer on Sunday (Sunday dinner on the Bayou) where a visitor can learn about a new book and pick up a delicious recipe at the same time. Wednesdays are my Louisiana Tidbit days, where I post interesting facts about my home state, usually tied to my book in some way. The most interesting and the most visited post I did was about the bottle trees. (You can read that post here)

http://ritamonette.blogspot.com/2010/12/legend-of-bottle-tree.html

 That was a couple of years ago, and I still get several visits a day on that one. I learn so much doing research for these posts, such as the water moccasin, Spanish moss, and my latest, the nutria rat. All these are mentioned in my book as well.

 

4.      What did you find the most challenging about writing THE LEGEND OF GHOST DOG ISLAND?

The most challenging was keeping the suspense going. I could tell the story of my childhood, but that was sort of boring. I had the keep the characters on their toes, and move the story forward.

 

5.      What words of advice do you have for teen writers?

 Think like a kid and you will find your voice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Friday Writing Prompt

There has been a huge estate sale taking place near me the last couple weekends. Some of the items on sale this week include:

Vintage clothing, vintage fabric, hats, costume jewelry, vintage film projectors and speakers, vintage patterns, typewriters.

Here is a listing of more items and information about the sale if you live in the area.

WRITING PROMPT: Your character finds an item at this sale. What is it? What is the item’s history? Why is it important to the character? Does anyone else want the item? Is the item stolen from the character? What happens when the character brings the item home?

You can view a video of some of the items and pretend you are walking around the sale!

Teens’ Top Ten Books

YALSA has announced the nominations for the Top Ten Teen Books in 2013.   View the 2013 list of nominated titles (pdf). This is a great list to check out what are the current favorite books of teens. It’s also a good list to read from if you are writing for young adults and want to study the market.

The Teens’ Top Ten is a “teen choice” list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year! Nominators are members of teen book groups in sixteen school and public libraries around the country. Nominations are posted on Support Teen Literature Day, the Thursday of National Library Week, and teens across the country vote on their favorite titles each year. Readers ages twelve to eighteen will vote online in August and September; the winners will be announced during Teen Read Week.

You can meet the 2013 – 2014 Teens’ Top Ten book groups, who will choose the nominees for the next two years.

Random Facts About Me

I’ve spent the last two weeks doing author visits, and I’ve just been asked to talk to a group of high school kids about having a career as a writer.  I really love the author visits. They give me a chance to get inside different schools and do a little research. I check out what the kids are wearing, what they are talking about, and what they are reading.

In one of the schools, there was a small courtyard which could only be accessed by opening a window from the library. It was a nice, spring day, and a couple of the library TA’s, opened the window and climbed into out. I was fascinated by the courtyard and thought it would make a great scene for a mystery story.

One of the things I do at the visits is share ten facts about me. Here is my list from the last couple weeks:

 

Ten Facts About Me.

1.       As a high school Freshman, I was a wrestling cheerleader. My Mom made my skirt and I sat next to the mat and pounded out cheers. I only did this for one year, but I did like riding the bus with the wrestlers to the matches, and met one of my best high school guy friends on that bus.

2.       My favorite job has been working in the Games Department at Six Flags. I did this for two years and worked my way up to being an Assistant Foreman. To this day, I can still tell you how to win many of the amusement park games.

3.       Favorite books as a child: The Frances Picture books, Mandy and The Little Princess

4.       Favorite books in middle school: Dicey’s Song and Homecoming

5.       Favorite books in high school: Danielle Steele books

6.       Currently Working on: Kids in Orange: A Collection of Voices—This is a story about my experience working with kids in detention in the poetry workshop. It’s told through vignettes, poems, and flash pieces. I’ve been working on a post-graduate semester with Vermont College the last five months, and I am almost done with a good, solid draft of the story as well as the post-grad. The post-graduate semester gives me the credits I need to keep my teaching certification current in Washington State.

7.       Under a writing deadline for: A July 4th Story in the Elmheart Hotel Sweet, contemporary romance story series.  The story, Fireworks Forever,  is outlined and ready to be drafted. It needs to be turned into my publisher in a couple weeks. I’m not sure it will make the upcoming blog hop, but it will be available by July 4th!

8.       Waiting On: Response from an agent about my chapter book submission.

9.       Currently Reading: Shelter Mountain, book #2 in the Virgin River Contemporary romance series by Robynn Carr. I didn’t enjoy the first book, Virgin River, but the second one is going much better.

10.   Upcoming travel plans: I just booked my registration for the Fall RWA Georgia Moonlight and Magnolia Conference taking place in Atlanta in October. My sister is traveling with me and we’re going to Savannah for a few days after the conference. I cannot wait. Savannah has been on one of my to see places for years!

Markets for Young Adult

Happy Friday! Here are a couple markets for young adult writers:

Fable Press: Seeking speculative fiction for YA. Aliens, parallel universes, things that go bump in the night, Fable Press is on the hunt for speculative fiction! Submission guidelines here.

Spencer Hill Press is seeking both New Adult and Young Adult. The editor shares what types of New Adult stories she’d love to see in her inbox here, and if you think you’ve got the perfect love story featuring college-aged adults, you can submit your manuscript to Spencer Hill Contemporary here.

Harlequin Digital First is seeking Young Adult Novellas-Harlequin is opening a new line called Harlequin Digital First and is seeking YA romance novellas at 10,000 words or more. Stories will only be published digitally. To read all the guidelines including other categories they are seeking in the digital first imprint go here for submission guidelines.

The Celtic Hearts Romance Writers, a RWA special interest group focusing on all things Celtic romance, is now open to submissions for their Golden Claddagh Contest. The contest asks for partial manuscript submissions from a variety of genres (including YA). You do not have to be a member of RWA to submit to this contest. First prize is cash! Submissions close May 1. Read the guidelines

You do not need an agent for these submission opportunities.

Good luck!

I Am Poetry

April and May are busy months for school visits and author book signings. Last week, I visited with students at Homelink School in Lake Stevens, and this week I’ll be at Kamiakin Middle School talking to seventh graders. I’m also doing a book signing at a teen art night at the Schack Center. This is a FREE night for teens to make lots of really great art. I’ll be on hand to sign copies of WEAVING MAGIC and STAINED GLASS SUMMER. I’m also bringing along a couple of magnetic poetry kits to create a little poetry!

April is also National Poetry Month, so I try to tie in a poetry exercise when I visit with teens in April. However, one of the challenges in a school visit is I see one group of kids for an hour to an hour-in-a-half. After I finish sharing about my author journey and talking about the process of publishing (including cover art, and editing), I don’t usually have a lot of time left.

But I can usually squeeze in an I Am poem from Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge’s book, Poem Crazy.

The poetry writing exercise is called the I Am poem, but it’s not like traditional I Am poems which are often used in classrooms. This I Am exercise asks each writer a series of questions including:

If you were a color, what color would you be?

If you were at tree, what tree would you be?

If you were a shape, what shape would you be?

If you were a sound, what sound would you be?

If you were a movement, what movement would you be?

The writers make a list responding with the first word that comes to mind for each question. Then, they combine those words into a poem beginning each line with I Am. I always tell the writers, they do not have to use every word in their list as this can make the poem pretty murky!

This is a sample I Am poem one of the teens at Denney Juvenile Justice Center wrote. I often share this poem in the school workshops.

Teen Girl

I AM

 

 

I am a blue diamond spiral.

I am a Cadillac Escalade Infinity and beyond.

I am Skittles from the rainbow.

I am a blue berry tree with emotional pain.

I am a microphone from California.

I am a bed where thugs cry.

I am a pit bull who buzzes around town.

 

 Published in Call It Courage, August 2006.

 

You can read more poems by the teens in detention at their poetry blog here.

Or, you can read some of the poems written by the teens in the D.C. Freeminds Writing and Book Club at their blog here.

 

 

 

 

 

Markets Seeking Submissions–Young Adult and Sweet Romance

A couple new markets looking for young adult and/or sweet romance.

Scarlet Voyage

Scarlet Voyage is currently seeking YA Fiction manuscripts and queries. We are looking for content intended for young adult readers, grades 6–up. We will accept manuscripts from all subgenres, but we are specifically interested in fantasy/sci-fi, thriller/mystery, contemporary/teen issues, dystopia, and paranormal romance.

Find out how to submit here 

Scarlet Voyage uses an on-line submission form.

Melange Books Seeking YA Horse Stories

The YA imprint of Melange Books, is seeking horse stories. Fire and Ice, Melange Book, YA imprint, is seeking stories from 10,000-20,000 words long to be released in individual e-book format.

Fire and Ice is also seeking Horse novellas and novels, from 40,000 words – 60,000 words in length to be released in ebook and in print in trade paperback format.

Find out how to submit here.

Astraea Press Seeking Young Adult and Sweet Romance

Astraea Press is seeking:

Any genre of romance or sub-genre of romance
Young Adult
Fiction of all shapes and sizes
Clean manuscripts with no language and no graphic sex

Submission guidelines can be found here

Astraea Press will also be taking pitches at the RWA Georgia Moonlight and Magnolia Conference in October. Conference details here.

 

 

Novels-In-Verse

The other day on the Nerdy Book Blog, there was a great blog post about novels-in-verse. 

Teacher, Lauren Strohecker blogged about her top ten favorite novels-in-verse including: LOVE THAT DOG, PIECES OF GEORGIA, SOLD, and INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN. Strohecker’s post includes both middle grade and young adult books. You can read that post here.

I was first introduced to novels-in-verse during my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College. Author, Ron Koertge was my first workshop adviser, and a master at writing novels in verse. My favorite novel-in-verse by Ron Koertge is BRIMSTONE JOURNALS which tells the story of  group of high school sophomores. The poems are written in the view point of multiple characters in one sophomore English class and woven together to tell a complete story.

In the detention center poetry workshop, one of the ways I teach poetry is by integrating young adult novels written in verse. You can see the entire list of young adult novels and memoirs used in the poetry workshop here. This list includes all of the books we have used, not just novels-in-verse.

The detention center teens’ favorite novels-in-verse books are those by Ellen Hopkins such as CRANK.

CRANK is the story of a teen struggling with a drug addiction to crystal meth. It is based  on the experience of Hopkins’ daughter.  I often use some of the poetry as jump off places for the teen’s writing. For example, this section of CRANK where the drug as described as “monster.”

Flirtin’ with the Monster

Life was good

before I

met

the monster

After,

life

was great,

At

least

for a little while.

The following is the poem a young man at Denney wrote in response to the monster excerpt above:

Teen Boy

THE MONSTER WITHIN


There’s a monster within me
It’s anything but sane
It’s anything but tame
I hope me and it never become one and the same.
It’s full of an evil blind rage
Locked away, inside me
Like a wild bird in a cage
Just waiting for a chance to escape and fly free.
I hope me and it never become one and the same.

For the monster within will never

be completely tame.

Written in the YA/Memoir Poetry Workshop, June 2011

To read more of the teens in detention poetry check out their blog here.

All four published chapbooks can be downloaded for free as PDF files here.

Get Lit At the Beach

I’m taking off my writer hat for the weekend and putting on my reader’s hat. I’m attending the second annual, Get Lit at the Beach presented by the Tolovanna Arts Colony in Cannon Beach. I’ll be listening to writers such as Chelsea Cain, Garth Stein, Terry Brooks, and more.

I’ve taught workshops for the Tolovanna Arts Colony and I’ll be volunteering at Get Lit at the Beach on Friday night.

But this weekend is not about being a writer, most of all, I’m looking forward to being a reader.

I was a reader before I was a writer, and when I am feeling drained as a writer, I go back to being a reader. It is true that being a writer has made me a little bit more critical as a reader. When a plot isn’t going well, I can figure out why. When a character doesn’t ring true, I feel it. When a book needed just one more pass at revision, I can tell.

But, reading still has the ability to take me into a different world for a few hours. Reading a good book still has the ability to make me forget my own writing for a few hours. And being a reader helps me see why something I’m doing as  writer is not working.

I’m not sure I could have become a writer without being a reader first. And sometimes, it’s nice to become that reader and leave the writer behind–for just a weekend.

Here’s a picture of Cannon Beach as it looked when I arrived…

 

Poetry Ideas

April is National Poetry Month. There are lots of great poetry resources here to help celebrate National Poetry Month.

In honor of National Poetry Month, I thought I’d share some of the poetry ideas I do with kids in writing workshops and the teens in detention. I’ll spread these out over a couple different blog posts this month!

Childhood Toy Poems: Everyone has a beloved stuffed animal, blanket, pillow, or toy from childhood. The one you carried around until it was so old and tattered, a parent slipped it out of your room in the middle of the night and tossed it.  One great way to write about those childhood toys is to share some of the prose poetry in the book, DIRTY WOW WOW and OTHER LOVE STORIES by Cheryl and Jeffrey Katz.

Love Poems: My favorite book to use with teens is Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers, edited by Betsy Franco. This is a collection of poetry written by teens about all types of love. One of the constant request from teens in detention is: Where are the love poems? Can we write love poems? This request comes from both boys and girls!

The following is a love poem written by a young lady at Denney Juvenile Justice Center in the Poetry Workshop.

Teen Girl

LOVE WAS A PARTY

I’m sorry that we are over

This love is a party

And I need to get sober

It’s either clean

Or

Painfully dirty.

You were so sweet

And then you hurt me.

Like smoking weed,

You burnt me.

I took a hit

You were all I needed

I was so high

Eating clouds

Then it faded

And I hit the ground.

I lusted your ways

Give me a dose.

I love you.

But I cut my hands picking this rose.

The rose died

I opened my eyes

The song is part of the beat

Even though I hate it,

I gotta keep moving my feet.

Published in Please Brave Me, Dry These Tears. November 2009.