Mindy Hardwick's Blog, page 53
May 12, 2012
Teen Boys in Recovery Art and Poetry Exhibit
About a month ago, I was contacted through the Denney Poetry Blog Teen Poems Behind Bars. The two gals who e-mailed me work as Art Empowerment Educators at the Sea-Mar Community Health Center in Seattle. They were working with a group of teen boys in recovery and they wanted to find out more about the poetry at Denney Juvenile Justice Center Poetry Workshop.
We met at Third Place Books and spent about two hours talking about poetry, art, and working with teens in recovery and in detention. It was a great evening.
However…the best was yet to come…
Last night, I attended the opening night for the Art and Poetry Exhibit by the Sea-Mar’s Community Health Center Teen Boys Recovery Program. Their art and poetry is on exhibit at the Greenwood Diva Espresso. The opening was part of the Annual Phinney Artwalk.
When I arrived, the boys were just piling back into two big vans. They’d been at the coffee shop, talking about their poetry and art, and drinking lots of coffee and eating lots of cookies. And if you’ve ever worked with teens in recovery, you know…sugar makes everyone a little bouncy! But, I thought it was great they could come out and talk about their work. This is one piece of the Denney Juvenile Justice Center Program which we can’t do.
The gals who ran the program quickly ushered me inside the coffee shop, and what I saw took my breath away. On every wall, there was art work and poetry. Slowly, I made my way around the room, reading each poem and looking at each piece of art. Immediately, I recognized prompts I use with the kids at Denney Juvenile Justice Center. The gals told me they’d used all the Denney Poetry Books and read the Denney poetry blog to help inspire their poems. I thought I might cry. It felt like the circle was continuing on.
When I began the Denney Poetry Project, I too had some help along the way. It all started when I found out a very good writer friend of mine was working with Richard Gold and the Pongo Teen Writing Program. I was very interested in the poetry workshop with the Pongo Teen Writing Program, but I didn’t want to commit to driving to Seattle every week. Traffic makes that is a very long drive. My writer pal suggested I see if there was a detention center near me who might like a poetry workshop. I contacted Denney Juvenile Justice Center and the Pongo Teen Writing Program donated a box of King County Juvenile Detention poetry books to the Denney kids, and we were off! We used those Pongo Teen Writing books the first year to help us write our own poems and until we had written and published our own books and blogs.
Now, here was a new group of teens, using the materials from the Denney Workshop to help them get started.
If you’d like to see the Sea-Mar exhibit, and I highly recommend it, the poems and art work will be on display all month at the Greenwood Diva Espresso. 7916 Greenwood Ave North in Seattle.
And here are some pictures from the exhibit.
May 11, 2012
Memories of High School You
I am interviewed on Jaye Robin Brown’s blog today for a feature called, “High School You.” As a part of the interview, there are even some pictures that I found including a photo of my high school bedroom and one of me dressed in my Laura Ashley dress getting ready for graduation.
You can see those pictures and read the interview here
Here is a sampling of the interview:
Did you have a memorable teacher? Good or bad? How did they influence you? My most memorable teacher was my swim coach. I swam all four years, and in my senior year, I was having a hard time at school and at home. She advocated for me when I got into a little bit of trouble, and let me serve my detention time sitting at the pool during swim practice. I am always grateful for her seeing I was having a hard time and not letting that hard time define me.
Did you have an inkling as a teenager that you would become a writer? I loved to write, and my parents are both journalists, but I had no idea the books I loved to read had a writer behind them! This is one reason why I love to do workshops with teens.
What book had the biggest impact on you as a high school student? How? Danielle Steele. I devoured all her books. I couldn’t get enough of them. When I wrote YA romance, WEAVING MAGIC, Shantel’s love for romance books came naturally for me!
This is a picture, also included in the interview, where I am reading one of my Danielle Steele Novels while visiting my Grandparents in San Diego. Notice those tanned legs–I didn’t mention in the interview how important it was to be TAN, and we slathered baby lotion all over to get that tan….
To read the rest of the interview….go here.
May 9, 2012
Writing With Teens in Juvenile Detention Ideas
I’m facilitating another poetry and YA Lit workshop at the juvenile detention center this week. And, I thought it would be fun to share some of what I’m doing with the kids. Thanks to a generous grant from the Greater Everett Community Foundation, Terry & Cheryle Earnheart Fund for Children, our collection of YA books and memoirs include the following titles:
Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
It Calls You Back, Luis Rodriguez
Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A, Luis Rodriguez
Couldn’t Keep It To Myself: The Women of York Correctional Institution
Fly, Colton, Fly: The True Story of the Barefoot Bandit, Jackson Holtz
The first two days, we talked about The Hero’s Journey. None of the kids had heard of it. I was a bit surprised by this, and quickly took the opportunity to walk them through the Hero’s Journey using the Wizard of Oz. One young lady said Dorothy’s pals the Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man were her Homies.
After we talked about the Hero’s Journey, I asked the kids to think about their own lives and brainstorm around the Hero’s Journey. Some of the “Calls to Adventure” included trying drugs and joining gangs. Belly of the Whale moments included being arrested and going to jail, but the most surprising was way the teens tackled the “Gift” moments of the Hero’s Journey. We talked about how “Gift” moments are the wisdom that you learn from taking a Hero’s Journey (positive or negative), and the teens easily came up with a lot of lessons they’d learned including: how to be strong and face adversity and how to survive tough situations.
Here is the handout of the Hero’s Journey
Today, our topic was doors. I read the teens a section from the first book of Harry Potter where he finds the magical platform leading to the train to Hogwarts. Then, we drew doorways and where they might lead in our lives. I also shared some of the poems from the FreeMinds BookClub and Writing Workshop Blog, The teens’ favorite poems were “Momma Told Me,” and “Danger.” Both poems were finalists in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and you can read about that here. We wrote poems about Danger and “_________Told Me.” (Fill in the blank with a person who gave you advice that you followed or did not follow)
Tomorrow, we’re going to talk about monsters. In honor of Maurice Sendak, who passed away earlier this week, I’m reading Where the Wild Things Are, and we’ll write about monsters in our lives.
The teens are writing some great poems, and once we get release forms, I’ll post them on the Denney Poetry Blog.
May 7, 2012
Guest Blogging and Giveaway for Weaving Magic
One of the fun parts to an e-book’s release is the blog interviews and guest posts. In the old days, I might have been making my rounds at bookstores and having book signings. But, in the new day of e-books and bloggers, I am making my rounds to blogs. One thing I love about the blogs is they reach beyond the borders of the United States. I love being able to guest post with bloggers who are located in places such as the U.K, or Australia, or Canada. And because both my books are available as e-books, they are easily accessible to readers in other countries.
Last week, I was interviewed on the Long and Short of It YA Blog, and we did a giveaway of WEAVING MAGIC or STAINED GLASS SUMMER. The lucky winner of that giveaway was Derek Thompson!
This week, there is another giveaway of WEAVING MAGIC. This time it’s on Tifferz Book Review Blog. I am guest posting on Tifferz Book Review Blog, and if you leave a comment for her, you will be entered in this week’s giveaway of WEAVING MAGIC. The giveaway period ends on May 10. I met Tifferz at the RWA Chicago Spring Fling Conference a few weekends ago, and she’s dynamite!
You can find that interview and giveaway here.
I’m also guest interviewed on Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz’s blog. Here is a little bit from that guest blog post:
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I first considered myself a writer when I sold my first short story, “Hurricanes” to Blooming Tree Press. I was in the final semester of my MFA in Writing for Children at Vermont College, and I saw the call for short story submissions at my local Seattle SCBWI meeting. The day I got the call from the editor telling me they wanted to publish my story in a collection called, Summer Shorts, I felt like I could finally call myself a writer.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life? (Has anyone ever realized it?)
WEAVING MAGIC is drawn from my experience running a poetry workshop with youth in detention. Christopher’s character is based on some of the stories that I have heard in the detention center. Shantel’s character is based on some of my own experience, as a teen, dating a young man in recovery.
What books have most influenced your life most?
Cynthia Voigt’s Homecoming and Dicey’s Song. Dicey is such a survivor in those stories. She always resonated with me. In Weaving Magic, Christopher is trying to start a new life, clean and sober. In Dicey’s story, she is also trying to start a new life with her Grandma in Maine. The theme of “starting a new life as a teen” is something which is in both of my novels.
You can find the whole interview here.
May 3, 2012
WEAVING MAGIC is Available on Amazon
WEAVING MAGIC is available on Amazon. May you find the magic!
Here is the direct link. You can also click on the cover picture and it will take you to the book’s buy page.
WEAVING MAGIC will also be coming to Barnes and Noble. (That takes about two to three weeks.). There will be a print copy available, however, it comes out first as an e-book. So, load up those Kindles and Ipads! And then when the print is ready, you can buy the print and I will sign and mail bookplates to you!
May 1, 2012
Book Giveaway and Author Interview on The Long and Short Of It
I’m interviewed on The Long and Short Of It YA Blog today. AND……..we’re doing an e-book giveaway of either WEAVING MAGIC or STAINED GLASS SUMMER! This is very exciting as I know a lot of you are waiting for WEAVING MAGIC to hit your favorite on-line bookstore…Amazon or Barnes and Noble, so here is your chance to get the e-book before it hits those places. (And I’m hearing that WEAVING MAGIC is about a day away from being ready on Amazon).
All you have to do to enter to win a FREE copy of WEAVING MAGIC or STAINED GLASS SUMMER is leave a comment at the bottom of the blog post at the Long and Short of It YA. (Don’t leave the comment on this blog, that doesn’t count!)
Here is the link to the Interview
April 27, 2012
Weaving Magic Release Day
He loves magic. She loves romance. But can illusions be shattered without disastrous consequences?
He loves magic. She loves romance. But the biggest illusion is the one Shantel and Christopher perform together. Sixteen- year- old Christopher fights to stay sober while fifteen-year-old Shantel struggles in the aftermath of her mother’s death and seeks refuge in a fantasy world. But the unacknowledged roots of their problems refuse to stay buried and soon, the two are headed toward a deadly magic trick. Can Shantel and Christopher move beyond magical illusions to find love?
Weaving Magic can be purchased as an e-book in all formats at the MuseItUp Bookstore here and at your favorite on-line bookstores. (I will update with links to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and others as the e-book uploads to the distributors and it becomes available)
There is also a FREE Study Guide for Weaving Magic available here.
Weaving Magic can be found on Facebook and Goodreads.
EXCERPT
Everything would be okay, I told myself. Christopher was my boyfriend. I trusted him. I crunched inside the wicker basket and curled my legs underneath me. I wiped my sweating palms onto my black slacks. The audience stopped calling for an encore. They were so silent I wasn’t sure anyone was still out there.
I’d barely gotten my balance before the first sword barreled into the basket with a lot more force than we’d practiced. Startled, I realized Christopher was keyed up from the magic show performance. He was overestimating the force he was putting behind the swords.
I tried to figure out how to tell him to slow down. I couldn’t very well call out to him or the audience would hear.
Before I could it figure out, the second sword zoomed past me and into the basket. The two swords crossed over my head, and I rearranged myself so I could crouch lower. As I shifted, a third sword whizzed by my left arm and peeled off a small layer of my skin. I saw the blood before I felt the searing pain.
April 26, 2012
Researching Weaving Magic
The writing process for WEAVING MAGIC (April 27, 2012) began with a lot of research. I knew main character, Christopher, had a tie to magic through his Father who had been the town’s magician. In order to research, I attended a magic show while at the Highlights Foundation Summer Camp in Chautauqua, and I checked out videos showing magic tricks for everything from birthday parties to full fledged magic tricks. I furiously copied down notes and learned how to, somewhat, do a few magic tricks. Many of those magic tricks are in WEAVING MAGIC.
Christopher is also a baseball player who gets caught for a dirty UA under the school’s new drug testing policy for athletes. At the time I was writing WEAVING MAGIC the local high school was implementing a drug testing policy for athletes. I was also friends with a high school baseball coach, and after picking his brain for some details, I attended some high school games to learn a little bit about the game.
As a part of the research process, I also had to learn mosaics. Mosaics plays a big role in bringing Shantel and Christopher together both in the beginning and the end of the novel. Luckily, an artist friend of mine was a mosaic artist and I was able to take some of her classes. This mirror is one of the projects we made in the class.
And, sometimes, research means I have to really learn and not just read about something in books. This was the case with Shantel’s weaving. Here are pictures of my loom and my attempts at learning to weave scarves. No one said research had to be dull and boring!
April 24, 2012
The Unreliable Narrator in Weaving Magic
One of the challenges in writing upcoming, YA Romance, WEAVING MAGIC (April 27, 2012), was shaping the character arc of main character, Shantel. While, teen boy, Christopher, had a lively journey in beginning his life new–clean and sober. Shantel seemed like the quieter character. So, after awhile, I went back to the drawing board, and did some re-visioning. What I came up with was that Shantel is an unreliable narrator. She uses a lot of denial and romantic fantasy to avoid dealing with her Mother’s death.
Unreliable narrators tell a story in a way that is misleading or distorted. The unreliable narrator’s version of the story is skewed from the true understanding of the story. For example, in the novel, Afterby Amy Efaw, Devon is unable to come to terms that she has just had a baby and left the baby in a dumpster. In the novel, Lost by Jacqueline Davies, Essie denies that her beloved younger sister, Zelda, died when she was run over by a horse on the streets of New York in 1911. And in Chris Lynch’s story, Inexcusable, Keir denies he has raped Gigi.
Unreliable narrators can also be found in picture book stories. One of my favorites picture book stories is Dear Ms. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague. In the story, Ike sends letters home to his owner, Ms. LaRue. He exaggerates and tells her all of the awful things happening at obedience school. Each page spread is split between what is really happening done in color, and what Ike is imagining done in black and white.
One writing exercise to explore if you are considering an unreliable narrator is the following:
1). Create a character with a secret. What is the secret? Why does the character have this secret?
2). Place this character in a scene with someone who is trying to expose that secret. Is it a family member? A friend? Why does this character want the main character to tell the truth? What happens when this character confronts the main character about their secret?
If you are in the Seattle area, on Saturday, May 5, I’m teaching a one-day class at Richard Hugo House called, Writing the Unreliable Narrator in YA. Bring your liars, thieves and unsavory characters as we spend the afternoon exploring how to craft a narrator who doesn’t quite tell the truth. I’ll be sharing tips I learned about unreliable narrators while working on my YA novel, WEAVING MAGIC. (Forthcoming April 27, 2012). We’ll also do some short readings and writing exercises. The class is also appropriate for writers working on middle grade novels or even picture books.
The class runs from 1-5 p.m at Richard Hugo House in Seattle.
Registration information for Writing the Unreliable Narrator in YA can be found here.
April 21, 2012
FREE Romance Short Story–Love’s Storm
In my upcoming YA romance, WEAVING MAGIC, (April 27, 2012), main character, Shantel loves romance. When I was drafting the novel, and working on character research for Shantel, I attended a Seattle RWA Conference to learn about romance writing and readers. To my surprise, I discovered that romance was not what I expected. The bodice rippers of the past were gone and romance novels were smart, fun, sexy, and historically informative.
I also discovered that romance came in many packages. Novels. Novellas. And short stories.
During the time I worked on WEAVING MAGIC, I kept attending Seattle RWA Conferences and began to work on my own romance stories. I discovered that my favorite stories to read were sweet, contemporary romances such as those by Susan Mallery or Susan Wiggs. Sweet contemporary romances are also my favorite to write.
And, one of those sweet, contemporary romance short stories is, Love’s Storm.
Love’s Storm is available for FREE on Amazon this weekend. (It’s usually 99 cents.). The story has been doing very, very well, and I’ve been asked to write more.
I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it!
