Aileen Stewart's Blog, page 33

The "Write" Kind Of A Workshop

Recently I held a children's writing workshop sponsored by the PTO of a local school, and I must admit that I'm hooked. I really think I could host this workshop repeatedly and never tire of spending time with fabulous kids who are interested in reading and writing. Although a small group, the children that attended seemed eager to listen and learn.

We covered many things such as literary terms and their meanings, we did a fun worksheet where the kids had to find all the letters I used to create a cowgirl, I did a little illustrating, and I read a story out of my book which we used to discuss the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions every author answers when writing.


About half way through the program, I handed out composition notebooks, pens, and picture prompts. The picture prompts were the six pieces of clip art to the right that I created and  printed out in worksheet form. I then asked the children to incorporate the pictures into a story of their own. Since there were students ranging from first to eighth grade, I told them not to worry about spelling, but to do the best they could in sounding out words. Each and every child used their unique imaginations and in the end there were seven wonderful stories.


I gave each child the opportunity to read their story out loud, and for those few too shy to do so, I read them instead. I was particularly impressed with the story written by a fifth grader named Taylor. She was a quiet girl but quite attentive. She told a tale of mice having a birthday party which was disturbed when an owl swooped down and flew off with the birthday mouse. The other mice gave chase and finally found the owl's home. She described the rescue mission as follows: They climbed all night. It felt like it would take forever. The huge acorn tree was so tall it touched the moon. 
 
The way she described the tree touching the moon gave me cause for excitement, and I had her repeat those lines for the other students. I asked them what they would have thought if she had simply said, "the tree was tall." Of course they all replied that would be very boring. This opened up the opportunity to discuss using descriptive words to give readers a mental picture of what we are writing about.

In that moment of time, I was in my element and the immense love of words instilled in me by my late father was never more evident. This was definitely the "Write" kind of a workshop for me.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!


My Illustration Attempt Taylor and Friends Hard At Work Getting Started On A Story

Steppin' Outside The Zone

I am basically a creature of habit and like most people I don't relish the idea of change. However, I do want to grow as an author and as a human being; so I have spent a goodly portion of the past few years Steppin' Outside The Zone; the comfort zone that is. I have learned to share with total strangers that I am a children's author. Not in a creepy stalker like manner, but in a casual conversational way.  I have learned to become more tech savvy which is not something I feel naturally inclined towards.  I have learned to ask people for help even though my brain screams they will surely turn you down! And I believe it has paid off overall.

Since my book was published, many people have asked me if I did the illustrations as well as the written story; and I laughingly joke that I'm not that talented. The truth of the matter is, a feeling of embarrassment almost envelopes me when I tell people I don't draw that well because deep down inside I wish I did. I have always longed to be able to draw, but that just doesn't seem to be a talent that comes naturally. Despite this fact, during the two years I have been an author, I have met and been inspired by other authors like Jarrett Krosoczka author of the Lunch Lady series and Lauri Lazzaro Knowlton author of  Cowgirl Alphabet.



I met Lauri last year at the Kentucky Book Fair and she was kind enough to show me and an other author how to draw a little cowgirl out of letters, and this year I was fortunate enough to catch one of Jarrett's live studio podcasts where he showed how he draws the lunch lady. More then ever, this made me want to be able to draw as well as write; and so I began to practice. I'm still no illustrator, but I am getting better and I have created a few farm animals characters that I can draw to entertain the children when I do events.















So don't be a Negative Nelly or a Disappointed Dan. Start your own Steppin' Outside The Zone and see what wonderful things you can accomplish if you set your mind to it.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!

The Number One Thing Writers Should Never Do!

 

There is one thing that writers should NEVER do, but of which many are guilty. What is that you ask? Abusing Social Networking. Networking by definition means: a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest. Social means: inclined to seek out or enjoy the company of others; sociable. Now if we put the two of these words together we should come to the conclusion that Social Networking is a way to share information and support each other's common interests in an enjoyable and friendly manner. The problem is, however, that most authors seem to be under the impression that using social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter means they can post a constant stream of Buy My Book.

I will be the first to admit I want to sell books. Actually, I want to sell a lot of books really badly. But I know one thing for certain, what annoys me will probably annoy others. So what should one post on Social Networking sites? 

Helpful Information: Information on marketing, venues for authors, tips on writing, what should be on an author website, etc... Book Reviews: You love books or you wouldn't be a writer, so use this as an opportunity to share a genre you love, help a fellow author, and show people it's not just about you and your book.Photos and Personal Information: People in general are interested in getting to know you. Share your favorite recipe, what special things you or your family are doing, pictures of your crazy cat, or your spouse sledding with your children. People want to know you are just like everyone else.Replies and Comments: Being sociable is a two-way street. Show an interest in others and what they are doing. Be genuinely interested in what others have to say and they will be genuinely interested in what you have to say as well.Special News: It's okay to tell about an award you won, an event you were invited too, or a new book being accepted by a publisher. People usually share in the good fortune of others, as long as those people don't come across as conceited or boastful.Once you have established good relationships with your followers, work together to find ways to share information about your books that is less annoying the buy my book  or  you need get my book because it's only $2.99. One of the things I do is to ask a handful of people I have formed relationships with to tweet about my upcoming events or my book in hopes that their followers might be interested. But in return, I do the same for them. And one thing I keep in mind, especially in writing groups I belong to, is that other authors are not my target audience. From time to time other authors might be interested in purchasing my book, but in general they are more concerned about selling their own book/books then purchasing mine. Therefore, targeting them with constant purchase pleas will simply aggravate the very people who could prove invaluable as marketing partners.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!

Good For Valentines: Great For Anytime!

With Valentine's Day quickly approaching I thought I would review a few books that are perfect for the holiday. Actually, these books are great for any time of the year; but since Valentine's Day is a remembering, kissing, and hugging kind of holiday you are probably going to want to read these books now!







The first book Hugs and Kisses, by Christophe Loupy, is a book my daughter received two years ago after completing the summer reading program. Not only did we read and enjoy it then, but many times since. This is one of those truly re-readable books. The main character, Hugs the puppy, sets out early one morning while his family is still sleeping because he has something he needs to find out. The kind farm animals along the way help him with his requests and when he returns to the barn and his family he finds the answer for which he was looking! What exactly was Hugs looking for? To find out you will just have to read this great book for
yourselves.


 



The second book, Schnitzle Von Krumm: Forget-Me-Not, by Lynley Dodd, is told in rhyme and is accompanied by beautiful illustrations. This is a great book for children 4 to 8 years of age and was actually read to me by my daughter who is quite the little narrator. Schnitzel is a cute little wiener dog whose family busily packs for vacation and remembers everything but him. Does Schnitzle Von Krumm get reunited with his family. You know what you have to do to find out.




  
How About A Hug, by Nancy Carlson, is a total success as far as books go in my humble opinion. My daughter usually does most of the reading since she has to log minutes for school, but last night she asked me to read this book to her. I must admit I really loved this book not only because it has great illustrations and short and sweet text, but because I come from a long line of serious huggers. I even like the dedication which read, "In memory of my uncle Bill, who always gave me Big Hugs!" Having lost  my dad last year I completely understood where this book was coming from and I make sure I take every opportunity to hug the family and friends that are with me still!




And there you have it my friend, three good books for Valentine's Day or three great books for any day.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!

1000 Word Experiment

As you all probably know, I love words; but I also love photography. My late father was a writer and an amateur photographer; and so it would seem, the acorn didn't fall far from the tree in my case. Being a writer means that ideas usually come at the strangest of times like when I'm driving my daughter to school or when  I'm watching television. This morning an idea came to me as I was lying in bed, not asleep, but not quite ready to get up yet.

The statement, A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words, kept running through my mind. Peacefully lying  in my semi groggy state, the writer in me longed to somehow connect my love of writing with my love of photography. And then it happened, I came up with my 1000 Word Experiment. My idea goes something like this: Ask all of my readers to leave five words each that in someway describe the photo above, ask all of my readers to ask their friends to stop by and leave five words in the comment section describing the picture above, ask all persons to additionally fill out the contest form so I have everyone's contact information, and when we reach 1000 unique words describing said picture, I will randomly select a name from all the participants to receive a copy of my book Fern Valley. 

So let's get cracking and start digging deep for words, words, words; and remember to spread the news because we need your friends cooperation if we are going to be able to complete this experiment

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!

Editing: A Life Choice

As an author I am very familiar with the term editing which generally refers to correcting, revising, adapting, or assembling written material or film. But editing can also mean modifying, eliminating, or deleting and that is what my family and I have been doing with our life over the past two years especially in the area of our diet.

Our initial attempts at editing our diet came about when my husband did not want to take medication for his high blood pressure. Just as it took me several revisions to get my book in working order, it took a lot of trial and error on my part before our low sodium regimen was successful. Being a very passionate person I went from the extreme of too much salt to too little salt. But I did not give up and eventually I found a balance by switching to Real Salt instead of white processed salt,  finding low sodium recipes and no sodium seasonings, and eliminating certain high sodium items from our diet.

Recently my husband and I felt it was time to edit our diet once again in an effort to become healthier and lose weight. We have incorporated more fruits and vegetable into our diet, we now reach for string cheese and unsalted mixed nuts instead of sugary treats, carbohydrate rich crackers, or greasy potato chips. And since I do love chips from time to time, I  have found some veggie tortilla chips at my local Meijers store that are made with veggies and ancient sprouted grains. Apparently carbohydrate items made from ancient sprouted grains don't turn to sugar in our bodies like white and wheat bread kind of carbohydrates.We are also drinking more water.

Further more, we are trying new recipes high in fiber of which I just read Americans in general don't get enough. I found no sodium garbanzo beans, so I am going to try my hand at hummus real soon. Saturday morning I am going to make spelt flour waffles (one of those ancient sprouted grains) with real maple syrup which apparently is healthier in moderation then imitation syrup.We have also eliminated margarine from our diet and have opted for real butter which is a healthy fat. My husband saw something on television that said how bad margarine was for human beings and they claimed even flies won't land on it. I thought about putting some margarine out to see if this is true, but I decided to just go with the all natural butter on blind faith instead. And for those occasions when I use regular flour, I am at least using unbleached flour now. And last but not least, we have started sweetening our smoothies with all natural honey. And as an FYI, frozen cubed cantaloupe or pineapple is much tastier to use then ice.

Editing seems to have become a life choice in our home and will probably be ongoing for some time to come as we try to modify, eliminate, or delete poor choices. So as you and your family head into this new year, I'd love to hear all the different ways you are editing your life to make it a polished success.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!

Tough Love For Reluctant Readers

Everyone knows that reading to children and with children is good for them. It helps builds relationships simply because you are spending time together. It helps children build logical thinking skills, a better understanding of vocabulary, and helps learning in general. After all, how are children supposed to excel at subjects like math or science, which are much more difficult, if they haven't mastered basic reading skills? Reading helps build children's confidence and self esteem; and as they learn to read on their own, it unlocks their potential. Reading expands children's knowledge of the world around them. In short, Reading with your children is the key to their future success!

But what do you do if you have a child that is a reluctant reader? What if you have a child that says they don't like to read or is discouraged because they have not easily mastered the art of reading? Tough love my friends, tough love. You require them to read anyways. We all have to do things in this life that we don't necessarily want to do and none of us are destroyed by the process. I personally don't like to empty the trash or do the dishes, but I do both of these chores on a regular basis because I have a sense of responsibility to my family and because I really don't like to eat off of paper plates.

Now I am not saying that you bully them into reading; but since practice does indeed  make perfect, you do need to insist that they read. One good way to encourage a reluctant reader to read without making it seem like a punishment is to have a reward system. A type of reward system that seems to work well is a reading chart where the child receives a sticker for every book they successfully complete. Once a certain number of stickers have been obtained, let's say ten for example, the child is then given a small reward like a trip to the park, a backyard picnic, a pack of their favorite gum, or an ice cream cone.

I know from personal experience that it is never to late to help a child with poor reading skills. I know this because when my sister's children were in seventh and ninth grade both were having trouble with reading. They could barely read and what they could read was usually not comprehended. My sister, who was a single mom, pulled them out of public school, and I began to help her home school them. I kept the girls during the day while she worked and took on the more difficult subjects like vocabulary, spelling, writing, science, math, Spanish, poetry, and history; and when she was home, she wrapped up with home economics, physical education, home maintenance, and literature. Now I am not suggesting that you pull reluctant readers out of school, my sister did so for a multitude of reasons, but you can follow the most important step behind my teaching method and that is to make your child read everything.

I required my nieces to read literally everything. I made them read their science and history out loud. I required them to read all directions for homework out loud. I required them to write out each vocabulary word's meaning, use them properly in a sentence, and you guessed it, read them out loud. My sister followed suite by selecting wonderful classics for the children's to read for literature class. During the first year that we did this there was much grumbling and complaining but also much delight as they watched their sticker chart fill and were rewarded accordingly. By the time that first year was up, they had mastered reading and writing skills so well that I entered them both in a local writing contest for children in grades six to twelve.

Needless to say, you can well imagine our surprise to find that they younger girl had won first place and the older had won runner up. To this very day the older of my nieces continues to say what a hard taskmaster I was but how grateful she is that I demanded more from her. She is now a mom herself and has taught her son how to read well which was no easy matter since he had several learning delays. So don't be discouraged with your reluctant reader; be firm and require lots and lots of reading despite any grumbling because it will pay off in the long run.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!

Are You A Word Purist?

 


Recently my daughter Emily and I had some mother daughter drama. This wasn't a done in a moment kind of drama, but the kind that lasts for a few days. "What happened?" you ask. Well, the answer to that would be SPELLING. Yes my friends, SPELLING was the culprit and instigator of our drama. 

It all started on Wednesday when I ran through Emily's spelling words with her. The weekly spelling words are always quite easy and she usually already knows them, but there are always four much more difficult bonus words one of which was careening. Not being the kind of mother to remain uninvolved in my daughter's education, I began to ask her if she knew what careening meant. She looked at me with that smug look that newly turned eight year olds have learned to master so well and said yes. That's when the drama began; she told me the meaning of careening was flying.

Now I don't know about you, but when I was in school spelling, vocabulary, and grammar were my forte.  I had the kind of dad whose every other comment was look it up, so I knew that flying was definitely not the definition of careening. I proceeded to tell her careening means something that is coming at you in a  tilted or sideways manner. Her reply, "Well, that's not what my teacher Ms. Carr said. It came from a Skippy Jon Jones book." Not wanting to put her teacher in a bad light I mentioned that sometimes even teachers are wrong or that perhaps she had misunderstood the teacher. As you can imagine, that did not go over well at all.

Certainly she can't argue with the dictionary, I thought. As I read her the definitions, all of which were originally derived from the nautical term which meant to turn a ship on its side for repairs. The closest definition to what Skippy Jon Jones might have been doing as he went careening into his pile of toys was lurching or swerving while in motion.

I thought the incident was closed until the next evening when Emily informed me I really needed to talk to Ms. Carr about the word careening. Her father told her I was correct but still she insisted. So, being the good mother that I am, that is just what I did this morning. I ever so politely explained that we were having a spelling related issue and asked her what definition she told the class to which she replied falling into. Now although that is not technically correct, I figured it was close enough not to quibble over and it confirmed my suspicion that the mistake was on my daughter's part seeing that flying and falling are fairly similar.

On my drive home, I thought of how often words in the English language are improperly used and how when used improperly for a long enough period of time those words and their incorrect definitions become common and acceptable. Take the word kleenex for example which is actually a name brand but has become synonymous with the word tissue. So my question is this: Are you a word purist or do you just go with whatever words and definitions everyone else seems to be running with these days? I'd have to say I'm probably somewhere in in-between being a word purist and a follower of the pack.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day! 

A Simple Act of Kindness

Recently I found myself in our local Aldi's store to purchase some milk and a few vegetables. While I waited in line I noticed a young man, who obviously had autism or some other special need, intermittently ask persons what their birth dates were. He took in the information they gave him, asked their first name, repeated all the information back to them, all while sorting a fistful of one dollar bills. 

The store manager happened to be operating the cash register in my line that day; and although I don't know him well, I have spoken briefly to him over the years and he seems like a kind man.As I waited my turn, I overheard him telling folks ahead of me that the young man was just collecting information and that if he ever saw a person again he would remember their birthday. He was also collecting dollar bills within in a certain series and the store personnel would go through their cash drawers and exchange one dollar bills in the given series with the young man.

When it was finally my turn to pay, I told the manager how kind I thought it was that he allowed that young man to ask his questions and collect his dollars. "Some people would be annoyed or worried about what customers would think," I said. "And after all, he's not hurting anyone so it doesn't hurt us to be kind." The manager readily agreed that he thought the young man was hurting no one, I paid for my purchases, and I wished him a good day.

As I left, I thought about that young man and the kindness the manager had shown him, and I was glad to know that despite a world full of intolerance for those who are not quite normal, despite a world where people are often unkind, impatient, and self centered, there was an individual who chose to be kind, patient, and compassionate.  I like to think that I am that kind of a person too, but it was nice to see those good qualities in another individual and to be reminded of how we should treat others.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!

Geocaching Adventures

For quite some time, I  have heard the term Geocaching and I often wondered what it was all about. That is until recently when a friend and fellow children's author, Judi Chesshir, mentioned that she was a Geocacher. Not only does Judi love Geocaching, but she has managed to use her new beloved hobby as a marketing tool for her book My Finny, Fin, Fin. I wanted to know more, so I asked Judi to write a guest post about her Geocaching experiences for a collective blog I post on every Monday called The Price of Trust.

Geocaching is basically a worldwide scavenger hunt that you find by using clues on Geocach.com and the latitude/longitude coordinates of the cache which you can follow using a GPS or smart phone. Once you find a cache (container) you open it and sign the log showing on which date you found it and check out what fellow Geocachers have left before you. You then leave a memento of your own behind. The beauty of Geocaching is that it is wholesome fun for the whole family. 

I was extremely happy to learn about Geocaching, because if truth be told, I am a big fan of scavenger hunts. So much so that I went to the Goecaching site and signed myself up right away. The next day my husband, my daughter, and I set out to find our first cache which was about a six minutes walk from our home. The clue said to visit with robin and to close the door once we were done. I knew that somehow that must be referring to a birdhouse or feeder and I was correct. It was interesting to see what others had left behind and I let my daughter choose one small item to take with her. She chose a small blue glass stone shaped like a star. When it was time for us to deposit an item; I like Judi, used it as a marketing opportunity for my book Fern Valley. I left a business card with small character buttons in a small plastic bag. Hopefully the next finder of the cache will be curious and will take a peek at my website which is listed on my business card.

  Our First Find   
Treasures Our First Deposit
I can't wait until summer so our family can go on Geocaching adventures a little further from home. Until then, we will check out those nearby like the church around the corner from our home where my husband and I were married. So to all you fellow scavenger hunters, happy hunting.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!