Augusta Scattergood's Blog, page 43

What I'm Reading Now: MISTER MAX

The title of this post should be What I'm Loving Now.MISTER MAX: The Book of Lost Things (Thanks to an ARC from the publisher.)
If the stickies and scribbled notes are any indication-- and they are-- this is one fantastic story!And I get to read it all over again before I write my review.Coming soon.

Elizabeth George

My go-to recreational, grownup reading!

I read her latest as a NetGalley eBook and loved it. And now BELIEVING THE LIE is all over the bookstores. Just out in paperback.
Barbara Havers' role in this new novel is both funny and poignant. Great character.

And guess what? A new Inspector Lynley book is coming in October.
Check out HER WEBSITE for all sorts of goodies.

If you haven't read George's novels, try hard to start at the beginning. You don't want to miss a thing.



Click here for an interview with the author. 

A few highlights:
"I have always been fascinated with abhorrent behavior."
"I like to write what I like to read."

That's me! Not the abhorrent behavior, but the what-I-like-to-read. Though I don't think I could ever write a true mystery. All that plotting. Yikes.

If you're interested in Elizabeth George, detective fiction, mysteries, psychological thrillers, or just plain good writing, be sure to listen to the end of that interview for what she says about humility.

May I also recommend her truly helpful book on writing craft: WRITE AWAY. 

Click here for excerpts, including the chapter on plotting

And here's another blogger reporting in on Elizabeth George's writing process. Fascinating, of course.
http://critiquesisterscorner.blogspot.com/2013/07/elizabeth-georges-writing-process-from.html

Excuse me while I click off and think long and hard on her plotting suggestions. Will they work for you? I do love thinking about characters and place before action!

GREAT BOOK Giveaway

I haven't given away anything lately. Well, anything to read, that is. And this is just the right book to end your summer beach reading.
A page-turner, pardon my cliché.

(For once, I'm reading and sharing a grown-up novel.)




JUSTICE FOR SARA by NYT  bestselling author, Erica Spindler. The author lives outside New Orleans and sets her thriller/ mystery/ detective novel there.

The murder of a sister, a police chief with the wrong suspect, maybe. An interesting love interest. Well-drawn characters. Lots of great plotting.

What else could you want in a just-published novel.

All you need to do is leave me a comment and I'll draw a winner this week.
In fact, since summer's speeding by, let's make this one fast.

I'll draw a winner on TUESDAY, August 20th. 
Quick, leave me a message. Here or on Facebook, please.

(Thank you, St. Martin's Press for the review copy.)

One More Word about TITLES

I don't think Book Titles have always been so important to choosing just the right book. Think about all those very old books you read. Zippy titles? Funny? A play on words? Maybe not.

But I know a whole lot of authors who can't begin to write without a really, really great title to their manuscript. Working title? Nah. They cling to that title.




Because my Critique Group has been pondering what makes a great title this week, I shared this link to an interesting piece from a Publishers Weekly blog, re: titles:

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/shelftalker/?p=10938

Good pointers.

And this:

http://www.lulu.com/titlescorer/index.php

We had a few laughs plugging titles into this. Harry Potter not a bestseller? Hmmm.

Be sure to fill in all the drop-downs to get your title scored. 
Take it with a grain of salt, of course.

Here's a previous post, with links, to my Title Thoughts...
 http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2008/05/title-picking.html 

I laughed out loud when I read that. 2008. 
I was just starting the manuscript that I'm now editing.
And the title has changed twice since then.
To me, obviously, titles are elusive.

Despite that, I sometimes obsess over them.
(Here I am again, 2 years later, still titling a blogpost Title Picking.)
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2010/02/title-picking.html

As we say down south, Whoo Boy.
Or Hoo Boy. (Wonder how that would go over as a title?)

Pulling hair out over titles might be worth it. When you find the perfect title, it sings! 
And kids will remember your book. So choose wisely.

The Boy on the Bridge

I finished Natalie Standiford's newest YA novel just in time for the party!

And what a terrific book launch it was. So much fun at McNally Jackson Books on a Sunday evening that I forgot to take pictures.
But there was cake and Bingo. A really big crowd.
Natalie read rexcerpts from her high school diary. Hair, clothing, friendships were revealed...
Proving once again that all writers notice important details at an early age, right?



I'm a big fan of her previous books, especially HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT. Which I blogged about here.

Natalie bases her new novel, a romance with a hint of mystery, on her own experiences as a U.S. college student, studying in Leningrad in the early 1980s.

Check out these pictures!
http://www.nataliestandiford.com/the_boy_on_the_bridge_119061.htm

Those specific details Natalie's so great at kept me turning pages, wondering how the heroine would resolve her dilemma. I was completely captivated by THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE.

How's this for a quick character reveal:
"Binky Binkowsky, the yellow-haired girl with the moon boots..."

or this, for a perfectly-painted picture:
"Alyosha lived on the outskirts of the city, the second-to-last metro stop on the Red Line. He led her past an empty supermarket, down a winding path lined with piles of grey snow like Styrofoam..."

Don't you feel like you're right there? I predict teen readers will adore this book. 



Related posts: Baltimore

My review of another of Natalie's books, in which I reveal I'm a family friend.
And here's a photo I took on a recent visit to friends and family back in Baltimore. Kind of says a lot about my former hometown. I know Natalie would approve.
(And besides, I don't have any pictures taken at the Book Party. Or of Leningrad. For that, and to buy the book, check that link up there to Natalie's website, please.)


(Thanks to our publisher, Scholastic Press, for the review copy.)

On Writing and Courage: Katherine Paterson

From my own notes upon hearing Katherine Paterson speak to readers, teachers, writers:
It's hard to choose what you are going to write about. Books are years in the making.
(You said it, Katherine!)

And from Writer Magazine:
 ...a book for young readers has to tell a story. This may seem self evident, but the truth is some people ignore it because plotting is very hard work. When I hear myself being introduced as a "great natural storyteller," it is all I can do to keep from leaping to my feet to object. "Great natural storytellers" don't spend countless days hewing a story line out of rock with a straight pin, now do they?

and this:

I will not take a young reader through a story and in the end abandon him. That is, I will not write a book that closes in despair. I cannot, will not, withhold from my young readers the harsh realities of human hunger and suffering and loss, but neither will I neglect to plant that stubborn seed of hope that has enabled our race to outlast wars and famines and the destruction of death.
  
Katherine Paterson. Creativity Limited, in The Writer, December 1980 
(treasures discovered deep in my own files)

I think I'm onto something here. A theme maybe?
Check out this post by literary agent Peter Knapp, quite beautiful and challenging to us writers. Courage, all! And thanks for sharing, Caroline Starr Rose.

http://writeoncon.com/08/13/courage-and-kid-lit/

 

Today's Rediscovery: Judy Freeman

Yes, I know. I stepped away from my fabulous school library career over a decade ago.
But I saved a whole lot of files.
This week, I've been clearing them out. Buying newer, nicer folders to fill up with more stuff.
(Pictured, file folders from The Container Store. Love that place.)



But still, there are some things I can't bear to toss.

Like some of the handouts from the Amazing Judy Freeman Workshops.
(I added that Amazing.)


WINNERS.
The Best New Books and How to Use Them.
Taught by Judy.
I think she still does it. I no longer have an excuse to sign up.

Here are a few tidbits, not always entirely about the best books of the year. I brought home such gems from that workshop!

1. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

2. The name for Oz in the Wizard of Oz was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw and A-N, and O-Z. Hence, Oz.

3. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is SCREECHED.

(Man, I've used that one in writing, for sure.)

4. The word SET has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

I could go on and on. Maybe I will in another post, on another day. Check back.
Who knows what treasures I'll find in these file cabinets.
Maybe a name for a character.


Here's Judy's website:
http://www.judyreadsbooks.com/

The Library

Some of my Facebook and Pinterest friends may have surmised from my many postings that I'm cleaning out very old files this week. 

Just as some of my teacher and librarian friends ready their rooms for a new school year, I suppose I'm organizing my office for a new writing project.

I found this gem, from one of my students, upon my leaving a treasured library career after a whole lot of years.


 The note on the back says "From Suryea, 2nd grade- I don't know exactly what it means but it's about the library."


Here's the entire poem, in case you can't read the fabulously illustrated copy from Suryea.

library
No need even
To take out
A book: only
Go inside
And savor
The heady
Dry breath of
Ink and paper,
Or stand and
Listen to the
Silent twitter
Of a billion
Tiny busy
Black words.

From All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994)

When the Butterflies Came

I'm so excited to hear that my friend Kimberley Griffiths Little's new book has been chosen for Scholastic's Mother Daughter Book Club.

Here's the link to the Discussion Guide. Great questions!
(And wow on the recipe, too.)

http://www.scholastic.com/MotherDaughterBookClub/pdf/Scholastic_MDBC_butterflies.pdf



If your daughter's in a Book Club, or if she just loves a good book, check it out.
(Ages 8-12) Here's a little about the book:


When mysterious butterflies begin to arrive shortly after Grammy Claire’s funeral, Tara just knows her grandmother has left her a final mystery to solve. A stack of keys, notes from the beyond, and an ominous secret allow Tara to come to terms with her grandmother’s death, the complexities of her family, and the powers of love and redemption.

PS- Don't you love how we refer to our Facebook and emailing friends as if they are lifelong friends? It's kind of like my penpals of yore. Maybe there should be a different category, but Kimberley feels exactly like a real friend. And I'm very impressed with her ability to write so many books, so well.

Good call, Scholastic! Perfect book for your Mother Daughter Book Club.

Words, Words, Words!

I'm a big fan of words.
(Coming soon: my take on the newly-issued Richard Scarry books. So many words for kids!)

But even though I was a Spelling Bee champ in 4th grade, for the first 15 years of my life, I didn't know how to spell this word.

Okay, maybe I could have figured it out, but it just wasn't a word I ever required in writing.
Though we said it almost every day, didn't you?

Of course, we pronounced it SPICKET.
Or maybe spikket.

Turn on that spicket, would you?

Or Watch you don't run into the spikket with your bike, honey.


    Imagine my surprise when I eventually discovered this strange spelling.

SPIGOT.
Huh?
                        
Word of the Day for Saturday, August 3, 2013

spigot \SPIG-uht\, noun:
1. a small peg or plug for stopping the vent of a cask.
2. a peg or plug for stopping the passage of liquid in a faucet or cock.
3. a faucet or cock for controlling the flow of liquid from a pipe or the like.
4. the end of a pipe that enters the enlarged end of another pipe to form a joint.


Kind of like this...

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil... Second Base in our Backyard Baseball Games.


A little more about words, via a great post on WORDS THAT DRIVE YOUR EDITOR CRAZY:

http://behindthegardengate.blogspot.com/2013/07/words-that-drive-your-editor-crazy.html 
Thanks to fellow critique group member, Susan Banghart for sharing that link!