Augusta Scattergood's Blog, page 62

My bags are packed!

Heading north for a few days. Three schools, two in Maryland, one in Virginia. Plus lots of fun friends and family along the way.


Yes, my Junk Poker box is secure in its waterproof bag...

And I'm never without my GLORY BE wristlet!



HERE'S the website, should you need one of these adorables. Every time I hold mine up in the midst of writers, they want one.
(Mine's looking a little well-loved these days...)



Be back soon!




Possibly related posts: Going Home Again- Baltimore.  Wristlet, a thing I love!

Beautiful Bookstores

 In honor of WORLD BOOK NIGHT, which so many amazing bookstores supported this year...

Enjoy!
(This one might be my favorite.)


But all bookstores are beautiful in their own way, right?

Next year I hope to get dibs in early on a box of books to share. This year, it's fun following my friends on Facebook, passing around Book Love.
Click here if somehow you've missed this slide show elsewhere.

If ever you're in Houston...

And don't have uber-guide Bobby Moon and his wife Jeannie?



(pictured, on our brief walking tour, standing in front of the beautiful Chase Bank window)



Here are a few eating tips from the Food Guru of downtown (AKA Bobby J. Moon, my Cleveland High School buddy). Makes me want to hurry back.


1. Hubcap Grill, 1111 Prairie at Fannin....best HB in town! It's the sourdough type custom bun and never been frozen beef.

2. Treebeard's (How did I not know this was the word for Spanish moss)  at Market Square, in Christchurch Cathedral on Texas across from Hubcap Grill. Red beans, rice and smoked sausage... ALL things Cajun and more...Italian Cream Cake...go crazy here!

3. Supreme Sandwiches, Rusk and Milam, next to Subway... handmade sandwich, chips and soda....ask for free lettuce and tomatoes




Eating lunch with Bobby and sharing his Delta Daze yearbook.
Pretty funny pictures in that book...











Bobby brought friends and family to the reading at the fabulous Blue Willow Bookstore.













My Kent Place and Chatham friend, Patti Kiley also made the trek to Blue Willow. Thanks, Patti!



That's my Scholastic/ NJ  friend David Levithan checking out the autographed walls behind us.
I got to put my name way up high on those walls. So exciting to be in these amazing independent bookstores! Love them.




All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.
John Ruskin

And the Winner is!

Lots of entries in my MAY B. giveaway!

A completely unbiased hand drew out the winning slip.





AND THE WINNER IS...

(the very last person who entered. And a new blog reader. It's always good to try new things!)

Jen Gennari, please send me an email with your mailing address. Congratulations and thanks to all who entered the giveaway.

(PS to the post. Jen graciously offered her prize to the runner-up since she'd already read MAY B.
Shannon Hitchcock was the winner, a perfect writer to share
a new historical with. Congrats, Shannon.)

I love Texas!

If anybody ever invites you to the Texas Library Association's annual conference, go.

And if you ever hear of a breakfast sponsored by Scholastic, don't miss that either.
Writers get to act! A lot of writers are true hams.

The amazing team from Scholastic created Readers Theater scripts from our books. We read them, with feeling, while 200 librarians enjoyed a fabulous breakfast and got free books. What could be better?

Glory's team rocked! Elizabeth Eulberg was a sassy Jesslyn. She flounced with the best of them. Maggie Stiefvater's Glory = perfect! Of course, she had an advantage, being from Virginia.
And Michael Northrop killed with his lines, "Now, girls..." (Or rather noaw girrrlllsss.) and "Lemme think on it."



With very little practice, they perfected their drawls. Way to go, Yankees (and Maggie)!

We all have books just out or coming out, with Scholastic. Check them out!

And for those of you who may be contemplating casting a play that requires a bit of South Speak.
Resources here:

USA Deep South

And how about this?

More Poetry

I so love the poetry of Naomi Shihab Nye.

Another way to celebrate April! Listen to her read and tell us about her writing.
Or just enjoy this one!
Always Bring a Pencil
By Naomi Shihab Nye

There will not be a test.
It does not have to be
a Number 2 pencil.

But there will be certain things—
the quiet flush of waves,
ripe scent of fish,
smooth ripple of the wind’s second name—
that prefer to be written about
in pencil.

It gives them more room
to move around.

Caroline Starr Rose-- and a Giveaway!

    Caroline Starr Rose's MAY B. has been compared to the Little House books. As a young reader, she was a big fan, and it will appeal to readers of Laura's adventures. But May B.'s appeal, I believe, is going to reach into the upper age bracket of middle grade. May's is a survival story, told in starkly beautiful words.

    The book's gotten some terrific reviews, including a star from Kirkus. Which is saying something. And now I get to chat with Caroline.

     Pull up a chair. Caroline has something to share. 
                           (unintentionally poetic!)



Augusta:  Can you give us your quick definition of a novel-in-verse, for those who may not be familiar with the genre?
Caroline:
A novel-in-verse is a story told through poetry. I use free verse (no rhyme -- or at least not much -- and no consistent meter), though there are other authors who use specific types of poems (sonnets, for example) to forward the story.

Augusta: Was writing in this style completely new to you? How did you prepare to write? Do you sit at your desk and wait for the muse? Journal? Write a detailed outline? Read similar books? Read a lot of poetry?
Caroline:
Writing May B. felt like delving into uncharted territory. Though I’d published two children’s poems previously, I was by no means any sort of expert. Add to this the fact I’d only read two verse novels before beginning May, and I truly was out there on my own.
Because I was teaching at the time (and was creatively spent by the end of the day), most of my drafting took place during holidays. I made myself sit with the story, trusting that the time spent playing with May’s character and creating a loose story arc would get me through. While drafting, I imagined a quilt with each poem standing in for a different square of fabric. As I moved from poem to poem, I trusted certain themes and story strands would unfold, just as patterns form on a quilt. It was a very organic way to write, one that involved a lot of faith in the process of experimenting with words and structure.
I absolutely avoided verse novels while drafting and even convinced myself I wasn’t really writing poetry (which, in my mind, was a lofty, intimidating thing I wasn’t yet ready to claim). My fear was reading a verse novel would reveal how flawed my own writing was.

Augusta: What a terrific image, the quilt!
Tell us a little about your process for creating May B.
Caroline:
May B. didn’t start as verse. What I first wrote very much frustrated me, as it felt so distant from what I’d imagined. I set my writing aside and returned to my research. In reading first-hand accounts of midwestern women in the late 1800s, I picked up on the similarities their journals and letters contained -- terse language stripped of emotion and verbose description. I returned to my drafting, trying to mirror the style of these women. This was the key in discovering May’s voice and most honestly telling her story.
Augusta: Research is crucial, of course. But I love how it took you from the original sources, right to your own writing.
Where do you do your best writing and musing about writing? Different spots? A quiet and orderly writing cottage? Walking the dog?
Caroline:
I have an office I love, though I’m not good at a desk for long. I prefer my couch, with my laptop on my knees and my dog at my feet. Believe it or not, I also enjoy writing in my car. Oftentimes I’ll take the hour before school lets out and sit in the library parking lot with some research or some writing.
Walking the dog is a great way to let my brain both wander and create without the pressure my official writing time sometimes brings. When I get stuck, Boo and I head out the door. My editor once joked that Random House should get an office dog: he’d get lots of exercise, and a lot of out-of-the-box thinking would happen.
Augusta: Well, I just love that! I also write in my car, parked of course. And what a visual- All those NYC dog-walkers? They could be editors, thinking outside the box!

  Do you think certain subjects lend themselves more to novels-in-verse than others?
Caroline:
I do. For me, the form lends itself to historicals (at least in my writing life). I can’t imagine writing a contemporary this way (though life has taught me to never say never). I have two other historical verse novels on my mind -- one I’m drafting now and one I hope to get to sometime in the future. I also have a book in me about a Gitana, a Spanish Gypsy girl. I’m not sure yet when it will take place, and I don’t even have a story line, but I know the color and movement and rhythm of the culture for me, at least, must be told through verse.


Augusta: I know you also write picture books. Did your writing style or thoughts about writing picture books change after you finished May B.?
Caroline:
I’m not sure my thoughts and style have changed much, but I’m more fully aware of how verse and picture books compliment each other. Brevity is king in both genres. I’ve learned the importance of making every word count.
Augusta: Make Every Word Count. We should all needlepoint that on a pillow.

When I was a school librarian, during the entire month of April, we encouraged our students to "Keep a Poem in your Pocket" and share them with others.
Since it's April and Poetry Month, would you share a favorite poem with us?
Caroline:
This is a poem I absolutely adore. I memorized it and recited it one year during my classroom’s end-of-our-poetry-unit Coffee House celebration:
If I Were a Poem~Sara Holbrook
If I were a poem,I would grab you by the anklesand rustle you up to your every leaf.I would gather your branchesin the power of my winds and pull you skyward,if I were a poem.
If I were a poem,I would walk you down beside the rushing stream,swollen with spring, put thunder in your heart,then lay you down, a new lamb, to sing you to softly sleep,if I were a poem.
If I were a poem,I wouldn’t just talk to you of politics, society and change,I would be a raging bonfire to strip you of your outer wrap,and then I would reach within and with one touchignite the song in your own soul.
If I were a poem,I would hold my lips one breath away from yoursand inflate you with such desire as can existonly just out of reach, and then I would movethe breadth of one bee closer, not to stingbut to brush you with my wings as I retreatto leave you holding nothing but a hungry, solitary sigh,if I were a poem.
If I were a poem,my thoughts would finally be put to wordsthrough your own poetry, I would push you that far,if I were a poem.

Thanks for this opportunity, Augusta!

Augusta: Inspirational- both you and the poem. We loved having you! 

Now, it's one reader's lucky day. I'm sharing my copy, sent to me by the publisher. Leave me a comment, please. The GIVEAWAY will last a week.

TEXAS, here I come!

I'm really getting excited about next week's TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION  conference.

I'll be on a panel, sign books at the Scholastic booth ( @font-face { font-family: "Franklin Gothic Book"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } #1518 from 3 to 4 on Wednesday) and have a special opportunity to fire up my acting skills, long since retired (stay tuned for pictures and details, unless I fall on my face).

If you're near Houston and like bookstores , or just want to say hello, please pop into our Wednesday night bookstore event. We'll each do a short intro and then have lots of time to Meet and Greet.

See you there, Houstonians!

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Blue Willow Bookshop: Five Fabulous Authors 14532 Memorial DriveHouston, TX 77079(281) 497-8675
Authors Participating:Jennifer A. Nielson (The False Prince)Sarah Mlynowski (Whatever After)Chris D’Lacey (Fire World & The Fire Ascending)Augusta Scattergood (Glory Be)Michael Northrop (Plunked) 

And the Winner Is!!!

Today at our Critique Group meeting, outside in the sunshine at Panera, Teddie draws a name out of a baseball cap.

Who will it be? Who gets to read

PLUNKED?





Email/ FB/ Comment your address, Joyce Hostetter!

It's your lucky day!

More about me? And Elvis...

Specifically, about writing Glory Be.

 Here's a link to Holly Schindler's fab blog. ☜☜☜

With a cute picture of my little Elvis statue, now appearing in a Junk Poker box near you.



(How do these remarkable bloggers think of such great questions?)