Mary Cronk Farrell's Blog, page 22
August 31, 2011
What's the Cost of Good Writing?
Author Libba Bray could easily have a second career as a comedian. At the recent SCBWI Summer Conference in LA, she had me and most of the other 1350 people in the audience laughing our heads off.
But for me, the most memorable thing she said was down right serious. When reading a book that doesn't grab her, Libba says she feels like it didn't cost the writer anything to write [it]. To write with honesty, it's got to cost you something.
Libba Bray's books Each story demands something different. Often the demand is to realize you have preconceived notions and be open to learning about yourself as well as your topic.
Patsi Tollinger worked for nearly ten years on her picture book biography of jockey Isaac Murphy.
It was a sense of injustice for Isaac that motivated me in the beginning. Later, after I started digging into the research, Isaac turned into my teacher and wouldn't turn loose of me until his story was done. I thought I knew a lot about the complexities of southern history. Isaac convinced me otherwise.
Isaac Murphy, the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbies, had nearly disappeared into history. With the help of Illustrator Jerome Lagarrigue, Patsi brings him to life beautifully in PERFECT TIMING.
Do you agree that good writing must cost the author something? I'd love to hear other writers thoughts about this. Please comment and share your personal experience.
Patsi Tollinger speaks to students at Fallon School about Jockey Isaac Murphy.
But for me, the most memorable thing she said was down right serious. When reading a book that doesn't grab her, Libba says she feels like it didn't cost the writer anything to write [it]. To write with honesty, it's got to cost you something.
Libba Bray's books Each story demands something different. Often the demand is to realize you have preconceived notions and be open to learning about yourself as well as your topic.Patsi Tollinger worked for nearly ten years on her picture book biography of jockey Isaac Murphy.
It was a sense of injustice for Isaac that motivated me in the beginning. Later, after I started digging into the research, Isaac turned into my teacher and wouldn't turn loose of me until his story was done. I thought I knew a lot about the complexities of southern history. Isaac convinced me otherwise.
Isaac Murphy, the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbies, had nearly disappeared into history. With the help of Illustrator Jerome Lagarrigue, Patsi brings him to life beautifully in PERFECT TIMING.Do you agree that good writing must cost the author something? I'd love to hear other writers thoughts about this. Please comment and share your personal experience.
Patsi Tollinger speaks to students at Fallon School about Jockey Isaac Murphy.
August 26, 2011
Breaking Out the Bubbly!
Check it out. Here's my writing group gathered to celebrate my book deal. Yep. That's right. Book deal. Oh, you want me to say it again? Book deal.
PURE GRIT, a true story about 99 P.O.W. nurses and how they survived World War II despite overwhelming odds, sold to Howard Reeves at Abrams Children's, many thanks to my agent Stephen Fraser of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency.
Left to right, Beth Cooley, me, Meghan Nuttall Sayres, Claire Rudolf Murphy and Mary Douthitt. I lift my glass to them. In good times and in bad, writers need a supportive critique group. I couldn't do with out the friendship and savvy of these marvelous women.
More celebrating later, right now my head is buried in research and my fingers flying across the keyboard to meet my fast-approaching deadline next year for the 2013 release.
PURE GRIT, a true story about 99 P.O.W. nurses and how they survived World War II despite overwhelming odds, sold to Howard Reeves at Abrams Children's, many thanks to my agent Stephen Fraser of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency.
Left to right, Beth Cooley, me, Meghan Nuttall Sayres, Claire Rudolf Murphy and Mary Douthitt. I lift my glass to them. In good times and in bad, writers need a supportive critique group. I couldn't do with out the friendship and savvy of these marvelous women.More celebrating later, right now my head is buried in research and my fingers flying across the keyboard to meet my fast-approaching deadline next year for the 2013 release.
August 24, 2011
No Question--You Gotta Get Hooked
He had a remarkable sense of dignity and self-worth at a time when African-Americans were encouraged to believe they were worthless. That made him a great man in the truest sense of the word.
That's how Patsi B. Tollinger describes Jockey Isaac Murphy, the subject of her biography PERFECT TIMING. But Patsi didn't know about Isaac's strength of character when she started the project.
The 32-page book has only 900-words, but Patsi spent eleven years writing it, visited seven libraries and museums and reviewed nearly 80-thousand pages of information. Five years after publication, she's is still regularly talking about Isaac, and she'll continue for years to come.
How do you get so hooked?
I stumbled across one particular historic photo, says Patsi. The picture confounded me. Here's the scene: Six men are dressed in fine suits and hats, wearing the old-fashioned 'bling' of the 1890s (pocket-watches). The date on the picture is August 1890, and even though some states actually had laws forbidding interracial socializing, five of these men are white and one is black. The lone black man is Isaac Murphy, and as I soon learned, the picture was taken at a party given in his honor. From that one picture, I got the feeling that Isaac was an extraordinary man who, in some ways, triumphed over the racial prejudice that was rampant in the late 1800s. I wanted to get to know him.
And now we can, too.
Next Wednesday: What Isaac's biographer learned from him and why it matters.
That's how Patsi B. Tollinger describes Jockey Isaac Murphy, the subject of her biography PERFECT TIMING. But Patsi didn't know about Isaac's strength of character when she started the project.
The 32-page book has only 900-words, but Patsi spent eleven years writing it, visited seven libraries and museums and reviewed nearly 80-thousand pages of information. Five years after publication, she's is still regularly talking about Isaac, and she'll continue for years to come. How do you get so hooked?
I stumbled across one particular historic photo, says Patsi. The picture confounded me. Here's the scene: Six men are dressed in fine suits and hats, wearing the old-fashioned 'bling' of the 1890s (pocket-watches). The date on the picture is August 1890, and even though some states actually had laws forbidding interracial socializing, five of these men are white and one is black. The lone black man is Isaac Murphy, and as I soon learned, the picture was taken at a party given in his honor. From that one picture, I got the feeling that Isaac was an extraordinary man who, in some ways, triumphed over the racial prejudice that was rampant in the late 1800s. I wanted to get to know him.
And now we can, too.
Next Wednesday: What Isaac's biographer learned from him and why it matters.
August 22, 2011
Compare Yourself and Weep--or Laugh
No good comes from comparing yourself to other writers. We all know it, but we still do it. Even Shakespeare did it.
Witness Sonnet 29.
…I all alone beweep my outcast state…
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope…
Though he comes around in a mere fourteen lines to recognize the wealth of being himself, we have no idea how long in actuality he might have stewed in this bitter brine of discontent. Or how often.
But the man shows us how to diminish this demon when it appears, as it is bound to do time and again. In simply recognizing he's comparing, Shakespeare remembers his true self.
I imagine him laughing for a moment about the absurdities of human nature, picking up his quill and getting back to work.
Witness Sonnet 29.
…I all alone beweep my outcast state…
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope…
Though he comes around in a mere fourteen lines to recognize the wealth of being himself, we have no idea how long in actuality he might have stewed in this bitter brine of discontent. Or how often.But the man shows us how to diminish this demon when it appears, as it is bound to do time and again. In simply recognizing he's comparing, Shakespeare remembers his true self.
I imagine him laughing for a moment about the absurdities of human nature, picking up his quill and getting back to work.
August 19, 2011
Hidden Depths Await Us All
I didn't have much time on my visit to the Getty Museum. I bypassed the tours, wandering through the gardens, then quickly through the exhibit of Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture and Decorative Arts. Not much taken with that; I thought, maybe I'm just not a visual person.
Being a journalist by trade, maybe the 19th and 20th-century photographs would be more to my taste, but I got lost in the West Pavilion among the Impressionist paintings. I liked Van Gogh's Irises, and Monet's Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light. and Wheatstack in the snow. As I moved on to Monet's Still Life with Flowers and Fruit an unexpected emotion filled my chest and throat. Tears rose to my eyes. The white flowers in the center of the painting, the depth of the fruit in the foreground, what was it about those everyday images that pulled me and held me still.
I sat on a bench to view the paintings one by one, brush strokes of light drawing me in as though I might find all the meaning I'd ever sought. Not a desperate seeking, rather in the blue shadows behind the wheatstack I paused, drinking in the wonder that overflowed the cup of the unknown. Savoring the mystery more powerful than all the answers I might chase on another day.
Though my cheeks grew wet as people came and went, I stayed as long as I dared, leaving with only a few moments to scan the exhibit of photographs taken before, during and after Cuba's 1959 revolution. I tried to memorize the candids of Che Guevara, so I could describe them later to my teenage son. This boy, a reluctant reader with no interest in history found something in Che that induced him to read a book one summer vacation. The hidden depths in all of us wait to be awakened.
Being a journalist by trade, maybe the 19th and 20th-century photographs would be more to my taste, but I got lost in the West Pavilion among the Impressionist paintings. I liked Van Gogh's Irises, and Monet's Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light. and Wheatstack in the snow. As I moved on to Monet's Still Life with Flowers and Fruit an unexpected emotion filled my chest and throat. Tears rose to my eyes. The white flowers in the center of the painting, the depth of the fruit in the foreground, what was it about those everyday images that pulled me and held me still.
I sat on a bench to view the paintings one by one, brush strokes of light drawing me in as though I might find all the meaning I'd ever sought. Not a desperate seeking, rather in the blue shadows behind the wheatstack I paused, drinking in the wonder that overflowed the cup of the unknown. Savoring the mystery more powerful than all the answers I might chase on another day.
Though my cheeks grew wet as people came and went, I stayed as long as I dared, leaving with only a few moments to scan the exhibit of photographs taken before, during and after Cuba's 1959 revolution. I tried to memorize the candids of Che Guevara, so I could describe them later to my teenage son. This boy, a reluctant reader with no interest in history found something in Che that induced him to read a book one summer vacation. The hidden depths in all of us wait to be awakened.
August 16, 2011
How A Single Moment Matters
History can turn on a moment of perfect timing. Such is the story of Isaac Murphy, one of the greatest jockeys in the history of American horse racing. Isaac's record—winning three major stakes races in a single week—still stands one-hundred and fifty years later.It's the kind of story I love. A boy born into slavery grows up confronting the odds of grinding labor and poverty, until one day he sees his chance and takes it. The world of horse racing changes forever.
But I'd never heard of Murphy before I happened upon his biography by Kentucky author Patsi B. Trollinger. PERFECT TIMING is written in lively fashion for young people and illustrated with arresting earth-tone paintings by Jerome Lagarrigue.
The author lives not far from the first track where Isaac Murphy raced. Come back next week to hear how she discovered this amazing story.
August 15, 2011
Too Much To Do? No Time to Do It?
Life can overwhelm you if you let it. Tiny moments of decision throughout the day determine the weight of the burdens we carry.
Like this morning, when I noticed the smudge of whipped cream vanilla frosting on the inside wall of my refrigerator. That frosting came from one of six dozen cupcakes, chocolate or lemon, I baked for my daughter's high school graduation party.
In two weeks, my daughter will start her third year of college.
You can stop reading now, if you're too grossed out imagining the state of my kitchen appliances. But one day, I'm going to die.
When that day comes, I will not have spent a precious moment feeling badly about myself for not being a better housekeeper.
Like this morning, when I noticed the smudge of whipped cream vanilla frosting on the inside wall of my refrigerator. That frosting came from one of six dozen cupcakes, chocolate or lemon, I baked for my daughter's high school graduation party.
In two weeks, my daughter will start her third year of college.
You can stop reading now, if you're too grossed out imagining the state of my kitchen appliances. But one day, I'm going to die.
When that day comes, I will not have spent a precious moment feeling badly about myself for not being a better housekeeper.
July 10, 2011
You Need a Book Trailer
Not long ago, if you heard the phrase book trailer, you might picture something like a bookmobile that drives around offering books in areas remote from the library.
But bookmobiles have been cast aside like card catalogs in this technology revolution. A book trailer is something your publisher says you have to have, along with your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter....
A writer would have to clone herself to do all the marketing and promotion necessary and still continue to write.
Or hire me and my new company to do it for you! Here's the first book trailer produced by Get Kdz Lit Media. You can find us at www.Getkdzlit.com.
But bookmobiles have been cast aside like card catalogs in this technology revolution. A book trailer is something your publisher says you have to have, along with your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter....
A writer would have to clone herself to do all the marketing and promotion necessary and still continue to write.
Or hire me and my new company to do it for you! Here's the first book trailer produced by Get Kdz Lit Media. You can find us at www.Getkdzlit.com.
April 27, 2011
How to Sleep In, Eat Well & Impress Your Mother-in-Law in Three Easy Steps
I'm giving you a heads-up so you won't be caught empty handed on Mother's Day. Look at this loaf!
I made it Easter morning with very little time and effort, and I promise you can whip it out, too. Yeast breads are much easier than they look.
Raspberry Almond Braid Bread Step 1--You will need to take some initiative and find a sweet bread recipe. If you don't have a basic cookbook, google "sweet bread recipe". Make sure it calls for butter, eggs and sugar or honey. If it doesn't, google again.
Step 2--Follow the recipe, doubling the amount of yeast, and make the dough the night before Mother's Day. [I'm giving you this extra weekend, in case you feel the need to practice. You won't regret having a loaf to eat yourself.] Put the dough in a bowl covered with plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge overnight. Have on hand, a jar of raspberry jam, a can of almond paste and a cup of fresh or frozen raspberries.
Step 3--Mother's Day morning you need to get up and take the dough out of the fridge at 6AM, then go back to sleep for a couple hours. Then, get up about two hours before you want to serve the bread hot from the oven.
Dump the dough onto a flat clean surface and roll or press into a rectangle about 9 X 13 inches. With a knife point, draw two lines marking the dough into three long, even sections. Spread a layer of jam down the center section. Slice the almond paste into flat pieces and lay along the top of the jam. Sprinkle the raspberries evenly on top the almond paste.
With scissors or knife, cut 1/2 inch horizontal strips in both outer sections of dough, running from the edge almost to the jam.
Fold one end up slightly so the filling won't run out, and begin crossing the strips over one another until you reach and seal the opposite end.
Lift the braid carefully onto a baking pan and let raise in a warm place (70-90 degrees) for one hour. During this time you can relax, drink coffee, read the paper or mop the kitchen floor. After about 45-50 minutes pre-heat the over to 350 degrees. While the oven is heating take one egg white and mix it with two tablespoons of water. Then in a separate bowl, mix half a cup of powered sugar with a tablespoon of milk or cream to make icing.
When the bread has risen for one hour, very, very gently brush the egg white mixture over the top of the loaf with the corner of a paper towel. Bake the braid on the middle rack for 30 minutes.You can tell it's done when it's nicely browned on top and sounds hollow when you knock it with your knuckle. Take it out of the oven and drizzle it with icing. Serve immediately. I guarantee your mother and/or mother-in-law will be impressed.
Now wasn't that easy?
I made it Easter morning with very little time and effort, and I promise you can whip it out, too. Yeast breads are much easier than they look.
Raspberry Almond Braid Bread Step 1--You will need to take some initiative and find a sweet bread recipe. If you don't have a basic cookbook, google "sweet bread recipe". Make sure it calls for butter, eggs and sugar or honey. If it doesn't, google again. Step 2--Follow the recipe, doubling the amount of yeast, and make the dough the night before Mother's Day. [I'm giving you this extra weekend, in case you feel the need to practice. You won't regret having a loaf to eat yourself.] Put the dough in a bowl covered with plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge overnight. Have on hand, a jar of raspberry jam, a can of almond paste and a cup of fresh or frozen raspberries.
Step 3--Mother's Day morning you need to get up and take the dough out of the fridge at 6AM, then go back to sleep for a couple hours. Then, get up about two hours before you want to serve the bread hot from the oven.
Dump the dough onto a flat clean surface and roll or press into a rectangle about 9 X 13 inches. With a knife point, draw two lines marking the dough into three long, even sections. Spread a layer of jam down the center section. Slice the almond paste into flat pieces and lay along the top of the jam. Sprinkle the raspberries evenly on top the almond paste.
With scissors or knife, cut 1/2 inch horizontal strips in both outer sections of dough, running from the edge almost to the jam.
Fold one end up slightly so the filling won't run out, and begin crossing the strips over one another until you reach and seal the opposite end.
Lift the braid carefully onto a baking pan and let raise in a warm place (70-90 degrees) for one hour. During this time you can relax, drink coffee, read the paper or mop the kitchen floor. After about 45-50 minutes pre-heat the over to 350 degrees. While the oven is heating take one egg white and mix it with two tablespoons of water. Then in a separate bowl, mix half a cup of powered sugar with a tablespoon of milk or cream to make icing.
When the bread has risen for one hour, very, very gently brush the egg white mixture over the top of the loaf with the corner of a paper towel. Bake the braid on the middle rack for 30 minutes.You can tell it's done when it's nicely browned on top and sounds hollow when you knock it with your knuckle. Take it out of the oven and drizzle it with icing. Serve immediately. I guarantee your mother and/or mother-in-law will be impressed.
Now wasn't that easy?
April 22, 2011
One School + Two Moose = Great Day!
Great visit with the students of Onion Creek School. Wrote stories with the 6-8th graders. Impressive young people. 
The younger students enjoyed my historical mining artifacts.
And on the way home--I saw two moose.
I know it looks like one moose twice. But, honest...it's two unique moose!
