Carolee Dean's Blog, page 26

SCHOOL VISITS AND YALSA PANEL PREPARATIONS

Lucky me! I got to spend the day with four delightful authors at two high schools. From right to left: Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (recent winner of the Horn Book Award for No Crystal Stair, Kersten Hamilton (author of the Tyger, Tyger series), Besty James (author/illustrator and mastermind behind The Seeker Chronicles), Carolyn Meyer, (author of the Young Royals Series/expert on dysfunctional royal families), and me, Carolee Dean.

We held an author panel at Rio Rancho High School in the morning and Cleveland High School in the afternoon. The topic was "How Authors and Students Conduct Research" and we discussed everything from using Facebook to "research" prospective prom dates to learning how to build a computer by watching YouTube. There was also mention of the difference between .com, .org, and .edu sights as well as how to effectively use Wikipedia as a starting place for more in depth research. We all shared stories about interesting people we have interviewed and places we have visited.

The five of us are in the process of preparing for our YALSA panel in St. Louis in three weeks. If you are going to be attending YALSA, please stop by our session, or if you know any librarians making the trek to St. Louis, tell them to stop by and say hello.
Here is the information:
Saturday, November 3, 2012 - 1:30 - YALSA Symposium - St. Louis A Matter of Facts and Fiction: Giving Teens a Research Edge through YA Author PanelsFive New Mexico authors will present a pilot program that brings teens and authors together to explore research strategies for writing fiction and nonfiction in a digital world.  The authors will discuss collaborations among libraries, bookstores, educators, and local authors to create dynamic interactive school events designed to excite teens about becoming research detectives, and inspire teachers to link YA fiction with curriculum goals and objectives. Presenters:Carolee Dean, Kersten Hamilton, Betsy James, Carolyn Meyer, and Vaunda Micheaux NelsonSee You There!!

Stop #4 of the Ghost Tour

Join me today over at Elana Johnson's Blog for Stop #4 of the Ghost Tour where Elana Johnson interviews one of the main character's from Forget Me Not - Elijah McCall. Find out why he spent a month speaking in iambic pentameter. While you are there, check out Elana's books. She is the young adult author of Possession, Regret, Surrender, Abandon, and Resist.

The Major Impact of Minor Characters

Some of the most memorable characters in literature and film are the minor characters. Minor characters serve many roles. They often provide comic relief, give us a contrast to the hero, provide a slightly different point of view, demonstrate a rivalry, share insights into different cultures, and show us the motivations of antagonists. They might be a friend, sidekick, evil minion of the villain, or a "threshold guardian" momentarily preventing the hero from leaving the Old World to enter the New World. They often act as mentors, sometimes just for a scene or two, passing along vital information or giving aid to the other characters in the story...

Read the rest of the article at Spellbinders to find out why so many minor characters die at the midpoint or the climax of the story. There is also a ghostly writing activity for the month of October.

Stop #3 of the FORGET ME NOT Ghost Tour

Join me today over at Brenda Drake's Blog to learn about the dark history of Raven Valley High School. Then stop over at Ghost Tour Central to find out what you missed and what's coming next on the tour. There is a rafflecopter contest at the bottom of the page and lots of free giveaways.

Autumn in the Land of Enchantment: The International Balloon Fiesta

It's International Balloon Fiesta time in Albuquerque. The sky explodes with color. Motorists stop at random places along the road to watch hot air balloons descend, chase crews can be seen racing all over town, the population expands by 90,000 tourists and over 500 hot air balloons, and a general aura of magic takes over the city. 
Locals like me usually avoid Balloon Fiesta Park, the take-off field built especially for this once a year event, unless we have out of town visitors we want to impress.

Everyone has to try it at least once. It's hard to describe the experience of watching hundreds of balloons inflating all around you as they slowly lift toward the sky. The traffic is a nightmare and you must get out there at 5:00 a.m. to find a decent parking place, but there's nothing like it.
There's plenty of action going on around town too, though. Locals and tourists alike gather at viewing hot spots. Depending on the direction of the wind, you might wake up to find balloons flying right over your house, and if they get low enough, you can hear the swoosh of the butane coming up from the basket as it inflates the balloon.
You never know where a balloon might land. This one came down in a vacant lot in the Trader Joe's near our house and further down the street another one landed at the middle School. A few years ago a balloon landed on the field right in the middle of my daughter's marching band practice. Sometimes they end up in parking lots, or even in the middle of the river, which is less hazardous than it sounds thanks to the drought. The photo below shows balloons landing on the Sandia Indian Reservation just north of town, and just a little further beyond that, the parking lot of the Sandia Casino is filled with people watching the event from the comfort of RVs, pickup trucks, and car hoods.


Balloons are finicky. They require certain weather conditions to be able to take off. Yesterday thousands of tourists left the field in disappointment because the wind prevented the balloons from going up at all. It wasn't a total disappointment. There is a fair-like atmosphere at Balloon Fiesta Park and the chance that the event you came thousands of miles to view may not happen at all, actually adds to the excitement when all goes well. Cheers go up from the crowd as balloons take off and there is a camaraderie of those who are brave enough to face the traffic and the chilly autumn morning.

The balloons remind me that things like rivers and air currents and life's events all flow in uncertain and fascinating ways. They make us all stop, sometimes in the middle of traffic, to watch in wonder and discover how enchanting it can be to embrace the unpredictable.

STOP #2 OF THE GHOST TOUR

Today visit Stop #2 of the FORGET ME NOT Ghost Tour.

Travel to Raven Valley, Virginia with Stacy and Shannan from GIRLS IN THE STACKS
as they go hunting for ghosts. Watch their video Here!

GHOST TOUR BEGINS TODAY

STOP #1 of the Forget Me Not GHOST TOUR goes live today at Kimberley's Wanderings.

Get a sneak peek of the poem
"The Nine Circles of Raven Valley High."

Find out what ghosts
gravitate to which areas
of the school and why.

Visit GHOST TOUR CENTRAL
to find out what's coming next.

Then tell your friends about it
in a tweet or post or text.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to My New Book

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FORGET ME NOT

My paranormal verse novel goes on sale today at bookstores everywhere and amazon.com.
It's available in hardcover and as an e-reader.
Read the wonderful Kirkus review.Here's another review from Alamosa Books.

And come back tomorrow, October 3 for the start of the Ghost Tour.

 

Fantasy and Science Fiction and Everything In Between - Interview with Bookseller Elizabeth Anker

The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote for this week's SPELLBINDERS post:

I was recently preparing to give a writing workshop entitled, "What's Hot in Teen Fiction." As I sat down to write my definitions for topics such as Steampunk and Dystopian, I realized I wasn't altogether sure about how to describe these fantasy sub-genres myself

That's when I decided to interview Elizabeth Anker, the owner of Alamosa Books, our local independent children's books store. I figured teachers and librarians would also be interested in exploring these different categories and hearing what a book seller thinks of their appeal to young readers. A large part of being able to recommend a book to a young person is knowing what these different genres contain. Below are Elizabeth's thoughts on the subject.



She says Steampunk started with good writers, mainly in Britain, writing on the edge of science fiction. Then editors saw the trend and began looking for other books with similar themes. These stories tend to be more about a similar look and an idea rather than a similar story line. The look is basically Victorian with Victorian type costumes, gadgets, inventions, and creative weaponry. Goggles of some kind are almost always involved. Plots involve adventurers out to seek their fortunes or defeat bad guys in creative and technological ways. Although drawing on elements of Victorian England, these stories are not so much set in the past as they are set in parallel worlds with Victorianesque influences.

Elizabeth says Sherlock Holmes stories, which actually take place in Victorian times, are a strong influence. Holmes's nemesis Moriarty is the perfect model for the archetypical steampunk bad guy is often based upon reliance on high tech (for the times) weaponry used by a villain who is trying to take over the world. Moriarty is not influenced by morality at all and many steam punk villains are equally as capitalistic.

Steam is often the primary energy source of the times, but something magical is usually involved as well. There is a lot of true science and pseudo science woven through these stories. In the better cases it's real science with pseudo science on the edge, but based in a true science like physics. In books trying for the trend but not so concerned with research it's purely magical in many cases.

Read the rest of the post at the Spellbinders Blog

How I Became a Teaching Author

Today I'm over visiting April Halprin Wayland at the
April: What's a common problem your students have and how do you address it? 

Me: It's easy to get stuck staring at a big white page or a blank computer screen. I can't tell you how many times I hear the words, "I don't know what to write."  I reply, "writing isn't about knowing. There is no magic right or wrong answer as there is in other subjects.

Writing is about choosing, about considering the infinite possibilities and picking one." To this the student inevitably replies, "I still don't know what to write." Then I usually give the stumped pupil a whole list of suggestions which he or she usually doesn't like because that blank computer screen is still just so darn intimidating.

To read the rest of the interview visit