Alina Sayre's Blog, page 6

All Noisy on the Book Front

Good news! As my summer marathon of writing chugs forward (and Book 3 makes surprising twists and turns) all is not quiet on the book front (hehe, catch that Remarque reference?). Here are some exciting updates in the life of the Voyages of the Legend series:

1. New bookstore!

I’m thrilled to partner with Bookasaurus, the children’s division of Leigh’s Favorite Books, in Sunnyvale. This charming independent book/toy shop is a paradise for the young and young at heart. A fixture of the community, Bookasaurus now carries both The Illuminator’s Gift and The Illuminator’s Test. And the manager, Heather, is a real-life adventure heroine. At just 21, she goes to school, runs a bookshop, and reads every book she stocks. Hearing that she liked The Illuminator’s Gift was praise indeed. I want to be her when I grow up.

So check out this independent gem and shop local for your next book copy!

2. Five-star review!

I was also thrilled to hear that Readers’ Favorite, an independent book-review service, recently gave The Illuminator’s Test a 5-star review!  Here’s an excerpt:

The author’s language is exquisite and the detailed descriptions make the scenes come alive. The simple and elegant style of writing gives good pace and movement to the plot and the story moves forward fluidly. It resonates with young readers along the lines of the Harry Potter series and The Lord of the Rings with lot of adventure and whimsy that will make readers dream and imagine.

Don’t know if I can really compete with Tolkien and Rowling, but I’m quite flattered anyway.

Speaking of reviews, if you’ve read one or both Illuminator books, would you take a second to leave a review on Amazon? In the indie-publishing world, reviews from readers strongly influence what gets read. Many thanks!

Stay tuned for more events and updates in the works!

Small Songs

Seems like hummingbirds are everywhere this month. I think they like the hot weather. Somehow they manage to find and kiss nectar out of drought-dried flowers, wings beating faster than sight.

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I remember the first time I saw a hummingbird sitting on a branch. I must have been about six. I was surprised that hummingbirds had legs.

The other night, on a golden summer evening walk, I saw a hummingbird singing. I was close enough to watch its little throat bulging like a frog’s. The song wasn’t beautiful, but it inspired me:

A finger-long hummingbird who sings, because he can,

with all his might, an off-key warble,

a brave small song because,

in the world’s great harmony,

only this finger-long, emerald-backed little man

can sing that note.

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This week, I hope you sing because you can.  And because you’re the only one who can sing your note.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If you’ve known me for any length of time, you probably know that I love office supplies. Like a dog loves walkies. Like a hummingbird loves that red sticky stuff in the feeders. Yeah.

Well, it’s that time of year again. Better than Christmas. The time when the department stores put their office supplies on sale. They think it’s for kids going back to school. Actually it’s for me.

Since perhaps I went a little overboard last year, this year’s haul of office supplies was a bit more modest. I’m especially excited about having a new planner. My current one ends this weekend, and I feel what’s probably an undue amount of panic at the idea of not having any white squares in which to write my life schedule. I’m also quite excited about a new pack of Flair pens. Besides being great for book signing, they carry a weight of nostalgia for me. My grandmother loved these pens. I remember reading a birthday card written in that thick, bold Flair script every year as I was growing up. Oh! And a 750-sheet pack of printer paper. Because, you know, printouts of my new novel…

But I dare you to figure out how a hole punch and a pack of binder rings helps me teach vocabulary.

 

This sign was my unexpected happy find. Now it’s hanging on my wall. It was probably intended for teachers setting up their classrooms. But I think it’s just a good guide to using words in general. And I like words.

What’s your favorite school/office supply? 

A Whole Weekend of Books

I am finally sitting down to review the Bay Area Book Festival! Sometimes life just rolls in like a bulldozer…

This event was the first of its kind in the East Bay, with an estimated 50-60,000 people in attendance. Two days of nonstop immersion in books and readers. So. Much. Fun.

Photo credit: Jim Hillmann

For starters, I learned that my little 5-seater car can tote 250 books, 3 carts, a box of art prints, and all sorts of other necessary festival paraphernalia. And still leave room to see out the back.

On June 6-7, whole city blocks of Berkeley were closed to traffic and lined with tables and booths. My illustrator, Amalia Hillmann, and I had a table in the Children’s Area. We had copies of The Illuminator’s Gift and The Illuminator’s Test, a coloring book, art prints of the illustrations (now online here), stickers, bookmarks, and all sorts of fun. There was a little of everything in the space around us: independent author displays, publishing houses, educational foundations, a guy twisting balloon dolphins and swords, and some amazing food trucks.

Photo credit: Jim Hillmann

I didn’t get away from the table much, but I did check out the art installation at the center of the festival. Lacuna was an interactive sculpture designed to feel like an outdoor library. It was stocked with 50,000 donated books that were free for people to take home. And did they ever! By the end of the weekend, the shelves were almost bare.

Book jackets fluttered overhead, like the winged ideas enclosed within books.

Our blue-draped Illuminator table saw a lot of action over the weekend. The Children’s Area was busy almost constantly. It was fun to chat with readers both young and young at heart (I was surprised at how many young readers preferred paperbacks to e-books). I even met a girl named Ellie. She was excited to find a book with a heroine who shared her name. 

Photo credit: Jim Hillmann

On Saturday we had my amazing mom in residence, painting Vestigian designs on kids’ hands in shimmery metallic colors.

We also had coloring pages and a box of crayons available. I liked this neon-pink version of Aletheia. The young artist explained that he was helping the islands with their advertising.

Authors and illustrators gave presentations on a nearby stage throughout the weekend. After her presentation, I got to meet LeUyen Pham, who illustrated Shannon Hale’s latest book, The Princess in Black. She is just as nice as she is talented. She even bought a copy of The Illuminator’s Gift. My only regret is that I didn’t take a picture with her.

By the end of the weekend, I was exhausted, but satisfied. Though I’m not really a big-crowds person, I enjoyed meeting such a diverse assortment of people who all shared my favorite interest: reading. The organizers say they’re already planning next year’s festival for the first weekend in June.

Photo credit: Amalia Hillmann

I asked one young boy what he liked to read. He answered, “Books!”

That pretty much sums it up.

Literary Candyland

Phew! It’s been a busy month! So far I’ve visited four school groups, with one more to come later this week: one public, one private, and two homeschool co-ops. We’ve done fun activities like making up fantasy names, exploring our 5 senses, and drawing fantasy maps. These students, ranging in age from 8 to 15, consistently amaze me with their insight, creativity, and perseverance. One group was made up of mostly students with dyslexia who use software like Dragon, Siri, or Kindle text-to-speech to overcome their difficulties with print media. Some of them are writing books (or even sequels to books) of their own. It’s always an honor and a joy to meet these fearless young writers. (For details on how to schedule a visit for the 2015-2016 school year, check out my Speaking page.)

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With the school year winding down, it’s now time to mark your calendar for the first bookish event of this summer. I’m SO excited for this one. On June 6-7, downtown Berkeley will be closed to cars and open to readers! The Bay Area Book Festival is the first free, public literary event of its kind in the East Bay. The event is family-friendly and even has a whole area dedicated to children and another for teens. It will be like literary Candyland for two whole days! Here are some reasons to get excited:

-Appearances by big-time authors like Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) and Judy Blume

–A sculpture built of 50,000 books that readers can take home with them!

-Fun activities like book-themed sidewalk chalk painting, a dance performance by the Ballet Folklorico Mexicano, a giant gecko, a farmer’s market, a chance to play with typewriters, and a petting zoo with a baby kangaroo

-An art installation of flying, talking books

-A visit with illustrator Amalia Hillmann and me! We’ll be at a table in the Children’s Area by City Hall, along with lots of other authors, bookstores, and book-related activity booths, including a stage where performances will be going on all weekend. At our table we’ll have coloring pages and face painting from The Voyages of the Legend, lots of different art prints and some cool new art products, and of course, copies of both The Illuminator’s Gift and The Illuminator’s Test. We’ll even be unveiling a reprinted edition of The Illuminator’s Gift at the event, complete with a map and some new illustrations!

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I can’t wait for the Bay Area Book Festival! All the details are on the event website. It will be a weekend of nonstop book fun! I hope to see you there!

How Writing Works (Or: Practicing and Paying Attention)

On this lovely April day, I’m pleased to say I’ve committed the first several thousand words of the third book of The Voyages of the Legend to paper! After several months of collecting images, building a writing playlist, and preparing my outline, I’ve at last begun to write words down.

And it’s been a bumpy couple of weeks. Finishing The Illuminator’s Test last December was like cresting a steep mountain trail, full of exhaustion and accomplishment. Starting the third book was like finding myself back at the bottom again. It’s intimidating to try to compete with your past work. I’d gotten rusty. And sequels are hard: it’s a challenge to work with the same world and characters, but pit them against new challenges and even higher stakes.

My first attempt at an opening paragraph was so bad I was discouraged for two days.  The second attempt was better, but still extremely lackluster. Now, on my third go-around, I’m finally striking a pace and tone that I enjoy. And already the characters are beginning to spring surprises on me.

Getting back into the rhythms of writing has me thinking about what writing is made of, what it is. Pick up almost any how-to book on writing, and you’d think writing is a checklist that just takes practice and willpower. But I also think there’s something more. Writing is both a craft and an art.

The internet is saturated with books, webinars, articles, etc. on the craft of writing a book: the nuts and bolts of what goes into a story. Some of them are quite good. I’ve been to a number of classes, conferences, and critique groups that have helped push my writing to a higher level. It’s important to learn the nuts and bolts of wrangling good sentences out of the English language (or at least asking her respectfully for them). And it’s very helpful to study the works of other writers and learn by imitation. I work intensively with my students as they learn the craft of writing: paragraphs, similes, research, punctuation, character profiles. This part is work, and it can and must be learned by instruction and labor-intensive practice. With enough practice, it is possible to achieve a level of excellence in the craft of writing.

But writing is also an art, like painting, like music. And art is a gift. To write well is not only to work and create; it is also to receive. For me, starting to write again is learning again to be open to that gift: taking time to slow down, to be still, to listen, to be in the dance with God. For writing to be anything more than an underpaid day job, a meaningless clacking of fingers on keys, it must be sourced from something greater. That means that being a healthy person is part of good writing. That means that taking time to absorb and appreciate beauty is part of good writing. None of the small moments of life are wasted if seen with eyes of attention. It’s an attitude of cultivating readiness to meet inspiration. In short, living is writing, and writing is living.

I’ve created a new writing space in my office that, I think, reflects this pairing of practicing and paying attention. It’s businesslike enough for all-day scribbling sprints, yet it’s also right next to a window that looks out on the reflective world.

…And now I’m going back to write there.

[Good?] Friday

Good Friday is, perhaps, my favorite church holiday.

This day commemorates the crucifixion of Christ, whose resurrection is the cause for the feasting and new-life celebrations of Easter. Which is also a great day.

But some people get so excited about Easter that they skip Good Friday altogether. After all, what’s so good about the day Jesus died? It wasn’t so good for him.

While there are lots of explanations of the word “good,” some people say that Good Friday is good because of the ultimate salvation it brought to humankind. Yes. That’s probably part of it.

But I think Good Friday is also good for its own sake. For all who have ever suffered, this is the day when God chose to identify with us. To stop and mourn with us. A day when the loss has taken place and the redemption hasn’t.

We love stories with happy endings. We love them so much that sometimes we skip ahead to the happy ending, past all the dark parts, the sad parts, the parts where badness wins. This Easter story has a happy ending, eventually. But it is not yet. First, there is a time that seems like “the end of all things.”

Sunday is coming, but Friday is its own sacred space. 

If you are mourning today, stop and be here. Be silent. Lament for a while. Today is its own sacred space.

If someone you know is mourning, stop and be here with them. Be silent. Lament with them for a while. Don’t, please don’t, try to fix, explain away, or rush them past their grief. Today is its own sacred space.

Whatever our grief, today is a day when we are not alone in it. When God became “a man of sorrows” and chose solidarity with us.

And that’s why I say Good Friday is good.

Peace to you.

Read Like A Girl/Boy?

There’s been a lot of buzz about gender-divided reading lately. Last month Shannon Hale, author of Princess Academy, blogged about her frustrations with gender-divided school visits. Because some of her books have the word “princess” in the title (and perhaps because she’s a female author), some schools have excused their girls to attend Hale’s assemblies, but not their boys, assuming–or forcing–boys’ disinterest. Yet Hale reports the story of a boy who asked to buy her princess book by whispering in her ear, too ashamed to admit it in front of either classmates or teachers.

Then last week, The Independent announced that it would no longer review books marketed to exclude either sex. For example, Buster Books markets books with titles like “The Beautiful Girls’ Coloring Book” and “The Brilliant Boys’ Coloring Book,” limiting the former to topics like fashion and the latter to sports, and using cover colors like pink and blue as cues. The Independent pointed out that such marketing is demeaning to kids, who are people of complex and diverse personalities. Some girls like to play and read about sports; some boys grow up to be fashion writers. The Independent further argued that the best books have universal appeal. Instead of spending energy marketing “boy books” or “girl books,” the publication urged putting out good books and letting people pick their own. Both girls and boys, for example, devour Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, undeterred by the sex of the protagonist and unaided by a pink or blue cover. It makes sense from my own experience: as a kid, I read and loved both Anne of Green Gables and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, simply because both were great books.

As an author and educator, I feel drawn to this debate. Reading fiction is all about identification with a character: learning to see the world through another pair of eyes. If you want to live many lives in the space of one, read books. When kids first start reading, they tend to choose protagonists who are similar to them in age, personality, and life circumstances. This is also true of gender: when they are beginning readers, my girl students tend to choose books about girls, and boys about boys. But the power of reading doesn’t leave us where we are. As we grow and mature as readers, we learn to see the world through eyes other than our own. It’s called empathy, and fiction has been proven to increase this skill. As adults (especially those in the roles of parents and teachers), it’s our job to expose kids to books about people who are not like them. It’s part of raising kind, thoughtful, and compassionate human beings.

As a writer of children’s literature, I feel especially strongly about this. The Illuminator’s Gift features a female protagonist. True, many of my readers are girls who identify with Ellie, a 12-year-old girl. But some of my readers are boys who identify with Ellie too. They’ve told me she’s their favorite character in the book because she’s kind and finds the courage to be brave when she needs to. The fact that she’s a girl doesn’t change that. That’s why I have never advertised my books as being only “for girls,” despite my female protagonist. I applaud these boys who are learning to see through the eyes of someone who is different from them.

Ultimately, it seems to me unjust that a child should be discouraged from reading a book because of their sex. Whether by gender-based marketing or discriminatory school policies, to keep a boy out of a female author’s school visit or label a book on rocketships and backhoes as being only for “Brilliant Boys” seems like a form of soft censorship. How can one person predetermine what another may read, on the basis of sex of all things? Why not filter their reading based on class, ethnicity, or shoe size? Sound like Fahrenheit 451, 1984, or The Giver? (It’s no wonder reading speculative fiction is connected with having better ethics.) Kids (and adults) should never be shamed or pressured out of reading a book on the basis of gender expectations. To do so limits the ideas they’re exposed to, and thereby the amount of imagination, compassion, and empathy they can develop. It’s cutting off our own nose by handicapping our society’s future.

My caveat to this is as an educator. Some of my students are reluctant readers who struggle with comprehension, let alone finding enjoyment in reading. For these students, I place the love of reading as the first and highest priority. I give these students books that are as easy as possible for them to identify with. For my beginner boy students, I choose books with male protagonists and subject matter I know the students will enjoy. It’s most important to me that my students learn to associate reading with pleasure. If that connection isn’t there, they will never reach for the ideas and empathy that harder books can teach them. Only once that reading-for-fun habit is established do I challenge them to read about characters who are different from themselves. Only then can they begin to appreciate the Anne Shirleys, the Jo Marches, the Karanas of literature.

Have you tuned in to the debates on gender-divided reading? Share your thoughts in the comments! 

The #DearMe Challenge

International Women’s Day was last Sunday. So YouTube posted a challenge to women: create a video with the hashtag #DearMe and send a message to your younger self. 

I love this idea. I wish I could go back in time and give some encouragement to 13-year-old Alina (and other 13-year-olds on the hard road to growing up). So I’m taking up the #DearMe challenge.

BUT:

1. I don’t think #DearMe should only be for girls. 13-year-old boys need encouragement too.

2. I prefer writing to talking, so I’m posting a letter instead of making a video.

 

 

Dear 13-year-old Alina: 

This is your future self. You will like being 27 much more than you like being 13. I promise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s okay to be weird and nerdy as long as you’re being yourself. Soon you will begin to find weird and nerdy friends, and it’s really fun when you can be yourselves together.

Thirteen is the bottom of the barrel. Life only gets better after this.

Write! Keep writing! You’re not crazy! You have a gift! Someday your dreams really will come true: you will really will be an award-winning author, host your own signings, see your books in bookstores, and be shelved between J.K. Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkien. Don’t give up!

Being alone is hard, but it means you will have awareness and compassion for lonely people for the rest of your life.

Your pain is going to sprout wings—it will fuel your quest to find hope and bring others hope.

Your feelings are real. It’s okay to feel them and express them. Take the time you need to feel things. Just know that the darkness will pass in time. Learn what makes you relaxed and happy, and take time to be good to yourself. Learn to value your own well-being. You are God’s beloved creation and his image-bearer. You’re worth it.

You are about to meet some people who will be your friends for life. They will be awesome and inspiring and supportive. You will never be this alone again.

Experiment (within safe boundaries). You don’t have to be Perfect Girl. In fact, she’s way overrated.

The people who leave you out, tease you, or ignore you? The oblivious boys and the mean girls in the cool cliques? They’ll pass. They don’t represent the whole world. Give it time, and you’ll discover a much bigger world full of people who are much more worth knowing.

God likes it when you ask questions. Truth doesn’t fear investigation.

I wish I could tell you not to worry so much about pleasing other people—peers, your mom, adults, strangers—even people who don’t notice you or whom you don’t even like. But I’m still working hard at that lesson today. Instead, I guess I’d just tell you to balance care for others with care for your own well-being. Other people matter. You have a keen sense for their needs, and that’s a gift. But you matter too. Read this book: it will help.

That annoying little brother of yours will one day be your best friend

Don’t wait until your 20s to read Fahrenheit 451. You’re going to love it.

Don’t let bullies walk all over you. Stand up to them, and they’ll respect your boundaries.

Wear orange sometimes—it’s fun!

Be kind and open to people who think differently from you. Everyone has a story.

You don’t have to (and can’t) be anyone else. You’re unique. That’s magnetic. Love who you are, and other people will too.

Hang in there,

Your future self

 

Dear readers: what advice would you give to your younger self? Leave a comment!

An Uncommon Core: Seven Dreams for My Writing Students

As my day job, I teach students to love words. My work as a one-on-one writing coach takes me into the homes of students who range from elementary to high school. Some of them are in tutoring under duress, to make their language arts grades match their excellence in math and science. Others are there to develop the spark of language love they already have. In both cases, I have dreams for them–and for all who set out on the road to writing.

My students, I dream for you: 

1. A love of reading. We will start with easy, fun books about camping or chocolate factories that I guarantee you will love. Then, as we train, we will read harder books about harder subjects, but by then you will not even notice the difficulty as you get lost in the stories. I dream that you will learn to read fiction and not just analyze plot and theme, but also learn to see literature as a great conversation that has taken place across continents and centuries. Most of all, I hope that you will find your own place in this conversation about love, courage, hope, and sacrifice: whether as a reader, a writer, or just as a compassionate human being in this world.

2. Competence with ideas. Life is full of ideas, and I want you to be able to comprehend, summarize, and analyze them. Then I want you to be able to communicate your own ideas in organized, well-supported arguments with theses that appreciate the complexity and nuance in the world. The building blocks may fall into place slowly and painstakingly, with numerous five-paragraph essays for practice, but I dream that you will grow into people who can communicate your thoughts in a way that commands respect.

3. Curiosity. I want you to learn to ask questions, lots of questions, even questions that may have no simple answer. I want you to think about others’ ideas, and more importantly, I want you to  care. First your opinions may be black-and-white: is the Great White Shark a danger or a marvel? But I hope you will eventually develop nuance as you face the tensions in life: is a world without pain worth the elimination of choice?

4: Creativity. You may never truly love poetry or receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, but still, I want you to try writing stories and poems. I dream that you will learn to play with words and discover the beauty of looking at life a little differently. You may even discover an unexpected gift of expression.

5. A functional vocabulary. Big words can be lovely, but better are meaningful words. I want you to avoid the word “thing” at all costs and learn words that will get you as close to your desired meaning as possible: to find lightning instead of settling for the lightning bug, as Mark Twain put it. I also dream that you will learn to hear the music in words and taste their savor.

6. The practice of self-editing. I hope that you will come to understand that every work needs revision. I hope that you will learn to expand your ideas while economizing your words. If you learn nothing else from me, I really, really hope you will learn the difference between their/there/they’re.

7. In the long run, I dearly hope that you will come to see yourself as the driver of your education. Some of you are very young, and you go to school and do homework because your parents (or your tutor) require it of you. But I dream that as you grow, you will read and write and learn not because you have to, but because your passion and curiosity and creativity become impossible to contain.

I am always cheering for you,

Your tutor