Deborah Halverson's Blog, page 13

Stargazing with Star Teachers

Yet again, the teachers at my sons’ school blew me away. Last week, three of them spent their evening not at home but at school on the playground, surrounded by scads of students and parents, leading a night of stargazing. They’d set up two telescopes, one pointing at the moon, the other at Saturn. Wow, to see the rings in real life rather than in photos in books! The Halversons couldn’t resist contributing our own telescope, which my parents gave us a few years ago. Finally, a reason to learn how to use it! Alas, we’d forgotten to check one major bolt and hadn’t brought along any tightening tools, so our telescope sagged instead of pointing heavenward. That didn’t stop game students who held it steady for their friends and family, giving everyone an extra option for viewing the moon.

But best of all had to be the fact that we were able to extend that night of stargazing with teachers: We set up our telescope on the sidewalk last night (all bolts tightened!) and invited several neighboring households to join us. That will go down as one of my favorite nights in this neighborhood. As we adults kept taking turns and marveling at what was above (this time adding Venus to the menu), the little kids turned their attention downward to slug-gazing, using their flashlights to study slugs and ants out foraging in the cooler night temps.

What a night. A little bit of looking up, a little bit of looking down, and a lot of looking eye to eye at neighbors who too often these busy days just pull into garages after a long day and stay inside to catch up with family. Perhaps it’s imagination, but I think the neighborly waving between driveways was more hearty this afternoon than yesterday.

Robin Cruise Sets Us Straight: “onto” versus “on to”

If you get mixed up about when to use “onto” and “on to”, you’re not alone. I received a question about this at DearEditor.com and asked Robin Cruise, freelance editor at Red Pencil Consulting, to field it because she’s so good at explaining grammar stuff in accessible ways. Here’s the question:

Dear Editor…

Which is right?

1) Jane stepped onto the patio.

2) Jane stepped on to the patio.

My net surfing tells me #1 is right, that if a person or thing is “upon” a concrete object, you can use “onto” and reserve “on to” for things non-concrete or metaphorical, like “Please move on to the next topic.” Is there a net site I could use as a reference?

Thanks so much,

All Mixed Up

Click here for Robin’s spunky answer: http://deareditor.com/?p=5552

Robin Cruise has worked in various capacities in trade publishing for more than twenty years. Since launching Red Pencil Consulting in November 2011, she has collaborated directly with authors, illustrators, agents, editors, content developers, publishers, and other individuals/entrepreneurs/businesses. She is a skilled researcher, writer, editor, and project manager who helps create, shape, and deliver high-quality content for readers of all ages, both fiction and nonfiction for adults as well as children. Robin may be contacted directly at rcruise1@gmail.com.

Is It Any Wonder They Want Surf Lessons?

I surf. Not beautifully, but I haven’t drowned yet, so I say it counts as surfing. Apparently dogs also surf. I know because we got to watch surfing dog championships this weekend at Dog Beach. The canines made surfing look easier than I make it look – perhaps because they are standing on all four of their legs, while I have two arms free to flail wildly as I’m flung shoreward on my board. Whatever. The important fact is that the dogs and I both have a lot of fun doing it. And my family and I had a great time watching the dogs do it this weekend. My favorite competitor was Dozer, the surfing bulldog. The boys’ favorite was Kiwi, a dog as small as the name implies.

I think I smell a picture book in this. I know I smell surf lessons for my sons.

Eddie Gamarra as Guest Editor, Advising How to Find Agents for Scripts or Book-to-Film Rights

So often these days, books and movies get talked about in the same breath. It’s no surprise, then, that I get questions from screenwriters as well as book writers at DearEditor.com. I received a question about finding an agent for a script this week, and I was fortunate to be able to call on Eddie Gamarra, Executive Producer of James Dashner’s upcoming film adaptation of The Maze Runner and literary manager with the Gotham Group, to field it. Thanks, Eddie, for putting on Guest Editor hat today!

Here’s the question Eddie took on:

Dear Editor…

I was talking to my screenwriting professor about getting an agent.  He informed me that writer-directors do not get talent agents, but have to get literary agents. I have a producer already interested in my work, so I thought it might be safe if I sought representation. Is this true? How do I go about that?

Sincerely,

J.

For the answer, pop over to DearEditor.com.

 

 

Identical Is in the Eye of the Beholder

Not to be outdone, our fraternal triplet has appointed his own “identical” partner-in-crime.

No Wonder He Switched to Blue Shirts This Year

Me: “Stop fussing about the laundry. Why do you HAVE to have a blue shirt for the school BBQ?”

My son: “Because I want to get mixed up with my brother.” Evil grin. “It’s fun.”

So, all of you who ask if my identical boys try to fool people, we now have an official confession.

Artistic Interpretation

I’d like to share with you last night’s sunset, as painted by me and two of my eight-year-old boys. They were sad to get to the park and discover telephone poles marring their view, so I explained that artists can leave out things or add things.

“It’s your sunset, you paint it the way you see it.”

Little did I know one of my boys was seeing aliens.

By the way, all credit for this outing goes to the boy who painted the lamppost sunset. He got it into his head that he and I needed to paint the sunset together. Then he invited his brother when his brother felt left out. My baby has an artist’s sensitive soul.

 

 

Deborah’s Interview Delves Into How Writers Can Succeed in Publishing

N.W. Harris, author of Joshua’s Tree (which currently tops the Goodreads 2013 Summer Reading list), interviewed me this week for his blog. Some things we chatted about include writing fiction versus nonfiction, my path to publication and editorial career, and three things I think new writers must do to compete in the current, highly competitive publishing industry. From the interview: “Publishing is an industry, as unartful as it is to admit that, and writers who want their books out there for readers to buy must consider themselves players rather than pawns.” If you’d like to read the full interview, visit NWHarrisBooks.

Well hello, $35 Emergency Room Band-Aid

You know that urge you get where you see a weed in your garden and you think, “I’ll just pull that one little weed real quick…” and then you’re gardening for hours? I don’t know the feeling, mind you—I cannot stand gardening and would let the weeds have the whole yard if it were left for me—but both grandmas tell me about it all the time. My sons inherited that gene from them. My boys love to garden. And last night one boy decided he’d prune a bush real quickly, so he grabbed the pruners, trimmed the offending twig, then dropped the pruners onto his big toe.

I wasn’t home when this happened, but I got the call from my husband saying I was needed right away and so I zipped home, loaded the injured son (who kept telling me he was going to death) into my van, then zipped off to the emergency room. “Tell the doctor there was lots of blood,” my husband texted, “so it might be a deep cut.”

Turns out the human foot likes to bleed a heck of a lot even when it has very little reason to do so.

But better safe than sorry. My son now has a doctor’s official diagnosis that he will not bleed to death, an official hospital band-aid, and spiffy green non-slip hospital socks. So technically I didn’t part with $35 for a Band-Aid… it was a 10-cent Band-Aid and a $34.90 pair of socks.

A New Look, and a New Article

I’m pleased to debut a new look for my blog posts when they show up in subscribers’ inboxes. If you received this post via email, it should be spiffy and easy on the eye. If it’s not, then I did something wrong. Today is the first email with the new program.

But to avoid turning you into a guinea pig for my technological experimentation, I do have a bit of news to include in this blog post: Publishers Weekly included me in its coverage of the 42nd Annual SCBWI Summer Conference: “Deborah Halverson, founder of DearEditor.com, delivered a keynote titled Market Report: An Up-to-the-Minute State of the Industry, which compiled the results of interviews with 17 publishing insiders…. Halverson reported that sales are up for picture books, but editors are still cautious about the category. Chapter books and early readers remain challenging….” For more highlights from my keynote, you can click over to PW’s article and scroll down to the bottom.