Kidlit writers: Sale on writing tools!

For the next 4 days (May 16 - 19), Writing Blueprints by the folks behind Children's Book Insider (as well as a 1-year membership to Children's Book Insider) are ON SALE to celebrate their 27th anniversary!

Here's all the stuff on sale through WritingBlueprints.com:

• Picture Book Blueprint 
• Easy Reader Upgrade
• Picture Book Blueprint / Easy Reader Upgrade Bundle
• Chapter Book Blueprint  
• Self-Publishing Blueprint  
• One Year Membership to Children's Book Insider

I tried the Chapter Book Blueprint, and I loved it. I was taking a gamble, but it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for as I approached writing my first chapter book.

Through a series of worksheets and accompanying videos, writers are led through an intuitive process to build characters, plot points, conflict...and then to deepen each aspect. Once you're ready to start your first draft, you have an outline (which can also be used to create your hook and synopsis). And when you complete a draft, there are worksheets and videos for troubleshooting and self-editing until your manuscript is polished and ready to submit. (There are even suggestions for submitting!)

As a bonus, a private Facebook group offers connection to the creators of the Blueprints, as well as critique groups with other users. It's been great to meet writers journeying along the same path, to read what folks are working on, and to receive detailed feedback on my own work. I've been really impressed by the quality of other members' writing and the generosity of their critiques. Here's hoping we'll develop long-term writing friendships!

So this is a plug for a product that I purchased on my own and really found useful. It's basically a self-guided class that offers the basics for crafting a solid manuscript. Are there other ways to write? Of course. But because you can download and keep the worksheets, you can use them in whatever order you like for as many projects as you want.

Check out the introductory video, and take advantage of the sale! Use THIS LINK for the sale prices.


Chapter Book Blueprint VIP Power Bundle | Writing Blueprints.

Speculative YA fiction and poetry? Yes please!

I'm happy to announce my first poems for kids are available in the new issue of Stinkwaves Magazine!

I was really excited to find a YA magazine devoted to speculative fiction, poetry, and art. They're also engaged in building a community of writers and artists, including young and up-and-coming creators, through the magazine and their parent publisher Handersen Publishing's books for kids. Exciting to be part of this new endeavor!

My two poems in this issue, "The Threshold Machine" and "American Inferno," were once described as "Dr. Seuss meets Kafka." Check out the latest issue for some fun, strange, creative work--and don't forget to subscribe!

JambaLAya Kidlit Festival tomorrow!

Exciting! I'm attending the LA/MS SCBWI children's literature festival here in New Orleans tomorrow!

AND I might get a chance to meet the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Angie Thomas!

Ms. Thomas is a guest author at the conference, offering her insight into writing and publishing her first book. Her story is amazing, and I look forward to hearing more from her--and lots of other exciting editors and authors!--tomorrow.

Yay!

One door closes...

...and another pops right open.

After my first rejection of the year, I received my first acceptance! Hypertext Magazine accepted my essay "Renovations" for publication in (I think) a Valentine's-themed issue. Not sure if it's an online issue or print. Either way, YAY!

More info as I know it. And a reminder: Keep writing, keep submitting!


via GIPHY

First rejection of the year!

Celebrate rejection, right? It means we're trying.



via GIPHY

TRYING, not crying.

No, really, it was actually a positive rejection (writer friends, you know what I mean). The magazine had rejected one of my two poems right away, but the other one they held onto...for 6 months. As a poetry editor, I know that sometimes means a series of editors are taking a closer look and seriously considering it for publication. AND this is a notoriously difficult magazine to get into. All my fingers were crossed.

When the rejection finally came, it was polite and encouraging--and different than the other one I had received. That means it had been personalized. It invited me to submit more work.

Not exactly a handwritten note extolling my virtues, but hey, that is a step in the right direction!


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Coping mechanisms

When I'm stressed out about events beyond my control, I tend to make stuff. Over the past couple weeks leading up to today's inauguration, I have:

1. Finished a first draft on a new kidlit novel

2. Knitted a Pussyhat for my sister-in-law planning to attend a Women's March tomorrow

Me modeling the Pussyhat.

3. Made my own seitan, aka "wheat meat," which is superexpensive at Whole Foods. Used it in Tandoori Seitan, which was a flop, and vegetarian Philly cheesesteaks, which were a hit!

4. Baked banana-nut bread from scratch

5. Made eggnog bread pudding (with rum sauce) from stale sourdough

I have a request for another Pussyhat from my son, plus a stack of books to read and review, and edits to that new novel, poets to respond to, and new recipes to try...

The world out there has gotten pretty scary and intense. For now, I'm in here, creating. And doing lots and lots of yoga. What about you? How do you cope?

JambaLAya Kidlit Conference in New Orleans

I just signed up for the New Orleans SCBWI JambaLAya Kidlit Conference! Have you?

Early bird pricing is in effect until the end of January--a great deal for a conference! Diversity scholarships are available, too. AND there are manuscript / portfolio consultations, plus a dinner. It's going to be great! I've gotten to know the folks of my local SCBWI, and I know they're going to throw a great conference. Here's the official rudown:

March 10-11, 2017

So … you have a story and want to get it published? Or, you want to learn how others got their stories and/or illustrations published? Or, you like gathering around in the company of other writers and illustrators to share insights and wisdom into the fascinating publishing world of childrens' books?

Whatever made you click to get here, BIENVENUE! 

Featured speakers include Executive Editor and author Cheryl Klein "The Magic Words", YA debut author Angela Thomas "The Hate U Give," author Whitney Stewart and more. Critique guests also include Editor in Chief Nina Kooij and Art Director Kevin Johnson with Pelican Publishing Co., and freelance editor Catherine Frank.

DETAILS:

Friday, March 10 Icebreaker ~ Kidlit Drink Night Meetup at The Columns Hotel at 5 p.m.

Saturday, March 11 Conference ~ Academy of Sacred Heart Mater Campus beginning at 8:45 a.m.

So register already, and I'll see you there!

Short review: Shirley Jackson biography

I just finished Ruth Franklin's marvelous biography Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, which would make a great gift for writer-mamas.

Best known for her short story "The Lottery," Jackson wrote six novels--one of which was nominated for a National Book Award and another made into a movie--five story collections, four children's books, and two hugely popular comic memoirs about her family. She managed all of that while raising four children in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s with little support from her husband--in fact, her writing income supported the family for many years. (Her advice? Do less housework.)

Franklin engagingly weaves aspects of Jackson's personal life with summaries of her work and its critical reception. I particularly enjoyed the head-scratching from critics who didn't understand how the same writer could publish funny stories about her kids and literary fiction that explores the human capacity for evil.

Fascinating and inspiring, Franklin's book ought to reinvigorate interest in Jackson's work; her titles are on my wish list! (I'm already obsessed with We Have Always Lived in the Castle... just look at that cover!)

Sixfold contest results

The results are in! I participated in one of Sixfold’s reader-voted writing contests, and I found it a fascinating experience.

Unlike most contests, each entry is judged by other entrants in three rounds of voting. After I submitted my batch of poems, I received an email telling me when voting began. Then I was able to read six collections of poetry, rank them 1 – 6, and share comments.

Two more rounds followed, each a week apart. Just today, the final results were shared. The first-place winner was a collection that I had read and ranked highly, so that was cool to see!

My own ranking was lower than I had hoped—somewhere in the middle—and I received a few comments, some helpful and some not-so. (Respectful, just not specific enough for me to use in revisions. Though one was glowing, so that was nice!)

I really liked the experience of a peer-reviewed contest, and I thought the winners deserved their prizes. It’s a different feeling to see how other writers in similar circumstances receive your work, and to have the chance to read and comment on other submissions. I like the egalitarian aspect of this system very much.

If you’re new to submitting your work, I suggest doing something like this to give you the opportunity to read and critique other writers’ efforts. It’s incredibly helpful to recognize the strengths and weaknesses in someone else’s writing in order to improve your own—not to mention sharing insights with others.

At the same time, it was a bit of work, and I didn’t receive as much helpful commentary as I had hoped. Next time, I’ll try to choose a submission time when I’m not feeling so under the wire (the holidays have enough going on!).

Curious to discover other egalitarian-based and/or peer-reviewed literary journals or contests. Do any build into a real community of writers and reviewers? Which ones have you tried?

Welcome back, brain

After a long, hot summer of Camp Mom (two kids + one 40 pound puppy over three months of sweltering heat and almost-daily thunderstorms), I am so grateful for September. Kids are back in school (even my 2.5 year old!), weather is beginning to cool off, and I finally have time and energy to tackle some of the projects buzzing around in my sun-soaked brain. And none of them involve fingerpaints or glitter. Yet.

I'm working on a review for Women's Review of Books of an interesting book by a native New Orleanian, Hearing Sappho in New Orleans by Ruth Salvaggio. The premise is that the author, while mucking out her flooded home after Katrina, found a copy of Sappho's poems, and she begins thinking about how Sappho has been dug out of the muck for 2,000 years--just won't stay buried. She argues that New Orleans is much the same way; its culture goes back too far and too deep to be completely lost. It's a scholarly quest for the origins of New Orleans lyric poetry, and a very interesting ride.

The difficult parts, for me, are reliving some of the immediate aftermath of Katrina, remembering details of that time. And of course, reading and writing about lost homes and lives immediately after Hurricane Isaac did the same thing for so many families around Louisiana--it feels like the trouble never really stops. Yet that's Salvaggio's point, over 300 years, times of trouble and sorrow, there are threads that connect the past to present, and how comforting that is, to know that someone has done this before and wrote something down for someone else to find. Now it's my turn.

Louisiana Poetry Project

Laurie Williams, a colleague from the University of New Orleans, contacted me recently about this amazing website she's put together to promote poetry and poets in Louisiana, the Louisiana Poetry Project. It's a great resource for teachers and students to learn more about poets based in Louisiana, complete with a poem-a-day, lesson plans connected to specific poems, contests for students, and hand-outs for teachers.

I love the map on the home page filled with writers' names--some I'm familiar with, some not--and as the page says, "we know our food, our musicians, our natural resources...let's add poets to that list." Amen!

I'm honored to be a part of the project. Thank you, Laurie, for putting this project together, and for inviting me to participate!

The trouble with blogs

Blogs are a great tool, a fun way to connect with friends and to meet new ones. They also seem to attract more than their share of opinionated nuts. For (aspiring) writers, I guess it's a glimpse into the ramifications of taking their personal writing to a public level.

My friend Leeandra writes a blog on Open Salon, and a recent post was featured on Salon.com's front page--high honor, and deservedly so. She wrote a wicked funny satire about some of the customers who come into the gallery where she works. Thousands of views later, she had many positive comments, but also a few who seem to have entirely missed the humor and the point of her original essay (mostly those who took offense at her Croc-bashing). Another writer even posted a critique on the Times-Picayune's website, blaming her essay (and others like it) for...well, I'm not sure what. Preventing New Orleanians from "just getting along"?

To her credit, she takes it all in stride and sees the humor (and irony) in writers criticizing other writers for writing. Who knew that trying to elicit a few laughs (and exorcise a few retail-related demons) could cause, as she put it, such a shit-storm?

In a much reduced way, a recent post of mine on Open Salon attracted comments from a gun lover. I was trying to begin a discussion about kids and toy weapons, and this dude went all gangbusters on freedom to bear arms. Yikes.

I guess it's the dangers of putting your opinion out there for all to see (and comment on). I don't mind someone disagreeing with me, as long as they stick more or less to the topic at hand and can keep things intelligent and calm. But maybe in the blogosphere, that's just too much to ask?

An Interview with Eleanor Stanford

Please check out an interview I did with poet Eleanor Stanford for Literary Mama. We discuss her book of poetry, The Book of Sleep, the challenges and the sometimes surprisingly positive effects of mothering and writing, and her plans for the future.