Middle Grade Book Panel #MSBookFest

This past August, I participated on a middle grade panel at the Mississippi Book Festival. We were moderated by Deborah Wiles, and the other authors who took part were: John Claude Bemis, Augusta Scattergood, Esta Spalding, John David Anderson, myself, and Kathi Appelt.

I posted about this panel back in August, but now the folks at The Mississippi Book Festival have put a video of it online. You can hear each of us read from our books and answer questions by clicking on Middle School Book Panel:

Revolution by Deborah Wiles

I recently heard Deborah Wiles speak at the SCBWI Orlando Conference, and was thrilled to get an autographed copy of her latest novel.  This is from the book jacket:

It's 1964, and Sunny's town is being invaded. Or at least that's what the adults of Greenwood, Mississippi, are saying. All Sunny knows is that people from up north are coming to help people register to vote. They're calling it Freedom Summer.

REVOLUTION has an unusual format. It's part novel and part scrapbook. In my opinion, that's the book's greatest strength and greatest weakness. I can absolutely see that the black and white photos make a great tool for classrooms. On the other hand, stopping to read a nine-page essay about Cassius Clay, (Muhammed Ali), took me out of the story at hand.

Do I recommend this book? Absolutely. But with this caveat: Skip all of the photos and essays and read the novel straight through. Then go back and study all of the extra material. It really is fascinating and worth the time, just not when you're trying to become engrossed in a novel.

Orlando SCBWI Conference Review

The Orlando conference was held on Disney property at The Dolphin. I snapped the above picture just outside my bedroom window.

I took a Middle Grade Novel Workshop with author Deborah Wiles and Candlewick editor Carter Hasegawa. Deborah's presentation was about excavating your life for stories. She shared how her life has influenced her books. Deborah asked us lots of questions to start us mining our pasts for stories. For example:

1. When you think of home: what does it smell like, sound like, taste like?
2. When was your life derailed?
3. What scares you?
4. What breaks your heart?
5. Who are your heroes?

Answering those questions often provides ideas to enrich your stories.

Carter told us that he's read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card about fifty times. So if you write that type of book, I'd say Carter would be a great editor to send it to.

Carter also led a discussion about writing diverse characters. The thing he said that made me think the most is, "What gives you the right to write the other?" We have to earn the right to write stories about people that aren't like us. That reminded me of my friend Nancy Bo Flood and her book Cowboy Up! Ride the Navajo Rodeo. Though Nancy isn't Navajo, (at least I don't think she's Navajo), she does live and work on a Navajo Indian Reservation. Her life experience has earned her the right to tell this story.

One last tip from the workshop is to check out Deborah's Pinterest boards. The way she collects historical images and videos would help any writer, but especially those of us who write historical fiction.

Rumor has it, we'll be back at The Dolphin in June of 2015. You can't beat the setting, or SCBWI Florida. You're invited...come on down!

RICHARD PECK and ME!

All writers have them. Those authors we admire and strive to emulate. Lots of the usual suspects are on my list: Deborah Wiles, Karen Cushman, Deborah Hopkinson, Kate DiCamillo, Karen Hesse, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Richard Peck.

This past summer I had the opportunity to attend the national SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles. Richard Peck gave one of the keynote speeches, and I was enthralled. He has a wonderfully deep voice, the kind that is perfectly suited to a storyteller. As I listened to him weave his magic, I whispered to my friend, "I'd listen to this man read the phone book." Yes, he really is that good.

Last night an email popped up notifying me about my critique session for the Florida SCBWI Conference in Miami. Richard Peck is my assigned critiquer! I have a date with Richard Peck. Granted, it's only fifteen minutes, but it's destined to be one of those special memories that I dust off when rejection letters fill my mailbox.

Forget winning a date with Tad Hamilton. I'll take Richard Peck any day!