My Holiday Reading List

One of the nicest parts of Christmas is having leisure time to read to my heart's content. It seems the world slows down and I spend most of my time with family, food, and books. What could be better than that?

My reading list for the holidays includes:

1. GLORY BE by Augusta Scattergood - Augusta has written my favorite kind of book, historical fiction with a southern setting. GLORY BE takes place during Freedom Summer in 1964. Look for an upcoming interview with Augusta on my blog.

2. THE SCORPIO RACES - Maggie Stiefvater creates characters I care about and writes in a lovely lyrical way. THE SCORPIO RACES is getting lots of good buzz and I can't wait to see what all the hoopla is about!

3. BIRD IN A BOX by Andrea Davis Pinkney - Another historical fiction book that I'm looking forward to delving into. I enjoy reading authors with an African-American voice. Their writing is distinctive and usually has a poetic feel to it. When I read their work, I always hear the voice of Mrs. Pauline Porter, who taught me to read.

4. DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor - This novel was named one of Amazon's Top Ten Books of 2011. Universal Studios recently bought the rights to make it into a movie. My critique partner Cynthia Chapman Willis says it's a "must read." That is high praise indeed.

Happy Holiday to one and all! May you be surrounded by bright lights, good food, people who love you, and a stack of great books!

FLYAWAY by Lucy Christopher

While browsing in my local Barnes & Noble, I was struck by all of the "cookie cutter" books on the shelves. I made it my mission to find a middle grade book with no fantastical elements. The one caveat was that it had to be a book I hadn't already read. I found exactly one book that fit my criteria: FLYAWAY by Lucy Christopher.

The back of the book says, "Quiet but compelling. Sensitive." -- Booklist, starred review. There is was again...the dreaded "Quiet" word. I paid for FLYAWAY and took it home with me. I settled down in my favorite reading chair to discover what makes this book "quiet."

Isla is an animal lover, especially swans. Very early on, we learn that her dad is having some health problems. When Isla goes birdwatching with him, Dad collapses, and it's up to Isla to get help for him.

The rest of the book is about Isla's emotional journey. Her first crush, her school project, her relationship with her prickly grandfather, but underlying all of the normal activities is a young girl struggling to grow up. Isla must face that life is fragile, and sometimes we lose the people we love most.

In my opinion, this book is deemed "quiet" because it doesn't have a "high action" plot. No buildings were blown up, bad guys didn't chase the protagonist, a wicked witch didn't die in a puff of smoke. Still I think many middle school girls will see a bit of themselves in Isla.

I enjoyed FLYAWAY, and if you are, or ever were, a girl on the cusp of growing up, you probably will too.

SECOND SIGHT by Cheryl Klein

Reasons to read SECOND SIGHT:

1. It will improve your work-in-progress. On page 17 Ms. Klein writes, "I am extremely wary of the word "feel" in a manuscript, as in 'Cheryl felt extremely wary.'" I had a lightbulb moment! If I have to tell the reader how my character feels then I haven't done an adequate job showing how the character feels. I'm scanning all of my manuscripts for the F word. There are many other specific tips just like this one in the book.

2. It will make you a better critiquer. Recently, I was reviewing a manuscript for a talented writer in my critique group. Her first page just wasn't working for me. I discovered the reason why on page 39. "If you're using a description beginning, be careful that the description is relevant and intriguing, and that it doesn't go on too long before it gets to some action." I quoted Cheryl Klein in my critique and it provided a dose of objectivity.

3. It will make you a better reviser. There's an entire chapter titled " Twenty-Five Revision Techniques." My personal favorite is #11, which is basically outlining the action of the book chapter by chapter/scene by scene.

4. It will help you write a better query letter. Ms. Klein uses a query letter she received from Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich and goes into all of the reasons why this letter works.

5. It will make you laugh! Ms. Klein was brave enough to print her 5th grade picture and to include some other funny photos in her chapter on how to write a picture book.

I marked up SECOND SIGHT with an orange highlighter so that I can refer back to it with ease. Now my plan of action is to delete all the F words and cut the scene where my protagonist is looking in the mirror. Ms. Klein calls that trick a cliche!

Have you read SECOND SIGHT? If so, what tips did you take away from it?

Mary Kole's Webinar

I recently attended Mary Kole's webinar through Writer's Digest University. First off, I had never participated in a webinar, and it's a very easy process. It's also pretty affordable for writers who may not have the resources to attend a conference. The fee was $89 and included a critique of the first 500 words of a manuscript.

Ms. Kole provided some pretty straightforward definitions of a couple of terms that had been bothering me. She described a high concept book as "if Hollywood is likely to come knocking, then you've hit upon a high concept." That immediately brought Alex Flinn's BEASTLY to mind because Hollywood did indeed coming knocking.

Furthermore, Ms. Kole said quiet books are editor speak for not hooky enough. These books probably don't have breakout potential.

A few other tidbits include the following:

1. The first chapter of a book should introduce the character without an information dump. It should make the character sympathetic and put him/her in action. There should be an inciting incident and it should shape reader expectations of what is to come.

2. Denial is really frustrating to a reader. In essence, the writer is trying to hold off plot development. (Denial in a novel makes me crazy!)

3. The ending should be inevitable and unexpected. (I have to noodle this concept around some more.)

About a week after the webinar, Writer's Digest provided a link so that participants can listen to the presentation over again, as many times as we would like, for a year. One suggestion I have for improvement is to make an actual transcript available. It would save so much time over having to listen repeatedly. That said, I was favorably impressed with the webinar and will probably participate in others in the future.

Picture Book Biographies

My favorite kind of illustrated books are picture book biographies. The ones I adore most are of unsung heroes like Walter Anderson. "He may be the most famous American artist you've never heard of."

Picture book biographies have a rhythm when read out loud. They summarize a person's entire life in usually under 1500 words. One of the key challenges in writing them is finding a focus, determining what to put in, and what to leave out.

Usually these books have an author's note and other material in the back for teachers and librarians. Writing them can take up to a year due to the amount of research required and the arduous task of making every word sing.

There are lots of wonderful picture book biographies out there. My personal library includes: Audubon Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier, I Could do That! Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote, Patience Wright America's First Sculptor and Revolutionary Spy, Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers, and many more. Have you read a good picture book biography lately?

Writing That First Page

For me writing the first page is the hardest part of writing a novel. I'll compare it to meeting someone for the first time. The conversation is a little stilted. You're in that awkward getting to know you phase. A few chapters in and the awkwardness has faded. You're old friends now who can't wait to catch up and plan your next adventure.

But as writers we must conquer the first page. Sometimes an agent or editor doesn't read any further. In the October issue of Writer's Digest, literary agent, Kristin Nelson uses four first page examples and only one of the four passes muster. She writes, "Trust me when I say that after an agent has read hundreds of thousands of sample pages--as my colleagues and I have at Nelson Literary Agency--we know."

Ms. Nelson stopped reading for the following reasons:

1. Too much dialogue.
2. Overuse of description.
3. Lack of tension.

If you get a chance, pick up a copy of the magazine. You can absolutely see her points.

I was thrilled to discover another article in the October issue called, "Your First 50 Pages The 4 Goals Your Beginning Must Meet." I am in the process of applying these rules, not only to my first 50 pages, but to the very first page. The opening should:

1. Introduce the story-worthy problem.
2. Hook the reader.
3. Establish the story rules.
4. Forecast the ending.

This is a harder exercise than it looks, but I am much happier with my first page from applying the concepts from this article.

A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to receive a critique from Richard Peck. He gave me this bit of advice regarding first pages: Always rewrite the first page after you've written the last one. That really ties in well with #4 Forecast the ending.

What are your thoughts regarding the infernal first page? I'd love even more pointers on how to make them sing!

Writing Conference Blues

An acquaintance of mine confessed that she cried all the way home from a recent SCBWI conference. I am not that girl, but I have been. This business is hard. For every writer that has a dream conference experience, there are hundreds who leave less than thrilled. Most are beginners. It's all about setting appropriate expectations.

I left my last conference in a mellow mood, but then I'm no longer expecting an editor to jump across the table and buy my book. So what exactly are realistic expectations from attending a conference?

1. You'll discover great books that you might not have heard of otherwise.
2. You'll have the chance to meet other writers that share your passion. Some of them will turn out to be lifelong friends.
3. You'll compile market information and begin to know which houses are appropriate for your work.
4. You'll attend workshops and pick up tips to improve your writing.
5. For an additional fee, you can usually have a chapter of your work critiqued.

That's it. That's what 99% of us can expect for our conference dollars. But as a disclaimer, I know four writers who actually met the editors who bought their books during critique sessions. So it can happen, but keep in mind that I've been attending conferences since 2005. My advice is to save yourself a lot of heartache and set realistic expectations. Any good thing that happens beyond that will be icing on the cake!