Of, By and For Our Reader’s, Writer’s and Teacher’s Hearts…

This time around, and this being February, we TeachingAuthors 

celebrate All Things Of, By and For the Heart that keep our own 

hearts creatively beat-beat-beating.

As the first to post, I choose to celebrate by offering thanks. 

So…

Thank you, Silas Wade, for grabbing my Reader’s heart and refusing to let go while telling your story of acceptance in Phil Bildner’s middle grade novel A High Five for Glenn Burke (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2020). True, I adore baseball – both professional and Little League. True, I adore learning about a player I’d never known – namely, your Hero Glenn Burke, the first MLB player to come out as gay to teammates and team owners during his career – and – the inventor of the High-Five. But even truer, I love characters whose struggles lead to Bigger Truths we need to honor. “You be you!” your Mom told you non-stop. And by season’s end you bravely were, letting those in your world, those on your team, know you were gay. High Fives all around!  You opened our eyes.  We all can play. We all belong.

And thank you, LeUyen Pham, for pumping my Writer’s heart with an endless supply of oxygen and nutrients. In Outside, Inside (Roaring Brook Press, 2021), your poetic words and beautiful illustrations perfectly and oh, so simply capture the essence of the story we’ve all been living, all around the world, since late February of 2020. 

   “Something strange happened 

         on an unremarkable day                                               

     just before the season changed.

 Everybody who was OUTSIDE

         …went INSIDE.”

Without any mention of COVID-19, masks, ZOOM or social distancing, the story’s take-away both sounded and resonated: on the INSIDE we are all the same.                    

Mem Fox once advised that writing a picture book is like writing War and Peace in haiku. You showed this Writer how to do just that.

Finally, thank you, visual storyteller Deborah Marcero, for once again causing my Teacher’s heart to swell.  I recall my words when paging through your eye-stopping portfolio at the end of my introductory Newberry Library workshop nine years ago: “You, Deborah Marcero,” I said, “are the Real Thing!” Your first written story in classes that followed, about a bear who longs to fly, was a Winner. Indeed, Peter Pauper Press published Ursa’s Light in 2016. Like Rose in My Heart is a Compass (Little Brown, 2018), you were and remain an explorer, a pioneer, a trailblazer. Your latest illustrated book, The Boy Whose Head Was Filled with Stars (Enchanted Lion Press, Jan., 2021) has already garnered starred reviews. And how wonderful that now you teach, in VCFA’s  MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, seeding and feeding future children’s book creators.

Clearly, as a Reader/Writer/Teacher, my heart overflows.  

May the above expressions of thanks keep your creative hearts 

beat-beat-beating!

Esther Hershenhorn

P.S.

Thanks to Ruth at There Is No Such Thing As A God Forsaken Town 

for hosting today’s Poetry Friday. 

BEST WRITING TIP EVER or BEST LISTENING TIP EVER

       “You’re not reading that right!” said a new member of my critique group with dismay sprawled across her face. 

         It might have been me years ago when I first joined them. I was used to other writers silently reading five to ten pages of my fabulous, neatly typed and copied pages of my latest writing project 

       But over the years, I’ve learned there is no right way to read a manuscript. A person can only read what the writer has typed and submitted to the group. If they’ve typed a boring manuscript, the reader will read a boring manuscript. I’ve silently groaned while listening to my words that I thought were perfect.

Try it. During the reading, listen for overused words. Even your favorite, most active verb has a life span. Search for a replacement. Read other writers in your genre. Sometimes I type the paragraph or paragraphs that make my heart beat faster. The simple act of typing forces me to think more deeply about the words on the page.

       If a paragraph or a page makes your heart beat faster, read it aloud and focus on the “how”. Just how did the author bring magic to the page?

Posted by Gwendolyn Hooks

Giving Thanks for Readers!

Even though Thanksgiving Day was yesterday (here in the United States), we TeachingAuthors like to share our gratitude all month long.

This year, we're discussing some of the writing-related things we're grateful for. Today, I'd like to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to those who buy and read our books! And I want to express my special thanks for readers who make time to post reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, etc. Thanks to all of you, Playing by Heart recently passed the 50-review milestone on Amazon! I shared an image celebrating that event on Instagram earlier this week:

I've read that having 50 Amazon reviews is an important milestone because it's a trigger for Amazon's algorithm to suggest a book to other readers. It's also a requirement for certain types of advertising. Of course, the reviews are also helpful for readers considering whether to purchase a book.

I have to confess that I haven't been the best about posting reviews myself. But now that I know they can really make a difference to a book's "discoverability," I'm trying to be more conscientious about reviewing books I enjoy. I encourage all of you to do the same: a review needn't be long to be effective. A sentence or two is enough.

Thanks again to all of you who read our books and blog. May you all have plenty to be grateful for in this Time of Thanks-Giving!

Don't forget to check out something else I'm grateful for: the weekly Poetry Friday roundup hosted today by Irene Latham at Live Your Poem. While you're there, be sure to enter to win a wonderful new book of haiku from former TeachingAuthor Laura Purdie Salas!

And remember to always Write with Joy!

Carmela