Primal Scream at the Amusement Park; The Writing of The Roller Coaster Kid; Pt 2

     Today is Part Two of "How I wrote The Roller Coaster Kid" our Teaching Author book giveaway.

      Both Riverview and West View Parks were demolished and replaced by shopping centers and such. (Sigh). I eventually got to Disneyland, which, in my twelve-year-old eyes, wasn't nearly as exciting as West View.

     After that, my encounters with park rides were reduced to the ones set up every fall at the Mississippi State Fair.  By then (high school) it was more about who was at the Fair with whom than riding the Wild Mouse or, my favorite, the Double Ferris Wheel. The Fair never felt like a park. 

      I grew up (sort of).  I got a degree, a job, and a husband.  Amusement parks faded from both my life and the country.  Mom-and-Pop parks were replaced by bigger and gaudier "theme" parks...the theme determined by whatever corporation owned the facility. These places became family vacation destinations.  If there was any place my husband and I (in our childless state) did not want to spend our precious vacation time, it was a place where you paid an obscene amount of money to hang upside down at 60 miles an hour on a "roller coaster" or squish around in wet shoes, after sitting in the front of a log flume ride.  Besides, my husband has a thing about heights.

     My husband and his friends grew up in the Carolinas and had always vacationed along the Grand Strand.  So married, and childless, we joined our unmarried (and childless friends) at the beach.  On one of those group beach holidays, someone suggested a trip to the Myrtle Beach Pavilion. I soon discovered that "The Pavilion"was a cross between West View Park and the Mississippi State Fair,
set a block away from the ocean. There were my old friends: the Bumper Cars, the Tilt-a-Whirl, and a roller coaster that looked very much like the late, lamented Dips.  Best of all, the Pavilion was an affordable cheap thrill...no outrageous admission fee, reasonably priced rides.

    Even though I was much closer to 40 than I wanted to admit, I joined our friends on every ride.  My acrophobic husband obligingly held our hats, purses, and sunglasses as the rest of us paid to be flung and flipped around.  My inner eight-year-old was having a Big Time.

    I was having such a great time that I didn't think twice about climbing on something called The Swings.  Sounds pretty tame, hunh?  It looked tame...from the ground. I settled myself into a metal chair, suspended by chains, not unlike a playground "baby swing."  The ride operator came by and hooked a chain across the front of my seat and away we went.

     Up, up, up the swings rose.  OK, guys, I thought, as the Atlantic Ocean spread into panoramic view, that's high enough.  The swings jerked to a stop. Good. What had seemed like a harmless little ride on the ground felt downright unsubstantial and...well...scary, however many hundred feet we were above the ground. (You can see from the picture that it wasn't that high up.) Suddenly, the swings spun around like a demented merry-go-round, shooting out to the side at a ninety degree angle. For the first

time in my life, I felt utter terror.  I was going to die.  I knew it.  One of those chains would come undone and I would go flying out to sea.

    I screamed.  I am not a screamer, so I had thirty plus years of screams to unload. I screamed from some place deep inside me, as if something had broken lose.  I closed my eyes, pretended I wasn't suspended on playground chains flying sideways....and screamed.  Never before and never since have I felt so terrified.  Once The Swings of Death (as I had mentally re-named them) returned to earth, I slid out of my seat, and tottered over to my husband on jello-like legs.

    "Have fun?" he asked as I reclaimed my belongings.  Not exactly.  More as if I had gone through some sort of rebirthing scream therapy.  As if I had conquered a fear I didn't know I had.  Weird.

    The Pavilion was torn down in 2006 and turned into a parking lot for a giant Ferris Wheel.  I never had another chance to experience that moment of total terror on The Swings again.  Maybe once in a lifetime is enough.

     So what happened to The Roller Coaster Kid?  Well, that fear and catharsis forms the core of the book.  I'll talk about the third and final "ingredient" of the story in Friday's post.

     Don't forget to enter our Book Giveaway for an autographed copy of The Roller Coaster Kid (Viking).  For contest details see Monday's post.  The deadline is 11pm (CST) Wednesday, July 25 with the winner to be announced Thursday, July 26.  I am looking forward to more entries and amusement park memories.
Posted by Mary Ann Rodman
     

Ride with The Roller Coaster Kid, a TA Blogger Book Giveaway

   Welcome back from "summer break," dear readers. Your reward for checking in with Teaching Authors...another fabulous book giveaway.  In this case, the book happens to be my latest picture book,

The Roller Coaster Kid (Viking). Instructions for entering the Giveaway will be at the end of this post.

     Those of you who have been reading this blog awhile have probably encountered my philosophy of "crock pot
writing." (Crock pot not crack pot.)  I think of my creative mind as a slow cooker, simmering with various ingredients, on low heat. Every now and then I lift the lid, give the brew a taste test, to see if "it's soup yet?" (Those of us of a "certain age" will remember that line from the Lipton Cup of Soup commercials.)  Mostly, the answer is no. The lid goes back on until next time.

     The Roller Coaster Kid's "ingredients"come from such diverse sources, I didn't realize I was even writing a book, until the final "ingredient" presented itself in one of those rare Eureka! moments.

    I have mentioned my storytelling family before, particularly my mother's side.  I especially enjoyed the stories that involved their local amusement park, West View Park, in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh. (West View Park appears in Jimmy's Stars.)  Most of the male members of Mom's family, her grandfather and brothers, worked at

West View during the Depression. That good looking fella to the left is my Uncle Andy, working the Milk Bottle Pitch kiosk.

     West View was one of the first amusement parks, built in 1906.
Since it was literally around-the-corner-and-down-the-hill from my Grandmother Smith's house, it was the only amusement park I knew as a child. Of course I had heard about Disneyland (this was waaaay before Disney World or any of the modern "theme parks") but that was in California, for crying out loud. I lived in Chicago and my relatives all lived in Pittsburgh. Only rich kids or Californians went to Disneyland. I didn't know anyone who had been to California let alone, Disneyland.

   Growing up in Chicago, I did see TV ads for Riverview Park, which was roughly the same vintage as West View. Every summer I begged my parents to make the trek from the Southern Suburbs to the North Side of Chicago, but somehow I never got to Riverview. As my mother reminded me, "Why would you want to go to Riverview?  It's just like West View, and you can go to West View with your cousins."
     

   Mom had a point. A trip to West View was always a big occasion, including at least a half of my dozen plus cousins living around Pittsburgh.  A big occasion, which in true 1950's fashion, involved wearing Sunday School clothes, crinolines, patent leather mary janes and all.  How those clothes survived the Bumper Cars, Tilt-a-Whirl and the Round-Up, I don't remember.

      I do remember that most fearsome of all the rides, West View's gigantic wooden roller coaster, The Dips.  Being tall enough to ride The Dips was a real milestone. And if you could ride The Dips without throwing up....well, you were practically a teenager. I think I rode it once or twice before the park was torn down in 1977.

     I suppose you could say that my memories of West View Park were the basic "stock" of the soup that became The Roller Coaster Kid...a book I didn't realize I was writing.

To Enter Our Roller Coaster Kid Book Giveaway: 
1. You must comment to today's post, telling us why you would like to win The Roller Coaster Kid.  Will you be keeping it for yourself or sharing it with another young reader? Addition from Carmela: or you may enter by sending an email to us at teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com with "Book Giveaway" in the subject line.
2.  You must include contact information in your comment.  If you are not a blogger or your email address is not accessible from your online profile, you must send us a valid email address in your comment.  Entries without contact information will be disqualified.  Note:  The TeachingAuthors cannot prevent spammers from accessing e-mail addresses posted within the comments, so feel free to disguise your address by spelling out portions such as "dot" and "at."
3.  You must send us your post by 11 pm (CST), Wednesday, July 25. Winner will be chosen at random via Random.org. and announced on Thursday, July 26.  Note:  Winners automatically grant us permission to post their names here on the TeachingAuthors website.
4.  You must have a mailing address in the United States.
5.  You must respond to the notification e-mail and provide a mailing address within 72 hours, or the prize will be forfeited and an alternate winner chose.

Those are the official rules. If you feel like sharing an amusement park memory, that would be great, but certainly not required. I've already told you mine in today's post. I can't wait to hear your memories.

     More on The Roller Coaster Kid Wednesday.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Get On Board with The Roller Coaster Kid

   

Summer Books in Three Words: a 2:06 minute Video!

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Howdy, Campers and happy summer!

I thought you might be interested in a fun video to inspire summer
reading some of my California author friends and I cooked up.  We're
all members of The Children's Authors Network (CAN!)

Take a gander:

C'est tout!

Love and peace and justice for all,

April Halprin Wayland

Write a Hidden Word Poem for Poetry Friday!

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Howdy Campers--happy Poetry Friday!  Happy Summer!

Truly a summer girl...from morguefile.com

So--how's life?

Well, if you're poet and author B.J. Lee, life is pretty great, because you've just won our giveaway from my June 22nd interview of poet David L. Harrison.  B.J. won David's new poetry book, Cowboys! Congratulations, B.J!  (B.J, btw, along with David himself and Teaching Authors Carmela Martino and JoAnn Early Macken, will have a poem in the forthcoming poetry anthology, And The Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems!)

Ah, summertime!  When I read Carmela's post below, asking for our favorite summertime writing venues, I knew exactly what I'd answer.  Coffee shops.  I love, love, love working in coffee shops.  I love the blur of words around me that aren't directed at me.  I love the energy.  I love that no plants are asking to be watered, no Eli is making big-puppy eyes, asking to be walked, no refrigerator is singing sexy songs to me...yay, coffee shops!

My refrigerator sings sexy songs to me when I'm trying to write...does yours?

As you may remember, I write one poem every day.  And as you might imagine, not every one is a great poem.  Or even a good poem.

So I have what I call PHPs...Place Holder Poems.  A PHP is my wild card, it's what I call a "not-very-good-poem-but-at-least-I-wrote-a-poem-today" poem.

Last July I was playing with writing poems and hiding words in them.

Here's a Hidden Word poem that's definitely a PHP...(I'm only sharing this with you because I know you understand about writing stinky poems...)

HIDDEN WORDS OF SUMMER
by April Halprin Wayland

Mom's CAMPaigning for us to turn off the TV.
if we do, she says we’ll have a great summer.

She says we have to pay atTENTion
or we’ll miss the falling stars.

I like exploring in the foREST—
it's so...so...I don't know, relaxing.

So, what do you think we should do
after we catch a sNAPping turtle?

 WRITING WORKOUT:
  Hidden Word Poems

1) Decide on a theme.  I chose summer.

2) Make a list of simple words that might nestle inside other words. 

My list: camp, tent, rest, nap. (My first brainstorming list was much longer:
sun, slow, no school, sand, barefeet, toes, swim, moon, stars, beach, ocean, sea, sail, sleep, peanuts, popcorn, crackerjacks, win, hotdog, rest, nap, goof, play...)

3) Can you weave your words into a poem? Give it a try!

4) Remember to write with joy ~

If this doesn't say summer, I don't know what does...from morguefile.com

And hey!  TeachingAuthors will be taking a summer break, July 1-15th!  We'll be back on July 16th to celebrate TeachingAuthor Mary Ann Rodman's The Rollercoaster Kid--yay, Mary Ann!

Tah-tah for now!  And happy first half of July! ~ April Halprin Wayland

Poem and drawing (c) 2012 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved. (Yes, even if it is a stinky poem.)

 Poetry Friday is hosted by The Paper Tigers today--thanks, gang!

In the Good Old Summertime

It's been interesting to read how summer affects the writing schedules of my co-bloggers. For Jeanne Marie, it's a time when she can write more consistently than usual. For Esther, it's time to catch up reading, with not so much writing. And for Mary Ann, it's a time to be inspired by her workshop students.

Like Mary Ann, I'm also inspired by the young writers in my summer camps. I teach two girls' writing camps at the Hinsdale Center for the Arts. (If you know any girls in the Chicago area who like to write, there's still time to enroll. See the right sidebar of this page on my website for details.) But since I also teach young writers via homeschool and private classes during the school year, I'm lucky enough to have that inspiration all year long. 

So, in summer, what I look forward to is the opportunity to vary my writing venue and routine. The warmer weather means I can take my laptop out on the patio to work. Or, if it's too hot, I can escape to the library or a coffee shop without having to bundle up in layers of clothes. Granted, we probably have enough good days in spring and fall to do the same, but for some reason, when summer arrives, I have a sudden longing to spend more time outdoors, or at least out of my office.

Wish MY backyard had as many flowers as this writer's!

I found it ironic, then, to be posting the following on my Facebook page a few weeks ago:

This would be a lovely day to work outside. Only trouble is, I'm writing a scene set in mid-December, 1736 in a drafty palazzo. Don't want to make it too hard for my imagination. :-) 

Instead of sitting outside, where I really wanted to be, I stayed at my computer desk clutching a glass of iced tea to help me feel cold. It worked too--I ended up with goosebumps, which was perfect. The things we do for our craft! (Maybe if I had a stronger imagination I could have written the scene while sitting in the warm sunshine.)
 
How about you? Do you ever change your writing environment to give your imagination a boost? I'd also like to know, does your writing routine change at all in summer? Please share your answers by posting a comment. And if you try the following Writing Workout, let me know how it works for you.

Don't forget--today's the last day to enter to win an autographed copy of David Harrison's terrific picture book Cowboys (Wordsong)! Read April's amazing interview with him for details.

Writing Workout

Varying Your Writing Venue

Do you tend to write in the same one or two places all the time? If so, try a change of venue and observe how it affects your writing. Some possibilities:

• at the beach
• in your backyard
• at a park
• at the zoo
• at an outdoor concert
• in a coffee shop
• in a restaurant
• at the library
• at a museum

If you've never thought much about how your surroundings affect your writing, check out this post, "Where's Your Writing Location" by Steven Savage.

And wherever you end up, Happy Writing!
Carmela

Summertime...and the Writing is Intense

    Although it's been in the 80's here for months (winter? spring? didn't happen here), summer officially began a couple of days ago. Right on Hotlanta schedule, the temperature went from 80 something to 90 something immediately.

     I begin my Young Writer's Workshops for the parks department today. No matter what week I begin (and I've been doing this for years), it will always be the hottest week of the summer at that point.  This is a good thing, for me at least.

    I turn into a slug in hot weather, and spending six hours a day with young, enthusiastic writers gets me up and inspired.  Inspiration is what I need in the summer, when my schedule is even crazier than usual.  Writing time is sandwiched between workshops and increased practice sessions and competitions for my daughter, the figure skater. Even though everything is air-conditioned, all that running around in hot, sticky, snail-paced Atlanta traffic sucks the energy out of you. Makes you cranky. Makes you want to go sit in the neighborhood pool with a margarita (if the neighborhood pool let you bring in alcohol, which it doesn't.)

  When I was a full-time teacher, my writing time was confined to the summer months. With a work day that started at 7am and frequently went on past midnight (including the sixty mile round trip commute) I just didn't have the time. I also hadn't learned that if inspired, you can write in ten and fifteen minute mini-blocks of time. Back then, I thought if you couldn't spend four or five solid hours at your desk (before the invention of laptops) then you just couldn't write at all.

    Writing has been my "day job" for fifteen years. (Holy cow, I hadn't done the math until just now!) I also haven't done a lot (OK, any) contemplation of how the change of season affects my writing. But since you asked...

    I am a night writer by nature. I usually fight this inclination because if I write before sleep, I go on writing in my dreams. Which is not particularly restful. I can make this up in summer catnapping.

    Extra daylight hours do not inspire me to stay parked in front of a laptop inside. They do inspire me to walk (even if it's just around the asphalt parking lot of the skating rink). Maybe pace would be a better word. Whatever you call it, mindless activity gets my mojo going. I can pace outside at home, but I live in a friendly neighborhood. Passing a dog-walking neighbor without at least saying "Hi" blows my stream of thought. I never have that problem in the rink parking lot.

   More than anything, however, my young authors (ages 10-14) bring out my best creative game. They help me as much (if not more) than I help them.  Each group is different and memorable. This year I have a new venue...a converted carriage house on the grounds of an antebellum mansion. Who knows what kind of writing energy we will find there?

   Now if you will excuse me, I need to load up the car with all the teaching necessities...books, white boards, markers, dictionaries, and a pencil sharpener (wherever I am giving the workshop, there never seems to be a pencil sharpener!) I am off to meet a new group of fresh, excited and eager-to-learn writers.

    I can't wait.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

P.S from Carmela: Don't forget to enter our current giveaway contest for a chance to win an autographed copy of David Harrison's picture book Cowboys (Wordsong). Read April's terrific interview with him for details.

Interview with Poet David Harrison, Writing Exercise, & Book Giveaway for Poetry Friday!

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Howdy, Campers, and happy Poetry Friday!  We have an interview, a poetry exercise and a book giveaway for you today--wowee kazowee, let's get started!

I'm proud to introduce poet David L. Harrison, a friend and a gentleman with so much energy I'm sure he wears the Invisible Energizing Cape of Poetry.

Note: it's almost as hard to see as his cape,
but his website URL includes his middle initial, L: http://davidlharrison.com/

Fun facts about David L. Harrison (read more on his website) :

• David's first book for children, The Boy With a Drum, a Little Golden Book, sold over two million copies. 
• He received the Christopher Award for The Book of Giant Stories. 
• He's published over eighty titles that have sold more than fifteen million copies and earned numerous honors. 
• He's been anthologized in more than one hundred books and appeared in dozens of magazines and journals. 
• His work's been translated into twelve languages.
• David holds science degrees from Drury and Emory universities and honorary doctorate of letters degrees from Missouri State University and Drury University. 
• He is poet laureate of Drury, MO.
• There's an elementary school named for him.
• David and Teaching Authors Carmela Martino and JoAnn Early Macken all have poems in the forthcoming poetry anthology, And The Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems!

I think I want an elementary school after me, too.  Yeah, I do.

And yee-haw--here's another fun fact!  To celebrate summer and his appearance on our blog, David has donated an autographed copy of COWBOYS, perfect poems for your buckaroos!  To whet your whistle, here's what Publisher's Weekly said about Cowboys: "Readers who long to ride and wrangle should be entranced." Details on how to enter are at the end of this post.

So, David--let's begin!  How did you officially become a TeachingAuthor?
Like most authors of children’s books, I’m invited to visit schools. A school visit is a serious responsibility. The first time I spoke in public as an author was at Lindenwood College in Missouri soon after Little Turtle’s Big Adventure came out in 1969. Nancy Polette invited me. I was scared silly. Whether conducting writers’ workshops, speaking at parents’ nights, facing classes of graduate students, or presenting at conferences where you can barely see the back of the room, I’m always a little nervous. I think it’s nervousness that generates the energy we need to stand up and begin. Somewhere along the line I’ve turned into the last thing I ever expected to be: a teacher (of sorts).

Okay...what's a common question students ask and how do you address it?
Questions are experience related. Little ones get hung up on who makes the covers. Second graders ask how many books I can make in a day. Fifth graders wonder where ideas come from. (Wasn’t it Ted Geisel who told people he bought his ideas in a sack at a store with a funny name?) Middle schoolers worry about looking dumb and high school kids are way too grown up to ask a question about writing. Like, duh, who cares?

So you take ‘em as they come, respond honestly, and attempt to wear away natural resistance to having meaningful, two-way conversations about writing. Adult students are another matter. When I began writing, I made all the usual mistakes and didn’t know how much I didn’t know about my chosen profession. (Don Rumsfeld would have approved that sentence.)

So I approach every adult student with the respect he or she deserves, given the enormous amount of time, energy, and sheer cussed determination it’s going to take before they can hold their first victory dance around an acceptance letter. Writers must know their audience. They must study the market. They must seek fresh ways to express their ideas. They must develop the patience to rework the same page, paragraph, sentence, a dozen times, two dozen, as many times as it takes, until it’s ready. If writing for children were a recipe, those would be the main ingredients.

Would you share a favorite poetry exercise for our readers?
I love to work from lists. Begin with themes: family, friends, hobbies, school. Make a list of subjects related to the theme. Turn the subjects into poems.

Theme: hobbies

Subjects: video games, collecting insects, memorizing license plates, writing stories, cooking, taking pictures, gardening, getting autographs, learning another language, swimming, building sand castles.
Poem: gardening

MY GARDEN
by David L. Harrison

What I planted:

Radishes,
beans,
corn,
tomatoes,
lettuce,
peppers,
onions,
potatoes,
squash galore.

What I got:

Caterpillars,
weeds,
bees,
ticks,
chiggers,
sore knees.

Next time
before I plant,
I’ll try the store. 

What one piece of advice do you have for teachers?I worry that too many teachers feel uncomfortable teaching poetry. Some may wish they could have special teachers in the building for poetry just as they have for art, physical education, and computers. I remind teachers that at the very least they know more about language and writing than the youngsters they teach so there’s nothing wrong with standing at the board and working on poems together. Poems written in elementary school are not destined to change the world. 

They are learning experiences. So is everything else during the school years. I say, “Your third graders move on each year but you don’t. And each year you practice with your latest crop, the more comfortable you are writing and teaching the subject and the better your poetry becomes. I offer three rules for teaching poetry in elementary school: 1) Keep it fun. 2) Keep it fun. 3) Keep it fun.

Can you share a funny story with our readers?
I love the telling thank-you note. Standard procedure calls for obligatory notes to authors following visits. I try to hang onto the ones that make me laugh.

Dear Mr. Harrison,

I think you’re the best author in the whole world!
P.S. I like Dr. Seuss better.


Dear Mr. Harrison,
Thanks for coming. I loved getting out of class.


Dear Mr. Harrison,
I love your books! I’ve never read a single one.


Dear Mr. Harrison,
I have to write this thank you note.
Thank you.

"The guy beside me is Ken Slesarik,
a poet and elementary teacher from Arizona.
He attended my poetry workshop

and photo-shopped me as a hunk."

  

What's on the horizon?
I split my time between trade books and books for teachers. I have fifteen projects in the works at various stages from early talks to manuscripts nearly completed. For trade books I focus on poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. If I have a favorite, it would be poetry, but I love all three genres.

My newest venture is a DVD series of writing tips for students in grades 3-5. There are twenty 5-minute tips, four each about Getting Started, Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Revising. Also included in the kit are a Teachers’ Guide, a set of twenty Student Writing Journals, and three of my trade books used as examples in the Teachers’ Guide. The package is published by Stourbridge Distributors and is called LET’S WRITE THIS WEEK WITH DAVID HARRISON. It will be on the market by late July or early August. Teachers can also take this as an online graduate course through Drury University.

Fifteen projects?!?!?!  Wow!  And finally, since it's Poetry Friday in the Kidlitosphere, would you share one of your poems with our readers?

Thanks for asking! Here’s one from my e-book, Goose Lake, a collection of prose and poetry about a year in the life of a small lake, which is listed on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. This selection will appear in the upcoming National Geographic Kids Book of Animal Poetry, edited by J. Patrick Lewis.

What Was That?
by David L. Harrison

If the lake were a mouth opened wide to swallow sky and popcorn clouds, the narrow strip of land stretched tight around it would be the lip. Seeds planted by wind and obliging birds sprout tangled gardens of saplings and weeds run amok. In rocky places, stones shoulder to shoulder wear sunbathing turtles like bronze helmets. 

The lip of the lake never sleeps. Life and death meet in the twisted underbrush where herons stand like statues of herons awaiting the unwary. A kingfisher that looks like it needs a haircut watches the shallows for a minnowy snack. 

Geese defiant with motherhood hiss away foxes with a hankering for gosling. Finches flit from limb to bank, ignoring sleepy-eyed bullfrogs that need their rest till sundown.

Ducks catapult into the water

and herons’ legs trail like kite tails

in their sudden flight to

somewhere safer.

Flat shells smack the lake.

Bony heads resurface,

stare at their forsaken thrones.

What was that?

Maybe nothing.

A dog barked,
a child ran,
a turtle slipped.

All’s clear
on the lip of the lake,
for now.

poems © 2012 David L. Harrison. All rights reserved

We're SO glad you stopped by, David--and good luck with your gazillion projects!  

Readers, to enter our drawing for an autographed copy of Cowboys, post a brief comment about a cowboy (or a cowdog...cowkid...cowdad?) in your life..or comment on anything David discussed that will stay with you. Be sure to include an email address (formatted like: teachingauthors at gmail dot com) or a link to an email address. OR...you can email your comment to teachingauthors at gmail dot com with "Contest" in the subject line. Entry deadline Wednesday, June 27,2012 11 pm (CST). You must have a U.S. mailing address to win. The winner will be announced on June 29th. Good Luck!

And thank you, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at the Poetry Farm,
for hosting today!
And listen to Amy and Barry Lane's song, More Than A Number
on Amy's blog today (or click here to hear it) ~
a powerful anthem to right the wrongs of our education system...

What’s on YOUR plate for the Summer?

Every summer I’m tempted to enroll my Inner Child in my local library’s Summer Reading Program.
There’s always an enticing theme – the bi-centennial celebrationLincoln’s Birthday, the Olympics or a new museum exhibit, prescribed fun procedures and the deliciousness of sharing the book you read with a knowing volunteer up-close-and-personal.
The Blue Ribbons, the certificates, the book bags and occasional surprise guest readers all make for a satisfying summer.

This summer, the Chicago Public Library’s Kids Summer Reading Program gave my Inner Child (and me) pause.

I love the title – RAHM'S READERS; but I especially love the tag line – You Are What You Read.

Those are words a writer needs to think about.

A few weeks ago, at a local SCBWI-Illinois chapter program, SCBWI Executive Director and Founder Lin Oliver shared a Writer’s Truth she’d learned from none other than Judy Blume:  “Write the kind of book you like to read.”

How many times have I instructed my students: “Look at the books that line your shelves; look at the publisher names on each book’s spine. Those are the genres, the formats you’ll be writing and those are the publishers you’ll likely target.”

So, what’s on my plate this summer? 

Certainly the kind of books I write,

but also, the kind of books my students and writers write.
In other words,
a variety of children’s book formats – picture books, middle grade and young adult fiction, graphic novels,
a mix of genres, both adult and children’s – memoir, biography, politics and how-to,
and my Standard Summer Fare, a heaping serving of adult fiction.

I’ll be reading more than I’ll be writing, that’s for sure.

But since writers are readers, I’ll still be on task.

 Happy Summer!

Esther Hershenhorn

Writing Workout

What’s on YOUR plate for the Summer? 

Recently the U.S. Government instituted the What’s On My Plate program, reshaping and re-visioning the once-revered Food Pyramid to ensure we eat a balanced diet of essential nutrients.

Just for the fun of it, see if there’s balance to your Summer Reading selections.  Section the plate below by audience, or by format, or by genre, or by subject, then place your stacked titles accordingly.

 And, think about the kinds of books you write.  Was Judy Blume’s advice on target? Do you write what you read?