Guest TeachingAuthor Interview and Book Giveaway with A.J. Cattapan

Today I’m pleased to share a guest TeachingAuthor interview with my friend Amy Cattapan, who writes middle-grade and young-adult fiction as A.J. Cattapan. Amy has generously agreed to provide us with an autographed copy of her latest release, the middle-grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere (Vinspire Publishing), for a book giveaway. (Details are at the end of this post.)

I first “met” Amy when I attended her talk on “Pinterest for Authors” at the Catholic Writers Guild online conference last spring. I had no idea then that Amy was a fellow SCBWI–Illinois member. Since that conference, we’ve met in person several times and I am happy to now call her a friend. If you don’t know Amy, here’s a brief bio:

A.J. Cattapan is a bestselling author, speaker, and middle school English teacher living in the Chicago area. Her debut young-adult novel Angelhood (Vinspire Publishing) won a Gold Medal in the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards and an Honorable Mention from Readers’ Favorite Book Awards. Her newest novel, the middle-grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere, releases from Vinspire August 31, and tells the story of a boy trying to save his school from closing. She has also been published in numerous children’s magazines and Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Her goal in both writing and teaching is to empower young people so that they may live extraordinary lives filled with heart and hope.

Welcome, Amy. Would you start by telling our readers how you became a TeachingAuthor? How do you balance teaching and writing?

Through my grade school and high school years, I wavered back and forth between wanting to be a writer and wanting to be a teacher. At Marquette University (where I went for undergrad), I had a choice between being an English Education major and an English Writing Intensive Career. My dad convinced me there was no money in writing, so I went for the teacher track!

That did not diminish my desire to write, though. About eight years into my teaching career, I decided it was finally time to dust off my writing ambitions, so I took a correspondence course in writing for children through the Institute for Children’s Literature (ICL). That got me started on writing for magazines for children. It was a long slow process, but I finally got a few pieces published and then decided it was time to try novel writing. I took another course through ICL . . . and well, several manuscripts later, I finally found a publisher!

Because I teach middle school English and write middle grade and YA, the two careers actually go really well together. I’m always improving my own writing through teaching my sixth graders, and I’m always discovering more about what they like to read through our discussions about books.

What's a common problem/issue that your students have and how do you address it?

Run-on sentences! I don’t know why this is so hard, but they write comma splices all the time. I repeatedly go through examples of the proper ways to join two sentences (comma and a conjunction OR a semicolon but NOT just a comma). Oy, if I had a dime for every time they wrote a comma splice, I could retire from teaching and write full time!

Can you tell us a bit about your new book, Seven Riddles from Nowhere (Vinspire Publishing), and how you came to write it?

Seven Riddles to Nowhere was my fourth book manuscript to be completed, even though I’d started it before my young-adult novel Angelhood, which was manuscript #3. I wrote it because I’d taught at a school that closed, and as an author, I like being able to “right the wrongs” from the past. I’ve always wondered, “What if I had done something more to keep that school from closing?”

Seven Riddles is the story of a seventh-grade boy named Kam, who suffers from selective mutism. He can’t speak to adults outside his home. After finally finding a school where he feels comfortable, he learns his little Catholic school might close due to financial problems. Kam’s devastated because the closing means he’d be separated from his friends, but then he learns that he’s the potential heir to a fortune, one big enough to end his school’s financial woes. All he has to do is be the first potential heir to solve all the riddles left by the deceased. The riddles take Kam and his friends on a scavenger hunt through Chicago that will test their wit and their courage.

It sounds like a really fun book, Amy! And, like your first novel, Seven Riddles is published by Vinspire Publishing, a small independent publisher. How did you first come to be published with Vinspire? How has the experience been?

I belong to a number of writing groups, which I find extremely helpful as an author. Each of them has its own benefits. One of those groups is Mystery Writers of America (MWA), and like many of the writing groups, we have an email loop where people can ask questions. One day, a woman posted a question to the MWA loop asking for a niche publisher who publishes children’s books and would be okay with some religious (but not preachy) themes. Since Angelhood has angels and demons in it, you can bet I paid attention when another writer in the group replied and said to try her publisher, Vinspire. I looked up their website and found that they were accepting YA manuscripts at the time, so I followed the guidelines and submitted my book. I heard back less than two months later.

I’ve had a very good experience with Vinspire so far. Unfortunately, many of my author friends have had horrible experiences with a few other small presses. Some never send royalty statements. Some sign authors to a three-book contract and then refuse to print the second book, forcing authors to “buy back” the rights to their first book. I’ve heard some really horrible stories! And don’t get me started on the poor newbies who actually pay to have their books published. Never, never pay to have your book published.

That’s great advice! And I’m happy to know you’ve had a good experience with Vinspire. Nowadays, whether we're published with a small or large press, it can help sales if authors are active on social media, which I know you are. Which social media channels do you think have been the most effective for you? 

It’s hard to tell which social media is working the best. From my website stats, I can tell you that most of my website visitors come to me through my Pinterest pins. However, it’s hard to tell how many sales that has translated into. It’s definitely gotten people to sign up for my newsletter, which is key to sales.

I can also say that I have far more young readers following me on Instagram than on any other social media. I do know that has translated into some people buying my book because they tell me right on Instagram. They’ve commented on my Instagram posts or tagged me in their own post about my book. I can also tell you that I was asked to speak at a technology conference because of my success on Instagram, and who knows how many more sales will come because of that?

I recently started Snapchat, which led to being contacted by Jennifer Fulwiler who hosts a daily radio show in Sirius XM’s Channel 129. She followed me on Snapchat, and after just two days, she sent me a private message asking me to be on her show. Again, I’ll have no idea how many sales this gets me, but Snapchat definitely opened the door for that radio interview me.

And of course, it’s always important to have a website that can be your home base where you can refer everyone. (Readers, you can also connect with Amy on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Google+ . And, thanks to Amy's presentation, I'm now on Pinterest, too. )

One thing I wish I had started sooner in my writing career is a writing newsletter. Use a service like MailChimp and get people to sign up for your newsletter by offering them something free in exchange, like a free chapter or short story. Your newsletter is your direct marketing technique. It’s how you turn people into repeat customers.

Thanks for that tip, Amy. Do you have a humorous writing-related story you can share to close out the interview?

I’ve already mentioned that I received my first contract from Vinspire, but the way it happened was a little funny. For years and years (and I mean, about ten years here), I sent out manuscripts and got rejected. Yes, I had the occasional piece accepted for a magazine, but the book contract took a lot longer coming. As I joined writing organizations and researched the writing industry online, I learned about how other people got “the call.” Usually, they had a literary agent, and that agent would call them up excitedly to say they’d sold the book. There’d be squeals of joy and tears from the author.

Although I didn’t have a literary agent, I assumed my experience would be similar. One day, an editor would call me up and say she LOVED my manuscript and wanted to publish it. While I dreamed about this happy phone call that would change my life, I sent out more queries and received more rejections. As we moved into the digital age, these rejection letters (like my query letters) were sent via email. The rejection emails would always start out the same: “Thank you for sending us your manuscript. We’re so pleased you considered us. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept your manuscript at this time . . .”

Often these rejections came fairly quickly after my submission. It was often considered a good thing if they didn’t respond too quickly since it gave the impression they were considering my material seriously.

So you can imagine how I felt when I heard back from Vinspire a little too quickly, and the email started off with “Thank you for sending us your manuscript. We’re so pleased you considered us.” I almost didn’t finish reading the email. I was ready to chuck it into the “rejection” folder of my email system. Thankfully, I kept reading, but the words didn’t seem right. Were they offering me a contract? I thought they always called when offering a contract. How can I squeal with delight and break the poor editor’s eardrums if she’s not calling me to tell me the good news?

I was so baffled I had to read the email three times. Then I sent it to three published writing friends, and asked, “Is this saying what I think it’s saying? Are they offering to publish my book?” I was in that much shock!

I guess you just never know what that next submission and response is going to be! So keep plugging on, writing friends!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, Amy. And good luck with your new release. Readers, I hope you’ll be encouraged by Amy’s comments. As promised, below you’ll find information on how to enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of Amy new book, Seven Riddles to Nowhere (Vinspire Publishing). I also encourage to attend Amy’s Facebook Launch Party for additional chances to win her book as well as other fun prizes (including a copy of my own book, Rosa, Sola.)

And now, for the giveaway info:

Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter to win an autographed copy of Amy Cattapan's middle-grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere (Vinspire Publishing). You may enter via 1, 2, or all 3 options.

If you choose option 2, you MUST leave a comment on TODAY'S blog post below or on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. If you haven't already "liked" our Facebook page, please do so today! 

(If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to: teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com.)

Email subscribers: if you received this post via email, you can click on the Rafflecopter link at the end of this message to access the entry form.

The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends August 31. That happens to also be the day of Amy’s Facebook Launch Party, where you can win lots of other great prizes, including a copy of my own book, Rosa, Sola.

After you've entered, don't forget to head over to Dori Reads for this week's Poetry Friday round-up!

Good luck and happy writing!
Carmela

P.S. If you've never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, here's info on how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway and the difference between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

MAKING EVEN MORE MAGIC: Part II

While Mary Ann Rodman was seeding and feeding her Young Writers down South, making magic of one kind and another, I once again was doing the same, only this time in the green and cloud-puffed blue skies of the Midwest and this time, with 9 Doctor of Education in Literacy candidates from Judson University.

You got that right: 9 EdD candidates, each an exceptional Illinois educator, focusing on belletristic writing, “taking a foray,” award-winning author and the program’s founder and director Dr. Steven L. Layne explained, “into playing with the writing side of literacy.” The program launched June 17, 2013.

Titled “LIT 790, Seminar in Writing for Publication,” the course is the only one of its kind in EdD in Literacy programs in the country. 

Here’s the official description:

“The process of exploring and developing belletristic manuscripts for review in the trade market will be the focus of this course. A variety of writing formats will be introduced including manuscripts for children’s picture books, lengthier works of fiction, and poetry. Doctoral candidates will discuss the process of identifying a market-based need and have opportunity to receive critique from published writers while progressing one or more manuscripts in a positive direction along the publication continuum.  (5 credit hours)”

Not to worry if you too were unfamiliar with the term “belletristic writing.” Think “aesthetic writing” vs. academic. J

The course began with two weeks of intense writing instruction at the Elgin, IL campus. Poet extraordinaire Sara Holbrook focused on the how-to of poetry writing; I focused on picture book stories and their tellings; Newbery Honor Medalist Joan Bauer zeroed in on writing longer works of fiction.  Writers explored the various forms and formats, mined their stories, unearthed their talents and learned their craft. 

Sara, Joan and I delighted in our students and their stories.  We whole-heartily agreed: their knowledge of children’s literature was unparalleled; their commitment to the course of study and willingness to abandon any and all fears noteworthy.

And then it was on to Northern Michigan and an honest-to-goodness Writers Retreat at Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire. 

Award-winning Michigan picture book author Denise Brennan-Nelson welcomed us by by serving up her Writer’s Back Story.

For three days, each instructor worked one-to-one with three assigned writers, helping them ready their stories for the evening share time.

Morning Publishers Circle SKYPE and Q and A sessions brought agent Tina Schwartz of the Purcell Agency, Christine French Cully, Editor in Chief for Highlights for Children, Inc. and Editorial Director of Highlights Magazine and founder and director Nick Glass of TeachingBooks.net

National Book Award Winner Neal Shusterman surprised us at our Farewell Dinner with a SKYPE visit, letting us in on the story behind CHALLENGER DEEP (Harper Teen, 2015). 

Throughout the week, writers enlightened each other in small Readers Groups sharing selected readings on the writing process, craft, revision, creativity, the writer’s life, publishing and the Children’s Book World.

Yes, there was chocolate!

As delicious, this already-tight and connected community took on another role – that of Writers Group.

[Bottom row, L to R: Val Cawley, Joy Towner, Maria DiBella-Schlup, Lindsay Allen, Vicki Billimack; Top row, L to R: Beth Gottlieb, Ben Zulauf, Mary Martin, Megan Truax]

“So, what does this stellar group of classroom teachers, principals, trainers of teachers, university professors and consultants who love, honor and revere the written word think of this experience?” I asked.  “How might this course enhance  your students’ learning, lives and writing experiences as well as your own?”

Joy Towner, Chair, Division of Education, Judson University,  admitted she’d thought of  herself as a poetry drop-out.  She now describes herself as a “recovering poetry drop-out.” She plans to incorporate poetry in her fall course for teacher methods.

Reading Consultant Ben Zulauf feels he has a better understanding of the work authors put into their writing.  He sees himself now “better equipped to convey the struggle that authors face in finding the perfect word/phrase/sentence.”

High School English teacher Vicki Billimack “delights in the unexpected rush of inspiration, the fuzzy-eyed realization that hours have passed in the act of creating.” She likes the surprise at what she sees on the page at the end of those hours.  “This experience,” she wrote, “was a much-needed, surprisingly-pleasurable kick-in-the-pants to GET WRITING!”

“My soul is delighted,” Moody Bible Institute Director of Christian School Educator Mary Martin confessed,” because a new window I have never looked through before has been opened, and now I just want to fly through it.”

 Fourth Grade TeacherBeth Gottlieb deemed the course “challenging yet inspiring.  This has been a real stretching for me and I think the one experience I will take back to my students is my experience in the revision process."

Judson University Literacy Faculty member Val Cawley returns to her students having reaffirmed an important belief – “formative feedback for writers (whether they be children or adults) should help writers build the piece – not destroy their self-esteem."

(Val even wrote a poem on scaffolding feedback!)

Reading Consultant Maria DiBella-Schlup took away a gem: “Trust the process.”

So did Second Grade Teacher Megan Truax: “I now consider myself a writer.”

K-5 Principal Lindsay Allen spoke of the confidence she gained - from being stretched in her thinking as well as from her writing of difficult and private pieces.

                     From L to R: Joan Bauer, Dr. Steven Layne, me, Sara Holbrook

“Write on!” Sara Holbrook sang out as we bid farewell to one another.

In the car ride home, Joan Bauer confided how invigorated she felt having had this singular experience, how grateful she felt in how the students helped her unearth her story ideas. “I admire and cheer them on!”

I second that sentiment and offer one dozen THANK YOU’s! – two to the amazing TeachingAuthors Sara Holbrook and Joan Bauer for gifting us all, myself included, with their smarts and talents, nine to the soon-to-be Doctors of Education in Literacy for offering up their stories and Spirit and lastly, one to Dr. Steven Layne, a true TeachingAuthor, for inviting me to help his beloved students make all sorts of magic, belletristic and otherwise, these past three weeks.

Oh, how I wish our readers had been there!

Esther Hershenhorn

That Balky Feeling and One Possible Way to Maybe Move Forward a Little Bit Anyway

My schedule and my writing time have been irregular this summer. We're training a puppy, we're looking for a new house, and some days, it feels like everything is Up in a Heaval, as my sisters say.

Some days, I bring my notebook to the front porch or the backyard and write. Other days, other stuff gets in the way--including my own stubbornness or lack of discipline or whatever you want to call that balky feeling that some might say is writer's block.

Whatever it is, it's time to take a step back from the overwhelming To Do list, social media, and TV and make more time to hang out outside and get closer to Nature.

Like Carla describes in her last post, I find comfort in the garden. This summer, we watched a family of wrens launch from our backyard birdhouse. Hummingbirds have stuck around. And we're finally seeing a few monarchs, probably a whole generation later than the ones we usually see. The milkweed is ready.

Summer is a good time time to absorb, soak up, replenish, fill the well. Julia Cameron describes the concept in The Artist's Way and also explains it in this blog post. Also on her blog, I found excerpts from her more recent book, It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again. I've reserved it from the library.

So. I'm hoping that taking a step back to fill the well will allow me to take a few more steps forward. Wish me luck!

Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at To Read To Write To Be. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

Mini Mental Summer Breaks

I spend my days researching, typing on a keyboard and looking at a computer screen.   

Some days the hours pass quickly; other days not so much.   Some days the next step I need to take in my manuscript is clear; other days not so much.  Some days the words flow onto the screen; other days not so much. 

But every day I’m thankful to have a big window in my office, so I can look out and see something other than a computer screen and piles of books and papers.  Looking out the window in the summer is the best.  The flowerbed outside my window is treat for me.  I admire the purple coneflowers and black-eyed-Susans growing there and see bumblebees and butterflies float around and visit bloom after bloom.  Hummingbirds flock around the feeder just a few feet from my chair.  I watch their antics as they fly around fight each other.

All through the day this hummingbird feeder right outside my office window is a busy place.  

Just a few feet away from all that activity around my flowers, I work on my new book with the working title of 

Buried Lives: 

George Washington’s Slaves of Mount Vernon

(Holiday House, fall 2017)  

I think about the lives of the enslaved people I’m writing about.  I imagine what they may have seen and how they may have felt.  I struggle to find the best way to tell their stories without having any of their own words and thoughts to use.   Sometimes in my mind’s eye, I’m at Mount Vernon more than two hundred years ago. 

Then I look out my office window and watch hummingbirds for a while.   

I turn back to my keyboard.  I’ve got some stories to tell about some folks I’ve gotten to know really well.   

Carla Killough McClafferty

While I'm working behind the window, the bumblebees, butterflies, and hummingbirds are doing their own work.

Gathering Story Seeds

Summertime.  Iced-tea-sipping, rock-skipping, ice-cream-dripping summertime, when everything and everyone moves at half speed. The leisurely pace allows time to notice lacy tree shadows on a bright green lawn.  To inhale the perfume of fresh-cut grass (smells like watermelon to me.)  Find a shady spot to do a little people watching.

Summer is a time to slow down and observe.

Summer also means the Young Writer's Camps I conduct in June and July. If there is one thing I hope my students take away from their week with me, it's the ability to observe.

"I don't know what to write about," kids complain. I understand.  When I was their age, I thought the Story Fairy delivered characters and plot to "Real Writers" (the published ones) in a neat package. I wrote for thirty years before I realized stories come in dribs and drabs...a bit from here, a bit from there, a sort of mental chemistry I can't explain.

I tell my students that like any living thing, stories come from seeds.  Seeds that the writer has to gather and store (preferably in a notebook.)

What is a story seed? they ask.

Anything you see or hear that makes you go "Hunh?  That makes you ask "What is that? What happened?  Why?"

Discovering a "fairy house" on camp property. How did it get there?

Observing at the park.

My favorite example is the clown I once saw at an Atlanta bus stop.  In the middle of a Wednesday afternoon, a clown in full makeup and costume (clown shoes included!) stood waiting for the bus.  He carried a Macy's shopping bag.  Where was the clown going? Why was he taking the bus?  What was in the Macy's bag?

Another of my favorite observation activities is eavesdropping on total strangers. The odd random comment can rev my imagination like nothing else.

Example: Two teenage girls in a jewelry store.  Salesclerk: "May I help you?"

Girl One:  "Yeah, we're buying a birthday present for a friend."

Girl Two.  "Yeah, but we don't like her very much.  You got something cheap?"

My campers have a daily "homework" assignment: write down five things that make you go "Hunh?" I give each student five index cards. They write one observation per card.  I collect the cards, shuffle through them, then pick the most evocative to share with the group. This weeds out the silly/potentially inappropriate items, and allows the shyest group members to contribute to the discussion.

I don't have to ask for feedback.  Even the quietest group will burst into spontaneous comment, brainstorming the myriad of ways they would use those things in a story. I love watching them add detail and action, building and building until someone shouts, "I've got it!" and starts scratching away in their notebook.  A story is born.

No amount of "explaining" how stories come from the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life illustrates this concept better than young writers discovering this for themselves.

Brainstorming!

 The camps are over for this summer. My souvenir of those five fun-filled weeks is a notebook of my own observations.  Some of those seeds are already germinating. Some of them are tucked away, literary acorns for a cold, winter day when the brain is dull and the computer screen blank.

The poet Robert Herrick was not talking about harvesting story ideas when he wrote"gather ye rosebuds while ye may," but let's make it our summer slogan.  Gather ye story seeds? Why not?

It's summertime.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Summer Joy

Working in the Garden!

We at Teaching Authors have been sharing our summer adventures these past few posts. Carmela offers her wisdom on coping with your inner wisdom. Esther is making magic in Vermont. JoAnn shares her summer reading and writing adventures, and a lovely shape poem. And Carla  presents a fascinating series of short videos exploring her research process for her newest book.


This summer, I must admit, I have lived vicariously through the travels of others. For example, I’ve enjoyed writer Marcia’s Strykowski’s (author of the wonderful middle grade, Call Me Amy)  trip to the top of Mt. Washington, the highest peak in New England. Two friends in particular, Harold Underdown, the literary critic and editor of Purple Crayon fame, has been posting magnificent pictures of his recent travels to England on his Facebook Page. It felt like I was traveling through time, peering into the mythic. And literary critic and children’s author Joanna Marple , otherwise known as Miss Marple Musings, has been traveling throughout the northeast, making connections with her writers and illustrators as well as the historic landscape of Gettysburg, Boston, Cape May and more. It's better than a PBS travel program.

I have been staying close to home these days, enjoying a stay-cation. Down time does a body good. It gives one the opportunity to step back and see the whole picture. It nurtures the imagination, making room for unexpected connections and strikes of inspirations.

First Draft

 It could be said that I’ve traded one type of busyness (teaching) for another (writing). I’ve been focused on getting a big project done, another historical middle grade novel. I still write my first draft by hand. (Remember my very first blog post, Writing By Hand ?) 


And I’m working on two important revisions. Which, of course, I also do by hand. Revision is an important part of the process, a topic we Teaching Authors have discussed in previous posts.


But the process can be teetotaliously tedious. Life becomes complex, an endless run-on sentence of problems to solves, tasks to complete, meetings, expectations, deadlines which leads to disappointments, self-shaming, regrets. It’s brain-numbing. Body draining. Soul negating.

Don't forget to play!

Sometimes, I get help in unexpected places, reminding me just how bright the sun is.  

We have to give ourselves permission to step away.

To be still, and enjoy the moment. To take care of ourselves. To play in the garden. Or play with the cats. Read a book for the sheer fun of it. To experience joy.




Or to be a Nana!

 

"What day is it?"
"It's today," squealed Piglet.
"My favorite day," said Pooh.

                                                                                ~ A.A. Milne


I hope you are experiencing your summer joy!

Bobbi Miller