Poetry Camp, a CWIM Giveaway, and Lots More!

Our Teaching Authors topic for this new series of posts is agents: who has one, who doesn't, and the advantages and disadvantages of submitting with or without an agent.

But before I begin that discussion, I must mention Poetry Camp, an amazing experience organized by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell, the geniuses behind Pomelo Books and the Poetry Friday anthologies, along with Western Washington University's Sylvia Tag and Nancy Johnson. I was so happy to see our own April there, along with 35 or so other children's poets and a very enthusiastic audience of teachers, librarians, and other poetry people. What fun! Besides meeting, talking with, and learning from all those wonderful poets, we ended the conference with a performance by Jack Prelutsky. In its online Industry News, Publishers Weekly included a photo of our group.

My husband and I drove from Wisconsin to Bellingham, Washington, for the conference--an amazing journey of 4,685 miles! We took advantage of a few opportunities to camp along the way. Here's a camping poem from our first night outside:

in the middle of somewhere

vast star-bright sky
tiny dome home
we fall asleep to owl hoots
coyote howls
train whistles
wake up to bluebirds
singing in the new day

Now back to our scheduled topic. I've never worked with an agent, so I can only discuss the pros and cons of submitting on my own. In a nutshell, I have the freedom to submit to any editor who accepts unagented manuscripts (I also add names to my contact list when I meet editors at conferences), and I bear the responsibility of managing all that submitting and negotiating on my own.

I wrote about submitting directly to editors in an article in the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (CWIM) 2017. For "Be Your Own Literary Agent," I interviewed four other children's book authors who also submit their own work. Mary Ann Rodman, Lisa Moser, Janet Halfmann, and Gretchen Woelfle answered questions about networking, finding editors, tracking submissions, and negotiating contracts. To celebrate the article, we're giving away a copy of the CWIM 2017, courtesy of Writer's Digest Books. You can enter below.

Another announcement: Hundreds of new children's books published in 2016, both traditionally and independently published, are celebrated in the SCBWI Book Blast. You can search for specific titles and authors and even buy books. Among other treasures, you'll find Carmela's new edition of Rosa, Sola (in paperback and ebook) with discussion questions for classroom use.

Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter to win your own copy of the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market 2017. 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. If your name isn't part of your comment identity, please include it in your comment for verification purposes. If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com. The giveaway ends October 31 and is open to U.S. residents only. 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.

Irene Latham has today's Poetry Friday Roundup at Live Your Poem. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In Need of a Smile?

Photo by Visual Hunt

Following our incredible discussion on punctuation, I thought I’d punctuate (see what I did there?) the discussion with what others have to say about the subject. And besides, given the current air of politics, we might be in need of some smiles…

"I’m tired of wasting letters when punctuation will do, period." -- Steve Martin



“I want to change my punctuation. I long for exclamation marks, but I'm drowning in ellipses.” -- Issac Marion 


“I use a whole lot of half-BLEEP semicolons; there was one of them just now; that was a semicolon after 'semicolons,' and another one after 'now.” -- Ursula LeGuin


“If commas are open to interpretation, hyphens are downright Delphic.” -- Mary Norris


“While we look in horror at a badly punctuated sign, the world carries on around us, blind to our plight. We are like the little boy in The Sixth Sense who can see dead people, except that we can see dead punctuation. Whisper it in petrified little-boy tones: dead punctuation is invisible to everyone else - yet we see it all the time.” – Lynne Truss

“Today, I learned, the comma, this is, a, comma (,) a period, with, a tail, Miss Kinnian, says its, importent, because, it makes writing, better, she said, somebody, could lose, a lot, of money, if a comma, isnt in, the right, place, I got, some money, that I, saved from, my job, and what, the foundation, pays me, but not, much and, I dont, see how, a comma, keeps, you from, losing it, But, she says, everybody, uses commas, so Ill, use them, too,,,,” -- Daniel Keyes



“What sort of person," said Salzella patiently, "sits down and writes a maniacal laugh? And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head. Opera can do that to a man.” -- Terry Pratchett

Photo by Visual Hunt

Wishing you smiles!

Bobbi Miller

Why I Write: An Imaginary School Visit Q & A

    I love school visits. I was a school media specialist for years, and I miss that world every day.

    My favorite part of school visits? Talking to the kids. Specifically, the question and answer part of my presentation. I have learned so much from those questions. 

    For instance, my very first school visit was to my daughter's kindergarten class. This is where I learned not to say, "So does anyone have any questions?"

    A boy waved both hands in my face, bursting with intellectual curiosity (I assumed).

   "Yes?" I gestured toward the boy by waving him out of my personal space.

   "Where do puppies come from?" he shouted.

   That day I learned to begin Q & A with the more specific "Does anyone have a question about writing or writers or books?"

    Over the years, the questions have grown more thoughtful, and have made me think about just why I do this writing-for-children thing.  Here is an imaginary Q & A showing how I arrived at an answer.

    Me: Does anyone have a question about writing or writers or books?

    A hundred hands shoot up.

   Me: I know everyone of you is either writing a book now or wants to be a writer some day, and I'll talk to you when I sign books. Now who has a question?

   Two thirds of the hands drop.

   Boy in a Hogwarts hoodie:  Do you know JK Rowling?

   Me:  Not personally, but she is a terrific writer.  Don't you think so?

   Room agrees enthusiastically.

   Girl with braces:  Do you make a lot of money?

   This answer depends on the age group. Answer for elementary students.

   Me:  Most writers have other jobs like teaching because most of us don't make a lot of money from our books. Not enough money to pay the bills at least.

   Middle school answer.  Me:  Last year my daughter made twice as much money bussing tables at Golden Corral than I did writing and teaching writing.

   Silence. I sense a number of kids deciding against a writing career.

   Child in neon orange from back of room:  Where do you get your ideas?

   I used to tick off the specific story seed for each of my books, until the day a second grader said, "So you just pretty much write about your family?"

The Rodman family 1916---my current WIP

    Me:  My husband and I come from storytelling families. My daughter tells me stories about her friends and teachers. Thanks to them, I never run out of ideas.  I think the best ideas come from stories families remember and tell about each other. You just have to pay attention to find them.

Teacher, leaning against the wall, arms folded: So, Ms Rodman, I think the students would like to know why you write?

   Me: (Cold sweats, racing heart, blank brain) That's a terrific question.

   I stalling for time. Is the next group of kids standing in the hall, waiting to come in?

   No, they are not.

    I mentally run through possible answers.

   I wanted to be rich and famous (too snarky).  I'm not very good at anything else (not entirely true; I was a great librarian). I'm not really a writer; it's just an expensive hobby I pursue to annoy my husband (super snark...and only the teachers might get it..)

    Me:  I have to write. (Well, that was weak.)

   Teacher: Excuse me?

   Me: (regrouping) I can't not write.

   (Double negative. Ouch. Not good. Try again.)

   Me:  As long as I can remember, I've told myself stories. When I learned to write, I had a way to save and share them. The more I wrote,  the more I want to write. There are so many, many stories I want to share, I'll never be able to write them all down.

 

Same Teacher:  Would you still write if you weren't published?

    Me: I wrote for years without being published. I wrote other stuff, things like diaries and journals that were just for me. When I was your age I wrote letters.  I have dozens of cousins, and a bunch of other relatives who all lived far away from me. I wrote at least two or three letters a week.

    (A brief digression to explain snail mail, and the world before the Internet and cell phones.)

     Me:  I wrote for my school newspapers and a school column for my neighborhood paper.

    (Similar digression on newspapers.  My life starts to feel like it took place in the Bronze Age, for the resemblance it bears to my readers' lives.)

    Same Teacher (who I now suspect has an agenda. Maybe she's a secret writer?): Don't you ever get discouraged and want to quit?

    Me: All the time. Sometimes you spend years writing a story, and then no one wants to buy it.  Sometimes you work and work on a book, and when you go back and read it, it's not as good as you thought.  That's when I say, OK, I quit.  I'm not going to write any more. It's too hard.

    Same Teacher: (prompting. Definitely has an agenda!) Then what happens?

    Me: After a couple of days I'll hear or see something and think "I've got to write this down. This is part of a story." I'll remind myself that I'm not writing any more. ..but I go ahead and write it down anyway.  Before I know it, I'm writing again. I can't help it.

    Girl in black (fourth grade Goth girl?) :  So how do you know if you are a writer?

     Me:  If you knew no one but you would ever read your stuff, and you knew you would never make any money writing, and you still write because you just have to....then you're a writer.

     Boy in LeBron James jersey:  For real?  Even if you didn't make money and nobody read your stories?  You'd write anyway?

     (I can tell he's thinking, but not saying, "well, that's stupid.")

     Me:  You like Le Bron James.  You must play basketball, right?

      Boy: Yeah.

     Me:  Are you any good?

      Boy: (trying to look modest but not succeeding). Yeah. Pretty good.

        Me:  What if somebody told you that you were a good player, but not good enough to play for the NBA?  Would you still want to play ball?

       Boy: Well, yeah. (His body language implies "duh, writer lady.")

       Me:  Why?

       Boy: Because it's fun.  I love it. I play all the time.

       Me: So you're kind o like me.  Writing is fun.  I love it. I write all the time or I'm thinking about writing. I'll keep writing even if no one ever reads another word I write.  And I think we have time for one more question.

      Girl:  Ms Rodman, why hasn't Yankee Girl ever been a movie?

      Me:  Oh, look, the next group is already at the door. Well, this has been fun and I'll see you guys at the book signing. Bye, now!

     Nothing like a school visit to remind me of my priorities.  Writing, writing and writing. And if someone reads it, so much the better.  School visits will always set you straight.


----Posted by Mary Ann Rodman
   

With Thanks to an Unforgettable TeachingAuthor and Mentor

In THE WRITER’S JOURNEY, Christopher Vogler notes that the Hero must connect with some source of wisdom before answering his Call to Adventure.  Usually that source is a teacher, a protector, a trainer, a tester whose offerings ensure the Hero begins his adventure ready, willing and able.

Vogler labels this particular stop along the way Stage Four – Meeting with the Mentor.

I consider myself life-changing lucky to have met such a Mentor on my Writer’s Journey -  the ultimate TeachingAuthor, Barbara Seuling. 

The second she left the world on September 12 she was instantly missed.

Barbara’s Children’s Book World friends and colleagues continue to sing her praises.

Her accomplishments were many, as noted in the September 13 Publishers Weekly announcement:  author of picture books and the popular OH, NO, IT’S ROBERT series (Cricket Books), picture book illustrator, former Dell and Delacorte Press editor, teacher and Emeritus SCBWI Board of Advisors member.

Even more plentiful were the legions of children’s book writers Barbara launched, watched over and celebrated, thanks to both her successful HOW TO WRITE A CHILDREN’S BOOK AND GET IT PUBLISHED (John Wiley & Sons, 1984, 1991, 2005) and her long-time Manuscript Workshop.

Begun 23 years ago in her Upper West Side New York City apartment, Barbara eventually moved the July Workshop to Applebrook, her cottage in Londonderry, Vermont, and then to the Landgrove Inn down the road, where it remains a go-to proving ground for dedicated children’s book creators.

The first edition of HOW TO WRITE A CHILDREN’S BOOK AND GET IT PUBLISHED served as my Children’s Writer’s Bible through the 80’s.  The 1991 Vassar Publishing Institute allowed me to meet and learn from Barbara in person, as did several Summer SCBWI Conferences that followed. It was in 2001, though, as I was considering answering the Call to a few New Adventures – serving on SCBWI’s Board of Advisors and becoming a Children’s Book Writing Coach, that Barbara’s mentoring made the difference. She guided me as we shaped my new career, instilling in me the confidence to move forward.  And fortunately, she did the same this past year, when she honored me with her invitation to continue her Vermont Manuscript Workshop. 

What joy, sitting in July with my fellow writers as our Guest Speaker and Workshop Founder passed on her know-how, insights, advice and Spirit.

And even more joy, when I visited Barbara and her wife Winnette Glasgow at Applebrook.  Barbara’s pride was palpable as she turned the pages of years of Workshop scrapbooks, calling attention to the writers she’d launched, the book creators she'd mentored, the workshop sessions she'd conducted, summer after summer.

Barbara began HOW TO WRITE A CHILDREN’S BOOK AND GET IT PUBLISHED with one of my favorite quotes, written by Atheneum Founder and Publisher Jean Karl.

“A good book respects a child’s intelligence, his pride, his dignity, and most of all his individuality and his capacity to become.”

I love that verb to become, and the infinite number of nouns and adjectives that might someday follow it.

Simply put, Barbara Seuling respected each of her writer’s capacity to become, including this writer, and for that I remain forever grateful.

She held the bar High, because we write for children.

This summer, when I finally saw the crystal-clear waters that ran behind Barbara’s cottage, giving it its name, I could only smile. For years I’d used Barbara’s handle “aplbrk” when emailing her.

Some Mentors, like Barbara, gift their mentees with magic, a magic I know flows always and ever.

With enormous gratitude,

Esther Hershenhorn 

Basic Rules for Punctuating Dialogue

In honor of last weekend's National Punctuation Day, we've been running a short series of posts on punctuation. JoAnn kicked off the topic by sharing some great links, one to a site I've never seen: Khan Academy. If you didn't follow that link and you have difficulty identifying run-on sentences, I encourage you to head over there as soon as you finish reading this post. Next, Carla shared a terrific example from her own work of how wise punctuation choices can help engage the reader. Before I wrap-up this series, I want to thank everyone who entered our giveaway of Cheryl Klein's The Magic Words, and to congratulate our winner, Cathy M!

The biggest punctuation challenge for my beginning students--both adults and children--seems to be dialogue. When I was a novice writer trying to understand how to punctuate dialogue, I studied examples in published works. Since I started out as a freelance newspaper writer (aka "stringer"), those early examples were quotes in newspaper and magazine articles. Later, when I turned to fiction, I modeled the punctuation I used on that in the novels on my shelves. Fortunately, they were all American publications, so the use of punctuation was consistent. I later discovered that British publications follow different rules, rules that are almost the direct opposite of ours. No wonder so many of my students were confused!  For a brief overview of the differences, see this page of The Punctuation Guide.

quinn.anya via VisualHunt.com

When I teach dialogue, I give my students a handout with some basic rules and corresponding examples. Here are the first three:

1. All dialogue should be set off with beginning and ending double quotation marks.

          “Come here, Lassie.”

2. Make sure you start a new paragraph whenever a speaker changes.

          “Where’s the barn?” I asked. “The river? The swimming hole?”
          “Oh, Sal,” my father said. “Come on. There’s Margaret.” He waved to the lady at the door.
          “We have to go back. I forgot something.”    

(Can you tell me what book the above example is taken from?)

3. If the dialogue is preceded by text, put a comma after the introductory text:

          Dad shouted, “Put that down now!”

As time went on, I kept adding more rules and examples. Then I found this page at The Editor's Blog. I've listed the site as a reference at the end of my handout so I don't have to update it anymore.

quinn.anya via Visualhunt

If you're looking for lesson plans on teaching punctuation, check out "And I Quote: A Punctuation Proofreading Minilesson" and "The Passion of Punctuation", both at Read. Write. Think. Both also contain links to additional punctuation resources.

To wrap us this celebration of National Punctuation Day, I suggest you read these Top Ten Tips at The Punctuation Guide.

Also, before you head over to check out this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Karen Edmisten's blog, you might enjoy reading these children's poems about punctuation.

And don't forget to:

Write with Joy!

Carmela

Reminder: There are only a few days left to enter the Goodreads giveaway of my middle-grade novel, Rosa, Sola.

Then BAM! Punctuation and Style

In this new TA series of punctuation and style, I thought I’d show an example from my book 

Fourth Down and Inches: 

Concussions and Football’s Make-or-Break Moment.  

I chose this for today because it demonstrates how to blend facts with punctuation and style to make readable and exciting text.   

The following passage is on page 41 of the book.  In this section I’m using a creative way to explain what happens on the football field when a player gets a concussion.  Before the reader gets to this page, I’ve explained exactly what a concussion is.  In this section I’m showing what happens in the brain when a concussion happens.    

FROM PAGE 41 OF Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football’s Make-or-Break Moment (Carolrhoda):

The player lines up. He concentrates on his job. He anticipates his opponent’s move. His blood is pumping. The ball is snapped. Instinct and memory of countless hours on the practice field take over. Like instruments in an orchestra blending together to play a symphony, every part of the player’s body is working in perfect harmony.

In the player’s brain, one hundred billion neurons are sending and receiving messages at lightning speed to make it all happen. Heart beat. Lungs breathe. Pick up your feet. Move your arm. Look at the coach. Remember the play. The neurons transmit these messages through a long fiber, called an axon, that is attached to each neuron. This information moves down the axon through an orderly chemical process. When the message gets to the end of the axon, a neurotransmitter transmits the message to the next cell. And so on. And so on.

Then BAM!  An outside force causes the player’s brain to crash into the side of the skull. Then it bounces off and crashes into the other side of the skull.

The brain, which had been busily transmitting countless messages immediately reacts to this crisis. A chain reaction begins as chemicals in the brain move around in chaos. Message-carrying neurotransmitters are interrupted before they reach the axon. Suddenly, the brain can’t send or receive messages normally.

I intentionally chose this style in this section that is different from the rest of the book.  Here are some of the reasons why I wrote it this way:

1.     I wanted to grab the attention of the reader by putting them vicariously on the football field. 

2.     I wanted to show the physical and mental aspects of playing football.  

3.     I wanted to inform readers about the one hundred billion neurons and axons in their brains and how they transmit information.

4.     I wanted to inform readers that a concussion disrupts those messages. 

5.     I used a lot of short choppy sentences to indicate fast moving information.

6.     I used some sentence fragments to indicate many things happening simultaneously in a football players body.

7.     I used “Then BAM!” because I wanted to reader to make the jump between a brain working normally, then BAM, a concussion happens and the brain does not work normally.

Since we are looking at punctuation and style today, let’s see which of two paragraphs below is the most interesting.

WHAT I COULD HAVE WRITTEN:

When a football player reacts to the beginning of a play, neurons move fast through their brains to control their body.  Countless neurons and axons transmit messages through their brains. 

WHAT I DID WRITE, AND WHAT IS IN THE BOOK:

In the player’s brain, one hundred billion neurons are sending and receiving messages at lightning speed to make it all happen. Heart beat. Lungs breathe. Pick up your feet. Move your arm. Look at the coach. Remember the play. The neurons transmit these messages through a long fiber, called an axon, that is attached to each neuron. This information moves down the axon through an orderly chemical process. When the message gets to the end of the axon, a neurotransmitter transmits the message to the next cell. And so on. And so on.

Which paragraph do you prefer?  

by 

Carla Killough McClafferty

P.S. from Carmela: Don't forget: Today's the last day to enter for a chance to win editor Cheryl Klein's The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults (Norton)!

Punctuation! Punctuation? Punctuation.

In honor of National Punctuation Day, we Teaching Authors are addressing punctuation in this new series of posts. I’ve seen plenty of run-on sentences lately, so I thought I’d address them here.

This sign shows one of many solutions I’ve seen to the “How do I punctuate this?” dilemma: Do nothing.

Here are some helpful suggestions for what to do with a run-on instead:

• Run-ons - Comma Splices - Fused Sentences from The Purdue Online Writing Lab

• How to use a semicolon: The most feared punctuation on earth, created by The Oatmeal

• Khan Academy’s Recognizing run-ons and comma splices

Thinking about punctuation, I remembered Lilian Moore’s wonder-filled poem “Winter Dark,” about the punctuation she saw in New York City.

“Soon
there’s a comma of a moon...”

You can read Lilian Moore’s biography and watch Renee LaTulippe and Lee Bennett Hopkins discuss her life and work in the Spotlight on NCTE Poets series at No Water River.  (Scroll down to read the whole poem in the spread from Mural on Second Avenue.) While you’re there, be sure to check out the rest of the series!

Just for fun, watch Victor Borge’s hilarious Phonetic Punctuation routine. And don’t forget to enter our Teaching Authors Book Giveaway to win a copy of Cheryl Klein’s The Magic Words. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents and ends September 26.

I’m thrilled to be heading to Poetry Camp at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, where I’ll meet in person many poets I know only through poems and blog posts. And our own April will be there, too! Yippee!

Today’s Poetry Friday Roundup is at Reading to the Core. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

You Are Not Alone

Photo by Visual Hunt

Mary Ann’s heartfelt journey about rekindling the flame:  “I’ve written my whole life. That’s a long, long time…to stay in love with a career that often doesn’t love you back.”

JoAnn talked about carrying on anyway, and about the power of letting go of the clutter in our lives. 

Carmela offers insights into improving your writing, about the evils of perfectionism, and how perfection murders the joy of writing. 

Carla offers tips to start – or restart – your writing career by highlighting a few things she wishes she had known when she started.

A writer’s life is an oxymoron. 

We need to live a solitary existence. Most of us are introverts. We live inside our heads, giving birth to fictional beings and struggling to give them meaning. We deconstruct an experience to its heartbreaking core. To do so, we send our characters into battle, into outer space, move them forward and backward in time. We kill off their favorite pet, or their best friends, and sometimes their mothers. Even as they cry, we cry.

It’s hard work, and it’s exhausting.

But even as we exist in a self-imposed solitary confinement, we also have to run a business. We have to leave our cabin in the woods and venture into the real world of flesh and bone. This means, we have to navigate a life external to our comfort zone and the writing process but one that is not separate. We have to persuade editors and agents that our characters matter. We have to toot our horns. We have to explain why and how our work matters in the broader world of literacy even as we address why and how it fits into the corporate business plan. We have to navigate techno-babble, like tweeting and snapchatting and instagramming, and become proficient in cross-platforming. We have to earn money to live, often finding second and third jobs to make sure our bills are paid. We have to buy health insurance and pay our taxes.

We have to deal with rejection, again and again and again. We're told it’s not personal, but it certainly feels personal. Friends offer empathy, asking when are we going to write real books, like those for adults. Then these killjoys offer that they plan to write a children's book, once they retire from their real jobs, because there just aren't any good books out there.How hard can it be, they say most affectionately.

Is it a wonder, then, that sometimes we just can’t go on. We’ve had enough. We can’t say another word, or write another chapter.

Our wells and wills of inspiration dry up, and our joy ebbs.

Christopher Vogler once suggested (A Writer’s Journey) that a writer’s journey is like a hero’s journey. The self-doubts and perfection-seeking, the writer’s block and procrastination are the shadows of our inner darkside. They are the annoying voices in our head confirming every  self-doubt we assume about ourselves. They threaten to destroy the process, and often succeed.  Bad reviews, computer break-downs, never-ending revisions, deadlines and all the other life’s demands become the ordeals we have to overcome. Editors and publishers and marketing directors stand at the threshold, shouting in a booming Gandolf baritone, “You shall not pass!”

Take heart. You got this.

It takes courage to write. And you have it inside you to fight this fight, as James Bell once said. (The Art of War for Writers).

Sentence by sentence. Day by day. Chapter by chapter. Week by week.

One step at a time. One scene at a time. You write, then you think about what to write, then you write some more.

Until it’s done.

You are the hero of this story. So be the hero.

And just remember, you are not alone.

Bobbi Miller


And, don’t forget to enter to win a copy of Cheryl Klein’s THE MAGIC WORDS (W.W. Norton). The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends September 26.

There are three ways you can enter. Visit Esther’s review of THE MAGIC WORDS here to enter the giveaway!