A Day in the Life of a Children's Book Author

Games

2011-07-21T02:41:16Z

I love games! I play a mean game of Scrabble (better not play with me unless you regularly put down words like “ai,” (a three-toed sloth), “jo” (a sweetheart), or “qadi” (a Muslim judge)). Scrabble is probably the only “mainstream” game I play. Most of the games I play are games the average person has probably never even heard of. They’re not games you find at Target; you have to go to a specialty games store to find them. Here are some of my favorites: Dominion, Killer Bunnies, Power Grid, Opus Dei, Arkham Horror, Citadels, Gloom, Agricola, Pandemic, Roll Through the Ages, Puerto Rico.

I had an opportunity to help create a new game a few months ago, and I jumped at the chance. I had no idea what kind of game it was, what the object was, nothing. They didn't even tell us what the game was called. I received an e-mail every day for two weeks. The e-mail contained a bunch of random questions like "name the first 10 U.S. states alphabetically" or "list the members of the The Munsters TV family" or "list the ingredient in French toast." (Lots of lists!) And I was supposed to answer the questions the best I could off the top of my head (no fair looking things up). I assumed it was some sort of trivia game, but I really had no idea.

Well, apparently the game is done. I just got my free copy. It's called ZERO and here it is:

My name is even listed as a “contributor” on the inside. That’s almost as cool as having your name on the cover of a book!

So what’s the game about?

According to the back of the box, “Zero is a new and exciting family game that asks players to search their minds for the “least popular” aspects of pop culture.”

And they let ME contribute to it??? You’d be hard pressed to find someone who knows less about pop culture than I do.

Basically, it looks to me like it’s Family Feud (without the family…or the feud) , but instead of trying to match the most popular response, you’re trying to match the least popular response.

It’s not Arkham Horror, but I’ll give it a try.

They clearly appreciated my contribution (such as it was)…I’ve been invited to be a “University Games Ambassador,” which means I’ll have more opportunities to help develop new games. Cool!

Radio Interviews

2011-06-20T21:18:05Z

The first time I was invited to do a radio interview, I said, "no, thank you." And I didn't do it.

The second time I was invited to do a radio interview, I allowed myself to be talked into it. It was just a 6-minute spot...they gave me questions ahead of time, which I diligently wrote out answers to. I was extremely nervous because there's no do-over in radio. Not live radio, anyway. And of course the interviewer didn't just go down the list of questions. He even dared to ask me questions he hadn't told me he was going to ask me. That's because a good interview (radio or otherwise) is a conversation. It's supposed to sound like people chatting. It's not supposed to sound like one person asking questions and the other person reading prepared answers.

I did manage to get through that first radio interview...and I've lost track of how many I've done since then. Some have been live in the studio; some have been over the phone. They really do get easier over time.

Today I was asked to be on a 60-minute radio program with two other people and I didn't even break a sweat. It didn't occur to me to ask for questions ahead of time. I figured we'd just go on and do it...and we did! (Piece of cake after SOME interviews I've done this year...like back in February!)

This one was fun because it wasn't about me (though the host did mention I was a local author and had just won the Edgar award, which was very nice of him); it was about the Coralville Public Library's teen programs. So I did the interview with the Teen Services Assistant at the library and with one of the more active teens. The time went really fast.

At every break, the host gave the weather forecast, which most of the time he read from a paper on his desk. But I just about burst out laughing after the third break when he started to give the forecast, but instead of reading his paper, he turned and looked out the window and said, "yeah, it looks like it's going to be rainy today." (It probably wouldn't have been cool to laugh on live radio.)

Best thing about doing radio: NO MAKEUP!!!!

Worst thing about doing radio: no do-overs.

But for once in my life, I'm not sure I would've said anything any differently today even if I could go back and do it again.

Thank you, Toastmasters! (Before Toastmasters, I'm not sure I would've willingly done any public speaking I didn't have to do for my career.)

Teen Book Discussion Group

2011-06-14T15:01:07Z

The Coralville Public Library's teen book discussion group is one of 16 Teens' Top Ten groups in the country. That means they receive galleys from publishers and have a chance to share with the publishers (and the book group facilitators!) what they think. They also nominate the books for YALSA's Teens' Top Ten list.

The teens in this group are just all around great kids, but they're also very astute readers. As a writer, it's valuable to me to hear what they like and what they don't like. I hear things like, "it's annoying when authors write like they think we talk" (i.e. overuse words like "like" and "totally") and "I like that this writer wasn't afraid to use lots of details; with some writers it's like they're trying to protect the reader and I don't like that." Yes, I take notes every time we meet!

Last night we had an interesting discussion about a book called Guantanamo Boy, which is about a fifteen-year-old Pakistani boy living in England who goes to visit family in Pakistan and ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped and taken to Afghanistan and eventually to Guantanamo Bay. I think this book left an impressed on the kids who read it. The one girl said she got into a conversation with her dad about it; her dad not only didn't know that teenagers had been held at Guantanamo Bay, he didn't believe her! She made him look it up! (Good for her!)

We talked a lot about torture...is it ever justified? Does it work? We talked about power...and of course, we talked about racism. Then a couple of the junior high kids told me something that really shocked me. They told me about getting a substitute teacher fired.

I said, "Excuse me??? You got a substitute teacher fired????"

There were two incidents in this one class. First, the guy started yelling at a Hispanic girl. He yelled, "Do you understand? Do you even speak English?" She did speak English, but that is hardly the point.

It gets worse.

There was also a boy in the class. And according to these girls, it's easy to form judgments about this boy. He looks tough and he can act up in class, but once you get to know him you find out he's nothing like you thought. (Not that that really matters...)

Apparently the boy was talking in class...and the sub called him a "white nigger." Right in front of the whole class.

I don't care what the boy was doing; you don't call someone a white nigger! And if you are a TEACHER, a person in a position of authority, you certainly don't say that to one of your students! What in the world made this sub think this was an okay thing to do?

The girls talked to their regular teacher about it when she returned (I was so proud of them when I heard this...it can't be easy to take on a teacher, even a substitute teacher, when you're a student), and the teacher talked to the principal, who apparently talked to the sub...and he hasn't been back. I sure hope he didn't just move to another school...this guy should not be around kids.

How does this happen in Iowa City? How does it happen ANYWHERE in 2011?

Then again, how does a 15-year-old boy, an INNOCENT boy, end up at Guantanamo Bay?

When I first started this blog entry, I wasn't going to mention the substitute teacher. I was just going to talk about the books the kids had strong reactions to. But 1) I can't get the story about the sub out of my head; and 2) we need to talk about this stuff. That's the only way to make it stop.

Five words I never thought would come out of my mouth...

2011-06-06T22:46:28Z

..."A film crew was here."

Film crew? At MY house???

Yup.

A producer and camera guy (Greg and Ivaylo) from Open Road Media came from New York to film me last week. The purpose of their visit was to create video that will be used in multiple promotional pieces that will be available online and with the purchase of the e-book editions of Buddy Files. Each video is only going to be two minutes long, but six months from now Open Road will create a new video. And six months from then they'll create another one. So they needed to shoot a bunch of video they can reuse in all these pieces.

All this filming was originally supposed to happen in New York when I was there for the Edgars. They were going to do a studio interview and then they were going to "rent a dog" and we were going to go to a park and the dog and I would solve a mystery together. But the day before I left for New York, they called to cancel because 1) it was supposed to rain the day we'd scheduled, which meant we wouldn't be able to film in the park. And 2) I only had three hours available, which they didn't think was anywhere near enough time anyway. So they asked if they could come to Iowa and film me here. The very next week.

I wasn't against the idea of them coming here...in fact, I much preferred they use MY dog rather than a rental dog. But at that point, I'd been home a grand total of six days the past six weeks. The cleaning ladies hadn't come the whole time I was gone...not that they would've done anything with the piles of books, papers, and just general JUNK in my office. And while cleaning is pretty low on my list of priorities, it's even lower on my husband and teenage son's list, especially when I'm not around to nag about it. So I looked around my house and thought, "Next week??? Are you kidding me???"

Fortunately, I had more school visits lined up for that next week, so that made a much better excuse than, "I'm sorry, there's no way I can get my house clean enough for you by next week."

We ended up putting it off for a whole month...and finally last week, Greg and Ivaylo came out. They were here Monday and Tuesday.

They had asked me if I had a hair and make-up person I liked to use. I tried not to laugh and then told them I haven't worn make-up in about 20 years. I don't even own any make-up. None. Not even a bottle of nail polish. They said that was okay...they'd find me a local make-up person.

And they did. This is Ally:

She was very nice to me (i.e. she never once said, "Never??? You NEVER wear make-up???")

But I'm afraid I wasn't very nice to her. Not when she'd just spent an hour (yes, a full 60 minutes!) working on my face. The idea was they were going to give me a "natural" look. I knew I was going to look different, but I didn't think I was going to look THAT different.

When I went to the mirror and looked at my face for the first time, I sort of freaked out. The words, "Oh, my God! I look like a little old lady" sort of popped out of my mouth. Yes, they did.

And poor Ally was so concerned. "What do you mean?" she asked, immediately at my side.

All I could do was gesture. I didn't know what I meant; I just thought I looked...OLD! (And of course she's probably thinking, "Lady, you ARE old!") And all of a sudden I realized I had just insulted her TERRIBLY. I didn't mean to. I mean, she'd just spent all this time on me. And she's an ARTIST. And what do I know about make-up? I knew I was going to look different...I knew a little make-up for the camera was a good idea. So I tried to apologize and tried to explain that I'm just not used to seeing myself like that; that it's fine, really it is...

...and then off we went to Witty Kitties to visit Hockey, the blue-tongued skink who was my inspiration in the Case of the Library Monster:

Holding Hockey helped relax me a little (emphasis on little)...and it was a lot of fun showing these two guys from New York City a place like Witty Kitties...and introducing them to Lex, the alligator that some idiot college student thought would be fun to have here in IOWA, until the alligator got too big for his bathtub...(I think they should come back and do a video or five of Witty Kitties! There are a lot of stories out there!). Neither of these guys had ever even heard of a blue-tongued skink before much less seen one. I was an awesome tour guide when the camera WASN'T rolling. When the camera was rolling, I got nervous. Really nervous. I am much more comfortable behind the camera than I am in front of it. But hopefully they got some good video.

Next we went to the library, which was actually closed for Memorial Day, but the teens were in there setting up for the summer reading program. Which was GREAT because Greg wanted to stage a teen book discussion group for the video.

By the way, if you think I'm exaggerating about how different I look with make-up, take a look at the reaction I got from these guys when they saw me (one of them is my son):

We also staged a R.E.A.D. session with my dog, Mouse, while we were at the library. My husband brought him in and my friend Jonni brought her adorable twin daughters. I wish I had pictures of both the teen book discussion group and the R.E.A.D. session.

The book discussion group went very well. The teens were fabulous! There were some there who aren't actually part of the book discussion group, but you'd never know it the way they participated. It was a very natural conversation.

And Jonni's daughters were wonderful, too! Jonni told me later that one of her girls had said she was glad Mouse was nervous because she was nervous, too. That surprised me...I never would've guessed either one of them was nervous. Except when Greg asked which one of them wanted to read first and they each pointed to the other.

It wasn't a typical R.E.A.D. session because Mouse paid more attention to Ivaylo (who kept pointing a camera in his face) than he did to Jonni's girls. But he did settle down and listen after a while.

Then we quick headed to the park (after I went home to change clothes) so Greg and Ivaylo could get some film of me and Mouse as the sun was going down.

Then we "wrapped" for the day.

The next day, it was back to the library. This second day, we were joined by "John," a local photographer who was hired to photograph the film crew:

Ally came back and worked her magic on my face again. I promised her I wouldn't freak out today (and I kept my promise!).

Several of my writer friends came, too, to stage a write-in. Greg didn't like the space we normally use for our write-ins, so he had us go to the tables in the main part of the library, which was interesting because the whole reason we started meeting in the downstairs meeting room was because we'd been "shushed" one too many times up there. And Greg actually WANTED us to talk rather than simply write.

Greg told us to do this, do that...and when he told me to flip my hair over my shoulder, my friend Cheryl burst out laughing and said, "It was worth coming just to hear them tell you to do that!"

So now I was starting to have a little fun, which was good because that made me more relaxed for the formal interview part of the video. After I changed clothes again, and got my make-up touched up again, I waited for Greg and Ivaylo to finish converting my office into a studio.

Somebody said to me, "Wow, that dog never really leaves your side, does he?"

No, not really...(not willingly, anyway...)

Unfortunately, it was a really hot day...and we had to turn the air conditioning off because it made too much noise on the video. I was also nervous they were going to make Mouse leave, but he laid there pretty still. I warned them that if we have to send him away, he might bark. He doesn't like to be separated from me...and he doesn't like to be away from the action.

Everything was fine until the cat wandered in and started pestering Mouse. But John decided that would be a good time to take Mouse outside and get some shots of him alone. So that's what he did...and then Greg and Ivaylo were able to finish my interview.

Next they had me go out to my back porch and read. Mouse, of course, followed and sat down right beside me. But Greg decided he liked that. Then Greg asked if I could get Mouse to look at me. Well...not when he's stalking some critter next door.

Finally, I changed clothes one more time and went outside to play with Mouse. And then that was it!

I really did start to have fun by the end there...quite a bit of fun, actually. Greg and Ivaylo (and Ally and John!) made it fun! In fact, I kind of wished we could start the whole thing all over again. Now that we're all good friends, I know I'd be much more relaxed if we could just do it all again. But Greg assured me I looked very relaxed the whole time. He said that if I'd seemed "stiff" he would've stopped the camera and we would've done something else.

So now I have to trust them to turn all that film into something interesting and worth watching...

Edgar Gala! (And I can't just say a little bit....no, I have to tell you EVERYTHING!)

2011-05-03T18:52:48Z

Did I really title that last post “highlights of the month?” That’s interesting because the real highlight of the month hadn’t even happened yet.

The Edgar Awards banquet was last Thursday, April 28. At one point my husband, two sons, and even my mother all thought they wanted to come to New York and attend the gala with me. But one by one they started to drop out.

First was my oldest son. He lives in Seattle, and he knew that the end of April was going to be a busy time at work. It was also a lot of money for him to fly clear across the country to spend maybe two days with us. It wasn't like I actually expected to win...so it was fine when he ultimately decided not to come.

I was the one who talked my mother out of making the trip...because I didn't want to have to see a look of disappointment on her face when the winner turned out to be someone other than me. I really was happy just getting to that gala in the first place. I wanted to enjoy the evening with no pressure, no expectation of actually winning.

Then came the teenager. He knew he was giving up a chance to attend the National robotics competition with the West High robotics team to come with us, and he knew he was giving that up right from the start. Coming with us was his idea, not mine. Then a week before the trip he found out that the other programmer on the robotics team suddenly couldn't go to the competition...which meant the team wouldn't have a programmer unless my teenager changed his mind. He was torn. He wanted to go to New York; he wanted to go to the robotics competition. In the end, he decided to go to the robotics competition.

That left just me and my husband...and Margaret, from Albert Whitman & Co.

Okay, so everyone wants to see The Dress. People who know me know it's a BIG DEAL when I put on a dress. I'm lucky to have a fashion conscious friend (hi, Laura!). Laura went shopping with me and first tried to outfit me with a black suit and shawl combo...because she knows I don't do dresses and she wanted me to be comfortable. I did end up buying the suit because it will come in handy for future things I need to dress up for (Laura says it's "very New York")...but I wasn't sure it was really "black tie" worthy. So I tried on a bunch of dresses. It was the best shopping experience I've ever had; I just hung out in the dressing room and Laura brought me all kinds of stuff (I have NO idea where she even found some of this stuff or how/why she put it together). Unfortunately, NOTHING (except the suit!) I tried on looked or felt good... until I showed her a dress I already had. I'd bought it for a cruise to Alaska my husband and I took for our 20th anniversary five years ago. Laura draped the shawl/scarfy thing that she picked out for the suit over my shoulders and we both agreed: this was The Dress. (Sorry I don't have a full length shot of it...and no shot of the shoes, either. Some of us just don't think about stuff like that...)

BTW, much as I HATE to dress up, I sure do enjoy seeing my husband in a tux:

There was a reception for all the nominees and their guests before the dinner and awards ceremony. But the term "guest" did not apply to any publisher representatives. So Margaret couldn't come in with us.

The Edgars reception is NOTHING like a Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators reception. I felt SO out of my league. There were famous mystery authors there...people I've admired for years. I saw Harlan Coben's name on a name tag and just stared at him and tried to process the idea that I was in the same room with him. Then Sara Paretsky walked by. (BTW, she was born in Iowa...if I'd been just a little bit bolder, I could've said to her, "Hey, I'm from Iowa!" and maybe we would've had a conversation!)

I did eventually work up the courage to talk to a guy who was standing by himself. He wore both a Nominee AND a Judge ribbon. That was Doug Allyn (and later on he won the Edgar for best short story) and he kept offering to introduce me to "someone famous." LOL! After I spoke to one person there, it got easier to talk to a few more people. About the time I was starting to feel a little bit comfortable around all these people, it was time for group photos. They called us up by category to get our pictures taken with our fellow nominees. Here are all the juvenile nominees:

(From left to right that's Jim Krieg (author of Griff Carver, Hallway Patrol), Ben H. Winters (author of The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, me, Lewis Buzbee (author of The Haunting of Charles Dickens, and T.R. Simon and Victoria Bond (authors of Zora and Me) And yes, I read all their books...I always read all the Edgar nominees in both the juvenile and YA categories. In fact, for the last several years, I've even reviewed them in my newspaper column.

After the group photos, it was time to go in to the ballroom for dinner. It was a relatively dark room. And big! Not as big as the Newbery/Caldecott banquet, but big. There was a stage in the center and large screens at either end of the room.

Dinner was wild mushroom bisque en croute, filet mignon with cabernet shallot butter and madiera sauce, garlic whipped potatoes, vegetables and rolls. My dessert plate had three different desserts on it: a "mini chocolate purse," (translation: chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate), a key lime pie bar, and a "mini chocolate tulip filled with fresh berries and creme anglais" (translation: the best thing on the plate! And that's really saying something.). This was sitting in the center of the table (and now that white chocolate square with Edgar's face on it is sitting on my desk!):

I did manage to eat most of my dinner, but not all of it. Because I just couldn't believe I was really there! They flashed previous Edgar award winners on the large screens throughout the dinner, which reminded me what a long tradition the Edgar awards have. Did you know there was originally a category for Best Radio Drama?

Laura Lippman, the previous Mystery Writers of America president, spoke briefly...then the new president, Lisa Scottoline spoke. And then it was time for the awards.

The Best Juvenile was the fifth award of the evening. Adam Meyer was the one who presented it. I'd met him earlier in the evening and he told me he'd really enjoyed my book. I didn't realize then that that nice man was one of the judges. Or the person who would present the award. Or the author of The Last Domino, which I'd just heard about a few weeks ago (it deals with bullying...and a friend told me I needed to read it, so it's on my stack of books to read).

Adam began by holding up Edgar, which was in two pieces. Somehow that particular statue, the one that was going to go to the Juvenile winner, had gotten broken on the way to the ceremony or during the ceremony. No one was really sure how or when it had happened. It was a mystery!

My husband reached for my hand as the nominees were read and their books flashed on the big screens. I remember thinking I really wanted to stand up and take a picture of those books on the screen, but no one else was taking pictures of the screens...and then I would've had to let go of my husband's hand. Not that I needed him to hold my hand...I wasn't nervous.

Not until Adam announced the winner...

I was shocked! I was so shocked that I just sat there. I was sure I'd heard it wrong. But people were clapping...and no one else was walking up to the stage. So I went to claim my statue (both pieces!)...and on the way to the stage I realized I was going to have to say something when I got up there. And people like Harlan Coben and Mary Higgins Clark would be listening.

My husband had asked me several times before the ceremony whether I'd prepared any sort of acceptance speech...and of course I hadn't. I was too busy with school visits this past month to even think about anything like that. There was no time to prepare for a short speech I was unlikely to have to give.

So the first thing out of my mouth when I got up there was, "Four years of Toastmasters has not prepared me for a moment like this." Which is the absolute truth! But then I took a deep breath and told myself, "this is just table topics at Toastmasters." In fact, my acceptance speech was supposed to be about as long as a typical table topics response. So I pretended I was back at Old Capitol and the question I've been asked is what do you say when you're presented with an award you've dreamed of winning since you were fourteen?

And then I blathered on about the day I first discovered what an Edgar award was. (Yes, I actually remember that day.) I was checking out the "New" shelves in the brand new young adult section (I loved thinking of myself as a "young adult" at age 14) of the Martin County Library in Fairmont, Minnesota, and I came across a book called The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore by Joan Lowery Nixon. The book caught my eye because it had a seal on the front that said Edgar Allan Poe award winner. I figured that meant it would be a pretty good book...and it was! I loved that book. I read it several times before I returned it to the library. I remember thinking, "THIS is the kind of book I want to write one day." And I dreamed of growing up and publishing a book of my own that would say Edgar winner on it.

I also thanked the Mystery Writers of America for this incredible honor, my publisher for taking a chance on a brand new series, and my husband for supporting me and believing in me all these years.

I went down the stairs and had an official picture taken. And until I actually saw this picture last night, I had no idea whether anyone else was actually in it with me (it turns out Adam was on the picture with me!); I just knew one had been taken. I was so in my own little world at that moment...and my entire body was trembling...and I was afraid I was going to drop that statue and break it into a few more pieces.

Someone from Mystery Writers of America asked me if I wanted to take the broken statue or did I want them to send me a new one, which surprised me a little. Would anyone actually prefer the broken statue? So I went back to my table with just my envelope (no statue)...

...and I hugged my husband...and I think I hugged Margaret, too. Margaret wanted to know where my statue was, so I explained that I was offered a choice between the broken statue now or a new one later and I chose the new one later. Margaret told me it wasn't an either/or; I should go back and get the broken statue now, so I'd have something tonight, and then Nice Marketing Lady would call in the morning to make sure I also got a new statue...

Despite the fact that I'd previously warned my husband I did not want to see that cell phone of his out during the ceremony AT ALL, I made him get it out so he could text the kids (because I hadn't brought my cell phone...no room in the clutch purse (why do women carry these things anyway? Either carry a bag or don't carry a bag...a "clutch" is NOT a bag))...

...and I couldn't tell you anything that happened after that (except Charlie Price won the Best Young Adult Edgar for The Interrogation of Gabriel James...Charlie was actually at my table, too!) until I heard the Typewriter Song begin to play. That was the moment it suddenly felt real. I LOVE the Typewriter Song...I have a group I dance with every Sunday night, and for some reason we almost always dance to the Typewriter Song. Those women and that song always make me smile...but hearing that song in that ballroom...and then seeing this tribute to Sara Paretsky, who was about to claim the Grandmaster award, flash across the screen, I suddenly tuned back in to what was going on. And I realized I HAD JUST WON AN EDGAR AWARD. It really was one of the happiest moments of my life.

And here I am at the end of the evening...with all the winners:

That's Lisa Scottoline to my right...and Sara Paretsky just to my left. I actually engaged in conversation with both of them. For just a second, they both knew who I was!

And here's a picture of all the nominees (taken during the reception before the ceremony):

There were a bunch of books in the lobby...normally when I go to conventions I don't have my husband with me, so I take as many books/ARCs as I think I can carry. But this time my husband was there to remind me how little shelf space we have left (which, as far as I'm concerned, is the BIGGEST advantage to e-readers), so I restrained myself. Some.

And then I called Nice Marketing Lady. I really wanted to hear her voice before the evening was over...and congratulate her, too, because she's worked tirelessly for me since the day I met her. Probably even before that. She and all the wonderful people at Albert Whitman helped make The Buddy Files what it is. This award belongs to them just as much as it belongs to me (but I'M keeping it! Sorry, Albert Whitman & Co....).

I didn't really want to take a cab back to the hotel. Who needed actual transportation on a night like that? I figured we'd just sort of float down Lexington Avenue. But before we left, my husband asked me if I was sure I didn't want to go back and mingle with the people in the lobby...maybe talk to some of the people I didn't have the courage to approach before?

I looked over and saw Harlan Coben was there...and then I didn't think, I just walked...I walked right over to him with no idea what I might say when I got there. Fortunately, he spoke first. He congratulated me...and then I realized, wait a minute; he's not holding a statue! He didn't win in his category. I felt a little funny about that, but we had a nice chat anyway...and he even posed for a picture with me:

His wife told me that she'd accidentally broken his statue when she was dusting, and MWA replaced it. So that made me feel better about getting a new statue myself.

It was a really amazing night...the fourth best of my life (after my wedding and the births of my children).

When we got back to the hotel and I checked my e-mail, I was surprised to see how many of my friends already knew! Which brings me to the secret to how I may have won...

Remember I said I didn't have room in the clutch purse for my phone? There was only room for three items in that clutch...a camera, a comb, and my good luck charm (given to me the day after the nominees were announced...thanks, Katherine!). I definitely made the right choice bringing this to the gala and leaving the cell phone back at the hotel:

(Photos 1, 3, 10, 15, and 16 courtesy of Matt Peyton Photography in New York.)

Highlights of the month

2011-04-27T12:13:20Z

It's been quite a month. I've only been home two weekdays (six days total, the entire month). I breeze in...do my laundry...pet the dog...hug the family...and breeze back out again.

Here are some of the highlights:

The Texas Library Association convention (Buddy Files #1 is on the Texas Bluebonnet list for this next year) where I met wonderful librarians (a librarian really is a children's book author's best friend!), signed a ton of books, and ate Amy's Ice Cream (which is just as entertaining of an ice cream shop as Coldstone, but serves better ice cream) and fried pickles (Awesome!)...and no I'm not pregnant.

I also got to meet the librarian (maybe I should capitalize that: The Librarian!) from the Texas library where the infamous babysitter is challenging my My Mom's Having a Baby...she talked to me, shook my hand, and was even willing to be photographed with me and The Book:

And James Howe (see previous two entries to understand why that is significant, aside from the fact that James Howe is awesome!):

We had a nice (but brief) chat about censorship...and I got a signed ARC of his new book!

I've also done A LOT of school visits this month. All great schools...great kids...here are a few highlights from some of the schools:

This picture is from a school where everyone brought a stuffed animal to school to read to the day before I arrived. The animals stayed in the P-O-U-N-D most of the day, then they came out for reading:

I think this school wins the prize for best author display. I LOVE the cap on Buddy:

I like the chart that this school made.

And the writing assignments the second graders at this school did (they read part of The Case of the Library Monster, then did some research and wrote letters to Buddy offering help in solving this case). Can you tell those are pictures of blue-tongued skinks?

I think this school wins the prize for best library (don't you just want to hang out here and read???):

And today I'm off to New York for the Edgar Awards. Blog post (with photos) to follow soon...

More things to make you go hmm....

2011-04-07T00:00:06Z

Apparently I visited the subversive school in the district today. (All the schools I'm visiting this week are part of the same district.) If you read my blog entry yesterday, you know that because a parent challenged James Howe's The Misfits a few years ago (and won!), the district decided not to even offer my Truth About Truman School book for sale. Because there's a RUMOR in my book that someone could be gay. (One of the characters also has two gay uncles, but I'm not sure the librarian realized that yesterday.) I have news for people who object to their children knowing that homosexuality exists: it STILL exists, even if you don't talk about it! If your children are in school, they are in school with people who are gay. Doesn't everyone deserve to see themselves in literature???

But I digress...back to the subversiveness. While this school was not allowed to SELL The Truth About Truman School, that didn't stop several fifth and sixth grade teachers from reading it to their classes!!! Nor did it stop them from encouraging their students to go out and order the book somewhere else and bring it back for me to sign. I signed quite a few copies of The Truth About Truman School! Look, they even included that book on their welcome sign.

Fifth and sixth grade teachers at Pleasant View (and librarian, too!)....you guys are AWESOME!!!!!

Things that make you go hmm.....

2011-04-06T02:16:50Z

I had a great school visit today...well-prepared, enthusiastic kids...great staff. There were paw prints all over the school announcing my visit, and a group of fourth graders had put on a little skit last week for the rest of the school to get them excited about my visit (I asked if they'd perform it for me today and they did...it was wonderful!). This school knows how to do an author visit!

The only thing that disappointed me was they chose not to offer my Truth About Truman School book for sale. It's not so much that they chose not to offer that book for sale that bothered me; it's more the reason WHY they chose not to offer it.

A few years ago, a teacher in that school read James Howe's The Misfits as a classroom read-aloud. Great idea, right? Well, that's what the teacher and the librarian thought...until a parent complained.

Apparently, the parent felt it was "inappropriate" for a teacher to read a book about a gay character out loud in class, and asked that the book be removed from the classroom. It turned into a really big deal. The reconsideration committee met and they voted to keep the book, but they were overruled by the school board. The school board decided the book could remain in the library, but teachers could no longer read it out loud in the classroom.

I was stunned. This is one of the best anti-bullying books I've ever read. What was that school board THINKING??? Sure, kids can still check the book out of the library, but they miss out on something when they can't discuss the book in the classroom.

The librarian went on: "I know the homosexuality is just a rumor in your book, but after what we went through with the other book, we just couldn't take a chance that someone would object. There are some people in the district who think this was a bad decision, but unless you've actually had some experience with censorship, you can't really understand what it's like to face these people..."

Um...I think I have an idea what it might be like...

What was really interesting was it soon became clear that this librarian had no idea what I went through with Fox News just a little over a month ago. In fact, I'm not sure she was even aware I'd published a book called My Mom's Having a Baby.

I do understand where the librarian was coming from...believe me, nobody understands better than I do about people who make judgments about you based on the fact that you support (or wrote) a particular book. And I know she wanted this to be a nice day and she didn't want there to be any controversy hanging over my visit. But to not even give anyone the opportunity to purchase the book should they want to...isn't that censorship, too???

I really hate that one parent's view of one book can affect so many other decisions down the road...

Best kid review of one of my books I've read in a long time.

2011-03-16T15:47:01Z

Every now and then I'm reminded that I have written other books besides The Buddy Files...and My Mom's Having a Baby.

I don't want to name the reviewer (and no, I don't know him...my husband came across the review while reading what people are saying about My Mom's Having a Baby), so I'll just call him K. Here's K's review (published here exactly as he wrote it) of Tank Talbott's Guide to Girls:

"This is a book to help boys to not be wird in front of girls. I anestly think it will help the boys. There is 1 hing that I found out and I asked a girl and she said that that thing was grose. So if you are a boy and you need tips please read this book. If you are a girl you can still read this book because there is a secshon that is for girls. You can get this book at Southside Librarey."

Thank you for giving me a smile today, K. I don't know if you meant that seriously or tongue-in-cheek; I'm hoping for tongue-in-cheek, because if you're really taking advice from TANK on girls, well...I'm afraid you won't be having much of a love life.

A photo essay...and link!

2011-03-04T04:28:54Z

If you can stand one more post about all this...

Fox News sent a car for me last week. I asked the nice marketing lady at Albert Whitman whether that was really necessary. It had already been established that I would be bringing two friends from home and meeting a third in Ames (because isn't that what you do when you're on TV? Travel with an entourage?); I would've MUCH preferred we go ourselves. But I was told to take the car.

Let me back up...why Ames? Because I needed to go someplace where there was an uplink to the Fox News station in New York. Apparently, Ames was the closest. Ames is a little more than two hours away...on a good day!

The car was supposed to come for us at 4:45 a.m. last Thursday. At 4:50 it hadn't shown up yet. So I called the limo company and talked to someone in California who assured me the driver was on his way; he was 20 minutes out.

Twenty minutes out? It was 4:50 a.m. I was supposed to be in Ames at 7:00 a.m. and then go on at 7:20. That was cutting it pretty close. The guy in California assured me he'd talk to the people at Fox News and get back to me; everything would be fine.

He never did get back to me. And another half an hour went by and still no car. I called the limo company back and was told it would be another eight minutes. I asked the guy in California what Fox News had said (you know, since he didn't get back to me like he said he would). He said, "they said everything will be fine as long as you're in Ames by 7:00."

It's now almost 5:25. The driver is still eight minutes away. There's no way I'm going to be in Ames at 7:00. "Yes, you will," the guy in California said. "Don't worry; you'll be there."

"Um no...," I said. "I'm in Iowa City. I know how far it is to Ames. I know what time it is. The math does not work."

I could not convince this guy that there was no way I was going to be in Ames by 7:00, so I gave up and called the Fox News producer. I got the impression they had not heard from the limo company. They were not happy to hear I was not going to be there by 7:00. It took two phone calls, but ultimately they decided they could move my segment from 7:20 to 7:40 and "that driver better have you here by 7:20."

The driver did show up...and my friends and I all crammed into the back. Together. (I insisted that was the way we were going to do it.) And the poor driver drove between 75 and 80 miles an hour the entire way.

Nice Marketing Lady told me to prepare for the interview "a little bit" in the car, but not the whole way. Try and talk about something else, too. Which we did.

I got a little bit freaked out about this whole thing on Wednesday (the day before the interview), but come Thursday morning, I was surprisingly calm. Ask my friends if you don't believe me. I made them tell Nice Marketing Lady that I was indeed calm (I lost track of how many times I talked to Nice Marketing Lady on the way there).

We arrived at 7:25, with time to spare.

The whole thing was kind of surreal...nothing like I expected. We were on the Iowa State University campus and there were just two guys. They opened the studio just for this segment and then they closed it again when the segment was over.

Here I am getting hooked up with sound. BTW, I was the only one in the studio who could hear Fox News. My friends and the two studio guys could only hear my half of the conversation. And none of us could see Fox News.

And...we're on! (Except we're really not...my friends just THINK we are because I'm talking. And it sounds like I'm answering questions related to my book. Which I am. But even I'm not entirely sure whether we're really on air, since I can't see anything; I can only hear. I don't actually know that we're on the air until the New York guy says we are and we start the whole thing all over again.)

Three minutes later it's all over. Nice Marketing Lady is on the phone...and the studio guys are wondering what all the hubbub is about. They really want to see what this woman in Texas is objecting to. So I show them. They're...surprised.

We arranged for our driver (I still can't believe I had a "driver!") to pick us up in an hour and a half so we can go out for breakfast. One of the things we did on the way to Ames (when we weren't practicing for the interview) was google restaurants in Ames. We ended up at the Cafe, which was FABULOUS.

I checked my phone periodically and watched the hate mail come in. As it did, I read it to my friends. We also checked the ipad periodically...waiting for the link to the video to be posted. It finally was...and our nice waitress even watched it with us. When it was over, she said she was going to get a copy of the book for her four-year-old.

Here we all are:

Let me just say those three people with me are some of the best friends I've ever had. (And that's saying something because ALL my friends are wonderful!)

In case you missed it, here's a link to the Des Moines Register article that appeared earlier this week (the pictures in the Press Citizen were better, but that one isn't available online).

I don't know that I'm really an expert on media training or what to do when your book is challenged, but my friend Sue interviewed me on those two subjects anyway. You can read it here (though it looks like you have to actually click on the "One Writer's Journey" tab). Thanks, Sue!

And thanks Kellye, Katherine, Wendy, and especially you, Nice Marketing Lady, for convincing me I really could do this...and for being there for me through it all! You all were right: I HAD to do it. And I'm stronger for it.

Thoughts about libraries

2011-02-25T17:43:54Z

I've always loved libraries. I'm sitting in one right now. My writer friends and I get together a couple times a week to write together in a room in the library.

I'm the sort of person who gets a library card (or three) when I move to a new community before I bother getting a new driver's license.

The only job I've ever had other than writer (I'm not counting temporary jobs or paper girl when I was 12) was library page in high school and college.

When I was in high school, I used to stay in the library after all the other employees went home and work on my novel. I loved being alone in the library after hours. I did that for months...until I got caught and was asked to "please go home when the library closed."

Today, I'm a library volunteer. I help out with the teen reading group. I facilitate a teen writers group in the summer. My dog is a registered therapy dog and I bring him to the library regularly so kids can read to him. I'm also President of the Coralville Public Library's Friends of the Library organization.

Libraries are wonderful places. If there's something you want to know, you can always find the information at the library. Librarians are wonderful people: easy to talk to, always willing to help, always willing to take a stand against censorship. I've always known all that on an intellectual level, but I'm feeling it on a deeper level today.

When I walked into the Coralville Public Library this morning, my eyes filled with tears. And I just stopped and stood there in the entryway for a little while before I went downstairs to write with my friends. What an amazing place this is!

How lucky we are to live in a country where we are free to read and write what we like. There will always be people like Ms. Schifferdecker who will try and limit those freedoms for others (see my previous entry), but there are MORE people (writers, librarians and people from all walks of life) who are willing to stand up for your (and my) right to read and write freely.

How fortunate I am to live in a community where censorship rarely rears its ugly head.

I LOVE this library! Thank you, Coralville Public Library, for being here...for providing activities and opportunities for me and for my children...for carrying every single one of my books (even the naughty ones)...and for giving me a place to come and write with my friends.

Much Ado About...???

2011-02-25T02:19:04Z

I’ve had an exciting couple of days. A babysitter in Texas took three children to the library recently and one of them checked out my My Mom’s Having a Baby. The babysitter was “shocked.” You can read the story and watch the video here.

Interestingly enough, she didn’t file a complaint with the library or ask the library to remove the book; she took her complaint right to the media. To a local Fox TV station. The library in question (The Carrollton Public Library) never heard about it until they were contacted by the media.

Yesterday the story went National. I appeared on Fox and Friends this morning. You can see that video clip here.

She got to do a lot more talking than I did. And every time I tried to make a point, I was interrupted. But I sort of expected that. My goal was to remain calm and to not engage. I think I accomplished that.

Here is what I would've liked to have said if given the chance:

1. There's no "debate" here. There's no reason to debate. Ms. Schifferdecker believes the book is "wrong." It clearly IS wrong for her children. And that's fine. Nobody, least of all me, is forcing her or her charges to read it.

2. Despite what Ms. Schifferdecker thinks, there are people out there who want to read this book. There are even people who would go so far as to say it's a good book. Booklist gave it a starred review. It was also a Booklist Editor's Choice Book for 2005 and a Top Ten Sci-Tech award winning book. This book needs to be available to those who want to have access to it.

3. Children are naturally curious about where babies come from. When Mom's "stomach" is getting bigger and there's talk about a new baby coming, some children become even more curious. And some of those children are ready for more information. My Mom’s Having a Baby was written to help those children and their parents talk openly and honestly about where babies come from, what happens during pregnancy, and how the baby grows inside the uterus from month to month.

4. This is NOT a book about sex. It's a book about a close-knit, loving family, and the joy and anticipation prior to the birth of a new baby. It just happens to include that one piece of the puzzle that many other books leave out: how did that baby get inside Mom in the first place?

5. I believe in giving children accurate information. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents talk with their children about their bodies and about sexuality, using proper terminology, from the time they are preschoolers on up. This book helps parents do that. It's not up to me to decide when any child other than my own is ready for this information. But it's not up to Ms. Schifferdecker to make that decision for anyone other than her own children, either. Parents must make those decisions for themselves.

6. Parents/caregivers have a responsibility to pay attention to what their children are doing and what they are reading. I checked the Carrollton Public Library's catalog. They shelve My Mom’s Having a Baby in the nonfiction section...in the 618s. That's where you find the books about childbirth and sex. I don't know whether Ms. Schifferdecker's charges were roaming the 618s or not, but let's give her the benefit of the doubt and say the book was just lying on a table somewhere and one of the children happened to pick it up. If Ms. Schifferdecker had opened the cover and read the jacket copy, she would have seen this: "Elizabeth learns all about the baby's development, and she traces his growth, month by month. She learns how the baby got inside Mom, too." If this is not information Ms. Schifferdecker wanted her charges to have (and she has every right to make that decision), she should not have allowed those children to check out the book.

7. To any question that began, "What do you think..." or "Do you REALLY think...", I would've responded: What I think is nowhere near as important as what the parent who is holding the book thinks. Only YOU can decide whether this book is right for your family.

Ultimately, I stand behind my book. I stand behind the words; I stand behind the illustrations (even though they're not mine...one of the people who e-mailed me today also chastised me for drawing such obscene pictures!). It may not be the right book for everyone. No book is. But I know without a doubt that it's the exact right book for some people. And I've got a bunch of mail to prove it.

Before I close this entry, I want to say something about some of the mail I've received today. First of all, I feel like I've made a lot of new friends! And for that I am grateful. I've also heard from a few crazy people: people who saw a 3-minute clip on Fox News and think they know me; people who haven't even seen my book, but just "know" it's wrong etc. And I've heard from a number of people who want me to know that it's not MY fault; it's the librarian's fault.

To those people I want to say this: I appreciate your attempt to support me, but it's not "the librarian's fault," either. Librarians have a responsibility to serve ALL members of the community. That doesn't mean everything in a library (or even in the children's section of a library) is right for everyone.

A library is not a day care center. It's not the librarian's responsibility to supervise the children who come in. It's not the librarian's responsibility make sure every child only picks up books that are "appropriate" for them. How could it be? What's appropriate for one child is not appropriate for another child.

I know librarians make careful decisions about where to shelve books. Should My Mom’s Having a Baby be shelved in a restricted area? I'm not a librarian; that's not my decision to make. I probably wouldn't be upset if they put it in a restricted area. I don't think it's necessary to do that, but it wouldn't bother me to find out a library had done that. I WOULD be upset if they removed it from the library altogether. Ultimately, it's the parent/caregiver's responsibility to monitor their children in the library and guide their children's reading choices.

Edgar party!

2011-02-01T15:23:08Z

It started out like any other write-in…other than my dear friend Kellye from Des Moines came.

She was supposed to come and stay overnight with me last month when my husband was out of town so we could go out on the town and—I mean, so we could have a nice quiet time here at home, discussing our writing. But then we had a snow storm that day and she couldn't come. So no, I didn’t think anything was up when she said she was coming yesterday. (Though I understand there was conversation over the weekend to the tune of, "Dori still hasn't told us you're coming yet"...but in my defense, there was SNOW predicted again yesterday...so I didn't know if she was really going to come until yesterday. I DID send out an e-mail as soon as I knew she was coming for sure!)

The write-in group (i.e. BEST FRIENDS EVER!) had told me they wanted to take me out for lunch to celebrate my Edgar nomination, so that’s what I thought we were doing yesterday. As more and more people started drifting in for the write-in (people who don’t normally come…or haven’t come in a while), I still didn’t get it.

And when Kellye nudged me during the write-in and asked if we could go somewhere and chat for a little while because she didn’t realize we actually WORK during our write-ins and she needed some conversation, I still had no idea anything was going on. I did think it was a little weird that she didn’t want to sit by the nice fountain in the basement of the library to talk; that's where people normally go to talk during our write-ins. But no, all of sudden she was more interested in going to see the library than she was in talking. And she wanted me to show her around. So okay…I took her upstairs to see the library, never suspecting what was going on downstairs.

Apparently this guy was the lookout:

His job was to call out, "Hi, Dori," when he saw Kellye and me coming back down the stairs...which was a signal to all these people who were hiding around the corner:

Then they all jumped out and yelled, "Surprise!"

And yeah, I was surprised:

In fact, I STILL didn't quite get it at first...I couldn't figure out what these people were doing. It wasn't time to go to lunch yet; why were they all out in the hall?

Then I realized there were more people there than there had been when Kellye and I went upstairs...and I saw into the big room behind them. It was all decorated in Edgar Allan Poe style. There was a BIG table set for people to eat at rather than work at...and then it slowly dawned on me...all this was for ME. These people had put together a Congratulations On Your Edgar Nomination Party!

I was really touched...no one's ever thrown me a surprise party before.

That explained why so many people showed up for the write-in...and why we had meeting room A for our write-in rather than meeting room B. That part had never made a lot of sense. We always take meeting room B if we can...ALWAYS! It's smaller, cozier, and we don't have to move tables. Meeting room B was available, but Wendy (who would absolutely NEVER lie to me!) told me the library had just gone ahead and put us in A "for some reason." Wendy also reserved the room until 2:30, but told the library to have the reservation notice say that our reservation was until 1:00 like it normally is, so I wouldn't look at it and start asking questions. They really did think of everything, including what they would do if there had been snow...because the guest of honor does not drive in snow.

They even tried to invite my husband...they made a point of calling him when I was already at the write-in so I wouldn't answer the phone. But we have caller ID, so when my husband sees it's one of my friends calling, he doesn't pick up the phone. Katherine was persistent, though...persistent enough that he instant messaged me to tell me Katherine has been calling. I did think that was weird...she should have known I'd be at the write-in at that time. And why wasn't SHE at the write-in yet? She knows I don't get cell phone service in the library basement, so it makes sense she wouldn't call my cell, but why would she call my home phone? If she wanted to talk to me, she should've e-mailed me. My husband said she wasn't leaving any messages...not that he would've listened to those either, because again, she's my friend, presumably calling to leave a message for me. Not him. So the party had to go on without him.

They brought in pizza from Wig and Pen...they even got a Twickenham pizza, which is THE BEST PIZZA EVER (spinach, artichokes, black olives, tomatoes etc baked inside two crusts)...and somebody knew me well enough to know that the only pop I drink is Diet Dr. Pepper. (Nobody outside this group thinks to buy Diet Dr. Pepper for a get-together, because there aren't a lot of us who drink it!) And they made salad...and CAKE:

And if all that wasn't enough, there were cards and gifts,too: several Edgar Allan Poe books (including a first edition!), an Edgar Allan Poe T-shirt, a mini crime lab set, a magnifying glass, a golden retriever bookmark, some erasers shaped like dog bones, and the Sherlock Holmes cap that is on that skeleton's head:

(I'm told I can untie that cap, turn it inside out and it will make a nice clutch for the gala! As someone who rarely even carries a purse unless I absolutely have to, I wouldn't know about things like that...)

Jeni gave me this nice raven handkerchief to bring to the gala...she said I can use it either way, no matter what happens.

And Jeni is an artist, so look what else she gave me:

I almost started crying when I saw that! Isn't it beautiful?

But wait...there's more! I was also presented with this Edgar award because my friends wanted me to feel like I win no matter what...which, with friends like these, of course I do!

(It says Dori Hillestad Butler; 2011 Best Juvenile; "The Buddy Files"...and btw, the bottom part that looks like hair at the end of bows isn't hair at all...those are ravens!)

So now I have two Edgars because Katherine gave me the one in the picture below (Edgar is the guy on the left) when the nomination was first announced. And she said basically the same thing when she gave him to me...regardless of what happens in April, I win! Edgar has been sort of my own personal Origami Yoda ever since I got him...he sits on my monitor and offers advice.

And now Edgar has a friend...that's Sherlock on the right. He was also in yesterday's gift basket.

I don't know any of the other four nominees in my category, but if they don't have friends like mine, then I hope one of them wins in April because I've already won about ten times over.

Here they all are...my awesome friends and me:

And one more...me and one of my soul sistas, since you can't see her on the group picture beacause she always hides in the back when the camera comes out. She painted the Edgar award and made the cakes, and knew about the diet Dr. Pepper, and, and, and....

I did ask what would've happened if I'd told Kel, "Gee, I'd like to, but I really need to work now. We can chat at lunch..." Apparently they had a plan for that, too. (In other words, they actually thought that could happen!)

Thanks again, guys! You're the best!

News!

2011-01-21T18:11:32Z

Well, I've been really GOOD about updating my personal journal in recent weeks...but really BAD about updating my blog. A friend said to me, "you call your blog 'A day in the life of a children's book author' and you don't blog about one of the most significant days in your career???" Well, when you put it that way...okay, here goes:

Wednesday morning started out like any other morning: I checked my e-mail, sent my dog out to retrieve the newspaper, had breakfast, took a shower, came back and checked my e-mail again before getting to work. In the middle of my unread e-mails was an e-mail from sarah_prineas. Two of them, actually...but the one that caught my eye had Edgar! as the subject line, and I could read the first line of her e-mail before actually opening it. It said, "I assume you've seen"

Seen what? I wondered. Is someone we know on this year's list?

I opened the e-mail, clicked on the link and...well, according to my husband I SCREAMED when I saw that I'M the one who has a book on the list. But I think I was way cooler about it than that. I think I may have just said very softly, "Wow, that's very nice." I have absolutely no idea why he came barreling down the stairs thinking something was wrong.

I was so stunned that I didn't actually trust sarah_prineas's link. (She wouldn't toy with me like that, would she?) I had to go to the Mystery Writer's of America's website and click through all the links to find it myself. Sure enough. There it was again. Buddy Files #1 really was a nominee in the juvenile category.

I saw I had e-mails from other people, including kelcrocker, congratulating me, but there was nothing from my publisher. They're always on top of things like this. If it's a minor thing they e-mail...if it's a major thing (like getting on the Texas Bluebonnet Award list), they call. So I took the initiative and e-mailed THEM. I figured the reason they hadn't called was they didn't know yet...so I e-mailed both my editor and my marketing director and said, "Where's my phone call? (smiley face)" That was it.

The first phone call came about twenty minutes later...and as soon as I got off the phone with the marketing director, the editor called. They did not know what my e-mail meant...but they're resourceful. They found it before they called me. I think they were as shocked as I was. The marketing director said she had to talk to some friends to see what it means. (Hey, I KNOW what it means...it means I'm an EDGAR NOMINEE!!! That's all I really need to know...)

I've always dreamed of having a book nominated for an Edgar award. More than I've dreamed of having a Newbery or Newbery Honor book. I know who I am and I'm not a Newbery author. I don't write the kind of book that wins the Newbery. Some might look at my body of work and wonder if I really write Edgar books...but I'm a huge mystery reader (always have been!) and I've always wanted to make a name for myself as a mystery author. I told a favorite professor in college that I wanted to write middle grade humor and YA suspense novels. (I'm just now finally getting around to writing my first YA murder mystery...)

So yeah...this is HUGE for me! I always read the juvenile and YA Edgar nominees each year. Often I've read several of them before the announcement is even made. In fact, I usually do an article on the juvenile and/or YA nominees for my children's book review column in the local newspaper each year. I've even been on the committee that chooses the juvenile Edgar award (but I have since let my MWA membership slide...perhaps I should renew?)

It's funny...I went to a party right before Christmas and the hostess gave us all a bottle of wine from a local winery (yes, there are wineries in Iowa!). It's called "Storyteller," which I think is a great name for a variety of wine. I thought about just keeping that bottle on my desk because it's kind of a pretty bottle, but then decided we'd open it on New Year's Eve. But when New Year's Eve rolled around, I FORGOT about it. I think something must've aligned in the stars such that I would still have it on Wednesday because that was a much better day to open it.

My husband and I probably should have toasted Edgar Allan Poe (the Edgar nominations are always announced on his birthday. He would've been 202 this year, if anyone wants to know) and my publisher, but we just toasted me. I think we're going to go out and celebrate tonight. Depending on where we go, the teenager may even give up hanging out with his friends to join us, which shows that even he knows what a big deal this is.

Certainly, I'd like it if Buddy actually won, but it'll be okay if another book wins, too. It really is an honor just being nominated. And I'm in some very good company.

November goals check in...and something cool!

2010-11-18T16:04:11Z

I'm a little past the halfway point of the month. My goals were 1) to complete a draft of my YA murder mystery and 2) to lose 5 pounds. I'm on track with my word count (29,421 words!) and I've lost 2 pounds.

But I've got a real mess of a story. I know, a NaNoWriMo story is supposed to be messy. But this is beyond messy. I don't even have the story broken into chapters. Every now and then I've inserted brackets and the words "chapter break?" But I wouldn't say I'm thinking in terms of chapters. I've never not written a novel (or chapter book) without thinking about chapters.

I have a pretty solid opening (well, it needs to be rewritten with voice...but in terms of what's happening, it's fine)...and I know what my ending is going to be. But the middle is a mess. Somewhere along the line I lost my cause and effect. I've started some threads and dropped others. I realized I'm not developing clues and subplots quite the way I should. I feel like I'm just putting in my 1667 words each day without any thought about plot or character (which again, is maybe part of NaNoWriMo?)...and I'll just keep doing this until I feel I've got enough words to start the ending.

I also have not reread ANYTHING I've written on this novel. This is VERY unusual for me. I'm constantly going back and rereading, revising...it's part of how I usually move forward.

If it sounds like I'm getting ready to quit NaNoWriMo, it's because I am. I'm meeting with a couple of friends who are also stuck on projects and we're going to brainstorm together. I will likely come away from that get-together with a decision one way or the other--to forge ahead with NaNoWriMo or to go back and start the story over...and write it the way I normally write a book.

But I still can't say the NaNoWriMo thing has been all bad. In some ways, I've used it as a way to think about my story. But instead of just thinking about various scenes, wondering if they would work or not, I've drafted them out. All in the interest of getting my 1667 words in each day.

In the process I've learned some things about my story. One of the things I've learned is that there are a number of things I need to figure out better. In preparation for my "plot-in" (it's like a write-in only instead of people writing together, they're plotting together) this morning I made lists of what I've learned about my story since the beginning of the month and what I now see I still need to figure out about my story. (Hey, that's what Buddy would do! He'd make lists just like this. Oops...wrong project.) My list of what I've learned has six things on it. My list of what I still need to figure out has 9 things on it. But some of those things are BIG things...with sublists. For instance, I need to figure out what is going on off-stage while my story is happening...I have a list of five characters for sure that I need to know what they're doing while my main character is going about solving this mystery. I think this is actually key to figuring out my middle. Once I know what everyone is doing, I'll know how they're going to butt heads.

And now for the cool thing. One of the things on my "this is what I know" list is the name of the town this story takes place in. I normally like to make up names of towns. I don't like to be too tied to reality. So I go out of my way to make sure the town I made up doesn't actually exist. My murder mystery is set in small town Minnesota. I tried on several names: Eagle Bluff, East Bluff, I don't even remember what else. None of them felt "right."

But when I was in the shower this morning, the name Elm Creek just came to me. It felt right. So right, in fact, that I was absolutely certain it had to be a town in Minnesota. When I got out of the shower, I went right to my computer to look it up. It's not a town (yay!!!), but it is a township...and it's a township in the county I grew up in! I can take a township name and turn it into a town. And the fact that Elm Creek township is in the same county I grew up only convinced me more that this IS the setting for my story.

Character and plot

2010-11-11T16:39:32Z

I met up with a couple of writer friends at the coffee shop yesterday. Not so much for writing, but for chatting.

J. and I are in the same place...we're at the beginning of new projects, but we have opposite problems. She's got a great character and voice (okay, I haven't actually seen her new piece...but she told me all about her spunky new character...and I know her work well enough to know that anything she writes is going to have voice), but she's frustrated because she has no plot. I have plenty of plot (of course, I do...I'm writing a murder mystery! Things HAVE to happen in a murder mystery!), but no character or voice. I am simply moving my stick figures around in my plot. And hoping my character will reveal herself to me as I move through this first draft and I can bring out her voice in the next draft.

I told J. it's too bad she can't just plunk her character into my plot. (Well, except for the fact her character really doesn't belong in my plot...she's got a middle grade character and my story requires a YA character.) I don't understand why J. is having a problem...she's already got a character! A FABULOUS character. Just put that character in a story already and start writing!

But it's not that easy for her. She probably listened to my character woes and thought, "what's YOUR problem? Characters are easy." And they are for her. Characters just come to her, fully formed. She's got seven or eight of them floating around in her head and no story to put them in.

It's interesting how differently two authors work...

Field Trip!

2010-11-05T16:58:20Z

I got ahead on my word count earlier in the week because I wanted to go to Waterloo/Cedar Falls yesterday to see the Painted Pages: Children’s Books Illustrated by Iowa Artists exhibit at Waterloo Center for the Arts (my good friend Jeni Reeves is one of the featured illustrators!) and then go to the Hearst Center for the Arts in Cedar Falls to see the Original Art 2010: New Works from the Society of Illustrators, New York exhibit and attend the reception. Every year hundreds of children’s book illustrators compete to be featured in this traveling exhibit (how cool that we can see it here in Iowa!)

But my husband was out of town earlier this week. He was supposed to come home on Wednesday night, but then it turned out he had to stay an extra day and wouldn't be home until late last night. Six weeks ago that would've meant I couldn't go to Waterloo/Cedar Falls because someone would've needed to be here to drive the teenager to all his after school stuff. But now the teenager is the proud owner of a driver's license, so in theory, I could still go, right? I wasn't entirely sure. The idea of him being here alone, driving himself who knows where, while both my husband and I were out of town scared me a little...(I've said it before and I'll say it again: I have "letting go" issues.) But in the end I decided it would be good for me to just let him do his thing...plus I really wanted to go! So I asked him if it was okay if I went (he looked at me like "why wouldn't it be okay?")...and I begged him to drive extra carefully (to which he replied, "yes, Mom...just because you're out of town, I'm suddenly going to start driving recklessly...because that's the way my teenage mind works")...and yesterday morning I even reminded him one more time to PLEASE DRIVE CAREFULLY (to which he replied, "I'll be fine, Mom"...and THEN, he spontaneously gave me a hug! Yes, he's a good boy!). And after a 5:45 a.m. workout, followed by a dog walk, and writing 900 words on my murder mystery, off I went!

We started at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. I'd never been there before. What a cool place! I was kicking myself for never taking my kids there when they were little...until I found out the really cool stuff has only been there for three years.

As you can see, big kids can have fun there, too:

That's me and Jeni above...and here's the rest of our traveling party (Cheryl Kolar, who is a retired school media specialist and Sharron McElmeel, retired teacher, media specialist, author, and tireless promoter of children's books and children's book authors). They're clearly the more dignified members of our group (and yes, we pretty much forced them to pose for a Kodak moment):

This next photo was much easier to get. What are the odds that one of the people working at the Waterloo Center for the Arts was a former student of Sharron's the year she STUDENT TAUGHT? And what are the odds we'd even find that out?

After visiting with her for a while, we moved on to the Painted Pages exhibit.

This picture is for my friend susanwrites. While I'm lucky enough to know both Jeni and Susan in person, they only know each other online. Jeni illustrated Susan's Enrique Esparza and the Battle of the Alamo...so I had Jeni pose by Susan's favorite illustration:

And here are some more samples of Jeni's work from the exhibit (is she amazingly talented or what?):

As you can see, there was also a hands on component to this exhibit. They had all the books there for people to read and lots of activities for the kids. Here's Jeni with the story box from her Anasi and the Box of Stories: A West Aftrican Folktale:

It was really fun to play--I mean LOOK AROUND in here (though the Waterloo Center for the Arts SERIOUSLY needed to play something other than Swan Lake in there...or, at the very least, they needed to play a longer segment of it. I don't think we were there any longer than most people would be...).

From there we went to dinner at Montage, which, if you're ever in Cedar Falls is a FABULOUS restaurant (the cute young girl with us is Sharron's granddaughter):

And then we headed over to the reception at the Hearst Center, where only the TV people were allowed to take pictures. But there was wine, cheese and crackers, a couple of desserts, a violin/electric guitar duo (who did NOT play the same music over and over) and original children's book art. I spent a lot of time reading books that each piece came from (yes, they had all the books there, too) and talking books with complete strangers. There's nothing like being surrounded by children's book people for an evening.

If you love children's books, it's absolutely worth the trip! But the reception is over, so don't go alone. Take some children's book people with you. Children's books are meant to be shared!

At one point in the evening Sharron asked if this exhibit inspired me to write more picture books. Yeah, it kind of did. For a little while anyway. But I am more of a novelist than a picture book writer.

BTW, when I arrived home at 10:00pm, the teenager was not only home safe and sound...he was baking a cake for his math club. And not just any cake...a devil's food cake with caramel, butterfinger candy bars and whipped cream (recipe courtesy of my soul sista, Wendy).

NaNoWriMo Day 1

2010-11-02T01:55:11Z

I had a moment of What?-Am-I-CRAZY-Trying-NaNoWriMo-Again this morning. In fact, if I'd heard about PiBoIdMo just a few hours earlier than I did, I may have abandoned the whole NaNoWriMo idea altogether and signed up for PiBoIdMo instead. Even though everyone says picture books are a tough sell right now.

While I've been outlining and planning my YA murder mystery for the past couple of months, the book isn't outlined or planned as well as I'd hoped it would be by now. I don't know my characters as well as I'd hoped, either. And I've already discussed my letting go issues in this blog. Yet despite all that negativity, I somehow managed to write 1938 words today.

Also, something weird happened while I was writing.

I'm normally a very methodical writer. For the most part, my characters don't talk to me...they don't take over my plot. There's no "magic" in writing for me...it's just basic B.I.C. (Butt in Chair)

The hardest part of writing for me (well, after letting go) is staring at the blank screen when I'm beginning a new project. The beginning has to be just right before I can really dig in.

I had a general idea where this book was going to start. I knew what the opening scene was. But I didn't have a good first line.

So I just started writing today. I wrote exactly 528 words of pure DRECK...when all of a sudden the perfect first line just appeared. Like magic. I think that's what's supposed to happen when you sign up for NaNoWriMo. It just never happened for me before because I couldn't let go. I was also writing to contract last time...I attempted to write my Yes, I Know the Monkey Man during NaNoWriMo a few years ago...and I ended up veering from my outline so far that I felt I had to give my editor a new outline, which she didn't like. She wanted me to go back to my old outline...and that was pretty much the end of NaNoWriMo for me.

But this time I'm not under contract. I can write whatever I want. Even if it's crap. No one ever has to see this manuscript.

One day down, twenty-nine to go. (Or is that 1938 words down, 48,062 to go?)

I'm also determined to lose five pounds this month. That means that for every 10,000 words I write, I need to lose one pound. I wonder which is going to be easier? The 50,000 words or the 5 pounds?

More things I thought I'd never do...

2010-10-28T19:58:17Z

So I never thought I'd join a health club...and I did that yesterday (blogged about it, too). Here's something else I never thought I'd do: sign up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) again. And guess what I did today? I signed up for NaNoWriMo.

I have actually attempted NaNoWriMo once before (back in 2007). It did not go well. I simply couldn't let go and write. But some good came out of that experience. A bunch of people in my children's writer's book discussion group signed up for NaNoWriMo, too. I'm not sure if any of us actually succeeded at producing a 50,000 word manuscript that November, but we found we enjoyed writing together. When NaNoWriMo rolled around again the following year, none of us wanted to actually do the official commit-to-writing-a-50,000-word-manuscript, but we really wanted to write together again. So we became the "NanoREBELS." We set our own goals and got together to write just like the people who were doing NaNoWriMo. But when November ended, we kept going. And we've been writing together twice a week (sometimes more often!) ever since.

It takes me a long time to write a first draft. Longer than it should. Once I have a draft, I'm a very happy writer because then I have something to work with. I can revise, revise, revise...until my editor tells me I can't revise anymore (and even then I've been known to try and sneak a few extra changes in).

Much as I love revision, you'd think I could spit out a draft quickly just so I could get to the revision, but I am so much of a perfectionist that I have to get each and every sentence right (even though I KNOW I'm going to change that sentence again later) before I move on to the next.

I've wondered if there's help for me? Can I somehow teach myself to let go and write a quick first draft?

I've always wanted to write YA mystery/suspense novels...but I've never done it. Every time I set out to write YA, it becomes middle grade. (Do You Know the Monkey Man was originally a YA novel...and yeah, some libraries do file it in the YA section. But third graders read it. Much as I want it to be YA, it's upper middle grade.)

But I've been plotting out a YA murder mystery off and on the last couple of months. And now I've got some time before I need to get the next Buddy Files book turned in, so I'm going to see if I can spit out a draft in the month of November.

I think the key to succeeding at NaNoWriMo is to have a pretty good idea of what the story is about. I don't have as much planned out as I'd hoped to by now...but I have my beginning. I have my ending. I have a few critical scenes in between. And I'm hoping the rest will come to me. If not in the next three days, then while I'm writing.

Monday's the day...ready or not, I start writing!

Writers must exercise!

2010-10-27T21:46:39Z

I did something today that I said I was never going to do...I joined a health club! I don't like health clubs. I'm not a sweaty gym sort of person. I'm a take a long walk or take a long bike ride sort of person. I'm actually pretty good about getting exercise (I'd even go so far as to say I'm a little obsessed about my exercise). And thanks to my husband's mostly vegetarian/vegan diet, my eating habits aren't all that bad (though I do have a weakness for chocolate).

But I've gained weight.

And because my preferred forms of exercise (with the exception of Nia) tend to be lower body intensive, I have almost zero upper body strength.

I was actually pretty heavy ten years ago. I'm not going to tell you how heavy...I'm just going to say I was heavy. I took the weight off just by walking. A lot. No dieting. (I don't do well with deprivation.) I'm still walking...but I'm gaining weight. I don't want to get "pretty heavy" again.

So...don't laugh...I joined Curves.

I remember going to Curves with my mother-in-law when I visited her (because, 1) like I said, I'm obsessed with my exercise, and 2) I actually enjoy hanging out with my mother-in-law)...and surprise, surprise! I liked it. I've considered joining for years...but resisted because, well...it sort of seemed like a health club for old people. And...I like to exercise outside.

But I caught a look at myself in the mirror and realized I'm not exactly young. (Ha! Or THIN!) I managed to talk some friends into joining with me (we already write together, eat together, travel together, do water aerobics together, jog together, read/discuss books, talk/e-mail all the time, and go to the dog park...why not do this, too?). And this particular Curves offers Nia classes and Zumba classes (which I've never actually tried before, but I like to dance, so I'll probably like it). That was a huge deciding factor.

Apparently I have 15-18 pounds to lose. (I forgot how many inches.) Not that I'm obsessing about numbers. Because you're not supposed to do that when you take up an exercise/weight loss plan.

I also told the lady at Curves that I'm not giving up chocolate! I can cut it back, but I'm not giving it up. Just so we're clear...

Wish me luck!

Two Girls from Iowa Cross the Border

2010-10-26T02:31:33Z

So this past weekend, my friend kelcrocker and I traveled to Kidlitcon in Minneapolis. I left a day earlier than kelcrocker did so I could visit my dad, and my sister-in-law and my very sweet niece, then met up with kelcrocker mid-afternoon on Friday.

I’ve been to a lot of conferences...and I have to say there’s something really refreshing about going to a conference with a bunch of kidlit people who are NOT there to sell a manuscript to somebody. This wasn’t a writer’s conference; it was a blogger’s conference. Bloggers who are interested in children’s books.

Heh, so why did I go? It’s no secret I’ve got a pretty neglected blog. Here is why I went:

1) To either become inspired to do more with my blog or drop it altogether
2) To hang with children’s book people
3) Because it was in Minneapolis

And I’m so glad I did because:

1) I got to share a room with kelcrocker
BTW, here we are at the Spaghetti Factory on Friday night. We saw this Queen’s Chair and knew we had to have our picture taken there.

2) I got to meet susanwrites in person and we totally bonded! (In fact, we bonded so well that I can’t help but wonder if this is the real susanwrites or some imposter that my husband planted at Kidlitcon to try and make me okay with the idea of a POSSIBLE move to her area in a little over a year and a half.

3) I got to see laurasalas again, which is always fun (even when there aren’t belly dancers involved)

4) kelcrocker and I not only made friends with Minnesotans (what am I saying? Beneath the Iowa façade, I AM a Minnesotan!)…they liked us well enough that they were willing to be photographed with us:

5) In fact, we made friends with lots of people…and had lots of good conversation (and stayed up WAY too late both nights!!!!)

While the best moments of the conference happened outside the actual conference, there were some great sessions, too. Specifically:

1) Maggie Stiefvater and her critique buddies, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff, talked about their critique relationship (and Maggie made me feel very old when she talked about how "unsatisfying" it was to read/critique a manuscript on the plane because she wasn't able to give instant feedback to the author...the three of them do their critiquing via instant messaging as they read...sounds like a very interesting relationship that isn't just built on trust, but also on mutual respect and admiration).

2) Maggie also gave a keynote on lessons she's learned about blogging (the world doesn't need another blog, boring people offline are often boring people online...and interesting people offline can be boring people online, blogging is a conversation, people will learn your cat's name, people make a connection with you when you blog, people can find out everything about you when you blog, blog readers are real people, blog writers should be blog readers)

3) Ryan Bickett (Internet Marketing Manager at Lerner) gave a presentation on various blogging platforms (is it okay to say here on LiveJournal that I think I need to find another platform???), social media tools, and best blogging practices (know your goals/objectives, design matters, you are a brand, think like a "vertically integrated publisher," focus on non-branded keyword contact, keep a regular schedule, find out what your readers want and give it to them)

4) Swati Avasthi (and can I just say I LOVED her book Split and could hardly believe I was in the same room with her???), Michele Corriel, Janet Fox and Jacqueline Houtman did a presentation on blog touring and talked about how anyone can turn an okay blog post into a great blog post, interview questions that work and don't work, why you need to think about your audience, set a goal for your tour, how to set up a tour

5) Elissa Crus talked about middle grade blogging in a YA blogosphere. She talked about the From the Mixedupfiles group blog...and inspired me to try and set up something similar for children's/YA mystery people. (It's all about community!)

6) I did not catch the names of all the people who participated in the Poetry Friday panel, but my friend laurasalas was one of the panelists. I don't normally have much interest in poetry, so obviously these people gave a fantastic presentation because they actually got ME thinking about participating. One of the panelists is a writing teacher...and she talked about how she uses Poetry Friday with her students...which got me thinking about trying to incorporate it into my therapy dog work...

7) There was also a session on school and library visits in a social media age. I was surprised to hear that these panelists advocated CHARGING for Skype visits. I started out charging for them, but then soon followed my friend, sarah_prineas's lead and simply asked that participants read at least one of my books first, then come armed with questions. I just do a 15-30 minute Q&A (I think it's kind of hard to do an actual "presentation" via Skype...and I'm not sure many schools are interested in them anyway)...and I don't charge for a Skype sesion. I do it for the publicity...and for the opportunity to offer something to schools that can't afford to bring an author in. It's 15-30 minutes out of my day. I don't have to dress up...I don't have to prepare...I really don't even lose writing time. And in exchange, I make a connection with my audience. I'm afraid this panel didn't convince me to do things any other way.

8) The last session was on the Cybils. I learned how the awards are chosen...basically, nominations run from Oct. 1 until Oct. 15. From Oct. 15 until the end of the year the first round of judges in each category narrow the list of nominations down to 5-7 finalists, which is announced on New Year's Day. Then the second round of judging begins. A whole new group of judges comes in and discusses the finalists and chooses the winner. Winners are announced on Valentine's Day. If you're interested in serving as a judge, you need to be enthusiastic! Don't just tell them you want to be a judge...tell them WHY you want to judge a particular category. Apparently they had more than twice as many people apply to be judges than they had spaces to fill.

And that's about it! Next year's Kidlitcon will be in Seattle...and in 2012 it will be in New York City!

Author Fair

2010-10-18T23:17:26Z

I don't normally get too excited about book signings, but once in a while I have a really good one. Last Wednesday's Author Fair at the beginning of the Iowa Library Association Convention was one of those. It was good because:

1) people came!
2) the majority of books I signed were for people I didn't know!

It was held at the Coralville Public Library. The book store was set up around the sculpture on the ground level, so it was the first thing you saw when you went downstairs. And then they had 60+ authors spread out across all the meeting rooms. I was lucky enough to share a table with my friend, Eileen Boggess.

Teen volunteers, including my own teenager, were assigned to all the authors. But my teenager picked my friend sarah_prineas as his author (and so did an adult volunteer, so she ended up with TWO volunteers!) rather than his own mom...can you believe that? When I called him on it, he informed me that Lily (a girl who took my teen writer's workshop last summer) picked me first. So I said, "well, what if Lily hadn't picked me? Would you have picked me then?" No, he would not. Because he "knows" sarah_prineas (what? he doesn't know me???) and she likes the same books he likes (okay, I can't argue with that). My son is nothing if not honest. But that's okay because I had a fine time with Lily...and she asked me repeatedly if she could get me anything. I'm not so sure my own teenager would've been so attentive. Not to me, anyway. I'm sure he was great with sarah_prineas.

I think the highlight of the evening was the SCBWI members' dinner at Applebee's BEFORE the author fair, though. While we were chatting, we watched this guy create the most amazing balloon sculptures for the kids who were seated around us. When he ran out of kids, he came over and asked us whether any of us would like a balloon sculpture. But we were grown-ups...and we were busy talking, so we sent him away. But then several of us got to thinking...we were headed to a book signing...and this guy had already proven himself to be extremely talented...could he create characters from our books?

He made a fabulous Buddy for me:

Anyway...it was a pretty fun time. And then there was a reception upstairs in the library afterward. With live music. Unusual music, but live music nonetheless.

I would definitely do this event again...

Guest blogs

2010-10-14T13:13:08Z

I've been blogging everywhere except on my own blog.

Last Friday I did a guest blog on bullying for one of my publishers. You can read it here.

And yesterday I did a guest blog for my friend Darcy Pattison on "letters to my younger selves." You can read that one here.

To Powerpoint or not to Powerpoint

2010-10-04T20:37:46Z

My typical author visit presentation lasts an hour. I begin with a brief Q&A intro to get the kids' attention, then I do an interactive 25-minute Powerpoint thing (I have a number of those to choose from, depending on my audience), followed by a 20-minute thing where I bring 12 kids up to the front of the room and we act out the steps from story idea to published book, and I end with general Q&A. I am, of course, always willing to adjust to the needs of the school. If they want a considerably shorter presentation, I shorten the Powerpoint or even give up the how-a-book-gets-published exercise. Rarely do I give up the Powerpoint.

But I just got an e-mail from somebody who invited me to speak at an upcoming event. She wanted to know whether I needed anything for my presentation. She went on to say that she would "strongly caution against using Powerpoint." She said, "in the past when instructors have used it, they lose their students' attention quickly." And, "students get antsy when watching Powerpoint slides."

Hmm.

I don't HAVE to use Powerpoint. In fact, because I am only doing 25-minute presentations at this event, I considered doing something completely different (something that didn't involve Powerpoint OR my usual how-a-book-gets-published exercise). But in the end I decided there are things I'd like to be able to show the kids...and I need Powerpoint in order to do that.

But if the people who invited me would rather I NOT use it...?

So I got to thinking about Powerpoint and its role in author presentations.

Believe it or not, I've actually found that kids are MORE attentive when I use Powerpoint than when I don't. (And I'm not just saying that because I like Powerpoint.)

I'm not entirely sure why they're more attentive...I suspect it has something to do with my personality. I'm not somebody who puts on a show when I do an author visit. I don't sing, I don't dance (well, not when I do an author visit, anyway), I don't do voices. If that's what you're looking for, don't invite me to speak at your school. That's just not who I am.

When I do an author presentation, I'd rather show the audience who I am than put on a show that feels forced and unnatural for me. Isn't that why I was invited in the first place? Because a bunch of kids in a school read my books and somebody in charge of author visits thought the kids would enjoy meeting me?

Sure, I can talk about my books without Powerpoint, but I know I am not as interesting without pictures. I can tell the kids that I've wanted to be a writer since I was their age, but I think a statement like that has more impact if they can actually see an example of something I wrote when I was their age. I can tell them that writers revise a lot, but again, it has more impact if I show a manuscript that's been marked up by an editor. And when I talk about my Buddy Files series, you can bet I've never lost a child when I've put up a video of training my own dog to heel, "leave it," or "turn out the light."

I also talk about my writing process and let the kids help me put together a story. Again, that could be done without Powerpoint, but it's difficult for kids to keep the elements of the exercise inside their heads. It's better to have a something on a screen to prompt them each step of the way.

That said, there is absolutely a right way to use Powerpoint and a wrong way to use Powerpoint. And I have certainly seen my share of bad Powerpoint presentations. A bad Powerpoint presentation is overly text heavy and/or it relies on the bells and whistles that are available in Powerpoint without offering much content. Perhaps this organizer has seen too many bad Powerpoint presentations and that's where her "in the past when instructors have used it, they lose their students' attention quickly" comment comes from. I get antsy, too, if I'm watching a presenter read from his/her Powerpoint slides.

Or maybe this organizer just doesn't want to have to set up Powerpoint for all the presenters. I've talked to another author who presented at this event in a previous year. She told me she had trouble with her Powerpoint there. If the people who are putting on this event aren't particularly tech savvy, I can see why they might try and persuade people not to use Powerpoint. If you're trying to set up Powerpoint for someone else and it doesn't work, and you don't have any idea why it's not working or what you can do to make it work, that can be a real pain. Plus, I know from experience that when you're organizing a big event, there are a million things to do and you don't want to have to take time to wrestle with a computer and projector that won't talk to each other.

But if that's the case, why not just say so? I'd much rather hear, "you're free to use Powerpoint if you'd like, but if something goes wrong, you're on your own" than "in the past when instructors have used it, they lose their students' attention quickly." Then I could weigh the likelihood of something going wrong against my confidence in my own ability to troubleshoot and decide for myself whether to bring the Powerpoint or do something else.

So what do you think? DO students get antsy when they watch Powerpoint slides?

Thoughts about online communities...

2010-09-29T23:00:43Z

My friend sarah_prineas started something with her post on the Shrinking Violets blog. Sarah believes that social sites should be for “friendly conversation and debate, for sharing good news and bad news, for meeting new friends, for posting amusingly captioned cat pictures,” not for shameless self promotion. And somewhere along the line lisa_schroeder said, “what's sad is that our blogging community that used to be about friendship and community has drastically changed. Hardly anyone comments anymore. Is that because people stopped reading because so many blogs became like billboards? I don't know. But I miss the way it used to be.”

I miss the way it used to be, too.

I told Sarah earlier today that I’ve been “e-mailing” since before it was actually called “e-mailing.” I “e-mailed” back when only the geeks were doing it. I was part of an online community when I was in high school. And I’m 45! I’m guessing I graduated with people who had no idea there even was an online community to be part of…and if they did know, they probably wouldn’t have wanted to be part of it. Like I said, back then it was only for geeks.

My online friends were true friends in every sense of the word. I grew up in a small town in southern Minnesota and when my family would go visit relatives in the Twin Cities, my parents thought nothing of letting me take the bus to Har Mar Mall by myself to meet some of these people (mostly guys…the guys online far outnumbered the girls) I’d been talking to online. You would NEVER let your teenage daughter do that today.

I would never have met my husband if not for this online community.

In my 20s, I got involved in writer’s communities on FidoNet (anybody remember FidoNet? I'm still friends with people I knew on FidoNet). Then came Compuserve and Genie and finally the online communication we have today: e-mail, instant messaging, Facebook, twitter.

Online communication absolutely used to be about friendship and community. And you can still find that…if you try. But it does feel like a lot of our “community” has denigrated to shameless self promotion. It makes me wonder whether someone is really interested in me or do they just want to sell me something.

I know…social media is supposed to be this great marketing tool. I’m supposed to be able to reach all these people…but how many people am I REALLY reaching? Sure, people who come looking for me can find me easily. But for the most part, people who come looking for me are already my friends. They're people who are already interested in me or my books. Very few people who read my blog stumbled onto it by accident and then decided to stay. Why would they? I’m not a big name. I'm just one voice in a sea of billions. And I'm not sure there's anything I can (or even want to) do to change that. The truth is I’m no better at marketing myself online than I am at marketing myself in real life.

And after talking to sarah_prineas, I’m thinking maybe that’s okay.