Week 3 Classes Part 2

Thursday classes went well:

Science Fiction

We discussed time travel book: Andre Norton’s Time Traders and Madeline L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time.  We didn’t get a chance to go to in depth with two books to discuss.  But the idea of time travel fascinates me, so that aspect was fun.

Still don’t know what my term paper will be on… really need to get on that.

Forms and Boundaries

We are working with novels in verse, and I did some practice poems to share for critique.  I had never even attempted to write any poetry or novel in verse, but it turned out to be a lot of fun!  And apparently I’m pretty good at it.  People liked part of my poem so much that they demanded to hear the whole thing!    Here’s the poem they liked (it was part of a series of 3 poems):

Dark purple lipstick
smeared
on a coffee thermos
on old stained teeth
She’s late
Strolling in
Like a furry brown sasquatch
Who still wears fur coats anyways?
At lunch
Food dribbles
Tuna
Vinegar
Oil
Olives
Onions
Artichoke hearts
The liquid lingers
at the bottom
of her clear tupperware.
The tupperware is lifted
and
slurped.

It was a character sketch. And the second poem shows my increasing frustration, and then the third shows a redemptive quality in the person and my change of heart.

Fantasy
I finally got critiqued!  And it went really well!
My teacher’s first words on my paper were, “This was lovely.”  Can’t even tell you how good that felt!
Overall, my classmates said they loved it.  They said it had great teen appeal, excellent pacing and flow.  They liked my connections to the original tale.  They liked my characterization and the setting.  They said my dialogue was strong and believable.
My teacher said I picked out the parts of the fairy tale that best suited my story.  And she said that my story could stand alone; you didn’t have to read the original tale for the story to work.
The big thing I have to go back and work on is defining the friendship between the two girls.  People commented that they couldn’t tell why the two girls were friends if they were so different.  The friendship is supposed to be in a state of disrepair, and the two girls are holding onto something that’s no longer there because of their past together and the convenience.  But that wasn’t totally clear, and I have to develop that.  I probably didn’t do a good job of establishing that because I didn’t know that’s where the story was headed when I started.
Encouragement is such a good thing for a writer.  I feel so validated.
Posts coming up this weekend:
-Inside Scoop on How Newbery Awards are Chosen
-Writing Tips and Tricks (featuring The Character Game)

Writing Diverse Characters

I teach in a very diverse school, and because of that I see the need and desire for literature with characters that are diverse.  My kids get excited when they hear about books with characters like them.

I wonder if I would like reading as much as I do if I hadn’t seen characters and families that are a lot like mine.  I grew up on Boxcar Children and American Girl.  These books have white main characters and probably also have morals and cultural values that are similar to my own.

So here comes my dilemma.  They say write what you know.  Does that mean write from the cultural perspective you know?  Can I not write from a Latino or African American viewpoint because I don’t understand?  But then how do we get more diverse books on bookshelves?

I’m in a graduate program for Children’s Literature.  My classmates want to write, create, and publish books for children.  Let me breakdown the races of my classmates:

Of the 24 people I have class with:

  • 22 are white females
  • 2 are black females

There are no Asian or Hispanic people in my classes.

So who will write these books that reflect diverse cultures?  I see the NEED for them.  My kids WANT them.

This subject is on my mind for two reasons.

ONE- My most recent short story was as close as I’ve come to touching on race.  I wrote a story from the point of view of an racially ambiguous angel who saves an African American boy from being recruited into a neighborhood gang.  I had some experience with this issue, but it was still slightly uncomfortable to write in the way that it was outside my comfort zone.

TWO- I spoke with a professor today about a novel I’m working on.  I’d wanted to use references to the Underground Railroad because my novel deals with oppression and running away to freedom.  My professor cautioned me that unless my main character was going to be black, then I need to be very careful “touching” the Underground Railroad because people could take it the wrong way.  Right now, my main character is mixed/racially ambiguous, and I have a cast of characters who is very diverse.  But my cast is not strictly black.  She recommended I look into the Civil Rights movement instead.  Or connect it to the Holocaust because it sounded more connected to my themes.  But the Civil Rights doesn’t fit the aspect of my plot that the characters would be running away and looking for safe havens.  And while I can see the Holocaust connections, I wanted to incorporate some African American heritage.

I don’t have a solution to anything I brought up here.  So much of writing is subconscious and pulling from the experiences deep in the brain.  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to really write from within a culture that I’m not a part of.  I guess I was hoping that I could create racially ambiguous characters and then incorporate historical allusions that brought many cultures to the setting and plot of the text.  But I guess there are serious implications to even doing that.

I’d love to hear any thoughts on this subject.

Classes Week 3 Part 1

I can’t believe I’m already in the third week of classes!  Ahhh!  Life needs to slow down!

Science Fiction

Of my three classes, I’m not gonna lie, this one is currently the most frustrating.  The reading load is very heavy.  (I had to read five books for classes this week alone.)  This is my only non-creative class, so I have a hard time getting excited and geared up to go.  It’s first thing in the morning.  And I have no clue what I’m going to do my paper on.

In today’s class we discussed Robert Heinlein as one of the founders of YA science fiction.  We read Rocket Ship Galileo (his first book) and Have Space Suit–Will Travel (one of his last books).  Both books were about space travel.  Galileo was especially ridiculous because it involves Nazis on the moon.  But overall, I was pretty impressed with Heinlein as a writer and really enjoyed his books.  I’m too tired to go into more detail than that, if you want more details… ask me.

Forms and Boundaries

This week we are looking at novels in verse and examining Nikki Grimes’ Dark Sons and Karen Hesse’s Witness.  I especially loved Witness and wrote a fantastic forms analysis paper on how Hesse creates dynamic characters through undercutting and set-up.  Here’s my opening paragraph/thesis for my essay:

Karen Hesse is a master of creating dynamic characters in her verse novel Witness.  The reader observes Hesse’s wide cast of characters grow and develop over the course of the novel, especially the character of Leanora Sutter.  One way Hesse accomplishes creating a dynamic character is through undercutting.  The term undercutting is defined in Alexandria LaFaye’s The Primed Mind as “the depiction of emotion that shows the emotion and allows the reader to analyze it rather than leading the reader to a particular emotional conclusion through loaded language” (305).  Another method Hesse uses to show character growth is set-up.  LaFaye identifies three elements common in the set-up: backstory, foreshadowing, and revealing a character need (280).  The set-up fully prepares the reader for the change they will witness in the character at the story’s culmination.  In Hesse’s Witness, readers will observe Leanora change from hating white people to feeling empathy and respect for white people.

I really enjoyed writing this paper, which I can’t often say about writing essays.  I think what was so enjoyable about the process was I’m really analyzing the author’s craft and what makes their writing work, which is about as close as I can get to the creative process in an essay.  I still feel like I’m doing something to grow as a writer in doing this type of critical paper.

Fantasy

Today we briefly talked about point-of-view, which is a difficult thing to talk about because it is so case specific.  Different writers are comfortable writing in different POVs and different stories need to be told in different POVs based on the story’s content and goals.  I don’t know if I learned anything especially groundbreaking about POV tonight, but it was good to talk about.
We then critiqued four more stories.  Not mine.  I’m up on Thursday.  But it’s been kind of nice being an observer because I’ve now pinpointed the people in class whose opinions I will most value because their writing style is similar to mine or they have superior knowledge of the craft.
Again.  Totally exhausted.  Meeting with two teachers tomorrow.  One to discuss Underground Railroad stuff for a book I’m working on.  Another to talk about doing an online independent study with her this fall/spring.  I’m determined to keep up with my writing this year and not let it fall by the wayside when I return home and start teaching again.
Oh!  And tomorrow we have a guest speaker at night who serves on the panel that selects the Newbery winners each year!  I’m excited!  Should be super interesting!
Until tomorrow…

Thoughts on Feeling Spoiled

Yes, I’m at grad school.  And yes it’s a lot of work.  And yes sometimes I feel overwhelmed.

But when it comes down to it, I’m spending my days lounging around reading books.  Whether comfortable in a porch rocking chair or cuddled on a couch in the library, it struck me that not many people can afford to spend their days like this.  Reading for 3-6 hours at a time.

And when I drive around down here, it becomes glaringly clear that the opportunities I have would be considered luxurious to a lot of the people around me.

I don’t know why I’ve been given such a good life.  Good family.  Good home.  Good education.  Good health.  It probably has a lot to do with this good country I live in.  So as much as I complain about the politics and the current state of education, I do see how lucky I am.

Happy 4th of July everyone.

Initial Thoughts on Witness

Novel in verse, quick read, very deep, love the wide cast of characters.

Brief Synopsis: Follows several characters as they deal with the Ku Klux Klan growing more powerful in Vermont.

Why I liked it: Each poem reveals something of the plot, but also reveals important details or developments in the characters.  The words are powerful.  There is symbolism in abundance.  And a nice hopeful, happy ending to leave you feeling like maybe the world isn’t such a bad place.

If you liked Out of the Dust, this book is a must-read.

Brag a little…

I had a fantastic writing day today!

I wrote 3,072 words.
That translates to about 13 typed pages.

I’m on a roll with this second short story  🙂

I swear, if I didn’t have to teach, I could bang some books out.  My hands can’t type fast enough and I have no shortage of story ideas.

Amanda Hocking’s Trylle series

If you pay any attention to book publishing, then you will have heard the name Amanda Hocking.  This 26 year old landed a $2 million dollar four book deal with St. Martin’s Press back in March after self-publishing her novels as eBooks and selling over a million copies.  Here is a link to a story on her in The New York Times.

So after reading this article last week, and hearing her name popping up constantly, I decided I needed to see what she wrote.  What is so great?  Is she a JK Rowling?  Is she a Stephenie Meyer?

I didn’t want to read about vampires, so her paranormal romance series My Blood Approves was out.  I definitely didn’t want to read about zombies so her Hollowland series was out.  Her other series is about trolls, the Trylle series, so however odd it sounded, it was better than vampires or zombies.

I really, really enjoyed the Trylle series.  Read it in 3-4 days.  Couldn’t put the books down.

On Kindle, the first book is $0.99, and the 2nd and 3rd are $2.99.  Good deal.

Summary:  Wendy learns that she is a changeling, a troll swapped with a human baby at birth to grow up in a human family.  (Note: Trolls can be quite attractive in Hocking’s universe.  They are distinguished by their special abilities, picky eating, fiesty temperament, uncontrollable hair, and disdain for wearing shoes)  When she finally decides to return to Trylle, the troll kingdom she is from, Wendy learns that she is a princess.  But being a princess is not all ballgowns and handsome princes.  The kingdom of Trylle is at war, the subjects are threatening treason, and the Queen fiercely believes that Wendy is the only one capable of bringing peace back to Trylle.

What I Loved:  Hocking creates really memorable and lovable characters.  At the end of the book, I wanted to go back and re-read from the beginning because I missed the characters.  And the protagonist, Wendy, grows soooooo much over the course of the books.  You really root for her.  The pacing and suspense is excellent.  The books were very hard to put down and the plot never dragged.  This is a big difference from Stephenie Meyer, considered the queen of paranormal romance, who would write huge sections of text with very little plot development but a whole lot of description of Edward’s eyes and hair.  And finally the romance was much more true to life than a lot of teen romance out there.  Some people won’t like it, but I thought it was true to life.  First love isn’t the end all be all.  A boy can only break your heart so many times before you move on.  And when you grow as a person, what you look for in a partner changes.  Hocking’s romance reflected that.

Criticism:  I think I’m a little too enthralled with the books right now to offer much criticism.  There were some typos (she self-published, it was to be expected).  I read on-line that people wanted more characterization of Tove and Loki.  I can see that, but I still loved Tove and Loki and they definitely weren’t flat characters.  Some people said Rhys and Rhiannon just disappeared in the third book, and yeah they did.  Maybe she could have integrated them into the plot.  If you decide to read them, know that they aren’t meant to be grand literary fiction.  They are definitely aimed at the YA market.  They are very much in the paranormal romance genre.  You have to expect that going in.  But in my opinion, they are a perfect summer read if you like that kind of stuff.

Week 2 Classes

I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing in scheduling my classes for 9am til 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I get brief breaks for meals, but I’m sitting in three 3 hour classes for a grand sitting time of 9 hours.  The first day of class wasn’t so bad because it was just going over the syllabus and easy stuff.  BUT MAN!  Tuesday left me a walking zombie.  Tuesday night, I went to buy ice cream and then just kind of stared into space for awhile.  I rested pretty much all day Wednesday and didn’t leave my bedroom til 2pm.  I did better on Thursday because I had rested and I knew what I was in for.  I also got lots of COFFEE.  Which helped a ton.  So…. I’m sorry I haven’t posted in awhile, but here is a brief synopsis of what I’ve been up to:
Science Fiction
This week we discussed books that came early in the development of the science fiction genre.
Tom Swift and his Motor-Cycle
Published in 1910, one of the first affordable hardback series.  Focused on mechanics, engineering, motors, and transportation.
I wasn’t too fond of this book while I was reading it.  The language and topics were very dated.  Most of the characters were flat stereotypes.  The plot was very predictable, but the character couldn’t see the threats and villains right in front of him (which became very annoying).
However, after discussion, I see some merits to the text.  These texts were written for a public that maybe didn’t read literature and so a lot of the explanation and stereotypes were necessary.  The books praised and glorified technology and innovation, which I think we need more of today.  We need more admiration and aspiration towards the sciences as opposed to other careers… athletes, actors, music.  The books also tried to set a morality and behavior standard.
I much preferred talking about Princess of Mars.
This book was much more fantastical and adventure driven than Tom Swift instead of a technology focus.  There were much more vivid descriptions and the characters were more fleshed out.
While we were discussing the book, I realized that the main character, John Carter, is the same name of the legendary hero in Terminator.  Which got me thinking about James Cameron movies, and I realized how many similarities there are between the book Princess of Mars and his films.  There are SO MANY similarities, so I searched around on the internet and found a blurb that James Cameron DID read Edgar Rice Burroughs as a kid.
I’m toying with the idea of writing a paper on Princess of Mars and James Cameron films.  Some similarities I would discuss:
  • John Carter as a Idealistic Time Traveling Hero
  • Romanticized Female Upper Class Figure
  • Humans vs Natives/Aliens
  • Social Class
  • World-Building
The last book we discussed, Skylark of Space, kind of blended Tom Swift and Princess of Mars in that it had the technological aspects but also had space adventure.  I found the book to be a little too heavy on the technical descriptions.  But the most interesting part of the book was there being two of everything: two heroes, two heroines, two villains.  That kind of thing interests me because a lot of what I write has multiple protagonists.
Forms and Boundaries
This week we focused on picture books, which isn’t really my area of expertise nor what I desire to write.  But I can still have an appreciation for picture books.  We looked at two books that break the rules of the picture book genre.  
The first book we looked at was Black and White.  This book turned out to be a post-modernist picture book where the story is told in non-linear time with an unreliable narrator.  Basically, the book has four different plot lines, but by then end of the book you are very confused as to how the plotlines are all the same story but the impossibility of them all being interconnected.  For example, there is one plotline that is on a toy train station, but it becomes clear that the parents were at this toy train station… and they are full-sized.  It’s all very mind-bending.  We talked about how a good picture book can be read over and over and still be appreciated.  This book can be read over and over at different ages and you will get something different out of it.
The next book we discussed is Zen Shorts by Jon Muth.  This book was genre bending in how it presents Asian Culture.  The books also makes great use of narrative gap where the author and illustrator leave it up to the reader to fill in what is happening between the unsaid moments in the story.  The story is about how a giant panda with an umbrella arrives in this family’s backyard.  Each of the three children go to visit the Panda and then play games and the Panda tells each of them an Asian folktale.  The book is very charming and I like how it exposes children to Asian culture.
Writing Fantasy
On Tuesday, we discussed and looked at story beginnings.  I love how well-prepared for class this teacher is.  She always has custom handouts for us and great activities planned.  This class, she had taken the first paragraphs of several novels and short stories and looked at what made them effective openings. We examined what information we learned about the characters and their setting.  It was a really good exercise in reading as a writer.
This teacher also thinks writing exercises are extremely important.  She compared it to bar exercises for a dancer or practicing lay-ups for a basketball player.  Doing writing exercises is creating and maintaining neural pathways in your brain.  The more you use the connections in your brain, the easier it will be to access them when you are actually writing.  Also working through different challenging exercises will help you troubleshoot problems you encounter in your writing.  It made total sense to me.  I loved the way she put it.  She recommended a book of writing exercises called Steering the Craft by Ursula K LeGuin, that I definitely plan on ordering.
Our next class we did a brief exercise/discussion about setting.  She emphasized that setting details should not be lengthy in children’s books.  Setting details should be carefully chosen.  The details should be enough to give a picture and convey the tone of the scene.  Kind of a less is more approach that I agree with.  (Though lengthy, detailed, gorgeous setting descriptions are fun to write)  She also said that if you’re going to spend a whole paragraph describing something, it better be important to the plot.  Time spent describing something should be directly proportional to how important it is to the story.
We also did the first four critiques of our short stories.  My piece won’t be up for critique until next Thursday.  So far, I’m very impressed with how the critiques have gone.  For the most part, I feel like my classmates have great feedback and constructive criticism.  However, my teacher is a spot-on critic.  Her feedback is insightful and I enjoy listening and learning from it even if it isn’t directly about my piece.  I’m so impressed with everything that comes out of her mouth.
Our next short story has to be from the point-of-view of a non-human.  It’s very open-ended.  Right now, I’m leaning towards writing from the point of view of an angel.  I have an idea for the plot, but it hits kind of close to home (teaching) and I’m not sure how I’m going to have it end because I don’t know the solution to this very real-world problem.  We’ll see.  I’m very much in the beginning stages at this point.
Have a book series / author blog post that I want to do, but will leave that til tomorrow.  So glad it’s the weekend!

Conference Pt 2, American Girl, and Veg Offering @ Panera

Yesterday was the last day of the conference and I attended two sessions.  The first session I was really excited about.  It was called “Children Marked by Death” and was going to discuss several books I had read: Unwind, Graveyard Book, Harry Potter.

I didn’t end up going to that session because, stupid me, I wrote down the wrong room number.  If I hadn’t been sitting smack dab in the middle of the room where it would have been disruptive and rude of me to leave, I would have left.  I was especially sad because I could hear the applause and laughter in the correct room which was on the other side of a thin wall.

One of the three speeches interested me though.  It was about American Girl and how the company’s emphasis on clothes and accessories detracts from the more serious issues in the books.  For example, in one of the Samantha books, Samantha goes to the African American part of town in search of her seamstress, Jessie.  Samantha is shocked by how different this part of town is: crowded, old, poor.  When she returns home, Samantha describes how much comfort she feels in putting on her soft, white, ruffled nightgown and climbing under the covers of her beautiful bed with her doll, Lydia.  The speaker argued that the clothing and accessories serve to distract girls from the real issue and are what girls remember instead.

I could see the speaker’s points.  But I think the American Girl series and products have so much to offer.  I think the values of the series far outweigh many other play/toy options for girls that age.  The history, morality, and focus on appreciating girlhood (not rushing into being a teenager, make-up, boys, etc.) make American Girl a refreshing option in today’s society.

They are opening an American Girl Store in Tysons Corner Mall, and there was an article about the American Girl series in the Washington Post.  The series is celebrating its 25th Anniversary, and I’m very happy to see that the company is still going strong.  Though I don’t agree with their decision to retire the classic dolls.  (Samantha, Felicity, Kirsten are all retired.)

The other conference session I attended yesterday was about “Teachers as Writers.”  There was a panel of writers who were also teachers.  They spoke about the challenges of balancing teaching and writing, how both jobs require a similar kind of creative energy.  That is a huge struggle for me.  Teaching drains me in every way: physically, mentally, emotionally.  Teaching also saps a lot of creative energy.  To come up with consistently engaging and unique lessons drains me of creative energy.  The panel spoke about how they often feel drained of creativity from their day job teaching and ways they recharge so they have energy for their writing.

I’ve had talks with several people who care about me, and how I need to do a better job of balancing my work (teaching) and my personal life.  I give way too much of myself to teaching, and it has to stop.  Next year, I already have plans in place so that I take more time for myself.  I am going to take an online course with a teacher I love.  I am signing up for writing conferences throughout the year, which will also be opportunities to travel and get away.  Traveling always helps me to refocus my life and realize there’s more to life than my classroom.  Plus, I think when I’m happier, I treat my students better.  Not that I’m even a “mean” teacher, but I noticed this year that when I was stressed, I had less patience and was more likely to snap at a kid when I don’t mean to.

And finally, Panera has a vegetarian sandwich!!!  They’ve had their Tomato/Mozz panini for awhile, but that’s really their only offering in terms of veggie stuff.

I don’t remember seeing the Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich on their menu, and I ate so much Panera last year that I am pretty sure I know their menu offerings by heart.  So I’m pretty sure this sandwich is new, and I tried it today.  Delicious!

On their yummy tomato basil bread: feta cheese crumbles, cilantro hummus, black pepper, salt, green leaf lettuce, red onions, fresh tomatoes, fresh cucumber, and zesty peppadew piquant peppers.  A very hearty vegetarian sandwich with a spicy kick on truly scrumptious bread.  I’m a fan.

Now, if Panera would just make a grilled eggplant panini…  I would be a happy girl.

Conference and Library of an Early Mind

This week my grad school is hosting a conference, and I got free admission by being an on-call tech help person today.  I really only had to solve 2-3 problems: not knowing the password to log in (though it was posted), switching between diplays, and switching from PC to Mac (the girl even brought her own dongle).  Pretty easy tech day considering it saved me a couple hundred bucks!

Here’s a list of some topics of speeches that I got to listen to:

“Kick-Ass Slayers and Teen Terminators: Recent Trends in Lethal Little Girls”
“Girls on Fire: Gender, Authority and the Female Child-Warrior”
“Dystopic Epiphanies and Kierkegaardian Disallusion: An Exploration of the Average vs. Exceptional Hero in Feed and The Giver“
“Demystifying the Illusion of an Adultless World–Forty Years of Fearing the Children in Science Fiction”
“Like, Vampires? A Study of American Teen Slang in Young Adult Fantasy Literature”
“M.T. Anderson’s Feed and the Linguistic Situation of Tomorrow”
“Young Adult Fantasy in a Visual Age: The Book Trailer as a Gateway to the Written Word”
“Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley and the Journey to Womanhood in the Harry Potter Series”
“Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Lois Lowry’s and Suzanne Collins’s Dystopian Trilogies”
“Media Drives Revolt: Ways Rebels Use Media Throughout Literature from Historical Fiction Through Futuristic Fantasy”
“Youth Rebellion, Dystopic Fiction, Identity Crisis”

Some summary points:

  • Hunger Games was by far the most popular topic.  I am sick of listening to people talk about Hunger Games.
  • Violent girl heroines is an emerging theme in popular culture.
  • I really enjoyed the session on book trailers.  Super interesting and different.  And the girl highlighted Maggie Steifvater’s book trailers, which I completely agree are innovative and exceptional.
  • The one session on Harry Potter was packed and fun despite the fact that two of the three speakers were no shows.  The session turned into a discussion of female characters in Harry Potter.  And I subconsciously gave this one girl a really dirty look… I brought up Pottermore and JKR’s announcement, and the girl said, “She didn’t even really announce anything.  Basically it’s just a Potter version of World of Warcraft.”  RAWR!  JKR said NOTHING about an online GAMING experience.  She said online READING experience.  And she said safe for people of all ages.  And she mentioned eBooks.  And addittional Potter World content from her.  NOTHING that would even make you think WoW.  Hence my dirty look that made her wither in her seat.  Dumb chick.  RAWR!

I also got to go to a free screening of this awesome documentary film called Library of the Early Mind.  Sooooooo amazing.  I want to buy it.

Summary taken from the film’s Facebook page:

“An exploration of the art and impact of children’s literature on our kids, our culture, and ourselves. From the first stories we hear told to us, to those childhood heroes who stay with us for a lifetime, the impact on our culture runs deeper than what we might expect. Featuring nearly 40 prominent authors, artists, and critics.”

http://www.libraryoftheearlymind.com/

LOVE  LOVE  LOVE!!!  You can watch a trailer on the website.

And in final news, I finished the first draft of my short story due on Wednesday.
Word Count: 3,850
Page Count: 16 pages

I might sound like an over-achiever because I accomplished this so far ahead of time, but I still have three novels and two picture books to read.  And a journal entry to do.  I just did the fun stuff first  🙂