After Grad School

My graduating class and I have been talking a lot about how hard it is to get back to writing now that we have finished our master's program. There are a billion and one reasons that we're having trouble picking up a book to read or sitting in front of a computer to write. I need time to recover from sleep deprivation. It's hard to feel motivated without a deadline looming. I'm not sure where to go with a novel without the feedback of an advisor. I have all this grad school weight to work off, and I'm not as bendy as I was two years ago. It's still summer and there are yards to tend, vacations to take and kids to get ready for school.

But the thing is, that all of these excuses have always existed for us as writers. Then again, I did get engaged and I'm planning a wedding and a move across the country as well as looking for a new job and getting used to the idea of becoming a stepmother. So maybe I'll give myself permission to not write for just a little while longer.

Writing the Perfect Novel

I just started my last semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts' MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. That means in six months, my father will be required to address me as Master Kathryn, no matter how often he denies the truth of the situation. It also means that I've spend the week since returning from residency worrying about all of the things I still have to learn. Stressing myself out about fitting it all into the next 170 days (yes, 170 days until graduation). That's a lot of learning that still needs to be done.

The severity of the situation became abundantly clear last night as I sat down to begin revisions on what I hope will be my creative thesis—a finished manuscript that is at least 80 pages of publication-ready writing. I've spent the past year and a half doing research, getting to know my characters and finding a plot that could sustain an entire novel. To complicate matters, it's a historical fiction novel in verse, which took an extraordinary amount of study to figure out how to do, especially as I'm not a natural poet and historical fiction takes a TON of research to pull off.

But the 200-and-some-odd pages I have written thus far have major issues. MAJOR issues. As in about 80 pages are still missing from the middle, the ending has lost the poetic voice, and I still struggle to jump inside the head of my narrator. And trust me, no one wants to read a book with a messy middle, inconsistent voice and a remote narrator. So I sat at my computer ready to attack the revisions, and then I wanted to cry because the project seemed far too big for my meager talent. Then I decided that I could fix one page. Just one page. I could look at the problems with my first page and make it better. Not perfect, but better.

Over the next two hours, I worked on making one page after another better. For ten pages, I forgot about perfection and just worked on getting inside my narrator's head. Then I went back through those ten pages and looked at how I could improve the voice. This morning I sent it off to a friend and asked her if it was any better. And I just about cried when she told me that it was, that she felt she knew the narrator, that the poetic voice was there, that she'd love to read more.

I still have 190 page and a messy middle to go, but tonight I'm only worried about those next ten pages. Not making them perfect, but making them better.

Maybe, when my dad starts calling my Master Kathryn, the perfection will come. Probably not, but I can still dream.

Dynamic Laguage

I gave a webinar on writing for the media last month where I tried to condense all of my years of education and hands-on experience into 60 minutes. That's no small feat. In the Q&A at the end—pretty much like every Q&A I have with every one of the continuing education classes I teach—I got an overwhelming number of questions about exceptions to the rules. This was my advice to them: Learn the mechanics of writing so you can learn when and how to break the rules to your advantage.

I don't care how long you have been writing or what grades you got in your high school advanced grammar class, your writing can always improve. And English is a living language, in part because of people who are brave enough to break the rules. (Thank you, writers like William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, J.R.R. Tolkien and Dr. Seuss for being brave enough to give us words like "swagger," "chortle," "tween" and "nerd.")

It doesn't matter how experienced you are, grammatical rules are constantly changing—may/can no longer have such distinct roles in our language, and words like nine-eleven and ginormous didn't exist ten years ago. Despite how much your grandmother might fight it, social media is changing language faster than ever: short-hand, comma usage, capitalization, word mash-ups. If you can't learn to evolve, words will leave you behind.

If you haven't taken an English class for 15 years, maybe it's time for you to enroll in a continuing education composition class. If you've never written historical fiction, take a library research or genealogy class. Or if you've only ever written science fiction, take an intro to journalism class. A history class will expose you to new ideas, a philosophy class will teach you how to support a claim or a literature class will help you understand good writing.

Each style of writing requires something different, and to learn those different elements, you have to be exposed to them and learn how to apply them. Even though I took more than a dozen composition classes in college, I still participate in writing conferences, lectures, courses and workshops. And every time I pick up a grammar book or style guide, I learn something new about usage.

I am far from the perfect example of a good grammarian (seriously, please don't read my twitter feed too closely), but a love for words and learning can compensate for a litany of mistakes.

Social Media Round-Up of 2013 SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Fall Conference

This was our biggest and most extensive conference yet, and I've put together a social media round-up for those of you who missed the meeting or want to relieve some of your favorite moments. If you have highlights, pictures or comments about the 2013 SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Fall Conference, but sure to link to them in the comments or tag them with #SCBWIMidAtlantic on twitter.

Blog

Conference Co-Chair Erin Teagan created a funny and fabulous list of Ten Things about the 2013 MidAtlantic SCBWI Fall Conference. Erin and Val Patterson did an amazing job coordinating this event, and Regional Advisor Ellen Braaf is just about the most welcoming host anyone could ask for.

*As a wonderful new addition to out chapter, Elizabeth Metz gave an illustrator's perspective on the meeting. This was also her first time attending an SCBWI conference, and her "notebook doodles" are both insightful and beautiful.

Twitter

You can still read all the tweets about the conference even if you didn't have the change to attend the meeting yourself. People shared words of wisdom, encouragement and networking opportunities.

Tweets about "#SCBWIMidAtlantic"

Facebook

Follow SCBWI Mid-Atlantic on Facebook! While the page administrator Anne Marie Pace wasn't able to attend this year's conference (she was speaking at her alma mater's homecoming), there are a lot of comments and highlights and questions about the conference going around. It's also a great place to find out about events and book releases for local SCBWI members throughout the year.

Pictures

I wasn't great about taking pictures or notes this year, but I do have a couple to share.

My friend Judy Egan makes her wish on Cynthia Lord's Newbery Honor plaque for her book Rules.

VCFA represents with Anne Westrick, author of Brotherhood, and Hannah Baranby, author of Wonder Show. Gigi Amateau, not a VCFA grad but still a wonderful and prolific author, also joined the panel.

*Added 10/29/13

SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Annual Fall Conference: Children's Publishing in 2013

I'm usually much better about posting information about the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic activities, but once again, I'm going to plead grad school. This is an amazing event for local children's writers and illustrators. Not only do you learn about writing for children and young adults, but it also connects you with an entire community of writers. This year, the event returns to the Holiday Inn Dulles on October 25-26. Registration is still open, though only one of the intensives on the 25th is still available.

The keynote speaker will be Cynthia Lord, author of the Newbery Honor book Rules. Featured speakers include picture book master (and VCFA faculty member) Mary Quattlebaum and Frances Gilbert, Associate Publishing Director of Random House, Golden Books, Doubleday Books for Young Readers. You can check out the full faculty list as well as the agenda on the conference website.

Click here for more information and to register for the event.

Verbs on the Go

I put a whole lot of miles on my car this summer. I drove through the Piedmont, Pocono, Catskill, Adirondack, Green, Allegheny and Blue Ridge mountain ranges. This trip was a much needed vacation from work and school and life in general. I camped for five days and four nights, visited the Baseball Hall of Fame, swam in lakes and rivers and waterfalls, and met up with friends for hiking and catching up and some more swimming. And the views were breathtaking. You certainly don't see this in the city.

Peeked vs. Peaked

The view at the top of Sterling Mountain

Imagine your two eyes peeking around a corner, and every "A" you've written has peAked like a mountain on the page. Got to love mnemonic devices that are both auditory and visual.

Speeded vs. Sped

Driving across Lake Champlain Bridge

Speeded means to accelerate, sped means to hasten to. If you want to get technical, speeded is used with a direct object and sped is used with a preposition. Slightly different meanings used for slightly difference constructs. Someone might have speeded the process, while another might have sped towards a conclusion. (I've talked about a similar definition-based verb usage in my Lighted vs. Lit post.)

Sneaked vs. Snuck

Sunrise in Smuggler's Notch

Sneaked is the past participial of to sneak, snuck is, well, utter nonsense. In fact, why we think it's more natural to say snuck instead of sneaked, I will never know as this form of irregular conjugation occurs with very few verbs (clung, dug, drunk, hung, rung, run, shrunk, sprung, stuck, struck, sung, sunk, swum, swung, thrust, trod, won, wrung). You don't say rusk but risked. Struck might be past tense for strike, but streaked is past tense for streak. Even hung has an exception when referencing a person being hanged. However, I concede that language is constantly developing, and snuck is kind of a new linguistic evolution. Even if I don't like it.

And now I need to get back to working on my critical thesis. Until next summer.

Hightlights from VCFA-WCYA Winter Residency

Attending a residency at Vermont College of Fine Arts is a unique experience. In two weeks, you learn a ridiculous amount and build friendships faster than you could ever imagine. This is partly because of the insane schedule: lectures begin at 8:30 a.m. and readings end at 9:30 p.m. at the earliest, and you often work late into the night on homework for workshops or trying to capture the creative outpouring. It might also be in part that you're living in such close proximity to so many other writers: I don't remember dorm rooms being so small during my undergrad years, and if you spit, you just might hit a National Book Award nominee, Caldecott winner or Newbery medalist. Only 125 students get to share this experience every six months, and I feel totally blessed to be among their number.

Here's a little peek at what it's like to be a VCFA resident. I want to be respectful of the privacy and creative property of others, so I haven't included the content of any lectures and I've attempted to keep my references to creative work extremely general. But I hope you get an idea of how much fun I had for those 12 days in Vermont.

1. Martine Leavitt called me "hot." And yes, she said I could quote her on that. Okay, so she was talking about a costume I wore to a masquerade dance and not my writing, but I'll take it. Oh yeah, she said some stuff about writing a novel in verse and poetic voice and other such nonsense, but the important thing is that she thinks I looked hot.
2. I didn't fall on the ice. Apparently Heather Demetrios was quite the skater as a kid, and I managed to hold my own with her. She might be graceful and can do pretty spins, but I can smoke her in a race. She's Nancy Kerrigan to my Bonnie Blair.
   
   
3. I survived the great Plague and Pestilence of Winter 2013. Sure, I was sick the entire week before and got to residency with a pulled shoulder muscle from throwing up so hard (yes, you really needed to know that), but I managed to escape falling to the epidemic that caused severe coughs, boiling fevers and even a few cases of pneumonia. My doctor assures me that I was not Patient Zero (I was past the contagious stage before I left), but one of my fellow students called me "the antibody that [they] couldn't figure out how to harvest."


4. We had a sing-along. The main building on campus has this beautiful chapel with a real pipe organ, and every time I sit in that room, I want to sing hymns. Well, this residency, Alan Cumyn made my wish a reality by having us all stand and sign Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." It was a beautiful, moving experience, and I think sing-alongs should be required every residency.


5. I heard some really great stories. Tom Birdseye, Tom Greene and Sarah Ellis blew my mind with their story telling abilities, and I heard about pirates, big Jewish families, kids with heartbreaking issues, fantastical worlds and so many other places I want to visit.

Though it was frigid (seriously, that's how Weather.com described it) and I had to trudge through two feet of snow, I can't wait to go back to Vermont. This summer is sure to be filled with all kinds of adventure.

Putting Off the Apocalypse

Tomorrow is 12/21/12, and there's no way the world can end. I have big plans for 2013, and after the rather harrowing year I've had, I'm looking forward to many good things in the year to come. It's become a bit of a tradition for me to look at the past year while setting some goals for the next. So here's a look back as well as a peek at what's to come.

PAST: My year started with a trip to the ER followed by emergency surgery. While it took my mom a couple of days to come take care of me (I'm always glad to have my mom visit), there was an amazing community of people right here in Northern Virginia who stepped in when family couldn't. Friends brought me to the hospital, picked me up, made meals for me, changed my bandages, picked my mom up from the train station, and kept me company while I recovered. I will always be grateful for the family I've discovered in my own back yard.

FUTURE: I look forward to the many opportunities I'll have to show my love and appreciation for my friends. I look forward to attending kid's soccer games, going out for celebratory dinners and finding the perfect gifts for baby showers and bridal showers and graduations and birthdays. While I might not look forward to it, I'll happily help friends move, grieve with them when they lose a loved one and take them to a movie when they need a little break.

PAST: Working with writers' groups have not only made me a better writer, but they have also made me some wonderful friends. Together we've explored new worlds and learned about the past, laughed at silly boys and gone on great adventures. These men and women encourage me and teach me and love me, and in the past year, I've never needed them more. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention what an honor it is to be a member of SCBWI and work with my local chapter. Becoming a member of that organization four years ago was the best decision I ever made.

FUTURE: There are so many amazing books I'm looking forward to reading next year. I'm fortunate to have a lot of really good friends with upcoming publications, so bare with me as I do some name dropping. Sara Zarr, Mike Martin, Megan Shepherd, Lisa Papademetriou and Anne Marie Pace already have books slated for release, and I'm sure I'll read a dozen more.

PAST: Starting grad school was terrifying and thrilling all at once. I never realized it was possible to be stressed out and totally at peace at the same time. I had an amazing adviser who taught my to write broadly until you find your story and encouraged the poet within me to be brave. I quickly made some of the best friends I could ever imagine in my fellow VCFA classmates. School also allowed me to discover Vermont summers and cross the boarder into Canada where I actually used my rusty French in real conversations.

FUTURE: Right after the New Year I get to see what White Christmas was really all about when I go to Vermont for my second residency. I'll bring my new ice skates and winter coat to play in the snow as well as a fresh notebook and plenty of hot cocoa to get me through lectures. For summer residency I'll go up a few days early, and (hopefully with my brother in tow) visit Cooperstown and hike in the Adirondack Mountains.

PAST: I discovered my Natitude this baseball season. Excuse me while I get a little misty-eyed just thinking about it. I have loved baseball all my life and the White Sox will always be my first love, but I've watched the Nationals grow from their very first season into a championship team. I was in agony when Jayson Werth snapped his wrist, heartbroken when Rick Ankiel didn't make the cut, excited when Bryce Harper and Tyler Moore were called up, and astonished when Teddy finally won the race. I was at Game 4 to cheer on their first post-season run, and it will be an experience I'll never forget.

FUTURE: What more could a life-long baseball fan ever wish for? Oh, yeah, to see their team play in the Wold Series. I can't wait for April.

PAST: With my project for grad school, I've learned a lot about my family this year. I've spent a lot of time combing through documents and listening to family members tell stories. In doing this, I've also learned a great deal about myself. Mainly I learned that I come from a long line of kick-ass women (my mother, grandmothers, aunts and sister among them) whom I can only hope to be like.

FUTURE: My little brother comes home from Hawaii next summer, and I'm excited to be a lot closer to him once again. I'm sure my sister and parents will be down for visits, and I know I'll see a few aunts, uncles and cousins throughout the year. I love my family, and more than anything, I hope the New Year brings them happiness and success.

I know the past year has been very difficult for many people. People I know and love continue to struggle financially, and words cannot describe the horrible loss that happened last week. The world is full of war and hunger and unhappiness. But there is also goodness, kindness and hope in the world. I hope in the coming weeks we can all remember the things that are worth living for. From this natural-born pessimist to you, may 12/21/12 be just another day in this holiday season and may it bring you a little closer to family, friends and joy.

The Next Big Thing

There are two schools when it comes to talking about your work in progress (WIP). The first is that you don't talk about it at all. Period. The second is that you talk about nothing else. I'm kind of a combination of both, and over the years I've become much more of the second. But my current WIP necessitates me talking about my work with a lot of people, and it's taken over such a huge part of my life that it's basically all I think about. So when the talented, beautiful, amazing Jessica Cooper asked me to participate in The Next Big Thing blog game, I agreed.

Here are ten questions (and answers) about my current WIP.

What is the working title of your book?
Okay, maybe this isn't going to be as easy as I thought. Right now it's just kind of labeled "Grandmother Poems," but that is just about the worst title possible and kind of makes me dread scrolling to the top of my manuscript. I've been tossing around some ideas like "Forest of Things" and "Children of No Country," but my working titles usually go through several amalgamations before I settle on something I don't hate.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
After complaining to a friend that I can't finish anything, he asked me the most basic question: "Why?" That made me think far more than you would expect. It also made me realize that I couldn't get to the end of anyone's story because the beginning of my own is all muddled. So I started at the beginning, writing about the grandmother. How very meta of me.

What genre does your book fall under?
Creative nonfiction is kind of the catch-all for what I'm working on. It's parts poetry, biography, memoir, speculation. Who knows what it will be in the end.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
All unknowns. My characters are very vivid in my head, so I'm not sure I'd be able to say who would "fit" the part best. Good thing I'm not a casting director, or even a screen writer.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
I will be the one to mark her grave: Leona Rodak Gaglione, 1917-1979, beloved wife and mother.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I can't imagine what agency would be willing to represent this type of book, so it might end up being self-published. But hopefully my other WIPs will get my foot in the door of an agency that's willing to take a chance on this.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
This is a WIP and very much in the early stages, but I'm hoping to have a draft finished within a year.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
It's a little like A Step From Heaven by An Na with elements of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer and Thomas and Beulah by Rita Dove. (Yes, I did just compare my mess of a WIP to Printz Award-winner, a classic novel, a New York Times best-seller and a Pulitzer Prize for poetry. And yes, I am aware that this could possible be the most ridiculous comparison ever made.)

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
My grandmother's family immigrated from Poland a few years before she was born, and their lives were far from easy. My grandmother made some very bad choices in her life that still affect my family, but I've also seen how my father has been able to forgive and overcome the past. This book is an exercise in forgiveness.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
When most people think of immigrants in the early 20th century, they mostly think about New York City and the Ellis Island Experience. This WIP, however, is set in Omaha. When a lot of people think about Poland, they think about a country in Eastern Europe that gets invaded by just about everyone that is now a member of the European Union. This WIP, however, is about the strong cultural identity of a people with no country. I like exploring the unexpected, and I think others will like it as well.

I'm not a big fan of "tagging" people, but if you do a Next Big Thing post, let me know. I'd love to find out what you're working on!

Stepping into the Past

I've always been told I look just like my grandmother Leona Rodak. I've also learned enough about her to know that she made a lot of really bad decisions in her life, decisions that continue to affect my family even though she's been gone for almost 35 years. Though I never met her, she's had the single most influence over me behind the members of my immediate family--influence that hadn't always been for the good. So I've started a journey to make peace with my grandmother.

I've decided to embrace my Polish heritage and learn about immigrant life at the turn of the century. I've been contacting family members who knew Leona and her siblings, and I've done more research on Omaha from 1910-1930 than I ever expected to do. I've spent the past two months trying to piece together the lives of people who are no longer around to tell their story. I've also written page after page of poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction about my grandmother's family. And I've learned a lot of unexpected things.

My grandmother was a pretty amazing person. She went through a lot in her life, and my family has left an amazing legacy of women who were independent, powerful, compassionate. Yes, her life was filled with mistakes and horrible tragedies, but it was also filled with incredible stories of survival and love. I've spent so many years resenting my grandmother that I never really took the chance to know her. But maybe looking like my grandmother isn't such a bad thing.

First Grad School Reading List

My friend Heather Demetrios inspired me to post my reading list for grad school. As I don't have a lot of time to write in-depth posts and I won't write about the content of my grad program, I thought posting my annotated bibliography is the best way to keep everyone informed about what's going on in my life. After all, my life pretty much revolves around reading and writing now. Maybe you'll even get some hints about my current projects.

My Father’s Summers: A Daughter’s Memoir by Kathi Appelt: I’m fascinated by creative nonfiction, especially since we seem to like making nonfiction as boring as possible for kids. The prose poems and timeline of this memoir were fascinating, and I love how the author dealt with the themes of love and forgiveness.

Art and Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayler and Ted Orland: This book was recommended to me because I tend to become paralyzed by fear, so this book was very much written for me. The solution I discovered? The best remedy for fear is to work.

The Elephant Wish by Lou Berger, illustrated by Ana Juan: I usually don’t read picture books unless they are recommended to me via friends, awards or reviews, but this one I picked up because I liked the illustration on the cover. While this book was imaginative, it was a little too abstract and metaphorical for the lack of content.

D Is for Dancing Dragon: A China Alphabet by Carol Crane, illustrated by Zong-Zhou Wang: Now I know why they say if you're going to rhyme in a picture book, do it well. The informational sidebars were good, and the illustrations were okay, but overall, this book is kind of forgettable.

George Washington: Soldier, Hero, President by Justine and Ron Fontes: While this book is decently written and a good overview for the intended age group, I was disappointed by some of the historical content. It glossed over some of the most important details of Washington’s life and even had some, not necessary inaccurate, but most certainly misleading information.

Rapture of the Deep: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Soldier, Sailor, Mermaid, Spy by L.A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren: It's fascinating how the author increased tension and developed characters in ways that are only obvious when the book is read aloud.

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix Potter: Potter uses simple words to convey vivid images—you almost don’t need the illustrations. And the characters practically hop off the page (bunny pun intended).

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter: I loved how the narrator would sometimes switch to second person and directly address the reader to bring it to a personal level for a child.

The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordon, narrated by Kevin R. Free and Katherine Kellgren: Riordan utilizes all of the sensory descriptions to surround the reader with the action. His stories might not be unique or moving, but they sure are fun to read. Listening to this as an audio book is also a fun experience as the protagonists are “recording” their experience for Riordan to publish, so it lends itself to the medium.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham: The characterization in this novel is brilliant. By using humor juxtaposed to harsh reality, Stiefvater makes Puck a unique, relatable character. I also love how she grounds us in a physical place in the present before inserting flashbacks and memories.

Putting in the Work

My dad used to say that if you want something bad enough, you have to put in the work to make it happen. And with grad school starting in two months (two months!), I have a lot of work to do. I want to start a new writing project for school, which means I need to finish up the old one.

So if you don't see me around for the next two months—and possibly the two years after that while I'm immersed in school work—there's no need to send the National Guard after me. I'll just be putting in the work.

A Pep Talk in Richmond

I love SCBWI events, so when my friend Julie Phend asked if I wanted to go to Richmond with her for Everything I Needed to Know: Paths to Success in Writing for Children, it didn't take too much arm twisting to get me to agree to make the two-hour drive. Mostly I wanted to have some time to spend with Julie as she lives about an hour and a half away, and seeing a good friend twice a month just isn't enough.

Castle in the Swamp

The first panel was specifically geared towards picture book authors/illustrators. While I love picture books, I don't have any interest in writing them myself—at least not at this point. But if there's one thing I've learned from SCBWI, it's that you can't discount advice just because you don't think it was meant for you. Hazel Buys, Brian Rock, Carol Cole and Kim Norman all spoke of the importance of perseverances and looking outside of traditional means to accomplish your goals. But Brian's use of Monty Python to illustrate his point was what really resonated with me. (Only the first minute of this clip is what Brian referred to.)

"If insanity is doing something over and over again expecting different results, than success is insanity squared... You have to assume that someone out there is going to say 'Yes!'"

—Brian Rock
author of Don't Play With Your Food and Piggies

Backyard Chat

The lovely Lana Krumwiede spoke with her agent Molly Jaffa about the process from manuscript to publication. I was excited to see Lana and Molly on the agenda as I first met them at an SCBWI event back in 2010, right after Lana got her book deal. It was wonderful to catch up with both of them and see how their careers have really taken off over the past two years. And that success is mostly due to their amazing writer–agent relationship.

"Decide what you're looking for and what you have, and then hit the internet hard searching for what you need [in an agent]."

—Lana Krumwiede
author of Freakling

"I think it's important to do what's best for your career, not necessarily what's most convenient for the agent... There's a lot of crying in children's literature—it's not at all like baseball."

—Molly Jaffa
agent at Folio Literary Management

If only Molly had watched the Chicago White Sox game quickly followed by the Washington Nationals game that evening, she would have realized there's plenty of crying in baseball, too.

Rain vs. Rang vs. Reign vs. Rein: A Battle of Four Verbs

Rain (v) to send down in great quantities, as small pieces or objects. From Middle English reinen, meaning...er...rain, also related to Gothic rign.

I was very much looking forward to the Kite Festival this year, unfortunately, one of the most common signs of spring is rain. And rain it did on Saturday morning. So instead, I did laundry and mending and cleaning and shopping and reading. My life is so tough.

Rang (v) simple past tense of ring; to resonate, echo or sound. From Old Norse hringja and German ringen, meaning to wrestle or struggle.

After a lazy weekend, it's been rather difficult to respond to my alarm clock this morning. The funny thing is, I was awake long before it went off, but there's just something about a warm bed and a good book first thing in the morning that makes me not want to move. I think it's just the calm before the storm.

Reign (v) to have control, rule or influence. From Latin noun rēgnum, meaning kingship or royalty.

It's spring break for most of the country, and DC is flooded with tourists. My usually calm Metro stop is now overrun with school groups and families hailing from such exotic places as Milwaukee and Portland. But despite the newcomers not following the etiquette of walk left/stand right on the escalators and forming long lines at the ticket kiosks because they don't understand how the pricing works, I actually enjoy when the tourists take over the city. Mostly because that's when old friends come to visit.

Rein (v) to curb, restrain or control. From Latin retinēre, meaning to hold back.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to corral four children hopped up on Easter candy who have spent four days in a van? Yeah, I'm sure you do. My house is usually such a quiet, peaceful place, but every once in awhile, chaos can be a lot of fun. For the holiday, my roommate's brother brought his four kids on a road trip to visit us from Michigan. Her other brother and his wife are also on their way from North Carolina with their 2-year-old daughter, my friend flies in from California by way of Greece, and my other friend's family took a last-minute trip to Massachusetts so she's driving down from Maryland to spend the weekend. We have a rather full house this Easter, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Fact Checking Fiction

I spend most of my day fact checking. That's what you do when you write editorial content for a living. You look at statistics and social patterns and legislation to see how it all fits together to support what you're saying. Like today, I researched Idaho labor statistics and regulations on flexible spending accounts and media outlets in the Seattle area, all for different assignments. Media writing is non-fiction after all, and if you're facts aren't correct, you might as well be writing fiction.

Right?

Not really.

In my Batman Life (what I do outside of normal working hours), I'm working on a contemporary novel loosely based on my home-town high school. You'd think I'd never have to do any research for it. But I've spent hours researching the Russian Revolution, vintage band t-shirts, school library funding and anatomy—and that was just in the past 24 hours.

This week for my writers' group, I've researched a verity of topics such as British parliamentary procedure, ukulele music and Scottish slang. For a recent beta reading, I refreshed my knowledge of maritime history, music theory and disease treatment. And that doesn't even touch on the wear and tear my dictionary has been through to learn word origin and alternate definitions. Good thing I know my way around internet search engines, indexes and glossaries, and library databases.

The point is, a lot of facts go into fiction. People often ask me how I can "sit down and write a story," and the truth is, I can't. Without a background of research classes, essay writing, interview experience and a backlog of useless facts, my fiction wouldn't be readable, it would never even be more than an idea. In fact, I probably would never have story ideas as everything is based on a fact I read or saw or experienced.

So you want to be a writer? Make sure you get your facts right.

Friday Five: Bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger.

I am well aware that I have been woefully neglecting my blog. To all you who come looking for book lists and NoVA children's/YA lit event news, I apologize. And to all you who come looking for updates on what I'm up to (yes, that means you, Mom), well, the lack of content is indirectly proportional to the amount of obligations in my life.

So, for this Friday Five, I have the five things preventing me from being a reliable blogger.

Number 1

I spent Veteran's Day visiting friends in North Carolina. Tim, Annie and Maddie have made many appearances in this blog, including Thanksgiving two years ago, last fall, last Thanksgiving and this Labor Day. This time we headed down to their neck of the woods to help with remolding their house. Of course, we couldn't go to Jacksonville, NC, without a quick trip to the beach.

Number 2

A much larger chunk of my time is now dedicated to my commute as my office moved into the city this month. Not that this is a bad thing. In fact, I've missed taking public transportation to work, and in the past 18 days I've to listen to tons of audiobooks.

Number 3

I've been doing a ton of manuscript critiques. While this is tons of fun and a great way to deconstruct the mechanics of writing in order to build up my own skills, all of the manuscripts I'm currently reading are historical fiction, which takes a ton of time to critique effectively. But it also means I get to learn about exciting places like Revolutionary-era London and mid-evil Scotland and even a fictitious island in Polynesia during the Victorian era.

Number 4

I started working with a personal trainer, which makes me feel obligated to do things like work out every day and pay attention to what I eat. Being healthy takes an amazing amount of time, effort and money (that I don't have). Lucky for me, two-year-old Maddie helped me out last weekend by showing me the proper form for downward facing dog.

Number 5

And of course there's the ever-present grad school applications. In fact, I'm taking the day before Thanksgiving off—not to drive anywhere or prepare food, but to write my critical essay while everyone else is gone. But least you fear I'll spend all my time writing and no time giving thanks, I ordered a ready-made Thanksgiving so I won't miss out. (P.S. This is in no way an indication that I have nowhere to go for the holiday. Don't feel sorry for me as I've been invited to several dinners, but I desperately need to finish my applications.)

Dream Big, or Highlights from the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Fall Conference

This was my first official year on the SCBWI Fall Conference Planning Committee, and boy was it crazy hard work. I don't know how these women (and sometimes men) do this year after year after year. But all the hard work totally paid off this weekend. Children's book industry professionals all came together just outside the Beltway to inspire, teach and even sometimes admonish the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI community.

We all know I'm a sucker for both baseball and books, so Brian Lies didn't have to work all that hard to get me rooting for him. But when he showed up at the conference hotel around 11 p.m. while I was setting up the AV equipment, he proceeded to spend the next hour making sure his presentation worked with our system and even let me be a fangirl for a little while. Then bright an early the next morning, Brian gave an amazing opening address.

He framed his speech around his marketing plan for his books, including advice on brainstorming (nothing is off the table), going beyond what the publisher is willing to do (his family wraps their van in art for every book) and the most important meal of the day (breakfast, of course). While much of his concepts directly translate into promotional ideas for published authors, the underlying message was clearly for everyone: Investing in yourself will give you the best returns.

"If you believe—if you imagine the wacky stuff—it can happen... Success really does breed success, but you have to keep the ball rolling."

—Brian Lies
author of Bats at the Ballgame and Bats at the Beach

Brian was followed by a panel of literary agents who talked about what they do and what they're looking for in clients. This is also where I get to insert a plug for my friend Megan Sheperd, whose book The Madman's Daughter comes out from HarperCollins in 2013, in large part thanks for her agent, Quinlan Lee. And after hearing Quinlan speak and talking to her after the conference, I can understand why Megan speaks so highly of Quinlan. Both her and Jennifer's dedication to their clients and the children's book industry was clear in their advice.

"If you send to everyone at one time, you lose the opportunity to revise and resubmit."

—Jennifer Rofé
agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency

"One book, two hands, countless reasons we do what we do."

—Quinlan Lee
agent with Adams Literary

Next up as editor extraordinar Chelsea Eberly talking about "The Hook for Your Book". While I missed the first part of her talk because of other conference responsibilities, she gave wonderful insight into why you need to know what about your novel will hook the reader. In knowing what makes your novel strong and unique, you are able not only to pitch it to industry professionals but also fix a lot of problems in your writing before you begin submitting.

"Think about the book industry, which means doing your homework... If you don’t know what you’ve written, you’ve kind of handed us an easy rejection."

—Chelsea Eberly
editor at Random House

National Book Award-winner Han Nolan gave the keynote address. She is both talented and insightful as well as humble and kind. I have never heard a speaker expose herself so fully to an audience, and it nearly broke my heart. She spoke about some of her most embarrassing moments as a writing and why she keeps writing despite the challenges.

"We don’t need more junk, and the young people we’re writing for don’t need more junk. They need to be inspired and invigorated... Powerful art can change you, it can change the world."

—Han Nolan
author of Pregnant Pause and Dancing on the Edge

Time management is a huge issue for authors and aspiring writers alike, and the local author panel addressed how to accomplish your writing goals without sacrificing the rest of you life. And these woman—who are writers, mothers, teachers, friends—understand what it takes to be a Renaissance Woman.

"It is fair to ask yourself what you’re trading your writing time for."

—Wendy Shang
author of The Great Wall Of Lucy Wu

"You can expect kind things to come your way, and you should extend kind things to others as well."

—Meg Medina
author of The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind and Milagros: Girl from Away

"At some point you have to say, okay, this is when I’m going to write and this is when I’m going to take care of business... We all get the same 24 hours in a day."

—Anne Marie Pace
author of Vampirina Ballerina and Never Ever Talk to Strangers

"You have to compartmentalize yourself...but you also need a break."

—Amy Brecount White
author of Forget-Her-Nots

The day finished off with an the editor panel discussing how voice influences plot and character development. With both practical and theoretical advice on how to develop a unique, believable voice in writing, these editors proved why they are so trusted and respected in the children's book industry.

"It’s so easy to forget to look through your character’s eyes and [instead] look through our own eyes because they’re more familiar... Ask yourself: What would I do if I were the character in this scenario?"

—Abby Ranger
editor at Disney-Hyperion

"There are no absolutes in writing, so clearly all of the rules we give you you are free to break."

—Chelsea Eberly
editor at Random House

"Figure out what your character is most afraid of and then make them do it... When the internal and external conflicts interlace, it makes for a very nuanced story."

—Caroline Abbey
editor at Bloomsbury

It's pretty obvious why I enjoyed this conference so much. Every SCBWI event I attend gets me excited to do more with and be better at what I feel such a deep passion to do. If you aren't a member of SCBWI, join now. And if you already are a member, it was great to see you at the conference, and I look forward to seeing you again next year!

Fall for the Book YA Author Panel

This weekend I went to a panel discussion featuring Pam Bachorz, Sarah Collins Honenberger, Val Patterson, Jon Skovron and Amy Brecount White, all local YA authors. One More Page Books, local indi bookstore and wine shop, hosted the event, and I think I'm in love with their venue. (The Washington Post recently featured One More Page for their stellar book groups.)

Now on to some tidbits of wisdom from some amazing writers.

On why not getting your book published isn't the end of the world:

"Nothing's wasted—even a failed book is a success... Be kind to yourself."

—Val Patterson

On why YA is the place to be:

"YA breaks all the rules... It took off when nobody was paying attention."

—Jon Skovron

On how to write what you don't know:

"I'm not a teenage boy, I've never been a teenage boy...but I could observe the essence of boy and then channel it."

—Pam Bachorz

On finding motivation even when you don't feel like writing:

"The reason writers write is because they have a story to tell... Write through the garbage."

—Sarah Collins Honenberger

(Sorry, I couldn't get a picture of Sarah because there was a head in my way. But it was a really cool 15-year-old boy who asked good questions and chatted with me about writing and books after the panel, so I didn't mind so much.)

On outlining vs. the "seat of your pants" approach:

"If you try to keep it all in your head, you'll explode... Sometimes if you can see what's wrong, you're that much closer to seeing what's right."

—Amy Brecount White

I've never attended the Fall for the Book Festival before, but you can bet I'll plan to attend more events next year. So thanks to George Mason University for hosting this event and helping build a community of book lovers!

P.S. Look for next week's posts featuring National Book Festival speakers Tomie dePaola, Brian Selznick, Rita Williams-Garcia, Susan Cooper and Gary Schmidt. I'm hoping to catch Sherman Alexie and Toni Morrison as well, but I have some scheduling conflicts. Good thing the Library of Congress archives everything, so you can watch the webcasts or listen to the podcasts within a few weeks of the festival.

Grammatical Quandaries

Split Infinitives: My friend assures me that "only prescriptivist grammarians will harp about split infinitives, and that's because they're basing their rules on Latin where it is not possible to split infinitives" and that it's okay to split infinitives because "we speak a Germanic language, not a Romantic one." Oxford Dictionaries would both agree and disagree: "Avoid split infinitives in formal writing, unless the alternative wording seems very clumsy or would alter the meaning of your sentence." The Chicago Manual of Style and AP Style Manual also recommend not splitting the infinitive unless it is for deliberate emphasis or to avoid awkward construction. Yes, this is what I spend my time debating with my friends.

Capitalization: Doing editing for business professionals is a constant battle in controlling capitalization. They want to personify everything from the name of their company to the business tools they use: "Our Company is here to serve You!" and "Good Synergy is all it take to accomplish your Goals!" While caps indicate a proper noun or the beginning of a sentence, quotation or thought, using them to give nouns emphasis is very Revolutionary (as in 1776, not an idea that has the potential to change the world). If texting has its way, we won't be using capitalization for anything in the next five years. Incidentally, Germanic languages are the pretty much the only languages to capitalize days of the week and months of the year and well as street names, demonyms and the nominative singular pronoun.

End Prepositions: Your sixth-grade teacher might have insisted they were evil, but avoiding them can make you sound pretentious. Yet if you find yourself using them more than once every thousand words, you're probably not using very effective writing. The problem with end prepositions is that they have no object, which means the modifying phrase is ambiguous, which leads to unclear writing, which results in miscommunication, which can cause hurt feelings and wars and big fat "F"s on final papers.

Transitional Conjunctions: If you have never begun a sentence with a conjunction, I praise you for being a good student and listening to your teacher. However, this is another one of those formal-writing no-nos that has become commonly accepted over the past few years. While used for emphasis and to show greater contrast in ideas, it is over used, and I am more guilty of this than most.

A Dash of Dashes

Dash: Three types of dashes vary in length. Figure dash (-), or hyphen, joins words or separates syllables. En-dash (–), or minus sign, indicates a range or a connecting relationship. Em-dash (—), or double dash, indicates an interruption, such as a parenthetical thought or sentence cut short.

Slash: Used to emphasize a connecting relationship in place of an en-dash.

Parenthesis: Indicates an interruption in the flow of a sentence, though this is becoming an antiquated punctuation as em-dashes or commas are more often used.

While em-dashes are being used more and more in writing, figure dashes are not used often enough. When two modifiers are equally necessary for clarification, they should be joined by a figure dash. For instance, you see "health care reform" or "healthcare reform" used in newspapers and government reports, but technically "health-care reform" is the appropriate structure. However, this does not hold true with adverbs that end in -ly, i.e. you can say either "commonly used words" or "common-used words" but not "commonly-used words." While Figure dashes are used for compound words like "co-author" or "baby-sitter," if you use a compound word in connection with another modifier, you should use an en-dash to connect the modifiers, such as "multi-award–winning artist."

You can find a great example of the appropriate use of all three dashes in the first paragraph of Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz:

"The Bank was a decrepit stone building at the tail end of Houston Street, on the last divide between the gritty East Village and the wolds of the Lower East Side. Once the headquarters of the venerable Van Alen investment and brokerage house, it was an imposing, squat presence, a paradigm of the beuax-arts style, with a classic six-column facade and an intimidating row of 'dentals'—razor-sharp serrations on the pediment's surface. For many years it stood on the corner of Houston and Essex, desolate, empty, and abandoned, until one winter evening when an eye-patch–wearing nightclub promoter chanced upon it after polishing off a hot dog at Katz's Deli. He was looking for a venue to showcase the new music his DJs were spinning—a dark, haunted sound they were calling 'Trance.'"