Interview with Moira Donohue

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Today on the couch (and I need to stop saying that because it’s making me sound like a shrink) we have Moira Rose Donohue, author of two books about punctuation. And that, I’m afraid, makes her sound kind of  boring. Which she most definitely is NOT. What’s more, Moira makes punctuation Not Boring. She makes it fun, because she’s telling a story. And by the end of it, it turns out, you just happen to know exactly what an apostrophe — or dash, or question mark, or period — does. Moira is another member of my critque group. Maybe it’s because she’s a lawyer, but I never have to ask her what she’s thinking; she always speaks her mind (and I absolutely love her for it). But today, we’re digging a little so I’m peppering her with questions. When I’m done, you can find out how to become eligible to win a copy of Penny and the Punctuation Bee. But first you have to

for program page-1Me: We’re here today because your punctuation books, Alfie the Apostrophe and Penny and the Punctuation Bee, are now in paperback. Paperback! So does that mean that, since the books are cheaper  ($6.99, people) they will therefore be more accessible and we’ll soon find it in homes and classrooms across the country, as prevalent as peanut butter?

Moira: Well, I certainly hope that you’re right.  When Scholastic Book Clubs first published ALFIE THE APOSTROPHE in paperback, it appeared in the hands of a lot of kids and teachers around the country.  I hope that PENNY will have a similar fate. (Note: This month’s release means Alfie is now available outside of the book club.)

Me: I know you made up the punctuation bee. Were you ever a bee participant as a kid? Spelling? Geography? And how did you do?

Moira: My elementary school didn’t have bees.  But I have always wanted to be in one, so I decided to use that as a starting point for my punctuation bee concept.

Me: Tell us how you feel about cheerleaders, really?

Moira: In high school, I was in the Latin Club.  Sports?  The It’s Academic team.  My main activity was Glee Club.  If you watch the wonderful new TV show Glee!, you know that glee club members are not generally compatible with cheerleaders.  Enough said.

Me: What’s your favorite part of being a published author?

Moira: OK, this will sound corny, but I really love it when a kid tells me he really loves one of my books and reads it every night or, even better, sleeps with it under his pillow.  Books we read as kids stay with us throughout life, so if a few children really like mine, I am very happy.

Me: Not corny at all! When you do school visits, what do you do with the kids?

Moira: LOVE school visits.  My two favorite things to do are to talk about what punctuation marks the kids would be and why (always hear some really interesting answers) and to do punctuation magic tricks with audience volunteers.  I’m not a magician, but thanks to the help of a reading teacher/writer friend Carla Heymsfeld, I can do a couple of cool tricks!

Me: (We are putting this in the Things You Didn’t Know About Your Friends category. I’ve known Carla for four and a half years. I didn’t know she could do magic! I think our next critique meeting just got a little more theatrical. And speaking of theater…) Talk a little about your interest in theater and how that comes into play in your picture books.

Moira: I should have been on the stage.  Really.  But instead, I went to law school and encouraged my sister to be an actress (she is, and is also a theater professor at a university).  She is my consultant for a mid-grade theater story I am working on.

Me: Since one of the things I want to talk about on this blog is the road to publication, I thought I’d ask you to describe your road. Was it a highway? Cobblestone? A country lane?

Moira: Wish I could use one of those words to describe my road, but it was more like jumping hurdles in track.  I didn’t take any creative writing classes in college (although I was the only non-English major in my grammar class), and in my career as a lawyer, although I learned to write precisely (I drafted banking legislation), I didn’t know how to “tell a story.”  So I’ve had to take classes to learn how to write dialog, how to “show, not tell” and how to give depth to my characters.  And before I sold a picture book, I sold magazine articles, poems and plays.

Each area has been like a hurdle, and sadly, I have not yet finished the track.

Me: The best way to deal with frustration, publishing and otherwise?

Moira: The best way is to send a rejected manuscript to another publisher immediately – someone out there will eventually see the value in your quirky work.  But personally, to get up my courage to do that, I eat half a loaf of warm, buttered French bread first.

Me: (To hear Moira talk more about the Healing Powers of French Bread, visit her diet blog.) I was hoping you would also talk a bit about the importance of punctuation. It seems to me it would be gaining importance because of the amount of communicating we do now via writing, using the Internet. But then, we don’t always use punctuation (or even capital letters) when we communicate, especially if we’re texting. Thoughts?

Moira: I’m not a stickler, but I think punctuation is important for the sake of clarity in communication and to express the emotion of the writer.  Think of a text from a mother to a teenage son or daughter.  There’s a world of difference between “Be home at 5!” and “Be home at 5?”

Me: What do you think about the emoticon becoming a punctuation mark? Is that something you’d fight for or against?

Moira: I am a fan of evolving language conventions, so I support the use of emoticons.  But I would like to see someone write some rules for how to use them so we have consistency.

Me: What’s your biggest punctuation peeve?

Moira: Hmmm, I don’t really have one!  But I do hate pronoun/verb disagreement.  “Everyone has their lunch?”  No, everyone has his or her lunch.  Or, since the boys probably don’t, how about “Everyone has her lunch?”

Me: What’s your favorite punctuation mark?

Moira: The asterisk – a twinkly, sparkly *star* like I want to be!

Me: Because you also blog about food (or lack of it), I thought I’d combine that with punctuation and ask: What punctuation mark would make the best dinner and how would you serve it?

Moira: The question mark, with steak sauce and a side of French fried slashes.

Me: What punctuation mark would you serve if you were on a diet?

Moira: The dash – sparse and it uses a lot of energy.

Me: What’s your secret talent? For example, Kathy Erskine can take a bunch of disparate items and turn them into a cohesive dinner, Jackie Jules can sing and make up songs, and Tom Angleberger is a square dance caller.

Moira: I know song lyrics to almost every show tune every written.  I sometimes have to restrain the “song in my heart” in polite conversation.

Me: And TAP DANCING. HOW CAN YOU FAIL TO MENTION TAP DANCING??? How about in writing; do you have a superpower there?

Moira: The only superpower I have is to be able to cut fat from OTHER people’s writing

Me: I would add Moira’s sense of humor, and her ability to write a wicked cover letter.

In honor of Moira’s paperback releases, I’m giving away a signed copy of PENNY. It’s a great book for early elementary-aged kids and also for teachers. To enter, leave a note in comments telling us your favorite punctuation mark. I’ll draw one name from a hat I picked out just for this occasion. You have from today, Graham Coxon’s birthday, until the end of the day on March 16th, Flavor Flav’s birthday, to enter.

More about Moira (ooh, that kind of sounds like the title of a show tune, doesn’t it?) is available at:
moirarosedonohue.net
dietersdoldrums.blogspot.com
punctuationplayground.blogspot.com

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19 Responses to Interview with Moira Donohue

  1. admin says:

    Just letting you know we have a winner and I’ve sent her an e-mail. Will post information as soon as I get an e-mail back from her! Thanks to everyone for playing!

  2. I love the exclamation mark – I have to keep making sure I only use it once every paragraph or so! But my most recent favorite is the ellipsis…

    janemaritz at yahoo dot com

  3. Ginger Harvey says:

    Such wonderful books and I cannot wait to share. Truly, I wish there was an edition for adults, as I can only remember so much of School House Rock and Conjunction Junction. I know the difference between there and their, your and you’re, but I am an avid over-user (like the dash?) of the semicolon. The semicolon is so distinguished; it allows the reader to say something, pause, and then add even further insight. As a kid, I thought the comma was difficult! Again, thank you for your fun punctuation creations, as it is so, so important.

  4. Oh, dear – a question that the punctuation queen doesn’t know the answer to! Admin is correct that ~ is called a tilde. And I can add that it’s used as an accent in Portuguese and other languages to change the pronunciation of a letter. It’s also used in mathematics, but as a punctuation mark? I have no idea. Can we make up a rule for it??? Personally, I might use it when a dash is too strong, like, “I wish I knew the meaning ~ but I can only guess.”

  5. Dale Alvarez says:

    Madelyn, I love your interview and appreciate the gifts you and Moria have shared. I wish I had these books when I was teaching elementary school. What great gifts they will be for my grandchildren. My favorite is the period as I also don’t know when to stop.

  6. admin says:

    Thanks for stopping by, Andrea! As a kid, I LOVED seeing my name on things. And it was in books, but it was always spelled and pronounced differently, which didn’t quite work for me…
    Madelyn

  7. Andrea says:

    Great interview! I followed my friend Suzanne over here 😉
    My favorite punctuation mark is the interrobang because it can convey so much emotion. “Your pregnant?!”

    I hope I win the book because I have a daughter named Penelope who we call Penny. But if I don’t win, I will for sure be buying it. I think one of the neatest things in the world is for kids to see their name in a book.

  8. Tietjen Vogel says:

    Great read! Thanks for the re-encouragement, Madelyn.

    My fav. is definitely the period because I don’t know when to stop (anything) and it helps with diarhea (sp?) of the mouth.

  9. Suzanne says:

    I love punctuation, too! But especially… Exclamation points!!!!! 🙂

  10. Dash, because I’m always thinking in stream of consciousness–like this.

    Fun interview!!!

  11. admin says:

    Do you mean the tilde? (In Junie B. Jones, Sheldon called it “the little bird over the n.” I just saw somewhere on the net that it is sometimes referred to as “the swung dash,” which is a title I love. And the squiggly dash. Maybe Moira will weigh in — it’s not one I normally use!

  12. Sarah P says:

    Excellent interview! Punctuation is awesome!

    I love the squiggly dash ~ does it have a name? I find it is like waving a hand that-a-way ~ to point something out ~ and I often sign my name with it, too!

    ~Sarah

  13. Natalie says:

    I have a signed copy of Alfie the Apostrophe (Moira signed it for me at the Mid-Atlantic Fall conference) and I use it with my own kids as well as my students. I’d love a copy of her second book!

    My favorite punctuation mark is the em dash. As a teacher, I feel like I’m always changing course, interrupting myself with another thought. The em dash is definitely me. 🙂
    Thanks for holding the giveaway, Madelyn!

  14. Leslie Morrissette says:

    I love the idea behind these stories. I, too, am a believer in the correct usage of punctuation. Remember Schoolhouse Rock? “Conjunction, junction. What’s my function?” Your stories remind me of this. I, too, am a fan of the semi-colon, but recently, my favorite punctuation mark has become the ellipsis. I guess because I always seem to have one more thought to add! Thanks for sharing the interview!

  15. Janet Johnson says:

    Very fun interview. I’m curious to read the books! My favorite punctuation mark is the semi-colon. Maybe because it feels like the underdog in the punctuation world. And it’s sadly misused more often than not. Poor semi-colon.

  16. Heidi Quist says:

    Moira sounds awesome! Thanks for this interview. My favorite is probably the dash. Dash it all, I say! 🙂

  17. ellen says:

    Fabulous interview! I love the books. What a great way to teach children proper punctuation!
    BTW…my fav is the period, it has so many uses…

  18. admin says:

    Thanks, Jama! I was selected to represent my school as a kid, too. I misspelled “apparel.” Which I still can’t get right without a spell check…

  19. jama says:

    What a fun interview! Tap dancing! Show tunes! Love it. Oh, and the buttered french bread, of course.

    Little known fact: We had bees in school, and I was selected to represent my class in the school-wide bee. I was eliminated in the first round because I misspelled “disappointed.” 🙁 I’ve never been the same since (but I always spell that word right).

    My fave mark used to be the comma, but these days I’m favoring the semi-colon. I like the hesitation, the je ne sais quoi.

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