Notes from a Fangirl

Posted on March 9, 2011 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

On Twitter:
I’ve come late to Twitter and I’ve had a hard time committing; too often it seems like a bunch of people talking at once. It also marks a danger zone for me. For time wasting, which I seem prone to, and also because, as someone who reads the people column in the Washington Post, it’s not such a good idea for me to have access to the mundane musings of thousands of celebrities. For the record, I’m only following about 80 people, most of them related to kidlit. But not all. I don’t have much interest in the likes of Paris Hilton, but I will admit to getting a little thrill when I witnessed William Shatner sending birthday greetings to Levar Burton. (I follow Burton because of the late, great Reading Rainbow.) I follow Judd Apatow for his movie recommendations, although lately he seems to just be watching The Bachelor. And I follow the Mythbusters crew, collectively and individually, because I’m not beyond wanting to impress my kids.

And then yesterday, something happened that made me love Twitter: Judy Blume retweeted me! And suddenly the world seemed smaller and Twitter made sense. There’s not much more to the story: I have always remembered that March 8 was Margaret Simon’s birthday. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret had a profound effect on me growing up — to the point that when I’ve had to write my bio for a conference or an article, it has occasionally read: Madelyn Rosenberg would not have survived middle school if it weren’t for Judy Blume. I still think of Margaret as a friend. So I tweeted about Margaret’s birthday, and included @judyblume in the tweet. I fell asleep putting the kids to bed. When I woke up later, I’d been retweeted by Judy, which for me is something like being retweeted by the Queen of England. And then I lived happily ever after.

As long as I’m talking about technology: We become used to technological changes so quickly now that we often forget to be blown away. Two little things I’ve seen lately that remind me I live in The Future.
– My son skyping with his friend, who moved to Brazil. I love it when she carries her computer into their yard to show him the lizards.
– The new Coke Freestyle drink machine at Elevation Burger. (Apparently the future is soda.)

Posted in kidlit, technology | 3 Comments

Ruta Sepetys: Between Shades of Gray

Posted on March 1, 2011 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

A few years ago a woman named Lindsay Davis opened my manuscript and became my agent. For me it was a total Sally Field moment. Someone who wasn’t in my critique group, someone I wasn’t married to or the mother of or the daughter of — someone who didn’t HAVE to believe — believed, too.

Then Lindsay announced that she was getting married and moving overseas. Her clients, who were cheerfully adopted by other believers at Writers House, were thrilled for her. We thought it sounded very Jane Austen and hoped her life would be full of accents and dancing. We were also nervous. A few of us found each other and formed a transition support group that we called The Lindsay Situation. We’ve watched each other’s budding careers from afar ever since.

BetweenShadesGrayCover-1Fast forward to March of 2011, when it’s time to watch Ruta Sepetys’ career from close up. Her first novel, Between Shades of Gray, comes out on the 22nd.

Ruta Sepetys

Ruta Sepetys

So today I’m bringing her here, to my virtual couch, and hoping that a book tour will bring her to my real couch sometime soon.

Ruta’s book, which has already received a starred review in Kirkus, is about 15-year-old Lina, who is yanked from her home in Lithuania and deported, with her mother and brother, to Siberia. It’s a book about living, when people all around are dying. And it brings to print the story of millions of people that for so many years has been buried under ice and dirt.

ME: While I would love to talk about the journey that your characters go through, I’m afraid I’d give too much away. So I wanted to begin by talking about the journey you went through as a writer.

RS: Well, let’s just say that my journey could have been very different. I originally wrote a middle-grade mystery and was fortunate to have some publishers request it after critiques at conferences. I wanted to work with an agent, rather than submit the manuscript myself, so I queried Writers House. They responded with a request for the full and at the last minute I decided to also include ten pages of Between Shades of Gray, just to show a range of material. The agent called and said the middle-grade novel was fun but that the voice of BSG was more authentic and that was the book I should submit. Well, the ten pages I sent? That’s all I had written! So I shelved the middle-grade book and began to write BSG. I often think how very different my journey would have been if I would have stuck with that first book. I am so grateful to Writers House for their guidance!

Me: When you were first beginning your writing career you received a really tough (and we’re not talking Bounty-tough, people, we’re talking Chuck Norris-tough) critique. How the heck did you survive?

RS: Oh yeah, I’ve had some rough critiques! But you know what? I am so lucky to have had that experience. I mean, it has to be difficult to tell an aspiring writer, “Actually, this really sucks.” But it helped me so much more in the long run to hear the truth. Sure, it hurt, but it eventually scarred over. I’ve also been part of an amazing writing group for over five years. We know each other really well now and our critique sessions can be pretty brutal. But we respect and trust each other completely.

Me: Ruta’s spirited essay about tough critiques and her eventual book sale can be found here. It’s a great read for anyone who is finding the road to publication a little bumpy.

  Read on

Posted in author interview, kidlit, writing | 5 Comments

Reading is Fundamental

Posted on February 17, 2011 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

The acronym RIF has been around so long that sometimes we might forget what it stands for.

Reading.
Is.
Fundamental.

And it is. The organization, which has a mission “to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life,” gets books into the hands of kids who otherwise wouldn’t own them. Think about a home with no bookcases. Think about a kid with no home. These are the people RIF helps.

At a RIF reception in her honor this week, National Book Award Winner Kathryn Erskine talked about the the power of reading. She spoke of quiet moments, watching her son read to her daughter before he really knew how. He was still talking in the sing-songy voice of a toddler, she said, but he already knew that a book meant comfort. And later: Knowledge. And love. At the end of the presentation, RIF’s board chairman, John Remondi, stood up to mention the same thing RIF CEO Carol Rasco has been tweeting all week: RIF is in danger of losing its funding.

Our representatives have spent a lot of hours figuring out what they think they can cut from the budget — like funding for RIF and NPR and PBS. So here’s where we get together and tell them what they can’t cut, because it’s too important. RIF makes it easy to do here and here. Or you could go to your representative’s home page, like I did. Click “contact,” and let him or her know what’s important to you. Remember: you don’t need a singing voice to join the chorus.

Kathy Erskine signs "Mockingbird" for RIF's Carol Rasco.

Kathy Erskine signs a book for RIF CEO Carol Rasco. Photo by Sara Lewis Holmes, author, poet, RIF supporter.

Posted in reading with kids | 2 Comments

Monday Mash-up

Posted on February 14, 2011 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

I attended the festivities last weekend of One More Page Books and More, a shop that just opened on the border of Falls Church and Arlington, Va.

What? No, your ears are not suffering from waxy buildup. Or maybe they are. Either way, you heard me right: An independent bookstore just OPENED.

It’s a bright space, where the center racks can be removed for author events like the one last weekend, which featured kid authors Jacqueline Jules, Wendy Shang, Marty Rhodes Figley and Fred Bowen. (Adult authors visited the night before, as the store does offer more adult books than children’s; they also offered a chocolate and champagne tasting to cover the “more” part of their title.)

They had a great turnout and everyone — the owners and the customers — was committed to making it work. But to really make it work, people are going to have to show up on Monday mornings, not just big-event weekends. Cross your fingers, spit twice, or do whatever you have to do to wish them luck!
***
This weekend also featured a meeting of my DC Kidlit Book Club, started a few years ago by Susan Kusel. It’s a huge group now — 70+ members, I think, though usually only 12 come on any given day. Except for yesterday, when we had about 30. (Did anyone count?) The discussion this week was Newbery and Caldecott winners, and that always brings out a crowd. Lots of impassioned people in one place, librarians and artists, book buyers and bloggers, writers, moms and reviewers.
***
Speaking of awards: Cybils winners were announced today. These are the book awards from the blogging community and they’re given based on literary merit and kid appeal. Pleased some of my favorite books got the top honors this year (I’m talking to you, Origami Yoda! And you, Zapato Power). And I’m pleased that I’ve now got a handy list of more favorites-to-be.
***
I’m teaching fourth graders about journalism and newspapers on Mondays, a volunteer project I sort of fell into. It’s been fun for the most part, though something has gone wrong each and every time. I’ve taught at the college level and I’ve worked as a sub in pre-school before, but this is my first time working with elementary kids, save my own. I’ve been scrambling before each session, mostly to do things like removing Little Fockers ads from the newspaper. Censorship, I know, but if you’re with a bunch of fourth graders and they see an ad like that, your whole class is going to be derailed. The good news is that it’s inspirational, given that I’m trying to write about kids this age. The bad news: In fourth grade the kids still have really good vision, which means if you miss a Little Fockers ad that’s the size of a postage stamp, someone is still gonna see it.

Posted in kidlit | 1 Comment

FAWM

Posted on February 1, 2011 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

NaNoWriMo.
PiBoIdMo.
If you’re a children’s writer, those acronyms are probably familiar.

FAWM not so much, though it’s still an acronym for writers — song writers. Yep, FAWM stands for February Album Writing Month.

I’m no songwriter. An iguana has about as much talent on guitar and I can’t carry a tune in a bucket. Still, I like to dream. And I give a lot of lip service to switching muses. So for February, I’m hanging out with the songwriting muse. I’m not going for a whole album; I’m going for one song, meant to replace a very real song I quote too much of in a middle-grade, novel-in-progress. If said novel is ever published, I want to have my backup ready in case the real song proves cost-prohibitive. My music wouldn’t show up in a book, of course, just the lyrics. But if you’re betting on three chords, you’re probably right.

I wanted to highlight some music from a gen-u-ine fawmer in this post, so here’s a link to I Hate to Be That Guy, my friend Chris Henson’s first FAWM song of the year, which he posted today. As you can see, he’s starting out strong.

This is Chris’ third year doing FAWM.

“Two years ago a songwriting buddy of mine suggested I give it a shot,” he said. “My day job is in advertising, but on occasion I get to write a 30-second instrumental piece for a commercial or something. I’ve got a studio in my office and I’ve been a musician [mostly jazz] for a long time, but I never thought I could actually write a song for people to actually listen to. I had a couple of pretty OK songs I’d been tinkering with that were nearly complete when I heard about FAWM. So I sorta cheated and posted them. I got a really good response, so I started working on more stuff.”

He’s never completed all 14 songs in a month, just like many NaNoWriMo people often don’t complete a whole novel. “Something always comes up about mid-month and just kills it,” he said. “Also, I don’t like to toss together a song just to meet that magic number. I’m not good at it. I have a lot of respect for those who can do it.”

But he always comes out of the bleak mid-winter with something.

The best thing about FAWM is that it’s inspirational, Chris said. “I’ve actually held back ideas so I could finish them in the month, post them and get comments on them. I also love hearing other people’s music. Just when you think it’s all been done, some woman in France records a quirky song on her piano that makes you feel like you live in the apartment beneath Erik Satie. Like you’re hearing something really cool before anyone else does. There’s funny stuff I’ll listen to over and over. And there’s deeply personal stuff that you can’t help being moved by.”

There’s also some crap, he said. “So in that way, it’s just like the music industry.”

[If you want to eavesdrop, too, here’s a link to the FAWM jukebox.]

This year, Chris says he has a bunch of ideas. “It’s just a question of finding the time to commit them to ones and zeros.

“But here’s the thing about FAWM for me. If my buddy Phil hadn’t convinced me to give it a shot I wouldn’t be writing songs like these at all. And I think that’s the point. If they could somehow work an open bar into to the whole experience, it’d be even better.”

After writing a bunch of songs for FAWM, Chris and his younger brother, Will, put together a band that plays original music. At actual bars.

This one’s not original (at least the intro) but it cracked me up when Chris first posted the link on Facebook:

Enjoy! Good luck to the fawmers. And good like to all writers, whatever you’re writing.

*This post written while home with a sick kid, during which we watched way too many of those Radioshack Squirrel Commercials.

Posted in kidlit, music | 3 Comments