Monday Moment #75: a writing prompt for your work-in-progress

(If you’ve already read this then skip past all the italicized blah-di-blah and start writing.) Monday Moments are writing prompts for your work-in-progress. They are questions that come from my experiences and are my favorite way to find out more about my characters. I find I learn a lot. Some of it I use. Some of it I don’t. But I always, always get to know my character(s) better just by answering the question. I hope you do too. )

I ran away to join the circus.  But the circus didn't want me.

Yesterday, my family ventured out to the city for a visit to the Pacific Science Center where they currently have a circus exhibit.

Can you hear that big top music... do, do, doodle, doot, do, do, do, do, do...

I was off to a good start. Apparently packanatomicalization (getting into small spaces) is my thing. Somehow I can do the human-pretzel trick and fit myself into a small box. Now, it's really not all that difficult. Plus, the truth is, my driver's license probably lies when it says that I'm 5'4" (that's a little generous). The HARD part is getting the last leg in, really the foot. But I did it! Woot. My family was so proud. (Not really, they threatened to leave me all folded up in there.)

What I was really looking forward to was the trapeze. The crew there straps you into a harness then raises you up where you can bounce and flip (forward and back) to your hearts content (or until they bring you down). I was so ready, not scared a bit. I knew I could get a good bounce, and flipping only meant throwing your your arms and head forward or back. No problem. Piece of cake.

Until I was up there. The bounce. Whee! I could fly. I had just the right combo of arm pull and leg lift to get me soaring. Now, it was time (at the top of my bounce) to throw myself back.

ERRRRRCH!

Attempt made. But this body wouldn't go.

Attempt...attempt...attempt.

It felt so unnatural and wrong to throw my body back while dangling way up high. There was something not only mental about it, but physical.

I found myself bouncing up there, like I was in some sort of adult-sized Johnny Jump Up saying, "I can't do it." I literally said it. And even when my hubby egged me on, both in a supportive way, and also with a bit of "Don't be a chicken!" the answer was the same.

I CAN'T DO IT.

Ah, that still makes me so sad.

Do over please!

But then again, I think I might get up there and freeze up all over again.

What has your character been unable to do, even though they really want to?

SCBWI Team Blog Exclusive Interview: Arthur Levine

It was such a pleasure for me to interview one of my favorite people in the children's book world: Arthur Levine.

Arthur A. Levine is a Vice President at Scholastic Inc. and the Publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books, a literary, hardcover imprint of Scholastic. He is also an author and has a new book coming out (keep reading to find out more about it) in Spring 2011.

Let's jump right in...

Welcome, Arthur!

*applause!*

You'll be presenting a master class (Strong Emotion on the Page) during this year's summer conference which will take place for one hour each day of the conference. Can you tell us a little about what you have in store for those participating?

I'm still working out the exact details of what will happen. But my plan is to get everyone in the class to examine what elements go into producing writing that is full of emotion. Personally I find that without that I can't get too excited about a book -- of any sort! Fascinating nonfiction? Might be a great subject, but if there's no emotional component I don't care. Hysterical humor? That's great, but truly, if there's no emotional journey then I'm going to lose interest after a few laughs. You get the picture. We're going to do some exercises and talk and see if we can all get some insights into what might bring that emotional life out in each person's work.

You've been an active participant at SCBWI conferences for many years, as well as a member of its Advisory Board. Do you believe it's in a writer and/or illustrator's best interest to attend SCBWI conferences, and if so, why? And when in their career do you feel it's most appropriate?

I think there's a tremendous amount to be gained by coming to an SCBWI conference. There's a wonderful comaraderie about them that I think people who work in an isolated environment (i.e. writers and artists) really appreciate. It's a great opportunity to humanize and demystify the "powers that be" in the publishing world; to realize that editors and art directors are human and not so scary. And it's a great opportunity to learn things -- about craft, first of all. But also about the business.

What it's NOT is a place to audition for publication. I think some authors and artists feel pressure to come to a conference and GET NOTICED because otherwise they have no chance of being published. And nothing could be farther from the truth. You could be the shy person sitting in the back of the room listening carefully and not saying a word, who writes to me later and says, "I heard what you said about the need for non-stereotypical Asian characters, and therefore thought you might be interested in my novel about a Korean-American basketball player whose twin hates sports."

So people could benefit from coming to a conference at any stage of their career -- at the beginning when they want to know how things work, and want to get their bearings. Or in the middle when they want to figure out how to keep their career going. Or as a highly successful person at the top of his or her game when they want to give back and/or find ways to continue to be inspired.

Tell us something you're excited about coming from Arthur A. Levine Books in the near future, perhaps something that exemplifies strong emotion on the page?

I'm very excited about THE MEMORY BANK by Carolyn Coman and Rob Shepperson. To me this takes the vivid prose and dark humor of a Roald Dahl and combines it with the driving emotion of a girl desperately trying to find her lost sister. Unforgettable! But I think all our books have strong emotion of some kind; check 'em out on http://www.arthuralevinebooks.com/

You started blogging yesterday on the first day of summer. Welcome to the blogosphere! What made you decide to dive in and go for it?

I had meant to blog earlier. I mean YEARS earlier; there's even a button on my website that says "Arthur's Blog." But I just couldn't make myself do it. I think what changed was that my book, MONDAY IS ONE DAY got closer and closer to publication and now has an actual pub date in Spring 2011. That kinda revived my internal identity as a writer, which gave me a little confidence to actually try WRITING some more. Of course for years I'd been admiring the blogs of writers like you and Lisa Yee, of librarians like Betsy Bird, and of editors like our own Cheryl Klein. So I thought what the heck, might as well DIVE IN and force myself to go public.


My original idea was to call the blog COUNTDOWN TO MONDAY, and to try posting something every Monday until my book was published. I haven't quite figured out the whole naming-of-the-blog-thing, but I still hope I'll be able to post at least once a week.

You can find Arthur's blog HERE.

Arthur, you'll no doubt have many readers. I look forward to many blogs posts to come, as well as MONDAY IS ONE DAY.

Thank you, Arthur!

Haven't registered for the conference yet? No problem. Here's the place go for it!

Monday Moment #74: a writing prompt for your work-in-progress

(If you’ve already read this then skip past all the italicized blah-di-blah and start writing.) Monday Moments are writing prompts for your work-in-progress. They are questions that come from my experiences and are my favorite way to find out more about my characters. I find I learn a lot. Some of it I use. Some of it I don’t. But I always, always get to know my character(s) better just by answering the question. I hope you do too. )

I'm going to admit something to you right now. Well, it's no big secret, but it's something my girlies haven't quite put two-and-two together about.

Okay, here's the thing. I'm nosy, and I eaves drop on my kids day and night. Now, don't get me wrong. It's really not being nosy exactly. It's more about being concerned. And the concern isn't so much a daytime concern, but  a nighttime concern. See, the girlies have a bedroom upstairs and ours is downstairs, and if one of them were to call us in the night, there's a good chance we wouldn't hear them. So, we have a monitor in their room.

You might wonder, why not just turn it off during the day and give them some privacy? I have a very good reason why I don't. It's because I'll forget to turn it back on at night. You know how that goes! And I've done it before; turned it off and forgotten to turn it back on. And those are ALWAYS the nights they need us.

Alright, so I got all that out of they way in too many words to tell you only a few that I overheard this weekend.

Why?

Because they made me laugh out loud.

I'm in my room, when I hear my ten-year-old girlie through the monitor say to her younger sister:

"I like to write fart in cursive because I think it looks cool."

I had to try it out to see for myself. Ha! (You're going to too, huh?) I love hearing random stuff like that. Ah, but one of these days they'll realize and turn that monitor off themselves. *sigh*

How has your character been sneaky and why?

Is That a Flicker I See?

The shines been sadly missing! But I reallyreallyreally hope I see a flicker on the horizon.

But seriously, Blogger!?!

I had a schedule MM post for this last Monday. I swear I did. And I'm just noticing NOW that it didn't post. Well, if you've had a read of what was supposed to be my MM #73, you'll understand why I've been missing this week.

My girlie went from being super sick to extremely sick with pneumonia. But the toughest part has been that she has had allergic reactions to her antibiotics. Thankfully, she's now two doses into med #3 (so far no hives) and she's fever free for the first time in 11 days. So the only shine I've been focused on this week is the shine that's been missing in her eyes.

Okay, switching topics...

SCBWI Summer Conference in LA

NOW THAT PLACE IS GONNA SHINE!!!

Have you registered yet? Still on the fence? There have been some great faculty interviews and many more to come.

SCBWI Team Blog member, Martha Brockenbrough, has been busy, busy, busy! Take a look at her interviews with:

RUBIN PFEFFER
GENNIFER CHOLDENKO
GAIL CARSON LEVINE
MAC BARNETT
And, one more topic switch...

After my shiny-mini-rock-star moment, Les Mills featured me on their blog. Too fun. Thanks, Les Mills! I heart you.

Monday Moment #73: a writing prompt for your work-in-progress

(If you’ve already read this then skip past all the italicized blah-di-blah and start writing.) Monday Moments are writing prompts for your work-in-progress. They are questions that come from my experiences and are my favorite way to find out more about my characters. I find I learn a lot. Some of it I use. Some of it I don’t. But I always, always get to know my character(s) better just by answering the question. I hope you do too. )

Life's been a bit crazy lately. A lot of unexpecteds to deal with. You know how it goes. The unexpecteds always pop up when you have the least amount of time to deal with them. And, is it me, or do they tend to pop up in clumps? I guess what I'm trying to say is, I have a case of the Unexpected Clumps at the moment.

I'd been hoping to check in with you during the week to see how bright and shiny you're being, or to at least help each other shine. I will try this week. Promise! (Barring no new unexpecteds.)

But here's one of my unexpecteds:

A super sick girlie!

It just seems to cruel that the time a kid gets the most sick is during the very last days of school. You know? Those days that kids don't want to miss because that's when all the good stuff happens; the rewards-for-having-such-a-great-year stuff. She been missing it all. And seems she will even miss more. We're on day 6 of a fever plus lots of other awfulness. Complete bummer.

When does something unexpected keep your character from doing what they want to do?

Monday Moment #72: a writing prompt for your work-in-progress

(If you’ve already read this then skip past all the italicized blah-di-blah and start writing.) Monday Moments are writing prompts for your work-in-progress. They are questions that come from my experiences and are my favorite way to find out more about my characters. I find I learn a lot. Some of it I use. Some of it I don’t. But I always, always get to know my character(s) better just by answering the question. I hope you do too. )

Hey all! I hope you're weekend was full of shine. For those of us in the Seattle area, at least we saw a bit of it coming from the sky on Saturday. It hasn't happened much lately.

I mentioned in my last post that I would shine in a whole different way on Friday and Saturday. I was right. I glistened with sweat over and over and over again. But I also had an unexpected kind of shine that was wonderful and fun.

It was a truly fantastic couple of days spent on another of my passions: group fitness. I had the most wonderful opportunity to take a BODYSTEP Advanced Instructor Module with Mark Nu'u who is the program director (he came all the way from New Zealand). In other words, he is King BODYSTEP!

That's him!

He and another master teacher, Amanda, spent Friday whipping 20 of us into even stronger instructors. It's was an amazing, shiny day.

Day two was the Les Mills Super Quarterly; a day where the master teachers instruct the latest program releases to instructors from around region (there are eight programs). As instructors, we were able to take six classes. And whoa! No easy task (especially after 9 hours of step work the day prior).

That said, a Super Quarterly is a bit like attending a rock concert, workout style. It's an amazing show. The highlight of the day was the second class offered, which was BODYSTEP, since we had spent the day with Mark and Amanda the day before AND because it's the 20th anniversary of the program and the 80th release. The theme? You guess it. The 80s. So during the class they held an 80s contest. The winner would get to be on stage with Mark and Amanda during track 7 and their day refunded. Go for it, right?

Before leaving, I pulled together a few things and then I added a few extras another team member, T.J., brought, transforming into Madonna. T.J. rocked the perfect 80s dancer look (I wish you could see her blue eyeshadow). We were determined that one of us would get on stage.

First, we jockeyed for position and made sure, that out of 125 steppers, we were front and center. It was a blast. Being right in front of Mark and Amanda, they were able to give us shout outs after spending so much time with them the day before. Then as we stepped our little hearts out, during the beginning of track 6, someone runs up to me and say, "We need you. Come with me."

Wheeeee! I knew what that meant. OMG. OMG. OMG. I was the winner. Not only that, but they chose three of us: the Madonna look, a guy rockin' Guns-n-Roses style, and 80s aerobics-look that featured a butt-floss leo (remember those?)! Minutes later I was on stage with Mark and Amanda, under the lights, looking out at a sea of stepper. My mini-rock-star moment and I felt shiny and good!

That's me back there behind Mark. Look at their shine!

And here I am with Mark and Amanda are after the class.

Do I look shiny? I felt shiny in lots of ways.

I guess I was literally shining on stage too. It really is rock-star-like. The lights are low, the music's loud, the air is fogged, there's colored lights flashing, and a black light. I guess my gloves, necklaces, and belt were all glowing up there.

Many pictures were taken, but not with my camera. A friend capture the one action shot. I'm told Les Mills got a lot of great shots and will be sending them to me. *clap, clap, clap* I'll share them when I get them.

Has your character ever experienced a rock star moment or dreamed of having one?

Shine? Twinkle? Sparkle? A shimmer?

How's it going so far? Has a June spark ignited yet?

It's been a crazy (really crazy!) week so far for me (did I mention it was crazy?), but even with that I've added new words. Sparkling, shiny words that I like. :) Happy, happy, joy, joy!

I'm heading off for a couple of days to wear my Les Mills instructor hat, so I'll be shining in a completely different way; the buckets-of-sweat way.

Make It Shine

Happy June 1st, friends. Unbelievable really!

Is this not the strangest month? It's this odd transition from scheduled to unscheduled. Or from scheduled to crazy-schedule-shift, add-in-vacation, kids-are-home-from-school, how-do-I-get-anything-done scheduled. Phew. Gotta catch my breath after that.

So, I know some of you already have kids home. Some have a week left. Some of us have a few. No matter how much or how little time you have left, this is the month to establish a summer writing routine in order to keep current projects from derailing. Or, at least it is for me.

Last year, Holly Cupala and I became partners-in-crime with our Summer Revision Smackdown, as we both pushed to finish revisions. It was quite the month. Although we won't be doing another SRS, I still need a push for current projects. And what do I love more than anything? Having friends join in the effort. I'm hoping you'll join!

We referred to the Summer Revision Smackdown as SRS. Funny enough, those are my youngest daughter's initials. The other day I found one of my oldest daughter's doodles sitting on the coffee table. It was her initials: MIS. She drew them out big and bold, then in small lettering she added words to go with each letter.

Make

It

Shine

I LOVE THAT!

I love that she took a piece of who she is and created such a fabulous mantra.

So, I think I'll steal it from her.

Here on Cuppa the theme for June will be MAKE IT SHINE!!!

Want to join in? Cheer each other on as we slide into this new summer schedule?

If you do, put your June goals in the comments and let's make 'em shine!