Vacation time

I’m off on grand adventures, shooting a wedding in Philadelphia and then spending a week in the Outer Banks, North Carolina with my family.  All this excitement (and questionable internet service) means I won’t be posting anything new for the next week.  I hope you browse around the site and enjoy your week.  Happy (early) Fourth of July!

Resource Thursdays: Verla Kay

For anyone who wants to write for children (and get published!) Verla Kay’s website is a must.  Bursting with pages and pages of information on craft and trade, it will take you days to pour through the site.  Verla is a very successful children’s book author and she is eager to share what she’s learned from her publishing journeys.  In addition to a static webpage, Verla also writes a blog and every word comes from the heart.  Her site is probably best known, however, for its Blueboards – message boards where readers, writers, and illustrators share their favorite stories, advice about writing and the business side of things, and their news.  There’s too much to write about here so please please check it out.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

I mentioned before that I’m a huge fan of Sherman Alexie’s work, and I was equally as pleased with his YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  The story is about high school freshman, Junior, an Indian living on the Spokane reservation.  Born with “water on the brain” Junior doesn’t fit in on the reservation, but when he makes the decision to get a better education at white high school, he’s singled out on the rez as a traitor.  It’s not an easy life for Junior, and he chronicles the problems in his community – poverty, alcoholism, and hopelessness – through his words and also his pictures.  Junior is a cartoonist, and the book is sprinkled with artwork by Ellen Forney that extends and builds his story.  Overall I think this book was told with a lot of honesty and heart, and I can’t wait to read the sequel when it comes out.

In Los Angeles…

…you know the traffic is bad when those airplanes with advertising signs fly over the highway instead of the beach.

Walking on clouds

I don’t want to go all product placement on you, but this weekend I discovered one of the best things ever – Dr. Scholl’s Massaging Gel Insoles.  My husband and I spend a lot of time on our feet between shooting 8+ hour weddings and enjoying the outdoors, so we decided to give the shoe inserts a try.  Such a good decision.  You slip these things into your shoes and it’s like walking on clouds.  If you’re on your feet or even wearing uncomfortable shoes, they’re worth a try.  Even the cashier at the store got jealous of me.

Cross-training

The other day I read an interview with author Sherman Alexie, whose novel The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven I had read years ago.  I best knew Alexie as a novelist  (I’m halfway through his YA novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian) but in the interview he said that if he could make a living doing it, he’d be a poet.  I never knew he wrote poems, though I’m excited to read some of his poetry collections, including Face. In addition to being a delightful surprise, Alexie’s statement got me thinking.

I started out writing poetry, and have more recently written longer novels (2 middle grades and a YA).  Like Alexie I feel frustration that poetry doesn’t have a very strong market, but it doesn’t stop me from writing it.  I love how you can get so much impact out of a few words, and the fact that a line break can create a mood in itself.  I think writing different things is a great way of cross-training – like running and weight lifting for the mind.  I think the poet’s eye for detail and word choice can strenghten narrative skills.

Resource Thursdays: The Intern

I recently came across The Intern, written by, well, a publishing house intern.  I’m hooked by the humor in this blog, and it’s a fun perspective to what really goes on in the publishing world.  As the publishing house’s first line of defense (aka the person who goes through the slushpile,) The Intern is able to give insight into what drives her batty and what makes her happy.  Good things to know, right?  I’m now an official blog-stalker.  The only thing that makes me sad?  I wish there was more!

Flashcards of My Life by Charise Mericle Harper

In Flashcards of My Life by Charise Mericle Harper, middle school student Emily receives a stack of flashcards from her Aunt Chester to use as a journaling project.  The last journaling experiment didn’t work out so well for Emily, but as she opens the stack she finds there’s plenty to write about.  From her two sets of friends who don’t get along, to her parents, and her crush, Emily chronicles exactly what it’s like to be in middle school.  In addition to regular text, the book includes flashcards, as well as Emily’s doodles.  It’s a nice representation and the pictures add a lot of humor.

Though this book didn’t have a huge overall conflict, Harper excels at capturing a time when everything is a big deal.   She uses super long paragraphs to create this breathless, stream of conciousness feeling.  There were a number of instances when I was reading that I thought Harper just nailed the voice, but at the same time it also left me a little winded.  This book is worth a read and would be great for a reader who wants longer books but might like the break of the illustrations.

The library experiment

Ever since we moved to our new, bigger apartment, my dog has had one desire: to run in circles around the living room couch.  The problem is, he’s not content to do this on his own.  Instead he feels the need to bark incessantly until someone comes to chase him in circles.  Seriously.  He’s even gotten to the point where he’ll run into the room fake-growling with a toy in his mouth, bark at you, and then run away.  Or he’ll just bark from behind the couch until you go to investigate if there’s an actual problem.

My original theory was that he just needs more exercise, so my husband and I have been taking him on long exercise walks.  But after about two hours of exercise yesterday, he came home, grinned at me, and then ran around the couch barking.  Apparently there is great joy in this.  Unfortunately, it’s hard for me to focus on book-writing when my dog won’t be quiet.  So today I’m venturing to the great frontier – a new library which I haven’t yet been to.  Cheaper than a coffee shop, quieter than home.  Hopefully it’ll give me some much needed peace and inspiration.  Otherwise, it’s back to the drawing board.

Riley’s new collar

It’s amazing the power a new article of clothing has to transform someone, even for animals.  A little while ago I wrote about my boy dog, Riley, and his pink collar.  Despite being a guy, everyone who saw his pink collar thought he was a girl, and though they say dogs don’t understand what people are saying, I think this subliminally affected him.  Riley peed like a girl dog.  You know, he was a squatter.  Well, this weekend my husband and I were out shopping and we came across a new, masculine collar.  It’s all teal and navy and orange stripes, so we bought it for Riley.  As soon as we put it on him, he transformed.  We went for a super long walk and he peed like a boy every time!  He had his leg up for every tree we passed!  Holy cow!  (Probably gross, too.  We talk a lot about bodily functions in my house.)  So the moral of the story is your boy dog deserves a boy collar.  It’ll change him.