As noted earlier this month in my Three Confessions post, I had a messy book situation. The books were tidied up more than a week ago and here at the visuals to prove it.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Do you see any of your favorites?
I do have a few more bookcases not pictured, but they are looking good as well. Some of the books are still in cabinets, but they are easier to see and find. What shape are your bookshelves in? Do you have any goals to fill, reduce or organize them?
I was tagged/nominated by R.K. Grow, a fellow writer on Twitter @tolkien418, for a Liebster Award. Thank you!
The Liebster is awarded to up-and-coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. The conditions that go with being nominated are:
1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog and link back to the blogger who presented this award to you;
2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator and create 11 questions for your nominees;
3. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 11 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserves to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen;
4. Copy and Paste the blog award on your blog.
My questions from R.K. Grow are:
1. Twizzlers or Red Vines?
Neither. Licorice isn’t my favorite and black licorice is even worse.
2. Do you have a current WIP? If so, tell us about it.
FORTITUDE: Dauphin Island, Alabama teen Claire O’Farrell and her best friend, Loretta Davis, get caught in the middle of the racial tensions of the Spanish-American War camps in Tampa, Florida during the summer of 1898.
3. What is your favorite punctuation mark?
The—em—dash.
4. If you could pick the songs for the soundtrack of your novel what would they be?
The soundtrack—complete with YouTube links—for CORRODED, the novel I’m currently querying, can be found here.
I’m only about one third of the way through the first draft of FORTITUDE so it doesn’t have a soundtrack, just a “Fortitude Groove” playlist on my iPod. It has 121 songs with the majority of flavors being Irish-Celtic, country/blue grass, and soundtrack instrumentals that evoke the emotions I hope to create in the reader. For now, I listen to it on shuffle when writing, researching, or just getting in the proper mood.
5. What are three words that describe how you feel about writing?
Vocation
Joy
Anxiety
6. What is your favorite genre to read and why?
Middle Grade, especially those books geared for readers ten years and older. It can be contemporary, historical, fantasy, whatever—I’m just in love with the coming-of-age theme that is prevalent in literature for late childhood and the teen years. Part of that is because I’m still searching for where I fit in. I haven’t found my social niche, but at least now I’m comfortable with myself—usually.
7. What music do you listen to when you write, if any?
Music plays a HUGE part in my writing, but which music I listen to when writing depends on the story. I have over eight days worth of music up/down loaded into my iTunes account from a wide variety of genres. I gather music to fit the mood I wish to create when writing, then I painstakingly chose a soundtrack to mesh with the scenes of the novel as it progresses. This is something I’ve done since I began writing over twenty years ago. See question #4 for a sample.
8. What is your writing goal this year?
My immediate goal is to finish the first draft of FORTITUDE by my birthday (May 3.)
I also hope to hear at least one positive response from my queries about CORRODED in the meantime.
9. Laptop or desktop?
Laptop, but I use it on a desk/table/counter top with a full size keyboard and mouse whenever possible.
10. How do you stay motivated?
MUSIC—I’ve noticed if I don’t take time to listen to my music (as opposed to my kids’ stuff or whatever is playing around me) I lose inspiration.
BOOKS—Reading books by people whom I admire and hearing about them getting recognition for their efforts is inspiring, too.
GENEROSITY—The humility and generosity of some of the authors and musicians I respect the most is incredibly motivating. (See my posts on Fantabutitus.) I want the chance to pay-it-forward so I need to be writing successfully to do that on a higher level.
11. What is the primary focus for your blog?
Literature: both my own and other peoples.
I usually blog about reading and writing, though I often take themes from my novels as blog topics.
Seldom, I’ll post about my family or homeschooling—without it dealing with books—and even rarer do I mention current events.
So, now for awarding the next generation of Liebster Bloggers, and please don’t take offense if you have more than 200 followers—not all the blog have those stats public. If you don’t know these bloggers, take a minute and check them out.
http://www.ihaveaspergers.webs.com/
http://onconservatism.blogspot.com/
http://www.tamratorero.blogspot.com/
http://joycescarbrough.blogspot.com/
http://www.teacakesandwhiskey.com/blog/
http://wyzreads.wordpress.com/
And here are your questions—looking forward to reading the answers!
1. What gets you going in the morning?
2. Morning person or night owl?
3. If you could pick one, what book would you want the world to read?
4. Do you prefer TV shows or movies for entertainment?
5. Is your blog your main writing project? If not, tell us what else is in the works.
6. What is your favorite place to catch up on news—print, online, web, etc?
7. Peter Rabbit or the White Rabbit?
8. What’s on your desktop wallpaper right now?
9. Radio or your own personal music selection?
10. Best or worst concert experience.
11. Fiction or non-fiction?
Confession #1: I have a lot of books.
Confession #2: I have a lot of bookshelves (but I could always use more.)
Confession #3: I keep my most treasured books behind closed doors.
I first started hiding my books after my eldest child started to “wear out” his own books. Lift-the-flap books with no flaps to lift. Using books as bridges, literally walking on them across the floor, was a favorite activity. And with his books, spines were optional. I feared for my beloved books, as well as my husband’s collection.
Our favorite books went from the top shelves—he could scale the bookshelves—to high levels inside cabinets. I could hear the cabinet doors opening, but I didn’t always hear him at the bookcases until it was too late.
In the past three years that I’ve been homeschooling, the book population has hit overdrive.
The main wall of books–about a third of what we have.
Last weekend marked the fourth month I’ve been waiting to hear from publishing companies about CORRODED. Usually, I’m calm about it but since the three month mark passed, I get keyed up about it at least once a week.
Well, more like every other day—internally.
Externally, I’ll mention it weekly to sympathizing friends or family members.
Internally: screaming.
Externally: pacing.
Internally: obsessive thinking.
Externally: over-snacking.
You get the picture.
Rather than worry about it further (today), I’m going to turn up my “Fortitude Groove Soundtrack” and write. Nothing like escaping into a Spanish-American War Camp to clear one’s mind of publishing concerns.
It’s been an eventful year. High and low points abound but this time around, I’m thinking firsts. Several of my firsts happened while in New York City this spring including:
My literary related experiences were memorable as well. Several of the events were the cumulative efforts of the previous year(s), but here they are:
Then there’s the most recent happening—the big finale happened this morning. Drum roll, please.
I can hear the snickering from here, folks! I come from a musical family but have always sung off key, or so I thought. Turns out I just couldn’t hit the normal notes. Tenor (back row, with the men—and two other ladies) is what I sang for the Christmas Cantanta during our chapel service. I wasn’t perfect, but I got most of the notes, but maybe not in the right spots… Well, I tried.
Today I’m the guest blogger at Nerdy Book Club! Check it out–it’s a fabulous blog for teachers, librarians, and children’s literature lovers.
In celebration of attending my first SCBWI conference this weekend, I’d like to share my love of literature with you. I’ve been reading middle grade novels since I was of age—I never grew out of the genre. Even though I thought I was writing a young adult novel, on the sixth draft I discovered it was actually MG. It makes sense because my absolute FAVORITE novels are all categorized as MG, and more often than not, they are marked with “Ages 10 and up” or “10-14” for the reading level.
There are MG books marketed for eight to twelve year olds. Those novels are typically set in upper elementary school grades and are slightly longer than chapter books (think Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and How to Eat Fried Worms.) But what I’m focusing on today are those magical coming-of-age novels that have universal themes that related to everyone from tweens to adults.
Well beyond the first three Harry Potter books—which did make it socially acceptable for adults to venture into the children’s section—there is a plethora of life-changing literature to be found in the fiction section for younger readers. These books are deep and rich with truths of life and death.
The following list is my challenge books. I dare friends and family who “don’t read kids books” to read one and no one has been disappointed. Most of these titles are award winners and the majority won the Newbery Medal. Trust that honor—the children’s librarians at ALA know what they’re doing! I’ve divided my list of the TOP TEN MIDDLE GRADE NOVELS into three sub-genres to make it easier to find what might interest you the most.
Historical (pre-1950s):
Science Fiction edge:
Contemporary:
Have you read any of these? If not, I dare you to read one!
What would you put on your list of favorite middle grade novels?
It’s no secret that my oldest child is on the autism spectrum (check out posts under the “Autism” category) but this summer we passed a milestone: a READING benchmark.
Call me a bad parent, but one of my only questions for the neurologist who “helped” diagnosis my son with PDD-NOS was “Will he ever learn to read?” My sweet son didn’t sit still long enough for me to read more than a page or two of a picture book—he was more interested in lining up his video cassettes.
Thankfully, he did learn to read and in the past year he’s been reading for pleasure. Every night, he’d read aloud to himself from The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter or the Curious George cannon. Over and over. I was happy to see him reading, and had to brush tears from my cheeks the first few times I caught his little brother and sister huddled around him in bed after lights out to listen to the stories, but I didn’t want him stimming on the same stories.
When his fourteenth birthday approached this July, I decided to formerly introduce him to my bookshelves which he passed dozens of times a day. I pointed out a section of middle grade novels and let him pick one of the E.B. White books since he was familiar with the characters from their movie reincarnations. He went through Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan the first week. He plowed through the complete Bunnicula series by James Howe and several Newbery books like Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Shiloh, The Whipping Boy, and Sarah, Plain and Tall. He even read Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.
SIXTY books in two months! I gave him a journal when he began his novel reading journey and in it he draws the cover of each book he completes. Now, I need to go back to the bookstore and buy another journal.
I’ve always had a major children’s book collection happening but last week I started fearing for my home library. He’d moved from the lower middle grade novel—typically for 7-10 year olds—bookshelves to my personal favorites—the ten and up category.
So, we began this week with a trip to our local library branch like a good homeschool family. Usually, my guy would only look at the DVDs and a book or two if pressed. This time, I showed him the children’s fiction section and he started putting Roald Dahl and Beverly Cleary books in our bag. I’m majorly excited but a little sad that he’s got dibs on Lair & Spy by Rebecca Stead before me.
Nearly a year ago I posted my soundtrack listing for Corroded.
After spending months revising the story this spring-summer, I took a good look at my musical influence. I rearranged, deleted similar songs as well as those that weren’t 100% on target, and even added a special song.
It was difficult culling the list, but it needed to be done. I love music, and the songs I had on the original listing did help inspire my writing moods, but they weren’t all perfect matches.
The new song addition was in response to my early readers’ love of a certain character. Team Ben! Everyone who has read the manuscript connects to Ben so I felt that even though Corroded is told strictly from Mary’s point of view, Ben’s voice is strong enough to merit his own song on the soundtrack.
So, here it is, complete with new tidbits and YouTube videos for your pleasure: Corroded, Second Edition!
Hello Mary Lou (Main character’s name, with classic Ricky Nelson.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLkCWT2neuI
The Very Thought of You (He was so smooth and dreamy. This one is from Mary to Josh.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkHu7C3puWI
You Are a Tourist (How Mary feels at school.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM4Mmd2y4nE
Burning Down Inside (Great live version from last year. Love knowing that bands can still rock years/decades after their songs came out.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yImjBG7qFTw
Dying to Be Alive (Enjoy these guys lots and it fits the mood.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjTNACA_VVk
Somewhere I Belong (The deep search all teens go through.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iCtpuQvydk
I’m the One (Mitch Malloy is my absolute FAVORITE singer/songwriter! Check out his other music and enjoy! This is Ben’s song—swoon away!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7KM46JkHO0
Start from the Dark (By my FAVORITE band and this video has a comic book spin that I think Ben would approve of—even if it isn’t The Avengers.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyg-x1DMHs8
Spirit of the Underdog (For Mary at the Sailor Suzy competition. Love this song and Joey Tempest is a maniac with the mic stand.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpH1-r-JDmw
Life (In closing, I was fortunate enough to catch a Ricky Nelson Remembered concert in April 2012. R.I.P. Rick, and may the twins keep your memories alive for the next generation.)
Oh, I miss my hair!
