Blog Hopping Day

some famous pants

Do you write off the cuff or do you plot and plan every twist in the story? Writers who shrug off outlines and fly by the seat of their pants are called pantsers; the others, plotters. I jogged on over to one of my favorite online spaces, The Lucky 13s, to talk about my own pantser vs. plotting method. Go take a look. Yeah, now.

One More for Sendak Lovers

I know, I already extolled the virtues of Maurice Sendak and my sorrow at his passing. But here's just one more wonderful clip. This is an interview from 2004 that Sendak did with Bill Moyers. As usual, Moyers gets to the heart of the matter. This isn't short (42 minutes), but so worth the watch:

For Maurice

Maurice Sendak died yesterday at age 83 and I feel his loss keenly. He burst on the children's lit scene with Where the Wild Things Are (1963), and thanks to that book and that glorious time that led kids away from the syrupy-sweet kidlit of days past, I saw that it was okay for kids to misbehave and be their fantastic, creative, mud-spattered selves. Maurice Sendak paved the way for many of us as writers. God bless him, and may he be enjoying his own wild rumpus somewhere right now. Two selections below to honor him.

If only Christopher Walken had been around to read me my bedtime stories.


Stephen Colbert gets a personal blurb from the man himself.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1
www.colbertnation.com
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The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

A Peek at My TBR Shelf

This is actually just a portion of my TBR (To Be Read) Shelf. And these are only the books I've purchased. I've got a whole list of potentials on my Goodreads page. Some of these are kind of shocking (no, I still haven't read Graceling). And I confess to having books scattered around my house that aren't even on my radar to read, and yet I haven't touched them. (I may never get to William Faulkner's The Reivers, but it stands there and mocks me daily.)

How's your TBR stack or shelf? Are you making dents in it, or does it just keep growing, like mine?

Research Files: The Festival of Midsummer

Each volume of my fantasy series for middle graders revolves around a particular element and season of the traditional Celtic pagan year. The Key and the Flame, the first book, takes place in the season of summer. The element is fire. And the festival--or in pagan terms, the sabbat--is a lesser one called Midsummer.

What is Midsummer?

First of all, it isn't the middle of summer--at least, not the way we think of it today. Midsummer was celebrated at the summer solstice, which varies from year to year but falls around June 21. (The exact date depends on the earth's revolution around the sun, which takes slightly longer than 365 days.) On Midsummer, the northern hemisphere has its longest day, when the sun is at 0 degrees Cancer.

The ancient Celts called this Midsummer because in their calendar, summer began at Beltane, or around May 1. Summer ran until Lammas, or about August 1. Thus for them, June 21 was the middle of summer. Christianity, which adopted several pagan festivals, called this St. John's Day, in honor of the birth of John the Baptist.

As the height of the Season of Fire, Midsummer was a festival celebrated by honoring the sun, building bonfires, dancing, and feasting. Yellow and gold are the colors of Midsummer, a time to rejoice in the warmth of the earth and the abundance of seasonal plants and flowers. It is still a traditional folk festival celebrated in many parts of the world.

Any sabbat is a time of strong magic, and thus a good time to forge a wand--luckily for Holly. King Reynard opts to hold his tournament at Midsummer, which may be a coincidence or may be, as the Wandwright suggests, a sign that despite his hatred of magic, he has not forgotten all the rituals of magicfolk.


photo copyright Can Stock Photo Inc. / RobertMrocze

This Is My Brain on Charles M. Schulz

Has anyone ever told you that when you're supposed to be writing, you're supposed to be writing?

Ordinarily, I'd echo that. I'd be all up in your face like a drill sergeant: "Butt in Chair, maggots! String those words together!" But when I'm the one slacking off, I try to be kinder than that. You should be too.

So what should you do when you're supposed to be writing and you're not? I advise you to indulge in a little right-brain nonsense. I decided to sketch myself.

After a moment of studying this work of art, I realized that I had inadvertently channeled my all-time favorite cartoonist and drawn myself as Charlie Brown. Maybe I need to rethink my self-image.

Who would you draw yourself as?

WAW Award Voting Is Closed!

If you are a student, teacher, librarian, or parent in the state of Kansas, you're probably aware that the William Allen White Children's Book Award is the annual chance for kids to tell us what they like to read. A handful of books are chosen as nominees by the main selection committee, and then kids vote for their favorites to win the top prize in two categories: Grades 3-5 and Grades 6-8. Note that nominees were published two years ago, so these are all books from 2009-2010. This award is a great way for writers to find out what kids like--not just what their teachers and parents like. Here are the nominees for this year:

Nominees for Grades 3-5
fiction:

• Extra Credit by Andrew Clements
• Family Reminders by Julie Danneberg
• Also Known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon  by Grace Lin
• 11 Birthdays  by Wendy Mass
• Fortune's Magic Farm by Suzanne Selfors

nonfiction:

• The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust by Karen Gray Ruelle
• The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth by Kathleen Krull

Nominees for Grades 6-8
fiction:

•  Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin
• The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry
• All the Broken Pieces: A Novel in Verse by Ann E. Burg
• Wild Things by Clay Carmichael
• Double Eagle by Sneed B. Collard III
• My Name Is  Phillis Wheatley: A Story of Slavery and Freedom  by Afua Cooper
• Scat by Carl Hiaasen
• Operation Yes by Sara Holmes
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
• Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez
• Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry
• Notes from the Dog by Gary Paulsen
• The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by W. R. Philbrick
• The Great Death by John E. Smelcer

nonfiction:

• Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl by Albert Marrin

Winners for this year will be announced April 25, so stay tuned! How many have you read?