Tag: Susan Taylor Brown

Posted in COVID-19, Kidlit, Kitlit, Uncategorized

Creatives in the Time of Social Distancing

Posted on by beckylevine

Crazy times, right? Hard, frightening times for some more than others–if you’re sick or know someone who’s sick, if you’ve lost your job or have to take time off without pay, if you’re trying to juggle anything with caring for children–homeschooling or not. I’m counting myself on the incredibly lucky side–I have work, I can do it at home, I’m being paid, and my family and friends are very much able to social distance and are taking it seriously enough to reduce my worry.

And in the midst of everything you/we might be going through, there’s trying to maintain some sense of normalcy, to stay committed and attentive to the things we have always tried to spend time with, keep focused on. For me, that’s writing; for you that may be writing or something else creative–painting, crafting, playing an instrument, cooking. It’s not easy, right? But it’s possible and–at least in the kidlit world–there are lots of creatives out coming up with ways to support us.  Because creatives create.

If you’re on social media, you’ve probably seen a lot/most of these opportunities. But I’m going to list a few here that I’ve noticed that may give you a few moments or even a few seconds of beauty, peace, inspiration. I’ll try to keep the list updated as I see more. Also, please add any of your own discoveries in a comment.

  • Erin Dionne has a couple of things going. If you follow her on Facebook (and you should), you may have seen her Captain’s Log posts the past few winters–posts that led to her recent picture book Captain’s Log: Snowbound, She’s started up the posts again, bringing humor and empathy to the current state of things. She’s also started sharing a Friday video on her Facebook post–unfortunately, I don’t seem to be technically savvy enough to post a link here. They’re definitely worth scrolling through her page, though.
  • Susan Taylor Brown has, for a while, been posting daily on Facebook about things that are making her happy. Recently, she’s been adding photos to share “a pause to breathe.”  Her work is lovely–follow her and start seeing them on a regular basis.
  • SCBWI is, as usual, making sure we’re taken care of during this time with a series of free digital workshops. They’ve also launched SCBWI Connects.
  • Not specifically COVID-19 related, just a tip from me to other picture books writers: If you write picture books, this may be a good time to go back and read through Storystorm posts at Tara Lazar’s blog.

We can also do a lot to support other writers and illustrators who may be hitting their own bumps right now. Book Riot has a list of ways we can do that. And you can always support authors, illustrators, and bookstores by shopping at your indie’s online site.

 

Posted in Links

Saturday Six: Links to Share

Posted on by beckylevine

Lately, I feel like I’m checking in a blogs a lot, but not necessarily posting comments. I know there’s a lot of discussion around about whether blogs are on the way out, and I never know if my pattern is part of a trend or just a piece of my general business? Either way, I know there is still a lot of good stuff out there, and I thought I’d share a few today.

1. First, in case you missed it during the week, a link to my own blog–but to someone else’s post! Annette Dashofy guest-posted here on Wednesday about managing and participating in an online critique group. She’s got great stuff in the post, and if you leave a comment before Sunday night, I’ll enter you in a drawing for a copy of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide.

2. Have you been following the Ed DeCaria’s Madness 2012! Poetry Competition? I’ve been popping in and out to see some rounds and give an occasional vote. I’m not a big poetry expert, but when something wows me, well…then I feel like adding my reaction to the count. It’s an amazing concept, I think–each poet gets a random word to build a poem around, and their poem comes up against another poet’s poem, written around a totally different word. Susan Taylor Brown wrote a great post here on dealing with her word and her fears–check it out. I wasn’t sure what page to link to for the contest itself, but here’s the scoreboard for the competition, which does have links to some of the poems. I think! Myself, I’ve just been watching for status updates on Facebook and then following those posts to the poems. Whether or not you’re a poet, I think this is both amazing and fun.

3. I’ve had people see me at the bookmobile, with my (yes, rather largish) stack of books to check out, and sigh that they wished they had time to read that much. Ack. Yes, I get that there’s never enough hours in the day to do all we want, but I also know that nobody in my family would want to live with me if I didn’t get my reading time in. Even so, I totally know what Jennifer R. Hubbard means about the rarity and the delight of just curling up with some reading time, not letting anything else demand your attention or your minutes. And someday, I’m going to get myself away on the kind of reading retreat Debbi Michiko Florence has been scheduling for herself this past year.

4. Until I was scanning my blog roll for links today, I actually missed this post by Nicole at Viva Scriva on getting back to her WIP after a forced “vacation” from it. Oh, so much here that resonates with me this week, plus some of the links that helped Nicole get back on track. Blog links within blog links–that’s what it’s all about today, folks. BTW, if you don’t have the Viva Scriva blog on your reading list, check them out for a few weeks–I’m guessing they’ll be a permanent add.

5. Another post I missed until this morning (okay, maybe I AM skimming too much!) is Jen Robinson’s review of Robin LaFevers‘ new book, Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book 1. I am a huge fan of Robin’s Theodosia books and enjoy her Nathaniel Fludd books, too. Not to mention I read Robin’s blog posts avariciously for her help with plotting. I haven’t read this new book yet, because if the car works and the creek don’t rise, I’m hoping to go buy my copy (and finally meet Robin!) at her Books Inc signing on April 4th. Jen’s review should give you a good idea, though, about why you want to read this book.

6. Here’s a fun post from Beth Revis, where she polled the members of her debut-authors group, the Elevensies, on the top three things they learned in their first year of publication. There’s a definite thread of letting the things that are out of one’s control be, well…out of your control. And another one on getting that next book started.

Enjoy the links, and enjoy your weekend. Happy writing inspiration to everyone!

Posted in Uncategorized

The Word for 2012

Posted on by beckylevine

Yes, I know it’s January 3th. Yes, I know that’s a little late for resolution-type posts. But, hey, I’ve been busy writing and working, which–since those are a big part of my goals for 2012–I believe is a satisfactory excuse.

Every year, Laura Purdie Salas picks a theme. I like this idea so much better than resolutions, which–in my head–seem to take the metaphorical tone of that anvil in the coyote-road runner cartoons. You know, the one that hovers over the right spot just until the coyote stops under it, then drops…WHAMMO!

Themes are softer.

My themes are usually a word. This year, after two months of upper-respiratory plague running through the family, my word came easily.

RECOMMIT

Now, I do have to say that, with Son over his pneumonia and me over my bronchitis and Husband over HIS pneumonia, I am starting to realize that I didn’t just spend November and December bailing out on my writing. I know, I know–it should have been obvious that they AND I were tired and drained, and not a whole lot of writing gets done at times like that. Yes, I know I was too hard on myself.

There is, however, a silver lining. Because struggling so hard (and pretty much failing) to get any writing, revising, or thinking done during those weeks was a big wake-up call about how much I dislike not making progress. It was also a big wake-up call about what I’ve been focusing on for the past year or so–the WHEN of publication.

It’s a dream. It’s a wonderful dream, and it’s one we all have. But it comes with churning and stress and panic-modes that do NOTHING to help us write. I’m stating the obvious here, but it just really came home to me at a gut level toward the end of 2011.

I want to write. I want to work on my stories. I want to push myself to dedicate some time, as many days as I can, to making my books and my craft better. THAT is what I missed these past few weeks, not the idea of seeing my book on a bookstore shelf or someone’s e-reader. Of course I want that. But the timeline needs to return to “someday,” and back off from drumming insistently at “how soon?!”

I’ve been there. I’ve concentrated on the the actual project–the characters, the plotline, the prose. I’ve done it. And it’s time to do it again. That’s why my word for 2012 is “recommit,” not just “commit.” Because, for me, it’s a return to doing this writing thing the way I really need to.

I seem not to be alone in this feeling. Susan Taylor Brown talked about it on Facebook.  Check out Kelly R. Fineman’s series of posts on commitment, starting here and moving forward chronologically, and do not miss Jo Knowles’ post, Defining “Work” and Another Invitation.

Do you have a theme or a word for 2012? Did you make some writing resolutions. I’d love to hear about yours, and I wish us all the best of luck in keeping them in mind during the next twelve months!

Happy New Year!

Posted in Character

Characters: When Do You Listen & When Do You Give a Little Push?

Posted on by beckylevine

I’ve got this protagonist.

Well, actually, I don’t yet. She’s a good kid, she’s trying to be active, and, overall, I think she’s a likeable hero. The thing is, she isn’t coming onto the page–YET!–as I want her to.

She’s a little young. And a little naive. Which might be okay, if I were writing a middle-grade novel. Okay, the naive still wouldn’t be okay, not for me, but she could be a little less aware at the start of the story, a little less–yes, I’ll say the word: edgy. But I’m writing YA: She’s sixteen years old, and she’s not feeling like the sixteen-year-old I want to see on the page.

The key words in that last sentence are, I think, “I want.”

I have a vision for this story. It’s changed since I started the book. In my first first draft (yes, I consider that I’m on my second first draft, and you don’t want to argue with me), I pictured my hero, at the end of the book, really coming into her own–eyes being forced open and taking a huge step into growth and commitment. Then, when I realized I was working on two books, and that I had to pick the one I wanted to tell now, that hero changed for me. At least in my head. She became someone who was already more used to living a certain way, in a world that had constraints for her–constraints she’d learned to work around, constraints she’d developed a pattern to deal with. She became someone for whom–because of a big event at the start of those books–the constraints tightened, to the degree that she couldn’t work around them anymore, to the point where she and the constraints are headed for a big confrontation.

I think this hero is who my character, not just me, wants to be. But she hasn’t yet come through and told me that, or talked to me about how that makes her act, what choices it makes her face and take, what voice (and that’s the biggie) she should be telling her story in.

And, frankly, I’ve gotten a bit tired of waiting for her to do that. I think it’s time for me to do a little bit of forcing my vision onto the character.

This goes against a lot of what we hear writers talking about–those exploratory drafts in which the characters (hopefully, ideally) talk themselves onto the page in fits and spurts, those brainstorming sessions where we sit with a clean sheet of paper and listen to our characters, to what they have to say about themselves. It goes against that really hard thing to be: patient.

And yet. Maybe we have to give our characters some help. I swear, every now & then, I do hear the voice of this older, more aware hero in my head. I see her in glimpses–with a bit more attitude in her shoulders, a bit more tension in her face, a bit more of that here-we-go-again feeling in her heart. Maybe it’s not her. Maybe it’s that the work to bring her out, to let her out, is a new skill for me, one I haven’t yet developed as strongly as I need to. In my last book, the hero pretty much rolled onto the page–it was a lighter book, with humor, and my hero’s flip, impatient, cocky words came easily. Okay, maybe not easily, but compared to this book? Oh, yeah.

So maybe this is a craft thing for me. Maybe the hero of this WIP is in there, for real, just waiting for me to find the key and open things up. Maybe she wants me to push.

Well, I think she’s going to get it.

I’m working this week on letters to my protagonist and my antagonist, a la Susan Taylor Brown’s technique. I’m also going to just take some notes on attitude, on voice, on the “normal” world that both these characters are living in when the book opens. I don’t know how much of this will get into the draft I’m working on, but I’m hoping doing this work will at least get rid of the floundering feeling I’m having as I write –that sensation that, sure, I’m writing structured scenes with some setting and conflict, but that I have no clue what their base is, where they fit into the bigger world I’m creating.

How much do you listen and how much do you direct, or choreograph, your characters? When do they talk freely, and what do you do when they’re closed down and incommunicado? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Posted in Uncategorized

Me to MC: Let’s Decorate

Posted on by beckylevine

It’s been too long since I worked on my novel. In terms of actual writing–August was great & productive, with getting the synopsis written & filling in some gaps in the middle. And I’ve been doing some more reading–trying to connect with Ida B. Wells and get close to what it is about her that inspires me and needs to inspire Caro. And I won’t have much time this week to really focus in, because I’ll be getting ready to head down to San Luis Obispo to talk at the Central Coast Writers’ Conference.

With the “writing” time I will have, I’ve decided to play. Caro and I are going to decorate her room.

This should be interesting. My visual-art talents are pretty much limited to drawing stick figures–really simple stick figures. If you read Susan Taylor Brown’s blog, you may have seen some of the art collage work she’s doing–here’s her page on Flikr to really look at the beautiful pages she’s created. Anyway, I do NOT have aspirations to this level, but it has gotten me thinking. I may do some searches for furniture around 1910, print some of them out, and do the more basic-level, think-first-grade kind of collage. I’m picturing printing everything in black & white, then maybe washing some colors over it (like I know what that means or even how to do it quickly and easily!).

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about what I need to furnish & decorate Caro’s room. I want, somehow, to catch the period and her personality–the contrasts between the way her mother will have set up the room when Caro was younger and the layers Caro has added as she gets older, the things that contrast and conflict with the original feel & look. So I’m picturing some pretty sturdy, long-lasting furniture, but with bright and cheerful colors–which may be where the wash comes in. And I think whatever I put on top of things will be important–the blanket on top of the bed, the items–necessaries and extras–on top of the dresser, the books on the shelves. Underneath becomes critical, too–what is Caro hiding away, from her brothers and, most importantly, from her mother? There’s a photograph somewhere, that I think was originally Mama’s, but which Caro now has–without her mother realizing it’s “gone.” There’s a place that Caro’s little brother sits when he visits, and something her older brother fiddles with when he shows up. And there’s probably a scuff on the floor where her father stands, just inside the door, because he’d rather talk with Caro downstairs, in their shop, then in a place where she’s growing into a young woman he doesn’t quite understand.

I’ve heard authors talk about figuring out what’s in a character’s pocket, or purse, and I think I probably need that, too. For some reason, though, it’s starting to feel as if Caro’s room is what’s critical here. When she steps out of that room and into the rest of the house, she walks into the control of her mother, and that world isn’t great for asserting any individuality. When she pushes through that space to outside, into Chicago, she’s venturing further and further from what she knows–loving it, but also having the bigger world threaten her edges. So her room, I think, will be the last spot where she actually knows who she is, and even that is changing on a daily basis.

Where does your hero live? Does he or she have a space that is truly theirs? And what’s in it? What’s on display for anyone to see, and what’s tucked away? Have you thought about decorating lately?

Posted in Uncategorized

Around the Blogosphere: Who’s Got their Blogging Cap On?

Posted on by beckylevine

Anyone remember the book Caps for Sale?

One of my all-time favorites. I’m trying to remember back to when I was a kid, but I think I related to both the monkeys (I mean, how could you resist?) and to the peddler (SO frustrating!). And I do remember thinking…All those caps! On ONE head!

Well, this month, I’m mostly relating to the peddlar. Not with the frustration, but with all those caps! With high school starting, I’ve been wearing my mom cap a lot (although very subtly and sneakily, I assure you). I’ve been doing more critiquing for clients–so there’s an editor cap. Got the house tidy for my parents’ visit–that’s a housekeeping and daughter cap. Baking cap goes on later today to make my husband’s birthday cake. And I’m prepping for the Central Coast Writers Conference next week–look at that sparkly speaker hat.

I’m having fun with all of it, but I seem to have misplaced my blogger cap for a bit. *Checks behind computer–nope* So…I’m going to look around the blogs & share what some other cap-wearers are up to!

Enjoy your week. And I’ll keep looking for the monkey who stole that blog cap.


Posted in Uncategorized

Friday Five: What’s Happening Out There?

Posted on by beckylevine

Okay, the blog’s been pretty Becky-centric this week, so for Friday, I’m scanning the blogosphere for interesting news, discussions, and events that are happening between and to others! School starts up again on Monday, so my brain (my middle-aged brain!) should be back firing on most more cylinders!

1. April is National Poetry month, and writers all over the blogs are doing some pretty cool things. If you haven’t checked out Susan Taylor Brown’s blog lately, she’s given herself an incredible challenge–to write a poem a day about the father she never know. Susan’s a friend, and I’m not a poetry expert, but true gut feeling? Every poem I’ve read has been incredible–open, honest, and lovely.

2. Kerrie Flanagan at The Writing Bug talks about the blogging “box” she found herself caught in and warns us that she’ll be busting out soon! How are you feeling about your blog these days?

3. I love this post from Sherrie Petersen about what it’s meant to her to find her critique group.

4. Laurie Halse Anderson has a few posts about MORE proposed library cuts. Page down the blog a ways and catch them all, in order.

5. Jane Friedman at There Are No Rules talks about trying to make “it” all happen.

Posted in Blogs

Friday Five: Taking a Look around the Blogiverse

Posted on by beckylevine

I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of navel-staring the last few weeks, like I’ve been a little too wrapped up in ME.  But I do love touching base with a Friday Five. So this Friday, I’m going to point you to a few other people…enjoy!

1. Start at Susan Taylor Brown’s blog. All this month, she’s posting about 31 Blogs (You Might Not Know) to highlight blogs she enjoys that may have flown under our radar. Just a nice tidbit every day, but she’s bringing lots of wondering bloggers to my attention. Susan’s posts this month and her generosity at her blog are actually my inspiration for stepping back from the mirror today–thanks, Susan!

2. Martha Alderson is The Plot Whisperer. Last year, she filled December with wonderful posts about what to do about revising the novel you “finished” during NaNo. She’s back this year with the 2nd Annual International Plot Writing Month. Posts start here.

3. You know them as The Shrinking Violets, rescuers of all introverts. Who are they behind their superhero masks & capes? Robin LaFevers and Mary Hershey, wonderful writers and bloggers. For intensive writing advice and wonderful motivation, check out Robin’s and Mary’s individual blogs.

4. Do you want to learn about the publishing industry–about what’s happening today and what may very well be happening tomorrow? Jane Friedman is publisher and editorial director of the Writer’s Digest brand community. She has two blogs (maybe more!) at There Are No Rules and Publishing Passion. Jane has strong opinions and ideas about what publishing is doing and what it should be thinking about. You may or may not agree with all she says, but she is on top of everything that’s happening today, and she does a brilliant job of sharing all her knowledge and experience with those of us struggling to figure it all out. Her posts are not to be missed.

1. If you’re a kids or YA writer, you already know Jen Robinson. And if you don’t, well, you just head over and introduce yourself to her blog now. What if you don’t write for kids and teens? Well, Are you an adult who’s been hearing about this surge in YA lit and wondering where to get started? Do you have any kids in your life who love reading, or who are struggling to find that love? Do you have a list of young ones and teens on your holiday-gift list? Do you care about literacy, about promoting reading for all ages? Jen is a passionate advocate for literacy, for bringing books into children’s lives, and for continuing to read “young” books into our adult years. She knows more about kids/YA books than anyone I know, and that’s saying a lot. Her generosity of time and energy are epic. Get her blog into your blog reader now.

There. Now you have more links to add to your already busy lives. 🙂  Happy friday & happy reading!

Posted in Friday Five

Randomy Friday Five

Posted on by beckylevine

1. I’m guest blogging today at Killer Hobbies, filling in for my critique partner who’s off being incredibly creative and productive at a writing retreat. The rest of the Killer Hobbyists have been blogging about the writing craft all week–incredibly detailed information about technique. Stop by and leave a comment on any of the posts, and Terri & I will enter you for a chance to win a copy of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide.

2. I’m feeling pretty committed to working through the entire plot (at a basic level!) of my WIP. I’m also heading into plotting the middle, which is going to test that commitment in a big way. It’s good timing, though, with the holidays coming up–less time for sustained writing, plenty of time for sitting down at the computer and figuring out a few scene goals.

3. I got some early critique feedback & questions from Susan Taylor Brown yesterday on my picture book. Good stuff. Yes, the mom either has to step up to the plate and DO something, or she can just back slowly away from the story at all. I’m in favor of the first option; we’ll see what she and I can come up with.

4. The weather today is some of my favorite. Gray clouds overhead with a little breeze that, every few minutes, picks up and blows leaves around, makes the bark on the eucalyptus trees wave, and causes SOMETHING you can only hear to skitter across the road or roof. It’s incredibly cozy, calling for fleece and a fire, I think. Okay, maybe not till tonight!

5. I’m jumping all over the place on Pandora, looking for new music I can plot to. I can do a bit more lively with plot than I can with writing, in fact more energy helps. This morning, I’m listening to Spin Doctors radio, but I’m considering some reggae for later in the day.

Posted in Books, Reading

Quiet Books: Can I hear a YES?!

Posted on by beckylevine

Remember “edgy?” Okay, the word is still here. And I like it–I like edgy books. I admire the strength these authors put into their words, the sharp and almost painful voice with which their narrators tell their stories, and the power that pulls me in and keeps me turning the page, at times faster than I can really keep up with.

BUT…

I also like books that AREN’T this way. Lately, I’ve heard the word “quiet” tossed around. People are talking about it on Twitter & Facebook. Writers are trying to figure out what it means, when they hear it from publishers and agents, and they’re trying to figure out–I think–if it has to be a bad thing. Because I think there is some sense out there that it may, indeed, be something that, well…won’t help your book get picked up and sold.

Honestly, I hope that’s not true. Not only because I suspect that my own writing may be more quiet than…edgy? Loud? Whatever that other thing is? But because–if my understanding of quiet books is right–I value them so much for the reading experience they bring me that I don’t want to see them go away.

I’ve been thinking about a few authors whose books I’ve read–some recently, some not so recently–books that I think of as “quiet.” (Some of these authors have also written what I’d called edgier books that I also loved, but I’m not talking about those today.) I’m going to name these books, and I want you all to take this labeling as a STRONG recommendation to go out and read them. Because they’re all incredible, powerful writers. Just…in a different way.

All of these books, like the edgy ones, deal with teens who face problems. BIG problems. MODERN problems. The two things that seem to be different, to me, are the pacing and the voice.

These books don’t rush. I’m not sure the edgy ones do, either, but I find myself rushing through them, often, to find out what’s coming next. These “quiet” stories don’t feel slow, I just feel like I have time to sit with them, to follow the explorations the author is making into character and choices and connections and to make my own explorations at the same time.

The narrative voices in these books also give me time. Somehow, there is a strength of character in the hero (even if they’re not 1st person, we’re almost always getting the story through the hero’s perspective) that makes me feel confident and safe. I’m not saying I read their stories knowing that they’ll be okay, or expecting a predictable ending. That’s not it. It’s that somehow I believe the hero has the strength to make it through their pain and their experiences, and that strength lets me breathe a bit more slowly and read for HOW they’re going to do that–to watch their choices with curiosity, sympathy, and hope.

I’m not doing this very well–telling you what I like so much about these books, without sounding like I’m putting down the others. Honestly, I like them all. I just get sad when I hear writers worrying about whether they shouldn’t write these books. I want to stand up and shout, wave my arm frantically to get their attention, and say, “Yes! Please! Keep writing!”  I want to tell them that I crave their kind of story, and that I’m not the only one who feels that way.

Am I? 🙂