My Writing Guru

I recently attended a writing conference for children’s books authors.  The Iowa chapter of Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) held their annual conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa this year.

You may wonder why I went to a children’s book conference. I don’t really write children’s books (but I might…), and I for sure am not and cannot illustrate a book of any kind! Why did I go?

Me and the brilliant Lisa Cron

Two words: LISA CRON. Yes, MY writing guru, the chick that I get, the one who helped this novel writing business really click for me, Lisa Cron was the keynote speaker!

Lisa Cron is the author of Wired for Story and Story Genius. I’ve written a post about how I applied her theories from Story Genius to my first novel, THE INK OF TIME. 

Courtesy of Google Images

The first time I heard Lisa Cron she was being interviewed by  JoAnna Penn, creator of  The Creative Penn Podcast. When she talked about how the brain works and its/our biological need for stories I knew she was on to something. As a former teacher, I’ve put in many professional development and continuing education hours studying how the brain learns and/or why it doesn’t.

Besides The Creative Penn podcast interview, I’ve watched Ms. Cron give a TED Talk on the subject of brain science and its connection to story, I’ve read Story Genius  one-and-a-half times*, and yet I still wanted to see the lady in person. I was not disappointed!

Right after being introduced :)

Ms. Lisa Cron can talk. Fast. She is passionate and knowledgeable about her topic and it shows. Lisa walked probably five miles in her first two-and-a-half hour presentation. She never stood still. Up and down the stage she walked. And she’s a ‘hand talker’, too. It was never a dull moment. I wrote so fast, only to be distracted by her animations, that my notes look like a battlefield! Good thing I’ve read the book!

This is some of what I’ve learned from her. These are the big points. Each one had many details about how to make them happen. Lots of writerly stuff.

1. The ability to write and the ability to tell a story are not the same. Events, quests, and a bunch of stuff happening is not a story. It’s a bunch of stuff happening.

2. All stories are about change, and change is hard. Stories allow us to experience something and learn from it. This makes me think of all the fables and tales that, throughout every culture, teach a lesson. Think about some of your favorite novels, what was its lesson or the cautionary tale?  I think about the book (and movie) Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins. The obvious is ‘don’t be a drunk loser on a train’, right? But really, that book is about ‘trusting yourself and your instincts.’

One of many pictures Tim has taken
of me while I'm reading.

3. The first job of an effective story is to anesthetize the part of your brain that knows it’s a story, and puts you, the reader, IN the story. I so get that. 

How many times have I been so deeply in a book that I don’t even hear other people talking to me? Lots and lots of times!  Tim will tease me by saying, “The house is on fire!”  That's when I know he’s been trying to talk to me but I was oblivious. Does that ever happen to you? If so, you’ve struck story gold.

4. Story is not just entertainment. Stories tell us what to do, allow us to step out of the present and envision the future, and stories allow us to see the unknown and unexpected. (Remember, there is no such thing as “mindless entertainment.” You know the saying: “you are what you eat”? Same goes for entertainment. You may not even know how it affects you.)

So, every story worth its salt is created with these points in mind. Kinda makes writers pretty important, doesn’t it? Writers’ jobs are to give us food for thought. Something to contemplate. Something to learn from. Something to think about. Pretty big stuff, I say.

Then, THE INK OF TIME, right? Luckily, I already understood the concept of story being events that lead to a conclusion, so I didn’t have any actions or scene to delete because of that.  However, the part about change was a big aha moment for me. Otto had a lot of stuff happen in his life that made him who he was at the beginning of this story. I wrote some pretty heart-breaking scenes with him and his sisters to illustrate that point. (Thanks again, Lisa Cron!)

I hope my readers (when I publish) will become engrossed in Otto’s story. One of the tricks is to tell very little about his physical appearance. This gives the reader the ability to step into his shoes. Also, the story is about a man who gets a job in a tattoo shop, but that just the vehicle, if you will, for the story. The overarching theme of my story is family. Who is family and what defines a family.

Think about what you read. Think about what a gift the author is giving to you - the opportunity to learn, experience, and explore. Big stuff.

And another picture of
me reading!

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

*I will finish reading it for a second time, as part of my work on my second novel.

Rock Talk

Look what I found at the LeClaire, Iowa Community Library! I found this TRUST rock first. It was on the top step, by the railing. I thought it was so cool. I didn’t pick it up, but rather, ran inside and grabbed my phone to take a picture of it. 

Then my eye caught the red one with a white star/flower painted on it. It’s a smaller pebble and it was sitting on a large landscape boulder. I noticed a corner of a white paper sticking out from underneath so I picked it up. On the bottom it read: “By. K.W.  Maryville Rocks 865.  Please post  pic to FB”

I went back to the TRUST rock to check for a tag on the bottom. Sure enough, the same tag was there. I decided to walk around the library to see if any other painted rocks were hiding in plain sight. The smallest of the three pebbles, a little yellow guy,  I found on the edge of a window well.

Courtesy of Google Images

I wonder how many hands and how many different terrains those rocks passed through to get from Tennessee to Iowa. Maybe someone visiting Nashville found one at Tootsies. Maybe one of these little rocks spent time at The Land Between the Lakes. 

Courtesy of Wikipedia

I’d like to think the one that says TRUST had a stop at Christ of the Ozarks, near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Maybe one went to the top of the Gateway Arch in Kansas City, Mo.

This artistic form of communication is delightful, and you don’t have to go far to find a Rock Group in your area. Wendy Reyes, a former colleague of mine, started QC Rocks (Quad City Rocks.) You can find them at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1101977619903168/  The Quad City Times did a story a few months back about Wendy and QC Rocks. You can read it here: http://qctimes.com/news/local/bettendorf/rock-your-world-facebook-group-sends-positive-greetings-via-rock/article_0073f289-ce04-5c12-b400-fe90d3108777.html

This past summer the national news had a feature about a woman who wrote inspirational messages in cards and randomly left them to be found by others.The story was about how her random messages seemed to be picked up by just the right person. The person who needed those words of encouragement the most right at that moment. 

In fact, I’ve written a couple of notes myself to library patrons. As a library clerk I see a lot of what’s going on in our patron’s lives based on the subject matter of materials they’ve had shipped in from our cooperating libraries.(Kind of like the mail carrier, right?) A person’s library check-outs are private and not to be discussed or shared with others in any way.

Ummm… I may have overstepped that line when I wrote two post-it notes one day. One note was to a patron I know well. She’s always checking out self-help books. I think she’s a lovely person and too hard on herself. I put a note to that effect in a book she had on hold. And signed my name. The second note went in a pile of cookbooks. The subject was healthy eating when dealing with cancer. This patron had six different books on the topic shipped in from other libraries. I just felt the need to tell them I was praying for them. I did not sign my name to that one.

That day I felt great! I was “being the good I wish to see in the world.” That night, instead of sleeping, the privacy policy ran over and over in my brain. What a way to be fired.  Well, I wasn’t fired. The patron who knows me thanked me for the kind words.  As far as the cancer patient patron’s note, I don’t know who they were,or if the note gave them any comfort.

I don’t think all of this creative communication is random at all. I believe good people are working hard to make our world a better place: one.person.at.a.time. That’s all. Just one person at a time. Let’s help each other friends.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

Used Book Sales

I love used book sales held at libraries. I live in a metro area that has about a dozen public and college libraries within a twenty-mile radius of my house. I went to a sale this past weekend and will go to another next weekend. Fall seems to be book fair season around  here. Yay for me!

I want to share with you some of my (old) new books, but before I do that, let’s take a look at some that I didn’t buy.

How Not To Read: Harnessing the Power of a Literature-free Life, by Dan Wilbur. The blurb boasts of techniques on how to fake your literature knowledge. Additionally, it states that if you must read something, tips on how to read fast and cut corners are within the books pages. That’s one hundred-seventy-six pages a non-reader has to slog through to learn how to fake having read. I love it. It’s so ridiculous!

Next up: How To Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. This book, dubbed “a living classic,” was first published in 1940. It’s a guide for comprehension techniques for a variety of reading materials, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and so on. It’s a hefty book, four-hundred-twenty-six pages of information.

And, while I’m sharing “opposites,” how about this one?  The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as If He Doesn’t Exist by Craig Groeschel. This title’s a toughie. I think we all can relate to this kind of behavior. I know I can. Groeschel, a minister, reflects on his life when it does not match up with scripture. The word atheist turned me off to this book. It caught my attention because of the oxymoron in the title. Now that I’ve done a little on-line research, I kind of wished I would have picked it up.

Oh, and one of my all-time NOT favorites: Who Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson, M.D. I hate this book so much because I once had a principal who made it ‘required reading’ for the staff. The worst of it was that she was a lunatic and expected us to follow her lead. Every time I see this book, I cringe. And I always seem to find several copies at library book sales.But then I found Who Cut the Cheese? By Stilton Jarlsberg, M.D. It made me happy to see a parody on my most hated book ever! (It too, is a self-help book, but with a sense of humor.)

Now, on to my great buys: I found three first edition books this time! That doesn’t happen very often. 

I’ve done some research; these first two are only worth a few bucks in the book market. All The President's Men by Bernstein and Woodward and First On The Moon, by Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin. I’ll hang on to them because of the subject matter. I’m sure at some time the asking price will rise. (Who knows if I'd sell, anyway...)

The third book was a flash-back to grade school. I remember studying the Kon-Tiki way back in the day. I looked this book up on-line and it seems to be selling in the $300.00 on up range. I hit the jackpot on a seventy-five cent investment. (But I’m not selling just yet.)

I purchased four other books of interest, for a total of $6.75. A very good investment I think.

Visit your local libraries’ book sales. They’re great fund raisers for your public library’s programming and you’ll get all the really good stuff in return! Now excuse me while I read a new (old) book.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

Las Vegas Strong

Courtesy of Google Images

Ten days ago. It’s already been ten days since shit hit the fan in Vegas on October first. It wears a person down. Depression and anxiety rear their ugly heads. It’s all part of the radiating evil of the whole thing-to make us feel afraid and vulnerable.

Evil will not win. We can’t let it. Even though we might be afraid, might feel vulnerable, we will keep on keeping on. It’s the American way. It’s what we do. I love that about us.

On Tuesday, October 3rd, my sister,Nanette, her husband, and some of their family members were heading to Vegas for a family wedding and vacation. I talked to my sister before she left. She said she would stay aware of her surroundings, but she would not let some bastard dictate how she lives her life. Hear! Hear! little sister! I agree whole-heartedly.

Courtesy of Google Images

On Thursday, October 5th, Tim and I and our daughter and son-in-law went to a Chris Stapleton concert. The arena opened the doors and hour earlier than they typically do. Every person was wanded. Every purse was looked in, and every hat, too. Every single person was patted-down as well. We knew this would be happening, and yet we were determined to live our lives and keep on keeping on.

During the concert Mr. Stapleton talked a bit about the tragedy in Las Vegas. He stated that by them (his group and him) being here at the concert, (Taxslayer Center in Moline, IL) and us (the audience) being here meant that we denounced evil and all of its potential ramifications.

Then, for the victims, survivors, and families of the shooting,(and really, all of us, I think,) he sang his song, Broken Halos (Click the title to listen to his song.)

I just talked with my sister, and asked her about the mood in Vegas this week. She said everything seemed to be “business as usual.” Other Vegas visitors, like her, mentioned it to each other on elevators and in waiting lines, but that was it. “No one seemed to be thriving on it,” she said.

Oct 8, 2017. Courtesy of ABC News

One thing she did tell me was that on Sunday night, all the lights on the strip and in the casinos dimmed for eleven minutes. (That’s about how long the rampage lasted.)

Peace my friends.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

Empowering Girls through Princess Stories

Even the male illustrator is listed before
the female author. That's just not right!

Usborne is a well-known children’s book publisher. They create beautifully illustrated books for children of all ages. People who purchase Usborne books expect a quality story for their children. Unfortunately, all is not well in the Usborne Kingdom.

A few days ago, my three-year–old granddaughter chose a nap-time story for me to read to her. It was a beautiful pink color with a cute little girl princess on the cover.

The Unsborne Book of Princess Stories. Looks good, right? Wrong. And let me tell you why. There are four short stories in this book. Two of them are fine, but the other two are ridiculously anti-girl power. Here’s the gist and my take on each story.

The first story is entitled The Princess and the Pig. In this story Prince Max and his sister, Princess Alice, are playing outside. Alice finds a little pig stuck in a big mud puddle. She pulls the little pig out of the mud, while her brother, Prince Max, reminds her that she’s not supposed to get her dress dirty. “Don’t let Queen Mama see you. She told you not to get your dress dirty.” (Seriously????? What year is this? 1960?)

Alice ignores her brother and washes the piggy...and she gets in trouble for getting her dress dirty. Alice is undeterred.  She kisses the pig and it turns into a little boy prince. (Sure, why the hell not? Makes perfect story sense…) Queen Mama says, “We can’t have a strange prince in the castle, change him back.” So Alice kisses him again and he turns back into a pig. (What kind of a queen mom would refuse a little boy who’d been turned into a pig? If I was a kid hearing this story, I’d be so stressed about having the boy turned back into a pig!)

The next story, thankfully, is better. In The Dragon, Alice and Max find a hungry little dragon. They bring him home and feed him. And because he’s a fire-breathing dragon, he becomes the royal fireplace starter. (He gets to live in the castle but a pig-turned-little prince-turned-pig-again is sent away? I’m still bitter over that one.)

The third story is a real piece of work. It’s called The Tournament. The castle is excitedly preparing for a jousting tournament.  Max gets to practice jousting but Alice can’t, because no girls are allowed. Alice, bless her little rebel heart, won’t have it. She dresses in her brother’s clothes and calls herself “Alex.” While jousting, “Alex” knocks a boy off his horse. Alice is found out when she trips and falls off her horse. (She didn’t even get the respect of being jousted off. Just another clumsy girl, I guess…) Queen Mama says to her, “You’re a very naughty girl.” (I thought this story was so bad, I talked with my granddaughter about how girls can do all kinds of stuff that boys can do, too. Then I re-read it two times, changing it to: “The boys and girls all practiced jousting together. Sometimes they fell off and got hurt, but they got back on their horses and kept practicing.”)

I didn’t even want to read the final story, The Royal Broomstick, but I did because my granddaughter had to put off nap-time as long as possible. Luckily, this book ends on a stronger note. The children go to visit their grandmother in her tower. Grandma is not there so the kids decide to wait for her and end up playing with her magic broom.They get on it and fly out the window. They have great fun and even find grandma’s pet cat stuck in a tree. They bring the cat home and grandma is happy her kitty has been found.

Fifty percent of the stories in this book are stupid. The marketing department at Usborne did a great job on the cover and back blurb. They made it sound so inviting, without telling a lie about the contents of the book. No mention of the Princess Alice being naughty or dirty or trying to do ‘boy things.’

This post is getting long, but hang with me for a minute more. I can’t close without telling you about an awesome, strong princess book. The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch is the kind of princess story children should be reading. 

In this story, a nasty fire-breathing dragon burns up the castle and everything in it. The dragon carries off the prince and leaves the princess behind. Since everything is gone, destroyed by the dragon, including her clothes, she finds a paper bag to wear as a dress and heads out to save the prince. She goes through hell and high water to get to the dragon’s lair and rescues the prince. BUT, he’s an asshole, so she tells him off and leaves. It’s a great story of courage, perseverance and self-respect.

"Elizabeth, you are a mess!
You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess."

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

I've Been Ghosted

I’ve been GHOSTED. Not the kind where you knock on your neighbor’s door and leave a paper ghost with a treat, either. 

If you’re under thirty you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Since most of my readers don’t fit that particular demographic, I’ll explain. 

Everything I know about this particular GHOSTING I learned in passing while listening to talk radio. When it happened to me, I confirmed the definition by checking Urban Dictionary. (Cuz that’s the kind of researcher I am!)

So, here it is, according to Urban Dictionary.

Ghosting 

The act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone the subject is dating, but no longer wishes to date. This is done in hopes that the ghostee will just "get the hint" and leave the subject alone, as opposed to the subject simply telling them he/she is no longer interested. Ghosting is not specific to a certain gender and is closely related to the subject's maturity and communication skills. Many attempt to justify ghosting as a way to cease dating the ghostee without hurting their feelings, but it in fact proves the subject is thinking more of themselves, as ghosting often creates more confusion for the ghostee than if the subject kindly stated how he/she feels.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ghosting

Yep. I happened to me. Only not with a date, but with my so-called editor. Here’s how it went down (in brief.)

Sept. 5th through 11th.

Email # 1 from me: “Are you available?”

Email # 2 from her: “Yes! You’re timings perfect, I just finished a project.”

Email # 3 from me: “Fantastic. I’d like you to evaluate my manuscript with an option to edit at a later date.”

Email # 4 from her: “I can do that. It will cost $120.00 through Paypal or credit card.”

Email  # 5 from her: “I have your payment and file.

Email # 6 from her: “I’ve finished my evaluation. Thanks for letting me read. What specific questions can I address?”

Email # 7 from me: [A list of three questions about my manuscript.]

Sept. 12th

Email # 8 from me: “I don’t believe I’ve received your evaluation. Did you send or still working on it?”

Sept. 13th

Email # 9 from me: “On pins and needles over here…” (Trying to be cool…)

Sept. 19th

Email # 10 from me: “I want my money back. You failed to fulfill your end of the deal.” (Not in so many words, but close.)

So here I am. It’s September 21st and I’ve been GHOSTED bad. I have no idea what went wrong. Maybe my three questions were too hard to answer. I don’t know. I have no idea.

So I did a little internet creeping. (“Research”) And I found that her editor’s twitter account has been very quiet. Not much activity since August. But her personal twitter account is very active. Like she posts ten times a day. What’s up with that? I thought maybe she’d been hit by a bus and couldn’t get to a computer to communicate with her clients.

And since I’m somewhat passive aggressive, I actually replied to one of her twitter posts. (Hello. I’m out here in the world. Waiting for you to finish the work I paid you for.)

And she LIKED it. What’s up with that? Either she has an auto-like setting or she’s got no integrity at all. What really frosts me is that she’s got a copy of my book. Legally she can’t do anything with it because it’s my Intellectual Property, but still. Urg!

Any who, I’ll be moving on to the next starred name on my list.  This time I’m digging even deeper into that prospective editor's shit.

Wish me luck. AGAIN!

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

Ask a Compelling Question

I went to a party last weekend. It took place in a garage on a warm September night. Everything was very casual and relaxed. Including the napkins.

Yep. The napkins.  

They caught my attention right away. I started rifling through the pile  so that I could read all of them. There were about eight different designs. 

These were my favorite.

The first one is a drawing of a Weiner dog on a skateboard. Above it says: WHAT’S THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS THING YOU SAW TODAY?

Courtesy Google Images

Next to that one is a drawing of a guy holding a smelly sock in each hand. You can tell the socks are smelly because the wavy lines radiating from each sock is the universal drawing signal of stink. Just ask Pepe Le Pew. 

The question asks: WHAT DID YOU DO TO CHANGE THE WORLD TODAY?  (The guy says “I changed my socks. That counts.”)

The third napkin shows a drawing of a dog in a suit and tie carrying a brief case. The title says: SWAP DAY! WHO WOULD YOU SWITCH WITH AND WHY?

The final napkin has two drawings. One of a guy surfing a huge wave and the next of (I presume) his legs and feet upside down sticking out of the water. It says” WHAT PART OF YOUR DAY WAS MAD WAVES. AND WHAT PART WAS A TOTAL WIPEOUT?

Google Images.

These napkins remind me of when my kids were in school. If I asked them, “How was your day?” or “What did you do/learn at school today?” the answers were as vague as the questions. 

So I got smarter. I asked more direct questions such as, “What was the coolest thing that happened today?” and “What was the grossest thing that happened today?”  

Now those questions produced some very interesting answers! (Like the time a student got his finger stuck in a hole in his desk and the school had to call 911 because his finger was so swollen he couldn’t get in out.)

You know the drill. Google Images.

It’s good to reflect on your day. It’s good to ask yourself pointed questions. That’s how we grow and learn about ourselves. That’s how we become aware of how we affect others.

I’ll play the napkin game, but you have to also, okay?

The most outrageous thing I saw today was two wasps fighting or copulating, I’m not sure which, on the porch floor. I’ve never seen that before!

What did I do to change the world today? Well, I walked from Target to Best Buy instead of driving. They’re next to each other with only a small ravine between each store’s parking lots. I saved some gas and made a little less pollution.

If I had a Swap Day, I’d want Tim to go with me. BUT, I’d swap with JK Rowling or Dan Brown or SE Hinton for a day. See what it’s like to have the literary mind and chops of these folks.

Mad Waves today? I spent at least six hours (not all at once) writing today. And I ate at Steak & Shake (a treat!)

Wipe Out today? As of this moment, I haven’t received an email correspondence I’ve been waiting for. Frustrating!

Now it’s your turn.  Go ahead. It’s fun!

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself!

~Nadine