Fuel for the Writer's Fire

 Another great day at the Rochester Children’s Book Festival. If you have never been, it is worth the trip. A chance to meet more than 40 authors and illustrators, to peruse hundreds of children’s books, make crafts with your kids, listen to stories, learn how some of your favorite authors work, and generally steep yourself in all things wonderful.

From 10 to 4 I was busy talking with kids and parents, teachers and librarians, and future authors. I was thrilled that my newest book, For The Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson was so well received. More than once a child zoomed up, grabbed the book and said, “Oh Wow!” or “This is the one.” When I asked if they liked birds, they would nod vigorously. “Yeah!” Those are the kids I write for. The ones who have a passion to learn. They already have a fire inside of them that is just waiting to be stoked with just the right fuel – true stories. I imagine those are the kids that someday might grow up to be scientists, journalists, teachers, librarians, or nonfiction writers.

I also met several writers struggling to break into publishing. One woman has written a biography about a relative of hers who was the “father of American apiculture.” He was the person to figure out the “bee space” the specific distance that bees maintain between honeycombs. This allowed bee keepers to create bee boxes with walls that slide in and out without harming the bees. Another woman mentioned wanting to write about the women of the Jazz era who were not allowed to play in clubs.

It is such a treat to meet people who are so fired up about a subject that they want to share it with others. I hope my book Anatomy of Nonfiction: how to write true stories for children will help them hone their craft, so that someday I will walk into a bookstore and see a new bee book or biography of a Jazz legend. That is what I find so amazing in this children’s book business. We are all eager to share what we know, if for no other reason than to someday get to read the other person’s book. There is no competition because we all have our own projects and passions. And it behooves all of us to lend a hand. The more amazing nonfiction that is out there, the better it is for the reader, the publishers and for the writer. More fuel for the fire in all of us.


Some photos of the day --

The best seat in the house.

My table mate busy signing books - Julie Berry (in prison garb) and Kate Messner (in blue).

Other Nonfiction Writers and Illustrators who were there --

Cheryl Harness

Laurie Caulkhoven

Ted Lewin

London Ladd

Jane Yolen

Rose O'Keefe

See you next year!

 

Happy Halloween!

Last week I visited Country Parkway Elementary School in Williamsville, NY. Mrs. Gayle Kerman made me feel very welcome by sharing my books with her students a head of time. We started the morning dancing the Snow Dance with the Kindergarteners and First Graders. Then we talked about how many people it takes to create a book. Third and Fourth Grade classes were in to nonfiction, so we discussed research, and brainstormed more than a dozen different ways we could write about a boring subject like sneakers. But since this is Halloween, I thought I would share with you the Halloween story the Second Graders wrote with me after we read Joshua the Giant Frog.

One of my favorite activities is to help the children create a new tall tale using their ideas while I write on a large pad of paper. We use their school and hometown as the setting and Joshua as the main character. We have to have a great descriptive lead (not “Once upon a time” or “It was Halloween night…”), a conflict, characters, and dialogue. Because it is a tall tale we also have to stretch the truth – use analogies that are larger than life. In less than 20 minutes, this is what we came up with --

Joshua’s Trick or Treat

The Queen of Hearts ran up to the giant Ipod and said, "That's a great costume." The jack-o-lanterns glowed on the porch as the kids rang the doorbell. "Trick or treat."

From behind them they heard, "AAHHHHHH! Help me!" Sofia, dressed as a giant butterfly, raced down the street.

Then the earth shook. "Thump... THUMP.... THUMP!" Joshua the Giant Frog hopped into view. His tongue flicked as fast as a bullet at Sofia's wings.

"Oh no. Joshua thinks Sofia is a real butterfly."

Jacob, dressed as Darth Vader brandished his light saber, and a Bumblebee waved her stinger. But Joshua kept chasing Sofia.

"Quick, get all of your candy in a pile," said Ipod.

All the kids dumped their candy in the middle of the street. The pile grew taller than a sky scraper. "Joshua!" they called.

Joshua turned to see the mountain of chocolate and sugar, and his tongue lapped it up.

Poor Sofia dragged her broken wings back to town.

Joshua handed her a Hershey candy bar to say he was sorry.

"Thank you," she said. "Happy Halloween everybody!"

The End

With this 'sloppy copy', the children and their teachers can smooth out problems, like who said, “Oh, no. Joshua thinks Sofia is a real butterfly,” and add more detail. But the basics are there, and hopefully the seed -- that writing is fun and doesn’t have to be perfect the first time around -- has been planted.

Happy Halloween!

This Blog is For The Birds

The second best moment of being a writer (first is making the sale) is opening the box to reveal for the first time the book that you have labored over for years. That moment happened last week when I came home to find an unexpected box sitting on the kitchen table. Before I even took off my coat or put the groceries away, I grabbed a scissors and sliced the box open. My book, For the Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson, was finally here!

I am proud to say that it is absolutely beautiful! Award-winning illustrator Laura Jacques captured young Roger's enthusiasm, sharp blue eyes, and thatch of blonde hair as beautifully as she paints the feathers of a flying flicker. And after immersing myself in Roger's story, it still inspires me. Roger grew up in Jamestown, New York where he spent every spare minute out in the fields with binoculars or camera and taught himself how to identify birds on the wing at a time when even trained ornithologists had to shoot the birds before identification. Roger was also a natural artist, sketching birds in the margins of his text books, and later going to art school in New York City. At the naive age of 23 years old, Roger created a little bird identification field guide that, in the middle of the Depression, sold out in weeks and turned a nation on to bird-watching. He became a world reknowned naturalist and leader in the conservation movement. 

Holding this book, I hope it will follow in the footsteps of other amazing bird books like Kathryn Lasky's picture book, She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head! (Hyperion, 1995) about Minna Hall and Harriet Hemenway who created the Massachusetts Audubon Society to protect birds from the millinery industry. I love David Catrow's quirky illustrations of Minna's steely scowl and Harriet's pinched indignation as they pushed for legislation and education about endangered bird species.

Rebecca Bond wrote and illustrated the story of Richard and Cherry Kearton in her picture book, In the Belly of an Ox: The Unexpected Photographic Adventures of Richard and Cherry Kearton. The brothers were nature photographers who created the first photographic bird book, and the way they did it is mind boggling. When you look at Bond’s illustrations, you may not believe it, but her illustrations reflect accurately how they teetered on top of a ladder placed on a high tree branch to photograph a nest, and of course, how they used the hide of an ox as a ‘living blind’ so they could get as close as possible to shy species.

The history of the conservation movement and natural history studies is filled with fascinating characters, and now that For The Birds has landed, I can turn my attention to poking around for yet another great story that might inspire a new generation of readers and conservationists in the future.

Everyone Needs a Slap on the Hand

I love my critique group.  I have come to need it, like some people need a vacation after visiting their in-laws (well, I'm in that category, too).  We only meet once a month and I can tell when that third week rolls around without looking at the calendar. I get buggy. I need my fix to be with other writers, to share, to bitch, and on some occasions, to get my hand slapped (you know who you are) for being too negative. 

I suffer from an affliction that plagues many writers - lack of confidence.  I love what I'm writing when I write it, but I start to second guess myself the moment I think it might be ready for public viewing. I don't want to bother anyone or make them endure ten minutes of me reading something awful. But, as my posse reminds me, that's what the critique group is for, right?  To help you avoid making the worst mistake a writer can make, which is sending a story to an editor before it is ready.

Combating the doubt for space in my brain is a sense of urgency.  I need to get this story out.  An agent is waiting.  If I don't get something out soon, I'll have another year without a new release. If I don't get a new book out, librarians and teachers will forget who I am.  I will be surpassed by all those debut authors who are younger than my laptop.

That's usually when I get a slap. 

And I have to remind myself of the advice I give to others. "The publishing business is not a race of the swift.  It is a pursuit for the persistent."  I am my only competition.  No one else is writing the book I am writing.  An editor or agent would rather wait for a polished piece than get a hastily revised manuscript they would have to reject.  My writing doesn't stink. And I'm only 51.  I'm not dead yet.

Thanks guys! See you in a few weeks.

158 Years Ago Today

One hundred and fifty-eight years ago today, Abraham Lincoln declared the 4th Thursday of November to be a National Holiday of Thanksgiving. It wasn't his big idea, but that of Sarah Joshepha Hale's and you can read about it in Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving (Simon & Schuster, 2002) written by Laurie Halse Anderson and illustrated by Matt Faulkner.  This 40 page picture book celebrates Hale's 38 year letter writing campaign for a national holiday of Thanksgiving with humor and historic accuracy.  Faulkner's caricatures show Sarah and other ladies storming the State House doors with a quill pen battering ram, and Presidents Taylor and Fillmore passing the buck to Pierce before Lincoln got a hold of it. It is a perfect book to show kids that perseverance pays off.



Sarah Joshepha Hale
1788 - 1879



I appreciate Sarah's story, too, because she was not just a Thanksgiving fanatic, but a writer who became the editor of the first American woman's magazine.  In 1822, when her husband died, she found herself having to support her family of five children.  She wrote and sold a book of poetry, then wrote stories for popular periodicals.  In 1828 she was asked to edit Ladies Magazine which turned into Godey's Lady's Book, the leading woman's mag for 40 years.

Although she claimed not to be political and was against women suffrage, she promoted property rights for women, education and woman's health.  But more importantly, she led by example and reminded everyone that a woman with a pen can do anything!  

One Nonfiction Writer's Bookshelves

I have lots of stuff in my house.  I tend to save fabric, bentwood chairs that need refinishing, the kids' school work, stones from past vacations, mason jars for cranberry chutney in the fall and wildflowers in the summer, and cats.  Occasionally I do clean out and pair down what has accumulated, except for the cats. But the hardest things to part with are books.

When shelves overflow I know it is time to weed. Fiction fast-reads are donated to the library book sale.  I don't feel bad about those - There are more than enough Patricia Cornwell and Robert Parker titles out in the world.  There are tons of John McPhee and E.O. Wilson out there too, but I hesitate more on those decisions. I use adult nonfiction for research. I like to be able to grab a book off my shelf, rather than log onto the Internet,  to double check a date, verify a name, find out when a tree is in flower, or the eating habits of an insect. I have a separate shelf with a full range of identification guides that I'll never part with. They are a staple for any science and nature writer.  

Some nonfiction books I may not be able to toss, but I might be able to put in a box in the attic -- although for me out of sight out of mind is a daily dilemma.  So, what books are box-worthy?  I started with my college anthropology books - Margaret Mead, Colin Renfrew, etc.  Not thrilled to no longer have them at my fingertips, but if the dust on the tops of them are any indication, I haven't fingered them in a while. Those seem safe to put away. 

But the research books I used to write my own books, have to stay on the shelf.  At least the most important ones -- my forensic stuff like Ubelaker,  Joyce and Stover, Manheim -- I spent a lot of time with these titles and they remind me of the interviews I conducted with some of the scientists who wrote them.   Plus, on rare occasions I am asked to speak on forensics, and I have to review a few facts beforehand.

My biggest problem is parting with older nonfiction- especially if they are children's books and well illustrated.  Libraries might weed their nonfiction every 5- 7 years to keep the information current, but I can't.  In fact, I am the collector of those discards. These books are as sad as a kitten clinging to my window screen (that is another story). They have helped hundreds of kids with science projects and book reports.  They are tired, faded and repaired, but still beautiful to me, even if their information is dated, and one day my books will be subject to the same fate.So, it's Peggy to the rescue.

I love space books written in the 50s when astronauts were a new species and the now defunct space shuttle was not even a glimmer in NASA's eye.  I love the art in the margins of Holling Clancy Holling books. In Minn of the Mississippi (1951) the snapping turtle starts out in his egg, shown with a ruler, 1 inch long, and diagrams show the albumen, yolk and stages of growth.  Boys who wouldn't read the big blocks of text could follow the maps in the margins and read about the tools of the Indians. 

M. Sasek's This Is series showcased New York City, Ireland, England, and Cape Kennedy in quirky 1960 Pink Panther-esque style. 

The Story of Florida (1947) has original lithographs by C. H. Dewitt with colors that glow on the linen pages.

And I dreamed of building one of David R. Stiles Fun Projects for Dad and the Kids (1963) -- maybe the Water House or the Spook House with a hidden trap door and cellar.  You could make a balloon raft made from a parachute from the Army surplus store, a row boat, sail boat, cross bow and even a cannon!  Although I never built these things, it was nice to know there was an adult out there somewhere who thought it would be okay if I did.  I often wondered what Stiles's backyard looked like.

The funny thing is, some of these titles are still in print.  When I searched for pictures to include in this blog, I found that M. Sasek books have been re-released, and Minn and the Fun Projects are available in paperback.  So do I really need to rescue my tattered library bound discards?  Yes. As an old nonfiction writer, I have a solft spot in my heart for these old editions.   And as I tell my husband -- books make good insulation.  And winter is coming on fast.

Nonfiction that Inspired Me

Most people think that exciting nonfiction is a recent invention, but there were authors making compelling reads when I was a kid. Gladys Conklin (1903 – 1983), author of dozens of nonfiction books inspired young naturalists like me for decades. When Gladys started her writing career she was a librarian at the Hayward Public Library in California. Every spring and summer children would come in carrying cocoons and chrysalides and wanted to know what they were, how the insect created them, and what was going to happen next. To answer them, Gladys initiated the Bug Club. She helped children learn about insects by providing them with the tools of an entomologist – jars, cotton balls soaked in alcohol, pins and mounting boards. In her quest to educate her bug collectors, she realized that there was a lack of books that explained basic concepts to children in a clear and direct way -- So she wrote them.

Writing natural history did not come out of the blue. When she was about ten years old, Gladys wrote short nature essays for the Washington Farmer magazine. Years later, learning side by side with her Bug Club members she wrote her first book, I Like Caterpillars (1958). Rather than recite boring natural history facts, Gladys wrote from the point of view of a girl (not a boy) who loves all caterpillars, fat ones and skinny ones. Lucky Ladybugs (1968) was structured around the Mother Goose nursery rhyme that every child at that time knew.

Like today’s authors of nonfiction, Gladys researched her subjects first hand, first with her Bug Club and later traveling to Europe, Mexico, and Africa. Unlike most authors today, she was lucky enough to work with one dedicated publisher. Gladys thought she might only be able to write 3 or 4 nature titles, but she eventually wrote 25 books for Holiday House.

I was not part of her Bug Club, although I would have loved that, but I did learn about insects because her passion shined through. Bugs were not icky. They were interesting. Insects were not something to run screaming from. They were guests to invite into your home for a day, to be observed and appreciated, and then released.

Today, as a nonfiction writer, I am still being inspired by Gladys’s body of work. She followed the advice to “write what you know,” and created a career that lasted well past her retirement as librarian. But what makes her books timeless is her voice. Gladys wrote as if she were talking to her bug club; a casual voice that rings clear and true even for children today.

-- Gladys Conklin is remembered today. For more information and a bit of reminiscing on a great librarian and author, listen to Bruce Roberts on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_zxhCLwvdk