Month: February 2009

Virtual Author Visits: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, & the Awesome

There’s been a lot of online chatter lately about virtual author visits, and as someone who wears two hats, I’ve been paying special attention. Because I’m a middle school English teacher as well as an author, my ability to travel for school visits is somewhat limited, so I’ll be using Skype videoconferencing software to offer virtual visits to classrooms and book clubs when THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z is released in September.


I also love the idea of my own students having more opportunities to talk with authors, and today my 7th graders had a virtual visit with the amazing Laurie Halse Anderson. We read CHAINS this winter and were swept away, so the kids had lots of questions about how Laurie researched the novel and brought her characters to life. Laurie is planning to offer virtual visits for schools starting in the fall, and we were thrilled to be her guinea pigs. Our kids piled into the auditorium at 9:45 this morning and waited for my laptop to ring with Laurie’s 10am call on Skype.

And then there she was!

Laurie and I agreed to double team an online review of our virtual visit – I’m providing a teacher’s perspective, and she’s blogging about the experience from the author’s point of view over at halseanderson .  So here are my thoughts on virtual visits: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the awesome…

The Good:

~Laurie is not only an incredibly talented author but also a friendly, generous, down-to-earth person, and that came through on the big screen, too. Our 7th graders loved her before this visit; they love her more now.

~She gave answers that were just long enough but not too long. We had time for about 30 kids to ask questions in a 45-minute visit, and they were just thrilled. When the kids asked about her research, she held up her latest sources.

~Our plan to keep things organized worked. Students knew who was asking questions and when it was their turn. I gave each interviewer a rundown, along with an index card with the question her or she wrote.


Kids were on “standby” when the person before them on the list was talking with Laurie, and that kept things moving along.

~The setup for this virtual visit was pretty much painless.

~I brought in my laptop from home (a MacBook with a built-in camera), connected it to the projector in our auditorium, hooked the computer into the school network, and patched it into our sound system.

~Skype worked like it was supposed to work 95% of the time. (See “the Ugly” for the other 5%)

The Bad: (What we’d do differently next time)

~Sometimes, it was hard for our auditorium audience to hear the questions being asked. Our interviewers were facing Laurie on the laptop, rather than the other students. Next time we do a virtual author visit, I’ll remind the kids about the need to speak up, try to get a microphone set up, or perhaps ask if our author might be willing to repeat questions before answering.

The Ugly:

~Skype is wonderful and magical and free. It is also subject to the whims of all sorts of Internet bandwidth, firewall, and other technology issues that I don’t entirely understand. As a result, four or five times during our virtual visit, we simply lost the connection. Laurie’s face would freeze mid-sentence, and we had to hang up and call her back. Usually, that all happened within a few seconds, but once I had to quit Skype and re-launch the application before we could get our connection back, and that took an extra minute. Overall, the interruptions were annoying but manageable.

The Awesome:

~Kids who I never dreamed would stand and share a question were so excited to talk with Laurie. She treated each student like his or her question was the most important one in the world. I watched their faces as they listened. They glowed.

~My class was watching the ALA video-conference from Denver last month and cheered when Laurie was announced as the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement. We cheered again today and loved that she could hear us this time!

~We also got to listen to Laurie read the first few pages of FORGE, the sequel to CHAINS, told from the point of view of Isabel’s friend, Curzon. It is so full of promise that I don’t know how I’m going to wait until 2010 to read the rest.

Thanks, Laurie, for such a wonderful morning with our kids!

If you want to read about another author/illustrator’s experience, Elizabeth Dulemba has an extensive blog post on her first virtual visit, too.

And finally….a to-do list for teachers who want to set up a Skype virtual author visit.

1. Download Skype at home and try it out with someone you know. Figure out how it works. It’s pretty simple, but you’ll want to make sure you’re comfortable before you set up a visit.

2. Contact your technology coordinator to see if you can use Skype at school. Some will say yes. Some will say no. And some will wave magic wands and adjust bandwidth restrictions and unblock things so you can pull it off. Send them chocolate later.

3. Contact the author with whom you’d like to have a virtual visit. Find out about availability, technology needs, and fees. Also be aware that video chats aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, so if an author says no thanks, respect that.

4. Once you’ve set up a date and time (morning may be best to avoid high usage Internet times), reserve the space where you’ll be having your virtual visit. Make sure the equipment you’ll need is available and working. If you’re not good with technology, enlist the help of a co-worker who is. Send that person chocolate later, too.

5. Make a plan for your virtual visit. How long will it last? (30-45 minutes seems to be perfect.) Who will ask questions? Where will they stand? Where do they go when they’re done? If you figure it out ahead of time, you won’t have to interrupt your visit to deal with questions.

6. Talk to your students about etiquette for a virtual author visit. In many ways, it’s just like having a guest speaker in your auditorium or classroom in person, and kids need to know that all the same rules about courteous behavior apply. It will also be important for them to know that technical issues are a possibility and that their quiet cooperation will help you get things fixed more quickly.

7. Test Skype at school. It doesn’t matter if you’ve tested it at home; things are different on school networks, and you don’t want to discover a problem when it’s time for your virtual visit.

8. On the day of your virtual visit, launch Skype and either call the author or wait for him/her to call you – whatever you agreed upon in advance. Know that there may be technical problems, but you’ll be able to fix them. You may want to have kids bring books for silent reading in case there’s an extended period of lost contact. Planning and flexibility (and a sense of humor!) will go a long way toward making your virtual author visit a great experience!

One more thing….

9. After your virtual visit, would you stop back here and let me know how it goes? I can’t wait to hear more about kids & authors coming together through technology!

best tracker


A Breath of Summer

If you read my blog with any regularity, you know that we love winter at my house.  A big snowstorm, in all its fluffy white glory, is about as good as it gets for this family of skiers.  But every now and then, we start to miss colors like green and red and purple.  Yesterday, the Montreal Botanical Garden provided a welcome breath of summer.

The best part?  Butterflies Go Free…a special exhibit of thousands of butterflies, set free in the main greenhouse. (Those within striking distance of Montreal may want to know that the exhibit runs through April 26th.) The butterflies were purchased from free trade butterfly farms in Costa Rica, and they are spectacular.

More butterfly photos behind the cut…

GIANNA Z’s Page Proofs

So all this week, I’ve been reviewing page proofs for THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z, looking for any mistakes that survived the copy editing process and any typos that were introduced during type-setting.  I was distracted throughout this process because when page proofs arrive in the mail, your actual title page is included.  I kept flipping back to stare at it…

Did you see the little leaves?!!  Squeeee!!!!

I mean…ahem…I’m very busy looking for typos now…

How They Got Here: 2009 Debut Author Stacey Jay

This post is part of a year-long series of blog interviews I’ll be hosting with my fellow 2009 Debut Authors, called "How They Got Here." 

It should be an especially helpful series for teens who write, teachers, and anyone who wants to write for kids.  2009 debut authors will be dropping by to talk about how their writing in school shaped the authors they are today, what teachers can do to make a difference, how they revise, and how they found their agents and editors.  (You’ll even be able to read some successful query letters!)  If you know a teacher or two who might be interested, please share the link!

Today…Stacey Jay, author of YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME!

Megan Berry’s social life is so dead. Literally. Fifteen-year-old Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she’s part-time shrink to a bunch of dead people. All Megan wants is to be normal–and go to homecoming. But someone in school is using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into flesh-eating Zombies, and it’s looking like homecoming will turn out to be a very different kind of party–the bloody kind.

Welcome, Stacey! Tell us about the first thing you ever wrote that made you think maybe you were a writer.

I wrote the first four chapters of a romance novel when I was probably…eight years old. Maybe nine, but whatever my exact age, I was WAY too young to be writing romance novels. But what can I say? I guess I’ve always been a romantic.

What books did you love when you were a kid?

Little Women was a HUGE favorite. I think I read it a dozen times. And I’d read anything with fantasy or paranormal elements. I loved horror, got big into romance in my teens…really I’d read just about anything and enjoy something about it. I still would if I had the time.

Is there a particular teacher or librarian who was a mentor for you in your reading and writing life?

I was lucky enough to have a lot of great teachers and librarians, but probably the most influential was my college professor, Susannah Berryman. She was the first person to make me believe I could do this professionally. Thanks Susannah!

Moving on to the here and now, most writers admit that making time to write can sometimes be a challenge.  When and where do you write?   Do you have any special rituals?  Music?  Food & beverages?

I write whenever, wherever. I prefer to lock myself in a quiet room while my husband watches the kids, but that’s not always possible. He has to like…work to earn money to pay our bills and stuff. So I write while cartoons are on, make notes in the car while I’m waiting to pick up my older girls, daydream storylines while I’m feeding the baby, just snatch time wherever I can. There is no special ritual, just stubbornness and determination.

Do you have a favorite strategy for revision?

Getting it done as quickly as possible because it is The Yuck. I hate revisions! 

What’s your best advice for young writers?

Read! All the time, everything you can get your hands on.

What’s special about your debut novel?

Zombies and romance, but not zombies having romance. (That’s my other book coming out with Flux in early 2010, lol.)

What were the best and worst parts of writing it?

Best=having my first revision go over well with my new editor.
Worst=learning my current editor was leaving…twice! Ugh, that was also The Yuck.

Would you like to share part or all of your successful query letter with blog readers? 

Dear Agent X:

Nothing is going to keep Megan from going to the Homecoming dance with Josh Pickle, the cutest guy in school. Not even an army of undead.

Megan is a zombie Settler. She helps the freshly dead to move on—at least, she did until a childhood accident stole her power. No big loss. Life as a normal teen is way better than hanging out with the undead, but just as Megan starts really going places—like on a date with Josh—her powers return.

Along with them comes Ethan, her childhood best friend and fellow Settler, who’s now all grown up and dangerously appealing. Being with Ethan feels…right, despite his attitude, but being with Ethan also means admitting to herself that she isn’t a regular teenager at all-she’s a Zombie Queen.

Of course, when someone tries to ruin Homecoming–not to mention her life–a Zombie Queen is just what’s needed to settle the risen dead. With the help of family and friends, she’s going to rise to the challenge of her new life, and maybe manage to dance with the hunk of her choice too.

YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME is a 75k stand-alone YA novel, but is intended as the first of a series.

As XXX, I have three books accepted for publication with XXXX. YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME is a different genre for me, but I’ve been a big fan of YA since I was a Y myself, and can’t imagine a more wonderful break from penning XXXX than writing for this exciting market.

Please feel free to visit my website: http://staceyjay.com if you’d like to learn more. Thanks so much for your time, and I hope to have the chance to shoot a few chapters your way.

(That query letter got a lot of response and several requests from agents other than the one I ended up signing with, so hopefully that will be helpful to someone J.)

Thanks, Stacey!

If you’re a zombie kind of person (come on…admit it), you can pick up YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME at your local independent bookseller, order it through one of my favorite indies, Flying Pig Bookstore(they ship!), or find an indie near you by checking out IndieBound!

Up next in the "How They Got Here" Debut 2009 series… Jenny Moss, author of WINNIE’S WAR, will be stopping by on Monday, March 2.

Thank you, Folsom School!

It’s been my experience that when you walk into a school, you get an immediate feel for what the place is all about.  When I walked up to the door of Folsom Educational Center in South Hero, Vermont this morning with my arms full of equipment and papers and artifacts, two young men rushed to help me right away.  When I got inside, I saw students sitting around reading before class and hallway walls covered with kids’ work.  This, I thought, is going to be a great day.

It was, thanks to the fantastic kids and teachers at Folsom, particularly librarian Sharon Hayes, who organized the visit and was my guide for the day. 

And you have to check out this project in the 5th-6th grade room.  They’ve been working with number concepts and trying to figure out what a million looks like and different ways to represent it visually. 


                        One million cubic centimeters


                        One million pieces of birdseed
(Doesn’t this look like fun? I wanted to stay and play with the birdseed, but eventually, they convinced me to start my presentation!)

I loved visiting with the kids about my historical novels, and I also did a new presentation for the 5th & 6th graders, about how I handle different steps in the writing process. At the end, I read from my upcoming novel THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z (Walker Books, September 1, 2009).  You know what?  It’s still a little scary sharing something out loud for the very first time.  But the kids were great and even clapped when I finished the chapter. 

The 3rd and 4th graders sent me off with a wonderful surprise — a packet of letters they wrote after they finished reading CHAMPLAIN AND THE SILENT ONE.  I’m in the process of reading those now (enjoying every minute!) and will post some excerpts and answers to their questions later this week.  Thanks, Folsom kids and teachers, for a great, great day!

Thank you, Dodge Memorial Library!

2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s voyage from Quebec to explore the lake that now bears his name.  There are big doings to mark that anniversary this year, and special Quadricentennial groups in New York and Vermont are planning more events for the summer.

Since my middle grade novel CHAMPLAIN AND THE SILENT ONE tells the story of that voyage through the eyes of an Innu boy who travels with Champlain, I’ve had quite a few requests to speak to different groups and schools this year.  I’m excited about all the places I’ll be visiting, up and down the lake.  My Quadricentennial schedule kicked off this morning at Dodge Memorial Library in Rouses Point, NY.  It’s a terrific library that looks out over a very frozen Lake Champlain.

Since we’re celebrating the stories of the lake this year, I read from both of my Lake Champlain historical novels and gave a presentation about the research behind them.  The kids were fantastic listeners and avid historians, and they had great questions.  Some of them are authors, too, with plans to write their own books some day.  I’m going to keep my eyes open for them in the bookstore in a few years!

Thanks, Dodge Memorial Library families and "Miss Donna" for having me as your guest today!

How They Got Here: 2009 Debut Author Saundra Mitchell

 This post is part of a year-long series of blog interviews I’ll be hosting with my fellow 2009 Debut Authors, called "How They Got Here." 

It should be an especially helpful series for teens who write, teachers, and anyone who wants to write for kids.  2009 debut authors will be dropping by to talk about how their writing in school shaped the authors they are today, what teachers can do to make a difference, how they revise, and how they found their agents and editors.  (You’ll even be able to read some successful query letters!)  If you know a teacher or two who might be interested, please share the link!


Today…Saundra Mitchell, author of SHADOWED SUMMER!


Nothing ever happened in Ondine, Louisiana, not even the summer Elijah Landry disappeared. His mother knew he ascended to heaven, the police believed he ran away, and his girlfriend thought he was murdered.

Decades later, certain she saw his ghost in the town cemetery, fourteen-year-old Iris Rhame is determined to find out the truth behind "The Incident With the Landry Boy."

Enlisting the help of her best friend Collette, and forced to endure the company of Collette’s latest crush, Ben, Iris spends a summer digging into the past and stirring old ghosts, in search of a boy she never knew.

What she doesn’t realize is that in a town as small as Ondine, every secret is a family secret.

Welcome, Saundra! Tell us about the first thing you ever wrote that made you think maybe you were a writer.

Even though I’ve been writing all my life, and had been selling stories and articles, it wasn’t until my second or third year as the head writer  on the Fresh Films series that I realized that writing was my calling and career. So I was a little slow in that regard.

What books did you love when you were a kid?

I loved The Outsiders, the Little House books, The Song of the Lioness series, pretty much everything by Lois Duncan, Zilpha Keatly Snyder, Stephen King, Jack London… this list is actually shorter if I list the books I loathed as a kid. (The Red Badge of Courage, if anyone’s curious. Why, Stephen Crane, whyyyyy?)

Is there a particular teacher or librarian who was a mentor for you in your reading and writing life?

My high school English teacher, Mrs. Redman. She got me. She just got me in a way none of the other teachers did, and she let me learn instead of making me conform. She was the first teacher who actively encouraged me to do more than read the text and spit out the approved answers. More than once, she said she was a great lover of words, and in her classes, I learned to be a great lover of words, too.

Moving on to the here and now, most writers admit that making time to write can sometimes be a challenge.  When and where do you write?   Do you have any special rituals?  Music?  Food & beverages?

Mostly, I just need people to leave me alone. I like to have a cocola, and some music, and a heating pad in my lap. But mostly, I just need my family to fend for themselves unless there’s blood involved!

Do you have a favorite strategy for revision?

I like to order my revision notes- easiest (things like spelling errors or badly-worded sentences in need of rescue) to hardest (adding in an entire storyline, rewriting large portions of the story.) Then I print them out so I can check off each revision as I complete it.  When I do it this way, I can see what I’m accomplishing, so it doesn’t feel like such an endless task.

What’s your best advice for young writers?

Read. A lot. And don’t let anyone tell you that fan fiction is NOT a great way to learn to be a good writer. In my opinion, it’s the *best* way!

What’s special about your debut novel?

Though I always strive for honesty and truth in my work, I think Shadowed Summer is different from a lot of books right now because it’s not stark. It reflects the reality of being suspended- in youth, in poverty, in ignorance- without insisting on the inevitability of hopelessness.

What were the best and worst parts of writing it?

This book was hard for me to write in a lot of ways. Mostly, I wanted to tell a wicked ghost story. That was the specific goal. But Shadowed Summer was also a way for me to ask *why*, and explore the answers, and the silences that come in response.

Would you like to share part or all of your successful query letter with blog readers? 

Nothing ever happened in Ondine, Louisiana, not even the summer Elijah Landry disappeared. His mother believed he ascended to heaven, the police believed he ran away, but twenty-five years later, fourteen-year-old Iris Rhame is determined to find out for sure. Enlisting the help of her best friend Collette, and forced to endure the company of Collette’s latest crush, Ben, Iris spends a summer digging into the past and stirring old ghosts in search of the truth. What she doesn’t realize is that in a town as small as Ondine, every secret is a family secret.

My name is Saundra Mitchell, and I have been a working writer for twelve years. For the last four years (and currently,) I’ve been the head writer for Dreaming Tree Films’ short film series, "Book of Stories," with over forty short film productions, and next year, principal photography will begin on my first feature, "A Rain of Blood." I have published fiction with ATM Magazine and Smokelong Quarterly, poetry with Poems Niederngasse, Doll World Magazine, and Parnassus, non-fiction with @Internet Magazine and The Familiar Magazine, among others, and I am a member of SCBWI.

"Incident" is my first young adult novel, however. It’s complete at 70,455 words, and I’d like to offer it to you for your consideration. As requested on Agents Actively Looking, I’ve enclosed the first chapter, and an SASE for your reply. Thank you in advance for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

(When I wrote this query, in 2003, Incident was the original title for Shadowed Summer. The book is now complete at about 45,000 words, and since then, I’ve written and produced over 300 short films! What a difference 6 years, a million revisions, and publication make!)

~ Shadowed Summer ~
Delacorte Press
www.shadowedsummer.com

You can pick up SHADOWED SUMMER at your local independent bookseller, order it through one of my favorite indies, Flying Pig Bookstore(they ship!), or find an indie near you by checking out IndieBound!

Up next in the "How They Got Here" Debut 2009 series…Stacey Jay, author of YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME, will be stopping by on Friday, February 20th.

Why I *Heart* Kids Heart Authors Day

What started with an idea Tweet from author Mitali Perkins turned into quite a party this morning, when authors and kids and parents gathered at independent bookstores all over the country.  I spent an amazing morning at Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vermont.

Flying Pig co-owner Elizabeth Bluemle had the kids laughing out loud as she shared her two picture books MY FATHER THE DOG and DOGS ON THE BED.

Tanya Lee Stone was there with her upcoming release ALMOST ASTRONAUTS. (I’ll be curled up with my copy in front of the fireplace shortly!)

I also met Ann Cardinal, a contributor to the anthology SISTER CHICAS, but Flying Pig was such a bustling place today that Ann had disappeared by the time I went to find her to snap her photo after the signing.    I did manage to catch Ray Montgomery and Shannon Gilligan, though.  That was a special treat, since I grew up on Ray’s CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE series, which has just been released again. 

Meeting kids at an event like this is always a joy, but every once in a while, something happens to make the day extra special.  Today, that "something" was courtesy of my new friend Madison, a fifth grader who came by to meet me and show me HER first published work — a review of my Lake Champlain historical novel CHAMPLAIN AND THE SILENT ONE that she wrote and had accepted for publication in the KidsVT family newspaper!

Madison and I made a deal….  I signed a copy of my other historical novel, SPITFIRE, for her, and she signed a copy of KidsVT for me!  She’s a talented young woman writes her own stories as well as book reviews, and I have no doubt she’ll have a book on these shelves some day, too.

Thanks to Elizabeth and Josie at Flying Pig, along with Mitali and Deborah Sloan for making this awesome event happen.  It was a great morning, absolutely full of book-magic.  I hope your Valentine’s Day was wonderful, too!

Kids Heart Authors Day in Vermont!

Who loves books?

Who loves independent booksellers?

If you’re waving your hand wildly now, I’m right there with you, and here’s one of many reasons why.  When my husband and I walked into Flying Pig  Bookstore a few weeks before Christmas, we were, as usual, trying to fit too many errands into a couple hours.  Josie, one of the fabulous owners, quickly plucked book suggestions off the shelves for everyone on our list.  Really, really perfect suggestions.  Like this one…

…which had my usually very serious 12-year-old son laughing hysterically and reading passages aloud nonstop for two days.  After we bought our books,  she reminded us what time our favorite computer store closed and told us where she thought we should eat dinner after we finished shopping.  (She sent us here, and it was amazing.)

That’s a pretty unique retail experience in this 21st century world of ours, and it’s one for which I’m thankful.  That’s why I’m spending this Valentine’s Day participating in Kids Heart Authors Day at Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne from 10:00-noon.  I’ll be signing copies of my two Lake Champlain historical novels, SPITFIRE and CHAMPLAIN AND THE SILENT ONE and sharing some related food and artifacts (hardtack and powder horns, anyone?). 

Fantastic authors like Elizabeth Bluemle, Tanya Lee Stone,  Ann Cardinal, Shannon Gilligan, and Ray Montgomery  are signing books as well.  And I hope you’ll be there, too – if  not at  Flying Pig, then at your local indie.  Click here for a full list of participating bookstores!

Creating Characters

I’m teaching a brand new elective at my middle school this semester — Advanced Creative Writing — and I’m lucky enough to be working with ten of the coolest, smartest 7th graders you ever did meet.  They’re working on independently selected writing projects, from novels to short stories to screenplays.  Along the way, I’ll be sharing some of our activities and asking for some of your favorite strategies to get the creative juices flowing.  I emphasize the concept of "mentor authors" in this class, encouraging kids to study what really works in their favorite authors’ writing and learn from it, so I’m hoping some of you writers out there (published and pre-published) might join in our conversation!

This morning, we worked on some introductory character development, answering these questions as our main characters:

What did you have for breakfast today?
What does your bedroom look like?
What are you worried about right now?
What do you want more than anything?
Who’s your best friend?
Who’s your worst enemy?

I always scribble along with the kids when we have a writing prompt, and today, I discovered some interesting things about a brand new main character who’s been starting to whisper in my ear. 

What about you?  What are some of your favorite strategies for getting to know your characters?