Unpacking, and Adventures in Boston

For the past couple of weeks, since returning from my Texas trip, I haven’t been writing. It’s the first extended break I’ve taken since I can remember. And I’m taking this break because I have been, finally, unpacking case after carton of books – one of the last of the moving-into-a-new-home tasks.

Too many books??

All this sorting and sifting is good for the mind and great for the library. For the first time I can put picture books together, and alphabetize my YA collection (heck, might as well!) I’ve found duplicates of some books – time for the library sale – and others, well, I wonder why I have them on the shelf. I’ve found a number that must be added to my TBR pile. Some books the family has outgrown, and some I separate to highlight in a treasured spot.

This is much like what I have to do to my manuscript when I pick it up again next week, especially after this bit of time and distance. Some scenes need to be cut and some reordered so they work better with their neighbors. Some choice phrases turn up once too often. I’ve outgrown some clichéd expressions and I find passages of which I can be just a little proud. Putting my words in a box and taping it up for a while is the best way to view them all with a fresh eye.

In other news, I’ll be in Boston next week, speaking on two panels at the annual AWP conference at the Hynes Convention Center, with a bunch of my 2k10 friends (Michele Corriel, Swathi Avasthi, Leah Cypess, and Alexandra Diaz) and Anna Staniszewski. We’ll be speaking on Craft in YA on Thursday at 4:30PM, and Marketing Techniques on Friday at 10:30AM. And on Saturday March 9 from 10:30-noon I’ll be signing my books in the Vermont College of Fine Arts booth (#312). Come see us!

Austin's Writing Barn: A Special Place; Plus Texas Trails

The screen porch on the Barn - great for eating and working.

At the end of January I made a trip to Texas for a number of events. For the time I spent in Austin I was lucky to stay at The Writing Barn, a unique facility located on the south side of Austin owned and run by multi-talented author (and friend and VCFA alum) Bethany Hegedus. It turned out to be as much a personal retreat for me as a promotional tour.

The Writing Barn is peaceful and serene. For the hours I spent there between events I was able to write without interruption - which was not something I expected. I don't usually write easily while I travel, so I was thrilled to add almost 8000 words to my WIP during my stay.

As if the Austin kidlit scene weren't already one of the best, starting this year Bethany is hosting a series of "Advanced Writer Weekend Workshops". The first featured former editor and now agent Alexandra Penfold. The second in mid-April will address emotional pacing and be conducted by Sara Zarr, and the third, next November, will be run by Francisco X. Stork and is titled "Diving Deeply: Thoughts, Gestures, and Dialogue". I encourage writers to check out these offerings and, if you are in Austin, make plans to visit the Writing Barn.

At the MCBF with authors Suzanne Crowley, left, and Anna Myers.

I also was privileged to participate in a huge event in The Woodlands, the Montgomery County Book Festival. The readers I met - teens and adults alike - were attentive and excited and thrilled to meet so many of their favorite authors. The Festival had something for everyone - put it on your calendar if you are in the Houston area.

And a huge shout-out to BookPeople in Austin, Barnes & Noble in College Station, the awesome librarians in Austin and Houston who made me so welcome, and Murder By the Book in Houston - I had a ton of fun.

Interview with Erin S. Gray: MOONSHINE MURDER, a Novel Set in 1925

I met Erin Gray this past fall, when I had the great honor of attending the Women Writing the West conference in Albuquerque as a finalist for the WILLA Literary Awards for FORGIVEN. Erin, currently serving as president of WWW, is a bubbly young woman who set a fascinating tale of young Lenora fighting corruption and facing danger in 1925 in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. (Erin recently hosted me on her blog.) We share a lot in common - love of the west, love of hiking, love of the 1920s - and I'm delighted to host her today on the blog.

Congratulations on the publication of your novel, MOONSHINE MURDER. It’s a wonderful tale! Can you tell us a bit about the story and what inspired it?

Thank you, Janet. Here’s a bit from the novel:

It’s 1925. The small cabin deep in the San Juan Mountains is the only home seventeen-year-old Lenora Giovanni has ever known. But when her father dies from tainted moonshine, leaving her alone, she is forced into a life of danger.

MOONSHINE MURDER is a murder mystery / historical fiction. I was first inspired to write this story on a backpacking trip deep in the San Juan Mountains. I stumbled upon an abandoned miner’s cabin and was instantly intrigued. What kind of person would live here? What kind of life would that be? I started hitting the local museums and historical societies and unearthed some of the biggest secrets in the Four Corners – moonshine in the mountains.

How long have you been writing for children/teens? Have you written other books or is this your first effort?

I’ve been writing before I could even construct a sentence. My older sister was my scribe, and I would dictate the stories oozing from my imagination.

I wrote another historical fiction based on the Irish Immigrants during the Great Potato Famine. I never sought publication for this piece, but the desire to become published certainly started with that story.

Can you describe your path to the publication of MOONSHINE MURDER?

The path to publication for MOONSHINE MURDER is a long one. If you go to my blog, I have posted a picture of my drafts. It’s a very large pile, and I regret having to kill so many lovely trees to get to this point. But it was worth it.

I started writing this tale in 2003 between teaching middle school language arts. I first submitted to a publisher in the spring of 2006, right after the birth of my first son. From there I received several rejections, some kind enough to give me tips. I would edit, and submit again.

My contract offer came in the spring of 2012, and publication in the fall of 2012.

What research tricks or tools did you use while writing the novel?

I start with an idea, a time in history, or simply a curiosity. From there I hit the museums, the historical societies, the library. I try to get leads to primary sources. I’ve been fortunate enough to have interviews from people who experienced what I wrote about, and who remember what Prohibition in Durango was like. Some of my juiciest details are true tales.

Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

I will give the same advice given to me by western writer, Louis L’Amour’s wife – be persistent and never give up. Believe in yourself and your gift. Write every chance you get, and then write even more. 

Can you tell us something about your personal life – inspirations, plans for the future, goals, etc.?

I have a wonderful family. I live in Southwest Colorado with my husband, two sons (6 and 1), an ole dog and two cats named Slobbers and Sugar. I love to backpack-- to be a part of nature.

Do you have any new writing ventures underway?

Yes. I am writing a historical fiction based on the legend of a preacher’s daughter turned outlaw who used the Cliff dwellings in Southwestern Colorado as her hideout.

That sounds terrific - I can't wait! Do you have a website where readers can learn more about MOONSHINE MURDER and your other books? 

www.erinsgray.com

Reviving the Ailing Manuscript: When Is It Time to Let Go?

All writers have them: manuscripts in various stages of completion that may or may not ever see the light of day. I'm not talking about work that we've abandoned because life got in the way; I'm talking about work that just doesn't feel right.

I have a few of these books and I stare at the files and ask myself, what went wrong? And, can it be fixed?

Recently Marion Dane Bauer spoke to this topic in a series of excellent blog posts addressing her own failed picture book manuscript. She rightly states that picture books are such fragile things that it's nigh on impossible to resuscitate a failed picture book. But, she adds, it might be easier to bring a failed or failing novel back to life.

That notion pushed me to examine some of the reasons my own novels have "failed" or are failing, and whether I might be able to give them a second chance. Here are some of my observations in case they are useful to you:

• If the reason for failure is due to weak characterization of protagonist or antagonist:

This may be resolvable. A deeper character analysis might reveal a backstory wound. A change in tone might bring a character's voice to light. A shift in point of view - from, say, third to first person - can often shift the character into gear. Taking the character outside her comfort zone - stressing her, putting her in harm's way - can often reveal the underpinnings of response. Forcing the character into doing something "out of character" can elicit deeper revelations and emotional reactions. 

If this is my problem, and I still love the story, I'll give it a second chance.

• If the reason for failure is due to weaknesses in the plot:

This one is tougher for me and often depends upon where I am in the novel - first draft, second draft, etc. Do I have enough tension? Can I add or subtract scenes to increase the tension or reveal new things about my characters or the situation? Can I spin the plot in a new direction without trashing the story entirely?

But in that last question lies the difficulty. If my premise is weak, I'm in trouble. Or, rather my novel is in trouble. It's hard to shore up a weak premise. Sometimes I can spin the premise, turn it around and look at it from another direction; but sometimes...

And in the case of writing fantasy or science fiction (both of which I'm trying now), the premise is everything, in my view. And if the premise, however good, has been done to death in recent years (vampires, anyone?) then the novel will likely be viewed as derivative at best. Time to abandon. If the premise is unwieldy such that your reader cannot suspend disbelief, time to abandon, or at least set aside.

• If the reason for failure is due to lack of heart:

Fatal. If I have lost the heart of my story - the love for the story above anything else, a belief in the power of that story, a feeling that it reveals my own heart and the underpinnings of the human experience - I'm done.

Here's what Marion had to say, and she's right: the deepest flaw that can inhabit any piece is a lack of genuine heart. I have to love the story to pieces to be able to write it. And I know that an editor, agent, and my readers will feel my lack of heart and respond with a "meh" if I don't give them my emotional all. (This is why I don't write assignment work, unless the assignment speaks to me.) 

We've all read books by authors we love that seem to be weak, or lost altogether; I imagine it's hard for an editor to put aside the work of a successful author. I would rather be my own arbiter of what I want to send out into the world. I have maybe half a dozen completed but flawed novels that will likely never see the light of day, that I've set aside, even when someone has asked for the work. 

But that's fine. I move on and write the next one, and the next and the next. As Marion says, the very act of writing feeds us...Success is only a happy byproduct, not the reason for our effort. 

Exactly.

Footsteps: Revision

A few weeks back I gave out some practical revision ideas, but today I want to examine a more nuanced way to look at revision.

My walk in the summer and fall.

Every day I try to take a walk. Usually I’m taking the same walk, retracing my footsteps. It’s a good walk, part exercise, part meditation; I use my walking time to let my brain ruminate on my current project, and more often than not, that rumination is fruitful.

In fact I find that I reach a breakthrough idea at about the same point every walk - that must be the place where my brain relaxes into my physical exertion and my internal editor goes on vacation, because I come up with my best ideas as I reach that rock, that tree.

Today, while walking this route, I could see the imprint of yesterday’s walk in the fresh snow. I put my foot in the same imprint at times; at times, I moved away for easier footing or a more direct route. Sometimes I moved even further, if I heard or saw something of interest that I could incorporate into my walk, weaving a deer sighting or a wolf track into the thread of this walk and into memory.

Winter dawn at my new Bozeman house...just because.

This is how I see revision. I walk in the footsteps of my previous work. Sometimes I work to make something more direct. Sometimes I clarify. And sometimes I find an entirely new thread, a new path, or a new and exciting interest.

I love revising, almost as much as I love walking. The generation of work is exciting, just as walking a new route can be a thrill. But walking the same route every day is a pleasure of a different kind – awakening my senses and sharpening my focus.

So I’m off to revise...right after my walk!

Upcoming Texas Tour

While I'm still digging myself out of boxes (too many books! Can someone have too many books? Yes, when that someone has to move them into a new home...) I thought I'd post information about my upcoming Texas book tour. I'm excited to get back to my for-awhile home state and see many great friends, so here's the itinerary. 

Tuesday, January 29th
7 pm
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar Blvd.
Austin, TX 78703-5413
512-472-4288

Wednesday, January 30th

6:30 pm
Westbank Library
1309 Westbank Drive
Austin, TX 78746
512-327-3045

Thursday, January 31st

Guest room at The Writing Barn

12-2 pm
Discussion / librarian book exchange
Austin Public Library

While in Austin, I'll be staying at The Writing Barn. I'm going to write a blog post about that experience when I return.

Friday, February 1 - Sunday, February 3

Montgomery County Book Festival

The MCBF should be an awesome weekend event, with many terrific authors in attendance. I'm thrilled to be involved. Panels will run all day Saturday, with time for attendees to meet their favorite authors.

Tuesday, February 5

6 PM

B&N College Station
Lone-Star Pavilion
711 Texas Avenue
College Station, TX 77840
979-764-8955

Houston's Joy Preble (the Anastasia series) will join me for a booktalk in College Station.

I hope I get to see you in Texas!

Happiest of Holidays

I'm going on a short hiatus while we move into our new home (yay!) in Bozeman, Montana, and I squeeze in time to finish pages on a middle grade novel. I'll be back the first week in January with a final revision post and some new things to bring to everyone.

So, the happiest of holidays and warmest wishes of this blessed season to you all. Just for fun, here's a look at our new living room only a couple of weeks ago - now it's filled with boxes. Presents under the "tree!"

Purely Personal: On Taking a Stand

I love writing for children. I’ve often thought that it’s because I’m reliving something from my childhood. But I also see that it’s because children ask the most direct questions, some of which I cannot answer. I’m trying to answer them for the children who read my books and for the child inside me.

So my question, right now, in the wake of Sandy Hook, is: why?

Why are we here? Why do innocent children die? Why do we suffer? Why does discourse lose civility, and why can we not find common ground?

I write for children hoping to find an answer to these questions.

I’m deeply proud to be a member of the kidlit community that asks and seeks to answer these questions. This is a passionately committed community that strives to protect children, to engage children, to help children find answers to the fundamental questions, and especially to the central question: why?

I don’t have answers, but I do have thoughts. And one of these thoughts is that if I can’t answer the questions, I can do something.

I can take a stand.

There is no more time in our society to look away. Too many children suffer. We can no longer look away from child exploitation. We can no longer look away from child slavery and forced child marriage. We can no longer look away from the violence promulgated by the entertainment industry aimed at children. We can no longer look away from the ease of access to weapons that kill the most innocent with impunity.

I can no longer look away.

I am taking a public stand against access to assault weapons.

I believe there is no earthly or God-given reason that a semi-automatic weapon capable of killing scores of people – of killing twenty innocent children – even when wielded by an inexperienced shooter should be available to any person, at any time.

I’m taking a stand in favor of gun control.

I’m also taking a stand in favor of hope.

This is the time of year when we all look to the most generous of human ideas: that birth is a gift and yet that our life may require sacrifice, self-denial, and loss. Human generosity – that the gift of life does require sometimes overwhelming sacrifice – gives me hope.

A teacher who barricades a door and loses her life in the bargain has sacrificed everything for her children, and this gives me deep grief, but also hope. A first responder who carries the unimaginable burden of doing a job well in the face of personal horror gives me hope. A nation that takes stock and may be awakening to a new reality gives me hope.

Why are we here? What is the meaning of life?

More importantly, why are you here? What kind of stand can you take – can we take – that will make a difference to the children today and the children of the future?

This is an important question, and I’m asking myself this question every hour. And I’m taking a stand. I’m standing up for the children. 

I hope you'll stand with me.

Jingle Bell Hop! Blog Hop Post

I was tapped by my friend Jan Godown Annino to participate in a blog hop. In case you don’t know Jan’s work, she’s the author of an acclaimed picture book biography, SHE SANG PROMISE, illustrated by Lisa Desimini. It would be a wonderful addition to any library.

I’m answering here the questions that she passed along to me. And I thought I’d talk about one of my WIPs. I usually keep this stuff to myself until the very end, so as not to jinx anything. Fingers crossed!

What is the working title of your book?

THE NETHERWORLD.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I had a dream that I was suspended in a place between life and death, and when I woke up, I knew I had to write about how that felt. This novel is a bit dark and dreamlike.

What genre is your book?

Middle grade fantasy.

What is the synopsis of the novel?

Jake, a boy who is trying to deal with a school bully, causes an accident that renders his sister Eliza unconscious and near death. Jake is told that if he sells his soul he can rescue her from the Netherworld, the place between life and death. He agrees; but his mission is not as simple as it would seem. By entering the Netherworld Jake sets in motion other and bigger events. Jake and Eliza and the Netherworld guardian Mab must find a way to save Eliza, Jake’s soul, and the Netherworld itself.

How long did it take to write the first draft?

I’ve got a very rough first draft that took me about four months to write. But most of that draft will disappear...I started the novel as a workshop piece at Vermont College of Fine Arts and it grew.

What other books are comparable to this book?

Middle grade fantasy is booming and rich at the moment - something that excites me greatly. I’m reading THE PECULIAR by Stefan Bachmann, and just finished GOBLIN SECRETS by William Alexander, and I think they both have things in common with THE NETHERWORLD. And I love Lauren Oliver’s fantasies – especially LIESL AND PO.

I’ve tagged my friends and fabulous authors Bethany Hegedus and Joy Preble, so please check their blogs in the next couple of weeks for their blog hop posts!

Bethany's link: http://www.thewritingbarn.com/category/blog/

Joy's link: http://joysnovelidea.blogspot.com/

Revision, Part 2

Last week I talked about a few of the more global approaches that I take while revising a manuscript in progress; this week I’ll try and finish up with the following:

• how I use checklists
• my favorite workbooks
• dedicated passes

As I move into the middle to later stages of revision, I like to use checklists to remind me to pay attention to my own personal quirks – the tics I’ve developed as a writer that weaken my writing. Because my first drafts are so organic, I tend to be lazy at times – I’m paying more attention to getting stuff down on paper than I am on the smaller issues. So this mid-revision process is truly important.

Here’s a personal checklist that I developed a long time ago:

• Find all the "ly" words (i.e., adverbs) by using the Word "find" feature and eliminating most - if not all.
• Search for "it is/was" and "there is/was". It's almost always stronger to use different phrasing. (Or, by example... “Phrases are almost always stronger when they don’t begin with ‘it's’.”)
• Search for places where my character "felt," "saw," "looked," etc. When I'm really inside my character, those soft verbs aren't necessary. Much better to show the event or action without the distancing verbs.
• Search for sentence "flow." In particular, I look sentence by sentence for stronger first and last words. First and last are the most important words in the sentence.
• Search for passive voice and other indicators of "telling" (like, helping verbs, "to be" verbs).
• Try to make sure there's tension on every page. 
• Remove dialogue tags wherever possible. Even "said" can get in the way when only two people are talking.
• Make sure gesture substitutes for internal thoughts wherever possible.
• Look for those things that popped up in my subconscious and may be amplified - recurring metaphors or images.



my own workbook in the company of the "greats"

• Watch for unintentional repetition of certain words and phrases. 

I have several workbooks that are particular favorites, and at some stage of revision I’ll work through some or all of the exercises within:

• DonaldMaass, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook 
• DarcyPattison, Novel Metamorphosis
• MarthaAlderson, The Plot Whisperer Workbook
• CherylKlein, Second Sight

As you can see, I’ve made up my own workbook that includes my checklists and some others I’ve collected at conferences and workshops. In that workbook is a list of the things I look for in my dedicated passes.

At some point near the end of the revision process, I’ll do a dedicated pass for things like:

• smooth and interesting transitions between chapters
• magnification of character traits
• items of metaphoric significance or resonant setting details or thematic elements that can be amplified

These dedicated passes allow me to focus on just one thing at a time. Sometimes, in a more complicated story, I may have to do a dedicated pass for small items like eye or hair color, or prop details.

What this all means is that I often do 15 or 20 or more revisions for each work. Sometimes things change radically from revision to revision; sometimes I'm changing just one thing, albeit important (to me, at least.) The later revisions usually take only a short amount of time - maybe only a day each. But this process works for me.

Next week I’ll be participating in a blog hop – but the following week I’ll talk about the most important aspect of revision: inspiration.