Remembering 9/11

I just wanted to offer my condolences to those who lost loved ones and/or were injured themselves in NYC or at The Pentagon on the morning of 9/11/01. It was an awful, tragic day that no one will ever forget.

My mother (who retired 2 years ago) at the time worked in lower Manhattan for the City of New York as a clerical aide for the NYPD & actually saw from her desk window the first plane hit Building 1 of the WTC but thought it was an accident--at first. Then, when the 2nd plane hit, the impact shook her whole building (which was probably 10-15 blocks away). She said everyone (well, everyone on her floor anyway) grabbed their purses/bags and ran down the stairs to the street level. But once they got outside, it was, of course, utter chaos. She said everyone on the sidewalk was running for buses, trains, whatever to get away from the debris falling from the sky. She said she didn't dare look up to see exactly WHAT was falling/flying through the air, and also the STENCH was so horrible you had to cover your nose & mouth as you ran. But run she did and made the last train uptown to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station to catch a bus back home to Jersey. During this time I had also left work (in the Bronx) & was on my to the GWB as well. But, as we soon found out (I somehow met up with her at the GWB), the GWB was CLOSED until it was deemed safe for buses to cross.

While we waited, we struck up a conversation I will never forget with a woman who escaped from no. 1 WTC after the first plane hit. She was on a lower floor and decided to leave right then & there. At that time, no one knew exactly what was happening, she said. And no one else wanted to leave but her. When she got down to the ground floor (elevators were still working at that time), it was a madhouse outside, debris from the plane, bodies, etc. everywhere. She said after she ran a block & looked back, her building was coming down. She didn't think anyone else in her company made it out alive. And this woman was amazingly calm (or maybe in shock?). My mother & I just listened in awe as she told this story.

The GWB finally reopened around 6 or 7 p. m. We got home around 8 p.m., but some people we later learned didn't make it home till around 11 p.m. or so. It was just an awful, awful, awful, day we will never forget.

Thanks for listening. I hope I didn't depress anyone; just wanted to share my experience.

Thoughts on a Thursday

Books on Writing for Children

Hi all!

Yesterday, I was rummaging around my bookshelf and noticed I had accumulated quite a few titles on writing for children. So I thought I'd list them. Now those of you who've been writing for some years probably already own many of these. But for the newer writers out there, I hope these books will offer the same hope, direction, and inspiration that they have provided (and still provide) me along my writing journey.

Here they are (in no particular order):

1) The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children by Nancy Lamb

2) Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine

3) How to Write a Children's Book and Get It Published (3rd ed.) by Barbara Seuling

4) Creating Characters Kids Will Love by Elaine Marie Alphin

5) How to Write and Sell Children's Picture Books by Jean E. Karl

6) Writing Fiction for Children by Judy K. Morris

7) Writing for Children & Teenagers (3rd ed.) by Lee Wyndham

8) Writing & Publishing Books for Children in the 1990s; the inside story from the editor's desk by Olga Litowinsky

9) The ABCs of Writing for Children; 114 children's authors and illustrators talk about the Art, the Business, the Craft, & the Life of Writing Children's Literature; compiled by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff

10) How to Write a Children's Picture Book; learning from The Very Hungry Caterpillar . . . and other favorite stories by Eve Heidi Bine-Stock

11) Origins of story; on writing for children; edited by Barbara Harrison and Gregory Maguire (NOTE: this is a collection of lectures presented at various symposiums sponsored by Children's Literature New England, by such authors as Ursula K. Le Guin, Katherine Paterson, Maurice Sendak, Susan Cooper, Sharon Creech, Margaret Mahy, Tom Feelings, Jill Paton Walsh, and Virginia Hamilton)

And, of course, the ANNUAL directory no children's writer should be without: the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (CWIM). I believe the 2010 edition is now available!

And if you have any particular book(s) on writing for children, or writing in general, that you refer to often please feel free to share them here. Thanks! :)

Fabulous Friday!

Well, there's been some interesting discussions going on in the blogosphere. Here are a few, if you haven't come across them already:

1) On her blog Brooklyn Arden, senior editor Cheryl Klein of Arthur A. Levine Books posted this Open Letter to Agents. The comments, by both agents and bloggers alike were very interesting. Also, Michael Bourret posted a very thoughtful response on his agency's blog here. As for me, while I can clearly see cases for both sides, I think I lean a bit more toward Cheryl's perspective as I said on her comment page that giving ALL interested editors sufficient time to read a manuscript & get their respective houses on board would really be the best means of matching the right editor to the right manuscript. Because working with an editor is usually a long-term realtionship, isn't it? A good 18 months or more, right? I know, personally, that I'd rather be hooked up with someone who was compatible, both editorially & personality-wise.

What do you think?


2) Elizabeth Bluemle of Publishers Weekly's online column Shelftalker: A Children's Bookseller's Blog posed a question yesterday, garnering a multitude of thought-provoking comments. The question (and article) was Where's Ramona Quimby, Black and Pretty? And in light of the recent Bloomsbury cover controversy, I don't think it could have come at a better time. Although I LOVED reading the Ramona series growing up, this is something I really didn't wonder about until years later. I guess at the age 8 & 9, I mainly read stories that interested me, not really taking note of the main character's race. I mean I read Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and Louise Fitzhugh as easily as I read Alice Childress and Rosa Guy. All I cared about then was a good story. It was only till years later when I really paid attention to the craft & business of writing for children that I wondered about this issue. And even now, with the arrival of such chapter books as Ruby and the Booker Boys and the Keena Ford series, I still think there is room for much more. Who know, I may even try one, one day . . . :)


3) And finally, last month I read an enlightening letter (to all kids' book publishers) by a school librarian in the online issue of School Library Journal. I found it quite interesting. here's the link.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Monday Musings

Okay, I missed last Monday--all right, I missed posting all last week. But here I am today!

Before I start with my links and tidbits of information, I want to give a BIG WELCOME to my newest followers from the last couple of weeks (months?). Thanks so much for your thoughts and encouragement!

Next, I want to offer my long overdue "CONGRATULATIONS!" to Shelli at Market My Words on acquiring her agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin at Trident Media Group. Now, I did congratulate Shelli over at her own blog but I just wanted to give her a shout-out here, too. And folks, if you want some inspiration, read Shelli's journey here, and one of her more recent posts about The Editorial Letter. Also, today she interviews literary agent Kate Schafer Testerman of kt literary, part of her ongoing Monday's Marvelous Marketers series. Check out the previous & upcoming posts in this series. Great reading!

Wow. It's been so long since I've posted links to share with everyone, I almost don't know where to begin. But I really like finding new links to share about writing and publishing . . . so here I go!

You've more than likely come across these by now, but if you haven't . . . well, I hope they can help.

Since I last posted in depth, aspiring author Casey McCormick has shone the "Spotlight" on these agents:

Marietta B. Zacker (Nancy Gallt Literary Agency)
Daniel Lazar (Writers House)
Kelly Sonnack (Andrea Brown Literary Agency)
Sarah Davies (Greenhouse Literary)
Steven Malk (Writers House)
Jamie Weiss Chilton (Andrea Brown Literary Agency)
Rebecca Sherman (Writers House)
Ted Malawer (formerly of Firebrand Literary)
Marianne Merola (Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.)
Jill Corcoran (Herman Agency, Inc.)
Erin Murphy (Erin Murphy Literary Agency)

And here's a few more agents who'll soon be appearing:

Bill Contardi
Rosemary Stimola
Merrilee Heifetz
Joe Monti
Brenda Bowen

So . . . go bookmark her site, Literary Rambles. NOW. Happy agent hunting!

-------------------------------------------------------

A while back, a blogger left a comment (question) about wanting to break into the children's picture book market. Now I'm really not much of a picture book expert (although I am working on 2 PBs on the side) as I've been concentrating mainly on revising my current work-in-progress, a middle-grade historical novel. BUT, in my perusings around the blogosphere & internet, I have come across some great links on writing picture books.

Here are some of them:

Tips for Writing Picture Books by children's author Dotti Enderle

A Children's Writing To-Do List by Tara Lazar

Another post by Tara Lazar on what she learned at a recent NJSCBWI first page session (for picture books & MG/YA) held earlier this year. Doesn't she take awesome notes?

Some helpful links from children's author Lisa Schroeder

Resources for Children's Writers by Rachelle Burk

Want info on How to Write the First Draft of a Picture Book? Just click here.

More recently, I found this great post by author Mary Ann Rodman on the Teaching Authors blog, on how she became the Accidental Picture Book Author

ALSO, be sure to check out this link from the recent SCBWI 2009 Summer Conference on Creating an Extraordinary Picture Book

Last, but not least, for some general writerly advice, go and review these TEN COMMANDMENTS by literary agent (and former editorial director) Michael Stearns


Sorry I took so long to do this, but I hope these help! (Oh, yes, if anyone else knows of any other picture book tips/links, please feel free to add.)

Happy Writing! :)

It's Friday!

Whoo-Hoo, the weekend's here!
Sorry this post is coming so late everyone, but I do hope you all had an excellent day. The weather was pretty nice here in the Northeast.

I had named this post "Fabulous Friday" but I'm sure for the Hughes family it is not fabulous. I know everyone has heard by now of the recent passing Thursday (Aug. 6) in Manhattan of writer/producer/director John Hughes ("Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club"). I don't know about you but Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club were movies that I so identified with in the mid-1980s as a student in high school. And it's funny, but just like a majority of the YA books I read back then, I could so identify with the teen angst in these movies even though I was of another ethnicity and background (I grew up in Harlem and went to an all-girls Catholic high school in NYC). But I could just so relate to Molly Ringwald's character, especially in Sixteen Candles & Pretty in Pink). You know, those feelings of self-doubt, self-consciousness, fitting in/standing out, making friends, making enemies, watching cliques, creating your own "group," etc. I think, emotionally, that she was a sort of EVERYGIRL, which I guess is why the movies were so popular. I think Hughes really GOT the teenage mind.

Hughes also wrote and produced Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck, and Home Alone (1 & 2). And I still find these hilarious whenever I catch them on a cable channel.

Anyone else ever watch these movies as a teen?

(I, um, of course don't mean to give away anyone's age. So you needn't reveal you saw the movies when they first came out (unless, of course, you want to). I think most everyone has probably seen them later on cable anyway. :)

See you all Monday!

The Power of the Blogosphere

Great news!

As announced today in the online edition of Publishers Weekly, Bloomsbury Children's Books has agreed to change the cover of Justine Larbalestier’s Liar.

You can read about it here.

"Sparkly's" Birthday

Just wanted to give a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my oldest daughter, "Sparkly," on celebrating her 10th birthday today! Wow, time really flies.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, "Sparkly"!! Love ya!