5 Years Later, Still Writing the Same Way!

Hello, writers and teachers! It’s lovely to visit with you, and happy 10th anniversary to this wonderful blog!

For my blast from the past, I’ve decided to link to my Wednesday Writing Workout post on writing rhyming nonfiction. I chose this rhyming nonfiction poem exercise because, 5 years later, it still accurately reflects how I go about writing. This trial-and-error, exploratory way of writing nonfiction verse still feels like home to me. The content is king in a nonfiction book, but playing with rhyme can help shape the way and order in which I'm going to share information, and it can suggest various examples and metaphors that I might not have thought of without rhyme.


It’s basically the same way I’ve been writing my nonfiction verse books (though none have been about fences--ha!). After WATER CAN BE..., which I shared also in that post, came A ROCK CAN BE... (Millbrook, 2016), MEET MY FAMILY: ANIMAL BABIES AND THEIR FAMILIES (Millbrook, 2018), and, soon, SNACK, SNOOZE, SKEDADDLE: HOW ANIMALS GET READY FOR WINTER (Millbrook, 2019). I also have two rhyming nonfiction picture books coming out from Bloomsbury in the next few years!


This spring, though, is a Poetry-Palooza celebration, as I have three poetry picture books that have all come out in the past few months. One is nonfiction but not rhyming. One is rhyming poems, but they are pure imagination. And one is haiku riddles, nonrhyming. I have Padlets on each book’s page on my website, so if you feel like trying your hand at some different types of poetry, I hope you’ll jump in and contribute!


SNOWMAN-COLD=PUDDLE: SPRING EQUATIONS (Charlesbridge, ill. by Micha Archer)

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT: POEMS FROM A WIDE-AWAKE HOUSE (Wordsong, ill. by Angela Matteson)

LION OF THE SKY: HAIKU FOR ALL SEASONS (Millbrook, ill. by Mercè López)

One other project I've been working on recently is getting some of my resources for children's writers gathered into one spot on my website.I hope you'll stop by to see if you find something useful, like my free Facebook Group or my in-depth articles on how I write a nonfiction picture book or how I research publishers and submit my manuscripts. And I've even joined Patreon, where I'm providing additional resources, like behind-the-scenes videos documenting how I'm writing my current picture book.

Besides all this good stuff, TeachingAuthors is running a giveaway of Cheryl Klein’s MAGIC WORDS. Just go back to Marti’s kickoff post to enter.

And, as it's Poetry Friday, be sure to check out the Roundup at Beyond LiteracyLink with the awesome Carol Varsalona!

Okay, that's it. Thanks for inviting me back! The depth of information shared here is really meaningful. I had fun reading a few of my old posts as well as other posts that caught my eye as I was browsing. You aren’t kidding when you call yourselves Teaching Authors!

xox,
Laura
---
Laura Purdie Salas

Letting Go of Fear (in Our 10th Year!)

.
Howdy, Campers! Happy Poetry Friday! (poem and the link to PF is below)

Before we begin, there's good news for those of you who want to win a terrific book: We’ve extended the deadline to enter our latest book giveaway of a signed copy of The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by editor and author Cheryl B. Klein. You’ll find giveaway instructions in Carmela’sMarch 29 post. The new deadline is now Tuesday, May 7, in part to honor the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week. Click here to find out how to enter.

And now...happy 10th blogiversary, fellow Teaching Authors! In particular, happy blogiversary to our founder and fearless leader, Carmela Martino, who has steered the TA ship across the years. I cannot begin to thank you for hauling me on deck just before we set sail. My world is so much richer for it!

pretty amazing

In honor of this memorable milestone, all current and several former Teaching Authors are sharing our favorite posts.  I've decided to go all the way back to 2009. Here's my post on our first topic, "How I Became a Teaching Author."  At the end of that post I conclude that teaching is generosity.

I've become more and more comfortable being honest with our readers. Today I know that being honest is a form of generosity.  (And to be honest, I was scared straight out of my jimmy-jammies writing that post.)

In this safe space, we've often shared fears about writing or teaching (find some of those posts here); I felt like an imposter as a writer and as a teacher for so long, fear was a second skin.

But this year something's changed. 

I must be like the Cowardly Lion at the end of the movie, The Wizard of Oz. As he is awarded a medal for courage, he becomes brave. After I was given an outstanding instructor award by the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, I believed that I actually was a good instructor, rather than pretending to be one.

Here is a not-yet-good-enough draft of a poem about how I so often felt:

TEACH
by April Halprin Wayland

I cannot do this today.

I sit on the stool in this empty classroom.

How dare I believe I can teach.

Am I a teacher?

Do other teachers feel this way--

slightly flu-ish, wanting to puke, even?

They should bring in someone else,

someone with a sword, maybe.

I wonder if my second grade teacher felt this way.

I wonder if all my teachers felt this way.

I almost fall off my stool 

imagining that.

But as I began teaching the first quarter of this year, here's what I wrote:
.

AGAIN
by April Halprin Wayland
.
Again she drives in early

unloads books

hooks up her laptop to the screen

puts one sheet of lavender paper

on each desk

puts the perfectly blooming hyacinth

just so on the edge of her desk

tapes her favorite quote on the front door

and two more inside her classroom.
.

Again she takes off running shoes

puts on high heels

brushes her hair

fills her water bottle

settles in.

She breathes for a moment,

closing her eyes.

Then she looks at the clock,

opens the door

and...
begins.

poems (c) 2019 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved. (Even on that crummy draft.)

One sign on my classroom door

As we celebrate 10 years of this blog, I celebrated 20 years as an instructor in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

I am no longer afraid to walk through that door. (And, though the fear has diminished, I still sweat writing this blog!  Perhaps that fear will disappear by our 20th blogiversary.)

my wonderful first class of 2019 holding some of their favorite picture books
both photos taken by our guest speaker, author Alexis O'Neill

Thank you for teaching me so much, readers. 

Happy Ramadan, Passover and/or Easter to all!

 And thank you, Amy at The Poem Farm for hosting!

Posted by April Halprin Wayland with help from Eli, the licky, lanky dog with the operatic bark.

Eli consulting Bear

A Very Sad P.S. to my March 15 Post…

P.S. is short for the term “Postscript” which comes from the Latin “Post Scriptum,” an expression meaning "written after.”

Alas,
on March 16, the very next day after posting my very sincere thanks and tribute to my very first children’s book writing mentor Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, the NY Times reported her March 12 death in Munster, Indiana.
Here’s the link.

My sighs were audible. I could feel my heart heave.
For one whole week, while working at my desk in Chicago, reading everything I could find about this award-winning author’s long-time career – interviews, reviews, write-ups galore, so I could tell my Love Story about I’M TERRIFIC’s creator to our Readers, Marjorie Weinman Sharmat was right around Lake Michigan’s bend making Other Plans.

I also lamented my decision to not include this photo.  I think it screams ‘TEACHINGAUTHOR!”

Publishers Weekly paid tribute to this prolific author on March 19.

Fortunately, a Munster newspaper obituary shared contact information so I could express to the Sharmat Family my condolences as well as my deep appreciation of this very terrific life-changing author.

Here’s to Nate the Great, but best of all, to Marjorie the Terrific!

Esther Hershenhorn

Tenth Blogiversary! Poetry Friday! Book Giveaway!

Hip-hip-hooray for ten years of Teaching Authors blog posts! In honor of this momentous milestone, all ten current and former Teaching Authors are sharing some of our favorite posts.

We’re also giving away a signed copy of The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by editor and author Cheryl B. Klein. You’ll find giveaway instructions in Carmela’s March 29 post. The giveaway ends on April 26. Good luck!

Because April is National Poetry Month and I’m posting on a Friday, I chose a post about poetry so I can participate in Poetry Friday and celebrate some more. I pored over all my old posts and picked one about the process of Revising a Poem because it still speaks to me. I hope you’ll also find a helpful tip or two!

Here in Wisconsin, this week’s April showers are snowflakes. Surprise!

We just returned from a vacation in gorgeous Hawaii, where sunshine felt like a soothing balm. We visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, watched the sun set from the southernmost point of the big island, hung out with hungry geckos, and ate our fill of tropical fruit. Here’s a glimpse of me with a massive bloom on a rainy day in the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, a paradise of flowers and stunning ocean views. And here’s a Hawaii Haiku:

yellow butterflies,
green sea turtles, black sand beach—
everything ebbs and flows

I’m happy to report that since I last posted here in August 2017, I signed a contract for a new picture book to be published in spring 2021, and two of my poems have been accepted by magazines. My recent writing has focused mostly on poems, some of which I’ve posted on my blog.

I’ve been spending more time at the sewing machine than at my writing desk lately, making Boomerang Bags reusable shopping bags. A post I wrote for the Authors for Earth Day blog explains more. But I’m missing the joy of writing, so I hope to snuggle back into a daily routine soon. I’m considering this post a start. Thank you, Teaching Authors, for inviting me to contribute!

Irene Latham has today’s Poetry Friday Roundup at Live Your Poem. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

My Favorite 99th Revision!

Happy Tenth Anniversary!

Carmella began the celebration of our   TENTH blogiversary at  TeachingAuthors! In honor of this momentous milestone, we'll be giving away a signed copy of The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults (W.W. Norton) written by book editor and author Cheryl B. Klein. You'll find the giveaway instructions here!

We are looking at our favorite posts of these last ten years, and I have to admit, I love them all, written by every one of the TAs. I found them all inspiring, informative and relevant to the ongoing adventures of writers who teach writing to children, teens and adults. But perhaps the most relevant discussion, from my post of Feb 2017,  centers on revision. I'm currently taking the Revising and Re-Imagining Your Novel or Chapter Book online workshop, offered by Harold Underdown and Eileen Robinson. This is my second time around, and I continue to learn new strategies on how to dig deep into your story, looking at what ails it, and how to -- as Cheryl Klein states in her book on what makes for a good story -- "take readers on wonderful outward adventures and stirring inward journeys."

"I want to be sucked into this imaginary world and believe these characters and their actions are real, and I want the flow of language to be like water to a fish -- transparent, so I see right through it to the action, and so immersive that I take it for granted." -- Cheryl B. Klein, The Magic Words

Remember that old marching song:

99 bottles of beer on the wall
99 bottles of beer
Take one down, and pass it around,
98 bottles of beer on the wall.

Its repetitive melody helps you find your rhythm when hiking trails or jumping ropes. It’s an ear worm that keeps you steady when the task at hand seems monumentally tedious. It diverts your attention from the monotony to the goal. That’s what I feel when I revise. When I finish a first draft, breathing a sigh of relief and accomplishment, I move on to the first revision. Only to discover another plot hole. A character acts out of character. First person slips into third person. Or worse, the history is wrong.

I write a blend of historical fiction and American fantasy, blending the folklore that captures the American identity with a unique form of fantasy that – I hope – captures forgotten times and personalities in American history. My first book, Big River’s Daughter (2013), begins in December 1811, when a series of earthquakes shook the Mississippi River basin. It shook so hard, the river ran backwards. It changed the landscape. Language is as important as the history during this time. In true rough and tumble fashion, the heroes of tall tales mocked and defied convention. Annie Christmas and Mike Fink – two important characters in the book – used language as wild and unabashed as the circumstance and landscape that created them and the protagonist, River. If the language isn’t correct, not only to the time and place and character, it’s time for a second revision.

98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer…

The historical details are particularly important, whether it is the day the river ran backwards or a day during the Civil War. Historians work within a broad spectrum of data-gathering, dairies, journals and other volumes of primary sources. Planning and plotting resemble postnotes arranged in rainbows, Venn diagrams and flowcharts, all in the quest for accuracy. The process of writing historical fiction, like researching history, is neither straightforward nor risk-free. My second novel, Girls of Gettysburg (2014),  focused on Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg. No other time in American history has been so researched, even down to the number of bullets fired during the charge. Historical fiction makes the facts matter to the reader. If you get those details wrong…

97 bottles of beer on the wall, 97 bottles of beer… 

Even after a manuscript is done, it's not truly done. My dear Reader (what some might call a beta-reader, but I call her Clara) and I have a process. After so many rejections, we review the story, and look for possible revisions. For all the blood, sweat and tears – no tall tale here! – spilled during the writing of the manuscript, a manuscript is more likely to get rejected than not. Recently, I revised one rejected manuscript, taking it from 150 pages to 175 pages, refining character,  language and plot while expanding on the historical context. During this process,  I have to keep reminding myself, revising is when the real writing begins. This is when the real story emerges, the one that needs to be told. 

Now I’m revising another historical fantasy manuscript. The original was an experiment into the contemporary. After several rejections, it became apparent that the experiment didn’t work. With this book, I venture into the wild, wild west, taking on its fantastical landscapes and lore. Think The Reluctant Dragon meets American Gods.

96 bottles of beer on the wall, 96 bottles of beer…

Historical fiction is one of the hardest sells today. As one agent warned me, western themes are harder still. The original manuscript was 150 pages, and I have to get it to 225 (for many reasons, one of which is the conventions our hoped-for editor prefers)...

95 bottles of beer on the wall, 95 bottles of beer…

You know what? I hate beer. And this morning, I hate revision even more. It’s hard, hard, bloody hard work.  It makes me dizzy-eyed. And there’s no guarantee that after all that blood spilled, sweat poured, and tears cried, and there’s been plenty of each, I’ll even be offered that coveted contract. So why do it anyway?

Indeed. Instead of spending all those hours writing, typing, outlining, researching, deleting, cutting, pasting, I could bake a pie. I could eat a pie. I could give my cat a bath. I could learn a new hobby, plant another garden, or two, or three…

Wait. Pause. Take a breath.

True enough, I have enough gardens. And I have enough hobbies, which mostly centers on books and more books. And my cat would not let me live to see another day if I dared give him a bath. And I haven’t had a baking oven for close to a decade.

Besides, this character, for all her flaws, is getting really interesting. If I could just…

Fine. Back to work.

94 bottles of beer on the wall, 94 bottles of beer…

Don't forget to enter our giveaway!

Bobbi Miller