Author: hatfield13

Five things on a Friday

1. Beautiful weather makes it hard to get work done. Has anyone else noticed that?  Last night, the kids had friends over for swimming and a campfire and s’mores, so my writing  had to wait until well after dark.  So, so worth it.

2. I am still not very good at golf.  I discovered this on yesterday’s all-four-of-us family golf outing.  On the plus side, though, my nine-year-old discovered she is very good at driving golf carts and enjoys this immensely. Plus we saw a great blue heron eat a frog on the 5th hole.

3. It’s still blueberry season here in Northern NY, which means blueberry pancakes this morning for the sleepy kids who are just starting to stir.

4. My revision book for teachers is coming along (in spite of the whole call-of-the-campfire issue) and has been so much fun to research. Talking with middle grade authors about their revision processes has been more of a blessing than I could have imagined when I agreed to write this book. 

5. I have been stepping over a cardboard box in the garage for two days, assuming it was an empty one that needed to be recycled. (If you have ever been in my garage, you understand exactly how this could happen.)  But last night, I tripped over it and it didn’t bounce lightly out of the way like empty boxes do.  So I picked it up — it was heavy — and brought it inside. And look!

A box of paperback copies of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z!!  The UPS guy must have left it there while we were out.

The announcement of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award in May came down just in time for my publisher to get it onto the paperback cover. I love that the medal includes Charlotte and her web!

The paperback officially releases next month, and I am so excited that Gianna and Zig and all their friends will be available to kids at a more affordable price.  I love the care my publisher took with this edition, too.  There are a whole bunch of extras in the back, including Nonna’s funeral cookie recipe, a discussion guide for classes and book clubs, and an excerpt from SUGAR AND ICE (coming in December!). I should clean out the garage more often.

Middle School, Gang Violence, and Revolution (but not in the same book)

I finished one book and read two more this week. I enjoyed them all for different reasons and will be sharing them with my 7h graders once school starts. I especially love how these three really meet the needs of three different kinds of readers. 

First up is REVOLUTION by Jennifer Donnelly, due out in October from Delacorte.  I had high expectations for this novel because I loved Donnelly’s A NORTHERN LIGHT so much. I wasn’t disappointed with REVOLUTION, and in fact, I think I might have liked it even better.

The book starts in Brooklyn, where gifted but troubled Andi is supposed to be writing her class project on the music of fictional French composer Amade Mahlerbeau and its influences on modern musicians.  What she’s doing instead is barely hanging on.  The death of her younger brother has sent her mother into depression, and Andi herself is getting through the days on her guitar music and some pretty heavy medication. Her parents are divorced, but when her DNA-scientist father discovers what’s going on, he takes Andi with him on a research trip to Paris, where he’s doing work to determine whether an old, shriveled-up heart actually belongs to a persecuted young prince from the Revolution era. 

While she’s in Paris, Andi discovers the diary of a teen girl living during the time of the French Revolution, a girl who has a strong connection to the young prince Andi’s father is studying.  As the days go by, Andi is drawn deeper and deeper into the diary and into the life of the composer Mahlerbeau until one night, she finds herself transported from the modern-day Catacombs to the Paris underground of the late 18th century.

This book combines so many amazing themes: grief and healing, the transformative power of music, and the things we do for love. And of course, there’s also the theme of revolution — that which exists in the bigger world and that which happens in our own souls.  This was a great, compelling read, and it’s a title I’ll be thinking about for a long, long time.  I’ll be handing it to some of my more advanced readers — including a few of last year’s 7th graders who loved Donnelly’s A NORTHERN LIGHT. 

I’d be willing to bet that a lot of my new 7th grade girls in September are going to love this book…

THE HARD KIND OF PROMISE (Clarion – June 2010) is actually a title that I think fans of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. will appreciate quite a bit.  It’s similar in that it tackles the everyday struggles of middle school life, and I love the way author Gina Willner-Pardo does this — with characters who are real and flawed and discovering themselves and with dialogue that’s so wonderfully authentic it made me laugh out loud in places. At its heart, this is a book about friendship — about the friend that Sarah had grown up with and finds herself drifting away from as middle school presents new interests and challenges.  It’s a sweet, funny, heartfelt book — one that’s perfect to hand to students who are tired of big flashy vampire books and just want to read something about regular kids like themselves.

And here’s one that I know my reluctant readers — boys and girls alike — are going to love. 

YUMMY: THE LAST DAYS OF A SOUTHSIDE SHORTY (Lee & Low-July 2010) is a graphic novel written by G. Neri with illustrations by Randy DuBurke.  It’s a quick read that packs a punch because its title character, Robert "Yummy" Sandifer was a real-life Chicago gang member who killed and died when he was just eleven years old.  How could a kid get trapped so deep in gang life, so fast? Neri and DuBurke take a chilling look at the neighborhood and community that raised Yummy, and ultimately failed him.  This is going to be a great choice for literature circles — I can already imagine the discussions about how responsible he was or wasn’t for his actions, how much this was a kid shaped by the rough world into which he was born.

So as you can see, it was a very good reading week for me. Three winners.

Now it’s your turn. What have you read lately that you loved??

Friday Five

1. Now that my latest novel is back with my editor, I’ve been working on the teacher resource book I’m writing for Stenhouse, about teaching the revision process, and I’m loving it, even more than I thought I would. It’s been exciting to pull together all the author quotes and strategies to share with teachers.I’m pretty sure I squealed when I clicked on the very first interview response and found that it was from Jane Yolen. (Jane Yolen!!!) Also, putting my own revision process under the microscope and taking time to reflect has given me some new ideas for when that novel comes home with notes from my editor.

2. I am looking for a few good men. Seriously. While I’m getting amazing responses to my online revision interview from middle grade authors, almost all of them (except one…so thank you,  ) have been from women writers, and I’d love to have a few more guys featured as "mentor authors."  Boys write, too, after all.  If you know someone who might be game to answer a few online questions and be included, please drop me a note!

3. We’ve been reading some great books this summer.  Right now, I’m reading an ARC of Jennifer Donnelly’s REVOLUTION (amazing!), son just finished Watt Key’s DIRT ROAD HOME, a companion to ALABAMA MOON (great!), and daughter is enjoying Gitty Daneshvari’s SCHOOL OF FEAR. I saw her waving it in her friend’s face at skating the other night, saying, "You have to read this," a very good sign indeed.

4.I’m trying to get back to running every morning but have had a sticky go of it this week. My asthma and I are not fans of the humidity, but today feels much better.

5. It’s been nice to see more monarchs around this summer. Two monarch caterpillars are munching their way though milkweed leaves in a butterfly house on my porch. No signs yet that either is ready to make a chrysalis, but I will keep you posted.

Revision is like…

As many of you know, I’m writing a book about revision for teachers for Stenhouse Publishers.  It’s going to talk about the process, strategies that authors use, and ways to use those same kinds of strategies in the classroom.  And I thought it would be fun to include some quotes about revision from writers of all kinds, young and old, published and unpublished.  So if you write and are okay with maybe being quoted, I’d love it if you’d fill in the blanks in this sentence:

Revision is like ______________  because _________________.

Your thoughts?

THE HIVE DETECTIVES in Vermont

When my daughter and I learned that Loree Griffin Burns was giving a presentation about her new book, THE HIVE DETECTIVES: CHRONICLE OF A HONEY BEE CATASTROPHE, in Vermont, we planned a spur-of-the-moment road trip to go see her.  We’re big Loree fans and besides, we’d never been to  Manchester before.  The event was at Hildene, the Lincoln family home, which is one of the most gorgeous properties I’ve ever seen.

The gardens were stunning, full of bees and butterflies.

We spotted a Monarch caterpillar on the milkweed. Can you see it?

How about now?

Hildene offers wagon rides in summer, so we took the opportunity to go through the woods to the barn where the goats are cared for and milked to make cheese.

Then it was time for Loree’s presentation. 

Her presentation was fascinating, and Loree managed to capture everyone in the room, from toddlers on up to grownups. Even though I’m in a critique group with Loree and read an earlier draft of THE HIVE DETECTIVES, I learned a lot today! After her talk, we headed out to see Hildene’s observation hive and have books signed.

Just in case you haven’t seen THE HIVE DETECTIVES yet, it’s incredible — full of amazing storytelling about an ecological mystery and gorgeous photographs.  Hope your weekend was full of good friends and good books, too!

Friday Five from a Mountaintop

Truth in blogging requires that I tell you I’m not on the mountain any more, but I spent a good part of the afternoon here…

I had a million things on my to-do list but decided that the weather was too perfect and loaded up the kids to go hiking on Poke-o-Moonshine instead. (When I mentioned this on Twitter, several helpful people suggested that I add "climb mountain" to said list and cross it off upon my return, which I thought was brilliant.) So we went. Kids hike fast, especially on the way down, and now my knees hurt.  But it was a lovely, lovely day.

Oh…those five things?

1. I finished revisions on my dystopian storm novel this week and sent the manuscript to my editor, who immediately emailed back to tell me she’d been watching tornado documentaries in preparation for its arrival. This made me love her even more than I already did. Now that book-set-in-the-future is off to NY, my brain will be firmly rooted in the present again…until the revision letter comes.

2. That means I can turn my attention to REAL REVISION, the teacher resource book I’m writing for Stenhouse.  I’ve collected some amazing middle grade author interviews already, and I’m hoping to have a draft done before I head back to school in the fall.  This may be overly ambitious, especially since I keep leaving to climb mountains on writing days. But you know how mountains are…

3. I started reading an ARC of Jennifer Donnelly’s REVOLUTION last night. I’m only a few pages in, but already intrigued.

4. I stopped by my classroom this week to pick up a cd I needed at home and had a pang of missing book-talk with my students. I cherish every minute of summer, but when September comes, I’ll be ready to be reading and writing with my students again.

5. This weekend, my daughter and I are heading to Manchester, Vermont to visit Hildene, the Lincoln family home and (more importantly) the site of an awesome book event on Sunday.  Loree Griffin Burns is doing a family workshop based on her new Scientists in the Field title, THE HIVE DETECTIVES: CHRONICLE OF A HONEY BEE CATASTROPHE.  It runs from 1-2:30, starting in the Welcome Center and ending at Hildene’s observation hive.

Loree is an amazing scientist, a talented writer, and a fantastic presenter (plus there will be bees!!)  so if you’re within striking distance of Manchester this weekend, I hope we’ll see you there, too!

THE MERMAID’S MIRROR by L.K. Madigan

I was up until 3am reading last night, and it is all L.K. Madigan’s fault.  L.K. Madigan and her darn mermaids…

I’ve been reading this gorgeous book for a couple weeks, little by little, because a) I’ve been really busy and b) I was so in love with the California Coastal setting that I wanted to savor every scene.  But last night, I hit a spot in the book that made it impossible to stop reading until I turned the last page in the wee hours of the morning. And I’m not even a tiny bit sorry. It was just that good.

I’ve come to the conclusion that my favorite books with magical elements begin solidly rooted in the real world with characters who feel as immediate as my neighbors.  NEED and CAPTIVATE by Carrie Jones are like that, firmly grounded in the Maine woods for pages and pages, so that when the pixies show up, you don’t even question it because the whole world is already so real.   THE MERMAID’S MIRROR has that same kind of perfectly introduced magic, only with a California beach town setting so vivid you’ll be able to smell the salt water while you’re reading.

When the story opens, Lena is about to turn sixteen. She’s grown up in a town full of surfers, loves swimming, and has been longing to try surfing herself, except her father has forbidden it.  He was almost killed at the surfing spot known as Magic’s years ago, but it turns out he’s not telling Lena the whole truth about his experience or about her mother’s death. Lena decides to have a friend teach her how to surf behind her father’s back.  It’s partly because she loves the ocean but mostly because of the mysterious woman she’s seen in the water at Magic’s. Could it really be a mermaid?  Secrets pile on top of one another in this gripping YA novel, and when Lena finally plunges into the world she’s wondered about, I couldn’t help plunging in right along with her.

There were so many things I loved about this book:  the surfing scenes that made me want to try it myself, the perfectly rendered beach town setting, Lena’s family, which is loving, scarred, and imperfect all at once.  And of course, the magic of the ocean.  I can’t tell you all the best parts because it would ruin the journey for you, so just believe me…it’s one you’ll want to take yourself.  Reviewed from an ARC I picked up at ALA and due out from HMH in October 2010.

Camping in the Adirondacks

So I went camping this week.  Which might not seem like a big deal, but it is.

Because the last time we camped in the Adirondacks, I woke up at 4 am, floating on the air mattress in what can only be described as a small pond inside our tent.  There were words spoken between my husband and me.  I believe "but it’s waterproof" and "never again" were among them.

Either I have a short memory, or I’m a pushover for the kids, because I found myself in the same tent, in the same mountains this week. Happily, the weather was dry and things went much better.

We heard coyotes howling at night (in a good you’re-in-the-wilderness sort of way — not in a bad they-are-about-to-eat-you sort of way) and enjoyed hanging out with this little red squirrel who shared our campsite.

We hiked to our favorite Adirondack swimming spot, too. Copperas Pond was full of the usual bullfrogs & tadpoles, as well as many half-frog-half-tadpole creatures we decided we’d call "froglings."

We spent most of Tuesday jumping off rocks into the water enjoying the view.

There were also s’mores.  I will never ever outgrow loving s’mores.

The rest of this week, we’re back to civilization and revision and all things almost-August.  Hope you’re enjoying your summer, too!

Friday Five: Things I cut out of my novel this week

I’ve spent my afternoons this week at a great little coffee shop in Boston, doing another revision pass on my upper-MG dystopian novel.  Early in the week, I made a plot map showing where things move along nicely and where they slow down, and I decided that cutting some fat would really help the book’s pacing.  Here’s what got the axe:

1. Dr. William Noyes.  He was a secondary character whose job was already being done by another, more interesting secondary character. Goodbye, Dr. Noyes.

2. A whole bunch of getting-from-one-place to another scenes. When I’m drafting, I often feel the need to take every step of a journey with my characters. If they’re having a picnic in the woods, for example, I need to step over every pine cone with them, hold back every branch, feel every squish of every sneaker. I think that helps me get mentally to the place where the action is going to happen, but my readers don’t need (or want) to take so long getting there, so many of these scenes are shortened a lot or deleted when I revise.

3. The word "actually" — about a thousand instances of overuse.

4. The phrase "what looked like" — ditto. While I’m a frequent abuser of "actually," this was a new one for me.  Reading through the manuscript, I’d find myself writing things like this:  She had what looked like jam all over her fingers.  Really?  If she’s sitting there with toast, can’t we just make the leap and call it jam?  Delete.

5. Most of Chapter 5 and half of Chapter 9. Don’t worry. You’ll never miss them.

I’d love to hear from some of my writer friends in the comments. What kinds of things do you find yourself cutting out of your works-in-progress during the revision stage?

Thankful Thursday: Cambridge Edition

As we wind down our week in Cambridge, MA, I’m feeling thankful for all the opportunities, expected and unexpected, these six days in the city have brought.

  • Son’s iPhone application programming day camp at MIT. Their days, interestingly enough, sound a lot like our days at my writers’ retreat last week — write quietly for a few hours, eat and talk, play a little, write quietly for a few more hours — only with programming instead of writing. But with that same sense of being around "your people" while you work. 
  • Daughter’s afternoon camp at the Museum of Fine Arts. We have arts & crafts programs at home, too, but none where you can walk downstairs to see and learn about the Egytian art before you sculpt your own canopic jar.  Very cool.
  • Bike lanes and bike paths. Cambridge has worked hard to make bike commuting a reasonable alternative to driving, and we’ve biked almost everywhere this week. The traffic’s a little nerve-wracking at times, but most people are very aware of bikers.
  • Espresso Royale Caffe – the coffee shop not far from MFA where they serve a tasty iced latte and don’t seem to mind if you talk to yourself while writing in the corner.
  • Revision time. I’m just about ready to send my dystopian storm book to my editor at Walker/Bloomsbury. (It’s coming next week, MK!)
  • Research time.  I have pages and pages of notes for a future project.  All the kinds of tiny details that you can’t really get without being in the place and using all your senses. 
  • Writer friends!  We got to meet up with Ammi-Joan Paquette, Loree Griffin Burns, and Valarie Giogas and their families. It’s always so much fun to see writer friends in person when we usually just get to talk online.
  • Museum time. We especially loved the MIT Museum with its Artificial Intelligence and hologram exhibits. Today, we’re going to see the glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and tomorrow, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum before we head home.
  • Going home tomorrow to see my husband and the lake…and the big crew of family coming to visit on Saturday!