Author: kmessner

KidLit Cares: Manuscript Critique with Caroline Abbey of Bloomsbury

Auction #1: Manuscript Critique with Caroline Abbey

Welcome to KidLit Cares, an online talent auction to benefit the Red Cross relief effort to help communities recover from Superstorm Sandy. Agents, editors, authors, and illustrators have donated various services to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with donations being made directly to the Red Cross disaster relief fund. You can read more about KidLit Cares here. Now, on to the auction!

Editor Caroline Abbey of Bloomsbury Children’s Books has donated a manuscript critique for an aspiring children’s author. The winner of this auction will receive a 15-page manuscript and synopsis critique in the form of a short editorial letter, plus a 15-minute telephone conversation with Caroline to discuss the critique.

Opening Bid: $30

Auction Ends: Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 10pm EST. (Any bids submitted in comments after that time will be void.)

If you’d like to bid on this auction, check the current high bid and place a higher bid by leaving your name and bid amount in the comments, along with some way to contact you (email, FB or Twitter…I’m not fussy.) Winners will be notified when the auction ends and should be prepared to make an online donation to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund in the amount of the high bid at that time.  After you’ve made your donation, you’ll forward your receipt to me, and I’ll put you in touch with the person who donated the service you won so that the two of you can work out the details about how and when.   All services will be provided at the convenience of both the person making the donation and the auction winner, but this should happen within three months of the auction’s end unless something else is agreed upon by both parties.

Good luck!

Reading in the Path of the Storm

More than fifty million of us are stocking up on peanut butter and jelly and flashlight batteries this weekend, preparing for the arrival of a monster fall storm. If predictions for power outages come true,  we’ll all need something to read by flashlight or candlelight tomorrow night. Here are some timely suggestions…

I’ve gotten more than a few emails and social media message this week, accusing me of being somehow psychic when I wrote this book…

EYE OF THE STORM is set in a future world where climate change has led to severe and widespread catastrophic storms. (Frankenstorm, anyone?) In this novel for readers ten and up, Jaden Meggs goes to spend the summer with her meteorologist dad in his company’s “Storm-Safe” compound in the heart of tornado country. When she enrolls in an elite science camp for gifted kids, Jaden teams up with a boy from across the river to study the strange paths some tornadoes are taking…and discovers a terrifying secret about her own father.

NINTH WARD by Jewell Parker Rhodes is another great storm story. In this book, twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. She doesn’t have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya’s visions show a powerful hurricane–Katrina–fast approaching, it’s up to Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the storm. Ninth Ward is a deeply emotional story about transformation and a celebration of resilience, friendship, and family–as only love can define it. This one is great for middle grade readers.

Paul Volponi’s HURRICANE SONG tells the story of Katrina for older teens, leaving out no harrowing detail of the storm and the struggles of those who sought shelter in the SuperDome in the days that followed. It’s action-packed, and many scenes in this one are tough to take, but it paints a realistic picture and will be a draw for older reluctant readers.

And finally…since this October storm will bring snow for some…

Michael Northrop’s TRAPPED is another great storm read for ages 12 and up. This one features a blizzard. The day it started, no one knew that it was going to keep snowing for a week. That for those in the storm’s path, it would become not just a matter of keeping warm, but of staying alive. . . . Scotty and his friends Pete and Jason are among the last seven kids at their high school waiting to get picked up that day, and they soon realize that no one is coming for them. Still, it doesn’t seem so bad to spend the night at school, especially when distractingly hot Krista and Julie are sleeping just down the hall. But then the power goes out, then the heat. The pipes freeze, and the roof shudders. As the days add up, the snow piles higher, and the empty halls grow colder and darker, the mounting pressure forces a devastating decision. . .

Stay safe, everyone. Stay warm. And I hope you have plenty of batteries and books to see you through the storm!

Teachers Write: Writing as Reflection

Where I live, the leaves have not only turned, they’re falling by the bushels as we look November in the eye. When I was teaching, this was always around the time I’d need to step away from my desk full of papers to reflect on how things were going. The new-pencil smell of September has probably worn off for you by now, so let’s take this week’s #TeachersWrite to do the same.  Here’s today’s prompt:

Choose one of your top students and finish these thoughts in his or her voice.

The best thing we’ve done in class so far has been…

My least favorite day of class was the day…

My goal for the next quarter is…

I wish…

Now, answer those same questions in the voice of one of your struggling students.

And finally, answer them in your own voice.

Sometimes, we write to be understood.  And sometimes, we write to better understand ourselves. That’s what reflection is all about, after all, isn’t it? Seeing something in a different way so that we notice things we might have missed.

If you discovered anything you’d like to share, feel free to comment!

Thank you, AuSable Valley Elementary!

Most of my school author visits this fall have involved airplanes and multiple days away from my family, so it was lovely to visit a school closer to home today. When I pulled into the parking lot at AuSable Valley Elementary School, I saw this trailer…

…and thought, “Oh, dear.”  I’ve been told that I give a pretty entertaining presentation, but there’s no way I can compete with miniature donkeys. But it turns out the donkeys were here for their own event, a special presentation arranged for one of the third grade classrooms that had been reading about therapy dogs. These are therapy donkeys, and I got to visit them to say hello.

After the donkeys went home, the third graders headed to the gym for our author visit. Both groups I worked with today — the K-2 students and the 3rd-6th grade crew — were just fantastic. I can always tell when kids are enthusiastic readers and writers because of the great questions they ask.  After my first presentation to the younger group, one of the boys came running back to the gym a few minutes later. “This is for you,” he said.

I asked him to tell me about his picture. “That’s you,” he said, pointing. “You’re the pink one, and you’re walking in the woods. And those are animal tracks.”  They were from a desert animal, he told me, maybe a frog or a prairie dog. This is one of the reasons I love school visits so much!

Thanks, Kobe, for your illustration, and thanks to everyone at AuSable Valley Elementary for a magical, story-filled morning!

A Great Day at Henry Elementary School!

My second day of Missouri school visits this week brought me to the fantastic readers of Henry Elementary School, who had  warm welcome waiting outside the library!

My first two hours of the day were dedicated to a marathon book signing that claimed the life of a brand new Sharpie.

This book especially made me smile…

I love when a student drops off a book to be signed & there’s already a bookmark in the middle!

After the book signing, I gave presentations to the K-1st, 2nd-3rd, and 4th-5th grade groups. They were all amazing listeners, readers, and writers – and near the end of the afternoon, as the kids were leaving the library, I heard one of the best things an author can possible hear after a talk. A girl turned to her teacher and said, “Can we go write now?!” It made my whole day.  And so did these smiling faces…

Thanks, staff and students of Henry Elementary School – I loved spending my Tuesday with you!

Thank you, Bellerive Elementary!

I’m in Missouri this week for two days of author visits. Today, I spent the day at Bellerive Elementary School just outside St. Louis, talking books, reading, and writing with some amazing readers and writers.  And boy, does this school ever know how to make an author feel welcome. Check out the artwork that greeted me everywhere I turned.

It’s so much fun to see my characters brought to life in kids’ artwork!

Cassie even created Gianna’s leaf-mobile from THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z.

School librarian Melissa Biehl organized this whole extravaganza – what an amazing woman!

She also introduced me to Jerome.

He’s the official bearded dragon of the Bellerive Elementary Library. I even got to hold him for a bit while the students cleaned out his cage.

Jerome was very friendly, if a little prickly.

After school, I got to spend time with district teachers, giving a “Real Revision” workshop. They were great sports – and enthusiastic writers even after a long day of teaching!

Thanks so much to EVERYONE  at Bellerive Elementary School for a great visit! What an amazing group of readers and writers!

 

Introducing book #2 in the Silver Jaguar Society mysteries!

I’ve been busier than usual with Skype author visits to classrooms this fall. I’m delighted that so many teachers have chosen to share CAPTURE THE FLAG as a first read-aloud of the school year, and it’s been great fun to answer kids’ questions about the book and the series. One question that always comes up is this:

Is there going to be a sequel?

The answer is YES!  It’s called HIDE AND SEEK, and here’s the cover:


José, Anna, and Henry are junior members of the secret Silver Jaguar Society, sworn to protect the world’s most important artifacts. When they discover that the society’s treasured Jaguar Cup has been replaced with a counterfeit, the trio and their families rush to the rain forests of Costa Rica in search of the real chalice. But when the trail runs dry, new mysteries emerge: Who can they trust? Is there a traitor in their midst? With danger at every turn, it will take more than they realize for José and his friends to recover the cup before it falls into the wrong hands.

HIDE AND SEEK was so much fun to write, not only because I’m madly in love with these characters but also because this book meant traveling to Costa Rica’s rain forest for research.  You can bet that many of the animals I blogged about after that trip have crawled, flown, climbed, and slithered their way into the story, too.

HIDE AND SEEK comes out April 1st from Scholastic – and it’s already on GoodReads if you’d like to add to your to-read list. It’s available for pre-order, too, at your local indie bookstore or wherever you like to buy books.

Teachers Write: What’s your character’s knot?

I’m working through a novel revision right now with a huge focus on character. Specifically, I’m studying the growth of my main character throughout the book, because if a character doesn’t grow and change…well, there’s not much of a story to be told.

I’ve been reading this book, which I recommend:

Jeff Gerke’s PLOT VERSUS CHARACTER takes a hard look at what we really need to make our characters live on the page. Every character, Gerke says, should start with a knot, which he describes like this:

I refer to your character’s problem as his knot. If you’ve worked with ropes much, especially in a nautical setting, you know they have to run smoothly through eyelets and pulleys and across capstans. A knot in the wrong rope at the wrong place can result in irritation, delay, or even disaster

So it is with your character. There he is, going along fine, minding his business, when something causes a knot to form in the rope of his life. Maybe he sees it and begins working on untying it. Maybe he sees it and doesn’t work on it. Maybe he doesn’t see it at all and the problems it’s causing are happening in his blind spot.

Whether he knows about it or is working to correct it or not, the knot is messing up his life.

                          ~from PLOT VERSUS CHARACTER by Jeff Gerke, p. 85.

Good stuff, this is.

So today’s prompt is this:  What is your character’s knot?  Remember that when we talk about a knot, we’re talking about a character’s internal problem, rather than the bear that may be about to eat him or her. I’m not denying that’s a problem, but it’s not the kind of internal struggle we’re talking about here.  If you have a work-in-progress, write a little about your main character’s knot (or your antagonist’s knot… bad guys have knots, too, you know!)  If this doesn’t fit what you’re working on right now, try writing about the knot of the main character in one of your favorite books that you’ve read. What’s Harry Potter’s knot? What about Katniss?

Write away…and feel free to share excerpts & thoughts in the comments if you’d like!

Amazing Readers (and one tarantula!) at Fox Run Elementary!

I’ve been at a different San Antonio elementary school every day this week, spending time with amazing kids, teachers, librarians, and parent volunteers – and today was no exception.  My morning at Fox Run Elementary School started with a special welcome on the school’s morning announcements.

These girls do the announcements live on school-wide television every morning!

Librarian Cari Young, who coordinated my week of visits, heads up the library here and did an amazing job getting her readers ready for today’s presentations.

She also introduced me to her library guest, Gordon the Tarantula.

Gordon is on loan from the regional educational center, which loans out not only the usual books and A/V supplies but also live animals.  Gordon’s visiting for two weeks, and while he’s in the library, kids are invited to write his diary.

What does the tarantula have to say?

Such a fun way to get kids thinking about point of view and voice!  My favorite entry from the spider said, “I need to shave my legs.”

Throughout the day, I signed lots and lots of books…and one cast.

Thanks so much, Fox Run readers, for an amazing day in your school library!

Teachers Write: Soundtrack of a Place

Home has a soundtrack. Other places do, too. And today’s TeachersWrite prompt starts with the sounds of a shopping plaza in Texas.

I’m in San Antonio wrapping up a week of school visits right now – my first time in Texas, and I can’t stop noticing all the little things that are different here. The size of the crickets (enormous!) and the sounds of the birds. The trees around my hotel swarm with grackles at night. We have the occasional grackle up north where I live, but certainly not in these numbers, and certainly not at this volume.  These birds are loud! But one of the librarians who’d picked me up at my hotel the other day had barely noticed them.  Probably because they’re part of her everyday soundtrack.

And that got me thinking….  All places have a soundtrack, whether that place is a parking lot in Texas or a hospital in London, a grandmother’s kitchen in India, or a hockey rink in Alberta.

Write a paragraph or two describing the soundtrack of your place.  This can be the place you call home, a place from your memories, or a place in a piece of writing you’re working on. (Write in your character’s voice if you’d like!)  When you describe the soundtrack, listen for the different levels of sound, too – from the loud honks, to the medium-range notes and voices, to the quiet buzz that underscores everything.  What’s the soundtrack of your place?

Feel free to share in the comments if you’d like!