Bite A Sheep, Sheep Biter!

So this is my attempt to squeeze another post into February, right before March dances into 2011. I'm teaching Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night's Dream) right now, actually wrapping it up. It's been another fun year in the classroom. Reading, acting, performing, slinging insults (sheep biter!), snickering at the word 'breast,' it's all part of teaching twelve year-olds. But now that I've read the play like fifty times, I've come to realize a significant part of Shakespeare's brilliance.

He wrote stories within stories, wrapped up in themes within themes, tied together with purposeful characters and meaningful settings. Every piece in Shakespeare's work, from the woods outside of Athens to the little Indian boy, has a reason for being there. Nothing is arbitrary. Not even the insults. Thou painted maypole!  

Read a little. Learn a lot.      

How Ideas Speak to Me

I've been reading a lot lately. I'm always reading, but recently I've found myself entrenched in friends' manuscripts, great middle grade novels, and even some YA fantasy (rereading The Order of Odd-Fish). The first time I read Odd-Fish I was not in the right state of mind for the story. Not fair to James Kennedy and the four hundred plus pages he created. 

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Ever since finishing up BIRD NERD, I've been tossing around ideas for a new story. I have a few  ideas, and I've even started working on  a manuscript (LETTERS FROM COOPERSTOWN), but I'm not feeling it. It's just not speaking to me. I think it's time for another setlist: a list of ideas that are splashed down in one or two words. (notice how my setlist back then was titled Bird-Man Street. That was a working title for BIRD NERD. The story changed dramatically once I started writing it; therefore, the title changed.)

When I get a winning idea, I can always envision the opening sentence. Why? Because I begin my stories with established conflict, which immediately connects the reader to the main character's problem or goal. These are the opening lines to my first two middle grade novels: 

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BIRD NERD:

I'm looking for a bird, but not any old bird. I'm looking for Dad's golden eagle. 

CROSSING CHALK:

The first time I ever thought about crossing the line happened the same day I came face to face with The Girl.

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This method works for me. If I can form the opening sentence, I know I have a conflict and character strong enough to start a story. Whether that story survives past page 100 depends on other things, but that's for another post on another day. 

Write on!  

  

MILO = I LO(ve) M(ilo)

Love is a funny thing, especially when it comes to books. I can love it. You can hate it. But that's what makes a book a BOOK. So can I just tell you how much I LOVED this middle grade novel from Alan Silberberg. It's funny and full of heart, and Milo's voice is relentlessly genuine. Kudos to Mr. Silberberg for this one!

Buy it. Read it. Talk it.

From Goodreads:

MILO is the funny and poignant story, told through text and cartoons, of a 13-year-old boy's struggle to come to terms with the loss that hit the reset button on his life. Loveable geek Milo Cruikshank finds reasons for frustration at every turn, like people who carve Halloween pumpkins way too soon (the pumpkins just rot and get lopsided) or the fact that the girl of his dreams, Summer, barely acknowledges his existence while next-door neighbor Hilary won't leave him alone. The truth is, ever since Milo's mother died nothing has gone right. Now, instead of the kitchen being full of music, his whole house has been filled with Fog. Nothing's the same. Not his Dad. Not his sister. And definitely not him. In love with the girl he sneezed on the first day of school and best pals with Marshall, the “One Eyed Jack” of friends, Milo copes with being the new kid (again) as he struggles to survive a school year that is filled with reminders of what his life “used to be."

My Literary Hero

It's always cool when you find out a writer you most admire has another  novel coming out soon. This is Gary Schmidt talking about his upcoming novel, OKAY FOR NOW, which is a companion to his Newbery Honor book THE WEDNESDAY WARS. Coincidentally, Schmidt's new novel includes a character who's interested in Audubon's bird plates, while the novel I recently finished, BIRD NERD, also has a heavy bird motif. This is where I'd normally say "Great minds think alike" but Schmidt's mind is far greater than mine.