What's Next?

 Six weeks ago, I shared my excitement that HALF-TRUTHS was finally on submission. At that point, the answer to the question, "What's Next?" was to query agents and editors. For those of you who are writers, you know that process can take a long time. Agents and editors are backed up and although I've sent the full manuscript in response to a few requests, it can still be months before I hear back from anyone.

Meanwhile, the best antidote to obsessively checking my email is to get busy with a new project. Without further ado, I want to introduce you to my next WIP (Work in Progress) a middle-grade graphic novel that I've tentatively titled ESCAPE FROM NURENBERG. The story is based loosely on my father's and grandfather's experiences in Germany from 1935 to 1938.

When my parents died, I became the keeper of their papers. These included an assortment of documents and photographs. There were several versions of my father's autobiography, personal letters, my grandfather's report cards from medical school in the early part of the 20th century (that a friend translated), and a speech he gave to doctors in Ohio after he immigrated to the United States. 

My father, Henry Federlin, is on the left. He is standing with
 his mother Elsie and his father Sigmund.
Circa 1945

As I looked through these precious documents and pictures I wondered if there was a story that I could write. I usually answered that question with "no" because there are already so many Holocaust stories for kids. But there was one unique event in my grandfather's life that occurred before he left Germany. It wasn't a story by itself. But maybe it was the ending. And when I thought about my father's account of how he was bullied in the public school I thought--that could be the beginning. 

All I needed was the middle.

I made a note to myself in my phone:

• Learn how to use Scrivener for writing a script.
• Learn how to write a graphic novel.
• Learn what was happening in Germany during this time period.
• Come up with a story arc. 

In the last six weeks, I've done all four.

SCRIVENER

Based on what I read online, Scrivener's scriptwriting program was ideal for writing a graphic novel. The only problem was that I had no idea how to write a script! Fortunately, I found a ton of images and tutorials online and within the Scrivener software itself. Since I learn better by trying my hand at something rather than reading about it, I jumped in and created a project. Like all software there's a learning curve, but I'm getting there. I love keeping track of my research, the story, and images all in one project--with the ability to simultaneously work in two documents:

WHY A GRAPHIC NOVEL?

I spent 16 years writing HALF-TRUTHS and I wanted a break from that form of storytelling. I also asked the KidLit 411 Facebook group how to tell if an idea was better suited for a "regular" novel or for a graphic novel. I tagged Kirsten W. Larson and she responded, "I would think about the visual possibilities for your story. Like picture books, graphic novels are visually driven. You have to ask yourself the same questions about whether you have scenes that are visually interesting and distinct from each other." Since I was already picturing the action in many of the scenes, I thought I was on the right track. 

This blog post describes the process that I stumbled into. A graphic novelist imagines each panel as the reader will encounter it.  Kirsten Larson told me that the process of "paneling" takes time. I believe it. Imagining what will be shown on a page of panels can easily take hours of research. 

I'm also studying graphic novels and seeing how the author employs transitions, and shows dialogue, captions, and narrative information. As I did with HALF-TRUTHS, I'll be reviewing some of these books here. 

LEARN ABOUT GERMANY

I'm a hands-on learner. Whereas some novelists may choose to research and then write, I prefer to jump in, learn, save new information, and incorporate it into my WIP.

Although my parents were both born in Germany and had family who died in the Holocaust, by the time my brother and sister were born in 1950, my parents were ready to put those events in the past. I came along three years later and my parents rarely talked to any of us about their childhood growing up in Germany. My best friend's mother had a tattoo on her arm from being in a concentration camp--but we never talked about it. I knew the names of the cities where my parents grew up, but it wasn't until I was an adult, that my father started sharing some of his experiences before leaving Nuremberg. 

Fortunately for my siblings and I, my father composed several short, type-written autobiographies. My mother's memory wasn't as good as my father's, but I interviewed her a few times and have some glimpses of her life as a child in Speyer.

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I knew only a thimbleful of information about the Holocaust. I am rapidly rectifying that situation through books and amazing websites like the United States Holocaust Museum with information such as this about children. When I enter various museum websites it's like diving into a deep hole. I go from link to link and come back to Scrivener having forgotten what I was looking for. 

When my dad told me he grew up in Nuremberg, I didn't realize how Hitler used that centrally-located city as his propaganda launching pad. Not only did it have a huge park that Hitler transformed into his political Rally grounds, his antisemitic follower Julius Streicher, published the virulent Der Stürmer newspaper there. 

This is what my father had to say about Striecher:

"My public elementary school was right across the street from an anti-Semitic weekly newspaper, Der Stürmer published by one of Hitler's favorite cronies, Julius Streicher, Nazi boss of Franconia, a noted pervert and one of the most unsavory characters in the Third Reich."

As I pictured my father attending school across the street from a widely-read tool of Nazi propaganda--my story became more real. 

A group of young German boys view Der Stürmer, Die Woche, and other propaganda posters that are posted on a fence in Berlin. ——US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Julien Bryan Archive

THE STORY

I had story nuggets for the beginning and the end but I didn't know what was going to happen from Point A to Point Z.  My unofficial "research assistant," my sister Barbara Federlin, and I brainstormed possibilities.  The more I read, researched, and imagined what my father's and grandparents' lives were in Nuremberg, the more a story began to take shape.

Fifteen years ago I toured Nuremberg with
my oldest daughter, Lisa, and my husband.
We visited the medieval city and saw the street
where my father grew up. These images help construct my story too.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Kirsten W. Larson is mentoring me as I plunge into the graphic novel world. I took a webinar with her last year which convinced me that the Kidlit publishing world is wide open to this genre. She encouraged me to create a synopsis using this template. You can use it at any step of your writing process. Filling it out even if your WIP is not a graphic novel and even if it might change, will help you imagine your entire story arc.

Thanks for joining me on my next writing journey. I'll be sure to let you know what happens next. 

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GIVEAWAY NEWS

Congratulations to Becky Scharnhorst who won THREE CANADIAN PIGS and to Marci Whitehurst who won GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE. Thanks to everyone who entered. Stay tuned for more contests--I have a stack of books to review and give away!

Of Better Blood: A Review and TWO Giveaways

Last April I reviewed Susan Moger's book, Teaching the Diary of Anne Frank. When she contacted me and asked if I would read and review her debut novel, OF BETTER BLOOD (Albert Whitman and Co. 2016), I agreed. After reading it I can tell you one thing for sure: Susan used all of her research about Hitler and the events leading up to World War II in order to write this young adult historical novel.

Teenage polio survivor Rowan Collier is caught in the crossfire of a secret war against “the unfit.” It’s 1922, and eugenics—the movement dedicated to racial purity and good breeding—has taken hold in America. State laws allow institutions to sterilize minorities, the “feeble-minded,” and the poor, while local eugenics councils set up exhibits at county fairs with “fitter family” contests and propaganda. - Albert Whitman and Co.

Four times a day I drop the baby.

It's not a real baby, but for a stunned heartbeat the audience believes it is. That's enough to get some of them on their feet, screaming, Stupid, clumsy, gimp. The words slide into my skin and stay there.

When I ask Mr. Ogilvie, the director, if just once I can catch the baby before it hits the stage, he frowns and puts his hands on my shoulders. I squirm away, but he holds on. "I love your sensitivity, Ruthie," he says, showing corn-yellow teeth. "But sadly a cripple like you can't be a hero."  (p. 1)

Thus the reader is thrust into the life of Rowan Collier, an unwilling actress in a "fitter family" drama reenacted four times a day at the Springfield, Massachusetts county fair. In the beginning of the novel Moger uses alternating chapters to show Rowan's life before this humiliating summer. In these flashbacks the reader meets her father, an engineering consultant for the Navy, and an advocate for the Betterment fight. He and Rowan's older sister, Julia, are dedicated to the proposition that society is best advanced having the fittest people marry and produce large families. The unfit, those who are physically, emotionally, or intellectually substandard, should be eliminated from society. 

In one of these flashbacks Rowan recalls how one of her doctors wanted her to be sterilized.  Rowan refuses but is shaken afterwards:

Father believed, as Dr. Pynchon did, that a weakness inherited from Mother caused me to get polio. But would he want me to be sterilized? (p. 51)

Rowan's world--already dramatically changed due to polio--continues to fall apart when she is forced to do "educational work" for the New England Betterment Council at the Expo. There she develops a friendship with a fellow worker, orphaned Dorchy, whose parents worked county fairs. In these simple explanation to Rowan, Dorchy shares one of the underlying themes of the book:

Rubes are ignoramuses; carnies know everything. Rubes come to the fair with their eyes starry and their pockets full; carnies take them for what they're worth.....
Your Unfit Family Show does the same thing. You trick rubes into paying money under false pretenses. (p. 33)

 As Rowan hears the stories of her fellow "actors" and how they were tricked into being sterilized, Rowan starts questioning what she had believed to be true about her father. Dorchy is a major catalyst in Rowan's increasing self-awareness.

When I left Bellevue and went to the Home, all thoughts of Dr. Friedlander and nursing school were driven out of my head by the effort of surviving. But here at the Expo, the memories are starting to come back. Dorchy is bringing me back to life. (p.64)

Following a dramatic escape from the Expo, Dorchy forces Rowan to question her assumption that her mother's bloodline was weaker since she died giving birth to Rowan:

Dorchy jumps up. "Listen to yourself," she shouts, angrier than I have ever seen her. "How can you sit there and say that about your own mother? After weeks with the awful Ogilvies and the Council cows you still don't question that 'better blood' garbage? she punches her fist against her palm. "You still think people are fit or unfit because of their family bloodlines? You know as well as I do that Gar and Jimmy and Minne are as fit as you and your precious father. (p. 117) 

Despite Dorchy's misgivings, she considers working at the Camp for Unfortunates in Maine with Rowan.  

"I'll bet you anything the camp is a con," she says stubbornly. "Miss Latigue is the carney; you and me the unfortunates are the rubes. You'll see." (p. 136)

Sadly, Dorchy's predictions prove to be true. I don't want to spoil the rest of the book, but the girls' lives become painfully difficult when they realize the camp is a facade for weeding out the "unfit."

Although the ending is triumphant as Rowan begins her journey towards nursing school, it is not without great personal loss. But she has matured from a dependent "cripple" to a young woman who has purpose, resolve, and determination.  
This is not an easy book to read. But as Susan Moger relates in her Notes, "Eugenics was a popular pseudo-science in the United States from the early 1900's to the late 1930s. The double aim of eugenics was (1) to keep Americans with a "strong" heredity (family backgound) having children and (2) to prevent those with a "weak heredity" from having children....The popular method of preventing reproduction among the unfit was to sterilize men and women." Necessary Lies, which I previously reviewed has a similar theme. 

As you may know, American eugenics principles were adopted in other countries, most notably Germany before and during WWII. Adolf Hitler praised American eugenics in his book, Mein Kampf and thus laid groundwork for a master race. 

Although the Unfit Family show and the New England Betterment Council are fiction, "Fitter Families" exhibits and contests were a popular feature at state fairs starting in 1920. This book would be an excellent supplement in high school classrooms studying WWII. 

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If you are interested in winning my ARC, please leave me a comment by 6 PM on February 18. If you are new to my blog, please leave me your contact information. If you join my blog or share this on social media, please let me know what you do and I'll add your name twice. Susan also offered to giveaway an autographed copy of the hardback edition, so this time around I'll have TWO winners to announce next week! PLUS-- Susan is willing to send a book overseas, making this my first giveaway open outside the U.S.!

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz

Congratulations to Tonya Goettl who won Wonder at the Edge of the World in last week's giveaway. Stay tuned for another great giveaway coming up soon. But first, two posts about Alan Gratz's middle grade Holocaust book.

I'm going to tell you from the start this review contains spoilers. It's a story driven by a young boy's desire and need to survive. But of course, the spoiler is implied by the very nature of this book. Prisoner B-3087 by North Carolina author Alan Gratz, is based on the true story of Jack Greuner, an Holocaust survivor.

The book opens in 1939 in Kraków, Poland. Yanek Gruener (much later he changes his name to Jack) is ten-years-old and his father doesn't believe that Hitler's invasion of Poland will last for more than six months. 

His family soon finds out how deadly wrong he is. 

In magnificent prose that combines accurate details from Yanek's life with historical research, Alan Gratz has woven together a painful-but-true portrayal of a young boy's determination to survive which carried him through ten concentration camps in six horrific years. 

Within three years the family goes from rationing; to losing jobs, their synagogue, and access to schools; to being sealed off within the walls of the ghetto. Life is horrible, but at least Yanek has his family around him. After his secret bar-mitzvah, he is terrified when the sick and elderly are killed. He thinks,

I was a man and I wanted to do something. Something to stop the Nazis. To save my family. I asked myself over and over again what I could do to help, but I had no answer. p.50

He argues that his family should not give in to the Nazi's demand to be "selected" and buys more time for them all. But one day he comes home and witnesses his parents being brutally herded away by the Nazi soldiers. 

Yankee is sent to the Płaszów concentration camp and is amazed to find his Uncle Moshe who gives him survival instructions: 

From now on, you have no name, no personality, no family, no friends. Do you understand? Nothing to identify you, nothing to care about. Not if you want to survive…We have only one purpose now: survive. Survive at all costs, Yanek. We cannot let these monsters tear us from the pages of the world. (pp. 68, 70)

As Yanek is packed into cattle cars and moved from one concentration camp to another he learns what he must do to survive:

• Don't share your portion of bread with someone, even if that person might be kept alive by what you have.
• Don't miss a roll call. You will be beaten.
• Don't show fear. The Nazis' dogs will attack.
• Don't befriend anyone.
• Always obey orders. 
• Don't think for yourself.
• Don't question orders even if it means moving back-breaking rocks from one side of the yard and then back again. 
• Don't fight back. If you do, you'll be killed.
• Don't complain when you are forced to sing and entertain Nazi soldiers feasting on a dinner. Look away so your stomach won't grumble and you won't be shot. 

Yanek clings to the smallest "comforts" in his pursuit of survival:

I stood at the water pump, scrubbing my body. It was bitterly cold out, but I didn't care. I would scrub my body, I decided, each and every morning, no matter how cold it was, no matter how tired I was. I was alive, and I meant to stay that way.

…I paid careful attention to where I had been tattooed. Too many others had let their tattoos get infected, and that had taken them to the camp surgeon. You didn't want to go to the camp surgeon. Ever. I even rubbed my teeth with my wet fingers--we had not toothbrushes or toothpaste, of course, but it felt important to remember what it was like to be human. (p. 136)

As the war ends, Yanek's will to survive does not:

The war had come to Dachau, and any moment a shell or a bomb might fall on our building and kill us all. So many times I had wished for a bomb to fall on me, to end my suffering, but now I prayed that no bomb would hit me. Not now, when I was so close to the end! If only I could survive a little longer, I thought, just a little longer-- (p. 242)

As I said in the beginning of this review, it is obvious that Yanek Gruener does survive. So, it's not a spoiler to quote the last lines of this memorable book:

I stepped on board the train and didn't look back. For nine years I had done everything I could to survive. Not it was time to live. (p.256)

Next week Alan shares his process of writing Prisoner B-3087 and what it has meant to him both personally and professionally. To whet your appetite, here is a video of Alan with Jack and his wife Ruth, that Scholastic created. 

Next week Alan shares his process of writing Prisoner B-3087 and what it has meant to him both personally and professionally. To whet your appetite, here is a video of Alan with Jack and his wife Ruth, that Scholastic created. 

Odette's Secrets, Plot & Structure, And a Giveaway!

I am taking an online writing class, Plot and Structure with Bethany Nuckolls, an instructor in the Center for Writing Excellence.  I am learning names for plot elements that I had barely considered--and some I didn't even know existed! As a student, I am encourage to find these elements in a book of my choice. In a mini-blog series about this class, I plan to share some of what I have learned by analyzing two novels. 

Stasis: This is the character's original state.

For Odette's Secrets, it is life in Paris in 1942 for a twelve-year-old Jewish girl:

“My name is Odette.

I live in Paris,

On a cobblestone square

With a splashing fountain

And a silent statue.

My hair is curly

Mama ties ribbons in it.

Papa reads to me and buys me toys.

I have everything I could wish for,

Except a cat.” (p.1)

Trigger:  Bethany explained that this is, "usually some calamity or opportunity that directly affects the protagonists and their fortunes, awakening them from their Stasis hibernation."

It's Saturday , so Mama and Papa take me to the cinema.

On the huge screen,

Soldiers march, 

Their legs and arms straight as sticks.

A funny looking man with a mustache

Shouts a speech.

His name is Hitler.”  (p. 1-2)

Objective Correlative  This is a new term to me. The Miriam-Webster online dictionary defines it as something that "symbolizes or objectifies a particular emotion and is used in creative writing to evoke a desired emotional response in the reader." In this book, Odette loses her beloved doll Charlotte, a gift from her godmother. When her mother replaces it with a new one, Odette thinks:

“Before long, a new Charlotte peeks out at me

from Mama’s knitting bag.

This Charlotte has a china face too,

And curly brown hair.

She looks the same as the real Charlotte,

Even though I know she’s not.” (p.12-13)

The doll is a marker to the reader about what lies ahead for Odette- she may become "not real" herself. 

Launch of the main problem of the book  Her father joins the army, German soldiers invade Paris, and Odette's life changes. 

“Hitler and his solders are called Nazis.

Papa can’t wait to fight them!” (p.20)

Odette’s Growth begins after her father leaves. Just as he is confident that the French army will return victorious, Odette has confidence that she and her mother will be safe in their small apartment in Paris. The building’s caretaker and godmother, Madame Marie, is Odette’s bastion of refuge: 

“My godmother is like the perfect moon.

Always round.

Always full.

Always there.” (p. 8)

Madame Marie disciplines Odette when she skips school one day and informs her that she “needs to clean up the mess in your heart." (p. 37) Although she doesn’t instruct Odette to confess to her mother that she played hooky, the message is clear--tell the truth. Later, Madame Marie lies to soldiers who come looking for Odette and her mother.  This second message cements in Odette’s brain: some secrets and lies are acceptable.  Odette grows as she learns she must keep her identity secret in order to stay alive. She is learning to navigate a new world. 

First Odette, and then her mother, move to the country where they take on a Catholic identity. Odette thinks she is doing this successfully until her world comes crashing down (Shock) when some village children attack her for being Jewish. Although she denies it and her mother successfully enlists the mayor’s “pretend” support, Odette fears that her true identity will be discovered.

“Mama gives a party to show the villagers

that we are still ready to be friends.

…

I pretend to have a good time.

I keep all my sadness and anger buried inside,

Like all my other secrets.

It’s safer that way.

I can’t stop being scared, though.

So scared, that one day I stop going to school.

So scared that I even stop talking.” (p. 146-7).

When Paris is liberated, Odette’s mother decides they must return home. Despite the troubles she endured, Odette hates to leave her country village.  She says goodbye to her favorite places, her cat Bijou, and then gives her friend, Simone a present:

“The morning Mama and I leave,

I give Charlotte to Simone,

To make sure she’ll look after Bijou.

I don’t trust Simone, not really.

I have never told her that I’m a Jew.

Mama and I agree about this.

We still keep it a secret here that we are Jewish…

a secret from everyone.” (p. 169)

Odette’s Critical Choice comes in two parts: first, she must turn her back on her Catholic identity and the safety of her country home; and second, she returns to Paris and resumes her Jewish identity. 

Before a ceremony when the ashes of French Jewish dead will be buried, Odette wonders where she belongs. At the cemetery, a woman comes forward and clings to her as if she was her own daughter. That night Odette concludes:

I don't need to hide anymore,
and I don't want to keep any more secrets.
Secrets stand in my way.
They stop me from knowing who I am.
I am a Jew.
I'm sure of it.
And I will always be one. (p. 205)

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I trust you will find this book as powerful as I did.  Bloomsbury has generously provided a copy of Odette's Secrets to one fortunate blog reader.  Here is how you can win:

1. Leave me a comment. Make sure you leave your email address if you are new to my blog.

2. If you want to have your name entered twice share this post on your favorite social media site and either tag me or let me know in your comment. 

3. Become a new follower of my blog and let me know--I'll enter your name twice!

4. A winner will be chosen on Friday, November 15 and announced in next week's blog. 

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If you don't win, you can read six chapters for free on the Odette's Secrets Facebook page as well as a Teacher's Guide. Or, of course you can order your own copy!

I hope you'll stop by next week when I analyze parts of Sarah Dessen's book, Whatever Happened to Goodbye.