Carol Baldwin's Blog

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Nonfiction Needed

As an addendum to last week's post, I just read an article in this month's SCBWI Bulletin in which Libby Nelson listed the following subjects that teachers, students, parents and librarians were requesting. If you're a writer looking for a topic, try one of these. (Remember, you have to feel pretty passionate about it yourself--you'll be spending some time researching it!)

If you're a teacher looking for a book, please e-mail me at cbaldwin6@carolina.rr.com and I'll relay it to Libby to include in her next column.

Here is the list:

- global warming and its effects
- erosion; weathering
- hail, rain, sleet, snow- what they are and how they are formed
- different types of eggs and what animals produce them
- Kodiak bears
- Kangaroo rats
- Swans
- The sport of curling
- biographies of the Beatles

And for preschool aged children:

- poison prevention/safety inside the house and plants in a yard
- how children can recycle
- books on senses of the body
- animal groupings (such as a litter of cats, herd of cows, etc.)
- community figures and how they help
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Thursday, September 18, 2008

Great Writing Resources for Children’s Writers

Hello from Cullowhee, North Carolina- home of NCCAT where Joyce Hostetter and I are teaching the seminar, "Is There a Children's Book in You?" We are acting as midwives-- helping 21 talented teachers from across the state write picture books, early chapter books, and novels.

Here are some writing resources I have collected for them, as well as for any of you who are also interested in writing and publishing for children.

HELPFUL WRITING WEBSITES:
Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators
Children's Book Insider

http://www.writing-world.com/children/nonfiction.shtml - Five Reasons to Write Nonfiction for Children
http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/curriculum/NC
State Standards
http://joycemoyerhostetter.blogspot.com/ Joyce Hostetter's blog

GRAPHIC NOVELS WEBSITES:

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev105.shtml -Education World Article about Graphic Novels
http://www.manuscriptediting.com/publishers-children.htm
Graphic Novels
http://yahelp.suffolk.lib.ny.us/yacomic.html Comic and Graphic Novel Resources
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/comics/pages/index.html Comic Books for Young Adults: A Guide for Librarians
http://www.rationalmagic.com/Comics/Comics.html Graphic Novel Reviews
http://www.duluth.lib.mn.us/YouthServices/GraphicNovelsParents.html A Parent's Guide to Graphic Novels for Teens
http://my.voyager.net/~sraiteri/graphicnovels.htm Recommended Graphic Novels for Public Libraries
Kid Safe Graphic Novels Kid Safe Graphic Novels

MAGAZINE WEBSITES:

http://www.cobblestonepub.com/magazines.html Cricket and Cobblestone
http://www.writerswrite.net/pubdisp.cfm?market=1100201 Highlights- writers guidelines

EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS WEBSITES

http://ngsp.com/ National Geographic School Publishing. Materials for the classroom. *****

http://www.outofthecradle.net/categories/lunar-library/youth/youth-educator-materials/ *****

https://www.secureaep.com/awards/attendees.php - Get a list of the 500 people who attended the Association of Educational Publishers summit on publishing for the digital future. **

http://www.evan-moor.com/Science/Catalog.aspx?CurriculumID=6 – An example of one educational publisher, Evan Moor. **

http://www.prufrock.com/ Publishes materials for gifted children ***

http://www.pearsonhighered.com/ Megabig publisher for school materials ****
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/hip_main_content/1,3120,-802,00.html ) author's guidelines for Pearson's companies

http://www.readingprograms.info/ed_pubs.html **** lists websites of major educational publishers

http://www.buzzle.com/chapters/education-and-higher-learning_teachers-guide-and-related-resources_publishers-and-publishing.asp *****-lists of educational publishers

PROPOSAL WEBSITES

http://write4kids.com/a2e.html "Author To Editor: Query Letter Secrets of the Pros"
http://www.right-writing.com/factors.htm "Ten Factors to Consider when Writing a Book Proposal"

Monday, September 15, 2008

First Reader

Thursday, September 11, 2008

SOS for Writers

After a recent SCBWI critique meeting, I was musing with a 14-year-old first-time-attendee that writers need to consider three very distinct elements when they write. For the sake of simplicity and creating an easy to remember acronym for teachers and writers, let's think of this as:

Story
Overview & Critique
Style

In other words, every writer, whether an elementary school child learning to write a story, a high school senior writing a critical essay on Spanish literature, or an adult crafting an article or novel; must consider WHAT he is writing (the "story" i.e., the content), the WAY in which he is writing it (i.e., style), and then finally, he must be able to sit back and critically evaluate HOW the piece is written (evaluating the mechanics, grammar, punctuation, etc.)

Right now I am listening to The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam. Not only is it an excellent compilation of the facts surrounding the Korean conflict (the "Story"), it is also written with great style and skill. Consider the following description of an early conflict against the North Koreans in July, 1950 that met with less than positive results:

"Operation Blue Hearts reflected a wildly optimistic view of how American troops would fare…It was planned as if the North Korean assault was nothing more than the arrival of a few mosquitoes that could easily be swatted away." With a simple metaphor, Halbersham communicated his distinct opinion of the operation.

Later, Halberstam described the arrival of a North Korean tank as it moved "steadily and majestically" toward a reporter. A majestic tank? Sounds like an oxymoron, but in his iconoclastic use of the adverb "majestically" Halberstam gave his reader a word picture of the Korean army.

Halberstam died in 2007 and can't tell of the hours he spent critiquing the words, paragraphs, and chapters which fill 20 books. His legacy speaks for itself.

As the SCBWI critique leader I have found that adult writers focus on one of these "SOS" elements at the expense of the other two. Student writers experience the same dilemma. I recently chatted about how freshmen lose their sense of writing "Style" when they enter high school. Robi Rego, the 9^th grade language arts teacher at
Covenant Day School commented that they don't see the connection between "creative" and "expository" writing. They enjoy writing short stories in middle school, but fail to use these skills when writing essays. I reminded her that good expository writing needs the same flair, style, and pizzazz that fiction writers imbed in their stories.

As a teacher or writer, how can you apply these principles?

Make sure that the content is written in a cohesive fashion, makes sense, and grabs the reader's attention.
Look at your word choice. Use "Muscle Words": vivid verbs, specific nouns, image-driven adjectives, similes, metaphors, personification and onomatopoeia, alliteration.
Take the time to read your entire piece out loud. Look for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.

WRITING SOS - What every writer needs.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Pillars of Gold and Silver

In a recent conversation with my 16-year-old nephew Ben about my blog, I mentioned that I generally blogged about books that I recommended. In a typical adolescent "let's think outside of the box" response, he said, "Why are you doing that? Book reviewers don't have to like a book in order to write about it."

So thanks to Ben, this is my first blog about a book that I didn't like and would not recommend: Pillars of Gold and Silver. Suggested to me by a librarian who was helping me choose books related to the Korean War, this middle-grade book takes place during that time period and thus is a glimpse into that era.

The story is interesting enough. A young girl (Blanca Estela) moves to Mexico with her mother immediately following her father's death in the Korean War. Her Spanish is poor and she must adjust to living in her grandmother's village and the different customs, food, and forms of recreation that greet her. This could be an interesting plot and view of a different culture and time period for 4-7^th grade readers, but unfortunately the author, Beatriz de La Garza, breaks two cardinal rule of writing: She tells, rather than shows and dumps information in paragraphs that plod from chapter to chapter. Consider this paragraph early in the first chapter. It is the first time her mother speaks about her husband's death, on the bus ride to Mexico:

Sometimes they stopped in little towns, or even where there was only a gasoline station or café all alone in the middle of nothing. Then her mother would have her get out and go to the restroom or give her sandwiches to eat, even when she wasn't hungry. Other time when she was hungry, she had to wait a long time to eat until they reached their next stop. Once, when she was both hungry and sleepy, she began to fret and to complain about it to her mother, but then she stopped because her mother did not seem to be listening. She seemed to be far away in her thoughts, and, instead of responding she asked Blanca Estela, "You don't really remember him do you? You were still so little when he left. He only came back once for a visit after that. He was supposed to come back for good by the New Year. And now he is never coming back." (p. 10)

An event that should emotionally grab the reader in the gut- a little girl's father's death- leaves the reader yawning. To me, de la Garza's desire to include many interesting details ends up weighing the story down. Coincidentally, yesterday I was reading the October issue of Writer's Digest. In the article "What Agents Hate" Rachelle Gardner of WordServe Literary says, "One of the biggest problems is the 'information dump' in the first few pages, where the author is trying to tell us everything we supposedly need to know to understand the story. Getting to know characters in a story is like getting to know people in real life. You find out their personality and details of their life over time." In the same article, Jennifer Cayea of Avenue A Literary is quoted as saying: "I [dislike] inauthentic dialogue to tell the reader who the characters are, instead of showing who the characters are."

In my book, Teaching the Story and at teacher's conferences I talk about the need to show characters FAST- through their feelings, actions, speech and thoughts. When an author narrates and tells rather than shows, their characters are one dimensional and lacking the immediacy of someone you have enjoyed getting to know.

Unfortunately, de la Garza's long narratives didn't engage me and I'm afraid that most young readers won't get far enough into the book to be caught up in the story. That's too bad. The author had an interesting story to tell, oops!, to show.

Friday, August 29, 2008

“I’ll show you my artifacts if you show me yours!”

That was one of the last things I said to fellow NC author, Joyce Hostetter, on Wednesday afternoon after a day of planning our upcoming workshop at NCCAT. Joyce got into the theme of an archeological dig as she brainstormed off my reproducible "Mining Your Lives" from Teaching the Story. Thinking about how adult authors can "dig" into their own experiences to springboard into their writing, led us to an entire week's theme of digging, exploring, and finally, at the end, sharing "artifacts" (their written creations from the week) with one another. Is There a Children's Book in You? will be a week complete with time to "Voice Your Character," "Dig Into Problems," "Discover a Setting," and "Explore a Mood."

We had spent the morning at the Gaston County Library collaborating on our upcoming workshop for NWRESA, Using Life Experiences to Pump Up Your Writing. Joyce bounced off of my "Exercise Muscle Words" worksheet, played with the wrestling metaphor, and decided that each segment of the day would be labeled "Rounds." We're expecting the day to be a "knock out" for NC teachers who live in the northwest portion of our state.

This is the joy and fun of collaboration. As we laughed and bounced ideas off of one another, we thought of things that we might not have considered working on our own. For example, I would not have thought of posing with a statue outside the library. Joyce, as you can see in this picture, is a natural "let's think outside this box" person. Score a point for adults, as well as students, benefiting from the unexpected surprises of collaboration.

Remember the story about the blind men with the elephant? In this Asian tale, each man describes the same animal in a totally different fashion depending on his perspective. Check out Joyce's blog about our day together and discover how two authors can write about the same event in a totally different fashion. Hmmm…sounds like a good lesson plan for any grade teacher!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

My Day @ the Races

Magnificent gleaming horses galloping at top speed, a clear blue day, rainbows of silks pouffing out in the windstream of the race—what more could a Southern girl from North Carolina want from her day at the Saratoga Race Course in New York?

A win would have been nice, but it wasn't in the cards. Or should I say, don't bet on it? Once again, I'm talking about idioms.

How do phrases like "a head start" or "to hit one's stride" come into our language? If you're really curious, check out this Sports Idioms for Track and Field for some interesting history of words and phrases such as "the inside track" or "a dark horse." They've become as much a part of our normal speech as the "ponies" are a part of the racing industry. (Stick with me on this one. The point will become clear, I promise.)

Yesterday I watched as calm, older horses called "ponies" pranced in step alongside the racing horses to calm them before a race. They were the unsung heroes who led the mares and geldings into the starting gate, and then faded into the background even before the announcer yelled, "And, they're off!"

No glory for them, their work was complete. This is not unlike a good idiom. Almost unseen unless you're on the lookout for one, an idiom does its job of amplifying the message a writer is communicating, and then quietly sinks into the background.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of me squeezed between my nephew and my mother, along with my brother and sister-in-law at the Saratoga Springs track. The youngest member of the party was the big winner of the day—pulling in a hefty $7.70 for one $2 bet. And here's a picture of the horse I should have bet on, but didn't.

So, has this blog been a hands-down winner? It's anyone's call.

Remember, if you need a book on idioms, check out Maupin House's books: Idioms for Aliens and Exploring Idioms.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Gone to the Dogs- For Real

After bugging my husband Creighton for more years than I can count, he finally gave up and gave in. Meet Gypsy, part cattle dog, part yellow lab, my new writing buddy and the newest addition to the Baldwin family. She will unequivocally be hanging out with me while I write and most definitely will approve of anything that comes out of my computer. So nice to have that kind of audience, don't you agree? But apparently, I'm not the only one in the family who will be enjoying her. I love how Lydia crawled into her crate to show her it was a good place to hang out!

Gypsy also has the distinction of being the first dog who made it onto the Maupin House blog. Check this out!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Piecing the Puzzle Together

This week I interviewed Jack Claiborne; an author and former sports writer for the Charlotte Observer. He grew up in the Elizabeth neighborhood of Charlotte (which just so happens to be the place Anna Marie Dinsmore, the main character in my young adult novel will have spent time). He was eloquent in his descriptions of people and places; his memories roamed over his childhood pastimes of going in and out of soldiers' tents bivouacked outside the Armory just before WWII to hearing his principal at Elizabeth Elementary ring the bell at the beginning and end of each day. By the way, that bell just happens to be the one that now rings at UNCC for commencement.

Since I met Jack at UNCC, afterwards I went upstairs to the Special Collections room of the Atkins Library and browsed old Charlotte Country Club magazines, shmoozed with the librarians, and read the Charlotte City Club By Laws from 1952. (This one was interesting: "No lady or group of ladies will be admitted to the dining room unless escorted"). As I was randomly flipping through the South Carolina encyclopedia, I stumbled upon the Laurens Glass manufacturing plant which was the first suppliers of Coca-Cola bottles. Why is that note-worthy? Charlotte just happens to have been home to the first Coca-Cola bottling plant in the Carolinas. For those of you reading this blog who know of my interest and love of glass, rest assured that I'll tie these tidbits into my story.

You know you're a research hound when perusing old country club magazines and hearing random stories about the time period you're researching excite you. Sort of feels as good as finding the right piece to complete the outline of a puzzle. It all fits together.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Her Own Place

As background for my own work-in-progress, I decided to listen to Dori Sanders' second novel, Her Own Place. I was looking for a greater understanding of what life was like for rural African American women in the second half of the 20^th century and I was not disappointed. Sanders, who is well known for her first novel Clover, grew up in Filbert, SC, a tiny community in York County, near Rock Hill, SC and not far from Charlotte, NC. Since her family operates one of the oldest African-American farms in the region, (her father, a former sharecropper, bought the land around 1915) she is well-equipped with stories. I enjoyed listening to the book but was distracted by the author going in and out of different character's point of views. Now that I'm thinking of writing a novel, I think about things like that!

It seemed to me that one of Sanders' goals was to show the changes that occurred in South Carolina from about 1930-1990. As a result, there are some stories which are told in greater depth than others. Although the reader hears the protagonist's (Mae Lee Barnes) struggles throughout her life, I felt an emotional detachment from Mae Lee and would have preferred to have been more hooked into such obviously difficult events like raising her five children without her husband's support. The span of years that is covered, the lack of transition between events, and my lack of emotional involvement as a reader, makes the book read more like a memoir than a novel. As such, it was interesting to me and would be worthy of reading for others interested in this time and place in American history.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

The Story in Your Own Backyard

About five miles from where I live is the lovely historical neighborhood of Myers Park. That doesn't exactly qualify as my "backyard" does it? But when my friend and fellow author, Joyce Moyer Hostetter, relayed that her editor, Carolyn Yoder, encourages writers to dig for stories that are figuratively in their own backyards, I decided that Myers Park would qualify for me. Joyce, by the way, first heard that advice at a Highlights Founders Workshop and turned around and wrote BLUE, a novel which is the story of the polio epidemic in Joyce's hometown of Hickory, NC. Obviously, Carolyn's advice paid off for Joyce and I hope that it will pay off for me too!

As I mentioned in my "That's the way it was" post, I have been interviewing a variety of people and hearing their stories about Charlotte. I drive around and look at my hometown for the last 22 years with new eyes. Which home were here 60+ years ago? Which roads, businesses, and homes didn't exist? Instead of the homes along the main roads that lead out of town, what did the farms look like? What happened to Briar Creek that Mr. James Ross (pictured here) used to play in? What happened to Henderson Dance Studio where Liz Medearis (another interviewee) used to go for dance lessons? What happened to the armory where Liz and her teenage friends used to go to and listen to Count Basie?

For every question I answer, a new one pops up. But like a huge jigsaw puzzle, I am finding pieces that eventually I hope to fit together into a young adult novel. Meanwhile, I am having fun as I discover the story of Anna Marie Dinsmore, my fourteen-year-old protagonist who just moved in with her Myers Park grandparents after her father left to serve in Korea. Stay tuned, and you'll hear the story as she tells it to me. After all, this is her story, and I just happen to live in her backyard.

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