Here There Be Dragons

Resources for Writers and Teachers of Writers

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:52:46 GMT

Fellow author Dean Whitlock and I have started to put together a series of resource sheets for writers and teachers of writers. The first one is (finally!) up.

Go here for the main teaching resource page.

And here for the How to Create Characters? pdf.

My Favorite Book Blurb

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:08:47 GMT

Currently, my favorite book blurb is by Michael Chabon for Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude. It’s a bit long, so I won’t offer the entire thing, but here’s the part I like best: “…most of all, from my point of view, he captures precisely – as only a great novelist can – how it feels to love the world that is, on a daily basis, kicking your ass.”

I tried reading The Fortress of Solitude last year, and I put it back down. The images flashed so quickly, like millions of lightning bugs strewn across a wide June-warm field. Dazzling and perplexing.

I re-tried it this summer, and I haven’t been able to put it down. Each minute flash helps to form a picture, I realized, one complexly rendered. It would be difficult here to give a sense of what I mean. The accumulation tells the story.

Lethem creates each image with precise details. There is the spaldeen, for example, “which fit a hand perfectly and often seemed to be magnetized there.” Most of the boys in Dylan Edbus’s pre-gentrified, pre-integrated Brooklyn neighborhood easily toss and catch it. Dylan, the only white kid on the block, doesn’t. After the other boys roof a spaldeen, they send Dylan to get a fresh one:

“Dylan and Earl would be sent to visit the bodega and say the pregnant word, spaldeen, and Old Ramirez would supply another one suspiciously, resenting the business. Dylan would fondle the newborn pink spaldeen but surrender it instantly to Henry, and likely not touch it again until it was scuffed and enervated, bounced out from a thousand angled hurls. That was if Dylan touched it again at all. His chance came between games, the airy transitions when all arms unexplainedly dropped and someone asked for a suck of someone else’s Yoo-Hoo and someone else turned their T-shirt inside out stretched over their elbows, to the laughter of the girls. The spaldeen would roll inert to the gutter and Dylan could retrieve it and marvel at its destruction…”

With the spaldeen, as with all other things in Dylan’s neighborhood, he is awkward, inadequate – he’s able only to watch the other boys’ triumphs and, once they’ve turned to fresh interests, pick up the broken remnants they’ve abandoned.

Business-of-Writing Seminars and McGhee’s All Rivers

Fri, 15 May 2009 18:08:58 GMT

This summer’s Solstice Summer Writers’ Conference has a number of business-of-writing seminars open to registration on an a la carte basis.

Also --
Reading Alison McGhee's ALL RIVERS FLOW TO THE SEA, I was struck by the way McGhee uses repetition to portray shock and grief. From the start of the novel, Rose is clearly having trouble getting through each day: “Here is the school bus. Here is the school bus door, chuffing open with its familiar wheeze. Here are the school bus steps…Where is your sister Ivy who should be behind you, shoving at you to hurry up? Ivy is not here. You and your sister had an accident.”

This last line about the accident quickly becomes the kind of statement someone says over and over when she isn’t able to fully take in something horrible and make sense of it. With each repetition, Rose tries to discover the words’ significance. Instead, they simply become a kind of keening: “Your sister Ivy and you had an accident. The world should have stopped, but it didn’t. The world kept on going.”

Later, as Rose repeats these lines, she adds more information. She starts to explain what occurred: “Ivy and I had an accident. It was dusk in the Adirondacks that night, and we were coming around a curve. And Ivy pumped the brakes, but a light blue truck was going too fast, and it came sliding into us.”

The explanation grows over the course of the novel. Rose continues to repeat her story and continues to add to it – She articulates its beginning, its middle, its end. She transforms keening to storytelling: by doing so, she finds crucial meaning and, ultimately, solace.

Jim the Boy

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:18:17 GMT

Though not published as a children’s book, Jim the Boy has a lot to offer a child reader – as well as the writer of children’s/YA stories. Jim’s desires often are large: he wants to meet his estranged grandfather, he wants to be treated like a man rather than a boy. However, the main character and narrator don’t spend a lot of time musing on Jim’s large desires. Instead, the mundane items in Jim’s day-to-day world come to represent his wants: for example, a large field in need of hoeing. His adult uncles hoe it quickly, and Jim is determined to hoe it just as quickly. But once he’s out in the field, he sees how big it is: the woods at the other end of the field “seemed as far away as the moon.” Instead of trying to reach that far away end, Jim wastes his morning tossing rocks into the air and hitting them with his hoe. “Go on home, then,” says one of his uncles, and Jim whimpers at being sent away like a little boy, which he’d claimed he no longer was but has proven himself to be.

The Graveyard Book and Charm

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:32:43 GMT

The funny thing about my copy of The Graveyard Book is it ain’t the real thing. I managed to end up with an ARC (not bought but given, I swear), and this ARC has no illustrations. ARCs often make me think about books as artifacts. I primarily love books for their stories and writing, but I also love paper, fonts, shapes, covers, and illustrations. Bad design might not ruin a story for me, but it can certainly ruin aspects of my reading experience. Great design – Well, it’s a pleasure.

When reading ARCs, I know I’m not going to get the same sensual experience as I would if I were reading a hardcover or even a paperback. Still, I usually think I’ve read the story I’m reading. I’m not sure that’s the case with The Graveyard Book. Without viewing (reading?) Dave McKean’s illustrations, have I really read the story?

So, take these comments with a grain of salt.

The thing that has most intrigued me about The Graveyard Book is the voice. The story is full of death and contains horrible acts…and yet the voice charms me. The narrator has a wry sense of humor. It, the narrator, invites the reader to laugh at the characters a bit, but in an affectionate way – the way one might laugh at exasperating but beloved family members. It invites the reader to become a coconspirator, a fellow cousin on the couch observing a tragic and whimsical family gathering.

“Three hundred voices. Three hundred opinions. Nehmiah Trot, the poet, from the tumbled northwestern side of the graveyard, had begun to declaim his opinion, although what it was no person listening could have said…” – THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, Neil Gaiman

The Solstice Conference and THE UNDERNEATH

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:26:09 GMT

This year’s children’s/YA faculty members for the Solstice Summer Writers’ Conference are David Yoo and Marie Myong-Ok Lee. For more info, check out the conference page.

I can understand why Kathy Appelt’s THE UNDERNEATH has received the attention and acclaim it has. The story is distinctive for several reasons, but what immediately struck me as unique is the geographical and cultural place she conjures.

Be specific, I tell students again and again. I say it to myself, too: so many of my draft pages end up with large lines drawn through sentences. Beside these cross-outs, I write things like, “not specific enough.”

Specificity doesn’t necessarily make a description unique. Details from little-known locations or historical periods can, but I don’t think writers are required to look far for the unique. How much of what lies within the five miles directly around our homes do we pay attention to? Often, not much. I’m a big believer in searching those five miles, in peering into nooks and crannies, around abandoned corners, up at rooftops and down at ditches.

Also, even specific, unique descriptions can be tangents, so I’m always writing comments on my drafts like, what does this have to do with the story? Appelt’s descriptions often portray not only locations but the specific dangers that her endearing protagonists face:

“Nothing scares an alligator, especially the alligators of the Bayou Tartine, the large stream that flows to the west of Little Sorrowful Creek. It flows through the heart of these forgotten woods. Halfway down the Bayou Tartine, the land drops off in a channel, which creates just enough room for a little bayou, the Petite Tartine. It makes a semicircle and rejoins its big sister, and all the land between is marsh and swamp and quicksand.

Do not go into that land between the Bayou Tartine and its little sister, Petite Tartine. Do not step into that shivery place. Do not let it gobble you up. Stay away from the Tartine sisters.” – Kathi Appelt, THE UNDERNEATH

Kids Heart Authors and Teaching on the Inside

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:35:40 GMT

For New Englanders and New Yorkers, children’s/YA authors will be at an indie bookstore near you on Valentine’s Day. Check out the Kids Heart Authors website to find out more.

And – At Pine Manor last semester, we had a student choose to do an internship rather than write a traditional critical thesis. To learn more about her work with men in prison, check out her blog: Deep Water: Teaching Inside Prison.

Loss’s Particulars

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:25:12 GMT

I recently read M.T. Anderson’s The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation Volume II: The Kingdom of the Waves. I think my favorite scene is one that shouldn’t be my favorite, considering the length and breadth of the story. And yet, it has an ache – a specific and wrenching depiction of loss – I keep returning to.

Octavian is raised as an experiment; at the eve of the American Revolution, he thinks himself a prince rather than a slave. The experiment ends tragically, and he seeks shelter in Boston as colonists threaten occupying loyalists. In Boston, Octavian encounters his former music instructor, and the instructor wants him to sing his mother’s songs – songs of Africa his mother refused to sing to him. Accompanying the instructor to his small dwelling, Octavian discovers the instructor has hung the songs’ pages on the walls, but the songs are written strangely. The instructor had no musical notation with which to truly render the sounds foreign to his ears. And so the invented symbols the instructor used mean nothing to Octavian.

“…sobbing once, I pressed my hands to the paper – seeking in those scraps, some memory that might have snagged – as strung therein were all the secrets of my childhood erased, that life I might have lived: ceremonies and dances, what women wailed for in the marketplace, the sweep of ancient grasses; and I fancied that if they would simply let me sing, I would hear the voices of my forebears, I would hear their tales, which they wished still to tell me; I would smell the hides of beasts of burden, twitching from the flies, taste the savors of my family’s confections and I might see the lips of those who had sung these songs to my mother in her infancy: a grandfather, his hair an unimagined white; a grandmother, sitting in a grove and laughing. I considered, scarcely dared to entertain the prospect, a father might hold me swaddled in his arms and raise me to his sister’s lips.” The Kingdom Beneath the Waves, M.T. Anderson.

Resolutions and Return

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:44:03 GMT

I’m resolving here and now to be a better blogger. It’s not surprising I’ve lapsed. Still. I’ve been reading Joy’s funny and fierce blog and feeling like a slacker. So.

I just returned from teaching at the Pine Manor residency and…Wow. Workshop was fantastic. An Na and I barely had to do any work: a little guidance here, a few questions there. But truly, the students about to graduate have become such great readers that they raised many of the issues Na and I planned to raise. They also have learned something truly difficult to learn: ways to critique honesty and exhaustively while conveying compassion for the person whose work they’re discussing. I worried a bit after workshop sessions that students, especially new students, would feel disheartened and overwhelmed. Listening to eight people talk about every aspect of 20 pages you’ve struggled over isn’t easy. And yet each student I checked-in with seemed enthusiastic. They said things like: that was exactly what I needed to hear.

One great thing about Pine Manor is that all genres – fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, children’s/YA – are in residency together. Students and faculty can attend lectures/classes outside their stated genre. And so I was lucky enough to hear Amy Hoffman read and meet Venise Berry, who taught an incredible class on breaking free from stereotypes and exploring character diversity. Many of my students attended the class and loved it.

Pine Manor has just opening up some classes to people outside the program, so if you’re in the community or are a prospective student, consider visiting in July.

Ghana and Teaching

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:58:17 GMT

My colleague and friend Laban Carrick Hill is currently teaching in Ghana. You can read his blog at his website. Click on the Ghana blog link. Also on that page is a way to sign up for his blog newsletter. His blog is on the PEN America website, as well.

Just as a quick reminder –Solstice is currently accepting applications for the January-June 2009 semester. Photos of the first Solstice graduating class, readings, etc.

I’m not certain what I’ll teach this January at Solstice….Something on speculative fiction. And maybe I’ll also combine sections of my life and teach an elective on mentoring kids and teens in writing…

PALESTINE by Joe Sacco –

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:22:57 GMT

It took me a bit to sort out what I found so shocking about some of the images in PALESTINE…The politics didn’t surprise me…Or the events depicted…

It was the image of men in yarmulkes yelling at other men, carrying guns. In America, we don’t often see such images of yarmulke-wearing men.

Announcing Pacem 08-09 Classes

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:52:00 GMT

Pacem – The Art and Craft of Writing – Laura McCaffrey –

What makes great writing? How do imaginative, intriguing ideas become compelling fiction, poetry, or non-fiction? In The Art and Craft of Writing, students explore answers to these questions.

The Art and Craft of Writing I – Monday afternoons, 1:15-3:00, 10 to 12 year olds –
Reading to Write (most work done at home): As the best writing teachers are the books we love, students self-design individualized book lists based on their writing goals. Each week, outside of class, students read. They also write 1-2 paragraphs in their dialogue journal (kept with Laura), reflecting on some aspect of their weekly reading and its relationship to their writing.

Group Work and Writing Experiments (45 mins in class): Students work on skills practice and experimental writing pieces. Fall term, we focus on vocabulary and sentence structure. We also focus on paragraph structure: Topic or Introductory Sentence, Supporting or Descriptive Sentences, Concluding Sentence. Spring term, we study variety of fiction and non-fiction forms, with an emphasis on crafting strong paragraphs. We study poetry forms, and examine rhyme, meter, and figurative language. Both terms, we practice revision techniques. We also meet at the end of each class to discuss the day’s writing questions, frustrations, and triumphs.

Independent Writing and Editing (1 hr in class): Each student designs, writes, revises, and polishes independent writing projects. These projects can be brought from home, from other classes, or entirely designed and completed in The Art and Craft of Writing. As part of designing and completing writing projects, students participate in one-on-one and group conferencing with Laura and their classmates. Students receive conferencing feedback, as well as learn to articulate precise constructive responses to others’ writing. At the end of each term, students select and polish submissions for the fall and spring editions of the class literary journal.

The Art and Craft of Writing II – Tuesday mornings, 10:30-12:15, 12 to 14 year olds –
Reading to Write (most work done at home): As the best writing teachers are the books we love, students self-design individualized book lists based on their writing goals. Each week outside of class, students read. They also write at least 2 paragraphs in their dialogue journal (kept with Laura), reflecting on some aspect of their weekly reading and its relationship to their writing.

Group Work and Writing Experiments (45 mins in class): Students work on skills practice and experimental writing pieces. Fall term, we focus on vocabulary, sentence structure, and paragraph structure. We also learn and practice structuring non-fiction and fiction pieces. (For expository writing: Introduction, Body, Conclusion. For narratives: Exposition/Inciting Incident, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution) Spring term, we focus on a variety of fiction and non-fiction forms, with an emphasis on structuring strong fiction and non-fiction narratives. During poetry study, we examine poetic forms, paying specific attention to line breaks, meter and scansion, and imagery. We also practice revision techniques. At the end of each class, we discuss the day’s writing questions, frustrations, and triumphs.

Independent Writing and Editing: (1hr in class): Each student designs, writes, revises, and polishes independent writing projects. These projects can be brought from home, from other classes, or entirely designed and completed in The Art and Craft of Writing. As part of developing and completing writing projects, students participate in one-on-one and group conferencing with Laura and their classmates. Students receive conference feedback on specific pieces, well as practice articulating precise constructive responses to others’ writing. Additionally, students complete polished submissions for the fall and spring editions of the class literary journal.

The Art and Craft of Writing III – Tuesday afternoons,1:15-300, 14 year olds and up –
Reading to Write (most work done at home): As the best writing teachers are the books we love, students self-design individualized book lists based on their writing goals. Each week, outside of class, students read. They also write at least 3 paragraphs in their dialogue journal (kept with Laura), reflecting on some aspect of their weekly reading and its relationship to their writing.

Group Work and Writing Experiments (30-45mins in class): All writing skills practice, discussion, and experiments relate directly to issues that arise during Independent Writing and Editing (see below).

Independent Writing and Editing (1-1hr15mins in class): Each student designs a writing portfolio checklist, one tailored to suit the student’s academic and career goals as well as his/her overall interests. For example, students interested in social activism may choose to focus on persuasive essays, letters to the editor, and grant writing, while students interested in creative writing may choose to focus on fiction forms, expository essays, and personal essays. Students might also choose to focus on assignments from a writing curriculum, from another class, or from another project. As students write, revise, and polish writing pieces, they participate in one-on-one and group conferences with Laura and their classmates to help them refine their writing and to further develop their ability to constructively respond to others’ writing. Additionally, students complete polished submissions for the fall and spring editions of the class literary journal.

Since May?

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:27:02 GMT

May? I haven’t posted since May? How did that happen?

Well, I do have third novel news, but until the signature is on the dotted line, I’m not going to say anything specific. Still…I’m happy…Very, very happy.

Taught a class I called Speculative Fiction’s Homes at Solstice, which seemed to go well. After discussing worldbuilding and writing homes, I ended with a bit of a warning and advice. I spoke of ways the setting, the story’s home, can embody the story’s central theme…But when writers do this, we sometimes make the home too narrow. We write a story that over and over again, in every way, simply says one thing. To avoid this danger, we keep in mind that themes don’t only have one facet. They have many. And our depictions of the home may be one way of depicting these facets.

In Ursula LeGuin’s A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA, Ged becomes a hero by traveling throughout his world, but some of the most peaceful and happy people in the story are those who are settled. At the story’s climax, Vetch, or Estarriol, accompanies Ged across the water to face the shadow, but Estarriol has come from and might return to the island of Iffish and the small town of Ismay, where he is chief wizard. When Ged first sees Estarriol’s house, he says, “This is how a man should live.” And Estarriol replies: “Well, it’s one good way. There are others” (158).

Estarriol’s advice is advice I plan to keep in mind. Vividly described, unique, changeable, psychologically and metaphorically rich homes should be a way one should live. One way, but there are others.

Lord of the Flies and Possible News…

Mon, 19 May 2008 21:00:33 GMT

I recently re-read Lord of the Flies…and still loved it. I remember first reading it as a teen and feeling the shock of recognition: I had met boys like Jack.

As I’m interested in omniscient narration, I found a lot to think about in Lord of the Flies. Writers studying omniscience should definitely take a look at Golding’s technique. For one short example, there's the end, when Jack and his hunters hunt Ralph. We are within Ralph’s panicked thoughts:

Don’t scream
You’ll get back.
Now he’s seen you. He’s making sure. A stick sharpened. – William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

As the narrator describes Ralph’s flight, he alternates between describing Ralph’s stream-of-consciousness thoughts and depicting Ralph’s moment-to-moment actions. And then Ralph encounters the officer, an adult. We see the officer from Ralph’s perspective. Then we see the boys – boys who have fought, hunted, and killed each other – from the officer’s POV:

The officer grinned cheerfully at Ralph.
“We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?”
Ralph nodded.
The officer inspected the little scarecrow in front of him. The kid needed a bath, a haircut, a nose-wipe and a good deal of ointment.
“Nobody killed, I hope? Any dead bodies?”
“Only two. And they’ve gone.”
The officer leaned down and looked closely at Ralph.
“Two? Killed?”
Ralph nodded again. Behind him, the whole island was shuddering with flame. The officer knew, as a rule, when people were telling the truth. He whistled softly. – William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

In other news: I’m hoping to post about that third novel very soon…

Vermont Children’s Literature Workshop (primarily for homeschooling parents)

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:52:06 GMT

I have more to post, but thought I’d start with this:

Pacem Learning Community presents…

Over the Bridge &
Beyond the Book Report:

Contemporary Literature for Your Child or Teen
and Ways to Engage in Meaningful Literary Reflection

a workshop for homeschooling parents and others
with Laura Williams McCaffrey and Rebecca Yahm

Just as books like Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia transformed children’s and young adult literature 30 years ago, contemporary classics continue to transform the genre. In our first hour, we'll examine genre trends and contemporary classics. We’ll also discuss resources for developing children’s and teen literature book lists. Our second hour will focus on meaningful literary reflection that fosters depth of understanding and an appreciation for good writing. We'll begin with ways to encourage active reading and personal response and then look at approaches to engaging higher-level thinking and developing an understanding of literary elements. You’ll leave with many ideas for making the reading and discussion of good literature a part of your child’s life.

Monday, May 12, 6-8pm
Pacem Learning Community, 29 College Street, Montpelier
$28/person
Pre-registration required.

For more information contact Rebecca Yahm at 454-9336 or ryahm@pshift.com.
To register, call Jacki at Pacem Learning Community at 223-1010.

A Breather, Teaching, and Writing Interviews

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:03:24 GMT

The third novel is finally off my desk and on my editor’s instead. Writing this novel took a year longer than I expected. After I sent it, I walked around feeling like I was missing a limb for a few days, then started on the next novel.

I’m also preparing for my summer residency class at Solsticeas well as reading many, many pages from my students. And pages from my homeschooling writing students.

Writing food for thought: the very smart and accomplished Tiara Marchando is posting interviews on writing she’s conducted with Solstice’s faculty: Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Joy Castro, Laban Carrick Hill, Randall Kenan, and me.

Maybe Not News but Still Interesting…

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:39:14 GMT

On women writing fantasy in the Guardian blog.

In case you’ve been missing out on Bookslut in Training.

Need to catch up on my Horn Book podcasts.

Notes from the field from librarian extraordinaire Philip Crawford.

Registration Open

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:00:45 GMT

Registration is now open for Solstice’s summer writers’ conference. This summer’s children/YA faculty members are Tor Seidler and Marino Budhos.

Also CLNE's new incarnation.

Interview and Such

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:35:07 GMT

An interview with Nnedi Okoragorauthor of MG/YA speculative fiction.

Cell Phone Novels? – I found this a little fascinating.

More soon…

Last-Minute Rush, as well as The Future and Past:

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:16:03 GMT

I had to fill in for another faculty member last minute at the Solstice MFA last week. Nothing like teaching a class with five days to prepare. It seemed to come together the best that it could, however, and I was lucky my colleague had chosen books to discuss I’d already read. My students were both wonderful and patient – as they always seem to be.

While at Solstice, I also was lucky to hear the incomparable Sheree Renee Thomas speak on speculative fiction. Those looking for great reading should check out her blog, as well as her anthologies: DARK MATTER: A CENTURY OF SPECULATIVE FICTION FROM THE AFRICAN DIASPORA and DARK MATTER: READING THE BONES. If you have the chance to go see Sheree speak or read, absolutely go.

I’ll be heading back to Solstice for the July residency, and have been thinking about teaching a class on creating utopias, dystopias, and alternative histories. I’m finding I’m less interested in utopias, with the possible exception of the utopian aspects in WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME. The two dystopias I loved as a teen were 1984 and THE HANDMAID’S TALE. And then there was Blade Runner….So I could revisit these and start compiling a list of more contemporary books. (With many thanks to Sheree Thomas for directions to read in.) I’d look particularly at the YA field, but I’m not all that concerned with staying strictly within publishing’s definition of the YA genre.

The secret I’ve yet to reveal to my students is that I basically use my teaching as an excuse to read or re-read a bunch of books I’ve been longing to sit down with.

CLOUD ATLAS

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:48:21 GMT

CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell is a rather remarkable book with six interlocking novellas structured a bit like nesting dolls. I’m not even sure how one might describe the overarching story, though each novella has a clear and compelling narrative arc. I’m particularly fond of Mitchell’s selfish, thieving, mean, at times moral, sardonic, tragic, talented musician, Robert Frobisher, who in this passage describes his brother’s letters from the WWI front:

“Adrian’s letters were hauntingly aural. One can shut one’s eyes but not one’s ears. Crackle of lice in seams; scutter of rats; snap of bones against bullet: stutter of machine-guns; thunder of distant explosions, lightning of nearer ones; ping of stones off tin helmets; flies buzzing over no-man’s land in summer. Later conversations add the scream of horses; cracking of frozen mud; buzz of aircraft; tanks, churning in mud-holes; amputees, surfacing from the ether; belch of flame-throwers; squelch of bayonets in necks. European music is passionately savage, broken by long silences.”

Recovering

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:33:14 GMT

Pneumonia knocked me out for more than a month. I managed to keep working on my revision, but wasn’t able to keep up the blog. With the holidays fast approaching – gingerbread houses to make, children’s dance rehearsals to drive to, a variety of family rituals to uphold – I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to devote here. But for now:

In case you missed it the first time around, Jane Langton’s excellent musings, the first and the second, on fantasy writing.

More articles on fantasy literature from Horn, as well as November’s article on sequel prejudice.

The Arrival and Exhaustion

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:04:48 GMT

If you haven’t yet seen Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, I highly recommend you seek it out. “Beautiful and strange” indeed, also wordless and poignant.

There are moments while writing a novel when one thinks one simply can’t go on…and then does anyway. Today I definitely had one of those moments.

Committing Genre and Busy, Busy…

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:25:11 GMT

I just love Ursula LeGuin’s comments on how Winterson ‘commits genre.”

Remembering Madeleine L’Engle.

The CLN fantasy event went very well. I had a whirlwind tour of Minneapolis and St. Paul, met some great teachers and librarians, listened to Gerald Morris tell “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” and managed to get my PowerPoint working. (Mac meets PC. Need I say more?) Also got to meet Pat Rothfuss and had dinner with the incomparable Marion Dane Bauer.

I’m deep in a revision of my third novel. It’s going well and quickly.

Oooo – The Big Bad G Word and KW West

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:33:52 GMT

Very interesting stuff in Horn Book Magazine about gender and reading.

And now there’s a Kindling Words West.