Memorial Day

For a lot of people, Memorial Day is the kick-off for summer. A day for picnics and barbecues. The beaches in San Diego have been packed all weekend and that will continue today.

But Memorial Day is supposed to be about members of the military who died in service for our country. A day to honor them. To remember and appreciate.

In honor of Memorial Day, TRT – the blog of Teens Read Too – has had three authors guest-blog about their books that deal with current military life. Saturday featured Roseanne Parry, author of the beautiful book Heart of a Shepherd. Sunday’s guest was Suzanne Morgan Williams, author of Bull Rider – can’t wait to read that one. And then today is Sara Lewis Holmes, author of Operation Yes, one of my absolute favorite books. Warning: Her post made me cry. A must read for today!

And because poetry says so much.

STARS by Deborah Chandra (from Balloons and Other Poems; Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1990)

I like the way they looked down from the sky

And didn’t seem to mind the way I cried.

-

And didn’t say, “Now wipe away those tears,”

Or, “Tell us, tell us what’s the matter here!”

-

But shining through the dark they calmly stayed.

And gently held me in their quiet way.

-

I felt them watching over me, each one—

And let me cry and cry till I was done.

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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My BEA Experience Part 2- I Love New York

This picture is from the BEA website here is the registration area.

My first impression walking the floor of BEA was heaven. Here is a huge building filled with books, book sellers, book publishers, book authors and book lovers. The air was filled the the scent of paper, ink and glue. There was a buzz of excitement or maybe that was just me running off of a huge dose of adrenaline, I may never know.

Here is a picture of some of the booths at BEA this picture is from the BEA website

My publisher, Raven Tree Press, had a lovely booth set up directly across from the autograph corral and I was in awe watching the people line up for my autograph. The kind comments and compliments I received from the people were very inspiring. They may never know how much their appreciation moved me, but it truly did. I signed 80 books in less than 30 minutes chatted with some of the great staff at Raven Tree and then proceeded to explore BEA.

One of the things you have to deal with as an author is rejection. I have sent out many of my manuscripts to publishing houses only to receive a rejection not knowing why they didn’t select my story. Walking through the booths at BEA I was able to look closely at the stories the editors were picking looking for things to improve in my manuscripts or for a possible publishing home for some of my existing stories.  The publishing world is changing and we as writers must continue to change along with the industry or we will be left behind. Contrary to popular belief, publishers are not just in the business to reject you, they are looking for stories to print that will sell, it is up to us as writers to keep up with our craft in order to stay current with their needs. BEA offered me a great opportunity to do this.

After walking the show for a while, I headed out to the city to do a little sight seeing. I saw Times Square, Broadway, Park Avenue, and Central Park. I would have loved to have seen more but my schedule was tight and I was running on fumes with only about 3 hours of sleep in 24 hours.

There is an energy in New York that is contagious. It is an exciting city and the excitement of my first book signing and attending BEA will always be a wonderful memory for me. I wasn’t able to attend some of the events and I am sorry I missed them. Would I go again? Yes, but I would definitely give myself a little more time to enjoy it.

Suzanne Santillan

Writing on the Sidewalk

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My BEA Experience Part 1- Getting There is Half the Fun…Or is it?

My husband has a saying “Life is like a duck swimming in the water, it looks smooth on the surface but you don’t see the duck paddling like crazy underneath.” If I could give a title to my travels to New York, I would have to call it “Writer Mama vs. Mother Nature” or “My Life as a Sit Com.”  I mentioned in an earlier blog post the tight schedule that I would have in order to make my son’s graduation in San Diego, book signing in New York and older sons birthday all in a three day period but I was confident I could do it. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, here is the time line for the actual trip to New York with commentary:

10:15 Arrive at school for graduation ceremony (Bags are packed and waiting in the car…ready to go)

10:30- 11:30 Graduation Ceremony (Awards given, pictures taken, cake eaten… very lovely)

12:00 Dropped off at airport (Kisses and hugs, bag checked, security check, quick bite to eat… very excited)

1:30 Boarded plan (Seats located, carry on stowed, seat belt fastened… ready to go)

2:30 Sitting on tarmac (Flight delayed, bad weather in Chicago, Flight to New York canceled… getting worried)

2:40 Plane returns to gate for undetermined amount of time (Call Hotel arrange for late arrival, call shuttle service explain about flight cancellation, try to find replacement flight to New York but called back to plane before I am able to talk to anyone…worried)

2:50 Re-board plane ready to take off again.

3:20 Plane takes off (Sigh of relief, finally on our way…will take care of issues in Chicago)

9:45 cst- Flight lands at Chicago (One of the last passengers off the plane, those who have connecting flights are allowed to leave first all others are asked to wait on board…ready to try and resolve connecting flight issues)

9:55 Connecting flight re-scheduled for 6am following day, no other flights out of Chicago that night. (Too worried about all details to panic at this point)

10:45 Luggage on way to New York, stranded in Chicago with an US Magazine, paper back book, jacket, and contact lens case.

11:00 Given emergency toiletry kit and go in search of place to stay.

12:00 All hotels in the area are sold out closest hotel with availability can provide shuttle in 45 minutes will cost $200 for about three hours sleep. (Decision is made to sleep in terminal, a few tears, another call home)

12:30 Grab a bite to eat, settle down with fellow trapped passengers to watch a continuous loop of CNN (Gulf oil spill, heat wave in India, etc…)

4:00am Cleaning crew arrives to vacuum carpet, finished magazine and book, know way more about the Gulf oil spill than I ever thought I would and slept maybe 2 hours

4:30 Bowl of oatmeal, walk the terminal, wash face and brush teeth in airport bathroom (feeling a little more human, look like a creature but feel more human)

5:30 Flight to New York boards

9:05 est Land in New York, gather luggage (thank goodness it’s not lost), find shuttle driver to catch shuttle to hotel (must wait for 4 more passengers)

10:15 Dead stop, stuck in traffic, driver pulls onto sidewalk to bypass cars, quick trip through cemetery (This guys drives like son #1 when he just began driving)

11:05 Arrive at hotel have 40 minutes to shower and walk/run 3 city blocks to BEA, check in at front desk and arrive at publishers booth.

11:45 Phew! Arrive for my first book signing with zero minutes to spare sign for 1 hour and it only took me 20 hours to get there!

I will share more on BEA in my next post.

Suzanne Santillan

Writing on the Sidewalk

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I Love Mr. Morton

During my niece’s recent stay, son#2 introduced her to “Schoolhouse Rock!”  This was a very nostalgic moment for me since I grew up watching these short cartoons on Saturday mornings. I was amazed at how quickly I remembered the tunes and the lyrics and my niece was soon singing along. While some of these cartoons are over 30 years old the tunes still engage children and teach them facts along the way.

Here is one I had not seen, it was produced in 1993 (well past my Saturday morning cartoon phase). My niece and I sang it nearly all the way home, it is now my new favorite:

Enjoy!

Suzanne Santillan

Writing on the Sidewalk

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Books: Then and Now

My 7 year old niece came to visit recently and I was able to do something I hadn’t done in a long time, sit down and read picture books with a child. I read children’s books all the time, for research and enjoyment, but it isn’t the same as that bond you get when you are sitting with a child sharing a book.

I pulled out some of the picture books I had saved from my childhood, stories I hadn’t read in years. And as I began reading, I was amazed at the changes in children’s books. Back when fire was new and dinosaurs were pets, picture books had long wordy story lines. If I submitted a manuscript that long today they would either reject the manuscript outright or ask me to chop it down to size. Today’s writing is more streamlined and compact, when you only have 1000 words to tell your story a lot of adjectives get thrown away.

There are some who say we are creating a generation of children who think in soundbites and 30 second bits of information. I would have to agree, today’s children have too many choices available to them, if something doesn’t capture their attention they will move on to something else.

My husband recently read “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” One complaint he had for the book was the extensive descriptions used in the story. I pointed out to him that when the book was published in 1869, a world before television, radio or the internet, those descriptions would be essential for the understanding of the story. The reader could be a family living on the prairie or deep in the woods and they would have to rely on those descriptions to gain a full understanding of the story. Today if we don’t know what a league is or what a squid looks like we can look in a book or on the internet, the reader in 1869 didn’t have that luxury.

I don’t know where we will head in the future but I will hold onto the past a little longer. I still love my old picture books and someday I may be able to share them with my own grandchildren, that is if they will sit still long enough to listen the story.

Suzanne Santillan

Writing on the Sidewalk

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Looking for Ideas in Everyday Things

The other day Son #2 and I were running out the door heading for school when he stopped me, there was a snail inching across the sidewalk and he didn’t want me to step on it. As I stood there for a minute my mind racing thinking of the million and two things I had to do, the inspiration for a story hit me.

Once I got back home I began to think about my story and decided to run the idea by my Super Blog Buddy Sarah, she loved the idea, unfortunately she wrote the same story several years earlier (no wonder I thought it was such a genius idea). I happily scrapped my idea but began thinking about where we get inspiration for stories.

Author Anne Mazer in the book “Spilling Ink” , she co-wrote with Ellen Potter, shares her recipe for Mental Compost.

Here is a brief outline*:

Take:

• All of your embarrassing moments.
• Anything you feel very strongly about.
• Small daily moments that capture your attention.
• Subjects you know a lot about.
• What you’ve observed about family and friends.
• News shows, Youtube, advice columns…
• Whatever makes you laugh or cry.
• Your history.
• Your dreams.
• In short your entire life.

Then:

1. Throw it all in a mental compost pile .
2. Let it sit for a while.
3. It may be helpful to take notes, or keep a journal.
4. Regularly turn over the material in your mind.
5. Spread it around in your stories.

So inspiration comes from everything around us, it is up to us as writers to develop those ideas and put it down on paper.

Happy writing,

Suzanne Santillan

Writing on the Sidewalk

*There are more details in the process and I advice checking out the book for more great ideas.

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How to Juggle-Sidewalk Style

A Writer Mom’s life is a juggling act, everything must fall into place with precision-like grace or you run the risk of dropping something.

In January I received an email from my editor asking if I would like to take part in a book signing at Book Expo America (BEA) in New York City.  BEA is the largest annual book trade fair in the United States. This is where nearly all significant book publishers in the United States, and many from abroad, have booths and exhibits to showcase their upcoming titles and sell current books. This was a huge honor for me as a first time author, I thought about it for about 2 seconds and agreed to go.

I had visions of my visit to New York; sight-seeing, shopping and maybe catching up with an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time, then reality set in.  The book signing was going to take place at the end of May sandwiched in between the eighth grade graduation for Son#2 and the eighteenth birthday for Son#1. What’s a Writer Mom to do? Cancel the signing? Skip the graduation? Miss the birthday?

So I made my decision…I am going to attempt to do it all.

I will attend the graduation and then be whisked over to the airport to catch my flight to New York. I arrive in New York at stupid o’clock and sleep. The signing is the next day at noon so I will hopefully have some time to see the other vendors and events and try to get a little more sleep. I will then catch a flight the following morning so that I can return in time to celebrate that weekend with Son#1.

Q: Am I crazy?

A: Probably.

Q: Will I be exhausted?

A: Definitely.

Q: Would I do it again?

A: I will let you know.

I will do a follow up blog post on my visit to BEA, my next turn to blog.

Stay tuned.

Suzanne Santillan

Writing on the Sidewalk

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One Boy’s Books: Age 14 to 18

Wrapping up this week’s journey – through one boy’s books, in honor of his eighteenth birthday…

and now for the high school years!

Reading for pleasure - meaning books of his choice – definitely met some tough competition these past few years. Between sports, friends, work, and assigned reading/homework, he simply hasn’t had as much time to read. But, in my opinion, the biggest competition has absolutely been his i-pod touch. For some kids it might be their phone – but for this boy it’s that touch thing. He loves music, so that’s where it started, but it also has a zillion apps and, upping the competitive edge even further, he can access all those social networking sites.

But! He still reads. He’s just pickier. And, as I hinted at yesterday, it can be challenging to find books for teen boys. I’m sure he’s read more YA fiction than the average teen boy because I try to find those books for him. They wouldn’t be within his reach otherwise. And even then, I don’t always get it right. And I’m also sure we’ve missed a lot of gems.

His tastes have changed during this stage of life – and I’m not sure he knows exactly what kind of books he loves anymore. He has shifted from reading only fiction to loving non-fiction (about the right topics of course). But here is a list of the books that I saw change him. The ones that made his cave man persona take a break – these are the books he couldn’t help but talk about. The ones that well-worn from re-reading.

• The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
• Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
• The Maestro by Tim Wynne-Jones
• Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis
• Moneyball by Michael Lewis

And for his birthday this year he received The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca. The next day he and his brother were messing around with pine tar.

I wonder what books he’ll take with him to college…

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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One Boy’s Books: Age 12 to 14

Today we move on with the boy into the land of mystery and uncertainty and all sorts of good and bad kinds of magic… otherwise known as the middle school years!

I have never met anyone who said this age was their favorite time of life. Oh to be in seventh grade again—NOT!

But it is a necessary stage even with all the growing pains that may be experienced.

This particular boy is pretty laid-back and easy to get along with, but I will admit that this was not my favorite stage of being his mother. Like many boys this age he was asserting his independence and figuring out limits and trying out new ways of being. He was  louder and more sarcastic and took up more room – and not only because of the incredible growth spurt that hit during these years.

As for reading – books were still a huge part of his life. But this is when it started getting tricky to figure out what to read. I’ve heard that some editors assume a typical YA reader is a 12 year-old girl – well, that shows on the bookshelves. The YA section at Borders and Barnes and Noble is almost like the dreaded (for a boy) “pink” aisle at Toys R Us.

But this particular boy embraced fantasy novels. This love had started earlier (remember Harry Potter?) but this is the age where the love kicked in full-force.

While on the subject of Harry Potter, no other generation will ever have quite the same experience with that series. My boy grew up with Harry. The books came out around a year apart – and so each year he was a little older and wiser – and so was Harry! He was increasingly ready for the increasingly complex and dark stories. Perfect timing.

Other series he loved – and that is a great and powerful magic that fantasy novels tend to come in series…

• The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein (of course)
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• The Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan
• Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix
• Pendragon series by DJ MacHale

Maybe that’s why we had a bit of disconnect at this age – I haven’t read any of these! I should have… and maybe I still will.

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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One Boy’s Books: Age 8 to 11

The journey of a reader continues! On to the elementary school years. The age of reading.

Of course reading matters at any age, but at this age reading MATTERS. I think schools and parents tend to focus on reading at this stage of life more than any other time. And kids this age have the time and luxury of reading. And, developmentally, reading meets their needs.

I’m going to go general here -  because I believe so strongly in the importance of good, rich, complex, books for this age… Most middle grade readers – including my boy at this age - are:

• Sponges. They soak up facts, images, ideas, values.
• Curious. They ask questions. Lots of questions. Often ones that begin with “What if?”
• Big-hearted and passionate. They LOVE the things they love.
• Evaluative. They are starting to measure themselves against and within the world.
• With feet in different worlds. They have past memories to draw on and great hopes for the future.

For my particular boy, there were never enough books. He was a voracious – and speedy – reader. I had such a hard time keeping him in books – not because he was picky, but because he wanted to read absolutely everything. And everywhere. Later, when he first learned to drive he had such a hard time with directions – I think this was because he spent every minute of every car ride immersed in a book instead of looking out the window!

The stories he read entertained him, taught him, inspired him. They gave him “meat”  for his imaginative play. He spent time organizing, categorizing and thinking about his own personal collection of books.

I can’t even begin to list all the books that he loved at this stage. He blew through several series and became aware of favorite authors. He adored Roald Dahl, Bruce Coville, John Bellairs, J.K. Rowling, and finally – with some unexplained reluctance – was won over by Lemony Snicket.

One of the books that I remember filling him up completely – he fell oh-so-deeply in love with the characters and world – was Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. And Skellig by David Almond inspired hours of play and acting out the story with his younger sister. And he absolutely adored Holes by Louis Sachar. These are not simple stories with formulaic plots. Not even a little bit.

And so, I urge anyone who wants to write for these readers to write the very best stories you can. You will be read, adored, appreciated. You will inspire play and dreams and big big thoughts. You will change the world.

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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