Santa gets the VIP treatment on Air Force bases---sometimes

My kids grew up on Air Force bases, so they know Santa arrives in an F-15. Here's the drill:

The kids hang out in the flight rooms at the squadron until the announcement comes from the duty desk that The Big Man is in the landing pattern. Then they rush out with their parents to mob the flight line, where everyone shrieks and waves as Santa taxies by.

See the white line? The kids have to stay behind that to be safe. F-15 engines are loud, not to mention prone to sucking down loose objects like children.

Hi, Santa!

See here for more USAF support of Santa photos

While The Jolly One parks in a secure location, the crowds return to the squadron building where there's a party with cookies to decorate and glittery, gluey crafts to make and of course, a line to meet Santa when he's taken off his flying gear.

My kids also know that Santa can be tracked on Christmas Eve via NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command.)  This year, it appears that Google Earth will also have a tracer on The Much Anticipated Visitor.

I hope NORAD and Google Earth keep a close eye on Santa. One year---in a story that's now part of Holmes family Air Force lore--- the fighter squadrons painted giant wooden Christmas cards to post along the main road into the base. Greetings of Joy and Peace and Love and All That.

Except that a group of well-meaning lieutenants (I don't think there were any wise captains among them) designed their elaborate sign to feature Santa's sleigh flying through the air, with an F-15 fighter jet as St. Nick's personal escort. The only problem: The F-15 was firing a missile. In a tragic artistic mistake, it looked like the missile was headed right for the unsuspecting Santa.

You can imagine the complaints.

Snow

It's beautiful snow---fluffy and light. If only there wasn't quite so much of it.

Letters (and Reviews and Interviews) of Note

When you have a new book child out in the world, it's nice when your first book child gets a little loving, too. On Monday, Valerie Geary posted a thoughtful review of Letters From Rapunzel, and today, she's featuring an interview with me about writing (and reading) middle grade fiction. Thank you so much, Valerie! She's exploring the middle grade genre for all of December, so bookmark her blog and check back the rest of the month.

P.S. (There's always a P.S. when I'm blogging about Letters From Rapunzel---have you noticed?)  My sister sent me a link to this intriguing blog called Letters of Note. The site posts scanned PDFs of original letters and then transcribes them so they're easier to read. A sampling: J.D. Salinger's letter, refusing to sell the screen rights to A Catcher in the Rye; inventer Nikola Tesla writing to the Red Cross, predicting contact with other life forms; Robert Heinlein's hilarious "tick the box" form letter to fans who wrote him. (One of them is "please don't write me again." Ha! I think my Rapunzel would've been a kindred spirit to Mr. Heinlein.)

A Little Merry Improv

Random joy.



Thanks to Camille Powell for the link.  You can see "behind the scenes" here.

Poetry Friday: White-Eyes

It's not winter yet, but it feels like it. (23 degrees outside!) Time to be warmed by Mary Oliver's words...


White-Eyes
by Mary Oliver

In winter
    all the singing is in
         the tops of the trees
              where the wind-bird

with its white eyes
    shoves and pushes
         among the branches.
              Like any of us

he wants to go to sleep,
    but he's restless—
         he has an idea,
              and slowly it unfolds

The rest is here.

Poetry Friday is hosted today at Random Noodling 

Small Adventures

One of the hallmarks of a great read is the conversation it inspires. Both my husband and I read Barbara O'Connor's The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis this weekend during a four-hour car trip. I devoured it first while he drove, and my delight inspired him to read it after I took the wheel. (This was on I-95 through the first snow of the season, speaking of hair-raising adventure.)

Do you know how you can hear a person smile if they're close enough? That almost-silent chuff of breath? I couldn't resist---every time my ears caught my husband smiling in the passenger seat beside me, I'd imagine which line he was reading, and beg him to tell me where he was in the story. I guess that could get annoying. :)

But he and I both agree: not only does Barbara O'Connor write perfect titles for her books, on which she totally delivers, she also writes snappy endings to chapters, complex characters with awesome names, and hundreds and hundreds of juicy details that yes, make you smile with the joy of recognition.

Which brings me to the conversation that The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis inspired. I asked my husband about his own small adventures growing up on a dairy farm.

We used to hide in the barn, he said, and lie as still as possible, waiting for the rats to come out. They would surround us---maybe 150 of them. (At this point, imagine me, stiffening in terror, but trying to listen nonchalantly) Then we'd jump up and YELL and scatter them! he finished.

I don't know about you, but that's bigger than a small adventure to me.

He also used to go outside with his brother and shoot arrows straight up in the air (yes, they both had real bows) and dodge the points as they hurtled down around their heads. (Gulp. How close I came to a husband with a name like Popeye's.)

And how did he fuel himself during these small adventures? With butter and sugar sandwiches.

What's that? I asked. (I grew up in a house where everything was blessed with wheat germ.) Exactly how it sounds, he said: you put butter on one slice of white bread, sprinkle it with sugar, fold it in half, and eat it.  Like a proto Pop Tart.

Of course, I had small adventures, too: combing the woods for grimy soda bottles, which we piled in a wagon and took to the store for the deposit money. Avoiding the yowling dogs that chased us on our almost daily epic walk to the local Family Pantry to buy an Icee. I took a blood oath with a friend once, and kept the piece of paper with the browning smear of blood on it in a secret compartment behind a flap of a jewelry box.

Even today, small adventures are possible. My son and his friends chased an armadillo across half an Air Force base in Mississippi. In Rhode Island, my daughter started and published her own kid newspaper, whose staff raucously converged in our living room.

Don't get me wrong; I love books about big adventures, too. But today, Barbara O'Connor (and Popeye and Elvis) have inspired me to honor the small ones.

Poetry Friday: Friends, Marrow Each to Each (A Villanelle)

I'm beginning to think that if Liz Garton Scanlon called for the moon to stay full an extra night or two, she would get it. Last year, she cajoled seven of us into writing a crown sonnet---even though the majority of us had never written a sonnet, crowned or uncrowned, before. This year, she eased up and requested but a villanelle apiece. Oh, with one rule: we had to use the words "friends" and "thanksgiving" in our repeating lines.

Again, I tumbled into the task; my first lines were atrociously weak. Again, I felt the rules of the form, the interlinking lines of the villanelle hold me up. And now? Now, I'm wishing for a lute to clutch so I could play minstrel and attempt to recite for my supper. I might be beaned with a stale roll for my trouble, but no matter. I'm a convert to villanelles, and no amount of heckling can dissuade me.

Here's my contribution to the seven villanelles posted today. You can find the links to each of them at Liz's place; it's astounding how varied and beautiful they all are.

Note: I tweaked Liz's rules and used "give thanks" rather than "thanksgiving." I did not, however, mess with "friends." That would've been foolish.


Friends, Marrow Each to Each


Friends, marrow each to each; else famine steals the feast;
Deck Brie in berries; fat the soup with heart-shaped clams;
Tho' light is gone, give thanks; in darkness, praise increase.

Gild lintels; silk-gird chairs; burn candles by the fist;
Salad greens dress in yolks and salted curls of ham;
Friends, marrow each to each; else famine steals the feast.

Honey-spike the squash; with silver eat, bright and greased;
Flood mouths with wine; potatoeswithbutter enjamb;
Tho' light is gone, give thanks; in darkness, praise increase.

Lift turkey, speckled trout and haunch of wilder beast;
From hand to hand, pass blessings with the loin of lamb;
Friends, marrow each to each; else famine steals the feast.

Cling to those beside you, crying, as for a priest;
Drench cake in cream; slather black bread with bursts of jam;
Tho' light is gone, give thanks; in darkness, praise increase.

If sing, full-throated keen; if dance, 'til dawn at least;
Hearts consumed by sorrow are hollowed gram by gram;
Friends, to all be marrow; else famine steals the feast;
Tho' light is gone, give thanks; in darkness, praise increase.


---Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)

*Marrow: 
1. A soft oleaginous substance contained in the cavities of animal bones.
2. The essence; the best part.
3. In the Scottish dialect, a companion; fellow; associate; match.
4. v.t. To fill with marrow or with fat; to glut.

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Elaine at Wild Rose Reader.

Kate Messner: Twitter in the Classroom

I'm not a teacher, so why is it that creative teachers make me soooo happy? And why do articles like Kate Messner's piece in School Library Journal about using Twitter in the classroom make me want to borrow a few eager students for the day just to try out her list of ideas?

I think it's partly because she's so darn organized about it---offering a sample proposal to bring to the administration for approval, a list of Twitter resources, and several concrete examples of how her students benefitted from their use of a new technology. She makes me feel---despite the fact that I have no teaching experience, that I don't know the first thing about school policies, that I don't even have any students, for pity's sake! --- that I could do it too. Which, I guess, is the secret weapon of all great teachers. They inspire us to imagine what we could be.

Disclaimer:  Kate opens the article with a story about her class participating in my Twitter chat with editor Cheryl Klein about the creation of OPERATION YES.  I'm thrilled about that, but even without my book being mentioned, it would be a fantastic article. Go read!

Let Me Count the Nerdy Ways

How do authors chill out after they make their revision deadline? Let me count the nerdy ways:

1)  We find a too-good-to-be true deal on an all-in-one printer, order it in haste, and then worry obsessively when it's delivered while we're gone to the North Carolina mountains for Thanksgiving and it (temporarily) disappears from our front doorstep. We hug our neighbors when we find that they have rescued the box from the rain and have our purchase safely stored for our return. We superstitiously "christen" it by printing out a poem as the first "print job," and then play with the features on our dream machine (it can print graph paper! it can wirelessly connect with my laptop! it can download pictures from a Bluetooth camera--if I had one!) and wish we writers also came with a "Remove Red Eye" button for those late writing nights.

2) We write villanelles with our Poetry Sisters, agreeing that we must use the words "friends" and "thanksgiving." We don't have to use iambic pentameter, but we do. We don't have to fiddle with it lovingly, but we do. We know that other people would think this homework, but we consider it fun, right up there with paging through food catalogs that sell gourmet bacon and licorice from Australia.  We  count the days until this Poetry Friday when all seven Poetry Sister villanelles will be revealed at once...

3) We read lists. We love ones with titles like "Over 200 movies about the writing life" (compiled by author Susan Taylor Brown.)  And "Bookish Holiday Gifts: A Selection of Finds From Etsy."

4) Instead of cleaning our desks, we blog about silly things (in a list format, of course.) Then we go clean our desks. Really. We do.

Why I'm Grateful to Be Small Potatoes

Today, I had time to answer a letter from a young reader of Operation Yes. I choose a fun notecard with artwork by Brian Selznick (purchased as part of a set at the last SCBWI conference.) I hand wrote my thoughts inside, and added an Operation Yes postcard signed with a silver pen (which shows up on the shiny black surface.)

Then, I hand addressed the envelope, selected a Homer Simpson stamp and walked the letter to my mailbox. Joy!!!  I'm grateful, so grateful, to be small potatoes and have the time to do this.

I'll be on break for Thanksgiving week, but if you're feeling grateful because you're a small potato too,  please leave your reasons in the comment section. I'll have time to read each and every one. Yay!

Mary Oliver: In Blackwater Woods

My niece, Emily, would have been thirteen years old yesterday. Her family hosted a purple balloon release at her gravesite.  I couldn't be there, but this poem by Mary Oliver is the balloon I'm releasing today.


Blackwater Woods
by Mary Oliver


Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

the rest is here

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Julie Larios at The Drift Record

National Press Club Book Fair and Authors Night

A young reader

Signing with fellow authors Katherine Marsh (The Night Tourist)

and Judy Schachner (Skippyjon Jones: Lost in Spice)

Author Laura Krauss Melmed in the foreground, the always busy Judy Schachner beside her, me, and author Tami Lewis Brown (on the other side of the table, in red)

Skippyjon Jones!

Yes, Judy signed each book this elaborately...plus, she was gracious and funny. Also, she kept sending her long line of customers my way, telling them that OPERATION YES was great. (Thanks, Judy! Thanks, Skippyjon!)

Dueling stacks of Laura Melmed's book, My Love Will Always Be With You

and Judy Schachner's book Skippyjon Jones, Lost in Spice

YA authors Katherine Marsh (The Night Tourist)

and Maggie Steifvater (Shiver)

Oh, so nice, both of them. We practiced our "elevator pitches" on each other. Maggie signed a copy of Shiver to me with the inscription "Operation Wolf," which made me laugh. Plus, I learned that Katherine has written for Rolling Stone Magazine. (Go, Kate!)

Gwen Ifill, being interviewed

Massive crowds

What? You want more? I have revisions to finish!

Okay, one funny story: I saw someone I recognized, and my brain instantly categorized her face as: friend, good friend, she must be 'cause you see her a lot, you must know her, you .... oh. Wait. You only know her from TV. That's Leslie Sanchez, political analyst on CNN.

Good thing I didn't follow my first impulse, which was to beam at her and say hey! what are you doing here?

You can't trust a character who doesn't...

After the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Conference this past Saturday, a group of us went to the Salvadorian restaurant, La Union, for dinner where we devoured delicious, inexpensive, and homestyle food and talked writing, revision, and life. At one point, I commented that during our Twitter chat,  I'd asked my editor, Cheryl Klein, if she would ever acquire a manuscript that didn't mention food. Hmmmm. We paused in our eating and talking. We all considered the question, and more or less came up with the same answer Cheryl gave:

 A picture book, yes; a novel, no. You can't trust a character who doesn't think about eating at least once.

Then we were off and running, talking about our favorite meals in children's literature:

 The cozy meal Mrs. Beaver offers the cold and lost Pevensie children in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: "There was a jug of creamy milk for the children (Mr. Beaver stuck to beer) and a great big lump of deep yellow butter in the middle of the table from which everyone took as much as he wanted to go with his potatoes and all the children thought - and I agree with them - that there's nothing to beat good freshwater fish if you eat it when it has been alive half an hour ago and has come out of the pan half a minute ago."

The mysterious feast that appears in the attic in A Little Princess: "rich, hot, savory soup, which was a meal in itself, and sandwiches and toast and muffins enough for both of them"

The tasty letters of the alphabet in The Phantom Tollbooth: "crisp, crunchy C" "the I, which was icy and refreshing"

Practically ALL of Harry Potter...

Cornbread and molasses (except if Pa caught a rabbit) in the Little House series

So, what's your favorite meal in children's literature?

And how would you complete this sentence:  You can't trust a character who doesn't....

Poetry Friday: God Says Yes to Me

Linda Urban sent me the link to today's poem, which I'd read before and loved and yet had never featured on Poetry Friday. The poem is sweet salve because I feel as if I've been revising my WIP since the dawn of time. When you spend hours on end critically ripping apart your writing, staring at each word and asking it to justify its existence, you become ruthless, jaded, and the master of saying NO to your weak, whining self who wants to sneak out the back and dump the whole manuscript in the trash.

And yet, as writers we must say yes to our work. This poem reminds me that the choices are hard in revision, as author Tanita Davis blogged about so vividly: "like pulling teeth, abdominal surgery, a bikini wax and a colonoscopy all at once."

But then, dear melodrama-loving, short-tempered writer self---Honey!!!--- you must love what you choose.

God Says Yes To Me
by Kaylin Haught

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey

the rest is here

Poetry Friday is hosted today by the ever-resourceful Greg at GottaBook

I'm not a Pol, Pundit, OR a Cultural Legend, and yet. . .

I was invited to participate in an event next Tuesday at the National Press Club. Kidlitosphere, I will be eclipsed by the dazzling star power of my fellow attendees (Jim Lehrer!) but I swear to shine a favorable light on kids' books and introduce a few pundits, pols and legends to your charms. (I wonder if I should mention that I worked on my school's newspaper staff?)

Other children's and YA writers who will be there include:

Judy Schachner (Skippyjon, Lost in Spice)

P.F. McKinley (Alexander the Salamander and The Challenge)

Katherine Marsh (The Night Tourist; The Twilight Prisoner)

Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver)

Laura Krauss Melmed (My Love Will Be with You)

Pamela Duncan Edwards (Jack and Jill's Treehouse)

Here's the press release. If you live near D.C., come see me! Admission is only $5.00 and all proceeds go to charity.

Top pols, pundits and cultural legends at National Press Club Book Fair & Authors’ Night
Honorary Chairwoman Alma Powell

WASHINGTON (September 2009) -- Join Chris Matthews, Rod Blagojevich, Tom Ridge, Gwen Ifill, David Pogue, KRS-One and Kinky Friedman among 75 top authors at the National Press Club’s 32nd Annual Book Fair & Authors’ Night.

The club welcomes Alma Powell as this year’s honorary chairwoman, and is partnering with The SEED Foundation, which helps prepare underserved students for college success at high-performing public boarding schools in the District and Maryland.

One of the capital’s premier literary events, the annual fair draws the nation’s notable authors to the historic Press Club in downtown Washington.

Also among the 75 authors scheduled to appear are Jim Lehrer, Grant Wahl, Isabel Gillies, Richard Wolffe, Julia Quinn, Pamela Newkirk, C. David Heymann, Jeff Sharlet, Leslie Sanchez, James Reston Jr., Deborah Tannen, Dwayne Betts and Christopher Andersen.

The Book Fair & Authors’ Night promises a robust crowd of booklovers, journalists and politicos seeking the latest titles across the genres – from cookbooks and children’s stories to history, sports, memoirs and mysteries _ and a chance to mingle with the nation’s best authors.

WHAT: National Press Club’s 32nd Annual Book Fair and Authors’ Night

WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 17, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

WHERE: National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.

TICKETS: $5 General admission – No charge for NPC members.

The National Press Club is the nation’s leading organization for journalists. The event is a fundraiser for the club’s Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization that offers scholarships to journalism students, and research and professional development for the working press worldwide. Through our partnership with The SEED Foundation, the event will help develop the school library at the foundation’s Maryland campus.

For information, contact Nicole Nottingham at (202) 662-7523 or nnottingham@press.org.

Six Things for a Signing

Six things from my book signing at Hooray for Books!, a wonderful independent children's book store in Alexandria, Virginia:

1) People showed up!  You may laugh at my anxiety, but authors fear the unattended book signing like they used to fear searching for a friendly lunch table on the first day of a new middle school. I was grateful to see tons of familiar faces, friends who waved and hugged and bought books and laughed at the right places during the reading. Thank you, thank you.

2) The people who couldn't show up still ordered books!  Yup. I had a large basket of pre-ordered copies to sign, and as I went through them, I kept breaking into a big, goofy smile at the sight of each name. What fun that faraway friends went the extra mile to support the signing. Big hugs to each of you.

3) I did a craft project for the signing! (Those of you who know me are fainting.) It could hardly be featured on Etsy, but I made a collage of pictures of military families.

You can see it beside me in this picture. Having who I wrote the book for next to me helped me focus. How could I be nervous when military kids are kind and brave each day?

4) I brought props! Here's a close up of my table:

---little green army men, of course, guarding the book of LGM photos that my agent, Tina Wexler, gave me as a publication gift

---a REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tag

---a container of folded paper stars like the ones Gari makes in the book (My daughter made these particular ones. They were passed from hand to hand and oohed and ahhhed over.)

---the fabulous teacher's guide written for me by Natalie Lorenzi, who was in attendance. (Yay, Natalie!)

---other books about military families, including Rosanne Parry's Heart of a Shepherd and Jimmy Gownley's fourth volume of Amelia Rules! graphic novel series.  I also held up Jon Scieszka's Knucklehead because the book is hilarious and features little green army men!

---my YES wristband given to me by my husband, which I'm wearing, as well as the As You Like It necklace that was a tribute to my theater background in high school.

---the yellow roses are courtesy of dedicated OPERATION YES supporter and fabulous friend, Jama Rattigan of Alphabet Soup.

5)  For the reading itself, I chose the scene where Miss Loupe pretends to be rowing a boat and leads her class in a jody call from atop the Ugly, Ugly Couch.  I recruited young actors from the audience to shout out the responses to the jody call as the students in Room 208 do, and when it came time for Miss Loupe to obey St. Peter's command to "drop down, granny, and give me ten!"  I complied with pushups as my lovely friends counted. (You can see a picture of my pushups here at Jama's blog, along with other pictures from the signing, including one of my husband with Cornelius Bear!)

6)  Hooray for Books! owners Trish and Ellen, plus helper Kristy, were unfailingly gracious, helping me set up and providing brownies for everyone. At the end of the signing, they extended an author discount to me on the copy of Robin Brande's FAT CAT that I had called ahead to reserve. And they also gave me a check with a matching donation to Musicorps!  Thank you so, so much.

P.S. If you still want a signed copy of OPERATION YES, Hooray for Books is standing by.  Call them at  (703) 548-4092. I live close to the store, so I can personalize your request.

Poetry Friday: Rick Barot

This one has been in my files since it was first posted at How a Poem Happens. I'm choosing it today because whatever else the poem may evoke---love or stories---it describes the writing process, too: from the initial moment you are roused by details like "hearts penknifed" on windows through the long creative metamorphosis of drafts that are "questions on the floor" until the day "you begin to sense a use for them."  As writers, this is what salvation looks like.

READING PLATO
by Rick Barot

I think about the mornings it saved me
to look at the hearts penknifed on the windows
of the bus, or at the initials scratched

into the plastic partition, in front of which
a cabbie went on about bread his father
would make, so hard you broke teeth on it,

or told one more story about the plumbing
in New Delhi buildings, villages to each floor,
his whole childhood in a building, nothing to

love but how much now he missed it, even
Read the rest here

I also like the interview accompanying the poem, in which Barot gives this answer to a question about inspiration:

I do believe in “inspiration,” but not in the struck-by-lightning, perhaps facile connotation that surrounds the word these days. I realize that the etymology of the word comes from a spiritual register: that one is breathed on by a sort of influence, and one is then moved. But I want to imagine that one isn’t given the gift of that breath without having prepared for it, even if inadvertently.

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Elaine at Wild Rose Reader. Thanks for stepping up, Elaine!

NaNoWriMo Fuel: Throw Your Body at the Mark

Hey NaNoWriMo-ers! (And Lindsay, who's doing NaPlayWriMo!) Here's another quote for you: 

"The way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent." - Ralph Waldo Emerson


That quote is courtesy of my friend, Amber Lough, who is NaNoing at the airport as I type this. Go, Amber!

Also, if you need a juicy article on the craft of writing to inspire you, I heartily recommend Mary Pearson's recent post, The Sexy Unsung Hero. Guaranteed to get your writing heart revved up and ready to rock your writing goal for the day.

P.S. Teachers: if you ever think for one minute that what you do is not worth it, go read the comments on this post at Alphabet Soup, where Jama asked people to name their favorite teacher and why. (You can win a copy of OPERATION YES by commenting, but I would love the post anyway, for all the sincere tributes. I keep going back to see who has left a new dang-what-a-kicking teacher! story.)

NaNoWriMo Fuel: The Battle of Resistance

For all my friends who've taken on the challenge of National Novel Writing Month, I salute you!  More than that, I'd like to scream for you until I'm hoarse, hand you Gatorade, and wave a huge banner with your name on it.

But we know the Internet has not progressed as far as that. The cupcakes laced with inspiration that I keep trying to send you through the broadband connection keep getting stuck in the transfigulator. And the assassin I dispatched to quiet your internal critic keeps missing his target and dropping his cone of silence over those random popup ads that blast techno dance music. 

So, to cheer you on in your word battle, I can only offer more words. How about a quote for you, as often as I'm able? Today's is from Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art. I found it via this inspiring post, The Battle of Resistance, at the blog, There Are No Rules.

Maybe it's too early in the month to talk of resistance. You're probably flying along, feeling the rush of words. But one day, this month, you're going to face a wall. All the more reason to stockpile now the encouragement you'll need to get through it.  And think about it: isn't this act of overcoming just what you're asking your characters to do?

Resistance is directly proportional to love. If you’re feeling massive Resistance, the good news is, it means there’s tremendous love there too. If you didn’t love the project that is terrifying you, you wouldn’t feel anything. The opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference.

The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you—and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.

Go, NaNoWriMo-ers! Go!

Poetry Friday: Houdini

Happy early Halloween!  I wanted something other than pumpkins or vampires to feature today, and was lucky enough to have my book club friend, children's author Jacqueline Jules, offer me the chance to feature her poem about Harry Houdini.

Houdini, if you don't know, DIED on Halloween. (Cue the spooky music.) More than that, in this poem, Jackie manages to illuminate a little-known side of the great escape artist:  he loved books. Yup. Carted hundreds of them around with him everywhere, in a special traveling bookcase.

You can visit Jackie's web site to find out more about Houdini and her process in writing this poem, including pictures and links to original Houdini letters at the Library of Congress.

And, now, the main event!


ENCHANTED BY BOOKS
by Jacqueline Jules

A teenager nicknamed “Ehrie,”
raised by a scholar skilled at Torah,
but not English or earning a living,
and a mother, who more often
than not, had only love
to serve her son at the table,
opened a book one day
and pulled a new persona
from its pages.

He became “Harry Houdini,”
borrowing his idol’s name
the way a ravenous child
swipes an apple,
and taught himself to
escape handcuffs, hunger,
and homelessness,
with books collected by the hundreds
and kept as close as the buttons on his shirt
through years of traveling from stage to stage.

The Great Houdini,
who freed himself from locked trunks,
milk cans, straitjackets, and jails,
never tried to escape
the charm of a book.

(© Jacqueline Jules, 2009, all rights reserved

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jennie at BiblioFile

Meanwhile, in other corners of the blogosphere, more interesting happenings....

Little green army men hurling raisins! Takin' down a pumpkin! All because Jama at Alphabet Soup is giving away TWO copies of OPERATION YES to support my book signing on Nov. 8th. And don't miss the best part: reading everyone's tributes to their favorite teachers. (My own shout out to a great teacher is here.)  Go, now, be amused and inspired.

Also, I tell Jody Sparks why I hate the smell of cardboard boxes, how many bags of little green army men are in my house, and how improvisation inspires me as a writer. Thank you for the interview, Jody!

That is all. Back to revisions.

"Never Use a Paperclip . . ."

Hey, there. I'm deep in revisions, so if you think I'm ignoring this blog, you're right. I get to a certain point in the heavy lifting where I become completely obsessed, and do nothing but write and eat soup (or cereal.)

Meanwhile, if you'd like something more interesting to read, check out my new teacher's guide for Operation Yes, written by talented teacher and former military kid, Natalie Lorenzi. You can can download it here or use the link in this blog's side bar or try viewing it at my new teachers page at the Operation Yes site. (If you have any ideas for items to add to that teachers page, please let me know.)

Here's a sneak preview of two of the fun imrov activities that Natalie created for the guide:

FLYING FARMER:  

In the spirit of the Flying Farmer, set up an obstacle course with students, chairs, tables, and low objects (such as blocks) on the floor.

One student is the Flying Farmer and must make it from one side of the stage to another while blindfolded. (You may use two X’s formed with tape on the floor for starting and ending points.)

An “air traffic controller” gives directions. If the pilot brushes or touches an object more than twice, the airplane goes down and the game starts over. You can set a time limit when the airplane will “run out of fuel.”

GOOD ADVICE:

Miss Loupe’s new 6th grade students could use some advice from Bo, Gari, and the rest of the Ugly Couch Players.

Brainstorm a list of “school” words—school supplies, teachers, objects found in school etc. Write the names of each object on an index card, and put the cards in a bag. Students go to the front of the class in pairs and draw one card each from the bag. Each pair must offer a one-line pearl of wisdom for next year’s students.

Rules:
1. One student begins the sentence, using the word on the card he or she drew from the bag.

2. The second student must complete the sentence using the other word drawn from the bag. The advice may be wacky, but it must make grammatical sense.

Example: If the following words are drawn from the bag: paper clip, water fountain... Student 1 might begin with: “Never use a paper clip...”

and Student 2 might finish: “...to fish your gum out of the drain in the water fountain.”

Hey! I thought of a good one: Never use a paperclip. . . . to eat soup.

See you guys on Poetry Friday!

Paul is running a marathon; I'm (maybe) doing pushups (if you'll come to my book signing)

First, a big shout out to Paul McCollom, who is running the Marine Corps marathon today to benefit the Fisher House Foundation.  As he says, he hopes the spectacle of his 61-year-old self hobbling across the finish line causes people to find out more about Fisher Houses, which provide housing for military families so they can be close to their wounded loved ones as they recover.  His fundraising page is here.

Second, a blanket invitation to all of you (and your friends) to come see me at the fabulous indie book store, Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, VA on Sunday, Nov. 8th at 1:00.  I'll be signing OPERATION YES, doing a reading, and perhaps demonstrating a few Miss Loupe style moves such as pushups. :)

For each book sold at this event, I'm donating $1.00 to Musicorps, which is another Fisher House program which helps wounded warriors recover through music.  I blogged about it at my Operation Yes site, beginning with:

How do you keep playing drums when the limb you use to operate the foot pedal is missing?  What if you have an artificial hand---can you learn to play the piano? If you were hit by a bomb and lost your leg, would you think to write a rap song for your son?  Read the rest of the post here.


If you want to support this great cause, but can't make it in person to the book signing, Hooray for Books will take your order over the phone: (703) 548-4092. Be sure to tell them how you'd like your copies personalized, and I'll sign them when I'm in the store on Nov. 8th. You can pick them up later in store (if you're local) or have Hooray for Books mail them to you for a flat fee.


Thank you so much for your support. We all lean on each other, and I'm grateful for each of you.

Poetry Friday: Banana Pudding

Sometimes, you get lucky. This morning, in the mood for not-so-serious poetry, I googled "banana pudding poem."   My search returned a link to a lovely villanelle, not at all about dessert, but the end of summer. The reason it was drawn into my Google net was because the poet, Karin Gustafson, compared the making of this layered form of poetry to the banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery in New York City, the very place I ordered pudding from to celebrate the launch of Operation Yes. (You can find the recipe for it here.)

I would've savored this coincidence and moved on, except that the villanelle itself shimmers with images and leaves me wondering if all things are as deeply connected as Google search and the interlocking layers of both villanelles and banana pudding would have us believe.



Swimming in Summer
by Karin Gustafson


Our palms grew pale as paws in northern climes
as water soaked right through our outer skin.
In summers past, how brightly water shines,

its surface sparked by countless solar mimes,
an aurora only fragmented by limb.
Our palms grew pale as paws in northern climes

as we played hide and seek with sunken dimes,
diving beneath the waves of echoed din;
in summers past, how brightly water shines.

Read the rest here

Poetry Friday is hosted today by its founder, Kelly Herold, at Big A, Little a

National Day on Writing Galleries and Jody Call Winners

Happy National Day on Writing! Everyone should be . . .uh....writing. That's what I'm going to do after I post this.  First, some links to celebrations of writing across the 'net.

At A Year of Reading, a video montage of bloggers and writers, sharing their take on the phrase "a lifetime of reading."  Also, an invitation to view A Year of Reading's gallery of writing, in which Franki and Mary Lee asked kidlitosphere members to submit a post about their reading lives.  (Pssst . . . want to see a really cute picture of Mary Lee?)

At Kate Messner's LiveJournal, a gallery illuminating the revision process, featuring the marked-up, tagged, scribbled-on, and tear-splotched pages of several children's writers (including me.)  I admire Kate's blog, because she always has such practical ideas to share with other teachers, students and writers, and this revision showcase is definitely one of them.  (By the way, the teeny omission of the word "to" in the note accompanying my pages is all my doing, not Kate's. We're working on getting that . . . wait for it. . . . revised.)

At Mitali Perkins' blog, "thank you love notes" written by 8th graders. Not edited. Not revised. From the heart. Priceless.

Finally, I want to celebrate ALL the writers who braved their inner drill sergeants and posted a jody call in my contest to win a copy of Operation Yes. You can see all the jody calls here (along with pictures of little green army men taken by my agent, Tina Wexler.)  Hey! That could be my National Day on Writing Gallery!  I'll bet I'm the only jody call post they get.

Alas, only three can win, although all were awesome. In the end, the military judge ruled in favor of these three:  Amber Lough, Marjorie Light, and Maribeth.   Congratulations and please email me your address so I can get your signed copies to you. (Unless you'd like several weeks of boot camp and chow hall food instead.)  Email to: email@saralewisholmes.com and please specify if you'd like the book inscribed to a particular person.

"I hear it's National Day on Writing.

Think someone will write about us?"

The Conversation Continues: Kidlit Bloggers Conference 2009 #kidlitcon

This is where I played all weekend:

The Author Panel: "It's Not All About Your Book"

Kidlit Blogger Conference, DC, 2009

Wendie Old, Sara Lewis Holmes, Caroline Hickey, and Laurel Snyder

I had a wonderful time at the conference, and if you're thinking about going next year, you should definitely do it.  I also know that I should blog every last detail, but between the revisions underway on the WIP and the Operation Yes promotional stuff, it isn't going to happen. Even these pictures I had to beg from the generous Jama at Alphabet Soup. EDITED TO ADD:  And she has a full report on everything discussed, along with more pictures. Seriously, her post is jam-packed, honest and thorough. Get yourself there to read it!)

Me with Jama's cutie-pie bear, Cornelius

But . . . I do want the conversation that was started around the Author Panel to have a place to continue. You have unanswered questions; you have thoughts that didn't hit you until later; you were inspired; or you were uninspired and still want to be; you now know what to blog about and you want to tell us----whatever it is, please use the comments section here on this post to talk to each other about it.

And since there were two specific questions that were left in an earlier post about blog audience, I did want to answer those directly.

The questions were:

madelyn said...

I will be going to the conference so I suppose I could ask this there, but just to get the discussion started I will ask a multi-layered question (because I love frosting): Who do you think of as your audience when you're blogging? Your readers or other writers? I realize they are often one in the same, but one of my worries about kidlit blogs (oh, worries isn't the right word, and I'm waiting to be set straight on this point anyway) is that it seems as if the audience is often other bloggers and writers, as opposed to that illusive child reader or the equally illusive parent of child reader. Some blogs I follow seem to be kid oriented; others seem to be writer oriented. How do you strike a balance? Who do you think about when you're blogging?

10/14/09 12:02 AM 

lgburns said...

My question is very similar to Madelyn's, and I hope that if this issue is discussed at the conference that one of you will blog about it!

I see my blog as a place for my readers (kids and adults) to go and see what I am up to. I write a bit about my work, and a whole lot about things that interest me, mostly books and science and the natural world. I think I do an okay job of staying on task and I think that my blog archive is a great place to go and learn a little bit about who I am and what makes me tick. That said, almost all of my subscribers, readers, and commenters are other writers. I did not anticipate this at all when I started the blog. And while I adore those few readers I have, and appreciate their readership, comments, and encouragement, I don't quite know what to do with the unease I feel over the fact that I don't blog with them in mind!

And my answer would be two-fold:

1) You may target an audience, but you can't control who reads your blog.  Your content will bring you the readers who most need that content.  Don't try to be all things; instead, showcase what you do or love best, be that scientific research, punctuation lore, or the particular slant with which you view your reading/writing life. In short, be authentic, and be aware that your readers may extend beyond what you planned for.

2) I don't think it's a failing that kids don't read most of our blogs. Kids don't read blogs in general, as Greg Pincus of GottaBook pointed out in his fabulously detailed social media talk.  I personally believe that kids are more likely to find your web site, as part of a class project. So keep that "static" site up-to-date, perhaps archiving some of your more relevant, kid-friendly posts there as articles.  (See Laura Purdie Salas's Poetic Pursuits on her site for a perfect example.) Anyone else want to weigh in on this?

Okay, that's enough talking from me. Your turn!

Poetry Friday: Jody Calls and LGM on the Move

(all images courtesy of my multi-talented agent, Tina Wexler)

Today's the last day to enter a jody call in the comments here or here in order to win a signed copy of Operation Yes. What the heck---you can even enter on this post (but read the rules first.)  And remember, this is for fun---people sweat to jody calls, not dress up in tuxedos and read them with a sonorous voice at Carnegie Hall.  So take a chance, let go of your "indoor voice," and see what happens when you tap your inner drill sergeant.

To inspire you, I present the current butt-kicking fabulous entries (including one from my mom who felt bad that there weren't more entries.... way to go, MOM!)

I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TOLD

CHILDREN'S BOOKS ARE GOOD AS GOLD

AUTHORS POUND OUT PLOT AND THEME

LETS THOSE CHILDREN LEARN AND DREAM

SOUND OFF!

CHILD-REN'S

SOUND OFF!

WRI-TERS

CHILDREN'S WRITERS!

SOUND OFF!

I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TOLD

READING BOOKS WILL HELP YOU GROW

C'MON KIDS AND DREAM WITH ME

EXPLORE YOUR POSSIBILITIES!

SOUND OFF!

DREAM BIG

SOUND OFF!

LET'S READ!

DREAM BIG - LET'S READ!

SOUND OFF!

--- MARJORIELIGHT

I DON’T KNOW BUT IT’S BEEN SAID

TO BE REAL SMART, BE WELL READ.

IMAGINE WHY I SCRATCHED MY HEAD

WHEN MY SON ASKED WHY AUTHORS WERE DEAD?!

L’ENGLE, TOLKIEN, AND BURNETT.

C.S. LEWIS? WE HAVE THE SET.

A QUICK SEARCH AND HE FELT BETTER

@BEVERLYCLEARY IS NOW ON TWITTER.

LIBRARIES, INDIES, AND COFFEE SHOPS

ARE WRITERS’ FAVORITE PIT STOPS.

BUT THANKS TO THOSE WHO BLOG AND TWEET

THEIR READERS RECEIVE A GENUINE TREAT!

----KRISTIN

I DON'T KNOW, BUT IT'S BEEN SAID
CHILDREN'S BOOKS ARE READ IN BED,
ON THE COUCH WITH JAM AND BREAD,
ANYWHERE FROM A TO ZED.

I DO KNOW, IT'S SAFE TO SAY
SARA'S BOOKS ARE A-OK,
POS-I-TIVE-LY MAKE MY DAY,
NEW ONE'S COMING-SHOUT HOORAY!

---Mary Lewis

Reading Rocks!

I don’t know, but I’ve been told

a good book’s worth more than gold.

At the book store you can find

stories--almost any kind.

Special books can take you far,

check out Where the Wild Things Are.

Charlotte’s Web or Dr. Seuss, 

Nate the Great or Mother Goose

Harry Potter, Junie B.,

Goodnight Moon, The Giving Tree

Books can take you any place--

countries, worlds, or outer space.

---Donna V. 

They say that when you're reading

The real world disappears

So I'm grabbing Judy Blume

Cause I've got dishes out my ears

And if I read some L'Engle

There's no dust upon my shelves

And if I read some Rowling

I'll get help from three house elves

The laundry's getting moldy

The vacuum might be broke

But Octavian's escaping

Wimpy Kid just told a joke

My own kid's done with school

Let the wild rumpus start

We'll order out for dinner

Pumpkin juice and treacle tart

Oh Lord, I want to read

My house has gone to seed

Please, Lord, I want to read 

nowwwwwww.

---Madelyn

HOW MANY BOOKS CAN A CHILD READ?

         MANY, MANY, MANY  IF YOU PLANT A SEED

     HOW DO YOU PLANT THE SEED YOU ASK?

         READ TO YOUR CHILD IT'S NOT A TASK

     WHAT TYPE OF BOOKS WILL THEY ADORE?

         DEPENDS ON THE CHILD THERE'S BOOKS GALORE

     WHAT EXACTLY WILL MY CHILD GAIN?

         LOVE, EXPLORATION, AN IMPROVED BRAIN

     WHAT IF MY CHILD DOESN'T LIKE TO READ?

         FIND A WAY TO MAKE IT FUN. PLANT THE SEED.

     THANKS FOR THE ADVICE-I'LL FOLLOW THROUGH

         I'LL READ TO MY CHILD THAT'S WHAT I'LL DO.

---MARIBETH

I DON’T KNOW BUT I’VE BEEN TOLD

GREEN EGGS AND HAM ALL SMELL LIKE MOLD

I DO NOT LIKE THEM SO I SAY

NOW LET ME BE AND RUN AWAY!

I DO NOT LIKE THEM HERE OR THERE

I DO NOT LIKE THEM, SO BEWARE

GREEN EGGS AND HAM ARE STRANGE TO ME

THE COLOR’S OFF AND THEY’RE SLIMY!

GREEN EGGS (AND HAM!)

GREEN EGGS (AND HAM!)

DON’T MAKE ME EAT THEM

UNCLE SAM!

GREEN EGGS (AND HAM!)

GREEN EGGS (AND HAM!)

DON’T MAKE ME EAT THEM

UNCLE SAM!

YOU SERVE THEM IN THE DINING HALL

TO EAT, BE STRONG, AND GROW REAL TALL

OK, ONE TASTE--JUST GO AWAY

DON’T COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY

SAY! (HEY!) SAY! (HEY!)

GREEN EGGS AND HAM ARE ON MY TRAY

AND IN MY MOUTH AND DOWN THE HATCH

THESE EGGS AND HAM ARE QUITE A CATCH!

YUM! (YUM!) YUM (YUM!) GREEN EGGS AND HAM

PLEASE GIVE ME MORE, CHEF UNCLE SAM!

---AMBER LOUGH

Poetry Friday is hosted today by the quick-marching Laura Purdie Salas, who is so organized she could lead her own poetry platoon.