Stop

April Halprin Wayland has a brave post up today at Teaching Authors. It's called 9-11 Lesson Plan: Stand on Your Head. With many examples and some gentle prodding, she offers a way to write about those topics so big that you can't get your arms around them.

I tried it with my memories of Sept. 11th.

The instructor

dismounted her fake bike

canceled the spin class

herded us out to TVs

bloated with news.

I kept spinning.

If I stopped,

if every plastic wheel

in every stationary race

in every walled-off room

If we stopped,

if I stopped, if they stopped

if stopping suspended

the downward fall

of day.

----Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)

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

Two incredibly cool things

It's not even 9:00 here, and I've already had enough good news to call it a day.

First up, the teacher in Operation Yes, Miss Loupe, is now one of A Year of Reading's 100 Cool Teachers! Read the blog post in which she's nominated, and then go look at the whole list. Here's a preview of what A Year of Reading so generously said:

"This is a fabulous book that sheds light on a culture that has been ignored in children's literature -- the culture of military families, military bases, military schools. This is a must-read. You will laugh, you will cry, and your heart will fill with gratitude and understanding, in a way that it perhaps has not before, for all those who serve for a greater cause."

I'm honored and delighted, because A Year of Reading is the creative outlet for two real-life Cool Teachers (and authors) themselves, Franki and Mary Lee, who not only serve in their classrooms, but in the wider Kidlitosphere too.

Secondly, the audio version of Operation Yes is now available for download at Audible.com, read by the talented Jessica Almasy, who won an Audie last year for her reading of Sara Pennypacker's Clementine. You can read a fascinating interview with Jessica about her work here. A snippet:

Sometimes--I am just articulating this as I write this--- I am thinking (and I use that in the most blood and gutsy sense of the word)—I am thinking about how the character sees from his eye sockets. So as to determine how the voice comes out. Or how tall he is. This reminds me of the Balinese mask work I did with a Dutchman in college.

Practice also helps—doing pieces of text aloud before the session. Somehow I have a major block against doing this that much—there is always something so different that happens when I am in the actual recording session. The book energy takes prominence so it’s different from just trying it out on the subway etc. But yes, I would say, practice.

I think it, for me, is like a interior skull cabinet of file shuffling. The rearrangement of thin and energized sound lenses.

And above all, the power of whatever it is that is bigger than all of us where the stories come in.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Okay, now to live up to this good news by working hard the rest of the day . . .

Writing Question of the Day

Let me tell you the answer first:

Have more fun.

Now we can discuss the question. It's:

How can I make my writing better?

How can I move ahead when I'm stuck?

How can I decide what to revise first?

How can I come up with a great idea?

How can I take over the world????

HAVE MORE FUN.

If you're having fun, you will write. If you're having fun, people will want to read what you write. If you're having fun, the world will take notice.

The only trick is being honest about what is fun for you. Do you love the sneaky, submerged detail that suddenly surfaces and scares you witless because OMG, he's NOT what he says he is? Do you adore the slow, swoony waltz of a emerging romance? Do you revel in rhythmic jousts of clever word play? Do you thrill to the discovery of the elusive fact? Do you devour lines of poetry like warm bread with strawberry jam?

Do it. Dare to follow the fun today.

Random Act of Publicity:

Even being MAD can be fun, if you discover how great you are at it.

Mouse was Mad

written by Linda Urban,

illustrated by Henry Cole

Every time I see this title face out in a bookstore, I want to stomp my feet for the glee-filled fun of it. I love everything about Mouse was Mad, from the fat, red furious letters and pinkly angry ears of the mouse on the front to the slow-building fury of the perfect prose inside. Just don't tell Mouse I think he's cute when he's mad.