Fox Cities Book Festival - Linda Sue Park

In the years I was away from the Fox Cities, they started an annual book festival in April. This year's events kicked off a week or so early with a visit from Linda Sue Park, Newbery medal winner and author of many children's books, including "The Single Shard" and the fascinating book she was promoting, "A Long Walk To Water."

Image from www.lindasuepark.com

The book is based on the true story of a boy who ran from war in Sudan, becoming one of the "lost boys." He trekked hundreds of miles to Ethiopia, where he lived in a refugee camp for 10 years before going to America. 

Now he is going back with a purpose, to bring water to South Sudan. He chose to go back to his country and live in a hut with no electricity and miles from an iffy water source to bring machinery to drill for clean, safe water. 

I always admired Linda Sue Park's ability to make other countries and cultures accessible with her books. Turns out her presentations are even better. I only wish I had $15K to buy one of these wells to bring clean water to the people of South Sudan. Although if you visit her website, she describes ways to help with The Iron Giraffe Challenge.

Like most authors, she set aside time for questions, describing how it felt to win the Newbery Medal. She explained how every book was special to her and she couldn't pick a favorite. She talked about her inspirations and her passions, like sports. 

Being a Cubs fan helped prepare her for the life of a writer, she said. Following a losing team inspires great confidence and hopefulness at the beginning of the season, only to get your heart broken every year. She compared it to getting rejections after writing a book, then poor sales after first publication, then even poorer sales after second publication. 

These days she is faring better than the Cubs, but she is putting money where her mouth is. Linda Sue Park and her husband sponsored one of those wells in South Sudan. 

I am thankful the Appleton Library arranged this visit, but wish they had arranged for book sales on site. I would have bought "A Long Walk to Water" and had it signed in this rare opportunity with a medal winning novelist. 

Walking Old Paths, Seeing Those Same Old Trees

For several years, I was doing a lot of freelance writing. I wrote articles and blog posts for various companies, and I made a pretty good hourly wage that was directed into my PayPal account. I mostly used that money to buy plane tickets and shoes. One of my clients paid for me to attend an international writing conference. It was a good life, but it also had its frustrations.

I got tired of the hustle of finding new work all the time and wanted to spend more of my creative energies on writing fiction, so I accepted an editing position at a local company that hired remote workers. It was a bit of a paycut if you look at hourly wage, but the work was steady and I still worked at home. I have a 401K, vacation time and a paycheck that goes to my checking account, which unfortunately goes to groceries and bills rather than Zappos and airlines. 

I had thought I would freelance on the side, but I haven't, until now. 

I've been getting emails from one of my old haunts. They are making changes for writers. I wonder if they are making things easier, better, taking out the hustle, perhaps. I still have accounts at several hubs for work, and picked up an article that I was particularly passionate about. 

I spent a Saturday afternoon writing this article that should have taken me less than an hour. The actual writing and research was easy, it was a subject I know well and had a lot to say. I had to check guidelines that changed in the last two years and find the format for references. I felt completely drained after sending it off, and remembered feeling like that every single day. I waited weeks for that article to be reviewed, which was new. That company used to have a quick turnaround time. After three weeks, I nearly gave up, and then I got an email with a lengthy rewrite request, one that would compromise the integrity of the article. And then I remembered that annoyance too. 

I don't like to burn bridges. I like to keep all doors of opportunity open, in case I need an escape route, but I am pretty certain I won't be opening the freelance writing door again unless an amazing new opportunity falls into my lap. Those old clients were great for me once, but they are not a fit anymore. I've seen those trees, I've walked that path, I remember now why I moved on. 

Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

I have seen some of my writerly friends complaining about not having a book that grabs them lately. It is a perennial problem that happens with every reader. You go through ups and downs of reading quality.

"Thirteen Reasons Why," by Jay Asher cured that ill for me for about a week. This book grabbed me and demanded all of my free time.

The book starts out with good guy Clay receiving a set of tapes from post-suicidal classmate Hannah Baker. It seems Hannah has arranged a list of people who get these tapes, and they are instructed to then pass them along to the next person. The details of this arrangement are sketchy and sometimes test the limits of what kids would actually do, but the compelling desire to understand why Hannah chose to take her life, and how this all snowballed together overrides.

Details are handed out like treats, with associations coming together and the interconnection of people and events mimicking the "snowball" event Hannah speaks of in her narrative. Although we all know how it ends for Hannah, Asher manages a satisfactorily hopeful leave to this novel.

Spring!

Nothing makes a Wisconsinite happier than 

sunshine, blue skies, and melting snowbanks 

at the end of another long, dark winter.

Hello Spring. 

It's about time you got here. 

Book Review: Crossover

Crossover, by Kwame Alexander is the winner of the 2015 Newbery Book Award. Like last year’s winner, it is written in verse. It seems kids like reading books in verse these days. I think they like reading short chapters and few words….like text messages.

It isn’t true poetry, or verse, but the text is definitely interesting. The reader is engaged in real time with what is happening, sometimes in staccato during basketball games. I love this book for its energy and its diversity. The main character, Josh, is black, the son of a famous basketball player.

The story is about competition between the twins (seems to be a theme with this year’s ALA award winners. The Printz Award was given to a book about twins being divided by life.) One twin gets a girlfriend and becomes distracted. The other is jealous. There are also serious health problems going on with the father.

This is heavy stuff for middle school readers, but it is handled with finesse, with words bouncing like a basketball on the court. This was an enjoyable read for me, and one I think my reluctant middle school reader would embrace. 

Book Review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Bree Tanner has a brief role as one member of a newborn vampire army in Eclipse, the third installment in Stephenie Meyer's runaway hit Twilight series. "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" is a novella that fleshes out the makings of this newborn army and gives this character dimension.

While the novella lacks the compelling readability of the series, it shows another side of the story and humanizes a handful of the vampires created to kill. It is a brief read at around 175 pages and the end is understandably disappointing as the reader knows what is coming whether or not Eclipse was read beforehand, which is likely as this novella's audience are Twilight fans who want to read more.

Meyer has skill in creating interesting characters that stick with the reader, and she does not fail in doing so in the novella. Unfortunately, it isn't the ill fated Bree that leaves an impression. It is the curiously talented Fred, also a newborn vampire, and the only character to leave the story with a sense of hope. People and vampire alike can't stand to look at Fred, but I enjoyed reading about him.

A Feeling of Accomplishment and Loss

Yesterday, I finished another revision on a novel in progress for the last year or three. I lost count at which revision this is, perhaps the sixth, or probably the twelfth. Whichever it is, I think it is the one that makes the novel complete and ready for the market. This is huge.

There are many markers in the process of writing a novel. Finishing the first draft is a big one, and one to celebrate, but the writer knows there is work to do in revisions. It can be hard to understand what those changes are in the flush of giving birth to this new novel, or the flaws may be glaringly apparent or even overwhelming.

Then there is the hard work of revisions. It can be a rocky trail that makes one doubt the entire idea. For me, there is a point in revisions where I start to fall in love with the novel. It starts to resemble what I envisioned at the concept point.

Finishing a novel, in that I polished it and feel it is ready for readers, is one of the big milestones. It is one that fills me with elation, relief, and a feeling that the world is not quite right. At this point, I have spent months, probably years thinking about these characters. I have carefully built a world filled with vivid scenes and tangible emotions. I have delved into the depths of character consciousness, thinking about why each one did this and that, putting words in their mouths, sometimes destroying their worlds. Plot has been executed.

And then I am done. I write, "the end." I will not be digging into the character's head or motivations tonight.  It feels like a loss, like being exiled from the world that no longer needs my hand. I am not sure how to spend my time anymore. I am not sure about my own reality, having spent so much time with my head in two worlds, and suddenly missing the one of my own creation.

I haven't written enough novels to know how long this feeling lasts, but read of plenty of authors who deal with it by reading a lot. I can get down with that. I have been neglecting my "to read" piles of late.