Christmas Books

In school this week, I have been sharing holiday stories with my students. We all have our favorites, and I'm hoping that you will share some of yours here through comments. One of my all time favorites is Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon. It's set in 1915 and describes a special Christmas Eve shared by British and German troops on the front lines. It's a moving story and one many children have never heard before. We start the lesson with a Power Point providing a historical context. Then, I read the book. Afterwards, we watch a video clip in which the author and singer, McCutcheon, shares the inspiration for the story and song as well reactions to it. This is a wonderful holiday tale.

Now, please do take a moment to share your favorite holiday story here.

 

A royalty free image.

More illustrations for White Pine - Due to be published in January 2014!

This illustration took some work. This is a Tomahawk or Axe Tossing game. Julie, the illustrator, and I weren't sure what this should look like. Our first image was of the stump set directly on the ground. My husband and Julie's son pointed out that no one throws axes directly down. Fair enough. Fortunately, Julie's son had played a version of this game at Boy Scout camp. We compared his recollection with some historical images and this drawing is what resulted.

Another illustration from White Pine - The Clerk's desk

Here's a super cool illustration of a clerk's desk for White Pine. Illustrator Julie Schaller added a waterway map of Eau Claire over the desk. The drawing was inspired by an actual logging camp clerk's desk that is at the Chippewa Valley Museum.

A sneak peak at the illustrations for White Pine!

 

Here's one of the illustrations for White Pine: My Year as a Lumberjack and a River Rat.

The artist, Julie Schaller, is doing a wonderful job.

Prejudice Against Small Press

Book publishing as an industry is experiencing dramatic changes. Ebooks and Amazon have dramatically changed how we buy books and how we read them. I was first published in 2005 by a primarily ebook publisher. Needless to say, I didn't sell many books. Ebooks were not yet widely accepted and people didn't have the devices necessary for reading them. Brick and mortar bookstores often didn't carry books by small, independent publishers, often because it was difficult to return books to these smaller houses. It was very difficult to get a book published by an indie book publisher "out there."

Fast forward eight years. Many small electronic and POD publishing houses have opened and shut down. I have had several books and several short stories published by a number of publishing houses. My books are up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Ereaders are widely accepted and utilized. But still, it is very difficult as an author published by a small house to get reviewed by the big review journals. Midwest Book Review is one notable exception; they encourage the submission of small press publications. Other review journals seems to make it as difficult as possible for small press publications to even be considered. There seems to exist a very real prejudice against small press works, which are often disparaged as poorly written and barely edited. In addition, there are some writer's organizations which refuse to allow those published by small press to participate. The message by the "establishment" of book publishing would seem to be that there is no place at the table for small press. Recently, I considered applying for membership in a writer's organization. However, the organization included the following information on their site:

"Books featured on ... have been published by traditional publishing houses or reviewed favorably in traditional journals (School Library Journal, The Horn Book, Book Links, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, VOYA)."   I am not including the name of this organization because, to be honest, I would have loved to be a part of this group. They do a great deal in terms of marketing and promotion for their members. It also includes a super cool group of authors. But the bottom line is the organization does not consider those published by small press to be legit. Therefore, as an author, I don't count. Ouch. It becomes a Catch 22. That is, my novel cannot be reviewed by the well known journals because it is small press and I can't join certain promotional groups for the same reason.   Now, many of you may be thinking, why not just give in to the man and submit to the traditional houses? I have. I went that route and will likely do so again. Over the years, I have had three agents who have submitted  my works to the large publishing companies. I have followed all the rules and sat and   waited for responses for months on various submissions. Once I had a near miss. The publishing house in question got back to me and said that if I made the requested changes to my manuscript, they would probably offer me a contract. So,I made the changes, which eviserated my story, and then they rejected the story anyway. A few years ago, I made the decision that writing my stories and making them available to readers was what was important to me. The who and how of it, less so.   I went to small press because I believed in the integrity of my stories. (That sounds better than I went small press because I'd failed with large press.) I am no longer willing to make sweeping changes to my stories with which I don't agree. Sure, I listen to my editors. Absolutely. That's part of the contract that I sign with the publisher. But I also believe in my own artistic integrity and I am much less willing to compromise at this point in the game.   So, where am I going with this? There are a limitless number of books out there. Self publishing has opened Pandora's Box in many ways. I agree with the "establishment" that there is a lot of rubbish out there, but there also may be some diamonds mixed in with the dross, and it is incredibly short sighted to simply exclude all small press publications. Some would argue, myself among them, that much of what is published by large press is rubbish as well. But now, I'm being catty. And, the floodgates will open. The "establishment"can seek to hold back the deluge, but it will and is coming. Ebooks and small press are an opportunity and offer options to readers as well as writers, not vermin to be stamped out.   The bottom line is that I am published by a "real" publishing house and I will continue to fight to get the word out on my books. I believe that much of this prejudice against small press is about fear. The big companies don't want to lose money and they have relationships with the review journals and the writer's organizations, who want to keep the hoi polloi out. As a member of the hoi polloi, I would argue that we bring a great deal to the table, including some genuinely wonderful stories which deserve to be read and reviewed.

On Writing

That's the title of my favorite book on the writing craft by Stephen King. This summer, I had the opportunity to reflect on the writing process and the writing life. I had the marvelous opportunity to coteach a summer writing class for fourth and fifth graders with W.H. Beck, the marvelously gifted author of Malcolm at Midnight. To be honest, while embarking on creating and teaching this class, I was struggling with my writing. I was finding more excuses not to sit down and write on any given day. Granted my husband and children may prefer if I do things like laundry and match socks, really these things do take away from writing time. This is not to say that my house was actually looks neat and tidy, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I simply had lost some inspiration to write.

Our spin on a teaching writing blended ideas and inspiration from Aimme Buckner's Notebook Know-How with examples of great read alouds texts as well as our own experiences and reflections. In accord with Buckner's ideas for Writer's Notebooks, our students wrote Daily Pages and made lists to inspire future writing. Through our interactions with each other and with the students, discussions developed around topics like developing an exciting opening line for a book and how well written book can be easily summed up.

Teaching and thinking about writing reminded me of the fun of it all. For the frst time, I am trying my hand at some children's nonfiction, about a rescue dog. I once read that when asked how he did his best writing, Ernest Hemingway responded something to the effect that it was easy (excuse the paraphrase). He simply cut himself open and bled all over the page. I feel I do my best writing when I write from heart or from the gut, when I am truly honest and real in what and how I write.

There were little details about writing which I had forgotten or set aside over the year, like the importance of writing regularly and of not leaving a work in progress for too long, though I do believe sometimes a work does need to be set aside so that you can look at it with fresh eyes. Most of all, my discussions with Ms. Beck and with our students refreshed and inspired me. I have concluded that though writing is a solitary endeavor, you cannot do it completely alone. In the way that all other professionals talk and collaborate around their crafts, so, too, should writers. I, for one, need a writing support system. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful community of writers and readers around me, for which I thank all of you. I hope you know who you are and that you are so greatly appreciated.

Fire & Ice, the YA imprint of Melange Books, will be publishing White Pine: My Year as a Lumberjack and a River Rat in January of 2014.

White Pine is an historical fiction set at the end of the nineteenth century. Sevy Anderson's father breaks his leg in a sawmill accident, and so the fourteen-year-old has to take his place with the lumberjacks and river rats who harvested the forests of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The men of the Northwoods live hard and on the edge, and Sevy must prove his worth in the company of legends. The novel is also about first love and dreams that endure, and it is in the tradition of Harry Mazer's novels for boys.

This novel is near and dear to my heart and written in honor of Wisconsin, a state to which I moved as an adult and which has become my home. As a family, we were geocaching on a summer's day many years ago when we came upon a building along the river that had once housed a lumber company's offices. It is one of the few remaining edifices in our town that date back to the lumberjack era. It inspired a family conversation about the history of our region, about the rivers, sawmills, and lumberjacks and about how traces of what has gone before can still be seen by looking closely.

I am so excited to see this book in print!

http://www.fireandiceya.com/authors/index.html

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen is my current favorite Golden Archer nominee and, possibly, one of my favorite children's picture books of all times. Klassen's assumes his readers possess a certain level of sophistication that allows them to appreciate dark humor. C.S. Lewis said "No book is worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty." This is so true of this picture book. Like Mo Willems, Klassen understands that the adults who read the stories to the children truly appreciate humor as well, and so he doesn't dumb down his book or tame it to make it palatable for children. There are many examples in children's literature of books in which their very darkness is part of their appeal. This is one of those books. I read it to all of my kindergarten and first grade classes with the other Golden Archer nominees. While reading the book, some of the children loved it. Others were horrified (spoiler) that the rabbit was eaten. But those boys and girls who have a little bit of  Sendak's "Wild Things" in them loved it. Just this morning, I counted up the votes. I Want My Hat Back won. This book is pure genius and a delight. Just be prepared with an alternate explanation for the rabbit's fate if you have any tender hearted children in your audience.

I have been doing a lot of writing lately. I have a completed middle grade historical fiction about a boy in the lumberjack era in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and a Young Adult dystopia that still needs some polishing. So, of late, I haven't been out looking for reviews. I was pleasantly surprised to get a letter in the mail from the Midwest Book Review. They have featured A Horse Named Viking in the January 2013 issue of their Children's Bookwatch. Thank you MBR for your interest in small press publications and thanks for the lovely review which appears on their Pet\Wildlife Shelf.

Midwest Book Review - January 2013 Children's BookWatch

Great new review for A Horse Named Viking: http://www.learn-about-horses.com/horse-books.html! Look below Black Beauty.
Thanks to learn-about-horses.com!