mary e. pearson

I was surprised this week when NCTE posted a link to something I wrote 5 years ago: http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CNP/0254-April08/FieldOfDreams.pdf. I was also a tad apprehensive: how would something I wrote in 2008 hold up to scrutiny? Actually, as I read through it again, I was astonished to see that much of what I noted back then is still the focus of what I write and talk about now. Sure, there are some thins I would add or delete. I know more now, of course. I have spoken to thousands of kids and teachers in the intervening years. There have been other changes to education, to technology, to the field of literature for adolescents. And yet much remains the same.

I like looking back. It gives me a sense of "history." This past week, my husband and I ate at a restaurant that, back when we first married, was a place we visited often with my parents and with our kids. We reminisced throughout the meal about those times. It was satisfying but also bittersweet: my mom and stepdad are both gone now the kids are not kids. But the memories are still there.

I like crystal ball gazing, too: looking for what might be ahead. In YA, there have been so many new forms and formats, a blurring of genre lines, new authors. What might the genre look like in 5 years? In 10 years? Which books will have staying power? what trends will fade?I never tire of opening the boxes of books to see what is new. Right now I am reading a forthcoming book from David Almond that is a game changer. Ditto the new book from Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett called BATTLE BUNNY. This evolution keeps the field fresh and interesting.

So, look ahead, look back. Remember the history and embrace the future.

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Kit Grindstaff is the first-time author of The Flame in the Mist (Delacorte, 2013). From the promotional copy:

The sun never shines in the land of Anglavia. Its people live within a sinister mist created by their rulers, the cruel Agromond family.

The Agromonds' control is absolute; no one dares defy them. But things are about to change, for the youngest of them is not like the others...

Fiery-headed Jemma has always felt like the family misfit, and is increasingly disturbed by the dark goings-on at Agromond Castle. The night before her thirteenth birthday, Jemma discovers the terrifying reason why: She is not who she thinks she is, and the Agromonds have a dreadful ritual planned for her birthday—a ritual that could kill her.

But saving her skin is just the first of Jemma's ordeals. Ghosts and outcasts, a pair of crystals, a mysterious book, an ancient Prophecy—all these gradually reveal the truth about her past, and a destiny far greater and more dangerous than any she could imagine.

With her trusted friend, Digby, and her two telepathic golden rats, Noodle and Pie, Jemma faces enemies both human and supernatural. But in the end, she and her untapped powers might be the only hope for a kingdom in peril.

How did you discover and get to know your protagonist? How about your secondary characters? Your antagonist?

I first came across the seed of my main character, Jemma, at a workshop where we were each asked to summarize the essence of our childhood as a fairy tale—quickly, without too much thinking—in one paragraph.

What leapt to my mind was the isolation I’d felt as a small child living in a large house outside a village and having very little daily contact with non-family kids until I went to school.

So the Once Upon a Time that splurged onto my page was about this castle on a hill miles from anywhere and the girl who dreamed of escaping…

Fast forward several years, and that castle morphed into Agromond Castle, the opening setting of The Flame in the Mist, where Jemma is effectively held prisoner—isolated, and longing to see the world beyond its walls. To flesh her out, I used an exercise learned in my first ever writing class (with Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City): scribbling down a list of characteristics as quickly as possible, with no forethought or editing. A lot of that list became part of who Jemma is, including: headstrong, stubborn, loves anagrams, loves food, has prophetic dreams, can communicate with animals, has pet rats. A mix of myself (I adore playing word games, and food…), and some not. (Rats? I hated them—that is, until I created Noodle and Pie.)

Later, it amazed me how much that list also fed the book’s themes. Jemma’s prophetic dreams, for example, became central. A more obscure one was her love of anagrams. At first, it was a quirk that offered some fun opportunities for foreshadowing (at one point, seeing her family’s motto, Agromondus Supremus, her head spins out the words grand, groan, mouse, demons . . . ), but I had no idea how important it would become until toward the very end, when an idea emerged about solving anagrams being vital to her mission—and survival.

Who’d have thought….anagrams, as integral to the plot? Not me.
In creating Jemma’s antagonists, the Agromonds—parents Nox and Nocturna and their twins Shade and Feo—I also used the list exercise.

To begin with, though, they were too one-dimensionally evil, so my editor suggested I write back stories for them. Each was like a mini-novella of about 10 pages long, written much like those first lists of traits, with no forethought, no editing. I did, however, start with the question “What ghosts haunt this character?”—literally, and/or psychologically. (Not my idea, but I’m afraid I don’t remember where I got it from, so can’t credit its origin.)

That gave the stories a sharp and delicious focus, and the details that surged up from my subconscious surprised and thrilled me. I’d literally gasp and say things like, “So that’s why Nox has such a soft spot for Jemma!” and “That’s why Shade is afraid of rats!” Until then, I’d had no idea—though evidently the dark corners of my mind did.

How have you approached the task of promoting your debut book? What online or real-space efforts are you making? Where did you get your ideas? To whom did you turn for support? Are you enjoying the process, or does it feel like a chore? What advice do you have on this front for your fellow debut authors and for those in the years to come?
I’ve been putting more effort into connecting with local bookstores and libraries and applying for book festivals. The personal side of things always felt more tangible and straightforward to me. But the Internet as promotional tool was a huge unknown.

Around January of last year, my book deal was signed and I knew it was time to get my online chops together. I had a personal profile on Facebook, but that was about it. I didn’t get Twitter at all. So, where to begin?

Fortunately for me, last year’s New York SCBWI conference offered a one-day marketing workshop. Thank you, SCBWI! That workshop truly kick-started my efforts.

I turned up knowing practically nothing. By the end of the day, my head was bulging with new concepts. It would take time and patience to absorb what I’d learned, but I’d made a start.

The workshop covered a number of aspects: social media—mainly Twitter (@kitgrindstaff) and Facebook—as well as blogging, branding, making book trailers (I’d never heard of them, but now have one on YouTube (see below)), and the importance of a killer website—for middle grade authors, the most important hub of online presence.

The latter was easiest to wrap my head around. One of the workshop presenters was a website designer whose work I loved: Maddee James of Xuni.com. I already knew I wanted to work with her, so I introduced myself. Step one, taken. Not so bad.

About social media and blogging, every presenter stressed only to take it on if you enjoy it—a duff online presence being worse than none at all. That was comforting. I immediately let myself off the blogging hook for the moment; but I loved Facebook, so could easily conceive of creating a page for my author presence in addition to my personal profile—a distinction I hadn’t yet made.

Twitter was still mind-boggling to me: more narcissistic garbage and tiresome self-promotion polluting the cyber-waves, I thought. But the Twitter presenter reframed it completely. Self-promotion should be the least of it, she said. We should follow people who genuinely interested us, and engage in conversations. Be authentic. Promote others, who would in turn promote us.

Et voila! The crux of Twitter’s potential: a community of like-minded individuals reaching out to connect with each other, rather than a cacophonous, competitive squabble. I loved that idea.


I love supporting others, and receiving it back. Book bloggers, fellow writers, readers…we’re a community. And for me, community is key.

Once I was out there, things began to happen.

For example, about a month into tweeting, I received a tweet from an author belonging to a group called The Lucky 13s—kidlit authors debuting in 2013. She’d come across my profile, and saw that I was also debuting in ’13.

“Hop on over to the blog and join us!” she said.

So I did.

That one tweet changed my life. The sense of companionship and support in the Luckies is terrific. We share concerns and excitement, and our (private) proboards are a fabulous resource for ideas—swag, cover reveals, attending conferences and fairs, you name it. There’s a Luckies blog, with group blogs—perfect for a not-quite-blogging-yet person like me. I can’t imagine what navigating the road to publication would have been like without them. More scary, for sure, and not nearly as much fun, with a fraction of the opportunities.

So to new and upcoming authors, I’d say, Connect, connect, connect. If you need to learn the ropes, go to workshops, or research online. With social media, there’s many to choose from: Tumblr, Pinterest and Goodreads are other options.

Go with what feels right; if you don’t enjoy it, it’s hard to put the time in. But if something feels a little awkward or difficult at first, at least try it, stay with it for a while and see what happens. Take it slowly, find a way to approach it playfully. “The web” is a great image to keep in mind, with its mass of interconnections. You never know where following one thread can lead.

My husband took this photo in New Harbor, Maine of a lobsterman's newly-painted buoys drying. Buoys have to be repainted every year.

Here

Earlier this year, when I had far less time to blog, I ran into several posts about how financially it didn't make much sense to be a writer. One was this which was based on numbers from 2005 and for some reason posits that each novel you write will sell fewer copies than in the past.  Then there was this roundup from Galley Cat.

However, I think these posts might be a bit too dire.  Way back when I got my first book deal in 1997, it was for $12,000 for the first book and $15,000 for the second, so far more than the $5,000 or $6,000 that many of these examples start with. Maybe mysteries pay a little better than the horror or science fiction they were talking about in the linked articles.  And as your career moves along, hopefully your career is building and your backlist is still selling.

Plus there are other ways you can make money as a writer, although none of them are sure things. Audio books, foreign rights, book clubs, movie options.  If you write books for kids, especially younger kids, you can get paid to do school visits.  (My first five books were for adults, so it was a real shock to learn this.)  And books for kids tend to stay in print for a long time.  My first YA came out in 2006 and is still, as of today, in print.  Anything that has gone out-of-print I have put back up as ebooks.  A few times when things were lean I taught classes at my local bookstore.

Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but for past couple of years I have made well more than I did when I worked in corporate communications for a big health care company.  I will say that my husband has helped tremendously by having a job with health insurance and regular bi-weekly paychecks.  I've also learned that money you don't expect to come in does and money you did expect to come in ends up being delayed for months, but somehow it all balances out.

The one thing I don't like is that it's very hard to crystal ball it, hard to look more than a year into the future.  I'm getting better at living with that uncertainty. If you are self-employed, I highly recommend The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed: The Only Personal Finance System for People with Not-So-Regular Jobs. You need to get good at paying your retirement, your taxes, and your emergency fund up front.  This book has helped me do that.

Author Jim Hines looked at his finances for 2012 here.  He also has a full-time job in addition to his writing.

Anyway, if you are thinking of quitting your day job, don't despair.  I believe it is possible.  You may find yourself working like a dog, but you'll also be making up stories, your commute will be from your bed to the computer, and you will be your own boss.  Even if I was making less (and who knows, I might soon be), I would still say it was worth it. 

I have been a bad bad Livejournal poster, and rarely blogged at all of late.

But there's a buncha blog posts at the Los Angeles Review of Books Naked Bookseller Blog now, most of which were written by me, if you've been feeling M'e babble deprived...

http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/post/50756892683/the-naked-bookseller-bares-all-maryelizabeth-hart

http://www.theboyfriendlist.com/e_lockhart_blog/2013/05/starting-monday-is-a-week-of-celebrating-ya-books-summer-reading-smart-reads-you-can-make-video-book-recommendations-or-tw.html

Starting Monday is a week of celebrating YA books! Summer reading! Smart reads! You can make video book recommendations or tweet them to #IReadYA all week and see what everyone is reading. It is started by http://thisisteen.tumblr.com -- and if you make a video, tell them! Change your icon/avatar by stealing this cute red circle.

Myopia is one thing, but education suffers more from dystopia in terms of vision of late. Here is a posting from Diane Ravitch abot Texas and education: http://dianeravitch.net/2013/05/08/texas-the-surefire-plan-to-destroy-public-education/.

Look at the steps she talks about from SHOCK DOCTRINE by Noami Klein.My comments follow the statement of the steps.

Step One: impose ridiculous standards and assessments on every school. NCLB, CCSS, and our own state standards have accomplished this already. Add to this the fact that ELAR standards were writeen without input from literacy organizations who begged to be included.

Step Two: create cut points on the assessments to guarantee high rates of failure. How many parents understand how the passing score for STAAR is determined? Do they really think it is a set pecentage?


Step Three: implement draconian accountability systems. And change the standards and forms and reporting schemes often. Changes keep anyone from getting too comfortable, right?


Step Four: use the accountability system to undermine the credibility and trust that almost everyone gave to public schools. increase the difficulty of reaching goals annually. At the outset of testing, especially as we moved into NCLB, many of us warned that scores would drop and that eventually even high-performing schools could not meet AYP. With CCSS and RttT, the same thing is occurring. Scores are plummeting thus making the case that schools are awful.

Step Five: de-professionalize educators with alternative certification, merit pay, evaluations tied to test scores, scripted curriculum, attacks on professional organizations, phony research that tries to make the case that credentials and experience don’t matter, etc. Our state forced colleges of education to cut the number of required hours to complete the degree quite a few years ago. Now, they are talking about poorly prepared teachers. How do we battle this sort of attack?

Step Six: start privatization with public funded charters with a promise that they will be laboratories of innovation. Many of us fell for that falsehood. Apply pressure each legislative session to implement more and more of them. Despite the research that shows charter schools are not more effective, we continue to call for more of them.


Step Seven: use Madison Avenue messaging to name bills to further trick people into acceptance, if not support, of every conceivable voucher scheme. This is also known as the business model for schools. Never mind that kids are not products.

Step Eight: totally destroy public education with so-called universal vouchers. See this web site: http://www.economist.com/node/9119786. Great propaganda about how vouchers will save education.

Step Nine: start eliminating the vouchers and charters, little by little. I would add, slowly begin closing sschools, ending school years early, etc.

Step Ten: totally eliminate the costs of education from local, state, and national budgets, thereby providing another huge transfer of wealth through huge tax cuts to the already-billionaire class.

In effect, train an underclass to do the jobs for the waelthy.

Scary? It is here already. Dystopia, anyone?