On TV!

Recently the local cable station in Lexington interviewed me about my books for young readers and the workshops I run. Could you tell that I was nervous? Link

Workshops, galore!

This past Sunday I taught a writing workshop for fourth and fifth graders at the wonderful Waban Library Center in Waban. Ten stupendous kids, from all over Newton and Needham, sat around a table, anxious, excited and nervous to tell their stories. We brainstormed. We wrote. We listened and offered suggestions. We talked. Amazing things happen when kids discover that there is a safe place to write, imagine, be messy and explore. Fiction writing workshops for kids should blend instruction with the joy of discovery and above all they should be, well, fun. Fun? Absolutely. If a child isn't having fun writing, then he or she probably won't continue. 

My next fiction writing workshop for kids will be on May 29 (fourth and fifth graders) through Lexington Community Education, in Lexington. A second Lexington workshop, for middle schoolers, will be on June 5. For information on both workshops, please contact LCE at: website.

 

The story behind the story

I get a lot of mail about my second middle grade novel, NO CREAM PUFFS. I think there are many reasons this book resonates with people. It contains lots of juicy themes -- mothers and daughters, first crushes, sports, figuring out who you are and best friend drama. Linda Crotta Brennan, author of When Rivers Burned: The Earth Day Story and The Black Regiment of the American Revolution, recently featured an interview with me on the story behind the story of No Cream Puffs. It was such fun to think back on writing this book. Thinking about Madison and her adventures - spying on the neighbors from her roof, baseball with the boys, her talks with Huey -- always brings a smile to my face. Thanks, Linda! Website.

 

The power (and gift!) of brainstorming

So, as a published writer I often hear comments from people who are surprised when I tell them that I like to go to workshops on writing. Aren't you too experienced? You've published three books! What is there left to learn?

The truth is, lots. There will always be things about yourself, and writing, that remain elusive and ready to discover, no matter how many books you've published. Writing workshops help you get there. 

Last year I spoke at NESCBWI's one-day workshop ENCORE! 2012 , held in Providence, R.I. I stuck around for the day to hear the other presenters. Jo Knowles and Cindy Faughnan, in their workshop, had us draw a map of a familiar, important place from our childhood. Could have been a map of our town, school, neighborhood or even our bedrooms. I chose my neighborhood, and I made sure to put in all of the houses I remembered, the elementary school and playground and the church at the end of our street. Then they prompted us with this phrase: "I remember..." The rest was up to us.

Well, I started writing about the time I kissed Keith Johnson, in sixth grade, behind the church. I remembered that it was a warm, fall day. And that later I had to hurry home because Billie Jean King was playing Bobby Riggs in the famous Battle of the Sexes tennis match. Then our writing time was up and the workshop was over.

I, however, wasn't done. For days, all I could think about was that match and it's implications in my life (sorry, Keith, I let our experience alone!). And so I wrote an essay about it that was recently published on the opinion page in my local newspaper. I hadn't set out to do this. I was a fiction writer, not nonfiction. But Jo and Cindy's workshop did what it was supposed to do. Got me going in a direction I didn't think possible.

Want to read the essay? Be my guest! Essay