Middle Grade Moms

Once upon a time, I might have questioned the validity of days like Mother's Day. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for my mom and think it's right and good to celebrate her. But you know the drill: the sappy almost-poetic Hallmark cards, the dilemma of what to buy, and the marketing efforts aimed at tugging on the volatile mixture of guilt and familial love. Sometimes it's hard to buy into it.

Of course, that foolish cynicism characterized my life before having three small children. Now Mother's Day just might be my favorite day of the year. Breakfast in bed - yes, please! Children whispering sweetness (so what if they're being prompted by daddy?) throughout the day. Time to do whatever I want. Oh, I'm sorry, has my gloating over yesterday completely sidetracked me from the intent of this post? Why, yes, it has. And, since Mother's Day is over, and I'm not The Queen anymore, I better get right to it.

You remembered your own mothers yesterday. Now let's talk about some of our favorite moms in middle-grade books. One of the great things about middle-grade is that the families are often present and a huge part of the main character's story. While you may find a suspiciously high number of orphaned protagonists, the parents that are depicted usually have some winning qualities.

Do share. Who gets your middle-grade Mom of the Year Award?

P.S. For me: Molly Weasley, hands down. Her family loves her, the Burrow is so homey, she puts up with the twins...AND she's part of a rebellious order? Go Molly!

Raise your hand if your library has a middle-grade section

*stands on tiptoes* *peers around room* None of you. Right?

Let me tell you: this is a SERIOUS oversight.



Recently I went to a meeting at my library revolving around the teen section. One member mentioned reading Tunnels (by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams) and said that despite it was a "children's book", he still enjoyed it.

Here I said as politely as I could: "Isn't middle-grade an age category too?"

Like, when did young adult become the only cool kids' category to read? There is a TON of hype for YA out there in the book blogosphere, and there are a gazillion YA book blogs. But why is middle-grade labelled "children's" and deemed immature to read? And why isn't there a middle-grade section?

Okay. *takes deep breath* I'll stop ranting. But seriously, I remember when it was revolutionary because teen books were getting their own section. Let's start the middle-grade revolution, okay?

Winner of The Hot List Giveaway

Congratulations to Jess for winning the autographed copy of The Hot List by Hillary Homzie! Jess, I sent you an e-mail regarding collecting your prize, but please e-mail me at dawn.lairamore@yahoo.com if you didn't get my message.

And, again, a big thanks to author Hillary Homzie for giving us such a great interview!

-Dawn Lairamore

Overcoming Writer’s Block – Making the Word Count

I hear rumors that some people do not ever suffer from writer’s block. I also hear rumors that some people actually don’t like chocolate. Hah! For those of us who do battle writer’s block, frequently or infrequently, I’d like to share some ideas. One of the hardest parts of writing and attempting to get published is the mind game involved, the game of winning over the gremlins in your brain who sow doubt at every step.

 When someone first starts writing, a common cause of writer’s block can be the fear that you will fail or that what you write will be terrible. The mind tricks you into thinking it’s better not to try because you are setting yourself up for a downfall. How do you overcome that? I found it was not to have a goal to write a polished, worthy-to-be-published manuscript. Too much pressure! I just had a goal to finish something, no matter how bad it turned out. What a great feeling it was the very first time I typed ‘the end’. If you make that your goal, you can remind yourself no one ever has to read it and that might ease some of the fear. And once the first is done, then you can think about revising it, or move on to something else, but having finished will silence a few of those vicious gremlins.

 So once you have that goal to just finish, whether it’s your first or your tenth, how do you actually manage to get words down? I have several different methods. If I’m really struggling, I just write dialogue, because that’s the easiest part of the story for me to imagine. Sometimes I’ll switch to writing a few paragraphs describing the setting, even though I know I won’t use most of it in the final story. Other times I’ll just write a laundry list of the action, more like stage directions. The important part for me is to actually get real words on the screen, because I can’t revise without anything to work with.

 Another thing I do is to set realistic goals and force myself to keep them, by not allowing myself to do anything else until I'm done. I don’t write quickly, so a maximum word count goal for me is one thousand words a day. On days when I know I will have very little time to make a goal, I lower the word count, sometimes down to as little as 250 words. Once I start writing, I often go beyond that, but the feeling of meeting one goal helps me go back to it the next day. Those 250 words may just be a description of what a character is wearing, or what they like to eat, or a bit of backstory. I don’t care. They are words.

Some people swear by a program called Write or Die. This is a much more drastic method to force yourself to write. As I understand it, you basically have to keep writing without pauses or else your work will disappear. That’s too much pressure for me and doesn’t fit the way I write, but every person has to find their own method. Anyone else have tips to share?
~ Dee Garretson

Who HASN'T Been Rejected?

We've all been there at some point. Feeling like there are only rejections cluttering your inbox? Thinking that you will never get an agent? Never get published? The journey can be very frustrating.

But sometimes hearing about other authors rejections who turned into famous, accomplished authors can help us feel better.

Judy Blume. She "received nothing but rejections" for two years. Judy Blume stated, " I would go to sleep at night feeling that I'd never be published. But I'd wake up in the morning convinced I would be. Each time I sent a story or book off to a publisher, I would sit down and begin something new. I was learning more with each effort. I was determined. Determination and hard work are as important as talent."  Who hasn't felt like this, right?

Meg Cabot. Who hasn't read THE PRINCESS DIARIES? It slipped through the hands of 17 publishers before finally being accepted for publication.

Stephen King. He received dozens of rejections for his first novel, CARRIE. He even recevied a rejection from a publisher that stated, "We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."

William Golding, author of LORD OF THE FLIES. This book was rejected 20 times. One rejection from a publisher said, "an absurd and uninteresting fantasy."

Anne Frank. 16 publishers rejected her! One publisher said, "The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level." Another said the book was scarcely worth reading.  Really??

J.K. Rowling. So, the first Harry Potter book was rejected by DOZENS of publishers. Big ones, including Penguin, HarperCollins and Bloomsbury. Guess how the book finally became published? A CEO’s eight-year old daughter begged her father to print the book.

John Grisham. His first novel, A Time to Kill, was rejected by a dozen publishers and 16 agents before breaking into print and launching his best-selling career.

EE Cummings. His first work, The Enormous Room, was rejected by 15 publishers. He eventually self-published the book which went on to become considered a masterpiece of modern poetry. And get this--he dedicated the book to the 15 publishers who rejected him. Nice!

Now, doesn't this make you feel a little better?

"The best revenge is massive success." Frank Sinatra