Fear of Missing Out, or from FOMO to YOLO by Jim Hill

The internet is great. The internet is terrible. One way that it's great is how it enables like-minded people, say people who write books for kids, for example, to share the daily events that make writing and publishing the ecstatic roller coaster ride that it is.

Then there's the way the internet is also terrible. That'd be the way it takes all those kidlit folks we love and shows us how they're all doing the cool things, or getting all the great book deals, or hanging out together the way we wish we were to the point that you think you're no longer in the club, you're permanently outside with your nose pressed up against the glass.

This past weekend was full of big FOMO feels. The SCBWI Summer Conference happened in Los Angeles, and the summer residency kicked off at Vermont College of Fine Arts. I've been to the LA SCBWI conference once and had an amazing time meeting friends I'd made online in person, digging into craft workshops, and soaking up the wisdom of keynotes. And summer rez at VCFA? Pure magic. Ten days over-stuffed with lectures, readings, and deep, passionate conversations with people that have become family. It's a bit like summer camp for adult nerds.

So, instead of wallowing in all the potentially negative emotions, I bought tickets for a whale watch with my family. Brilliant! How to go from FOMO to YOLO. I clapped myself on the back (I'm flexible), and even tweeted about it.

And then. And then.

And then I literally missed the boat. We arrived two minutes late, the bow lines had been cast, and we watched the ship sail.

Fortunately, my family is flexible, too. After a fair amount of mockery over my utter lack of planning skills, we rallied with ice cream and fried scallops (not in that order, gross) and set our alarms for the next morning's whale watch.

Which left me with some time to ruminate on the ways a whale watch is like writing.

1) You take a bit of a journey to put yourself in the right position
2) You never know when something will surface
3) Sometimes a bunch of things happen at once
4) If you're lucky, you might get caught in a feeding frenzy
5) The best parts are often a fluke

And with that, I'd better get myself to Barnstable Harbor and on board in time to see some cetacean sensations.

Telling My Own Story, Now Improved With Dragons by Kell Andrews

Many writers make careers out of telling their own stories. That's true of memoirists, essayists, bloggers, and even some fiction writers, but it's not true of me.

Then in May, I attended a digital storytelling workshop by StoryCenter, held at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver. I was there for my day job as a university digital content producer (that is, writer for mostly online media) to find ways to deepen the create about students, faculty, and alumni. But after signing up, I realized that the workshop format involved telling your own story. I'd be practicing on myself. 

Benjamin Franklin, founder of the university where I work, wrote, "Either write things worth reading,
or do things worth the writing." (He did both, and was a celebrated autobiographer to boot).

I've always thought the mundane particulars of my life are not worth the writing. It's only when I use my experience to make things up that my writing gets interesting.

Now, I'm used to telling I write stories about other real people in my day job, and my writing fiction for children is currently my side hustle. I'm even used to writing blog posts like this one, but when it comes to telling my own story, I tend to lose the plot, mainly because there isn't one. I've once took a class on first-person narrative nonfiction, and the personal essays I wrote lacked both shape and detail unless I considerably embroidered them -- and embroider enough, and they turned into fiction. . Embroider some more, and they turn into fantasy. (I tried this once as an exercise, and which turned into the middle-grade short story The Mermaid Game, paired with a nonfiction essay, Shark and Minnow.)

Sitting in the story telling workshop, I didn't have the option to embroider reality, but I managed to add dragons anyway (along with a JRR Tolkien reference) while talking about how insomnia led me to write middle grade fantasy. Here is the result.

 

Did deepen my story telling skills for my day job? I hope so. And I did get some good tools for my next book trailer...

A ROVING BOOKMOBILE?! I WISH I COULD DRIVE IT by Michael Gettel-Gilmartin

The other day a friend of mine gave me a copy of High Country News ("For people who care about the West.") It wasn't a magazine with which I was familiar, but it turned out to be a fascinating read. The November 14, 2016 edition focused on writers in the West, and I enjoyed browsing through the articles. But one that really made me sit up straight was a fabulously written piece by a librarian called R. Kelley. (I'm not sure of the librarian's gender--it's never mentioned in the piece--so I will use the s/he construction.)

R. Kelley drives the Flagstaff City-Coconino County Public Library Bookmobile "around the second-largest county in America--through sparse deserts, blue volcanic mountains, and forests, towns, and villages." S/he describes the bookmobile driver as wearing "many hats, including transient therapist, reference librarian, janitor, wheelchair assistant, fill-in hunting buddy and Dear Abby substitute."

As a lifelong urbanite, I was fascinated by the glimpse of life in a part of the U.S. of which I am completely unfamiliar. My library system is vast and gleaming, brick-and-mortar, with programs aplenty. This "great Culture Ferry" is literally a lifeline to the people it serves in this vast county. Imagine being one of those kids "in the middle of nowhere," for whom the bookmobile "can be as exciting as a circus coming to town!" Honestly, if someone wants to write a middle grade novel with kids who love a bookmobile, I will read it immediately.

And if Flagstaff ever needs another bookmobile driver, count me in!

You need to read the article in full--it is worth it while you drink your morning coffee.

What are the libraries like in your community? Have you ever experienced a Bookmobile? If so, where?

Happy July, Mayhemmers. Happy Independence Day tomorrow!

Book News by Paul Greci

Doing research for the Sequel to Surviving Bear Island.

I’m thrilled to announce that there will be a Sequel to Surviving Bear Island coming out in 2018, and another middle grade adventure to follow!!

From Publishers Marketplace: June 14, 2017 – Paul Greci

Children’s: Middle grade

JLG winner for Surviving Bear Island Paul Greci‘s untitled sequel, pitched as another Alaskan Hatchet and Far North-like adventure/wilderness/survival tale, to Eileen Robinson at Move Books, in a two-book deal, for publication in 2018, by Amy Tipton at Signature Literary Agency.

Thanks to my agent Amy Tipton for finding a home for more of my middle grade adventure stories!! We’ve been working together for six years now!

And, I’m looking forward to continuing to work with Eileen Robinson and all the other fine folks at Move Books!!

The Sequel is set in Interior Alaska where there are many free flowing rivers.

The sequel (title forthcoming) took about a year to write utilizing the early morning hours before my teaching day began, plus some of the previous summer.

The second book in the two-book deal is a yet-to-be-written middle grade adventure (which I’ll share more details about at a later date), so I read with interest Caroline’s post last Monday. This will be the first time I have a contract for a book I have not yet written.

I’ll have a little more news to share regarding my young adult fiction writing sometime soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Paul Greci is the author of Surviving Bear Island, a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection.

 

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora, by Pablo Cartaya

About Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays:
On his last post, Michael stated that he's been following author Shannon Messenger's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday for years, and following on in her tradition, he gave us a great review of POISON IS NOT POLITE. I recently read Pablo Cartaya's debut middle grade novel THE EPIC FAIL OF ARTURO ZAMORA. I've been talking nonstop about this wonderful title, and I wanted to share the love I have for this book with you Mayhemmers.

About THE EPIC FAIL OF ARTURO ZAMORA: 

Save the restaurant. Save the town. Get the girl. Make Abuela proud. Can thirteen-year-old Arturo Zamora do it all or is he in for a BIG, EPIC FAIL?

For Arturo, summertime in Miami means playing basketball until dark, sipping mango smoothies, and keeping cool under banyan trees. And maybe a few shifts as junior lunchtime dishwasher at Abuela’s restaurant. Maybe. But this summer also includes Carmen, a cute poetry enthusiast who moves into Arturo’s apartment complex and turns his stomach into a deep fryer. He almost doesn’t notice the smarmy land developer who rolls into town and threatens to change it. Arturo refuses to let his family and community go down without a fight, and as he schemes with Carmen, Arturo discovers the power of poetry and protest through untold family stories and the work of José Martí.

Praise for The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya:

"Irresistibly exquisite." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"At turns funny, beautiful, and heartbreaking... engrossing." —Booklist, starred review

"A vibrant debut novel about family, friendship, and community." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Pablo Cartaya's sensational debut is a love letter to boyhood, poetry, and family. Quite simply, this is the book I've been waiting for." —Matt de la Peña, New York Times bestselling and Newbery Medal–winning author of The Last Stop on Market Street

"This story of hope will make you laugh, cry, sigh, and cheer for brave Arturo and his whole cool familia. Along the way, you'll end up hungry for Cuban food, ravenous for poetry, and determined to stand up to bullies who try to destroy communities. ¡Bravo!" —Margarita Engle, Newbery Honor–winning author of The Surrender Tree.

Why I liked it:

Arturo's voice and that of the story itself are spot-on middle grade. Full of hope and longing, full of wonder and possibility. Arturo has a strong support group in his family (all those people related to him by blood), but also those who are considered cousins and aunts and uncles but they're not blood cousins, aunts, and uncles. I immersed myself completely in this story which like the family recipes of Abuela's restaurant contains all the ingredients of my favorite reads: a full fledged character trying to find his place in the community and do his part to leave his mark in the family's legacy, believable family relationships (I love Arturo's relationship with his Abuela, especially. The way he speaks to her in English and she replies in Spanish because in matters of the heart, languages are secondary. Love is always first), strong friendships (including a friend who's such a Pitbull fan, he uses all of Mr. Worldwide's famous phrases like "Dale!"), and such a vivid setting that it reads like a character. I love Miami, and reading this book I could almost smell the sea and feel the balmy, humid breeze on my skin (I love the humidity, and as a Utah resident, I CRAVE it!).  When I was reading it I laughed so much and so hard, that my twelve-year-old son begged me to finish it quickly so he could read it next. He was hooked from the first paragraph. I mean, take a look for yourself:

And last but not least, did I mention the poetry? Arturo discovers the power of José Martí's words to resist against injustice and to understand his own family history.

About the author: 

Pablo Cartaya has always been a hopeless romantic. In middle school he secretly loved reading Shakespeare’s sonnets (don’t tell anyone), and he once spent his allowance on roses for a girl he liked. He also wrote her eight poems. Bad ones. He’s been writing ever since. Pablo has worked in Cuban restaurants and the entertainment industry, and he graduated with an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. All of these experiences have helped him write stories that reflect his family, culture, and love of words. Pablo lives in Miami with his wife and two kids, surrounded by tías, tíos, cousins, and people who he calls cousins (but aren’t really his cousins). Learn more about Pablo at pablocartaya.com.