Harry Potter in Thailand

Well, it turns out that I can get Harry Potter here in Thailand. I bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone here in paperback for about US$5.00. I asked if I would be able to buy the English version of Book 7. Yes, it's available but it has to be preordered and it costs US$40.00. I think I'll just wait until I get back to the US.

Remembering Lady Bird

Lady Bird Johnson died today at age 94. In her memory, I recommend Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America by Kathi Appelt. This picture book biography reveals that Lady Bird is the reason we have wildflowers planted along our interstates. She gave beauty to our country through her love of flowers.

Cynsations did an interview with Kathi Appelt here.

Poetry Friday--Pablo Neruda

I first became really interested in Pablo Neruda's poetry after I attended a Nancie Atwell conference about her book Lessons that Change Writers. She used Pablo Neruda's poems to teach her students about odes to ordinary things.

I recently picked up a collection of Pablo Neruda's poetry. It's huge and it will take me months to get through it all, but that's what I love about poetry--it's okay to indulge slowly.

Several months ago I purchased a picture book biography, To Go Singing Through the World: The Childhood of Pablo Neruda written and illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray. This is a beautifully written and illustrated book that really celebrates the man who was known for his words. Ray uses the words of Neruda throughout the book. She uses his poetry and his prose to tell his life story. Neruda's words are written in italics while Ray's words are in regular type. They flow seamlessly together. Ray really celebrates where Neruda came from--a small village in Chile. Neruda was nurtured by a well-known poet, Gabriela Mistral. Even though Pablo's father wanted him to do well in math, it was the beauty of language that really helped Pablo find his voice.

I purchased this book with the hopes of using it when I teach poetry. I have been wanting to work on odes with my students, and I always like to give a human side to the writers I teach. This books will definitely fill that need. I can't wait to share Neruda's poems and his story with my students this upcoming school year.

I leave you with Neruda's own words:

Ode to the Dictionary (this is from the middle of the poem)

I

turn

its

pages:

caporal,

capote,

what a marvel

to pronounce these plosive

syllables,

and further on,

capsule,

unfilled, awaiting ambrosia or oil

and others,

capsicum, caption, capture,

comparison, capricorn,

words

as slippery as smooth grapes,

words exploding in the light

like dormant seeds waiting

in the vaults of vocabulary,

alive again, and giving life:

once again the heart distills them.

Dictionary, you are not a

tomb, sepulcher, grave

tumulus, mausoleum,

but guard and keeper,

hidden fire,

groves of rubies,

living eternity

of essence,

depository of language.

From: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

Poetry Friday

This week's round up is at Chicken Spaghetti.

Harry Potter's Editor

Yes, I was supposed to be gone for a month, but my flight got cancelled, so I'm here for 2 more days (until I can catch the next flight out). That's another mess. In the meantime, I have been browsing the blogosphere.

The Washington Post has an interesting article about Harry Potter's editor Arthur Levine. It gives a little bit of background about how Scholastic obtained Harry Potter and Levine does a litle promo of some of his other authors.

On the Road

Tomorrow I am heading out for a month-long trip to Thailand. I am looking forward to going, but I'm a little worried about the 30-some-odd hour plane trip with my 2 1/2 year old. I have a backpack stuffed with lots of fun stuff, but even that will get old after all of that time.

I will not be blogging as much over the next month. I am hoping to post every now and then. If the Internet connection is strong, I'll try to do an occasion blurb. I will still be checking e-mail, so I will get all of your comments.

While I won't be in the middle of nowhere, there will be some things I will probably miss while I'm there:
1) The release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Although I'm hoping it will be released in Thailand while I'm there. I may have to watch it with English subtitles, but won't that be fun?
2) The release of Harry Potter Book Number 7 The Deathly Hollows. Once again I'm hoping to get my paws on a copy of this book while I'm there. I want to see if the bookstores are carrying Harry Potter in Thai. I also want to see if Harry is even big in SE Asia. I don't know. The last time I was there, Harry wasn't around yet.
3) Keeping up with the blogs. Alas, as much as I like to read other kidlit blogs, I will not have access to Internet at my parent's house. I will have to go elsewhere to read e-mails and such. And since there are other things to do there, I will probably be hopelessly behind on a month's worth of blog reading. It's for a good cause though.

What I hope I will get to do:
1) Find some cool Asian graphic novels--maybe even some in English.
2) Provide some ambiance for my writing. I have been diligently working on two projects set in Asia. Being there will give me the opportunity to really get to refresh my details on both projects.
3) Catch up on some reading. I have stacks of books I'm taking with me. I plan to leave most of them there after I read them.

If you don't hear from me, you'll know where I've gone. I'll be back in mid-August.

Paul Janeczko at Hollins

Saturday night I had the good fortune of listening to Paul Janeczko speak at Hollins. I was looking forward to hearing him speak out of all of the speakers this summer, and he did not disappoint.

Paul Janeczko is a former English teacher. Paul Janeczko wasn't a good student but as a young child was a collector. He thinks that paved the way for his obsession of collecting poems. He has written novels, nonfiction, poetry collections, and edited over 20 poetry anthologies.

He says he travels around to preach the gospel of the possibilities of poetry. He wants kids to know that poetry doesn't have to rhyme, have a certain form, or be long, boring, and stupid.

He is probably most famous for his numerous poetry anthologies. With each anthology he is always wanting to show a new way of looking at things.

He talked about several poetry anthologies:
1) Poke in the I--A collection of concrete poetry illustrated by Chris Raschka. Concrete poems are typically in the form of a shape. They play around with language and white space. Some don't read like a regular poem, and in fact, they would be hard to read like a regular poem. Some do read like regular poems, but they are arranged differently.
2) Stone Bench in an Empty Park--A collection of haiku set in the city. He wanted students who lived in big cities to know that they could write haiku. Some kids thought since they didn't live in the middle of the country (nature) that they couldn't write haiku. He said they needed to see that they could write haiku, they just had to slow down and pay attention to their life and their surroundings. This haiku collection is illustrated in black and white photographs.
3) Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku (my review of this book here)--He cowrote this with J. Patrick Lewis. This book is actually a collection of senryu, a type of Japanese poetry that has the same form as haiku, but instead of being about nature, it's about human nature.
** On a side note--I personally use the three poetry anthologies above ALL of the time. I highly recommend them to use with young writers.
4) Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices--This book is full of persona or mask poems. These poems are written from the point of view of an object.
5) Hey You!--This is a collection of poems of address. They are talking to something or someone. This one is brand new and I can't wait to get ahold of it!

One of the books he spent a lot of time talking about was a collection of poems he wrote about a circus tent fire in Connecticut in 1944. The book is entitled Worlds Afire. Each poem is told from a different person's perspective. Each of the people were in some way involved or affected by the fire that killed many. He did a lot of research for this book and was able to see his poems performed on stage at a local theater in Maine.

His advice to promising poets:
1) To get your foot in the door, send poems to magazines. It's a good way to get started with some publishing credits and gives you some credibility when you send off a collection of poems.
2) Read a LOT of poetry. Read as many poets as you can get your hands on. Then you can start to see which poets you really like and study them.

Paul Janeczko is getting reading to update his website. He is in the final proofreading now. So stay tuned for more.

Michael Stearns at Hollins

Michael Stearns, editorial director at Harper Collins, came to speak to writers at Hollins on Friday evening. In addition to his editorial director title, he is also the head of foreign acquistions and manages a half dozen other editors.

He gave sort of an Introduction to the Publishing World 101. While much of the information I have read about and heard before, he gave us a visual representation (via a hand drawn chart) that really summarized publishers and what books fall into different categories.

There are four extremes on this chart (imagine a x and y axis). Literary books on one end of the extreme--competent books on the other end. They intersect with institutional books one on end and commercial books on the other end. Most books fall somewhere in the four quadrants. Likewise, most publishing companies publish within a certain range.

Here's the jist:
* Big publishers--Random House, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster
These publishers have to concentrate a lot on commerical books that are big sellers. They have many divisions that focus on certain types of books. They have certain expectations on money to be brought in and have fewer slots for mid-list books by unknown authors. The bigger the publishing house, the more pressure on the editors to bring in books that have commercial appeal. He says he is always looking for books he can fall in love with. Series fiction is big with the bigger houses too.
* Mid-Size Houses--Harcourt, Holt, FSG, Bloomsbury, Candlewick, Abrams
These publishers don't have the big budgets, so they can't afford to do as many commercial books that the big houses do. They can take more opportunities to purchase literary fiction.
* Smaller Houses--Walker, Tricycle, Marshall Cavendish
These publishers are very effective at focusing on publishing for the school and library markets.

What is selling right now?
* Chick Lit
* Teen novels with an edge (The Book Thief, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing)
* Series Fiction
* Middle Grade Fiction--Stearns is always look for this

Books he recommends writers read:
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

He also had us take a look at the current NY Times Bestsellers List. He said it was important to take a look at what types of books are selling well and to read some of those books on the list.

Some advice for writers:
1) Go to conferences (like SCBWI). He recommends meeting with agents there and have them critique your manuscript. In fact, he recommends meeting with agents over editors. He says agents know what the individual editors are looking for. He also recommends trying to find an agent that is trying to build up a list of authors.
2) Go to workshops and learn about your craft.
3) Try to understand that rejection is not personal. An editor has to really LOVE your book to spend time with it and take up space on their list. They must feel like they can't live without your book--and sometimes even that isn't enough at an acquisitions meeting.
4) Read broadly. Read a variety of books.
5) Read books on craft. Books he recommends include: Narrative Design by Madison Smartt Bell, Revising Fiction by David Madden, and Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern.
6) Learn to love language--language is what it's all about in kids' books.
7) Most importantly--Do NOT write to trends. Yes, it's important to see what's selling and to read the authors that are doing well, BUT it's also best to write what you LOVE! Publishers work so far in advance that it doesn't matter what is hot now. If you write to the trend, it may not be what you are passionate about, and it will be not a trend by the time it gets published.

Check out Amy's take on the same lecture at The Virginia Scribe.