A Book and a Pool

What more do you need on a warm Memorial Day Weekend besides a book and a pool. Today I was teaching (yes, school is still in session) my students how to do a "Heart Map" using Georgia Heard's idea of "Where Poetry Hides." If you're not familiar, it's sort of a brainstorming map of possible poems. One of the things I put on my Heart Map was that I read a book a day (or more) as a kid. Yes, I lived where there was no cable TV. I grew up in Thailand, and at the time there was no English programming on TV and the Thai programming was lacking. So, I didn't watch TV. I read books. Well, I played outside a lot, but after it got dark, I read. I might one day write a poem about my book-a-day habit. I wish I could still do a book a day now.

This weekend I parked myself in front of the pool at my mother-in-law's house with a glass of icy Diet Dr. Pepper and a book. When I wasn't reading by the pool, I read in the car. While I didn't get everything in my bag read, I still got a lot accomplished.

Here's a few highlights:

The Essential 55 by Ron Clark
I recently heard Ron Clark speak at an education alumni event at Roanoke College, my alma mater. Ron Clark is a Disney Teacher of the Year. He is a very inspirational teacher and speaker. After hearing him speak, I wanted to read this book. It's a quick read that outlines his rules for his classroom. He's a tough teacher, but the high expectations have made him and his students achieve great things.

London Calling by Edward Bloor
I was on the waiting list at the library for this book, so I was thrilled when it came in right before my trip. Edward Bloor is a masterful storyteller. This is sort of a time-travel book. Martin is hating his private school life. After a fight with a rich classmate, he requests to do his schooling via independent study. He spends a lot of his time sleeping and researching. In his dreams he travels to World War II London during the Blitz through an old radio. Martin finds his purpose in life through these dreams. I loved the twists and turns of this book and how the layers of story weaved together. If you are a historical fiction fan or an Edward Bloor fan, read this one.

Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard
If you love poetry, teach poetry, or write poetry, I would recommend this book. Of course, it's geared toward teachers of poetry, but I always learn a lot from it as a poet myself.

St. Dale by Sharyn McCrumb
Okay, I'm not a NASCAR fan, and I wouldn't know Jeff Gordon or Ward Burton if they came up and introduced themselves to me. But I read this book because I've heard Sharyn McCrumb talk about this book twice. The book is patterned after Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It's a story of a pilgrimage of Dale Earnhardt fans to visit southern racetracks and other Earnhardt points of interest. When Sharyn spoke at the Southwest Virginia Writer's Workshop she emphasized that novelists' job is to make the reader care about the story through the characters. I don't care about NASCAR and probably never will, but I am truly engaged in this story because I care about the characters in the story. It's not a book I thought I'd read, but I tried it anyway. It's told like only Sharyn McCrumb could tell it. I'm hooked, but not finished yet.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good weekend of reading. I can't wait for the summer. I will be back in Thailand. And although there is TV there now, I am going to stay away from it. I will be reliving my childhood and reading a book a day. Now, if only I could do something about the weight limit on the airplane. They just don't understand how much books weigh!!!

Gloria Houston Gives Back

I've been out of town at my mother-in-laws for the last five days, so I managed only to get one post while I was there. She has dreadful dial-up, so it took forever just to post for Poetry Friday. You don't realize how nice cable internet is until you have to deal with dial-up. Ugh!

I promised a week ago that I would talk about Gloria Houston, who presented at the Southwest Virginia Writer's Workshop. She spoke on "Introducing Creative Writing Into the Schools". She talked not only about teaching writing, but she also spoke about being a writer and her books.

One of the best things I learned from her about teaching writing is explaining to kids the difference between "narrative" and "story". Gloria Houston defines "story" as a problem with a driving force. In other words, it has a PLOT. A "narrative", on the other hand, is a recounting of events of a person's life. It's event, event, event. There isn't a problem to be solved. As a teacher I see all of kinds of stories that kids write. Most of them are narratives. It's one event after another. I often call these "bed to bed" stories because we hear everything a kid did from the time they woke up until the time they went to bed. Unfortunately, these don't make for very exciting stories. However, Gloria Houston defines them and sees value in these types of stories. Her own narrative, My Great-Aunt Arizona is, by her definition, a narrative. She says one student defined narrative using My Great-Aunt Arizona as an example, "One thing after another happens, and then she dies."

As a writer, I find that things without plot don't seem to sell. Sure, there are the famous authors who seem to get things sold because they already have made a name for themselves. But as a new writer, I doubt that my first published book will be a narrative. I'm sure it will be a story with a plot--a driving force--that propels the reader through the book. I've written many narratives and in every writing class I've ever taken encouraged me to develop the plot more. So evidently, plot sells.

Gloria Houston also gave biographies of people as examples of narrative. SOME biographies are narratives with "event, event, event, and then they die". However, I think some of the best biographies for kids are written with plot. There is some sort of driving force in that person's story to make someone want to write a biography about them. For example, I just read a great picture book biography called Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine about Henry Brown, a slave who mailed himself to freedom. That book has a plot with a problem, building tension, and solution. I think it makes it much more interesting than a traditional biography. The difference between that book and typical biography is that Levine doesn't try to do a "birth to death" story. She focuses on the thing that Henry Brown is known for and builds her story around that. (** The commentary about Henry Brown is my personal thoughts--not anything that Gloria Houston said in her talk).

Gloria Houston has written a book for writers and for teachers of writing. It goes into the Narrative vs. Story more and it also goes into teaching kids a structure for writing. I bought How Writing Works last weekend, and plan to read through it soon. It's written in textbook format though, unlike some writers (like Ralph Fletcher, Jane Yolen, etc) who give you writing advice in a narrative format, but it's full of lots of information.

Gloria Houston's most famous book is The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Gloria Houston wrote this Appalachian story set in a North Carolina town. Many of the towns in North Carolina near where this book was set began to lose their jobs and the towns were devastated. Gloria Houston gave up the marketing rights to her book to help rebuild the town of Spruce Pine, NC. That town is known as the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree. They have a store that sells products made by local artisans. This town has benefited from Houston's generosity. It employs people directly and indirectly through the tourism that has been generated because of this project. They will even send you a catalog of the crafts made by the artisans. Some of it is beautiful artwork or items that make an appearance in the story (like the angel). Kudos to Gloria! I can't wait to visit Spruce Pine, NC to support the efforts there. Items made by artisans in Spruce Pine caught the eye of Laura Bush and were featured in the White House Christmas tree decorations in 2006, and Southern Living's December 2007 issue will be featuring this effort as well.

Poetry from My Multicultural Life

This week I read A Suitcase Full of Seaweed by Janet Wong. Her poems show how her life is such a mix of cultures—Korean from her mother, Chinese from her father, American from herself. Even though I’m not Korean or Chinese, Wong’s poems were me. They were my story of feeling like I belonged to many cultures. I am very much American, but I cannot ignore where I’ve been and how those cultures are so much a part of me.

I read this collection of poems that illustrates so well how one person can feel like they are a part of so many cultures, feeling connected, but yet not truly 100% a part of any one particular culture. I am American, but I was raised overseas in Thailand and also went to boarding school in Malaysia. My best friends were Americans who grew up in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Nepal, Hong Kong. I also had friends who were Chinese, Indian, Ethiopian, South American, Swedish, British, and Australian who were also growing up out of their “native” culture and living in Thailand and Malaysia. We all shared one thing—we were TCKs (third culture kids). We had a “passport” country, but we didn’t necessarily feel a part of that culture—at least not totally. And we had a country that we lived in, but we weren’t FROM there, so we felt a part of it—but not totally.

My favorite poem in this collection is "A Suitcase Full of Seaweed." It talks about how her grandmother carried seaweed to America. This is also the story of my life. While I've never carried seaweed to America in my suitcase, I have been known to carry just about everything else from Thailand to America--favorite pens, journals, packaged food, spices, cookware. There are some things you just have to bring back!


I met yesterday with a high school friend. She grew up in Indonesia, carries an American passport, but has lived in Africa for the last several years. We were roommates in a boarding school in Malaysia. We have lived so much in the last 14 years since we graduated, and although a long time as passed, we are still very much bonded by those shared experiences. Here is my poem I wrote after visiting with my friend, inspired by Janet Wong.

I sit with an old friend
fused together by Asian memories

Flung into lives
worlds apart

Rebonding over rice
the food of our lives
raising rice babies
in a french fry nation

connected like a web
we overlap
fly away
and return
like years have never passed

Brilliant Little Bugger

There is a brilliant short movie on You Tube that is about Copyright and Fair Use called "Fair(y) Use Tale" using Disney movies to make a point. Someone spent a lot of time to make this! Wow!

Thanks to Big A Little a for the link.

All Things Appalachia

At the writer's conference I went to on Saturday, most of the authors/speakers were in some way connected to Appalachian literature. The host of the conference has written a book about his hometown of Fries, Virginia.

Speaker, JoAnn Asbury, works at the Appalachian Regional Studies Center at Radford University. They put on a conference every year where they bring in Appalachian writers to speak and hold writing workshop. For more on the conference, click here.

Asbury is also a co-editor of The Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region. It is a comprehensive, inexpensive book featuring essays and resources on Appalachia. This book sold out at the conference, so I'm going to order it this week.

Other Appalachian children's books mentioned were:
Marilou Awaikta's Rising Fawn and the Fire Mystery
Jeff Danial Marion's Hello, Crow (Out of Print)

I have not read either one, but I want to see if I can some copies from a library or an out of print book source.

Another great Appalachian book mentioned was Gloria Houston's The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree. I will be saying a lot about this book and it's wonderful impact in tomorrow's post.

Another FABULOUS and probably the best source of Appalachian Literature (especially information and lesson plans for kids Appalachian children's lit) is the APPLIT site connected through Ferrum College and run by Tina Hanlon (also a children's lit professor at Hollins). It is a very comprehensive site with many, many resources. This wasn't mentioned at the conference, but I have known about it for a while and think it is the definitive source for teachers and lovers of children's literature.

Internet Research Resources

As I mentioned in my previous post, I will be going over some of the highlights from the conference I attended on Saturday. The first speaker, was poet, April Asbury. She talked about doing research for your writing.

If you've ever done any writing, you know that even if you are writing fiction, you have to do a little bit of research. So...the internet is the first source we usually turn to these days. April recommended some sites that she uses.

These are some of the internet resources she mentioned:
1) College and university online collections--Instead of googling everything, first go to the online resources at your local university (or not so local if it's online)
2) Wikipedia--While a interesting source, it's not always accurate. If you are looking for pop culture (which is what I always do), then this might be a good place to start. Remember it's edited by anyone who is a user, so they may or may not know the right information. (Marcie's note: But if you are wondering what happened to your favorite newscaster, and no one is saying it on TV, check Wikipedia. Guaranteed, something--perhaps gossip--will be posted there).
3) Google Scholar--If you must google (and so many of us do), then go to Google Scholar first. It has links to journal articles and abstracts and can get you started in the right, reliable direction.
4) Dictionary.com--A good place for general reference including dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, etc.
5) Online Entymology Dictionary--Great resource for looking up the origins of words. Particularly useful if you are writing historical fiction and want to know if a word was around at the time.
6) Bible Gateway--Searchable source for various versions and languages of the Bible.
7) Anthology of English Literature--Breaks down English Literature by time period and has a vast amount of resources that link to the writers' works.
8) Electronic Literature Foundation--You can read classic works online here.
9) The Modern Word--information about works and authors in modern literature
10) Grave Sites--Want to view graves of the dead of the famous or not so famous? Visit these sites.
Find a Grave
Interment
11) Local historical societies provide great resources for research. One of the local ones she mentioned, that I personally recommend because I've been there is The Salem Historical Society. Local historical societies are committed to preserving local history that might get lost otherwise.
12) American Civil War Collections--A service of the University of Virginia that actually has texts that have been put online (like letters, unpublished articles, etc). A great find for anyone doing research on the Civil War.

Most of these sites (all but 3) were new to me. I have a dozen other research sites that I have on my bookmarked list. Maybe I'll share some of my faves another day...

Writer's Workshop Recap

I attended the First Annual Southwest Virginia Writer's Workshop at the Inn at Virginia Tech yesterday sponsored by H&H Services. I went into thinking it would be more about teaching writing, when in fact, it was more about writing itself. That was great for me because it provided me with some new motivation and some new resources.

Jerry Haynes, author of A Cotton Mill Town Christmas, was the sponsor, and first speaker who spoke about procrastination and getting through with the first book.

April Asbury, acclaimed poet, spoke about internet research resources.

Her mother, JoAnn Asbury, spoke about the Annual Highland Summer Conference.

Sharyn McCrumb talked about doing research for her books, writing compelling fiction, and tone.

Gloria Houston, author of The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, talked about writing with children and about her writing.

Bill Brooks did a 3 hours writing workshop in the afternoon that took us through exercises and challenged us to keep writing.

This was a long day--8am-6:30pm on a Saturday, but it was well worth it. I learned lots of new things--I have a binder full of notes that I will be sharing over the next few days. I got to network with a few people that I had never met before, and I got some new books!

I bought:
St. Dale by Sharyn McCrumb
Once Around the Track by Sharyn McCrumb (available in a few weeks at bookstores)
** By the way, I know nothing about NASCAR, and I'm not a NASCAR fan, but Sharyn talked about fiction in such a compelling way, that I'm convinced it's not about NASCAR, but a good story. So I will try these books out for size.
I won My Great-Aunt Arizona by Gloria Houston as a door prize.
I also bought:
The audio recording of The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree read by Gloria Houston
How Writing Works: Imposing Organizational Structure Within the Writing Process (a writing text for teachers of writers and students of writing) by Gloria Houston

More to come on what I learned...