Three dead moths in my mailbox ...

Teens taking leadership against bullying!

2012-01-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

On this blog we talk a lot about finding your unique voice - okay, let me rephrase that I talk a lot about finding your voice in your writing.

Over the years I've watched my teenaged niece find her voice as a singer, blogger (she now blogs as TinyCanadianLive at The never ending complaint), video design and production artist (she produced my two book trailers), and a social activist.

She annually hosts a Face Book anti-bullying event called: I will not be silenced. It's an international event and last year thousands of people participated to raise awareness of, and speak out against, bullying. You can sign up for the event which takes place February 22, 2012.

Here's the video she produced for the event. She spent five hours in her Sasquatch video production cave editing it. Every now and then she emerged from her cave and said something random like: "I need one of my dogs!"

So, check out the video - it rocks something awesome!

And when you hear people talking trash about teenagers ... point them to the myriad of youth lead initiatives in all parts of society.

Writing and a 'little bit famous ...'

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Since this blog is about where writing meets life ... or where life meets writing, I thought I'd share my new favourite quote about writing. It's by S.E. Hinton, author of, among many y/a books, The Outsiders. I first heard this quote when she was interviewed by Michael Enright of CBC, and found it in an interview with Don Swain from 1987 which may be the original quote.

Don asked S.E. how her life has changed since the success of The Outsiders. Here's the quote:

"People have a funny idea about what a little bit famous does for you ... a little bit famous in the writer's field doesn't come in and empty your dishwasher every morning ... doesn't do much for you really."

Tru dat, S.E., tru dat! To me, that means we need to focus on the writing and continuously improving our craft. Good resolution for the New Year. You can listen to the full 20 minute interview with S.E. Hinton through the link above.

And to celebrate a new year of writing and 2012 as the Year of the Dragon - here's to tigers and dragons and their contribution to writing. Every writer needs a supportive dragon (or substitute the small domestic animal of your choice) perched on their keyboard.

Merry Christmas Flash Mobs

2011-12-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas to all my bloggowers who celebrate Christmas. Happy Sunday to those who don't! Here's hoping everyone will have a nice break over the holiday season.

As you know I'm all about the flash mob. I've said it before and I'll say it again, pleeeeeze someone, somewhere invite me to participate in a flash mob. I'm waiting for an invitation (I dance gangsta y'all!).

What do I like about flash mobs? They make people happy - simple enough! The people who participate and the people who watch - all happy.

Here are three flash mobs to enjoy.

The first one is legendary and I'm sure you've seen it. It is a classic flash mob - random people, dressed randomly (not like performers) in a random location (mall food courts seem to be popular) who break into song (and often dance) perform, and then go about their business like nothing has happened - that's a flash mob!

This is a Canadian flash mob (in les deux langues official no less), gotta love those Canadians eh?! The security guard is running a little schtick in the beginning when he tries to stop it before assuming his rightful place on stage as the lead singer.

And this last one involves my two favourite things - anthropology and Bollywood dancing. Students in an introductory anthropology class got treated to a Bollywood flash mob - another good reason not to be late for class!

Santa Clause Meets Sasquatch!

2011-12-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was heartened to hear that there was a decrease in Sasquatch sightings in 2009.

I take that to mean that all those Writers as Sasquatch were hunkered down in their writing caves scribbling away with a mug of milky tea at their sides (or in the case of the real Sasquatch - a decapitated deer - yikes).

I also discovered that there appears to be a link between the Sasquatch and Santa Claus – who knew?

I guess it’s because one of them is a mythical creature (sorry Santa). The links are explored in this book: Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas, Spanning 50,000 Years by Phyllis Siefker. Turns out, ancient European stories of the Wildpeople, Snowmen and the Yeti developed into the myth of Santa Claus. The 'Wildman of the Middle Ages’ was described as an ape-like creature with a beard, its body covered in thick matted hair and smelled of a foul odor (maybe from descending chimneys?) The habitat of the Wildman was the northern woods, where he lived in a cave or den and relied on the reindeer. I believe the natural evolution would be Sasquatch, the Grinch who stole Christmas, and Santa Claus. The Grinch was a hairy, bigfoot like creature that lived in a cave in the mountains, and ended up giving out presents ... just saying.

May all your Sasquatch wishes Christmas wishes of having time to write come true during this festive season! Make 2012 the year of the Writer as Sasquatch, may we be spotted even less frequently … and may we get much more writing done.

Red Grossinger, Yukon Sasquatch Hunter

We need to talk about your sagging middle ...

2011-12-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

Alright, we need to talk. It's about your sagging middle. You heard that right - Sagging Middle. Youz got one.

What?! No, I'm not talking about the middle aged spread kinda sagging middle, I'm talking about the sagging middle in your manuscript and how to get rid of it.

I've been reading a lot of young adult books lately (because I think my next manuscript might be one, then again, maybe not). And one overwhelming observation is that all of them have sagging middles.

They start out strong. Then I stop reading, right at the middle. What's the cause of the sagging middle? I've found a few things.

Top ten reasons why your middle is sagging!

I stop caring about the character, usually because the emotional stakes aren't high enough for the character;

The protag meanders through the plot - the protag needs to want something (ya, I went there bloggowers, but I had to);

The character is just dragged through the plot and isn't actively involved in finding a solution (plot driven instead of character driven);

Another character shows up (usually a guy if the protag is a girl) to lead the character to a solution (the protag needs to solve his/her own problem);

Howz about a little inner conflict!? Lot's of inner dialogue (which makes me toggle between 'shudddd-up already' and 'say it out loud because it would create some outer conflict which might move the plot forward');

Howz about some emotional growth of the character?

Too fricken many characters that aren't integral to the plot! A character needs a reason to be there - if the character doesn't move the plot forward or help/hinder the protag from getting what she wants, then remove them.

There's no ticking clock (i.e., there is no deadline for the protag to get what she wants, solve her problem, save the world);

The book doesn't suck me in, in fact for some of the books I've had to force myself to finish reading them because I wasn't drawn back to them; and finally,

Sub plots that could have rocked the narrative but fell flat.

Whew, good to get that off my middle.

So before you ask yourself: "does this rewrite make my butt look big?" Beware of the sagging middle, it can kill a manuscript faster than you can say "would you like a deus ex machina with that!?"

"Hits right in the gold" Review of Dead Bird through the Cat Door

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Dead Bird through the Cat Door, the second in the Megabyte Mystery Series and nominee for the John Spray Mystery Award, was reviewed in the CM Magazine Canadian Review of Materials.

It received three *** and was recommended for children nine to eleven years old.

Here's an excerpt from the review:

In a riotous mixture of Macbeth quotations, odd scientific facts, the good effects of pet-visiting in senior-citizen housing, cat shows, and wild-life sanctuaries, the twins sleuth their way to a solution to the mystery, foiling the bad guys and saving their cat from the villains' hands.

... All this is accomplished in a rip-roaring, punny manner that I suspect nine-to-eleven-year-olds will find irresistible. ... Jan Markley has her target audience firmly in her sights, and for them, she hits right in the gold.

Can I get a Woot! Woot!

The full review can be read here.

For teachers and librarians both books in the Megabyte Mystery series are available from through the Library Services Centre and the United Library Services.

Cats taking over the world ...

2011-11-29T18:14:00.001-07:00

If you ever needed more evidence that cats are taking over the world, look no further.

These three videos explain it all. And as my teenaged marketing manager said: "Aunt Janet, people love cat videos!" Turns out she was right!

An advertising company that produces cat videos!

Cats take over an IKEA, then the world!

A gang of cats after your breakfast milk!

SCBWIers Worldwide!

2011-11-23T11:13:00.001-07:00

I talk a lot on this blog about the writing organizations I belong to, specifically the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). It's an international organization that has created a community of writers and illustrators committed to creating works for children.

They have conferences all over the world and I've blogged about the ones I've been to in New York and Bologna, Italy. And SCBWI has regional chapters like the Canada West Region that puts on local conferences, professional development, and networking. Check out the link for upcoming local events.

I meet some members of the The British Isles SCBWI when I was in London and Bologna in 2010. I loved their energy and commitment, and heard the story of how they built the region up to deliver the professional development opportunities they have, and how many went from being aspiring to published writers.

SCBWI BI just had their annual conference and by all accounts it was a huge success.

Check out the blog Notes from the Slush Pile for a round up of the events at the conference. This blog post also links to many other member blogs who write about their experience at the conference.

Candy Gourlay, who recently did a guest blog post for me, won the coveted Crystal Kite Prize for Europe for her young adult novel Tall Story. The Crystal Kite Prize is voted on by peers. Candy also won the Outstanding Contribution Prize for all her efforts in growing SCBWI and nurturing the members (also, she scores high on the awesome scale!).

Here's her acceptance speech for the Crystal Kite Prize where she talks about the long road to publication, the year since publication and the challenges of living a creative life while living a creative life (if you know what I mean - you will after reading her speech). Plus she confirmed that writers can write in their sweat pants and not bother washing their hair which is great comfort to most of us writers.

Oh, yeah, they have a cake each year that represents some of the member's books that have been published that year.

Now that's literary nourishment!

Be the egg encrusted fork!

2011-11-14T11:02:00.001-07:00

Writing a novel is like doing the dishes. Just when you think they’re done, just when the last of the grimy sudsy water gets sucked down the drain, just when you’ve wiped dry your water logged hands – someone shows up with an egg encrusted fork they found in the basement. You can either choose to ignore it or you stop up the sink, run the water, get some suds going, plunge your prune-like hands in, and start all over again.

A manuscript is like that. It’s never done until it’s between two covers.

While you’re still doing the dishes, writing the novel – you be the egg encrusted fork to your writing. That problem that you know is there, but want to ignore - that's the last fork. Don’t just put it in the sink and forget about. You pick off that egg with your nail, scrub it with the little scrunchy-wash pad thingy, and wipe it clean. Sure you feel like leaving it in the sink, for next time, for someone else to clean up. Like a member of your critique group. Like the agent or editor you don’t yet have. No one is going to get the gunk out between the prongs of your manuscript but you.

Be the egg encrusted fork to your writing. Just when you think your manuscript is done, put your mechanical pencil on the line and apply everything you’ve learned in every book, in every workshop, and in every blue pencil session. Apply what you’re learned about tension on every page, showing – not telling, realistic dialogue, flawed, yet human characters, plot, setting, pacing, grammar, and scrub - scrub until we the reader, not only don’t see any encrusted egg, we never knew it was there.

That’s your job as a writer. Doing the dishes … get someone else to do them!

You know you're a children's writer when ...

2011-11-07T09:48:00.001-07:00

I had a dream that I was at the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) LA conference and Josh Groban was singing O Canada. Did I mention that the conference was in a giant hockey arena!? Then I dreamt that a fly bit me on the forehead and I woke up.

While I was musing about how, next time, I won't eat sushi before napping, I started thinking about this community of writers who writes for babies, toddlers, first readers, tweens and young adults. Collectively know as children's writers.

You know you're a children's writer if:

You've read a picture book to a child and thought 'I can do that' (then spent the next twenty years learning how!);

Like Stephen King you have: "the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk."

You can recite the books you read as a child and how they shaped your life and world view (for me it's The Little Engine that Could, Curious George, Madeline, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and who can forget how Nancy Drew has influenced the twin detective characters in my Megabyte Mystery series);

You want to tell a really good story with characters that ring true without being didactic;

When you get an idea about scientists creating giant frogs, you don't think you're hallucinating;

You read voraciously in the genre that you are writing and the age group you are writing for (that's a good thing for all writers);

You keep up with current trends and become part of a local and world-wide community of writers who love to write for young people; and,

You really like to think you've touched the reader, and love to get emails telling you that your book rocked and you are their new favourite writer.

Students doing a writing exercise at one of my school visits.

What were the signs that you noticed on your way to becoming a children's writer?

Character Sketches - Get inside your character!

2011-10-31T10:58:00.001-06:00

I've been writing some character sketches inspired ~~by some of the crazy people I know~~ purely from my imagination! (you know how that kid sees dead people? well, I see crazy people everywhere).

I've never actively done character sketches before. I start writing, the characters emerge, and then I go deep to figure out who they are and what makes them tick.

This process of doing the sketches up front is interesting and I'd encourage writers to try it out. I'm finding that my characters inherently contradict themselves with their actions, are flawed and their internal conflict is intrinsic. That's fancy writer speak for they are complex, flawed and vulnerable characters - what we need all our characters to be if they are to speak to the reader.

Check out Angela Ackerman's latest blog post on The Bookshelf Muse blog. The blog has a thesaurus of character traits and the latest post is about traits for a guarded character. I'd encourage you to check out her blog regardless, the thesaurus covers all aspects of writing.

As writers we need to get inside our characters and see the world from their point of view. Think of yourself putting on big character driven goggles every time you write from that characters point of view so you can get inside their head and react as they would react.

If I did a character sketch of myself it would be of a writer who loves water sports but loathes getting wet, hates raw fish but insists on going for sushi, and who can survive for days in her writing sasquatch cave on nothing more than sour ju jubes and chai tea.

What kind of goggles would your character wear?

Foreshadowing, eh!

2011-10-24T12:06:00.004-06:00

Foreshadowing, right!? Love it or predict it - every piece of fiction needs it. Usually, it is so heavy handed that you can predict the ending from page one.

This blog post could be subtitled: What I learned about foreshadowing from watching Coronation Street.

Yes, I've revealed a deep dark secret - I watch Coronation Street (and no, I'm not an 80 year old British Lady!) and have for decades!

I watch it for what I learn about writing. I can never predict where the plots are going, and I'm one of those people who can crack a plot wide open like a Jammie Dodger!

The foreshadowing is so subtle that you don't notice it until the climax and then you're like, 'oh, yeah, I remember this one bit of dialogue that referred to that.'

There was a huge plot line recently on Coronation Street (for my British bloggowers we're about a year behind in episodes here in Canada) where a nightclub blows up and a tram crashes into the street. The street is burning, people injured, people dying to be rescued, and a couple of characters leave the street permanently - if you know what I mean!

Was I on the edge of my seat with my jaw dropped? Yes. It was unexpected, but it was foreshadowed ever so subtly. There were a couple of bits of dialogue that referred to the gas being out in the kitchen of the nightclub and having to serve cold appetizers. For the episodes shown during the month leading up to the explosion, the tram noise was a little more prominent. A character would be in the kitchen pondering life on the street and in the background there would be the sound of the tram going over the tracks. Subtle, yet, effective.

Here's the scene.

Think about how you use foreshadowing.

And the winner is ...?!

2011-10-17T10:39:00.001-06:00

The winner of the inaugural John Spray Mystery Award is Y.S. Lee for her young adult mystery novel A Spy in the House. Here's a blurb about the book from her website:

Orphan Mary Quinn lives on the edge. Sentenced as a thief at the age of twelve, she’s rescued from the gallows by a woman posing as a prison warden. In her new home, Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, Mary acquires a singular education, fine manners, and surprising opportunity. The school is a cover for the Agency – an elite, top-secret corps of female investigators with a reputation for results – and at seventeen, Mary’s about to join their ranks.

Packed with action and suspense, and evoking the gritty world of Victorian London, this first book in the Agency series debuts a daring young detective who lives by her wits.

Ying has been my facebook friend for years. Congrats Ying! And congrats to the other nominees! It is an honour to have been nominated!

The other nominated books received the John Spray Mystery Awards 'nominee' sticker like this one here on my nominated book Dead Bird through the Cat Door.

And just for fun, here's a pic of my demented Halloween decoration! Let the chocolate consumption begin! (in a couple of weeks).

Sushi, Sour Ju Jubes & the Sasquatch: Why Writers Need Deadlines!

2011-10-10T16:19:00.001-06:00

Good (productive) writing day:

Get up early and eat a bowl of steel cut oats with fresh strawberries and organic milk.

Go to an hour and fifteen minute aerobics class - get your sweat on.

Have a quick healthy lunch and a cup of tea when you return home.

Write for three hours.

Read your e-mail and peruse your ‘bookmarked’ agent and editor sites to keep up-to-date on the latest in the publishing industry.

Read a great work of literature for an hour (or a book in the genre in which you are writing) followed by a chapter of Donald Maass’ book Writing the Break out Novel.

Continue thinking about your characters as you prepare some fresh salmon with brown rice for dinner. You add the fresh spinach that your neighbour gave you from her garden and reminisce about the nice chat you had with her. You smile knowing that you’re not one of those writers who eschews human contact.

Go to bed early.

Next day: repeat

Bad (non-productive) writing day:

Turn off the clock radio one minute before it comes on because you’ve convinced yourself that you need more sleep and are too tired for aerobics.

Eat a bowl of steel cut oats with fresh strawberries and organic milk; add a good sized dollop of maple syrup.

You’ve watched the Oprah episode on visioning your dreams. So, you check your e-mail and curse when the four e-mails you have envisioned from editors and/or agents aren’t there. Curse wasting an hour watching the Oprah episode on visioning your dreams.

Delete all the ‘fwd’ e-mails sent from your middle-aged friends pertaining to fart jokes, jokes about various parts of the male anatomy, or inspirational messages.

Get up to check the mail box because you thought you heard the mail carrier and you should at least have a couple of rejection letters, if not a request for your manuscript, or a contract that someone miraculously mailed to you.

Surf, in detail, the agent and editor blogs you have ‘bookmarked’ to remind yourself of how high a percentage of queries get rejected (90%), and bemoan the fact that they just can’t see your genius.

Click on a You Tube video on one of the blogs to see a hilarious re-enactment of the writer/editor relationship.

Promptly e-mail it to all your writer friends with the note: ‘how true ;-).’

Realize that you’re wasting time and decide you need a snack before you can start writing.

Eat a colossal chocolate brownie and re-fill your mug with tea that is now the colour of coffee because it has been sitting in the pot for two hours.

Realize that you aren’t drinking from your lucky tea-writing-mug and go back to the kitchen to rectify that. By now the tea is stone cold. Spend two minutes watching the mug rotate like a figure skater in the microwave.

Convince yourself that randomly searching You Tube for silly cat videos is ‘marketing research.’

Have a lunch consisting of nothing more than sushi and sour jujubes.

Do a ‘google’ search on ‘massive sugar headache’ looking for a cure.

Was that the sound of the mailbox being closed? Check mail box again; it can’t seriously be empty- not with all the queries you have out there circulating.

Convince yourself that the mail carrier is holding your mail ransom and that he’s had it in for you since you didn’t shovel your walk that one time last winter.

Check again for the e-mails you’ve envisioned and delete the multiple e-mails, from your writer friends, that suggest you are spending waaaay tooooo much time surfing You Tube.

Curse off your writer friends and send that funny video to your regular friends, it will help them understand how frustrating it is to be a writer.

Finally, open the manuscript you are working on, and realize that what you really need is a nap because you can’t concentrate today.

Wake up from your three-hour nap to discover that there are no brownies left and the bag of chocolate covered jujubes is empty.

Put on a ball cap because you have bed-head. Pull on a sweatshirt, even though it is really hot out, because you’ve gone a bit Sasquatch since buckling down with your writing and you can’t remember when you’ve bathed last.

Pull the ball cap lower and avoid meeting the glance of the neighbour who told all the other neighbours that you’re a recluse – what’s her problem?

Go to the grocery store and buy ginger chicken, sour jujubes, sparkling water, and brownies. Forget to buy vegetables. Note to self: steal raspberries over the fence from your neighbour.

Go to video store and rent three movies that everyone else has seen but you never saw because you spend your life writing. Call it ‘plot research’ and watch all three.

Begin to wonder if you are like a character on Gilligan’s Island always trying to achieve an elusive and unattainable goal.

Crack open a bottle of wine because: sometimes you want to feel like a normal person and not a writer; the day’s a wash anyway, might as well enjoy the night; and you need to practice your pose holding a full glass of red wine for when they take your picture at your book launch.

Rehearse your pose by drinking multiple glasses of wine and call it ‘publicity research.’

Stay up too late watching re-runs of Reba and go to bed without brushing your teeth.

Next day: repeat.

This article, originally titled, “Why Writer’s Need Deadlines” ran in West Word Magazine – Writers Guild of Alberta, September-October 2009.

Quatchi Sasquatch Mascot for the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Winter Olympics - one mythical hairy beast promoting world peace, friendship and athletic excellence! Woot! Woot!

Spot the Katie

2011-10-01T11:49:00.002-06:00

My niece, NY actor Katie Repman, did background work on two shows that will be on HBO on Sunday October 2nd.

They are Boardwalk Empire on HBO at 9 EST, and How to Make It In America at 10:30 EST.

She may or may not have made the final cut so you'll have to play a bit of 'Spot the Katie.'

Here's her pic so you know who you'll be looking for.

Even if you don't spot her, they are shows worth watching!

I will have to watch the episodes on the-line after they air as I'm the only person who doesn't seem to have HBO *face palm*!

Here's the Season 1 recap of Boardwalk Empire.

Season 1 Recap

And here's the season 1 recap of How to Make it in America!

Recap - Season 1

No Sibling Rivalry Here!

2011-09-26T11:53:00.001-06:00

While twin sleuths Cyd and Jane of my Megabyte Mystery series suffer from sibling rivalry, the novels in the series don't!

Each book has it's own nom.

My second middle grade novel Dead Bird through the Cat Door was nominated for the the inaugural John Spray Mystery Award, administered, along with a number of other literary awards, by the Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC).

The John Spray Mystery Award was established in 2011 to honour excellence in the mystery book format. John Spray, President of the Mantis Investigation Agency, noted that mystery books made him a passionate reader at an early age and helped him find his chosen career. It will be awarded annually to a Canadian author of an outstanding work of mystery writing for young people.

Good luck to all the nominees. The winner will be announced in Toronto next week!

Dead Frog on the Porch was nominated for the Golden Eagle Book Award. The Golden Eagle Book Award is a children's choice literary award that is given annually to an Alberta writer whose book is selected by children in grades four through eight from schools in a number of southern Alberta communities. The students read the books in the fall, vote on them and come up with a short list by February.

I'm excited to be nominated and happy to see lots of my Alberta writing peeps on the list as well.

Let's hear it for the noms!

I know, one too many cat pics for this blog post, right!?

I'm back!

2011-09-18T17:31:00.000-06:00

I have landed safely back in the cybersphere and I want to thank my guest blog posters for holding down the proverbial blog fort for the last few weeks.

Big shout out goes to:

Author Candy Gourlay who blogs at two places ('cause she's just not busy enough) Notes from the Slush Pile and her own blog.

Writer Angela Ackerman who blogs at The Bookshelf Muse.

Writer Jenna Quentin who blogs at Meandering in a field of words.

Writer and actor Jocosa Wade (aka Jocosa of the Earrings) who blogs at I may not be John Irving.

and NY actor Katie Repman who blogs at Barbie Kong.

Candy seemed to think that I revealed my inner warrior when I was gone (believe me it was a battle royale!).

I'm not brave enough to do what these people did and participate in the No Pants Subway Ride 2011. I have an annoying habit of keeping my pants on while on the subway!

Barbie Just Got Konged: Katie Repman Guest Blog Post

2011-09-07T11:00:00.000-06:00

Katie Repman is an actor in NY and my niece! She blogs at Barbie Kong and recently embarked on a thirty day character challenge.

She created a Barbie Kong you tube channel for all 30 of the videos. Katie acted, wrote, directed, and edited a different comedic character everyday for 30 days. She wanted to embark on this project to challenge herself to work, on a daily basis, on characters of different genders, ages and dialects.

I'll let Katie take it from there ...

As some of your know I am really into comedy and I want to explore it more on my blog; specifically the impact that woman have had in comedy over the last few years (hello Bridesmaids). I'm still probably going to throw in the odd movie review every now and again (hello Tree of Life) but it will be primarily based on this wonderful new generation of funny ladies.

Here are a few examples of the videos that I created during my 30 day character challenge. You will see that each of the videos has a different feel and represents different aspects of the comedy that I would like to explore.

A New York City Runner's Guide: In this video I used sound and editing capabilities to enhance the comedy of the sketch. By using the slates to describe the action in a serious way and then to show the action in a more absurdist way the comedy emerges. I also like this video because we shot it outside and it gave the video a more grounded feeling. The audience could feel more connected to the character and relate on a more personal level, I mean who hasn’t gone running just to come home and pig out!? I also used a loose narrative to show the journey of this failed athlete. Using the narrative, the game (the premise of the sketch-comedy term) became more heightened which allowed the boundaries to be pushed even further.

Teen Mom Jenelle Evans: This is a your straight up, old school character sketch. Single hand held camera looking directly to the actor. I didn’t want to over complicate things here. I simply wanted to show Janelle in all of her wonderfulness. The writing in this sketch was enough to sustain the comedy and there were no fancy bells and whistles that needed to be added. This is by far my favorite character, I think I like it the best because I really didn’t have to put much on it, most of the ideas (the credit card) was taken directly from the MTV show. Of course, it wasn’t word for word but Janelle Evans is a real person who has a lot of problems and sometimes you don’t need much more than that. The truth in Janelle’s story allowed for many comedic opportunities, think Tina Fey doing the Palin sketches, most of that was taken directly from words and comments Palin had said. Sometimes you just need to Observe and Report (also the title of a hysterical Seth Rogen movie, netflix it……it’s good).

Lady Gaga Fan on the Train: This one was probably the scariest video to shoot because it was really depended on the reactions of everyone around me. In this video I used a more gorilla style approach. Think Sascha Baron Cohen in Borat. The comedy lies in the absurdity of what I am doing juxtaposed by the reactions of everyone around me. Because it’s New York most people didn’t blink an eye but some of the reactions of annoyance from the passengers around me are simply priceless. This was fun to do because in way it felt like performing in front of a live audience, I had to remember what I was doing and why I was doing it and not let my harsh critic take over. For those of you who know clowning terms, I really had to use clown logic in order to believe the imaginary circumstances that I had set out for myself.

Anyway, I hope you all stick with me and help me embark on this new journey - Barbie Kong 2.0!

QUERY 10, VOICE 0: Jocosa Wade Guest Blog Post

2011-09-04T09:00:00.000-06:00

Jocosa Wade has long been known to my bloggowers as Jocosa of the Earrings my ~~crazy~~, er, awesomely creative writer friend who took a vow not to cut her hair until she was published. That was almost two years ago! We've been following the growth of her hair and her growth as a writer as she tirelessly re-writes. Last time we heard from Jocosa she was stuffing her pie hole with vegan zucchini muffins, wrapped in a blanket watching bad TV, and recovering from rejection #33.

Since then she started her own blog, jumped out of a plane, wrote a poem about her vagina and plans to quit her job (okay the poem was about the experience of jumping out of a plane). And. She. Still. Hasn't. Cut. Her. Hair! Way to commit to a vow Jocosa!

Here's how she looks now.

Here's Jocosa of the Earrings with Query 10, Voice 0:

I attended The Backspace Conference in May. If you’re a writer who hasn’t heard about Backspace—check it out.

One of the highlights of the conference was the Author/Agent Seminar. Participating writers were divided into their genres. Each genre group met with two agents in the morning and two different agents in the afternoon. The morning included the Query Letter Workshops. Writers read their query letters out loud to their group, then the agents provided feedback. My query was solid. And although both agents said the darkness of the story might narrow my submission opportunities, they found nothing amiss in the material. Relief.

The Opening Pages Workshop took place in the afternoon. Again we read our material aloud, and the agents gave us feedback on when and why they would stop reading if the material came across their desk. The agents told me, I hadn’t started the story in the right place—they were bored, and I had no voice.

“Thank you,” I said. Is there still time to get to the top of the Empire State Building and jump off?

No writer wants to hear they have no voice. But I wasn’t surprised for two reasons.

Ever since I chose to abandon acting for my first love and write for life, my worst fear had nothing to do with getting published. My fear was that I didn’t have a voice. Is it possible that I manifested my fear? Yes.

I also wasn’t surprised because this road is not new to me.

In my first year of graduate school everything I knew to be true about performing was upended. After addressing my inability to act, my advisors slammed me with the following.

“The depth of your emotional truth blows the audience away, but we can’t stand to listen to you.”

I was an actress without a voice. Oops. The chair of the University of New Orleans theatre department gave me the name of the vocal coach at Tulane.

I’ve always been a willing student, but somewhere in the back of my mind I believed certain people had strong voices while others didn’t—in the same way some people have operatic voices while others sing rock and roll. Or some people are ballet dancers while others were born for jazz—like Fosse. I was wrong.

The pixy like vocal coach asked me to lie on the floor. With gentle hands-on guidance she cooed directions. When I opened my mouth to release the requested sounds, my body provided an accompaniment of vibrations. I was an instrument of sound and could’ve been played like Yo-Yo Ma’s cello.

I was not myself, and yet, all of myself. My vocal coach, who also happened to be a teacher of the Alexander Technique, guided me to a place where I was the most self I’d ever been—and I had a voice. Over time, I discovered how to get out of my own way so the voice of my characters could sing.

So, you can see why I wasn’t surprised to hear the agents felt I didn’t have a voice. I’ve always been a little late to the party.

Hearing I had no voice seared my windpipe. Speechless? You bet. Did I think about quitting? I’m ashamed to admit it, but I thought about leaving the conference, packaging up my dream and stamping it unfulfilled. Did I?

Did you bump your head? I’m an artist, not a quitter. I take full responsibility for not serving my story to the best of my ability.

How do I know those agents were spot on and their comments weren’t a matter of personal taste? I have 34 rejections hanging in my office to prove it. Interesting how our habits are our habits no matter what craft we’re engaged in. What will I do?

Figure out how to get out of my own way. How will I start? With the notes gathered in Donald Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel Workshop, where he pushed us to shove our protagonists to the edge of the cliff and let them fall. His workshop ran all day. I was on the verge of tears for half of it because I knew what I needed to do. I need to throw everything out and start fresh. That means 6 ½ drafts in the trash. And I thought Loglines were hell. Silly girl.

But I accept the challenge because that’s what life as an artist is about—venturing out beyond our comfort zones to unleash the ugly truth that must be examined.

I’ve got nothing to lose.

The important thing is to keep on. As artists we must continue to chisel away at whatever element is holding us back.

How about you? What element of craft do you need to concur in order to allow your story or character to resonate in the hearts of your audience?

Thanks for reading and being the presence I need to discover what I must to write on.

Abi - Jocosa's sweetheart of a possum/rabbit killing dog!

Making Sense of Painting, Writing and Life: Jenna Quentin Guest Blog Post

2011-08-31T11:00:00.000-06:00

This is what I love about the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. It's an international organization so people like Jenna and I can be writer buddies. The amazing thing about the Internet (and SCBWI conferences world wide) is that it makes it easier to keep in touch. I did a guest blog post for Jenna a while back, and now she's doing one for me!

Here's a little bit about her from her blog ...

I'm a 24 year-old American from Kansas (don't bother getting the map - it's in the middle). I am married and living in my husband's homeland of France. I plan on eating as much cheese and wine as one petite girl can, while avoiding snails, goose liver and frogs. I'm a home birth, full-time mom to 17 month-old Luca.

Since 2007, I've been writing in magazines and for websites including: Brio, Focus on the Family Clubhouse, Relate Magazine, SUSIE, eHow and others. I'm a graduate of the Institute of Children's Literature and holds diplomas from Bordeaux University, France. I'm currently working on two middle-grade novels and a picture book with no end in sight, but lots of optimism.

And here's her guest blog post about: Making Sense of Painting, Writing and Life!

Since I have lived in France for the last three years, I now look forward to the French holidays. The 14th of July was Bastille Day, the French Independence Day. France is not a country of unpatriotic people, but let me just say, we don't do anything to celebrate it. Maybe watch the parade with the President on the Champs Élysée, or go to the village-wide garage sale and fall asleep to fireworks banging, but that's all.

I spent about six hours of the holiday painting a second and third coat on our bedroom walls. The bucket of paint said it was "mono-couche" one-coat satin paint. Lest you think France is a country of either illiterates or meanies laughing in their sleeves at me needing a third bucket of "Gris Doré N°5," let me say I think they just don't know how to count, 'cause my hubby says I need a fourth coat for it to be a done well.

Which of course, started a heated conversation, mostly about his native negativity, perfectionism and inability to just "let it go." And maybe a bit about me being artistic (i.e. sloppy), optimistic, tired and very ready to do any touch ups ... later. Can I just say, don't spend your holidays like that. Shower the people you love with love, says James Taylor.

Even if you're tired and pregnant and he's stupid and you both just want to sleep in the room instead of on the couch and you both just want the project done and there's just been complications from the slick satin pink paint that was already on the walls to him thinking the grey taupe you picked is too dark and the paint sprayer you borrowed took a week to get and then there was something wrong 'cause the paint dripped all down the walls of the closet like melty coffee ice cream but you don't want to do it anymore and you just wanna be done!!! Please!!!

So, why am I telling you this? Because I'm scared your marriage/relationship will end over a lousy paint job?

Nathan Bransford was an agent and is now a writer/blogger (if you are a writer and don't know him, discover him and his blog). He recently wrote a post called Stories Are How We Make Sense of Life. Here is an quote that I think goes with what I try to explore on my blog.

"Life is too complicated to hold in your head and relationships are too immense and multi-faceted to easily comprehend. So we write and tell stories to make sense of our relationships and existence. A novel can capture more than we can readily contemplate, and an author can, brick by brick, build a world that can illuminate and give meaning to some part of the full tapestry of our lives and relationships. They help us understand things that are too difficult to think about all at once."

Is this why I wrote and published a teen magazine story on the death of my grandfather? Is this why my novel was absolute rubbish until I set the story in France, including my love/hate relationship with my adopted land? Is this why somehow, I feel compelled to tell you all that one more layer of paint on the bedroom walls is not worth your marriage, when all I am really doing is trying to understand my own?

Does writing explain life or does life explain why we write? I love Jan's blog, because she also studies this question. How does life effect your writing? Do you write about your life? Write about other peoples' lives? Do you see the world as living literary inspiration?

If you want to chat more about these questions, you can find me on Facebook, on Twitter @JennaQuentin and on my blog, Meandering in a Field of Words. (This post was originally written on my blog 7/15/11)

Dealing with Rejection: Angela Ackerman Guest Blog Post

2011-08-28T09:00:00.000-06:00

Angela is one of my Calgary SCBWI friends. She writes on the Dark and Mysterious side of Chapter Books, Middle Grade and YA. Her work is represented by fabulous Jill Corcoran at the Herman Agency. And she's all about zombies! She co-blogs at a blog called the The Bookshelf Muse - Writing Tools and Musings about reading, writing and other randomness. The blog features the popular thesaurus series where she and her co-blogger provide a detailed thesaurus on just about everything. It's a great tool for writers.

Today she's not writing about zombies or thesaurus entries, she's writing about rejection (ouch) and how to see the positive in the negative. Something every writer struggles with.

Take it away Angela!
_______________________________

I’ll never make it. I should just quit. I am a total loser. Bleak words, aren't they? Still, a familiar echo to anyone receiving the soul-consuming rejection letter. A perfectly good day can go sour at seeing, 'Dear Author'. Our breath cuts off, our chest tightens, the shoulders sag and despair slams us down.

We ask ourselves why we put ourselves through this, why we can't just catch a break. Unfortunately being rejected (or e-jected) is just another part of the writing gig, like metaphors and modifiers. Rejection is out there, it will come for us at some point. Some letters hurt, others can devastate. All of them challenge our self belief. Staying positive in the face of rejection is tough. Each time our confidence is scraped, the rejection a message that our writing isn't good enough to take on, which we translate into meaning WE are not good enough. Sometimes moving past rejection is as simple as firing out a few more queries, tightening a synopsis or revising that first chapter for the 900th time.

Other times, rejection can cause our foundation of determination and self-belief to quake. We feel like we're letting everyone around us down, including ourselves. Maybe we should face facts and pack it in. During these black moments, it's important to find a way to shift our thoughts out of the self-critical mode. This is difficult, but it can be done if we look at the rejection in a different light: as opportunity. I know what you’re thinking—rejections are closed doors. What opportunity could their possibly be from a ‘sorry, not for me’ type rejection? There are always things to learn, even from form rejections to queries. The trick is shifting the way you think from the negative to the positive.
When a rejection pulls you down, consider these questions:

What does the agent/editor need? What is my responsibility to them? What can I learn from this? How can I see this rejection differently?

Who drank the other half?

Let's look at each one of these for a sec.

What does the agent/editor need? The sarcastic answer to this is, ‘Not my work, obviously.’ But if you can set aside the hurt and place yourself in their shoes, there's insight to be had on their side of the desk. Pretend you are the agent or editor opening this query—what do they need from you? What will make them successful? They need to see a compelling query, well written with a character and voice that calls to them. They want to find something different, something that peaks their interest & makes it a no-brainer to scribble a note telling you to please forward the book. This person wants to sign great writers, and they'd like nothing better for this query to make them tingle in anticipation! They need a strong story and polished writing. They want to see a query from someone who has targeted them specifically because of who they represent/publish.

What is my responsibility to them? It is the writer’s responsibility to write a strong, inviting query that offers enough information to make the agent/editor NEED to know what happens next--not too little, not too much. Give them the shape of it, a strong sense of the character, voice and style. Your best work shows them you are dedicated to this story being published. You do this by slaving over the query, polishing it until it shines as brightly as your belief in the book itself. You also show that you chose them specifically because they are a great fit, not that you spammed them with your query, hoping for the best.

What can I learn from this? Turn an honest eye to the query. Evaluate whether you satisfied the editor/agent's needs and fulfilled your responsibilities. Is there something you can do better, or did this query simply hit your 'good enough' meter at the time you sent it out? Have you done all the research on the market that you can, do you feel a niggle of guilt over a corner you may have cut somewhere? Did you edit enough, critique enough, tweak enough? Have you done all you can to make this query a success, as well as any materials you sent with it (synopsis, bio, first chapter, etc?)

How can I see this rejection differently? Of all the questions above, this one is the most important.

When depression hits over a rejection, asking yourself this will lead you to a balanced perspective again. Because a rejection is in essence a negative, this question challenges you to find the positive. Think of the positive things this rejection symbolizes for you. It shows you had the courage to send out your work. It proves you believed in your story enough to get it published. This leads you to think about how far your writing has come, how your talent has grown, how many stories you’ve written or how long you’ve worked to perfect this one. Seeing the rejection differently sets you on a path that allows you to re-appreciate your own growth as a writer and your determination to reach your publication goal. How many writers have you helped along the way? How many writers believe in you, cheer you on and know you can succeed?

Focus on your strengths and your accomplishments. Finding the positive in any circumstance can revive confidence, lighten mood and bolster determination. Too, your body responds to positive thinking, helping to slough off despair and doubt. Breathing is easier, tension leaks from the muscles. Posture straightens as thoughts return to moving forward, and what can be done to ensure success. Suddenly the rejection is put back into perspective--one person's opinion, not a career-ender.

Try this for yourself the next time a rejection hits you hard--it really does work!

Write who you are: Candy Gourlay Guest Blog Post

2011-08-24T11:00:00.000-06:00

I first met Candy Gourlay the way I meet all my new writers friends. I wrote her an email that started with the phrase: "You don't know me, and I may or may not be a stalker, but ...." It was good enough for Marty Chan when I challenged him to a comedy/mystery smack down, and it was good enough for Candy.

I was going to London to do some research on Dead Bee in the Sarcophagus and then from there on to the SCBWI Symposium in Bologna and I decided I wanted to meet some SCBWIers in London. I emailed Candy with the above opener and she was all over organizing a pub night and well on her way to becoming my new best writer friend.

In her guest blog post she talks about how I showed up at the wrong place (and then in Bologna showed up at the right place through telepathy) due to my geographical deficit disorder and then found her and her fellow SCBWIers amidst a throng of radical free range knitters - yes, you read that right - knitters!

Oh, and Candy is quite humble in this blog post. Her y/a novel Tall Story won the SCBWI Europe 2011 Crystal Kite award. Her novel has been nominated for so many awards I can't keep track of them. In fact, I think they had to invent a few more awards just for her.

Without further ado (as they say in London), here's Candy's guest blog post:

______________________________________________

Candy Gourlay

Hello everyone, I'm standing in today for my favorite Canadian author of books with dead frogs on porches, Jan Markley!

Jan was my virtual friend on various social networks for a few years before we finally met in London ... well ... the truth is we almost didn't .

We agreed to meet up at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank and Jan went to the Royal ALBERT Hall just a few hundred miles away. Easy to mix the two royal halls up I suppose. Living here in London, every other thing is royal.

This is me on a good day in London

Anyway, I'm the author of Tall Story which is hopefully beginning to appear in Canadian bookstores, even if it's still in expensive hardback. It's about a boy named Bernardo who's eight feet tall (you heard it right, EIGHT feet tall) - he's not a giant, he's got gigantism.

... and oh, look, here's a link to Amazon.ca!

When I started out writing my book, I was interested in the idea of what it's like to be different ... but when I began to research giants, I remembered how giants are key to the mythology of my native Philippines.

The Philippines sits on the Ring of Fire - a crack on the Earth's crust. The countries that sit on the Ring of Fire - Chile, Hawaii, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines - experience a lot of volcanic activity, earthquakes, tsunamis. It's like sitting on the unstable lid of a bubbling pot of water I suppose.

The Philippines may be made up of 7,107 islands, but all along the Ring of Fire is a line of mountains like this, some full blown volcanoes, thrown up by forces underneath.

A lot of our mythology in the Philippines attempts to explain all the mysterious effects of our geography - there are many stories about how mountains are just giants and earthquakes are just the giants shrugging.

A spread from The Secret Histories of Giants (published by Templar) - can you see the giants in the mountains?

Many years ago at the beginning of my quest to get my novels published, I was creating British characters in British settings.

I honestly thought that no publisher would be interested in any stories set in my native Philippines. But then an agent told me a British novel by a Filipino author would be a tough sell. Later, I read in a book on how to plot - the old adage "Write what you know" is true, but to invest your characters with their own distinctive reality, what is more important is to "Write who you are".

So Tall Story has Philippine mythology and migration and culture clash. Story of my life!

Then there was something on my shoulder. Something big and round and rough. And damp. It was so damp. It grew heavier and heavier and heavier. Crushingly heavy. Bending me down, down, down. A boulder. A mountain. What was it?
It was the Earth.
The Earth? Had i gone crazy?
I stood there like Atlas, oceans and rivers sending trickles of water down my arm, forests like sandpaper against my skin, mountains poking into the nape of my neck.
Too heavy, too heavy. I couldn't ... It slipped down my shoulder and I could have cried out as the mountain peaks jabbed hard against my skin. My muscles ached as I tried not to buckle under the weight, my hands scrabbling to hold on to it, the dirt grinding under my fingernails.
Mustn't drop it. Mustn't drop the Earth.

Excerpt from Tall Story

The great thing about Philippine mythology is a lot of it is handed down by word of mouth. Which means there is no correct version of one story. It gave me permission to put my own spin on popular legends.

I use legends - well, the making of them - in my school visits. Children are amazing - they can come up with legends at the drop of a hat! We must have made 20 within 15 minutes at a session I did at the Hay Literary Festival.

So here's a video I made on How to Make a Legend in Your Own Time. Watch out for The Legend of the Bellybutton, which was one of the stories we came up with after a hilarious brainstorming session at the Hay Festival.

If you're a teacher or a librarian and you fancy creating legends with your own posse of children, check out my Legend in Your Own Time download on my website!

Thank you!

Other downloads you might enjoy:

Discussion Guide for Classrooms and Book Clubs

Fact File About Gigantism

Cool Teacher's Guide for Children's Book Week

Candy Gourlay was a young journalist for the opposition during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. After the revolution that toppled Marcos, she moved to London where she attended to dictators of the nappy-clad variety before trying her hand at children’s fiction. Her debut novel Tall Story has been shortlisted for eleven children’s book prizes including the Waterstone’s, the Branford Boase and the Blue Peter prize. It won the Crystal Kite Children’s Book Prize for Europe. www.candygourlay.com

Out of the cybersphere ...

2011-08-21T09:00:00.000-06:00

Kinda looks like a Sasquatch writing cave!

I'll be out of the cybersphere for a few weeks. ~~I've joined the french foreign legion~~, no, actually, ~~I'm going to live in one of those domed eco-thingys;~~ well, basically dear bloggowers, I'll be MIA (and not the rapper).

I will have some amazing guest bloggers while I'm gone, and the blog posts are all brilliant in different ways. The amazing thing about the internet is that I have blogger friends all over the world, so you'll have a mix of local and international guest bloggers. You'll discover some new blogs and meet some of my friend and family bloggers.

As well, I won't be able to share the posts through facebook or twitter so if my bloggowers can give my guest bloggers some social networking love and share them around, that would be great.

Here's the list:

August 24th - author Candy Gourlay who blogs at two places ('cause she's just not busy enough) Notes from the Slush Pile and her own blog.

August 28th - writer Angela Ackerman who blogs at The Bookshelf Muse.

August 31 - writer Jenna Quentin who blogs at Meandering in a field of words.

September 4th - writer and actor Jocosa Wade (aka Jocosa of the Earrings) who blogs at I may not be John Irving.

September 7th - NY actor Katie Repman who blogs at Barbie Kong.

No bottomless pit in sight!

Remember when Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble always seemed to be falling into a bottomless pit? Yeah, I'm not there either!

And on a parting note, if you think your novel is hard to sum up for a synopsis or a query letter - check out how these two dudes summed up the entire Harry Potter series, in song, in 99 seconds!

Hollar back at ya soon!

Interview with Georgia Graham - Presenter SCBWI Collaboration Conference Oct. 1

2011-08-17T16:30:00.001-06:00

Not many people (except Canadians) can say this next sentence: I first met Gerogia Graham at her tree farm in central rural Alberta when I drove through a late May snow storm to get to the Young Alberta Book Society meeting. Yes, a late May (the month of May) snow storm! I blogged about my adventures and the high risk life of a children's author.

Georgia is an amazing artist and painter, she's been hooked on chalk pastels since grade four. She graduated from the Alberta College of Art in 1982 and first used her art to entertain children in her sunday school class. Her published works include "A Team Like No Other", "The Saturday Appaloosa", "Bibi and the Bull","The Strongest Man This Side of Cremona", "Tiger's New Cowboy Boots", and more. Here's an example of some of her other work.

Lots of Barred Rocks

Illustrating is largely self-taught. What tools did you use to learn your craft and develop your talent?

For me, illustrating was self taught in the way I was a compulsive drawer as a child. My dad would bring "free" paper home from work. I did take Visual Communications at the Alberta College of Art for four years but the instructors never really "taught" a class. They would give an assignment and then they would critique the finished work. The most important tool for me as an illustrator is time -time to draw.

Illustrating is a solitary pursuit and involves a lot of time in the Sasquatch cave (or what I like to call butt in chair time). How do you stay connected with the illustrating community and how does that help you develop as an illustrator?

Yes, it is a solitary life. I meet up with other children's authors and illustrators a few times a year at Young Authors Conferences. When I'm at a school, waiting for the children to file into the library for my presentation, I often flip through books that the librarian has displayed. And once in a while I go to see what is new at a book store. That helps me to see what the trends are and what there is too much of. Reading articles in art magazines helps me to develop as an illustrator.

How has attending conferences contributed to your development as an illustrator and your professional career? Why is it important for the aspiring illustrator to attend conferences?

I have never attended a conference but only presented or instructed. But I still get to talk to other authors and illustrators at conferences and hear their unique journeys and their advice which is extremely valuable.

Was there a turning point in your career when you went from trying to be an illustrator to 'wow, I'm really doing this and making it happen'?

My first two books were sort of "dead ends" that for years did not lead to other books. A steady flow of books began with my third book, and at that time I began to do steady school visits as well. Without the school visits, I never could have made a living.

"Man cannot live on royalties alone." - Georgia Graham

True dat, Georgia, true dat!

Georgia Graham will be presenting at the Collaboration Conference October 1st, 2011. Registration is now open and closes August 25th. Contact Pamela for more information or check the SCBWI West Canada web site.

Interview with Pat Kozak - Presenter SCBWI Collaboration Conference Calgary Oct. 1

2011-08-14T09:00:00.003-06:00

Pat Kozak will be presenting at the SCBWI Canada West Calgary Conference Collaboration on October 1st, 2011.

I had a chance to catch up with her and ask her some burning questions I had about comma splices, sour ju jubes, and the elusive world of editing. I *cough* edited the editor's interview ...

How does one become an editor? Did you stay behind at recess and pour over Strunk and White? What tools did you use to learn your craft and develop your talent?

I’m sure some kids — perhaps those who studied Strunk and White at recess — know they want to be editors while they are still in school. I assume these dedicated individuals go on to take the appropriate formal training then dive straight into an editing career. However, I don’t know anyone who has done this, and it certainly wasn’t the case with me. I didn’t become an editor until my own kids had left high school.

Most editors I know became editors by editing. That may sound trite, but it’s true for many of us. We come from diverse professional backgrounds and often start editing because someone in the workplace asks us to check a piece of writing. Once we find out how much fun editing is, and that we are actually pretty good at it, we start wondering whether we could become “real” editors.

The way we learn our craft depends on what sort of editing we are considering, e.g., scientific, corporate, literary, etc. But, we all need to brush up on grammar, punctuation, and the current writing styles in our chosen fields. Once we feel confident about those basics, we take courses and also ask experienced editors about editing methods and processes. Then we practise, practise, practise, and network, network, network. Finally, we get work as editors. But we never stop learning our craft or developing our talent.

I came to editing via my second career as a professional writer. I regularly edited annual reports and newsletter articles but I did not get hooked until I started copy editing one of the small magazines I wrote for. Then I decided I wanted to edit fiction and creative non-fiction. I was lucky enough to get a contract with a local publisher to edit biographies. I considered this my apprenticeship because I edited under the direction of a series editor. I was also freelancing during this period and found it suited me very well. By the time the publisher disappeared from the scene (publishing is a tough business) I was considering retirement, so freelancing was the obvious and, as it turns out, perfect choice for me.

If any of you have a hankering to join the editing ranks, I encourage you to give it a try. It is a demanding but rewarding occupation, and you meet really great people — writers.

The Editor’s Association of Canada now offers a certification program.

The theme of the conference is collaboration; can editing truly be a collaborative endeavour? By the time a writer gets published I'm thinking they'd agree to anything the editor suggests.

From the viewpoint of a freelance editor, editing is definitely a collaborative process. (This may not always be the case with in-house editors because the publishing house could be looking for particular content or want the book written in their house style.)

I feel my role is to help writers reach their writing goals, whether that is to explain their ideas more clearly, express their thoughts more creatively, or be consistent in their chosen style. I give feedback, suggestions, and examples. I do not dictate or manipulate. It’s not my book!

How has attending conferences contributed to your development as an editor and your professional career? Why is it important for the aspiring editor to attend conferences?

Attending lectures, presentations, and workshops offered by the Calgary Association of Freelance Editors and the Editor’s Association of Canada has contributed to my development as an editor by introducing me to different aspects of editing and related fields. Editing, like writing, is a solitary occupation, so it’s important to get away from your desk and talk shop once in a while. Even if you think you already know all there is to know about the subjects under discussion, not only will you learn something, you will come away from a conference feeling pumped by all the creative energy.

I've never met a comma I didn't splice. What's your favourite punctuation mark and why? What punctuation makes your eyes hurt and keeps you up at night?

During the first month of a journalism course, I had a paper downgraded from A to A- for the sin of creating a comma splice. That incident did not give me nightmares about semi-colons or commas, but it gave me a greater respect for punctuation in general. My favourite punctuation mark is any mark that has been used correctly.

Some see dead people, you must see grammatical errors everywhere you look - how do you stop yourself from taking out a sharpie and correcting them?

Yes, I do see errors everywhere. For the first few years of my editing life it took a great deal of self control not to do a Lynne Truss — especially at restaurants. But these days, even menus are safe from me. I don’t know why; perhaps I have just mellowed. However, if a waiter inadvertently left a sharpie at my table, he might discover that it’s had been changed to its, and that desert had become dessert.

While I joke about punctuation and grammar, editing is about more than that. If a writer has a good editor it can take their story to a whole different level. What elements does an editor bring to a piece that a writer can't?

In my opinion, there are only two things writers cannot bring to their own writing; a fresh pair of eyes and a different perspective. That is what we provide.

I've been open on my blog about my disturbing addiction to sour ju jubes. Is there a sweet treat that you like that makes your editing hours sing?

There is not a treat in sight at my desk. But if the copy sings, so does my heart.

Nice save Pat!

Pat Kozak will be presenting at the Collaboration Conference October 1st, 2011.

Registration is now open and you need to register by August 25th . Contact Pamela for more information or check the SCBWI West Canada web site.

Interview with Lincoln Agnew - Presenter SCBWI Collaboration Conference Calgary Oct. 1

2011-08-10T16:38:00.000-06:00

Lincoln Agnew will be presenting at the SCBWI Canada West Calgary Conference Collaboration on October 1st, 2011.

Lincoln attended the Alberta College of Art and Design, where he obtained degrees in both illustration and photography. Lincoln made his debut as a picture book illustrator with Harry and Horsie, for which he won the 2009 Society of Illustrators "The Original Art" Founder's Award as well as the Marion Vannett Ridgway Award. And his book has a strange and unusual connection to David Letterman.

I had the pleasure of interviewing him (actually I just emailed him the questions and when he was finished devouring a bag of Doritos Sweet Chili Heat - he emailed the answers back to me).

Q. Illustrating is largely self-taught. What tools did you use to learn your craft and develop your talent?

A. In the beginning I just used a pencil and ~~watched a lot of,~~ studied ninja movies. I spent a lot of time drawing ninjas as a child, I haven't been asked to do it since but the process definitely helped me understand the structure of human form as well as the awesome power of Ninjutsu.

Yes, well who doesn't love ninjas!?

Q. Illustrating is a solitary pursuit and involves a lot of time in the Sasquatch cave (or what I like to call butt in chair time). How do you stay connected with the illustrating community and how does that help you develop as an illustrator?

A. I stay connected mainly through the internet, I would like to get out more but the sun burns my eyes and I'm afraid of the dark. It's a problem.

Illustrating and writing sasquatches the world over feel your pain.

Q. How has attending conferences contributed to your development as an illustrator and your professional career? Why is it important for the aspiring illustrator to attend conferences?

A. I enjoy these conferences because it gives you the opportunity to meet others who share similar struggles. Not everyone understands the difficulties of being a freelance illustrator so it's nice to meet those who are far more successful. It not only gives you hope, it also fuels your bitterness and hunger which in turn strengthens your artwork.

Q. Was there a turning point in your career when you went from trying to be an illustrator to 'wow, I'm really doing this and making it happen'?

A. I think the turning point was quitting my 9-5 job.... I didn't have any plans at the time to be an illustrator, but I did have plans to do something more creative. Every mistake that I've made since that day has led me to this moment but I wouldn't be here without the love and support of family and friends. It's not an easy road, it still isn't... but something inside of me won't let me stop. They made this "happen" more than I did, I'm just trying to make them proud.

Q. I've been open on this blog about my somewhat disturbing addition to sour ju jubes. Is there a sweet treat that makes your pen sing?

A. I'm not a big sweet tooth, I like salty snacks. I have a small addiction to Sweet Chili Heat Doritos but I can't eat them while I draw because the artificial flavouring gets all over my sketchbook. I thought at one point that it might add the look of my work, but sadly no... the aesthetic of orange fingerprints enhances very little.

Harry and Horsie - Lincoln Agnew Illustrator

Lincoln Agnew will be presenting at the Collaboration Conference October 1st, 2011. Registration is now open. Contact Pamela for more information or check the SCBWI West Canada web site.

Interview with Hazel Hutchins - Presenter SCBWI Collaboration Conference Calgary Oct. 1

2011-08-07T09:00:00.001-06:00

Hazel Hutchins is an award winning Canadian children's author living in Canmore, Alberta. She's written picture books, middle grade and young adult novels, and has more than forty books published internationally. And I have to tell you, she's one of the most humble people I've ever met.

Hazel will be presenting at the SCBWI Western Canada Calgary Conference Collaboration where she will share with us what she's learned over the years as a children's author.

Here's the interview I did with Hazel:

Q. Writing is largely self-taught. What tools did you use to learn your craft and develop your talent?

A. Reading .... lots and lots .... from Superman comics to Faulkner. When I had young children I brought home twenty picture books at a time from the library, went through them in a few days, and headed back for more.

I took the Alberta Writers Guild course by mail. John Patrick Gillese really knew his stuff. (I almost wrote "online course" but it was before computers. Come to think of it, my first book was done on a manual typewriter. Good grief. I AM old.)

Local community class in fiction writing. I don't think I actually learned anything of writing value at the course but it's where I met my wonderful friend and occasional co-author Gail Herbert.
Membership in organizations that had newsletters with writing tips and current market information. (LOVE YOU Writers Guild of Alberta!)

And, wherever I am, if I see a magazine with anything about writing, I stop everything and read like crazy. It may have THE secret!

Q. Writing is a solitary pursuit and involves a lot of time in the Sasquatch cave (or what I like to call butt in chair time). How do you stay connected with the writing community and how does that help you develop as a writer?

A. I love the writing friends I've made. However in some ways I think my partial isolation (living in a smaller centre and having a nature that is capable of being social for only limited amounts of time before I NEED to be alone) has helped to keep me focused on the work of writing.

Q. How has attending conferences contributed to your development as a writer and your professional career? Why is it important for the aspiring writer to attend conferences?

A. I get jealous when I realize what others have done and get more determined to do good work myself! Conferences are excellent....but always, always, always, my best advice to aspiring writers is to write. Actually begin. Actually finish. Actually rewrite. Actually submit.

Q. Was there a turning point in your career when you went from trying to be a writer to 'wow, I'm really doing this and making it happen'?

A. I'm always still trying to be a writer. I'm always looking for a great idea and a way to write it better, smarter, more uniquely. The "wow" for me is never about "career", it's all about the work itself -- the quest for that magical moment when a new insight steps forward and a story moves to a higher level. Yes!!!!

Great advice Hazel, it's back to the sasquatch writing cave for me! On with the quest!

Registration for the conference closes August 25th. Contact Pamela for more information.

Collaboration! SCBWI Calgary Writers/Illustrators Conference

2011-08-01T11:00:00.002-06:00

Calling all children's book writers and illustrators! SCBWI Canada West is hosting a fall conference in Calgary Saturday October 1, 2011.

The theme is "Collaboration", examining the relationships between author and illustrator, co-authors, and author and editor.

Over the next two weeks I'll be posting interviews with the four presenters. I can't tell you what the questions will be but you can expect that they will have something to do with sour ju jubes, the sasquatch as a mascot for writers, and taking over the literary world one collaboration at a time!

If you read my 'how I got published' story on this blog you'll know the role that attending conferences played in my journey to find a publisher.

The conference will explore the following themes: How much direction can an author provide the illustrator of her picture book? How does an illustrator approach and interpret a new manuscript? Can two authors really collaborate on one book? What can you expect when working with an editor? How can a writer approach rewriting once the first draft is complete?

Guest speakers are Lincoln Agnew, illustrator; Georgia Graham author and illustrator; Hazel Hutchins, author; and Pat Kozak, professional freelance editor.

Join us at the Wingate Inn, Calgary, October 1st, 8:30 - 5:00 pm for information and inspiration. An informal social gathering is optional from 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm.

Registration is $80 for SCBWI members, $90 for non-members.

For more information, visit the SCBWI Western Canada website or contact the SCBWI Regional Coordinator Pamela McDowell.

Registration deadline is August 25th, 2011 - which is soon people!

Man-skirt, diaphanous scarves, and writing blog links

2011-07-25T16:17:00.002-06:00

I've been woefully remiss lately about visiting my writing peeps' blogs. I dug out my diaphanous scarves, and left my sasquatch cave to check out some awesome music at the Calgary Folk Fest this past weekend. It was a climatological roller-coaster: it rained, it hailed, there were Wizard of Oz winds, it was blistering hot and dry, cold when the sun set - three seasons in three days.

While there is no video of the interpretive dance I concocted with my diaphanous scarves ;-j, I did feel obliged to write this virtual message.

Memo to the pale white dude with the hula-hoop rocking the man skirt at the folk fest: Underwear. Is. Mandatory! It wasn't pretty when Britney did it and it sure ain't pretty when you do it! Seriously dude, you were one skirt flip away from being the next you tube sensation.

The blogosphere offers a host of entertaining and enlightening blogs about the writing process and the publishing industry. Here are a couple of my international favourites:

From rainy London we have: Notes from the Slush Pile ... and beyond, it's a blog about writing for children, getting published, surviving the Internet - and never ever forgetting that some things we just have to do for love. It's run by three bloggers: Candy Gourlay, Teri Terry (a Canadian, just saying) and Maureen Lynas. They are all SCBWIers.

In a series NFtSP posted on debut authors, they asked the question: "what does it feel like when the dream comes true?" (oh, bloggowers, it feels good!). Here's the thrid installment in the YA Debutantes blog posts (check out the first and second in the series as well).

In hot and sunny south Africa we have Nicky Schmidt blogging at Absolute Vanilla where she offers her witterings and warblings (ok, I don't know what those are but I think they are some kind of South African animal - be afraid, be very afraid).

She's been rocking two series of blog posts: one is a seven part series on ~~sasquatch writing caves~~ Writing Room Revelations where children's and y/a authors reveal their writing room secrets, and the other on self publishing in the changing publishing landscape.

Now to move from the international to the regional and back to the international.

Saw two great Canadian performers at the folk fest this weekend. kd Lang originally from Alberta and now international famous. I remember back in the olden days (aka the 80s) when I worked at the UofA radio station, she would routinely come to the studio and the DJ would put her on the air for an hour of jamming. Then one time, she was playing in a small theatre in Edmonton and took requests from the audience. Someone shouted out: 'Stop the world ...' (she used a globe as a prop), she said she had the globe in her car and walked off stage, out of the theatre to her car, got the globe and came back and belted out that tune. Her she is singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver

The other famous Canadian I saw perform this weekend was Buffy St. Marie, her career spans social justice/American Indian activist songs to appearances on Sesame Street (now that's versatility). At 70 years of age, she's still go it.

Diaphanous scarves safely packed away for the year, now back to my sasquatch writing cave!

Battle of the Blogging Nieces!

2011-07-13T20:12:00.003-06:00

In the one corner of the Internet is my actress niece Katie Repman who lives in New York and recently completed a 30 day character challenge. She created a different comedic character everyday. She wrote, acted, directed, and edited them herself. She challenged herself to expand her comedic range by working on different, dialects, ages, and genders.

She's been blogging about the process on Barbie Kong and you can find the videos on her you tube channel.

All the videos were funny in their own way - here's one of my favourites: Teen Mom Janelle Evans.

Check out her blog, the rest of the videos on her you tube channel, and follow her on twitter at BarbieKong1.

In the other corner of the Internet is my teen aged niece Tea. She blogs at Tiny Canadian and like most teenagers is up past midnight, bored, taping herself singing in the dark, putting the videos on you tube and planning her take over of the world (or at least the Internet).

She's got a great voice and has a few videos up - they are short and sweet - as she says 'you won't have to sit through a 5 minute video rendition of a song' - who needs that right!?

Here's one where she's singing Fly Again by Nikki Williams.

Follow their progress on their blogs and you tube channels as they both continue to stretch their talents and put themselves out there! So there you have it - my talented blogging nieces and a bragging aunt!

Juxtaposition of Characters

2011-07-06T21:01:00.000-06:00

I embraced the middle aged woman with cats stereotype when I bought this mug designed by Joyce Shelton in the Kelowna airport. It sports the truism 'dogs have owners, cats have staff' (I should have been a cat because I'd like to have staff, if only to do nothing more than clean out my cats' ears - too much information, right?!).

The mug got me thinking about stereotypical characters and the bipolar juxtaposition of characters (writers, eh!? who else thinks about these things?). Bipolar juxtaposition of characters can be seen in just about every sit-com (or drama for that matter). The brainy red-head with glasses, her dim blond bombshell sister and their mischievous brother. Stereotypes? One Dimensional? Stock characters? Sure!

But on the other hand you need characters to be different. Go to any ~~prison~~ office, ~~group therapy session~~ family function or confined space like an airport or the department of motor vehicles and you are going to find characters that are different - vastly different. Yet they need to be believable, fully formed characters reacting to the situation you've created.

In any family or work situation, not only do you have a diversity of people with their foibles and talents, you have a room full of people who have histories with each other - baggage, kindred spirits, alliances formed, broken or mended.

Mine each character (no matter how stereotypical on the surface) for the depths of his/her nuances and show the character through his/her reaction to others.

How do you put flesh on your characters?

Watch the sit-com The Big Bang Theory - a show that takes characters beyond the stereotypes - while I fill my mug with milky tea and put on my bunny slippers ...

P.S.: I would have embedded a clip from the show but I think I broke you tube - I can't get any videos to load. You'll have to do something old fashioned like watch TV!

Happy Birthday Canada!

2011-06-30T13:13:00.001-06:00

It's that time of year again when Canadians en mass have a barbeque, drink beer and discuss what makes them Canadian - yes, July 1st is Canada Day!

Time to show some of my favourite representations of Canadian identity through the symbols of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Captain of the Starship Enterprise and, of course, beer and mountains.

Join me for a walk down Canadian identity lane:

First the Canadian Please song (song & video produced by Julia Bentley & Andrew Gunadie) where they accuse you of wanting to be a Canadian... please.

Canadians take credit for many things, the invention of basketball, insulin and Captain James T. Kirk. William Shatner gives a nod to his spoken word past with this rendition of O Canada. Every time I tried to embed this video, it said 'Desole ce film n'est pas disponible pour le moment' and it never became disponible, so you can see the video here.

In lieu of that video (that's a big word for instead) here's Oh ... Canada by Classified (they take a poke at those ~~lame~~ awesome Heritage Moments).

And finally what anthropological analysis of Canadian identity would be complete without the latest beer commercial. Apparently beer = freedom = being Canadian = who knew!?

Enjoy Canada Day everyone, eh!?

Dear Omniscient Narrator: It's not you, it's me!

2011-06-26T15:34:00.000-06:00

Mary Anne Evans aka George Eliot

Apparently they made it into a movie ...

I finally summited the literary Mount Everest that is George Eliot's 900 page book Middlemarch. It's been on my to-be-read shelf for decades (bought in a used books store a few years after I graduated from my first university degree, when I must have declared that I was going to read all the classics). It has mocked me for years and I decided it was finally time to read it.

Here's what I learned:

1. Grade five teacher - get out of my head: Okay, maybe it was grade six when I had a teacher who said you can't judge a book unless you read the whole thing. She was adamant. Even thought I stopped agreeing with that decades ago, it still must be lodged in my grey matter somewhere because I am loath to stop reading a book. I have the right to judge a book from the first sentence on. I can stop reading if it's not a genre that interests me or if I deem it to not be well written (totally subjective). I get that she was probably trying to get us to read all of our assigned readings.

2. Omniscient narrator- we're through: It's not you, omniscient narrator, it's me. No, actually it's you. My head was spinning trying to keep up with who's pov the story was from. I have whiplash from the number of times the pov changed. Thankfully omniscient narration isn't trending. Love single or multiple pov books.

3. I need a plot: You need a plot. We. All. Need. A. Plot! Donald Maass says if you want your book to be longer add more conflict, not description. I totally get that now. Yes, pages and pages of beautifully written description and character sketches, but I needed more of a plot (or less description). Now I get the appeal of plot driven books. Readers want something to happen. I like a balance between characters I care about and plot.

4. Thank Buddha they invented editors: See #3.

5. Don't give me a sub-plot if the characters and plot points aren't crucial to the ending: Don't make me care about characters that don't need to be in the novel. I also didn't connect with any of the characters on a deep level and I blame the omniscient narrator for that (it's always good to have a narrator to blame).

6. I agree with Stephen King who said carry a book with you at all times. That was the only way I got through the 900 page book.

What I did like about it? It was hilarious in some parts, the insights were *cough* insightful, the issues of livelihood, money, status and love are universal, and it's good to know that politicians haven't changed. The historical perspective was interesting. The last two hundred pages rocked when the story kicked into high gear.

What literary Mount Everest have you summited lately?

We are not all cowboys

2011-06-22T21:19:00.000-06:00

How many Calgarians does it take to screw in a light bulb? Three. One to change the light bulb and the other two to stand around and talk about the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Yes, that is a current joke. We're still living off of the glory from the successful hosting of the games in '88. I was here, there was a big chinook, everything melted. Hard to have a winter olympics without snow ... just saying!

Some of my bloggowers in far flung corners of the earth (assuming of course that the earth is square) are probably wondering about this town I call my own - Calgary (yes, I'm sure you've had many sleepless nights wondering about it.

We've come a long way since the olympics ...

Not only will it be one of the few stops on the Canadian tour for the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Wills and Kate as my British bloggowers know them), but it is known for being the epicentre for the oil and gas industry, surrounded by ranches that bring us that awesome Alberta Beef, and an hour's drive from the rocky mountains (the big ones, not like those small ones in Switzerland). If you trip while wandering the prairies and coulees outside of the city, it's either a gopher hole you've stepped in or a dinosaur bone you've tripped over.

Mayor Nenshi

It is a city of more than a million people, the fourth most ethnically diverse city in Canada, and the home of our new cool Mayor Naheed Nenshi who loves purple and social media. Calgary has a thriving arts community (not to mention writers, every time I turn around I trip over a poet).

Local hip hop artist Transit (that's his name and perhaps his mode of transportation) moved here from Victoria. He wrote a song called Calgary. It features internationally famous Calgary crooner ~~Celine Dion~~ Jann Arden and a cameo by Mayor Nenshi.

Transit raps about what a diverse city Calgary is and how it was very accepting of him both as a newcomer and as a hip-hop artist (one line in the chorus: “we are not all cowboys…”).

Check it out - it rocks (and hip hops).

Okay, it's not NY, but on a hot, dry, sunny day, (or during a winter chinook) walking on the bike paths by the river, drinking a Tim Horton's double double, dodging Canadian goose poop - well, there's nothing quite like it!

If you've never heard of Jann Arden - seriously, smash down that door to your Sasquatch writing cave, get some fresh air, get out in the world and check this out - it's one of her most popular songs.

Author meets bald butt prairies ... again

2011-06-19T18:53:00.000-06:00

As opposed to what? ... a dead bee hive?!

To get to the Young Alberta Book Society's (YABS) annual general meeting/professional development last year, I had to drive through a blinding freak May snowstorm. I chronicled my adventure here (and bemoaned the high risk life of a children's author).

This year it wasn't nearly as bad. Neither torrential rain, nor wind, nor fog kept a group of dedicated children's authors, illustrators and performers from travelling across the bald butt prairies to Red Deer for the meeting.

YABS is dedicated to fostering literacy and a love of reading among young people in Alberta by providing access to the province's literary artists and their work through subsidized touring programs, youth writing camps and a whole lot more. If you are a teacher, librarian, resource worker, literary artist or kid who likes to write - check out what YABS has for you.

The meeting was held at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre so the surrounding (soaked) natural area could provide inspiration.

We chatted, ate, talked touring, school visits, fundraising, shared experiences with various aspects of the publishing industry, talked about the future of publishing, weather stories, and even talked about finances (try to get writers to talk about numbers, just try).

Trust a children's author to crawl into a giant fake tree!
Here's author Natasha Deen reading Joan Marie Galat's Dot to Dot in the Sky.

It was a good day, I learned a lot, and the weather on the way home didn't disappoint. My hands were formed into claws by the time I got home, from clutching the steering wheel trying to keep my car on the road despite the blinding rain and high winds.

Luckily, I had a cassette tape recorded in the1980s, from Simon and Garfunkel's concert in Central Park, to keep me company as my car literally flew over the rain slicked highway. Unluckily, since the technology is last century, the cassette would randomly flip sides. One minute I'd be singing along to Kodachrome and then it would flip sides and I'd be crooning to Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Ahhh ... the life of a children's author!

Dead Bird Gets a Nom!

2011-06-15T20:57:00.004-06:00

No, it wasn't this kind of nom!

I first heard about my nom on Facebook (maybe you've heard of Facebook - it's this little social networking thang).

My friends started congratulating me for the nomination of my second middle grade novel Dead Bird through the Cat Door for the inaugural John Spray Mystery Award.

Then cut to a scene of me frantically googling myself, my book, and the award. Nothing! I thought I was loosing my stalking skills.

Little did I know that my writer peeps were all on the emailing list of the Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) and got an email about a host of nominees for a wide range of children's book awards the centre administers.

Later that day the CCBC posted the press release.

Check out the other books on the list and their authors. Marty Chan was nominated as well for his latest mystery The Mystery of the Cyber Bully.

You'll remember Marty from the Mystery Comedy Smackdown he and I had a couple of years ago, plus he's an all round good guy and an asset to the writing community! And he gave me a book cover quote for Dead Bird through the Cat Door.

Good luck to all the nominees. The winner will be announced in Toronto in October.

Boy that water looks colourful!

I see grammatical errors: a writer's superpower

2011-06-12T10:50:00.000-06:00

We all have our super powers - that kid sees dead people, others see dirt in every corner of my house, and me, well I see (and hear) grammatical errors. They are everywhere - embossed on the side of a box of tea, inked in the newspaper, and when I'm listening in on bus conversations my ears bleed.

It might be genetic, but more likely learned. My parents grew up in that era (aka the olden days) when kids learned grammar, punctuation, and ... wait for it ... spelling! My dad was a stickler for the I vs. me (which many people get mixed up) and my mom - well, I pity the po fool sales clerk who uses the redundant phrase: these ones.

The who/that particularly irks me, and it's there are not there is (or the abbreviated convenience of there's) - people really!

Here's a couple of grammar nerds who took to the road to police the written text and correct people's grammar and punctuation (I hear people love when you do that!). They were chased, banned from a national park and at one place someone threatened to break their ~~sharpies~~ legs. CBS did a feature about their adventures of taking correct grammar to the mean streets! (it's a great video but I couldn't embed it here so check out the link). They wrote a book about their quest called - The Great Typo Hunt

And lest you think I always use perfect grammar and punctuation I remind you that I've never met a comma I didn't splice.

Weird Al Yankovich highlights another one of my pet peeves - the lack of the 'ly' ending.

Which grammar or punctuation error gets your verbs all in a knot?

Hope you have a grammatically correct week.

The Stubby Cafe and other Stuff Kids Write!

2011-06-08T21:07:00.001-06:00

Stubby - madder than a wet cat!

I've shared with you my niece Teaghan's crazy mad video production skillz - she created book trailers for both of my novels.

But what you didn't know was that she started out writing menus when she was five years old for the Stubby Café.

What's a Stubby and why does it need, not only a menu, but a cafe? I thought you'd never ask.

Teaghan and I (and her cat Stubby) did a feature blog post on the blog ‘Stuff Kids Write’ about a menu she did for the Stubby Café.

Stuff Kids Write is the brain child of my writer friend Leanne Shirtliffe and Chase McFadden. It's kinda like stuff adults write ... but funnier!

Leanne has another blog called Ironic Mom where her motto is: if you can't laugh at yourself, laugh at your kids! Check it out!

What the geriatric rapper at Aquasize taught me about character development

2011-06-05T13:42:00.000-06:00

Picture this: I'm in the Real Canadian Super Store (aka a big box store) with a grocery cart laden with supposedly lower priced food. I'm navigating a crowded isle, swerving in and out around equally ladened grocery carts like an NHL hockey player, when I stop to pick something off a shelf. Another cart pushes into mine. I look up and see an old guy wearing a hoody and a baseball cap like he's a geriatric gangsta rapper dude. He's pointing a finger at me.

Old rapper dude: You!
Inside my head voice: I know I'm blocking the isle, what are you going do beat me up?!
Old rapper dude: You! Sunday morning aquasize! (busts out a big smile - all gangsta!)

Then a light bulb went on (and I wasn't even in the lighting department), he's the old dude I see at aquasize most Sunday mornings. He has a penchant for a particular water weight and when the instructor dumps them on the deck I usually get there before he does and grab the ones he likes, before anyone else gets them, and give them to him. The equivalent of a water sport good deed for the day.

Why am I telling you this?

Put your protagonist and antagonist in different settings and see how they react, see what different character traits emerge.
How did twin protags Cyd and Jane react in my debut novel Dead Frog on the Porch when they were up against the Dr. Tallbot (aka the Cheese Pie Man) in different situations - at the lab, at their house having dinner, at the zoo, in front of their mother?

Try putting your characters in different, and unusually settings, and show us (don't tell us) how they respond to different things that happen to them.

Give me some examples of how you use different settings to evoke character.

Remember the last time I went to water aerobics and regretted it?

The utensil of character development

2011-05-29T08:41:00.001-06:00

This is the most useful utensil I've come across. You could survive any eating experience with it.

You could tear into a juicy slab of Alberta Beef; you could swivel pasta or noodles; and, you could scoop up some pudding for desert.

It's a multi-dimensional, complex utensil, just as your characters need to be multi-dimensional and complex.

Like my protag Cyd in the two novels of the Megabyte Mystery series, she can stab the antagonist with sarcasm and wit; swirl through plot twists and slide through the turns with intelligence and curiosity; and, care for her animal obsessed twin sister with compassion. She's a complex character.

Donald Maass has an exercise where you take a couple of the positive characteristics of your protag and give them to your antag and vice versa. This is how you create complex characters; characters aren't all good or evil all the time.

Similarly to the utensil, your character can then dig into any literary meal you throw at them.

Gotz to get me some Alberta beef!

What's a logline?

2011-05-25T09:00:00.001-06:00

I was skyping with my writer friend Jocosa of the Earrings (who blogs at I may not be John Irving where theatre meets writing), and we were discussing the logline for her work-in-progress. She is going to a conference and they asked participants to write a logline for their manuscript.

My first question was: what's a logline?

Different from the high concept blurbs on my novels like: It's Nancy Drew meets Lady Macbeth (Dead Bird through the Cat Door) or It's Nancy Drew for the ipod generation (Dead Frog on the Porch) a log line is most often used in the movie industry. It boils the story down to its essence.

The elements of a logline include:

who the story is about (protagonist)

what s/he strives for (goal)

what stands in his/her way (antagonistic force).

A logline doesn't tell the entire story. It's a hook, and uses story elements to reveal the dramatic narrative.

Let's look at some famous loglines:

After a twister transports a lonely Kansas farm girl to a magical land, she sets out on a dangerous journey to find a wizard with the power to send her home. - THE WIZARD OF OZ

OR:

Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first woman she meets, then teams up with three complete strangers to do it again. — Humourous Logline for The Wizard of Oz, attributed to Richard Polito of the Marin Independent Journal who writes sarcastic briefs for the paper's daily TV listings.

After being institutionalized for a suicide attempt, a teen struggles for sanity and closure but must overcome his greatest adversary first – his mother. - ORDINARY PEOPLE

In a future where criminals are arrested before the crime occurs, a despondent cop struggles on the lam to prove his innocence for a murder he has not yet committed. - MINORITY REPORT

You'll notice some similarities: cause and effect, well chosen adjectives, and the fact that the protag struggles against an antagonistic force.

Here's my log line/back of the book cover blurb for Dead Frog on the Porch:

Sisters Cyd and Jane are propelled into an international plot involving evil scientists and giant, genetically stretched frogs. They struggle to save the frog kingdom as their scientist mom sides with the geneticists, and the police don’t believe them. (Alright, it's a little long, I'll work on it).

Jocosa's log line about our friendship and journey as struggling writers:

A wannabe woman's fiction writer teams up with a crazed lentil addicted YA author. Together they crash conferences and stalk agents and novelists on their bipolar ride to publishing stardom.

Now we just need someone to write the screen play ... I'm busy making lentil soup.

What the log line for your work-in-progress?

Preparation for the Zombie Apocalypse

2011-05-21T15:44:00.000-06:00

Now that I've survived the end of the world (sitting in the sun in my backyard reading Middlemarch by George Eliot), I figured it was time to prepare for the possibility of a Zombie Apocalypse (like I don't have enough problems? Now I have to prepare for a Zombie Apocalypse!?).

The good anti-zombie people at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention are thinking ahead and came up with Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.

There are many good tips like this one:

Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.

You can get all the info you need to be prepared for the impending Zombie Apocalypse (or any other natural disaster) at this link.

Now to get back outside and catch a few more rays before the zombies arrive - or the more likely rain clouds.

Sentenced to poetry and octopus ballet

2011-05-14T12:06:00.000-06:00

Now that we've all lived through the great blogger meltdown of 2011, I can post again! Love blogger, hated the meltdown.

As writers we're always looking for inspiration. Sometimes we look for it sitting on the couch, channel surfing and watching re-runs, but mostly we know that inspiration is everywhere, and we have to train our creative eye to find it.

Here are a couple of examples I found this week.

A judge in Florida recognized the power of literature when she sentences some youth to writing. Here's the article from the South Florida Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A Broward County judge is giving some juvenile offenders some poetic justice.

Circuit Judge Merrilee Ehrlich has ordered about a dozen young offenders over the last six months to write poetry and read their work in court as part of their conditions for probation.

As a reward, some defendants can lose as many as 20 hours from their community service sentences.

Ehrlich says it's too early to tell if the alternative sentences are making any difference in the defendants' lives, but she points out how many have chosen to participate in the poetry readings.

Friday was the third poetry reading in Ehrlich's courtroom. Young offenders read from handwritten notes about their hardships and temptations in their neighborhoods.

And here's a video of some deep water octopi performing a ballet of the ocean. No calamari were harmed in the making of this video.

Have an inspiring writing day!

Disease of 'what if?' ... germs of imagination

2011-05-05T20:55:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday I presented at the Calgary Young Writers' Conference put on by the Calgary Board of Education. More than a thousand super keen children, in grades 4-8, who love reading and writing gave up a Saturday to spend the day in writing workshops, listening to a key note address, revelling in the book store set up by Mount Royal University Book Store and getting autographs from all of the 45 writers, illustrators and poets who were presenting.

Multiple award winning (which basically means I'm too lazy to look up all the awards he's received and list them for your reading pleasure) author Tim Wynne-Jones presented the key note address. I had a blue pencil session with him last fall at the Surrey International Writers' Conference and we were both equally covered in cat hair (thus re-enforcing the stereotype that writers like cats).

The kids loved him, and he was funny. He diagnosed writers as having the disease of 'what if?' This isn't spread by germs, but by imagination (does that mean I can lay off the hand sanitizer)? Writers observe the world around us and ask 'what if?' then follow that thought, create a world and populate it with characters.

It was a truly wonderful and inspirational day. I presented two 75 minute workshops where I ~~made the kids write until their fingers bled~~ encouraged the youth to express their creativity through the medium of writing.

I gave them a writing exercise and told them to stretch their imagination and let their ideas take flight. One diminutive grade four student with an equally tiny voice put up her hand and squeaked: "without imagination you don't have anything. You don't have a story!" So true!

When I asked them to take the scene they'd written (which was mostly telling and not showing) and write it all in dialogue one student blurted out: "but that's hard!" My response: "yes, yes it is and every writer struggles to write believable dialogue."

Thanks to all the great kids who dedicated a Saturday to hanging out with writers and learning more about writing. Many, many teachers volunteered to make the conference work and kudos to the organizers.

I guess writers do like cats!

Autographing arms, writing in cursive and frog jewellery: adventures in School and Book Club Visits

2011-04-28T18:54:00.000-06:00

Now that I've survived the yearly over consumption of chocolate cycle: eat an inordinate amount of chocolate, observe out loud to no one in particular that you can't believe you ate that much chocolate, feel every moment of self loathing, once through self loathing stage you realize that chocolate will now be on sale and that you could eat a bit of something sweet - I can tell my bloggowers about two recent school visits and one book club visit at Monkeyshines Books.

The two school visits were for the It's a Crime Not to Read literacy program which is a partnership between the Calgary Public Library, the Calgary Police Service, and Rotary.

Highlights: I felt like a rock star when kids asked me to autograph their arms (c'est what?!).

Lots of great questions such as:

Q: What's the best part of being an author?
A: Speaking to a group of kids who love reading and writing.

Q: Do you write in cursive?
A: C'est what? (Before I answered this I had to cognitively time travel back to the 14th century to remember what cursive meant. With further authorial probing the boy revealed that he wasn't good at cursive and was afraid that he wouldn't be able to be a writer because he couldn't write cursive. I assured him that most writers use computers because their handwriting is rubbish and besides most writers are bad spellers and ain't so good with grammar either).

Q: Did you know you were foreshadowing?
A: Pretty much, that's kinda my job as a writer.

As I sat there bejewelled in frog related bling I got this question:

Q: Are you consciously aware that you're wearing frog jewellery? Do you do that naturally or is it part of your frog thing?
A: Pretty much part of the whole frog thing. (Note to self: buy more frog jewellery).

When I do school visits I give the children a writing exercise and if they feel comfortable they share what they wrote with the class. I received this email from one of the organizers of the It's a Crime not to Read school visit:

Hi Jan,

Thank you again for the great presentation. It is not easy to do in the gymnasium setting, but I noticed that the students were captivated by the excerpts that you read. We have had several come into the library to place holds on Dead Bird Through the Cat Door and Dead Frog on the Porch. One of the boys who shared his story struggles with both reading and writing. We were all a little surprised not only that he shared, but that he had something to share. Thank you for inspiring him. I look forward to reading your next book.

~~Wipes tear from eye~~. No, thanks to all the kids who inspired me.

And to end off this blog post on the continuing theme of awesome young people I wanted to share a link. At the book club I met 16 year old Emma Rouleau. She was there with her younger brother. She is the creator of amazing, original felt stuffed toys. She designs and creates each one and she's started her own company called Felt Original Toys. Check it out.

One of Emma's felt original toys

I like this little guy: Kukyo

Amazing Easter Chocolate Artistry

2011-04-20T19:25:00.000-06:00

I love any holiday that involves eating the head off a chocolate bunny. While I'd like to start eating chocolate now, I've decided to limit my chocolate eating to the weekend so that I don't wake up Tuesday morning in a nest of tinfoil Easter egg wrappers with chocolate drool sliding down my chin.

If you need a similar distraction from eating chocolate here's a video to watch. It's about an amazing chocolate sculptor in Spain who takes the chocolate Easter egg to the level of a high art form. You will never think of chocolate in the same way again after watching this video.

Literary Salon in the wilds of the rockies

2011-04-16T21:16:00.000-06:00

The books of the authors and poet who read at the salon.

When you think of literary salons (not to be confused with saloons) you think berets, poets and absinthe. You also think time travel because literary salons were big (~~before they invented TV or the internet~~) in the 17th century in France.

They are making a come back. I attended one last weekend at the home of author Barb Howard in her home nestled in the pine trees at the foot of the majestic rocky mountains.

There be lotz of treez in Canada

Barb started hosting literary salons to expose Alberta authors and poets to readers who love books that you might not find in large bookstores overrun with books written by a dead Swedish guy.

It was an informal gathering of about twenty five enthusiasts of the written word. There was wine, cheese and bread (the three food groups for writers) and readings by authors Lori Hahnel, Anne Sorbie and poet Tyler Perry.

And there be cheez!

It was a great way to discover new writers and a great way to expose the authors to a new audience, and maybe start a little word of mouth.

So here's to literary salons! Think about starting one in a living room near you (she says raising a glass of absinthe!)

Deep in my Sasquatch writing cave

2011-04-10T11:48:00.000-06:00

Dear Bloggowers, if you've been wondering where I've been lately, I've been deep in my Sasquatch writing cave preparing for some up coming presentations.

I'll be presenting at the Calgary Young Writer's Conference (put on by the Calgary Board of Education) at the end of the month. Looking forward to spending the day with some super keen kids who are giving up their saturday to learn more about writing.

It's a Crime not to Read asked me back again this year, so I'll be presenting in four schools. It's a great early literacy program that involves the Calgary Police, the Calgary Public Library, Calgary Board of Education, and Calgary Rotary.

Then I'll be going into a high school to talk about what it's like having a career as a writer.

Monkey Shines Book Store invited me to their final book club meeting of the year. It will have a year end book club party feel to it (cake for the youngings and wine for the oldins).
That's Tuesday April 26th at 7 pm. There are still spots open - it's a kid and adult club where both read the books. We'll be discussing both Dead Frog on the Porch and Dead Bird through the Cat Door .

And just in case I'm not spreading my self around enough - Deb Marshal of Just Deb blog fame will post, on Monday, an interview she did with me. She's a library lady and story teller who shares her passion for reading and writing books for children and young adults. And she's an all round positive person and enthusiastic supporter of the children's writing community.

Phew ... time for a nap ...

This is a house made out of books. Wish it were my house.

Deep thoughts and hip checks

2011-04-02T16:18:00.000-06:00

We all know the cardinal rule of writing - show don't tell. Show me the character through action and dialogue rather than tell me about the character. Show me the character's emotions and inner conflict all through action and dialogue. Yes, dear bloggowers, I know it's hard, I can hear you complaining: 'but why can't I just write pages and pages of description of the character and what he's thinking?' Writing is not for wimps, that's why. So let's move on....

So how do you show 'thinking'? The stereotypical tapping of the forefinger on the temple while looking quizzical? Chewing on the nub of a pen? Elbows on the table and chin cupped in hand?

How about this scenario that played out in my office.

Dude who works in a different office down the hall, stops dead in front of my office. The First Aid sign flapped in the non-existent breeze. Wearing a shirt that was allergic to an iron, and looking like it had been on his back through a three month back packing trip through India, he stooped over, leaned against the cubicle across the hall and held his head in his hands.

Me (being an avid First Aider): Are you okay?

Him (looking like he was startled out of a blow to the head): Yeah.

Me (Seriously, Dude!): What are you doing?

Him: I just had a thought and was trying to figure out what to do with it.

Me: O...k...a...y. I thought you needed First Aid (I point to the sigh outside my door).

Wow! I've been accused of deep thinking but have never had a thought hip-check me to the boards (that's hockey lingo y'all).

That's how you show thinking ...

High Priestess of Procrastination and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

2011-03-27T11:57:00.001-06:00

Writers are know for the lengths they will go to procrastinate and avoid writing. I was indulging in some pretty high level procrastination techniques yesterday to avoid doing my taxes. Let me clarify that for you dear bloggowers. I don't do my taxes, I have the proverbial 'tax guy' who does them. I compile the receipts because he doesn't want a canvas bag full of loose receipts in three different currencies (due to all the exciting conferences I travelled to last year).

I hereby present to you, my loyal bloggowers, the list of activities I engaged in to avoid compiling my taxes. You can peruse them as I crown myself the High Priestess of Procrastination.

took delivery of a dresser to replace the one with the slats separating (darn you reclaimed Siberian wood);
went out in a snowstorm to take the Christmas wreath off the side of the house and replace it with a spring/Easter themed wreath (get the irony there?!);
put in a load of laundry;
watched a documentary about Moammar Gadhafi (Note to self: good decision Jan, back in the 1990s, not to name your cat Meow-mar Katafi);
cleaned out two years worth of old heating bills from my filing cabinet;
went on line to register to get heating bills electronically (you're welcome earth day);
answered emails and was on facebook and twitter until my eye balls froze in place;
opened six months worth of mail (Note to self: Seriously!)
dug an inordinate amount of old wax out of a candle holder and lit some candles (you're welcome earth day);
threw out a couple of years worth of Christmas and birthday cards that were still on display - because they were funny (now everyone can stop bugging me about that);
did my dishes;
made a grilled cheese sandwich;
forgot about the load of laundry; and
ate the grilled cheese sandwich (which totally rocked).

Then I finally got down to compiling my receipts. While it took a while to compile the receipts I have for expenses related to my writing life, I know that it will take far less time to compile the receipts for revenue related to my writing life. Ha, more irony!

Here are a couple of cool videos to watch if you are indulging in procrastination or avoidance behaviour today.

The first one is about the end of publishing (*yawn*)!

The next one is a flash mob - you know I'm a sucker for flash mobs. It's a flash mob with a message of hope shot in Toronto's Eaton Centre.

Cupcakes, O Canada, basketball and cats taking over the world

2011-03-23T08:17:00.001-06:00

This blog post is all about me bragging ...

On myself for my crazy mad icing skillz - yes, I iced a dozen of these ice-cream cone cupcakes for my friend's daughter's birthday.

Yum. Pizza looks good too!

Me bragging on my niece who sang O Canada at the opening and closing ceremonies for a girls hockey tournament. The crowds went wild at the end. She blogs at Tiny Canadian.

And me bragging on my nephew who defied gravity and flew through the air to ~~get a hole in one~~ sink this basket.

Way to go!

Oh, and if you thought for a moment that you could stop be vigilant about cats taking over the world - watch this video. Sure they look like they are asleep curled up on your favourite chair but they are really planning world domination. We're talking gangs of cats bloggowers!

What an ugly purple bathroom reveals about your character

2011-03-20T11:33:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of my friend Lyle's bathroom.

It's purple.

It's ugly.

It's an ugly purple bathroom.

I'm not trash talking his bathroom behind his back. He sent me the picture with this preamble:

Unfortunately, the picture does not do it justice. The walls are actually a darker purple than what they appear and the non-matching tub is lighter than it appears. However, I do think it contrasts nicely with the almond sink and toilet and the yellow backsplash surround of the tub.

Why am I telling you all of this and what does it have to do with character development? So many times we describe what a character has no choice about - blue eyes, height, hair colour (okay, maybe we have a choice about that). Instead, describe the characteristics that a character does have choice about - what clothes they wear, possessions they treasure, what they buy, and how they decorate their house.

The purple bathroom wasn't Lyle's choice. What does it tell us about the character who owned the house before Lyle? What does it tell us about Lyle's choice to keep the purple bathroom? What do your characters' choices reveal about them? Why do I keep asking questions? What does it reveal about my character that I ask a friend to send me a picture of his ugly purple bathrooms and then write a blog post about it?