author of more than a dozen books for kids & teens
07 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
in News
Flash Fiction and Face Book…This will be my facebook post tomorrow.
Last Night’s Paddle
Seven dip paddles into sparkles dancing across blue.
At the harbor’s mouth, sunset lights sky and water orange.
Seven paddling as one are an inky silhouette on their return.
02 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
in Help for writers, News Tags: Canadian Children's Book Center, Get Published Seminar
For those of you who are in or near Toronto and want to write for kids or teens, don’t miss
THE CANADIAN CHILDREN’S BOOK CENTRE PRESENTS: GET PUBLISHED! SEMINAR
TORONTO, SEPTEMBER 1, 2011: On September 17, 2011 in Toronto, three panels of
experts will discuss how children’s books are written, illustrated, edited,
and selected for publication and sale in Canada. There will also be a question
and answer period where panel experts will discuss participants’ questions.
CREATORS SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE: Award-winning authors Barbara Reid
(children’s books), Gillian O’Reilly (non-fiction), and a third fiction writer
(TBA) will talk about the creative process and how their careers took off.
PUBLISHERS TELL ALL: Margie Wolfe (Publisher, Second Story Press) and Sheba
Meland (formerly Publisher of Maple Tree Press) give the inside scoop on the
children’s publishing industry and what publishers are really looking for in a
manuscript.
BOOKSELLERS REVEAL THE INs AND OUTs OF BOOKSELLING:
Highly successful wholesaler Maria Martella (owner of Tinlids Inc.) and sales
executive Saffron Beckwith (Vice President of Kate Walker & Co.) explain how
booksellers decide which books to showcase in their stores.
WHEN: Saturday September 17, 2011
9:00am to 12:00pm
WHERE: Canadian Children’s Book Centre
Room 222
2nd Floor, Northern District Library
40 Orchard View Blvd
(One Block North of Yonge and Eglinton)
COST: $75 per participant (includes the CCBC’s best-selling ‘Get Published!’
kit)
Registration is limited. Please register with Dawn Todd by phone at
416.975.0010 ext. 224 or online at
www.bookcentre.ca/store/products/get_published_seminar by Thursday September
15, 2011.
All proceeds go to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, a national, not-for-
profit organization founded in 1976 to encourage, promote, and support the
reading, writing, and illustrating of Canadian Children’s literature.
For further information contact:
Dawn Todd, General Manager
Canadian Children’s Book Centre
416 975-0010 ext. 224
dawn@bookcentre.ca
01 Sep 2011 3 Comments
in For Educators, For Parents Tags: Banned Books, Cheryl Rainfield, Crank, Scars, Speak, The HUnger Games
Cheryl Rainfield talks about banned books and why we should be reading them. She talks about some of my favorite books like Speak and Crank and The Hunger Games and yes, her book, Scars
31 Aug 2011 Leave a comment
I never travel without a book or two or three, but that doesn’t stop me from buying new ones along the way, even if I haven’t finished what I brought. So, at a cute little bookstore along the wharf in San Francisco I picked up Jay Asher‘s Thirteen Reasons Why. It isn’t new, but it’s one of those books that I’ve been meaning to read, and there it was front and centre. I had a little bit of a hard time getting into it at first, possibly because we were busy being tourists ( seeing the sights of San Francisco and then touring wine country, and on to the Redwoods) and partly because the subject matter is pretty tough. It’s about suicide. It’s the story of how a young high school girl who is full of life could reach a place where she’d want to end her life. And believe me, it’s an amazing journey.
Once I had a chunk of time to sit down with Thirteen Reasons Why, I couldn’t put it down. The story is mainly told in two voices; that of Hannah’s taped voice (the words from her tapes appear in italics) and Clay Jenson’s voice; one of the thirteen people who received the tapes. Clay doesn’t know who delivered them, but he recognizes Hannah’s voice instantly. He listens to the thoughtless acts, secrets and betrayals of thirteen people and how each contributed to Hannah’s decision to take her life. At first Clay can’t understand why he’s on Hannah’s list. Other than that party where they talked and kissed, he’s never done anything to Hannah Baker except worship her from afar. But, over the course of a day and a night, he listens to Hannah’s voice and visits the places around town she indicates are important. The more he listens, the more he understands that small actions and even the lack of action can have enormous consequences.
Thirteen Reasons Why is frustrating and sad, and funny, and hopeful all at the same time. Asher perfectly captures what it’s like to be a teenager; the way it feels to be excited and then disappointed. The way it feels to be used, or invisible. The way it feels to reach out only to be misunderstood, or understood too late. This is a difficult but compelling read that I highly recommend.
30 Aug 2011 Leave a comment
in News Tags: Creativity, Michel Gondry, Paste Magazine, PES, Sharon Creech
This comes by way of Sharon Creech and facebook. As Sharon says, it’s brilliant. Thanks for sharing it. If you like it pass it on.
The writer and director is Adam Pesapane, known as PES . You’ve probably seen his work on TV commercials but didn’t know it was his. According to Wikki,
Director Michel Gondry was quoted in Paste Magazine as saying “Clicking on a PES film is to open a safe and suddenly see a million ideas glittering and exploding. The only reason you close the door is to re-open it just after and discover what will pop this time.”
This could not be more true. PES has a lot of very cool films under his belt, so check some of them out. I think you can also follow him on twitter.
30 Aug 2011 Leave a comment
in News Tags: AS Byatt, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Terry Pratchett, Writing for Children
Children’s book writers take heart. The queen of Literary fiction and Booker Prize winner, AS Byatt has a surprise favorite writer. And guess what? It’s a children’s author! According to The Guardian, at the
Edinburgh international book festival AS Byatt has declared Terry Pratchett her hero, for having “caused more people to read books than anyone else – because he tells them something they want to know, that they can laugh at, and because he writes really good English”.
Indeed, the author of Possession and, most recently, the Man Booker-shortlisted The Children’s Book, suggested that a free distribution of Pratchett to all 12-year-olds would “have a very good effect” on getting young people to read.
So, when someone asks when you’re going to write a “real book,” you can just roll your eyes and dismiss them knowing full well that kids who read are more likely to become adults who read, and they are one of the most important audiences a writer can have.
29 Aug 2011 Leave a comment
in Writing Life Tags: Bev Rosenbaum, Flash Fiction, McGraw-Hill Ryerson skateboarding, Micro Fiction
I’ve spent the entire day writing, and I’ve only managed to get three lines written. Yep. Three lines. And, it’s all Bev’s fault! Ok, that’s a slight exaggeration, but not totally off the mark. You see, Bev Rosenbaum works as a contract editor for McGraw-Hill Ryerson and she put out a call for some micro or flash fiction for a digital bank resource for high school students. I couldn’t help myself. I love flash fiction. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s super short stories. Basically, the twitter type, which, I know seems impossible. But it’s not. You have to have a beginning, a middle and and end, all in 140 characters. Strive for a twist in the ending as well. It’s hard to do, but so much fun. Here’s one I wrote today on trying to impress a girl with skateboarding tricks.
Unimpressed
I ride by Annie’s.
She’s hanging with a friend.
My 360 rocks and my railslide trick is slick.
I slam a kickflip ollie and have to limp away.
Give it a try. It’s hard, but so much fun.
28 Aug 2011 4 Comments
in Help for writers Tags: Getting out of the Slush Pile, Harold Underdown, The Complet Idiots Guide to Publishing Children's Books, Writing for Children
Recently, I’ve had several emails from writers desperate to get published. Sadly, I find most of the writers who contact me know little about the business of writing for children…and it really is a business. You might as well know that now people. No one is going to publish you because you’ve written a story that your children love, or one that your students adored. No one is going to publish a story because it teaches children an important lesson. Publishers want stories that they can sell, stories with a fresh take on a universal subject, stories that are stand head and shoulders above the usual. Those stories may have a lesson imbedded in them, but the lesson serves the story, not the other way around. The first thing I ask these writers is “When was the last time you read a children’s book? Many refer to classic stories from their childhood. Most haven’t a clue what is going on in children’s publishing today. I immediately send them to the library and local bookstore to read award winning books, I encourage them to join or form critique groups to really work on their writing skills, and I send them to Harold Underdown, an editor, and the author of The Complete Idiots Guide to Publishing Children’s Books. In addition to the book, Underdown has lots of material on the web that can help wanna-be’s. Check out Getting Out of the Slush Pile.
So if you’re one of those writers, do us both a favor, and get your butt down to the bookstore, and to the library, start a critique group and start looking at your work critically…and check out Harold Underdown’s site…There are no shortcuts. You just have to put in the hard work. You have to revise your story until it is perfect. You have to become the best writer you can be. But, I guarantee that you won’t regret it, and who knows, you might even find you’ll work your way out of the slushpile.
Sheryl McFarlane 