Birthmarked
Next Week: Book Expo!
Book Expo America
This time next week, I’ll be at Book Expo America in New York, talking with readers and signing ARCs of The Vault of Dreamers. This is a super big deal to me. Like, super. I spend so many uneventful days sitting on my couch having conversations with fictional characters that the prospect of putting on respectable clothes, taking the train to the city, making my way to the Javits Center and interacting with friendly book people is huge for me. I’m psyched.
BEA Autograph… Continue reading
Talking Dystopias with Eighth Graders
Photo credit: Hartford Public Schools
I had a great visit with 38 Eighth Graders at the Annie Fisher STEM Magnet School in Hartford this winter. The students, in a unit on dystopian societies, had a choice of reading Birthmarked, The Hunger Games, or The Giver, and we tackled student questions like, “Do you think our society is becoming more dystopian, or less?” (More, was the consensus, but we have no shortage of hope for the future.)
Each student wrote his or her name on… Continue reading
The Happy Lull
My house is full of people who are sleeping in. We stayed up past 3 a.m. last night talking, reading, and listening to music. Beyond the delicious meals, the new books, chocolates, games, and shoes, we have nurtured our family and renewed our sense of gratitude. In this whole world where so much is uncertain, how fortunate are those who spend Christmas at home with the ones they love.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Incarcerated Girls Write, Too
Teacher Joanne Hayes at Journey House
The Writing Workshop at Journey House is an eye-opener, week after week. The writers, all incarcerated girls aged 13-17, join the optional workshop only if they genuinely want to come. That is key. We decide for ourselves how we want to run the workshop, who speaks, who reads aloud, and what we write about. There are no grades, no assignments, no evaluations, and no deadlines.
The writing is formidable.
These writers have lived, and they have stories to tell. … Continue reading
Learning from That Writer I Knew
Birthmarked, First Draft, 2.13.2008
I went back to my very first draft of Birthmarked this morning to see how it opened, and I was surprised by how decisive and certain it sounded, especially since I know I was making it up at the time. The draft was in single-space, which also surprised me because I write in double-space now, and this drew my eye to the size of the paragraphs, which were short, and the white space that flowed around them. The prose already had a distinctive cadence… Continue reading
Write and Write and Write
Franconia Ridge, and a little perspective, 9.15.2013
At the top of my to-do list, an ever-evolving string of reminders and chores, is the directive “Write and write and write.” It’s always the first item, at the top of the morning, a small, nudging cheerleader telling me three years into doing this full-time that yes, writing is really what I’m supposed to be doing every day. Not in a half-baked, lazy way, either. Lots of it. No matter what.
I’ll tell you what’s daunting: sitting back from… Continue reading