A change will do you good

I just read one of the best books of my life.

It is not the first book I ever read that made me think of the world and my actions differently, and I hope it won't be my last.

A book from my past....Over the last several years I have read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck aloud to my students.  I read the voices with inflection and I wring laughter out of those students and make them cry and choke up too.  I also do a good job of showing that life as a mentally challenged person is not easy, but of value.  I am a good performer, but the key is I feel passionate about one of the themes.  That sometimes out of love for another we must do hard things for their benefit.  My understanding of George and Lenny has made an effect on choices I have made.

A book from my present....I just finished Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.  It is a YA fictional book about teenage suicide and how people's actions affect other people and how simple it is to change the course of someone's life or death by your own actions.  And it is an unbelievably compelling and touching novel.

I learned about this book and this author at the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Conference last weekend, but put off reading it until this morning.  I heard a lot of hype about the book and I expected it to be so good, I would want to be able to concentrate and read it in one setting.  No bookmarks needed!  I was sick at the beginning of last week and busy at the end, so I waited.  I am working on taking my time to enjoy things and experiences I feel I will cherish.  It was worth it.

I've read the book.  I get the hype.  And I recommend it.  It is not a happy read, but a necessary one.  I have been blessed to read books that were perfect examples of what a book should be and what a book should leave you with.  Thirteen Reasons Why gives that experience.

This isn't just a commercial for the book.  I do hope you read it, but more importantly I hope you read something, sometime that speaks to you the way this book spoke to me.  Something that makes you change.  This ability to touch a reader and to cause the reader to change or revel or love is the power of great literature.

I am going this week to talk to high school students about being a writer.  And I think the message or theme I want to realize about any job is try to find a career that you can be passionate about...a career that lets you use your skills to reach out and to literally make your life and the world a better place.

A book in my future...I hope and believe that I will one day write a book that can cause a person to feel the power of the message and have it change they way they live their life for better.

SCBWI Conference Ruled!

This past weekend I went to the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) of Kansas, Let's Make Magic Conference.  Most of the conferences I have attended have been through the romance genre and general writing themes and this was my first that was more juvenile school and library based. 

I liked it.  I really liked what I saw, learned and experienced.  If you have some interest in these areas, I recommend joining the group. I attended Saturday and from Mike Jung's (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities) Opening Keynote on "Togetherness" to Jay Asher's Closing Keynote of his twelve year publication journey to becoming an author of the book (Thirteen Reasons Why) now on the New York Times bestseller list for two AND a half years, I found the whole experience to be positive.  Editor Arthur Levine was entertaining as a Penn and Teller-esque assistant to Mike Jung's speech and during the joint song and dance.  He was also quite informative and professional, but it was great to see his humor too.  My breakout sessions were Jay Asher quite effectively explaining "How to Inject Suspense Into Your Novel", Mike Jung's "Voice" which made several concepts more clear, Agent Mary Kole clarified how to accomplish, "Writing Irresistible YA and MG Fiction.  The First pages critiques by the professionals were interesting to see what the professionals agreed about concerning the pages provided by attending authors and what they didn't.  I did wish mine had been reviewed, but not enough time.

I left with some great contacts, some new books to read, helpful knowledge, a plan to attend more of these events!

Some blurbs of info I liked from some of the people I named above.

Trust your editors and agents to know what they are doing.  They are your collaborators.

Suspense Killers: Bad dialogue, too much description, unnatural motivations....

When brainstorming, the first solution you come up with is what others will too.  Pick something else.

Ask-What kind of experiences are the characters going through on a daily basis?  Tone of piece...

YA publications are up 30%.  Contemporary is good right now.

Tons of News

Wonder what I do now that I am retired from teaching?

Time for catch up and preview of writing and speaking activities.

This has been some of my September and October so far.

I attended the Moonlight and Magnolias Conference in Atlanta at the beginning of the month.  Met wonderful writers, heard Julia Quinn speak again, won multiple fabulous gift bags, and got two requests for full of my book Mirror Images. 

I also visited Savannah with my husband and came up with an idea for a YA series.  I am taking an on-line class about how to write a series that has been quite helpful. 

I have attended a writing retreat, club meetings, and critiques and am going to a conference this weekend for children and MG and YA authors.  This will be a new venue to explore.  I have judged a couple of writing contests and contacted numerous editors to send entries on to them.

I also have helped out former co-workers with contest judging and planning units and lessons.  And I found a way to put lessons on line and receive money for them.

I also have been speaking as a storytime reader at the local library and am scheduled to do a reading for my grandson's after school program and act a pioneer storyteller for our school on November 2.  Coming up with a pioneer costume for that one.  I have tried not to have clothes like that in the past.  At readings sometimes I just read books or poems, or I sing (sorry, it is bad) or  I use puppets, and I usually write some type of audience participation event.  I also have written plays and readers theaters too.

Tomorrow I will be at the Holden Library from 5:30-7:00 giving a program on "What it takes to be a writer."  I will talk about the different genres, how to write books, and ways to be published. 

On Thursday, I will be facilitating a discussion on the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird" at 7:00 at the Holden Library.

On November 1 and 27 I am available from 4:30-7:00 to discuss novel writing and tips at the Holden Library in honor of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month.)  People of all ages are invited to utilize the library to meet the word count challenges of the national program.

I have even managed to write and edit during this time. 

Let me show you some of my tricks!

The formatting doesn't work the same when I transfer my flyer to the blog, but the information is the same and it is what I am up to these days.   Check below for details about my writing workshop for students (and it is good for adults too)!  I also am continuing to speak about writing and other topics and still do readings at libraries and for groups of all ages.  It is a good place for me to be working at a writer, editor, and speaker. 

 This October..

 TRICKS  to make writing a TREAT!

*Want to get your students motivate to write more effectively?

*Want students to appreciate that good writing requires the 3 P’s?                                           (Preparation, persistence, and PRACTICE.)

*Want to sneak in some objectives & common core standards?

It isn’t really MAGIC, but it can be accomplished…

in a workshop that’s entertaining, cheap, & bursting with TRICKS used by authors. Workshop is tailored to meet your school’s needs in age and skill level of participants and building schedule. It also serves as a great preparation activity for November’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).* 

   Local Writer, Editor, & Speaker, G. Aliceson Edwards, uses her twenty-six years of teaching literature and writing experience and budding author know-how in her interactive workshop, TRICKS to make writing a TREAT, by presenting practical tips and tricks to make writing more manageable to apply skills in school and in today’s publishing market.

Students will do interactive activities to enhance own bag of writing TRICKS!

*Differentiate among genres to produce those characteristics to aid developing own style.

*Apply story structure techniques and common literary devices during workshop and beyond. 

*Recognize the good practices of writers working in today’s market for own writing goals.

For more information about available dates, workshops costs, or to ask questions email  galicesonedwards@earthlink.net   

Not interested in a workshop now? Check out Student Writers Program. http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/ywp

The Secret of My Success

I am beloved by thousands!

Okay, not in my current writing and editing world, but in my previous career as a teacher.  I enjoyed working with the students so much.  I loved them and many of them loved me back.  It was great then and still is when I see former students and we get hang out together for a few minutes.  It happens pretty much everywhere I go.   I explained to my husband who did not know of this type of exposure when we were dating, that going somewhere with me was like traveling with a rock star...young people scream out my name and run up to me to visit.

This is not me, being delusional or conceited. In spite of any mistakes I made in my career, and there were more than I wanted, most of the students I worked with on a daily basis came away with good feelings about the experience.   To the ones who did not...sometimes you weren't in a position in your life to be ready to have a good relationship with anyone and sometimes I simply failed to be what you needed.  I do apologize for that.

I was a teacher!  I worked hard to be a successful one.  And in our small town I taught nearly everyone who came through our district.  I had over 3000 students during my teaching career and I taught whole families of children and even the second generations too. It was a lot of people to influence and a lot of people to influence me.

Since I retired from teaching earlier in the year, I have reflected on my career and decided what worked and what didn't and how I am going to apply what I experienced to my writing and editing career.  I think the most important part of what I learned is a strength in how I treated my students.

My mother calls it the Pollyanna Principle. For those of you who didn't have a mother who made you watch the movie repeatedly, the quote is "If you look for the bad in people you're sure to find it, so look for the good in them instead."

I found this to be true in class.  If a student with a bad reputation came into my class, I tried not to acknowledge what I knew.  I would be just as nice and as mean as I was to everyone else.  Now, I wasn't too nice to them if they chose to demonstrate how they earned the bad reputation, but I had much more success by acting as if it were inconceivable that anyone would want to act up in my class.  Frankly, that confused some of them.  But even when they behaved poorly, I would just act like we hadn't had a problem before and move on.  Soon there wasn't a problem and I got to see their best side instead.

I am not a pushover when it comes to dealing with people.  (Stop laughing, those of you who would say this is an understatement!) There are co-workers and people from my life that I did not always give the wonderful benefit of this kind of benevolent acceptance. I apologize for this too.

I know not everyone responds in a positive manner when treated well as I hope, but I, like Anne Frank, really do believe, "In spite of everything, that people are really good at heart."

What a fantastic gift it is to believe the best about someone!

In my writing the one thing that has kept me going during the drudgery of editing and the difficulty of thinking I may one day be published is the belief my family, friends, and my former students have that I can.  So I am going to try and live up to their faith that I am good enough to do it.

Time to edit. 

Getting the business!

I have come to the realization that being a writer is not all a comfortable sweater, a warm drink, a computer, and you alone with your thoughts gleefully creating the best work ever written.

Being a writer means you are a business.  The CEO, the boss, the manager, the middle manager, the managees, the workers, the scut workers, the publicity firm,and most assuredly the custodial staff.  And there is so much more that you have ever imagined that will take your time a way from the actual writing. 

A writing career is the perfect example of the old cartooned balancing act.  Picture the balancing act photo of a person standing on a long board atop a rolling cylinder. I would have thought that keeping your balance among your writer's duties was the main goal of a career.  I now know it is simply getting both ends of the board into the air, because there is so much more weight on the business and publication end (ISBN's, Blogs, Betas, Copyrights, Facebook, Twitter, Blog tours, conferences, contests, writing groups, appearances, agents, retreats, formatting...) that your writing literally is left up in the air sometimes.  This past weekend at a writers retreat, the published authors explained that seventy-five percent of their professional time is spent on activities that don't include writing.

Daunting to someone who is still trying to get craft down and their writing in good enough shape to send out.  I can see why some writers just give up or refuse to acknowledge business concerns.  The temptation would be strong to go all Thoreau and spend your time in the cabin by the pond.

Still, even with all of the requirements of the a successful writing career many writers do find a way to balance their demands and enjoy what they do.

As a beginner, I have been spending a great deal of time analyzing what is my best use of time.  Right now, I am going to the garage to look for a long board and a sturdy cylinder.  That way I can get some exercise and improve my balance while I do all of this learning.

Or I can use the board to as a club to help me get motivated.

The NO NO Typing Practices!

Today I am talking about the proper things we are all taught NOT to do.

Not the normal things like don't pick your nose or chew with your mouth closed.  Good hygiene and discreet bodily function issues should be approached in a tasteful manner if at all possible.

I am referring to the some grammatical and punctuation issues I just don't agree with.  These guidelines have been presented as fact by some when it comes to texting, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, other social media.  And they are not, nor is there a strong reason grammatically or socially why they should be.

I am not normally a person who says break the rules of the English language.  I made a career of guiding people away from making mistakes.  There are some guidelines I feel strongly that should be done correctly.  There, their and they're-your and you're-its and it's-a lot is two words unless it is allot-are all worthy of a cringe when I see them done incorrectly.

BUT the idea that capital letters in a text is shouting irks me.  If I want to shout at you, I will.   And I will do it at a loud speaking volume, in person.  Trust me, if I care enough to shout at you I want to be involved in a conversation that doesn't consist of me typing to get my message across.  (Actually, if I am shouting, things are still good.  If I drop in tone and volume and sound like Clint Eastwood, just do whatever I say.  You may survive the interaction.)

A second thing I disagree with is that using exclamation points makes you look immature or uneducated when writing.  I agree this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is too much, but this ! says, "Hey, I am excited about what I am talking about!"  If I wanted to put this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, it means I probably want to talk about it in person anyway.

Who made these two things into "rules"?  Who makes these rules that often don't follow their own guidelines was often asked by my students.  The fact is we all do and word of mouth is how it is accomplished down through the generations.  I say we rise up and stop these naysayers who are trying to do away with capitals and exclamation points.  The world needs big letters and enthusiastic punctuation.

So, if I want to STRESS something I am going to put it in capital letters.  If I want to share my exuberance, then an exclamation mark is for ME!  It doesn't make me ignorant of the current psuedo English language trends.  I am just a grammatical and punctuation free spirit. 

A REBEL to the end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!