One Year Later...

Mentish Retreat November 2012

It's hard to believe it's been a year since we launched Turbo Monkey Tales. So much has happened since our first blog post! In honor of our anniversary we thought we'd all take stock and offer our own personal Year in Review.
So, without further ado, here's what the Turbo Monkeys have been up to for the last twelve months!

Hazel Mitchell

• New books include: 1,2,3 BY THE SEA from Kane Miller, ONE WORD PEARL from Charlesbridge and DOUBLE CROSSED AT CACTUS FLATS from ABDO. 
• Completed illustrations for HIGHLIGHTS MAGAZINE and educational books. 
• Spoke at SCBWI conferences in Paris and New England.
• Signed with a school booking agent http://authorvisits.com
• Visited several book festivals (including Bologna Children's Book Fair, The London Book Fair and ALA Chicago), book stores and schools!
• Now working on a new book with Charlesbridge due in Fall 2014!

Amy Allgeyer Cook

It’s been a pretty exciting year for me. I (finally) finished the first draft of my young adult novel, Water for Starfish, during NaNoWriMo, then spent the next six months in revisions. 

On May 14th, I sent out my first wave of agent queries. Over the next two months, I received full requests, form rejections, more full requests, rejections on fulls, more full requests and … more rejections. Then, on July 15th, came an offer. YAY! Big squees! I let the other agents who had open queries or full manuscripts know that there was an offer on the table. And I gave them two weeks to finish reading and get back to me. Two weeks later, I had three offers of representation from three absolutely freaking amazing agents, every one of whom would have been stellar to work with. Unfortunately, I had to pick JUST ONE! 

After a very thoughtful weekend spent in Reno with some very dear writer friends, I decided to go with Danielle Chiotti of Upstart Crow Literary. I’m so excited to be a part of the Upstart Crow team and to be working with Danielle, especially!

Sarah McGuire

Last year, our blog's first day was also the first day of preservice in my school district. That seems fitting, since it was also the first year that I taught Creative Writing, which was truly an adventure.

Since then, I...

• Finished the Highlights workshop with Patti Gauch in October, which helped my jump into revisions on VALIANT
• Started submitting VALIANT on February 14
• Spent spring break angsting about VALIANT while vacationing at the oh-so-fabulous When Words Count retreat. (Yay for sweepstakes!)
• Signed with Tracey Adams of Adams Literary in April (I'm still happy dancing!)
• Finished school year and VALIANT revisions the way most teachers do– sleep deprived and somewhat incoherent
• Drove cross-country to help a friend move to Washington state. I even stopped in Reno on the way back to meet with a few of Monkey tribe! VALIANT has traveled as well- venturing out into the world as it looks for a home.

This week, it begins again. During preservice, I'll be preparing for Algebra II, College Algebra Trig, and of course, Creative Writing. 

Craig Lew

In this year of the Turbo Monkey: 

1) My movie ROCK JOCKS released in Theaters in June - Available on iTunes and Amazon http://www.rockjocksthemovie.com

2) My Augmented Reality App BPZapp became available in the iTunes App Store and Google Play 

3) My Augmented Reality graphic novel, THE GOTHS: THE HUNTRESS (available on Amazon) was a finalist in the Indie Excellence Book Awards.

4) My latest acquisition, SMELVIN AND GOULASH BOY (written by Amy Allgeyer Cook, Edited by Lorin Oberweger, illustrated by Hazel Mitchell) will release in print, iBook and enhanced with Augmented Reality in Fall 2013.

5) Spoke at the Boise Cutters and Idaho Media Professionals Film Groups

6) I adopted Smittens, the kitten with the marshmallow mittens. 

7) Raced in the Idaho State Criterium Cycling Championships and lived

8) Met many new people and made some amazing friends.

I have two pending deals which could be huge...but I cannot talk about them yet.

Julie Dillard

Year highlights:

I feel really fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend TWO inspiring conferences this year--the Ventana Sierra Advanced Writers Workshop and SCBWI's Summer Conference in Los Angeles. I'm attacking my stories with fresher enthusiasm because of the focused time those experiences provided to hone in on craft and process. I am in a rewarding new teaching position, which means I have to draw on all the thoughtful advice I get from fellow writers to make progress in the limited time I have. One method I've adopted is getting up at 5am to sneak in an hour of writing before rushing off to work. The best side effect is having the story simmer in my head all day long! The very best part of this year has been, through conferences and great meet-ups with writer friends, abundant reminders of how very kind, funny, and compassionate--even heroic--people who write for children can be. Bring on the new year!

Kristen Crowley Held

Just a couple of days after our first blog post in 2012 I participated in the awesome online children’s writers conference WriteOnCon. This year’s conference starts tomorrow and, trust me, you won’t want to miss it! I also found inspiration at several in person SCBWI conferences and events where I reconnected with old friends and discovered new ones. By far my favorite part of this past year was attending the book launches of several writerly friends and crit buddies. I also had the pleasure of seeing my name in the acknowledgements of a real live book for the first time (if you haven’t read Katherine Longshore's TARNISH, go buy a copy right now, I’ll wait!). After much back and forthing, I broke up with my MG fantasy novel once and for all (or at least until I can figure out how to make it the wondrously magical thing I want it to be). With the help of a two week fast draft class run by Candace Havens, I wrote a “discovery draft” of the YA mystery (BLURT) I started at our mentish reunion at the fabulous St. Mary’s Art and Retreat Center in Virginia City, and next month I’m off to the Writer's Police Academy to make sure my manuscript “won’t bleed red ink later.”  I’m excited about getting BLURT to the beautiful/shiny stage and will be hopping on the query roller coaster later this year. Wish me luck!

Ellen Jellison

For the past year, I’ve been working on a middle grade historical/fantasy novel set along the Danube River in 170 AD. Ancient Roman and Germanic mythology is woven throughout the story, at times in real life, then fading back into mythology. Getting it right has been a challenge. The book is called JUSTUS, although I call it my Never Ending Revision. I’m finally on the last chapters, so yippee!  Two conferences that I recently attended and can highly recommend are the Speakeasy Literary Society’s retreat at Fallen Leaf Lake, and Terri Farley’s Ridin’ Writer’s Workshop. Both were intimate in nature, yet very powerful. I left both with new friendships, new ideas, and a rejuvenated determination in finishing JUSTUS, no matter how long the journey! My favorite word is perseverance, one familiar to all writers and illustrators . . . hang in there and keep on truckin’!

Marilyn Hilton

This has been a wonderful year with the monkeys! Although I didn't lose the 10 pounds I'd hoped to, I read lots of fabulous middle-grade and young-adult novels that have entertained, inspired, amused, educated, and enlightened me. I also attended several writers conferences and retreats, including three SCBWI regional conferences with Kristen, the Speakeasy Literary Society Retreat in April with Ellen, and the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA with Julie and Craig. It was a treat to have that time with them and so many other inspiring writers of children's literature. In October, a YA manuscript I'd been working on won the First Page contest at the SCBWI San Francisco North & East Bay conference, and I've continued working on that manuscript, along with a few others. But most of my writing time and energy this year have been spent working on revisions of my debut middle-grade novel, FOUND THINGS, which will be published by Atheneum in summer 2014. (The photo is me with my wonderful editor, Namrata Tripathi.)

I can't imagine having taken this journey so far without the monkeys, and I'm so excited to see what the next year brings for us all!

Reality Check: Investing Where It Matters by Julie

In recent weeks, I’ve been working through a career research unit with my sophomores. Some days I’ve felt FRUSTRATED with how little thought and effort some of the kids seem to put into the possibilities. I worry about them not getting a handle on their own power to choose attitudes and actions—their destinies—so I push.

One day last week, we took a look at a clip from APixar Story, an inspiring documentary about the evolution of the company. We had a discussion about the challenges individuals in the fledgling company faced and what contributed to their successes. 

Mid-chat, I had a doozy of an a-ha moment.

Sometimes the things right in front of me are hard to see.

It struck me that investment is key—not so much the money kind, but the time, effort, perseverance, and belief in what could be (even during the times things look dire) kinds. Success takes real investment. Without it, how can anything really change? It's the difference between the dream of being a doctor, tattoo artist, or writer and actually being one. Of course, I knew that on some level, but now I could feel it.

The a-ha moment had less pleasant second phase (the HA part).It was uncomfortable realizing that in the last couple of years, I've invested so much heart and time and energy into being a teacher--and it’s surely meaningful--BUT it’s not all that is important and meaningful to me. My writing hasn't seen the same tangible investment and that's stressful--an emotional debt.

One of my college classes. I can't show sophomores. ;)

 What If I don’t diversify my investments, don’t get “a handle on my own power to choose attitudes and action” –the exact stuff I’m worried about for my students? I don't want to find out.

So how can I make my investment in writing more a reflection of what it means to me, without defaulting on work or family?

Step one: I’m going public with my goals for investment and productivity.

If you’re struggling with productivity, too, maybe you’ll find Gregory Ciotti’s post on “The Psychology of Productivity: A Proven Way to Get More Done (in Less Time)” as interesting as I did. There’s even a two minute video breakdown of the ideas for the truly time crunched called “The Science of Productivity” over on YouTube at ASAPscience. You should head over and check both out.

The plan?

I need SYSTEMS. Ciotti explains how scientific research suggests it’s not willpower so much as systems I need to stay on track. I need to schedule stretches of time to work on my story and make that time sacred. The hours have a way of filling to the brim with family and school tasks if left open, so I need some strict boundaries there. My goal is to set twenty hours a week aside purely for writing. I’ve blocked out time on my phone calendar and have alarms set to remind me to drop the laundry and get to writing.

I need to CHUNK.  I felt relieved reading Ciotti’s description of how our brains tend to sabotage us when we stand at the base of a pretty immense task. A daily to-do list planned the evening before and achieving the mini-goals of those set writing times create that much needed sense of accomplishment.

I need ACCOUNTABILITY.  Besides  weekly goals, I need a slightly bigger, scarier deadline. So, Monkeys, I’ll put my draft in whatever state it’s in the Dropbox file June 30^th. Gifts for any who dare open it.

I need FOCUS.  Research suggests I need to not multi-task (no Internet, noise cancelling headphones, hand each child a cheese stick and a drink before settling into my chair?) and I should give it my all for 90 minutes at a time and then break for 15 or 20 minutes. We're talking full butt in chair and not half-butt.

I'd love to know what you think! Do you feel like your actual investment reflects how much you value writing or illustrating? What could you do or have you done to bring the two more in line? 

Monkey #1s: The One Thing You Wish You'd Known When You Were Just Starting Out

Amy:  I wish I’d worked harder at studying the craft when I first started (and not just spewed words onto a page.) You do learn by writing, but it’s a trial-and-error sort of learning.

Craig:  That YA should be in first person.

Ellen:  I wish rejection letters had not had such an impact on my early writing, and that I should persevere.

Hazel:  I wish I’d started earlier.

Julie:  Do it entirely for love of it, for the writing itself. That's the only thing (besides the friendships) that will keep you going.

Kristen:  There's no such thing as a day off when you're a writer.

Marilyn:  I wish I had known that writing would take lots of guts, determination, and manufactured confidence

Sarah:  (I heard it but I didn't believe it.) It's going to take a while. It's going to take time to be half as good as I'd like to be. It's going to take a while to become familiar with the industry. But more than that, it's okay if it takes that much time. Lots of good stuff happens along the way, if you have the courage and sense of adventure to stick it out.

The Soup Vixen writes of Soup and Such

by Julie

"There ain't a body, be it mouse or man, that ain't made better by a little soup."—Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

At one of Nevada SCBWI’s mentorship retreats, I made some soup—cheesy enchilada chowder. That’s the soup that earned me my monkey moniker of “soup vixen.” Honestly, when I first saw the nickname, I thought, “Oh, no—I’m no soup expert.” I just followed a recipe—no art in that, right? But it’s grown on me, this nickname. I try like heck to make soup, and I’m going to live up to my title. Cue the crackers.

Broccoli cheese? Cioppino, anyone?

A few things I understand now about soup (ahem, here’s where I go all “metaphor for writing”) :

Before trying to make soup myself, I ate a lot of soup. Still do. French onion, gazpacho, crab bisque, mushroom barley... This is good in that I have learned how amazing soup can be. I know what’s possible. And I’ve learned, too, what not so good soup tastes like. Knowing the difference is not much of a comfort when my own soup isn’t working out so great, but I'm glad I can tell the difference anyway. It means I can get it there.

The thing is--make soup anyway. Start with a memory, start with a recipe, or go soup rogue. We need all kinds.

Sweet corn, red peppers, onion, and beans! It's a start!

Ingredients matter. Put stuff in that you love—some classic, some fresh—whatever stirs your heart.

Simmer for ages or boil it quick—it gets there both ways if you keep fanning the flames.

Invite cooks into the kitchen--ask your favorite folks to try a sample. Benefit from their expert palates. Nothing beats a potluck.

Be prepared to throw out whole batches, but don’t stop cooking. You're learning.

Don't skimp on the revision. Season, skim, puree—whatever it takes. There’s real art in seeing the promise in what isn’t quite there yet.

This batch is ready for some cheese! Where are the tortilla chips?

Share. It makes it all worth it. Especially if they come back for seconds.

The older I get, the more I appreciate soup. I love that there are so many soups—comforting ones, hearty ones, intriguing ones, spicy ones. There is a soup for everything that ails or aches or itches. And making soup is a worthy pursuit. I'm honored to be in the kitchen with you, honing our recipes.

So, back to the stock pot with you! 

"Obviously any fiction is going to be a combination of what is invented, what is overheard, what is experienced, what is experienced by people close to you, what you are told, what you have read, all mixed together into this kind of soup which, like any good soup, at the end you cannot really distinguish the ingredients." --David Leavitt

And here's a link to that cheesy soup! Make it your own!

Cheesy Enchilada Chowder (from BHG.com)

Writer, Heal Thyself: First Aid for Creative Types from Julie Dillard

So many of life’s worthwhile adventures include RISK.  We might suffer scrapes and bruises on the journey, whether it’s climbing a mountain, falling in love, parenting, or choosing the life of a writer/artist… 

A Cautionary Tale about a Girl Who Stood on a Chair to Hang Art

While I haven’t scaled Kilimanjaro and I’m hopeless when it comes to matters of the heart (running for one's passport is apparently not "a healthy choice"), I do have experience with effective first-aid for kid ouches. I have ice packs shaped like frogs and bunnies, bandages of every size, ointments, sticky sweet pink, purple, and red concoctions, thermometers, and a slew of books about what to do with that seal cough or goose egg.

Surely we risk-taking creative types deserve a toolbox full of comforts and cures, too, but what to put in it? Ice packs in the shape of character arcs? Bottles of fantasy-inducing potions?

I got a referral to some creative specialists and asked what they would put in a first-aid kit for various writer injuries and ailments.  There were a number of references to the healing properties of whiskey and pale ale, of course. Heather Petty touted the magical properties of Swedish Fish candies (and having read her work, I do not doubt their powers).

Gummy Muse?

In the course of my research, Kristen Crowley Held shared her experience with a writer's "first aid kit made by her husband:

Dan once made me a writer's kit when I went off to a cabin in the woods to write by myself. He checked out a bunch of books on writing/books on the subject I was writing about from the library and included them in a box with some chocolate and a note that I keep in my wallet to this day.

Mustache + Glare= Impact

(Swoon, huh? I know I wasn't the only one who made a point of leaving THAT up on the screen for a horribly neglectful spouse to "happen upon." Cough.)

Presuming you are not married to Kristen’s winner of a husband either, we just might need to (sigh) stock our own writer/illustrator first aid kits.

Next time you face

·         waiting-induced rashes of the psyche,

·         “we just bought a book exactly like it” scalds

·         conflicting rejection vertigo (I love the plot, but not so much the  character/I love the character but not so much the plot),

·         sluggish plot movement (plotstipation), 

·         or the common cold of the writing soul—self doubt,

 see if one of these cures just might deserve a place in your “artist’s first aid kit”:

Therapies:

Editor/Mentor extraordinaire Harold Underdown shows how it's done

• Snack break (posting pictures of it on Facebook optional)
• Walk it off (Nature + Escape)
• Clean or organize (bonus points if you beautify your working space). Charlene Ellen swears by a broom and a yard full of leaves to brush off the mental cobwebs.
• Change  (Abandon your laptop for a giant sheet of butcher paper, etc.)
• Meditation (I've been wanting to do this forever for presence of mind and stress relief--anyone use meditation to good effect? I'd love to hear about it!) Om.

My Biggest Fan

Fill Your Habitat with Creativity-Inducing Things:

Craig Lew's Muse

Favorite pens/tools (Craig Lew vows nothing inspires like a fountain pen)

Pets (because they know how AWESOME you truly are) 

Writer’s notebook or a sketchbook (No censorship—just brainstorming. Let go of the pressure to produce and just play.)

Kristen Held told me of a friend who lights a scented candle whenever she writes, so now when the smell of cinnamon-infused wax wafts through the air, a Pavlovian response kicks in and the muse shows up. (I’m so adopting this. Where is that coconut cream pie candle?)

Nathalie Mvondo (Multiculturalism Rocks!)  agreed that the candle thing works, and she reminded me of the healing/helping nature of music. Work on a playlist or station for that project to get your groove on. Tried Pandora yet? I actually have a station called "emotional writing music." Yep. 

All these things remind me of the importance of a happy habitat for writing. What would help make your working space more inviting and productive?

Second Opinions:

When the writing or drawing life has you under the weather, get a second opinion. Phone a friend, set up a writing evening, enter a contest, or sign up for that conference you're on the fence about--artist friends are the ultimate first responders.  Take that risk of reaching out and branching out. It'll be good for you--and your work.

With a little collaboration, you, too, can feel, well--

star-powered

First Aid Manuals: As creative types, we're naturally drawn to books, right? 

Here are a few books you might take a look at for your first aid kit:

The Artist’s Way  by Julia Cameron (Thanks for the recommendation, Marilyn Hilton!)

Steal Like An Artist : 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon 

How Not to Write a Novel :200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them--a Misstep-by-Misstep Guide by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman

What acts, rituals, items, or books have you found helpful for writer comfort and mental health?   I'm stocking up!

Happy New Year! Turbo Monkey Resolutions

by Ellen

It’s that time of year again.  You know, that time when we reflect on the past year and make promises to ourselves for the New Year . . . a resolution!

People have been making resolutions since the time of Julius Caesar, way back in Ancient Rome. The Romans believed in a god called Janus. Janus had two faces, one looking backward into the past, and one looking forward into the future. The Romans would ask Janus for forgiveness if they had done wrong in the previous year, and then make resolutions for behaving better in the New Year. And if you didn’t know, our month January is named after the Roman god, Janus.

Resolutions come in all shapes and sizes. Some are based more on luck, like resolving to win the lottery. Others are more realistic, like resolving to save money for a special writer’s conference that you really want to attend. And then we have the most popular resolution: to lose weight. But we won’t go there, not on New Year’s Eve, with New Year’s Day Dinner still ahead.

What about writers and illustrators and their New Year’s resolutions? Most people visiting the Monkey tree house are writers, so perhaps you’ve given a resolution some thought. The Monkeys have, and I’d like to share them with you.

Amy:  I resolve to create a writing schedule and write regularly . . . instead of only when the mood strikes me.

Craig:  I resolve to make a million dollars this year by creating a Trans-media company that creates printed books with Augmented Reality, wildly enhanced e-books, whimsical apps and web based TV series.

Ellen:  I resolve to move on and write a new book.  T.S Eliot best put it, "For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."

Hazel: To finish more often.

Julie:  My resolution stems from Terri Farley's wise words about how people around us will only take our dreams/efforts as seriously as we ourselves do. I want to draw some more boundaries and shake up my schedule to mesh with my goals. I need to make the pie chart that represents "how I spend my life" be more in line with the pie chart you'd see for "what matters to me."

Kristen: I hope to finish a rough draft of my current WIP by March 20th.

Marilyn:  In 2013 I want to finish the projects that I began in 2012, take a class in an aspect of writing I've never explored before (e.g., screenwriting), and read more than I do now in the genres I write. This all means that I'll need to use my internet time more efficiently and cut down on my TV obsessions (i.e., Shark Tank, Real Housewives). Or maybe I'll record them instead ;) 

Sarah:  My resolution will be to write through more than I have. I've always been that person who revises and revises those first few chapters. Pounding out the rough draft of Valiant last summer drove home the value of getting the entire draft down before revising. (Of course, I spent a lot of time thinking about it before I wrote it.)

So there you have it, our New Year’s Resolutions over here at the tree house. We hope you drop by next year, but for now, all the Turbo Monkeys are wishing you and your loved ones a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year! 

Monkey Favs: Writing/Illustrating/Kidlit Related website

We monkeys are taking a lil' holiday, going swingabout for a week to hang with our tribes. We wish you healthy, happy and inspired Holidays and a truly wonderful New Year! If you have a little quiet time between your festive frolics, you might check out some of these great websites...

Amy:  Querytracker—not only helps you find which agents or editors might be interested in your ms, but also helps you keep track of who you've queried and their responses. And Harold Underdown's The Purple Crayon website. Tons of info on the kidlit publishing process and a "Who's Moved Where" of the publishing industry.

Craig:  DrydenBooksFacebook page—Emma posts great daily links to kidlit articles, news and websites

Ellen:  YA Muses, Laurie Halse Anderson’s blog

Hazel:  Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and Turbo Monkey Tales (Yay for Monkeys!)

Julie:  Writer Unboxed, YA Muses, YA Highway

Kristen:  Verla Kay’s Message Board --nearly every question you've ever asked yourself about kid lit is answered here, somewhere, on this message board. Take a few hours to poke around and you'll probably make some new friends.

Marilyn:  Amazon – because I see all my favorite authors there and I can have their books in my hand or on my Kindle in seconds or a few days. I also enjoy simply shopping for the latest tools and resources for writers without having to leave the house. (I also love going to bricks-and-mortar bookstores and browsing and buying from them.)

Sarah:  Janet Reid, Literary Agent and Queryshark

Monkey Favs: Favorite Book on the Craft of Writing/Illustrating/Kidlit

We monkeys are taking a lil' holiday, going swingabout for a week to hang with our tribes. Wishing you healthy, happy and inspired Holidays and a truly wonderful New Year! If your Santa is sweet, maybe you'll find one of these great books in your stocking!

Amy:  Alexandra Sokoloff’s Screenwriting Tricks for Authors

Craig:  Save The Cat by Blake Snyder

Ellen:  The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction, James Alexander Thom

Hazel:  Stephen King – On Writing

Julie:  Bird by Bird, Annie Lamott

Kristen:  Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon

Marilyn:  Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (Maass) and Plot & Structure (Bell)

Sarah:  I find I fall back more and more on what I learn in workshops than what I read in books…the Nevada SCBWI Mentorship and Patti Gauch’s amazing Heart of the Fantasy Novel workshop through Highlights were both wonderful.

One Gift

Christmas Bunnies

by Julie

It's the last week of school, which means I'm pretty much up to my  face in essays and grades, so I hope you won't mind my sharing an essay of my own! I picked this one because it has a bit of Christmas in it, and also because it reminds me of how in both of my two most favorite "jobs," parenting and writing, the failures and successes seem forever wrapped up together into one "gift". I wouldn't return those gifts for anything.


The Mark

It's snuggle time with my four year old, those minutes when the rest of the day fades into the darkness outside the reach of her ladybug night light.

I whisper, "I love you so very big. As big as the whole sky."

She smiles, not letting on if she knows that I'm entirely unoriginal. The words just fit now. I plant a kiss on her round, sticky cheek. I guess a bath was in order, but it's too late now.

"I love you a google. Sixty four google," she says, clearly proud of her newest word. "And you can get me a bunny for Christmas."

"Let's put that on your list," I agree. Ah, the magical list. It doesn't exist, not physically, but the mention of it gets me out of a good many whine-a-thons. That random toy in the checkout line? Let's put it on the list! All those things you circled in the catalog with Sharpie? Let's put them on the list!

"How many days is it now?"

Today is April 6th.

"Maybe a couple hundred." It's too late for math, too. Most times are.

"What is a couple?"

"Two."

"Two hundred?" she moans. That is a lot to a four. Anything past "the next day after this day" may as well be never.


I begrudgingly count on my fingers and perform feats of multiplication. "More like two hundred seventy."

She is forlorn.

I remind her that if we skipped right to Christmas, we'd miss Easter (stuffed animals and sugar), summer (swimming and sugar), Halloween (costumes and sugar), and a ton of other neat stuff.

Her face relaxes. I knew that would work. I'm getting good at this parenting thing.

"So what else can you get me for Christmas?"

"Well, honey," I launch into another lecture, "you know Christmas isn't just about presents. It's about family and love. We can spend time snuggling by the fire, and we can sing all those Christmas songs. We can make crafts for people. We'll bake cookies, go look at the lights, and just have fun, you know, being together.And there's doing stuff for other people, of course." Not so eloquent, but it'll do.

I lean in to kiss her goodnight one last time.

"So I can get a bunny AND cookies...cookies with a Santa face," she says dreamily, tired eyes suddenly bright with the idea of frosting and sprinkles. Her supreme loves are sugar and stuffed animals. And she's a master negotiator with those eyes. This grows increasingly problematic as she's now wise to the fact that grapes are not technically a dessert. They can even get me to buy her a stuffed animal at the store--her holding the elephant/monkey/dachshund/hedgehog tenderly but fiercely, big upturned grey eyes glistening, saying, "But, Mommy, I loooooooove her."

In those moments, I develop amnesia. I forget the garbage bag full of jilted animals we just sent to the thrift store. I forget the magical list...

My "spirit of the season" lecture has entirely missed the mark and the parenting skills I was just patting on the back recoil from the jab to their self-esteem.

Still, the mark cuddles up to me, eyes closing, visions of sugar bunnies dancing in her head.

Oh, but I looooooove her.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful, love-filled holiday season! 

Teacher Conference: Teaching Writers Share Lessons

When people find out I’m a mom to a bunch, a teacher, and a writer, they often say, “I don’t know how you do it.” Seriously,  me neither. There's coffee and the frequent modification of standards, and yet lots of days I'm pretty sure I'm not quite doing it. Still, there isn’t any part I’d give up. I love teaching, writing, and momming (though they take turns being "the favorite").

Since I’m committed to on-going chaos, I thought I’d call on teaching/writing friends to see how they handle all the hats they wear, and these generous, over-worked souls answered!

The interviewees:

Dawn Callahan: My dear friend, critique partner, and a rockin’ high school high school English teacher. Dawn has the coolest zombie story in the works and has taught me tons about both writing and dedication.

Terri Farley, author of the Phantom Stallion series and Seven Tears Into the Sea, and long-time teacher of middle school, high school, and college students prior to dedicating herself to full-time writing. Terri continues to teach now as a visiting author and mentor to writers. (I had the privilege of working with Terri as my mentor teacher when I did my student teaching 63 eons ago! How lucky am I?)

Sarah McGuire: My beloved fellow monkey –and an up and coming writer of rich tales full of adventure and heart. Sarah teaches high school math and creative writing (I don't think there's anything she can't do).

David Michael Slater, author of 20 books (including picture books, the teen Sacred Books series, and a couple of titles for adults). He’s that prolific, and David teaches full-time for a gifted/talented magnet middle school program.

I asked everyone how teaching helps and hinders their writing. David offered that being among kids all the time helps him stay in tune with the middle grade and young adult mindset. Sarah agrees, and adds that besides the great opportunities for listening in on the worlds of students, teaching helps avoid the "lost in my own head" syndrome writers can be prone to. She says, "life outside writing is the wellspring of our writing." Dawn, too, finds that being in the thick of things, surrounded by kids engaged with reading and writing, keeps her in the mood to write. On the other hand, she points out that all the energy teaching and grading require can leave a person drained. Terri spoke of how, despite intent to grade holistically, she couldn't help but dive in and spend lots of time responding to even simple assignments. She still has nightmares that involve grade books. As much as we all love our chosen profession, all agreed teaching can be utterly consuming with planning, meetings, giving feedback, and record-keeping leaving little time for writing--the writing we'd like to be doing, anyway.

So what can be done?

• David makes use of the snippets of time he does have. He explains, "Even five minutes is worth it. I can't tell you how many times I've found 50 pages of a draft I'd written, only to have no idea when the heck I'd written them." He also suggests trying not to have to reinvent your job each year, but he followed it with "Good luck with that!" so I suspect he's been as successful in that capacity as I have.
• Sarah brings up some sage and comforting advice from our own Turbo Monkey (and former teacher!) Ellen Jellison. Ellen, she says, "essentially gave me permission to not write during the week. (Sometimes I do, though, because my fingers are just itching to get a scene down. I just don't feel guilty if I can't.) She suggested I make notes about all the ideas I have during the week and then write on the weekend."
• Dawn suggests setting boundaries, as difficult as that is. She dedicates a set amount of time to grading essays, for example, and then puts them away for the day, and she makes every effort to use prep time at school efficiently so home time is free (well, freer). Papers can wait "a little longer," especially if the reward is a happy, productive writing teacher.
• Terri offers perspective gleaned from years of writing, teaching, and parenting (experience she conveys so well in her workshops--don't miss a chance to see her!). She urges writers to "compartmentalize your writing as much as you can. Let others know when you will be writing and then follow through. Don't watch TV. Don't do Facebook. If you have to research something for your writing, make a list and do it later. Keep your flow!!! Don't take phone calls unless they're urgent. Don't listen to make sure your kids are doing their assigned chores (you'll know soon enough)." She encourages writers to not allow family or friends to guilt them into losing focus and reminds them that "your work is only as important to your family/friends as it is to you!"

The pay-off to taking those stolen moments dedicated to our own writing is the chance to have our stories be part of the lives of even more of those so-worth-it young people we care about. This dawned on me as I read in Terri's response how a favorite part of being a writer is reader mail, because it reminds her that she hasn't really left teaching, but just has "a larger classroom."

I got so many great thoughts and tips from my writing and teaching pals--I'm saving some of them up to fuel future blogs! But before I head off to set guilt-free boundaries and compartmentalize writing time with a little help from noise-cancelling headphones:

Do you have any tips for eeking out more writing time despite job/life demands, or maybe a story about a teacher who made a difference to you? You know teachers live for those stories. :)