Today I’m pleased to announce that I have signed a book contract with Vinspire Publishing! They will be publishing my debut young adult novel. I’ve dreamed of this day for so long that I think I’m still in shock that it’s actually happening.

The past few months have been very hectic as I’ve read over the contract details while preparing for a pilgrimage to Rome and somehow making lesson plans for the days I’ll be gone.

Still a lot left to do before my trip, so you’ll just have to stay tuned for more details on my upcoming book!

You may recognize author E.L. Konigsburg’s name from From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but Silent to the Bone is a completely different kind of book.

Title: Silent to the Bone

Author: E.L. Konigsburg

Genre: contemporary realistic fiction

Age group: YA

Summary: Thirteen-year-old Connor tries to help his friend Branwell regain his powers of speech. Branwell’s silence began the night his baby sister went into a coma. The nanny believes Branwell must have dropped his baby sister, but Connor doesn’t believe his best friend would’ve done that. After finding a way to communicate with Branwell through pictures, Connor begins to investigate what really happened that night.

Although I don’t want to give anything away, I think parents should know that there’s sexual activity involved in this book, and they shouldn’t hand it to a fourth grader who’s just read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, thinking that if the kid liked the one book that they’d like the other. This book is definitely for an older audience.

The story is well-told, and I enjoyed how Connor uses his smarts to figure out what happened that night, but I’d rather read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

 

I’ve used the young adult novel Hidden Talents as a read-aloud book to middle school students for about five years now. I’ve read it to sixth graders and eighth graders. In total,  over 500 kids have heard me read this book, and I could count on one hand the number of kids who didn’t like it.

How’s that for an endorsement?

Title: Hidden Talents

Author: David Lubar

Genre: speculative

Age group: early young adult

Synopsis: Thirteen-year-old Martin Anderson has been kicked out of middle school after middle school for being a smart aleck. He seems to know just the right thing to say to push someone’s buttons. Finally, he’s sent to Edgeview Alternative School, where he meets kids who are constantly setting fires, bullying, cheating, and stealing. At least, that’s how things appear until Martin gets to know them better and discovers his classmates have some hidden talents.

As I said in the beginning, kids love this book, even the reluctant readers. However, I want to let parents know that the book does have some “minor” swears. For example, when I read the book aloud to the kids, I change the damn‘s into darn‘s and the “This sucks” into “This stinks.” No F-bombs are dropped in the book (and I’ve certainly seen that in some young adult books), but I think it only fair for parents to know that the language is more PG than G.

I got to meet David Lubar at an International Reading Association Conference a couple years ago. He’s a funny guy, which isn’t surprising since his humor (perfect for middle school kids) shines through in his books. The kids enjoyed Hidden Talents so much, I eventually had to ask the school to buy us the sequel, True Talents, so that we could read that as well.

In the photo above (from left to write): Kristin Simmons (author of Article-5), Kendare Blake (author of Anna Dressed in Blood), me (author of several magazine articles, this blog, and a Chicken Soup for the Soul story), David Lubar (author of Hidden Talents), and Annette and Gina Cascone (authors of Grave Secrets).

When the penultimate season of How I Met Your Mother aired last May, I blogged about how monumental a task the writers would have in order to make us fall in love with the woman Ted will marry. After watching the opening of the final season Monday night, I think the writers did some things completely right and other things completely wrong (or at least, sort of wrong).

SPOILER ALERT! If you DVR’d the show but haven’t watched it yet, you may want to hold off on reading this blog post.

What they got right:

There’s a book on screenwriting called Save the Cat by Blake Snyder that many writers use to help them structure their plots. One of the points Snyder makes is that the author must make us fall in love with the hero/heroine early on. One of the best ways to do that, claims Snyder, is to give the hero a scene in which he saves a cat. This doesn’t have to be a literal cat that the hero saves. Rather, the hero simply has to do something good for another human being so that we see him as a empathetic character.

By the way, this is how authors sometimes get us to like guys who are sort of “bad guys.” As long as they show empathy for another human being, we don’t care if they’re not perfect. We just have to know that our hero is a good guy deep down.

The screenwriters for How I Met Your Mother got this right because the first real interaction we see between her and another cast member involves her saving Lily from a bad situation. Lily’s just ditched Ted on the way Barney and Robin’s wedding. She’s upset because her husband and baby are still in Minnesota, and her mother-in-law keeps sending annoying pictures of the baby in order to get Lily and Marshall to not move to Italy. The Mother comes to the rescue when she meets Lily on the train, overhears her muttering to herself, and offers her a homemade cookie and a sympathetic ear. Cat saved!

What they may have gotten wrong:

I’m not an expert on plot structure for romantic comedies, but a number of my friends write romances, so I have a little idea of what is expected in terms of how the characters are introduced. While I can’t remember the exact number, I know there’s a belief out there that the hero and heroine should meet within the first X number of pages. Again, I don’t remember the exact number, but it’s fairly early on. The reader shouldn’t be kept guessing who the hero and heroine are.

On this count, the screenwriters of HIMYM got this wrong right from the start. Perhaps, this is why so many people out there still think he should end up with Robin. Or at least, Victoria, who was introduced during season 1.

That being said, you can break the rules now and then. I still believe they can make us fall in love with the Mother.

Another thing they may have gotten right:

They threw in a flash-forward scene in which the Mother and Ted are back at the hotel (a.k.a. the scene of the wedding where they met), and the two of them are very happy together. Seeing Ted so happy with the Mother would make most fans of the show like the Mother. After all, if Ted loves her so much, and we want Ted to be happy, then this woman must be all right after all.

Then again . . .

In this flash-forward scene, we see Ted and the Mother kiss. Oh. Anticlimax. Usually, in a romance, we work our way up to the big kiss. Anybody else remember how Victoria made Ted close his eyes before they kissed, and then she disappeared? Why did she disappear? Because the anticipation of the kiss can often be the best part of it!

So I think we may have seen the first kiss between the two of them too soon. There’s no build-up to it. Their first kiss has just become an anticlimax!

Despite all that, I’m still looking forward to seeing how they tie everything up in this last season.

Did you see the season opener? What did you think of it?

I’ll admit I didn’t expect to like this book when I first picked it up. It’s on my school’s summer reading list and the 2014 Rebecca Caudill nominee list. However, I must admit it was a pleasant surprise. I found myself caring for the characters far more than I thought I would, and the book gives good insight into a culture most of us never pay attention to.

The book takes place in Burma (which is now often called Myanmar). My initial limited knowledge of Burma came from the fact that I once played Tuptim in a production of The King and I. Tuptim was a “gift” from the King of Burma to the King of Siam. Yep, limited knowledge.

I started to learn a bit more about the country when working on research projects with my students. The students needed to research a leader (political, religious, business), and the school librarian suggested I use Aung San Suu Kyi as an example because none of the kids would probably pick her. If you’re not familiar with her, she’s a civil rights activist in her home country of Burma/Myanmar. Her dad was actually one of the key players in Burma’s independence from Great Britain. Now Suu Kyi demonstrates peacefully for a democratic government in her country. (Unfortunately, they went from being ruled by Britain to being ruled by a very militaristic government.)

This story opened my eyes to an entirely different struggle for the people in Burma.

Title: Bamboo People

Author: Mitali Perkins

Genre: contemporary fiction

Age group: YA

Synopsis: The story begins from the perspective of Chiko, a Burmese boy whose father was taken by the government. He is not allowed to read anything not approved by the government, so he hides his father’s stash of books. He and his mother live in fear and hunger, so he decides to answer a newspaper ad looking for young men to become teachers. When he arrives, he is swept off into the military like many other boys his age. The boys are told they must be patriotic and fight to rid their land of the Karenni, one of the many ethnic minorities in Burma. Halfway through the story, we switch perspectives. We follow the story from the perspective of Tu Reh, a young Karenni boy whose home was destroyed by Burmese soldiers.

To tell anymore of the story would give too much away. I’m not sure yet how kids will react to the story, but I found it to be a fascinating look into a very different culture.