Logic Brain

I can feel mine growing. I took a break from my novel thinking to write a poetry challenge Julie Larios offered on the VCFA forum. The challenge I accepted was to write a poem in which every line has an end-rhyme with the word "doughnut." Mine turned out to be completely inappropriate for children (and maybe for this blog), but I enjoyed the mental gymnastics.

Today, I got all fired up about a new middle grade story idea. I spent a good chunk of time writing a chapter, just exploring, and an equal amount of time outlining! This is new for me, to outline before writing very far, but I think it's good to practice the opposite of what makes you comfortable. Most people either lean towards intuitive, exploratory first drafts, or they outline and structure like crazy before they write a word. I definitely fall into the first camp, but I'm going to see what happens if I take the other path. So far, it's fun.

Currently reading: Rex Zero and the End of the World by VCFA's Tim Wynne-Jones. Having heard Tim read a bunch, it's really fun to hear his voice coming through so loud and clear in this book.

Here Kitty, Kitty

It's been a while since I posted Linkitties, but here are a few for you, mostly about zombies and knitting . . .

Zombies are alive and well (dead and well?) in Austin, TX.

My friend Cesar Torres is having a whole Zombie Week on his blog.

Kelly Link is so nifty you should buy her books, but if you need to be convinced first you can read two stories about zombies, "The Hortlak" and "Some Zombie Contingency Plans" from Magic for Beginners on her website.

And while we're on zombies, when I lived in LA, I had fun hanging out with the cast and crew of American Zombie, the first feature by documentarian Grace Lee. Love it!

VCFA grad Micol Ostow is celebrating the launch of The Bradford Novels with a blog bash. I'm pretty fascinated the potential of transmedia storytelling. I dig this post by Larry Kless on the subject. All the Bradford characters have their own blogs, their school has a website, etc. It's a mini-universe, and I am more than a little jealous of the models portraying the characters. I didn't realize until I saw their pictures that it was a childhood fantasy of mine to BE a book character.

You may have heard that Neil Gaiman won this year's Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. Well, he also wrote Coraline, a book which makes me swoon and which comes out as a movie February 6th. The director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Neil Gaiman, and KNITTING, all in one movie?



I can't deal!

And you know what else is neat? The movie people are sending funky boxes to bloggers, like my beloved Knitty. Animation Archive has collected links to a lot of them.

Wait, you mean characters are supposed to DO things?

My main character participates in a lot of "activities," which is mostly because I keep auditioning things for her to do in my desperate search for a plot. Right now, she is mostly a dancer. But I've turned on my logic brain. I'm turning its cold eye on my monster draft and trying to figure out whether this choice has thematic and practical integrity.

As I'm exploring, I would love to interview people who have experience with any of these three activities in high school:

Ballet
Competitive swimming
Track & field

If you'd like to inform me, shoot an email to storybookg@gmail.com. Thanks!

Labyrinth Explains My Life, Part II

So I'm feeling empowered, like I've let go of something heavy, and once again, I've got a scene from Labyrinth running through my head. This time it's the part where Sarah says, "Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great . . . You have no power over me."

I do what any good blogger would do. I go looking for a clip of that speech on YouTube. And I found it. Delivered by an Italian actress. In what looks to be some sort of demo reel?

Enjoy.

Draft

Before I left residency, I had to leave a draft of my novel (which I plan to make my creative thesis) with my new advisor.



It was a lot bigger than I expected -- 398 pages.

Um.

I expect that it needs to be less than half that length for the story I'm trying to tell. And then there's that other pesky issue -- committing to one story out of all this jumble.

It's going to be fine. I have faith in myself. But this is my work for the next semester, to cut and reinvent and maybe even start from scratch. Yipes.

ALA Rockstars

Congratulations to all the writers honored today at the ALA Youth Media Awards!

A special shoutout to my rockstar VCFA advisor Kathi Appelt, who received a Newbery Honor for The Underneath. And another to frequent lecturer and all-around-smart-man at VCFA, M.T. Anderson, who received a Printz Honor for The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves.

I'm embarrassed to say that before I started my program, I wouldn't have been paying much attention to these awards. Today, I feel lucky to have learned from these people. I love school!

Crying for cats

I'm back in Birmingham, only until tomorrow night, getting over my cold and post-residency exhaustion with lots of sleep and premium television.

On my way home from residency, I got stuck in Philadelphia. No one was nice to me -- not US Airways, not the TWO Quality Inns who failed to pick me up, not the ghosts who tease me in that city.

A call to a friend reminded me that this kind of delay can be an adventure. Thank you, friend.

When the Ramada shuttle driver swept me away from waiting for the questionable Quality, I went. I washed my socks and underwear in the sink. Ate the second half of the Snickers bar I had for lunch. Watched the end of Juno and cried. Watched a depressing documentary about a man who lost everything he loved in life (Cat Dancers) and cried. And it felt really good.

I love going to school. I hate leaving school. By the end of residency, I feel like my brain's been sucked out and replaced by marshmallows. Really stupid, emotional marshmallows. So crying for a weird man who danced with cats was cathartic.

Just read Need by VCFA alum Carrie Jones. The butt-kicking heroine and her growly boyfriend made my plane travel woes much more palatable. Thank you, Carrie.