A Call for Funny YA

In January I will be teaching Directed Reading at the Whidbey Island MFA. Last year I taught crossovers YA<-->Adult, but my students got very depressed. So, I decided to teach funny YAs next.

John Green's writing is always excellent, and The Fault in Our Stars has some funny scenes. Still, both main characters have cancer and their situation made me cry.

I've read Flip by Martyn Bedford and Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber.  I have ten others in my list. However, if you have written a funny YA, please, let me know. 
  

Summer reading

I didn't get to read as much as I would have liked this summer (perhaps this fall?) but these were my favorites over the past few months:

Wonder, by R. J. Palacio, is a middle grade novel about a boy with severe physical deformities who is beginning his first year at public school. Told through multiple perspectives, it follows his year and shows how his life and the lives of those he encounters are changed.

A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay, is about a boy whose mother is chronically ill. A monster comes to help the boy, but not in the manner he expects. This is a powerful book that looks truthfully at all the emotions that arise when faced with a loved one's death.

Stupid Fast is a YA novel by Minnesotan Geoff Herbach. With a distinct first-person voice, the book narrates the summer of teenager Felton Reinstein where his mother has a nervous breakdown, he experiences first love, and he suddenly finds himself jock material. I believe this was also one of John's recommendations earlier this year.

Voice

I have vivid memories of books I never laid eyes on—books I never held in my hands. Instead a parent or teacher read aloud while I curled in a lap or rested my head on a classroom desk, the reader's voice transporting me into another world.

This summer my reading all related to curriculum development, but in moments snatched here and there, I listened to stories on the radio. My favorite programs are "This American Life" and "Radio Lab." On "Fresh Air" I fell in love with an author whose responses to Terry Gross's questions were filled with humor, insight, and humility. I was struck by his honesty, his willingness to reveal himself. Listening to his voice, I longed to be his friend.

I did not attend the 2012 Summer SCBWI Conference in LA, but I recall reading a quote from Arthur Levine's speech. Arthur spoke about a book from childhood he kept returning to because it is “infused with authentic feeling and creates an intimacy between author and reader that is timeless.” Arthur delivered his speech on August 9th and was quoted in social media within moments. I listened to that Fresh Air interview on August 10th. It hit me that a kind of intimacy was exactly what I was feeling with this author. Unfortunately, Terry Gross's interview was a rebroadcast of an earlier interview. The author, David Rakoff, had died from cancer the night before, the same day Arthur delivered his speech. Though I had only just discovered Rakoff, I felt as if I knew him and now I experienced a real sense of loss.

Rakoff's most recent collection of comic essays, Half Empty won the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor. It's on the top of my reading list. Until you get your hands on the actual book, treat yourself and listen to the Fresh Air interview and then some of his many, many stories on This American Life.

Summer Reading

This round is about books we read over the summer. I tend to read in spurts. After I finished the draft of my fourth novel and sent it to my editor, I then read voraciously for the next two weeks. One book after another. Ah, it was fantastic;) A few of the books that really sucked me in:

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby. 

The next book:

 The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

I loved where this book took me. I didn't want it to end.


This next one was a galley I picked up when I went to my editor's office in New York. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer is
the sequel to "Cinder", a futuristic re-telling of Cinderella. Scarlet continues the story, only adds that of Little Red Riding Hood, in a way...I really enjoyed it and can't wait for the third installment...

And currently I am reading a book which so many people have told me that I must read. So, if you need me in the next couple of days, I'll be reading this:

 

Europe Calling

I was fortunate to spend five weeks this summer in Europe, two in Lithuania, two in Denmark, and one in Norway. I was in Vilnius as part of Summer Literary Seminars and this provided an opening to a part of the world I knew little about. Vilnius was a major center of Jewish life before the war and after the Holocaust, only traces of this remain. The history hangs heavy, and Lithuania, which has only been a country since 1990, is struggling to come to terms with what happened before, during, and after the war and what it means to be Lithuanian. I was surprised how deeply this place spoke to me and the enormous contrasts between darkness and light provided a constant churning. It's also a country where basketball is hugely popular and people wanted to talk hoops. I had time and space in Vilnius to write and look forward to going back.

On the way we stopped in Denmark to spend time with Fiona's cousin Claire and her family on their farm. We enjoyed the chickens, pigs, horses, cats, and dogs and the seven children who range in age from eighteen to three. We also stayed at Fiona's uncle and aunt's cottage in Langeland, which was remote and beautiful. It rained almost every day, which was a nice break from the heat of Minnesota.

Back home, we marked the one-year anniversary of my mother's death on August 30 and I'm still sorting through that and working things out with my siblings. The travel this summer provided a separation and an opportunity to reflect on my new situation and what I want to do.

Fiona received an invitation to speak in Norway the first week in September and I could not pass up the chance to go with her. We spent a few days in Trondheim, pictured above, which is the farthest north I've been in the world. We saw few tourists there and remarked on how many similarities were apparent between Norwegians and Minnesotans. In Oslo we met with writers, editors, and publishers, and I was amazed to find out some of the differences. In Norway, college tuition is free, writers are eligible for government stipends, and when a children's book is published, the government buys 1,500 copies for Norwegian schools and libraries. Considering the population differential that would be like 75,000 copies being bought in the States for libraries for each book. I'd be fine with 1,500.

In between trips, we had two weddings, a week-long visit from our nephew, and an abundant garden year. I value the transition time of September and am glad to reconnect with my fellow Spuds.

All My Days Were Circus Days! (almost!)

Painting Tumbleweed!

Most of this summer I spent painting the sets for SHOWDOWN, Circus Juventas's summer show set in the dust and tumbleweeds of the Wild West. I find many similarities between painting the illustrations for a picture book and painting sets. For instance, when I finish the illustrations they are merely a set of paintings-- and cannot be a book until the publisher, printer, art director, designers, and marketing all come together to turn it into a picture book...

When I paint the sets for circus they are not much to look at until performers, directors, coaches, lighting, sound, and choreographers all come together to bring them to life. And that is exactly what these talented performers do-- bring them to life in a big and breath-taking way! 

Wall Tramp- the final shoot-out in Showdown!

7 man pyramid on the high wire!

My son Cooper on the German Wheel (photo: Bill Raab)

Circus is truly the way I spend my summers as long as my son performs with them. I love writing the script in the fall, collaborating with the Artistic Director of Circus Juventas. I love designing the sets and working with hundreds of other volunteer parents making the entire show come together over three weekends- twenty performances! It is definitely a contrast to the quiet isolation of the studio.

But summer ended in a blink this year with only a week between the final circus performance and the beginning of my son's junior year in high school. Cooper started at Perpich High School for the Arts this fall and it was an excellent move for him. Just last week I saw my daughter off at the airport on her 8 month long adventure. Her trip begins in London working as an intern with Tender, a human rights program that uses theatre and the arts in the schools to educate young people about abusive relationships. After three months of interning, she will travel to France, Spain, Morocco, Italy and who knows? If you want to follow her travels, her blog is: wanderment

My life in picture books returned with excitement for my new book, Tell Me About Your Day Today, written by Mem Fox. It received a starred review in PW and a write-up in the NY Times which was a lovely way to start a book in the world! Like David and John, I spent a wonderful day at the Minnesota State Fair in the Alphabet Forest.

Sharing activities with Fair Goers

I never feel as if a book is properly launched until it has a birthday party. Once again I painted the 10 foot window at the Red Balloon Bookshop and a party with cake was held in honor of the book just last week.

Painted window at the Red Balloon

A delicious Cake! Happy Birthday Book!

With children and a book launched I am ready to settle into fall plans. I have begun the script for next year's circus show. I am in the sketching and storyboard stage for my next illustrated book, Deer Dancer, written by Mary Lyn Ray. I am beginning marketing plans for When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky which comes out next March. And I am quietly finding time to write stories of my own. Fall means time. I am glad to welcome time to my studio again.

It Never Gets Boring (to Me)

As I’ve mentioned here before, my writing life follows a school schedule.  And summer means sailing.  This year was no different.  A review of the Captain’s Log reminds me of our various adventures.  An overnighter to James Island with a buddy and his son for some exploring and a rare driftwood beach fire (allowed on only a few islands these days).  Several stays in Deer Harbor, where the swimming pool at the resort has orcas painted on the bottom and sides so that as you approach the end of the pool, swimming underwater, you find yourself coming face to face with a just-less than-life-sized whale!  Fourth of July at Fisherman Bay, on Lopez Island, which boasts the “largest public-funded fireworks show west of the Mississippi” (they’re not lying).  Also, I am happy to report that the ice cream shop and used bookstore in Friday Harbor remain the best two such establishments I have ever visited.

We mixed it up a bit this year, too, spending a week in San Francisco visiting family friends.  The trip to the planetarium in the hills above Oakland was a highlight, along with an afternoon at a fabulous park where we rode on a miniature steam-engine train and were introduced to geocaching, “a treasure hunting game where you use a GPS to hide and seek containers with other participants in the activity.”  What a great idea and an awesome activity to do with kids!  We found two containers at the park, including one that held a Star Wars action figure; after that discovery, my son was hooked.  I had no idea something like this was going on (Google it and you might be amazed, too, if you’re not already hip to it). 

Although I knew I’d be away from home a lot during the last two months, I set a goal of finishing two ongoing projects.  Did I accomplish them?  Sadly, I did not.  I managed to sneak in a day or two of work, here and there, but my “summer goal” now becomes, by default, my “fall goal.”  That’s all right: I recharged my creative batteries and spent quality time with good people, living our own stories.

With school back in session, the days growing shorter, and a drizzly gray Northwest winter approaching, the time is right to get back to work . . . .