Category: LHA

Seriously. The laundry is going. I leave again in the morning, this time for a few days in Maryland and Virginia.

Thanks to everybody at FCTE for making my trip to Orlando so rewarding. And I need to say “hi” to Kayce who sat next to me at lunch, and Laura and Erin who sat next to me on the plane down to Florida. I hope you guys had a good weekend, too. (And yes, a private note to Erin’s English teacher – she really did meet me. How can I prove that? Because I read her piece about showboarding in Utah. I liked it a lot…. so did you. I saw the comments.)

I’ll try to post from the road this week, I promise. Before I go, a question from Brooklyn.

Jessica writes: … i read catalyst and i remember kate said that a senoir had tried to rape melinda does that mean no one found out that he really had raped her before school started? and it also said melinda pressed charges but andy didn’t go to jail would melinda be ok with the fact that he didn’t go to jail?

In my mind, he was charged with the second attack, the one in the closet. He was not charged with the rape that occurred nine months earlier. And no, Melinda, would not be happy with the fact that he did not go to jail. But you better believe that having found the strength to speak up, she will press charges immediately if anyone ever hurts her again. And so should all you guys out there reading this.

Max writes: I am in a GT class for Reading/English at school and today we learned that we have to participate in three different programs that involve using our creative writing skills. While I am very excited for this oppurtunity, I am also a little nervous. The due dates are October 25, 31,and November 2nd. To me, this is a very short time. I understand that a page or two is not that long, but I don’t know where to begin. Did you ever participate in writing events when you were younger? I looked in your biography and it just spoke of your interest in foreign cultures and the Haiku poem style. I was just wondering if there is more depth to it. And, would you maybe have some advice for rushing into a story and coming out with good work?

When I was in high school I wrote dreadful, depressed poetry for the school literary magazine and I was the editor of the sports page of the school newspaper. I had no plans on becoming an author, not even the faintest hint of an idea. And I never entered any contests or tried to have my work published or participated in any “writing events”. Make of that what you will.

No, you don’t have much time. In a way, that’s good. You don’t have time to be nervous! Sit down and start writing about how frustrated and anxious you are about all of this. Rant on the page. Complain, whine. Whatever you do – keep writing. (Give yourself a solid two hours for this – two hours without distraction or interruption.) Keep writing, writing, writing.

As you start pouring your heart on the page, other things will float out alongside the whining and complaining. It might be a detail about something the kid in the first row wore yesterday, or the smell of the pencil in your hand or the sound of the people in the apartment upstairs fighting again and how much you wish they would either yell loud enough that you could understand exactly what they’re saying or quiet down so you don’t hear anything at all, and what would it feel like to climb up the fire escape and sit outside their window and offer color commentary on their argument, like a sportscaster, except you would use a banana instead of a microphone. This would get you thinking about bananas and why we eat them and how far they have to travel to wind up in your cereal bowl and that sure is a lot of effort for seventy-nine cents a pound.

Anyway. If I got that assignment, that’s how I’d handle it. Pour out some raw drafts. Don’t think about what you’re going to write. Just write. Then you edit, but that’s the subject of another post.

I hope that helps.

Janelle writes: I am a student currently taking Children’s Literature course at a Community College in Maryland. I was wondering if you had a moment to answer a question regarding your book “Speak.” The question that was on most of our minds as we were discussing the book in class yesterday was this:

Do you think that Melinda’s life will get easier as she enters 10th grade and so on? I personally think that it would, and that eventually all of the nasty things such as rumors may eventually fade out. But our teacher suggested that we write you to and ask you what your thoughts on the matter would be.

Great question.

The rumors will always be there, and the ignorant people who whisper and say hurtful things will always be there. But by the end of the book, Melinda has changed. When she found the strength to speak up for herself, she grew.

Because she is a more confident young woman, the whispers and rumors won’t bother her nearly as much. And when you don’t let the whispers get to you, they tend to fade away on their own.

I suspect that by the time she graduates, Melinda will have gone from “The Weird Girl” to “The Artistic Girl Who Doesn’t Put Up With Stupid Stuff.” If you really want to know how her peers see her the year following SPEAK, pick up a copy of CATALYST and turn to page 76.

Many thanks to all you librarian-types for answering yesterday’s plea, both in the Comments section and via email. You’ve given us a lot of information and it is very much appreciated.

Last BH and I went into the Big City (Syracuse) for the first Rosamond Gifford Lecture of the season. Last night’s speaker was Henry Petroski, an engineer who writes for non-engineers about things like pencils and bookshelves. Attending a “lecture series” made me feel like a grown-up, which is rare.

Today I have to get ready for the Florida trip Friday, deal with email that is clogging my computer, brainstorm the next round of revisions, and figure out where to order curtains for the windows I’ve been working on. Oh, and go to the gym. This is Week 4 of my Get the Middle-Aged Spread Under Control Program. I think it’s beginning to work.

One of my kids is considering various library schools for her graduate degree. The long list includes Syracuse, Rutgers, Simmons, Seattle, (and another one I can’t remember, but if she really cares about it, she’ll remind me what it was.)

The short list is Syracuse and Rutgers.

She is most interested in becoming a YA/childrens librarian, though I’m encouraging her to keep her options open.

So I figured we’d throw it open to youse guys who have already lived through this. Which one of those schools offers the best program? Which one would you encourage your daughter (assuming you had one) to attend? Should any of those schools be stricken from the list because the professors are all trolls? Any hints about getting through library school without going into millions of dollars of debt?