Tales from the Rushmore Kid

Interview Wednesday - Kidlitosphere

Today I am hosting Interview Wednesday for the Kidlitosphere. Kidlit bloggers will be leaving comments relating to kidlit interviews, with links to their own blog posts. Check back and see where it takes you!  Scroll down to see my interview with Larry Dane Brimmer.

Larry Dane Brimmer - Black & White

The author of more than 150 books, Larry Dane Brimmer is a legend in our business. I was delighted to find his new work, Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor, in my mailbox from his publishers to review. I thought I had heard all the stories about the Civil Rights movement, but I had never heard this one, and Larry tells it masterfully. It is a gorgeously designed book that complements a powerful, can't-put-it-down true story.  I asked Larry to answer a few questions about the experience of writing this story.

Black & White is the true story of two men on different sides of the segregation issue during the Civil Rights movement. What inspired you to write it?

The simple answer is that the Civil Rights era fascinates me. I was a kid at the time and only vaguely recall news reports of the racial violence and tension in the South. I was busy being a kid. Researching Black & White was a way for me to inform myself about events that had sailed right by me in my youth.  More specifically, Black & White grew out of a previous book I did for Calkins Creek, Birmingham Sunday.

Marketing Nuggets part 1- Barbara Jean Hicks

from the collected notes of Barbara Jean Hicks

This week I dug back into notes from my very first SCBWI LA Summer Conference—in 2004! The nuggets I found at a roundtable called “Marketing for Authors,” moderated by Kelly Milner Halls and Esther Hershenhorn, are as relevant today as they were then. The moderators each brought a few good ideas to the table to get the ball rolling, and then the community of writers in attendance shared ideas of their own—too many to post all at once, but here are a few to begin, starting with Kelly and Esther. I’ll share more next week.

From Kelly: Give, give, give! Give workshops and encouragement whenever the opportunity presents itself.

From Esther: Write that bio—and make sure it puts your best foot forward—even before you need it. Your bio introduces you to the world.

Interview Wednesday - Kidlitosphere

Today I am hosting Interview Wednesday for Kidlitosphere. Kidlit bloggers will be leaving comments relating to kidlit interviews, with links to their own blog posts. Check back and see where it takes you!  Scroll down to see my Writing Tip of the Day with Hillary Homzie.

Over at My Time In Juvie an interview with Tamara Pierce.  We recently had the privilege of interviewing Tamora Pierce and thought it might be appropriate for the event. The link is http://www.ourtimeinjuvie.com/author-spotlight/author-spotlight-interview-with-tamora-pierce

Hillary Homzie - Writing Tip of the Day

One of the best things about the SCBWI conference is meeting authors and illustrators.  Hillary Homzie is a prolific writer of chapter book series.  I managed to get her to give us a great Writing Tip of the Day.

A Nugget from Caroline Hatton - Barbara Jean Hicks

from the collected notes of Barbara Jean Hicks

On Balance in the Writer’s Life

Author Caroline Hatton posted a great comment on the SCBWI listserve for the California Central Coast chapter last month that I think deserves wider circulation. It’s about balancing a professional non-writing life and a professional writing life, and was written in response to another writer’s concern that a new employer might discover her online writing presence and worry that she was not fully committed to her “day job.” I particularly like the third point Caroline makes; it made me stop to think about my own reasons both for writing and for teaching. What is the common thread that underlies the work I choose to do?

Caroline's post:

I have three suggestions:

1. Be proud of everything you do because it will move others to respect you 
for it and to respect everything you do.

Interview Wednesday - Kidlitosphere

Today I am hosting Interview Wednesday for Kidlitosphere. Kidlit bloggers will be leaving comments relating to kidlit interviews, with links to their own blog posts. Check back and see where it takes you!

Happy Valentine's Day

This is a wonderful day. When there is so much grief in the world it is important to have a day to remember loved ones. To my husband, kids, mom, friends, family, editor Steve and agent Mark...Happy Valentine's Day.

A Poem for Valentine's Day - Barbara Jean Hicks

A POEM FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

In honor of Valentine’s Day next week, here’s my favorite love poem ever. It’s a character sketch, beautifully rendered in twenty-four short lines, leaving such clear impressions both of the loved one and the lover/narrator that we feel as if we know them intimately by the end of the poem.

I think Nims’ skill at using the particular to make an observation about the human condition—in this case, about the nature of love—is something every writer can learn from and apply to his or her own writing. And oh, the images and language of his particulars! Great stuff.

LOVE POEM

My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases,
At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring,
Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen,
And have no cunning with any soft thing

Interview Wednesday - Kidlitosphere

Today I am hosting Interview Wednesday for Kidlitosphere. Kidlit bloggers will be leaving comments relating to kidlit interviews, with links to their own blog posts. Check back and see where it takes you!

A new guest TeachingAuthor interview posted on our blog today with a book give away!  http://www.teachingauthors.com/2012/02/celebrating-childrens.html

Dianne de Las Casas - Storytelling Tip of the Day

I had heard of Dianne de Las Casas before I met her last summer at the SCBWI conference.  A well published author, she is also known for her amazing school visits. You can visit her at her site, Story Connection.  I grabbed her for a quick tip on storytelling.