I am so honored to be invited to participate in this years SMART author fair at Powells bookstore.
SMART is great program which brings adults from the community into the school to read aloud with students who struggle to read. Next year it will mark the 25th anniversary of the Start Making A Reader Today program.
I will be signing copies of Written in Stone from 2-4. It’s a great way to support a terrific cause. I hope to see you there.
One of my favorite parts of the book-making process is seeing what the cover artist brings to table. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the art created by Jennifer McLaughlin. It’s gorgeous! So fresh and fun. I love it that both main characters are on the front cover. I love it that you can see that one of the characters is Asian. I’m glad they are actively engaged in sailing. I love it that residents of Oregon and Washington may recognize the Astoria bridge in the background.
And here’s the really impressive part, I think it’s a cover both boys and girls will find inviting and that’s not so easy to pull off. I look at a ton of covers in the bookstore and many of them are only trying to reel in one gender. So without further ado here is my new book cover.
![TurnTide jacket[1]](https://rosanneparry.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/TurnTide-jacket1.jpg)
Oh I almost forgot my favorite part! I love secret code. If you can tell me what the signal flags on the front flap say in the comments, I’ll send you a mini-book.
This book will be out Jan 12th of 2016!
I recently finished the final proofreading for my upcoming novel The Turn of the Tide. I’m really grateful that I get such detail-oriented editors and copy editors. They’ve been terrific to work with. We had a really interesting conversation about italics for foreign language words, and I learned a lot about page design
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Here’s the part that astonished me though. Even after I’ve worked on a book for years, even after it’s been copy edited, I still found more than 40 errors to correct, a few were printing errors but most were my own mistakes. It’s humbling. I’m grateful that those people who receive Advanced Review Copies understand that about the process and don’t discount it in their reviews.
Although I’m still relatively new to being a published author, I’ve already done more than a hundred school visits. They are often long days, but I find them energizing and they really motivate me to finish the next book. Often a teacher catches my eye during a visit and wants to have a word with me about a student. Almost every time it’s an avid writer who produces volumes of stories or poems—finished, unfinished, skillfully written or simple, wildly creative or somewhat familiar. And what they want to know is what to do with all that writing. 
Teachers are great at teaching children who can’t write or won’t write or need lots of support to write. I am routinely impressed by the dedication of teachers I meet. So they can see that the avid writer needs guidance, too, but they are often at a loss about where to begin. Parents of these kids are often equally in the dark—proud, but unsure of how to best support a budding author. I have four kids myself, some of whom are avid writers so it’s a topic I’ve given a lot of thought. Here are three things you can do to nurture the young writer in your life.
I’m bad at this myself. I love my stories but I don’t take very good care of them. 
One of the most helpful things a teacher or parent can do is set up a file to keep stories both those finished and those abandoned. Most working writers begin as many as a dozen stories for every story they finish. So it isn’t important for your avid writer to finish every project they begin. Learning when to set aside a story that isn’t working is an important skill, too. But many times a writer will return to an old idea with a fresh insight and make a new story from one that wasn’t working before. Sometimes a character that didn’t work on a first try is exactly what you need in a different story. So having those files accessible is a gold mine. If your students write on a computer, getting them in the habit of a daily back up to a disc or thumb drive helps. Because thumb drives are easily lost, it’s also good to email a file and store it at the email account.
When writers get together, one of the most common topics of conversation is the struggle of finding a time and place to write. Some young writers are great at tuning out their surroundings and writing wherever they are—school bus, dinner table, math class. This of course has problems of it’s own. But students who need a little privacy to write may need help finding a quiet corner of the classroom or an undisturbed nook in the house, and a few free afternoons a week.
I know a 4th grader who came to school one day on fire with a great idea for a screenplay. She begged her teacher for time to write it and he agreed, letting her use the class computer through all the lessons, recess and even lunch that day. In five hours this girl wrote the first three and a half acts of a screenplay. In the last half an hour of the day the teacher asked her if she could show at least a part of her work to the class so they could see what a screenplay looks like. She chose a scene she wanted feedback on and got the class to read the roles out loud. As a result a half dozen other kids got the screenwriting bug for a few weeks. A gift of time like that is a rare and precious gift for a young writer and went a long way to helping this child believe she could be a professional writer some day.
Instructional time is precious and extra curricular activities are valuable, too, but for the avid writing child nothing is so enriching as simply the time and place to create something new.
I don’t know a single author who works alone. Most of us have critique groups or at least a writing partner. They are people who help us work out all the many details of writing well. It means the world to me that if I’m stuck I can call on my neighbors Heather Vogel-Frederick, author of Absolutely Truly, or Susan Blackaby, author of Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox, and go out for coffee and just talk through a writing problem.
For young people community can be hard to find. A teacher who is aware of two or more avid writers might encourage them to join the newspaper staff or school literary magazine. Younger students might find kindred spirits in a Newbery Club or on a Battle of the Books team.
The connection need not be formal and organized. I met two eighth grade cousins on a school visit who have an ice cream date every Sunday after church to work on the YA novel they are writing together. Some kids enjoy fan fiction websites because they create a sense of community and offer a place to share work.
Some communities are wonderful about offering writing opportunities for children and teens. Here are two of the best children’s writing communities here in Portland, Oregon and I hope you will add your local resources in the comments.
League of Exceptional Writers.
Every Second Saturday from 2 to 3 at the Powells Bookstore on Cedar Hills Blvd. in Beaverton from October to May.
Come meet your fellow writers, learn the craft of writing from amazingly talented and friendly authors, bring your own work to share and get feedback. Anyone ages 8-18 is welcome.
We have two sessions left this school year. April 11th Anne Osterlund will talk about developing strong characters. On May 9th Fiona Kenshole will talk about the role of literary agents in the book world.
First Tuesdays of the month from 7 to 8, the young Willamette Writers meet in their own space during the meeting of the adult Willamette Writers. They practice the craft of writing in the company of great writers from all over the region. The meeting is held in the Old Church on SW 11th and Clay in Portland.
If you’ve got a great kids writing group in your town, please share in the comments!
At almost six feet tall, twelve-year-old Truly Lovejoy stands out in a crowd whether she likes it or not. (She doesn’t.) So when her family moves to teeny-tiny, super boring Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire, Truly doesn’t stand a chance of blending in. But when helping out at the family bookstore one day, Truly finds a mysterious letter inside an old copy of Charlotte’s Web and soon she and her new friends are swept up in a madcap treasure hunt around town. While chasing clues that could spell danger, Truly discovers there’s more to Pumpkin Falls than meets the eye—and that blending in can be overrated.Hea
ther Vogel Frederick is no stranger to middle grade fiction. She is the author of the Patience Goodspeed historical novels, the Spy Mice series and the Mother-Daughter Bookclub series. Her newest venture is the Pumpkin Falls mysteries which launched this fall Absolutely Truly, which has just been nominated for an Edgar Award. Heather is also my friend and neighbor in Portland. We have a regular working coffee date so I thought I’d ask her about making the shift to mystery stories.
Heather, you’ve published 17 books and yet this is your first mystery. What made you want to give this genre a try?
I didn’t plan to—I have to admit I’m an accidental mystery novelist.
I was tinkering with a contemporary story about a big family who moves to a small town in New England, like one of the ones in which I grew up—Peterborough and Hanover, New Hampshire, and Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. I love small towns, and I heartily agree with Jane Austen’s writing advice: “Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on….” I had fun dreaming up Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire, and quickly settled on a main character—12-year-old Truly Lovejoy—but beyond that, details were vague. I certainly didn’t have anything resembling a plot.
Then the Boston bombing happened in April 2013.
I was moved by accounts of the many veterans who went to visit and encourage those who lost limbs that sad day. Years ago, my maternal grandfather worked for the Canadian Railroad, and he lost a leg in a rail yard accident. Unable to work and saddled with a heavy, painful wooden leg, his life spiraled downward. Listening to news reports from Boston that spring, I found myself thinking a lot about him, and how his story might have had a happier ending if comfortable, high-tech modern-day prostheses had been available, and if he’d had someone to champion and encourage him.
Coincidentally, I’d also been thinking a lot about my other grandfather, who opened a bookshop in Providence, Rhode Island back in the early 1930s. I have this fabulous picture of him sitting in his store—the Ultima Bookshop—and it’s easy for me to imagine him brimming with hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, with the Depression bearing down, the bookshop faltered and eventually closed its doors after just a few short years.
Somehow, these unrelated personal family connections and musings converged as I was muddling my way through the first draft of ABSOLUTELY TRULY. A struggling family bookshop suddenly popped up. A parent who suffers the loss of a limb strode onstage. And then, as the story ripened, one day out of the blue Truly discovered a decades-old undelivered letter inside an autographed first edition of CHARLOTTE’S WEB. When the first edition disappeared from the bookstore, I realized that I had a full-blown mystery on my hands.
Did you have a favorite mystery series when you were growing up? A favorite mystery writer now?
My family lived for a time in England when I was in middle school, and I’ve been a sucker for British mysteries ever since. I cut my teeth on Agatha Christie (I give her a shout out in ABSOLUTELY TRULY via a bookstore dog named Miss Marple), then later moved on to Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey, P.D. James, and so on. Right now, I’m completely enamored of Jacqueline Winspear’s MAISIE DOBBS series. It’s set in England in the years between the two World Wars, and combines many elements that I love in a mystery, including a vivid sense of place and finely-drawn characters.
Do you find you plot a mystery novel differently than other stories?
Hugely different! I am a total “pantster”—a writer who flies by the seat of his or her pants—as opposed to a “plotter”—one who meticulously constructs a plot before picking up a pen—so I had to turn my usual writing process on its ear. At the heart of mystery writing is crafting a satisfying puzzle, of course, with clues and red herrings and false leads and all that. While there were still times when my natural instinct took over and I experienced that exhilarating rush of surprise I find so bracing as a writer, there was a great deal more plotting this time around.
What are three things you wished you knew before starting a mystery series?
Seriously, writing is hard, but writing a mystery is harder. My husband can attest to this; he had to listen to me whine even more than usual during the long months I wrestled with this story! I found a few books on the craft helpful, including WRITING AND SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL by Hallie Ephron, but mostly I just trusted my gut and bumbled my way through….
I understand you had an interesting research experience while writing the book.
I absolutely truly did! I began my writing career as a journalist, and a few years ago I ran into Victoria Irwin, a former colleague from The Christian Science Monitor, at a PNBA (Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Association) event. It was fun to reconnect and discover that we’d both ended up making a life in books—she’s the events coordinator at Eagle Harbor Book Co. on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
At the point at which I knew that Lovejoy’s Books would be central to my story’s setting, I realized I needed more information. Even though I’ve spent plenty of time in bookshops as a customer, now I needed to know what happens on the other side of the counter. So I called Victoria and asked if I might be able to hang out with her at Eagle Harbor Book Co. She and bookshop owner Rene Kirkpatrick were fabulous, and welcomed me with open arms. I took the ferry over from Seattle and stayed with Victoria and her family for a long weekend, and spent my days shadowing her and the rest of the bookstore staff. I had a blast! So much so, in fact, that I sometimes wonder if I’ve missed my calling. I guess I’m my grandfather’s granddaughter after all.
Will there be another Pumpkin Falls mystery?
Yes! I can’t wait to return to Pumpkin Falls. I’m just now dipping my toes into the first draft of YOURS TRULY, in which our intrepid heroine discovers a diary belonging to the ancestor for whom she was named, learns that her home was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and unravels a Civil War-era mystery. Strange things are happening at a nearby maple syrup farm, too, so once again Truly and her friends will have their hands full investigating. I expect the book will be published sometime in 2016.
Oh, and here’s a fun fact to leave you with: I ended up dedicating ABSOLUTELY TRULY to both of my grandfathers, and now you know why.
Thanks for stopping by the Mixed-Up Files! We’ll be looking for Yours Truly next year.