WORDS@WORK

Monday, January 21, 2013

"Injustice anywhere...

...is a threat to justice everywhere."

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Letter from Birmingham Jail 16 April 1963

In honor of Martin Luther King Day I'm reposting this blog
from last year.
I'm also proud & thrilled to add the awards
Augusta Scattergood's GLORY BE has received since its debut.

Once upon a time I interested Lerner Publishing/Carolrhoda Books in COME MORNING, my Underground Railroad mystery set in the mid-1860s. I wrote about Liza, a 12 year old Delaware Quaker, helping her neighbor Freedom Newcastle. Free, the son of a former slave, thinks he must pull clues from a Bible passage left by his kidnapped father, to figure out where he is, only to realize the quote is meant as directions for moving a runaway slave family out of his own barn & over the line into Pennsylvania.

My editor told me it was Free's story and should be told from his point of view.

Despite being a white, middle class woman, she had faith I could do it. The challenge pulled me out of my comfort zone, as we say. It sent me deeper into archives, research and my own imagination, determined to weave the best tale I could, influenced by the very real work of Harriet Tubman & Abolitionist Thomas Garrett. It's a better book and I'm a better writer as a result.

Augusta Scattergood has just written GLORY BE, set in the mid-1960s in the Mississippi Delta. She's on firm ground, having written from experience. It's her protagonist Gloriana Hemphill, daughter of the local preacher, who's out of that comfort zone. It's Glory she has researching, imagining, stretching~~finding the faith in herself to stand up for what she believes and ultimately become an even better sister, friend, neighbor~~member of her community.

A few of the kudos so far:

☀ Amazon Top Twenty Middle Grade Novels

☀ Texas Bluebonnet Master List for 2013-2014

☀2012 Indie New Voices pick

The more that you read, the more you will know.

The more you learn, the more places you'll go.

Dr. Seuss I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.

Frederick Douglass

Thursday, January 17, 2013

It's not your mama's Peter Rabbit

December 16, 1901

111 years ago Peter Rabbit stole his way into Mr. McGregor's garden.

Somewhat later Peter pitter-patted into my life

& everything Beatrix Potter stole my heart.

For me interactive meant the filmed production

Tales of Beatrix Potter

danced by London's Royal Ballet

which I caught on the big screen in Boston.

The Chicago Sun-Times gave it four stars & Roger Ebert closed his review with one of my favorite lines: "The stories are told simply and directly and with a certain almost clumsy charm. Instead of going for perfection in the dancing, the Royal Ballet dancers have gone for characterizations... . The various animals have their quirks and eccentricities, and they are fairly authentic: The frog dances like a frog, for example, and not like Nureyev."^[4]

Time passed.

Within the decade I was the mother of three and my daughter's godmother got us started collecting.

My husband was the bedtime story reader, Ms. Potter's eccentric country characters his early favorites. Night after night, tale after tale, he recounted the adventures of Mrs. Tiggy Winkle, Benjamin Bunny, Jemima Puddleduck, Jeremy Fisher, until our kids became, well,

soporific just like The Flopsy Bunnies.

There's a recent addition to the piecemeal collection~~tattered edged to pristine~~now at my daughter's.

During a visit a while back, I opened our little copy of Peter Rabbit only to have the two year old on my lap repeatedly tap the pages. His four year old sister got to her feet. "We need the iPad, Marmie. Then they'll come alive."

It's not the Royal Ballet & it's not your mama's Peter Rabbit.
I hope this interactive library grows & soon they can tap
The Tale of Jeremy Fisher.

It's one more intriguing way to introduce, delight,

and yes, make the joy of reading come alive.

If that well-meaning frog moves like Nureyev, it's ok with me.

Monday, January 7, 2013

HGTV Comes Calling

It's a wrap!

About nine years ago my daughter Amy & husband Rob MacMillan married & set up housekeeping in a converted Newport, RI, greenhouse...

...originally the produce (floral & vegetable) heart of Bonnie Crest,

which sits few hundred yards north on Brenton Cove.

☀ ☀ ☀

Soon came the blogs on Chateau and Bungalow, from the sliding bathroom door to a detailed look at the funky interiors.

Then came the query from HGTV:

Could they film a segment for YOU LIVE IN WHAT?

A resounding YES
&
the filming date was set:
January 3, 4 & 5, 2013

tentatively scheduled to air in February

✓Kitchen renovation complete

✓Christmas tree and decorations down

✓Kids back in school

✓Dog in the car

Dallas-based producer Monika Watkins at AMS Pictures arrived with videographer Scott Anderson & CT freelance sound engineer Mike Larini.

Amy led them through the story of structural additions & subtractions.

Then Rob regaled them with tales of renovations & the guts of the operation~~from the basement coal chute that heated the glass enclosure to estate cisterns designed to irrigate the production field.

Monika & her crew were generous enough to let me hang around. I behaved & didn't intrude which never does a writer any good, of course. Alas, I can offer no relevant details. I left mid-afternoon as Rob was leading them to the basement.

The taping continued till dark.

Saturday they were back for more ☟

Phew! I presume the hours of chat will be boiled down.

Then again, Converted Newport Greenhouse would make an excellent miniseries.

YOU LIVE IN WHAT?

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Best laid plans...

Simple & straightforward:

Set up my laptop & knock off a bit of the rough draft of Chapter One while baking for Thanksgiving.

The first diversion scrambled across the carpet and into my line of vision.

I slathered feta cheese on a trap which let go twice on my finger. I moved the laptop out of the room & onto the kitchen counter.

☟☟ This was my goal ☟☟

Tastykitchen.com

This was the view through my stove door.

☟☟

☝☝

This is the extent of my baking ability.

This is the extent of my rough draft:

☟☟

Guccione/New Book 1

Chapter One

And there's a far stronger chance of the chaos winding up in my story than cranberry bread making it to a serving plate

or the mouse winding up in the trap.

Friday, October 19, 2012

It's the berries!

✍✎ It's Freewheelin' Friday! ☄✒

Dedicated to Artistic Endeavors of all Sorts

Once upon a time

When I had black hair and toddlers,

genre romance was full of cowboys & ranches

penthouses & limousines.

I discovered it was a whole lot easier to

write about what was right under my nose in

coastal Massachusetts.

So I hung around the bogs, strapped on some waders, corralled some cranberries

& created six hard working siblings.

Mid-October's come around again.

Time to to salute Kevin, Sean, Drew,
Ryan, Jody & Matthew:
my Branigan brothers.

Yup! The most fun a girl can have on paper.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Sherman the one legged pigeon soars!

Barbara O'Connor's latest mid-grade delight

has made its debut.

I've blogged about the book and the trailer recently so to celebrate I'm reposting my June salute to illustrator Greg Call. His spot on rendition of the elusive Sherman, the one-legged pigeon at the heart of this merry romp, is the perfect image to launch young imaginations. (old ones, too)

Here's what I had to say in June:

I've waxed poetic in past blogs on my love of children's book illustration, illustrators & the influence of the Golden Age (Howard Pyle et al) Now comes a salute to Greg Call, some covers evocative of N.C.Wyeth but so fabulously his own.