NaNoWriMo NoMo

No, I will not be participating in National Novel Writing Month this year.  I'm a two-time NaNoWriMo loser, in fact, but I'm grateful for what the experience taught me about myself as a writer.  It was this passage from a speech by Jane Yolen (quoted in an interview with Yolen at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, 8/20/08) that reconciled me to it, though:

Now, there are two kinds of writers in the world [writes Jane], and they were described for me by my friend Susan Schwartz.  "I," she said, "am a mad monk, going up a rock face with a rather large chisel and carving out great swaths of story.  But you are a gem polisher.  You take a small, wonderful gem of a tale and polish it till it shines."

I'm the first to admit that I'm no Jane Yolen (ni mucho menos), and I'm not entirely sure whether this passage is speaking to process or product, but if gem-polishing works for her (and she's incredibly prolific, too) then maybe I can make it work for me.

Even though I'm not participating, I want to cheer on the "mad monks" among us who are.  Who are you?  And what's your novel about?

Half Magic at the library sale

I had to return some books before the library opened on Sunday morning and (I swear I didn't plan this) got there just in time for the big Friends of the Library book sale.  I managed to limit myself to a handful of middle grade paperbacks and a hardcover copy of Anno's Journey by Mitsumasa Anno, but I really shouldn't have:  apparently everything is half price on the last day of the book sale.  Do you think that was good news (I only spent half as much as I thought I would) or bad (I could have bought twice as much as I did)?  Me, too.

I did pick up a copy of Edward Eager's Half Magic to read with the kids, although sadly not the glorious 50th anniversary edition (Harcourt, 2004) shown here.  I'm beginning to think I picked up the magic charm in the book (it grants you half of whatever you wish for) somewhere along the way, too.

Toby Alone

I'm currently reading Toby Alone by Timothee de Fombelle (translated by Sarah Ardizzone; illustrated by Francois Place; Candlewick, 2009).  There's Toby on the cover of the book, larger than life:  he's really only one-and-half millimeters tall, and his whole world is a great oak Tree, just like the ones in my backyard.  I'm reading the library's copy, so I can't see the map of the Tree on the other side of the cover, but spot illustrations in pen-and-ink appear frequently throughout.  Maybe it's better that I can't see the whole Tree, actually;  neither can the tiny people who live in it, and that's part of their problem.

Part of my problem is that I've lost my mind--or rather, the key to it.  The metaphor is scientist Sim Lolness's:

"Every brain has its key," [Toby's] father always used to say. "Mine is my bed.  Yours is your plate.  Eat before you think, or you'll think badly."  (48)

My key is solitude.  Companionable quiet will also work.  Both have been in short supply lately; in the last week or so alone I've attended everything from my 20-year high school reunion to KidlitCon (guess which was better?!).  Right now I'm making room for more quiet in which to read and write and think.

In the meantime, I would love to know what your keys (or your children's) might be.  Sleep, food, quiet, or something else entirely--what do you need to think your best?

A Birthday for Bear (at last!)

Bear and Mouse (small and gray and bright-eyed, of course) are back, just in time to celebrate Bear's birthday--whether Bear wants to or not, in A Birthday for Bear by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton (Candlewick, 2009). We first met Bear and Mouse in last year's picture book A Visitor for Bear, which won the E.B. White Read Aloud Award. Now the unlikely pair returns in an early reader from Candlewick Sparks.

The early reader format makes sense for Bear and Mouse, who are literary descendants of Frog and Toad, and it suits Becker's storytelling here as well. While I miss the spaciousness and surprises of Visitor, Mouse's attempts to deliver balloons, a present, and finally a chocolate cake to Bear in Birthday fall nicely into short chapters. Spoiler alert:  The cake succeeds!  I'm not sure about the present, though.

Interestingly, the next Bear and Mouse book, A Bedtime for Bear (Spring 2010), will be another picture book. From Becker's website: "Bear has Mouse over for Bear’s first ever sleep over. But in order to sleep, Bear must have quiet, absolute quiet. To Bear’s great frustration and growing annoyance, Mouse is far from quiet as a…well, you know." I sort of wish that everyone involved had chosen one format or the other and stuck with it. My vote would be for the picture book, but A Birthday for Bear is a great choice for newly independent readers...and you can read it aloud, too.