A letter from a reader

I received this letter from a reader the other day. She is a student in Mr. Widen's class who had access to an advanced reader copy of A DIAMOND IN THE DESERT. You'll notice her favorite character is Horse, a young man who refuses to talk through out the entire story. That's a picture of him at the bottom of the letter where he's written in the sand, "Stop. Stop talking to me like you know me."

The reader learns why he doesn't speak near the end of the book. I've had two other people tell me their favorite character is Horse. He's mysterious and complicated. We don't know his story, though he's there through most of the book.

On Thursday, February 16, this book will be available in bookstores. The main character, Tetsu, is modeled after the real gentleman who played first base and pitcher for the team while he lived in Gila River for almost four years of his young life. The book is dedicated to him because without his help, I would have never been able to write it.

I look up at the 1000 paper cranes that hang in my office, which were given to me by this gentleman, and I know they are bringing luck my way, just as he said they would.

THE WRITING AND CRITIQUE GROUP SURVIVAL GUIDE, by Becky Levine

Becky Levine is a writer, who, like many of us, is in a critique group. Her group has been together for ten years. In my own experience, a critique is a little like a marriage. You get to know one another very well. You know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, some of us are better at dialogue, some of us at constructing plot. Becky’s book, THE WRITING AND CRITIQUE GROUP SURVIVAL GUIDE is a wonderful book that outlines the subtle etiquette of manners and how-to for being in a group, as well as how to give and receive feedback constructively, and how to revise and self-edit. I loved the book so much; we’re giving one away. To win it, just leave a comment at the bottom and we’ll use random.org to pick the winner.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Tell us about your book.

Becky Levine: The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide is a how-to book for writers who are either just starting to critique or who have been part of a group but still want some tips for strengthening the critique process. The book has sections about finding or starting a group, critiquing different fiction and nonfiction genres, and sustaining a group for the long haul.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: How long did it take to write?

Becky Levine: Once Writer’s Digest approved a detailed Table of Contents and a sample chapter, I took about six months to write the book, including—of course—a big revision of that sample chapter. And, yes, I did leave time to send the book through my critique group!

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Did you sell your book with the help of an agent? Do you think writers today need an agent?

Becky Levine: I did not have an agent when I pitched the idea. When I knew that Writer’s Digest was going to publish the book, I asked Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary Agency to represent me during contract negotiations. She did a great job. Do I think writers today need an agent? That’s a tough question. I know that I want one. Jessica gave me invaluable help and dealt with things I didn’t even know I should be thinking about. I’m still working on my fiction and, when that fiction is ready, I know I want an agent. Obviously, with self-publishing and e-books, a writer can publish a book today without an agent. Maybe I’m a traditionalist, but I think the knowledge an agent has is invaluable—knowledge about when and if a book is ready, about what publishers and readers are looking for, about the whole writing and publishing process. Personally, I want that experience on my side.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: What was the ONE book you read that made you want to become a writer? How old were you when you read that book?

Becky Levine: It was a series of books, teen mysteries written by Phyllis A. Whitney. My favorites were The Vanishing Scarecrow and Mystery on the Isle of Skye. (And I’ve been to Scotland twice and still haven’t made it to Skye!) I was about twelve when I read the books, and I fell in love with her characters and the places they and she took me. I knew that I wanted to be a person who did what Ms. Whitney did: write stories readers could disappear into. I still have these books, as well as Ms. Whitney’s books on writing—birthday and Christmas presents when I was a teen.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: How do you write? Do you have a routine?

Becky Levine: I wish. For years, I wrote sporadically, which—as you can guess--didn’t get a lot done. These days, since I’m juggling writing with other work and life-stuff, what often happens is that I spend a couple of days getting that work stuff out of the way so I have a clear head, then take the next day or so to immerse myself in my current WIP. I don’t really like this system, because it takes time and effort to bring myself back to the story, to dig myself back into the characters. What works best is when I schedule the first available hour or so of the morning for my fiction. It’s more fresh in my mind, and somehow that limited time increases my focus, and I make more solid progress. I think. :)

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: If you could give your book to just one person to read, who would that person be?

Becky Levine: Terry Gross from NPR’s Fresh Air radio show. That is, I’d want to give it to her, if I knew that she’d read it, love it, and invite me for an interview! Other than that, I would be happy if Oakley Hall, the writing teacher who got me started with critiquing, could read it, but he passed away a few years ago. So...I guess I’d give it to that person standing on the edge of joining a group, the one who’s hesitating at the door of the coffeehouse and seriously thinking about just not going in. Because I think the book would get them inside.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: What is your most favorite line in your book?

Becky Levine: Wow! Great question. I had to go back and take a look through the book, but I found one I like a lot and that, honestly, I think I needed to hear right now. So, thanks! “The strongest weapon against self-doubt is the confidence that comes from strengthening skills.”

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: What is your most favorite Newbery or National Book Award book?

Becky Levine: Can I pick my favorite Cybils award winner instead, since those are the awards I really use to build my to-read list these days? That choice would be Adam Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: What are you working on now?

Becky Levine: I’ve got a few projects going. I’m revising (for the umpteenth time) my first picture book, and am brainstorming another one. I’m working on a young-adult historical novel, about a young woman in early-twentieth century Chicago, the daughter of immigrants, who has to break out of the circle of fear in which her mother lives, to find her own place in the world. I’m also starting to write nonfiction educational books for children.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: List three things you can’t live without.

Becky Levine: After my family, I’d say books, tea, and a computer.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Tell us about your critique group. How long have you been together? How often do you meet? How do you go about giving critiques to each other?

Becky Levine: We’ve been together around ten years now. I started the group with a writer I met through the California Writers Club and another writer I was already in a group with, when I was working on a mystery novel. They also both wrote mysteries, and I wanted to be in a genre-specific group. I wrote a MG mystery with them, then I switched gears to historical YA and picture books. We added a couple more writers, also old friends, who are writing fantasy and historical. We meet every couple of weeks, and we deliver scenes or chapters to each other the week before the meeting. We deliver overall feedback about things like plot, character, voice, dialogue, etc; and we also give comments about the specific text on the pages. Sometimes we brainstorm plots and characters and, if we don’t have anything to critique, we try to meet and get some writing time in.

Thank you very much for letting me interview you. Here is a link so anyone who wants to may purchase your book: [http://www.writersdigestshop.com/product/the-writing-critique-group-survival-guide-p]

and here is a link to Becky Levine’s website [http://beckylevine.com/] in case anyone would like to get in touch with you.

Mother-Daughter Book Club at Flintridge Bookstore

On Sunday, January 29, from 2-4pm, I’ll be at Flintridge Bookstore http://www.flintridgebooks.com/ in La Canada, to participate in the Mother-Daughter Book Club event. Members of book clubs will have the opportunity to meet authors, get their books signed, and generally have a wonderful time. Besides me, the other authors participating are Lisa Yee, Susan Patron (who is a past Newbery winner for The Higher Power of Lucky), Lee Wardlaw, Kathy McCullough, Janet Tashjian, Maile Meloy and Kathleen O’Dell.

The store is located at 1010 Foothill Blvd, La Canada, 91011. For more information, contact Catherine Linka at 818-790-0717.

I hope to see you there!

May B!

I had the opportunity to interview middle grade author Caroline Starr Rose. Her book, MAY B., comes out January 10, 2012, tomorrow! I’m very excited to be giving away a signed copy of her wonderful book. If you’d like to receive it, please leave a comment and I’ll choose a winner through random.org, and then send it to you. Her book is a Junior Library Guild selection and received a starred review from Kirkus. An amazing way to start off for her debut novel!

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Caroline, please tell us about your book.

Caroline Starr Rose: MAY B. is a middle grade historical novel-in-verse set on the Kansas frontier. After a failed wheat crop, May’s parents decide to ship her off to a new prairie couple so that she might help them settle and bring in some money for the family. The couple has problems of their own, and suddenly May is abandoned, with no way to contact her family.

May must face the oncoming winter while coming to terms with who she is and what she’s capable of. (sorry about ending with a preposition!)


Kathryn Fitzmaurice: How long did it take to write?

Caroline Starr Rose: I started my research the spring of 2007 and began writing in the fall. Both my boys were in school for the first time, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to write full time. And then my sons’ principal called me into her office and offered me a job on the spot. One of her teachers had quit abruptly, and her position was in my exact area of certification. Though I had no plans to teach before this meeting, I felt like I was meant for this job and took it immediately.

I spent most of my time revising during the school years and writing over the summer. My first draft was finished fall 2008.


Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Did you sell your book with the help of an agent? Do you think writers today need an agent?

Caroline Starr Rose: Yes to both questions. For ten years I submitted manuscripts (seven picture books and four novels) directly to editors and collected hundreds of rejections. It was only after I got serious about finding an agent in the fall of 2009 that things started to happen. Within four months, my agent sold my very non-commercial, non-flashy literary historical at auction.

While it is possible to sell without an agent, I can’t imagine doing so. It took me a long time to come to the realization that an agent was necessary (for me, at least) in starting and maintaining a career. Those ten years of submitting on my own weren’t wasted. I learned how to write, develop my craft, and stick it out.


Kathryn Fitzmaurice: How do you write? Do you have a routine?

Caroline Starr Rose: Sometimes yes. I’m not one who works well with a word count goal, especially while in verse novel or picture book mode. I remember last summer being stuck on roughly twenty words for several weeks. Twenty words! It was a challenge I finally pushed through, but I think if I had cracked the word-count whip, I would have been very discouraged.

More than anything, I force myself to sit with a project, even when the ideas and direction aren’t there. I work best with general monthly goals. Of course, now that I have editorial deadlines, I make sure to work on other projects when my editor has my work, so that does keep me moving forward.


Kathryn Fitzmaurice: If you could give your book to just one person to read, who would that person be?

Caroline Starr Rose: First I need to explain May’s deepest desire is to someday be a teacher. While she is bright and studious, she is also struggles with dyslexia, a learning disability that wouldn’t have been known at the time. This mysterious inability to process information as her classmates do has defined her in school, at home, in the community, and in her own mind.

If I could give this book to just one person, it would be to former student of mine. I had her as a sixth grader, and unfortunately it took me several months to realize her reading ability was well below her peers’ (this was in a group of children in which some were reading at third and fourth grade levels). She rarely turned in work and was often belligerent. What amazed me, though, was her willingness to stand in front of the class after writing workshops and read her very simple stories.

By the time I realized the extent of her struggle, all the slots for a special reading elective had been filled.

I wish I could say I created some marvelous program for her myself. I’m embarrassed to admit I remember doing nothing extra for this child who so desperately needed some sort of intervention. That school year was the first in a new school, and we were all learning the ropes. I had an especially transient population that year -- lost and gained between 30 - 40 students. There was only so much I could do. At the same time, I have woken up in the middle of the night thinking of this girl and others whose needs I didn’t fully meet during my teaching years.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: What is your most favorite line in your book?

Caroline Starr Rose: Here are two stanzas that make me so proud of May.

I go slowly,
invite the words to find
a home
between
each breath.

No one is here
to listen,
or laugh.
I’m not whispering,
not mumbling,
I own this poem.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: What is your most favorite Newbery or National Book Award book?

Caroline Starr Rose: So many to choose from! If I were to pick something current, I’d go with OUT OF THE DUST or HOLES. Childhood picks would include MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH, THE HIGH KING (I went through a phase where a friend and I would create intricate maps of Prydain and then act out Alexander’s stories), GINGER PYE, or THE VOYAGES OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE.


Kathryn Fitzmaurice: What are you working on now?

I’ve just finished edits with my agent on a middle-grade contemporary about a girls’ club (inspired by my mother’s girlhood) and a picture book about the Louisiana wetlands.


Kathryn Fitzmaurice: List three things you can’t live without.

Indelible Grace CDs or NPR while driving (sorry, that’s two!)
peanut butter
a book

Thank you very much for letting me interview you. Here is a link to your website so anyone who wants to may purchase your book, or get in touch with you may do so. http://www.carolinestarrrose.com/

Films Rights sold to Dyson Thomas Films, LLC

I’m thrilled to announce that my newest middle grade novel, due out in February, 2012, from Viking, has recently had the film rights sold to Dyson Thomas Films, LLC, a partnership between Dyson Lovell and Thomas Parsekian. Here’s the announcement which will go into Publisher’s Marketplace next week:

"Kathryn Fitzmaurice's A DIAMOND IN THE DESERT, inspired by the true story of a Japanese-American boy who, while interned at a camp during WWII, joins the camp's baseball team, which goes on to beat the state champions, to Dyson Lovell and Thomas Parsekian at Dyson Thomas Films, LLC by Brandy Rivers at Magnet Management on behalf of Jennifer Rofe at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency."

Thank you to Paul Angle (who read the story before it was published and offered immeasurable assistance) for introducing the story to Thomas Parsekian.

Thank you also to film agent Brandy Rivers at Magnet Management and my incredible literary agent, Jennifer Rofe.

The above photo is of Tetsuo Furukawa at age thirteen, taken after baseball practice in Gila River. He sent this, and many other photos, to me while I was writing the book.

Introducing: A DIAMOND IN THE DESERT

I’m delighted to announce that on February 16, 2012, my second middle grade novel, entitled, A DIAMOND IN THE DESERT, will be available from Viking. The idea for this book came after visiting my oldest son’s middle school National History Day competition. One of the students there had built a model of the Zenimura baseball field as it stood outside Gila River, a Japanese internment camp. Her grandfather had played outfield for the team. I asked her if I could interview him. I thought I would write a short magazine article about him, but after the interview, I immediately contacted the other two players who were still alive so I could interview them, too. This began a two year process in which I learned everything I could about the baseball team and Gila River. I’ll admit, I never thought I’d write a story about baseball or Gila River. I didn’t even know the baseball team had existed until the day I saw the model of the field.

But here’s the thing. After listening to the men, and hearing what they went through, I wrote the story because, against all odds, in a time of turmoil in our nation, this team of young boys was able to come together and beat the Tucson High School state champs in a nail-biting extra innings game that was so incredibly remarkable, it gave a sense of hope to the other residents of the camp. It gave a sense of what is possible, if we try.

Because am not Japanese, I was somewhat apprehensive to write the story. So before I wrote even one word, I spent many months in the Pacific Archives building of the Laguna Niguel branch. I read through all three and a half years of the newspaper on microfiche. I interviewed the men over a period of two years. After each draft of the story, I sent it to the pitcher so he could read it to make sure I got it right. And then, I asked my son’s former baseball coach to read the book, so he could check my baseball facts, and the baseball scenes of each game. I am so very grateful for the support and help I received while writing this book.

Moreover, I would say A DIAMOND IN THE DESERT is a story of hope and courage which happens to take place in an internment camp. It’s a story that helped me to see the good in people, and how with faith and determination, we can achieve what we want. It’s also a story about a dog, named Lefty (after Lefty O’Doul) who after he was given away (because the camp didn’t take dogs) found his way home and waited there for his owners to come back.

I hope you will enjoy the book. I am so happy to be able to share it with you.

What it sometimes takes to begin a new book...

Here’s the thing about starting a new book. For me, it typically takes almost a year to write. And then, it takes another very long unspecified amount of time to revise. So the concept/topic/idea better be something I love, something I look forward to sitting down and writing, at least most days. I’ve been writing full time now since September, 2006. I’ve learned that unless I’m at my desk most days of the week, the book doesn’t get written.
For this very reason I’m constantly changing my home office. I have to love (L.O.V.E.) this room I sit in for all hours of the day. I have to want to spend time in it.
So I buy a new desk every couple of years (current one: stainless steel with wheels), or paint the walls, or put up wallpaper (my new favorite thing) or new art (Andy Davis or Wolfgang Bloch being my favorite artists, both are from southern California). I change the fabric on my chair, and place a different plant on the corner of my desk every few weeks. (Lately, I’m in to cactus). A couple of months ago, I had my contractor replace the old French doors. Now they’re one continuous pane of clear glass with modern silver handles. He also suspended an amazing Jonathan Adler contemporary chandelier to hang over the desk, and installed wood flooring, a white oak plank seven inches wide.
All this so I can sit and be inspired.
So when I turn my computer on each morning, and my dog, Holly, settles in her bed next to my desk, I can, hopefully, find the words that would have made my grandmother proud.