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Interview and two amazing giveaways with author Dorian Cirrone

By on September 23, 2013   /   Author Interviews, Giveaways  

One of the hardest parts about being a writer is staring at a blank page, wondering how to start your story. A while back, I posted suggestions for coming up with great novel ideas. Since then, I took a workshop led by author Dorian Cirrone that was filled with amazing tips for coming up with high concept premises and great beginnings. With NaNoWriMo starting in just over a month, I thought today would be the perfect time to ask Dorian to visit us.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADorian Cirrone is the author of the young adult novels, Prom Kings and Drama Queens and Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You, which was named an ALA Popular Paperback and made the Amelia Bloomer List for Feminist Fiction as well as the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age list. She has also written the Lindy Blues chapter books, The Missing Silver Dollar and The Big Scoop. Her stories were included in the middle-grade anthologies Sports Shorts and Lay Ups and Long Shots. Dorian holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in English and has taught writing at the university level and at many workshops and conferences. She’s currently revising her first middle-grade novel.

 

Welcome to the Mixed-Up Files, Dorian! Can you explain what high concept is, and share some ways to help our readers come up with high concept premises for their future stories?

High concept seems to mean different things to different people. And for some, it’s even a negative term, implying that a work with a high concept premise is all plot-driven, with no character development. That said, after reading various opinions, I look at high concept as having some of the following characteristics:

  • Tremendous public appeal to the intended readership
  • A title and premise that hooks the reader instantly
  • A character with an exciting or enviable life that readers would want for themselves
  • Larger than life characters and situations

There are several ways to brainstorm these types of ideas. Here are three that I like, with examples from notable authors.

1.     Come up with a worst-case scenario for your characters. This pretty much sums up every dystopian novel that’s out there. But there are other worst-case scenarios, ones that might take place in our own world. For example: Chris Grabenstein’s ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO’S LIBRARY. It’s about twelve kids, who win an overnight of fun in a library, but then find out they’re trapped until they solve the puzzle to the hidden escape route.

2.     Look at popular classics, examine the kernel of the idea, and give it a fresh take. Neil Gaiman has said that his novel, THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, about a boy raised by ghosts, was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s THE JUNGLE BOOK, about a boy raised by animals. As we know, this worked out pretty well for the Newbery-winning Gaiman.

3.     Examine the world around you and figure out what might interest people in the next few years. Donna Gephart did this with her award-winning AS IF BEING 12 ¾ ISN’T BAD ENOUGH (MY MOTHER IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT). The year the novel was published, Hilary Clinton was running for the Democratic presidential nominee. How’s that for timing?

 

It’s often hard to figure out the best way to plunge into a new story. Do you have any tips for coming up with great beginnings?

Conventional wisdom dictates that you should always start in scene, but there are other ways to grab a reader. A couple that I like include:

1.     Starting with a list. One of my favorite examples of this is from Lenore Look’s ALVIN HO: ALLERGIC TO GIRLS, SCHOOL, AND OTHER SCARY THINGS. Here’s how it starts:

The first thing you should know about me is that my name is Alvin Ho.

I am afraid of many things.

Elevators.

Tunnels.

Airplanes.

Thunder.

Substitute teachers.

Kimchi.

Wasabi.

The list goes on, but you get the idea. Each of his fears tells a little more about the main character. It’s a great device to not only tell about him, but to foreshadow the many conflicts he’ll have.

2.     Starting with some type of weird statement or fact. Rebecca Stead does this in LIAR & SPY when she begins with:

There’s this totally false map of the human tongue. It’s supposed to show where we taste different things, like salty on the side of the tongue, sweet in the front, bitter in the back. Some guy drew it a hundred years ago, and people have been forcing kids to memorize it ever since.

The statement isn’t just a quirky fact to grab its intended readers. It also delivers a clue to the unreliability of the narrator, sets up an opportunity for plot events, and provides an extended metaphor for the character’s current situation. Triple duty. And brilliant.

 

Do you have a writing exercise to share with our readers?

An exercise I like to do when I’m planning a novel is to come up with a tagline that distills the story into a short phrase that would hook readers. Even if the tagline I create for myself wouldn’t appear on the book, writing it forces me to think about all kinds of things, such as: tone, audience, premise, promise, theme, etc. If I can pull all those things into one line—and maybe even include some type of contradiction or irony, it gets me thinking more deeply about both the head and heart of my story.

Here are some examples of taglines on covers that have caught my eye:

“A dose of magic can save the world.” (THE APOTHECARY by Maile Meloy)

“If you could see into the future—would you look?” (A YEAR WITHOUT AUTUMN by Liz Kessler)

“A road trip with her ex? Danger ahead.” (TWO-WAY STREET by Lauren Barnholdt)

“The greatest love story ever told is a lie.” (JULIET IMMORTAL by Stacey Jay)

“Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret.” (PRETTY LITTLE LIARS by Sara Shepard)

“She wasn’t supposed to survive the accident. But she did.” (THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX by Mary E. Pearson)

Taglines seem to appear on the covers of teen novels more frequently than they do on middle-grade novels, and I’m not sure why. However, I’ve also noticed that some middle-grade novels include the elements of a tagline in the title, as in the aforementioned ALVIN HO: ALLERGIC TO GIRLS, SCHOOL, AND OTHER SCARY THINGS and in FAKE MUSTACHE: OR, HOW JODIE O’RODEO AND HER WONDER HORSE (AND SOME NERDY KID) SAVED THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION FROM A MAD GENIUS CRIMINAL MASTERMIND by Tom Angleberger.

Whether you end up using your short phrase as a tagline, as part of a title, or not at all, after doing this exercise, I think you’ll come away with a better understanding of your story.

 

What are some of your favorite middle-grade novels?

There are so many great middle-grade novels that I’ve enjoyed—too many to list. But the ones I’ve most recently read and loved include: Rebecca Stead’s LIAR & SPY, Donna Gephart’s HOW TO SURVIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL, Kathryn Fitzmaurice’s DESTINY REWRITTEN, and Liz Kessler’s A YEAR WITHOUT AUTUMN.

 

Can you share some of your favorite books about writing and let us know why they appeal to you?

One of my all-time favorites is Les Edgerton’s HOOKED: WRITE FICTION THAT GRABS READERS AT PAGE ONE & NEVER LETS THEM GO. I love how he nails down everything that should be in the first few pages of your novel to set things up for the reader.

I’ve recently started reading K.M. Weiland’s STRUCTURING YOUR NOVEL: ESSENTIAL KEYS FOR WRITING AN OUTSTANDING STORY. I’m particularly interested in techniques for writing stronger scenes these days, and she has some great ideas for doing that.

Also, anything by Donald Maass. He’s a master at breaking things down, particularly when it comes to creating tension in a novel.

 

Thank you for sharing so many wonderful writing tips with us, and for offering such a generous giveaway, Dorian! Watch for Dorian’s redesigned website and blog with writing tips in the next few months. In the meantime, you can connect with her on Facebook. 

 

One lucky person will win two of Dorian’s Lindy Blues chapter books—The Missing Silver Dollar and The Big Scoop.

Plus, another lucky person will win up to a ten page middle-grade or young adult novel critique from Dorian! Enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. Everyone eligible will be entered to win the chapter books—please let us know in a blog comment if you’re also interested in the critique. The winners will be announced on Saturday, September 28. Good luck!

**The book giveaway is for people living in the United States and Canada, but the ten page MG or YA critique is open to everyone.

LINDY BLUES: THE MISSING SILVER DOLLAR

Lindy Blues 1

When Lindy Blues, Your Nose for News, gets a call that there’s been a bank robbery, she jumps into action. She heads for the White House – the one on 14th and Flamingo, the home of Joshua and Amy Becker. When she learns there’s only one silver dollar missing from Amy’s “World Bank,” Lindy can’t believe an important reporter would be asked to cover such a small story. But it’s a slow news week and she needs a scoop. Will Lindy solve the mystery of the missing coin by tonight’s news show? Tune in and find out!

 

LINDY BLUES: THE BIG SCOOP

Lindy Blues 2

Lindy Blues, Your Nose for News, is stumped when she hears about the missing ice-cream shop. How could “Mr. Hoop’s Super Scoop” go missing and then mysteriously reappear? As Lindy sniffs around the neighborhood for clues, she realizes that this might be her toughest scoop yet! Time is running out for her Saturday night news program, and all Lindy has is a story about flowers and their biological clocks. Will she crack the case of the missing ice-cream store in time for the LBN newscast? Tune in to find out!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mindy Alyse Weiss writes humorous middle-grade novels and quirky picture books.  She’s constantly inspired by her twelve and fifteen year-old daughters, an adventurous Bullmasador adopted from The Humane Society, and an adorable Beagle/Pointer pup who was rescued from the Everglades.  Visit Mindy’s blog or Twitter to read more about her writing life, conference experiences, and writing tips.

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Indie Spotlight: Mockingbird Books, Seattle

By on June 27, 2013   /   Book Lists, Indie Spotlight  
screenshot_800Summer is here,  a great time to visit a children’s bookstore and come home with treasures to read on the porch or in the park.  Today we’re talking with Wendy Ostenson of Mockingbird Books in Seattle (www.mockingbirdbooksgl.com), who
invites you to her store.
Sue Cowing for Mixed Up Files: That’s a wonderful old building that houses your shop. Can you tell us a little bit about it and about how Mockingbird Books came to be?
Wendy: We are in this wonderful old brick building that was originally a church. Owner Alyson Stage had wanted to own a children’s bookstore ever since her kids were little. When a great space came up for sale in her own Green Lake neighborhood, she partnered with friends and family and bought the building. screenshot_808It’s now not only a bookstore, but houses offices and an event space on its second floor. Alyson’s now-grown kids, Taylor and Emily, work at the store and help coordinate events.
MUF: Describe the atmosphere you have created inside.
Wendy: We like to think of it as a neighborhood space where kids, parents and caregivers are welcome to spend some time. The store is cozy, warm and inviting. Our front window area is dedicated to entertaining kids with trains, puzzles, and chalk art. Our Reading Room in the back has comfortable couches to relax and really, truly get into a book. We also have a small cafe that serves espresso and kid-friendly snacks.
Our staff is pretty much a group of children’s book nerds, comprised of semi-retired librarians and education junkies. Sue Nevins from the store means it when she says, “We love to talk about books!”
MUF: How do you decide what children’s books to carry in your store?

A fan of Suzanne Williams' GODDESS GIRLS series finds the latest at Mockingbird Books

A fan of Suzanne Williams’ GODDESS GIRLS series finds the latest at Mockingbird Books

Wendy: Sue and Linda Spoor do most of the buying. With their 40+ years of experience in children’s books, they do an amazing job of keeping the store balanced with tried-and-true classics and worthy new titles. Mary Bayne and I do several story times a week, so we can definitely tell if a book resonates with kids and is worthy of multiple reads. We all have our favorite authors and book blogs, and we love to talk with friends in the business and meet with publishing reps. Also, our customers often recommend great books that should be on our shelves. So I guess you could say it’s fairly collaborative.
MUF: Do you have some favorite titles, fiction or nonfiction you are recommending to middle grade readers right now?
Wendy: Here’s a few great summer reads for middle graders that also will kick-start some great conversations:
Fellowship for Alien Detection by Seattle Author Kevin Emerson
The Search for Sasquatch by Spokane Author Kelly Milner Halls
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard by Annette LeBlanc Cate
MUF: How does Mockingbird Books keep a following in spite of chains and Internet sales?
Wendy: We like to think folks will have a personal experience when they come into the store.

Dressing up for Cowboy/cowgirl photos during a visit byJan Sonnemein, author of COWBOY UP

Dressing up for cowboy/cowgirl photos during a visit by Jan Sonnemein, author of COWBOY UP

Whether it’s engaging our youngest readers through story times, unearthing a lost treasured book, or matching a book to a reluctant reader, we strive to provide friendly service. If we don’t have a book in the store, we are happy to research and track it down. We thinks it’s a privilege to get to know our patrons well and see many of them grow up into strong readers.

MUF: Do you have book clubs or events especially designed for middle graders?
Wendy: Sue Nevins does monthly book groups that will start back up in August. There is a Boys Book Group, a Girls Book Group, and a Graphic Novel Group where kids decide the book for that month and they chat about it over pizza.
We also have author events to coincide with new releases. In the last year, we’ve enjoyed visits from national authors such as Michael Buckley, Rose Mary Woods, and Margi Preus.

Trying out invisible ink with Newbery winning author Margie Preus

Trying out invisible ink with Newbery winning author Margie Preus

Many local middle grade authors like Stephanie Barden, Kirby Larson, Kevin Emerson, Patrick Jennings and Martha Brockenbrough are good friends and often do events.

MUF: If a family made a day trip to visit your shop and need a place to grab a bite, what would you recommend?
Wendy: There are so many places right near us. We are on the same block as Rosita’s which is a neighborhood landmark, and Jodee’s which specializes in organic baking. There are also great Greek, Thai, pizza, pub food and sandwich shops within walking distance. And, being it’s Seattle, there are multiple coffee shops on every block.screenshot_806
MUF: And if they decided to stay in Seattle a little longer, what family-friendly sights and activities would you recommend the most?
Wendy: Green Lake, the most-used park in the city, is literally a block from our store. In the summer its focus is water sports galore. You can rent standup paddle boards or paddle boats and swim at the two beach areas. The path around the lake is 2.8 miles and it’s great for walking and bike riding. We are also about a mile away from the renowned Woodland Park Zoo. I can’t wait to see their newly-born jaguar triplets with my kids this summer! I’d also recommend the Chihuly Garden and Glass that has just opened at the bottom of the Space Needle. It’s an accessible while mind-blowing tribute to extreme glass, art and color. My sixth grader loved it.
MUF: Tell us something about Mockinbird Books that most people don’t know.
screenshot_807Wendy: Our giant Giraffe/store mascot, Geraldine, is a bit of a fashionista.  We aren’t sure where she finds them, but she finds hats and accessories and slips them on when nobody’s looking.  We’ve been surprised to find her dresses up as a leprechaun, a firefighter, and The Cat in the Hat.  Right now she’s wearing a hula skirt.  
MUF: A giraffe after my own heart!  Thank you Wendy for giving us a glimpse into your charming shop!  Readers, we know  you treasure children’s bookstores. If you have been to Mockingbird Books or think from this taste you would like to visit, please let Wendy know here.  
Sue Cowing lives in Honolulu, two thousand miles away from the nearest children’s bookstore. She is the author of the middle grade puppet-and-boy novel You Will Call Me Drog (Carolrhoda 2011, Usborne UK 2012).

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Happy Flag Day! Let’s celebrate with an interview with award-winning author Kate Messner and a giveaway!

By on June 14, 2013   /   Author Interviews, Book Lists, For Librarians, For Teachers, Giveaways  

 

Happy Flag Day!

flag

 

What better way to celebrate than to talk to award-wining author Kate Messner        

kate

  

about her middle-grade mystery book, Capture the Flag!

 

Kate’s newest middle-grade novel series has it all – excitement, intrigue, high-stakes action, and best of all it centers on the stolen American flag! What a great idea and a fun topic for our Flag Day post!

 

 

A stolen flag, a secret society, and three complete strangers . . .
Capture-the-Flag
Anna, José, and Henry have never met, but they have more in common than they realize. Snowed in together at a chaotic Washington, DC, airport, they encounter a mysterious tattooed man, a flamboyant politician, and a rambunctious poodle named for an ancient king. Even stranger, news stations everywhere have just announced that the famous flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner” has been stolen! Anna, certain that the culprits must be snowed in, too, recruits Henry and José to help find the thieves and bring them to justice.
But when accusations start flying, they soon realize there’s even more than a national treasure at stake. With unexpected enemies lurking around every corner, will the trio solve the heist before the flag is lost forever?

 

 Praise for CAPTURE THE FLAG
A Junior Library Guild Selection
“A fast-paced mystery . . . a sparkling start for a promising new series.” –KIRKUS REVIEWS
“A novel as cinematic in execution as it is patriotic in theme.” –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

 

I just finished reading your delightful book, Capture the Flag, I was wondering – where did you get the inspiration for this story? Did you visit the actual flag in the Smithsonian?

I did visit that flag – but not until I already knew I was going to let it be stolen in this book!  The inspiration for CAPTURE THE FLAG was actually the setting — I love airports and thought it would be great fun to set a mystery in one during a snowstorm. I love the super-charged atmosphere…everyone coming or going someplace. In airports, everyone has a story.  And I loved the idea of the snowstorm keeping everyone stuck there for a short period of time so my kids could investigate the crime, knowing that if they didn’t solve it, all the evidence and suspects would fly away as soon as the storm let up.

 

Much of the book takes place in an airport and the baggage area underneath. Were you able to go behind the scenes of the baggage handling area to do research for this book?

That’s the one thing I wasn’t able to explore firsthand in my research. Not surprisingly, airport security in a post-9/11 world doesn’t make exception for children’s authors.  However, I was able explore those under-the-airport worlds virtually, since most companies that build baggage handling systems have videos online showing how they work.

 

How much research, if any, do you do for your fiction books? Do you think this is  important?

I do extensive research for my books, especially when it comes to making sure I have the setting just right.  For CAPTURE THE FLAG, that meant spending a day at the Smithsonian, exploring behind the scenes with the curator of the flag exhibit and talking through just how those fictional bad guys might get out of the museum with the flag.

 

This book is your first mystery. Did you have fun writing it?

Great fun – but it was a great challenge, too, and taught me to plan in much more detail than I’d been accustomed to with my previous books.

 

Any tips aspiring authors should be aware of when writing mysteries for middle grade readers?

When I teach mystery writing workshops, I focus a lot on planning – the idea that suspects aren’t the only ones who need motives; investigators do, too.  It takes a lot of playing around with ideas to make sure all the details end up fitting together just right. And I think setting is huge in mysteries, too. The place can be a huge part of the story, and I encourage writers to think of it as the playground for their characters. What adventures can happen in a museum? In an airport, or a rainforest, or at the World Series?

 

Do you tend to stick with one writing level at a time or go back and forth depending on what inspires you?

I write across genres — middle grade, chapter books, and picture books – both fiction and nonfiction – and I love them all, so I couldn’t choose just one as a favorite. Most often, it’s my deadlines the determine what any given writing day looks like. The book that’s due first gets first priority, and when I’m not on deadline, I tend to play a lot, working on whatever seems to be calling me that day.

 

Your characters are ethnically diverse. How important do you think it is to have ethnically diverse characters in middle grade  books?

Very much so – and I’ve actually been quite involved in providing input for the covers for this mystery series. Scholastic has been amazing about asking for feedback, and we’ve talked about just this topic – the importance of not only including kids from different backgrounds on the covers but also showing their faces.  When I was teaching 7th grade, it was important to me that all of my students could find books with faces on the cover that looked like theirs. It was frustrating to me when most of the books I could find with brown faces on the covers were historical or issue books, where the story was about the character’s race.  In real life, it’s not like that — kids of all different backgrounds go to school and play lots of different sports and solve mysteries and have adventures, and I feel like we need to be mindful of that when we write and market books, too. I’ve been thrilled with the covers for the books in this series!  (And I can’t share the cover for book 3, MANHUNT, quite yet, but I can tell you that I think it might be the best of all!)

Many thanks!  ~Kate

 

And many thanks to you, Kate, for giving us a peek into your writing process. Mysteries are my favorite and I really loved this book! Can’t wait to read the new one in the series.

To learn more about Kate’s many amazing books, see her website http://www.katemessner.com/

Now, for what you’ve all been waiting for,  Kate has generously offered to donate an autographed copy of Capture the Flag to one lucky reader!  Simply leave a comment below and you will be entered in the giveaway.

 

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Jennifer Swanson is a life-long mystery lover. Some say she was born with a magnifying glass in one hand a Nancy Drew book in the other.

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