Z is for Zigzag Paz

The end of the alphabet, the end of the challenge--today feels a little sad to me! Showing up to blog every day has been an important experience; going through my keeper books even more so. Examining why I have kept a book, and given others away (many, many others) has brought back all kinds of memories, good and bad, and has also confirmed that I've made the right choices. The books I've listed this past month will always be keepers; they make my world whole.

Today's keeper is no exception. Zigzag Paz by Pamela Anne Zolkov, published in 2011, is the only memoir I own. Primarily set in South Africa, it's a journey of the heart that is truly unforgettable. To read my earlier review of the book (which remains one of my most popular posts according to my sidebar!)  just click here. I feel the same way today as I did when I wrote that original post--Zigzag Paz is a wonderful story, well-written and thought-provoking--and it has recipes! How cool is that?

But what I really want to say today is what Zigzag Paz has come to symbolize to me now that I've had my blog for several years, as well as a Twitter account, a Facebook page, a website, a JacketFlap account, an Author's Den page (I think that's all!); in other words, the Internet. 

I met Pam through the Internet via Twitter. Twitter! I would never have thought back when I was first reading, say, The Alexandria Quartet or Vanity Fair, that I would one day have a combination TV-typewriter that would take me to as far away as South Africa, or even the next state over, giving me the chance to meet amazing people like Pamela Zolkov. 

It's been such a privilege, a science-fiction fantasy come true, to be able to communicate with you all wherever you are, whatever time zone you're in. How lucky I am to get up every day and know you're out there somewhere, working on your own creative projects, filling the world with your creativity and good thoughts. I'm so grateful to you all!

Thank you for reading my blog, thank you for the work you do, thank you for sharing your books and art. And thank you, especially, Pam, for writing Zigzag Paz and introducing me to so many new vistas through your book. It means a lot to me.

So with that I'll sign off for a little while. I need to digest this whole "blogging every day" thing. Tomorrow I'll be selecting a winner for a print copy of Overtaken, and will announce who that is in a few days after I've heard back from him or her. There's still time to win--just leave a comment on any of my A-Z blog posts from this month and I'll enter your name in the random drawing. 

But now I have to go find a tissue. I'm feeling very emotional saying goodbye to the challenge and to you. Who'd have thunk it? Take care and I'll see you all again in about a week. Keep reading good books!

Y is for Young Adult Writing, Featuring Marilee Brothers

Although I don't have a keeper book starting with the letter "Y", I do have a special surprise: a guest blogger specializing in Y is for Young Adult! And her new book (which is definitely on my keeper shelf), Baby Gone Bye,  does have two Y's in the title. So all round I feel pretty lucky (more Y's) to have Marilee Brothers visiting today. Yay Marilee!

The author of eight books, Marilee Brothers is a former teacher, coach and counselor. She and her husband are the parents of three grown sons and live in central Washington State. After writing six young adult books, Marilee is currently hard at work, writing an adult romantic suspense.

Her most recent young adult title, Baby Gone Bye, is a keeper for many reasons: I love the story, I enjoy Marilee's writing style, and I think it's an excellent go-to book for staying up-to-date with modern YA writing. I gave the book 5 stars in my Amazon.com review, which you can read on the book's Amazon listing page.

For today's post I asked Marilee if she could share some of her top tips for writing for the YA market. Here's what she had to say:

1. Read, read, read. When I was young, there was no such thing as young adult fiction. The only books available to me featured prissy little girls in white pinafores. Therefore, I had to sneak-read my parents’ books and grew up with the fantastic Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald and books like The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss, very likely the first sexy romance novel ever published. 

2. Watch TV shows and movies that feature teenagers. Eavesdrop when you’re in the mall or other teen hangouts. But, be careful when using current slang. It will probably be obsolete by the time your book is published. 

3. Write in a genuine voice because kids can detect a phony faster than I can write this sentence. 

4. Don’t get preachy. If you have a message, make sure it’s an integral part of the story, woven intricately throughout the plot. You may not even know you have a theme until after the book is written. This happened to me. I wrote five books in the Unbidden Magic series and didn’t realize until Book 3, Moon Spun, that I had recurring themes, namely Allie’s search for her genetic roots and the desire to find something larger than herself to believe in. 

5. If you’re writing for young teens, bear in mind you are also writing for their mothers. Moonstone, the first book in my series, featured 15-year-old Allie Emerson. She lived in a rural part of Washington State with her young, single mom. She’d never had a boyfriend until she connected with reformed gangbanger, Junior Martinez. When the book came out, I didn’t hear from the young readers. I heard from their mothers who read the book before passing it on to their kids. The message was, “Thanks for writing a book without vampires and sex.” This surprised me. 

6. Make ‘em laugh. Your plot may be deadly serious. Your protagonist may be in fear for his/her young life. Your characters may be in mortal danger but that doesn’t mean you can’t throw in a dash of humor. Often, the funny stuff is what your reader will remember about your book. For example, I’ve read all of Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries featuring her private detective Kinsey Milhone. I’ve forgotten most of the plots, but I’ll never forget her description of Kinsey sneaking into a house via the doggy door and then meeting the actual dog. Laughed my butt off! 

7. Don’t write to a trend. Vampires. Dystopian. Shape shifters. Sorcery. They have all been done to death. Maybe you have a fresh new perspective. If so, go for it, but bear in mind, agents and editors may be sick of these overdone genres. As stated before, write from the heart. Make your story fascinating, original and unputadownable. Is that a word? 

8. Here's an exercise guaranteed to put you in a YA frame of mind: harken back to your teen years and pick an age when you were alternatively miserable and euphoric. For me, it was age 14 going on 15, which is why I made Allie Emerson that age at the beginning of my series. Think of an incident that made you miserable. Try to remember how truly awful you felt and write about it. Then, do the opposite. Pick something that sent you over the moon with happiness and write it down. Tap into your inner teen and you will find the age of your protagonist. I promise you it will work. 

Last bit of advice: Write. Write. Write. Exercise that writing muscle! It gets lazy if we let it. Not only does it get lazy, doubts begin to set in. I recently finished a contract with my publisher. After writing a book a year for six years, I took some time off. Big mistake. The longer I waited to start something new, the more I began to wonder if I still had the juice. I know. It makes no sense. So, after a serious talk to myself, I began writing again. And, guess what? The act of writing woke up my lazy brain. The ideas began to flow and all is right in my world. 

Thank you so much, Marilee! Great advice which I certainly will be taking to heart for my next YA project. Wishing you the very best for continued success.

P.S. Marilee loves hearing from people who have read her books. Feel free to contact her at www.marileebrothers.com. Thanks again--and see you all tomorrow with the letter Z (and the end of the challenge!).

The X Factor: Maxfield Parrish

I don't have any books that start with the letter "X." I don't think I've even read a book starting with "X"! So today's fill-in will have to be keeper book Maxfield Parrish, by Coy Ludwig, the closest I can get to any title with an "X" in it, other than The Alexandria Quartet, the first book I posted for the A-Z Blogging Challenge. 

"Twilight" has always been my favorite Parrish painting. Oh, yes, I adore all his wood nymphs, fairy tale princesses, gorgeous waterfalls and morning skies—I’ve even had drinks at San Francisco’s Pied Piper Bar with its splendid namesake painting, but for some reason, this tame little scene of a white-washed house in the middle of nowhere speaks the loudest to me. 

When I first started taking art lessons, my teacher said something very interesting that I’ve never forgotten: she said that the world was full of landscape paintings, still life pictures, portraits, fantasy art, you name it. The full range of techniques and expressions from abstract acrylic on glass to humanist marble sculpture has already been done, and by artists of every skill level imaginable. But what differentiates the pieces that truly speak to us is what she called “the X factor.” That little, indefinable unique something-or-other that makes the work different, and special. It might not even be seen by everyone who views the work—but when you see the X factor, you know it, and you want that piece of art in your life. 

I don’t think there’s any Parrish painting that doesn’t hold some kind X factor for me, but "Twilight" seems to carry a special message, one that speaks to me of home and hope. I’ve moved so many times in my life that I don’t really have a very clear image of what “home” means. The places I lived in as a child were scary and unfriendly, somewhere to escape from, rather than seek refuge or feel any sort of safety or comfort. It wasn’t until I lived in my own apartments and houses that I understood how to make a place warm, welcoming, and peaceful—in other words, a home. 

“Twilight” has given me that inspiration and a model to follow. Other than my years in the Georgia countryside (and that was pretty suburban; the college was right down the road next to a smooth highway leading straight to the heart of Atlanta) I’ve never lived in quite the full extent of isolation as in this painting. If I did, I know I’d go stir-crazy in a matter of days. After a few walks up and down that creek bed I’d be itching for libraries, art supply stores, and a quick trip to the mall for a latte. But . . . it’s nice to dream. 

It seems I carry the image of this particular house in my mind wherever I live, and it’s what has made me seek out an X factor in my own sense of style of interior decorating, maybe even my own writing and art. I can't say exactly what that is, but it’s a striving for something quiet and tranquil, a space that allows me to think and create and just be me. It’s a good place to go, and I hope you have a special heart-place of your own, too. Let me know if you'd like to share!

W is for Writing Poetry from the Inside Out

Happy "W is for Weekend"! Hope you're having a good one. It's dark and cloudy in Albuquerque this afternoon, just the right weather for today's keeper book: Writing Poetry from the Inside Out, Finding Your Voice Through the Craft of Poetry, by Sandford Lyne. 

This particular book is so important to me I've written my name on the inside cover, just like I did in the fifth-grade with Little Women and The Wizard of Oz: My Book, Hands Off! I carry it with me to all sorts of important places like the library for some quiet writing practice; my writer's group for more writing practice and group exercise; for inspiration when I'm waiting in the Lowe's parking lot while my husband shops for gizmos. As Lyne states in the preface, ". . . poetry writing is the most portable of the arts . . ." It's true--all you need is a pen and a notebook, pencil if you prefer.

Here are my three favorite things about the book:

1. I love the way Lyne refers to a writer's journal/sketchbook/notebook as the writer's "studio." Choosing just the right size, paper, binding, and weight of your book goes a long way to feeling comfortable with it, making you want to write more often, or as Lyne calls it, trying your hand at some "poem sketching." The simple act of opening your notebook can become a touchstone, transforming wherever you are to writing space, helping you to block out noise and other distractions. So choose well!
2.  There's a lot more than poetry "form and function" here. Yes, there's lots of "how to" instruction on "how to write a poem" throughout the text, but this is also a book about how to reach that deep and sacred part of you that wants to express itself through the written word. In many ways, this is secretly a book about how to live, and live well.
3. Word clusters. There are about 30 pages of word clusters at the back of the book, divided into groups of four. For example: barefoot, evening, shadows, king. Or: wall, ancient, dawn, dusk. These have been provided as writing prompts (which makes this such a great book for writer's groups). I've used these clusters in all kinds of ways: singly, as the given set, or taking words from across the pages to make new combinations. I've also used them for more than poetry, too, e.g., essays and fiction. And if you manage to work your way through every set, you can always start adding some fresh words of your own to the mix, cutting out words from magazines, or going through the dictionary for fresh and unusual ideas.

There's still five days of National Poetry Month left (and only three more blog posts till the end of the A-Z Blogging Challenge!). How about joining me to write some new poetry over the coming days? Here are a few word clusters of my own gleaned from magazines to get you started:

mirage

romance

harvest

escape

taste

scarlet

theory

world

horizon

balance

window

snow

image

ancestral

passion 

world 

They almost make a poem on their own! Have fun, and I'll be back on Monday. (Yay for free Sundays!)

V is for Vanity Fair

I'm feeling rebellious today--sitting at my computer writing a blog post when it's so nice and sunny outside is starting to feel like homework! So I'll get right to the point with: V is for Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray, a book with one of the most rebellious heroines in memory: the ruthless, amoral, and quite wonderful Becky Sharp.

Thackeray was born in 1811, and he published Vanity Fair in 1847. It's a book as relevant today as it was back then, giving credence to the theory that "the more things change, the more they stay the same." I bought my copy as a teenager when I was determined to read every British and Russian classic I could. It was a good plan, and it also taught me what makes a classic a keeper: the characters are timeless and universal, enduring the highs and lows of "modern life" regardless of era. When I first read Vanity Fair with all its absurdity coupled with Becky Sharp's machinations to get ahead in life, I thought it was just like high school! I could identify with her social woes, and I still can.

Becky Sharp is a fascinating character for writers to study. She's a dreadful person--bad, wicked, self-centered and narcissistic, and yet you can't help but feel sorry for her. You want her to win, and it's sad when she doesn't. She's also very, very funny. Becky never asks for permission--she just goes ahead and grabs life by the fistful, consequences be damned. 

She's an interesting role model--bad girl, smart girl, determined girl, product-of-her-times girl. I think there's a little bit of Becky in all of us (that goes for the guys, too!). The trouble is,  it's difficult to 'fess up and say, "Hey, I want to be just like her! I want my own way, and I want it right now! Move over." 

Giving in to your inner-Becky Sharp might be a risky path, and probably isn't the best way to gain friends and influence people. On the other hand, it just might be the key to creative success: being bold enough to send a manuscript to an editor who claims not to want submissions, but you know she's reading them anyway. Or having the confidence to take your artwork to a gallery for the very first time, even when you don't think you're "good enough." Becky never let the "rules"stop her, usually she just made them up as she went along.

So on that note, I'm going to follow Miss Sharp into the sunshine and play for awhile. Enough of this blogging madness! See you tomorrow when I promise to be much better behaved.

U is for Urgent 2nd Class

Yesterday the strangest thing happened to me: I was in a bookstore searching for a new art book (totally realizing that the last thing I need is a new art book), and when I opened a how-to on watercolor techniques, there was a letter inside. A hand-written, angsty "I-don't-mean-to-be-passive-aggressive-but-I really-hate-you-because-I-love-you" letter. Wow. It was written on lined notebook paper and made me feel like I was a character in a movie or a novel. All I could think about was: Who was supposed to receive this letter and why was it in this book? In a public space!

The part that was really strange to me, though, was that I had already planned to make today's post for "U" be a celebration of Urgent 2nd Class, Creatimg Curious Collage, Dubious Documents, and Other Art From Ephemera, by Nick Bantock, the creator of the Griffin & Sabine series of books. If you are a Bantock fan, you'll immediately recognize the significance of finding a letter in a book. If you don't know Bantock's work--run, don't walk to the bookstore and get yourself a copy of Griffin & Sabine, an Extraordinary Correspondence right now--skip reading this post, just go!

In my opinion, Nick Bantock is the foremost mixed media and collage artist/author ever. The End. I have admired (and envied) his work most of my adult life, and taking one of his workshops is so on my bucket list I get dizzy just thinking about it. Fortunately, I have a way to stay sort-of sane while I'm waiting because Urgent 2nd Class is one of my all-time keepers. The book is full of Bantock's artwork, and better yet, great ideas and tips on how he does it. Not only is the book beautiful, it's genuinely useful.

Bantock is the reason I first became interested in making collages of my own. I've often mentioned in the past how important magazine cut-outs have been to both my artwork and writing, but to get that real "fine art" kind of effect, magazine pics can sometimes be too "slick" or commercial-looking. 

Bantock uses all kinds of strange and interesting materials in his work, much of it found from combing through vintage shops and yard sales. My own collection of collage materials is rather paltry in comparison, and one of the things I'd like to do this summer is start creating a better selection of items. To get started, I brainstormed a list:

• Used costume jewelry: pins, beads, chains.
• Old jigsaw puzzles--doesn't matter if pieces are missing. All the better if they are.
• Vintage postcards, travel brochures.
• Vintage greeting cards.
• Vintage theater programs and tickets.
• Stamps. International, used, pretty, weird . . .
• Buttons, laces, and fabric trims. Preferably used.
• Old books in bad condition (so I can tear them up with a clear conscience).
• Vintage menus, paper placemats.
• Doilies, both fabric and paper (good for making imprints and texture in paint).
• Wallpaper scraps.
• Really bad condition wall-art prints and posters (again for tearing up).

I have a feeling that searching for these items is going to be just as much fun as finding ways to use them. Let me know if you're planning to hold a yard sale any time soon!

T is for The T.E. Lawrence Poems

When I first moved to Albuquerque nearly eleven years ago, one of the first things I did was join a narrative poetry writing group. I saw their notice seeking new members up at my local indie bookstore, and wanted to join on the spot. I called the listed number, talked to a very nice poet, and attended my first meeting several days later. It was a great group, even if I didn't know that much about narrative poetry at the time, other than having read Gaudete, the subject of my "G" post for the A-Z Challenge. 

Unfortunately, several months later the group was the target of a hostile takeover (bet you didn't know groups could fall prey to things like that) and almost overnight it became a . . . science fiction novel writing group! Huh?? I don't write science fiction. I needed a new group, and soon.

Except there were no other narrative poetry groups in Albuquerque. When I told a poet friend in Canada about what had happened and how much I wanted to learn more about the genre, she immediately sent me a very special gift: a copy of The T.E. Lawrence Poems by Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, a book my friend described as "narrative poetry at its best." She was right.

The T.E. Lawrence Poems is a fictional "autobiography" told in verse from the point of view of Lawrence of Arabia. This Lawrence isn't Peter O'Toole, and maybe not even the author of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, but he sure comes across as real. Reading this book is worse than having an endless bowl of Fritos--once I start, I can't put it down.

I have never been the type of person who can describe poetry very well. I use words like amazing, fantastic, beautiful, soul-stirring, but none of them say what I want to say about poetry. Maybe it's because I just don't know how you can write about poetry, except maybe to write another poem!

Which is what I did on a trip to Taos, New Mexico a few summers back. It started with a simple misunderstanding: During much of the trip I kept talking about how much I wanted to see all the places D.H. Lawrence had been while he lived in Taos. It wasn't until we were at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House that I realized with a jolt that my husband thought I'd been talking all this time about T.E. Lawrence. I was stunned. Sons and Lovers had NOTHING to do with camels. I had to process this in my art journal before I felt as if I'd fallen down the rabbit hole:

Lawrence in Taos

There were no deserts he could recognize;

His motorbike too small and industrial;

His politics unpopular;

His clothing suspicious.

Arrested over and over for assisting--they thought--Al Qaeda, 

He could not convince them he wasn't who they thought he was:

LAWRENCE OF THE INDIANS.

It was terrible how narrow their vision was

And how much he wanted to go home . . .

Whew, that felt better.

I hope you get a chance to read The T.E. Lawrence Poems one day. The copy my friend sent was a used edition, and I was lucky to get it. There are some pencilled annotations in the margins from previous readers, and whoever they were, they seemed to have enjoyed the book almost as much as me! 

Happy National Poetry Month, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow with the letter "U."