Thursday, December 23, 2021

The Night Before Christmas For Book Lovers

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 Twas The Night.

                                                  by Susan J Berger

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,

Each creature was reading. Yes, even the mouse.

In a nest made of cotton that used to line pills,

he read Mouseman Saves Christmas and shivered with thrills.


 Miss Padpaws turned pages of  Elf off A Shelf 

And purred as she read it aloud to herself.

Bad Dog, on the hearth, was devouring a book.

He'd chewed up five chapters and turned them to gook.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

reading books, with their blankets pulled over their heads.




Mamá in her headset heard Time and Forever.

I chortled o'er Hogfather. That Pratchett's so clever.


Not one of us heard jingle bells on the roof.

No prancing and pawing of each tiny hoof.

Santa slid down the chimney and only Bad Dog, 

looked up and woofed softly at the man on the log.

 

"Good Bad Dog," said Santa, and opened his pack.

He pulled out a bushel of books from his sack.



Latkes For Santa ClausMidgrades for Simon,

Thrillers, romances, and even Neil Gaiman.


Geronimo Stilton, he gave to the mouse.


A copy of Archie, he left for the louse



He patted Miss Padpaws and handed her Cats.

For Bad Dog, a cake book that tasted like Brats

 He filled every stocking with poems and prose.

Then ate all the cookies; brushed crumbs from his clothes.

 

On Prancer! On Dancer!"  Their bells jingled bright.

"Happy reading to all and to all a good night".

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

SCBWI Conference Adventures

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 I know everyone who attended SCBWI 50 had a glorious time. Pen and Ink first attended SBWI's Summer Conference in 2010

 During a meeting at Taco Tuesday at El Torito's Kris Kahrs decided it wasn't enough to simply attend, we had to have a gimmick. Kris suggested we create a picture book.

So we did.  We designated Lupe as our cameraman. Sue as our costumer. And Kris and Hilde began to shanghai victims… hem, potential participants to take part in the fun.  I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical that people would want to do it, but we were surprised at how little convincing people needed.  They were quite willing indeed.

And you wouldn't believe the caliber of pirates we had join our ship!  You will have to click on the link to see the cast of bandits… I mean… award-winning authors extraordinaire.  

Side-note from Sue. I was sitting next to Judy Blume at one of the breakout sessions and she agreed to be part of our adventure. I frantically texted the rest of the gang, but they were busy in the main room. So  - no Judy Blume. But so many others agreed to play along. The letter A pirate was Arthur Levine and then there was . . .. No. Click and see for yourselves.

Take a look. Happy summer all.



Tuesday, December 22, 2020

TwasThe Night Before Christmas A Parody For Book Lovers

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 Twas The Night.

                                                  by Susan J Berger

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,

Each creature was reading. Yes, even the mouse.

In a nest made of cotton that used to line pills,

he read Mouseman Saves Christmas and shivered with thrills.


 Miss Padpaws turned pages of  Elf off A Shelf 

And purred as she read it aloud to herself.

Bad Dog, on the hearth, was devouring a book.

He'd chewed up five chapters and turned them to gook.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

reading books, with their blankets pulled over their heads.




Mamá in her headset heard Time and Forever.

I chortled o'er Hogfather. That Pratchett's so clever.


Not one of us heard jingle bells on the roof.

No prancing and pawing of each tiny hoof.

Santa slid down the chimney and only Bad Dog, 

looked up and woofed softly at the man on the log.

 

"Good Bad Dog," said Santa, and opened his pack.

He pulled out a bushel of books from his sack.

Picture books, YA, some Midgrades for Simon,

Thrillers, romances and even Neil Gaiman.


Geronimo Stilton, he gave to the mouse.


A copy of Archie, he left for the louse



He patted Miss Padpaws and handed her Cats.

For Bad Dog, a cake book that tasted like Brats

 He filled every stocking with poems and prose.

Then ate all the cookies; brushed crumbs from his clothes.

 

On Prancer! On Dancer!"  Their bells jingled bright.

"Happy reading to all and to all a good night".

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

NanoWriMo Time. Quotes to keep you writing

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By Susan J. Berger
It's NaNoWriMo time again.   If you've never tried National Novel Month, it's a great way to get a first draft. This year I hope to come out with a finished short story. No harm in setting your own personal goal. I have three published NaNoWriMo Novels, two first drafts I haven't revised and a fourth novel I am currently querying.

 
This isn't about being perfect. It's about getting the words out. If you get the words out, the story will come. I guarantee there will be lots of surprises.

"Here's the bottom line; writers write. Sometimes words flow easily. Sometimes it's like sloughing through mud. Either way a professional writer keeps writing." 
P.C.Cast 
 
 "A word after a word after a word is power." - Margaret Atwood

Dory and I have so much in common. I often stop to Google.
“Don't worry about what you're writing or whether it's good or even whether it makes sense.”   Lauren Oliver
 
“Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”
Ray Bradbury.
 
Advice from a Hollywood NaNoWriMo coordinator.
"When all else fails, throw in a Zombie."
Will you revise after NaNoWriMo? Of course, but right now the trick is meeting the deadline.
 
"There's an old folk saying that goes: whenever you delete a sentence from your NaNoWriMo novel, a NaNoWriMo angel loses its wings and plummets, screaming, to the ground. Where it will likely require medical attention.”
Chris Baty
 
“You can't edit a blank page”
 
Happy writing.

Monday, October 26, 2020

More on NaNoWriMO It's COVID Season. Here's Something to Do

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 Have you started a book which you’ve never had time to finish? You are not alone. I had ideas galore. But getting them down and finishing that first draft? Let me say it took me a year and an half, a commitment to my critique group and a lot of personal nagging to finish a first draft of a middle grade book.  Then I discovered NaNoWriMo.


National Write a Novel Month takes place in November. It began in 1999, when Chris Baty and a group of friends got together and challenged each other to write a novel of 50,000 words of more in ONE MONTH. Why? Who knows? Crazy!

But seven people completed the challenge. They did it again the next year with more people… This will be the sixteenth year of the marathon. It has become an international event with more than 100,000 [R1] participants. 
This blurb from their website: 
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel. 
IN 2018 which is the last year for which I can find statistics 450,000 participated. 53,000 finished. This year's NaNo winners - 2020, Get a free upload and editing with Ingram Sparks
Sound interesting to you? My first thought was 50,000 words in one month? No way!!! The longest piece I’d ever written was that mid grade novel – about 16,000 words. But what if I could? I explored the NaNoWriMo website and decided to give it a shot.
It was an amazing experience. What I had given myself was a huge gift – a deadline.
In November 2004, I sat down at the PC without an idea in my head, just a determination to do a daily stint of 2000 words. (I belong to the Pantser school of writers. The plot emerges from my subconscious as I write.)
The first sentence was “I am beginning. I don’t know how I got here and the world is full of strangers..” Horrible sentence, but I kept on writing.
Often my inner critic would look at what I wrote and say, “This is awful!” But my looming deadline gave me the courage to silence my inner snarker with these words. “Never mind, it is word count. Keep writing.”

Another joy of NaNo? Getting a pep talk from a well known author in your mail box every week in November. Here are a few SCBWI members gave: Kate DiCamillo, John Green, Tamora Pierce, Walter Dean Myers Here’s is a link to all the previous SCBWI author pep talks.

I kept writing. I attended local NaNo write-ins. I powered through sticky awkward sentences to scenes I was proud of, and on November 30, 2004, I had a 50,000 word first draft of a first person YA novel called Missing. Frabjous joy!!
(Slight problem: After I read it through, I realized I had used Robert Heinlein’s Mars stories as a model and that science is no longer valid. Someday I will figure out how to overcome that and revise the novel.)
Next!
In 2006 I gave NaNo another shot and didn’t finish. I hated what I’d written. No one yelled at me except my inner critic.
Next!

In 2009 I tried again. This time I came up with a first draft I knew I could revise into a better story.
Many drafts later, Soul Mate Publishing offered me a contract for Second Chances, which was reborn as Time and Forever and published in 2014.




Time and Forever was a Golden Quill Finalist for Best First Book and a RONE Award finalist for Best Time Travel Novel.  

I wrote four more books during Nano. Two of them are published. I am submitting the third now. And I believe I will do NaNo this November.

Biggest pieces of advice:
Be like Dory in the movie Finding Nemo
Just keep writing, just keep writing.  
Do. Not. Edit.
 As author Sarah MacLean says, “That’s for future you to worry about.”
Name your inner critic (I call mine Ethel), and tell her/him to take a vacation till the end of November. If you keep your fingers moving and write through the junk, a beautiful something will emerge.
Go ahead! Give yourself an adventure. http://www.nanowrimo.org/
You have no idea what is possible till you try it.