Mother’s Day Blues

by Hilde Garcia

“Mommy, can I read you my story? It’s finished. It took me two weeks.”

“Sure, read away.” I always enjoy the words that my daughter weaves together. I listen while I drive choosing that over any music that could be playing on the radio.

“Ok." Victoria reads aloud.  
Disaster at School,
 by Victoria Anne Krol.
It was Monday and winter break had just ended. Percy, Annabeth and Grover were walking back to school. They got to school and started the day normally, but after lunch, Shawn, a kid that was late, cam in just in time for gym class. Shawn was mean and he started picking on Annabeth, Percy and Grover, when the teacher announced that they would be practicing obstacle courses.

Then the teacher asked them to get into 2 separate lines. No one disobeyed either. The teacher explained that they would be racing each other in pairs. Shawn was annoying Annabeth before they started, so I charged him with my sword pen, but he defended himself. I had no idea where he had gotten his sword! The all of a sudden, he disarmed me, then Annabeth mouthed at me, ‘he’s a monster’ and I understood. The monster was about to strike Annabeth when Grover, the satyr kicked it in the bottom with his hoof.

He went sprawling forward and then Annabeth stabbed the monster and it exploded into monster dust. Of course, nobody noticed because the mist-a-magical veil blindfolded them from what happened.”






“Wow,” I say.
Wow indeed. It’s fabulous. Well crafted, a great beginning, captures my interest. I already want to know what will happen next, so she’s hooked me. I feel like I might be an easy audience, a bit biased, but her story stands on its own merit, truly.


Did I mention she’s only in the third grade?

And she wrote her bio too: 
I, Victoria Anne Krol, live in California and am super interested in Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. I am very creative and I have a lot of friends.

She writes.

I write.

Maybe we will be a team. She’s asked me, but sometimes I feel that I am not worthy of her and her incredible imagination, which has been untainted by life. I cherish that and protect it for her- electronics are so limited in this house- I swear you’d think we had gone back in time.

On Saturday night, we visited the Iliad Book Store in North Hollywood, CA and closed the place down with a large purchase and children who were reluctant to leave. A breath of fresh air the owner told me. My kids had two friends with them who were also enraptured by the bookstore and it gives me hope that not all has been lost of the electronic generation.

This Mother’s Day, I will be writing with my sweetheart and maybe we will craft our first story together.

Mother’s Day blues for me? Not anymore. It was for a time when I had lost my own mom, but now I have Victoria, and she and I share our love of books and words. My son and his daddy too are bibliophiles and love to write, which surprised my son to find out earlier this year that he could be a published author.

For fun, here are some mother-daughter writing teams.

Enjoy!

Laura Ingalls Wilder was encouraged to write by her daughter Rose Wilder Lane who was a reporter and writer.

Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark have been co-authoring best selling mysteries for over 20 years.

Patricia and Traci Lambrecht, who write under the pen name P. J. Tracy, released Monkeewrench and their next title is Milk Run.

Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer co-authored Between the Lines, a YA book about what happens when happily ever after…isn’t.

Kristina McMorris and her mom, Linda Yoshida, wrote Flaherty’s Crossing.

Phyllis Christine Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast created The House of Night Series.

Blanche Day Manos and Barbara Burgess wrote Grave Shift, a mother-daughter sleuth team.

D. C. Cowan, a mother-daughter team who share the same first and middle initials, have created The Legend of the Black Roses, out on 12/31.

Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, and Ann Kidd Taylor who writes for Skirt have co-authored, Traveling with Pomegranates.

And because I have a son, not to leave him out, we have Sandra Blakeslee co-writing with her son Matt, The Body has a Mind of Its Own.

So you never know which one of my twins will team up with me.

Who knows, it could be both of them!

Celebrating Teachers, Books and Mothers

by Susan Berger

May is full of interesting and wacky holidays. (Do visit Brownielocks. It's a blogging gold mine. I have a special fondness for No Sock Day, No Diet Day and National Laughter Day)

This week’s celebratory events include, among other things, Teacher Appreciation Week.

 


Children’s Book Week,  and  Mothers Day.

I am going to steal a quote from Peanuts' Author Charles Schultz.
1. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winner for best actor and actress.

2. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

Now try This

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

Easier?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.

Right On! 

I went to 19 schools and met many wonderful teachers who instilled in me a love of language and the written word.  They shine in my memory.  To me, teachers are the real stars.

I remember my second grade teacher reading To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street  to our class.(Dr. Seuss' first book)  I fell in love with rhyme and the story.
 

Then in third grade, my dad gave me a book, Louisa May Alcott, Girl of Old Boston  - One of the "Childhood of Famous Americans" series and I fell in love with the process of reading on my own. I became a bookoholic.

That led to me writing books. But I began writing when my children were nine and thirteen, so I had some occasional free time. I stand in awe of the authors who raised small children, and managed to write at the same time.




Sonia Levitin, my writing teacher at UCLA, wrote Journey To America when her children were young. She said in class that sometimes her books took several years.to complete.

Judy Blume  wrote The One in The Middle is a Green Kangaroo  when her children were in preschool. (Click on the link to read her account of that.)

I think everyone knows about J. K Rowling and I know there are many others who started writing when their children were still in diapers. 

There are also mothers that raise children, hold down a full time job, do the housekeeping and still manage to write. I do NOT know how you do it.

This category includes my critique partners, Kris, mother of six year old Tommy, writer blogger, full time financial consultant and author of three picture books that are going out and about,

Tommy

Hilde, Victoria and Sam

and Hilde, mother of six year old Sam and Victoria, full time teacher and student, baseball coach, superb cookie maker, and author of a kick ass YA novel, Wet Foot Dry Foot. You both have my awe.

So here's to all of you: The Authors, The Teachers, The Mothers.  You are the ones we remember the most. Thank you for everything wonderful you brought into our lives.



These are not Hilde's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies, But I wish they were.

How about you, Dear Readers - Who taught you to love reading?  What was the first book you fell in love with?