Dispatch #45: A Book's Life

by Lupe Fernandez

I read Violet & Claire by Francesca Lia Block, a YA novel about two girls who's friendship is threatened by the lifestyles they lead in the hard world of Los Angeles' show business. Violet is obsessed with writing a screenplay based on her life and creating a movie. Claire is a vulnerable loner who believes she's a faerie. Love. Betrayal. Loyalty.

I found this book at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley. The book was on a shelf for used books. The pages were marked up in green and red pen. Comments. Underlines. Circles. What was the previous owner doing with Lia Block's book? Class assignment. Writing exercise. Personal salvation.

I imagined a life for this book prior to falling into my hands.

The cover is worn, pages creased, spine split. The reader perches on a school planter, underlining "I asked if she was new to our lovely local prison" and scribbling the note "school prison" in green pen. She realizes, yes that's what this place feels like. The reader is in prison and needs to adapt to wait out her sentence, her crime not being in the cool crowd.

Another reader slumps in a library, groaning at the paper due about this damn book. He underlines "...like fallen stars trying to get back home" and writes "simile" in the margin. Who cares, he wonders. Two crazy girls. He'd never date them. Still, this Claire thought Violet was sleeping with this guy she likes and everything went to the shit. He sits up straight and determines to stop his own affair before his girlfriend finds out.

The last reader hugs the book like a talisman, a charm to ward off fetid hatred. Her best friend has been writing love letters to her boyfriend, hiding in the library. Says he a book report due. She strides across the quad to confront her friend curled up on a planter box, writing in a book. The same book she has. Violet & Claire.

The year ends. The book is tossed in a donation bin. Humidity curls the corners. The ink bleeds. It's stacked with other discards, weight crushing. Oily fingerprints mar the cover. It passes from storage to storage until the big day of the Bay Area Book Festival. Violet & Claire is shelved, breathing Berkeley air and waits.

Waits to be chosen.

Do you know where your book has been?

Dispatch #39: Graduation Season

by Lupe Fernandez

High School Graduation. The end school. The end of senior year. The last of the finals. The last class. Goodbye lockers. Goodbye P.E. Goodbye cafeteria food. Goodbye to the one you want to love but never got the chance.

Oh, then there's college. But before we pack up and agonize over rising tuition, let's stop and smell the ceremony.

Last month I attended a graduation ceremony for a family friend, a Mt. Eden Monarch. I know. I know. You're thinking, "Hey! You're a Sunset Falcon. What in the crazy curriculum on your doing at Mt. Eden?" Sunset High School has ceased graduation ceremonies in 1990.

Gone are the clanging wires against the light posts. Gone are platform shoes. Gone are the names I knew. This is the 21st Century. The era of social media, wi-fi and the cell phone.

But wait.

Some things remain the same. The seniors still march to Pomp & Circumstance played by the high school band. They wear cap and gowns. And there are still those speeches. You know the ones. March to the chime of a different xylophone. Always take the path less muddy. We are the future customers. Etc...

Family and loved one still wait for that special name to be called. The audience still hollers and whistles.

Eventually, warrants were dropped.

In regards to audience cheering, the school principal mentioned a high school in Senatobia, Mississippi where the superintendent asked the crowd not to shout or applaud until after the ceremony was over. Mt. Eden's Principal responded that parents, family and loved ones also worked hard to get their kid to graduate. They deserve to shout for every name.

"Let's them hear it in Mississippi!"

A great roar went up from the audience.

Senatobia Municipal School District Superintendent Jay Foster of Mississippi, are you listening?

Diversity. Diversity. Diversity. What about diversity in the era of the 1%?

The surnames in the program reassured me. Dabu. Ezenekwe, Firethunder Euresti, Duy Ho, Van Le, Kumar, Muzammil, Raj, Safiq, Tungol and the good old American last name of Isais. Once upon a time, such names would've been considered foreign. Today, they claim their education.

Sometimes, even rainbows are the same.

Congratulations Class of 2015.

First lines from the 2014 Cybil Award Books

by Susan J Berger

I wanted to do a first line post. First, my gratitude to the internet which permits me to do the research and to Amazon's Look Inside feature which allows me to copy the first lines into my post without leaving home. The title links are to Amazon so that you, too, may read further and decide if you want to buy or borrow the book from the library.

Next my gratitude to The Los Angeles Public Library whose on-line service enables me to place holds on books I want and/or order books electronically.

These first lines are from The 2014 Cybil winners.

Picture Books

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild written and illustrated by Peter Brown

Everyone was perfectly fine with the way things were. Everyone but Mr. Tiger.

I love this.

Easy Reader

Urgency Emergency! Big Bad Wolf by Dosh Archer  

It was a busy day at City Hospital. Doctor Glenda was writing something important on the wall chart. Nurse Percy was helping someone in a red coat who was crying because she couldn’t find her grandma.

Not so much.  Three. Count them. Three was ­__ing in the first paragraph? Not a great example for an easy reader.

Easy Chapter Books

Horror (scary tales) by James Preller

“Wake up, Liam. We’re here,” Mr. Finn whispered from the driver’s seat. “Our new home.”

            The eight year old boy rubbed his eyes, groggy from the long drive. He looked out the car window, blinking into the dark. “What time is it?”

            Around midnight,” his father said. “you three have been crashed out for hours. Home Sweet

Since this is admittedly a horror story, I would read on to find the horror

Speculative Fiction

Lockwood & Co. The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

Of the first few hauntings I investigated with Lockwood & Co. I intend to say little, in part to protect the identity of the victim, in part because of the gruesome nature of the incidents, but mainly because, in a variety of ingenious ways, we succeeded in messing them all up.

Wow. Try saying that all in one breath. I believe the author thought the editor was sure to read the first sentence and wanted to make it count.

Middle Grade Fiction

Ultra by David Carroll

THE STARTING LINE

Mile O

QUINN: I still don’t get why it was such a big deal. All the kids like to run. Go to any schoolyard. You’ll see kids playing tag, soccer, capture-the-flag . . .All those games involve running.

SYDNEY WATSON WALTERS: The difference is, most kids run for 10 or 15 minutes. Not for 24 hours straight like you.  

This turns out to be a kind of preface. I read on to find out why someone would run for 24 hours. Sounds like a book I might like.

Young Adult Speculative Fiction

The SummerPrince by Alaya Dawn Johnson

 When I was eight, my papai took me to the park to watch a king die.

I love this opening. What a great first sentence. Naturally I read on to find out what happened. If you like the sentence, click the link and read on yourself.

YA Fiction

Yaqui DelgadoWants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina  

“Yaqui Delgado wants to kick your ass.”

            A kid named Vanessa tells me this in the morning before school. She springs out with no warning and blocks my way, her textbook held at her chest like a shield. She’s tall like me and caramel. I’ve seen her in the lunchroom, I think. Or maybe in the halls. It’s hard to remember.

I have to read this one. She had me at the name.

This is a bit short so I’ll add three from NY Times Best Seller List from the week of March 25th

 The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Hello

I am Ivan. I am a gorilla.

It’s not as easy as it looks.


I've been told by several friends this is a wonderful book. It's definitely one I want to read.

A Long Walk toWater by Linda Sue Park

Southern Sudan 2008

Going was easy.

            Going, the big Plastic Container held only air. Tall for her eleven years, Nya could switch the handle form on hand to the other, swing the container by her side, or cradle it in both arms. She could even drag it behind her, bumping it against the ground and raising a tiny cloud of dust with each step.

I've met Linda Sue Park at the SCBWI Summer conference. I am so delighted to see her on the best seller list.

One last Book.

Journey by Aaron Becker

This book had no words It’s a story in pictures. It’s 4 on the picture book Best Seller List and a 2014 Caldecott Honor book. I love picture books with no words. So I wanted to call it to your attention.

Happy reading and writing.

Dispatch #19: I Saw It on Amaryllis Street

by Lupe Fernandez

Another in the a series of "Where Do Ideas Come From?"

On a cold, crisp Wednesday morning, I step out to the curb and watch a waste management truck pick up a green plastic bin of residential garbage. All along the street, the green and black bins - black for recycling - wait to be emptied. The waste truck uses an mechanical prong to pick up the bin and dump its contents into the hulking truck. There's a loud grinding sound of gears and hydraulics at work.

I'm fascinated and my mind starts to wonder and I imagine this scene...

I step up to the curb. The clouds clear and the sunset is a beautiful orange fire.

This girl in a grimy green tunic shivers next to me. "I like when it rains," she says, rubbing an gray lesion on her cheek.

"Yeah?" I say, watching the vapor pour from my mouth. She's standing too close to me. I hope she doesn't notice I smell like rotten fruit. "Everything's all wet." I tug the sleeves of my black tunic over my scabby hands.

"It makes everything clean." She hops in place; her left leg is shorter than her right. "The air smells new. I don't know. Makes me hopeful. Know what I mean?"

"I never noticed," I say. I look down the street. "They always come around now."

The girl pulls up her tunic pant leg to keep it from staining. She stumbles and grabs my shoulder to keep from falling. A warmth floods from her hand into my arm and spreads across my chest. I take a deep breath and suddenly feel hopeful. Her teeth chattered.

"They should come in the afternoon when it's warmer," I say, "I mean who decided this. This is so stupid. They should like built a shelter or a have heaters or something." There's a blanket in the shed. I turn to walk off the curb and back onto the sidewalk, when my body goes rigid. A gurgling hiss comes out of my mouth. I leap back to the curb.

"You shouldn't do that," she says.

"I'm okay," I say. The signal shock makes the stabbing chest pain come back. I don't scream this time. I'm good at hiding  defects. "Did they put you out last night.

"Can you believe that?" She laughs. "Last night. They couldn't do it this morning. I mean why green? I don't look good in green."

Geese honk and fly by overhead in a V formation.

"Lazy parents," I say. I'm burning inside.

The girl points to another set of pick-ups across the street to distract. "Look, it's 2216 and 2218." She laughs again. How can she laugh about this stuff? "They've been out there for a week and no pick-up."
"A bunch of losers," I say.

Others line up on the curb and mumble; their breaths puff vapor with every quick exhale. 2216 in the black tunic coughs and then everyone starts coughing all along the street. Fat grey clouds return and smother the sun. The sky spits rain.

There's complaining from both sides of the street.

"Yay!" the girl tilts her head up and smiles. Fat drops plink on her face.

Then we all hear the beeping of the truck. Everybody shuts up. "I wonder which one it is?" I don't look.

"It's always the green one," she says. Her nose and cheeks flush red.

"You should tell them to put you out in the morning."

"They don't listen to me." She rubs her red filmy eye.

The green squat truck grumbles around the corner; the carrier pod spouts vapor from its exhaust. It stops by 2211. From the side of the pod, a yellow prong folds and slips under 2211 shoulders and flings her into open carrier hatch. The prong folds back into the pod and the truck moves to the next pick up, and so on down the street.

"They're stupid," I say.

The girl looks at my black tunic. "Black looks good on you." She traces the white symbol on the chest of my tunic. I hold her trembling hand. "I've never talked to a Return before. What's it like?"

The beeping truck pulls in front of us.

"It's a mistake!" I yell at the truck. "She should be in black." The cab has no windows, so nobody's listening.

"It was nice talking to you."  Her hands slips away from mine.

The truck prongs spring out, catch her under the shoulders and she's gone.

My fingers dig into my palms. When the black truck comes and takes me to the station, I'm not coming back. I'm not come back until I find her.

...and scene. The next time your stand on the curb and hear a garbage truck coming down your street, you should...well, I'd be careful.

Dispatch #13: Comparative Titles

by Lupe Fernandez

During many a SCBWI conference or workshop, the audience is advised to use comparative titles when pitching their manuscript, such as Harry Potter meets Dr. Seuss or Curious George meets Twilight.

Here in the vast wilderness of the Northern Hinderlands, I have created a few modest comparative titles for future query letter.

Picture Books

• Good Night Moon meets Apollo 13 (The Lost Moon)
• The Story of Ferdinand meets The Jungle
• Curious George meets Gorilla's in the Mist
• Clic Clac Moo meets Animal Farm
• Polar Express meets The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

Middle Grade

• A Wrinkle in Time meets Gone with The Wind
• The Lightning Thief meets Like Water for Chocolate
• Ella Enchanted meets The Handmaid's Tale
• Charlotte's Web meets Pride and Prejudice
• The Borrowers meets Atlas Shrugged

Young Adult

• The Hobbit meets Valley of the Dolls
• Lord of the Flies meets The Scarlet Letter
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Vampire Academy meets Fast Food Nation
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth meets Anna Karenina

These are a few of my favorite comparative titles.
Do you have any?
Care to share?
If you dare...

Margaret Stohl's ICONS Debuts May 7, 2013

By Kris Kahrs

      Well, the Inkies can say we knew her when... before Beautiful Creatures was a book and not a movie. Now, Margaret Stohl is debuting her solo effort, ICONS which goes on sale May 7, 2013.  

      ICONS is a Young Adult post-apocalyptic story of an alien decimated earth and four teens who are born with special powers immune to the aliens' control. Margaret Stohl should start offering workshops on how to create a bestselling YA novel-cum-hollywood movie vehicle. Four young teens pulling together to save their home seems to be the ticket.

      As of last September 2012, Alcon Entertainment bought the rights to ICONS. Alcon Entertainment recently wrapped Beautiful Creatures, the movie of Stohl's book, co-authored with Kami Garcia featuring another foursome of teenagers fighting powers beyond the beyond.

      Alcon CEO, Broderick Johnson said, "Once we learned of Margaret's new venture, we jumped at the chance to continue our partnership with her and this amazing series of books".  ICONS is the first book in a planned series by publisher, Little, Brown and they just released this killer book trailer last week on March 13th 2013. If you watch it, you'll just have to buy the book. It's that exciting.  We'll take a dozen!