Is Summer Really Here?

Well, the calendar seems to think so. At least, it says so on mine. June 21, the first day of summer. Summer solstice. The beginning of summer.

Here? Not so much. It's only gone over 70 once this year. I am still wearing my long pants and layering with short sleeves, a sweater and a coat. It's not very summerlike here.

Still, my mind is on summer. On doing summer things. Another post here mentioned required summer reading. We didn't have that when I was a kid. We had summer. And we had three months of summer. School was out the first week of June and we didn't go back until after Labor Day. It was wonderful.

I remember quite vividly the feeling of immense freedom. Of just being. Of doing. Of peace. I lived on a military base for most of my elementary years. Tons of kids all over the place. No fences allowed between the houses. We knew our neighbors. All of the back yards connected in this one, long, beautiful stretch of green. Perfect for baseball. Or tag. Or kickball. Or watching the clouds. Or neighborly barbecues.

We rode our bikes. We walked to the corner candy store. We had sleepovers. We played in groups and alone. We wandered over to the school and played on the equipment. There was something exciting about being on the playground when the classrooms were deserted. No time limit. We could hang out there as long as we wanted to. No bells ringing to tell us recess was over.

We traveled. Went to Grandma's house. Went fishing. Went swimming in the lakes. Had picnics. Took drives for the sake of taking drives. We only had one television, and it was black and white. It was my dad's domain for the news.

When my kids were small, I tried to give them the same sort of summers I had when I was their age. Only we went more places, saw more things. The zoo. The Science Center. The beach. The mountains. Anything that would stimulate their little minds and let them have fun. That was paramount. If they learned things, it was the icing on the proverbial cake.

We had a huge yard with woods. There were forts and treehouses. Games of tag, of hide and seek. Bike riding. Skateboards. A trampoline. Lots and lots and lots of bubbles blown. Hikes in the nearby woods, on the trails. Picnics. Petting barns. And trips to Grandma's house.

All of that is on my mind right now. My kids are all grown. They work now. Only get a few days off here and there. They are responsible adults. I sometimes yearn for those earlier times. Times of shorts, and bare feet. Of sunshine and Popsicle chins. Of fingers sticky with cotton candy, of little, warm bodies exhausted from the day's activities. Of my babies sleeping with smiles of contentment on their faces. Of summer.

Summer Reading

We're winding down our school year here. I know a lot of people are already out of school for the summer, but we have a week to go. And then it's time for fun and relaxing summer reading, right?

Sort of.

Both of my kids have reading assignments over the summer. Nothing too big - they have two assigned books they need to read and they need to write a 3 page essay comparing the two that is due on the first day of school.

In reality, it's not that big an assignment. I remember having longer required reading lists than that, but I don't recall having to write an essay.

But, here's my question. Are required summer reading lists a good thing or not?

On one hand I can see that making sure students read over the summer is important. Reading is a skill like any other, that always benefits from practice and exercise. Children who don't open a book for the whole summer are doing themselves a disservice.

But is it necessary or desirable to require that specific books be read? Why not let summer be the time when students can explore wherever their interests lead them?

To be fair, for the most part our district simply has a suggested reading list for each grade. It's only the honors English classes that need to do the specific assignment.

But that raises another point: the students in the honors classes are the ones most likely to be reading anyway, why force a specific assignment?

So, what's your take? Should students have summer reading assignments or should they be allowed to simply read whatever catches their interest over the summer?

Book Trailers. So YOU tell me.

I started working on a trailer for my soon-to-be-released kidlit novel, RUPERT STARBRIGHT: THE DOOR TO FAR-MYST. Yep- a trailer for a book. Hey- I've made film trailers before but I confess this is new to me. I think the idea makes sense—creating a movie-like ad for a book to get people excited about reading it.

But then a thought struck me. I have watched a couple of book trailers in my life and found most of them are pretty bad. I also realized I have never actually bought a book for a trailer I have watched!

As I begin the difficult task of generating the 3D graphics (which will take days to render) I wonder, IS THIS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME?

I wonder if anyone other than fellow authors will watch it and will it have any impact on book sales. So I ask you:

Have you ever seen a trailer for a book and if so did it help push you to buying it? While on the subject, what DOES get you to read a book?

1. Book trailers
2. Familiarity with author
3. Recommendation from friend
4. The cover
5. The back cover blurb
6. A review
7. Bribe by author
8. Facebook posts
9. To shut up an annoying, begging starving writer


So I'll get back to work on my trailer please give me some feedback. WHY DO YOU READ A SPECIFIC BOOK?

As always, please LIKE and SHARE this blog.

#YAsaves

I thought I'd repost from an earlier LJ entry I made last week on the whole @wsj YA article.  It caused a lot of uproar and comments in Twitter land. Here's the article:


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576357622592697038.html?mod=e2tw

Also not long after Gurdon was interviewed here:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/06/09/midmorning3/



I read the article and had to roll my eyes. I grew up in a mostly religious home(well my mother anyway) and went to church every Sunday. In the meantime I was being abused by my father. I knew what he was doing was wrong and that something wasn't quite right with him. The one time I went and told a so-called friend, the next day she told me she had to get another friend as her father, who was in the bishopric of our church, told her, "No good girl says those disgusting things about her father."



I was the bad girl.



For years I thought I was to blame for the abuse. It was books that helped me. The Martin Luther King Library in South Sacramento, Ca was my savior during this dark time of my life. Books like THE OUTSIDERS and authors like Judy Blume also spoke to me.



Later, I was asked to share my story. I've written poetry dealing with my abuse. Others though have told me to just get over it. That it is my responsibility to only share uplifting materials with teens.



I can't help but remember when I was at the darkest point of my life. When I tried to kill myself as I couldn't deal with the abuse and holding these secrets anymore. I also think of how some books helped me during those times. How I wished Ellen Hopkins had been around. Her books are powerful and tug at the truth. A truth some adults want to hide.



I read this from that same article and cringe:



...Yet it is also possible—indeed, likely—that books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures...



Once again, some think if you don't talk about these issues, that maybe they'll go away. How can talking about them, normalize them? I don't get it. When my father was abusing me, that's all I heard. "Don't talk about it." "Just get over it" "You're strong" and even "God choose you to come to that family to help them".



No, these stories need to be told. There are others out there who live in shame, feel they are to blame, and even are bad girls or boys. These books are a life preserver to them.



There are other books out there for teens. If you don't want to read an edgier book that addresses sensitive topics, well, that's your choice. But don't take them away from others. These books are a light for those in a dark place.

Split-Century Personality

In an era of text lingo and cutesy acronyms, everything is shortened. We no longer write long letters with big words—or lengthy expositions to novels. We like short and sweet. We like texts. We like succinct emails. We like to get right to the point. And my point is…?

In April, I took a hiatus from writing fiction and devoted the month to poetry—I read it, I wrote it, I probably even dreamt about it. Then I spent May perusing the free classics on my Kindle. And now I’m reading my manuscript and shaking my head, using the delete button more often than the space bar. My edgy, basketball-playing narrator sounds like a late nineteenth century poetess—and she couldn’t talk smack to save her life. Now I have a character who is suffering from split-century personalities.

You see, I have been Writing Under the Influence of Classic Literature (W.U.I.C.L.), but unlike other under-the-influence crimes, it’s not against the law. You won’t even get a slap on the wrist. You might, however, get some swell feedback from your editor.

So…I have set my classics aside, said au revoir to poetic notions, and started reading a stack of YA fiction. And after devouring a few teen novels, I am brimming with sarcasm and using “like” much too often in the real world, but the good news is, I am ready to finish my “lovely” manuscript—sans the polysyllabic vernacular and seven-line sentences.

The Price of Mercy - Giveaways!

To try to make as big a splash as I can, there will be several giveaways for my latest title The Price of Mercy. (Sample chapters, info, and a free prequel story at the website.)

This novel is suitable for lovers of all ages of fantasy with a 17th/18th century feel.

First in the Running is Goodreads:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Price of Mercy

by Gloria Oliver

Giveaway ends July 06, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Also have a Giveaway at Face Book.

And another one over at LibraryThing. Though that one is still waiting for approval so only shows on the pending page at the moment.

If you don't mind, please help spread the word!

Foodie as Writer

When I was a kid, my sister handed me the book Homer and the Doughnut Machine by Robert McCloskey, and I fell in love instantly. Years later I understand that it wasn't just the humor in the story, or the detailed description of the doughnut machine that kept me coming back for more. It was the doughnuts. No kidding. I couldn't eat them, but Mr. McCloskey's description of them -fresh from the doughnut fryer with a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar that exploded in a warm, fragrant cloud with each bite- was enough to get me hooked.

As I look back on some of my favorite books from childhood, I realize that quite a few of them involved amazing descriptions of one of my favorite things on the planet: FOOD. Love A Wrinkle in Time? Check out Ms. L'Engle's description of the turkey dinner that Charles Wallace cannot taste until he opens himself up to IT. Ms. L'Engle included a nearly lethal description of the tart cranberry sauce, the sweetness of the green peas, the tenderness of the turkey, the brown richness of the gravy. But it was her blobs of melting butter on the mashed potatoes that about did me in.

Agatha Christie, my first foray into adult mysteries, has a beautiful description of muffins (warm and buttered) and tea in her book, At Bertram's Hotel.

Mary Poppins was all about food, from the healthy stuff like the fresh fruit Bert draws on the sidewalk with chalk (and that the children were able to pluck and eat, "juice running down" their chins to the raspberry jam tarts Mary shares with Bert on her day off.

As for the Melendy family and their friend Jasper? He of the fresh blueberry pies and the glazed marble cakes? I don't go there anymore unless I've just eaten.

I am thus beginning to realize that my books, while fun and infinitely readable in my own opinion (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), could use a bit more food in them, too. True, Jake and Philip go out for pie and french fries at one point in Saving Jake. And my latest manuscript, still seeking a home, details a sit-down family dinner of Filipino proportions during the course of a friendship in the making. But I think I need to include more than that.

Warm from the oven, gooey, sweet chocolate chip cookies, anyone?