Tales of Sydney

The first Sydneys are in. Below you will find the first two interpretations of my picture book story character, Sydney. Each unique and beautiful, and very different. I’m beginning to understand the tough challenge an editor has in matching an illustrator to a picture book story.

Many thanks to both Alexandra Browne in the UK and Karin Johnson Alderson here in the Pacific NW.
Enjoy, and feel free to let me know if you’re inspired to draw and submit your own Sydney.

(All images and texts are copyright of the original artists and may not be reproduced without express permission. Thank you for playing by the rules)

Meet Sydney

Look, up on my shoulder. That is Sydney, my cat.
He can be any size he wants.
Today, he is small, because he knocked over mom’s plant.
Usually he’s blue with grey stripes.
Sometimes he likes to be purple, just for fun.
We play together, all day, every day.
We never play checkers anymore, because we always end up in a fight.

Karin Johnson Alderson (2012)

And in Monopoly, Sydney can’t be the banker. He gives himself extra money when he thinks I am not looking, and bats the dice under the sofa.
I taught him chess myself. It was really hard.
Sydney says he would rather dance the queen across the board than play by the rules.
I know … Sydney cheats at just about every game we play.
But when there is nobody else to play with, he is there.
When we go out, Sydney slips into my denim jacket pocket.
He sticks his little head out and sniffs the air.
I have to try to keep him out of mischief.
Sydney likes to make a mess.
And then I have to clean it up.
Mom does not like mess all over the floor.
Mom says Sydney can’t take baths with me anymore.
He likes to dive off the cold-water faucet and usually water goes all over the floor.
Just last week he told me to make waves so he could go surfing with the bar of soap. He looked like a real surfer too.



(Alexandra Browne 2012)

Sydney helps me fall asleep at night, after I tuck him in good and tight so he can’t run off.
He keeps bad dreams away.
Mom says, “It’s okay.”
Dad just shakes his head and goes back to reading the paper.
Only I know Sydney is real.
He is my best little cat friend …
For always and ever.

Patience

Patience is a virtue and I certainly do feel virtuous waiting for my publisher to get back to me on a contract for further Fountain Pen stories, among others, but I can’t help wonder if we would embrace patience with a little more zest if it were a vice.

Patience as it stands does very little for me. It’s just a fancy word for waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more. Mind you, I’m not being idle while I wait, patiently, but it’s always there in the back of my mind. Patience.

If somehow we could sell patience as a vice, would that mean people would eagerly and happily wait for the phone to ring or the next text message announcing a contract, a new lover or new job?

Perhaps in an alternate universe. I just don’t see it happening in this one ... no matter how patiently I wait for it.

Enough silly ramblings... back to work!

Fall Reading

Fall is by far my favorite time of the year. Not just for all the standard reasons; fall colors, colder weather, wool sweaters, fall foods, pumpkins. Aside from all those wonderful reasons it is also the time I read certain books. Most of the year I’m not that specific in matching my reading matter with the season, but for autumn, I’m particular.

As a caveat, I must say that I can only read War and Peace when it snows. Needless to say, with Seattle’s limited exposure to snow, it will be a few more years before I finish that tome.

But back to fall.
I can still vividly remember the fall storms raging outside on the October nights I read Wuthering Heights when I was in my teens.

I also have very fond memories of reading Dragon Rider with my son one lovely, soggy October some years back. And only a few short years ago I spent October and November - it was a thick book - deeply ensconced in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

But this year I’m still looking for just the right book, that book that blends just the right ingredients into the story. While I search I’m keeping entertained with Terry Pratchett’s Feet of Clay, but it’s not quite meeting my autumnal reading requirements. Sigh.

The book I’m looking for has to be a little spooky, a little paranormal (I suppose that’s the right term), an exciting adventure, and must be well-written.

If you know of any such book, please let me know. It can be middle grade, YA or adult.

Happy Reading!

The Ego

 
Ah, the Ego... a troublemaker since well before Freud ever decided to label him, or her, or it. One day when I was in need of a boost to my ego I chose to take a look at all the sites where my story “The Fountain Pen” is available. Such a lovely way to boost flagging spirits on a gloomy Seattle day - even if it wasn't raining for a change.

I was happily clicking along, my spirits rising with every new page-view, though I’m not entirely sure what the Japanese site was trying to tell me when I entered my story title in, what I sincerely hoped, was the search box. And then it happened... I went to the Dutch site bol.com, by then lulled into a falsely inflated sense of self-importance, and entered the name of my story.

A spinning beach ball of only few seconds in which I felt a slight twinge in the pit of my stomach, thoughts of ‘what if they didn’t carry it after all?’ trying to claw their way up my ego balloon. And then, glory of glories... there it was. My story. A warm glow was about to wash over me when it changed to a distinctly cold shower.

The reason for the sharp intake of breath, the abrupt sitting up in my chair and the nearly spilling of hot tea was the fact that the story had been attributed to a different author!

Oh sure, they got the last name right, in The Netherlands they can manage Hooghiemstra, but I got lumped in with another author with my last name! Suddenly my story had been written by Erna Hooghiemstra. I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but she did not write my story.

Once the first shock and outrage had worn off, I sat back and laughed. Served me right for seeking such cheap ego gratification when I should have been writing and submitting books and stories.

A quick set of emails back and forth to the Dutch site and a few weeks later, it’s all fixed. Phew.

Self-Promotion

Or, “Getting your Hustle On”
Never a comfortable subject for an author as we so revel in being introverts that we adamantly shun drawing attention to ourselves. Though a clever person could argue that by the mere virtue of sending our stories out into the world we do draw attention to ourselves and interact with the public on fairly intimate level. But, for argument’s sake, let’s pretend no such clever person is around to point that out.

My lovely publishers, Untreed Reads, have given me some pointers on helping them, and me, promote my work. They’re quite good at getting review copies out and the pitch emails and other marketing things I know little of, but there is an area where an author can help out, namely: Libraries!

I have a list of all the libraries in the country and I’m slowly contacting each and every one of them - those that carry e-books - and asking them to please carry “The Fountain Pen”.

It’s a slow process, but not without it’s own interest. I’m finding such a variety of public libraries out there; some are small but deeply involved with their community, almost like a focal point, others are very large in major metropolitan areas where I run into very different attitudes. One big, library system sent a nice note to my query, while another large library sent an almost snide one saying they only buy materials that have gotten favorable reviews by the major reviewers.

Does that mean their library is smaller on the inside than the outside? Or does it mean those small libraries, one of which very excitedly emailed to say they were adding my story to their collection, are in fact much bigger on the inside than on the outside?

Either way, I am enjoying being part of the process that gets my stories and my name out there. If you like “The Fountain Pen” perhaps you could suggest it to your favorite library.

Thanks!

Memorable Lines

A recent article in the New Scientist mentioned a team at Cornell University had taught a computer to identify memorable movie one-liners. Such as “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine”. We all know that one from Casablanca.

Apparently the goal of having taught the computer to ferret out these memorable lines is to - possibly - help politicians come up with truly memorable slogans to boost their campaigns.

What researchers found is that the quotes that stick in our minds ‘contain surprising combinations of words but at the same time use a structure that is common’.

I wonder when some enterprising writer will decide that this software is just what (s)he needs to come up with a memorable book title. Another catch phrase to boost sales. Or how about more catchy chapter headings and while we’re at it, how about those first lines of each chapter? But if all our lines are memorable won’t that mean our audience gets overloaded and won’t remember any?

Even Casablanca only has two memorable lines in it. The one I quoted at the top from the beginning of the movie and then the one at the end, ‘.. this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship’.

More than that would be too much of a good thing and spoil the fun. 

Perspective

I live in a doggie neighborhood and almost daily run into one or more of my neighbors and their four-legged companions. One of the things I’ve come to appreciate about this is that I get to hear the same story from many different perspectives. Yes, it’s also a gossipy neighborhood.
    It reminds me of something Madeline L’Engle apparently used as a teaching tool with her students to determine perspective in a story.
    She would have her students take a story they had just written and tell them to totally rewrite it, using the same events, but from the point of view of the antagonist instead of the protagonist. Not an easy thing to do, especially if you’re fond of your protagonist and think he/she is right and the other character is wrong.
    It was something a writing teacher taught her many years ago and though it made her angry to have to do that when her teacher first told her to, she learned the value of seeing the other side of the story. She learned that by seeing the other side her story could have more depth as it incorporated a bigger picture and greater understanding of perceptions and consequences.
    This is what I’m learning as I sift through the stories of various neighbors. And I find it is helping me in my writing.
    Another way animals enrich our lives!