Hello wonderful followers. I know I’ve been MIA from my blog but there’s nothing like a deadline to make us produce. This week, it was my deadline for my group blog. I’ve posted over at Sporty Girl Books about my recent colorful, tactile revision technique using a plot chart. If you are a plotter or a pantser, this could be useful for you either as you revise or as you plan the initial draft. Please take the time to click, read, comment and follow over there. Hopefully, when I’m done with this revision, I’ll be back on a weekly blog schedule. See you then!
Category: About Me
What’s in a name? Adjusting one’s eplatform.
For the last ten or twelve years, I’ve worked on building an e-platform that will hold me in good stead when I begin marketing my books in earnest. You know my books right? Well maybe not yet, but you will. Currently they are “works in progress,” or “making the rounds,” or “on submission.” Nevertheless, I have great faith that they will be published and when they are, they will need to be marketed and publicized.
I have spent much of my time (probably too much) keeping up with the newest social media marketing trends all under the name Anna J. Boll. However, recent unexpected life events have brought me to a new path, and I have decided to take back my birth name for my professional and personal life.
Cyberspace, meet Anna Eleanor Jordan.
I am not unique in this. People get divorced and married and divorced (1 divorce every 36 seconds according to this). What is newish and more difficult is changing the e-platform that is so much a part of modern daily existence.
Luckily my Twitter handle was @annawritedraw (no need to change)…
…but my email, and Facebook had to change. My name-based gmail has been relatively simple (although it ends up being crazy long because shorter versions were taken), and I can easily have the old gmail forward to the new. Facebook gives you a spot for a parenthetical name which is nice.
Pinterest even allows you to choose your own URL suffix. (I went with annawritedraw to make it the same as Twitter.)
I’ve yet to deal with LinkedIn (which I use only for people I can recommend or for those who can recommend me) and this very webpage has to change.
Creative Chaos will eventually be found at annaejordan.com as soon as I figure out how to forward it properly.
But then there are other less public things. All the sites that I subscribe to, usernames, and passwords need to be changed and updated and on and on. In fact, it is a veritable web – intricate and extensive – of minutiae alterations. Just when I think I’m done, there are another thousand bits to change.
What’s not going to change is my commitment to the kidlit community, or my writing, or my passion for championing diversity in children’s literature, or my love of books, poetry, art and illustration, education, family, and matching children with wonderful new literature. Thanks to all for the support that I’ve received thus far and thanks for your patience with my spotty posting.
See! I still have to change my bio below, ugh, and Goodreads, and…
March Round-Up: Part Three, VCFA Novel Retreat
This past weekend was wonderfully relaxing. I played catch with my kids, went to see Divergent, enjoyed the spring ritual of going to Fat Boys drive in and binge watched How I Met Your Mother. But March was full of travel for me. Check out the March Round-Ups Part One:The Brunswick Inn and Part Two:Brooklyn & NYC or just read on to hear about Part Three: VCFA Novel Retreat.
This was the second year that I’ve driven up to Montpelier in March to meet with writers, my people, in the safe and supportive writing community that is Vermont College of Fine Arts (FMI: Writing Novels for Young People Retreat-VCFA). Last year I signed up for the critique track which allowed me to get feedback from other authors, and industry professionals about my work in progress. This year, I chose the writing track which gave me time to write and revise.
No matter what track one chooses, all participants enjoy lectures from the guests. This year, those guests were author Jennifer Richard Jacobson, author Rachel Wilson, and editor Martha Mahalick from Greenwillow Books. Rachel kicked off the weekend with a wonderful theater-based workshop on allowing yourself to play. I’ve already gotten her permission to borrow some of the great theater games for my “Active Mind, Active Body,” presentation at NESCBWI in May. Jennifer took a wide look at emotion on the page and I ended up with pages of notes. Martha discussed revision, the problems that she sees most often, and ideas about how to fix them. She let us have an inside view to the relationship between an editor and her authors. All the presentations were inspiring!
The change of place, the helpful presentations, the wonderful company all allowed me to write again after an stress-induced hiatus. I completed a the first draft of my WIP, printed it out, and started my read through. The other wonderful thing about the weekend is the public reading. One night, we are all welcomed to take the floor and read 2 pages from our manuscripts. I love reading my work (probably because reading was a part of the VCFA curriculum when I was there). However, I hadn’t read from the work before and found myself nervous and a little breathless. Still, it was well received and it’s always good to take advantage of a chance to read aloud. Especially in such a supportive environment.
This week, my goal is to complete my first read through and to write myself an editorial letter. This is one of my favorite revision techniques. I get to pull back from being an author and just attack the manuscript. Sure, I’m still personally involved, but I try to give the story some tough love. When I read the editorial letter in a week or so, I’ll have the hard job of hating my editor (me) and trying to figure out how to resolve the problems in the manuscript. (A little schizophrenic I know, but it works for me.)
March Round-Up: Part Two, Brooklyn & NYC
If you’ve been reading Creative Chaos for a while, you know that New York City feeds me. Day to day, I live in a very quiet and small town where I love being part of a close community. I enjoy the peace (little to no traffic, crime, noise, etc.) that goes along with it. But sometimes I need the culture, diversity, bustle, and grit of the city.
I was lured to the city this month when my agent sent me an invitation to a PI(e) Day party she was giving. I quickly contacted a few friends to see who might let me surf their couch. I was thrilled that my long-ago friends from Eagle’s Nest summer camp welcomed me into their Brooklyn Heights apartment which was an easy cab ride to The Treats Truck Stop Restaurant where Kim, the owner, made amazing savory and sweet hand pies. The company was just as sweet. Lovely editors, agents, writers, and illustrators ventured out on another cold spring night for the warmth of other industry professionals in the kidlit community. Everyone was welcoming and wonderful.
The next day, Adam and I toured Brooklyn. The promenade gives an amazing view of the city. I took tons of pictures under the Brooklyn Bridge in the Dumbo area, and enjoyed the older architecture. I would totally live in Brooklyn.
In the city, we went to Times Square and Chelsea Market. I loved wandering through the kitchen and restaurant equipment shop, watching the mini donuts brown, and smelling spices at the spice shop.
Next was a walk on the high line to the Theater District. Adam’s work with The Boy’s and Girl’s Club of America allowed us to see a preview performance of A Raisin in the Sun with Denzel Washington. The performance was wonderful. It’s themes of dreams, family, oppression and assimilation make it one of my favorite plays. After the performance, Mr. Washington did a Q & A with the group of young people from the Mount Vernon B&G Club (of which he is an alum). Thus the picture of Denzel, Me, and Adam. It was a blast!
March Round-Up: Part One, The Brunswick Inn
This is my first in a month of Saturday’s that I’ve woken up in my own bed with nothing on the calendar. I’m SO grateful. As wonderful as travel and visiting can be, it is exhausting. It has also meant very little time for blogging so I’m going to update you on some of my March. This might have to be in parts because there is so much!
The month started with a lovely stay at The Brunswick Inn with my wonderful Book Club friends.
Our book club has been meeting for almost 20 years. We’ve seen each other through babies, degrees, and jobs. We meet once a month on a Sunday morning. We eat, and talk, and even discuss books. I’d say I read 70% of the time. When I don’t read it’s because I’m plowing through three other middle grade or young adult books. Still, it’s a great way to promise myself at least one grown up book a month, intellectual conversation, and the support and love of female friends.
The Inn faces our town’s wonderful green space called the mall. There is a gazebo and during the summer months an amazing farmer’s market. In addition to the big house, it turns out that the property is very deep and includes a Carriage House and a cottage.
All the rooms are beautiful. Here’s where we stayed.
It included another twin and two more twins in an adjoining room. There was also a conference area available to us. If I was planning a summer writing retreat, I’d definitely use The Brunswick Inn.
Tomorrow, Part Two: Brooklyn and NYC!
Get Excited for March Madness Children’s Poetry Competition #MMPoetry
Yes, folks. While some of you were on the couch watching the Oscars (and others were just asleep and drooling on your remote control) Ed DeCaria over at Think Kid Think posted the Sunday Selection video (below) for the 2014 MARCH MADNESS POETRY competition (#MMPoetry).
Did you watch?
Did you see who my competition is?
The Queen of Kidlit, Jane Yolen.
I’m going to need your support.
I mean it.
If you subscribe to this blog, or follow me on twitter, or if you are my friend in real life or only on Facebook, or if you went to VCFA, or University of Rochester, or Woodrow Willson Senior High School in Washington, DC, or Eagle’s Nest Camp in North Carolina, or even if you hate me that’s okay because I all I need you to do is get excited about children’s poetry and vote for the poem you love (Anna’s). Read with an open heart and mind and choose the poem that resonates with you (Anna’s). Use all your academic training and writing experience to pick the well-written example (Anna’s)… and then send chocolate!
A huge thank you to Ed DeCaria for the time and energy he gives to children’s poetry and to 64 authletes who bug him about the competition at this time of year. If you’ve never followed the March Madness Poetry Competition before, take a look at Madness! Writing 126 New Children’s Poems in 21 Days. If you are a teacher and you want your kids to join the other 1000 students who will be official poetry judges check out Win 50 Kids’ Poetry Books In 50 Milliseconds! It’s Madness! and register in the next two weeks before the competition begins.
Get your poetry groove on because starting March 17th, things heat up. The week begins with the unveiling of the first words (both to spectators and authletes) and later that week, the first poems will be published.
I’ll see you there! (Vote for Anna)
MWPA Desire Workshop Gets New Date & Time
Dear Friends,
My Maine Writer’s and Publishers Workshop, Desire in Middle Grade and young Adult Novels, has a new date and time. Instead of two three hour sessions we are compacting it into a single five hour session on March first at the Patten Free Library in Bath, Maine. Click the picture or text link above for more information and registration. I can promise you a kick-ass lecture with examples from wonderful books, and one on one attention. If you know a someone in or around Maine who might be interested, please send them the link to this blogpost. Retweets and Facebook postings are encouraged!
Happy Writing,
Anna
What does your character want?
You’ve heard it from critique partners, agents, and editors: “What does your character want?” The adult world is full of desire but what about the world of children and young adults?
Children and Teens often want passionately. Some are passionate because they are untouched by failure and disappointment; others are passionate because people who are supposed to love and protect them from failure and disappointment– have let them down.
I’m going to be leading a two part workshop for Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance where we will discuss the importance of a clear desire line in fiction for young readers. This workshop takes place over two Saturdays: February 1 and March 1. We’ll use ancillary writing activities to discover our character’s deepest desires, and explore the differences between positive and negative desires. We’ll have a guided critique of each other’s first chapters and look for ways to make desire more opaque. Before the second session, you’ll get to revise your first chapter then we’ll process what we’ve learned and I’ll share my own revision process and techniques. Take a look at the full workshop description.
By the end of our 6 hours together I hope to persuade you that one of the most important things you can do for your story is to clearly define your character’s desire in the first few chapters of your MG or YA novel. Depending on the audience, it is even better if that desire is clearly stated or hinted at in the very first chapter.
When the reader can clearly access the character’s desire:
- The reader roots for that character from the onset.
- The reader sympathizes with the character. (Even in the case of an unsympathetic character, the reader will connect with the act of longing.)
- It is this longing that keeps the reader reading.
If this kind of inquiry into the craft of writing for children and young adults interests you, sign up!
More about me:
Anna J. Boll, author/illustrator and educator, earned an MFA and Picture Book Certificate at Vermont College of Fine Arts and a MSEd at the University of Southern Maine. A winner of the 2013 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award, she is represented by Alexandra Penfold. Her poetry is published in Highlights High Five, Babybug, and Ladybug magazines.
2013 in review
Thanks to The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys who prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog. The graphics are fun and the info is great. Thanks even more to all of those who followed Creative Chaos this year. A special appreciation to readers who comment. It’s always great to know that people are on the receiving end of my pitches into cyber space. (Even if it is most often my parents.)
2013 included my PEN New England win (your application awaits) and signing with my agent, the amazing Alexandra Penfold at Upstart Crow. I also took on a new business, Creative Bookings, where I help authors and illustrators by handling their school and library booking contract and liaison work. Because I am ever hopeful, I predict good things in 2014 and ask you to continue with me on the journey. Happy New Year!
Anna
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,300 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
Bear with me…
More bear sketching today. This new work is bringing me such joy. I don’t know if it is just the change of project, or that it’s drawing, or that it is bringing me back to my first love, picture books, or if it is that I’m steeped in bears (they are SO DARN CUTE) but the work makes me light of spirit. Also, I spend much less time online when I’m at my drawing desk and away from the computer. Amen!
Creative Chaos 