Getting ready for Orlando

   One of the workshops I'm attending in this weekend's SCBWI Florida summer conference in Orlando is on Digital Media. Emma Dryden, Rubin Pfeffer, Curtis Sponsler among others are presenting. In the past year, I have attempted to up-date myself by joining Facebook, reading more blogs, starting a blog of my own, and researching how and under what circumstances I might choose to digitally published some of my work.
   Several months ago a non-author friend recommended Nicholas Carr's book What the Internet is doing to our Brains: The Shallows published in 2010. Her point in our conversation was that reading and readers are changing, mainly by the influence of the short bits of information that sideline just about anything we might look at on the many Internet sites most of us access daily. The many attractive features of the Net (interactivity, hyperlinking, searchability, multimedia) capture our attention easily. Many are reading more and more quickly but, the author contends, seldom enjoying the total immersion into reading that deep readers previously experienced. We might follow an interest by jumping to a related link but seldom read beyond the first few sentences. Carr states a paradox: the Net seizes our attention only to scatter it. Instead of a continuous, coherent stream of information causing us to reflect and think deeply, we are exposed to a "jumble of drops." We have switched from reading to "power browsing."
   How does this affect what I write for today's youth? I'm not sure, but I do know as I revise my stories, I keep in mind a comment from a trusted writer in my writing group. She said something to the fact that "long sentences and paragraphs lose her attention." She wants the story to move more quickly, wants the dialogue to be short and sweet. Good advice for any writer. But I still want to create moments when a reader can savor a scene, empathize with a character, think more deeply.
    Despite this, the interactivity idea excites me. I have some stories where I can see the possibility of hyperlinks to enhance, create more fun for a middle grade or younger reader. Maybe my workshop will guide me to learn how to do this. If I can see this now for stories I have already written, I know I can create new stories in a format that will fit into this new age.
   

Variety of excellent books: 2011 Printz Awards

In addition to working on my own writing at least four hours a day, I have been reading some of the new Printz award winning books. Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi was the top 2011 winner. The author details a chilling dystopian future rife with poverty and cruelty. The main character is Nailer, probably around thirteen or fourteen, who works on a light crew to rip salvage from abandoned oil tankers in the Gulf area. In Nailer's brutal world the crew makes their quota or suffers the consequences and they are deadly. Nailer and his friend Pima find a hurricane wrecked clipper ship with a survivor, a rich and beautiful girl. Her jewelry alone would free Nailer and Pima from their life of near slavery. Nailer does not want to kill her; Pima does. She's just a "swank" after all. This story is exciting and a compelling read, but although it is very worthy, I would have placed two others above it in the award.

Perhaps my personal favorite is Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King. This Printz Honor book is exceptional in many ways. The story's structure allows the author to give great detail about all of the characters. Written in first person, each character gets their say. Vera goes through life hanging back, seeking to be ignored, getting good grades in school and working forty hours a week as a pizza delivery person. Her father, a recovered alcoholic, is convinced that alcoholism is a genetic possibility for Vera. Since he got her mother pregnant when she was only seventeen, he fears that could happen to Vera as well. So, no boys until after Vera successfully completes college. To Ken Dietz, especially after Vera's mother abandons them, work is the solution to every problem. Vera's childhood friend Charlie Kahn has died, but he's not out of Vera's life. She "sees" him everywhere, and not just one but "thousands of Charlies." It takes the whole book to find out what Charlie did, what he didn't do, and how he died. Even Charlie gets his story told in his own narrative sections.

Another of the honor books that really held my attention as a reader is Stolen by Lucy Christopher. The author is English, the story setting in the Sandy Desert of Australia. Gemma, age sixteen, has been kidnapped in an airport in Bangkok while traveling with her parents. Her kidnapper feels he has "rescued" Gemma from the false city life she has led. In the vastness of his beloved desert, he wants her to see the beauty, the freedom. Gemma fights and runs away several times, but her escape attempts are useless. Her kidnapper Ty MacFarlane has stalked her for years, wants her to be his companion, his love. Although he treats her well, Gemma knows she should not give in to loving him. The story is beautifully written with a sad, but truthful, ending.