Press, We Got Press

While I'm recovering from this travel exhaustion/flu/whatever it is, I'm passing on a couple of links for you. The first is from the The Student Printz, the campus newspaper of the University of Southern Mississippi, and it tells you more about the event I just came from, only in much more erudite terms. Great newspaper. Here's the article.

The second is a review of ALL-STARS by Donald Harrison for the San Diego Jewish World News. (Their motto: "There's a Jewish Story Everywhere.") I'm thrilled with this review - it's thorough and thoughtful and... different. Here's a bit of it:
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SAN DIEGO—When Jewish families speak reverently about the great Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, typically the story told is about the time that he declined to pitch one particular World Series game because it fell on Yom Kippur. The story reinforced to us as children the point that there are some things more important than the routines in our day-to-day lives, and even more important than our Little League teams.

In this book for young readers, Koufax again serves as an example, but his observance of Jewish ritual has nothing to do with it. Twelve-year-old House Jackson broke his elbow in an unfortunate collision with would-be ballerina Frances Schotz, a major misfortune for the Aurora County All Stars, which perennially lack sufficient players to sustain a full season. Benched, House reads and re-reads a story about a time in Koufax’s career when the Dodger great pitched an important game notwithstanding the fact that he was in terrible pain.

Koufax is only one of the baseball role models in this book; another, similarly important to the resolution of the plot, is Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the majors. In Aurora County, Mississippi, local folks pointed to Robinson and regretfully told the story of the great-grandfather of Frances Schotz—the still living, still athletic, Parting ‘Pip’ Schotz.
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You can find the entire review here. I will say, too, that I knew Koufax refused to pitch the first game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. As a writer juggling lots of balls with ALL-STARS (pun intended!), I had to choose what to put in, what to leave out, and I chose to focus on who Koufax was by showing his determination to be the best he could be and to do right by his team, even in the midst of an elbow that turned black, and fingers that were tinged with gangrene -- he never complained, he never explained. He did his job. He retired before he was 30 -- his arm was worn out. He was a stellar ballplayer; he remains a stellar human being. I modeled my character House after Koufax. See if they don't have the same strong, steady, silence, the same dedication to a cause, the same honor and dignity. Koufax is House's hero. My hero, too.

Reviews are so subjective, don't you think? I always say that when a story leaves my hands, it no longer belongs to me. It belongs to the person who reads it, and each reader brings his or her own sensibilities -- her own prejudices, too -- to a book. "It's not for me," is a refrain that a good friend of mine uses when a book is being touted as excellent by so many people, but he just can't see why -- he didn't like it. "It's not for me."

And that's true: Every book is not for every reader. We have such different tastes. But I think there IS a way for readers to read like writers, to learn to appreciate a story for how it is told.

For instance, ALL-STARS is told in the tradition of the Grand Southern Storyteller. It spins out and reels you in. It might even seem meandering or leisurely at points, as one reviewer has pointed out, but then, the writer knows what she is doing, all is purposeful -- she is honoring that southern storytelling tradition, and she is also honoring the serial novel tradition (talk about meandering!) of cliffhanger endings, great suspense, multiple sub-plots, edge-of-the-seat conclusions, a cast of characters to rival ULYSSES, mysteries revealed, secrets kept, betrayals turned to advantage, and... dead guys.

It's a huge undertaking with so many balls in the air to be juggled well, so many ends to tie up (or leave hanging), and so much emotion to be mined -- the Victorian serial novel is not all that different from the Southern gothic! It was grand fun and a great challenge to try my hand at this Southern Victorian Serial Novel Form (as I began calling it) and bring it to young readers.

As a reader, I love to find a story that takes a traditional structure and bends it, shapes it, augments it, gives it a personal stamp. I settle in for the ride, knowing I'm in good hands. Reading like a writer: It's an important skill to master, especially if one is reviewing. "What was she trying to do here? How well did she do it?"

Reading for sheer pleasure is yet another skill. We were talking about this in our NCTE workshop last month in NYC -- reading like a writer, reading for pleasure -- can they be one and the same? How do we read and appreciate what goes into a story well told? Given that we are such different people, how and what do we appreciate, and how does that appreciation carry over into our own writing?

I was delighted to read Donald Harrison's review in the San Diego Jewish World, in part because he had discovered something new to write about, something other reviewers hadn't touched on. There are so many layers to a novel; it's a thrill to see them uncovered by readers. Thanks, Donald Harrison, for this appreciative -- and very different! -- review.

Back to bed for me. Hack hack. Sniff sniff. It has turned cold in Atlanta. We keep a crackling fire going all day. I can sit in front of it for a morning, an afternoon, mesmerized by the flames and the warmth, working away on my laptop from time to time, but not today. Today I must rest this head on a pillow. More dreaming.

Sharing Stories in Iowa City

Here are Jeremiah, Josh, Alli and Emmy from Lincoln Elementary. They scoured my website (the "Life Notice" in particular, written by Comfort Snowberger) and distilled it (Comfort is verbose) into fascinatin' facts about Deborah Wiles for the kids at Lincoln and their guests, 5th and 6th graders from Mann Elementary.

I now own a SHIRT, too! It's the 20th year of this Community Reads program in Iowa City, which includes not only an author visit (for which the students are so well-prepared) but lunchtime "Leaders as Readers" (today at the library -- I will miss it -- sob!) and much more. The partnership here between the public library, the university, the public schools and the sponsors, including Hills Bank, is generously creative and wonderfully exciting -- I'm trying to find words for it but it's too early in the morning right now --

Yesterday stretched my teaching sinews, from Lincoln/Mann to Lemme/Longfellow to Twain Elementary -- what a difference!




Five schools of 5th and 6th graders, and three very different locations. I love this look into the fabric of a community.





I love the challenge of reaching all students (sometimes I am better at this than others) and I love the "stay on your toes" aspects of the day -- there are students (and teachers!) from all walks of life in these public schools, just as there are in all public school systems across the country. How do we best serve their needs?

It's a perennial question. How can we best serve our own needs as we work with them and with each other? What are best practices? How do they change? It fascinates me to see the challenges that teachers face in the classroom, and to see the great passion they bring to these challenges. I feel humbled in their presence. I learn so much.


And, as every good teacher knows, our students are our teachers as well.







Last night we had pot luck together, the teacher-librarians and moi. WHAT a time we had. "There's nothing like an Iowa pot luck," said Julie Larson. "And an Iowa TEACHER pot luck -- you're in heaven," said I... and I was right.


Here we are, gathered for a photo. Here are the teacher-librarians who have been making this week possible for students in Iowa City Schools.




I hope to take a walk this afternoon to the cemetery -- cemeteries are some of my favorite places -- to find "the black angel" I've heard so much about. I also want to take a photo of the Vonnegut house for you. It's right outside my window. Think Iowa Writers Workshop, many years ago, a rented house, May Day parties on the lawn, and all those words, all those stories, all those glory days...

Librarian Barb Stein lives in Marilynne Robinson's neighborhood - be still my heart. "Maybe you'd see her out walking her dog if you walked through the neighborhood." Nah. Sometimes it's best to admire from afar. I have read GILEAD twice and need to read it a third time.

"What are you reading?" was the question posed at pot luck last night. Here is a partial list of the titles we shared, in no particular order and sometimes without author listed -- but I'll fill this in later -- got to go to school this morning!

POPULATION 485: Meeting your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry
GODS IN ALABAMA by Joshilyn Jackson
THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY by Trenton Lee Stewart and Carson Ellis
BLOOD DONE SIGNED MY NAME by Timothy B. Tyson
THE BOYS OF MY YOUTH
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen
THE TORTILLA CURTAIN
LITTLE HEATHENS
SUMMER AT TIFFANY
EAT PRAY LOVE
THREE CUPS OF TEA
A FRIENDSHIP FOR TODAY by Patricia McKissack
The new Gilda Joyce mystery
A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
THE GIRLS
DREAMS FROM MY FATHER
Diana Mott Davidson (mystery writer)
DIGGING UP AMERICA by Anne Tyler
SUITE FRANCAISE
THIRTEENTH TALE
A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRANIA
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID
BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett
SPLENDID SOLUTION (the story of Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine)

Lots to choose from here, including some Iowa writers and stories, when I go to Prairie Lights this afternoon to sign stock.

Off to Van Allen, Wickham, and Penn Elementary Schools this morning.

Coming Home

Thanks for hanging around while I've been gulping sleep and getting used to the 3-hour time change. I've moved slowly this week. I've opened mail and read some of it. I've paid the bills. I've reconnected with family. I've eaten lots of spinach. Saturday I went to the SIBA conference -- the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.

I love SIBA (which used to be SEBA, and then Southern and Southeastern booksellers got together and merged and created SIBA). It's always a great show. Even the 2001 show, just after 9/11, although lower in attendance, understandably, was such a heartfelt show. Thank you, Wanda Jewell, for all you do for southern booksellers and storytellers. I had such a good time.

I was on a panel with some great spirits: Alan Gratz, Gail Giles, and Isabel Gomez-Bassols. Between us we'd written such very different books and I wondered how moderator Betty Jo Harris (from Windows, A Bookshop in Monroe, LA) was going to bring us together.


Betty Jo had done her homework -- she'd read all four books and could cogently talk about them. She took questions from the audience. This is what the audience looked like to most people.



This is what y'all looked like to me:

Kidding, kidding, I could see you just fine. I'm not sure how cogent *I* was, however. Still, I loved meeting booksellers, especially at the signing afterwards, loved hanging with Alan and getting to know him better... I'll never forget the absolute horror I felt when I began reading chapter one of SAMURAI SHORTSTOP and realized that a ritual suicide was about to take place -- be still my heart. I've now got a copy of Alan's new SOMETHING ROTTEN and can't wait to read it.

On the exhibit floor I also snagged a galley of fellow Harcourt author John C. Waugh's new book: ONE MAN GREAT ENOUGH: ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ROAD TO CIVIL WAR. I've been hooked on Jack's scholarship and writing ever since I met him at SEBA in Ft. Lauderdale in 2002 and read his book about Sara and Richard Pryor, SURVIVING THE CONFEDERACY. Good book. Good writer.

Harcourt has many good books/good writers publishing this season. At ALA in D.C., Harcourt's Geoff Hughes gave me Patricia Hampl's new memoir, THE FLORIST'S DAUGHTER, which I'm eager to jump into. In children's/ya, we have such a rich crop this season! I just opened a box of books I picked out when I was at Harcourt's offices in San Diego last week: Linda Urban's A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT, Gennifer Choldenko's IF A TREE FALLS AT LUNCH PERIOD, K.L. Going's THE GARDEN OF EVE -- I am in such good company this season.

Also picked out for the 7-year-old (and me) the new Chet Gecko mystery by Bruce Hale, HISS ME DEADLY, and the picture books PSSST! by Adam Rex, WHAT WILL FAT CAT SIT ON? by Jan Thomas, and the surreal, gorgeous WHERE THE GIANT SLEEPS by Mem Fox and Vladimir Radunsky. And just as I was leaving the office last week, Morgan Gould gifted me with the EUDORA WELTY biography by Suzanne Marrs, which I have checked out of the library so many times... now I have my own copy, in honor of the dog, Eudora Welty, in THE AURORA COUNTY ALL-STARS.

I'm going to go back and paste links and put labels on posts before I head for Minneapolis on Saturday. I'm curious to compare these different regional booksellers conferences. I've now been to PNBA and SIBA. What's UMBA going to be like (MBA now, Midwest Booksellers Association). I'm doing the Moveable Feast at MBA and I'm going to spend some time with good friend and mentor, Marion Dane Bauer, who has a new book out this season that I hope to snag at MBA: KILLING MISS KITTY AND OTHER SINS. Ha!
I love connecting with good friends on the road. Here's Elisabeth Grant-Gibson of Windows, A Bookshop in Monroe, Louisiana. She's promoting Windows at SIBA (and ALL-STARS -- love the hat), while she also drums up advertising support for the wonderful BOOK REPORT: A scintillating once-a-week, one-hour radio magazine about books, originating live from the KMLB studios in Monroe. Obviously, our photographer, Will Clarke (check out his website for more about THE BOOK REPORT and his books), thought the banner was more important than we were! He's right.

I've kept you long enough. I've been researching all summer and I'm about to plunge into writing a trilogy of novels I've just sold to Harcourt, and I want to tell you all about them. Who grew up in the Sixties? I did. I'm going to be writing all about it in what we're calling THE SIXTIES TRILOGY: THREE NOVELS OF THE 1960s FOR YOUNG READERS. I'll have questions for you and I'll chronicle my writing process here as I travel through the fall to schools and conferences, teaching writing workshops and talking about ALL-STARS, yes, and RUBY and LITTLE BIRD, and FREEDOM SUMMER, but mostly talking about our collective and individual stories and how we find them and tell them. See you on the road.

The Backyard Book Tour

I'll back up quickly before we move forward, and tell you about our intimate gathering at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia on August 25 -- a steamy summer Saturday. Owner Diane Capriola put the word out to area writers and teachers, and that's who showed up for a lovely hour and a half of talking shop, reading from ALL-STARS, and munching on Crackerjacks -- House Jackson, age 12, is a Crackerjack baseball pitcher, or so we're told in chapter one of THE AURORA COUNTY ALL-STARS.

Here is something I've learned about book signings: Every book signing, every bookstore, every bookstore owner is so different. Each owner's vision is different, and each audience creates a kind of personality or character that the author must read and respond to. Figuring out what works best in each unique community is a puzzle and a challenge for the bookstore owner. If that owner is very good at this puzzling, it's a gift to the author. Here's Diane behind the desk, smiling that knowing smile.

When Diane called me a little over two years ago to introduce herself and tell me she was opening an independent children's bookstore in Decatur, Georgia, I said, "good luck!" And I meant it sincerely, as I'd heard about independent bookstores closing across the country. I had no idea how tenacious Diane and her business partner Dave would be. Just one example: Jake's Ice Cream is adjacent to Little Shop -- no wall separates the two businesses and customers mingle back and forth between the two. "The books will get sticky," people said. They didn't. The comfy couches between Jake's and Little Shop have housed many an intimate author talk, ice cream sometimes included.

Hmmm, I think, as we settle into the furniture. Lots of writers in this bunch; some teachers, a few kids. Punt. We talk about the writing process, the choppy sea of publishing, do we need agents? and then savvy reader-mom Kim says, "This is all well and good, but what about your characters? How do you create them?"

I learn how to read from ALL-STARS -- something I'll be discovering the entire time I'm on tour. I try to relate the adults' questions to the kids' fidget factor so I don't lose either. I eat my Moon Pie.

Then I sign books. I discover that Dr. Pearl McHaney from Georgia State is here. Dr. McHaney is a Eudora Welty scholar; the ancient, wrinkly, lovable pug dog in ALL-STARS is named Eudora Welty. Diane! You called the Eudora Welty Society! See what I mean? Bookstore owners find the most interesting, unusual threads to follow when setting up a signing, just as readers unravel their most personal, internal threads as they devour a book and make it their own.

I'm going to devour ELIJAH OF BUXTON by Christopher Paul Curtis and THE WEDNESDAY WARS by Gary Schmidt, the two books I purchase from Diane. I'll get lost in the worlds those authors create for me, and then I'll pass them (the books and the worlds) on to Logan, one of the most discerning 12-year-old readers I know.

I've been home from Columbia and Happy Bookseller for three days. I've done my laundry, watered my garden, cut my hair, paid the bills, cleaned out my email inbox (a first), watched the Justin Timberlake concert on television with my daughter, and lay on a blanket under the stars with my husband (still such a new word!).

The Tour Packet arrived via FedEx from Harcourt. In it are luscious lists of bookstores, schools, libraries, events, signing confirmations, flight numbers, media escort cell phones, hotel reservations, an itinerary as long -- longer! -- than my arm.

It's official. It's a tour. Here we go.

Hymn to the Barnyard, Hymn to the Bookseller

I started this post on Friday -- how did it get to be Saturday already?? Let me explain. No, eez too much -- let me sum up.

Chickens! On Thursday (after hot-footin' it out the door) I drove to LOVE, RUBY LAVENDER territory -- Comer, Georgia -- where Michael Hill farms and sells books for Harcourt.

Michael covers the southern region for Harcourt -- Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, the Carolinas, Florida (whew) and puts many miles on his car each season as he visits booksellers across the South, showcasing Harcourt's latest catalogs (both adult and children's titles). Michael and his long-time sweetheart Melissa (who also used to be a sales rep for Harcourt, and who owned a children's bookstore in Athens before that) have an organic farm in Comer, and live their lives as considerate partners with the earth, animals, minerals, vegetables... and books.

Here's part of the Harcourt Southern Region Sales Office, next to the chicken coop and near the John Deere (Melissa shows off a stack of this season's books):
Two years ago, when Michael and I did this part of the book tour together with EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS, there were four dogs who greeted me joyfully as I arrived at the farm. Now there are three. Spiffy (Bo-Bo's mother) died an old-age death, but Bo-Bo, Alice, and Hale-Bopp swarmed around my car as I arrived on Thursday morning. These gentle dogs were my inspiration for Eudora Welty, the loveable old dog (who does not disappear! Have I redeemed myself?!) in THE AURORA COUNTY ALL-STARS.

Here's Alice wondering why Michael and Melissa are sitting outside in the middle of the day holding chickens. It's a board meeting, Alice (note rooster in background):









Recalcitrant board members:










And here's the house:
We're on our way to The Happy Bookseller in Columbia, South Carolina, a three-hour drive. Owners Andy and Carrie Graves have set 5pm as the time when kids, teachers, and parents will come hear the debut of THE AURORA COUNTY ALL-STARS. After the signing, Michael and I will grab some supper before we head back home. It will be 10:30pm when we return to Comer. The chickens will be roosting in the hen house. The ducks will be back in the barn. I will pat Alice on the head, hug Michael, and drive home. It will be midnight as I pull into my driveway, back home in Tucker, Georgia. It will have been a day well-spent -- good conversation, good friends... and a good signing, too.

Here is the staff at Happy Bookseller in Columbia:

From left: Compton, Todd, Carrie (holding Henry, who will have a little brother by Thanksgiving), Thomas, and Andy.

At 5pm we shared stories. I told the assembled crowd that my books are fiction, but they come out of my history, my life, my personal (narrative!) stories. I read snippets from all three novels, and recited some of FREEDOM SUMMER... oh, and I sang ONE WIDE SKY. That book has music to go with its 88 words, thanks to my husband (still getting used to that word!) Jim Pearce. Kids had great questions, and great stories about playing baseball, which of course is part of what ALL-STARS is about (baseball, that is). I forgot to take photos of the comfortable crowd of kids, teachers, and parents, but I did think to dig out my camera as I was signing books.

Here's Kitty. Hellooooo, Kitty!

Kitty is a thespian and so is 14-year-old Finesse Schotz in ALL-STARS. "I'd be the perfect Finesse!" said Kitty. I have to agree, she's got the outfits down.








Here are Endea and Errin, sisters, with their mom.

Beautiful.








And beautiful is Makenzie, who plays outfield on her Little League team:

It was so good to hang out and catch up with the folks at Happy Bookseller again. Columbia has a great indie in Happy Bookseller. Andy and Carrie partner with the schools and community to bring stories to readers throughout South Carolina -- good work.

I came home with books, too: I was excited to find THE ECHO MAKER by Richard Powers in paperback. (More on Powers' work at some point.) Michael Hill recommended MISTER PIP by Lloyd Jones, about a man who begins reading GREAT EXPECTATIONS to a group of children on a tropical island... their lives transform. I have a character named Pip in ALL-STARS. I named him after the orphan in GREAT EXPECTATIONS, a book I loved in high school and studied again as I readied to write the serial story that would become THE AURORA COUNTY ALL-STARS. Michael also gifted me with THE THEORY OF CLOUDS by Stephane Audeguy -- I'm looking forward to reading this one, too.

So this was the first stop on the travelin' book tour. I'm home for the weekend and will catch a flight to Jackson, Mississippi on Tuesday, where I'll begin a four-day whirlwind of schools, libraries, and bookstores -- do come with me as I head for Faulkner and Welty territory (we'll visit Rowan Oak and the Welty Home together) and family (and, Lord, you'll meet them, too). My stories take place in Mississippi, that land of those opposites Uncle Edisto talks about in EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS. I'm heading for the homeland.