Waiting for No One

From the Archives — Wild Orchid & Waiting for No One

4 Comments / Looking Back and Moving Forward / By

This was first posted on elizabethannewrites on April 8, 2011. I’m tying this post to Patricia’s post earlier regarding Autism Awareness Month — I hope you’ll read Pat’s thoughtful and thought-provoking post. My cousin, Bev Brenna, who writes thoughtful and thought-provoking YA books (as well as middle-grade novels, and picture books — Bev is versatile) has written two YA novels about a girl in her late teens, Taylor Jane Simon, who deals with Asperger’s Syndrome. Asperger’s is a condition on the autism scale, but is not the same as high-functioning autism.

J is for … Juxtaposition — and a Wednesday Worthy

10 Comments / A to Z Challenge in April, Interviews, Wednesday Worthies / By

Juxtaposition. A satisfyingly long word. In its simplest sense, it means placing something next to something else. In film, it is particularly  “the contiguous positioning of either two images, characters, objects, or two scenes in sequence, in order to compare and contrast them, or establish a relationship between them; see also sequence, symmetry, and composition.” That definition is quoted from the AMC Filmsite’s Film Terms glossary. Juxtaposition is an excellent tool for writers as well, to highlight similarities or differences in character, setting, or action. As in film, two disparate characters in juxtaposition can bring depth to the writing, and can draw the reader further into the story. Today, I’m placing two similar blogposts in juxtaposition. Yesterday I told you about books written by Canadian author Beverley Brenna, today I have interviewed Bev specifically about these books and about Asperger’s Syndrome which informs and challenges the main character’s life in both books. This is, again, by request of my friend Pat Tilton, whose blog Children’s Books Heal, continually brings to the forefront of our consciousness an awareness of kids with special needs. For Autism Awareness Month in the U.S., then, I am juxtaposing the book recommendations yesterday and the interview today. (Again, I apologize that this post is longer than the suggested standard for an A to Z post. I believe you’ll find it well worth the extra time it takes to read.)

I is for … Improv

18 Comments / A to Z Challenge in April, Starred Books / By

Improv. Improvisation. Acting without the roadmap of a script. Some actors revel in it, others, I suspect, dread it. A website like learnimprov can help a person to understand the basics, but there’s nothing like just getting up there in front of people and doing it. (Scary as that may sound.) Improvisation is also a facet of music, especially jazz. Have you ever listened to a really good jazz pianist take off and go where the music leads? It’s amazing. Improv can also be a great tool in writing, not that it’s usually called improv in this application. It’s useful if one is stuck, feeling the brick wall of writer’s block. At such times, try improv. Let the ink and the thoughts flow and take you wherever they want  to, without a roadmap, just like acting without a script, or playing music without a score. Improvisational skills are also good to have when one is a blogger. I had all my posts for the A to Z Challenge written and scheduled when my friend and writing colleague, Patricia Tilton, emailed me and asked me to re-post a couple of posts from my old blog for Autism Awareness Month which is recognized in April in the United States. So I changed my script a bit. I’m improvising, and sharing with you reviews of a couple of books that mean a great deal to me. Click the magic words:

Waiting for No One — the WINNER!

4 Comments / Just Want to Say / By

And the winner of the giveaway for one copy of Waiting for No One by Beverley Brenna is… (drumroll please)… Lucky Number 13, Julie Hedlund! Congratulations, Julie! Please contact me through the contact form on this blog with your mailing address, and I’ll send the book out to you as soon as possible. For those who aren’t acquainted with Julie, she is the person behind the 12 x 12 in 2012 challenge, which is encouraging 300+ people (at last count) to produce one picture book manuscript draft a month for every month in 2012. There’s still time to sign up, if you’re interested! For more info, click here. (By the way, Beverley is in Florida today, being presented with the Dolly Gray Award for Waiting for No One. An article about the award came up in my google alerts today. Congratulations, Bev!)

Seize the Opportunity!

11 Comments / Title Thoughts Mini-Series / By

Something writer, actor, arts advocate, literacy advocate Julie Andrews stresses, no matter who she’s talking to — aspiring writers, young people wanting to become involved in the arts, whoever — is that one must do one’s homework, be fully prepared, and be ready to recognize and seize opportunities when they come along. I find it easy to look back and see opportunities missed, but I also find it amazing that when I start acting on the opportunities, having done the work to prepare myself, that other opportunities seem to fall into my lap. I seem to have come to a point in my life, in my writing life, when it’s full speed ahead. And that’s what is behind today’s book-title musing.

Music and Words are Powerful Things

21 Comments / Monday Musings / By

Imagine yourself a slave in the Deep South, struggling to survive, struggling to work hard enough to avoid the driver’s lash, then you hear it. A lone voice begins to sing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” To an outsider, the slaves are just singing to keep their spirits up, but you recognize the signal. Tonight will be your chance to escape. A conductor for the Underground Railroad is nearby. The hidden message in the song has told you that. You feel your spirits rise, your courage strengthen. Now imagine you are on a long, hard march. You are bone-weary, foot-sore. You have been knocked down by the force of firehoses turned on you and the marchers around you. You have seen people next to you beaten with billy clubs. You don’t know if you can go on. Then someone starts singing softly. “We shall overcome…” One by one the people around you join in the song, as do you. You feel your spirits rise, your courage strengthen. Deep in your heart, you do believe that we shall overcome some day. Music is a powerful thing.

What’s Your Genre-Identity?

43 Comments / Monday Musings / By

Some writers are immediately and exclusively identifiable with one genre. You can’t imagine that author writing anything else. Agatha Christie writing a picture book? Mo Willems writing suspense? For those of us, like me, who are just starting out in our writing careers, our genre-identity is perhaps more fluid, not yet obvious. Or perhaps, like me, there is a desire to write in more than one genre.

Waiting for No One wins 2012 Dolly Gray Award!

36 Comments / Just Want to Say / By

  I am delighted to announce that my cousin Beverley Brenna‘s YA novel about a girl with Asperger’s Syndrome, Waiting for No One, has won the Dolly Gray Children’s Literature award for 2012 along with one other intermediate/YA novel and two picture books. To learn more about Bev’s book, to learn about the award itself, and to find out how you can enter a giveaway for a copy of this book, click on “read more” below…

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