On November 7th, we had another great book festival this year. Thirty-nine authors and illustrators were there signing books and doing presentation. As always, parents had to drag their kids out of the festival.

My youngest even did two of the workshops. I’ll post one of his drawings from Scott Gibala-Broxholm's workshop later.

Joe "Silly" Sottile gave a poetry workshop at the book festival.

Okay, so my friends talked me into doing NaNoWriMo again, and I’m miserably behind in the word count. I’ve decided that I just don’t work well in the NaNoWriMo state of mine. I can’t regurgitate words that will be tossed aside once the NaNo-insanity is over. I’m one of those “revise as you go” kind of gals.

All isn’t lost though. I have started another science fiction / mystery novel, and I’m hashing out the plot. If I can get a general framework of the book’s direction, maybe the writing and revising following NaNoWriMo will go smoothly.

55,000 words of dreck in a month – I don’t think so. But I'll be insanely happy if I can cough up 35K.

Donna St. Cyr, Author of The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate

Donna St. Cyr, Author of The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate

Donna St. Cyr is a former teacher and school librarian in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has three wonderful children, a husband, and two faithful writing companions (her dogs). Her debut novel, The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate, was released in August 2009.

Having had a sneak peek at Donna’s book, I knew I'd love the finished story. I bought 4 copies of the novel: two for myself (one for my 9 yr old and one for me), one for a relative, and another copy for the school librarian. My nine-year-old son loved it so much, he has asked his 4th grade teacher to read it to the class. As you can tell, we are very excited about this new novel for kids ages eight and up.

Donna kindly answered some questions below.

Natisha: What sparked your ideas for The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate?

Donna: It all started with a bottle of Sprite on the school bus ….. That’s my line these days. My son found a bottle of sprite on the bus, drank it, and was ratted out by his sister. After I pitched a fit about all the terrible things that would happen to him (but didn’t), I sat around thinking about the “what if’s?” of the scenario. Then I knew that there was a story which began with a bottle of a magical elixir found on a school bus. So I started playing around with names for the elixir and I came up with Madame Gorgonzola’s Effervescent Elixir – it had such a ring to it. I knew immediately that Madame Gorgonzola was a person – made of cheese of course – and that she was in charge of some secret organization. That’s where the story began.

Natisha: Within the book, you have seamlessly integrated a great deal of mythological creatures and puzzles for your characters. What was your research process and how did you balance it with the writing?

Donna: The internet is a wondrous thing! Basically, I sketch out the story I want to tell – then I go off and do research to help me flesh out the details. I usually start at my public library, but quickly move to the internet to find information I’m looking for. For this particular story, I knew I wanted to use some creatures from classical mythologies – so I went in search of people and animals that might fit my needs before I made new ones up. I used many different mythological encyclopedia type sources in my search. As far as the riddles and puzzles go, when I decided to work the riddle theme into the book, I began to search for riddles that would make good additions to the story. I found some historical riddles that added depth to the storyline and

Natisha: What is your favorite mythological creature and why?

Donna: My favorite creature is a character I made up for the story. His name is Skylos and he’s this huge, white, Grecian sheepdog. He’s got that bossy sheepdog personality – used to corralling animals not quite as smart as he is. Anyway, Robert keeps losing things in the story and Skylos retrieves them and returns them to Robert. He makes no secret of the fact he doesn’t particularly care for Robert – he basically thinks he’s incompetent – but Skylos is actually a big, old softie – and he makes sure that Robert doesn’t go down on his watch.

Natisha: You have a knack for puzzles. Have you considered writing a companion puzzle and riddle book to go with The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate?

Donna: No, I hadn’t – but that is a good idea – I’m going to put it on my list.

Natisha: Describe your typical writing day?

Donna: Unfortunately, I don’t have a good typical day. I’m not that self disciplined. But here’s what I like to have happen on an ideal day:  I get everybody off to school and write for about 3 hours. Now, that 3 hours is more like 1 hour of writing and 2 hours of promotion activities and research (and wasting time). Then I break for lunch, run errands in the afternoon, do family things until dinner, and if I have nagging writing deadline waiting for me, write some more after dinner.

Natisha: What other children’s books would Cheese Syndicate lovin’ readers enjoy?

Donna:
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians saga by Rick Riordan.

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi.

The Aretemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer.

Dulaire’s book of Greek Mythology.

Natisha: Now that you’ve had a book accepted for publication, what is your next step?

Donna: Get the sequel published and write another story.

Natisha: Do you have any advice for struggling children’s writers?

Donna: Stick with it. You have to have a thick skin and be able to take rejection. The publishing business is notoriously slow and difficult to break into and it’s not going to happen overnight. Also, get a critique group to help you refine your work. Our work is never ready when we think it is – it always needs some objective criticism to make it better.

Thank you, Donna, for graciously answering all of my questions.

The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate

Robert Montasio discovers a green glass bottle of “Madame Gorgonzola’s Effervescent Elixir” on his school bus. After his little sister Janine gulps its contents, she starts shrinking. To save her, he must join Secret Cheese Syndicate, a mystical network whose mission is to safeguard humanity from the forces of darkness and bad taste. As Robert travels the world, he races against time; Janine will continue to shrink until she’s cured. He encounters mythological beasts bent on ending his quest as he searches for the Mystic Cheese of Eliki.

Riddle me this:
Donna provided me with a free autographed copy of her book. Respond below with a riddle (different from others posted in this thread), and I'll enter you in a drawing for the free book. The contest ends October 31st, 2009. Check back on November 5th for the winner.

-Natisha

RACWI had it’s first meeting of the year, and it was first page night for writers and first glance night for illustrators. The room was packed. Keely Hutton started us off with a bang by reading the first page of her novel in progress.

It was great to hear what everyone was working on, and I pulled out a middle grade urban fantasy that has been brewing and stewing. Maybe next year, I’ll have illustrations to show.

Note to self: Do not sit at table with Robin Pulver and Will Hubbell in the future on first page nights. No offense guys, but you’re a tough acts to follow.

If you kids are between 8 and 13 and love to read, there is a contest to win a free signed copy of Donna St. Cyr's debut novel The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate at http://community.livejournal.com/classof2k9/.

Paris Pan Takes the Dare After-Hours Party!

You can also donate NEW or GENTLY-USED children’s fiction and nonfiction books (please– no rips/markings/highlightings/tears)  for grades Pre-K through 5. If you have teen books, they’ll distribute them to the middle and high schools as needed.

Tulakes will also accept RECENT (2008-2009) children’s magazines as well. See below for the address to send your books and magazines!

Take the Dare: Show You Care
Tulakes Elementary
c/o Michele Parham
6600 N Galaxie
Oklahoma City, OK 73132

 

What am i reading next?
 

Cynthea Liu's Paris Pan Takes the Dare.

In the past couple newsletters for my children's school, one of the first grade teachers stated a need for someone to read with the kids in her class. I figured, hey, this would be a great way to glean experience for those future school visits. So, when I contacted the teacher, she happily signed me up. Except, I wouldn’t be reading to the children. The children would be reading to me.

Okay, I thought, this could still be a great experience. I wouldn’t have practice doing the "performance reading in front of the class" thing, but it could provide great insight as to how first graders read and digest early reader and beginning reader books. After two weeks, I believe I couldn’t have made a better choice.

There were fidgeters, mumblers, and bold ones in my mini-conferences. I helped them with fluency and noticed what types of words tripped them up often. I asked them what they remembered from the stories and what they thought could happen next.

Not only have I been able to help the teacher by noting down where the children have strengths and weaknesses in their reading skills and comprehension, but I’ve also learned a lot about early readers. I’ve learned how kids with different abilities decipher them. I may have lost an hour of writing time each week, but I've gained a new perspective.

• Easy readers / early chapter books (48-64 pgs) – 4-8 yr olds
• Younger Middle Grade / Chapter books: usually between early chapter books and novels in length – 7-9 yr olds
• Middle Grade: are usually 128-200 pgs and are traditionally for 8-12 yr olds
• Tween / Upper Middle Grade / Transitional: 128-200 or more pages – 10-14 yr olds
• Young Adult / YA: up to 250 pages – 12 and up or 14 and up depending on the content and situations