#Hamline MFAC

[aimmyarrowshigh]

Look what I bought today...

A MOTHERFUCKIN RADIUM CLOCK

[storytellersinkpot-blog]

[youthbookreview]

Been meaning to post this: For our 6 year marriage anniversary last week, Guida got me this cute backpack purse I'd been wanting from JCPenney, a Captain Marvel metal bracelet, and a new water bottle for work from the school I want to get my MFA from. I feel spoiled. :P

[Image Description: a black mini backpack purse with flower embroidery on it, a bracelet that says, "higher further faster," and a dark red water bottle that says "Hamline" on the side]

[mfakaye-blog]

Decision made.

So. It took a week past the official deadlines, a lot of tears, a failed come-to-Jesus meeting with Columbia’s financial aid department, a gazillion e-mails and too much peanut butter on spoons like the heathen I am, but

I am happy to announce that I am attending Hamline University’s Masters of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults. This is a low-residency program operating from Twin Cities, MN (for those who do not know) so this means that my first day of school will be in July 2019 and I will be projecting a 2021 graduation date.

I am thrilled. I am nervous. I am wondering if this is real life. It still hasn’t sunk in for me, nearly two years later, that I made it through college and got my Bachelors degree. So this might just hit me over the head with the realness of it all when I’m walking the stage for my second diploma.

Anyway, once the dust settles and I can talk more coherently about this, I’ll try to structure out a proper “why I chose Hamline” post, but here’s the short of it:

✨ Amazing faculty including the Newbery award winners of 2017 and 2019 (with 2018, Erin Entrada Kelly, being the guest author this upcoming residency)

✨ A strong emphasis on craft and mentorship 

✨ Faculty member Laurel Snyder said it best in my phone call with her a couple of months ago so I’ll just quote her: “learning through play” - a lot of encouragement to explore different genres and ways of telling story

✨ A chance to see somewhere different and taste dorm life for the first time ever

✨ I just couldn’t get this program out of my head

On the last point, don’t get me wrong: I still woke up today hyperventilating because I passed up a chance to attend The New School WITH a hefty scholarship and who does that?

Well, this girl does. And it’s going to be good. It’s hard to doubt that it’ll be good when the magic is already showing: faculty members’ gushing responses to my letting them know I’ll see them this summer, kind offers of support and acclimation from current students and alumni who will be around campus alike...it is so validating and I’m really excited to start this next chapter.

[hopefultalkc-blog]

Reviews, a Book Party, Great Advice, and a Realization

Join me for a book party for Redworld: Year One on 2/2/2018. Details inside!

I am new to the world of reviews. When I began this writing journey,  I knew that what I write might just get out there in the world someday. I know  (maybe only in the back of my mind) that other people will read them. Some will like my stories, others will not. I’m okay with that. I’ve put down books that others have read over and over again. I’ve loved books that others have not. That’s okay.…

[chroniclesofmiddlegrade]

Author Appearance Roster - YA Authors!

 Welcome to our archive of authors who participate in school and library visits!

If you have any questions or are interested in having any of these authors make an in-person or virtual visit with your school or library, please email our Author Appearance Coordinator at penguinauthorvisits@gmail.com.

If you are interested in an author that is not listed below, please email our Author Appearance Coordinator at penguinauthorvisits@gmail.com to inquire about their availability.

Julie Berry 

Julie Berry grew up on a farm in western New York as the youngest in a family of seven book-loving kids. She is the author of young adult novels including the forthcoming Lovely War, along with All the Truth That’s in Me, and The Passion of Dolssa. She has also written for middle grade She lives in Southern California.

Julie Dao 

Julie C. Dao is the proud Vietnamese-American author of the Rise of the Empress series which includes, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns and Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix. She studied medicine in college and worked in science news and research before following her passion of becoming a published author. Julie lives in New England and is available for both in-person and virtual visits.  Follow her on Twitter @jules_writes.

Nina LaCour

Nina LaCour is the Michael L. Printz Award-winning author of We Are Okay and four other novels for teenagers. Formerly a high school English teacher and currently a faculty member of Hamline University’s MFAC program, she has led workshops and lectured about creativity and the craft of fiction for teenagers and adults across the country. She is available for both in-person and virtual visits. 

Stacey Lee 

Stacey Lee is the author of Under a Painted Sky and Outrun the Moon. She is a fourth generation Chinese-American and one of the founding members of the We Need Diverse Books Organization. Now, she plays classical piano, raises children, and writes YA fiction. Stacey lives outside San Francisco, California. Stacey is available for both in-person and virtual visits.

Tochi Onyebuchi 

Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of the young adult fantasy, Beasts Made of Night, and the sequel, Crown of Thunder. Tochi holds a B.A. from Yale, an MFA in Screenwriting from Tisch, a Masters degree in Global Economic Law from L’institut d’études politiques, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. He resides in Connecticut where he works in the tech industry and is available for both in-person and virtual appearances.

Ruta Sepetys

Ruta Sepetys grew up saying she would marry Roald Dahl. She is part of a family of artists, readers, and music lovers which helped her creativity grow. Her first novel, Between Shades of Gray, was inspired by her father who escaped from Lithuania when he was a young boy. Ruta’s is also the author of Out of the Easy and the Carnegie Medal-winning, Salt to the Sea. Ruta is available for both in-person and virtual visits. 

We also work with Skype in the Classroom to host a list of authors for free Skype visits to your classroom and library! Please check out our profile if you are interested in hosting one of our wonderful Penguin authors for a free virtual visit.

[authoraliciawilliams]

Who'll speaking at Wisconsin's SCBWI? Me!

Who’ll speaking at Wisconsin’s SCBWI? Me!

I’m sharing this little doo-hickey with you. An interview by SCBWI, promoting their upcoming Spring conference. Spring is just around the corner, and with it—the Spring Luncheon: Creating Richer Narratives. We’ve put together an interview series to introduce the speakers. Today we welcome Alicia Williams.   Alicia Williams is a graduate of Hamline University’s MFAC program. She is excited to…

[reachmouse]

It’s meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

You know, in between denial that this is actually happening. 

[hamlinemfac]

Our faculty member Swati Avasthi talks about her book CHASING SHADOWS, falling in love with graphic novels, teaching, and the word “kumquat.”

What books do you love to teach or recommend to students? Well, it really depends on what my students are studying. But I do love Scott McCloud’s books for writing comics and, to quote [Hamline colleague] MarshaQ, I too “love me some Burroway”. For YA, I often use The Astonishing Life Octavian Nothing by MT Anderson, Blank Confession by Pete Hautman, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. I love using Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and This is Not my Hat by Jon Klassen to illustrate concepts, no matter what I’m teaching.

[storytellersinkpot-blog]

Publication Interview with Susan Lotta: Bold Women of Medicine

Author and MFAC alum Susan Lotta talks about her novel, Bold Women of Medicine: 21 Stories of Astounding Discoveries, Daring Surgeries, and Healing Breakthroughs. Bold Women of Medicine tells the stories of twenty-one courageous women from the 1800s to the present. Packed with photos, informative sidebars, and including source notes and a bibliography, Bold Women of Medicine is an invaluable addition to any student’s or aspiring doctor or nurse’s bookshelf.

What inspired you to write Bold Women of Medicine?

My daughter was in the process of applying to medical school and I witnessed the effort she was putting into her career choice. At the same time, I discovered the Chicago Review Press Women of Action Series which “introduces young readers ages 12 through adult to women and girls of courage and conviction throughout the ages.” I thought about the trials the pioneering women in medicine must have gone through. With the momentum for women to go into stem careers, I thought this would be a perfect way to view the early stem workers to see how women have evolved in their push for equality in science. Women still have a long way to go but each new woman that enters the field advances the cause.

What were the challenges (literary, psychologically, logistically) in bringing this book to life?

The challenges were in the research especially related to the historical women. Some like Elizabeth Blackwell, Clara Barton, and Florence Nightingale had so many resources that I worked hard to narrow the brief profiles of their lives. Others like Rebecca Crumpler, Rebecca Cole and even to some extent, Marie Zakrzewska, the material and photos were very hard to come by but I wanted to include them. In fact, there are no known photos of either Rebecca Crumpler or Rebecca Cole, the first two African American physicians. I probably have 20 additional women that I considered including, and even more that I uncovered in my research, but there was just not enough room.

What do you hope readers take away from Bold Women of Medicine?

I hope readers will take away the power of hope, education, and perseverance. If you have the will to accomplish something (in any career), you’re over halfway there. The Bold Women of Medicine survived many failures on their way to success but they believed in both themselves and their goals. They didn’t let anyone deter them even when they were up against insurmountable odds. They didn’t listen to those that didn’t approve of their choices, they just powered on through. When they needed more explanation, they sought the answers through education. The Bold Women of Medicine’s love for both compassion and science fuels them.

What were the early influences on your writing and how do they manifest in your work?

I majored in journalism and mass communications in college, so I guess you could say that form of writing has influenced me. The writing lab we had as sophomores was a four-hour block, three times a week. We had to arrive with at least 5 new story ideas for every class, then were sent out to “chase” at least one of those stories, write it up, and turn in a draft before the class period was over. This experience manifests itself in my work in that I never have trouble coming up with ideas, which is more of a problem than you might think. It is the carrying through to a finished draft that is challenging for me.

What books have fortified you as a writer?

In nonfiction, I have loved Jill Lepore’s work (Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, The Secret History of Wonder Woman, and A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States) and many more. Also, anything by David McCullough, especially John Adams. Both of those authors turn nonfiction into captivating stories with ease, or at least they read that way. I know as an author it wasn’t really with ease. For children’s books, I remember loving Snow Treasure by Marie McSwiggan, Charlotte’s Web, The Little House series and as a middle schooler I devoured Agatha Christie’s mysteries. I don’t know how these fortified me as writer, but they have stuck with me for many years.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

Of course, like most writers, I love to read. When I’m not reading you can find me with family up at our cabin, out with friends, walking the neighborhood, and volunteering at the library book sales and other events.

What props are most necessary for you to write?

Silence, or instrumental music, coffee in the morning, iced tea in the afternoon, and a window with an ever-changing view. Mine looks out on our sort of busy street and sidewalk. Lots of walkers, runners, and dogs. My den often includes at least one dog, our 11-year-old Golden Retriever named Stanley and lately, our new 6-month old Golden Retriever puppy named Hobbes, (who will steal my shoes as soon as I take them off).

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Read. That has worked the best for me. I like to dissect how successful writers structure their pieces especially nonfiction which I seem to gravitate more to now.

What is next for you? What are you working on now?

More nonfiction I think. Working on a proposal geared to middle grade readers on an historical event. Right now, I’m struggling with how best to structure the piece. I will take any advice on that subject!

Susan M. Latta holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Hamline University. She has written on history, biography, and geography topics for Appleseeds and Faces magazines and contributed freelance projects to Heinemann Leveled Books and ABDO Publishing. She is the recipient of the Loft Literary Center’s Shabo Award for Children’s Picture Book Writers. She lives in Edina, Minnesota.

[storytellersinkpot-blog]

Faculty Voices with Ron Koertge

“Write for whatever holy thing you believe in, not for your poetry workshop fellows. And dare once in a while to throw a poem away. The main thing is to know that your craving to write is the big thing and will continue, and is more valuable than the finished poem. I do this myself, plenty.”

The quote is from the poet Mary Oliver, and she’s daring writers to throw things away. I know, I know. I can hear you saying it’s easier to throw a poem away because it’s short. But part of a novel or — Gasp! — the whole thing?

It’s been done, you know. I’ve done it and I know people who’ve done it.

What a liberating experience. I burned mine, feeding it page by page into a fireplace, all the time cackling like a Halloween witch.

Are you burdened with a story? Will it just not cooperate? Has it been going on forever? Are you sick of it?   Throw it away.

Here’s the thing — the good stuff will come back. The core of the story, the image that haunted you and stood out like a silver dollar in the sludge of the text, the character who said one clever thing that made you want to know what else she would say.

It comes back. But for the moment, you’re free. It’s gone. It’s toast. Done for. Eighty-sixed. Vanquished. Bye-bye forever.

Now you can do what Mary Oliver suggests — indulge your craving to write. Not your duty. Not your obligation. Not your task. But your craving. The urge, the yen, the longing, the passion.

That thing that made you want to be a writer in the first place. Remember that?

RK

Ron Koertge is the author of more than a dozen books, most of them novels for young adults. These include Margaux With An X, Stoner & Spaz, and The Brimstone Journals as well as Shakespeare Bats Clean-Up and the sequel Shakespeare Makes the Play-Offs. Strays was awarded the Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year and chosen as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association.

[storytellersinkpot-blog]

Publication Interview with Rebecca Grabill: Halloween Good Night

Author and MFAC alum Rebecca Grabill talks about her novel, Halloween Good Night. Halloween Good Night, published July 25, is a counting book starring your favorite monsters. 

Gliding through the moonlight

come the monsters big and small,

sliding up your stairway

and oozing down your hall.

They aren’t very scary,

in fact they’re rather sweet.

So snuggle into bed and let them whisper,

“Trick or treat!”

Why do you write?

I won’t be the first to say this, but I write because I must. It’s not self-expression or fame (who cares what I have to say?), it’s not some deep idealistic zeal to change the world (I’m far too cynical to do more than hope). It’s compulsion, plain and simple. When I go too long—a couple days—without writing, I feel uneasy, then agitated, then depressed, until I write again, even if all I can manage between newborn feedings and dropping teens at events is a few lines of a lousy poem. I have to write. There’s no other option.

How did HALLOWEEN GOOD NIGHT get published?

This is actually a fun story (see what a great teaser that is? That’s why I get the big bucks. Umm…). Anyway, I wrote the first draft of HGN during my MFA at Hamline, during my semester with the venerable and amazing Phyllis Root (whom I adore). I remember reading it at a student reading and thinking, “Yes, finally I figured this picture book thing out!”

Sadly editors weren’t agreeing. After graduation I did everything to the story from changing it to a direct “copy” of Over in the Meadow (super super simple and made me want to weep with self-loathing), to attempting to rewrite it in a little monster preschool setting. That’s where I realized I didn’t want to write a monster-goes-to-preschool book (well, I might want to, but I didn’t want This book to become That book). So I stopped re-envisioning it and revised to make it as sparkly as I could, and then I waited. I was also expecting a baby (#5) around then, so I was well practiced at waiting.

In fall of 2014 when I was barely able to function because of newborn and life, my agent called to say she had interest. Apparently an editor she knew was looking for a Halloween book, and she said, “Oh, I have just the book!” and passed it on to the editor and the editor happened to LOVE my story.

A few days later, on Halloween day, while I was hiding in the car and nursing the baby while my big kids were in class, the official offer came in. I got off the phone with my agent and floated around the rest of the morning. Until the kiddos were done with class, and then real life returned with, “Mommy, I’m hungry,” and so forth.

When you start writing, do you know what the ending will be?

Generally, yes. The ending is often the first thing I know about a story. Or think I know, since everything is open to change as the story and characters develop. This is especially true with picture books since these stories are so palm-sized and visual. I sometimes have an “image” in mind of the end before I even have a beginning. I certainly did with HGN. I saw a child tucking all the “scary” Halloween monsters into bed, mastering fear, being the adult, and the story grew from there.

On the flip side, I have a fantasy series in the works, and the ending has been a struggle for as long as I’ve been writing it. It’s been dormant for a few years, but now that I contemplate returning, I know that blasted ending will still be there, ugly as it is. I haven’t figured out what to do about it—yet.

What’s your writing process?

Um, cry, eat chocolate, drink coffee (decaf, see the in-utero comment above), cry some more… Just kidding. Sort of. Because of the demands of life, I have to guard my writing time (afternoons while the littles nap, big kids do independent schoolwork/pretend to do schoolwork, i.e. binge watch inappropriate Netflix or YouTube), and I have to accept that a little progress each day is better than no progress at all.

Basically, when 2pm rolls around, I put on my noise cancelling headphones and let the rest of the world shriek. And I write. I don’t do warm up exercises (please, as if I have time for that!), I don’t freewrite and brainstorm and play with my little Garbage Pail Kids figurines (ok, not much), I pick up where I left off the day before, and I keep going. I stop only when nature calls, when I need to tell one of the kids, “Yes, fine, whatever, go eat a bowl of ice cream with marshmallows and popcorn and watch Walking Dead” (not really, really I’ll just grunt and wave them away and discover later what they were asking me), and I keep going until finally I realize if I don’t stop Right Now nobody will be eating dinner.

This of course will all be blown to h@ll in December when the baby comes, but it’s what I’ll work toward even then.

As far as process for individual books, it varies so incredibly for each project it would be useless to describe. Some are written in a bout of inspiration, others are written and re-written dozens and dozens of times over the course of years. And yes, I do mean years. My current project started as an essay around 2003. It’s now almost “done” (whatever that means) and has been rewritten from the ground up at least six times, and heavily revised and restructured twice that many. AND I’m not sick of it, which means something. Hopefully something good about the manuscript and not something disturbing about myself.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

I homeschool four of my five children and feed the youngest sixth child—in utero until December—copious amounts of chocolate and cucumbers, but not together because I may be pregnant but I do have standards. I also love to binge-watch Netflix in the evenings and read books about food and sustainable agriculture.

I spend an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen because of medically necessary food restrictions—some mine, some belonging to various children. And I spend an inordinate amount of time Googling bizarre medical (and other) questions, which I could say are research, but come on, let’s be real. Weirdness and the abnormal, medically and otherwise, fascinate me.

I have kept chickens, though after a recent raccoon massacre I’m taking a break, and I have a large, ill-kept garden of mostly tomato hornworms and herbs. I also do photography (mostly stock) when the whim strikes at a time when I also have time, which doesn’t happen often, sadly. Sort of like an eclipse.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Don’t try to copy another writer’s process. Seriously, I LOVE reading about how Stephen King writes, or Hemingway, or Anne Lamott. I love it because I think somewhere in their process will be this Golden Truth I’m missing in my own process. I think if I adopt their Magic, somehow my writing will go from slow-plodding-work to flying on clouds of bliss. Except then I get pissy because their process won’t work for my life. Like seriously, if Stephen King were a homeschooling mother of soon-to-be six, would he have time to write ten pages every single day? If Robert Olen Butler were a mother of ANYTHING would he be getting up at 5am to write from his dream state? So that’s to say, don’t look for the magic wand, golden ticket, mythical Dream State. It doesn’t exist. The only way writing gets done is by writing. Period.

Also, listen to feedback. Especially editors/agents, but even Uncle Sal knows a good book when he reads it (usually). Your readers know more than you think. Are they wrong sometimes? Sure. But if three of five readers are saying, “This really shouldn’t be in verse,” then try it in prose no matter how attached you may be to it the way it is. The worst that can happen is you spend some time making a change that doesn’t work. The best is that you end up with something amazing. Risk, try, and for heaven’s sake back up to Dropbox or the cloud or something. And consider Scrivener because it’s awesome, and no they don’t pay me to say that (but they should!).

What are you working on now? Any upcoming events or other info you’d like to add?

I’m finishing up a Middle Grade novel about “influence” and happy little topics like race and cruelty and beauty and friendship. Or I think I’m finishing it. I’ve “finished up” this novel before, so I hesitate to say anything for certain. Then I’ll turn my attention to maybe some picture books or an early MG about a hog, or that ending-less fantasy. Or maybe I’ll be so thoroughly pregnancy-brain-addled that I’ll decoupage everything in the house. It’ been known to happen. Or tie-dye all the diapers… Hmm, actually that does sound fun.

That’s writing stuff. Once publication happens, there’s a whole new to-do list. I have an author questionnaire to fill our for one book (with things like the names of all my local librarians, all the famous people I know, Costco’s buyer and home phone number [kidding, sort of]), and another book that will be hitting editorial soon, and I have an October full of book-release events for Halloween Good Night, plus social media/blog/etc. to keep up with.

Anything else?

Be sure to check out my website: www.rebeccagrabill.com! And if you’ve read and loved Halloween Good Night, I would love love love to see some nice reviews pop up on Amazon!

[storytellersinkpot-blog]

Alumni Voices with Tiffany Grimes: The Importance of a Writing Group

I moved to Portland, Oregon last year.

Finally.

Florida is hot and humid and seemed to sap every creative thought from my head. So it was time for a change. A change that required moving to the opposite coast. 3,070 miles away.

I read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and promptly sold nearly everything, including my car. I packed everything else up in suitcases and flew with my cats across the country. Flying with cats was quite the experience, one that I hope I never have to repeat.Once arriving in Portland, I spent the most of my time searching for employment, literally anything that would help me afford my outrageous rent. I started with two camping chairs as furniture and slowly accumulated the basics over time. Marie Kondo had not prepared me for this.

Thanks to Tinder I made three friends quickly, all of them writers. (Did you know Tinder could be used to make friends? Well now you do!)

These ladies and I spent the last year lamenting about how we’d like to write more. We’d talk about it on hikes, while drinking our sorrows, while sewing our costumes for comic cons, while planning our trips. We seemed to have no problem talking about how we’d like to write. But we weren’t writing.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m not writing, I sort of slump into a depression that can only be fixed by consuming large amounts of peanut butter ice cream and Netflix. Aka not writing. It’s a long, agonizing circle of not being able to call myself a writer (after all, how can you be a writer when you’re not writing!) and then a few bursts every 3 months where I manage to write something, anything. Oh, I really am a writer!

Finally, a couple months ago, my writing friends and I formed a tiny writing group. We meet 1-2 times a week and write for hours. We brainstorm. We workshop. We prepare for writing contests. We set small deadlines. We share books to read. (Currently we’re reading 1Q84 together). We go to book launches. I’ve never been part of a group like this before. We trust each other even though we write completely different genres. Sometimes we sit in silence for hours as we work on our own things. Sometimes we set a timer and write following a prompt. Sometimes we just talk about our ideas.

It had been so long since I’d finished anything. Sure, I’d been slowly hacking away at the book I started at Hamline. I had even tried to set up a few accountability buddies from Hamline, to try to make sure I keep working on my projects. I tried to set deadlines. Eventually we just lost touch. And I missed every deadline I set for myself.

Now I’ve finished the first completed draft of my book, a short story, and this blog post. It’s a slow process, but I have a few projects I’m working on. Projects I’m thrilled about. I carve every moment I can out of my day and hack away at my ideas and drafts. I can rely on my writing group to honestly tell me when my ideas are too weird or boring. I can count on them to hound me until I get something onto the page.

My writing group has made me proud to call myself a writer again.

Tiffany Grimes, Inkpot Blog Manager, is a minimalist (excluding cats: cats bring joy, thus more cats equal happiness). She graduated from Hamline's MFAC program in 2015 and currently writes and breathes in Portland, OR. 

[storytellersinkpot-blog]

Alumni Voices with Ailynn Knox-Collins: How to Write Sci-Fi When You Already Live in a Dystopia

“It’s difficult to focus on writing, particularly fiction, when the world feels like it’s on fire.”

Hugo award winning author, John Scalzi, wrote that recently, in an article for the Los Angeles Times. He talks about how hard it is for science fiction writers to write their stories these days, because it feels like we’re living in a dystopian novel already.

And maybe that’s what I’ve been feeling lately. And that’s why it’s been so hard to sit down and write. I have stories waiting to be told. They mill around in the back of my mind, waiting for my fingers to get going. The characters talk to me while I’m reading a book, or binge-watching a show on TV. Or I suddenly decide to do yard work when I haven’t done that in years. The characters shout, “Hey! When are you going to finish our story?”

But when you wake up each day to the rubbish that’s happening in our country, (can I say ‘crap’?), it’s hard to peel oneself off the floor, to sit in a chair and type up a story about a horrible but hopeful fictional future – when the real future looks even worse.

I could ignore the news. I could cut myself off entirely from social media, radio, TV, talking to people. But I’m not that disciplined.

But I had a deadline for this article. So what did I do? I procrastinated. Which led me to re-reading my Hamline lecture notes. And guess what I found? Wisdom. Inspiration. Treasure! And I’d only read the notes from July 2015, residency #2. I’d forgotten how much good stuff came out of that time. I only have room for 3 highlights in this post. Thank you, teachers, advisors, guest speakers, and alums! 

1) Guest speaker/alum, Kelly Barnhill, said,

“To be human is to tell stories. It is what makes us human most. Everything else, is shared with other animals. Storytelling appears to be ours alone.”

Storytelling is inevitable, especially for a writer. Someone once asked me if I would stop writing if nobody ever liked my work. I said no, because the voices in my head won’t let me. No matter how hard it gets, those stories demand to be told, whether or not anyone else reads them. I am a writer. I am compelled to write.

 2) Alicia Williams gave a powerful lecture about writing the other. I so appreciated her passion, and how she didn’t mince her words. Here are some of them:

“SFF (science fiction/fantasy) writing is the most segregated world in all of literature. What message does it send if there’s only one PoC on a new planet? We are all people, so we have to humanize [our characters] – they should be all colors. No more lily-white futures. You kill off entire races. This is called literary GENOCIDE.”

Doesn’t that just make you want to stand up and applaud? Well, it makes me want to get on and write that story! Especially SFF.

From her ferocity and passion, I am reminded that the future I write about should be what I believe it’s going to be – not the one pictured by today’s lazy supremacists. Their vision of the future is really that of the past, and that’s what scares them. Because the future will not belong to them. There are too many of us who will not allow it. And storytellers play a big part in that picture. Quoting Alicia again,

“It takes all of us to break down borders. We have to work together across racial borders in order to change things, and make things better.”

Yes! 

3) Finally, Gene Luen Yang, quoting Robert McKee’s Story, talked about the types of research we should do for our stories –facts, memory and imagination. Gene said,

“It’s important to… see memory and imagination as an important part of research because we don’t give ourselves permission to spend time thinking.”

What relief I felt when he said that! Because I do a lot of thinking. I do a lot of talking to my characters (disguised as talking to my dogs). And how good it is to give myself permission to do so, knowing that this is writing too. Thinking is a part of the process.  So, maybe my writing journey hasn’t ground to a screeching halt. The anger, fear, and occasional hopelessness are simply simmering on a slow fire, seeking a way out of my brain, onto a page. The Poet Laureate of the USA, Tracy K Smith, in her book Life on Mars, includes a poem called “SciFi”. I only have room for the last few lines. But for me, it reminds me of why writing SFF is healing. Read the whole poem, if you can.

“… weightless, unhinged, 

Eons from even our moon, we’ll drift

In the haze of space, which will be, once 

And for all, scrutable and safe.”

Scrutable and safe. Isn’t that something we all need right now?

Ailynn Knox-Collins graduated from Hamline MFAC in January 2017. When she’s not writing, she’s working with her 4 dogs on agility, obedience and rally competitions, or working part time in an independent bookstore in Redmond, WA. Her first MG Sci-Fi series with Capstone was released in August 2017 and a nonfiction series will be out in February 2018. She’s working on marketing her first graphic novel, among others.

[storytellersinkpot-blog]

Alumni Voices With Molly Beth Griffin: What Real Writers Do

If you’re like most of us, you waste a whole lot of energy wondering if you’re a real writer or not. Usually you lean toward the negative. Unless you’re in the blissful state of drafting the first 50 pages of a brand new exciting novel, or you’re actually receiving an acceptance or a good review at this exact moment, you’re probably wallowing in self-doubt. So I don’t know why speakers at conferences—amazing writers I respect and admire—feel the need to tell lecture halls full of us that if we don’t write every single day, we’re not writers.

Real writers commit to their craft, they tell us. They put their butts in their chairs and their words on the page. Every day. If you can’t do that, you’re not a real writer. You should find another job. This writing thing is not for you.

I’m getting good at turning my ears off when the advice starts to go down that road. Because I’ve never written every day. I’m 34 years old. I have one published novel, two in the drawer, and one in progress. I’ve published two picture books and my agent has eighteen (yes, you read that right) picture book manuscripts out on submission. Two of those eighteen manuscripts have recently found homes. I have one chapbook of poems coming out next year and I’m submitting a second one. I’ve got an MFA and other people pay me to teach them writing and critique their stories. But by that write-every-day standard? I’m not a writer.

I know it’s hard to give writing advice, and people are always demanding it, so you just tend to tell people they should do what you do. Some people may well benefit from this so often repeated recipe for creative success. But what works for one person is not necessarily going to work for another, and in my opinion this one-size-fits-all approach is doing more harm than good. It’s making good writers suffer, and sometimes even quit. The fact is, we don’t need another reason to believe we’re not enough.

Instead, I think we need to tell writers who are struggling to get the work done that they need a balance of consistency and flexibility in their writing lives. Real writers, in my experience, commit to doing whatever they can realistically do as consistently as possible. If that’s 500 words a day for you, great. But maybe it’s a couple of evening writing sprints per week and then two hours of revision on Sundays. Maybe it’s a poem dictated into your phone every morning on your walk to the train. Maybe it’s a two-week writing retreat every summer and winter break. There is no recipe for success. You just have to try some things and figure out what’s realistic for you. What can you do consistently? Keep the bar low so that you can succeed.

Let’s stop shaming writers and instead encourage each other to do whatever works, and when that stops working—because your life circumstances change, or the project suddenly requires something else of you—throw that plan out the window and try something different. Be flexible.

When my babies were small, I set aside novels and wrote only picture books. I liked bite-sized stories because I could work on the ideas for them in my head while I was doing dishes, get out a draft during that precious hour or two of childcare, and revise during nap without being too angry about interruptions. Now that my youngest is in preschool, I’m able to dig into larger projects. But I still don’t write every day. I write when I have childcare, which is Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I set up #1kTuesday on Facebook as a support system to make sure I carve out time for my own writing at least one day a week. I meet with my writing group at least once a month, and I try to have something to share with them. And what do you know? The work gets done.

Because if you’re a real writer, you’ll find a way to get the work done. It won’t look like everyone else’s way, because you’re not everyone else. You will set the writing aside and go for a walk sometimes. You will come back to it. You will bribe yourself with chocolate. You will give yourself deadlines and surround yourself with people who support you in meeting them.

You will write. On your own terms, and at your own pace.

Because you’re a real writer and that’s what real writers do.

Molly Beth Griffin (MFAC ’09) is the author of the YA novel SILHOUETTE OF A SPARROW (Milkweed Editions 2012) and the picture books LOON BABY (Houghton Mifflin 2011) and RHODA’S ROCK HUNT (Minnesota Historical Society Press 2014). Her first poetry chapbook, UNDER OUR FEET, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2018. She is a Hamline MFAC grad from 2009 and a teaching artist at The Loft Literary Center, where she critiques manuscripts and hosts a monthly Picture Book Salon. Her writing has been awarded two Minnesota Arts Board Artist Initiative grants and a McKnight Fellowship. She lives in Minneapolis with her partner and their two young children. Find her at www.mollybethgriffin.com or on Facebook, where she facilitates an online writing support group called #1kTuesday.

[storytellersinkpot-blog]

Publication Interview with Sarah Ahiers: Thief’s Cunning

Author and MFAC alum Sarah Ahiers talks about her second novel, Thief’s Cunning. Thief’s Cunning, published June 13, is the companion novel to Assassin’s Heart. Thief’s Cunning picks up eighteen years later and follows Allegra Saldana as she uncovers the secrets about the line of killers she descends from.

What Inspired Assassin’s Heart and subsequently Thief’s Cunning?

Assassin’s Heart was inspired by three things sort of happening at the same time. The first was that I was thinking about murder (like you do) and I was wondering what would it take to have a culture where they not only accepted murder, but welcomed it. And while I was thinking on that I read two books that pissed me off. In the first one, the main character has no family and only a single friend. And she loves that friend desperately. Then that friend gets murdered due to plot reasons. And the main character is sad for, like, a paragraph, but it’s just that there’s this new boy and he’s so dreamy…

So that pissed me off because I don’t care how dreamy the boy is, grief just can’t get erased like that. It doesn’t go away.

And then I read another book where the main character, a girl again, gets terrorized by this boy. He legitimately scares her. And yet, she thinks he’s dreamy and interesting.

And I called BS on that. Because I, as a woman, have never once felt attracted to a man who has frightened me.

So these three things merged together until I had a culture that welcomed murder. And a girl who’s family is killed, and who’s grief permanently changes her, and follows her forever. And a love interest who is kind, and supportive, and never frightening.

In Thief’s Cunning, I wanted to tackle women. Because after edits, there weren’t as many women in AH as had been in earlier drafts. And I wanted to discuss the clipper women, and the women of a matriarchal society and what happens in this world when your culture worships more than one god, instead of the singular god of the first book.

I’m also a fan of epilogues. Like, those 80s movies where at the end they do a freeze-frame over each character and tell you what happened to them (one of them always dies or is never seen again or something.) Even though I knew Lea and Les’s story was complete, the fallout from their actions would still reverberate. And I wanted to see how those reverberations would play off the next generation. And the ideas that, even when we do the right things, or good things, those acts can have consequences, often bad consequences, for yourself and for others, and there’s no way to really know.

And that parents are people and make mistakes and that nothing hurts us more than love.

What were the challenges (literary, psychologically, logistically) in bringing these books to life?

Looking back it feels like Assassin’s Heart was super easy to write. I do remember that beside removing 2 minor characters and a few scenes, the first draft didn’t undergo much revision. But in fact it wasn’t that easy to write. I actually had to take a year off in the middle because I just wasn’t feeling the book. I’d written 40-50k and it just was fighting me. I tried changing the POV and then changed it back and nothing seemed to help. So I set it down for a year and worked on something else.

And when I picked it up again, and re-read it, that first 50k was perfectly fine. And that first 50k is present in the final book with very few changes.

Thief’s Cunning fought me the whole way. At one point I had to stop drafting, cut 30k, and try to wrangle my plot back into shape. I’m very much a plotter and know where my stories need to go, but this one wanted to go in 18 different directions. Even after I turned in the draft to my editor I had to cut another 30k to whip it into shape.

I felt like I had forgotten how to novel. But also, second books are notoriously difficult for everyone and it turns out I was not the exception to the rule.

If you could be friends with only one of your characters, who would you choose and why?

Oh Les, I’m sure. I mean he’s just a nice dude. He’d probably pay for your lunch and tell you interesting facts and stories.

What did you edit out of this book?

Well, in Thief’s Cunning, I cut 60k, which is pretty much an entire book. I lost a very large subplot, which I’m still a little sad about. Not because it didn’t need to go (it really did) but just because it was exciting and interesting and I’m sad I couldn’t explore it more. I also cut a few minor characters, and cut a massive scene involving traveler death rituals, which were so cool and I loved, but really slowed the pace of the story for no reason other than just being cool. Kill your darlings and all that.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

Mostly feel guilty about how I’m not writing.

But otherwise I have a day job, which pays the bills, and they let me work from home, so I also spend a lot of time with my dogs. I play a lot of games (board and video) watch tv, go to movies, cook and bake a lot, and hang out with my friends and family. And read of course.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

You just got to keep at it. The more you write, the better you become. And the better you become, the closer you’ll get to your goals. But, also, try not to stress too much about those goals. There’s a ton of luck and other things out of your control in regards to getting published, but the one thing you can control is the craft. So put your energy there because you’ll never regret becoming a better writer. And when things get rough (which they will, sooner or later) if you can return to the writing, remember why it was you first started scribbling ideas in the first place, you’ll be better off.

What is next for you? What are you working on now?

Working on a few things, but mostly waiting to hear back on a few other things. Publishing is honestly like 90% waiting, which is what it is, but it means I can’t really speak in specifics about anything just because nothing’s set in stone at the moment.

So get used to long periods of hearing about nothing, and then suddenly a bunch of work that needs to get done asap, because that’s pretty much being an author in a nutshell.

Sarah Ahiers has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and lives in Minnesota with her dogs and a house full of critters. She has a collection of steampunk hats and when she’s not writing she fills her time with good games, good food, good friends and good family.