Category: Middle Grade (Page 13 of 17)

Meet J Monkeys THE GREAT CT CAPER Chapter 7 Author

March 30, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

Chapter 7 of The Great Connecticut Caper is here! We’re past the halfway mark and the story really took an interesting turn at the end of the previous chapter. It’s so hard waiting two weeks to see what happens next. J Monkeys, the author of chapter 7, stops by today to share a little about what it was like creating it. Welcome!

What was your approach to writing chapter 7 of the Great CT Caper? Did it differ any from your approach when creating a piece written solely by you?

It wasn’t much of a deviation for me; I’m a huge planner. I can’t “pants” my way through the day, let alone through a story. The biggest difference was the scale. I’ve written short stories before, but I was able to plan the whole thing, beginning, middle and end. That wasn’t the case for the Great CT Caper. So, I read the previous six chapters, thought about where we were in terms of the overall story then sketched a high level outline of what I wanted to do. I assigned a word count “budget” for each section, which I completely blew past. I’m a novelist by nature, so sticking to 650 words was really, very, impossibly hard for me.

What were your expectations coming into writing a collaborative, serialized story for young readers? Had you written anything like this before?

I’ve done collaborative writing before, with kids, but we do it together. This was very different because they didn’t want us to taint the creative process by hatching a plan from the start. We each just had to react to the stuff that came before us and go forward. It was neat.

Did you come across any particular challenges in writing your chapter?

Did I ever! The word count was rough. I decided to write out my chapter, then go back and edit it down to the appropriate size. Unfortunately, the first draft of chapter seven was 1400 words long, more than double what I was supposed to turn in. I edited it down to 700ish, but realized that I was breaking the most important rule of writing: “Show, don’t tell.” I was telling all over the place! The idea behind “show, don’t tell” is to allow the reader to experience the story with the characters instead of just telling them what happened. It takes a lot more words to “show” a conversation happening through dialogue, for example, than it does to “tell” a recap.

Did you do any research for the project?

Yup. Since my part was the middle of the story, I wanted to include some backstory on our villain. Who was Lady Hallow, why was she doing this and how? So I wanted to tie William Gillette back to Scotland and to the settling of Connecticut. I read up on Thomas Hooker, the Fundamental Orders, the Connecticut Charter and the history of the Charter Oak. I wanted to tie it all together more tightly than I did, but that durned word count got me again.

The Great CT Caper’s target audience is children in grades four through seven. What were some of your favorite books when you were that age?

Nancy Drew, for sure. I LOVED the Nancy Drew mysteries. I still have them on my shelf. I devoured the CS Lewis stories about Narnia, too. Little Women was a favorite of mine. Plus, I was a pretty advanced reader with a fairly permissive Mom. By the time seventh grade came along, I was reading adult historical romances. Certainly that wouldn’t be every parent’s decision, but I loved them. The stories, the swashbuckly-ness, the history. I still do love them.

What writers do you find inspire your own work?

I love adventure stories. Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson stories, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, Suzanne Collins’ Gregor stories, The 39 Clues and The Infinity Ring series are all books that I go back to again and again. And CS Lewis’ world building was amazing.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring two books and one movie, what would you bring?

Well, for books, I’d bring two humongous blank books with pencils smuggled inside them to write my own stories. And for a movie? Hmmmm. Tough call. I love history, so something really, really long, with lots of history to inspire ideas for my stories.

Where else can readers find your writings? What’s up next for your writing career?

All of my books are available on Amazon, and my website, of course. I expect to start book three of the Livingston-Wexford Adventures early this summer. I left my characters, 15-year olds Kayla and Quinn, in a bit of a tangle at the end of The Peacock Tale, so it’s time to move that story forward. And I wrote a tragedy as part of the “research” on my fictional pirate, Captain Peacock. I’m planning to revise that and release it as a companion piece. It’s really more of a Young Adult story than it is a Middle Grade adventure.

And I’m super excited about some work I’ve been doing this year. I’ve been working with kids, guiding them through a real-life writing adventure. We create, write, illustrate and edit a book, then publish it through Amazon. I’ve been working with schools and after-school programs, kids from Kindergarten through Fifth Grade. It’s been really fun and rewarding. When I get a minute, I need to update my website (www.jmonkeys.com) with links to their books. I’m starting to book programs for the 2015-16 school year now. There’s a link on my website, if anybody’s interested.

And finally, what is something funny/weird/exceptional about yourself that you don’t normally share with others in an interview?

Something funny. Hmmm. Well, it’s not so much funny “ha-ha” as it is funny “odd.” I have a pretty great vocabulary, but I’m a terrible speller. I mean awful. Like, spell-check can’t figure out what I’m trying to spell. Sometimes I don’t even know where to look in the dictionary to figure it out. And my handwriting is worse than my spelling. I sometimes take a break from the computer and go write by hand somewhere away from my house. Usually, when I get back and type it into the story document, there are at least two words that I can’t figure out, either because I butchered the spelling so badly or they’re simply illegible.

Visit J Monkeys here:

Author website

The Cordovan Vault

The Peacock Tale

Dixie and Taco go to Grandmother’s House

Meet Melissa Crandall Author of Chapter 6 of THE GREAT CONNECTICUT CAPER

March 16, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

We’ve reached the halfway mark of THE GREAT CONNECTICUT CAPER! So much has happened since that opening chapter on the Connecticut River when we first learned Gillette Castle had gone missing. Check out chapter 6 and then read about the making of as author Melissa Crandall graciously answers some questions about the making of it and her writing life. Welcome, Melissa!

What was your approach to writing chapter 6 of the Great CT Caper? Did it differ any from your approach when creating a piece written solely by you?

The big difference, of course, was that there were five other writers ahead of me, so my preparation involved reading those five chapters, seeing how they meshed together, and then working to make my chapter fit as another piece to the puzzle. I’ve had a lot of experience doing that sort of thing – I’ve been writing collaborative pieces since high school – so I was familiar with the drill. Whether I’m working solo or in collaboration, my chief goal is to write the very best I can.

What were your expectations coming into writing a collaborative, serialized story for young readers? Had you written anything like this before?

Oh, yes. Back in high school, my friends and I wrote serialized stories where one of us would start, write the plot into a corner, and then gleefully pass it on to the next person to figure out. My first professional novel – Star Trek’s ICE TRAP – was written in collaboration with two other writers under the name L.A. Graf, and for the past several years I’ve participated in The Exquisite Project at Bill Library in Ledyard, CT. In essence, that’s a writer/artist version of the old “Exquisite Corpse” parlor game.

The Great CT Caper’s target audience is children in grades four through seven. What were some of your favorite books when you were that age?

I was (and still am) a voracious reader, so there were many. Some that readily come to mind are: Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie), Misty of Chincoteague and King of the Wind (Marguerite Henry), Black and Blue Magic (Zilpha Keatley Snyder), Andy Buckram’s Tin Men (Carol Ryrie Brink), Steel Magic (Andre Norton), and the Moomintroll books (Tove Jansson).

What writers do you find inspire your own work?

Truthfully, every writer I read affects me in some way. Some teach me ways to be a better writer, and others show me things I don’t ever want to emulate. Some of those who energize me about the craft of writing are J.M. Barrie, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Barbara Hambly, and Jonathan Carroll.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring two books and one movie, what would you bring?

The books would be Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. (And if I could sneak in one more, it would be “Red Ranger Came Calling” by Berke Breathed.) As for movies…that’s hard, because my favorite changes all the time depending upon my mood. Probably JAWS.

Everyone is always trying to sneak in an extra one on that desert island! Where else can readers find your writings? What’s up next for your writing career?

Most of my books are currently out of print, but can be found wherever used books are sold. In the past year, my short story “Centaur” appeared in the online magazine Allegory, and I also sold essays to CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL: THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS and the Journal of the American Geriatric Society. They can also check out my website at www.melissacrandall.com and my blog “The Wild Ride – Caretaking Mom Through Alzheimer’s” at https://melissacrandall.wordpress.com/.

Currently, I’m working on a fantasy story and doing research for what I hope will turn into a novel based during the American Civil War.

And finally, what is something funny/weird/exceptional about yourself that you don’t normally share with others in an interview?

I once baby-sat a convalescing elephant.

About the Author:

Melissa Crandall writes “whatever needs writing.” To date, that’s included science fiction novels, fantasy short stories, and non-fiction essays. For several years, she served as fiction judge for the Darien Library Teen Writing Contest. Crandall enjoys hiking with her dog and pursues nature photography as a hobby.

Research – It’s Not Just for School Projects with Author Sarah Darer Littman

March 2, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

Chapter 5 of The Great CT Caper is here! I don’t know about you, but I’ve been having a blast reading the Caper and seeing where all the authors have taken the story. Today we welcome Sarah Darer Littman, author of chapter 5 of the Caper, who had a week to learn and write about a place she had never visited. Welcome, Sarah!

Research – it’s not just for school projects!

by Sarah Darer Littman

As a young girl living in London, I could see Baker Street Station from my bedroom window, and passed 221B Baker Street, the home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, every time we walked to Regent’s Park.

I was a voracious reader, and the wonderful children’s librarians at the library on Marylebone Road, where my parents took us regularly, put The Hound of the Baskervilles in my hands. I was hooked.

The Great Connecticut Caper audition required authors to write a short piece from a prompt, which set up a detective entering an empty house from which a strange noise was emanating, and pulling aside a curtain. I had him find a cat behind the curtain, and it seemed only logical that the feline should be named Watson.

At this point, despite having lived in Connecticut for many years, I knew nothing about William Gillette and his creation of the screen role of Sherlock Holmes. But it seems like I’ve been on the path to his doorstep at Gillette Castle since I spent all those hours in my bedroom down the street from 221B engrossed in the mysteries of Sherlock Holmes.

When it came time to write my chapter, #5, I had an interesting challenge, because the story line diverged right at the end of the previous chapter, and I had very few words to account for what happened and move the parallel stories along for the next author. I’d visited Gillette Castle to learn more about William Gillette and hopefully get some fun tidbits I might be able to use in my chapter (“Ribbit, Ribbit!” Gillette really did have two pet frogs named Mike and Lena, I learned from my tour guide). But two of the characters in my chapter, Thomas and Norm, end up at Dinosaur State Park, which I’ve never visited. We were only given a week to write our chapter, and I was about to leave on a much needed vacation, so I didn’t have time to go up to Rocky Hill for a research trip. So I went online to learn whatever I could about Dinosaur State Park, and looked up images on Google Image search.

GilletteFrogs1 But here’s the problem with only using online research: it’s not always correct. My original draft of chapter five involved excitement when a dinosaur statue in the field at Dinosaur State Park came to life and started chasing Thomas and Norm. But I was unsure of two things: 1) it’s been a long time since my son, now 21, was obsessed with dinosaurs and I knew every single dinosaur ever, so I wanted to check I was using the correct name and 2) I was worried because there is also a Dinosaur State Park in Texas and some of the same pictures that were tagged as being in CT were also tagged as being in Texas.

Gillettearchway This is where being a journalist and understanding the importance of fact-checking helps me as a writer. I emailed Dinosaur State Park and explained my dilemma. I received an incredibly helpful email back from Meg Enkler, the Environmental Education Coordinator at Dinosaur State Park. Meg confirmed that the outside dinosaur statues must be at the Texas park, because the big statue of a Dilophosaurus, is indoors at Rocky Park. That nixed my existing plot line, but Meg helpfully suggested several alternatives, one of which I used. Thank you, Meg!

I often have to do a lot of research for my novels, and getting to ask interesting people questions about the work they do is one of the things that makes my own work so enjoyable – it’s lifelong learning.

About the Author:

Sarah Darer Littman is an award-winning author of books for young people. Littman’s first novel, Confessions of a Closet Catholic, won the 2006 Sydney Taylor Book Award for Older Readers. Her novel Life, After was a 2011 Sydney Taylor Honor Book. She is also the author of Purge and Want to Go Private? Her most recent novel Backlash, releases from Scholastic Press on March 31^st. In addition to writing for teens, Sarah is a political columnist for CTNewsJunkie.com, and teaches creative writing in the MFA program at Western CT State College and for WritopiaLab. You can find her online at http://sarahdarerlittman.com/, @sarahdarerlitt, and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Darer-Littman/121109781249612.

Facts in Fiction with THE GREAT CT CAPER Author Laura A. Woollett

February 16, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

Have you read chapter 4 of The Great CT Caper yet? If not, you’ll certainly want to after getting an inside look at how chapter 4 author Laura A. Woollett conducted her research for the Caper. Welcome, Laura!

Facts In Fiction

by Laura A. Woollett

I’ve been thinking a lot about how facts figure into the writing of fiction. If your fictional story is set in a real place or has real people in it, how much creative license do you have?

Research is a crucial element to creating historical fiction. The reader must feel as if he or she is IN that time and place. That means getting details such as clothing, cuisine, and architecture correct for the time period. But what about realistic fiction that takes place in the current time period? What about in a story like The Great CT Caper, which is a fictional mystery set in a real location that young readers can visit for themselves?

My first book, Big Top Burning: The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and The Greatest Show On Earth (Chicago Review Press, June 2015) is nonfiction. Every detail was meticulously researched through primary source documents. I’m accustomed to gathering facts and presenting them in an engaging story format. As I wrote my chapter for The Great CT Caper, I wondered how close I had to stick to the facts of the real-life setting.

I began thinking about this project by taking a trip Gillette’s castle. It was a beautiful, sunny September day, and flowers were still blooming. The Connecticut River rushed by far below the castle’s teeth-like walls. Inside, I passed through a secret passage and leaned over the balcony to look down on the great hall. I touched the walls covered in a woven hemp-like material and counted the Gillette_Castle many carved wooden doors, each one unique. Fiction feels its most real when the sensory details are just right. Since our story would take place at this real location, it felt important for me to experience what Li-Ming and Thomas would first hand.

Including details from the castle was important, but I did not want my chapter to sound like a report, so stuffed with facts it would appear I were teaching kids about the castle rather than telling a story that happened to take place there. I had to pretend the castle wasn’t a real place at all, but an imagined one, and like in any well-written fiction, I would only include details that gave the essence of the setting and furthered Gillettes_Bedroom the plot. If the detail was not important to the scene, I cut it, even if it were true. Somewhere in Chapter 4, I took a bit of artistic license. Can you tell where?

Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, writers want their scenes, their characters, and their stories to ring true. Here are my goals for any writing project:

Do your due diligence.

Go online and research reputable sites that have information on the time and place where your story is set. Better still, go to a library and ask a librarian. Best case, if you’re using a real setting you don’t know much about, visit. Take notes and pictures. Talk to the experts or people living there.

Be true to the time and place.

This means no anachronisms. If trolley cars had stopped running through Hartford during the time of your story, you cannot have your characters riding on them. Get the clothing right, the types of food, the music people listened to, and the world events that shaped their lives.

Do your best.

In the past, I’ve wrung my stomach into knots worrying that I’ve messed up some factual detail. And in my experience, if I’m feeling this way, it means I’ve definitely done #1 and 2, so it’s time to let that worry go.

About the Author:

Laura A. Woollett has a Master’s degree in Children’s Literature from Simmons College and is a full-time writer and editor of literacy curriculum for children in kindergarten through grade 12. Her first book for middle-grade readers, Big Top Burning: The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and The Greatest Show On Earth, a nonfiction account of the 1944 Hartford circus fire, will be published by Chicago Review Press in June 2015. Laura is the author of Chapter 4 of The Great Connecticut Caper, a middle-grade serialized whodunit published online through the CT Center for the Book, January–June 2015.

The Process of Serial Writing and Chapter Two of The Great CT Caper

January 19, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

THE GREAT CT CAPER, a serialized mystery for young readers about Gillette Castle gone missing, launched at the beginning of the month. I’m thrilled to announce Chapter two is out! And I wrote it! If you haven’t read chapter one yet, I highly recommend you do that before heading on over to my chapter.

I’m avoiding any major spoilers in this blog post about writing chapter two, but you might want to read the chapters first, just so you’re not unduly influenced during your reading. So far it’s been great fun creating a chapter and finally getting to see both the illustration by a Connecticut artist and the curriculum guide for my chapter. Here’s my journey of being a part of this adventure.

Getting the Assignment

When I heard that the CT Humanities was looking for authors and illustrators from CT to create a serialized story based on a missing state landmark, it sounded like a fun project, so I sent out my writing sample, personal statement, and resume. I was super excited to get a phone call informing me I was selected as one of the twelve authors and that I would soon find out what chapter I would be writing.

A sneak peek at Gillette Castle as we approached it from the grounds.

We were told the public has chosen Gillette Castle as the missing landmark (the landmark I voted for in the poll!) and that the target audience was kids ages 9-12. We would be provided with some facts about the castle and William Gillette, the man who designed the castle and lived there, and the previous chapters. Then the authors would be given free rein to be creative, fun, informative, whatever we wanted to be in our chapters. The only hitch was that we would each have just one week to write the chapter and then a follow-up week to edit it. Phew!

I originally thought I’d be writing one of the middle chapters in early 2015, but then I got an email that asked me if I’d be able to write chapter two in late September (which was only a few weeks away). I was nervous about getting it done (with The Prince only being a few months old and a family vacation planned for early October), but excited. Chapter two seemed like the perfect chapter to write in this kind of serialized storytelling with multiple authors.

I wouldn’t have the responsibility of laying the groundwork of a whole story like the chapter one author (read about Yelizaveta P. Renfro’s approach to chapter one here), but I also wouldn’t have too much story to keep track of like authors of later chapters. And I figured I’d have lots of leeway to put my mark on the story since I was assigned such an early chapter. All in all, a pretty good deal.

A view of the Connecticut River from Gillette Castle.

Doing the Research

As part of being involved with the Caper, all the authors and illustrators were offered a free visit to Gillette Castle. Now I had seen the castle from the Connecticut River while on a boat tour, but I had never been up close to it or inside. After reading some information about it on the Internet, I decided I just had to try and get there before writing my chapter. With the crazy, brilliant mind of William Gillette behind the design of it, I wanted to see the spying mirrors, secret passages, and medieval design in person.

The boys and I hanging out on one of the balconies.

So the hubby took a day off from work; we packed the boys, lunch, diaper bags, and supplies into the car; and took a drive to East Haddam, CT to check out Gillette Castle State Park. Boy was it worth the trip! It was rainy that morning, so we didn’t get to explore the grounds much (there are acres of hiking trails in the park), but we got full run of the castle and the tour guides because there was hardly anyone else there on a random, rainy weekday in early September.

William Gillette posing as Sherlock Holmes.

With The Prince strapped to me in a baby wrap and my phone camera and notebook in hand, I was ready to explore. I asked the gracious tour guide lots of question (he even had questions for me about the Caper…he had heard of it but didn’t know much about it), took a ton of pictures, and really just took it all in. The castle is small, as castles go, but there are so many little details to it and lots of information about William Gillette, who was a fascinating person. Most notably, he was the actor who created the character of Sherlock Holmes as we know it today with the deerstalker cap and curved pipe.

Seeing the castle and learning about William Gillette really got my imagination going. On the ride home, I jotted down some key ideas and images that popped into my head and hoped that I’d be able to include even a little of what had inspired me.

Writing the Chapter

Before I knew it, I had received my email with chapter one and the plot and character cheat sheet (pretty short given there was only one chapter before mine). Then it was time to get my creative juices on! As I read through chapter one, little bubbles of excitement percolated in my belly as I met the characters and got a feel for the voice of the story. There was a lot to work with, and so many places I could take the story. Then I read the first chapter again and I continued to look back at it as I began writing my own.

One of the many doors, not two of which are exactly alike, in the castle. This particular one plays a role in my chapter.

One of the many doors, no two of which are exactly alike, in the castle. This particular one plays a role in my chapter.

I saw lots of opportunities to use some of the ideas and notes from my visit, but I knew I would have to be selective. I had only 650 words to work with and lots I wanted to do. First, I had to make sure to move the story forward and I wanted lots of action in my chapter. I also wanted to continue to develop the already established characters and maybe add in a few new ones. I wanted to add some magic, because that’s what I love to read and write about, and it made sense that magic would be involved in the disappearance of a castle!

And I really, really wanted to include Gillette Castle in my chapter. That detail was a bit tricky because the chapter was so early in the story and I couldn’t have them finding the castle and the characters being like, “Okay, mystery solved.” So I used the magic system I had come up with to accomplish being able to have the castle in the story but without solving the mystery. I decided to start the chapter with a bang (literally a boom!) of magic and get right into the action.

One other idea I had toyed around with was including one of my favorite places in CT, a place I had visited many times growing up and continue going to as an adult with my kids. (Want to know which place that is? Well, you’ll have to read the chapter to find that out.) I’ve lived my whole life in CT and I think it’s a special place, so I really wanted to highlight one of the things I love about the state.

On location at the other place in CT I wanted to feature in the story.

The new characters came in the form of villains because I thought it was important to introduce them early on in the story. Chapter one had established the protagonists very well, so I added in a couple of antagonists right at the end of the chapter.

The first chapter had ended with a great cliffhanger, and I had to end the next one like that as well. It’s important to end any chapter in a novel in a way that keeps the reading turning the page, but this element is especially important in a serialized story. I also wanted to conclude in a way that the next author could pretty much take the story in whatever direction they wanted. If they wanted to continue using the magic system I had established, they could, but they could also chose not to use magic in their part as well.

Plus it all had to make sense, it had to feel complete and not rushed, and it had to have a story arc of its own with some semblance of a beginning, middle, and end. All the while, I wanted to move the story forward. I was always conscience of having “stuff” happen and making the most of my words.

In retrospect, looking back at all the things I wanted to accomplish seems like it was a big task, but it kind of all flowed. (Thankfully, because I had to write it all in one week!). The hardest part was paring it all down to fit in the word count. I kept going back and trimming, trimming, trimming. I cut out unnecessary words. I took out all but the most important details and descriptions. I threw out anything that just wasn’t essential to the plot.

And you know what? I had a lot of fun doing it. Before I knew it, I had written my chapter, completed my edits, and just had to wait for the story to come out.

Marketing and Partying and Such

Since completing my chapter, I’ve also had a lot of fun meeting the other authors and illustrators and marketing the story. I invited them to guest post on the blog and I met a bunch of them in person at the launch party in Hartford, CT. It was great to have an evening out with adults (I had to actually change out of my sweatpants!). I also met some really enthusiastic teachers and librarians who are bringing the Caper to their schools. I’m looking forward to the second launch party next week at the Peabody Museum in New Haven, CT (sign up here for the free event).

The CT Humanities brought the idea of a serialized, state centered story to CT and other state organizations have gotten involved too. And all the people involved have been great to work with and meet. It’s really made the whole experience worth it (because, yes, all the authors and illustrators volunteered our time to the project…i.e. we didn’t get paid). I’ve always found trying to market my writing to be really hard and a bit of a drag, but I’ve actually had a lot of fun spreading the word about the Caper. I think having a solid network behind the project has really helped with that. I plan on taking what I’ve learning about marketing to future releases of my own titles.

Like the rest of you, I have not read the rest of the chapters. So I’m really excited about seeing where everyone else has taken the story. I’ve heard some rumors, which I could mention here but then I’d have to track you all down to silence you, so I’m keeping my mouth shut about those! I hope that many kids enjoy following along with the story and the games and activities. I hope, too, that other states see what CT has done with the Caper and do their own versions. Maybe CT will even do another one in the future. There are so many possibilities with this kind of storytelling.

So go read those chapters and share here what you think will happen next in THE GREAT CT CAPER!