NaNoWriMo!

Can you guess what I'm hoping to do in November?
Crazy, right? I know. But why not?

www.NaNoWriMo.org

Forecast: A whole lot of writing going on! Care to join me?

Hunger Mountain Announces Winners of Katherine Paterson Prize

Press Release:
Hunger Mountain announces winners of Katherine Paterson Prize

September 28, 2009—Montpelier, VT— The winner of the Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing is Liz Cook from Roslindale, Massachusetts, the editor of Hunger Mountain announced today. Ms. Cook’s short story for young adults, “Crazy Cat” has earned her a $1,000 prize and publication in Hunger Mountain, the national arts journal published at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

“We received 300 entries—and the talent and dedication apparent in those entries was overwhelming,” says Miciah Bay Gault, managing editor of Hunger Mountain.

Katherine Paterson, the award-winning author of Bridge to Terabithia, judged the contest. Along with a first place winner, she chose three honorable mentions: Susan Hill Long from Portland, Oregon, for her middle grade novel excerpt “Tornado;” Emily Jiang from Palo Alto, California for her young adult novel excerpt “Paper Daughter;” and Tricia Springstubb from Cleveland Heights, Ohio for her story for young children “No Mistake.” Each honorable mention receives $100 and publication on Hunger Mountain online.

Gault called Liz Cook last week to let her know she’d won the much publicized Katherine Paterson Prize. “She couldn’t believe it,” says Gault. “She was so excited to think that Katherine had read—and enjoyed—her writing.”

Hunger Mountain is a print and online journal of the arts showcasing fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews, writing for children, and visual art. Visit Hunger Mountain for more information about the Katherine Paterson Prize and three other writing prizes offered annually.

Vermont College of Fine Arts, which houses the editorial offices for Hunger Mountain, is the first college devoted entirely to low-residency, graduate fine arts programs, offering three MFA
degrees in Writing, Writing for Children and Young Adults, and Visual Art.


(End of press release and back to Lynn).
Congratulations to Liz Cook, Susan Hill Long, Emily Jiang, and Tricia Springstubb as well as the finalists.

Imaginary Readers,
I think you will find great inspiration at Hunger Mountain.
Find out more info about the contest here:
http://www.hungermtn.org/contest-news

and here:
http://www.hungermtn.org

Read an amazing talk by Katherine Paterson here.

Learn about VCFA (Vermont College of Fine Arts) MFA Program here.

Yes, some of you know I earned my MFA at VCFA. People often ask me if the program was worthwhile. I always answer: Yes, yes, YES!!

Read an interview with Bethany Hegedus & Kekla Magoon, co-editors of the Children and YA section of Hunger Mountain here.

Forecast: More great stories from Hunger Mountain, VCFA, Liz Cook, and the honorable mention writers and finalists!

SHIFTY Reviews on Amazon UK & the 4 Covers of SHIFTY

Hello Imaginary Readers,

There are times as an author when you wonder if anyone is reading your books (or your blog :-). So it was a fun and very nice surprise to receive a google alert pointing me to reviews of SHIFTY on Amazon UK. I'm thrilled with the UK reviews and that readers liked my characters and story. Plus is was super fun to read some of unique words and phrases used to describe SHIFTY. Please take a look.

SHIFTY will be published October 1st in the UK by Frances Lincoln.
Here are the four covers of SHIFTY:

UK cover (published by Frances Lincoln)


Australian cover (published by Allen & Unwin)



US covers (hardcover-2008) & (paperback-2010) published by Tricycle/Random House--



The US paperback version, below, comes out in March 2010.


Imaginary Readers, which cover do you like best?

NaNoWriMo & YWP: An Interview with Tavia Stewart-Streit, Director of the Young Writers Program & Operations Manager at the Office of Letters and Light

Dear Imaginary Readers,
I’ve been away a bit this summer working on my new middle grade novel. I'm back now with an interesting interview I hope you will enjoy.

I am sure many of you have heard of NaNoWriMo? (National Novel Writing Month).
Check out NaNoWriMo’s website at: http://www.nanowrimo.org

While you are there, click on the Young Writer’s Program logo that looks like this:

Or just go to: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org
Wow, you'll find great writing resources there for teachers and students. So, as students head back to school this fall, I thought it'd be fun to interview Tavia Stewart-Streit, Director of the Young Writers Program & Operations Manager at the Office of Letters and Light.

Lynn: Tavia, thank you for joining us at The Imaginary Blog.

I have to say that I've always been impressed by the creative endeavors of NaNoWriMo. So I was thrilled to learn that there was a Young Writers Program involved with NaNoWriMo too. Then when I saw the nifty free downloadable Novelist Workbooks for teachers and students at various grade levels I just had to meet the responsible enlightened folks involved.

There are some fun facts and FAQ on your website but I'd love a quick update and inside view of the process from your POV. Whose idea was it to include and encourage young writers in NaNoWriMo? Who created and designed the great workbooks?

Tavia: NaNoWriMo's Young Writers Program was created after we were inundated with requests from participating educators for a kid- and teen-friendly version of the event. They wanted to share the blissful sense of accomplishment they felt after writing an entire novel in 30 days with their students—to see what would happen if they encouraged their kids to run amok in their imaginations for an entire month.

So did we!

The Young Writers Program launched in 2004, got its own website in 2005, and by 2006 had a thriving international community consisting of both educators teaching our program in classrooms and young writers participating on their own. To meet the demands for more resources and a more kid-friendly site, we launched a redesigned website in 2008 along with dozens of lesson plans for educators and our Young Novelist Workbooks for students. The workbooks were written by a team of writers including myself, and were designed by the talented, Graham Dobson!

I'm proud to say that the word about the workbooks has leaked to the adult site, and they're now being used by writers of all ages! My favorite worksheet is the "Character Questionnaire" from the high school workbook. I feel that knowing everything you can about your characters before November 1 is essential. It allows you to sit back, relax, and let your characters lead you from the beginning to "The End."

Lynn: How many students are you expecting to participate in the NaNoWriMo challenge this year? Any unique locations, students, or groups who've participated in the past?

Tavia: This coming November, we're expecting as many as 25,000 young novelists worldwide to write with us! In the past we've had students participate in every state and in dozens of other countries including South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Holland, Pakistan, Great Britain, Australia, and Ireland, just to name a few. NaNoWriMo has been taught to all grade levels from preschool to 12th grade and has inspired students to write in ESL classrooms, schools for the hearing impaired, and many after school programs for underprivileged children.

Lynn: Can you share any inspiring stories or events that have come about through the Young Writers Program?

Tavia: My favorite story is about a Middle School in Battle Creek, Michigan. Each year, the entire school participates in NaNoWriMo, including the staff! For one month, the hallways are covered with classroom word-count banners, writing prompts, and excerpts from the students' novels. The school hosts pajama write-ins and allows students to write between classes and at lunch in the computer labs. Luke Perry, the teacher who originally introduced the program to the school, wrote in after his first year teaching NaNoWriMo to say that he "will never teach the same way again."

It's great to hear that NaNo not only inspires students to write, but inspires teachers to teach writing in a new and innovative way. We hope to hear more and more of these writing revival stories as our numbers increase.

Lynn: What else is The Office of Letters and Light up to after NaNoWriMo is over?
Did I see something about screenwriting for young writers, too?

Tavia: OLL is a year-round operation! We work all summer and fall updating the NaNoWriMo websites and YWP curriculum, take a short winter nap for a week or two in December, then get right to preparing for our second creative writing event, Script Frenzy, which takes place each April.

Script Frenzy is a lot like NaNoWriMo, but instead of writing novels, we write scripts. We encourage participants to write any kind of script they'd like including screenplays, stage plays, TV scripts, comic book scripts, short film scripts, and radio scripts! Participants can work with a partner if they'd like, which is a ton of fun, and they can write multiple shorter scripts as long as they reach their page-count goal by the end of the month. I think one of the coolest things about Script Frenzy is that, after it's over, participating classrooms can team up with their drama department to have their students' newly-written scripts performed!

To find out more about Script Frenzy's YWP, you can visit http://ywp.scriptfrenzy.org.

Lynn: Please tell us a little about yourself. What brought you to your current position?

(Tavia Stewart-Streit, Director of the Young Writers Program, below)


Tavia: Never in a million years did I think that I'd actually use my degree in Creative Writing to make an actual living. But I thought I'd give it the old after-college try, so I moved to San Francisco to wait tables and volunteer or intern at any publishing house or literary magazine that would take me. Within a year, I was working two restaurant jobs and three internships. One of my internships was at McSweeney's Publishing, which turned into a paying job in customer service. Though McSweeney's was—and still is—one of my favorite creative companies in the whole wide world, customer service was customer service. Luckily, my boss liked me enough to send along the posting for a position at the Office of Letters and Light. What a wonderful day it was when I went from juggling five jobs to working at one amazing organization.

In my spare time, I volunteer for a small local publisher called Watchword Press. I co-edit their bi-annual literary magazine and curate my brain-child, Whole Story, an event that transforms a conjunctive gallery and theater space into a life-sized, multi-media diorama in reaction to one short story.

In my spare, spare time, I practice yoga, make ice cream, and write short fiction and poetry.

Lynn: Is there anything else you'd like to share with our Imaginary Readers?

Tavia: The writing doesn't need to stop on December 1 or, in the case of Script Frenzy, May 1. Let NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy be creative catalysts—let the events inspire you to do more and write more. Whether you spend your "off-season" revising your novel or script, or you spend it writing short stories or poetry, remember that you did and still can write everyday…and you should! Write on!
--Tavia Stewart-Streit

Lynn: Thanks, Tavia, for joining us on the Imaginary Blog.

Forecast: Young writers writing! Cool activities, workbooks & downloads at http://ywp.nanowrimo.org. All ages writing at NaNoWriMo this November, and ongoing enlightened projects from Tavia at the Office of Letters and Light!

Seymour on Bookie Woogie & Lynn Interviewed on Growing Readers, The Children's Book Review

A couple of fun things to note as I head back to town from a great writers' retreat.

a very demanding Stink Bug, by Isaac

Z Dad and Z Kids reviewed SEYMOUR on Bookie Woogie. If you haven't had a chance to see their Bookie Woogie site, where "Three kids and their dad talk about books," please check it out. The talented kids there (Lily, Grace & Isaac) do amazing art in response to the books they read. ZDad (Aaron Zenz) captures their conversations. The result? Consistently wonderful, funny and spontaneous responses to books from the children's points of view. Thanks to ZDad, Lily (age 6), Gracie (age 8) and Isaac (age 10) for their thoughts on The Amazing Trail of Seymour Snail, and their totally cool snail art.

snail trail, by Lily

Seymour Snail paints, by Gracie

You can see more of the kids' wonderful art at Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty (Selected pictures from Isaac, Grace, and Lily including "Illustration Friday" posts).

I was recently interviewed by Amanda at The Children's Book Review: Growing Readers site. Please take a look.

Seymour Snail on Twitter--How Silly is That?

Seymour has his own profile on Twitter--
That's Silly, I Know!

Plenty silly, in fact. But then, Seymour is a funny and creative snail.
Seymour will share his sense of humor and unique worldview as he ventures slooooowly onto the high-speed web.
You can follow Seymour at: http://twitter.com/SeymourSnail (Or his author, Lynn) at: http://twitter.com/LynnHazen


Do you know any children's book characters on Twitter? Please comment below with their Twitter ID's. I'd be curious to see what these characters have to say. Seymour and I will start a list. Thanks for helping us.

Forecast: More Seymour Snail Silliness at NOT the typical Twitter pace! (He's a snail after all)

Lynn Interviewed for Do It All Mamas & Papas on Examiner.com

Dear Imaginary Readers,

It's my lucky week for being interviewed. First the Carma's Window interview. Now, Angele Sionna, Early Childhood Parenting Examiner at Examiner.com, interviewed me for her Do It All Mamas (& Papas) column. Please take a look.

Jim Averbeck read it and said it sounded like I am a big fan of bedtime. I am a big fan of bedtime. My own--of course--after long busy days, and my family's, too. Oh sure, now my kids are grown. But when they were young, late at night when everyone in the family was asleep and the house was quiet--was when I could write without interruption. I'm still a bit of a night owl.

Angele's interview includes my responses to:

Examiner: What secret do you have to share with other parents about "having it all" with your family and business?

Lynn: First of all, there is no "having it all." There is usually a shortage of something--not enough time, not enough money, not enough relaxation and "quality time" with family, not enough sleep, a house that's not clean enough, and not enough energy to carve out one's creative endeavors. We're constantly making choices about what we (and our family) need and want. It's a juggle for sure. The secret? Perhaps knowing that nobody "has it all." Then do your best juggling it all while appreciating what you have. A sense of humor helps, too.

Examiner: What is the number one piece of advice you have for other parents?

Lynn here again. You can read the rest of my responses to these and other questions at Do It All Mamas (& Papas)

Here are more interviews with me around the web. Thanks for taking a look.

Lynn on Cynsations (3/2009)

Lynn at ForeWord Magazine (2009)

Lynn on Cynsations (3/2006)

Lynn interviewed at Through the Tollbooth (4/2008)

Q & A with Lynn at www.LynnHazen.com

Here are pics of a very young Lynn. If you scroll down on that page you'll see my Kindergarten & 2nd Grade report cards! Uh-oh!

Lynn interviewed at Carma's Window

For interviews of fellow authors, illustrators and more, check out the side bar over there on your right.

Forecast: Bedtime & more writing!