Raven Mania

Join me today over at the Open Book Society with Heidi Holzinger for the Raven Trivia Challenge and Stop #7 of the FORGET ME NOT Ghost Tour.
Discover the names of the ravens that belonged to Odin, the Norse god of death and poetry and find out why they were referred to as Observation and Memory.


Then head over to Ghost Tour Central and scroll to the bottom of the page to the Rafflecopter to find out how you can win the Observation and Memory glass bead necklaces above that were designed especially for the tour.

The Raven Trivia Challenge is also going on LIVE over at Alamosa Books until the book launch on October 27 where there will be music, food, and more prizes.

If you live in Albuquerque, NM, head on over to the bookstore at 8810 Holly Ave. NE where you will find ravens lurking all around the bookstore.

Find raven trivia posted next to the birds and discover other ghostly books nearby written by Albuquerque authors like Ghosts of Old Town by Cody Polston above. He's president of the Southwest Ghost Hunters Association and he's talking about his experiences with ghosts on October 27 at Alamosa books from 4-5 right before my book launch from 6-7.

Several SCBWI friends are featured. Check out Haunted by Chris Eboch, The Secret of Laurel Oaks by Lois Ruby, and Circle of Secrets by Kimberley Griffiths Little.

And while you're there, check out the display for Forget Me Not. Wow! That's a lot of books. Don't forget the book launch on October 27.



Halloween Character Booktacular

 

Stop #6 of the FORGET ME NOT Ghost Tour is also part of the Halloween Character Booktacular put on by Damaris Cardinali and Trini Contreras. Visit Good Choice Reading to read the Poe-Pac Mash Up - a poem based on Poe's "Raven" featuring 2Pac as a substitute teacher and to find out how you can win this cool poster. Then come back to the Ghost Tour to join the Rafflecopter for a chance to win other cool prizes.

Lois Lowry at UNM in Albuquerque

It was a Friday afternoon. It was rush hour. It was raining. I had just gotten a hot crystal massage and had oil in my hair. I spent the day sitting through inservice presentations at school and hadn't been home since 7:00a.m. I was supposed to meet my husband at 7:00p.m. for dinner at a restaurant near the Aux Dog Theater on Central where we were joining friends to see "The Haunting of Hill House" and I was thinking it might be a good idea to go home first and take a hot shower.

But Lois Lowry was speaking about her new book, Son, at the UNM continuing education building at 6:00 p.m. at an event sponsored by Bookworks, one of our local independents. I'd been talking about The Giver with some of my students earlier that week who were reading it in class and had encouraged them to attend the event.

It was 5:15p.m. I stood in front of the mirror at the massage place, assessing the state of my hair and figured, what the heck, this is one of the reasons why I cut it all off (note: current blog photo is a little old. My current hair style requires no brushing, spraying, or blow drying). So I wet it down and off I went.

As soon as I arrived I found my friend, Rio Rancho city librarian Rebecca Donnelly, and sat next to her, apologizing profusely ahead of time that I was going to have to leave early to make my 7:00p.m. dinner date with my husband.

Lois Lowry is one of very few authors to win the Newbery twice for The Giver and Number the Stars. Son is the fourth and final book in The Giver Quartet and just received a fabulous NYTimes review.

She shared her inspirations for her books. Number the Stars was based upon the stories told to her by a friend who had grown up in Denmark.

The Giver was strongly influenced by the importance of memories. Lowry said she thought a lot about human memory as she saw her father's memory slipping away. She told the audience that memories are very personal. We all have our own memories. Even people experiencing the same event remember the details of that event differently. These ideas are what inspired her to create a Community that could manipulate memory. Building upon that concept, she then created the main character, Jonas. Lowry likes characters ages 12-13 because they are still children but entering adulthood and trying to figure out their identity.

Son, the fourth book in The Giver Quartet, continues the story of Gabe, the child Jonas saves at the end of The Giver. Here is the description from amazon:

They called her Water Claire. When she washed up on their shore, no one knew that she came from a society where emotions and colors didn’t exist. That she had become a Vessel at age thirteen. That she had carried a Product at age fourteen. That it had been stolen from her body. Claire had a son. But what became of him she never knew. What was his name? Was he even alive? She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible. Now Claire will stop at nothing to find her child, even if it means making an unimaginable sacrifice.

I get chills just reading the description.

And now I'm off to rearrange the stack of books on my bedside table. So many fabulous books came out this October, and Son is right on top!

Amazing Authors and Mental Illness Awareness Week

Author Robison Wells was at Alamosa Books last week. I don't usually attend author signings on Tuesdays because it's my late day (after working at my regular high school I drive across town to see kids at a Charter School). But it was right before our monthly SCBWI meeting so I decided to skip dinner and go to the bookstore.

I'm so glad I did.

Not only did Robison Wells have a fascinating story to tell, I also discovered that he has the same agent that I do - the amazing Sara Crowe. She has a blog featuring posts from her authors. Check it out at the Crowe's Nest.

Robison said he didn't plan on being a writer. His older brother is a writer (Dan Wells is also represented by Sara Crowe). Robison told him he had a great idea for a story and that Dan should write it. Dan told him to write it himself. He also told Robison a piece of advice that has stuck with his younger brother for years. "The difference between writers and everyone else is that writers actually write." I have found this to be very true. A lot of people want the experience of "being" a writer but very few are willing to put forth the effort.

Fortunately for all of us, Robison was willing to make the effort or else the world wouldn't have Variant and the sequel, Feedback. Variant is the story of a young man, Benson Fisher, who receives a scholarship to Maxfield Academy, only to discover, soon after his arrival, that he has become a prisoner of the school.

The most interesting part of Robison's talk was his discussion of what happened between writing the two books. He began to suffer severe anxiety attacks and became unable to leave his house. His work suffered and his family became very worried. I'm not going to go into details here because it is Robison's story to tell and he has been brave enough to share his experiences on his blog.

One of the reason's I connected so strongly with his story is because I suffered almost daily panic attacks from the ages of 13-22. I never knew why they started or why they stopped, though I have some theories, and I never told anyone about them until many years later. I'm always impressed by people who are not only brave enough to seek help but who are also willing to share their experiences with others who might benefit from their perspective.

Interestingly, Ethan Roskos, another Crowe's Nester and author of Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets, wrote a post this past Thursday for the Crowe's Nest about his experiences with depression and social anxiety disorder. The article was written in honor of Mental Illness Awareness Week (Oct 7-13 2012).

He discussed how helpful stories can be in helping people know they are not alone. Here is my favorite quote from his article.

"It’s not about seeing a character that’s just like me -- instead, it’s seeing a character that suffers like me. The difference is key and profound. If a character had to be just like me to inspire me to talk about my depression, I’d read for a thousand years and never speak. In truth, we only need to see familiar suffering, familiar worry, familiar fears, familiar manias in order to build strength. Or to just find the words." To read the rest of his article go to the Crowe's Nest.

I feel very honored to be a fellow Nester with such brave men!

STOP #5 - INTERVIEW WITH ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Check out Stop #5 on the FORGET ME NOT GHOST TOUR. Join me today over at Lisa Schroeder's Blog for another poem excerpt from my paranormal verse novel and an interview with Ernest Hemingway. Ally, the main character, writes letters to Ernest because he's the only

one she can confide in.

Lisa Schroeder is a fabulous verse novelist. I had the honor of speaking with her on a verse novel panel at the International Reading Association last spring in Chicago along with April Halprin Wayland and Caroline Starr Rose. While you're enjoying the interview with Ernest, check out Lisa's site and her newest novel in verse - THE DAY BEFORE.  Lisa Schroeder's Blog.

SCHOOL VISITS AND YALSA PANEL PREPARATIONS

Lucky me! I got to spend the day with four delightful authors at two high schools. From right to left: Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (recent winner of the Horn Book Award for No Crystal Stair, Kersten Hamilton (author of the Tyger, Tyger series), Besty James (author/illustrator and mastermind behind The Seeker Chronicles), Carolyn Meyer, (author of the Young Royals Series/expert on dysfunctional royal families), and me, Carolee Dean.

We held an author panel at Rio Rancho High School in the morning and Cleveland High School in the afternoon. The topic was "How Authors and Students Conduct Research" and we discussed everything from using Facebook to "research" prospective prom dates to learning how to build a computer by watching YouTube. There was also mention of the difference between .com, .org, and .edu sights as well as how to effectively use Wikipedia as a starting place for more in depth research. We all shared stories about interesting people we have interviewed and places we have visited.

The five of us are in the process of preparing for our YALSA panel in St. Louis in three weeks. If you are going to be attending YALSA, please stop by our session, or if you know any librarians making the trek to St. Louis, tell them to stop by and say hello.

Here is the information:

Saturday, November 3, 2012 - 1:30 - YALSA Symposium - St. Louis 

A Matter of Facts and Fiction: Giving Teens a Research Edge through YA Author Panels

Five New Mexico authors will present a pilot program that brings teens and authors together to explore research strategies for writing fiction and nonfiction in a digital world.  The authors will discuss collaborations among libraries, bookstores, educators, and local authors to create dynamic interactive school events designed to excite teens about becoming research detectives, and inspire teachers to link YA fiction with curriculum goals and objectives. Presenters:Carolee Dean, Kersten Hamilton, Betsy James, Carolyn Meyer, and Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

See You There!!

Stop #4 of the Ghost Tour

Join me today over at Elana Johnson's Blog for Stop #4 of the Ghost Tour where Elana Johnson interviews one of the main character's from Forget Me Not - Elijah McCall. Find out why he spent a month speaking in iambic pentameter. While you are there, check out Elana's books. She is the young adult author of Possession, Regret, Surrender, Abandon, and Resist.