So Totally Emily Ebers by Lisa Yee

I've been a fan of Lisa Yee for a while. Not because she's a Chinese-American author whose books have transcended Asian-American stereotypes. Not because her first book, Millicent Min, Girl Genius, won the Sid Fleischman Humor Award. Not because she's got a hilarious blog. Perhaps it's because I've seen her speak several times and really liked what she had to say in person as well as on paper. So when I found out she was visiting my area, I had to go.

Lisa's short, tuffed, caramel high-lighted hair makes her stand out from the typical 5'2" Asian-American woman (at least in the Bay Area), and she wore a funky necklace of what looked like from afar these big orange and green beads. But when you got closer, you could tell they were made of cloth, and I believe she said they were supposed to be tomatoes.

Instead of reading only from her most recent book, So Totally Emily Ebers, Lisa shared excerpts of the same scenes told from the points of view of different characters. I was especially amused by how she changed her voice to fit whichever character's point of view. When she was Millicent, she was very serious and formal. When she was Stanford, she spoke very slowly with an emphasis on sounding cool. When she was Emily, Lisa turned into a bubbly valley-girl.

Perhaps an unexpected highlight was Lisa's cell phone interrupting her talk. She answered it because it was her contact booking a future event in Hawaii. So funny. Pix about that coming soon!

EJ's haiku highlights of Lisa Yee's speech:

Funny how the same
thing happening to three friends
spawns three different books.

The Barnes and Noble was seated for perhaps 20 people, and it was packed with kids and parents, and local authors I knew like Renee Ting and Deborah Davis, who brought her son. There were even people standing in the back. Photo I swiped from Lisa's blog:


So Totally Emily Ebers (pronounced Eh-bers by Lisa and Ee-bers by practically everyone else) is the third and supposedly final installment in Lisa's funny-hip pre-teen trilogy spanning the same timeframes of her first two novels, Millicent Min, Girl Genius and Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time. Her books would be great studies on point of view because although many of the events are similar, each voice of Millicent, Stanford, and Emily is completely different from the others.

I had a natural affinity for Emily, even while reading Millicent's book. Perhaps it was the name, but not just that. While Millicent was ultra-serious and struggling not to be a brain, Emily was a happy girl, a little bigger than the rest of the girls, and the new kid on the block who just wanted a best friend and a boyfriend. But there is more to Emily that just her happy, bubbly exterior. While I was reading Emily's story, I was so sucked into her character and her character's problems, most poignantly illustrated by the fact that the entire novel is in the epistolary format. Though she lives with her hippie and secretly depressed mom, Emily writes letters to her newly divorced dad, who is a traveling rock musician, and the missing dad is at the core of her conflict.

EJ's haiku highlights of Lisa Yee's So Totally Emily Ebers:

My Dearest Daddy,
I write because we're apart
and 'cause I'm angry.

I was fortunate to have the chance to read Emily's story before I went to hear Lisa's talk, so everything totally rang true. And later on I had the chance to hang out with Lisa, Deborah, and Rosemary Graham, whom I had just emailed for the first time. It's a small, small world.

Jack London Writers Conference '07 Recap

I signed up for the Jack London Writers Conference for two reasons: 1. Gennifer Choldenko, whom I knew in person, was speaking 2. Lemony Snicket, whom I only knew through his books, was speaking. Everything else was icing.

The round tables were labeled according to the genre. For breakfast I sat at one of the two tables marked "children's." Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket gave a very wry, yet heart-felt keynote about how bitter he was as a child for reading those books that wasted his time. As a child if he didn't like a book, not only would he not finish it, he would fling the book across the room. He's a hoot and a half in a series of unusual manners. Here I am with my head set normal, and here he is with his head askew.

EJ's haiku highlights of Daniel Handler's speech:

I want to write books
that kids will read to tatters
and not be bitter.

I like to learn, so I decided to attend a session which I knew nothing about. Screenwriting. James Dallesandro explained the basic architecture rules to how movies should be constructed on the page.

EJ's haiku highlights of James Dallesandro's speech:

Begin your story
With an ending, a scene that
Propels character.

Instead of going to a second session, I met up with South Bay Writers members Edie Matthews, Diana Richolme, Becky Levine, and Rosanne Davis. And we chatted and laughed and chatted. It was fun.

So going from an unfamiliar topic of screenwriting, I decided to sit in on a more familiar format of poetry. Albert Flynn de Silver had everyone rearrange the chairs from rows to one big circle. Very inclusive. He started by reading a poem to set the mood and then we went around and shared the color we usually wear and the color we would not be caught dead wearing. Mine were black for the first and chartruese for the second. And he gave us perhaps the world's most complex writing assignment. Seriously, it had like 10 requirements. And we had three minutes to write it. Thankfully, I had my trusty AlphaSmart Neo, so I typed like the wind. Words poured out of me. And I love what I wrote. Thank you, Albert! Here it is:

Maggie wears black even though in Nai Nai’s culture, white is the color of mourning. With her last breath, Nai Nai had said, "I can see grief laughing towards me. Laughing like a big Buddha whose belly has grown so huge, it contains all the worlds sorrows." But Maggie does not agree. She knows sorrows spill over like snakes swallowing vermin. She knows sorrows will always remain burrowed deep in her bones, only to be released when sorrows dance away her memories. Nai Nai promised Maggie a bracelet, made of jade, obdurate milky-green stone. Maggie remembers twirling the bracelet around Nai Nai’s wrist after each hello check-kiss. It would not come off then. Now Maggie holds the bracelet. Its cold smoothness makes her legs weak. The jade bracelet is an imperfect circle, its green smoothness marred by so many nicks. Marred when Nai Nai hit at the car door or the door of her retirement home before she left or her door of the emergency room. Maggie wants to drop the jade, but she cannot. The bracelet says: “I’m here still. After sixty years on her wrist, I’ve lasted longer than her bones. But I’m still part of her. Just as she will always be a part of you.”

EJ's haiku highlights of Albert Flynn de Silver's "Always be a Poet…even in Prose"

Poets Insist on
Rhythm, Musicality—
Remember to Breathe.

Right before lunch I met Gennifer Choldenko in the hall. We chatted and caught up. By the time we finished chatting and were ready for lunch, both the tables for the children's writers were full. So we sat incognito at a mystery writers' table with Marty Sorenson of The Sand Hill Review, which be publishing three of my poems later this year.

Lunch was somewhat artistically decorated. The salad looked better than it tasted.

But it had an orchid!

I thought about eating the orchid.
Instead, I gave it a contrasting backdrop of my mostly clean napkin.

Lunch was some sort of vegetarian (I think) lassagne with vegetables.

The carrot cake was decent. Gennifer didn't touch hers, and I was tempted to ask her if she wanted it, but I didn't. I didn't need the extra calories.

But enough about the food. This was a writers' conference. Onwards with the rest of the day.

Christopher Moore, author of You Suck and others,shared his crazy path to publication for the luncheon keynote. Basically he wrote and wrote and submitted and wrote until he got a contract. A big one. The reporters rumored over a million. He said that was really just adding up all the contingencies. And he didn't even see the money for a long time. Though his contract was a great success, he stressed many writerly truisms that worked for him.

EJ's haiku highlights of Christopher Moore's speech:

To write a novel,
Finish the book. True cliché:
Must write everyday.

Right after his keynote, they announced the winners of the writing contest....

Drumroll....

My recently completed novel manuscript Paper Daughter won Runner Up for the Charles and Lois Cook Prize sponsored by Komenar Publishing. Woohoo! Here I am with all the novel winners. The big winner is Theresa Donovan, standing to my right. She's very cool (also writes historical fiction) and prolific, having entered 2 completed novels in the contest. And Charlotte Cook, head of Komenar, is right next to her. And my orchid is on my name tag. Very exciting. Thanks to Rosanne Davis for providing photo.



After lunch, I sat in the front row for Gennifer's talk. She talked about the essence of humor and writing books for children. An appropriate topic, since her novel Al Capone Does My Shirts won both a Newbery Honor and the Sid Fleischman Humor Award.

EJ's haiku highlights of Gennifer Choldenko's "Writing Funny Books for Short People"

Humor can stem from
sadness, humiliation
and anger.

You can't teach funny
but you can improve your craft
to be funnier.

The very funny, very petite Gennifer Choldenko and me:


Then I went to hear Lolly Winston, who provided a worksheet for characters. Lolly writes women's fiction, and her first novel Good Grief was on the NY Times Bestseller list.

EJ's haiku highlights of Lolly Winston's "Creating Characters that Leap off the Page"

What foils prevent your
character from what she wants?
What is her big flaw?

The final keynote was given by Steven Hockensmith, a mystery writer with entertaining, interesting stories.

EJ's haiku highlights of Steven Hockensmith' speech:

“How do you do it?”
Write, revise, submit (repeat).
Just keep on truckin’.

Indeed, keep on truckin' through fair weather and foul. Keep on truckin' through rejections and ridicule. Keep on truckin' through success and fear. Just keep on, keep on, keep on writing. And revising.

Feeling Introverted and Icky

Sometimes I keep going and going and going, and I forget to stop and take care of myself. I need to step back and focus on intro stuff. Especially when I feel icky. Introspection. Introversion. Introduction. Intro to Life Lessons 101. Or would that be redundant?

PWC event - Patty's Tree Planting

As part of the 40th anniversary celebration for my choir, we planted a tree in memory of our former conductor Patricia Hennings. Patty had conducted the chorus for over 26 years, and though she was petite in stature, she definitely had one of the biggest personalities on the planet. She lived life to the fullest and found peace and spirituality in music and nature.

We purchased this young red Japanese maple tree in her honor.

We had ceremonial watering cans, gardening tools and gloves.

We had ceremonial dirt.

We took the ceremonial tools and added the ceremonial dirt to secure the tree in its new home.

We spread a rich blanket of cocoa mulch. A heavenly chocolately smell.

We watered the tree with the ceremonial watering cans.

And the plaque was unveiled.

It was perfect.

Soon this little green bud will grow bigger than the plaque.

SCBWI Davis Conference '07 Recap

Outiside the SCBWI Davis conference, the trees were in full bloom. All the East Coast speakers were grateful to be out of the snow. I couldn't believe the trees, though! Our own kind of California spring snow.

At the beginning, Tekla White, RA for North Central, thanked all the hard-working volunteers for her region. She also promoted her newest project supporting Mustard Seed School, a private school and living space for homeless children in Sacramento. SCBWI Norca Central will give $300 to send an author or illustrator to give a well-needed presentation to the kids. A wonderful opportunity to really touch the lives of kids in need!

I believe this is the first time they separated the writers from the illustrators. Since my talent for illustration lies strictly in Pictionary games, I stayed in the writer track.

The first speaker was Jennifer Jaeger, an agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Jennifer, who is an editorial agent, reminded us that YA literature is still growing and becoming more complex. She provided tips to submitting to an agent with clarity and humor.

EJ’s haiku highlights of Jennifer Jaeger’s speech:

When submitting,
Don’t forget SASE.
Avoid “Dear Agent.”

Your childhood heroes—
Authors, real folks with hopes, dreams,
Fears of rejection.

Esther Hershenhorn, writing teacher, writing coach, and author of Chicken Soup by Heart, shared information and suggestions for brainstorming in the writing process, the importance of remaining educated about children’s literature, and visualization of success.

EJ’s haiku highlights of Esther Hershenhorn’s speech:

We are traveling
on writers’ plotlines
with hopeful endings.

Publication was
the carrot, but the prize
was finding her voice.

Jo Kittinger, author of Moving Day and many others, spoke about easy readers, traditionally for ages 4-6, but now more for ages 3-10, and as a result, the text of an easy reader could be a few as 41 words to as many as 1191 words. While picture books need pictures to complete the meaning hinted from the text, easy readers feature text that is less dependent on the illustrations.

EJ’s haiku highlights of Jo Kittinger’s speech:

Reading three books
called Moving Day – nice to hear
different voices.

A child sits alone
reading by himself, so proud—
Easy Read Magic.

Sarah Ketcheraid, Senior Editor of Candlewick Press, shared her very first Powerpoint presentation. Celebrating its 15th anniversary, Candlewick is owned by its employees, authors, and artists and likes to nurture the careers of authors and artists.

EJ’s haiku highlights of Sarah Ketcheraid’s speech:

When writing your own (100,000th)
going-to-bed story, ask
why? how it differs?

Tim Travaglini, Senior Editor at G.P. Putnam’s Sons, emphasized community of writers, like one of his writers, whose every step towards success was driven by going to conferences.

EJ’s haiku highlights of Tim Travaglini’s speech:

Write a book evoking
the same experience you
felt as a child, reading.

Patti Neuman, author of Jingle the Brass, spoke about graphic novels. Even though she has never written a graphic novel, she did interview experts and wrote an article for the 2007 Children’s Market. Different from picture books, novels, and screenplays, the graphic novel incorporates elements from all three yet in the end is a unique medium encompassing all genres.

EJ’s haiku highlights of Patti Neuman’s speech:

From comic strips
to superhero/indie
stems manga/comix.

Interesting how graphic novels are still new to a lot of children’s writers. I was an avid reader of graphic novels and comics when I was a teen, but that was before they got so hot.

But again, the great part about attending conferences is the time spent with other writers talking about books, characters, pets, life in general, books, writing process, writing business, and more books. I met up with several writers who had attended my November talk, and I had lunch outside under the blue, blue sky with author friend Linda Joy Singleton and her author friend, whose name escapes me, but her picture book just came out.

Another great conference to reconnect me with my inner reading child.

New Hat

I'm naturally quite shy (yes, I am to my scoffing friends), but I'm finding more and more if I just take a baby step of positive initiative to help others, good things happen. Recently a publisher has asked me to be the editor for a book project. Because I provided a critique. I'm a writer, first and foremost. I never thought I would go down an editorial path, but it feels right. It's a one-time, part-time gig, a pinkie toe dip into a publishing pond, while at the same time swimming in writers' rivers. I just have to try. And keep afloat.