Dancing With The Pen II: a collection of today's best youth writing

Video games. Television. Computers. The Internet. With so many electronic distractions, how can a parent get their child or teenager to pick up a book and read this summer?

Write On! Books has the answer: a series of book written by young writers geared specifically for young audiences. The second volume of Dancing With The Pen: a collection of today’s best youth writing has just been released! The book features stories, poems, and essays by more than fifty young writers in elementary school, middle school and high school, from all across the United States. Their work explores everything from travel to friendship, love to loss, fear to hope—themes that both celebrate diversity and transcend hometowns, backgrounds and cultures.

I founded Write On! Books in 2011 with the simple question: Who knows what kids want to read better than kids themselves? Not only do I want to empower the next generation of writers, I also hope to get young people excited about reading by publishing a variety of dynamic, creative work written by their peers.

I am passionate about nurturing confidence in today’s youth through writing and reading; to be sure, creativity has made a profound impact on my life. I published my first book, a collection of short stories and poems titled There’s a Huge Pimple On My Nose, when I was in fifth grade, and the experience was a turbo-boost to my self-esteem. For the first time, I saw myself as a writer. I felt like I could pursue any dream, as long as I worked hard and believed in myself.

I hope that the young writers published in Dancing With The Pen find renewed joy, deep pride, and lasting confidence. I have no doubt they will go on to do many wonderful things, and feel honored to be part of making a dream come true for them. As contributor Sofia Felino wrote me in an email, "This really means so much and it's amazing -- I've been dreaming of being published since birth!"

This past Saturday, we had a special book launch pizza party for young writers in the Bay Area. It was a magical evening celebrating seven young writers, who read their work out loud to the audience. Among the young writers in attendance were Rosalie Chiang, a Fremont homeschooler, who penned two fictional stories about animals teaching humans lessons in bravery and friendship. Vivek Bellam, from Danville, wrote about a robot battle and Jennifer Huang, from San Ramon, wrote about a young artist trying to “make it big” in New York City. Arham Habib, a high school student from Danville (pictured below) read his essay: a letter to legendary author Ray Bradbury about Fahrenheit 451.

A Southern California book launch party will take place at Mrs. Figs' Bookworm in Camarillo on Thursday, July 21 at 5pm. Young writers will read their pieces and autograph books. It will be an exciting event for the entire community. We would love to see you there!

The response to the Dancing With The Pen series has been overwhelmingly positive. In its debut week of release, the first volume of Dancing With The Pen rose to a #2 ranking on Amazon.com in the "literature anthologies" category. One Amazon reviewer praised, “This stunning anthology is a testament to the fact that magic can flow through the pens of writers of any age.” Another gave the book five stars and wrote, “From short stories to poetry, fantasy to realistic fiction, there's something in here for everyone of all ages to enjoy.”

Indeed, while the book series was originally aimed at young people, adult readers are raving as well. Randy Robertson, parent of three, remarked, "It is a treat for us adult readers to gain an insight into what this upcoming generation is thinking and feeling." And LA Parent reviewer Debbie Glade wrote, "Some of the stories and poems are so wisely penned, I had to double check the ages of the writers in their short bios."

Parents and teachers who are concerned about youth illiteracy can feel doubly good about purchasing Dancing With The Pen. For every copy sold, a new book will be donated to Write On’s Holiday Book Drive to benefit disadvantaged and at-risk youth. Since 2001, we have donated more than 14,000 new books to underprivileged kids across the U.S.

Publishing the Dancing With The Pen series has reaffirmed for me the power of books and reading. I am blown away by the insightful, daring, thought-provoking work being produced by young writers today! I know you will be, too.

Personalized copies of Dancing With The Pen are available at the Write On! website: www.writeonbooks.org.

Opening Your Eyes to the Newness in the Familiar

"Hey, can we go for a walk now? I'm ready!"

 



One thing I love about going home for the holidays to visit my parents is that it feels, in a way, like I get to briefly remove myself from time. Many things about my usual routine are shaken up in the best way possible. Instead of feeling pressured by my typical to-do list and errands, I woke up in my childhood bedroom, surrounded by cozy and comforting knick-knacks. Instead of driving around town to tutor students in the afternoons, I lounged on the couch with a thick novel, chatted with my parents, and visited my grandfather who lives down the street. I helped my mother cook dinner, played board games with my brother, went out to the downtown Irish pub with my dad, and met up with old friends at the local coffee shop we used to frequent in high school. I spent time reflecting on the year that had passed, and dreaming about the year to come.

Perhaps my favorite “vacation routine” when I am home visiting my parents is taking our boxer dog Murray for his morning and evening walks around the neighborhood. Every day we would walk the same loop, yet every day I would notice new, startling details:

• A small bird strutting jauntily across the street, like a band leader in a parade.
• Sprinklers watering a front yard of dead grass.
• A toddler shrieking with glee, running in circles in a driveway as her mother watched with a tired smile, raising a hand to us in greeting as we walked by.
• Bushes laden with bright red berries.
• A father and son playing catch in the park.

So many rich and beautiful details that it would be so easy to miss, if you were not paying attention and looking for them. And indeed, we would pass many other morning walkers on their phones or listening to music, rushing ahead with a glazed look in their eyes.

Meanwhile, every single day, Murray exuberantly sniffed at plants and lampposts and studied the sidewalk like it was a brand-new territory to explore -- even though it was the exact same path he had taken the day before, and the month before that, and the year before that. Perhaps he is on to what it means to be a writer: mining the same inner territory, day after day after day, for new sparks of joy and wonder.

Now, when I feel creatively blocked or when I am out of ideas or when the writing just doesn't seem to be going anywhere fruitful, I think of Murray's excited daily exploration. He is a reminder for me that being a writer is not so much about coming up with some totally new, never-before-seen-or-done IDEA. Rather, I like to follow acclaimed author Pam Houston's advice (from a wonderful talk I was fortunate to attend at a writers conference) and think of myself more as an observer, seeking out the extraordinary in the ordinary.

 

As Lera Auerbach writes in her wise, magical book of aphorisms and musings Excess of Being: "These thoughts have occurred to many people and for a very long time. I just happened to write them down."

Here's to a sparkling new year filled with open eyes, even -- perhaps most importantly -- in our familiar, everyday surroundings and routines. Here's to being world-class observers. Here's to writing it down.

And, Murray would like to add: here's to lots and lots and walks.

All tuckered out after a long walk.

Try, Try, Try Again, Try Something New

One of my favorite things is teaching a writing camp every summer in my hometown for kids and teenagers. For a couple hours over two back-to-back weekends, we all sit together in a purple-walled conference room and write. (Still mostly with pen and pencil on notebook paper, although I allow the kids to bring laptops and iPads if they wish. A few do; most opt for old-school notebooks.) I write a prompt on the whiteboard, turn on some Norah Jones or Jack Johnson, and they are off and running.

It’s nothing short of magic, being in that room. It’s calm, peaceful, with a quiet energy buzzing below the surface. You can practically hear the ideas whirring around the room, as surely as you can hear the pencils scratching their ways across sheets of paper. You can feel the ideas, swirling around. This is perhaps my favorite thing I have ever created, my proudest accomplishment—this classroom of young writers.

My writing campers inspire me in so many ways. They are passionate, driven, unabashedly enthusiastic. They are ambitious. (Do you know any 9-year-olds writing 300-page novels? I do!) They are creative, and well-read, and perceptive, and supportive of each other.

Perhaps most of all, these young writers inspire me with the way they embrace new challenges and take risks in order to push themselves to grow. I have taught writing classes for adults as well, and always need to plough through much more resistance before getting down to business. As adults, we too often become set in our ways. We become afraid to try something new because we might not do it the “right” way – we might make mistakes, do something wrong, have to stumble our way through a learning curve. Kids, in general, seem much less concerned about stumbling.

Time and again, I present to my young writers an utterly new idea or wacky concept, intended specifically to push them out of their comfort zones. And what do they do? Embrace the new challenge. They dive right in. My writing campers are adventurers. They explore.

One small example is an activity relating to structuring a short story. My only guideline is for them to try something they have never attempted before. Write a story in reverse chronological order, from the ending to the beginning. Write a story with alternating perspectives of two characters. Write a story from the perspective of an animal, or an insect, or an inanimate object. Write a story in poetic verse.

My amazing students try it all. They inspire me with their bravery. The way they eagerly raise their hands to share the yearnings of their hearts and minds, ideas that they only just scribbled down onto paper moments ago, their just-birthed words still fragile and new—nevertheless, they are unselfconscious and unselfish in their sharing. They are generous, both in confidence and in spirit. When do we lose this, us grown-ups? When do we cross that threshold and become shy, stifled? Why are we so terrified of looking foolish that we keep our voices silent? Why do we stop daring to try?

The inspiring and beautiful book a picture is worth: the voice of today's high school students(Arch Street Press) is an anthology dedicated to the importance of sharing our voices, of being brave enough to shed light on our stories and bare our truths to the world. Featuring personal narrative essays from high school students at the I-LEAD Charter School in Reading, Pennsylvania, each essay in this book is brimming with meaning and relevance -- not only to students and teenagers of today, but for adults as well.

In the book's introduction, David Castro and Alisa del Tufo write:

"By sharing these stories brought to life through the faces and voices of our young learners, ILCS expects to inspire new learning and new educational pathways for their peers. In studying the personal narrative essay, we must question why it should be necessary to reach far away -- to places remote in time and culture -- for strong examples of the essay form. We can make a different choice that contributes highly relevant and engaging content to present school curricula. Powerful stories, shining examples of the personal essay, arise within challenged communities; they spring from the minds and hearts of the learners themselves. We know why. Art and genius beat in every human heart."

Art and genius beat in every human heart.

I could not agree more. We all have the capacity to write down our own stories, share our own lives, create our own magic. You don't need to be a writing camper to do so. You don't need anyone's permission. All you need is a pinch of bravery and the willingness to try, and try, and try again, and try something new.

I don't know about you, but I'm going to smooth a fresh new page in my writer's notebook, turn on some Norah Jones, and get to work writing what matters to me.

New Blog: Day-by-Day Organization

Exciting news: I've started a new blog project! It's called Day-by-Day Organization and the web address is http://daybydayorganization.wordpress.com.

I'll still be keeping up with this blog, which will as always be my home for all things reading, reading, Write On! For Literacy, and creativity related. But lately I've been reading a variety of organization blogs -- some of my favorites include i Heart Organization and I'm an Organizing Junkie, and I also love general-interest happy blogs like my friend Lauren Cook's The Sunny Girl. These blogs add a dose of sunshine to my day and inspire me to tackle those stress-festering projects in my own life that I've been putting off.

I've posted on here before about the importance of being organized -- how it can help clear away stress and de-clutter your mind so your creative subconscious can shine. I always feel happier, more calm and less stressed when my space is neat and free of clutter. I once read that the average person wastes 40 minutes a day — 40 minutes every day! — looking for things they have misplaced. I don’t know about you, but I for one don’t want to waste my time that way!

But up till now, my organization has tended to look like this: a day-long cleaning phase where I’ll get my apartment straightened up pretty well, but two days later it will start to look cluttered again, and the hectic pace of daily life will sweep away any progress I attempted to make. It’s been difficult for me to find the time or money to get organized in a meaningful and permanent way.

Well, I want to change that! Now is the time. I know I will be a happier writer, teacher, and overall person if I get my space organized once and for all. I'm creating Day-by-Day Organization to chronicle my journey!

Being a grad student means I don’t have much spare time — or spare money. It would be impossible to try to organize my entire apartment in one day. Just thinking about it is overwhelming. That’s why I’m planning to focus on little, inexpensive changes, one day at a time. Day by day, I am going to organize my life. I hope that my progress might inspire you, too! I'm also planning to share quick and healthy recipes, happiness-boosting reflections, and any resources I find that help me make the most of daily life.

If you have a couple minutes to spare, please check out my new blog and let me know what you think! You can even subscribe by entering your email address in the sidebar on the right-hand side, right under the photo of me. Hope you like it!

Story Published & Nominated for Pushcart Prize

A *big* thanks to the editors at the Valparaiso Fiction Review for not only publishing my story "Jared Sampson's Mom" in their debut issue, but also nominating it for the prestigious Pushcart Prize! I feel honored, humbled, and very grateful for their support of my work.

Here is the opening of the story:

She died in a car crash yesterday. She was driving down Hawthorne, past the strip mall with the Benihana's, when her '05 Corolla unaccountably careened over the center meridian and into oncoming traffic.

"I just thought you should know, sweetheart," my mother says. My cell phone feels hot against my ear. "I know you and Jared were never close, but you did go all through school together. And Annette was such a lovely woman." My mother sighs loudly into the phone. "Only fifty-three. So young. I just can't believe it."

"Me neither."

"Maybe you could send Jared a message on that bookface thing."

I'm not Facebook friends with Jared Sampson. I haven't really spoken to Jared since eighth grade, when I asked him to dance at the semi-formal and he said, "Um—no thanks, I’m okay." That was the first time I wore mascara, and Jared was the first boy I cried over in a musty, cramped bathroom stall, and I unknowingly wiped mascara-tears all over the front of my new white dress.

"Yeah, Mom," I say now. "I'll do that."


You can read the rest of the story here.

New Supplies, New Motivation

I know it has been less than a week, but I am proud to report that my backpack and purse are still organized, my teaching and writing materials are filed neatly into folders, and you can still see the varnished wood surface of my desk--it has not yet become hopelessly cluttered with papers and memos and old coffee cups. Hooray! It does seem true that once you get organized, it is easier to find motivation to keep things that way.

In addition to organizing my space, I did something else this week that got me in a productive, positive, new-year-new-opportunities mindset: I went shopping.

No, I didn't go the mall and blow a hundred bucks on shoes or purses or expensive hair products. (And that is definitely not what I am encouraging you to do!) I went to Office Depot and bought myself some new writing and office supplies. Remember as a little kid, when you would go buy new school supplies at the start of every new school year? To me there is still something so exciting, so hopeful, about a brand-new spiral-bound notebook, a fresh ream of paper, a package of unsharpened pencils.

As writers, we're fortunate that all we really need is a pen and paper to do what we love. I am always scribbling down notes and ideas on the backs of envelopes, scraps of paper, old receipts, you name it. Yet there is also something refreshing about treating yourself to a nice set of supplies to practice your craft. It is like you are saying to your writing self, I am proud of you. I take you seriously. I support you.

These little gifts can also be great ways to motivate yourself throughout the year. I like to reward myself every month for staying on track towards my writing goals. Here are some possibilities:

• a new Moleskin reporter's notebook to take with you everywhere to jot down words and phrases and ideas that float through your consciousness throughout the day
  
• a really nice, comfortable pen
• a new mug for your tea or coffee
  
• one of these neat prints inspired by classic children's books
• a fun set of stationary
• buying a new book you've been dying to read in hardcover instead of waiting for the less-expensive paperback version to come out

What gifts would top your writerly wish list? How do you stay motivated throughout the year? I'd love to hear your thoughts!