Passion for Poetry

Rockcliffe Park Public School, Ottawa, Canada - painting by Xheni Konci, grade 6 - June 2008

I wrote a lot of poetry as a kid and still write the occasional poem. I wanted to squeeze this in before the end of Poetry Month - a fond memory of one childhood muse who encouraged my passion for poetry.

I wasn't the teacher's pet. It was obvious Kathleen was the favorite. Even so, my grade 8 home room teacher at Rockcliffe Park Public School encouraged me in one important area. He recognized my love of poetry. Every Thursday afternoon for a term, I was excused from class to go off by myself to the library resource center for a free period of undirected poetry study. I was 12 years-old - a little young for that much freedom - but I took it pretty seriously.

At the end of the term I was expected to produce a report. I presented a turquoise folder with an essay on poetry and definitions of poetic terms like iambic pentameter - along with a collection of my own poems. I don't know how productive the experiment was or how much I learned but that wasn't the point. The lasting value of the experience was that a teacher gave me the latitude to pursue something I loved. He endorsed the importance of poetry and encouraged me to learn and develop my writing.

Here's one of my childhood poems from around that time:

Intertwining branches black

cascade across my window pane.

Suddenly I realize

that the sky is caving in.

The topaz sun

has just for fun

turned into a ruby.

I wonder why

I just sat by

and dreamed as if you knew me.

Bullet Point and the Edgar Winner

This just in! Had to update this post because Reality Check, the YA thriller by my big brother, bestselling author Peter Abrahams, won the 2010 Edgar Award in the best young adult novel category April 29.

His new YA thriller, Bullet Point, (Harper Teen) was released April 27.

Peter also wrote the Echo Falls series - three mysteries - all Agatha Award nominees for best children's Young Adult fiction. The first in the series, Down the Rabbit Hole, was the 2006 Agatha winner.

He's also written many books for adults and as Spencer Quinn, he's the author of the bestselling Chet and Bernie Mysteries.

I interviewed him earlier this year - here: Part 1 and Part 2

Congratulations, Pete!

SCBWI Saturdays

The last two weekends in a row I've attended regional SCBWI events. First, Los Angeles Writer's Day, then, Santa Barbara/Ventura's ARTbeats, a portfolio workshop for illustrators. It's always stimulating to emerge from hibernation. The creative process, whether writing or painting - is a sort of self-imposed solitary confinement. It's reassuring to encounter other people who are living in the same peculiar state of voluntary exile.

I didn't get around to posting Writer's Day highlights. The week after was consumed in a frenzy - much of it dedicated to preparing my portfolio for ARTbeats. It seems a bit late to rehash Writer's Day now. If you missed it, Lupe Fernandez wrote a most entertaining post about it here Pen&Ink.

Not too late for a report on ARTbeats though. This program, organized by Carol Heyer, exceeded my expectations. The first speaker, Martha Rago, gave an overview of her role as associate creative director at HarperCollins. She discussed some of the main qualities she looks for in children's book illustrations - point of view, a distinctive style and voice. Hmm, you might say, many of the same qualities editors covet in writing. This makes sense - the art in children's books exists to augment the story. Illustrations should form a visual narrative, a sense of character and action. "A cute idea isn't enough for a picture book," Rago said.

Walking us through the process of marrying art to text, Rago used the example of an upcoming picture book, Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? written by Audrey Vernick and illustrated by Daniel Jennewein (Balzer & Bray). We saw the steps - from initial character studies and revisions - to final art, and learned what went into strengthening the illustrations and propelling the visual narrative further. For example, the book was made richer and more dynamic by adding visual props, details and relationships between secondary characters - none of which had been alluded to in the text. The artist did character studies for all the secondary characters to make them consistent - even though they were in the background. Rago explained how this added to the sense of the story being a real world, made it more credible, richer, real.

As we all know, it's not enough to be a good illustrator - or writer. That's where marketing comes in. Dave Tabler, director of sales for theispot.com, an illustrators' database, shared numerous gems on gaining exposure. He started with the basics - registering your own domain name and mailing postcards - still a worthwhile marketing tool for illustrators - as evidenced by Martha Rago herself, who earlier showed us a photo of the postcard-festooned bulletin board in her office.

Tabler referenced several online illustration forums where you can post your profile and art and find out what's going on in the world of illustrators who blog - just a smattering of which follow:

Little Chimp Society

Illustration Mundo

Illustration Pages

If the morning was informative, the afternoon was illuminating. The attendees had been invited to submit scans of five illustrations for critique. Rago and Tabler explained which of the illustrations worked as children's book illustrations and which didn't - and most valuable - why. They offered insights on style, composition, palette, whether a piece succeeded in telling a story or perhaps was really a stand alone portrait. If too stylized for children's illustration, perhaps more suited to the greeting card market. Again - it's interesting that many of these points apply to writing as well as illustrating. Here are some of the comments they made on how to strengthen a portfolio:

Consistency - a cohesive style is important - so art directors will be confident they know what they're getting if you're hired. Try to convey character through gesture and expression. It's not just about color, space, and graphic style. The art should be intriguing - make you want to know more about the scene. The details should be clues that reveal more about the story in a nuanced way. You don't want technical aspects - like a problem with perspective - to detract from the narrative. Consider the focal point - lead the eye by making anchor points in the image. You need a map, logic in your illustration. Successful picture books have touches for adults too - references kids wouldn't get. The palette should suit the emotional mood - e.g. somber colors for a somber mood. Use stronger colors to make important characters stand out, more muted colors for less important characters.

The underlying message was a comment by Martha Rago: "Be thoughtful about every choice you make in your drawing and painting." I walked away inspired and recharged. Not a bad idea to surface and shuffle your perspective once a week.

Back through A Wrinkle in Time

I just re-read A Wrinkle in Time - kind of a time travel experience in itself. As an eight-year old, I adored Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery winning tour de force. First of all, there was awkward and believable Meg - whose full name, Margaret, was my own proper name. Then, of course, I've always loved any literary vehicle that transports me to a vivid and compelling imaginary world - in this case making stops on a few remote planets. The endearing characters Mrs. Whatsit, Charles Wallace and Calvin made that world all the more pleasurable to visit.

Re-reading it led to some interesting discoveries. There were things I liked that I hadn't remembered. Foremost, L'Engle's wonderful writing, especially her pitch perfect dialogue. All the characters had such distinct voices - like Mrs. Who's propensity to speak in pithy quotations. There was a lot of humor - in details like Mrs. Whatsit's eccentric clothes and the whimsy of a two dimensional planet - "rather amusing to be flat," as Mrs. Whatsit says.

An integral theme that hadn't stood out to me as a kid was the underlying religious innuendo. The struggle between good and evil was always pervasive and clear, but from my adult POV, I was struck by the allusions to Christianity.

On re-reading this childhood favorite I'm reminded of something I realized a few years ago on revisiting The Idiot - my favorite book when I was 18. I was so smitten with Prince Myshkin during my art school days, I ignored much of the scenery floating by as I rode through the French countryside on a train. Years later, reading it again was disillusioning.

There's a good reason not to re-read a favorite book. It ruffles the magic of the treasured memory - a feeling that can never be recaptured. Wherever I was in my own life I was most receptive to those books when I read them then - and can't return to that earlier version of myself - without the magic of a tesseract of course. So much depends on timing - time travel notwithstanding.

Please do check back . My Q & A with Seth Grahame-Smith, NY Times bestselling author of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is upcoming, along with poetry for poetry month and much more!