Thought for the Day:
“Sometimes you have to be less ashamed about writing a bad poem than you would be about being silent.”
~ Robert Hass ~
Gifts for My Writer Friends:
Unreliable narrators are a challenge to write, but they can do a lot of work for an author. HERE is a great article from Writer’s Digest by Rea Frey called How to Write an Unreliable Narrator Readers Still Root For.
Dave King wrote a fun post HERE for Writers Unboxed called A Plot Twist with a Twist. If you ever think about incorporating a twist in your plot, you will enjoy reading this.
Jenn Windrow has a great post HERE on Writers in the Storm entitled Your Voice Is the Point. Stop Toning It Down. I think all writers should read this one. It is very affirming.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. We will be having a great Father’s Day dinner tonight, celebrating my favorite son-in-law, who is a terrific father and grandfather. My daughter Maggie is here from New York on her way to Seattle, where she will take up residence. It will be so nice to have her in the same time zone. Not much is going on around here this week, so I will leave you with a few Dad Jokes. Try not to hurt yourself rolling your eyes.
My wife gave me a list of jobs to do. So, I hired a handyman. To her horror, he had only completed tasks 3, 5, and 7 by the end of the day. I told her that she shouldn’t be so surprised: a handyman usually only does the odd jobs. After all, he used to be a prime contractor!
I was walking down the street, and a man offered to give me a free guitar. However, I just couldn’t believe it. After a long conversation with the man, I learned that there were indeed strings attached. In the end, I didn’t fret about it.
Did you hear? Somebody broke into the pet store the other day. Apparently, they stole all the dog accessories! The police say they haven’t got any leads.
We saw the most obscure-looking mountain the other day; we couldn’t stop laughing. It was at that moment that we realized that the mountains were not just funny, but that they were actually hill areas.
My boss just rang. He said, “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to find you all day!” I told him that good employees are hard to find.
I mentioned last week that I was reading some Gary D. Schmidt books, and I promised I would be reviewing them. The first one I read is THE LABORS OF HERCULES BEAL. It was published three years ago, but I didn’t get to it until now. As should be expected, it’s a terrific book, and I loved every bit of it.
Hercules Beal lost his parents in a — well — awful way, and his older brother, Achilles, has come home from his job as a world-travelling magazine writer to take care of Hercules and the family business, Beal Brothers Nursery and Garden Center in Truro, Massachusetts, near the east end of Cape Cod. Achilles signs Hercules up to attend a different middle school, the Cape Cod Academy for Environmental Sciences. Hercules isn’t happy about changing schools, but Achilles insists. Hercules’s home room teacher is a retired Marine named Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer. He’s tough and demanding. He has personalized assignments for each of the kids in class to, in some way, examine their lives. He assigns young Hercules to recreate the labors of the mythic Hercules in his own life and, in so doing, solve some of his own problems. It is an interesting journey. Hercules learns a lot about his brother, Achille’s girfriend Viola (who Hercules calls the Vampire), and mostly about himself.
Gary D. Schmidt, as I’ve said before, is my favorite middle-grade author. His stories are so rich and complex, the characters are three-dimensional and so real, and the stories are heartbreakingly authentic. This book is no exception. The writing is spectacular. The dialogue is perfect for the characters’ ages. As far as middle-grade novels go, this is as good as it gets. I’m not giving away any of my Gary D. Schmidt books because, even though I seldom re-read books, I intend to re-read all of his.
Please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.
Rosi Hollinbeck 