Maria's Mélange

Here are three books you absolutely want to put into your middle grade library this year!  The Stolen Moon  (Chase Garrety #2) by   Rachel Searles   (Goodreads Author) Hardcover, 368 pages Expected publication: January 27th 2015 by Feiwel & Friends ISBN 1250038804 (ISBN13: 9781250038807) Goodreads Blurb: This is what the boy is told: - His younger sister has an otherworldly (and sometimes annoying) ability. - The starship he now lives on has been infiltrated. - His friend Parker is working on the network hack of a lifetime. This is what Chase and Parker fear: - They won't be able to save the world in time. My Thoughts: Stolen Moon is an excellent science fiction novel for middle grade readers who like action packed adventure. We have a little more action for the girl characters in this one... but I'd still like to see that increase in book three. Students who enjoy space science fiction will definitely find a new and beloved home in...

Some days I wish I had an idea machine. You know, like a candy machine but with the most amazing story starters or controversial statements I could use as springboards for writing. Pop a quarter in the slot (hey, it's my dream, I can decide how much it costs). Push a button and watch the most amazing ideas slide forward on that metal spiral... closer... closer... almost ready to drop into my eager hands. Of course, with my luck I'd have a defective quarter that the machine refuses to accept. I'd buff it, turn it, but nothing. In... clink... back out the change slot it would come. Or that delectable idea would spin forward on the spiral and get stuck. Hovering just out of reach, taunting me on the other side of the plastic. No amount of banging or shaking the machine will pry that puppy loose. Maybe an idea machine is a terrible idea. It would probably be filled with high calorie, high fat comfort ideas. Ideas that make your mouth water but don't bring any ...

What do you imagine when you hear the phrase "rough draft"? Do you visualize a piece of lined paper and a pencil? My inner editor is a serious killjoy, and I learned early on that she'll grab an eraser right out of my hand and wage a war of mass destruction on anything that doesn't look "just right" the instant it hits the page. That's when I started using a pen so that I didn't permanently destroy a choice little gem of a phrase just because it's not what I need right now. Students in elementary school write almost every draft with paper and pencil. I know there are a lot of reasons for this (including lack of a sufficient number of computers for all the kids to be able to do their writing with a keyboard). At least one of the reasons is that many parents and teachers believe this is the best way to get kids to write. As an adult, though, I generally do all my drafting directly into a word processor of some sort. If my writing piece is for ...

I love my local writing project -- PAWLP. I completed the writing fellowship in 2000, and have taken numerous excellent classes with them over the years. Last year, PAWLP ran a teen writer's festival which was very well attended. This year, they decided to add special sessions for elementary students. When I was asked to run a one, I knew I wanted to use some of my favorite new picture books to help spark their ideas. There would be two elementary workshops, and we planned to have the students split into primary and upper elementary groups. I needed a topic that would fit with a realistic fiction theme, and that could be nudged up or down in difficulty as the students required. After a bit of perusing through my picture book stash, I knew I had just the right idea. Several of my favorite recent biographies had wonderful childhood stories at the start, helping kids get to know the famous figure as a real person who was once a kid like them. I also grabbed my copy of Small B...

My post title may be just a bit misleading. I don't think there really is a way to transform hard things into "easy" things... not completely. What I'm beginning to discover, though, is that hard things can certainly get easiER.  Don't hate me - but writing is one of those things that comes easily for me. Once I have an idea, I can sit on it for a while and then the words explode onto the page. The hard part, of course, is the idea! Last year when I wrote for the Slice of Life month, I had some difficult days. There were days when I just didn't know what to write about, and I had some lame posts so that I could get through the challenge. This year it was so much easier! What changed? Habit. Last year participating in the March challenge was one of my earliest experiences with consistent blogging. This year, I participated after spending an entire year sharing my thoughts on a fairly regular basis. I am in the HABIT of looking for ideas and WRITING THEM DO...

It was a hard week for so many... I wasn't sure what would come out when I sat down to write. So many have expressed their feelings so eloquently... but I still needed to put my own words on paper.  Visit other Slice of Life participants at Two Writing Teachers . It was an ordinary day. Or at least as ordinary as life gets while working in an elementary school in December. The morning passed in a blur of smiling faces, tasks completed, and departures. I took a few minutes of my quiet lunch to jump online; looking to see what other teachers and librarians were reading on this beautiful December morning. My heart stopped. Eyes filled with tears, I Scanned headlines for "Breaking News" Images of weeping Tiny children bundled off to Learn Grow Become Snuffed out. Moments passed, and I Discovered I had stopped Breathing. As the days pass, I find myself on edge. Wondering. Running "worst case scenarios" in my mind. Would I find c...

Join the writing community at Two Writing Teachers . We slice each Tuesday!  I'm not going to lie - writing for my blog is usually pretty easy. Well, it's easy as long as I have an idea. The anxiety begins when I'm asked to step outside my comfort zone. When I'm asked to write a guest post for another site, or an interview with an author I loved, or get the "let's chat about your weekly column so we can reinvigorate it." Writing angst is a double edged sword. I can slap some words down here, and walk away feeling fairly content. I said my piece - I got my ideas out into the world. No anxiety, but little crafting. Yes, I try to make sure my ideas make sense and that I've expressed my thoughts in as lovely a way as I can. Yet I know that it's really first draft writing. When a larger audience looms, though, that's when it gets real. It's like a Scottish sword dance - nimbly stepping over and around that gleaming blade. I'm creatin...

Thank to Teachers Write's Thursday prompt suggestion, ( check it out here ) I took my current story and plopped the text into Wordle. A few interesting things jumped out at me. 1) I use the word "one" a lot. I need to go back through the story and see if this is indicative of poor writing choices or a growing theme in the story. 2) "Just" jumps right out at me. That's something that will require some revision. This first image is the word cloud created by the main body of my story so far. I'm pleased with one part of it... check out the right side of the image... see it? "Just go Back". This chunk is not quite 2000 words, so it will be interesting to see how the cloud changes as I add to the tale. The second cloud is from the shorter piece of the story with the girls in the library. I've seen and used Wordle before - but never as a revision tool. I'll use this with my students as they write. It's amazing what a pic...

Every Tuesday I post a "Slice of Life". Sometimes it is fiction, and sometimes real life. Visit Two Writing Teachers for more fabulous writing! Okay, I know that many of you were hoping that I’d have another piece of my story done.  Honestly, so was I! While I have had a few plotting breakthrough moments (apparently my brain is wired to do my best thinking in the shower), they aren’t fleshed out enough to share. Instead, I give you the crazy way my brain works in the summer. Behold: “How building a bistro set is like writing.” Having the “right tools” is helpful, but not necessary . The scrap of metal they provide is like having post it notes and a stubby pencil shoved at the bottom of your purse. It does the job – helps you complete the task – but your fingers are sore by the end. Starting with a “big picture” guides the process. Let’s be honest here, not everyone follows the directions provided (I’m looking at you, honey). Some of us, though, requi...

"You Should Write a Book"  My life has run in cycles. I’ve always, deep down in my secret heart, been a writer. My early memories include happy days spent writing stories about alien encounters. I can still picture (though I’ve thankfully lost) a series of free verse poems written as odes to each of the planets. I would spend days creating meticulously detailed characters, knowing each one well enough that I could describe the cereals she would eat each morning and the type of clothes that hid in the back of a closet.  I dabbled with time machines and the Civil War in high school. Yes, that story is also lost to posterity. I remember giving myself shivers as I wrote the ending to that one, but I doubt it would fill me with glee today. My writing life goes underground for long stretches at a time, but always resurfaces. The last time my Muse poked me was about twelve years ago, when I participated in my local branch of the National Writing Project and became a PAWLP ...

This week's slice is a continuation of the story I started last week. It's starting to get a bit long, so I'm not sure how I'll deal with that next week. For now, the part that was up last week is in blue, and the new material follows in black. I still haven't even gotten to the three objects I was given as the spark for this story... (check out other Slice of Life writers hosted by Two Writing Teachers )  Every life is filled with moments. Mostly, these moments are ordinary. Fill the dishwasher. Discover that you drank the last of the milk before noticing that the recipe that needs to go in the oven right now requires a third of a cup. Scrambling to find someone to bring to the holiday party for work so that no one gives you those pitying, “she’s always alone”, looks yet again. Empty the dishwasher. Grab a bowl of dry cereal to eat in front of the television, rather than venture out to the Indian take out place. Some moments start out as just part of t...

 I wrote and posted every day in March, and now I'm joining in the weekly Slice of Life, hosted by Two Writing Teachers . This Slice is a beginning - the start of a fiction story. I haven't dabbled much in fiction in the past ten years or so. I have a wonderful Twitter friend - Michelle-  who inspires me with her own writing, though. She sets herself frequent "writing challenges" and then posts her stories on her blog . This week her challenge was to write a story about a random selection of objects (given to her by another of our tweeps). I decided to jump on board... but it took the entire weekend to even get my brain to give up the start of a story. I think I have the basic outline living in my head now, but I ran out of time to get it complete for today's Slice. Here is the beginning...  Every life is filled with moments. Mostly, these moments are ordinary. Fill the dishwasher. Discover that you drank the last of the milk before noticing that t...

  Welcome back to the weekly Slice of Life! Now that I proved my tenacity at writing every day in the month of March, I come back each Tuesday to share my thoughts with the wonderful writers hosted by Two Writing Teachers .  (before I get started, I'd like to update you all on the poem I shared as part of the March slice. Remember all the angst and belly aching over choosing a title? I finally settled on "First Frost" - as I was trying to reflect that moment in time when autumn turns to winter. Also, my poem was selected to be one of 8 teacher poems collected into a small publication for the PA writing and literature project. I'm going to pretend there were more than 8 teachers who entered their poems.) Real Writing? I just had the unmitigated joy of proctoring four days worth of state writing assessments for my fifth graders. They were troopers; staying focused on the task to the best of their ability. They created graphic organizers on their scratch paper, ...

(Today's poem is in response to prompt 3 from the site of Bud the Teacher . He's posting a poetry prompt every day in April. Today's prompt was an image of an apple. I think I was also influenced by having read Hades by George O'Connor this week. Welcome to Poetry Month!)  Temptation What is it about a  gleaming scarlet fruit that entices, tempts, lures  the innocent? A bite for knowledge Six seeds for love Shades of scarlet.  No longer simply black and white.  The boundaries  of childhood confine us no longer.  A bite for knowledge Six seeds for love

Because doing a Slice every day in March just wasn't crazy enough... Several of my Slicing friends are working on writing poems based on the prompts from " Bud the Teacher " <---Check out the link for his first prompt. Here's my attempt to respond to it - April 1st. Speed Move, move, move. Fast, faster, step on the gas Places to be, things to do Breathe, take a moment to Savor     each succulent bite                 inhale                     the fragrance of a new blossom                 caress                     your newborn’s cheek The highway of life will wait        ...

This is my 29th post for the March Slice of Life Challenge - hosted by Two Writing Teachers . Stop by! Several others have commented on their "One Little Word" focus for the year.  When they started talking about it on Twitter in early January, I gleefully ran to the link and pondered my word. Of course, in my ferret like ability to stay focused on one thing for any length of time… “Oooo…. Shiny!” Umm… what was I saying? Right, the one little word. I can’t locate the link right now, but rest assured there were hundreds of possible goal words to choose. I considered, hemmed and hawed, and then promptly forgot all about it. Before it jumped back out of my distractible little mind, though, I’m pretty sure I settled on the word  “Create” . As I think back over this month, and all the words I’ve spewed forth in my daily Slices, I’m even more positive that was what I selected. Positive, of course, because that means that I’ve actually accomplished a lot ...

I'm writing every day in March as part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers . Stop by! I’m not in the mood to write at this very moment. Yet I am, diligently, sitting at my computer and tapping away at the keys. As Jane Yolen told me (and I ignored for years), writers need to get their Butts In the Chair. I need to write my Newbery Update. I need to jot down my thoughts about Graceling for my Book Buddy. I’ll do these things, and I’ll enjoy them. Just not this very moment. Ideas flutter like fireflies. I gaze at them Wistfully. Energy depleted - I capture them in a jar. Perhaps tomorrow They’ll light the way.

I'm attempting to write every day in March as part of the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers . Stop by!  I guess it’s that time of the challenge – time to sit back and take stock about how it’s been going, right? I was leery of committing to the challenge. Several friends on twitter were already in the Tuesday slice (and, I’m assuming, have done the monthly challenge before). I questioned them for a while, and kept thinking that maybe I would just dip my toes into the Tuesday stream once March had ended. Then I thought about it some more, and chatted with another friend. This friend is a F2F friend, so we actually heard one another’s voices! (Hi, Jessica!). I’m a “lapsed writer” – and Jessica actually gets paid to write articles. At the very last minute we texted each other and said, “What the heck? Let’s go for it!” What concerned me? I thought I’d have nothing to say . Heh. Clearly, I’m quite fond of the sound of my own voice… err… keyboard. I...

I’m attempting to write every day in March as part of the Slice of Life challenge hosted by  Two Writing Teachers . Come on by! Yes, I’m going to admit it – I perform better with an audience. Perhaps that’s why I loved being on stage in high school. Perhaps that’s why I love being a teacher. Perhaps that’s why this writing challenge has finally gotten me off my rear and made me write more. Even before the Slice challenge started, I was branching out to find ways to make my voice be heard. As I mentioned before, I write comics reviews and a weekly Star Wars Thursday post for a friend’s website. I’ll be honest, though, I’m always afraid to ask him about page views. You see, my secret fear is that NO ONE is reading them. That I’m shouting into a canyon, but everyone has gone home for the day. When Nerdy Book Club started up, I jumped on the chance to volunteer as a guest blogger. I put my name out there nervously, and then held my breath. One day, not too long after that, ...

  I'm attempting to write every day as part of the Slice of Life Challenge! A writer’s eye. What does it mean to be a writer? It’s a question that I often ponder as I vacillate between being and not being a writer. What’s the biggest difference to me? When I am living a writer’s life, I see with a writer’s eye. Little things jump out at me. I notice, I observe, I’m attracted to the vagaries of shape and color. The tiniest detail - like a lone Advil lying abandoned on the blacktop of a parking lot – beckons me, begging me to pen a tale. When my writer’s eye is alert, I notice, I observe. What tale could begin with sunlight sparkling on a spider’s web? Perhaps that is how E.B. White found inspiration. My spark may be as simple as that lone Advil, or as dramatic as a solitary tree silhouetted against the twilight sky. The true question is this; will I notice, or will those little moments pass me by? This is my challenge to myself for the March Slice Challenge. Notice,...