Deborah Halverson's Blog

2011 was a wonderful year for me professionally and personally. My husband and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary, our three now-7-year-olds went into first grade and their reading (reading!) skills skyrocketed, and my book Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies was published, with two other book contracts coming my way in the last days of the year.

I am grateful for these wonderful things—and I am grateful for the people who supported my family and I in our adventures. Dozens of people helped me launch my book and contributed to the content within it. And my whole family made new friends at school and in our community. We are all honored by the way we were embraced in 2011.

Thank you so much to everyone in our lives. May 2012 bring you all adventures and wonder.

Most people ring in the new year by smooching their loved one at midnight. Since I’m now two weeks behind in sending out the Halverson’s new year wishes, we will put our own twist on the tradition… in the form of this smooch from a big ol’ sea lion. Now THAT was worth waiting for, right?

Kenneth Oppel has taken swashbuckling pirates and the ocean liners of the early twentieth century and thrown them upward for an adventure series that has my three sons enthralled. Airborn is like Titanic in the sky, with zepplins instead of ships… and with pirates attacking Titanic and shipwrecking her, her crew, and her passengers on a deserted isle. Jolly good stuff, I’m telling you.

Oppel’s books are for older readers, so I have to censor some details when I read them to my not-quite-seven-year-olds. That’s okay by me. We’re now halfway through book two, Skybreaker, and the boys are begging for more. Literally begging. I had to threaten and cajole them into bed tonight as they pleaded, “Just one more chapter! Just one more page! Just one more minute!” But bedtime had come and gone . . . and quite honestly my throat was sore from reading for more than an hour already. That, after the boys had spent half an hour sitting in the van in our garage, refusing to exit because the Airborn audio book was playing its last chapter on our van’s cd player. That’s how great these books are.

And here’s another great thing: Read More…

Gourmet Grande Dame, blogger for Euro-American Brands (think: the company responsible for Ritter Sport chocolate bars), recently blogged about the Halverson Boys. GGD likes to spice up her blog posts about EAB brands with educational tidbits, often of the literary variety. The young Halversons gave her the opportunity to talk epistolary novels in November thanks to an exchange we had with her through the U.S. Post a year ago. If you’ve got a minute, pop over to GGD’s blog for a read. (Tip: It’s even more fun to read the post if you’ve got a bar of chocolate to nibble as you do so. How do I know this? Duh.)

I woke up this morning to a six-year-old boy snuggling in under the comforter with me. “I like the sound of the little birdies in the morning, Mommy. They remind me of you.”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Taking care of the business of being in business is a full-time business in itself. My husband last night: “What you need is an assistant.” Hear that, Santa?

But this post isn’t about summoning the magic of the man in red. It’s a public proclamation of my thankfulness for having a lot of business to be busy with in these challenging times. I’ve got book contracts looming and other books in the works and lots of fascinating manuscripts lined up to edit and some fun speaking gigs on the calendar. I’m a grateful author and editor this Thanksgiving week. Picture me doing a happy dance that matches my son’s step for step. (And notice that I do NOT have a picture of THAT. I’m grateful, not delirious.)

We may be on Thanksgiving Break, but we’ve got teachers on our minds. The Halverson Boys have really scored some awesome teachers. From a kindergarten teacher who opened the school garden for weekend work and still goes hiking with us after school, to three first-grade teachers who fearlessly lead their six- and seven-year-old charges on mile-long walking field trips to the computer store and on walking tours around the Olympic Training Center, we’ve got academic role models who encourage both brain and body development. In this week of reflecting on that for which we are thankful as a family, our  teachers top our list.

I guess the theme this year is “Scare the candy out of ‘em!” Happy Halloween from two vampires, one witch, and an unnervingly spooky ghoul.

“Don’t open this jug, Mommy. I filled it with sunlight.”

I’m proud to report that in the San Diego Union-Tribune’s “Recommended Reads,“  Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies was called “Fun, insightful and tremendously helpful.”

Yay! Three verbs I was absolutely aiming for when I wrote WYAFFD. Thank you, U-T!

My 6-yr-old: “Your turn to jump off the swing.”

Me: “I’m not going to jump off the swing.”

6-yr-old: “Why not? Oh yeah, old people don’t jump off swings.”

Me: “Get off the (flippin’) swing. It’s my turn.”

When I met Nutschell Anne Windsor at SCBWI-National Conference 2011, I instantly knew why this writer and blogger also teaches writing to others—she’s an incredibly upbeat person with a passion for writing. This week I get to bask in her enthusiasm as the feature of her blog’s Spotlight Week–or as she’s renamed it for the next seven days, “Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies Week.”

Monday, she reviewed Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies.

Today, she’s posted an interview with me, where we talk YA fiction’s popularity, what aspiring writers should do, and what young readers should do.

Friday… well, I’ll let her surprise you with her Friday plan. It’ll be good, though. Trust me and check in at The Writing Nut on Friday, Oct 21.

Check it out! My new Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies book trailer…

The man writes poetry. He writes plays. He writes short stories and novels. He writes for grown-ups and he writes for kids. And he’s got the awards on the wall to confirm what his readers already knew:  Gary Soto is an entertaining, insightful, and amazingly versatile writer. He understands what it means to find just the right format for every story. So when a DearEditor.com reader wondered why she was having so much trouble expanding her great short story into a great full-length novel, I knew Gary was the author to advise her. Below is her question. Gary’s answer to her question is today’s Guest Editor post on DearEditor.com.

Dear Editor…

I have a short story that my writing group thinks could be a whole novel. I worked hard to distill this character’s story down to its essentials . . . I can’t seem to get my head around expanding it meaningfully. I feel like I’m adding stuff for the sake of adding pages. I hear about great novels that started off as short stories. What’s their secret?

Thank you,
M.

Gary Soto is the author of many much-loved middle grade and young adult novels, short story collections, poetry collections, and plays, including the acclaimed Baseball in April and Other Stories. He’s just published the new short story collection for young readers called Hey 13! and his first e-novel, When Dad Came Back. For more about Gary and his books, visit www.GarySoto.com.

A friend called me “workaholic” last weekend for declining a night on the town in favor of staying home to write in a rare quiet house. I don’t know about that. A pile of See’s chocolate at my left elbow, a bowl of buttered popcorn at my right, and a novel-in-progress on the computer screen in the middle…sounds more like heaven to me than work.