The Book

I just read Judy Blume's latest blog. After a literary conference in Key West, which provided the motivation and ideas, she's started a new book. It was amazing to read her blog about how the process works for her. She mentions in her blog that she carries her characters in her head sometimes for years before she is ready to put the story into book form. That was a real inspiration for me--since the two main characters of my book have been with me for several years now.

Her book takes place in the 1950's--I love that decade. After all, those were the years of my childhood. Being a half century baby, I was the embodiment of Joanie from Happy Days. The only thing missing was the older brother. From poodle skirt, bobby socks, saddle shoes, to hoola hoops and skorts (check those out in wikipedia), those were truly happy days for me. As I look back, I believe the reason I enjoyed this decade so much was my own innocence and the happy feeling that the world was a safe place.

Back to my book--which is languishing in my thumb drive as we speak. There are days I wish I had nothing to do but write, but life seems to get in the way. I think I should take another tip from Judy Blume and keep a notebook where I can write down ideas about my characters, which will help to move the story along. To a certain extent they live in my head too. I know they want the story told and I ask myself daily if I really can tell this amazing story. I wish Judy Blume could come live at my house for a week or two. Imagine how much I would learn about writing from a master writer like her.

I think one of the major stumbling blocks for me is for whom am I writing this story? Let me rephrase that--I am writing the story for me, but what audience will read it? Being a school librarian, I so want this to be a book that kids will pick up, but the story--to be told properly, isn't really a children's story. It is a story based in real life and I want to be as true to the details as I can. I must tell the love story, in detail, which puts it out of the realm of a children's book. Or does it? After all, Stephanie Meyers has made quite a lot of money telling a love story in which a vampire is symbolic of the sexual act. No real sex to speak of--but the young people who clamor to read her books don't seem too upset by that.

Another roadblock for me is the decade in which my story takes place--actually the time frame is a little more than two years, from late 1900 until June of 1902. I've already done quite a bit of research so that details are accurate. The story takes place in two countries--more research--and it involves an industry--coal mining-- that I knew very little about until I started researching for the book about three years ago.

Why am I writing in my blog about writing my book instead of actually doing it?

Authors We Love Have Blogs

I love Judy Blume--okay, maybe that's a little over the top. I don't even know Judy Blume, but I do know her writing and have been recommending it to kids since I started teaching in the early 1970's. I think my daughter Leigh read every book ever written by Judy Blume. She loved them too. It's 2008, almost 40 years since Judy wrote her first book, Are You there God? It's Me Margaret, but my elementary students still clamor to check out Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Fudge, or Superfudge. Her writing and understanding, particularly of adolescent girls is timeless and marvelous.

I discovered today, while helping a student research Judy Blume for an authors' book, that Judy has a blog--imagine that, just like me she writes in her blog as often as she can. Somehow, I feel closer to her now, and closer to my own goal of publishing someday. In her most recent blog, she discusses being a hockey mom , like a certain other newly famous female. Judy says some of the same things in her blog that I said just a few days ago in mine, only she says them infinitely better than I did. Don't believe me, read for yourself. Read her September 7 entry, Hockey Mom.