Hello! It’s been lovely to take a blogging vacation during the month of July. I’m happy to be back.
On Saturday I spoke at Norfolk Nebraska’s Literary Festival, a showcase for Nebraska’s Golden Sower Award. The Golden Sower committee kindly extended invitations to three authors on the 2014 list — Jodi Moore (picture book author of WHEN A DRAGON MOVES IN), Carl Deuker (YA author of PAYBACK TIME), and little ol’ me.
In the morning, each of us presented workshops for young writers.
In the afternoon we gave talks for all attendees — librarians, teachers, kids, and readers of all ages. Jodi spoke about rejection, that a “no” could actually mean “not yet.” Carl reminded writers to “put the rat in the dollhouse” — stir up trouble in your story because every book needs conflict. I had participants play a frontier fun facts game (the sort of thing this former teacher thinks is loads of fun).
It was such a pleasure to spend the day with so many avid book fans!
Here are the three of us with Golden Sower organizers, Karen Drevo and Marci Retzlaff. Every library needs librarians as devoted as these two.
This is Marshall, who’s working at the Norfolk Library this summer. What a fun kid and what a reader! We talked about Narnia and Agatha Christie over strawberry pie.*
Visiting Nebraska was like stepping into May Betterly’s world. Karen showed me a photo of the sod house her grandfather was born in. Another librarian told me of her Laura Ingalls Wilder club. She requires those who attend to read five of Laura’s books each year. At the end of the year, the club takes a field trip to DeSmet, South Dakota, to visit Ingalls Homestead.
I think I’m moving to Nebraska and going back to school, just so I can join in.
Thank you, Norfolk Literature Festival and Golden Sower committee for inviting me to participate. You do your community (and the reading a writing community at large) proud.
*We discussed our favorites. My Narnias are THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER and THE LAST BATTLE. My Agatha Christies are AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD, CURTAIN, and CROOKED HOUSE. Anyone else out there want to share theirs?
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What a fabulous weekend, Caroline! It sounds so well organized with great workshops and topics. How fun that you got meet Jody, too. She’s terrific and we all adore her PB’s here at our house. xo
I’ll have to tell her! She’s just adorable. One of those genuinely sweet, sweet people you just want to squeeze.
Love all things C.S. Lewis and Agatha Christie but faves are THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.
We discussed ORIENT EXPRESS. It was the first Christie I read (I remember finding it in my sixth-grade teacher’s library). While I definitely remember how it ended (!!!!) I don’t remember the motive(s) or exactly the how murder was pulled off. Tricky, tricky.
Fantastic! Sounds like a great day. Lucky kids!