Totally remiss
Just to show you how totally lame I am at staying on top of things these days, I completely forgot to mention a few weeks ago that I have been given the honor of being Author of the Month over at Embracing the Child. This matters a lot to me, because Pat Kinderman, who runs the organization, is a very picky reader. Plus I happen to love what she’s doing out there in the world.
Here is what Embracing the Child is all about:
“Embracing the Child is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting literacy and working with disadvantaged and at-risk children and youth through our Library Development Program. ETC works ‘in the trenches’ with reading-committed partner nonprofits serving the most vulnerable kids at front-line facilities like juvenile detention centers, emergency shelters, after-school care and summer daycamp programs in inner-city or poverty-pocket communities. ETC provides literally thousands of new fiction and non-fiction books for circulation from library shelves that once were non-existent, empty or idle.”
It’s another story of one person having a vision and working her brain to the bone to make it happen. Pat has already helped thousands of children find their way to a love of books. If that’s not work we all want to see done, I don’t know what is.
You can help support Embracing the Child a few different ways:
1. Buy your books (or housewares or CDs or lingerie) from Amazon through the ETC website. Every time you click onto Amazon from the ETC site, ETC gets a donation.
2. Make a direct donation here.
3. Donate books. You’ll see the current Wish List here.
We’re all readers here, right? We know how books have taught us and transported us and changed us. If you think that sounds like a valuable thing to do for a troubled or otherwise at-risk child, then here’s your chance to do your part to make a difference.
And thanks again, Pat, for plucking my book out from all the others you’ve read lately, and deciding to feature me on your website!
Technorati Tags: Books, Reading, Books for Kids, Book Donations, Embracing the Child
September 12th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Awesome, Robin! Can I add you and Embracing the Child to my “Very Big No-Kidding, We’re Changing the World, You Bet Good Deed List” over at my blog?
I love your interview at Embracing the Child. You always sound so relaxed and personable and well, huggable.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Oh! I just saw that Jack Gantos’s book A Hole in my Life is on their wish list. That is a seriously great read.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Yes, Sara, by all means add ETC to your Very Big No-Kidding, We’re Changing the World, You Bet Good Deed List. (Love spelling that all out.)
And thanks for saying that about the interview. Please feel free to hug me at the conference.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:56 am
“The heat of creation.” I love that.
Robin, your response about you and Barry remaining writing partners while the others dropped off reminded me of what I read or heard somewhere about the ONE way in which all published writers are the same: They kept going while others did not.
Let’s raise a coffee mug to tenacity!
September 12th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Robin, This organization really has it going with a great website, all those resources, and the coolest author of the month! Congrats!
September 12th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Laura, you bet I’ll raise a mug to that. It really is true–100% of the writers who are published never gave up.
Vivian, isn’t that website fabulous? So thorough, so many cookies here, there and everywhere–I totally agree with you. And thanks for the sweetness about me!
September 13th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Robin, you doll!
(You know why)
September 13th, 2007 at 8:20 am
We ordered from amazon just last week (still anxiously awaiting a certain author’s book!). Wish I’d known about ETC. Now I do, and from now on we’ll order through them. What a fabulous organization.
Robin, in your interview I was interested and pleased to read your strategy for writing, especially that you “much prefer the heat of creation, writing a book straight through to the end so I can know how it turns out (I never ever outline–it would completely ruin a book for me if I knew the ending ahead of time).” I chat every month with a few fellow writers, and they advocate knowing where you’re going with a book. Their argument makes sense, but I’ve never been able to see the end from the beginning. I, too, am insane about revising as I go, so that I have never truly finished any of my fiction. The fact that your method (which seems to be my preference) might just work is refreshing and encouraging!
September 13th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Congrats, Robin! On EVERYTHING. I know I’m behind on this blog reading thing, between farm sitting and crazy work hours and being sick . . . something had to give. I’m back though.
What a great thing ETC is! Next book order . . .
Oh, and Kelley, you should consider reading “On Writing” by none other than Stephen King. He doesn’t know where his books are going either, and he’s doing okay. Robin, you’re in good company.
September 13th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
He’s doing okay. I’ll say. (: I’ve heard of “On Writing” and now, with your recommendation, will put it on my ballooning must-read list. You people and all your books!
September 13th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Kelley, I’m so glad anything I said in that interview might have helped you. But let me just remind you and every other writer about this: YOU get to decide how you want to work. You decide what feels best on you.
Believe me, I know how easy it is to latch on to someone else’s method and think that’s the key to everything. But I can’t emphasize this enough: you, the writer, get to choose for yourself how to do your own work. Don’t let anyone tell you it “must” be done this way or that–poppycock.
On the other hand, I also know how reassuring it is to hear some other writer say he or she does things the way you already want to do them. Sweet! Confirmation that you’re not crazy/lazy/a guaranteed failure because you don’t want to do things the way some other “expert” told you to.
It’s taken me a long time to feel comfortable trusting my own rhythms and work style–I still question myself sometimes (am I doing enough? If it feels fun does that mean I’m doing something wrong?), but I’m trying to stop that.
And so I’d love to save you some of the steps I had to go through: trust yourself. Trust that you know how to write your stories. Then write them for yourself first, for everyone else second.
BJ, definite “heck, yeah” on “On Writing.” So excellent and full of common sense. Of course, I may just think that because I agree with everything he says.
Sarah, you’re welcome, and you deserve it for writing such a fantastic book.
September 14th, 2007 at 4:24 am
Great advice and much appreciated. I’ll try to keep these things in mind as I seek to squeeze in time to write. Write for myself first, eh? I do like that, too. It would keep me from being too heavy-handed or micro-managing. I’d been wanting to ask, and I guess this is an okay place, whether you conscientiously aim for a particular age group and whittle your word count, chapter length, etc. for that, or is this something that comes when you begin to market the product and fine-tune in revisions? Does an editor help?
September 14th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Kelley, again it’s a matter of preference and what feels right for you, but when I write I do have a target age in mind, since that helps me get into my role-playing and know how I need the characters to talk.
I don’t have a word count in mind. I just write until the story feels done, then evaluate whether it’s too long or needs more meat on its bones. Again, for me the thing that works is just writing a story for myself all the way through as fast as I can, then worrying about the refinements on the second or third draft.
And yes, an editor will then take the whole work, beat it about the head, and make it so much better than you thought it could be. But the first step is for you to write the best book you can on your own before sending it to an agent or editor.
Does that help?
September 14th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Yes, it does. Free advice from a published writer! Nice! (; Seriously, it helps to talk to others about their methods and experiences. Thanks for being so open about yours.