The Aha Moment: When Reading Aloud Makes the Story

This weekend was spent doing a lot of editing.  My husband, the fabulous Edward Varga, was asked to submit two pieces, so my editor hat was on for a while, making a grouchy wife.

One of the stories was a picture book that I didn't fully appreciate at first.  This makes editing tough and being a loving supportive wife even tougher.  I was frustrated with the mechanics of the submission, 20 pages, 450 characters per page.  The story had 23 pages and many pages over 450 characters - ARRGGGHHHH!  But then I realized that I could do some cutting, and while my husband and son played Wii, I cut, I edited, I arrggghhhed over many a page, until finally it was done.

Then my husband in his infinite wisdom suggested I read the story aloud to Peter.  After all, Peter's reindeer Poopy was the inspiration for the story.  *Side note, my husband and I disagree about how 'Poopy' got named, so maybe he'll write about it on his blog: eds-pen-is-stuck.blogspot.com*

Have you ever noticed how reading a story aloud really brings it to life?  In the hands of a great storyteller, it is priceless, in the hands of a librarian it can also be pretty good - I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but I do love to read-aloud and have been told I'm pretty good :-)

Well, there I sat, my husband's story on his computer in my lap, Poopy in one hand and my arm around Peter.  Thus I began and as I told Poopy's story, it came to life.  When I got to the part where the little elf speaks, Peter couldn't contain his laughter and we all fell in love with Poopy.

Reading is so powerful!  It let's you escape, it can tell you about your life, it can bring you to tears and it can bring laughter.  The images, the voices, the fun.  Thank you dearest for that sweet story, I hope it's wings will carry her far, but know that your family will always cherish it.

The point is dear readers and especially writers, if you want to know what kind of legs your story has, read it aloud.  If you have a picture book story, read it to a 4yr. old with a great laugh!

Give a Hoot Read a Book

My fabulous husband found this for me and I think it's great!  I want to order some for my library!  Speaking of giving a hoot and reading a book, I am love, love, loving Ranger's Apprentice and I don't normally love fantasy.  The writing is clever without pandering to its audience and the world he creates is realistic yet mysterious.  Flanagan's word choice and use of language is spot on and I think it's great how much students want to read it and subsequent books in the series.  This is the book I'm currently listening to, so you can imagine how much I'm enjoying my commute now and if gas weren't so expensive, I might find myself making some unexpected trips throughout the day just to listen to more.  Can't wait to hear Flanagan in person in November!

Now a note about my fabulous husband and an illustration of how truly wonderful he is as demonstrated with a story about our morning.  We wake up at our usual time, only now it's even darker in the morning and the bed is too comfortable, but alas duty calls.  As I'm getting ready to leave, on time for once, I go into my 4yo's room to kiss him goodbye when the wave of smell hits me - pee, saturated pungent pee and it's bad.  So I take my son's pjs off of him while he is dead asleep, I lay out a mattress pad on his couch, transfer him to the couch, cover him up with his Hello Kitty blanket, start to strip the bed, but then go to the kitchen to tell my husband that he'll have to give our son a shower and throw the sheets into the wash.  As usual, my handsome husband has made me breakfast and coffee to take on my commute.  I'm gathering up all my items: purse, 64oz water bottle, my lunch bag and separate container which didn't fit into my bag, two books, my laptop bag, and my coffee mug.  Quite a lot and as my husband pointed out the books should go in my bag, but it was a little too late because as I was heading to the door my books started to slip and then there went the coffee all over the kitchen floor.  After a moment of stunned silence, my husband proclaimed, "Go hon, you have to go, you'll be late.  I got this."  What a guy and I felt terribly leaving him with such a 'wet' house.

One last bit of this story must be told, particularly since I shared it on Lisa and Laura's blog: http://lisa-laura.blogspot.com/2011/09/tell-truth-tuesday_20.html.  Despite feeling badly about leaving my husband with such a disaster, mostly of my making, truth be told...

I was really bummed about not having my coffee!  And with that I can happily say that Tuesday is over!  I'm not a big fan of Tuesdays, but it looks like the day will end better than it started.  Later all!

How Many Books Can You Read at Once?

 I wanted to share all the books and books and books I've been reading.  How many books can you read at one time?  As a librarian, I'm fortunate enough that I get to be surrounded by books all day long and I get to read them to students - EVEN BETTER, and EVEN BETTER STILL my 4yo active son, my 13yo. active step-son, and my 44yo active husband! 

I don't count picture books as books I'm currently reading although I probably read on an average 10/day.  What I love is that I have a long commute so I listen to audiobooks.  Have you ever talked to someone who sits in the car after arriving at her destination just to finish listening to the chapter?  That's me, although that sometimes gets me in trouble with the 'school' clock and the start of the day, but oh so worth it.

So what am I listening to?  Right now I'm in the midst of Ranger's Apprentice and so far I'm rather impressed with how John Flanagan has created this world.  I've been drawn into it without much work, perhaps it's listening to it, but I feel myself watching the movie in my mind and that is always a sign of well-written book for me.  I'm so thankful because I will be meeting Mr. Flanagan in November and creating activities for my students to prepare them for his visit, now it will be much easier! Phew!

A colleague emailed me today asking me to order some books he found on Amazon that might get his reluctant girl readers reading.  I love that he took the initiative to look for some books, but why didn't he ask me for a recommendation??  Right?  Hello, that's my job!  Well, I handled it with grace and aplomb, I brought him a stack of books that I thought his students would like!  I think he was a bit overwhelmed, I told him if those didn't work we could look into other options - ha!  BTW - I gave him Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little, Mallory on the Move, and Amelia's Notebook, so I'll let you know.  While checking out these books, I picked up The Plain Janes and started reading.  It's a graphic novel and as those books are more often than not checked out, I was happy to have a crack at it.  It grabs you right from the beginning, I'll give you that!  Looking forward to more perusing of that book tomorrow. 

In the meantime, I've also started the adorable The Private Thoughts of Amelia E. Rye and Notes From the Dog.  I still have The Rise of Renegade X  to finish on my Nook, and Three Black Swans to finish and return to the library.  More in my pile?  You bet, I have Aurora County All-Stars, Silent Boy, and more from my husband.  He is a genius at short story so I like to challenge him with contests or blog posts, check out his stuff below if you don't believe me! He is also in the midst of a wonderful novel that I'm all caught up with, so now he needs to write more of it, it's that good!

So how many books do you read at a time?  Can you keep them all straight? Do you feel you have to finish the book to count it as read?  Don't you think that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still the best written show around or has your mom 'bogarted' all the chips too?

It's about the Blessings, 'Bitca'

I've just started following writer Natalie Whipple on twitter, check her out if you haven't, I'm also following her blog.  In honor of Natalie being a first time Buffy the Vampire Slayer watcher I've added 'bitca' in my title.  It has been fun following her as she experiences Buffy episodes for the first time and I try to remember the episode as she tweets about it.  As you know, that show ROCKED!  The writing was spectacular and anyone who remembers the episode where Xander showed his lack of spelling prowess will understand my 'bitca' reference.  I have a few 'bitca' comments to make, but then it's all about the blessings!

My husband (learn about him below) is fond of telling people that when he met me I was the cute, adorable, librarian of a quaint little K-2 school, then the K-5 librarian of a brand new 'green' school, (they tore down that quaint K-2 school #sad), and now the District Librarian traveling between schools in this K-8 district where there used to be 3 librarians and 3 schools.  Sign of the times, right?  Sadly, yes, and sadly not wanting to lose my job I went along with it, a smile on my face and only complaining to those family who would stand to hear it.  I lost one of my dear friends along the way - she was the librarian at the 6-8 school when the district decided to cut her position and leave me to be the district librarian servicing all schools.  I also lost that feeling of making a difference and having a library program that meant something.  But that's just the background so enough of the 'bitching' because despite these sad tidings there is some good news and that is where the blessings happen.

BOOKS!  BOOKS ARE THE GOOD NEWS!  Although I might not have as much time to read to students as I used to, the times I get are precious and so much fun!  I value it now more than ever because every opportunity is special and offers the chance to put another story and book into the hands of a bright young mind.  Books help us escape, they help us focus on something other than our problems and books teach us about all sorts of things.  They give us hope even when they are about a bleak and scary future.  Books are hope, they are dreams, they are possibilities, they soar, no matter the format.  Our job is to make sure we keep getting stories out there, to make sure students have books to read.

Speaking of getting stories into the hands of students, my school district was recently the recipient of some free ebooks.  This boon accomplished many things.  First, after 7 years I finally got our library server and software program updated.  Secondly, it has caused such a stir of excitement in the students because now not only can they check out books electronically, but they can make recommendations to their friends, to me and create reviews of the books.  I had the chance to look on the system this morning and see if I had any requests to process and there sat 25 book reviews needing approval and several book recommendations.  Wow, for me that was very powerful, students still like to read and they want their opinions to be heard and matter - I LOVE IT!

So even in some seemingly bleak times there is always books, banter, and Buffy to see us through and I'm incredibly thankful for the blessing of my job.  Now it's off to read more of my husband's great new novel.  I love the first chapter and the great hook at the end of it, creepy and intriguing all wrapped up in one and I can't wait to read more!

Tweeting, Getting Ready for Author Visits, and Editing My Husband

I've been reading a lot of tweets since my last blog post - it's addicting, fun, fascinating, educational, and time consuming.  This takes away from my normal reading time, but in the long run it's reading on a whole new level.  There are readings of the clever, quirky, snarky, funny, boring tweets, as well as clicking on links to blogs, news sites, educational sites, author sites, etc which leads to lots more reading - it's a whole new reading world!

Meanwhile, I'm so happy to have a long commute (did you hear that? my husband's jaw just hit the ground since I often complained of the commute in order to get sympathetic massages - wink, wink!)  During said hour commute to work I get lots done.  At the bridge work stop, I read my friend feed.  By the time I hit the highway, I've been updated on all my football news with @MikeandMike, so that for my last 25min I can listen to an audiobook - ah, the joy and sometimes defeat of a great book on cd!

Currently, I'm listening to "A Dog's Life" by Ann M. Martin.  What a poetic author!  I love how she so convincingly writes this tale from the dog's point of view.  It's wonderful, it's sad, it's sincere, it's peaceful!  The saddest thing is I'm almost done and it's on to my next book which I'm reading to prepare for an author visit.  I have higher expectations for this next author than I did for the first one I had to read.  What torture that was!  I won't comment on which authors these were here, but you can certainly check out some of my latest reviews on Goodreads.

Lastly, I'm reading and editing my husband's writing.  You can learn more about him at the bottom of this blog. He is so creative and such a talented writer, but his mechanics need refining (ie spell checker) and since I read every word and pore over sentences and structure we are the perfect writing team.  I've irked him tonight though since I participated in #BB101 over on twitter (you can click on my twitter tag to follow me) and have been updating my Goodreads and Blog.  I am anticipating a fun weekend though as he has added over 5000 words to his very juicy book.  I can't wait!