Monthly archive for September 2012

Indie Spotlight: Velveteen Rabbit Book Shop & Guesthouse

Imagine a children’s book store where you could stay overnight, curl up, and read.  There is such a place!  With us today is Marie Nelson, owner of The Velveteen Rabbit Book Shop and Guest House  in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, to talk about her shop and tell stories of her amazingly loyal and determined customers.

SC for  Mixed-Up Files: What a dream, to have a bookshop with a guesthouse!  How did this combination come about?

Marie: My husband, Jim, and I opened the bookshop in 1994. He is the accountant for the bookshop and all around repair person. He also has a daytime career as a CFO. I was a teacher and have always had books as a huge part of my life. We opened with the help of family and friends.
For the first 10 years or so we lived above the bookshop. The shop is in a terra-cotta Victorian home just off the Main Street in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. The town is about 12,000 residents with a university town nearby and several other small communities. We decided that we might like a little extra room. Clare was born in 1996 and Ben in 2000. The upstairs is now a quaint flat with charm and comfort. Guests are able to enjoy privacy and the amenities of being close to our downtown.
It is fun to meet people from near and far. We have had visitors from Tennessee, Illinois, New York, California, Australia, Iceland and from many parts of Wisconsin. We feel very fortunate to have an opportunity to meet and visit with people from near and far.

MUF: Many towns, even big towns, don’t have a bookstore, period, much less a children’s bookstore.  But yours is thriving.  How have you made it a success?
Marie: We are a general bookshop with an emphasis in children’s literature. I have a passion for books and have many favorites from my childhood that are fun to stock and be able to share with current generations…. picture books, middle readers and young adult novels. I also have staff who are readers. They have many recommendations in the store and in our newsletter that keep recent releases also in front of our customers. Finding the right book for the customer is what it is all about.

We like to listen to our customers. We are very fortunate to have customers who have stayed with us through the years. Just yesterday I had a customer who would come in with her children and is now purchasing for her grandchildren. Her daughter was also in and purchasing for a young family member. This same customer was also the first to book our guest house when it opened in 2007 for a wedding couple. We have so many delightful stories of customers who are just fabulous. I will always remember when the road in front of the store was under construction for months. At one point you could not get to us unless you really made an effort. We had one longtime customer who actually crawled over a fence one day to get to us because it was just blocked every other way that day. She was in her eighties at the time. It just brought a huge smile to my face.

MUF: I can imagine!  As middle-grade authors, we have to ask: say a ten- or eleven-year old comes in to your shop and asks for a good book to read.  What favorites, fiction and nonfiction, might you be likely recommend to him or her?
Marie: We really enjoy getting the right book for the right person. I often use the staff recommendations in the store, our Indie Next flyers, the ABC catalog and the staff to assist with finding the right book. We do quite a bit of ordering, also. As an example of an eleven-year-old, I can use my son’s recent reading. He likes fiction and non-fiction. He just finished Holes, read The Outcasts (Brotherband Chronicles #1) and The Invaders (Brotherband Chronicles #2). A book he recommended for the store is Rock of Ivanore. As a nonfiction selection, he has read titles from the Eyewitnessseries.

Author signing and tea party with Laura Schaefer

MUF: What makes your day as a children’s bookseller?
Marie:  I like the daily interactions with kids of all ages and grown-ups. I have a local dentist who gives out gift certificates to kids for good check-ups. She just ordered some more gift certificates. I have the opportunity to chat with people of all interests and learn a great deal. People pick up books or browse and we both enjoy learning something. It is also very rewarding when people say how comfortable they are in the bookshop and how they like to bring in family or friends who are visiting. I remember once my 85-year-old grandmother saying when she was visiting the bookshop that I was a good host. This was quite a compliment  and I have taken her words to heart. I want people to enjoy visiting and look forward to each visit.

MUF:  If readers and their adults from out of town came to visit your shop, are there some favorite family-friendly places in the neighborhood where they could get a bite to eat after browsing?
Marie: We are right next to a wonderful Irish Pub called Paddy Coughlin’s. We often enjoy dinner at the pub. I actually have many visitors to the bookshop who enjoy lunch and browsing. The customer who just left was planning to dine at the pub. We also have a shopping and dining guide for Fort that the chamber publishes. I often give this out with recommendations. The Carpe is another great place as is Beauty and the Bean. You can walk to many good establishments in the area.

You could be here in the guest flat with your favorite book.

MUF: And if they are lucky enough to stay in the guest house overnight or for the weekend,  can you recommend some unique sights and activities they shouldn’t miss while they’re in Fort Atkinson?
Marie: In the bookshop and the guest house I have a Discover Guide which highlights many places to visit as well as a calendar of events. I also have the Jefferson County Guide for people to have. Both guides offer great activities in the area. I would certainly recommend visiting The Fireside Dinner Theatre. They have delicious Friday Fish and offer a fabulous dinner and theater experience on other afternoons and evenings. The shows are excellent and fun for the whole family. Café Carpe often has a musical offering. You can enjoy dinner and a performance. Fort also offers an outstanding museum. The Hoard Historical Museum and National Dairy Shrine Museum offers educational and fun entertainment.

Surprise carolers at the annual holiday celebration

MUF: Any special events coming up in October? How does the The Velveteen Rabbit celebrate Halloween?
Marie:  The second Saturday of every month at 10:30 we share stories. The theme for October is Goblins, Ghosts and Ghouls Oh My! Usually Mrs. Smith reads stories and simply shares good books and engages kids in an activity. A special we have is “with the purchase of a Halloween children’s book get 18% off a Holiday children’s book this December.” This is in honor of our 18th year.

The big Holiday Anniversary Celebration is set for Saturday, December 1. We celebrate with author signings and many in-store festivities.

MUF: Thanks, Marie, for sharing your delightful shop with us. Readers, if you’ve visited The Velveteen Rabbit, or if reading about it makes you think you’d like to, comment to let us and Marie know.  Browse the shop’s website at: www.velveteenrabbitbookshop.com.

Sue Cowing is the author of You Will Call Me Drog (Carolrhoda, 2011, Usborne UK, 2012)

Revision–the BIG picture

One of the hardest parts of both finishing and revising a novel is keeping the big picture in mind–juggling all the elements so that you end up with a story-shaped book that delivers the ending you promised at the start. I’ve tried different strategies over the years and this is the one that is working pretty well for me at the moment.
5 steps to seeing your novel as a whole

1. Shrink your text to 8 point type, remove space between chapters and make margins as narrow as possible so that the whole novel will fit on less than 50 pages. Print it out. Put it up on a wall or lay it out on a large table or bed.

  • Observe the balance of dialog to description.
  • Notice chapter lengths relative to each other.

2. Highlight setting descriptions

  • Are they present throughout but not large?

3. Highlight physical intensity/action in a different color. Do the same for emotional intensity/tension and humor

  • Is there balance? Some action in every chapter; some tension in every chapter?
  • If it’s not a funny book, is humor providing a respite? If it’s a funny book, is the humor consistent throughout?

4. Use a post it notes to mark where each character is introduced.

  • Does the main character appear in the first page or first 400 words of the book?
  • Are all the major characters introduced in the first third of the book?
  • Are there clumps of 3 or more characters introduced in a single scene?

5. Use post it notes to mark the major events of the plot

  •   Are setting and main character established in the 1st 500 words?
  • Is the inciting incident in the first chapter?
  • Does every chapter contain an obstacle, or a reversal, or an important plot point?
  • Is there a single clear climax?
  • Does the story resolve and end shortly after that climax?

Remember these are questions and not commandments. You may have additional questions to ask yourself or different aspects to highlight based on the type of story you are telling. It’s just a tool, so feel free to make it your own.

This is how big picture revision looks in my office.
This is a 45,000 word MG novel shrunk down to 34 pages. Setting details are in green, humor is pink, action is yellow, and emotional intensity is orange.
Over the top of the highlighting I used cross-hatching to indicate view point narration. I have two view point characters. One is indicated by right slanting red lines and the other is shown with left slanting green lines. Putting the alternating point of view up on the wall like this made it clear that in the middle, the POV character is not clear. I can also see that there is too much of the red characters POV and not enough of my green character’s POV in the final section.

I’d love to hear from you about what works for you when you are revising with the flow of the whole novel in mind. Leave your suggestions in the comments!

The Great Library Giveaway Spotlight #2

We are a full week into our Great Library Giveaway.  Only three weeks left to nominate a worthy library!  Click here and follow the instructions if you have a library that you’d like to see receive our collection of middle-grade books.

We’d like to thank authors and publishers who have donated books, as well as our blog members.  Thanks to all of you.  If you’ d like to donate a title, please see our Donations page for more information.

Ten titles that have been donated are:

 

Vanished by Sheela Chari

Description: Eleven-year-old Neela dreams of being a famous musician, performing for admiring crowds on her traditional Indian stringed instrument. Her particular instrument was a gift from her grandmother—intricately carved with a mysterious-looking dragon.

When this special family heirloom vanishes from a local church, strange clues surface: a tea kettle ornamented with a familiar pointy-faced dragon, a threatening note, a connection to a famous dead musician, and even a legendary curse. The clues point all the way to India, where it seems that Neela’s instrument has a long history of vanishing and reappearing. Even if Neela does track it down, will she be able to stop it from disappearing again?

Hannah West on Millionaire’s Row by Linda Johns

Description: Hannah West is back in an all-new mystery?and this time she?s living in the lap of luxury in a mansion on Millionaire?s Row in Seattle?s Capitol Hill neighborhood. When someone starts breaking into homes and doing feng shui, Hannah is immediately intrigued. It all seems innocent at first. But when some small but valuable objects start to disappear from the neighbors? houses, Hannah can?t help wondering if there?s a connection. Could it have anything to do with the Antiques Caravan that?s in town to tape an episode of their television show?

Road Block by Yolanda Ridge

Description from Barnes and Noble: In this sequel to Trouble in the Trees, it’s the end of grade six and Bree plans to spend the summer hanging around her townhouse complex in Vancouver, climbing trees with her friends. But her parents have other plans for her; she is going to Ontario to stay with her grandma who lives on a farm “in the middle of nowhere.” A farm that is about to be destroyed by a superhighway unless Bree can stop it. Convinced that saving the land will end her grandma’s unhappiness, Bree tries to rally cousins and neighbors, but instead of finding help, Bree uncovers some shocking things about her relatives. The more Bree gets to know about her extended family and their farm, the more complicated everything becomes. If she isn’t able to save the farm, can she at least manage to save her family?

Deadweather and Sunrise (The Chronicles of Egg, Book 1) by Geoff Rodkey

Description: It’s tough to be thirteen, especially when somebody’s trying to kill you.

Not that Egg’s life was ever easy, growing up on sweaty, pirate-infested Deadweather Island with no company except an incompetent tutor and a pair of unusually violent siblings who hate his guts.

But when Egg’s father hustles their family off on a mysterious errand to fabulously wealthy Sunrise Island, then disappears with the siblings in a freak accident, Egg finds himself a long-term guest at the mansion of the glamorous Pembroke family and their beautiful, sharp-tongued daughter Millicent. Finally, life seems perfect.

Until someone tries to throw him off a cliff.

Suddenly, Egg’s running for his life in a bewildering world of cutthroat pirates, villainous businessmen, and strange Native legends. The only people who can help him sort out the mystery of why he’s been marked for death are Millicent and a one-handed, possibly deranged cabin boy.

Horton Halfpott: Or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, The Loosening of M’Lady Luggertuck’s Corset by Tom Angleberger

Description: Tom Angleberger’s farcical middle-grade mystery begins when M’Lady Luggertuck loosens her corset (it has never been loosened before!), thereby setting off a chain of events in which all the strict rules of Smugwick Manor are abandoned. When, as a result of “the Loosening,” the precious family heirloom, the Luggertuck Lump (quite literally a lump), goes missing, the Luggertucks look for someone to blame. Is it Horton Halfpott, the good-natured but lowly kitchen boy who can’t tell a lie? Or one of the many colorful cast members in this romp of a mystery that combines supreme silliness with a tale of a young hero with heart.

Malcolm at Midnight by W. H. Beck

Description from www.whbeck.com: When Malcolm (a smaller than average rat) arrives as the fifth grade pet at McKenna School, he revels in the attention, the Pop-Tart crumbs, and his new Comf-E-Cube. He also meets the Midnight Academy, a secret society of classroom pets that keeps the nutters (kids) out of trouble. After all, everybody knows, “a lot happens in a school when the teachers aren’t looking.”

There’s just one problem. Have you heard? Rats have a terrible reputation! So when the Academy assumes that Malcolm is a mouse, he doesn’t exactly speak up. Then the Academy’s leader, a glasses-wearing iguana named Aggy, disappears and the Academy smells a rat . . . a dirty rat fink, to be specific. Now Malcolm must use all of his ratty persistence to prove his innocence, get Aggy back under her heat lamp—and to find out if it’s possible to be a critter of valor and merit, even if you’re a rat.

Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School by Kim Baker

Description: This is the story of THE LEAGUE OF PICKLEMAKERS

Ben: who began it all by sneaking in one night and filling homeroom with ball-pit balls.

Frank: who figured out that an official club, say a pickle-making club, could receive funding from the PTA.

Oliver: Who once convinced half of the class that his real parents had found him and he was going to live in a submarine.

Bean: Who wasn’t exactly invited, but her parents own a costume shop, which comes in handy if you want to dress up like a giant squirrel and try to scare people at the zoo.

TOGETHER, they are an unstoppable prank-pulling force, and Fountain Point Middle School will never be the same.

Reality Leak by Joni Sensel

Description: Come follow this trail of riddles lined with popcorn and drawn in invisible ink!

Pants that walk by themselves . . . Secret messages that pop up in the toaster . . . A mysterious factory that plants already-popped corn and makes invisible ink . . . or is it inc?

What is going on in South Wiggot? It all started when Mr. Keen arrived in the dusty little farm town–in a wooden crate. Strange things have been happening ever since, and Bryan Zilcher is determined to find out why, before things can go from strange to sinister.
This compelling adventure is like nothing else you’ve ever read. Part Saturday morning cartoon, part secret agent mystery–and all zany fun!

The Black Heart Crypt: A Haunted Mystery by Chris Grabenstein

Description: Halloween is near, the one day of the year when the ghostly plane is close enough to the human plane to allow mischief and mayhem. But the ghosts who have their eye on Zack aren’t thinking mischief, they are thinking murder.

In the fourth volume of Chris Grabenstein’s popular Haunted Mysteries series, Zack must yet again do battle with malevolent spirits. And with perseverance and pluck, and the assistance of three dotty aunts, he must save his town from a 200-year-old threat.

Trouble Don’t Last by Shelley Pearsall

Description: Eleven-year-old Samuel was born as Master Hackler’s slave, and working the Kentucky farm is the only life he’s ever known—until one dark night in 1859, that is. With no warning, cranky old Harrison, a fellow slave, pulls Samuel from his bed and, together, they run.

The journey north seems much more frightening than Master Hackler ever was, and Samuel’s not sure what freedom means aside from running, hiding, and starving. But as they move from one refuge to the next on the Underground Railroad, Samuel uncovers the secret of his own past—and future. And old Harrison begins to see past a whole lifetime of hurt to the promise of a new life—and a poignant reunion—in Canada.

*Descriptions are from Indiebound unless otherwise noted.