Posts Tagged Laurie J. Edwards

A Non-fiction book birthday for our own Laurie Edwards

laurie photo Laurie Edwards is a Mixed Up Files member with a very busy month. Three of her non-fiction titles come out this month. They are all from the educational publisher Cengage and they are: Ancient Egypt, Imperial China, and West African Kingdoms. She graciously stole a few moments away from her time with a brand new grandbaby to answer my questions. Thank you and quadruple congratulations!

1) All three of your books are about the ancient world. Do you have a long standing interest in history?

Egypt coverI’ve always been fascinated by life long ago. I especially like finding out how people lived, so I enjoyed doing the research for these books. Sometimes we think that ancient people weren’t very advanced, but that isn’t true. All three of these civilizations invented items that are still used in our times, and scientists and historians are still trying to figure out how they created certain things. For example, no one knows for sure how the Egyptians built the pyramids.

 

My love of history also extends to fiction. I’m writing a young adult novel set in ancient China and two middle grade novels, one set in Russia during the pogroms and one set in Eastern Europe in 1050 CE. Capstone is publishing my young adult series set in the Wild West that I’m writing as Erin Johnson. The first two books, Grace and the Guiltless and Her Cold Revenge are out now, with two more to follow. I spent a lot of time doing research for all of these books.

I took a quick look at these titles and I think they’re going to be terrific for teens with a thirst for western writing which is not all that common in YA.

2)Your publisher works within the education market. How did you come to work with them? Do they assign a topic with an overall road map to the structure of the finished project or do you come up with the topic and structure yourself?

I’ve worked for Cengage, the publisher of these books, many times doing writing and editing. I started by writing short articles for them, and then later they asked me to write books. The first books I wrote for them were a biography of Rihanna, the Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, and Pirates through the Ages (yes, another history title!).

West African coverBecause these 3 new books are part of a 10-volume set, the publisher wanted them to be consistent, so they gave me topics for the chapters (e.g., Geography, Art, Transportation and Communication) and a general layout for each chapter. The chapters needed to include a brief introduction, 2-3 sidebars, a glossary, 2-3 activities, and a set of questions. I chose what material to include in each chapter.

 

3) What was your favorite juicy tidbit from researching these books? Did you have a particularly useful source or an unexpected one?

I like finding primary sources, which are actual documents or pictures from people who lived during that time. The Chinese and Egyptians both kept good records of events, so I read translations of many ancient documents. We also included some as sidebars in the books. The West Africans didn’t have a written language for much of the period the book covered, which meant that their primary sources were the griots, or storytellers, who memorized all their history.

China coverOne of my favorite documents was a list of rules from an ancient Chinese boarding school. Instead of bells, they used clappers. The first time the clappers sounded, students woke and washed. By the second round of clappers, they needed to be dressed in their robes. After that, they bowed to their teachers. They then followed a whole list of rules, many of which sound like classroom rules today, such as sitting properly, writing neatly, keeping desks tidy, and not eavesdropping. Students took turns washing the floor at the end of each day. Some different rules included never taking off their caps, socks, or shoes even in their rooms, and never going to bed before their elders.

Other fun sources were a list of rules from a Chinese pirate ship run by a woman and descriptions of Egyptian mummification. I also discovered ancient recipes, poems, stories, plays, jokes, and paintings showing daily life. Many of these can be found in the sidebars.

I love this! The combination of familiar rules–like write neatly–with completely wacky rules–like don’t go to bed until all the grownups are asleep and never take off your shoes! You’re a natural at making history engaging.

4) Do you do something special with the MG audience in mind?

Because MG readers are curious, I try to find unusual and interesting facts that will surprise them. But I also like to show that children from long ago have are like modern children in many ways. Knowing that ancient children disobeyed their parents, disliked school, or skipped their chores makes them more real and relatable.

5) I’ve only done a little bit of writing for educational publishers and it has been a while. If a person was interested in writing for the educational market what advice would you give them?

Educational writing is strongly tied to the core curriculum, so having some experience as a teacher or some knowledge of the expectations for the various grade levels is important. Rather than coming up with your own topics, you need to be willing to write books on the subjects that the publishers need or want. To get work in this field, check what publishers are looking for freelance writers and follow their guidelines. Many request a resume and a sample chapter. If they think your writing is suitable for their imprints, they may assign you a book or even a series.

6) Do you have a favorite MG non-fiction title or two you’d like to share?

Two nonfiction authors whose books I love are Candace Fleming and Susan Bartoletti. All of their books are well worth reading.

Here are the two most recent titles by these two authors.18691014

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Thanks again for sharing Laurie. Happy book birthday and happy  birthday to your new grandchild!

 

 

 

KidLit Summer School

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Artwork by Joyce Wan

Summer school? Ugh. Who wants to be stuck indoors while everyone else is playing outside in the sunshine. Missing picnics, pools, parties, and fun.

But what if you could hang out with the cool kids and have some real fun? What if you could do something you’ve always dreamed of doing – write a book?

Here’s your chance to learn from a strong line-up of multi-published children’s authors, editors, and agents. Best of all, these summer workshops are FREE. Beginning July 20, 2015, visit KidLit Summer School for posts filled with information on how to write children’s books.

This summer the focus is on plotting. You’ll have an opportunity to try a variety of plotting tricks and techniques for different genres. Learn how published authors stay motivated, come up with ideas, and turn those ideas into finished stories. Each post will have plotting secrets as well as exercises you can try. And best of all, KidLit Summer School will be giving away plenty of prizes — autographed books, professional critiques, and swag. Check out each post for the special giveaways.

Here are some of the faculty members with a quick peek at only one of their books, but there are plenty more—books and authors. If you sign up, you’ll see the list of all the wonderful teachers before opening day.

Learn from authors Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, Kami Kinard, Marcie Colleen, Dawn Young, Leeza Hernandez, Joyce Wan, John Claude Bemis, Janice Hardy, Laurie J. Edwards, Megan Miranda, Tammi Sauer, Tracey Baptiste, Amy Dominy, Jen Malone, Courtney Pippin Mathur, Heidi Schulz, and Lisa Lewis Tyre.

Agents and editors who are participating include Rotem Moscovich, Jenne Abramowitz, Sean McCarthy, and Marie Lamba.

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Sound like fun? Here’s the link to sign up.

And if you don’t want to wait until the 20th to work on your writing, check out last year’s blog posts on characterization here. Scroll down to last summer’s lessons. It’s a great way for writers of any age to improve their writing craft over the summer.

About the Author

Laurie J. Edwards loves summer school so much she’s spending 6 weeks at Hollins University’s MFA program in Children’s Writing and Illustrating as well a participating in the KidLit Summer School as a faculty member. She’s looking forward to her five book releases in August and September: Her Cold Revenge (Switch Press), The Forget-Me-Not Keeper (illustrations, written by Susanna Leonard Hill), Imperial China, West African Kingdoms,  & Ancient Egypt (Cengage). Read more about Laurie and her books on her blog, her website, Facebook, and Twitter (@LaurieJEdwards).

Horses, Horses, and More Horses

Young Whitney on Rocky

Young Whitney on Rocky

For all you horse lovers out there, I’m excited to introduce you to Whitney Sanderson, an author from the Random House Horse Diary series. In addition to the two books she’s written for that series, she has a new release, the first in her Horse Rescue series. Whitney wrote Horse Rescue: Treasure to support Little Brook Farm, a horse rescue center. Whitney will be donating 50% of her royalties to Little Brook Farm. So if you or someone you know is a horse lover, sharing this book will not only make them happy, it will also help save horses. And we’re also offering a chance to win a free copy of Treasure.

Hi, Whitney, and welcome to the Mixed-Up Files. We’re looking forward to learning more about you and about horses.

First of all, what did you dream about becoming when you were young?

Even though I loved horses from a young age, I really wanted to be an FBI agent. I was a big fan of the X-Files. Maybe it’s a sign that there will be a paranormal young adult novel in my future.

When did you start writing?

When I was four or five, I would dictate stories to my older sister, and she would type them for me. I remember the first story was called “Ten Cats” and the second was called “Five Dogs,” so I guess I have been drawn to animal stories from the beginning. I was homeschooled, and when I was around fourteen I took a correspondence course in creative writing designed for high school students.

That was the first time I got feedback from someone other than my friends and parents that I might have potential as a writer. Around that time, I joined an online community called The Young Writer’s Club, which sadly no longer exists. That was hugely influential to my writing—I was able to get feedback on and comment on the work of other aspiring teenage writers across the world. I am still in touch with a few of the friends I made on that site more than a decade ago.

Treasure CoverNEWHow did you come up with the idea for Treasure?

I spent the summer volunteering at Little Brook Farm in 2009. I wanted to use my profession as a writer to help spread the word about the good work they were doing, but I wasn’t sure exactly how. At the time, I was working on a book for the Random House Horse Diaries series, which are all told from the horse’s point of view. From there, I had the idea to make up a story about the life of one of the Little Brook horses, based on the facts that were known. There were so many interesting horses on the farm that it was hard to pick just one, but I ended up settling on Treasure because she was such a sweet mare
who was so valuable to the farm despite being “just” a mixed-breed pony who had been saved from slaughter. I was also able to work in a lot of the other horses’ tales, because in my story the horses can talk to each other.

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Young rider with Treasure at Little Brook Farm

Can you tell us why you’re passionate about the charity you’re supporting with this book?

Little Brook Farm is the nation’s oldest horse rescue, established by Lynn Cross in 1977. They have rescued hundreds of horses, ponies, and other animals. People sometimes think that only sick, lame, or behaviorally difficult horses end up homeless or at slaughter auctions, but that is far from true. The farm has a number of rescued horses who have competed in eventing, dressage, and vaulting competitions. Some of these horses do need special care, but still make wonderful horses for pleasure riding or competition. I think it’s so important that people realize rescues are more than throwaway horses.

I also love that Little Brook Farm offers kids from a city environment the chance to experience farm life on class field trips. Lynn showed me some wonderful letters from people who visited the farm as children and wrote years later to say that one trip changed their lives and motivated them to do well in school or seek out careers working with animals. Horses reconnect us to a part of ourselves and our heritage that is easy to forget in a culture where most of our days are spent inside staring at screens or books. In the end, I believe horses help us as much as we help them.

Whitney, you’ve written other horse books. Can you tell us about those and about the research you did for them?

I have wrGOLDEN SUN jacket copyitten two books for the Random House Horse Diaries chapter book series, which my mother, Ruth Sanderson illustrated. Each book is about a different type of horse at the time when that breed was developed. Golden Sun tells the story of a Native American boy and an Appaloosa horse as they grow up on the western plains together in 1790. My second book in the series, Darcy, is about a Connemara pony working on an Irish farm in 1917.

Even though they are fairly simple stories, they required a lot of historical research. Something as simple as not knowing what the weather would be like at a certain time of year or what kind of tack a horse would be wearing can lead to a lot of frustration—because if you don’t get it right, the copyeditor will call you on it later!

In Golden Sun, I made the mistake of just guessing on some things that ended up not being correct, and then having to do a lot of revisions. With Darcy, I was careful to seek sources for anything I was unsure about. It’s one of the challenges of writing historical fiction. One of the benefits is that you end up learning a lot about topics you’d otherwise know nothing about, like Native American vision quests or farming in rural Ireland.

Can you tell us what you like best about horses? And are any of the books based on horses you’ve owned?

One of my favorite things about horses is how individual their personalities are. My Appaloosa, Thor, has a wise and calm disposition—I like to call him a horse philosopher. Another horse I owned, Gabriel, was kind of an equine Abercrombie model—very cute, a little sulky at times, and loved to be the center of attention. Both Thor and Gabe were actually models for two books in the Horse Diaries series—Golden Sun and Koda.Koda

My mother, Ruth Sanderson, takes really detailed photo reference for each illustration in the books, so she often has to set up scenes with various horses and people in costumes…it can be pretty involved. Thor took it all in stride when a bunch of people dressed in American Indian style clothing showed up at the stable to have their picture taken with him for Golden Sun, but Gabe seemed really excited to be in the quarter horse story, Koda. There was one scene where the girl in the book is sick, lying on the ground, and Koda is trying to get her to wake up. Gabe was really hamming it up, circling around and nuzzling her. I think he missed his calling as a Hollywood star. If they ever make the books into TV episodes, he’d be perfect!

You’ve alThe Black Stallionways loved horses–that’s clear. Did you also read horse stories growing up?

Yes, many of them. I read the Black Stallion books, the Thoroughbred series, and all of the Marguerite Henry books. But by far my favorite was The Saddle Club series by Bonnie Bryant. Until pretty recently you could throw out a random nuMistymber between one and a hundred, and I could tell you the title of that book in the series and describe the plot. When I was around nine, I wrote to Bonnie Bryant and was so excited when she wrote back—I kept the letter on my bulletin board for years. Now I sometimes get letters from readers of Horse Diaries, and it’s so cool to realize that kids are enjoying my books the way I once looked forward to the latest Saddle Club.saddle club

It’s awesome to think that maybe someday the fans of your books might end up as authors themselves. I hope you don’t mind answering a few more questions as I’m sure those eager readers would love to know more about their favorite author.

Where have you lived (or visited) and how has that influenced your work?

I grew up in Ware, Massachusetts, which is a pretty rural town. My family had a Victorian house with an old barn, and when I was about eight years old, my parents fixed it up so we could have horses on the property. It was wonderful to be able to go out and see the horses any time I wanted—although I was homeschooled, so it also probably contributed to my rushing through my work so I could get out to the barn faster. The English lessons mostly stuck because I liked reading and writing, but don’t try to quiz me on algebra!

As far as places I have traveled, I was able to visit Ireland with my mom and sister while I was researching Darcy. Being able to see the landscape and culture where the book was set made it so much easier to come up with authentic descriptions. I met a woman who owned Connemara ponies and ran thDarcy jacket copye local pony club for decades, and we got to take a wonderful ride along the windswept coast of Ireland. The internet can tell you a lot, but there is no substitute for visiting the place you are writing about.

Do you have any advice for anyone who dreams of becoming an author?

If you want to be an author, I would say become comfortable with the whole writing process that comes before publication. I tend to start a lot more projects than I finish, but I always feel a sense of pride when I have a completed manuscript that I have sent out to an agent or publisher, regardless of whether I ultimately sell it. Even if that particular work isn’t accepted, the rejections can teach you a lot about the process, and about what not to do. Even if you don’t sell your first story, or your second, just getting practice with carrying through a project from start to finish will serve you well when you finally hit on something that an editor thinks is gold.

What project(s) are you working on now?

I’m currently working on another Horse Rescue book, this time set at Blue Star Equiculture, a draft horse rescue in Palmer, MA. Another project I have in mind is a young adult series about a group of teenage girls who get into the sport of three-day eventing.

What super power do you wish you had?

The power to overcome writer’s block! Or to really be able to talk to horses instead of just imagining what they might say.

Do you have a funny story about when you were young?

Well, it’s funny in retrospect…Once, when I was about fourteen, I was riding on a trail with my friend on her 12-hand pony, Widget. There was a small tree fallen across the path, about 3 feet high. I jumped it with Thor, but Widget had second thoughts and ended up only half jumping it. So she was literally balanced on the tree on her stomach with her legs dangling above the ground. She couldn’t seem to get the leverage to move either way, and although she was surprisingly calm about it, we were worried she would panic and really injure herself.

I rode back to the barn for help, but my parents weren’t home and no one was around, so I left some incoherent note about Widget being stuck in a tree on the trail. Then I found a hand saw and a container of jellybeans and rode back into the park. People that I passed on the road gave me very strange looks. Fortunately, the hand saw turned out to be unnecessary, since Widget scrambled over the log as soon as she heard the container of jellybeans rattle. My friend and I decided the moral of that story was “always carry jellybeans in your pocket, because you never know when you might need to get a pony out of a tree.”

Thinking about your parents reading your note about a pony being stuck in a tree makes me laugh — now that I know you got her out safely. I’ll have to remember the jellybean trick. I never realized horses liked jellybeans.

What’s one thing you’ve always dreamed of doing?

Someday I’d like to be able to adopt a rescue horse—and I’ll know where to find one when that day comes!

Whitney on Thor

Whitney on Thor

About Whitney Sanderson:

Whitney Sanderson is the author of Horse Rescue: Treasure. 50% of the proceeds from the book will be donated to Little Brook Farm. Whitney is also the author of Horse Diaries: Golden Sun and Horse Diaries: Darcy, both from Random House. You can find out more about Whitney on her website and about how the various horses were photographed and painted on the Horse Diaries blog.

About the Interviewer:

WantedGraceandtheGuiltless_smA lifelong horse-lover, Laurie J. Edwards has an MA from Vermont College and is completing an MFA in Children’s Writing and Illustrating at Hollins University. With more than 2200 articles and a dozen books in print, she is the author of the young adult Western, Grace and the Guiltless (Capstone, 2014), about an orphaned teen whose only friend is her horse. Laurie would love to connect with readers on Facebook and Twitter, or visit her blog.

Treasure CoverNEWTo win a copy of Horse Rescue: Treasure, leave a comment below. Share this post on Facebook and Twitter and let us know for extra chances to win. Winner will be chosen on January 3, 2014.

 

Congratulations to Debbie McLeod, the winner of the free copy of Treasure!