6 Steps to Never being published

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Things You’ll Need:

• Procrastination
• Too much pride
• No discipline
• No effort
• Many phone calls to publishers
• Certain literary elements

Step 1:
For children's literature, make the moral of the story really obvious. Just state it at the end. How about at the beginning and middle too? Remember, you want to TEACH those kids something. That's your purpose. Featuring talking animals as your characters can also be an easy way to have your work rejected by many publishers.

Step 2:
For children's magazines, rely on your own personal memories and nostalgia to write your stories. Pay no attention to the real world of children today, with its new technological realities, etc. In fact, just depict that wholesome Dick and Jane 1950s childhood and pretend that time has frozen. The kids today will just have to deal with it!

Step 3:
For adult literature, especially fiction, don't get an agent. Don't even consider it. Figure that your work is so good you don't need one. Also, put off doing today what you can do tomorrow. Let your addictions take over. Whatever you do, eat or drink or surf the Internet, but don't sit down and work on that manuscript.

Step 4:
For children's poetry, try some really complicated meters and subtle half-rhymes or sight rhymes. Go for a very serious theme. Inject absolutely no humor into the work. (What was Dr. Seuss thinking?) For adult poetry, write something totally obscure that is comprehensible to yourself and only to yourself. No one needs to understand what is actually going on.

Step 5:
Email, or better yet phone the editor or publisher over and over again after submitting an unsolicited manuscript. They love to be hounded. Be sure that this is the most effective way to get your work noticed and read.

Step 6:
For all types of writing, just give up on the dream. It'll never happen anyway.

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Literary Genres

Monday, September 12, 2005

Genres in Fiction: 

“Genre” is the term used to describe the various types of literature.

            “Genre is a French term derived from the Latin genus, generis, meaning "type,"

            "sort," or "kind." It designates the literary form or type into which works are

            classified according to what they have in common, either in their formal

            structures or in their treatment of subject matter, or both. The study of genres

            may be of value in three ways. On the simplest level, grouping works offers us

            an orderly way to talk about an otherwise bewildering number of literary texts.

            More importantly, if we recognize the genre of a text, we may also have a better

            idea of its intended overall structure and/or subject. Finally, a genre approach

            can deepen our sense of the value of any single text, by allowing us to view it

            comparatively, alongside many other texts of its type.”

                        http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/genres.

Fiction includes stories that are made up in the mind of the author.  They are “make-believe” or imaginary.  The stories are not true, although they may be based on truth, including scientific, historical, or geographic fact. 

Some of the major subdivisions of fiction are realistic fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy. 

·         Realistic fiction includes stories that seem like real life, and stories that could happen in today’s world.  The situations are true to life or could be true, but the characters are made up. 

o    Adventure stories are a type of realistic fiction that are exciting and usually have an aspect of peril, threat, or danger.  Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, is an adventure story.

o    Mystery stories are also a type of realistic fiction that include an element of suspense and secrecy. Something puzzling usually needs solving and a crime is frequently involved.  There are typically  good guys and bad guys.  Examples are The Dark Stairs, by Betsy Byars and Nate the Great, by Marjorie Sharmat. 

o    Humorous stories refer to stories that are primarily intended to entertain and amuse. Events are frequently exaggerated. An example is Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen. These may also include family stories such as Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume and school stories such as The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Veronica Robinson.

·         Historical fiction includes stories that take place in the past and that are based on historical fact. Usually the setting and the events in the story are close to the facts, but the characters are made up. However, historical fiction may include real people as characters.  Examples of books with real people included among the characters are Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes and I, Juan de Pareja, by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino.  War stories and biographical fiction are types of historical fiction.

o    War stories are historical fiction books set during a period of war and conflict.  Examples are Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry, and Baseball Saved Us, by Ken Mochizuki.

o    Biographical fiction includes stories in which the main character is one who really lived in an earlier period of history.  The “Dear America” and “My Name Is America” series are biographical fiction stories written in a journal style. 

           

·          Fantasy books are make believe stories that are so fantastic that they can't possibly be true. They often include animals behaving like people. Examples are James and the Giant Peach, by Raold Dahl and The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, by Louis Carroll. 

o    Fantasy animal stories are stories in which the animals are given human characteristics, such as wearing clothing, speaking or making decisions.  Examples are Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White; Babe the Gallant Pig, by Dick King-Smith and Clifford, the Big Red Dog, by Norman Bridwell.

o    Ghost stories or supernatural fiction are stories in which one or more of the characters may be visitors from the spirit world.   Examples are Jade Green, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor; and Wait Till Helen Comes, by Mary Hahn.

o    Time fantasy and space fiction are fantasy stories in which the characters travel back and/or forward in time. Examples are Time Train, by Sid Fleischman and The Castle in the Attic, by Elizabeth Winthrop.

o    Science fiction includes stories that are based on scientific fact. It can include space fiction and time travel.  In time travel and space fiction, the characters travel back and/or forward in time. In stories for children, the characters often begin in the real world, go off on their adventure, and then return to the real world.  The author tries to make the facts as realistic as possible so the reader believes the event could actually take place. Although fantastic, science fiction contains elements within the realm of possibility because of scientific discovery.  Examples are The Giver, by Lois Lowry; Running Out of Time, by Margaret Haddix; and A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle.

o    High fantasy series are stories that are epic in nature, usually include a quest of some sort that continues over many volumes, including many that echo the Arthurian quests for truth and justice.  Series such as C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series, Lloyd Alexander’s Prydian cycle, and Jane Yolen’s "Young Merlin" series are in that category.  The Star Wars saga and the Harry Potter series are also in this genre.

·         Nonfiction books are books are factual books, and are usually classified with Dewey Decimal numbers There are some special genres within the nonfiction category, such as biography, poetry, drama, and folk or traditional literature. 

o    Biographies are, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, “the history of the lives of individual men and women as a branch of literature.”  Biographies for children differ somewhat from biographies for adults.  For example, they don’t usually include footnotes, although modern biographies for children usually include a bibliography of sources. Whereas fictionalized biographies are included in historical fiction, factual, authentic depictions of a person's real life story are biographies. Collective biographies are books that group short chapter-length biographies together around a theme.  For example,  Black Stars in Orbit, by Khephra Burns, a collective biography of black astronauts.   Biographies are written by persons other than the subject of the story, whereas autobiographies are books people write about their own lives. 

o    Poetry includes single, illustrated poems (such as Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, illustrated by Susan Jeffers) and collections of poetry by one poet (such as Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein) or collections of many poets’ works compiled by an editor (such as For Laughing Out Louder, edited by Jack Prelutsky). 

o    Drama includes works written in dramatic form.  Books can include collections of short plays or book-length plays, such as the works of Shakespeare. 

o    Folk literature or traditional literature includes stories that have been passed down from generation to generation.  Myths are stories of the gods and heroes of ancient times, and are sometimes classified in the religion section of the Dewey Decimal Classification System (292), whereas folktales, folk riddles, nursery rhymes and Mother Goose are classified in 398, 398.2, or 398.21.  These stories often contain elements of cultural identity, such as traditions, cultural mores, and rituals.  Sometimes, elements of religious belief of the people are included.   Epics are long stories that originate as poetry or song and that celebrate a national hero.  Beowulf  and El Cid are epics, as are The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer.   Hero stories and legends include the American tall tales, such as stories of Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill.  Tall tales usually include hyperbole, or exaggeration, about the hero.  European hero stories and legends include stories of Robin Hood and King Arthur and his knights, many including elements of mythology within the stories.

o    Fables includes narration demonstrating a useful truth, especially in which animals speak as humans.  A legendary, supernatural tale.

·         Cross-genre books are books that fall into more than one category. A book may be a mystery fantasy; or a historical fiction time travel story.  An example is The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, that is a story that includes time travel back to the Holocaust while the main character lives in modern times.

Websites about Genres:

Bizic, Mim (Librarian, Quaker Valley School District, Sewickley, PA):  http://www.qvsd.org/Teacher%20Pages/bizicm/genres.html

Gabb, Carolyn:  http://www.drgabb.com/AA_GABBHOME/Childrens_Literature/genres/indexpage_genres.html

“Genreflecting”:  http://www.genreflecting.com/

 “Helping Children Understand Literary Genres.” ERIC Digest.  ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English,   and Communication, Indiana University, 2805 E. 10th St., Suite 150, Bloomington, IN               47408-2698.

Genre Lesson Ideas:

All genres:

Students complete library search worksheets using the online catalog to identify up to five other books related to a specific genre that they would like to read in the future.

Fantasy:

The children make and bring to the library/classroom an object from their book that has magical powers and write about how it fits into the story. For example, a magic wand that they made, a book, a slipper. This works if the teacher can follow up in the classroom to remind them.

Historical Fiction:

Students create timelines of ten events that really happened in history at the time the book takes place. They could be events that happened in the book.

Mystery:

Make up clues for several groups.  The clue for each group led to another clue somewhere in the library.  When the students found the second clue, it led them to a mystery book on the shelf.  They pulled it and sit down until everyone has finished.  Read the titles of all the books found and ask what these books have in common.  Show students a poster with criteria for a good mystery book:

    -Characters are well developed.

    -Reader can solve mystery along with main character because all clues are given

    -Plot engages the reader and propels the reader on through the book.

    -The mystery is solved at end of the book.

Professional Books about Genres:

Asher, Sandy, ed. But That's Another Story: Famous Authors Introduce Popular Genres.  NY:

            Walker Publishing Co, 1996.

Buss, Kathleen, and Karnowski, Lee.  Reading and Writing Literary Genres.  International Reading

               Association, 2000.

Fletcher, Ralph, and Portalupi, Joann.  Craft Lessons:  Teaching Writing K-8.  Stenhouse Publishers,

               1998.

Fountas, Irene C., and Pinnell, Gay Su.  Guiding Readers and Writers (Grades 3-6):  Teaching

               Comprehension, Genre, and Content Literacy.  Heinemann, 2001.

Harvey, Stephanie.  Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in Grades 3-8.  Stenhouse

               Publishers, 1998.

_____, and Goudvis, Anne.  Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance

Understanding.  Stenhouse Publishers, 2000.

McCarthy, Tara.  Teaching Genre (Grades 4-8).  Scholastic, 1999.

_____.  Teaching Genre:  Biography (Grades 4-8).  Scholastic, 2001.

_____.  Teaching Genre:  Historical Fiction (Grades 4-8).  Scholastic, 2001.

_____.  Teaching Genre:  Humorous Fiction (Grades 4-8).  Scholastic, 2001.

_____.  Teaching Genre:  Journals & Diaries (Grades 4-8).  Scholastic, 2001.

_____.  Teaching Genre:  Mysteries (Grades 4-8).  Scholastic, 2001.

_____.  Teaching Genre:  Myths and Legends (Grades 4-8).  Scholastic, 2001.

Portapouli, Joanne, and Fletcher, Ralph J.  Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Information Writing

               K-8.  Stenhouse Publishers, 2001.

Withington, Janice J. Genres of Literature: Thematic Study Guides & Bibliographies.  Torrance, CA:

            Good Apple, 1996.

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Why Nations Go to War - A book Review

Thursday, June 2, 2005

The book of Stoessinger Why Nations Go to War opened very many historical facts that were in shadow until today.


Starting from the introduction part I have already noticed the author’s unusual approach to the matter. Looking for a deeper understanding of insight he realized that it can be a pattern leading to its healing. Also a very deep thought making him to develop an idea that usually during the discussions about war the fundamental feature of human essence of the problem was always being anticipated. The questions that he’s asking in the beginning are very useful as during the reading we already have a problem that we’re going to find a salvation mixed with codified information which will be clear at the end.

I think that if I answer to several aroused questions my mission to disguise this book will be more efficient and organized.

The first question is at which particular factors or components can be viewed as a cause of starting a war. The first and the most apparent reason for this will be the ambitions of the leader mostly being executed from the self concentrated position. Those ambitions or actions at all can be derived from different consequences. I will share the opinion of the author that in general it’s the fear that dominates during such important decision making processes as going to war. That preoccupied state of mind rather than conscious makes them to take desperate steps trying to do everything which will help them to escape it.

As a vivid example we can take the Kaiser’s decision to support Austria –Hungry which proved his misunderstanding between such fazes as political verdict and personal moral values. His idealistic conclusions weren’t precise on behalf what he named it Nibelungentreue.

In general my point is that all the war roots were deep in the statesman’s misleading observations about the real potential of the opponent and whether the second state-actor should be considered as an opponent or not.

Another although not less significant factors of the cause of war are religious conflicts. Among them the most brutal as well as continual in the twentieth century is Hindu against Moslem. As to me this type of war- provocation is just an “excuse” to privilege.

Other war-stimulators are considered to be territorial claims, economic imbalance, and nationalist aspirations, nuclear or simply weapon competition etc.

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Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Reading a book by Chuck Klosterman is like reading a letter from your best friend. Like any of your friends, you may not agree with everything he says, or even care about everything he’s talking about, but Chuck doesn’t care and neither do you because he writes in such a way that makes you feel comfortable, entertained, and like you want to keep him as your friend.

The book reads somewhat like a comedian’s monologue. But it’s an unexpected comedic path you’re led down. Indeed, some parts of it will suddenly make you giggle or cackle when you least expect it. It’s like being jumped out at from behind the corner of a dark alley, but instead of a knife the perpetrator squirts a water pistol and you’re startled into laughter. Killing Yourself to Live is a non-fiction book. Mostly non-fiction, that is. It’s subtitled 85% of a True Story, giving Chuck a fifteen percent margin of error for details and conversation recall. The subtitle is meant to be humorous but it also sets an irony for the tale Chuck is about to unfold. By stating upfront that his book is only partially true it becomes more true and hence a more believable and visceral experience than other “non-fiction” books.

Like in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck’s previous book, Killing Yourself to Live examines the world under a pop culture microscope. But unlike Cocoa Puffs, which is a series of essays on different topics, Killing Yourself is strung together by a thematic road-trip Chuck takes from New York to Seattle. He stops at various towns along the way, small and large, to visit places where rock musicians breathed their last breath. That’s right, dead rock n’ rollers. After going into a diatribe about packing, Chuck states early on in the book, “Let me begin by saying this: Death is a part of life. Generally, it’s the shortest part of life, usually occurring near the end. However, this is not necessarily true for rock stars; sometimes rock starts don’t start living until they die. I want to understand why that is.” And so Chuck invites us along shotgun, with a humorous gesture you can’t resist, on his journey of deceased musical icon exploration. That in itself would be enough subject matter for the average pop culture book, but Chuck goes beyond that (or should I say egresses that?) and shares with us, among other interesting and humorous social commentaries, intimate details about his own life, most predominately being the various women in his life. Like a kind of Eagles song subject matter, Chuck digresses into long sections about the loves of his life, past, present and future. It’s off the track of the book’s main subject matter, yes, but it’s so voyeuristic in a literary sense that we don’t care. More importantly, it endears Chuck to us the readers and makes us trust what else he has to say.

The book is subdivided into the days of his trip, wherein each chapter is the current trip day. You might think you’d find yourself wondering in a book about dead rock stars why is the author taking time to tell us about his football practice glory days, the Arkansas Victory Television Network, his adoration of KISS, how to get high with a drinking straw and a car cigarette lighter, how Radiohead’s Kid A predicted the events of September 11th, or about his semi-annual “strange summers”, but Klosterman writes in such a reader friendly free-flow style that it all seems to coalesce into a unified whole. At the beginning of the chapter titled The Eighth Day, eight days into his road trip, Chuck writes: “You know what’s the best part of driving by yourself? Talk radio. Talk Radio offers no genuine insight about anything, but I always feel like I am learning something; I always feel like I suddenly understand all the people I normally can’t relate to at all.” This, and other digressive passages, like death itself, seems perfectly natural in Chuck’s writing voice.

Chuck does adhere to a structure throughout though. There’s plenty of factual and opinion related material in regards to non-living music makers. (Cobain, Michael Hutchence, Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson, and yes, Elvis too.) In the middle he states: “So here is the big question: Is dying good for your career? Cynics always assume that it is, but I’m not so sure anymore. And now that I’ve been to Memphis, I’m not sure if I even care.” And neither do we. By this time, so imbued with Chuck’s rambling journey as we are, we’ve forgotten what this trip was supposed to be about. We just want to read some more from our friend.

In the end, Chuck makes no conclusions, has no epiphany, and doesn’t sum up any findings about why the death of a rock star makes them the admired rock star they are. Instead Chuck only laments about his eventual loss of love and what death of love or life means to him. Suggesting that any posthumous popularity that comes from anyone’s death, rock star or not, is up to the individual. George Harrison probably said it best when he sang, “Life goes on within you and without you.” Although he ends on a sad but quirky chord, it’s exactly consistent with what we have come to expect from Chuck. And in a book that examines death, an ending of flowers and sweetness would seem out of place.

Killing Yourself to Live is a fun, funny, and fundamental read. Chuck’s jovial observations about life, death, and love will keep you reading and smiling. The book’s subtitle is 85% of a True Story. This mostly non-fiction tale has a cinematic milieu to it. Don’t be surprised if you see Killing Yourself to Live splashed across the marquee of your local milliplex in the near future.

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