Author, Professor, Blogger, and Huffington Post writer
An argument for more arts and creativity education for the 21st Century.
Step 1. Review the opening ceremony. Go to www.nbcolympics.com, scroll down to video, if you need a refresher or didn’t get to see it the first go round.
Step 2. Watch Did You Know? on youtube.
Any questions?
Bye y’all,
SV
Dog days, too, but there is much to celebrate in our family in August, as that is when my mother and both my sons were born (my uncle and sister-in-law too, I might add). Not surprising when you consider that August has the highest number of births of all the months of the year. Really, it’s true. You can look it up.
Wednesday, we feted my mother with a lunch out at Boscos at the River Market in Little Rock. But let me back up a bit to show you how this wordamour family celebrates a birthday. First, we stopped at the Main Branch of the Little Rock library where we trolled the shelves for the newest fiction, non fiction and manga releases and walked out carrying books up to our chins. We LOVE this library.
So, we had to put the books in the car first and then head over to Boscos, where lunch was delicious but, to my tween’s chagrin, the macaroni and cheese was the real stuff and not Kraft. Oh well, that was $6.95 down the drain. But I digress.
Next, was the Cox Creative Center across the street, a huge gently-used bookstore and cool gift depository we wandered for another forty five minutes–emerging with another smaller pile of tomes. Sadly enough, when we asked if they knew of any other used bookstores in the area, so we could continue our tour, we were told that there were no other used bookstores left in Little Rock. They suggested some in Conway. But since we’re from Conway, and can go to those bookstores any old time, we decided to head for . . .
West Little Rock to finish up at Barnes and Noble. On the way there, both kids discussed what kinds of books they wanted to buy when they got there. “You know, ” I remarked dutifully, “just because we’re going to a bookstore doesn’t automatically mean you’re getting one.” “I know, I know,” they said, just as dutifully, humoring me all the while because they understand that in our family, unlike any other retail outlet, if we stop at a book store, it pretty much does mean you’re getting one. I just had to say the other stuff to keep up my image as a not too indulgent mama.
We all walked out happy, me with the newest Artful Blogging (which profiled two of my faves, Inspire Company and SouleMama) and Jill Butler’s Wandering Paris, the kids with their manga, and my mom with some education books (not very fun I know, but she’s getting ready to take over the helm of a k-8 private school in NLR so she’s gearing up).
Today is my tween’s birthday–and he is still a tween but not for much longer. He is pretty much as tall as me now. Sigh. It seems like only yesterday he was chomping on his winnie-the-pooh paci like a cigar. This growing up stuff is hard on parents. Anyway, the plan today is lunch at his restaurant of choice, school supply shopping, bowling, and a family dinner at his restaurant of choice. And gifts of course, more books, books books– The Time Traveler’s Journal, The DaVinci Kit and a subscription to shonen jump.
A day spent with family and books equals a day well spent!
Bye y’all,
SV
PS I just discovered my book, (with Kelly Ritter) on EBAY of all places. No kidding, the bidding is open until August 12. Check it out here. But god forbid, if you want to buy it, go to Barnes and Noble.com , it’s almost 4 dollars less. Sorry Ebay–but if it’s sold by a reseller, our sales don’t go up at all and we need every single sale we can get. Not that we get any money at all from it, we don’t; it was our first book and Heinemann was calling the shots. But if we want to publish any more, we need decent sales.
But Ebay . . . as an Ebayer myself, I find that weirdly exciting.
I’m back. . .from computer hell of sorts, a period of over one month during which, in the effort to change my template to something more interesting on wordpress, I screwed it up almost beyond recognition. Think black background with red font or, even worse, two templates superimposed, one on the other. Result: illegible. To quote the gynecologist upon finishing my surgery, “it was a mess in there.” Rather than inflict that on you, gentle readers, I have been lying low until the kinks were worked out. Now, thanks to my blogging queen friend, Monda, and a support guy at wordpress named Nick, I’m back in the game.
Monda, and most of the rest of my readers who voted, would probably say serves you right for not moving to blogger.com. And they would be correct, however, after I gave it a lot of thought . . .
I decided against the move. For a number of random and not-so-random reasons, such as:
1. I still like wordamour as a title and initially chose it to go with wordpress.
2. I have an essay coming out in a collection in a few months (more on that in posts to come) and the bio lists my blog address at wordpress.
3. I had a lot of trouble (what’s new) importing the contents of this blog over to blogger.
4. I’ve been reading a book about blogging that is really big on wordpress.
5. In a moment of weakness, I forked over $15 for some custom features so I might as well stay here.
6. Transitions and change are not my forte.
7. Good ol’ Nick at wordpress support. Wouldn’t want his efforts to go to waste.
So I’ve found a way to make my template a little more personal and I’m going to stick around here for awhile.
Lots to catch you up on. Since I last posted, I have had some great adventures in Nebraska and Kansas City, and I haven’t even had time to post about my New York trip yet. Expect a few posts on my travels that won’t be completely unrelated to writing, either. And more book reviews and thoughts on writing and teaching as I distill my summer experiences with various writing project adventures and gear up toward the new school year. I’m also looking forward to some fun new giveaways!
It’s good to be back!
Bye y’all,
SV
Word has it that blogger.com will allow me far greater creativity in designing my blog. I’ll let you know if any when I officially move. In the meantime, if you have any feedback as to whether I should go for it, feel free to comment. . .
Bye y’all
SV
Fifteen years ago, on a day that began misty and rainy, eventually clearing to blue skies and bright sun, I married the love of my life at Holy Spirit Church in my hometown of East Greenbush, NY (right outside Albany).
Our reception was at the Canfield Casino (click on the link, the picture to the right is the ballroom) in Congress Park, Saratoga Springs, NY. Recently, on our trip East (more on that in posts to follow), we had the opportunity to stop and glance in at the Casino for old times sake. The picture above is a recreation of a picture taken at the wedding in the Congress Park gazebo. If I could find it, I’d post it here. Imagine me in an early 90’s wedding dress, grinning like there’s no tomorrow, along with my black-evencoat-tuxedo-clad husband, John, in the exact same setting, virtually the same pose–well, I was in heels then so I didn’t look quite so much shorter than him. Only we’re 15 years younger. One of our kids took this picture for us.
Fifteen years ago.
Just the beginning.
Happy Anniversary, John and, thank you for making this journey so wonderful.
Bye y’all,
SV
The National Writing Project of Central Arkansas Summer Institute started today and I was the keeper of the log, so I thought I’d turn it into a weblog post. So, here’s a snapshot of our first day:
Kristy Carter had the goods on graduate credit and the goody bags.
Jane draws a mean starfish!
Mike’s log announced the “new arrivals” and then read from The Right to Write after the warm-up.
After the warm-up, Renee read about feeling intimidated and unsure, thanks to Mr. Nasty Red Pen. Shame, shame, shame on you, Mr. Nasty Red pen.
Janice wrote about having an out of body experience and just wanting to write for herself. We’re with you, Janice!
Verlyn told us how she ended up with a splint on her finger–the important part is, there are popsicles involved!
Monda warned us about the orange pens.
Mike began his meta shareshop with stories about superglue and poison ivy. He also says he’s flexible. Remember, you read it here first, folks!
Then we made life maps, with all sorts of twists and turns.
Janet’s map shows how she was destined to be a teacher.
Carolyn’s map shows how she’s gone to heaven as far as teaching.
Sandra read about championship softball, Jessica McClintock gowns (!) and Chateau trailer parks, while Verlyn remembers Texas but the chicken best of all.
Mike told us the story of his scars.
Barbara came full circle at Big Creek, Renee recreated the 70’s (again), Janet remembered her fishery and Nan reminded us:
“It takes all our life experiences happening just the way they did to get us to where we are now.”
Thanks, Nan.
Bye, y’all
SV
I have been revisiting Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write, which I first read in 2006, and remembering how much I liked it. I love her “writing for all” philosophy and her writing warm ups. Some more quotes:
“If words give us power, when do we start to lose our power over words? When do we start to feel that some of us are “good” at language and even have a shot at being ‘writers’ while the rest of us just happen to use it and don’t dare consider ourselves in that league” (2)
“I believe what we want to write wants to be written. I believe that as I have the impuse to create, the something I want to create has an impulse to want to be born.” (18)
I recently did one of her extended prompts, the hot list, to mine some ideas for writing. I encourage you to do it yourself and write in your own answers. Consider yourself tagged!
What three topics do you often read about?
1. Education/test scores/writing
2. The presidential race
3. creativity
What three topics do you often think about?
1. God and prayer
2. Creativity and writing
3. parenting
What are five of your favorite books? (I tried to be current here and skipped War and Peace, etc..)
1. At the Children’s Gate by Adam Gopnik
2. From Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
3. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
4. Masters of Make Believe by Leonard S. Marcus
5. Creating a Life Worth Living by Carol Loyd
What do these books have in common?
They’re creative nonfiction, about kids, parenting, France, New York, nostalgia and romance.
What are your five favorite movies?
1. Moonstruck
2. Chocolat
3. Polar Express
4. Diner
5. October Sky
What do your movies have in common with your books?They’re also romantic, nostalgic, about New York and France.
What is your favorite fairy tale?
The elves and the shoemaker.
What is your favorite children’s book?
Corderoy by Don Freeman
Corderoy is such an optimist!
What do your favorite fairy tale and childhood book have in common?They’re both about secret things that happen at night. They’re both about the forces of “fate” acting to help someone.
List five topics you are currently thinking about?
1. blogging
2. junking
3. traveling
4. writing
5. mental health
Which topics feel “hot” now?blogging
junking-writing
This week I am in Northwest Arkansas (the Western Arkansas Education Service Cooperative in Branch, to be exact) facilitating a writing workshop for teachers. Oh, what a week this has been. I have heard some extraordinary writing, from clearly gifted writers and teachers. There is nothing like the exhilaration from hearing the stories of others, stories begging to be written, needing to be written. Everyone has been so enthusiastic too–overall just a wonderful experience. I hate that it has to end. I hope some of these teachers consider applying to attend our writing project summer institute or the one in Fayetteville.
Then there was Claire Pence, the workshop coordinator. Everyone should have a Claire in their life. We love Claire!
This morning we did a workshop on heart maps (check out something similar here at twowriting teachers.com) and Monda led us in a workshop on I am poems. We were to take an image from the list below (or come up with our own) and write about who we were as that object. You could take it all sorts of different directions, such as finding a metaphor for someone close to you and writing about them.
Here are the metaphors:
I am:
a hammer, a broken screen door, a seed tick, the river, a closed fist, an oar out of water, a pair of boots, the rain, the circus freak, a tick, a chain stitcher among tapestry makers, a pick up truck, a three legged dog, a relic, the energizer bunny, an open book, a closed book, the wind, a storm, darkness, sunshine.
Why don’t you try your own? Here’s mine:
I am
A long, long book.
Open
to the first page.
You may wrinkle your nose: Too many
pages. Too many words, too close together.
Not enough pictures.
But I promise,
if you keep reading, keep turning
my pages, I will return your attentions, give back
everything you gave to me.
And I keep
my promises.
Stephanie Vanderslice
Bye y’all. Happy writing!
SV
So we arrived home today to find the contract from Florida Academic Press. Two pages single spaced, a lot of typical stuff, until the very last item, which asked the author to remit $2,500, with another $1,500 guaranteed a month before publication, along with the contract.
After several emails had gone back and forth in which my husband was led to believe his submission had been selected for publication by this press in the traditional manner, this was the first we heard of money changing hands.
Upon further investigation, we found the press on Preditors and Editors, an online site designed to warn writers of vanity presses. Look it up under F in the Book Publishers section on the site.
After more investigation we learned that Sam Decalo, the publisher, appears to be an academic who once published books from Yale University Press. One would think a person with this kind of background would be above such practices.
One would be wrong.
At last, I can tell the happy news. Not only did my husband just get tenure, but he just received word that his comic novel, his first [published] novel, Burnt Norway, has been accepted for publication by Florida Academic Press.
I could not be more thrilled. Not only is Burnt Norway a hilarious romp that now, people are finally going to get to enjoy, but this has been a long time coming to one of the hardest working writers I know! And the best!
Well, it’s possible I might be biased on that last part (but soon you’ll have a chance to judge for yourself!) But not on the hard working part. As anyone who’s ever driven by our house at 4:30 am and seen the light on can attest!!!
Since it’s a small press, I have appointed myself his publicity director! In my first act in this capacity, I am announcing another giveaway. I will be conducting a drawing for 3 $25 Barnes and Noble gift cards from anyone who announces the news on their blog or website and lets me know about it between June 10 and July 30th. I’ll put a few sentences that can be cut and pasted below to make it easier. In addition, I’ll be offering lots more publicity prizes and opportunities in the future.
Bye y’all
SV
Fiction writer John Vanderslice (not to be confused with the Indie songster of the same name) announces the publication of his first novel, Burnt Norway, with Florida Academic Press. Vanderslice has published numerous short stories in journals such as Crazyhorse and the South Carolina Review and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, but this is his first published book. A comic, metafictional romance (or, novel within a novel), Burnt Norway will be published sometime in the fall as an inaugural book in their New Voices series and will be available online and through various other sources. Look for more updates soon.
Author, Professor, Blogger, and Huffington Post writer. Stephanie Vanderslice aims to write what she likes to read: fiction and nonfiction that spins a web to lure the reader in. Read More…