In preparation for an upcoming 4-week club for kids that I'll be hosting, I created a book trailer for A Dog Called Homeless, winner of the 2013 Middle Grade Schneider Family Book Award, The Schneider Family Book Awards "honor an author or illustrator for the artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences."
A Dog Called Homeless is written by Sarah Lean and published by Harper Collins. I hope you enjoy it.
I'll be adding this to my
Multimedia Booktalks page.
I'm digging deeper into the psyche of my character. My second chapter is weak. I spent a good bit of Sunday in research. I started on flickr to find pictures of my characters and her siblings, which I've never done before. It was fun and seemed to make them more real to me. But then I got distracted and typed in selective mutism (SM) in the subject line. And I was off!
Reading post after post of a father who has a son with SM. So frustrating for that family. Soon I was back on various SM sites re-reading, making notes, writing questions. I'm so consumed by this book, this idea. I wish I could walk around for a day in the shoes of someone who has SM to really feel what it's like. To feel their fears, hear their voices.
Actually, my wish may be granted. Several years ago I was diagnosed as having vocal nodules. It's like calluses on your vocal chords,a common affliction of teachers. I opted not to have surgery since I know a friend who chose that route and is now perpetually hoarse due to scar tissue. Although I never did quite get my solo singing voice back, I was able to recover. But with the group of students I have this year, it's like that class of 2000 all over again and I'm hoarse again. I can barely talk. Too much stress.
It started Monday with the pine pollen, or oak pollen, or the whatever-the-heck-kind-of-pollen it is in Florida. Yesterday it got worse all day. Today was early release, thank goodness. But the really frustrating part was that this was the day I got to meet CB's therapists and their supervisor! They were very patient and answered my questions as best they could. So little data has been gathered on SM.
I know I need to just write the darn book. I know that.
Soon, my crit buddies will be expecting 20 bright, shiny, new pages. But I don't want to waste their time either, like I did on the second chapter of what they have now. So much needs to be strengthened. So much is not coming through. It's crucial that the emotions of my main character be authentic. And it's just as crucial that my reader understand what my character is feeling. They will not naturally expect her emotions and fear in the circumstances given, so I have to make her emotions and demeanor totally clear, remaining true to what she is feeling at all times.
So, I shall just forge onward. I'll put words on the page, knowing I'll get lost, meandering down blind alleys, crossing paths of what I've already written about, going off on tangents that lead no where, and, hopefully, somewhere along the line I'll begin to make sense. And if I'm very lucky, my new crit buddies will be forgiving of the construction delays and snafus along the route.
Not kidding! Some recent work issues had sucked the creative energy right out of me. But I found it again walking the floors of Walmart with my student from last year who has selective mutism. She's supposed to be practicing talking to random strangers. So, to start, I ran into a couple from my church's prayer shawl ministry in the parking lot. They were leaving as we arrived and were parked directly in front of us. As the wife and I began to chat, I noticed C sort of hiding behind my passenger door. I called her over and introduced her to my friends...and...she said hello to the husband! Sweet! Guess we could have left then, but I still needed to shop. Inside she spoke to three or four other people, none of whom I heard respond back, although I did see the guy in the wheelchair nod in response. We were there for almost 4 hours because we ran into another former student of mine, a friend of C's, and talked for a while. We walked and talked about my book. I asked questions and took notes. She laughed at me. A lot. :)
Then, a little girl, probably 9 or 10, came up to us and asked us if we'd seen her sister. I didn't answer, but instead looked at C. And she answered her! Very cool!
But wait! There's more! (The Lord does work in mysterious ways!) I have this extra roll of contact paper that I've been hauling around in the Durango since the conference. Every time I go to Walmart, I forget to take it in for a refund.So I took it in tonight. And the last think C. did tonight, was to take the roll to the customer service counter and get a refund. All by herself! Yes! Now THAT'S what I'm talking 'bout!
I've been silent here for so long you probably wonder if I'm even writing any more...if you even think of me at all. Sniff. Sniff. My apologies. I have been busy. Last fall's football season was insane. I think I posted about that. So when I had spare time I did not choose to spend it here, sorry, but instead spent it rewriting my YA. Since coming back from the Fla. SCBWI Miami Conference, I have been busy writing, jotting notes in my notebook, writing on my shower wall, and researching. Loving it.
So, I thought I'd share the query with you. I know, I've only just begun writing the book. Why the query already? Heck if I know. It's what came out. I wanted the synopsis, but my brain gave me the query instead. Why am I sharing it? First, to let you know I am still part of the writing world and I will one day be published. And two, because I guess I'm hoping to confirm what I believe to be true. You will be intrigued.
Most wonderful Editor/Agent:
Imagine:
· Not being able to ask your teacher to go to the bathroom,
· Not being able to order your food at a restaurant,
· Not being able to tell your doctor where it hurts,
· And being so afraid to speak in public that someone else must speak for you.
You have just imagined Jessica’s real world. Like any normal eighth grader, Jessica wants to know the secret to making her eyes pop and her hair curl so Chandler will notice her. She also wants to be able to play a flute solo at band contest. But no way could Jessica talk to the woodwind judge, much less Chandler, because Jessica has selective mutism. For as long as she can remember, she has been unable to speak anywhere but at home. Her teachers all think she’s just shy. “She’ll eventually grow out of it,” they say. But Jessica knows it’s much more difficult than that. MUTED, a #####-word middle grade novel, is Jessica’s story of how she found her voice with the help of a parade of counselors, one teacher, and a game called Taboo.
I have been an eighth grade math teacher for over twenty years and recently taught a student with selective mutism, which is more common than autism, occurring in as many as 7 out of every 1000 children. I wrote MUTED as a tribute to the incredible courage of my student with the hope that it will help increase public awareness of this debilitating disorder, since the single most important factor in treating selective mutism is diagnosing it. Although MUTED is based, in part, on actual events, it is a work of fiction. The market is significantly lacking in fiction that addresses this issue. I have been an active member of SCBWI since 2004. May I send you a copy of my manuscript?
Sincerely,
Cana Rensberger
Feeling much better, thank you. :) Hubby thinks I had salmonella poisoning. Whatever it was, I don't ever want it again. Last night I piddled around with my MySpace. It's been forever since I changed my profile. I was feeling a bit Christmassy. Chatted with a couple of students.
Speaking of students, I have great news. Remember my student from last year that has selective mutism? She invited me to come hear her sing a solo in church last Sunday. She did a beautiful job. But that's not the really big news. She did a PowerPoint presentation Wednesday in her world geography class. That's sooo huge! She and my son both practiced their presentations in my classroom Tuesday afternoon. They each had been assigned a state and they had to "sell" it to their classmates. The presentation had to be 20-30 slides long. And they couldn't just read the slide. They were to use lots of pictures and talk about them. My son's state was Indiana. (He loves Indiana.) Hers was Deleware.
She! Did! It!
I am so proud of her. This time last year she only spoke to two students at school and never spoke in class at all. I'll say it again. She's a truly amazing young lady.
Lastly, I'll leave you with this video. I'm a geek in many ways, but science is definitely not one of them. One of my students asked me if I'd ever heard of Ruben's Tubes. And here I thought they were some kind of new game or logic puzzle. Enjoy.
