My Q&A with Jon Scieszka

Q: You are slated to give a two hour talk about inspiring guys to read on Monday, April 4 at St. Christopher's, here in Richmond. What are one or two of the most important points you hope to get across?

A: I'm only going to talk for one hour, sign for another. And most of the talking hour will be jokes, so tell people to not be afraid. But my most basic advice to folks is to 1. expand their definition of what they call "reading' to include non-fiction, graphic novels, sci-fi, magazines, audio books . . ., and 2. to let guys be a part of choosing what they want to read. Reading is a very personal activity.


Q: What do you wish you had in the way of reading and writing when you were a kid?

A: I think I had plenty of great reading and writing when I was a kid. I didn't find much reading I enjoyed in elementary school. But outside of school I read the Hardy Boys, Landmark non-fiction books, Dr. Seuss, comic books, MAD magazine, and all sorts of random literature and not-literature around the house.


Q: What event or person made the difference in your life, allowing or encouraging you to become such a prolific and beloved writer?

A: My mom made all of the difference in the world. I was reading Dick and Jane and other equally strange and uninspiring stories in school as I was learning to read. But at home, my mom was the one reading Caps for Sale, To Think What I Saw on Mulberry Street, The Carrot Seed, Go Dog Go and other stories to me that made we want to hear more stories . . . and to ultimately tell some of my own.


Q: What advice do you have for children’s writers whose primary readers are boys?

A: I tell all writers to please not "write for boys" or "write for girls." Write the best story you can. Write what thrills, excites, moves you. Your readers, boys and girls, will find it.


Q: What did you learn about young readers during your two year stint as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature?

A: I knew young readers are smart, but in my first year as Ambassador, I discovered that young readers and writers are even smarter than I had suspected. The crazy range of stories that kids are reading and writing is phenomenal.


Q: What has your work on the NYC Board of Valencia 826 taught you about writing with young people?

A: The work that 826 does connects perfectly with what I learned from kids when I was a teacher -- kids will produce amazing work if there is a good reason to. And the reason at 826 is that kids get to make real books. You use correct spelling so someone else can read your story. You edit the story as many times as you need to so it is the best it can be. You are writing for a reason, not for an abstract assignment. And that is how and why the real world of reading and writing works.


Q: Do you have anything new and exciting in the works right now?

A: I'm in the middle of the crazy 4-book / multi media storytelling extravaganza that is SPACEHEADZ . . . and really enjoying writing with the kids who become Spaceheadz. And I'm also still messing around with stories for the younger guys with TRUCKTOWN.
But my newest, and most unformed project is a YA novel I'm just starting. I don't even know what it's about yet. I'm writing to find out.


Q: Is there anything else you might like to add?

A: With all of the crazy tech developments happening right now, this is a fun time to be a writer/storyteller. I think that kids becoming writers now will take us places we never imagined even 10 years ago. And I can't wait.


Jon Scieszka will speak and sign books at St. Christopher’s School on Monday, April 4 from 7-9 pm. Adults only, please. Tickets are free, but must be reserved at: EventBrite.com Donations will benefit Read Aloud Virginia and Guys Read.

Visit him online at Jon Scieszka Worldwide.

Who cares what I have to say?

I haven’t quite answered this question yet, but when memoirist, Phyllis Theroux, hired me to archive 30 years worth of her personal essays, I considered it differently. The beauty and humor with which she writes about cockroaches, having a conversation with an elderly prostitute, not wanting to take out the trash, watching a snake eat a frog, raising three kids on her own and the life of a writer exemplifies the very idea of finding the universal within the personal. Alongside the columns indicating which articles had yet been scanned and filed, I was tempted to create a column for which articles made me laugh, cry or get goose bumps, most of which did all three. Phyllis has an impressive resume- The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Jim Lehrer Newshour, several amazing books, etc. - but even more impressive is her ability to hook the details of her life into the tapestry of the bigger picture.

Phyllis is a disciplined and prolific writer-- two adjectives anyone living a creative life aspires for-- but what I admire about her writing most is its deeper exploration and hence, elevation of common occurrences. Domestic life is not insignificant. Time spent on a train talking to a stranger does not simply vanish. Phyllis holds a magnifying glass to her eye, turning that ragged shard of glass into a prism. Rather than offering you a glass of water she leads you down the rocky, exquisite path to the ocean where she got it from. Luckily for the rest of us, Phyllis Theroux lives- and writes- an examined life. Luckily for my scanner, but sadly for my eager, endless appetite for her work, the files are complete.

Visit Phyllis Theroux's website, here.

Messages to Me with a Post Stamp from Heaven

In the last week or so I have interviewed half a dozen authors and while speaking to each one it was like in the background, behind their voice, God-or somebody- said EXCUSE ME, VALLEY- LISTEN TO THIS!! THIS PART IS FOR YOU!! I will now share experts from our esteemed panels of heavenly messengers that came down to comfort the soon-to-be-jobless woman struggling to write her first book, yours truly.

My students are worried about their profession and I say you know, this is going
to sound unrealistic, but what I wish for you is not a career or your
profession, what I wish for you is that you connect with your calling. Whether
or not you ever become famous, spend your life doing what you love, what you
feel passionate about. There's a wonderful Mayan weavers prayer that they pray
before they start, because each [blanket] is different: Grant me the patience
and the intelligence to find the true pattern. And that's part of being a
writer. Being patient and honest to the process and giving it all you've got,
again and again. Without a stopwatch in your hand. Every piece of writing wants
one more revision than you want to give it. If you love the work, that's bigger
than your own ego. Julia Alvarez, author of "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent" and "In the Time of the Butterflies"


I think of infusing the book with emotion rather than inspiration. Inspiration seems to suggest that you’re hit with a lightning bolt and angels come out of the sky and music plays, but for me it’s much more about the hard work and putting one sentence after another and developing it and working at it. Kate Jacobs, bestselling author of the novels, "The Friday Night Knitting Club" and "Comfort Food."

I always wanted to be an artist ever since I was a kid. I was
always drawing in the margins of my school books. Eventually I did a Graphic Design course then got a job in advertising. I hated it! They didn’t like me much either – I was sacked for incompetence (hard to do a good job if you have zero interest in what you are doing). I started to do freelance illustration for some publishing companies, doing pictures for
other people’s texts, then decided to have a go at writing a story myself. It was a poem called ‘My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch’. It was published in 1983 and I’ve been writing and illustrating my own books ever since. Graeme Base, the internationally bestselling children's author of "The Watering Hole," "Animalia" and the most recent, "Enigma: A Magical Mystery"

(Sorry Matt, your picture would NOT post!)

Question: Do you start with a word or an image?
It’s almost simultaneous and I don’t mean it for it to sound mystical because it’s the
opposite of that. It’s a lot of literally stumbling through and putting
words on the paper. Stammering around and trying to determine what I want to
say, a tug at the sleeve that this is what I want to write about.....
I’m constantly grappling at whatever it is I want to say. I’m astonished
by these polished poems after a dozen drafts. I would guess I write around 100
drafts a poem, because I’m such a slow learner. It starts with 12 pages of notes
and doodles that gradually get pared down and evolves into a poem. It feels like
sailing in the dark every single time I put pen to paper for better or worse.
There are lots of periods of confusion and exhaustion. Matt Donovan, author of the poetry collection "Vellum" and winner of VCU's 2008 Larry Levis Poetry Prize.

Each of these authors is coming to Richmond in the next few weeks or months and none of the articles I've written about them have yet been published. Email me if you want to know when and where they're coming. These are just examples of the words of wisdom I have inadvertently received as I step out of the workaday world and begin to more persistently grind away at my book!

this is one monkey you gotta meet

To be honest, I haven't gotten quite so excited about someone else's life for a long time. When I first glanced over the press release for “The 99th Monkey: A Spiritual Journalist’s Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics, and Other Consciousness-Raising Experiments," I basically puh-shawed (verb usage?) And then I came to. (Press-releases send me into a 30 second stupor before I am able to resume normal brain function.) I read a few sentences. And then a few more. And then I couldn't stop! Which led to this beautifully written passage that now graces the editorial department's cutting room floor:

While reading his book, my work and my co-worker’s work suffered. I couldn’t stop compulsively reading, shrieking or quoting aloud passages as I delved deeper into the jungles of this man’s ridiculously adventured life, populated by the who’s who of the modern spiritual world against such backdrops as India, Brazil and Jerusalem.

Then I got to meet the guy. And he's so unassuming! He's not arrogant or prickish or loud or any of those things you may have come to fear in a writer, if, like me, you spend some time around writers (Or gurus for that matter. I'm not referring to YOU of course.)

Come to find out, he's spent over a year in our fine, charming, cosmopolitan town and has not yet met ANYBODY!! He has friends all over the globe and a lovely wife, etc. but he's been pretty much a hermit around these parts and so I graciously offered to help him step into the limelight of the South via the alternative weekly vehicle, Style Weekly! So anyhoo, read my article HERE. And come with me to hear him read at Chop Suey at 1317 West Cary Street on April 6 at 3pm. It'll be a swingin' good time.

Here's another little gem that got the axe:

But for all of his spiritual tomfoolery, the undercurrents of “99th Monkey” are serious, historical, and even monumental. Sobel’s moment with the Dalai Lama is transcendent; his homage to Auschwitz is sacred and his quest to understand the horror instilled in him as the child of a child of concentration camp victim is key. As a chaplain at a university hospital he helped people.

It's an astronaut....it's a playboy bunny....it's Dan Mathews!

He's hot. He's wild. He's gay. He's into animals. Did I mention he's hot? He's also hilarious as hell and he's coming to Barnes & Noble on St. Patrick's Day. He's best friends with Pamela Anderson and he likes to go to jail naked. He's been in a psychiatric institution in Paris, lectured at Harvard and covered himself in fake blood at KFC. "Committed: A Rabble Rouser's Memoir" is very funny, endearing, absurd and brave. I had the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Mathews on the phone for about 30 minutes last week, and not only did I laugh throughout our entire interview, I laughed after we hung up and I went to bed laughing. I woke up laughing. I laughed writing the article, and then later, reading it. THANK GOD I have a brilliant copy editor who caught the extra "T" I snuck into Mathews (altho, that's the first thing that hit me after I quit laughing). You might not think a guy who cares so much about ermines and bats and minks and rats and stuff would have such a sense of devil-may-care humour, but you'd be wrong. And the funny thing is, (IF YOU EVER FIND MY BLOG, DONT READ THIS PART, DAN) I still want to eat fried chicken and meatballs (not together) and I'm not throwing away my college friend Walker's grandfather's leather coat or my Danskos and yes, I'm one of those who would rather take a week's vacation at the IRS than look a slaughter house in the eye, but I will definitely THINK about it all differently. I will. Thanks for putting the funny back in the t00-disgusting-and-vile-to-consider, Dan. Maybe my kid will see the world differently too.

In any case, whatever side of the fur fence you sit on, you still gotta read my article in STYLE !

the Big Ass Book of Crafts vs. Archeoastronomy.

Yes, these were my two features in Home Style for March.

"The Big Ass Book of Crafts," written by Mark Montano (a real life TLC celebrity!!) is totally rad. Mark is a designer on "While You Were Out" and hosts "10 Years Younger" (which I have watched in closed captioning while sweating on a cross-trainer in a perhaps futile attempt to never be one of Mark Montano's guests- at least not on that show.) ANYWAY, this is an awesome craft book, not in a Martha Stewart way, meaning you don't have to spend $400 just to think about a craft nor do you have to wear ironed jeans as you weild your glue gun. There are lots of wacko, fun, cheap ideas and the coolest thing is that Mark has done them all himself and is excited for you to do them too. Plus, he's cute, NOT TO MENTION he will be in Richmond on March 8 (THIS Saturday) at Tinker's furniture upholstery signing books from 2-4 pm. Read my article/blurb about it HERE. (Side note. Crafts are not really a super-great idea for me, personally. I have tried stained glass, basketweaving, pillow making, scrapbooking, crotcheting and collage. While these things are fun, the products i have produced are not so pretty and all of the supplies take up a looottt of closet space. Also, I have mainly done these things as a way to avoid writing, which is a bad, bad idea. But that's just me.)

Followed naturally by Sun Drawings & Archeoastronomy. This was one of the most interesting interviews/articles I've ever done because it really stretched the meagre fiber of my brain. We are talking science, physics, alchemy and ARCHEOASTRONOMY (a term I had never even heard before 2 months ago)!!! This is not my forte, but it was so interesting I couldn't turn back. I'm not going to try to recreate the explanations I managed to peice together in my article, because you can read them HERE, but let's just say this stuff is high-tech and beautiful. Janet Saad-Cook, whom I tracked down for an intuitive tarot reading (she is a very talented psychic- multi-task central!) has built her Sun Drawings all over the world. She has been hired by NASA. She works with astronomers. She acts like the sun is a good friend, and for her, it is. She has in a sense, lassoed the sun. At least she knows how to work with it and turn it into bright colors and make it dance. And that, my friends is pretty cool.

Grace*India*Valley

Sarah Lawrence is the only school I applied to and thank *goodness* for me, I got in early admission. My mother and I visited the campus after the Madeleine L'Engle workshop at the Omega Institute, the summer before my senior year of highschool and I though I did fall in love with it's storybook beauty, I'd already determined to go there because of my counselor from the UVA Young Writer's Workshop India Stanley. A Sarah Lawrence student, she was the coolest, wildest, weirdest woman I'd ever met.

During my interview at Sarah Lawrence, my mother was worried that the butch-lesbian friend she had brought with her into the lobby would create a bad impression, but as we were to learn, she couldn't have been more wrong. In any case, I was accepted and in the fall of 1993, my adventure into the world of black dresses, lesbians, heroin and radical everything-ism began. The first semester of my freshman year I had the good luck to meet the author Grace Paley. My friend Josh and I took a subway into the city to hear her read, we got lost, we kissed and I never went out with him again because he was too nice. Now, OF COURSE, he is still just as nice and the Senior Fiction Editor at Viking Penguin. Anyhoo, oddly and wonderfully, I was given the opportunity to meet Grace Paley yet again, that very same year. My 10 page collection of one page short stories won first place in the school fiction contest and Grace Paley, a one-time SLC professor, was chosen to present the award. Abracadabra! The fates smiled and cood. However, to show an accurate trajectory of my college career, the next year I won second place in the same contest and the following two years I didn't even enter! Instead, welcome: marlboro reds, endless heartache, drunkenness, confusion, sadness, despair, box-o-wine, Leonard Cohen, raves, 4 a.m.-- you know, the regular college fare. And I'm sure that the fact that I've dreamt of the campus in some variation or another at least once a week for the past 10 years is totally normal too!

Unlike with Madeleine L'Engle, my appreciation for Grace Paley only took off after my encounters with her. Her short stories are succinct and aching and perfect and it's helped me immensely to put some years behind my understanding. I've come to treasure my copy of Enormous Changes at the Last Minute- the title alone is worthy of a byline. Now, as I sit here to write, Grace Paley is gone, her death preceding Madeleine L'Engle's by only 3 weeks. But stranger to me than the passing of these two gorgeous old writers who lived well into their 80's, was the death of India Stanley. India died the same week that my son was born, towards the end of 2004. The reasons are still mysterious to me, I think it was an accident, I think it involved alcohol, I think she died alone. I know she had been well loved, I know she'd taken creative writing classes at the Virginia Museum with Susan Hankla, the same teacher I had. I know that our paths intersected here and there, and then diverged, suddenly and forever, without my say or any input from me.