by Karen Krossing | Jun 10, 2019 | Book News, On Writing
Note: I’ve been writing about my journey during my MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) in Writing for Children and Young Adults. You can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 as well.
I’m finishing my third semester with my fabulous faculty advisor Will Alexander, author of fantasy and science fiction for young readers, including his most recent book, A Festival of Ghosts, which you must read if you haven’t already!
This semester, Will suggested on-point mentor texts and critical essays that shaped my thinking, he provided writing exercises that gave me techniques to address challenges, and he provided feedback that inspired and challenged me to succeed. He confirmed when I was on track and guided me with enthusiasm when I was not. He celebrated successes with me, both big and small, and truly cared about my development as a writer. Will, I’m so very grateful!
The third semester is all about the critical thesis, which is actually more fun than it sounds because you pick a writing-craft topic that you want to learn about in more detail. For me, that topic was culture and character development.
My premise was that cultural development is not only for characters who are labeled as diverse; it is for all characters. I limited this exploration to family culture, which shows where our characters first develop their beliefs, and peer culture, which shows where they apply those beliefs. I demonstrated that our characters’ cultural orientations provide motivation for how they feel, what they do and say, and how they change—all of which are basic building blocks for story. I developed character cultural development tools that writers can use to gain story insights as well as insights into how they relate to their characters, and I connected this topic to the #OwnVoices movement.
This topic is personally important to me because I want to authentically portray the diverse community in which I live and write. As writers, we’re familiar with how to integrate surface-level cultural elements into a story, perhaps by using slang, describing food or fashion, or using a festival as a setting. However, we should also understand the deep-level beliefs behind those elements. In addition, awareness of how our own cultural orientations differ from our characters’ will help us identify beliefs, feelings, and behaviours that come from ourselves, rather than them. It can also help us identify if we are the ideal writer to tell a particular story.
Now, my critical thesis will join the many others at VCFA’s Gary Library as part of their canon of critical thought on children’s literature. I must be a geek because that makes me excited!
This semester, I also read and analyzed books in a wide range of genres — picture books, chapter books, poetry, novels for kids and teens, graphic novels, novels in verse, short stories for kids and teens, fairy tales, nonfiction, memoir, and essays on writing craft. I listened to 21 audio-recorded VCFA lectures and read many critical theses.
For my creative work, my overall goal this semester was to explore the micro-level craft techniques for emotional depth on the page and macro-level techniques for the emotional structure of a story in both short fiction and novels. Here’s what I wrote over the last six months:
- I wrote three flash fiction stories to play with how to generate emotionally deep characters.
- I revised several picture books, and I’m thrilled that one of those now has a contract with Owlkids Books!
- I wrote and revised a new narrative nonfiction picture book, which I’m super excited about!
- I wrote a solid draft of over three-quarters of a middle-grade fantasy novel that I can’t stop thinking about!
I can’t begin to explain all the ways this program has changed me as a writer. With one more semester to go, it’s not over yet.
My fourth semester starts in July with a residency filled with workshops, lectures, and readings — and a new faculty advisor. In my final semester, I’ll be completing a creative thesis and preparing a lecture. But first, I need a few weeks to rest up for the fun and hard work to come!
Want more? You can read Part 7, Part 8, and my final MFA post.
by Karen Krossing | Apr 17, 2019 | Book News
I’m thrilled to announce that I just signed a contract with Owlkids Books for my debut picture book!
Picture books hold a special place in my heart. They’re a joy to read aloud. You can share them with any age. We are never too old for picture books! They create magic in only a few words. And to see my words illustrated? Priceless.
This picture book began as a germ of an idea that I finally put to paper when I needed to write a lyrical story during my Picture Book Intensive semester at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Nineteen drafts later, it landed a contract. Who says picture books are easy to write?
A special shout-out to my Picture Book Intensive faculty advisor – Liz Garton Scanlon, author of the Caldecott-honoured picture book All the World. Liz is an inspiration.
My critique partners – both at VCFA and in the Great White North – read this manuscript more than once. Thanks to you all!
And of course, I need to thank the talented folks at Owlkids Books, who saw the potential in this manuscript. I am so grateful!
More about the book later, but for now I’ll tell you that it’s scheduled for publication in Fall 2021, and I can’t wait!
Now where did I put that bottle of champagne?
by Karen Krossing | Oct 12, 2017 | Book News, Mentoring, Presentation News
I was thrilled to to celebrate tonight with Toronto teen creators at the launch of the Toronto Public Library’s Young Voices Magazine 2017. Fifty-two years in print! Wow, that’s a lot of talent. It’s a honour to be a small part of this legacy.
Teen Creators: If you love to create, don’t miss the Young Voices Writers Conference on October 28. To submit to next year’s magazine, click here. You can check out back issues here, and pick up a copy of the 2017 magazine at your local branch! The Toronto Public Library also has its first ever Young Voices Comic Artist in Residence this year! The talented Tory Woollcott will be offering workshops for teens here!
by Karen Krossing | May 24, 2017 | Book News, Mentoring
It’s a wonderful day when an author gets an email that reads “My student loved your book!” Thanks to Bonnie, a Library Media Specialist in New Jersey, for letting me know that Punch Like a Girl has made a huge difference for one reluctant reader. Thanks also for posting the email as a Goodreads review. It’s a great reminder of why I write.
Dear Ms. Krossing,
I’m a high school librarian in New Jersey. I have a student who who is a reluctant reader and was unhappy that she had to pick a book for her sustained silent reading. I recommended Punch Like a Girl, which she renewed twice before starting. A few weeks later her teacher returned it and told me that the student loved the book so much she asked for more by the same author. This is a huge victory, and I thought you should know. We have only Punch Like a Girl in our collection, but I look forward to populating our reluctant reader collection with more of your books. Thank you – you deserve the credit for getting a reluctant reader to love a book!
Bonnie
Library Media Specialist in NJ
by Karen Krossing | Mar 1, 2017 | Book News, On Writing
Back in 2013, I was thrilled to hear that Penguin Canada would release a teen novel based on the life of Anne of Green Gables author L.M. Montgomery. What fun to fictionalize a Canadian icon who’d left us with so many literary treasures! I had perfect faith that the talented Melanie J. Fishbane would bring teenaged Lucy Maud Montgomery to life. Too bad I had to wait four years to enjoy the results.
I’m not known for my patience, but somehow I endured the long years of anticipation. Lucky me – I got my hands on an advanced reader’s copy. Maud: A Novel Inspired by the Life of L.M. Montgomery will be available for purchase on April 25, 2017.
In Maud, Melanie affectionately reveals Maud’s life from age 14 to 18, including her time as a student in charming Cavendish, PEI, and her year living with her father and difficult stepmother in the frontier town of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Fans of Montgomery’s novels will adore this exploration of her bosom friends, her handsome and teasing suitors, her rigid grandparents, and the challenges she faced in pursuing her dream of becoming an author. But readers don’t need to be familiar with Montgomery’s books to enjoy Melanie’s absorbing prose. Maud is a heartwarming story by an author who is certainly a kindred spirit of Montgomery’s. You can check out Melanie’s blog or find her on Twitter.
Me: How did it feel to fictionalize a Canadian literary legend? How did you approach that task?
Melanie: There’s a tremendous responsibility to fictionalize someone whom people have an idea about. L.M. Montgomery left so many parts of herself behind, but it didn’t tell the full picture. She also crafted the idea that she’s Anne (or Emily from Emily of New Moon), and that’s how people tend to see her. She’s very precious to her readers, to Canada. I was also aware that her family would be reading the novel. I was compassionate about this, but I also knew I had to be true to my character and her story.
I read Maud’s journals, her autobiography, scrapbooks, and combed through her library at the Guelph Archives. I also read the letters she wrote to her best friend and cousin growing up, Pensie Macneill. And, of course, I read her fiction. I particularly looked at the Emily books because they are Maud’s portrait of a young writer. Some things are written in fiction because they are safer to explore. And then I listened to her. I interviewed Maud’s family, I walked her paths where I could. I travelled to both PEI and Saskatchewan. I embodied her physically and hoped that what emerged was as truthful to my character and her story as it could be.
The other thing I did is write papers. I found that it helped me to figure things out, maybe because of my MA in History. I gave a number of papers about Maud as teen writer, one about Maud’s experience with the “mean girls,” who in the novel are embodied in Clemmie, and a few on what I call “The Perfect Man Archetype” in YA literature. Here I explored the connection between Maud’s fictional characters and those in her real life. This helped me sift through the many questions I had.
Me: I agree that “some things are written in fiction because they are safer to explore.” That’s so true. On another note, as a writer, I felt very connected to Maud’s desire to write and her use of it to understand her world. Can you tell us about your personal connection to Maud as a character in your novel?
Melanie J. Fishbane
(Photo credit: Ayelet Tsabari)
Melanie: Maud came from a family of storytellers, and she wanted to tell her own story. I, too, come from a family of storytellers. My brother, Joel Fishbane, is a playwright and the writer of The Thunder of Giants. On my mom’s side, I have many creative cousins: Beth Dranoff, just got her first book published, Mark of the Moon; Shaina Silver-Bard, is a musician and playwright. And that’s just a few. On my dad’s side, I have a cousin who writes academic works, and one who writes about yoga. So Maud and I both come by it honestly. 🙂
On both sides of my family we tell our personal history, too. My Zaida Myer (who I dedicated the novel to) would tell me many stories about growing up in Toronto and being in the army in the Second World War. Right now, I’m soaking up my 94-year-old grandmother’s stories about immigrating to Canada in the 1920s and making a life in Edmonton and then in Toronto. In fact, one of the best compliments I got about Maud was when she told me the Prince Albert sections reminded her of growing up out West.
Maud is connected to her stories through her experience and listening to her family’s stories. She was very clear about this in her autobiography, The Alpine Path, and her journals are full of those stories. I had initially tried to get these into the draft, but it didn’t quite work out that way. But it was definitely a way for me to get into her character and her process. I’m inspired to write because of my family’s stories, and I think it was the same for Maud, too.
Me: You’ve recently completed a MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts – a program that a young Maud would have been thrilled to attend. How did the skills you learned there help you in crafting your novel?
L.M. Montgomery
(Photo credit: L.M. Montgomery Collection, Guelph Archives)
Melanie: It is true that she would have loved to be part of such a rich and vibrant writer community. VCFA taught me … everything. My advisors gave me permission to trust myself, listen to my characters, and honour my process. They also helped me understand that the story comes from revision and that all stories must go through this to find their truth. To listen to the feedback and (at least try) not to take it too personally (which was something I struggled with when I was writing my first MA). I realized in hindsight my advisor then was just trying to make me a better writer. What becomes important is the story, making it the best it can be. I learned plotting techniques, mapping, and the questions one should ask when writing historical fiction. Some of this of course I knew, but my advisors gave me more tools for my toolbox.
Me: I kept comparing Maud to Anne Shirley as I read, and your novel highlights similarities between them. Was one of your goals in writing the book to help readers understand Maud’s own fiction better?
Melanie: Certainly. As I said above, one of the ways I found Maud’s character was to read her fiction. That’s the way her readers discovered her. It was important to me, though, that there was room to breathe. Anne Shirley is her own fictional character that was birthed roughly 15 years after this novel takes place. By that point, Maud had experienced many more things that would have influenced the writing of that book. It was important to find Maud as a teenager and consider how she was separate from Anne Shirley. But I also needed to find the seedlings of the character Maud would one day create.
Me: You’ve mentioned your academic papers about the perfect man archetype in young-adult literature, so let’s talk about Maud’s beau’s in real life and the fictional beaus she created. How does her character Gilbert Blythe relate to Maud’s real-life beaus?
Melanie: Ha! Well, as you say, I’ve written many papers on this. Let’s see if I can do the short-answer version without giving away spoilers. There are two boyfriends featured in Maud, Nate Lockhart and Will Pritchard. Truthfully, it’s difficult for me to distinguish between the fictional Nate and Will and the real ones. Also, I’ve learned about the “real” ones through the lens of Maud’s journals, so I already have a barrier. But, from the sources, I can tell you that Nate was the Baptist minister’s stepson, and they competed often for grades in school. He was also a bit of a romantic and enjoyed poetry; he and Maud had those things in common. Maud and Nate’s relationship was up and down; they fought often, and there were times when they didn’t talk. Maud met Will when she went out West. He was better with the land than with words, but he encouraged her writing. I think he allowed Maud to be herself, as much as she knew how to be. Gilbert Blythe was Anne’s academic rival. He doesn’t always do things right, like Nate, and he has a romantic side – the heart in Anne of Green Gables. As Anne and Gilbert grow older, at least before they get married, Gilbert encourages Anne’s work. He’s the one who tells her to write about Avonlea. He loves Anne for Anne. Nate and Will both loved Maud for who she was.
Nate Lockhart
(Photo credit: The Shining Scroll, L.M. Montgomery Literary Society)
Will Pritchard
(Photo credit: L.M. Montgomery Collection, Guelph Archives)
Me: Will you give us a sneak peek into what you’re writing now?
Melanie: I’m writing another historical fiction. Different period. A young woman who has her consciousness raised about women’s rights because of something that happens to her best friend … and she decides to do something about it.
Me: Sounds intriguing! I look forward to reading it.
by Karen Krossing | Feb 21, 2017 | Book News, On Writing
I was thrilled to profile author Mahtab Narsimhan in the CANSCAIP News this winter. CANSCAIP is the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers – a great source of information about the book community and a friendly support for both new and established creators for kids and teens. Born in Mumbai, Narsimhan writes fiction for kids, focusing mainly on stories set in her native India. You can read my full profile here and explore Narsimhan’s books here, including her wonderful recent novel Mission Mumbai: A Novel of Sacred Cows, Snakes, and Stolen Toilets. Enjoy!
