The Feedsack Dress

Speaking at the Longview Literary Festival

Writers and readers are coming together October 2-3 at the Longview Literary Festival in Lee's Summit, Missouri. The fun takes place at the Metropolitan Community College-Longview.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, three of us will be sharing our experiences in writing in different genres. I'll talk about moving from writing nonfiction to writing historical novels for young people and mysteries for adults. The others will discuss romance, westerns, and sci-fi.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, I'll explain why I wrote The Feedsack Dress and read from it. If you're nearby, come say hello.

—Carolyn Mulford

Celebrating books, including The Feedsack Dress

Anyone who thinks books are extinct should go to the Mall in Washington, D.C., September 26, 2009. There 100 or so writers and 120,000 or so readers will take part in the ninth annual National Book Festival.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress sponsors the event, and President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama serve as honorary co-chairs. Writers of diverse genres come from all over the country to talk about their books, with readers often overflowing the giant tents set up between 7^th and 14th streets. 

This year The Feedsack Dress is part of the festival. The Missouri Center for the Book selected it as the state’s recommended read. Every state chooses one book. Children (and others) attending the festival pick up a free map, “Discover Great Places Through Reading,” at the Pavilion of the States and go to state booths to receive a stamp or sticker and information on books from that state. On the back of the map is a list of “52 Great Reads About Great Places,” and that list includes my middle-reader novel.

I’ve attended the festival several times, and it’s a great day for those who love books. As usual, the program this year is outstanding (see www.loc.gov/bookfest). Among the writers who will be speaking are Judy Blume, Kate DiCamillo, Jon Scieszka, Lois Lowry, Douglas Brinkley, Sue Monk Kidd, Ken Burns, Michael Connelly, Walter Mosely, James Patterson, S. J. Rozan, Lisa Scottoline, John Grisham, John Irving, Nicholas Sparks, and W. Ralph Eubanks.

If you go to the National Book Festival, please stop by the Missouri booth and pick up a bookmark for The Feedsack Dress. 

—Carolyn Mulford

Launching an anthology

We have a long tradition in this country of aspiring and established writers banding together to support and educate each other. Another part of that tradition is publishing a literary journal of those writers’ work.

Each year the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers’ Guild publishes an anthology of poetry, short stories, and nonfiction. More than half the group’s members submitted entries for Well Versed: Literary Works 2009, and local writers and writing teachers read the anonymous entries to determine whose work met the standards for publication. 

The judges selected more than 60 submissions, enough to produce a 180-page book. The chapter printed it by uploading a PDF to CreateSpace, an Amazon affiliate, and the book is available at Amazon.com ($10 plus shipping), Columbia Books, CCMWG events, and a few writers’ conferences.

To launch Well Versed, CCMWG and Columbia Books are holding a book signing 2-4 p.m., Sunday, September 13, 2009, at 1907 Gordon Street, Columbia, Missouri. Contributors will read selections at 2:30.

Contributors also are reading and signing at the Longworth Literary Festival, Mel Aytes Education Center, Metropolitan Community College-Longworth, Lee’s Summit, Missouri, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., October 1-2.

The contributions vary in form, content, and style, offering something for almost any reader. I can’t review the book as I’m biased. I was the managing editor.

—Carolyn Mulford

Interviewing for fact and fiction

Over a long career I’ve interviewed hundreds of people. I’ll share a bit of what I’ve learned July 23 at From Dream to Page, a children’s literature conference at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg. For details about the conference go to

http://guides.library.ucmo.edu/content.php?pid=40720&sid=299792.

 

When I wrote feature articles for magazines, my favorite part of writing was interviewing.

Talking to people taught me a lot about a topic fast. Equally, and often more, important, their enthusiastic sharing of information and attitudes gave me an insider’s view almost impossible to gain through reading.

I soon learned that interviews succeed if you do two things well: ask thoughtful questions and listen to responses. I think of an interview as a guided conversation, one in which I use questions to nudge the person in the right direction and listen to every word and nuance. No one but an old psychiatrist or a new lover listens as carefully as an interviewer.

When I began work on The Feedsack Dress, I read newspapers and magazines (particularly the advertisements) from 1949, but some of my best ideas for plot, setting, and character came from informal interviews with family and friends who remembered that time. In the last few months I’ve interviewed people for a mystery nearing completion, a short story, and a children’s book in the conceptual stage.

 Although I use the same basic interviewing techniques for fact and fiction, the interviews differ somewhat. For one thing, when interviewing for fiction, I usually I ask if the person has a few minutes to talk (not to give an interview) or I simply work my questions into a casual conversation. When interviewing to write an article, I often record and almost always take complete notes. When looking for ideas, attitudes, or facts for a novel or short story, I usually write my notes after the interview.

Inexperienced writers often dread interviews. They needn’t be afraid—if they prepare. And if they listen. People love the undivided attention a good interviewer gives them. They pull out their best stories—the ones their relatives or colleagues no longer listen to—and share their knowledge and feelings with gusto. They enjoy the interview even more than you do.

 —Carolyn Mulford

Polishing your prose

Writing is a multistage process.

First, think about what you want to write and who your readers will be.

Second, prepare to write. For both fiction and nonfiction, that usually means doing some research. For me, it also means organizing my thoughts, usually in an informal outline. The method I use depends on what I’m writing. For short articles (400 to 600 words), writing a headline may be all I need. Book-length nonfiction (such as my biography of Elizabeth Dole) requires a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline. A novel requires different elements (including character sketches and descriptions of settings) and a much sketchier outline that undergoes far more changes than that for a nonfiction book.

Third, type words on a screen. I start at the beginning and proceed to the end. In most cases, whether I’m writing an article or a novel, deciding where to begin takes more thought than anything else.

Fourth, revise. In general, the less time and thought that goes into planning and preparation and the faster you write, the more time and thought you’ll need for revision. A basic rule: Find the big problems and correct them first. While you’re doing that, you solve a lot of the small problems. You’re last effort goes to polishing your work—finding stronger verbs, more precise nouns, more effective modifiers, more evocative details, more rhythmic sentence structure. During this process you cut out unnecessary words. I go back and forth between screen and paper in this process.

Finding problems in your own writing is difficult. I’ll explain a visual assessment system that gives writers an objective way to polish their own prose at

 

The Write Direction 2008

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Stephens College

Columbia, Missouri

 

The Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers Guild and the Stephens College English/Creative Writing Department present this annual conference. For more information, go to http://columbiawrites.coin.org.

Every writer works a little differently, but almost all follow these four steps.

—Carolyn Mulford

Talking to Friends of the Library

Like most writers, I’ve loved losing myself in books since a few months after I learned to read. To me, libraries are magical places, filled with limitless possibilities.

It gives me special pleasure, then, to speak to book lovers in my hometown, Kirksville, Missouri, about writing The Feedsack Dress.

 

The details:

Friends of the Adair County Public Library

6 p.m., Thursday, October 16, 2008

First United Methodist Church, 300 East Washington Street

 

To find the meeting room, follow the aroma of homemade pies.

 

 —Carolyn Mulford

Celebrating a milestone in journalism

A hundred years ago a former newspaperman named Walter Williams founded the world’s first school of journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He set out to prepare young people for a profession by combining academics and practical experience.

 

In 1908 writing and editing a city newspaper furnished most of the experience. Today the experience includes radio and television broadcasting and online publishing.  

 

September 10-12, 2008, more than a thousand graduates of that school—including me—returned to celebrate the school’s centennial and honor the principles Williams set down. The alumni came from around the United States and from several other countries, including China, one of the first nation’s to send students to the school.

 

The journalists gave a nod to the past, but the major topic of discussion was what comes next. Most agreed that the future contains less print and more online publishing, more and more of it to be delivered on mobile devices. Many worried about how news organizations can earn enough money to research, write, and distribute in-depth news.

 

In 1908, Williams and others were seeking new models. In 2008, we are again seeking new models. Many of the speakers at the Centennial are experimenting.

 

The participants expressed many views—and uncertainties—on what the future holds, but virtually all endorsed the principles stated in the Journalist’s Creed written by Walter Williams.

 

Two of the Creed’s key statements follow.

 

“I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of this trust.

 

“I  believe that clear thinking and clear statement, accuracy and fairness are fundamental to good journalism.”

 

—Carolyn Mulford

Writing a historical novel

How much of your book is real? Are the characters people you know? How did you think up all that stuff?

Those are some of the questions my readers have asked me about  The Feedsack Dress.

I’ll answer such questions and give tips on writing a historical novel, or almost any other kind of fiction, during a workshop July 24-25 at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg. The workshop is called From Dream to Page: Children’s Books and the People Who Make Them. Writers, teachers, and librarians will attend presentations by several authors and illustrators, discuss their work in private sessions, and share problems and advice during meals and breaks. For more information, go to http://library.ucmo.edu/childlit/workshop.

 My presentation covers the four major steps in writing a novel:

1.     Conceptualizing—questions to ask in evaluating and shaping an idea;

2.     Researching—the kinds of information to look for and where to find it;

3.     Writing—aspects of plotting, creating characters, and setting scenes;

4.     Rewriting—ways to look at your own work objectively.

For those who won’t be there, here are the answers to the questions at the top.

How much of my book is real? The story is fiction, but I hope it reveals reality.

Are the characters people I know? They are all of the people I’ve ever known and no one who ever lived.

How do I think up all that stuff? I practice my craft.

 

—Carolyn Mulford 

Remembering Nancy Drew at Malice Domestic

Each year approximately 700 mystery fans and writers gather at Malice Domestic in Crystal City, Virginia, to hear mystery writers talk about their own and others’ work. Most of the writers and many of the readers are members of Sisters in Crime, an organization founded by top women mystery writers to advocate on such issues as equal space for women on book review pages. They’re still working on it.

This year I’m part of a panel called What Would Nancy Do? Is Our Favorite Girl Detective Timeless? One key question that Nancy Means Wright, Susan Cummins Miller, Kathleen Ernst and I will try to answer is why the Nancy Drew series has found readers since1930.

As part of my preparation, I asked several friends (all lifelong readers and most now writers) why they read Nancy Drew. Most remembered what they felt rather than what they read. Here are some of the things they told me.

Maya Corrigan received a set from her fourth grade teacher and devoured them. Maya liked that Nancy solved mysteries using her brain. Maya didn’t like that the books contained no murders. They weren’t as scary as she wanted. One major thing for her as a mystery writer: “Reading those books got me used to the idea that an amateur sleuth could stumble on mysteries no matter where she went.”

Joyce Campbell said her father bought her a set at an auction, and she loved them. She doesn’t remember plots, but “I do remember the desire for independence that Nancy seemed to have. And, of course, she had a completely different lifestyle than I did. She hooked me on mysteries.”

Sylvia Straub recalled Nancy’s common sense and ability to mobilize kids to solve mysteries with logic and intelligence. She notes that girls were supposed to be docile and cute and grow up to be wives and mothers, and maybe teachers. “But Nancy, with her daring, intelligence and courage gave us another possibility—to do something outside the expected role.” Sylvia also said, “Reading Nancy Drew mysteries was the beginning of my love of mysteries and the intellectual challenge of figuring out a problem that involved some danger and adventure and certainly logical thinking.”

Judy Stock called Nancy “a liberated woman before anyone else knew what liberated women were. She had an autonomy that did not exist in the real world of most Nancy Drew readers.”

Is it any wonder adults remember Nancy Drew?

—Carolyn Mulford

See you in December?

Time to hit the trail again, and I hope to see some readers along the way.

Saturday, December 1, 2007, Kirksville, Missouri
I’ll be reading from The Feedsack Dress, answering questions, and signing books at Hastings Books, Music & Video, 1800 North Baltimore. The show starts at 1 p.m. and runs for about 20 minutes. I’ll stick around to chat and sign until 3 p.m.

You can hear me talk about the book and other things if you tune in to Area Scene on KIRX (AM 1450) at 9:05 a.m. the day before, Friday, November 30. I listened to KIRX growing up and appeared on it several times as part of school activities and classes. That’s what gave me the idea of having a radio program be part of the plot of the book.

Saturday, December 8, 2007, Glasgow, Missouri
The newly opened Riverport Market is testing the waters with its first book signing, so I hope folks in the area will turn out to encourage the operators in their efforts to promote Missouri books. You can get to Glasgow by taking 240, 87, or 5. Once there, go to the Riverport Market at 518 First Street (not the one on Main Street).

The reading and discussion begins at 2:30 and runs about 20 minutes. I’ll be signing until 4 p.m.

—Carolyn Mulford