The Feedsack Dress

Signing at a Dickens festival

Charles Dickens didn’t enjoy his tours of the young United States. He said some nasty things about our food, our cities, and our citizens.

Fortunately people remember him for his books, particularly the transformation of Scrooge in The Christmas Carol, rather than for his grumpy criticisms. I don’t know whether he’d be flattered or insulted that festivals all over the country honor him.

One of those festivals, Dickens Christmas Living Windows, takes place in Warrensburg, Missouri, Saturday, December 4. All day people will be caroling, roasting chestnuts, and taking carriage rides. Artisans will demonstrate their skills in downtown store windows.

Bearing Mr. Dickens no grudge for his comments on my ancestors’ lives and greatly admiring his writing, I’ll take part in the festival by signing copies of The Feedsack Dress and chatting with readers at the Trails Regional Library, 432 North Holden Street. I’ll be there most of the time from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I won’t be the only author there. Joining me will be other short-story writers and novelists: R.M. Kinder (An Absolute Gentlemen), James Henry Taylor (Everyday Wonder), and Susan K. Salzer (Up from Thunder). All are connected to two local book publishers, Cave Hollow Press and Sweetgum Press.

We expect to have the dickens of a time.

—Carolyn Mulford 

 

Returning to my roots

One of an author’s pleasures is sharing with people who identify with a book’s time, place, or situation. I’ll have that treat at a brunch July 10 when I read excerpts from The Feedsack Dress at the reunion of the Kirksville Senior High School class of 1960. 

That’s my alma mater, but that’s not my class. I knew many of the students because I did my practice teaching at KHS during my last quarter at Northeast Missouri State Teachers College. I taught Crime and Punishment in two senior English classes and Tale of Two Cities in another. 

Even in 1960 the country kids had started their academic lives in one-room schools and had worn feedsack clothes or used feedsack tea towels to dry dishes. By then no one wore feedsack dresses to high school, but many mothers, 4-H leaders, and home ec teachers taught girls to make their own clothes. And, as always, a mean queen picked on some fellow student. 

—Carolyn Mulford

Talking about writing for children

Suzanne Lieurance recently interviewed me on a blog radio site, Book Bites for Kids. We talked mostly about how I came to write The Feedsack Dress. You can listen to the 30-minute interview at http://tinyurl.com/28u7p8x.

We also covered such topics as why I went from writing nonfiction for adults to writing novels for children, what I like the most about writing for children, and how others may get started writing books for young people.

Suzanne frequently interviews writers for Book Bites for Kids. An author herself, she coaches others on how to write, sell, and promote children’s books. (See her site, http://writingforchildrencenter.com).

Some people think writing for children is easier than writing for adults. It’s not. Writing well for any audience is difficult. It’s also fun.

—Carolyn Mulford

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