Tolerance: How to Nurture It

Facing the challenges of racism, sexism, and other prejudices in our society can be overwhelming for us adults. For kids, intolerance is even more confusing and frightening. How can teachers create an atmosphere of acceptance in their classrooms? Read my post on the JCLUB blog for some suggestions.

The Writing Process Blog Tour Continues!

Keila Dawson, author of the delightful picture book The King Cake Baby, invited me to participate in this Writing Process Blog Tour. When I met Keila at our local SCBWI, I knew she'd be a writing success! Be sure to check out her responses to the writing process questions on her blog.

And here are mine:

What am I currently working on?

Tackling Tough Topics with Faith and Fiction just came out so I'm working on promoting the book. It's funny how much time that kind of thing takes!

I'm also working on a middle grade novel about a spunky girl nobody wants. Progress is slow because I work on it sporadically, and I'm experimenting with writing without an outline.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

There are lots of great faith-based values education materials, but Tackling Tough Topics is different in that it uses fiction. Kids connect with stories in a different way than they do with nonfiction. They get emotionally involved, relate to the characters, and wonder how things are going to come out in the end. All that opens them up to receiving the good message you're trying to get across.

Why do I write what I write?

I was a special education teacher for many years, and I view writing as another way to teach. I hope to help kids lead better lives, make good moral decisions, and grow up to be the people they want to be.

How does my individual writing process work?

It's a torturous process of writing then deleting then rewriting then rephrasing then moving along a while then realizing what I'm doing is not going to work and deleting then rewriting and so on and so on until I "rassle" the story into submission and feel really good until I start the next project! It's not pretty.

To continue the Writing Process Blog Tour, I'm tagging writer and illustrator Virginia Wright. (She is a fascinating person. Read about her below!) Virginia's answers to the writing process questions will appear on her blog on June 9.

Besides writing and illustrating, Virginia loves taking photographs of everything that catches her eye -- oddities, nature, and food. (Yup, she's a foodie, too, and has a recipe blog). She stated that she had hundreds upon hundreds, no, into the thousands now, of photographs and illustrations on her computer files. One of her favorite hobbies is creating artwork from her photographic images--combining real life photographs with digital painting. (She calls this "digital artistry.") Her current WIP, writing and illustrating, is a book for toddlers titled: Wild Animal Sounds.

Follow and friend her here: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/virginiabrownwright

Author Blog: http://www.virginiawright.com/blog

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/virginiawright

Recipe Blog: http://virginiawright.com/blog/recipe-index-the-recipe-weekly/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/virginia_wright

Radio Interview

Thanks to Wendy Wiese for interviewing me on her radio program last Friday. I really enjoyed talking to her about communicating with kids -- and about my new book Tackling Tough Topics with Faith and Fiction. If you missed the interview, you can listen now by clicking this link, then "On Call," then May 23. The first half hour is an interesting interview with two Pauline sisters talking about their books, and my interview is the second half hour. Thanks, everyone, for your support!

It's that time again!

It's time for school to start! Here's a book from Teacher Ideas Press that's a handy resource for teachers throughout the school year. (Yes, it's one of mine!) All Year Long! Funny Readers Theatre for Life's Special Times offers easy-to-use plays themed to different times of the year -- first day of school, Labor Day, Columbus Day, St. Valentine's Day, a snow day, etc., etc. Check out this video about the book. (It's the first one I've ever made using Movie Maker, a program that, unbeknowst to me until just recently, was lurking on my computer!)