Wednesday On Writing - A Celebration of Books at New Paltz's Celebration of the Arts Festival

Saturday, October 6 was a great day off - I was glad that Ian and I were able to go to the 6th annual Celebration of the Arts (COTA) Festival in New Paltz. We had gone to the first two festivals, but hadn't been able to attend in several years, so it was good to see that the arts celebration has continued to thrive. It was held in Hasbrouck Park, within walking distance of the center of town, and even though it was in intermittently rainy day, I think there was a good turn-out for it. 

One thing I really like about COTA is that it features not just art and music, but writing, too. There were several tents of local artists displaying and selling their works, and two stages of music performances throughout the day. And then there was a tent featuring authors reading from their books. This year showcased children's and young adult authors from the Hudson Valley - I was especially interested in the readings, because I've been working on writing for young adults for the past several years. 

Ian and I met up with our friend (and a fellow writer of mine) Lisa K., and she joined us in the audience for the author readings. The first one we saw was Jennifer Castle, who read from her debut young adult novel, The Beginning of After, that was published by HarperCollins in September, 2011. It's about a teen girl, Laurel, whose life changes forever when her parents and brother are killed in a car accident. Now living with her grandmother, Laurel tries to cope with the grief of losing her family, and also with David, the neighborhood boy whose parents were also in the accident - his mother died, and his father, who was driving, is in a coma. 

She said the book took her six years to write, and has been out thirteen months. It's had some mixed reactions. Some people consider it part of a trend of death in young adult literature. (It's been compared to Gayle Forman's "If I Stay" and Sarah Dessen's "The Truth About Forever," - all share themes of loss within families.) But she said that although it may be a book trend, there's death in life. And the best reactions that she's received have been emails from readers who have experienced loss in their lives, and say that it was the perfect book for them to read.

 (Jennifer Castle reading from The Beginning of After)

She also read from her upcoming young adult novel, You Look Different in Real Life, that will be published in June, 2013. She said it took her one and a half years to write, and it's in the copy-editing phase now. It's very different from her debut novel - it has some humor and an interesting topic. It's about a group of teens who have been the subjects of a series of documentary films about their lives, following them every five years between the ages of six and sixteen, and how they deal with the intrusiveness of the media on their lives. It's set in a fictionalized New Paltz (where she lives) and I'm sure it reflects her background in film and documentary television in Los Angeles. It reminded me of a similar documentary TV series, by Michael Apted, that started with "7 Up." I look forward to reading it when it's published.

 

 (Jennifer Castle reading from You Look Different in Real Life)

COTA was also the first-ever author reading event for Kimberly Sabatini, our good friend whose debut young adult novel, Touching the Surface, is being released on October 30th by Simon Pulse. I had made sure to have the day off from work for this, and it was so cool to be in the audience as Kim read from her brand-new book. Her family, including her mother, brother, husband and her three little boys, were there, and I'm sure they felt even more proud of her as I did.

 (Kim waving to her kids in the audience)

Kim read her book's dedication to her father, and explained that when he died several years ago, it gave her the courage to write - she didn't want to have any unfinished goals in life. She was inspired to write the story of Elliot, a teen girl who has died for the third time and arrives in her afterlife at the Obmil, a retreat-like place where souls go to learn from and understand their previous lives before they can move on. 

It's a wonderful and well-written book, as I wrote in my review for this blog and for Goodreads.com. And Kim did a great job reading the first chapter, where Elliot arrives at the Obmil and is greeted by Mel, the woman who is her guide. She looked and sounded like an author pro already!

 (Kimberly Sabatini reading from Touching the Surface)

Kim also told everyone about her five-year journey from hopeful fledgling writer to published author. On her youngest son's second birthday (he's seven now) she got the urge to attend the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Hudson Valley conference. She went alone, and felt nervous and scared that she didn't belong - until she met up with Chris, an attendee who had taught at the same school where she'd been a special ed teacher. They reconnected as writers, and he made her feel comfortable there. Laurie Halse Anderson (the author of Speak and several other acclaimed young adult books) and KL Going (the author of Fat Kid Rules the World, as well as other highly-respected young adult and middle-grade titles) were two of the speakers at the conference, and Kim felt inspired by them.

So when she saw that KL Going was giving a writing workshop at Millbrook's Merrit Bookstore, Kim went home and wrote the first pages of her book, for a critique session. With KL's encouragement, Kim started attending SCBWI's local Shop Talk meetings, and worked on her novel through that year. Then, at another of KL Going's workshops, Kim registered for a critique of double the amount of pages. She appreciated KL's feedback so much that she hired her to give a full critique of her novel's first draft. KL gave her extensive notes, and Kim used some of them to revise her book and prepare it for submission to agents. One agent liked it and asked Kim for some specific revisions - Kim found that they were the same suggestions that KL had made in her notes! She realized that she just hadn't been ready to fully revise her book until then, but when she did, she signed on with another agent, Michelle Wolfson, who then sold Touching the Surface to Simon Pulse.

 Kim was thrilled to point out KL Going, who was scheduled to read next, and to thank her for all of her inspiration and guidance. I think it's cool, too, that Kim gave one of her book's characters the last name Going - a great acknowledgement of her mentor.

 And before KL Going did her reading, she said that it was a momentous occasion for her to hear Kim's first reading of her first novel - she remembers very well Kim's first ten pages, and recognized some of the changes in Kim's first chapter. She said she's proud of Kim's growth as a writer, and is looking forward to reading Touching the Surface when it's released.

KL had some excellent news to share - the film of her award-winning first young adult novel, Fat Kid Rules the World, premiered officially the night before, in New York City. It's an independent film (with a budget of just $750,000), directed by Matthew Lillard (who has acted in movies such as SLC Punk and She's All That) and starring Jacob Wysocki, Matt O'Leary and Billy Campbell. She said it did the film festival circuit and has had a great response. She's hoping it will get to come to a Hudson Valley theater, and talked about an online program called Tugg (www.tugg.com) where people can sign up to request movies to be shown at their local theaters, and then do online promotion to ensure the movie screening. I've checked out the Tugg site - it would be so cool to see Fat Kid in a theater such as Rosendale's. KL said she hopes that Kim's Touching the Surface will become a movie, too, so Kim can share the excitement that she feels.

 (KL Going talks about Fat Kid Rules the World)

KL acknowledged that Fat Kid Rules the World has some adult language in it, so, in keeping with COTA's family atmosphere, she instead read from her second novel, The Liberation of Gabriel King, that was published by Putnam in 2005 and is for middle-grade readers. It's set in 1976, and is about a white boy, Gabriel, and a black girl, Frita, who are best friends and who try to help each other overcome their fears and stand up to the school bullies in their small Georgia town. She read a humorous passage where they try to deal with Gabriel's fear of spiders. 

 

(KL Going reading from The Liberation of Gabriel King)

She also talked a bit about her writing process - she said she firmly believes in the power of the subconscious, and she lets her book ideas percolate in her mind (for sometimes up to a year or more) before starting to write. She said that when she can hear her characters' voices in her mind, then she knows that it's time to write. She compared it to the gestation period before giving birth. 

I could really relate to that because I tend to think a lot about my writing projects - with several of my book ideas in my head at once - before actually sitting down to start to work on them. Some of my story ideas have started out with vague ideas and don't develop much in my mind. But several of my ideas have grown in my mind over time, to the point where I think about them every day, whether or not I have time each day to work on writing them. Especially the books that I'm currently working on - my 'tween novel, What Luck, and my adult time-travel fantasy novel, with the working title Time's Crossing. I've never been much of an outliner, though I do make notes that I keep in a notebook for each project. And I'm glad to know that there's not just one way to write a book, and that the intuitive, from-the-mind-to-the-page process has worked successfully for writers like KL Going, and also Kimberly Sabatini. Kim describes herself as a "seat-of-the-pants" or "pants-er" type of writer - she flies by the seat of her pants when writing, and often mulls over her book ideas while running or doing other activities. And it's worked out very successfully for Kim, too.

Afterwards, we talked with KL, Kim, and Kim's family - everyone is looking forward to the October 30th pub date of Touching the Surface, and the book launch events that weekend. On Thursday, November 3rd there is a book release party, hosted by Kim's husband John, at Asellina in New York City. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it that night, but I'm looking forward to Barnes & Noble Poughkeepsie's "Meet the Writer" book signing with Kim at 2:00pm on Saturday, November 3rd, and the Hudson Valley YA Society's book launch party at Oblong Books, Rhinebeck at 4:00pm on Sunday, November 4th. With Kim's enthusiasm and networking skills, I'm sure these will all be great events. 

Thanks to Kim, KL and Jennifer for their entertaining and inspiring readings and talks, and thanks to COTA for another great Celebration of the Arts day in New Paltz. I'll let the day's memories motivate my writing, hopefully for weeks to come. And I'll dream of a year, hopefully sometime in the not-so-far future, when I can read from one of my published books at a Celebration of the Arts Festival, too.

(posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 3:00am)