Author Archives:

Community and Candice

by kamikinard

A lot of people claimed to stop watching American Idol this season because they didn’t like the judges. Maybe you didn’t like Nicki Minaj’s acerbic observations. Maybe you’ve heard one too many dogs walk out of Randy’s mouth. Maybe Mariah’s dahlings got on your nerves. Maybe you found Keith Urban irritating. Kidding. Keith Urban is perfect.But for whatever reason, a lot of TVs across the nation weren’t tuned in this season. This was not the case where I live, in Beaufort SC, where it seems every household in the county was tuned in to FOX on Wednesday and Thursday nights to watch our hometown girl, Candice Glover, perform. It has been an exciting few weeks for us here in our little town. If you missed Candice’s performances, take a look now. I  get chills every time I hear this one.

Candice, who tried out three times for AI and was reportedly once told by former judge Simon Cowell that she’d never amount to more than a lounge singer, is an inspiration to girls everywhere. Her journey shows us all the importance of believing in yourself, even in the face of discouragement, and fighting for your dreams. We here in Beaufort County love her for it.

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Our community has thoroughly embraced Candice, who is from nearby St. Helena, which is part of Beaufort County, and located about  7 miles from downtown Beaufort. I’ve been touched by the far-

This month Beaufort was also voted America's Happiest Seaside Town. Who voted? The people who live here. More proof of what can happen when a community works together.

This month Beaufort was also voted America’s Happiest Seaside Town. Who voted? The people who live here. More proof of what can happen when a community works together.

reaching support shown for her. It makes me proud to live here. A local print shop, Murr’s printing, created signs that were free to the public and distributed widely. There are signs up on every storefront downtown. There are messages of hope and support  in front of schools, on bumper stickers, and on t-shirts. A fund was started by Shannon Erickson, a member of  the SC House of Representatives, to help send Candice’s parents to her performances. So much money was donated, that after the fund was started, Mr. and Mrs. Glover were able to fly out to LA  to make every performance to see their daughter sing.  There was even money left over to help fund the Hometown Concert, which cost the city around fifty thousand dollars.

Go CandiceWaste Management, where Candice’s father works, made special uniforms to show support, an effort which spread across their national company. There were many public viewings of Candice’s performances, offering opportunities for us to celebrate her progress together. The Highway 21 drive-in offered free showings, as did USCB, The Preserve, and other places around the county, including Hilton Head. The mayor sent out emails encouraging us to vote for Candice. The Chamber of Commerce encouraged voting through the newspaper. My Facebook feed was alive with Candice support. The list goes on and on.

I think Candice has an amazing voice, and I don’t think I’m biased in saying she was the best contestant! ;) !  She could have won on talent alone, and she should have. But if community has anything to do with who wins, Beaufort County gave Candice an edge. A lot of people here know her, and she comes from a large tight-knit and wonderful family. The community loves them. My daughter met Candice’s cousin at the hometown concert. When she found out my daughter wanted an autograph, she arranged for my husband to deliver posters to Candice’s parents, who took them to LA, had them signed, and brought them back to us. We didn’t know Candice’s parents, but they were so gracious, and generous. I think this is how community works.

We are so proud of Candice Glover: The girl who never gave up, and who fought to keep believing! 

Humor Cells

by kamikinard

Last week, we featured a post about where some  writers of humor find inspiration. If you didn’t get a chance to check it out the recommended movies, books, and TV shows sure to make you laugh, click  HERE. OK! Now you know what inspires humor. But how do you write it? And how do they, successful authors of children’s books, write it? This power-point turned video features humor-writing tips from seven children’s authors. Take a look!

 

 

I’ve read those tips over and over and think each author offered excellent advice.

Next week we’ll feature some tips on writing chick lit for chapter books,  MG and YA. We have some great interviews lined up with author an non-author types for the next few weeks too!

Funny Chicks

by kamikinard

Today I am blogging from gorgeous Springfield Massachucettes while attending the NE SCBWI conference. Later today, I’ll be doing a presentation on writing humor. In preparing for this, I asked some very talented writers of humor for children where they find inspiration.  I thought I’d share their answers with all of you because everyone loves to laugh, even if you don’t love to write. Check out these funny books, TV shows, authors, and movies next time you need a chuckle! (And if you do love to write, scroll down to the bottom of the screen to see details about the Funny Prize offered by Greenhouse Literary!)

Where do authors find inspiration for humor?????

 Robin Mellom: Modern Family, Parks & Recreation, Awkward, and any movie by John Hughes.

Martha Brockenbrough: When I was a kid, I loved Steve Martin’s comedy routines and movies. In high school, I loved “The Princess Bride.” Christopher Guest movies crack me up. I think George Takei is a genius. Joss Whedon also writes incredibly sharp, character-driven humor.

Colleen Clayton: Some of the books that I can read over and over purely because they make me laugh are A Confederacy of Dunces by John KennedyToole and then anything by Jean Shepherd, Garrison Keillor, and Dave Sedaris. I recently read Bossypants by Tina Fey and was in tears from laughing. I love crass humor…movies like Bridesmaids and The Other Guys andTV shows like Shameless and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It’s really, really hard to offend me. I’ll go along with just about anything as long as it’s written and/or performed well.

Joanne Levy: I adore great comedic actors like Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Christine Baranski who illustrate how to bring characters to life. They are multi-talented at playing straight roles, but can pull out the funny in such an effortless way, that I’m in awe of their talents. Incidentally, three of these actors are in Bowfinger, one of my favorite movies of all time.

The funniest book I’ve ever read was Christopher Moore’s LAMB. It taught me that a very serious (and controversial) topic can be handled with wonderful (and even sometimes ridiculous) humor respectfully and without diminishing the seriousness of the subject matter. This was a light bulb moment for me and made me realize that humor could play a big role in serious writing and wouldn’t make the work of any less value.

Lizzy Foley: Internet news/blogs.  There are some wonderful writers who can report on the realities world while making snarky observations at the same time.  It’s not unlike what The Daily Show or The Colbert Report does on television, except for the fact that the entire joke is in written form and can’t use comedic delivery as a crutch.

Kimberly Sabatini: I am a huge fan of dry humor. One of my favorite humorous books is A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson. Because this book is so stinkin’ funny, it is the book I’ve reread the most. I’m also a big fan of a well-done mix of humor and emotional gut punches. I think Gary Paulsen captured this perfectly with HARRIS AND ME. And THE WEDNESDAY WARS and OKAY FOR NOW by Gary Schmidt blow me away.

 Kami Kinard: Funny Children’s Books: Captain Underpants, The Origami Yoda books, Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I love Carl Hiassen’s adult novels. I’m still a big fan of M*A*S*H, Keeping Up Appearances, Boston Legal (it really was funny), Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, and Joel Stein’s irreverent columns in TIME.

 

The Greenhouse Literary Funny Prize: Greenhouse Literary Agency does not see enough funny manuscripts, so last year they started a contest to encourage more humorous submissions. The winner of the contest ended up with a four book deal… that’s a good sign! Go to their website for full details, but if you want to know what they’re looking for, here’s a description:

“Our judging criteria is very simple. Funny, and we are wide open to all ages. The winner may be a picture book like OLIVIA or DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS, or a young series à la HORRID HENRY, FLAT STANLEY, THE GREAT HAMSTER MASSACRE or UNDEAD PETS, or for 8-12 year olds like Lemony Snicket or M.T. Anderson’s WHALES ON STILTS. It could even be for teen readers, like Adam Rex’s COLD CEREAL series, ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL, or THE PRINCESS DIARIES. It’s going to be the person with funny in their DNA. Perhaps the winner will have a slow-burning, sly wit. Perhaps a Python-esque sense of the absurd, or zany as Tina Fey’s 30 ROCK. Or maybe the concept, the freshness and fun, will pull us in.”

http://www.greenhouseliterary.com/index.php/site/funny_prize

Finally, if you are a writer looking to hone your humor skills, you might check out one of these books. Comedy Writing Secrets focuses on techniques and includes a lot of tips for stand-up comedy.  How to Write Funny includes essays from famous humor writers like Dave Barry.  Click on the books to link to purchasing info!

If you attended the Humor Cells workshop, check back here next week for a synopsis of the workshop content and “Advice from the Pros.”

comedy writing

humor book write funny

Permission to do Nothing, Sir!

by kamikinard
Here's a photo of my ceiling. Feel free to stare at it.

Here’s a photo of my ceiling. Feel free to stare at it.

If there’s one thing I never do, it’s nothing. It seems like I just can’t do nothing right. I mean, I am ALWAYS doing something.  I’m writing, I’m folding clothes, I’m making plans, I’m walking the dog, I’m creating something out of paint, paper, beads, wire. I can’t sit still. This is the truth. But my housekeeping tells a different story.

Looking around my cluttered abode, you’d think I’ve mastered the art of doing nothing. There’s so much undone stuff at my house, you might ask yourself does she ever do anything?  Yes, I do. All of the time.  It’s nothing I don’t do.

Why? Why do I feel like I have to be busy all of the time? Could it be cultural? Does anyone else have this problem? When my son was in elementary school, I walked into the living room and found him lying on the floor, looking up. I asked him what he was doing. “Staring at the ceiling,” he said.

“Get up and go do something!” I commanded. Why?

When I later told my good friend about this, she laughed in my face. She said, “I just read an article about how we push our children too much and don’t let them lay around and look at the ceiling anymore.”

Oof. Not my finest moment as a mom. That ten year old boy who was thinking who-knows-what when I told him to stop staring at the ceiling, will think completely different things now, seven years later, when he looks up. The moment of idle contemplation I interrupted is forever gone.

It has been a hard couple of weeks for me physically, mentally and emotionally.  I honestly feel like I’ve been running on a treadmill for five and a half weeks straight. I stepped off of that treadmill Monday, exhausted.  So Monday night I asked my husband “Is it okay if I don’t do ANYTHING tonight?” That’s right. I feel so guilty about doing nothing; I have to ask permission to do it.

He looked at me like I was crazy. So I attempted to relax on the couch and watch an episode of Sherlock. (Watching TV counts as nothing, right?)

But I was fidgety. So I wrote this blog post while watching.

Shoot. I stink at nothing. I just can’t do nothing right.

Happy Earth Day!

by kamikinard

Happy Earth Day! Wow. We need a celebration like this right now. Let’s look away from human nature for a minute and look up to Mother Nature. She’s amazing, isn’t she?

A few weeks ago, while mired in deadlines and family emergencies, I got something wonderful in the mail that I haven’t had time to celebrate. Well today is the perfect day to celebrate it.  Here it is:

Forest Has a Song framed by my live oak tree!

Forest Has a Song framed by my live oak tree!

My friend Amy Ludwig Vanderwater’s debut book, Forest Has A Song! It is an absolutely gorgeous book of poetry celebrating a child’s discovery of nature’s many facets as she explores a forest. We see her marvel at life as she observes ferns unfurling, spiders knitting, and tree frogs serenading, and observing death in a fossil and a pile of bones. Forest Has A Song is a celebration of observation as well as nature! (Robbin Gourley’s water color images make it a celebration of color, too.)

I asked Amy to express the best Earth Day message A Forest Has A Song offers us and she did!

Go outside, just to be there. Walk. Listen. Let our beautiful planet sink into your very bones. Enjoy the mysteries. Remember who you are.

Thank you, Amy! I hope everyone will take a minute to do that today!

We’re also happy to feature a poem Amy wrote for Earth Day. It is, after all, National Poetry Month.

Mother Earth's Wish

I can think of many more things to say about Earth Day.  About how much I love the twisting branches of the oaks in my yard, how if I walk a block in any direction I run into marches full of tall grass, scuttling crabs, and speckled with graceful long-necked birds, and how tree frogs cling to my office window every night of the summer. But… well, go out there and see what you can for yourself! Thanks again Amy for sharing your love of nature through your poems! (You can all expect a proper interview with Amy soon.)

To read a poem from Forest Has a Song and link to some of Robbin Gourley’s sketches, click HERE.  To see more about Amy’s Earth Day celebration click HERE.

*We also want to celebrate how another Nerdy Chick Interviewee is involved in Earth Day. Flori Pate’s banner was chosen for the Discovery home page today. See it live HERE.

earth

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Quotes to Give You Hope

by kamikinard

I wasn’t very long ago that my co-blogger wrote about being hard-hit by the news and needing to find HOPE.  And here we are again, many of us with hearts bleeding for Boston and Texas and other places around the world where despair rages. As long as we keep getting news, we’ll never have a shortage of despair, it seems. And as long as we have despair, we’ll need to cling to hope. So instead of our usual Quotable Nerdy Chick Feature, this week I wanted to share what some great people have said hope.

Alexandre Dumas:

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must of felt what it is to die … that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.  – Alexandre Dumas

 

Emily Dickinson:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.

 

J.R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings :

The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. :

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”

 

Michelle Obama :

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

 

 Langston Hughes:

Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.

 

Sunsets like this one in Beaufort somehow give me hope.

Sunsets like this one in Beaufort somehow give me hope.

 

The Quotable Nerdy Chick: Vera Wang

by kamikinard

verawang1Vera Wang (b. 1949) is an American fashion designer. A former figure skater, she started her design career in 1971 with Vogue magazine and then worked as a design director for Ralph Lauren.  Wang has been awarded many honors including being named Womenswear Designer of the Year by The Council of Fashion Designers of America. Celebrities such as Halle Berry and Meg Ryan have worn her designs. To learn more about this fabulous designer click HERE.

Vera Wang Quotes:

  • Ready-to-wear is what I’ve wanted to do since the beginning…I’m not a girl who spends my life in a ballgown
  • A woman is never sexier than when she is comfortable in her clothes.
  • As the mother of two daughters, I have great respect for women. And I don’t ever want to lose that.
  • Design is about point of view, and there should be some sort of woman or lifestyle or attitude in one’s head as a designer.
  • When you have a passion for something then you tend not only to be better at it, but you work harder at it too.

Every time I see a Vera Wang dress I love it. What an eye for line she has! And I agree with what she says about passion too….

Real Life: Virtual Disappearance

by kamikinard
Every Easter my family decorates blown eggs. My daughter made this one for me. Look familiar?

Every Easter my family decorates blown eggs. My daughter made this one for me. Look familiar?

Is it possible to miss an inanimate object? Because I have missed you, Nerdy Chicks Rule. Maybe it isn’t possible to call a blog inanimate when its followers, likes, and comments breathe life into it. I only know that I have missed being here, and interacting with you and that my sudden failure to post has not been by choice.

The past few weeks have taken me on a harrowing journey – one that included traveling hours from home and spending many nights in a Ronald McDonald House. During these weeks, I’ve had to hang on to the real world so tightly that I’ve all but disappeared from the virtual world.

But the journey was not without hope and promise. I met many wonderful people along the way. Inspirational parents whose road is more treacherous than mine, and who somehow manage to travel it with smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts. Brilliant doctors who have devoted their lives to making the lives of others better. Children who brim with enthusiasm, despite having to face obstacles unimaginable to most of us.

It is good to be back, even if I can already tell that the road ahead is full of potholes. I feel equipped to travel it now, knowing I will meet inspiration, brilliance, joy, and enthusiasm along the way.

 

I will be returning Friday with our normal Quotable Nerdy Chick feature! Until then I’ll be furiously working on revising THE BOY PREDICTION to the specifications of my brilliant and insightful editor. :D

 

The Quotable Nerdy Chick: Isak Dinesen

by kamikinard

isak Isak Dinesen is the pen name use by  Karen Blixen (1885-1962). She  was a Danish author and explorer. She is best known for her autobiographical book, Out of Africa, about her time in Kenya. To find more interesting facts click HERE.  Isak Dinesen Quotes:

  • The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.
  • When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.
  • The entire being of a woman is a secret which should be kept.
  • To be a person is to have a story to tell.
  • Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever…

How much do you love that first quote? I think it might be my new favorite!

*Photo Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-54231]

Celebrating Women in March

by kamikinard

iwd_square

One thing I enjoy about blogging is the opportunity it gives me to learn. Today when I went online to find quotes for our Quotable Nerdy Chick feature, I stumbled across the above logo and decided it was worth noting that today is International Women’s Day. This is something I didn’t know when  I woke up this morning. If you click on the logo, it will take you to the official site. A demand for better working conditions for women, drove the movement to recognize this day.

I pulled a quote from the International Women’s Day site to share today:

 “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights” Gloria Steinem

Most of you are probably aware that this is Women’s History Month. Should I admit that I didn’t realize this until last week when I was gathering information for a previous post? Should I? I know my co-blogger would advise me not to admit my ignorance, but there you have it. And in case any of you were unaware, or want to find out more about it, click HERE. The link will take you to my favorite page on the Women’s History Month site, where thumbnails of Library of Congress photos of women will link you to collections from images of the United States first ladies to Rosie the Riveter inspired images.

We’ll be back to our usual quotes next Friday!