Teen Services Today: A Practical Guide for Librarians

I have a new book out! It's a nonfiction book about teen services in public libraries that I co-wrote with Geri Swanzy, a friend and colleague, called Teen Services Today: A Practical Guide for Librarians.

Writing this book was a different experience from writing fiction. For one thing, my name was suggested to the editor by another library colleague. I knew writing nonfiction would be different and recruited my friend Geri, so we could share the work. The two of us wrote a proposal for the book and were pleasantly surprised when it was accepted by Rowman & Littlefield.

The biggest difference between my experiences writing fiction and my experience writing nonfiction was the actual process of writing. And I don't just mean having a collaborator. We wrote this book out of chapter order and sent the individual chapters to our editor as we completed them. With fiction, the entire book is written before I send it to my agent.

While we were writing this book, we faced a number of hurdles. Since we set our own deadline with the initial proposal, we foolishly gave ourselves about six months to get this all done. Little did we know that I would accept another job and move 1200 miles during that time. And that's not even factoring in vacations and conferences!

We wrote the book for new librarians or paraprofessionals to give them some background, history, resources, and programming ideas to help them serve the teens in their communities. Our goal was to make it chatty and easy to read.

I hope Teen Services Today proves helpful to those library staff members who need and use it.

Books I Love: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Title
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Author
J.K. Rowling
Illustrator
Mary GrandPré
I first read this book
during graduate school in 1999

While I love all the Harry Potter books, my favorite is the third book in the series. This is the book where all the pieces fit together so perfectly that it feels like the world's most complicated jigsaw puzzle. It also expands the universe of the story Rowling is telling as we learn more about Harry's history and see the full scope of his loss.

It introduces us to Dementors, utterly terrifying creations that are the personification of depression. What I find most fascinating about Dementors is that the best treatment for an encounter with them is chocolate. Of course it is! Chocolate is the best cure for anything.

But what truly inspires me about this book is the plot. I do not possess Rowling's skill at plotting, and I am envious. Every piece of this story falls perfectly into place, creating one whole story while still feeling like part of a larger work.

Harry? Is that you?

photo by Sara K Joiner

Rowling is a master at doling out clues in little bits and pieces throughout the course of the series. There are clues in the second book that don't become important until the sixth! How does Rowling do this? I've seen that plot outline for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the longest of the books), and it absolutely terrifies me.

I am not a plotter. When I write, I have a beginning (which usually changes over the course of numerous drafts) and an ending. I also have what I call "things that need to happen" throughout the course of the book. In some cases, because I generally write historical fiction, I might have a specific order in which those things must happen, but sometimes I can move them around as I need.

I don't outline. I feel like once I've outlined a story, before I've finished a first draft, I've told it, and I no longer have an interest in writing it.

When I read something like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or any of the other Harry Potter books, it challenges me. I'll never be able to plot a book like J.K. Rowling, but I can keep trying.

Update on After the Ashes

It's been a year since friends of mine started sending me messages on Facebook that they had received their copy of After the Ashes in the mail.

I still have a hard time believing that a novel I wrote was published.

Since the official publication date in October, a great deal has happened to me.

I accepted a new job and moved to Indiana in December. That has been an adjustment, since I am certainly not a winter person.

But the good news is that After the Ashes received some recognition.

First, it was named to the National Science Teachers Association list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12. That was a shock, because science was not my best subject in high school. I avoided it almost entirely in college. After the Ashes was one of only two fiction titles on the 52-title list. Other authors on that list are science writers I've been reading for years -- Cathryn Sill, Steve Jenkins, Robin Page, Sneed B. Collard III, Gail Gibbons, Sandra Markle, Sy Montgomery, and April Pulley Sayre. Marianne Dyson, one of the members of my former critique group in Texas was also on the list, so I am humbled by the company I'm in.

After the Ashes sharing a list with authors I admire.

Then, as if that weren't cool enough, it was also named to the Bank Street College of Education's Best Children's Books of the Year for ages twelve to fourteen! Once again, After the Ashes is sharing space on the list with amazing historical fiction authors like Avi, Melanie Crowder, Carolyn Meyer, Michael Morpurgo, and Pam Muñoz Ryan.

On top of the recognition, I even got to speak at the Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia with Marie Lamba and Genese Davis, who also arranged everything. That was incredible. I never in a million years thought I would be speaking at a comics convention.

I also participated in the B-Fest Teen Book Festival at my local Barnes & Noble. Although it was a small group in attendance, I talked about the research I did for After the Ashes, and it went well.

It has been quite a ride with After the Ashes. I hope to keep pushing forward. In the meantime, I'm working on another manuscript.

After the Ashes Book Launch

The official book release of After the Ashes was October 15, and I held a book launch at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston on Saturday. If you've never visited Blue Willow, you should. It is an amazing bookstore, and they host hundreds of events each year.

After the Ashes on display. Note the perfectly-

placed tropical plants.

photo from Sara K Joiner

When I walked in, I saw a gorgeous display of multiple copies of After the Ashes complete with tropical-looking plants.  So perfect!  There was also a customer there who was picking up her pre-ordered copy of the book in preparation for the book launch at 2 p.m. Here's the important part of that: I did not know this person!

The event took place in the rear of the store. My mother made a chocolate cake, which we christened Dutch chocolate in honor of the book. I also had Dutch cookies available, and I decorated the signing table with giant plastic stag beetles similar to those the main character might have collected.

Prizes, including Lava soap, Dutch mints in a tin, and a copy of Krakatoa by Simon Winchester, were given out to people who asked the first questions.

Cathy Berner, a former librarian herself, introduced me, and we were off! I talked about how long it took me to write the book, and how often I revised it. I pointed out early readers who were in the audience and had given me helpful tips.

Me and a member of my critique group. She 

brought me roses!

photo from my critique partner

Me signing books for a friend. She'll 

be doing a giveaway on her blog.

photo from my critique partner

I read a brief passage to whet people's appetites, and then I answered questions. Once the questions were over, I signed books and took pictures like a real author! It was a bit surreal, to be honest. People I've known for years were buying something I wrote and getting me to sign it.

There were about twenty-five or thirty people there, including some I did not know. More than the person I mentioned earlier. That was a thrill! Blue Willow sold out all their copies of After the Ashes. My mother didn't even get to buy one!

My roommate, me and my friend—

all Texas Lutheran alumnae!

photo from my friend

It was also a little mini-reunion of sorts for some Texas Lutheran alumnae. My roommate, one of my friends and a former co-worker all came down from Austin and Seguin to attend. Thanks so much, y'all!

Even these two books were gone before 

the end of the event.

photo from my critique partner

I cannot thank Blue Willow enough for all they did to make the day special, and I cannot thank all my friends who came and supported me. Honestly, it was better than I could have imagined, and I'm still smiling!