Longhorns and Outlaws cover has arrived

Well, it's been awhile, but I'm back! Things are rolling right along. My new historical novel from Coteau is officially titled Longhorns and Outlaws and I have the cover. It's gorgeous, don't you think?

Run has also arrived in Canada. I'm having a joint launch with Alison Lohans at:
7:00 p.m.
Thursday, May 29th
Book & Brier Patch
4065 Albert St., Regina
Phone: 306-586-5814 or Email: book.brier@sasktel.net

Things are busy!

New Books for 2008

Snowmobile season sure cuts into everything else! However, I'm rolling ahead with the new books that I have coming out in the fall of 2008.

Two of the books are ones I put together as an editor for an educational press. They're in the Issues That Concern You series from Greenhaven Press. My title for 2007 was Downloading Music, and my two new titles for 2008 will be: Choosing a Career and Teen Driving.

What I enjoy about putting together these titles is the research of the topic--which of course, is also one of the reasons I enjoy writing historical fiction. With the Issues series I, as the editor, provide the overview to a topic, then find viewpoints (often opposing) that give different perspectives. I also round up a lot of statistical information, which can create visual images to illustrate the issues.

Once I've chosen the articles I'd like to include in the book, I go through them and insert headings that clarify the different sections, since the books are for readers in junior high school. As soon as I get my package of materials all done, it all goes on to the next level of editors and permissions people at the publisher, so the books are really a joint effort.

Nonfiction work also gives me a break in creative writing, which is something I personally need as a writer. Since stories have to live with me for quite a while before I write them, I've found it best to work on other projects while I'm thinking through a fiction idea.

Of course, I'm also getting ready to begin final edits with an editor for the new historical fiction novel I have coming out with Coteau in the fall of 2008. I always look forward to working with an editor as a chance to get some feed-back on what worked with the novel, and some additional ideas on ways that the story can be stronger. Good editors seem to have an ability to ask just the right questions to make everything come together!

So that's a little of my writer's process.

I'd like to recommend an awesome new series of articles I found while looking for some resources to recommend to a writing friend whose work I was critiquing. Psychic distance is one of the most challenging things for a writer to master, and yet very few writing books address psychic distance. David Isaak does a great job here.


http://davidisaak.blogspot.com/2007/12/psychic-distance-exposition-and.html

There's always more to learn, whether it's through direct feed-back from an editor, or by studying some of the great material that appears every day on the Internet.

Linda Aksomitis
Visit me at: http://www.guide2travel.ca/ or at http://www.snowridermag.com/

Just Call me Joe -- Historical fiction for Young Readers

Whenever I'm between book writing projects or thinking my way through a new idea, I read. Actually, I read all the time, so that's no surprise. Writers are always readers--the two activities are really part of the same process. Can you imagine a cook who doesn't enjoy trying different types of foods? A painter who doesn't visit galleries and study the works of others? An architect who designed buildings without ever studying how the different parts all fit together in other buildings? That's a writer without reading.

Anyway, I just finished reading Just Call Me Joe, by Frieda Wishinsky. It's an Orca Young Reader, which means the intended readership is readers ages 7 to 10, who are in grades 2 to 5. The font is larger than average, and it only has 100 pages, so it's a nice fast story for a good reader.



I was drawn to this novel for a few reasons. As a writer, I like to examine many different publisher lines, so that I'll have some ideas about where to submit my books once they're written. Just Call Me Joe is about immigration--the same general subject area as my novel, Adeline's Dream. So, of course I was interested to see how another author handled the same topic.

Adeline's Dream is a long novel for middle grades (45,000 words), while Just Call Me Joe is part of a series of much shorter books (13,000 to 18,000 words) for younger readers. I'm always curious to see the differences in plotting and characterization between two such different lengths.

Just Call Me Joe begins with the ominous chapter title: "Sometimes They Send You Back." Wishinsky does a good job of filling in the details of who Joseph is, and why the ship he's on has just passed the Statue of Liberty in the first two tense chapters. It's easy to identify with him as he remembers the Russian soldiers he and his sister have escaped from--and shares his dream to become an American.

By chapter four the pacing in Just Call Me Joe makes a change. Instead of memories and fully fleshed scenes, the story moves to dialogue that serves as a useful tool for propelling Joseph's life ahead in the new country where he's been plunked in first grade, far below boys his own age, so he can learn to speak English.

It isn't easy living at Aunt Sophie's in New York in 1909. Joseph must share a room with a renter, Mr. Plucknik, who tosses stinky socks and shirts onto Joe's cot, and snores all night. Cabbage soup is the food of the day. His sister, Anna, hates her job at the factory, where she works many long hard hours for very little pay.

Street kids, Sam, Lou, and Al, soon befriend Joseph and introduce him to a life that he knows is wrong. They don't work, they steal, and yet, Joe is drawn into their world by the friendship they offer. This conflict, which starts slowly in the fourth chapter and reaches a resolution in the second last chapter, provides plot elements for Joe's character growth throughout the novel.

This was one of the areas I was most interested in as a writer--with a short word count, what types of character growth and change does an author incorporate into a satisfying historical story? Here, the growth was integral to the plot, with a swirling vortex that drew Joe down, keeping the reader wondering if he would really end up doing what Sam urged him to do.

Like all satisfying stories, the climax of Just Call Me Joe comes at a point where everything seems lost, until the main character takes a stand against the elements that are pulling him down. Sam and Al take off to earn some "real" money with crime, and Joe gets a promotion to a higher grade at school, showing the reader that his hard work has paid off. There's hope that Joe will get a part-time job and that work will improve for Anna, as she has also taken a stand against the oppressive employer at a union meeting.

The novel, while about immigration, has elements that all children will identify with through Joe's internal struggle to keep doing what he knows is right, when he's offered what seem to be such easy alternatives. While the ending may be brighter than that experienced by many immigrants, it feels realistic with the plot elements we're given.

All in all, Just Call Me Joe is an interesting novel for young readers experiencing historical fiction for the first time.

Linda Aksomitis
Author & Photojournalist
Travel with me on guide2travel.ca

How do you edit your children's novels?

There are many different strategies authors use when they edit a novel. I have a similar approach with all of my editing work, but how much editing really depends on how strong my initial plan and outline were for the novel, along with what kinds of things my editors would like to see added.

Currently, I'm working on my next historical fiction novel for young readers, due out in the fall of 2008 from Coteau Books. Its working title is Longhorns & Outlaws, although that may certainly change.

The interesting thing about editing this book is that the time between my last draft and starting back into editing was over a year. In that time I wrote two other novels and two nonfiction books, so my writing skills had grown--I find each book and editor teach me something new about craft. Also, I'd had a variety of reviews on my first historical novel, Adeline's Dream, which made me look for specific things in this novel.

My process can be outlined in very specific points:

• Check that the plot is strong enough to pull readers through from beginning to end, with enough exciting scenes to keep them wondering what will happen.
• Check that the character grows and changes through the story, and that this actually occurs through the plot events, so that readers see the consequences of actions and decisions we make.
  
• Check that there is a strong climax to the story and that it is located at a good point. The ending shouldn't be 3-4 chapters after the climax, or the story gets boring, but there should also be enough space for some excitement after the climax, or again, the story gets boring.
  
• Check that the end of the story is satisfying, even if it leaves readers wondering what may come next.
  
• Check that the chapter endings are exciting and make it hard for the reader to put down the book. Chapter ends that tie up scenes, so the reader moves on to the next chapter with a new scene/activity can end up with an episodic feel to the story, whereas time moving forward in the middle of a novel doesn't seem so slow to the reader.
  
• Check that all of the characters are three-dimensional, with supporting characters showing some change through the events of the story as well as the main character.
• Check that the voice of the narrator has a distinctive style that is consistent throughout the novel.
• Check that the language shows instead of tells, particularly in the most exciting scenes.
  
• Check that the setting is vivid and well developed, so the reader can get a sense of where the story happens, even if it could happen anywhere in the world--even the main character's room or school is sufficient to create "place" and put the reader in the main character's world.
  
• Check for the use of a literary writing style that works with the narrator's voice and style.
• Recheck any historical details that may pop up as additional depth is added to the story. Language must also be checked for historical usage. This is a great link that lets writers determine what sayings/phrases were used in what periods: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=feign
  

Of course it's hard to keep track of all of these things at one time! So, I often go through the novel multiple times checking and editing for specific things. When I decide to make changes to some aspect of plot or character, I'm also careful to re-examine the other elements to see what impact they'll have in various areas.

The final edit is, of course, a line edit to make sure grammar and punctuation is all done correctly. The line edit is also the last time to make sure everything is consistent: his mother's eyes are blue in both places they're mentioned; the horses names are consistent throughout; etc.

Editing is the most important part of writing, so I always allow ample time to ensure I've done my story characters and the historical period justice.

Linda Aksomitis, www.aksomitis.com
Author of the children's historical novels: Adeline's Dream, Run, and the 2008 title, Longhorns & Outlaws (working title) from Coteau Books.

What's Your New Historical Novel, Run, About?

Run is my new historical novel for grades 6 & 7 in the Nitty Gritty Reading series, which should be arriving soon from New Zealand, where it's published. The publishers are Heinemann Education, Reed Publishing, New Zealand. In 2008 these books will be distributed by Pearson International.

So what's the new novel about? A few things, of course, but the key one is infantile paralysis (later known as polio), which the main character, Victoria, develops in the first chapter of the novel. The time period is 1911, in a small town setting. One of the key historical things I drew from in the novel is the treatment an Australian nurse, Sister Kenny, used for infantile paralysis in 1911, based on her beginning nurse's training and study of muscles. The treatment was in total opposition to what doctors of the time recommended (but this was her first encounter with the condition), so it took decades for the treatment to be taken seriously.

I was particularly interested in exploring infantile paralysis and the treatment, since my father was paralyzed for a year as a boy, and doctors later suggested he'd likely had infantile paralysis. I wanted to learn more about the disease, which had terrible epidemics into the first half of the 20th century, plus I wanted to learn more about Sister Kenny's treatment, as it seemed likely my grandmother had followed a similar course of action, since my father walked again with no disability.

Run has two narrators, Victoria, who has infantile paralysis, and her new step-brother, Jacob, who has left the farm when his mother married Victoria's father, and moved into town. Jacob longs to be back on the farm, and day-by-day grows to dislike helping Victoria's father in the hardware store more than ever. Victoria is having a hard time accepting her new step-family, especially her step-mother, who is very different from her own mother, who died in childbirth.

Once Victoria is paralyzed, however, she has no one to turn to except her step-family, especially once her younger sister, Elizabeth, dies of the same disease, and her father is lost in his own grief. The doctor prescribes a treatment for Victoria that doesn't alleviate any of the pain, so she's forced to make a decision on whether to do as the doctor and Papa order, or take Jacob and his mother's help. Can unschooled farm people know better than a doctor?

Jacob only has a limited education, but Victoria, who dreams of being a teacher, has been helping him prepare for school in the fall. So, when Jacob is in the next town picking up medicine for Victoria, he spends some of his earnings to buy the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which he thinks may cheer her up and help him practice his reading. As they read the book together, both Jacob and Victoria learn a lot from Dorothy, the Tin Woodsman, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Wizard, about Oz and life.

Linda Aksomitis, www.aksomitis.com
Author of the children's historical novels: Adeline's Dream, Run, and the 2008 title, Longhorns & Outlaws (working title) from Coteau Books.

How long does it take to write a book?

When I do author visits, students always ask me how long it takes to write a book. I don't have an easy answer, either.

The actual physical act of sitting down at the computer (I never write longhand) and typing the story goes very quickly, as I normally write 4000 to 5000 words in a day. However, this activity is rather like sitting down to Sunday dinner, which may take just fifteen minutes or half an hour to eat, while the cook may have spent five or ten times that amount of time preparing everything.

Before I can write, the story has to live in my head and build, one theme and scene at a time, until it's all in place. This has taken me anywhere from six months to ten years, depending on the project. I know I'm ready to start writing the book when I can do a full outline with all of the plots/subplots, character development, motifs, symbollism, and other story elements that I deem important for the project. If I can't put it all on paper that way, it's not ready to be written.

Then, of course, there's the research that goes into a story, which I do as I'm thinking about the idea. For example, in my new novel, Longhorns & Outlaws (working title), I knew that the main character was an orphan, but until I did extensive historical research I didn't know that his family had died in the worst hurricane in the history of the United States in 1900 in Galveston, Texas (more people died in that one than died in Katrina).

Many of my writing friends tell me they write to discover what is happening in the story, whereas I write to get to know the characters. While I've already "met" the characters before I begin writing, as I write they tell me about themselves, where they've been and what they've done, plus share their hopes and dreams.

I am what I would call a setting or plot driven author, since my initial idea always begins with a place and a thing/happening. From there, I think about who the characters are in this place and how these events are going to change them. This approach to writing seems to work well with historical fiction, as history provides me with so many interesting events to choose from that I'll never be able to write them all.

Linda Aksomitis, author of "Adeline's Dream," "Run," and a new historical fiction from Coteau Books in 2008 with the working title, "Longhorns & Outlaws."

How do you decide what historical events to use in the plot of a novel?

History provides an exciting backdrop for a novel. There is built-in excitement, tension, high points and low points. So, the trick to deciding what to include in a novel means looking at the shape of a book and considering how history can propel the story's plot, rather than just trying to include all the historical events that actually happened.

In Adeline's Dream I had a whole summer of community activities to choose from, plus the fall school and harvest events. I wanted to make sure the conflict in the book--that wondering what will happen--was strong right from the beginning, so I focused on events that would build conflict when examining the history book for the real events of 1910. I had several key conflicts to develop in the novel, with the main one also showing us one of Adeline's character flaws. She's stubborn, in fact she's so stubborn that she just can't forgive her father for embroidering the truth about the home they were coming to in Canada.

Another key conflict is between Adeline and the story's antagonist, Sarah. Sarah's an antagonist because it seems that if she would just be nice to Adeline and accept her, that all of Adeline's problems would be over. Sarah also represents the town kids, who aren't terribly accepting of the German kids from the soddy community called Germantown. In order to introduce this early, Sarah appears in the very first chapter of the book, snubbing Adeline when she arrives in Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan at the train station and calling her a "squatter."

So, my challenge was to look at the community events and decide what historical events could set the reader firmly in 1910, plus build tension in the conflicts. First, I choose the 1/2 day holiday for Dominion Day, and the horse race. While a lot of the day is fun for Adeline and a good introduction to the town (also important since immigration is one of the main subject areas the story deals with), a confrontation with Sarah certainly dampens her spirits. During the day Adeline's thoughts wander, and we learn quite a bit about Germany and the long-distance relationship she's had with her father in the four years that he's been in Canada, getting things ready to send for them. In fact the reader hopes Adeline is ready to forgive her father.

Tension going up and down through the plot events is what pulls the reader through the story, so every time it goes up as it does when we think Adeline may forgive her father, it must also come down a little further ahead. Some readers have asked me why Adeline doesn't just forgive him, and there are two reasons for that: the first is that the story needs tension (once the problem is solved the excitement is over), and the second is that her inability to just say "I'm sorry Papa, I'm so glad to see you," shows the reader that she's stubborn. Since at this point in the story we think she just might do that, the next historical event I include has to put Adeline on the outs again with her father.

For that event I chose Sunday after church, going to the slide show with the piano music. This particular event tied many of the threads of the plot together, so it was an important scene. First of all, Adeline's dream to become an opera singer is shown in both her singing in church and her longing to stand and sing Ruth's story from the bible at the show. Second, Adeline has a run-in with Sarah as they're leaving the event, so it develops that conflict. The scene also shows us, quite subtly, how Sarah's mother is a perfectionist, so we get a peek into what it's like to actually be Sarah. Finally, when Papa talks and laughs with Sarah's mother, and doesn't even introduce his family to the well-to-do lady from town, Sarah feels that while Papa might belong in the community, none of the rest of his family do, and their relationship is strained once again.

So, the historical events I chose to include must always develop conflict and character in the fictional world, showing us the realities of the character's lives and why they respond to life the way they do.