The last thing he remembered was the sweet summer morning—and a lingering stillness. A tangle of Confederate jasmine clutched the fence post to his left, and Jacob detected this familiar fragrance of home even as he lay on the ground with his rifle, waiting for the signal to attack. He would never forget the wet grass, the warm, honeyed air, and the soft hum of such an unspoiled, early morning.

Here are a few things to look for before turning your manuscript over to an editor or publisher:

•Check spacing. Put one space between sentences. (I know that that’s not what many of us were taught years ago, but Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist then either!)

•Check spelling. This seems like a no-brainer but every writer should go through a manuscript looking for words that pass the spellcheck test and yet are still incorrect—like “she could hardly breath” instead of “she could barely breathe.” I keep dictionary.com minimized on my desktop while I’m working. Then I can pull it up and check spelling and words for the Thesaurus while I’m working.

•Make sure a dash is a DASH. A string of hyphens (—) does not an emdash make. On a Mac, the long emdash is made by holding down “shift” and “option,” and then hitting the “hyphen” key. Voila! A dash: —. A shorter endash is made by holding down “option” and then the hyphen key: –.

•Use transition words. And then, and so, next, after…all of these can help make the action travel along smoothly instead of jerking forward like boxcars.

•Check for common grammatical errors, like writing “we laid down” instead of “we lay down.”

•Be consistent with caps. Sometimes a word is capped in one place and then down-sized a paragraph or so later. If you have a longish book, create a style guide to help you remember what you decided to do.

WREN COTTAGE Writing & Editing
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www.wrencottage.net

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
—William Wordsworth

Remember This!

Everyone is unique but when it comes to memory, certain things may help us all, says Anderson Smith, a researcher on cognitive aging.

•Aerobic exercise. “Aerobic exercise makes you healthier in the brain, and the brain is an organ of the body. The healthier you are, the better you will be. If you can get out every day or do something that keeps you active and healthier, then do it.”

•Have Faith. “Faith can guide you and keep you calm. I think happiness and contentment are important to healthy aging. What does faith give you but contentment? For many people it reduces anxiety.”

•Avoid Worry. “Be adaptable. Be flexible. Worry about the things you can do something about it.”

•Keep Your Mind Active. “Use it or lose it—there’s some evidence for that. You can do crossword puzzles, but I read mystery novels.”

•Consider Service Work. “I do ministry to older adults, and it makes me happy.”

•Accept Forgetfulness. “You’re just developing the normal things that happen with memory. I write things down. Keep the umbrella by the door.”

•Adapt to Change. “Successful aging is the ability to adapt.”

“Write what’s in your heart.”
—Jane Yolen

What’s better than having a Sesame Street book? Having a Sesame Street eBook!

Sesame Workshop Editorial Director Jennifer Perry told me today that Workshop elves are making several of my little 8×8 books into what they call “moving picture stories.” Here’s the link to an early version of books like my first title, The ABCs of Cookies: http://www.movingpicturebooks.com/

I’m honored to hear these beloved Muppets and monsters speak my words.

As usual, there’s no place better to be than on the Street!

***

Having said that, here’s a shout-out to another great place: Amurchee Elementary in Rome, GA. Thank you, Mrs. Taylor and Miss Beatty, for inviting me into your fourth-grade classroom to talk about being a writer. And thanks to students such as Jerry, Christopher, Jana, and Molly for being such good listeners and interviewers.

Write On, everybody!

I continue to be amazed at how much useful information can be found on Twitter. Mashable is a site that posts great social media updates, and Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Books, gives valuable insight into new technology. (Right now, he’s checking out Google Buzz.)

Here are some recent posts that caught my eye. Do you know what it looks like to read a book on the new iPad? Know how to use a blog as your company Web site? What is Google Buzz?

You can find out quickly through Twitter.

Oh, and by the way, it’s almost Valentine’s Day, so what could be sweeter than a Sesame Street tweet?

mashable

Now trending on Mashable: “Google Buzz: What It Means for Twitter and Facebook” – http://bit.ly/clKJYP

mashable

60% of you currently say that you will probably use Google Buzz. Our poll: http://bit.ly/atxR4u

RachelleGardner

What makes an agent want to read more? Thoughts on craft, story and voice: http://short.to/16lsz

jonbard

Just posted: What Does Apple’s iPad Mean for Writers? – When Steve Jobs and his crew at Apple set… http://ow.ly/16xtBF

mashable

“How to Use a Blog as Your Company Website” – http://bit.ly/9M6VIw

mashable

Aperture 3 Hits the Apple Store – http://bit.ly/9Ct0KC

sesamestreet

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with your children! We have lots of V-Day activities, games, videos, and more! http://bit.ly/bXTx6Q

Here are some of the promising books I’ve been editing lately:

•Isabella Propeller by John Aldridge. An intriguing little story (with a playful name!) based on the legend of the Blowing Rock in North Carolina. An inquisitive little girl, a vintage beanie found in grandmother’s attic, a magical red feather—and Wind Keeper, the mysterious mountain woman of the winds. Who could ask for more?

•Nothing But the Ordinary by Bobby Thomas. The debut YA novel by an Alabama youth minister with a yen for storytelling. In the book, Ethan Thomas gets his wish for something extraordinary to happen at boring ol’ General High. To his shock, however, he discovers that a mysterious villain is planning to destroy the school! If only there were something special about him like incredible strength or speed. Instead, Ethan discovers four students who do have super powers but do not want to use them—or don’t know even know how. But what part will Ethan play in all this?

•Big Box, Little Box by Kathy Nash and Damien Nash. The spiritual story of one little box that is lost in a mail sorting center, and the big box that shows him the way. This inspiring book, which is also formatted as a DVD, entertains young readers while helping them avoid negative labels and realize their potential. This book makes its debut February 6 in Atlanta. ISBN# 978-0-9841729-3-1

• Music Beach by C.E. Walz. A charming picture book in rhyme by the author of Mary’s Treasure Box (Tommy Nelson, 1998) and Alley Loo: A Spooky Swamp Tale (Dragonfly Publishing, 2009). Geared to kids ages 3-8, Music Beach is the story of what happens at night, along the seaside, when the sun goes down.

“When the sun goes down and palm trees sway,

Come hear the sounds near Turtle Bay…

From the Sandcastles of yesterday,

We’re live from Music Beach!”

•Double Teamed by Dana Konop. A rollicking and yet poignant middle-reader for kids ages 8 and older that tells the story of a regular boy at a regular school who meets challenges that few of us have…and becomes a hero who changes his family’s life forever. Dana has won four awards in the Writers’ Digest Writer’s Competition for Children’s Fiction.

“Mom unleashes her parent eye on Dad and me. I squirm to keep her from melting my flesh with that. Dad finishes picking the dirt out from under his fingernails. He stands up and nods with his eyebrows raised at me, and I know exactly what he means by that.”

So much has been going on in Haiti the last two weeks, and I’m fascinated by how involved we all are through the Internet.

The Mashable site I follow on Twitter reported today that Mac and iphone communities raised more than $143,000 in relief efforts in just days: http://mashable.com/2010/01/22/indierelief-results/

My friend and former Tennessean newspaper colleague Shelley Mays Young posted a photo on Facebook that shows a young Haitian boy, arms opened wide in jubilation, just after being rescued after a week: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30931831&id=1412799093

I found out through online news sites that the search and rescue team in my own hometown of Fairfax, VA, rescued two men who had been talking to one another while buried in the rubble. When they were both unearthed, the men shook hands for the first time. And Piedmont Healthcare in my current hometown of Atlanta posted notices that they had sent a surgical team three days ago to Albert Schweitzer Hospital. The physicians went, despite the fact that Haiti had suffered another major tremor. See Piedmont’s Facebook site entry on this at:

http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=87194613316&share_id=230305603063&comments=1

Anderson Cooper rescued one young Haitian boy who had been hit in the head with a concrete block by looters, http://www.redbalcony.com/?vid=26239. And CNN’s Sanjay Gupta is doing surgery in Haiti as well as sending back tweets to give us all a glimpse into the devastation, and offer any hope—even something as small as his triage unit getting generator power. In fact, he reported feeling an aftershock today, Jan. 22, on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sanjayguptaCNN

It seems that people are finding ways to help all over the Internet—and learning about aid from others. We are longer removed from tragedies such as this one. We are in it, even as we sit in the safety of our homes, as I am, with a Mac on my lap.

As I write this, I am reminded that the important thing is to use the information gleaned from social media to find a way to help before putting the computer to sleep. I may not be able to fly to Haiti to dig for victims, perform surgery, or rescue a child from the street—but I can, and will, do something.

By the way, to read about relief efforts by my own church, check out the Episcopal News Service reports:

http://ecusa.anglican.org/79901_118727_ENG_HTM.htm

***

“To donate to Episcopal Relief & Development call the agency at 1-800-334-7626 ext. 5129; or mail a gift to Episcopal Relief & Development, P.O. Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058. Please write “Haiti fund” in the memo of all checks.”

WREN COTTAGE Writing & Editing
615•516•1256
www.wrencottage.net

“Writing is both mask and unveiling.”
—E.B. White


This week I’ve also been thinking about the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrator’s big Springmingle conference February 26-28 at the Century Center Marriott in Northeast Atlanta. This is a great opportunity to meet other writers, editors, and illustrators in children’s publishing, get a manuscript or a portfolio critiqued, and listen to professionals in the field, like literary agent Josh Adams and keynote speaker Jane Yolen, author of Owl Moon (Owl Moon!) and How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

Because of the holidays, SCBWI fliers may be a little late getting out. So for more information and to register, go to:

https://southern-breeze.net/Home_Page.php

The holidays may be over but there are some inspirational things to look forward to in 2010, and Springmingle is just one of them.

Happy New Year!

Inspiring Message to Kids

Atlanta—Self-esteem doesn’t come in a box but potential does in the inspirational new children’s book Big Box, Little Box: How to Load Your Truck.

Written by Damien K.H. Nash and Kathy Nash, Big Box, Little Box is the imaginative story of a frightened “little box” that gets stranded in a mail-service sorting center. It takes the advice of a wise “big box” to make Little Box realize that the first step on a successful life journey is recognizing his own potential—being the best he can be.

“Big Box uses kind words and a gentle manner that spark an awakening and an excitement in Little Box,” the book explains. “Little Box realizes he is unique and possesses a set of skills that the world is waiting to receive.”

Big Box also warns Little Box to reject others’ negative labels such as “good,” “bad, “lazy,” or “smart,”—advice that Big Box, Little Box authors hope that readers will all take to heart. Emmanuel, the Perfect Label-Giver, however, can help Little Box find his true self and deliver on his potential, the story emphasizes.

“Every box is labeled,” Big Box points out. “Through this journey

weare given many labels. Some labels we willlike, and some we won’t.”

“This will help affirm children’s feelings of significance and encourage them to reach their potential,” says educator Kathy Nash. “Many times, what you say to your child is what he or she will become. If you say he is lazy enough times, he may believe it and act that way.

“Most parents say they want their child to grow up to be successful, get along with their peers, and be able to take care of themselves,” Nash added. “However, parents must use words that reflect how they want their children to act later in life.”

Big Box, Little Box is an interactive book. Words are color-coded, so grownups and children can take turns reading aloud, and the book includes a list of vocabulary words and recommended activities. A DVD offering expanded descriptive language is also available with English, Spanish, and French subtitles.

“It’s the responsibility of every one of us to invest in our children’s future,” says Kathy Nash. “At TNG Publishings, we strive to introduce products that enhance the experience of reading and learning. Big Box, Little Box opens the door to an innovative way of teaching our children character-building principles that will sustain them throughout life.”

“We Deliver Potential!”

Big Box, Little Box

ISBN# 978-0-9841729-3-1

“Writing is REwriting.”

–Robert L. Kelley

Just before Christmas someone important in my life died. I hadn’t seen H. Doyle Harvill in years, but I’m not sure I’d be where I am today if he had not given me a chance years ago in the newsroom of the Tampa Times.

Harvill was the managing editor of Tampa’s afternoon newspaper in the 1970s when several of my friends and I began jockeying for reporting jobs there. I had to serve time at a lesser Florida paper, copy-editing columns such as “Dear Abby,” before Harvill took me on as a real reporter in the Times’ rural Brandon bureau. Covering the Junior Woman’s Club, schools, and rodeos wasn’t perfect for someone who desperately wanted to be in the newsroom, but it was a start. And in a time when there were no women on the Post’s Watergate team, only a handful of female journalists such as Barbara Walters and Helen Thomas serving as role models, and no Diane Sawyers anchoring the nightly news, just being hired was huge.

I’m grateful to Doyle Harvill not only for having some faith in me but also for teaching me so many journalism basics. It was Harvill who told me I couldn’t belong to any organization or even subscribe to Audubon magazine, because subscribers were required to join the Audubon Society—and I remain a non-Audubon subscriber and a registered Independent to this day. He admonished me about a critical misspelling in a story one day, telling me that names were sacred. And he told all reporters to travel a different way to and from work every day, so that we’d notice everything that was happening.

Harvill was a big believer in local watchdog journalism and community news when it seemed that other papers were trying to emulate The Washington Post and break their own Watergate story. I loved the quote in one of his obits where someone said that he wanted reporters to “get the news, get it right, and tell people why it mattered.”

Before I was issued a picture ID card giving me access into the newspaper’s imposing, stone building downtown, I had never been a reporter, unless you count The Vanderbilt Hustler. In fact, in the 1970s, Harvill hired so many of us from Vanderbilt that people jokingly referred to it as the Tampa Hustler. But many of his bets paid off. Neil Skene became publisher of Congressional Quarterly. Clay Harris went on to the London bureau of The Washington Post. Ann Ahern Allen became a mainstay at the Charlotte Observer, and I was lucky enough to spend time on the national and foreign news desk of The St. Petersburg Times, a place that arguably never would have hired me without experience.

Neil Skene said shortly after Harvill’s death: “We all learned what competition was at that paper. Wherever he is now, he’s giving ’em hell.”

Harvill had the habit of standing behind reporters as they were writing. Mostly, he never said a word. He would watch for a while and then move on. But sometimes he’d offer a bit of advice on a lead, and one glorious day he told me I had good feel for what people wanted to read.

During a turbulent time in my life when my parents in Virginia separated, I went into Harvill’s office and told him I needed to leave. My mother was having a hard time with the divorce and needed me. Harvill listened, nodded, and then told me he’d hold my job open for me. I didn’t think I’d be able to return, but within two months I was covering cops, poultry farming, and strawberry research in the Times’ Plant City bureau.

Former Times sports reporter Steve Otto remembered a similar story in his Tampa Tribune column. Harvill ruled with a heavy hand, Otto said, “but he was the same guy who had told an entertainment writer to stay home and take care of a sick husband for months. Her salary never was cut.”

Somewhere along the way in my years at the Times, the local NOW chapter decided to give Doyle Harvill its notorious Barefoot & Pregnant Award. The argument was that he had not hired enough women. But I did not see a man who discriminated against women; I saw the man who opened the door and began letting us in.

Rich White, a Vanderbilt classmate, made a similar point in his own remembrance:

“I was one of seven reporters he hired around that time straight off the campus of Vanderbilt University. …Three of those seven were women, at a time when maybe only 10-15% of all reporters were women. Doyle gave me the freedom to work different beats (sports, police, education, county) and to write longer investigative series. He didn’t just challenge reporters to report better; he also challenged writers to write better and more creatively.”

And Clay Harris recalled:

“He instilled the right values in journalists (regardless of sex or race), values that apparently are disappearing along with newspapers themselves.”

Some 10 years after walking into the Tampa Times newsroom for the first time, I found myself working for one of several Southern Living, Inc., magazines in Birmingham (Creative Ideas for Living). Harvill was running the Montgomery Advertiser by then and asked me to drive down and meet with him. He asked me to be the Birmingham bureau reporter for him, but I had to turn him down. The salary was better and the hours saner at the magazine. But I knew—even having earned a master’s in mass communications by then—that I was giving up the chance to learn more about good journalism.

The Tampa Tribune said in its tribute to Harvill that “his zest for journalism was infectious, and those who endured his boot-camp tactics and profanity-laced lectures usually emerged with a lifetime passion for the profession, a deep respect for its watchdog responsibilities and a grateful appreciation for the satisfaction and fun that come with a job that challenges the power structure each day. Harvill had a keen eye for talent and didn’t mind taking chances on individuals. He launched the careers of hundreds of journalists across the country and took enormous pride in their success.”

I hope Doyle Harvill knew that these young journalists took enormous pride in working for him, themselves.

-30-

WREN COTTAGE Writing & Editing
615•516•1256
www.wrencottage.net

“Writing is thinking on paper.”

– William Zinsser