Readers, please choose your favorite story idea

On March 5th, I had great fun visiting Sunset Ridge Elementary. I asked the 4th and 5th graders to check my blog March 8th. That's today!
I'm sharing short descriptions and a few sentences from several of my story ideas here. I've started each of these stories, but only just.

All of my blog readers are invited to choose the one that sounds like the story you'd most like to read. Thanks to all for your thoughts!

Drum Roll here................

Your choices are:

1) Wu Lan and the Dancing Horses
A story based on the dancing horses of the Tang Dynasty in China. It will be from the point of view of a stable boy or girl whose father is in charge of caring for the horses.

"Wu Lan's heart pounded like a thousand drums. On his right pranced Water Spirit, draped in rubies and emeralds. To his left was Sky Climber, black mane tied in gold and silver ropes. And before him, in red silk dragon robes, sat the Emperor of all China."

2) Radical

Jazz Sullivan likes life well-measured and safe, just like her cooking. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, life turns experimental. Her mom has no hair, her little brother believes he's a superhero, her new neighbor's a punk rocker, and the new puppy Radical is chewing at her heart as well as her shoes.

"My dad says there are some things in life that can fix anything. For Dad, it's the Acme ten-in-one wrench. For my little brother Stryker, it's his superhero cape. For me, it's Magnum Opus Chocolate cookies. I guess for Mom it was a dog, because one week after the doctor told her she had breast cancer, she decided we needed a dog."

3) Noah and the Secret of the Yellow Dragon

Hundreds of years ago, an evil sorcerer, jealous of the yellow dragons' powers, conjured an evil spell to trap the dragons. There is just one way to break the spell. Only a person with a True Heart will be able to discover that secret. Can timid Noah set the dragons free?

"Sarban was smiling. 'The dragons keep me company,' he explained. ' Sometimes in this house it is lonely'.
'If it's company you want, why do you stay behind the iron gate?' asked Noah.
'If I could go beyond the gate, I would,' replied Sarban. 'It is not within my power.'

4) Mugwart and Abigail

Abigail Eliza Bingle thinks her dreams of going on a dinosaur dig are crushed when her Dad, professor of paleontology in New York City, goes on sabbatical, moving the family to a small town in Connecticut. But her new friend, Mugwart, rescued from the Mosstown Humane Society, leads her to not only new friends and adventures, but a dinosaur dig in her own backyard.

" 'Dinosaur, Dad, you've done it again!'
Abigail Eliza Bingle had on her favorite baseball hat, backwards, her favorite polka-dog dress, frontwards, and her favorite Halloween socks, one up and one down. But even her favorite clothes couldn't cheer her up."

Readers, please choose your favorite story idea

nathaliemvondo.wordpress interview

Nathalie Mvondo rocks, as does her Multiculturalism Rocks blog. She just put up a wonderful interview of moi. http://bit.ly/aivCCv

nathaliemvondo.wordpress interview

More NYC pics

Simply can't forget the laugh-producing doggies at Madison Square Park. If you're ever in the Big Apple, stop at this great little burger place. Really yummy malts. I have a great affinity for all animals and especially dogs. They often appear in my stories.

More NYC pics

NYC in January

NYC in January

A New Year begins in NYC

NYC is the most. Just the most. I loved visiting in late January/early February. I loved seeing snow flurries, my son who lives just a few blocks from Grand Central Station, my two gracious editors, squirrels and doggies in Madison Square Park, and all the wonderful writers and illustrators at the SCBWI Winter Conference.

A New Year begins in NYC

California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom

October 24th, I had the pleasure of being one of the keynote speakers at the Ca Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. I really knew almost nothing about this organization prior to the invitation, but what a great group this is. Really wonderful people. If you'd like to hear a bit from some of my stories, here's my reading from THE PUMPKIN RUNNER, PRANCING,DANCING LILY, and ROAR OF A SNORE.

California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom

7 Magical Ways to Bring Out the Storyteller in you

September 21st I was honored to give a presentation for the new North Bay series of SCBWI workshops (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). What a great group of writers, artists, and creatives gathered at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. It was great fun. A number of people in other areas far from the North Bay were interested, but couldn't attend, so I'll share here. I won't be able to give my entire hour talk, but I'll share the best part - the 7 magical ways. :-)

First, I started with a quote from one of my favorite movies, AUSTRALIA. At the beginning of the film, the narrator, an aboriginal child of mixed-race, begins in this way: "My grandfather, King George, he takea me on walk-abouts, teach me black fellow way. Grandfather teacha me most important lesson of all - tellum story."

There are massive changes happening in the literary world, but no matter how things change, the world will always, in some form, have stories and storytellers. So, let's spin some magic...and some stories.

MAGICAL WAY 1
Quieten
Hush-sh-sh. Be still
Let silence surround you.
Then shout out, loud and clear!
Can you feel it? Can you hear?

I talked about the importance of truly listening to the wonder around us and also the importance of reading our work out loud.

MAGICAL WAY 2
Weave
A labyrinthian path
To find the way,
Move out, Move in,
And once again Move out.

This magical way is all about giving your story an outer adventure and an inner adventure.

MAGICAL WAY 3
'Trouble, oh we need trouble.
Right here in our stories!
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "C",
And that stands for Conflict.
We surely need trouble!"

With great apologies to "The Music Man" and Meredith Wilson. :-) This magical way is about having conflict in your stories. The trouble can be with yourself, with others, with society, or with nature. It doesn't matter with what as long as it's there.

MAGICAL WAY 4
Be patient. Push forward.
After hours of spinning ideas in the air.
You've got to put bootie onto your chair.

Being a writer is all about patience. At the same time we must persevere. E.B. White, the author of CHARLOTTE'S WEB spent a year studying spiders before he started writing about one.

MAGICAL WAY 5
Study the craft.
Be open to the art.

The muse is a tease.
She plays hide and seek.
So study your craft
Or your future is bleak.

If the muse, the art, ever does show up, it will probably be when we're practicing our craft. So study your genre, know it inside and out.

MAGICAL WAY 6
Stories need resolution.
You must resolve as well.
If you don't make it to the end
There'll be no story to tell.

Resolution of the story is how the problem gets solved. You get to your story resolution by knowing where your story is headed. By having a goal. You get a story resolution by knowing your character.

MAGICAL WAY 7
There is no magical way.
There's only your way...and the story's. ;-)

This doesn't mean you shouldn't practice the previous ways. Nor does it give you permission to let your ego guide the way. Ego just gets in the way of your story.

Think of your story as an entity and let it lead the way.

So, Storymagicians, now that you know some magic, go "tellum story".

7 Magical Ways to Bring Out the Storyteller in you