Colleen Ryckert Cook

Hello to all of you!

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:18:58 GMT

Been away for, oh, a few months now, but jumping right back in with a Friday Five/Poetry Friday combo:

1. I've been away too long, but for good reason. *drumroll, please* I actually will be published next year. OK, OK, before you break out the party horns, it's Work for Hire through Rosen Publishing. Bethany Bryan is the lovely editor who assigned me the task of writing KENTUCKY, PAST AND PRESENT. So whoot for me, I'll be a legit children's author next fall. That's my big news. I know I've missed lots of big news from many of you, so pipe up! I have a bottle of champagne here just itching to be uncorked.

2. I've also, thanks to the ~~five-knuckled incentive~~ support of lovely writers Jenn Bailey, Lisha Cauthen, Sue Ford and Kim Peek, spent the past spring/summer/fall revising WOLF and CLEMENTINE. And let me tell you, they both need serious work. Painfully so. I shudder to think I subbed them as is. Apologies to all those agents.

3. And speaking of Sue Ford, SCBWI's Kansas Regional Advisor and ferret hunter: She has asked me to serve as the KSCBWI secretary and program director. So all you writers, editors and agents out there, beware. I'll likely be badgering you to come to Kansas. Soon.

4. No. 1 son's transition into middle school has been fraught with growing pains. I cringe to see his report card next week.

5. Despite his failing grade in Creative Writing, he did manage to hand in this accrostic poem about his obsession: skateboarding. I found it quite lovely. So here it is, No. 1 Son's contribution to Poetry Friday:

Soaring above the concrete

Kicking the ground to go faster

Air in my face when I zoom down ramps

Trying not to crash

Elbows, knees, and ribs sting when I fall

Escaping The Tiger by Laura Manivong

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:27:27 GMT

Check out this excitingcool post from my buddy lauramanivong

Hint Fiction Contest, Aug 1 - Aug 31

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:16:01 GMT

Shorter than flash fiction, longer than six words, Hint Fiction is what it sounds like: 25 words that reveal a story and hint at a more complex tale.

A contest at http://www.robertswartwood.com/?page_id=8 is looking for the best hint fiction to be included in a W.W. Norton anthology, tentatively scheduled for Fall 2010. Here's what they're looking for:

It’s possible to write a complete story in 25 words or less — a beginning, middle, end — but that’s not Hint Fiction. The very best Hint Fiction stories can be read many different ways. We want stories we can read again and again and never tire of. Stories that don’t pull any punches. Stories that make us think, that evoke some kind of emotional response.

Check it out! Winners get $25, too!

Kansas SCBWI Conference Sept 11-12

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:39:59 GMT

Kansas SCBWI has planned a rip-roarin' conference for children's writers and illustrators. Yes, we got authors! Bruce Coville, Cheryl Harness, Jennifer Brown, Dian Curtis Regan, LD Harkrader. We got illustrator Tom Nelson, agent Ted Malawar of Firebrand Literary, editor Eve Adler of Henry Holt and Company. We got manuscript critques and portfolio reivews and sessions on characters, voice, humor, structure and more!

Get the lowdown here. Hope to see you there!

lookie lookie

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:34:31 GMT

L to R: Cheryl Klein, the first ever Morris Award, Elizabeth C. Bunce

unabashedly stolen from this place

Because out of all the profound things Kelly Fineman has pointed out...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:22:30 GMT

...this one made me nearly dance in my living room with the thrill of discovery

Brush Up Your Shakespeare Month Contest with kellyrfineman

I never would've figured out on my own that this particular dialogue from Romeo and Juliet was in fact a Shakespearean sonnet. I'll let Kelly explain the pattern's unique features here. Read the sonnet, then check out Zeffirelli's interpretation here, then swing back to Kelly's blog here so you can enter the contest too!

Romeo
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

Juliet
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Romeo
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Juliet
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

Romeo
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

Juliet
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

Romeo
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.

Juliet
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

Romeo
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.

Juliet
You kiss by the book.

Battle of the sexes

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:05:30 GMT

Remember when you were 12 years old and you became convinced you knew everything? That probably ended sometime around 30, when you realized how very little about the world you actually understood.

Now that I'm 42 and the mother of a 12-year-old boy, I have to say I did know something very important way back then, something I'd forgotten as I grew older:

12-year-old boys are weird. And they stink. A lot.

Practical Wisdom: Do the Right Thing

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:25:21 GMT

Take 20 minutes out of your day to watch this. You won't regret it.

Slow hand

Tue, 19 May 2009 16:27:32 GMT

Come visit me at kidlit central, where I try to pace myself with character development. Here's a teaser for you:

What do you do when someone reads your first five or ten pages and says, "I want to know more about this character." Even though they might say, "Where does this person live?" or "What does this person look like?" it really isn't about "rank and file" info: name, age, location, heritage, eye color, height, weight, favorite color. What they really are saying is "I'm not getting enough to get a sense of who this person is."

Terms like "sensory details" "voice" "action verbs" get tossed around a lot, but what is the magical combination of all these elements that begats the perfect word choice, the perfect pace for revelation?

Kids, don't try this at home

Sun, 10 May 2009 23:50:05 GMT

No. 2 son: What can I do around the house to make money that isn't cleaning up my room? I know. I can massage your feet.

Me: But it's Mother's Day. I shouldn't have to pay for it.

No. 2 son: But I'm a professional.

Can you say self-destructive behavior?

Mon, 04 May 2009 16:36:41 GMT

Monday after a busy weekend - quiet time to write. Today I am supposed to finish a freelance article due in a few days. So far I have:

skimmed a backlog of Live Journal posts
read movie quotes from "I Love You, Man" at imbd.com
learned more than I ever wanted to know about Billy Joe Armstrong and the other Green Day boys at Wikipedia
commented on various Facebook pictures and status updates
sent my cousin a youtube link to "Carol Brown (A Choir of Ex-Girlfriends)"
Let my dogs out of the house
Let my dogs back in the house
rounded up a weekend's worth of dirty laundry
savored the taste of a Hershey chocolate bar, broken into rectangles and dipped into peanut butter
paid two bills
stared at the now-full laundry basket still waiting to be carried downstairs to the washing machine.

And now the morning is nearly over. *sigh*

The sting of rejection: Put a little baking soda on that

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:53:40 GMT

Swing by KidLit Central this evening and read a deciphered version of my latest rejection from a literary agent!

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:19:06 GMT

Luke MacSkygyver

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:59:06 GMT

Three days in the life

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:03:59 GMT

Friday: No. 1 Son turns 12

Saturday: Spring snowstorm strikes, but daffodils are saved

Sunday: No. 2 son loses then promptly swallows first tooth

I've been busy writing and haven't been keeping up with LJ as well as I'd like. Anyone have any fun news to share from your world?

Come visit me

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:31:35 GMT

I just posted over at KidLit Central. Today I share writing tips to help turn your imaginations into formidable forces of good.

Champagne for all!

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:25:25 GMT

My friend and fellow Heartlander Barb Stuber sold her first novel, a YA called CROSSING THE TRACKS!!!

Karen Wojtyla, executive editor at Margaret K. McElderry, a division of Simon and Schuster, and clearly a woman of extraordinary taste, says novel is lyrical and haunting, wrapped her in an embrace and spoke to her heart. And having read much of CROSSING THE TRACKS, I can attest to that. Put this on your MUST BUY list for 2010.

Congratulations, Barb and your wondeful agent Ginger Knowlton! May this be the first of many celebrations for your partnership!

hot hot hot!

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:37:06 GMT

April Henry is celebrating the release of her newest book TORCHED with a giveaway!

Torched releases tomorrow!
When Ellie’s parents are busted for growing pot, the FBI thinks they've finally found a way inside Mother Earth Defenders, a radical environmental group. They give her a choice: infiltrate MED or her parents will go to jail. At first Ellie is more than willing to entrap the MEDics, but the more time she spends undercover—particularly with Coyote, the green-eyed MEDic that she can’t stop thinking about—the more she starts to believe in their cause. When talk turns to murder, Coyote backs out, but Ellie is willing to risk everything to save her family—even if it means losing Coyote and putting her own life on the line.

Kirkus says "the thrills and action will keep readers interested." Booklist says, "The contemporary mix of politics and thrilling action will grab teens, not just environmentalists."

I say: it's time for a giveway!I'd love to give a couple of signed copies away!

It's so simple!
1. Go to aprilhenry and omment on her post and let her know you're in.
2. To get your name in twice, paste the link to April's livejournal, or copy this post into your blog.
3. Wait until March 15, when Teen Henry will draw the winners.

Thanks for playing along!

Yay! I love contests :) Congratulations April!!!!!!

Boyspeak

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:34:14 GMT

No. 1 son, after finally finding No. 2 son during a game of hide and seek: He found the best hiding place ever.

Me: Where?

No. 1 son: Right under everyone's nose. Like a booger.

Come visit me at KidLit Central

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:46:58 GMT

Today we ponder why nothing else will ever reach the same pedestal-bound heights of your first love. Book love, that is.

http://community.livejournal.com/kidlit_central/52053.html

Elizabeth C. Bunce wins ALA's William C. Morris award!!!

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:26:38 GMT

SQUEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

My writers group, relatively new and now improved!

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:40:08 GMT

Check out my writers' group Website!

Let the respectful discourse commence!

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:39:43 GMT

Today on Facebook someone asked, during a discussion about Obama's inauguration:

"I am asking this in the the most sincere way -- I hear all of these supporters who say they are hopeful or so happy - but I am not sure why lol! What exactly is it that people are looking forward to or think that he is going to do?! Are there specific things or just general feelings?"

This is my reply:

"I feel hopeful because I think we should all strive to be what, in my opinion, this man embodies: people who value intelligence, continuing education and respectful debate, people aware and respectful of a bigger world than the small one we interact within each day, who follow the urge to serve a greater good that goes beyond our own personal dreams and wishes. That's why I am hopeful. May we all strive to be better, whatever our goals in life."

The other day a friend said she cried on Election Day when Obama won, but her tears were from disappointment and anger.

So tell me: Are you hopeful or worried, and why? I welcome your thoughts!

Amen.

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:44:07 GMT

“The world is an incredibly complicated place, and our literature must match that, especially literature for our kids."

-- Sherman Alexie, after the Oregon Crook County School Board pulled The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian from a freshman English class as Crook County High School.

Palin-drome?

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:57:53 GMT

During dinner, Husband looked at me for several long minutes then perked up and said, "I know what it is! With your new haircut you're looking all Sarah Palin-like!"

I must have looked annoyed, because he quickly said, "Tina Fey. I meant to say Tina Fey."