As per Joan Broerman's Booklog, Alice Schertle is the winner of the 2010 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award for BUTTON UP! Wrinkled Rhymes. Go, Alice!

You can visit Joan Broerman at www.joan-broerman.com.

Birmingham Sunday is now officially out from Calkins Creek.

AND THE WINNERS ARE: Jennifer Beasley, Charline Profiri, Lola Woods, Deborah Bates Cavitt, and...and...and...one more!

BIRTHDAY BASH! Someone once said that it is better to give than to receive, so for my birthday I've decided to have a book drawing. You can think of it as a "contest," but I would hate to be accused of "brain abuse" (to quote one of my former students), so we'll make it a simple drawing. Here are the details:

Enter your name and stats for a chance to win a signed copy of MERRY CHRISTMAS, OLD ARMADILLO (just in time for Christmas). Winners will be chosen at random from e-mailed entries, and each winner will receive a signed copy. Five (5) winners will be chosen at random, one a day, between November 16 and November 20, 2009. Enter only once, please, and the deadline for entries is midnight, November 13, 2009.

Send your entry to:
LDB@BRIMNER.COM

In the Subject Line, write the words: Birthday Bash Drawing

In the body of the e-mail, include:
1. Your name (for example: Jasperino Vicious)
2. Your school affiliation, if any (for example: Nottinghill Elementary)
3. School address, if affiliated with one
4. Your mailing address, if different from #3 above (City, ST ZIP)

Simple, yes? Note: You must be 18 years of age, or older, to e-mail an entry, but teachers/parents may enter on behalf of a child. If entering on behalf of a child, in step #1 include your name "on behalf of Child Name."

Keep checking this blog for future drawings.

Now that my computer is limping along instead of all-out crippled, I thought I'd try an update. Technology is great...when it works. Frankly, friends, I'd so much prefer writing on an IBM Selectric.

Writer's Tip: Angela asked about tense usage; i.e., present vs. past. Present tense: At this very moment, I am walking. Past tense: Yesterday, I walked. The vast majority of middle-grade and young adult fiction is told in the past tense. This is the traditional way to tell a tale, especially at the middle-grade level. For example, "There was another yell as Roger chucked milk all over his hair. Miss Adderstone snapped her false-teeth castanets and descended upon him like a bad-tempered lobster. 'That's it, Roger Fibbin. For that, you get a nip. And, click-clacking her way toward the quaking Roger, she gave him a nasty nip on the arm." (From Georgia Byng's Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism) I've bolded the past-tense words. (Okay, "bolded" isn't a word, but you get the drift.) You will also notice that there is some present-tense action going on in this passage as well, BUT the present-tense words are limited to the dialogue: 's (for is), get. And also to the dependent descriptive clause: click-clacking and quaking. This is a clue for you: The narrative is told in past tense, while dialogue is told in present tense. Descriptive dependent clauses that are not really necessary to the understanding of the sentence may also be told in the present (and these are almost always set off with commas). So: Larry, while updating his blog, heard his stomach rumble. This is present tense: while updating his blog. This is past tense and the main sentence: Larry heard his stomach rumble.

Over the past several years, a few authors have opted to tell their entire story in present tense. This brings immediacy to a story, a happening-right-this-very-second. Is one approach better than the other? Absolutely not. Listen to your characters. They will usually tell you the tense they prefer. Trust your gut. Just remember that if you begin your story in either past or present tense, don't pull a switcharoo: Miss Adderstone snapped her false-teeth castanets and descends upon him like a bad-tempered lobster. Such a sentence would likely cause an editor's eyes to cross permanently.

Here's a link to my interview with Michael Spradlin of Five on Friday:

http://michaelspradlin.com/blog/2009/09/five-on-friday-with-larry-brimner/

Enjoy!

In the Rockies, one must always be concerned with bears. MOST locals understand that. You don't feed the wildlife! You don't leave food in the car or a scavenging bear may rip it apart in search of a snack. You don't throw away kitchen waste outside your door or you'll have a late night visitor. So a woman in the neighboring burg of Ouray, Colorado, decides to feed the bears dog food. She builds a little cage that she can sit in to watch them eat, and the bears do--eat, that is. Over a few weeks, they get very used to this arrangement. But one day, the dog food runs out and there's that woman sitting in the cage. I guess she made a tasty little snack for a bear or two. Yes, she--what was left of her--was pronounced dead at the scene. Humans must rank as the most idiotic of animal species.

Locally, a bear attempted to break through a kitchen door of a neighboring house. The woman inside banged pots together and shouted, scaring the bear off. A few doors away, a bear broke into a car and stole a child's car seat; old-timers are convinced that the milk and other drool on the car seat is what attracted the bear. Of course, it may have been just the smell of child. And another man thought he'd sneak in a bag of potato chips on the way home from work. He destroyed the evidence before he got home . . . but potato chips have a lingering smell. A bear broke into his truck during the night and shredded his upholstery and dashboard. I think he'll be sticking to his diet in the future.

Unfortunately, bears are given only two strikes here. On the first strike, they're captured, tagged, and relocated 50 miles away. But bears roam great distances; they have been known to return to the scene of the crime. If they have a human encounter a second time, even if not at the scene of the original crime, they're put down. AGAIN, DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE!

Writer's Tip: When researching nonfiction, keep a log of interesting photographs you encounter, including where found, date of publication, address of publication, art director's name (if given), photographer's name (if given), and any other photo credit information. It may be useful to your own project in the month's ahead. I usually like to keep a photocopy of the photograph, also, as it may help identify it if you wish to request using it.

Happy Writing!