The power of a determined voice

When Sarah Aronson was a nine-year-old girl growing up in Pennsylvania, she writes in the Author's Note to her new book, Abzuglutely: Battling, Bellowing Bella Abzug (Calkins Creek, 2025), she learned about a woman named Bella with a strong New York accent and a powerful voice that let people know what she believed. 

Years later Aronson decided to write a picture book about her childhood heroine. 

Bella grew up as a young Jewish girl in the Bronx, the daughter of immigrants, Aronson tells us, and she was "never a sugar-and-spice gal." 

From her parents Bella learned about Tikkun olam--a Jewish value that means repairing the world and eliminating injustice and inequality. Determined to make a difference in the world, to make the world a better place, she devoted her life to bringing justice into the world for everyone, not just for Jews. 

With her big hats and loud voice, Bella could be seen as a strident example of how a woman should not behave. But for many Bella was leading the way to help make the world a better place, just as she'd hoped to do as a child. 

Bella's voice made a difference in the world, Aronson tells us. Bella became a lawyer. She raised money for causes and organizations that she believed deserved support. She led protests and fought for the rights of women and equal rights and education for everyone. She organized large rallies against the Vietnam War.

She stood up to one of the most despicable senators in American history--Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin. She believed in protecting the environment. She believed in racial equality. She believed in social justice. 

As Aronson writes, "Bella was a trailblazer." She became the second Jewish woman to serve in Congress, and her victory was proof, as Aronson explains, that the voices of young girls and women matter in the world. 

If you speak like Bella with courage and passion for what matters to you, Aronson suggests, you can make a difference in people's lives.

In the end, Bella's story is a story about the courage to stand out and be yourself, to use your voice to call out injustice, to believe in yourself as a woman who has the power to change things and not submit to society's expectations of women as weak or subservient. It's a story about speaking your truth to the world.

But Bella's story is also a story about love--not just about Bella's love of justice and fairness for all but of Aronson's love for Bella, a woman who showed the author when she was a young Jewish girl growing up in Pennsylvania that she could be a girl with a strong voice who didn't have to be someone she wasn't, and that she could grow up to become a woman with a strong voice of her own... speaking and writing her own truth. 

Bravo, Bella, and bravo, Sarah Aronson, for inspiring young people--both girls and boys--to be themselves, to make the world a fair place for all, and to not shy away from speaking and writing the truth.

For more information about Abzuglutely, take a look at these reviews:

School Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

The Horn Book

And for more information about Sarah Aronson, visit her website: 

https://saraharonson.com/

One Writer's Process: Deborah Underwood

Writing is Hard

I wrote a picture book last year. Revised, revised, had some interest, revised, revised, got to a point where it felt better, but now am at a point where to go forward I would need to revise again, and maybe remove some of what I thought the story was about (although exactly what it is about has remained elusive, even to me).

Have you ever had a fallen soufflé story? One where you've messed with it so much you're completely lost and don't even know which way is up anymore? I've set this aside for a bit, but came back to it yesterday and am just as confused and unconvinced. The revision suggestions make good sense, but I'm not sure I feel they're right for me. But I know the story could be stronger, and I want it to be as strong as it can be. Unless I want to just leave it behind and move on, which is another possibility.

I may just do a quick draft to see if the changes feel off once they're incorporated, but I'm dragging my heels even at that. I don't mind editing; I actually like it. But I really don't like looking around and saying, "What even IS this mess? And should I find an escape hatch and go write something totally new?" It's like I've entered some weird magnetic anomaly where the compass is spinning around wildly and can't be trusted.

In contrast, I had to write a synopsis of a recent work yesterday. I love this story. Self-doubt is my constant companion (for most all writers, maybe?), but this story makes me laugh every time I read it. It's funny, I love the voice, and the plot works exactly the way it should. It reads as if it poured from the assured pen of a skilled writer who doesn't question her ability or experience at all.

Being a writer is dancing between these two opposites, and boy, it can mess with your head.

Coffee will help though, right?

Deborah Underwood’s most recent release, Bearplane, illustrated by Sam Wedelich, came out last month, and Walter Had A Best Friend, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier, is coming out this fall. She’s written for young readers as well as for older readers, including Every Little Letter, The Panda Problem, Interstellar Cinderella, and The New York Times bestsellers The Quiet Book, The Loud Book, and Here Comes the Easter Cat. (And that doesn’t include the 28 nonfiction books that she’s written for kids.) If you’d like to learn more about her and her work, visit her website: https://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/index.html

Editors note: Deborah shared these observations on writing with her Facebook followers and kindly granted Wordswimmer permission to reprint her words here. If you’d like to follow her on Facebook, check out her FB page: https://www.facebook.com/deborahunderwood. Thanks, Deborah!

One Writer’s Process: Kelly Ramsdell Fineman

“A celebration of the senses on the sand and by the shore.” That’s how a Kirkus reviewer describes the success of children’s author and poet Kelly Ramsdell Fineman’s first picture book, At the Boardwalk. “The oceanside boardwalk bustles from dawn's first light until night's starry skies.”

This kind of praise isn’t a surprise to anyone who has read Fineman’s poems, many of which celebrate the senses and joys of life in such detail.

Many of Fineman’s playful and thoughtful poems are included in poetry anthologies and collections. “Baseball Season” can be found in Little, Brown’s One Minute Til Bedtime; “Catatumbo Lightning” and “San Francisco, Any Night” are included in National Geographic's Book of Nature Poetry; and “Pocket Change” is part of The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations.

“I started writing poems and stories when I was very young,” says Fineman, who continued writing poetry throughout high school and college.

It wasn’t until she began writing again after a hiatus of full-time work, though, that she found herself receiving acceptance letters for her writing projects, including most recently her picture book, At The Boardwalk, and her chapbook of poetry for adults, The Universe Comes Knocking.

In addition to writing poetry, Fineman produces an enduring and popular blog about writing and literature called Writing and Ruminating. In weekly posts, Fineman muses on a wide variety of subjects, including her love of Jane Austen and William Shakespeare, as well as her interest in the work of more contemporary authors. And, of course, a good deal of the blog is devoted to her passion for poetry.

It was thanks to her blog, and, her love and knowledge of poetry, that Fineman was invited to serve as the poetry chair on the Cybils Award Committee for Poetry (and she was kind enough to invite me to join her on the panel a few years ago, which is how I came to know her).

Fineman, who lives in New Jersey with her sweetheart, was kind enough to take time from her many works-in-progress to share her thoughts about writing.

Wordswimmer: If writing is like swimming, how do you get into the water each day?

Fineman: Sometimes I fall in, almost accidentally. There are days I really want to write, and can’t manage anything much at all, and days when I don't plan on it that something comes to mind and I follow that thought and find something new - a poem, or a chapter, or a blog post.

In the past, there have been periods when I was completely and utterly absorbed in a particular project, and I couldn’t wait to get to the work each day. It was so easy to be excited about the project and the writing (and often research, as well), and I was eager to get to it, that I thought it would always be that way. Come to find out, that’s not the case.

I keep hoping for another totally engrossing project, but in the past few years, it hasn’t happened. I have started flirting with Natalie Goldberg’s notion of daily practice, except that I don’t manage to get to it every day, so it hasn’t developed into a true habit for me yet. On those days, I sometimes figure out what I should be working on while I’m doing my pages, which gives me a bit of structure now and again.

Wordswimmer: What keeps you afloat...for short work? For longer work?

Fineman: Much of what I write is poetry, and I find that as long as I have an idea - an inkling, even - I can explore that and get a first draft down. Sometimes the finished draft is just a slight tweaking of the first draft, sometimes it involves a lot more new writing, coupled with massive revision.

For longer work - either a poetry collection or a picture book, chapter book, novel, or memoir (all of which are on my hard drive in various states of completion) - two things keep them afloat. One is actual interest in or fondness for the project, whether it’s a character or a concept, and the other is regularly “touching” the project. I have a collection of poems based on women in Shakespeare, for instance, that I completely and totally loved the idea of. I worked on that project pretty obsessively, until it was completed. (Still hasn’t sold, but then again, I’m not as diligent at sending completed work out as I ought to be.)

Wordswimmer: How do you keep swimming through dry spells? 

Fineman: I don’t always manage it - sometimes I flop about like a fish on dry land. I have a couple of autoimmune conditions that conspire to make life a bit difficult now and then, so while writing doesn’t require all that much physical energy, I am sometimes deprived of much in the way of mental energy. At those times, the work pretty much pauses.

There are other dry stretches, though, that are pretty much gaps in my own creativity, and those are the sort that are similar to anyone else’s dry spells, I guess. I view them as an opportunity to do other things and to fill the creative well. Something is bound to come along later to demand my time and attention.

Wordswimmer: What's the hardest part of swimming?

Fineman: For me, the hardest part of actual swimming is keeping from panicking - I start to hyperventilate because I worry that I am going to drown if my face is in the water too long. I guess you can say that applies a bit to writing as well . . . the notion of panic because things aren’t going as well as you’d like, or the words on the page aren’t doing justice to what you meant, or aren’t conveying the idea or image you had inside your head.

Wordswimmer: How do you overcome obstacles, problems, when swimming alone?

Fineman: I guess it depends on the day. Because I am not under contract at the moment, nobody is waiting for any product or revisions, so I don’t have to focus on staying in my lane or kicking hard all the way through - I can always float on my back for a while under the sun, waiting for a new idea to come along. If I find myself in too much of a corner, I will backtrack to see if I went off in the wrong direction along the way. Or I will run it by a friendly first reader to get another opinion.

Wordswimmer: What's the part of swimming that you love the most?

Fineman: There’s a real sense of freedom to it on days when it’s going well and all engines are firing properly. Hours pass quickly by, and things come relatively easily. Those are pretty great days.

The other thing I love the most is playing with words. Finding the precise ones that are just the right shade for what I mean to say is a kick!

For more information about Kelly, visit her website: http://www.kellyfineman.com/

And take a look at her blog, Writing and Ruminating: http://kellyrfineman.livejournal.com/

To see her poetry chapbook for adults, visit: http://www.maverickduckpress.com/universe.html

And for more interviews with her, take a look at:

https://maclibrary.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/interview-with-kelly-fineman/

http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=880

And here’s the review of At the Boardwalk that appeared in Kirkus:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kelly-ramsdell-fineman/boardwalk/

One Picture Book Writer’s Process: Melanie Hope Greenberg

"Bright," "cheerful," and "bursting with light" are words that many reviewers use to describe Melanie Hope Greenberg’s picture book illustrations for children.

Her books offer a colorful view of life in Brooklyn and New York, taking children on exciting excursions to laundromats, luncheonettes and supermarkets, as well to more adventurous sites like the beach and the subway.

“Most of my books portray various views of urban life in a snapshot,” Greenberg says. “The ordinary becomes extra-ordinary when captured in art.”

But her books capture the fanciful side of life, too, as in Mermaids on Parade, which describes an actual mermaid parade in Brooklyn marking the opening of the beaches for the summer. (This year’s annual Coney Island “Mermaids on Parade” takes place on June 20th.)

It’s a costume ball, beach party, summer extravaganza, all wrapped into one, that ends happily for a young girl marching in the parade for the first time as it makes its way toward the sea.

Self-taught, Greenberg first began playing with brushes and colors during a stint as the manager of a small print gallery.

Since then she’s created more than sixteen books for children, as well as hundreds of illustrations for magazines, greeting cards, posters, wrapping paper, t-shirts, stationary, magnets, stickers, and puzzles. Some of her illustrations have been reproduced as cards for UNICEF’s popular greeting cards..

“I'm currently exhibiting twenty original picture book illustrations from seven of my books at the Brooklyn Central Library’s Youth Wing, ” Greenberg says about the free exhibit on display until June 13th. “You can learn more about the process of making picture books, so it's educational as well.”

Greenberg was kind enough to take a break from her work to share her thoughts on writing and illustrating picture books with Wordswimmer.

Wordswimmer: How do you get into the water each day?

Greenberg: I dive into the ocean of consciousness. I meditate in the mornings to submerge within, to watch my mind at work, watch my thoughts, visions and feelings that arise. The color palette for Good Morning Digger came from a short vision in meditation. Submerging keeps my awareness open during the day to catch the world around me and record what I experience with words or colors. My books are for very young people who are highly instinctual. Being submerged helps me see the world in a childlike way with constant wonder and spontaneity. Submerging helps me to trust my imaginings.

Wordswimmer: What keeps you afloat...for short work? For longer work?

Greenberg: I need an anchor in order to stay afloat. One anchor is having a strategy. I use a "map" or a 32-page thumbnail grid. Then I can envision the overall sequential form of the book I’m creating. Once I see it, the words flow. Research is another anchor. While researching Coney Island's history, I kept extensive notes which kept feeding me more ideas.

Wordswimmer: How do you keep swimming through dry spells?

Greenberg: Years of living a certain lifestyle keeps me swimming in a constant creative stride. Ideas for books do not come easy for me. Sometimes librarians or teachers tell me what is missing on their shelves and that sparks my imagination. Also, in these days of publishing I need to be my own publicist. A lot of writing goes into that. It's actually great for picture book writing, to get to the essence of what I want to convey in a short amount of time.

Wordswimmer: What's the hardest part of swimming?

Greenberg: This business requires constant training and retraining. The competition is fierce and goal posts move and keep changing. Trends come and trends go. New editors and new art directors need to become aware that my career exists. It’s constant hunting with no guarantee of a contract. One needs to know not only how to surf the wild waves but how to become a thoroughbred (seahorse)! I’ve developed a leather ego.

Wordswimmer: How do you overcome obstacles, problems, when swimming alone?

Greenberg: Persistence. Discipline plays a big role. I keep working my craft with the belief that my ideas have value. I also work every aspect of this career. Publicizing my books, presenting workshops, and an ongoing blog keeps my book career alive while treading water in between book contracts. I’d rather swim in a school of fish than stay too isolated. I communicate with other professionals in my business who have it hard, too. That knowledge makes the whole publishing process and the rejections less personal.

Wordswimmer: What's the part of swimming that you love the most?

Greenberg: Transcendence of time, space, location. True devotion that is positive and expresses what I see, think and feel when submerged within. Sometimes my ideas become a published book. I find my career is my spiritual path and learn many inner philosophies with each book I paint. I love swimming with all types of artists in various disciplines. Most of these artists are not commercial and some just do art for passion. Their influence keeps me on my toes to be true to
myself, my visions, to be original and not go trendy.

For more information about Melanie Hope Greenberg and her work, visit her website:
http://www.melaniehopegreenberg.com/

Or take a look at her blog:
http://mermaidsonparade.blogspot.com/

To read her exhibition statement for her current show at the Brooklyn Public Library, visit: http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/events/exhibitions/2009/ordinaryextraordinary.jsp

And for additional info, check out:
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/tag/melanie-hope-greenberg
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1790000379/post/950026495.html
http://www.coneyisland.com/mermaid.shtml

Sirens of the Sea

Born in 1680
(No one can say for sure),
Possibly in Bristol, England,
Early life, obscure,
Teach heard them calling longingly--
The sirens of the sea.
Obsessed, he navigated west,
His landfall? Destiny.
--from J. Patrick Lewis' Blackbeard The Pirate King

Who knows? Maybe there's a bit of the pirate in every writer, each of us drawn by the sirens of our imagination, obsessed with the music that we hear as we seek our stories in the same way that Edward Teach, sailing beneath the pirate's black flag, sought his destiny as Blackbeard the Pirate King.

Even if you already know the story of Blackbeard, who returns to life in all his trembling and fearsome glory in Blackbeard The Pirate King, J. Patrick Lewis' remarkable account of his life, you'll relish the chance to sail with Lewis as he captains this sturdy ship of verse through the stormy seas of Blackbeard's many voyages.

In poems that ripple with strength and grace, carrying readers forward into unknown and sometimes dangerous waters in much the same way a ship might carry its wary passengers to a distant destination, Lewis holds readers fast on deck in these twelve poems that rock with the rhythm of the sea, plunging and rising with the force of a gifted poet.

From the opening lines of this book (which was nominated for a 2006 Cybils Award), readers will sense that they're in the hands of a master craftsman:

Down Caribbean shipping lanes,
Where buccaneers held court,
The pistol blade,
And cannon made
Their treachery blood sport.

Lewis ends the first poem with a forceful gusto that makes a reader feel as if he's standing on deck along with the rest of the pirate crew, salt spray stinging his eyes, cheering on the infamous captain:

But of all the thieves of the Seven Seas,
No one would ever reach
The height and might
Of the roguish Knight
Of the Black Flag, Edward Teach.

Along with each of the dozen poems that comprise this book are equally dramatic paintings--The Duel on the Beach by N.C. Wyeth, for instance--which draw the reader into the story, heightening the reader's sense of adventure and, at times, danger.

Lewis also includes notes with the poems that offer brief historical perspectives, aiding readers unfamiliar with the history of piracy in the 1700's or who might be interested in learning more details about Blackbeard's life than the poems themselves can provide.

And at the end of the book Lewis provides a helpful time-line extending from Teach's birth in 1680 to his death in 1718, as well as a note about the sources that he relied on to develop and flesh out the poems.

"If oceans could speak," writes Lewis, "what deep secrets the Atlantic would tell of grand voyages of discovery, famous naval battles, the last desperate hours of sea-tossed sailors, and not least, the age of piracy, cutlass, and cannon, when villainy ruled the waves."

With Lewis as our guide across the vast sea of history, we can imagine a little more clearly the mystery of Blackbeard and his life.

Perhaps that's because, as Lewis suggests, "...the mystery of Blackbeard lies not at the bottom of a shallow bay but deep in the mind of anyone who muses on the Pirate King."

Lewis talks about the genesis of Blackbeard the Pirate King with Cynthia Leitich Smith in this interview: http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2006/05/author-interview-j-patrick-lewis-on.html

For more information about J. Patrick Lewis, visit his website at:
http://www.jpatricklewis.com/

Swimming Into the Unknown

In one of those bold risks of youth--the kind of risks that adults often deem foolhardy but which seem essential to those younger needing to take them--Diane Siebert and her husband decided in the early 1970's to follow their hearts and swim into the unknown.

Here's how Siebert, an award-winning poet, describes the way life unfolded for her then:

In 1971, my husband and I hatched a plan: we would sell whatever possessions we could, buy two motorcycles, and spend the summer seeing America. And that's exactly what we did... except that our summer trip turned into a ten-year journey around the country. When money ran low, we stopped, found jobs, and saved until we could travel on. We met hundreds of interesting people and gained a real appreciation for America's big cities and rural towns, its scenic wonders, and its wildlife and natural resources. We camped most of the time and had good adventures and some not-so-good adventures. Occasionally we fell off our motorcycles. But every evening, no matter what, I wrote in my journal, and the poems, prose, and music scribbled on those pages eventually turned into children's books and poetry for magazines.

Like a gardener, Siebert planted seeds--Every evening, no matter what, I wrote in my journal--so that years later the compost heap of memories fed the garden of her imagination, and the words and images, the thoughts and emotions that she so carefully tended on her journey blossomed into a remarkable collection of poems called Tour America, which is currently under consideration for a 2006 Cybils Award (see www.cybils.com for more information).

Siebert notes that the book is "a collection of writings about just a few of my favorite sights in these great United States."

Well, "just a few" is something of an understatement; there are more than two-dozen poems in Tour America, each one a dazzling doorway into the essence of a particular sight that struck a chord in Siebert's imagination years ago: gargoyles in New York City; statutes of Paul Bunyan in Bemidji, MN; Lucy the Elephant in Margate, NJ, and many others.

Much like postcards sent from the road, these poems draw the reader into places that Siebert visited years ago--whether Cape Hatteras, NC or Roswell, TX, St. Louis, MO or Gold Hill, OR--and which remain alive for her today through the power of memory and the magic of poetry.

Her poems mix impressions of city and country, desert and sea, rivers and marshlands, offering a record of her journey across America and creating a feel in poetry that's reminiscent of Woody Guthrie's classic song, This Land Is Your Land.

The collection is filled with our country's humor, history, trivia, legends, mysteries and wonders. It's a map of America's treasures--some hidden, some well-known--with each poem crafted with such skill that readers are able to feel the essence of each place emanating from somewhere deep inside the poems themselves.

Here's Siebert meditating on Mount Washington, New Hampshire:

Mount Washington's deceptive peak
Can quickly change from bright to bleak;
From raging storm to mild and meek
with sunbeams that entice.

A place of great and wild extremes,
Its smile can turn to sudden screams,
Its face not really what it seems:
a balmy paradise.

A passive mound, a tallish hill.
It stands quite commonplace, until
Great gale-force winds bring bitter chill
with blasts of snow and ice.

And those who tread without a thought--
Who, unprepared, are often caught
In temperatures that plunge to naught--
may pay the final price.

In brief narrative asides to each of the poems, which are accompanied by glorious illustrations by Stephen T. Johnson, Siebert offers some background information about the places that the poems describe:

Mount Washington. Although this mountain rises to only 6,288 feet, it stands exposed to two very active storm tracks and is noted for its extreme weather conditions. One of the world's highest wind velocities was recorded there in 1934--231 miles per hour! Warm, sunny summer weather in the valley often fools hikers and climbers, many of whom have died from hypothermia brought on by the mountain peak's nearly constant cold mist and ceaseless, chilling winds.

In another poem, Siebert takes readers further west to Las Vegas, Nevada:

Las Vegas glitters in the night
And shimmers in the day;
She opens arms of neon light
To those who come her way
With hopes of placing one good bet
And finding Lady Luck
While playing blackjack or roulette--
Well, OOPS! There goes a buck!

Accompanying the poem, Siebert adds this note:

Las Vegas means "the meadows." It was called that by Spanish explorers because of natural springs and wild grasses that existed in the desert oasis. Now each year 30 million people stay in this city's more than one hundred thousand hotel rooms. Buzzing day and night, Las Vegas has live circus acts, a man-made volcano that erupts routinely, water parks, and a roller coaster built one hundred stories above the ground, but gambling remains its biggest attraction. Casinos, which have a variety of themes from ancient Egypt to Caesar's palace to Paris, are loud and gaudy, offering good food and flashy shows but no clocks or windows-- a ploy to prevent gamblers from thinking about the time and keep them at the gaming tables where they lose billions of dollars annually.

Siebert's journey is one that readers will enjoy sharing as they discover America through this wonderful poet's eyes.

Swim with her from the Everglades in Florida to the Tallgrass Prairie in Oklahoma, from the El in Chicago to the Great Salt Lake in Utah. No matter where you happen to stop, you'll find something worth seeing... and remembering... as well as a reminder not to shy away from taking risks, whether as a youthful writer or as one who has matured in years.

Nearly forty years after Siebert first swam into the sea that is America, not knowing what she'd find, one can only give thanks that Siebert was the kind of writer willing to leap into an unknown body of water.

Today, as she spins her memories into gold, we are all enriched by her experience and by the poems that she discovered on her ten-year journey.

For a conversation about Tour America with Diane Siebert and the illustrator, Stephen Johnson, visit:
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/Chronicle/excerpt/0811850560-e0.html