Author Interview: Anne Tews Schwab

Well folks, this is it. My first ever interview on Children's Atheneum. I am sure this is going to be an interesting learning process, but for now I will try to focus more on the writing aspect of the author's I interview. And now presenting: Anne Tews Schwab.

Do you recall how your interest in writing as a academic pursuit and career originated?

•      I think it all started right after I learned how to write my name ... I was so proud of my new skill,  and so eager to share it with the world, that I grabbed a good friend and a pair of red crayons, and my co-author and I went on a writing spree. We wrote and wrote and wrote, covering the outside walls of our houses, our trash cans and our white picket fence. It was my first experience in self publishing and it was thrilling and exhilarating - until my mother discovered our work and handed us a bucket and scrub brush and instructed us to wash it all off. And that was how I first discovered the joy and pain of editing. 

What draws you to children’s books specifically?

•      The tight truths delivered in straightforward narratives, the subtext available for deep readers to discover, the inquisitive minds of young characters determined to unravel the mysteries of the world as they come of age in times of trouble, war and/or peace.

How do you birth a poem and how does it grow into something like a book?

•      I think a poem grows the same way a story does - it all starts with a seedling, an acorn, a random thought, observation, question, revelation, and from there it gathers energy and power, growing in scope and size, gathering companions and forming alliances with other poetic ideas and forms until the group assembles and organizes into something resembling a narrative.

What is your favorite poem in Capsized?

•      Probably the diamanté (Black Diamond) about a grand piano. This was such fun to write while working out the puzzle of how to best fit the piano imagery into this distinctive and elegant poetic form!

What is the most challenging part of writing for you?

•      Feeling like there aren't enough hours in the day to write all the stories roaming around in my head!

What have you learned about writing that you didn’t know 5 years ago?

•      I think my favorite thing that I've heard over and over and have finally taken to heart as gospel truth is the simple idea of: Write, write, write! In other words, in order to succeed, first you must complete!

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

•      I'm working on a draft of an epic novel about pirates and mermaids with a bit of global warming thrown into the mix :) And if I could solve the more hours in the day conundrum, I might finally get it polished!

How can readers discover more about you and you work?

•      Check out my book, my website (http://piratepoems.com/capsized), my Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/PoetryPlunder), my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/capsized.anovelinverse), Amazon author page (https://www.amazon.com/author/annetewsschwab) and check out the poems I post daily on each of these.

You write a pirate poems that you post on Facebook, where did the idea of a pirate poem a day come from and is it difficult to maintain?

•      I was inspired to write daily poems after a workshopping session at Hamline (where I received my MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults). We tried a new poetic form every day to begin the session, and after that I was hooked!

Can you describe one of your writing fantasies? Does it include a best-seller, a corrugated display, book tours, school visits? Oprah?

•      Well, if I'm dreaming big, then I'd say: my pirate adventure published as a middle grade series that ends up getting picked up by Steven Spielberg and made into a movie. 

One last very important question: Have you ever gone out in public with your shirt on backwards, or your slippers on, and when realizing it, just said screw it?

•      I've had many dreams (nightmares?) where this has happened but I can't recall it ever happening in real life... But there's always tomorrow!

Author of the Week - Billy Collins

Today isn't the usual fare of an author bio. I stumbled across this poem and wanted to share it with my readers as it hit both the intellectual and childlike way that I view books. Enjoy.

BOOKS

From the heart of this dark, evacuated campus
I can hear the library humming in the night,
a choir of authors murmuring inside their books
along the unlit, alphabetical shelves,
Giovanni Pontano next to Pope, Dumas next to his son,
each one stitched into his own private coat,
together forming a low, gigantic chord of language.

I picture a figure in the act of reading,
shoes on a desk, head tilted into the wind of a book,
a man in two worlds, holding the rope of his tie 10
as the suicide of lovers saturates a page,
or lighting a cigarette in the middle of a theorem.
He moves from paragraph to paragraph
as if touring a house of endless, paneled rooms.

I hear the voice of my mother reading to me
from a chair facing the bed, books about horses and dogs,
and inside her voice lie other distant sounds,
the horrors of a stable ablaze in the night,
a bark that is moving toward the brink of speech.

I watch myself building bookshelves in college, 20
walls within walls, as rain soaks New England,
or standing in a bookstore in a trench coat.

I see all of us reading ourselves away from ourselves,
straining in circles of light to find more light
until the line of words becomes a trail of crumbs
that we follow across a page of fresh snow;

when evening is shadowing the forest
and small birds flutter down to consume the crumbs,
we have to listen hard to hear the voices
of the boy and his sister receding into the woods. 30

Billy Collins, 2001

Author of the Week - Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy is an award-winning author of non-fiction books for all ages. Born in New Jersey, Jim credits his childhood explorations as his inspiration and questioning of the world around him. Never much of a reader, Jim preferred to play as a kid, until a teacher forbade her students to read. With such reverse psychology tactics, Jim began to gobble up any book he could grab. Jim went on to college, not straying far from his home attending Rutgers University. Eventually Jim got a job working in children's book publishing, starting as a secretary and working his way up the ladder to Managing Editor. Jim always had many interests, quirky to some, and working in publishing made Jim aware that he could write his own books, non-fiction in nature that would appeal to young readers. Two of his books, An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic in 1793 and The Great Fire both won Newbery Awards. His other books, many of which have won numerous awards, include A Savage Thunder, Truce, Desperate Journey, The Boys' War, Blizzard, and The Real Benedict Arnold.Today Jim continues to live in New Jersey, with his wife, and sons.

Author of the Week - Kelly Milner Halls

Kelly Milner Halls is a self-professed weirdo. As a freelance writer, editor, and reviewer Kelly has kept herself busy over the years creating non-fiction for many readers. From dinosaurs to mummies Kelly's books and over 1200 articles have more than proven she has what it takes to be successful. This love of non-fiction and writing stemmed directly from her childhood. Kelly was the kid who asked too many questions, the one who couldn't help but interview her neighbors, and was always searching for something good to read. Being a writer never really entered her mind until she reached high school where she started writing for the school paper. Kelly discovered her love for writing, but she had difficulty writing for adults, finding that kids books for much more entertaining and weirder. Soon she was writing for magazines and newspapers from Highlights Magazines to Teen PEOPLE to The Washington Post. Kelly also helped head up a publishing house specifically for reluctant readers just like she had been. Together she and Tanya Dean Anderson created six non-fiction picture books that made weird cool. Some of Kelly's books include Dino Trekking, Kids Go! Devcer, 365 After School Activities, I Bought a Baby Chickem, Project for Pennies. She has also interviewed Chris Crutcher, Terry Trueman, Richard Peck, and Kenny Rogers. Kelly is the mother of two daughters yet still finds time to do what she loves, school visits, writing, painting, snow skiing, and playing tennis.

Author of the Week - Brian Falkner

After dishing about The Tomorrow Code on Sunday, I thought I should learn a little bit more about this author from the Pacific. Brian Falkner was born in 1962 in Auckland and grew up on the North Shore. At 21 he left for the South Island, but returned to Auckland five years later and has lived there ever since. He studied computer science at Auckland University but received his diploma in journalism. Throughout the years Brian has had an unusual variety of jobs including a dtich digger, dish washer, radio journalist, copywriter, motorcycle courier, radio announcer, internet developer, graphic designer and his current job as a consultant. I guess the saying that writers must piece together a life is a reality for Mr. Falkner. Besides writing and working, Brian enjoys doing school visits and watching rugby. His books have numerous awards in New Zealand and Australia. Other than The Tomorrow Code, he has also written Brain Jack, The Flea Thing, The Real Thing, and The Super Freak.

Author of the Week - Leslie Connor

Leslie Connor was born in Cleveland, Ohio in the family room of their old farmhouse. At 9 her family moved to New York where her dad got a job selling printing papers. Her father is the one who gave her a love of reading, bringing home book after book that Leslie devoured . As a child Leslie loved dancing, gymnastics, painting, and sewing. She received a degree from the University of Connecticut in Fine Arts. Leslie was not immediately drawn to children's books and once she was, it was the writing aspect rather than the illustrating that drew her. Her newest book Crunch, was inspired by the 1970's from the gas shortages. She saw people riding their bikes on the highway as the lines at the pumps got longer and longer and she wondered, what would happen if all the gas ran out? For hr book Waiting for Normal, Leslie began the story with the setting (a trailer in Leslie's hometown) and the story evolved from there. No matter the season, Leslie's favorite place to write is on her screened in porch with her dogs. In cold weather she brings a sleeping bag and a thermos of tea. There must always be tea.

Author of the Week - Hans Christian Andersen

Disney has immortalized Hans Christian Andersen forever with their version of The Little Mermaid. Most people do not realize that Hans did not write such "cute" stories. His stories were often dark and not the stuff of Disney. Perhaps his past plays some part in that though.

When he was a child Hans lived away from home, having part of his education paid for by King Frederick VI. No one knows why, although rumors of Han's parentage was up for some debate. Hans' father seemed to believe that they were related to royalty, although historians believe that the only link to the royal family was through service not blood. Hans was left to his own devices before he became a teenager though when his father died, forcing him to work as an apprentice for a weaver and later a tailor. At fourteen Hans moved to Copenhagen where he sought employment as an actor. He had an beautiful soprano voice, but the minute his voice changed he was told that perhaps he could consider being a poet or a writer instead. Hans felt ostracized as a child, with his unusual height and effeminate interests. He also had hysterical fits of cramps that the doctors misdiagnosed as epileptic fits. His mother was an alcoholic and his half-sister, who he had little contact with, was believed to be a prostitute.

A man named Jonas Collin, a director at the Royal Theatre where Hans worked, took great interest in Hans and sent him to grammar school, paying for all expenses. At this point Hans had published his first story, The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave. Hans looked back on this period of his life bitterly. Not because he didn't appreciate the gift but because he lived with the headmaster who took to beating Hans in order to "improve his character". Hans felt like he had no friends since he was older than a lot of them and he felt he was unattractive, causing him to enter into depression.

Hans continued to write though, taking his new job seriously. He continued to write poetry and stories, getting a few published here and there, but his progress was slow. He receive

d a traveling grant from the King and took off around Europe. He traveled to Switzerland and Rome where he wrote two stories that were both being published. In 1935, at the age of thirty, Hans published the first installment of his immortal Fairy Tales, followed by two more volumes in the next two years. They did not sell well. His two novels that came out at the same time O.T. and Only a Fiddler fared much better.

After traveling around Europe, Hans became a huge nationalist, purposefully writing stories and poems about his native Denmark. His most well known was called Jeg er en Skandinav (I am a Scandinavian) A composer set the poem to music. It was popular for a few years but soon lost its appeal.

After traveling for over fifteen years, Hans published travelogues, twisting the travel narrative to fit his writing style. Some of his travelogues even contained fairy tales. Hans did try to return to the stage at 35, but it was a failure. However, the fame of his Fairy Tales had begun to grow. By 1845 Hans was being celebrated throughout Europe. although Denmark was still failing to see his genius.

Perhaps my favorite story is that of the not-so-awesome meeting with Charles Dickens. In June 1847, Hans visited England, where he was invited to parties to meet intellectuals. It was at one of these parties that he met Charles Dickens for the first time. A few years later Hans came to stay with Dickens, however he overextended his welcome, staying for almost six weeks rather than a few (polite) days.Dicken's daughter said of Hans, "He was a bony bore and stayed on and on. Dickens published David Copperfield, with Uriah Heep, who he said was modeled after Hans.

Hans dealt with more heartbreak in his later years for he had a bad habit of falling in love with unobtainable women. He fell for Jenny Lind, a Swedish Opera singer. Sadly, she did not return his affections. He had a number of love interests, but none shared his affections. Hans was also attracted to men, often speaking of the mystery of their friendships that were like those of a woman. He had a fascination with duke and a Danish dancer, but none of his romantic entreaties were ever fruitful.

IN 1872, Hans fell out of his bed and was severely hurt. He never fully recovered, but did live for three more years. At the time of his death, Hans was an internationally renowned and treasured writer. The Danish government referred to him as a "national treasure". His most famous works were Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Princess and the Pea, and The Tin Soldier. In Copenhagen there is a statue of The Little Mermaid in the harbor.

Author of the Week - Robert Cormier

I was never a big fan of Robert Cormier, perhaps this was because I was forced to read The Chocolate War as a teenager, a book that I did not like and therefore will never review. However, after getting off my distrust of Cormier I then read a small lesser known book called The Bumblebee Flies Anyway. Cormier won me over.

Robert Cormier was born in 1925 in Leominster, MA. He was the second eldest of eight children and because they had so many kids, their family was forced to move often since rent was so expensive with so many children. Robert never left or moved away from his hometown, until the day he died. Even his summer home was only 19 miles outside of town. Robert attended a private catholic school and starting writing from a young age, deciding to become a poet in middle school. As a freshman in college, Robert had his first short story published, The Sign. Robert went on to work as a journalist and wrote scripts for radio commercials, and continued to write for his local newspaper. The Chocolate War was Cormier's first novel, followed quickly by I Am the Cheese and After the First Death. Despite this bloggers dislike for his premier novel, Robert was good at finding the core issues that teens deal with and his books have withstood the test of time. Some of his other books have included Heroes, Fade, In the Middle of the Night, Tenderness, and We All Fall Down.

Author of the Week - Jon Scieszka

Jon Scieszka was born in 1954 in Flint, Michigan. In his family there were six children, all boys. His father worked as an elementary school principal. Jon's grandparents were from Poland, hence the last name which means "path" in Polish. In high school Jon went to a military academy, then thought about studying to be a doctor, but instead he got a degree in Science and English, and then an MFA in Fiction. Jon then went to teach elementary school, a career that obviously plays a large part in his writing. In Jon's words, elementary school helped him re-discover how smart kids are and that the best audience for his weird and funny stories were these children. He took a year off from teaching and began to write children's stories. As he was writing, Jon met an illustrator named Lane Smith through his wife. Lane immediatly fell in love with Jon's stories. Despite numerous rejections of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Lane and Jon kept trying to find a publishers, until an editor at Viking Press with the same sense of humor picked it up. In 1989, Jon and Lane publishers their first book. Over the last two decades Jon and Lane have worked together on 8 pictures books and 8 Time Warp Trio's, which have been adapted into a television show. Jon had published over two dozen books including The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Math Curse, The Frog Prince Continued, Welcome to Trucktown!, Robot Zot, and his newest book Spaceheadz. Jon has won numerous awards and was named by the American Library Association as the National Ambassador for young People's Literature.

Author of the Week - William Kamkwamba

I know some authors worry about their last names being too strange or hard to spell, but in the case of Mr. Kamkwamba, it was the reason I picked up his book. I mean, really, how often do run across a book by an author with such a great last name? And what an interesting fellow he is too.

William Kamkwamba was born in 1987 in Masitala Village, Wimbe, Malawi. William grew up in a family of seven kids, six of which are girls. Educated at Wimbe Primary School, William received the opportunity to attend secondary school, but was forced to drop out when a severe famine hit Malawi and his family could no longer pay the $80 in annual fees to support his education. Rather than accept his fate, he began borrowing books from a local library, borrowing everything from fiction to textbooks. Using one book about Energy, William built a windmill in 2002 (at the age of 15)to power a few electrical appliances in his family's home eliminating his family's need for kerosene. He used bicycle parts, blue gum trees, light bulbs, radio parts, and tractor blade fans among other things. With this prototype he then took it a step further creating a larger version and adding a car battery for storage as well as making his own light switches and circuit breakers. Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies fresh drinking water into his village for the first time, a radio transmitter to broadcast popular music and spread HIV prevention messages, drip irrigation systems, and malaria prevention. William's work has drawn the attention of many people, including doctors, inventors, journalists, and legislators. He was even invited as a guest speager to TEDGlobal, a prestigious gathering of thinkers and innovators.

In 2005, William wrote and performed an HIV prevention comedy with some friends entitled You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover. Thanks to his hard work and media attention, William was able to re-enroll in secondary school before transferring to the African Bible College

Christian Academy, a private prep school before going to Cambridge, UK to study. He hopes to be a teacher one day, to educate the next generation in academics, ethics, entrepreneurship, and ingenuity.

In 2009, William wrote an autobiography called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Current of Electricity and Hope, published by HarperCollins. The book is incredible, but more so because of William's extreme drive and determination and complete understanding of how important reading and education are. It thrilled me to see someone, despite all the odds, become someone so affluent in his community and the world.

Author of the Week - Kate Douglas Wiggin

Kate Douglas Wiggin was born in 1856 in Philadelphia. Her father died during the Civil War, leaving Kate and her sister Nora to be raised by their young widowed mother. They moved to Portland, Maine a few years after her father's death, where he mother remarried. A baby brother was born. Education in such a rural area was stilted, consisting of some public education, a finishing school, and home schooling. Even with this limited schooling, Kate still received more education than most girls of her time period. In 1873 Kate and her family moved to San Francisco as her step-father was ailing, sadly he died three years later of a lung disease.

Kate was devoted to education and the well-being of children, often fighting against child labor in an era when such things were rarely thought about. Kate loved the wild ways of the street children she taught, but had to resign from teaching as was the custom at the time when she married Bradley Wiggin. Still, Kate continued to devote herself to the children, raising money through her writing starting with her first story The Story of Patsy and The Birds' Christmas Carol. Kate never had children and when her husband died in 1989, Kate moved back to Maine. Kate was said to have grieved and wear widow's black for the rest of her life, but that did not stop her from traveling and writing. Her most popular and famous novel is Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Among her other stories were The Old Peabody Pew, Penelope's Experience in Scotland, Mother Carey's Chickens, along with several non-fiction pieces speaking out against child labor. All the proceeds from Kate's books went to her living costs and the children she loved so much.

Author of the Week - Carolyn Cohagan

Being in the middle of this book, I thought I would feature a new debut author whose first book was just published this past February. It can give hope to those of us writers who are still struggling.

Carolyn Cohagan has an usual story about her path to print. Carolyn was born in 1973 in Lake Travis, Texas. She began her career as a stand-up comedian, performing around the world from New York to Auckland to Amsterdam. After studying for a year in Paris, Carolun wrote a couple of one-woman shows with a theatrical company she co-founded. With all this expertise Carolyn also began trying her hand and writing and directing in Los Angeles. This led her to her job as an editor and red carpet interviewer for Film Independent.

Carolyn then tried her hand at writing a screenplay, but was dissatisfied with the stories visual weaknesses and heavy dialogue. She then tried to turn the story into a film treatment. Six years later, Carolyn had a novel. Like The Graveyard Book, The Lost Children is dark, but so far it is a good read. She is currently working on a sequel. Here's to hoping it won't take another six years.

Carolyn's advice for those who want to become authors, are to persevere and be willing to rewrite.

Author of the Week - Anita Silvey

Anita Silvey is a well-known editor and literary critic of children's literature who I have had the pleasure of listening to a few times now. Anita has devoted 35 years to promoting books that will turn the young -- and families -- into readers. In 1975 Anita was a co-founder of the Boston Review. She served as Editor-in-Chief of The Horn Book MAgazine from 1985-1995. Between 1995 and 2001, Silvey worked as vice-president at Houghton mifflin where she oversaw children's and young adult publishing for the Houghton and Clarion divisions. Some of the authors and illustrators that she promoted were David Wiesner, Chris Van allsburg, Virginia Lee Burton, and Lois Lowry. She has also authored a number of critical books about children's literature, including 500 Great Books for Teens, The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators, and Everything I Need to know I Learned From A Children's Book.

In 2008, Anita wrote an influential School Library Journal article in which she criticizes the Newbery selections as too difficult for the intended target audience. Anita is currently a member of the Editorial board of Cricket Magazines and the Board of Directors for the Vermont Center for the Book. She teaches courses at Simmons College in Boston and speaks at many schools and events, in front of children and adults alike.

Her newest book Everything I Need To Know I Learned From A Children's Book interviews many influential people, asking them what their favorite children's book was and how it influenced them. Is it surprising that Ronald Mallet, a well-respected physicist enjoyed The Time Machine as a child? Or that Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia, was in love with The Secret Garden as a young girl?

So here is a question--What was your favorite books as a child and what does it say about you?

Author of the Week - Anna Sewell

Anna Sewell would be what the music industry would call a 'One Hit Wonder'. Born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England to a devout Quaker family, Anna had a lot of potential. Her mother Mary Wright Sewell was a successful author of children's books. Anna was basically home schooled, something that was not uncommon in the that time period. Due to her mother's religious and educational convictions, Anna received a very rigorous and thorough education. When she was twelve her family moved to a larger town where Sewell attended school for the first time, exposing her to higher mathematics and foreign languages. At fourteen Anna slipped while walking home from school, injuring her ankles severely. Her father moved the family in 1836 to Brightonin, hoping that the climate would speed her recovery. However, due to mistreatment, Anna was lame for the rest of her life, unable to stand without a crutch or for any length of time. This began her love of horses, for she frequently used horse-drawn carriages for mobility.

As she began to travel more, Anna surrounded herself with authors, writers, poets, and philosophers.

Anna Sewell only published one book, Black Beauty written between 1871 and 1877. During this time her health had begun to decline. She often went to bed so weak she could barely write. She dictated the text to her mother who wrote them on slips of paper and then transcribed them. Anna sold her novel to local publisher Jarrolds for £40 in 1877 at the age of 57. Although now considered a children's book, she originally wrote it for those who worked with horses. The book sales broke publishing records and at the time was considered to be the sixth best selling book in the English language. Anna got to see little of her success. Six months after publishing her book, she passed away.

Today her book is a classic, but what I take from her story is that sometimes an author has such a wonderful story within them that nothing will stop them from getting it out.

50 Facts About Mark Twain

As a teenager I just devoured Mark Twain books. I loved The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and the Prince and the Pauper. All of which I read dozens of time each. What a notion that our doppledanger may be royalty and more than that, a prince. So for my entertainment and yours, here are '50 Facts' that you may not know about Mark Twain followed by my favorite Twain quotes:

1. Prior to adopting Mark Twain as his pen name, Clemens wrote under the pen name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass for three humorous pieces he contributed to The Keokuk Post.

2. On the Mississippi River, 'mark twain' meant 'two fathoms deep.'

3. Twain was very interested in parapsychology.

4. Mark Twain was fond of cats. His boyhood home is rumored to have been shared with as many as 19 cats. As an adult, Twain always kept at least two cats around.

5. Haley's Comet was visible in the sky on the night that Mark Twain was both born and passed away.

6. Clemens encouraged his younger brother, Henry, to get a job as a steamboat pilot as well. Henry was killed when the boiler on board his boat exploded. Clemens claimed to have seen his brother's death in a dream before it happened, sparking an interest in parapsychology.

7. Mark Twain was said to have been working on a ghost story right before his death. No one ever found it for he ordered all his manuscripts burned when he died.

8. Twain was a Thomas Edison manque. Three of his inventions were patented: an automatically self-adjusting vest strap, a history game meant for improving memory, and a self-pasting scrapbook--the only one ever to make him any money.

9. Twain was known for his stance against racism and for supporting the abolition of slavery, but he was oddly prejudiced against Native Americans.

10. He was also critical of organized religion, and very much in favor of labor unions. He also belonged to the Freemasons.

11. Hannibal, Mo. served as the inspiration for the fictional town of St. Petersberg in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

12. Mark twain has also written about five travelogues which are about the experience of Mark Twain during his visit between Western US and Asia.

13. In 1856, he moved to Cincinnati, where he hatched a plan to travel to South America to collect coca leaves. Instead he decided to work on a steamboat.

14. He was a passenger on the first "luxury cruise" to Europe and the Holy Land, and related the party's misadventures in letters to the New York Tribune and the Herald. He later worked these reports into his first book, The Innocents Abroad, which became an immense success.

15. Twain was a successful lecturer, generating money and fame via speaking tours throughout the United States and Europe.

16. He was a steamboat pilot apprentice on the Mississippi River and eventually earned his pilot's license.

17. Twain was six in a lineup of seven children. Only he and two others (brother Orion and sister Pamela) survived into adulthood.

18. Twain suffered from color blindness.

19. As a child, Twain learned to swim in Hannibal’s dangerous Bear Creek. He witnessed the drowning of two friends in this creek.

20. During the Civil War, Twain formed a Confederate militia known as the "Marion Rangers." The militia disbande

d after approximately two weeks.

21. One of Twain’s biggest literary influences was The Arabian Nights. His later work would often allude to the tales.

22. Twain also greatly admired the poet Robert Browning he later met in 1873.

23. Twain was actually in New Orleans the day that Louisiana declared its succession from the Union.

24. From 1901 until his death in 1910, Twain was vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League.

25. Twain was known for his anti-slavery views well before they came into fashion. However, some of his work, like Huckleberry Finn, has been termed racist for its use of derogatory terms.

26. His wife’s name was Olivia Langdon and they were married for 34 years.

27. Olivia and Mark had four children: Susy, Langdon, Clara and Jean Clemens.

28. Their son Langdon died of diptheria at the age of 19 months. His daughter Suzy and Jean both died in their 20s. Clemens' surviving daughter, Clara, lived until 1962 and had a daughter of her own who died childless. There are no direct heirs to Clemens surviving today.

29. Twain dined with Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1892 while traveling through Europe.

30. Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is considered to be one of the first science fiction books ever published. Twain had a keen interest in science and technology and was a close friend of Dr. Nikola Tesla.

31. In 1867 Twain developed a serious enjoyment of billiards. He enjoyed the game for the rest of his life.

32. After his short stint in the Civil War, Twain moved to Nevada and worked as a miner.

33. In 1868 Twain met Harriet Beecher Stowe.

34. Twain gave Anne Sullivan the label “miracle worker” for her work with Helen Keller.

35. Bermuda was the last foreign locale Twain visited before he died.

36. Twain’s first important work was The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, originally published in the New York Saturday Press on November 18, 1865. The only reason it was published there was because his story arrived too late to be included in a book that Artemus Ward was compiling, featuring sketches of the wild American West.

37. The character of Huckleberry Finn was modeled after Twain's boyhood friend Tom Blankenship. "He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as ever any boy had," Twain wrote of Blankenship in his autobiography. "His liberties were totally unrestricted. He was the only really independent person—boy or man—in the community, and by consequence he was tra

nquilly and continuously happy and envied by the rest of us. And as his society was forbidden us by our parents the prohibition trebled and quadrupled its value, and therefore we sought and got more of his society than any other boy's."

38. Twain's father died of pneumonia when Mark was 12. At 13 he began working for his brother Orion as an apprentice printer. It was here that he discovered a love for writing.

39. Twain first donned his famous white suit in 1906, when he appeared before Congress to testify about copyright law. On what may have been a slow news day, the New York Times carried a headline the ne

xt day proclaiming "Mark Twain in White Amuses Congressmen." He wore a white suit from then on, arguing that "light-colored clothing is more pleasing to the eye and enlivens the spirit." He called it his "dontcareadam suit," because he didn't care a damn what he looked like when he wore it.

40. Twain had no problem ridiculing and attacking those he didn't like. One of his most famous literary targets was James Fenimore Cooper, who he wrote about in his essay, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses".

41. Twain's wife Livy Clemens disliked his habit of swearing, and he tried to keep it from her. One day when he was dressing alone, he realized that his shirt was missing a button and went off on a blue streak. To his horror, he realized that his wife was listening behind the door. In her prim voice, she repeated his words to him as a reprimand.

42. Twain received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1907.

43. Twain often made bad investments, which resulted in serious financial problems.

44. William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature”.

45. One of Mark Twains closest friends were Henry Rogers.

46. Twain was a redhead in his youth.

47. The classical huckleberry finn has the honor of being as the fifth often challenged book by american library association.

48. Mark Twain did not graduate elementary school.

49. It was Mark twain who first used the fingerprinting evidence to solve a crime in one of his fictional novels, “Life on the Mississippi”.

50. Mark Twain died of a heart attack April 21st 1910, in Redding Connecticut.

Quotes:

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."

"Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often."

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

"All generalizations are false, including this one."

"'Classic.' A book which people praise and don't read."

"Climate is what we expect,weather is what we get."

"Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times."

"Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."

"My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water."

"Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."

"When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old."

"Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been."

Author of the Week - James Dashner

James Dashner was born in 1973 in Georgia. He attended Brigham Young University. Dashner is most well-known for his children's fantasy series including the The 13th Reality and the Jimmy Fincher Saga. Dashner's series. Dashner describes his career as stepping stones. His first book in the Jimmy Fincher Saga was very small with only a little exposure in a very small regional area. Then 13th Reality came out and it was a little bigger, and that led to him getting an agent which then led him to Random House. His newest book is The Maze Runner, set to be a trilogy, is a young adult action packed sci-fi, that I have reviewed previously and loved. Dashner currently lives and writes in the Rocky Mountains in Utah with his wife and four children. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a blog run by Dashner. I love blogs.

http://jamesdashner.blogspot.com/

Author of the Week -Anne Spencer Lindbergh

Anne Spencer Lindbergh was the daughter of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Anne was one of six children born to her famous parents, born almost eight years (1940) after the notorious kidnapping and killing of her brother Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. She grew up in Connecticut. After studying at Radcliffe College for three years, Anne decided to move to Paris to finish her education. While there she met and married a fellow student Julien Feydy, who became a political scientist and university professor. Their marriage did not last though. She later met and married Jerzy Sapieyevski, a composer and conductor who moved back to the states with her, but their marriage was also not to be. She started writing books just like her mother, almost all of them for children. In her career she wrote 14 books including The People of Pineapple Place, The Shadow on the Dial, Three Lives to Live, and Bailey's Window. She was the recipient of several honors for her works, including an award for the International Reading Association. Many of her books were set in places that she had lived with scenic backgrounds. Anne moved to Vermont in 1987, and the next year married Mr. Perrin, a writer and professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth. Anne continued to teach for several more years until she developed cancer. Many of Anne's books are still in print today, but the one I remember the best was Three Lives to Live, a fascinating time travel tale that will make your head swim in all the fun ways.

Author of the Week - Laurence Yep

Laurence Yep was born in 1948 in San Francisco. He was named by his older brother, Thomas who had studied a particular saint hat had died from a gruesome death. Yep's family owned a grocery store outside of Chinatown. Growing up, he says he felt torn between his Chinese and American cultures, and this shows through in many of his books. Many of his characters show a good deal of characters feeling alienated or not fitting into their environment. Yep said once, "I was too American to fit into Chinatown, and too Chinese to fit in anywhere else." But Yep found his place in the world of writing. While in Catholic high school, a teacher encouraged his students to write a paper good enough to be published by a magazine. Yep did, and the writing bug stuck. He went on to college, eventually getting his Ph.D in English.

Today, Yep has written over fifty-four books both fiction and non-fiction as well a a handful of plays. He received the Newbery Honor two of his books, Dragon's Gate and Dragonwings. Later Dragonwings was adapted into a play. Other notable book his Dragon series and The Chinatown Mysteries. In addition, Child of the Owl won the Boston Glob/Horn Book award in 1977 and The Rainbow People, Yep's collection of short stories based on Chinese folktales and legends. His newest book City of Fire just came out a few months ago.

Author of the Week - Sharon Draper

This week my bookstore was given permission to start anAfrican-American children's section. A section that in this humble bookseller's opinion was much needed. The first name I put on the list of author's books that we needed more of...Sharon Draper.

Sharon Draper was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952. the oldest child of Victor Mills, a hotel maitre'd, and Catherine Mills, who worked as a classified advertising manager for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Books filled the Draper home and Sharon inhaled them. Sharon became a straight A student, reading every book in her school libraries.

For thirty years Sharon Draper was an English teacher in the Cincinnati, Ohio, public school system, instilling her love of reading and writing in generations of children, and inspiring them to reach for their greatest dreams. Draper earned a reputation as a no-nonsense educator who challenged her students. One of Draper's writing assignments, in particular, became legendary. As part of their final grade, seniors at Walnut Hills High School were asked to produce a well-researched term paper. Draper's expectations were so high that the task was eventually dubbed "The Draper Paper." T-shirts were even designed and given only to those students who successfully met the challenge. Their shirts proudly boasted: "I Survived the Draper Paper." In 1997 she received the highest honor an educator can be given when President Bill Clinton named her the U.S. Teacher of the Year. As a result Draper became a spokesperson for the teaching profession, crisscrossing the globe to talk about the importance of excellence in the classroom.

Her writing career began in 1990 on a whim. Draper had always encouraged her students to submit stories and poems to writing contests. One day, Draper explains on her Web site, a bold young man handed her a crumpled application form and said, "You think you so bad— why don't you write something! Enter this contest!" Draper accepted his challenge and submitted a short story to Ebony magazine's annual Gertrude Johnson Williams Literary Competition. In 1994 the dedicated teacher released her first children's book, Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs.

Many of Draper's novels deal with topics that may be controversial, but that are a very real part of everyday life for some people. For example, 1999's Romiette and Julio takes on interracial dating and gang life, and Double Dutch, published in 2002, tackles illiteracy and child abandonment. When asked why she explores such tough subjects, Draper told David Marc Fischer, "Perhaps reading about the difficulties of others will act like an armor and protect my readers from the personal tragedies of their own lives." Today, Sharon has published over two dozen books including Copper Sun, Teaching From the Heart, Just Another Hero, Out

of My Mind, and Forged By Fire. She has won Five Coretta Scot King Literary Awards, the YWCA Career Woman of Achievement Award, Three ALA Best Book for Children, the Children's Choice Award, and the Buckeye Book Award.

Sharon says about her writing, "I learned to dream through reading, learned to create dreams through writing, and learned to develop dreamers through teaching. I shall always be a dreamer. Come dream with me.”