My guest interview today is with author CV Smith who wrote Nettie Parker's Backyard.  Synopsis Ask anyone who knows Nettie Parker and they’ll say that she’s an amazing, mystical woman…what else would you call someone who receivessupernatural signs sent just to them?  And being able to live longer than anyone else?  That alone is pretty amazing!  Nettie’s been through many hardships in her life, and she’s learned first-hand that prejudice can be a multi-headed dragon.  But her courage and determination show others that differences in skin color or in physical abilities don’t matter.  In fact, as Nettie and her fighter-pilot husband both get caught up in World War II, survival becomes what matters most—not just for them, but also for the eight Jewish refugee children she comes to care for.  Now Nettie faces her toughest struggle yet: uncovering the mystery of her supernatural signs and the purpose of her unusually long life.  Do the strange statues that suddenly appear in her backyard point to any clues?  Halley, Nettie’s young friend, plays detective as she re-visits Nettie’s past, a journey that takes the reader from South Carolina to England and back again.  Can Halley put all the pieces together and solve the puzzle? Nettie Parker’s Backyard is a work of historical fiction.  The book holds the readers’ interest with just the right amount of mystery and magic, also weaving important lessons against bullying and intolerance toward race, religion and the physically challenged into the story.  The novel has wide appeal and contains something with which every 4th-6th grader can identify.  The Barnes and Noble link http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/nettie-parkers-backyard What finally got you started on writing a book?  The idea for Nettie Parker's Backyardcame to me in a very vivid dream, and whereas most of my dreams go unremembered, this one was definitely unique.  Its powerful detail and message ended with a revelation that has affected my own personal beliefs, further compelling me to write the book.  My research took me down some fascinating avenues as I discovered such things as the Gullah language in the Sea Islands, the Kindertransport, sand fly fever, and the role African-American soldiers played in WWII.  Nettie's character was based on that of my granddaughters; thus, some of her best virtues are those of trust, love, and friendship. Is there a theme that runs through your writing?  Yes, the underlying, yet very powerful themes directed to children are those of anti-bullying, anti-prejudice and tolerance toward all.  I have been a teacher and para-educator for over 30 years, most of which were spent in classrooms where students were just beginning to think for themselves and about themselves.  The book is written for ages 9-12, the time when youth questions everything.  Adolescence is starting and many children feel insecure about themselves, their relationships with peers, or even their own families and homelife.  These insecurities manifest themselves in various behaviors; some children withdraw into themselves, while some overcompensate for their fears by bullying others.  I have witnessed that when bullying begins, even if innocently meant with only an off-handed word or two, prejudice often follows not far behind.  I wrote this novel hoping to illustrate to children that bullying and intolerance toward race, religion, or the physically challenged have no place in our world.  Certainly, with tools such as the internet, facebook, twitter, etc., the world is becoming smaller in many ways, and so the ill-effects of prejudice are felt even more strongly today than in the past.  We must all learn to accept one another and celebrate our differences, rather than let them separate us.  I further believe that more must be done to inhibit bullying; not doing so only enables the passing of prejudice from one generation to the next. What writers influenced you?  Well, my two very favorite books are The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.  Kingsolver uses magnificent adjectives to describe Africa, and Roy’s style of writing, which begins with scores of unrelated points, later all coming together in the climax of the story, was inventively unique.  How has your writing evolved over time?  Of course, as you grow and mature, your writing also grows and matures.  Over the years you learn to write things differently and in new ways from how you wrote them previously.  How you use words, terms and vocabulary, and how you express your ideas and concepts find alternate routes with the same goal: stimulating the mind of your reader so that they challenge themselves to think and reach deeper within themselves. You are a professional and a writer. How do you manage to find the time for both of these time consuming aspects of your life?  It’s very difficult and a real challenge.  My husband has become a “writer’s widower” in this, my second launch of Nettie Parker’s Backyard. How do you promote your books?  Since my ultimate goal is conventional publication with a “brick and mortar firm”, I am doing everything I can to promote my WWII historical-fiction-mystery for children.  I blog, twitter, facebook, do author chats at schools and libraries, canvas book stores, do book signings, interviews, radio spots, and in general, just research every contact I can. How do you promote your blog?  My book has a webpage rather than a blog, which has a synopsis, more about myself, and readers’ reviews, one of them being a 5 star review from Amazon’s own Grady Harp, rated 4th on Amazon’s List of Top 10 Reviewers. The direct link to my webpage is:  http://mysite.verizon.net/ressbmks/ Please add anything else you think would interest the readers.  I hope everyone will visit my website and purchase my ebook or paperback to read with a child that they love in their lives.  I think it contains something with which each 4th-7th grader (and adult) can identify.  I think it provides a great moral compass, while at the same time is a comprehensive history lesson and a supernatural mystery all rolled into one!

My new world...and new connections...

I've written another blog (related to my professional field) for several years. Through that blog I've developed cyber friendships that have become very important to me. I hadn't expected that to happen with this blog because the topic seemed to me to be so much less personal and my target readers aren't bound together by the same type of intense emotional experiences as the readers in my other blog - at least that's what I thought. Wrongo!


Yes indeed, I was totally wrong about that. I've only had this blog going a little while and already I've become acquainted with other writers who are equally intense about their writing and their pursuit of a readership and are ready to help and share with each other; and, even better, I can sense some real relationships forming. I can't help but wonder how could I think that other writers wouldn't experience their craft as an intensely emotional experience?


Okay - I have an idea about how I missed that - I think part of it was that writing has always been something I've done in isolation. True, we all write alone - or least as alone as we can get so that we focus while we create. However, for me, the alone-ness also meant no one  with whom I could talk with about it and no one with whom I could share my widening interests ie reviewing and no one else who.....whatever. Its not that I don't have support here in my world - I have lots - but support isn't the same as sharing the passion and the drive. 


I have tried joining real live writer's groups in the past - but I have a large family and their needs preclude me doing anything other than work outside of family life so when time constraints made me choose what I was going to do - well, of course, the children won. 


Now I'm here and I'm learning and I'm finding new interests in writing. I'm making connections and friends and I look forward every day to seeing who has commented on the site or emailed me. So - thank you for broadening my world and taking the time to connect with me as we travel this writing road together. 

Have your best day possible.

Becoming a reviewer...and hostile reviewers

I've always thought of myself as someone who writes, not someone who reviews. However, lately I've been more and more interested in the craft of reviewing so I'm taking some training in that area and hope to start reviewing books by the end of this summer.

I know I'm inexperienced in this area and now I see that I am also naive - because I had never thought of reviews as something likely to foment much controversy except when authors disagree with a negative review. However, the other day I stumbled on an article about a noted reviewer who was being publicly lambasted for challenging the trend in YA toward the negative and the dark. That would be the dystopian worlds, the dead/living, the novels about cutting and other forms of self injurious behaviours. The reviewer was concerned that these are becoming the standard in YA books and she felt that while they have a place, they are taking over too much of the reading audience. She saw this as a trend in adult literature as well but was more concerned about the lack of other forms of stories being published for the YA audience and the impressionist stage of teens who may be harmed by the influence these stories create.

Those who disagreed with her were attacking, hostile, and angry - this surprised me since this was all between professional reviewers - I had expected more room for discussion and alternative viewpoints. I know I come at this from the perspective of a mom and a psychotherapist - both roles make me concerned with the pressures on teens today and what they incorporate into their own lives from the stories they read and the movies they watch and both roles have trained me to focus on conflict resolution and allowing for the opinions of others (except, of course, when they disagree with me!). Okay, so I don't live up to this myself all the time, but I try.

I don't have a well thought out perspective on this literary conflict but I will be thinking of it as I begin reviewing books. How has this trend impacted you as a writer or reviewer?