Avi

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An Anniversary Request

AviIt was on March 12, 2012, that I began this blog about writ­ing, read­ing, and the writer’s life. Since that time, usu­al­ly twice a week, I have put in entries. The goal has been, not to set down rules (I rather sus­pect there are no hard rules for writ­ing) but to share my expe­ri­ences as a writer from my many years of work writ­ing books for young peo­ple. My hope was to encour­age oth­er writ­ers, as well as make avail­able thoughts that teach­ers and librar­i­ans might find use­ful to share with stu­dents as a start­ing point for discussion. 

From time to time peo­ple have com­ment­ed, or have indi­cat­ed that they have read and find the notes inter­est­ing. I have been grate­ful to receive such a response. 

That said, after almost two years of doing this blog I am won­der­ing if folks find my notes of inter­est, and/ or of use. Should I con­tin­ue? Have I writ­ten enough? Too much? Are there top­ics you would like me to write about? In short, I would much appre­ci­ate hear­ing from those who have fol­lowed these notes. (Adding a com­ment here or on Face­book will be glad­ly heard.)

As always, when one writes, one wants—needs—a response. 

Thank you.

45 thoughts on “An Anniversary Request”

  1. Please con­tin­ue, Avi. I don’t com­ment often here, but I always read them and often repost them on twit­ter etc.

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  2. Oh, yes! I do hope you will con­tin­ue writ­ing. My chil­dren (4th and 7th grade) and I appre­ci­ate your thought­ful entries. Often, your entries will spark many a con­ver­sa­tion while we are in the car or at the din­ner table. They love your books, and your blog is inspir­ing to them as avid read­ers. Your blog makes you as a per­son seem more acces­si­ble and real. Many thanks for writ­ing. And for thinking.

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  3. Avi,

    Though I believe I’ve only com­ment­ed once or twice on your posts over the time I’ve sub­scribed (at least a year I believe) I do read each post. And very often I find nuggets of wis­dom or things from your per­spec­tive that help me with mine. I’m a writer, too, but not with your expe­ri­ence with the craft. Qui­et­ly I’ve learned things from you. I hope you con­tin­ue — I would­n’t pre­sume to direct you as to what I’d like to see because I’d rather read what moves you at the moment–what popped in mind you want­ed to share. When I post on my own site, to my own email list, I rarely get com­ments. (I do get a good bit of feed­back from Google+ the social media venue/platform I use to help cre­ate vis­i­bil­i­ty for my work.) that being said, I believe many are here… and will con­tin­ue to learn, qui­et­ly, from what you share with us.

    Regards,
    Den­nis Lowery

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  4. Dear Avi, I’ve only been read­ing your posts for the past six months or so (thanks to my friend Pat­ty Lakin) and I have def­i­nite­ly not had enough. I look for­ward to them and would be dis­ap­point­ed if you stopped.
    Lucy Frank

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  5. I am always excit­ed to see your lat­est blogs in my Face­book feed. As a young, ama­teur author, your tips either strike a cord with me or reveal areas in which I have a need for improve­ment. I would love it if you con­tin­ued to pro­vide your insights!

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  6. I get an e‑mail for each post you make and enjoy read­ing them, though I don’t always com­ment on the blog. I love insight from lit­er­ary heroes, no mat­ter the tim­ing, and you’re at the top of my list. There’s always room for more for this read­er, but week­ly or bi-week­ly would be fine, too. Thanks for shar­ing a bit of the magic!

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  7. I enjoy read­ing about the twists and turns of how your sto­ries come to be, your expe­ri­ences and per­cep­tions of the pub­lish­ing indus­try, and I espe­cial­ly enjoy fol­low­ing where your mind ranges when it trav­els into his­tor­i­cal fic­tion. Maybe some addi­tion­al tid­bits of research that did­n’t make it into some of your sto­ries would be interesting.

    You’ve been observ­ing and writ­ing about peo­ple for a long time. What have you learned about human nature that has made its way into your sto­ries? Also, I often feel like the set­ting of your sto­ries real­ly come alive and that gives your char­ac­ters an extra ener­gy. Show me how you fol­low a thread of obser­va­tion or research and then what emerges from that.

    Keep on shar­ing your blog. Even if I don’t leave a com­ment, I’m read­ing every one!

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  8. I love your posts Avi! I think you offer an invalu­able point of view and per­spec­tive for authors at all stages of their careers. I would very much like to see you con­tin­ue with these posts, and will con­tin­ue to share the with my col­leagues and clients! Your exper­tise and your con­cise way of express­ing things of such impor­tance are so pre­cious to our chil­dren’s book community!

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  9. I love your blog, Avi. I read every one. I espe­cial­ly like your brevi­ty and clar­i­ty in explain­ing var­i­ous writer­ly things. It is fun to hear about the places from which your books sprang. I appre­ci­ate the ele­ments of craft you illu­mi­nate for us. Your open­ness and hon­esty about your writing/creativity process and the winds and changes in the pub­lish­ing process are fas­ci­nat­ing. I would be sad, indeed, if you stopped writ­ing it.

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  10. Yes, please! Like oth­er “lurk­ers,” I don’t com­ment back to you in writ­ing every time I make a ver­bal com­ment (“Ahhh…” “I need to share this,” “So that’s how it works!” “Of course, that makes sense.”). You remind me of the need for response and I promise to do a bet­ter job let­ting you know the val­ue of your con­cise, thought-pro­vok­ing posts. Keep ’em coming!

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  11. I love your posts. It is my only con­tact with the writ­ing world right now and it reminds me that I am a writer and part of a writ­ing com­mu­ni­ty, even if I am more vis­i­ble in my oth­er more obvi­ous roles. I learn from every post. Thank you

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  12. The enjoy­able thing about this blog is that it feels very real, and when you talk about cer­tain things it gives me a win­dow into a world which I am still decid­ing whether I want to join. I keep track of lots of oth­er peo­ple, too, who can show me what my even­tu­al choice may mean. 

    Read­ing the blog is great–I guess I do not leave com­ments because I don’t know the sort of response to leave. There aren’t usu­al­ly ques­tions to fol­low up on or clues to start a dis­cus­sion. With­out indi­ca­tors like that, I stay silent.

    Silent, but wait­ing for more.

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  13. As a fourth grade teacher of a class of gift­ed stu­dents, I want to say thank you! Both for the blog, which we just start­ed fol­low­ing, and for the mar­velous books you have writ­ten. So while you may feel the weight of a two year anniver­sary, we have only been fol­low­ing your blog for two months. In part­ner­ship with a local inde­pen­dent book­store, our school brings authors to talk to the stu­dents at least twice a year. It is so impor­tant for young writ­ers to hear how many times a page is edit­ed or how illus­tra­tions for graph­ic nov­els are cre­at­ed. But the vis­its give stu­dents real insight into the cre­ative process, the tri­als, the fail­ures, and the suc­cess­es. Stu­dents who can­not ask ques­tions of authors at their school need your blog, and my stu­dents enjoy get­ting to know you bet­ter Also, my stu­dents keep sketchbooks/writers jour­nals and your blog is an inspi­ra­tion for that dis­ci­pline. We say “rock on” Avi! Ques­tions from the class include how you research all the real­is­tic details (John Ball) about life in the Mid­dle Ages from the Crispin series? How do you hear the dia­log of your char­ac­ters in your head? Final­ly, in our class, we write for each oth­er. We receive feed­back by shar­ing our drafts on a Smart Board, because feed­back is so impor­tant to the writer. Does the blog give you enough feed­back or do you rely on friends or edi­tors for that?

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  14. Please keep writ­ing! I read every word and learn some­thing new from each post. I also think writ­ing twice a week or even once a week is enough. If you get tired of it, we all loose out on your wis­dom. No one wants that–grin.

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  15. I read your blog at least once a week. Last year I taught NBT to my 8th graders and they absolute­ly loved it. I will teach it again this year. We would love to do a Skype ses­sion with you. Thank you for inspir­ing writers.
    Barbara
    Sier­ra Vista Mid­dle School
    Irvine, CA

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  16. I often read your posts on my cell phone and it isn’t quite easy to com­ment using this medi­um. Last sum­mer my daugh­ters and I decid­ed to take a road trip to the Amer­i­can girl doll store in Col­orado, an eight hour trip from Utah. Before Leav­ing we went to the library and picked up an audio­book called “The true con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle” we lis­ten the whole way there and when we arrived at our hotel we did­n’t want to leave the car because we were curi­ous to see what hap­pened to Char­lotte. I have fol­lowed your blog since then and would­n’t want you to quit now because I find all of your posts very inter­est­ing. Not sure why there have been so few com­ments but I under­stand what you mean. In my own life, I rarely get com­ments on my blog. Please keep going! You are one of the few writer blogs I follow!

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  17. Please con­tin­ue. I read every post and always come away with some food for thought. Your work is much appreciated.

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  18. Dear Avi: It is my hope that you con­tin­ue. As a pub­lished chil­dren’s author myself, I find your posts so valu­able in terms of craft, patience, per­se­ver­ance and pro­fes­sion­al­ism. Often, you post on a Tues­day when our writ­ing group meets–again—we’re all pub­lished chil­dren’s writ­ers in that group and invari­ably, sev­er­al of us says, “Did you read Avi today because it’s a MUST read!” And, to fur­ther con­vince you, there have been numer­ous posts of yours that I share when I do a school talk. By the way, Bri­an Flo­ca illus­trat­ed four of my books…just anoth­er link that has noth­ing to do with your posts.…simply a link. Please keep posting!

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  19. I believe a lot of us are read­ers as well as writ­ers even though we don’t com­ment often. I have read most all of your books and look for­ward to see­ing your blog con­tin­ue because there is always an inter­est­ing mes­sage in your postings.

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  20. Please con­tin­ue writ­ing them. I do go on your web­site and love your Read­ers the­ater scripts. We are using the Char­lotte Doyle script for our grand­par­ents day event this spring.

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  21. Please con­tin­ue! This blog is on my book­mark tab. As a start­ing-out writer with an upper-mid­dle-grade man­u­script in the edit­ing and revis­ing process, your blog posts help me with many aspects of writ­ing. Thank you for both the books and the blog posts you write!

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  22. My hus­band and I read every sin­gle one. We love your insights to the writ­ing process and pub­lish­ing world. As teach­ers and par­ents, we enjoy hear­ing what some of your chil­dren read­ers have to say about your books. Keep blog­ging if it helps your pro­cess­ing, too!

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  23. Thank you all for your kind and gen­er­ous com­ments. I am tru­ly grate­ful, so glad that I can be sup­port­ive of what YOU do.

    I love the fact that all of us share in this great com­mu­ni­ty of writ­ing and read­ing, this won­der­ful desire to add good sto­ries to the world.

    Please, if there are aspects of writ­ing and read­ing upon, which you would like me com­ment, do not hes­i­tate to let me know.

    For my part I promise to turn the page and continue.

    Sin­cere­ly,

    Avi

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  24. Dear Avi, as your #1 fans (my son and I), the blog comes close to hav­ing a con­ver­sa­tion with our favorite author. Please con­tin­ue your blog. We real­ly enjoy read­ing your posts. 🙂

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  25. I have enjoyed all your books and the fact that you can write about so many dif­fer­ent things and be right on tar­get. I look for­ward to the blogs. Con­nie Currie

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  26. Avi, I enjoy your blog very much. I’m par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in read­ing more about your expe­ri­ences with the strug­gles of author­dom and the writ­ing life… fear, rejec­tion, dis­ap­point­ment, what­ev­er… and how you over­come them. Thank you!

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  27. I was in Grad School for my Library Sci­ence degree when I took a Young Adult Lit class dur­ing the sum­mer. I picked your book “Noth­ing but the Truth” as one of my book talk books. I absolute­ly loved it and read it every year. I love to read your blog and hope you’ll con­tin­ue with it. I make sure my library has all of your books!

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  28. My stu­dents and I LOVE your blog…I have copied quite a few and used them in Read­ing, as read­ing mate­r­i­al, and in writ­ing, as great habits of writers!

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  29. Writ­ers, as you know, are alone on many occa­sions dur­ing their pur­suits and projects, and a “hug” break (in the form of encour­age­ment and advise) is much need­ed from time to time! Thanks for your insights and wisdom!

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  30. I enjoy and ben­e­fit from your blog as a long-time writer of books for chil­dren. I gain inspi­ra­tion, under­stand­ing, infor­ma­tion, and most of all, the will to slog through those times when the idea’s a bowl of mush, the writ­ing — if I’ve been able to write a word — stinks, and I won­der, why on earth am I even try­ing? I look for­ward to the con­tin­u­a­tion… and I’d love to hear from time to time what you are reading.

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  31. Please con­tin­ue. Your posts are per­fect for me and kids. They are the right length and they each are valu­able and encour­ag­ing. Thank you for this blog.

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  32. Dear Avi, I read every post, and mar­vel at your gen­eros­i­ty, exper­tise, and insight. I often feel moved to leave a com­ment, but then I don’t, because I’m still not quite com­fort­able with the pub­lic nature of social media. But, you share of your­self, and I should try to share more of MYself, even if only to say: thank you.

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  33. I would be sad if you stopped writ­ing your blog. Not only are you an amaz­ing writer but your knowl­edge of the indus­try and cama­raderie and rela­tion­ships with your publishers/editors is invalu­able infor­ma­tion for those of us dab­bling in writ­ing. My wife, kids and I love your books, read­ing often togeth­er as a fam­i­ly, so we all hope you con­tin­ue your writ­ings and your blog.

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  34. Dear Avi,
    I joined your blog recent­ly and have found it inspir­ing, help­ful, com­fort­ing and insight­ful. I always look for­ward to read­ing it when I see it in my “in box”.
    Thank you for your gen­eros­i­ty. I hope you will con­tin­ue to write to us, but I don’t know how you have time, with all the writ­ing you do for you books.
    You are appre­ci­at­ed by so many people!

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  35. I fol­low your blog and use it fre­quent­ly to inspire my 13 year old son to write as he has so many ideas but lacks con­fi­dence in his writ­ing abil­i­ty. Your detailed blog offers so many insights into how the process works and helps in count­less ways. My son and I read “Sophi­a’s War” togeth­er after enjoy­ing your vis­it to the Texas Book Fes­ti­val. My favorite part of your books is the fact that you can hook a read­er with the action they crave while also sneak­ing in great details about his­tor­i­cal events that inspire them to seek out more infor­ma­tion. The blog itself is absolute­ly impor­tant because we can share a bit into how you are inspired and what feed­back you get from chil­dren read­ing your books. I just ordered “The True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle” after you men­tioned it in a blog post and can­not wait to share it with my son (I had my local inde­pen­dent book­store order it for me). As an aside, the cashier at the book­store who was in his twen­ties men­tioned how much he enjoyed your books and rec­om­mend­ed anoth­er of your books as his favorite. I would like you to con­tin­ue to share those insights about writ­ing that show our kids that writ­ing sto­ries is an amaz­ing way to express our­selves. I also like the posts that ref­er­ence your old­er works so that those of us who are new­er to your work can dis­cov­er those gems that we may have missed. Most impor­tant­ly I would like to say thank you because I know that writ­ing this blog is a large com­mit­ment and I would like you to know that the fans of your work are absolute­ly grate­ful to you for your work and your con­tin­ued blog­ging that inspires both chil­dren and their parents.

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  36. I hope you will con­tin­ue. I appre­ci­ate your hon­esty about the writ­ing expe­ri­ence. Your blog is an hon­est and fresh per­spec­tive that is hard to find (at least where I have looked!)

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  37. I love read­ing your blog. I do hope you will con­tin­ue. It’s just the write length, con­cise and to the point. I appre­ci­ate your hon­esty and clarity.

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  38. After read­ing your blog entry on your favorite book as a child, I checked out Wind in the Wil­lows from the library and I am read­ing it. It is a buried trea­sure I would not have found otherwise.

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  39. In work­ing with chil­dren, I have found a good num­ber of peo­ple who choose this pro­fes­sion either want to help or be heard. Weird­ly enough, this seems to be the case with blog­gers as well. Let me say yours is the only blog I fol­low because it helps me with my writ­ing. So please con­tin­ue, Avi. I val­ue your help­ful voice as I con­tin­ue work­ing on my book.

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  40. Just start­ed div­ing into the blog, but I’ve admired your books for years. This gives me a chance to pick your brain and under­stand the idea of writ­ing. Total­ly agree with the kid who asked about sym­bol­ism and love your response — some­times we teach­ers (and more impor­tant­ly test­ing com­pa­nies and politi­cians) want kids to beat a text to death to find hid­den mean­ings and so forth. Read­ing for the joy of it gets squeezed out in the test­ing craze, and that is a shame.

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