There have been lots of great developments and goings-on lately.

I've taken over as the director/leader/coordinator (what is the title, anyway?) of the Young Willamette Writers. I'm very excited about this position. The Willamette Writers is the largest writers' organizaton in Oregon, and one of the largest in the United States. Its purpose is to provide support and encouragement for current and aspiring writers. Young writers are not overlooked!

The Young Willamette Writers meets at the same time as the adults (7pm on the first Tuesday of every month) to hear from professional writers about topics related to craft and the industry. Upcoming guests are Tom Hallman, Jr. of the Oregonian, Lisa Nowak (Running Wide Open) on outlining, Amber Keyser (Angel Punk) on transmedia, Anne Osterlund (Exile) with a topic yet to be decided. What a great year we're going to have!

I'm in the middle of teaching a workshop at the Lake Oswego Library for 4th-6th graders. We've had lots of fun with my And then... stories as well as Chris Van Allsburg's book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. I'll be doing a one-time workshop at the Albina Library in December.

SCBWI is hosting the 4th annual authors and illustrators gala, "Flap Flap!" on November 3. At this event, 15 authors and illustrators (including yours truly) will have four minutes to tell about their books. Come hear backstories and good tidbits from the authors themselves. This is a great time to get some Christmas shopping done as well.

Finally, I was honored to have my book discussed on Dan Patterson's blog after he used it subbing in a 5th grade class. Thanks, Dan! Glad you had fun with it!

Time For Tadpoles!

This week our theme in Preschool Storytime is "Frogs." Every year I go out to a pond near our house and scoop up some tadpoles. I keep them in a little plastic fish/frog/lizard tank and tote them back and forth to Storytime for a few weeks. The kids have a blast watching them grow back legs. Then, (I just realized this last year) their front legs pop right out of their heads. I always thought they developed slowly, just like their back legs. But actually they form under their skin, then just pop out all at once. I was privileged to watch it happen one time. One minute the frog had back legs, the next it had one front leg, then a few minutes later it had all four. Amazing!

A few years ago I found a cluster of eggs and brought them in. We got to watch them hatch and grow all the way into adults, but it took SOOOO long, I got kind of tired of carrying the tank back and forth from home. This time I found some nice fat tadpoles almost ready to sprout back legs, so it should just take a few weeks.  I let them go back into the pond once they need to eat bugs. For now, I feed them plants from their pond and supplement with lettuce and spinach.

I think there are seven of them. Should I name them Sneezy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Doc, Happy, Bashful and Dopey?

My WIP

WIP: Work In Progress

A little over a year ago I got an idea for a middle grade novel. I started writing, thinking I'd have it finished and ready for a critique at the SCBWI writers' retreat in October. Months of lazy summer days ahead with hours to write, right? Well, you know how summers go - WHOOSH! Wait a minute! It's the middle of August already? So it wasn't finished in time, got set aside over the holidays, and finally reared its head in my consciousness the last few weeks. I put some serious time in on it, and I'm happy to say the first draft is finished!

This feels particularly satisfying to me as it is my first story longer than about 400 words that isn't a picture book. My Cliffhanger Writing Prompts book is 30 stories, almost all of which are 250 words or less. This novel for 8-12 year olds is 18,000 words. I reread what I had so far a couple of months ago and spotted quite a few things that need revising, which I expected. Now the real work begins of tying up loose ends, filling in gaps, and fleshing out some characters. I'm looking forward to it, but a little nervous, too, that I might get bogged down or stuck.

Right now I'm getting ready to print the whole thing out and get into it with color coded markers. Should be fun!

New Opportunities

I'm very excited that my Creative Writing Workshops are starting to get some traction. I'll be at Veritas School in Newberg in May, the Young Willamette Writers in June, and at Middleton Elementary in the Fall. I've made contact at the Tualatin Library for the fall, and am talking to the Lake Oswego, Newberg and Multnomah libraries about doing a workshop series at each of them. If you visit any of those libraries, or another branch in the metro area, please put in a plug for me. I would love to have a workshop going somewhere all the time. I get such a kick out working with the kids and hearing their outrageously imaginative stories, and I love seeing them get excited about writing and sharing their work.

Sometimes I think the drudgery of writing "lessons" can squelch the fun of it. My workshops are not about fixing spelling and punctuation, or even trying to find the perfect way to say something. They are about setting the imagination loose and having FUN by following wherever it may lead - even if it's to a planet made of chocolate pudding or a cannibalistic peanut butter sandwich. (Funny how many kids' stories are about food!)

Pass my name along to any teacher or librarian who might be interested. They can find my email on this blog, or my Facebook page.

New Facebook Page

I'm introducing my new Facebook page "Teresa Klepinger, Author and Storylady." I'll be using this page to let people know about Storytime news and author visits and Creative Writing Workshops I'm doing in the area. I'll post on this blog occasionally when I have longer things to talk about, but newsy stuff will be on Facebook. Come on over and check it out!

Workshop Fun!

I had 15 third to sixth graders yesterday for a workshop using my "And then..." stories. I had a blast, and I guess they did too, because almost all of them signed up for next week. Personalities ran the gamut from blank-face-never-say-a-word, to pick-me-pick-me! and the self-described class clown. I had four kids add on to "Disappearing Act," and the dog turned into a tiny puppy, then a pony, then a pony with a dog's head. Following that, there were adventures with marshmallow martians. Then they took turns around their own tables adding on to "Better Run Fast," and I was surprised that at one table, the dinosaur actually didn't eat anyone. Finally, they got to write their own endings to "Going Up." One child's story involved time travel - each floor was a different time,which I thought was a novel idea. Another story had the 29th floor identical to Daniel's own floor, only it was his fantasy dream world - with every gadget he could want, and the refrigerator stocked with all his favorite foods. Another fun idea, except his favorite drink was a caffeine free diet Coke. Hmmm, I'd work on that.

I'm definitely looking forward to next week!

A First For Me!

Before I tell my little story, THANK YOU to Karen Wagner for being a superb oboist and presenter at Symphony Storytime. She had a wonderfully easy and personal way of communicating with the kids. I loved it!

My "first" happened that day. There was a very long line of kids waiting their turn to attempt to get a squawk from the instrument, so I decided to visit with the kids who were trying so hard to be patient. I had noticed one boy who had played with his very loose tooth while he listened to the stories, so I went up to him to ask him to show me his tooth. (He has been a faithful Storytime goer for the last three years.) He showed me how he could flop his front tooth around with his tongue. "That's ready to come out!" I said. "Go ahead and grab it and give it a little tug." He grabbed it, tugged, and it popped right out. The look of shock on his face was priceless! I was so excited to have been the one to witness it, right there at Storytime! Like I said, a first for me!