Freelance Flashback: Don't pack up those ornaments yet

In my years as a local freelancer for the Baltimore Sun, I learned (and often, quickly forgot) many facts and pieces of trivia.

One tidbit that stayed with me: It's okay to leave your Christmas and holiday decorations up until the Feast of the Epiphany. That's tomorrow, folks.

Mr. S is visiting his parents, so the teens will be helping me pack up the Santa candles, dreidel candy dish, and preschool crafts of holidays past.

Here is  my 2003 Sun article that explains why January 6 is the day to pack it all away.

Still proceeding to honor the Magi on the 12th day

Paying homage to the 3 kings

Epiphany: Several Howard County churches prepare to observe the Feast of the Three Kings.

Howard County

January 03, 2003|By Laura Shovan | Laura Shovan,SPECIAL TO THE SUN

Don't put away those manger scenes yet. The 12 days of Christmas, which began Dec. 25, don't officially conclude until the Feast of the Three Kings on Jan. 6, the traditional date for the wise men, or Magi, to arrive.

Some time, I'll have to tell you about
my one and only camel ride.

Several Howard County Christian churches have traditional, and nontraditional, Epiphany customs.

At the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ellicott City, the wise men arrived a little early. The weekend before Christmas, the church held a pageant. Members of the parish took turns playing the roles of prophets, shepherds and the three wise men.

James Gartside of Jessup, who was among the Magi, said the wise men were familiar figures in Old Testament and other prophecies about a coming Messiah and connected those with astrological events. "They knew the signs," he said. "They recognized that Jesus is our Lord and Savior."

In the United States, Christmas celebrations overshadow the Epiphany - it is a more significant festival in Greek and Russian Orthodox churches and in Latin America. However, the two holy days are related. While Christmas marks the birth of Jesus, the Epiphany signifies what his birth means - Jesus' role as Savior.

"That's what Epiphany means, an event of great importance," said George Martin, president of the Columbia Cooperative Ministry. "That day was effectively like Christmas because it was the manifestation of Jesus to the world."

Translations of the Greek word epiphaneia range from "to reveal" and "manifestation" to "appearance." In English, the term has come to signify a discovery or realization.

The Epiphany can be found in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. The realization in the Gospels is that the Magi, who were foreigners and non-Jews, recognize Jesus as Lord and king. They represent the idea that his message will reach the whole world.

The Adoration of the Magi, weaving, 1894

Although the number of Magi does not appear in the Scriptures, they usually are depicted as a group of three because of the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh that they carried. The traditional names of the Magi, who later came to be seen as kings, are Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Details like these, and that the three gifts might have been bartered to help the Holy Family escape danger, were added to the Epiphany story as it was passed from generation to generation and depicted in works of art.

The three gifts were common items to take on a journey because they were tradeable goods. But they also have symbolic meanings. Gold, a gift given to royalty, signifies Jesus as king. Frankincense, which was used in worship practices, stands for his divinity. Because myrrh was used to prepare bodies for burial, it represents Jesus as a man who would die.

Frankincense has many health benefits. You can find it
in this form in natural food stores.
From Wikipedia.

Gift-giving during the Christmas season is meant to honor and emulate the wise men. But there are a variety of other traditions surrounding Monday's Feast of the Epiphany.

One custom, according to the Rev. Richard Tillman of St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Columbia, is "a tradition of going around and blessing homes. ... The ritual is with a small piece of chalk that you inscribe on the home, `20+CMB+03' - the number of the New Year and the initials `CMB' are in the middle." (Read about this custom here.)

Not only do the initials stand for the names of the Magi, Tillman said, they also signify a Latin prayer, "Christus Mansionem Benedicat," which means "May Christ Bless This Dwelling."

The Orthodox Christian Church of St. Mathews in Wilde Lake also has a tradition of blessing homes. Children carry candles and sing hymns while each room is sprinkled with holy water blessed during the Epiphany.

A less traditional custom will be the "Taste of St. John's" potluck dinner, which will be held Sunday at St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Columbia. Parishioners from at least 50 ethnic backgrounds will share dishes from their cultures.

"The three kings represented people from far away - the idea is to emphasize that here at St. John's we have people from all over the country and all over the world," said Kathie Armstrong, parish secretary.

Because the Feast of the Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas season, Jan. 6 is the traditional date to put away Christmas decorations.

I'm always a little sad when it's time to pack up
the Christmas Lobster.

We do have some traditional ornaments.
This Santa made of poi, for instance.

So next week is the time to take down the lights and ornaments, and pack those wise men and the family creche until they visit next year.

Freelance Flashback: Making Art in Response to Tragedy

After last Friday's tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I was reminded of this article, from December, 2001. It appeared in the Howard County section of the Baltimore Sun, just a few months after September 11.

That terrorist attack happened when I was on my way to Mom's Club with my toddler and eight-month-old baby. They are aware of those events, but have no memory of them. Nor do they remember the pair of snipers whose shooting spree meant my son spent his first several weeks of kindergarten in a constant state of lock down.

In many ways, we are shaped by these events. I will always remember when the Challenger disaster was announced over our high school PA system.

When the initial shock and grief is over, what do we do to remember and recover from such tragedies? As my friend, poet Ann Bracken, said to me today, these events affect society because they are moral injuries, conflicting with our sense of right and wrong.

While we can't make it right, we can make something out of our strong emotional responses. And we can help children do the same thing, as this group of elementary schoolers did in December, 2001.

Howard pupils express hope through art

Post-attack emotions find creative outlet

December 05, 2001|By Laura Shovan | Laura Shovan,SPECIAL TO THE SUN

 
Fourth-graders at Clarksville Elementary School were in Laurie Basham's art class when they heard the news of the terrorist attacks Sept. 11. Basham found herself having to let the frightened children know what was happening. In simple terms, she told them the news and tried to reassure them. Then she gave them the opportunity to turn their feelings into art.
 
Their responses, and those of other Clarksville Elementary schoolchildren, are on display on the school's Web site. Each grade level had a different assignment for the art project, including flowers and "patriotism," and the fourth-graders' symbolic rubbings.
 
"There was a correlation between the actual feeling of making the rubbing and feeling as far as expressing emotions," Basham said.
 
Fourth-grader Catherine Kim used the texture of her rubbing to show apartments burning. A crying face dominates her project. Angels rise to the sky above the fallen buildings. Catherine wrote "hope" at the top of her artwork to represent hope for people who lost their families.
 
"I really liked the candles in my project," she said. "That means the spirit" of those who died.

Some of the children's responses included images of airplanes crashing into buildings, but Basham was impressed with the thoughtfulness of the responses. Discussions in class helped the youths express their feelings about the attacks in words and through their artwork.
 
"They were really anxious," Basham said. "Making this artwork helped them feel like they were a part of everybody coming together."
 
That sense of unity is expressed in Clare Skelly's project. She and her fellow third-graders were assigned to create patriotic artwork. Clare's drawing shows a group of people gathering near an American flag and the slogan "We Stand United." Red, white and blue surround the image. "I care about our country," she said.
 
Basham thinks the children responded to the tangible nature of the project, the act of making something. For those who have trouble expressing themselves, art is a means for doing so, she said.
 
"My painting was showing people to not be sad because it was hanging on the wall," fourth-grader Kyle Butler said. "Whenever somebody would walk by it, they would feel better." He chose black paper for his project, filling the page with "hope" written in bright pastels.
 
Also on the school's Web site are art projects from the younger children. Flowers drawn in the style of Picasso were sent to hospitals in New York City and Washington to cheer victims of the attacks.
 
The Clarksville Elementary School "Talent Showcase" can be found at www.howard.k12.md.us/ces/ART/showcase.html.
 
Teachers, how are you helping your students process their fears and grief about the shooting? When words are too painful, do you turn to art?

 

Freelance Flashback: Chrismukkah

A menorah in the window and a Christmas tree in the family room -- that's how I grew up. Though my mother converted to Judaism after my parents married, she kept some of her Anglican traditions. Giving up her English trifle, crackers on the holiday table, and Christmas tree were unthinkable.

We get our traditional party favors, English crackers from oldenglishcrackers.com.

We celebrated the best of both holidays, what some folks now jokingly call Chrismukkah.

The fourth night of Hanukkah begins at sundown.

Now my own family is interfaith. This week finds us finishing our Christmas shopping as we celebrate Hanukkah. Last night was latke night!

Zucchini latkes from smittenkitchen.com.

Back in 2001, I was thinking about our blended holiday traditions. I knew there were other families out there like us. The Costellos, for instance, had a child at my kids' preschool class at the time. (Our sons now attend high school together.)

Here is the feature I wrote for the Baltimore Sun's Howard County edition.

Interfaith families search for balance

Traditions: The prominence of Christmas poses challenges for parents of different religions.

December 14, 2001|By Laura Shovan | Laura Shovan,SPECIAL TO THE SUN

When Susan Krew's family arrives to celebrate Christmas at her home, they will find lights in the windows, festive bows lining the staircase and a holiday centerpiece on the table. Krew, however, has warned her mother and siblings that the house is not "Christmassy." All of the decorations are blue, white and silver - for Hanukkah.

Krew converted to Judaism before marrying her husband, Jeffrey. Though many Jewish families limit Hanukkah decor to a lighted menorah in the window, Krew enjoys making her Dorsey's Search home look festive. "It satisfies me," she said. "It makes up for the [lack of a] Christmas tree."

The Costello family, also of Columbia, has decided to celebrate aspects of Christmas and Hanukkah. Stephanie Costello is Jewish, but agreed to raise her children Catholic when she married her husband, Sean.

They have three sons, Benjamin, 5, Kevin, 3, and Gregory, 18 months. The elder boys are aware of the religious aspects of Christmas, but they also know their mother is Jewish and help her light a menorah. Sean Costello, a lawyer, said, "I would never want to have my sons denied the Jewish part of their heritage."

Stephanie Costello is among the estimated 28 percent of married Jews in the United States whose spouses are not Jewish. Interfaith couples and those such as the Krews, whose extended families are of a different faith, struggle to balance the many religious and secular traditions of the winter holidays.

Hanukkah, the eight-day Festival of Lights, began Sunday evening and will conclude at dusk Monday. Though other religious holidays in the Jewish year involve a higher level of obligation, the festival has become a favorite among many American Jews because of its proximity to Christmas.

"Hanukkah had little to do with gifts" in the past, said Rabbi Sonya Starr of the Columbia Jewish Congregation.

Traditionally, families lighted candles, visited friends and told stories to mark the occasion. But for some Jews, Hanukkah has become an opportunity to participate in the secular aspects of Christmas, such as gift giving and decorating.

Holiday decorations are increasingly secular
like this Shovan family favorite: The Christmas Lobster.

Before this year, Susan and Jeffrey Krew's children, Alex, 9, and Amanda, 4, celebrated Christmas at their grandmother's house in Dundalk. Susan Krew said that her children know the holiday is part of her family's traditions. They understand "Grandmas celebrate Christmas," she said.

Although Krew's family accepts her faith, they do not always comply. Gifts to the children probably will be wrapped in Christmas paper.

The children "get hit with Christmas by my family," she said.

The message that Christmas is a national event can be overwhelming. Several local Jewish congregations sponsor programs about commercialism and the holidays. Starr recently led a group of Jewish and interfaith families in discussing "The December Dilemma." This national program is designed to help couples "work through all of the Christmas around us," she said.

Coping with Christmas fever can be especially difficult for interfaith couples with children. Carl Latkin and Amy Knowlton of Columbia chose not to celebrate the holidays early in their marriage. That changed when they started a family.

When kids came along, it became important to figure out some traditions for them," Knowlton said.

Latkin was raised Jewish, whereas Knowlton, a Christian, felt a lack of religious identity growing up.

The couple celebrate Christmas with Noah, 6, and Sophia, 3. But this year, they also are having a Hanukkah party for interfaith and Jewish friends they have met through the children's Jewish school, Bet Yeladim.

Studies have shown that interfaith families are most successful when parents are clear about their children's religion. Otherwise, the children may view choosing a faith as favoring one parent over another.

"It's better to tell them they are one religion," Starr said.

Children can help the parent of the other faith celebrate his or her holidays, just as one helps a friend celebrate a birthday.

Interfaith families recognize, however, that finding just the right blend of traditions takes time.

Last Christmas, we taught Nanny (my mother-in-law) how to play dreidel.

"We mutually decide what [traditions] seem most meaningful for both of us," Latkin said.

His wife agrees. Celebrating the winter holidays "is a work in progress."

Whatever you celebrate, happy holidays!

Freelance Flashback: Ringing in the Holidays

Thanksgiving fell early this year. It felt a little strange to have our holidays decorations -- a blend of Christmas, Hanukkah, and general goofiness -- up well before December first. And, yes, we have an odd collection of ornaments whose star is a wooden lobster.

My son confirmed that his school band is already practicing music for the holiday concert.

Sometimes, I feel as if I could do without all the fuss of the holidays. Decorating and shopping aren't my thing. What I could not do without is music (and baking).

Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas and The -- be still my heart -- Brian Setzer Orchestra's Boogie Woogie Christmas are my two favorite holiday CDs.

If you've never heard Setzer's version of the Nutcracker Suite, consider this  my holiday gift to you.



Several years ago, I wrote a Baltimore Sun feature on our area's only public school handbell choir. They were practicing for a December concert. Handbell is an interesting art form. Rather than play all the notes written for one instrument, handbell musicians must watch the music and play only the notes for the bells they are assigned. One of my interview subjects said it's like having a conversation in which you are only in charge of certain words.

5th-graders just swing into action

Lisbon handbell choir ready for today's show

December 09, 2007|By Laura Shovan

Dan Hoffner thinks that children make the best musicians, at least when it comes to handbells. While adults who play bells might feel inhibited or awkward, the fifth graders that Hoffner directs enjoy swinging their arms loosely as they ring their bells.

Hoffner, longtime vocal music teacher at Lisbon Elementary, has directed a handbell choir at the Woodbine school since 1993.

"It's amazing what 10-year-olds can do. These kids are playing pieces that adults have trouble with," he said.

The Lisbon Elementary Handbell Choir will perform during the Howard County Children's Chorus concert at 3 p.m. today at Mount Hebron High School. The event is free.

The first year he ran the program at Lisbon Elementary, Hoffner borrowed a set of bells from Wilde Lake High School. The group was such a success that, according to Hoffner, "My principal said, `I'll buy two octaves if your supervisor will buy the third.'" That set of 40 bells cost $5,000, and the school has had a handbell choir ever since.

At the end of each school year, Hoffner tests the entire fourth grade for the handbell choir. He looks for children who can follow music, even if they cannot read the notes.

"They just have to be able to focus and count and know what beat they're ringing on," he said. Hoffner chooses 11 fifth-graders for the choir. They practice one hour each week.

Rob White, instructional facilitator of music for the county schools, said the handbells are "a good extension [of the music curriculum] in that students will be able to use their note reading skills and their team, cooperative group effort in putting a piece of music together."

No single musician plays a full melody or bass line. Each plays only the few notes they are responsible for, wherever those notes appear in the music.

White compared playing the handbells to having a conversation in which you are only in charge of certain words. "You can imagine the teamwork required and the listening required," he said. "The smoothness of it really takes skill."

Students do learn to read rhythm and special musical notation for handbells. In some songs, they hit the bells on a padded table to create a percussive sound. These "table damps" are marked in the music with a small, downward-pointing triangle.

Unlike a regular bell, handbells are played upside down, with the clapper pointed up. Players swing their arms to sound a note, then pull the bells up to the front of their shoulders to stop the sound. When they ring the bells for a single note, it looks as if they are reaching forward or even punching the air.

Calvin Pitney, 11, plays some of the largest bells. He said that playing is very physical, especially for the shoulder muscles. "After the first practice, they were really sore," he said.

All of the students wear gloves when they play. This protects the bells from oils but also saves their hands from blisters, particularly when they play large bells, which can weigh over three pounds.

Handbells can weigh up to three pounds.

When the children play, the air in the room resonates with the sound. "Sometimes it sounds like fairy music," said Patricia Elia, 10, who plays high bells.

"The sound of the bells is very reminiscent of when you hear the church bells," White said. He associates the bells with a time in history, "prior to everybody having clocks, everybody having mass communication. It was a way for them to ring, if there was a [church] service."

However, White pointed out that there is a wide variety of music available for handbell choirs. "There are many arrangements and compositions for handbell choir that are not sacred [music]," he said.

Karyn Hobson, who co-directs the Howard County Children's Chorus, said, "It's lovely to have them [the handbell choir] with our winter concert. ... You just seem to think of them around the Christmas holidays, so it's a very nice addition to our winter program."

At today's performance, the handbell choir will play for about 20 minutes while the children's chorus takes a break. The two groups have been appearing together for about nine years. "It's amazing how talented these kids are and how they sound like such an ensemble," Hobson said.

The handbell choir is playing the "Carol of the Bells," and other holiday and winter-themed tunes. "Snow Lay on the Ground" is 10-year-old Sarah Girard's favorite. "I like it because it's challenging," she said. The song is popular with the children because it uses almost every bell.

"They're a team, just like a sports team. They realize that it takes all of them to be able to play a song together," Hoffner said. "It's amazing when they're playing. I like to see the concentration on their faces. And they're happy."

Watch the Golden Bells of Atlanta playing "Carol of the Bells" and you'll get a sense of the musicianship and atheleticism handbells require!



I was glad to learn that Lisbon's handbell choir is still active, under a new director.

Are you a former (or current) freelancer? Would you like to take back an article from the hungry maw of the Internet? Send me a message -- I'll feature your piece in the Freelance Flashback series.

Freelance Flashback: Dodge Festival at Waterloo Village

Until 1999, I had lived in northern New Jersey all my life. While there, I taught high school English. I was just one month into the first real work experience of my life when my supervisor asked me to chaperone a field trip. Another teacher's creative writing class was going to the Dodge Poetry Festival.

I'd been to the first in 1986 as a high school senior. (Some memories of that festival are in this post.) I had no idea that the festivals had continued, every other year, while I was in college and graduate school. After taking students to Dodge, I went to every festival. I called the Dodge office to volunteer and ended up with a paying summer job as a festival assistant, working at the event.

The big festival tent at Dodge's original location,
Waterloo Village. From The Star Ledger.

When we moved to Maryland, I recommended a friend for my Dodge position. I was sad to let it go. But soon, I was freelancing for the Baltimore Sun. I convinced an editor to let me cover the festival in 2002. Why should the Sun cover it? Because Lucille Clifton, who lived in Maryland, was a headliner.

Here is my 2002 article on the Dodge Poetry Festival, as it appeared in the Baltimore Sun.

Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn

Every two years, poetry lovers quietly gather in New Jersey to celebrate the magic of words

Postcard: Poetry Central

September 29, 2002|| By Laura Shovan,Special to the Sun

After four hours of driving, I turn off the highway into the Skylands region of northern New Jersey. The two-lane road is wooded. Breaks in the trees offer glimpses of unfarmed fields and quiet ponds. At 6 p.m., the parking lot of Historic Waterloo Village is still crowded.

The last of several school groups are loading teen-agers onto buses. Though they've been here since early this morning, students from the Milwaukee High School of the Arts in Wisconsin are debating about who gets to stay for the evening concert. The kids are exhausted, but want to see and hear more. Their enthusiasm is not for pop artists or even classical musicians. At this event, the main attraction is poetry; the stars are poets.

This historic New Jersey village is home to the biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, a four-day event billed as the largest poetry festival in North America.

One of the beautiful scenes at Waterloo Village, from
New Jersey Leisure Guide.

Students, teachers and the general public -- a crowd 15,000 strong -- come here every other year not only to enjoy the spoken word, but also to meet and chat with poets famous and unknown. It's not unusual to bump into old friends. Such reunions give the event a homey atmosphere, despite the large crowds.

The first two days, while open to the general public, are designated for students and teachers. Over 6,500 of them are attending free of charge. The tab is picked up by the Geraldine R. (as in Rockefeller) Dodge Foundation. The foundation is known for its generosity to the arts, particularly in New Jersey, where festival director Jim Haba also spearheads a poetry outreach program in the schools.

It is a short walk from the parking lot to the village entrance, but passing through a tunnel of trees and emerging out of sight of the cars is like entering a world apart. Waterloo's restored historic buildings and centuries-old canal intermingle with tents, large and small, where the poets read.

The enormous concert tent houses the evening events. Poets Marie Howe, Marilyn Nelson, Gerald Stern and Lucille Clifton each read for half an hour. Each "set" is punctuated by live music.

Clifton, a Maryland resident and one-time state poet laureate, has been a "Featured Poet" at every festival but the first, in 1986. She says the festival draws so many people "because poetry speaks to something in us that so wants to be filled. It speaks to the great hunger of the soul. ... I think that this [event] feeds that."

Clifton reading at the Dodge Festival.

More than 65 poets would participate this year. Top billing went to the five U.S. poets laureate from 1993 to present: Rita Dove, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky, Stanley Kunitz and Billy Collins, whose term ends next year. It's also a festival tradition to include international poets. Palestinian Taha Muhammad Ali and Adam Zagajewski of Poland were among this year's featured poets.

Community in poetry

Despite the all-star lineup, Haba says, this is not a gathering of the poetry "in crowd." JC Todd, a poet and translator, said, "When you come to the Dodge, you see those barriers are completely permeable." The poets become real people. Poetry becomes something that everyone can participate in -- a community event.

In the first morning session, Ali is reading with his translator in a small tent near a willow-lined stream. Ali is charming and grandfatherly, with a deep, gravelly voice. It's a wonder to hear him read his poems in Arabic and then watch him as translator Peter Cole reads in English. He plays the role of conductor -- gesturing, smiling and nodding the poem along. [BTW -- This is one of my all-time favorite Dodge Festival moments, Taha Ali reading his poem, "Revenge."]

Between sessions, attendees are serenaded by Yarina, a group of musicians from Ecuador. A festival mainstay, these brothers play traditional Andean music on panpipe, guitar and drum, literally dancing around Waterloo Village.

The job of nurturing the event's celebratory atmosphere -- music, location, even the carefully chosen concessions -- belongs to Haba. "This is really a whole person experience," Haba said. "What the festival has the luxury of doing is imagining the whole person and trying to provide for it." Attention is even paid to how often the bathrooms are cleaned. He wants people to remember the poetry, not bland food or dirty toilets.

At lunch, poetry lovers choose from among a dozen food stands. At picnic tables near a waterfall, they discuss the poetry heard that morning.

Michael Murphy, who teaches at an urban New Jersey middle school, finds the setting idyllic.

"It's very hard to find silence anywhere [in daily life] and the setting, of course, is perfect for augmenting that. There is space for quiet conversations. You lean on a tree, you listen to the wind and you go back and you listen to a poet."

This church was one of the reading venues.

Veterans of the event often have great festival stories. Margaret Valentine, a New Jersey high school teacher, describes walking with poet W.S. Merwin at the 2000 festival. Just as he signed her book, she says, "Behind us there was this hole in the ground where these baby turtles about walnut size started coming out of the ground." The newly hatched turtles were rescued and brought to the pond.
 

Valentine points out that those who rush around trying to see everything miss the heart of the festival. It is better, she says, "letting the whole place happen to you. It's kind of a gluttony of words. It's just such a wonderful, freeing experience." And moments shared between poets and poetry lovers are part of what makes the Dodge festival unique.

Erma Terrezza, serving lunch at one of the food stands, Big Joe's Deep Fried Turkeys, has found herself caught up in the spirit of the event. "The atmosphere is beautiful," she said. "I was just amazed that everyone comes from all over and they're so excited." Terrezza says she plans to take time off from her turkey to hear Billy Collins read. And she will return to the next festival, she says, whether or not Big Joe's is back.

Some insider notes:

2002 was probably the most scandalous of the Dodge festivals. Headliner Amiri Baraka read a poem that got him booted from his post as New Jersey poet laureate. The state has not had a poet laureate since. (A brief article about the controversy.)

Jim Haba retired before the 2010 festival. Poet Martin Farawell became the director of Dodge's Poetry Program. When Waterloo Village closed under dubious circumstances, several cities bid to host the poetry festival. It made its urban debut, in Newark, NJ in 2010 and was held there again this October. 

You may recognize this Dodge venue from TV --
it's used for America's Got Talent.

Thanks to several of my friends who have cameos in this article: poets and educators JC Todd, Michael Z Murphy and Margaret Valentine.

Also, thanks to poet Irene Latham who, unanimously and all by herself, voted for this piece as the next Freelance Flashback.

If you'd like to vote on the next Freelance Flashback post, leave a comment. The choices are:

• Elementary School Handbell Choir
• Student Chess Tournament
• University of Maryland's Working Farm

Freelance Flashback: School Visits

Welcome to a new Author Amok series: Freelance Flashback.

For many years, I was a freelance feature writer for the Baltimore Sun and  Baltimore's Child. The deal was this: I wrote an article;  I got paid; the publication owned the rights for two weeks, then they reverted back to me.

Except that's not what happened. My articles are archived by both publications. Sometimes other websites, instead of linking to an article of interest, will run the full thing on their page.

Even though I am not paid for these "reprints," I don't mind the practice so much. It gets my name, as an author, out there. However, I do own the rights to these articles. Why not repost my favorites on my own blog?

Let's start with a feature I wrote for Baltimore's Child about author school visits. There is advice here -- both for schools and for authors -- from two wonderful Maryland children's authors, Michelle Y. Green (A Strong Right Arm) and Lois Szymanski (Out of the Sea: Today's Chincoteague Pony). 

But my favorite part of the piece is remembering how I got to see Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) messing with tweens' heads.

Bring a Children's Author to School: It's an Open Book Affair!

From Baltimore's Child March 2005
 
When a Children’s Author Comes to Visit, It’s an Open Book Affair
By Laura Shovan

I’m standing in the back of a crowded ballroom. The room is cavernous, but every chair has been filled. 

A throng of mostly preteens is talking with rock-star awe about the person they’ve come to see—children’s writer Lemony Snicket. Snicket is the alter ego of Daniel Handler, author of the popular books A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The Howard County Library won his visit in a contest sponsored by publisher Harper Collins. To his fans, Handler is a superstar.

A Baltimore Sun photo of Handler's visit.

Libraries, bookstores and schools often sponsor author visits to promote exactly this kind of excitement among young readers. If you’re considering scheduling a children’s book writer to come to your school or community, there are ways to ensure the visit gets as positive a response from kids as a bestseller like Handler receives.

Maryland author Michelle Y. Green explains, “Many children’s only experiences with a book are negative. A book is something you read so you can take a test. And so, what an author or an illustrator can do is make the connection that reading is fun, reading is enjoyable.”

Author Lois Szymanski is the regional adviser for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) in Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia. She adds, “Writers get kids fired up about writing, about putting their ideas on paper.”

Green, who wrote A Strong Right Arm, an award-winning biography for children about Negro League pitcher Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, says that when planning an author visit, schools “should see children’s book authors and illustrators as resources and partners in the education process.”

Michelle's children's biography features a woman
who played in the men's Negro League.

And the clearer your goals are, the better you will be able to communicate them to your visiting author.

“Share with the author what points [the school] wants to get across to the kids,” says Szymanski.

In addition, many writers use audiovisuals in their presentations. Ask the author if he or she needs any equipment. Szymanski uses Power Point when talking about Patches, A New Kind of Magic and her other books about horses.

Lois is well know for her books
about horses and Chincoteague ponies.

“If the kids see wild horses galloping across the screen, it keeps their attention,” she says.


Read the rest of the article at Baltimore's Child.


I hope all of you NaNoWriMers are busy getting your words in today. If you write every day, you'll need 1,666 words per day to reach the 50,000 word finish line.

Interestingly, 1500 was the word limit for my Baltimore's Child features. Articles for my local edition of the Baltimore Sun were shorter, 750 words. If you're interested, both paid about $250 per piece. If you were writing articles, instead of a novel, you could earn $8,300 to $16,000 at that rate!

'Tis the season to Vote. Help choose my next Freelance Flashback post. Would you like to see:

Meditation for Kids (Baltimore's Child);
The Dodge Poetry Festival (Baltimore Sun);
or Destination Imagination (Baltimore Sun)?