Susan? Ahem....

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I'm not saying cold-call her and say "Deb Grabien said to!" but she does do conferences, and she does do RWA. No idea what her schedule looks like.

She's very unfearsome.

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And I don't believe anyone else thinks like that at age ten or twelve or whatever, either.

But there's a pretty huge range between that and just "It scared me" or whatever.

I remember being in second grade, and we had an assignment to read a book and write two sentences about it. I wanted to write more than two sentences -- I had a lot to say about this book -- and I handed in my full page of writing, and the teacher called my mother, because it was "developmentally inappropriate" for me to have more than two sentences to say about a book.

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I remember being in second grade, and we had an assignment to read a book and write two sentences about it. I wanted to write more than two sentences -- I had a lot to say about this book -- and I handed in my full page of writing, and the teacher called my mother, because it was "developmentally inappropriate" for me to have more than two sentences to say about a book.

I'm starting to formulate a theory about second grade teachers. It isn't pretty. None of our Buffistas are second grade teachers, are they?

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My second grade teacher accused me of LYING about having read a book so fast.

I don't think I've ever really recovered.

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Thanks, Deb. I think she may have been to our conference in the past 3-4 years, though. I'll doublecheck if I get a refusal from any of the agents I currently have an open request for (since if they all accept, the agent part of our panel will be full). Also, she's already doing Whidbey Island this year, so I don't know if she'll want to do another Seattle area conference so soon.

I'm glad I looked at her website, though. I'd forgotten all about the Whidbey Island thing. No point in doing it this year, since it's just two months away, and I won't have a completed ms to pitch. But next year, maybe.

(Yeah, I know there's reason to attend conferences beside pitching a book. But they're so very, very expensive for my freelancer budget that I need that to justify the expense. Craft help can be had cheaper, and networking can be done at my local chapter and online.)

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I had a very goodnatured second grade teacher. Third on the other hand... sheesh.

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But there's a pretty huge range between that and just "It scared me" or whatever.

Oh, hell yes. Total agreement; trust me, I was pretty frellin' articulate at ten. But the ability to totally detach from the immediate punch of a book (not just horror, either - think about your first reaction ever to something like "To Kill A Mockingbird") is something that I don't believe is remotely the norm until some college professor gets their grip on you. (edit for future clarity: that's metaphorical - the urge to wonder about it actually came my way about 13, but the skill to follow the trail and see where it led wasn't until high school.)

I remember being in second grade, and we had an assignment to read a book and write two sentences about it. I wanted to write more than two sentences -- I had a lot to say about this book -- and I handed in my full page of writing, and the teacher called my mother, because it was "developmentally inappropriate" for me to have more than two sentences to say about a book.

If any of you scientist types can build me a time machine, I would love to go back and smack some of these "help the child formulate" adults.

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Amy, YOU did that to Rachel? I thought that was one of the most effective of the later books, and so did Nick, and we didn't like many of the later ones, and hated the ending a LOT.

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Yes, but my point is, did you think that at age 12, reading them?

Cast your memory back to however old you were when you read the things, and try to remember their impact on you - those writers, any writers - at that age.

Deb, that's what my post was about. Back in middle school, I gobbled down Pike and found his books deliciously scary and nasty, and thought Stine was predictable. I don't know how I can break that reaction down into smaller words, or smaller feelings, and it's a far cry from taking about the writer's reliance on the Oedipal myth and Gothic tradition, or what have you.

I try not to intellectualize what I remember of my childhood reactions to things, and like you I'm suspicious of that tendency in others. But it almost sounds like you don't believe "X is better than Y" is a valid reaction to remember from childhood, which is absurd. Those judgments may be wrong -- in eighth grade, I liked Paula Abdul more than R.E.M. -- but they're still there.

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Amy, YOU did that to Rachel?

Hee! Well, not entirely. Applegate herself came up with the basic plot, and then we had to flesh it out and work out details, etc. Actually, she wanted her to be a worm, I think, which the art department balked at, and I think we also figured it out they don't actually regenerate into two separate worms if sliced in half. Or something.

"AmyLiz suggested I call you"

Hope it helped! And I know what you mean about cold-calling -- I'm not very good at it, either, at least when you're asking someone for something. (Although I think you posted that in Bitches...)

The Animorphs books were great fun. And a lot of work, too -- researching the animal characteristics and figuring out those action scene details. But the characters were solid and each very different. The first book I did was Ax, the alien, which was hilarious.

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