Category: fiction

Books, Children's Books, fiction, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Illustrators, Pura Belpre Awards, Rafael Lopez

And the Winner Is…

Mona Alvarado Frazier

Two time winner Rafael Lopez, artist and illustrator.
It’s quiet an achievement to win an award and I imagine a great accomplishment to win an award twice, but Rafael Lopez, artist and illustrator, is one of the few multi-award winners in children’s illustrations. Artists, such as Mr. Lopez, bring to life the words written by authors, adding another dimension to a story.  
The 16th Annual Pura Belpre award honors a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. The award is co-sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, an ALA affiliate. 
One of the recipients for 2012 was Guadalupe Garcia McCall, award winning author, of “Under the Mesquite Tree.” I’ve read this book and it is exquisitely written in free verse. The emotionally riveting verse has us feel the experience of 14 year old Lupita, the eldest of a large family, who is dealing with her mother’s terminal illness. 
Artist Rafael Lopez was awarded his second 2012 Pura Belpré honor award for his illustration of “The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred.” Just look at this richly colored book cover. Makes you want to turn the page to see what else is in store for the eyes.
His artistry graces buildings in San Diego with bright colored murals and he has been asked to contribute three paintings to Oprah Winfrey’s school in South Africa. He also drew the Latin Music Legends stamp series in 2011 for the US Postal Service. 
rafaellopezstudios
For an interesting view on how stamps are created and the artists’ experience see Lopez’ Studio blog.
Mr. Lopez said he was thrilled beyond words to receive the honor and illustrated his reaction in this short video:
As a book lover, and owner of a tiny bookstore, I appreciate the craft that goes into the writing and illustrating of a story. These artists, both of the written word and drawings, work extremely hard to get their thoughts, concepts, and visions just right. This is what separates the average from the good and great. This is what has us cherish favorite books and reread them more than once. 
When you think back on your favorite children’s books which one’s speak to you or make your children wide eyed with amazed interest?  
fiction, Renni Brown, self editing, Writing

Why Novels Go into the Dog Pile

Mona Alvarado Frazier
In the past two months I’ve read seven books. Okay, read is not the correct word. “Attempted to read,” is more accurate. I tossed four books into the ‘no read’ zone after the third chapter. This was two chapters too late. 


Four of the seven books are self-published and on Amazon. Of these three are first time authors. Three are ‘traditional print’ books with one first time author. 

photo by N. Rigg

Three of the books no longer occupy virtual shelves on my Kindle Fire. Two of the printed ones has a home on the bottom shelf of the bookcase–for now. They are all in the dog pile. At least on the Kindle the virtual poop doesn’t smell or take up space. 


I hated to do it but I couldn’t read the novels anymore. It’s unfortunate that two of them are ARC’s* for book reviews. I pushed myself through two (one an ARC) because the stories had me fascinated. Only one book out of seven, Catherine Ryan Hyde’s When I Found You, made the list of well written reads and retains a place on the physical book shelf.  


The proliferation of useless words and overuse of adverbs (the -ly’s) slung four books into the dog pile. I felt bad dropping those books. I’d feel worse slugging through the novel until the end. What did these less than desirable novels have in common? 

by MAlvaradoFrazier-Click to enlarge

The novels came peppered and over salted with useless words. The ‘-ing’s’ at the beginning of sentences drove me crazy. The ‘As’s’ all over the place made me cross-eyed. One writer used “Suddenly” in every chapter. Several writers had passive sentences on every page. After a dose of these needless words my interest waned. They took me out of the story. I spent more time rewriting the sentences in my head. 


I’m guilty of every one of those words on the graphic. My first manuscript came back drenched in a red sea of edits, you’d thought I typed in red. It wasn’t about using correct grammar, it was about passive sentences, the overuse of adverbs, and the ‘as’ construction. 


It took one book (recommended by the person who did the edit) to set me straight on this subject: Self Editing for the Fiction Writer: How to Edit Yourself into Print. Renni Brown and Dave King’s book Self-Editing devotes a chapter titled Sophistication to illustrate: 


     One easy way to make your writing seem more sophisticated is to avoid two stylistic constructions that are common to hack writers, namely:
Pulling off her gloves, she turned to face him
or
As she pulled off her gloves, she turned to face him.

     Both the “as” construction and the “-ing” construction as used above are grammatically correct  and express the action clearly and unambiguously.  But notice that both of these constructions take a bit of action (“She pulled off her gloves…”)  and tuck it away into a dependent clause (“Pulling off her gloves…”). 

This tends to place some of your actions at one remove from your reader, to make the actions seem incidental, unimportant.  And so if you use these constructions often, you weaken your writing.  (stronger writing?  She pulled on her gloves and turned to face him.)

Another reason to avoid the “as” and “-ing” constructions is that they sometimes give rise to physical impossibilities.  

“Disappearing into my tent, I changed into fresh jeans.”  The -ing construction forces simultaneity on two actions that can’t be simultaneous. The doctor didn’t duck into the tent and pull on pants at the same time. Better, stronger is:

I disappeared into my tent, found my jeans, and pulled them on. (Stronger writing and possible).

Do avoid the hack’s favorite constructions unless you have a good reason for using them.  And do catch all these things when you edit, not when you are writing.
And remember: The participle construction (Walking, Pulling, disappearing,  ing, ing ing) to begin a sentence) has a particularly AMATEURISH flavor when placed at the beginning of a sentence.


Writing, like a beautiful looking meal, is inedible when over salted. Do you have any ‘reading’ pet peeves you’d like to share? I’d like to hear them because anything that helps us become better writers is a good thing.


*ARC (Advanced Reading Copy)