Biographies: Boring No Longer by Pat Miller

If you think biographies are boring, then you haven’t read any recent ones. Long gone are birth-to-death yawners of two-dimensional dead guys.

Current biographies are attention grabbers. The recent ALA Youth Media Awards included 12 biographies. Titles like The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant won multiple awards.

Today’s biographies are like potato chips—it’s hard to read just one. And they offer new details and fresh perspectives on people you may think you know.

For example, here are five fresh looks at our Founding Father:

• Anne Rockwell wrote Big George: How a Shy Boy Became President. She surprises us with the story of how George mastered his hot temper and overcame his shyness.

• GEORGE: George Washington, Our Founding Father  by Frank Keating relates Washington’s life in first person, bringing George vividly to life. Included are some of the rules he used to guide his life. “Rule 56: Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.”

Farmer George Plants a Nation by Peggy Thomas reveals that George had three loves—his country was number three. Martha and farming were closest to his heart. Thomas details George’s passion for farming, including his labor-saving inventions and agricultural innovations

George Washington’s Teeth by Debora Chandra and Madeleine Comora relates the amazing chronology of Washington’s dental disease and loss alongside his accomplishments. Considering he was in chronic mouth pain, Washington’s achievements are even more remarkable.

 The House That George Built by Suzanne Slade divulges that the White House was Washington’s “baby”. He chose its location and helped survey the lot. He held a design contest and chose James Hoban, an Irish immigrant, as winner. Washington then set out to improve the design. Throughout his two busy terms as president, he kept a close eye on the construction and was responsible for bringing it in on time and under budget. However, completion came too late for Washington to spend a single night under its roof.

Besides adding personality to the well-known, biographers are resurrecting well-researched stories of forgotten women who risked their reputations, their fortunes, and their future.

• Rough, Tough Charley by Verla Kay tells of a shy orphan who was good with horses and eventually gained fame as a fearless and expert stagecoach driver. Even when a horse kicked him in the face and he lost an eye, Charley continued to drive a dangerous route, losing not a single passenger or coach. After retiring, Charley raised cattle and ran a stage stop. At his death, it was discovered that Charley was a woman. Despite the discovery, Charley remained an esteemed member of the Oddfellows Club. She had voted 52 years before the federal government gave women the right to vote!

• Irena Sendler and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto by Susan Goldman Rubin is a heart-pounding story of a nurse who smuggled doomed Jewish children from Warsaw literally beneath the prying eyes of the Germans.
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• Cheryl Harness tells of a remarkable woman in Mary Walker Wears the Pants: The True Story of the Doctor, Reformer, and Civil War Hero. It will be difficult for children to imagine how shameful it was for women to wear pants—but Mary did. A skilled surgeon, Mary fought prejudice and red tape to serve on the front lines of the Civil War. She is still the only woman to have earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. 
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• Wild Women of the Wild West by Jonah Winter is one wild read. Fifteen women from Calamity Jane to Esther Morris are portrayed in two pages each. One of them, Mary Ellen Pleasant, became rich by operating a high-end boarding house where she was known as the best cook in San Francisco. She made smart financial investments and became a wealthy member of high society. When she was 51 the Civil War ended and Mary Ellen revealed her African American heritage and early life as a slave. She sued the city for discrimination on cable cars—and won. What she didn't reveal was that she provided the last station on the Underground Railroad for most of the slaves that escaped to San Francisco, providing them with jobs, shelter, and freedom.

Of all the biographies I read in the last few months, my favorite is The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & The Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming. It has been named a 2015 Siebert Honor Book, Orbis Pictus Award winner, and a YALSA finalist for Excellence in Nonfiction. This is deeply researched book that reads like a novel, building detail upon ominous detail until the Romanov story becomes a Jenga tower. The tragedy is compounded because of all the ways it could have been avoided. This is one biography you can’t put down, and it’s a great example of all that is well with biographies today.

Candace Fleming and Peggy Thomas are two of the speakers at the  NF 4 NF Nonfiction Conference for Children's Writers. Join us!

Ten Ways to Prepare for Your Upcoming Conference by Pat Miller

The kids are back in school, the semester is revving up, and your thoughts may turn to some classes or conferences for your own education. After you book that special event (see conference directory at the end of this post), consider these ten tips:

1. MAKE SESSION SELECTIONS IN ADVANCE Highlighting your choices on the schedule in advance can be a big help when you have to cross a conference center in 10 minutes.  

2. KNOW YOUR SPEAKERS Facing the dilemma of two must-see, but conflicting, sessions? Research the speakers. If one of the speakers has a writing book or blog, opt to attend the one that doesn't. Then read the blog or book for a post-conference boost by the other presenter. 

3. READ THE VISITING AUTHORS Read a book or two by every author you intend to hear. It makes for a richer experience. 

4. UPDATE YOUR BUSINESS CARDS Does yours include your photo? Make it easier for that agent or editor to remember you. Free or inexpensive online sites make it easy to design your own. I designed my first business cards in Microsoft Publisher and printed them on pin-perforated linen cardstock. This card was done on Vistaprint. I included different information on both sides to make the most of this tiny real estate.                         

5. MAKE A CHATTY CHEAT SHEET Not every encounter needs an elevator pitch. Make notes on your favorite speakers in case your paths cross (try to make that happen!) Because of a conflicting luncheon, Suzanne Bloom had only me in her autographing line. From online research, I knew that she has cats, two sons, and a brother who is also an illustrator. Asking about them kicked off a fun 30-minute conversation. We bonded because I was prepared, and have since become friends. (Full disclosure: I discovered Suzanne is so friendly that we would have bonded without the notes—but I didn’t know that in advance.) 

6. INVITE THE SPEAKER FOR LUNCH If your session finishes just before lunch or dinner, ask the speaker if he has plans. If not, have lunch or dinner together! It’s okay to have separate checks. It’s surprising how often wonderful presenters end up eating alone. (Speaking from sad experience.)

7. PREPARE FOR AUTOGRAPHING Add your must-see authors’ scheduled times and locations to your general schedule. Will the author’s books be sold onsite at a discount? In their publisher’s booth? At a signing party? Or should you bring your own? Bring sticky notes to adhere personalization info for the author. They will appreciate it!

8. YOU’LL THANK ME LATER When you get someone’s business card; write a note on the back about any conversation you shared. Then when you write to that colleague, editor, or agent, you can mention the future of pop-up books at their company, ice fishing when she was a kid, or about his twin grandsons. After the post-conference dust settles, it makes you a standout from the hundreds they may have met. 

9. TAKE PHOTOS OF ATTENDEES especially if you will be spending several days with the same people in a retreat setting like October's NF 4 NF Nonfiction for Children’s Writers conference. Ask the person to hold their name tag near their face, so that when you take a close-up, you will create a photo directory to help your memory long after the conference is over. 

10. SPECIAL THINGS TO PACK                                                                              

·         Special events – Do you need to pack a costume? A book to autograph? A gift for a friend, agent, or colleague? Don’t forget your phone recharger.

·         Bedtime – Sharing a room? Bring ear plugs, your roommate may snore. Unfamiliar beds often keep people from sleeping—pack your sleep aid medicine.

·         Bring snacks – Think protein (beef jerky, roasted edamame, peanut butter crackers) and fruit (trail mix, dried fruit, grapes, apples),

·         Stay hydrated – Research shows that brain function is the first to be affected when your body is thirsty. By the time you are aware that you are thirsty, your brain is already stressed! Especially if you fly—keep bottled water with you at all times and DRINK it!

·         Thank you cards -- Complete one during a session and give it to the presenter before you go. I guarantee you will make her/his day! (And it will give you a warm feeling as well.)

How can you find a conference that feeds your needs, your budget, and your time frame? Kidlit 411:Conferences, Workshops, and Retreats is a goldmine arranged by month. Kidlit 411 is a comprehensive site that you should have on speed click. Founder and author Elaine Kiely Kearns and author/illustrator Sylvia Liu have compiled an amazing, and beautifully illustrated, one-stop site for all things writerly. Best wishes for a wonderful conference!

Fiction vs. Nonfiction: Must a Writer Choose? by Pat Miller

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Unlike being engaged or voting in a primary, writers don’t have to choose just one. In fact, writing fiction can well equip one to write nonfiction. On the flip side, writing fiction can give nonfiction writers freer rein with their creativity.

Here’s how it works. Fiction writers can craft true books that use a story arc, character development, and dialogue to explain historical, scientific, or biographical topics. The difference is that everything is true. Creating characters solely from imagination exercises the part of a nonfiction writer’s brain that is the source of the lyrical language that can make nonfiction compelling.

Since there are so many of us fiction writers, let’s examine other benefits of writing true books. Nonfiction success can counteract the many rejections of one’s fiction. In Anatomy of Nonfiction: Writing True Stories for Children, Peggy Thomas states you are eight times more likely to be published in nonfiction than fiction. That means 1/8^th the rejection letters, 1/8^th the pity parties, and 8 times the confidence in one’s abilities! That confidence can help sustain the fiction writer who persists in the bruising submission process.

Bonus--you get a head start with nonfiction. According to biographer Jean Fritz, “[Writing nonfiction] is not a matter of coaxing up a story, but of perceiving the story line that’s already there.” If you're one who delves into your imaginary characters so deeply that you know their secrets, their songs, and all their uncles, then you are a natural for researching real facts about real people. Instead of plumbing your imagination, you will search through resources that are both interesting and addictive.  And unlike fiction, you will have experts, librarians, and enthusiasts who will eagerly help you on your quest.

From Peggy Thomas: “Nonfiction is a simple beast, really. In its most basic form it consists of a skeleton of accurate information, the flesh and blood of story, the heart of the writer, and the muscle of marketing.” If you write fiction, you already have three of these four tools in your toolbox.

Peggy continues, “Your job as a nonfiction writer is to raise your antenna and tune in to the true 

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 stories that exist around you.” Unlike rubbing the genie lamp of imagination, hoping a story will wispily appear, the writer of true stories has merely to practice alertness to find things to write about—even topics already on the shelf. “A subject may have been written about, but not by you—not with your ideas, and not from your perspective.”

When you write fiction, you do your research between your own two ears. Since nonfiction happens here on our planet, lots of evidence and details are readily available. There are primary sources like journals, legal records, manuals, and letters. There are museums and restored habitations, aquariums, zoos, galleries, newspaper morgues, recordings, and online resources. These provide settings, characters, dialogue, and problems that you don’t have to imagine. And there are passionate experts only too willing to help you flesh out or vet your stories.

So you don’t have to choose. You can do both. If you write nonfiction, or are considering it, I have two suggestions:

1. Read Peggy Thomas’s Anatomy of Nonfiction. I read every page while working on my first biography. I credit her inspiration and practical techniques for its acceptance by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for publication in 2016.

2. Participate in the NF 4 NF Nonfiction for Children’s Writers Conference on October 9 – 12. Peggy Thomas will present three of the 16 sessions and offers critiques. Peggy’s sessions include “The Heart and Voice of Your Story”, “Research Techniques That Get to the Facts”, and “Biographies: Making Friends with Strangers”. Be sure to bring your copy of Anatomy of Nonfiction to be autographed.

Learn more about the stellar faculty, the schedule, location, and social events at the site. Register today—Early Bird rate ends September 1.