The 31st Annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts
Theme: Race and the Fantastic
Division of Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Guest of Honor: Nalo Hopkinson
Guest of Honor: Laurence Yep
Guest Scholar: Takayuki Tatsumi
Special Guest Emeritis: Brian Aldiss

The 2010 ICFA welcomes paper proposals on all areas of the fantastic (including high fantasy, allegory, science fiction, horror, folk tales and other traditional literatures, magical realism, the supernatural, and the gothic) in all media (novels, short stories, drama, television, comic books, film, and others).

The division of children’s and young adult literature is especially interested in paper proposals throughout the field, including picture books, easy readers, novels, short stories, film, comic books, and other forms. We embrace a wide variety of scholarly approaches and interests, including genre, historical, theoretical, and textual, models. We encourage work from institutionally-affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, graduate students, and undergraduate students.

The conference will run March 17-21, 2010, in Orlando, Florida.

Please submit a 250-word abstract and bibliography directly to the division head, Amie Rose Rotruck, at arotruck AT gmail DOT com. Abstracts should be turned in by October 31, 2009.

The conference encourages graduate student participation and gives an award for outstanding paper by a graduate student each year.

For more information on the conference or other divisions, please visit www.iafa.org .

So, does anyone ever play something like the "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game with things in their own life? I'm constantly amazed at how things intersect and double back; such as my husband working on trails in the area my family lives in West Virginia, or meeting my high school English teacher at ICFA. I had a fun mental game yesterday where I connected my interest in children's literature to my love of riding motorcycles.

Brian and I love the show "Sons of Anarchy" (think Sopranos only with a biker gang, plus with some Hamlet thrown in). Brian was reading an article in HOG (Harley Owners Group) magazine about the show. He was surprised (as was I) to find out one of the lead actors is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I remembered that name because it's one of the places I visited on the Hollins Abroad trip because Seven Stories, an amazing Children's Books museum, is there. This also ties into our Ren Faire interest, as mja700 and I were once looking up Mediaeval Baebes performances and found that they were going to be singing at the castle she and I visited in Newcastle.

I'm just rambling. But I'm having fun. And procrastinating.

I'm back home after a lovely family reunion in West Virginia. I came home last night so I could have all day to write (deadline looming!). Here's my writing checklist

1) Manuscript open
2) Writing Tracker spreadsheet open (when I need a brief break, I calculate my daily word count and record what page I'm up to)
3) Reference books organized by topic and within reach (would tell you what they were, but that might leak too much about current project)
4) Bad horror movie on TV ("Arachnophobia" at the moment)
5) Glass of water
6) Phone nearby but volume turned off
7) Braces/bandages nearby in case wrist starts bugging me
8) Wireless mouse charged

I'm hoping to get it written entirely, however roughly, by August 15. At that point, I shall turn off my writing brain and send out personalized CFPs for ICFA (take a day or two). Then I shall return and revise my little heart out.

But first, Farmtown! :)

If you'd be interested in attending ICFA in 2010 (in Orlando, Florida) as a visiting writer, please contact me (either email arotruck AT gmail or comment below). Compensation for attending varies and it is competitive, but I'd love to get some more readings from children's writers. I'm not making the final decision, alas, but I will pass names and contact info of people who are interested on to the appropriate people and hopefully we can get a few more children's writers there next year.

Also, if you know of an author who might be interested in attending or just have a wishlist, let me know too!

In a few hours, I'll be heading to Roanoke for graduation. Wow. I started this program in 2001, it's been part of my life for 8 years (almost exactly as long as my husband's been in my life as a love interest; our first date was the Wednesday before I went to Hollins the first summer). I've done two abroad trips. I've written two book-length theses, numerous papers, and many shorter works of fiction and even a poem or two. I found I love writing critical papers, but hate finding sources so a PhD is not for me, thus I'm content to be a dabbler in academic scholarship. I sung "Swing a Cat" while dressed in pirate garb and hurling a stuffed cat around my head while pitching little stuffed mice at an audience that included one of the foremost minds in children's literature scholarship. I ran the Francelia Butler conference one year (2003) and saw it evolve over 8 years into a full-blown media event that now raises money instead of needing funds. My husband proposed to me there on June 3, 2006 and he could not have picked a better location (and the fact that he knew that is just one of many reasons why I said "yes"). Through Hollins I found ICFA, at ICFA I found slwhitman, and through slwhitman I found publication of my first book, "Bronze Dragon Codex." I've made some absolutely amazing friends in both fellow students and professors, including kathleenfoucart, candice_ransom, citycountrygirl, darkeyedtravler, heidihumbug, jadedmetaphor, jessleeanderson, mja700, roseleaf, soniaamiller, and zameenah (if I forgot anyone, my apologies, please speak up in a comment!). There's been drama, tears, fights, and even some deaths, much to our sorrow. But it remains one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life and I am so very blessed to have had this opportunity. And anyone who knows me this isn't good-bye, not as long as I have a car and can drive to Roanoke to visit, not as long as there's amazing conferences like ICFA, ChLA, and Cotsen. :)

( Memory Lane of Classes )

I'm back among the living after one of the worst bouts of flu I've had in years. I got sick as soon as my feet hit Maryland soil after ICFA, and yesterday was the first day when I had energy and didn't have a sore throat that made swallowing even something nice like a popsicle or tea hurt.

Here's what I read in March:
Mermaid's Song by Alida Van Gores (reread)
Time Warp Trio: Tut Tut by John Scieszka
Time Warp Trio: Knights of the Kitchen Table by John Scieszka
King of Shadows by Susan Cooper
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Envy by Ana Godbersen
Need by carriejones
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headly
Devlish by Maureen Johnson (reread)
Ink Exchange by melissa_writing

Again, a thin list, but with ICFA and being sick, that's pretty good. I'm so very, very, VERY glad to be feeling well finally. The past couple weeks I've been barely able to move off the sofa (one day I didn't get out of bed at all; VERY unusual; normally I'm able to make it down to the sofa. But my doggie was nice and checked on me every couple hours) and wasn't able to work, clean, write, anything. Yesterday, though, was awesome. I finally felt well other than one ear still being clogged and the weather was great so I opened all the windows as I worked in the library. We had some shelves that were really smiling (bookshelves must like books, the more they have, the more the smile!) so my husband replaced the shelves in the wider cases with stair-grade wood (ie, wood planks that normally are used for making stairs. As in, they can support a LOT of weight). I now have shelves in the two widest cases: one by the door that I've designated the "grab" shelf (books you usually need in a hurry: cookbooks, home/car repair, crafts, D&D, health/first aid, pet care) and one in the reading nook (for very special books, those written by people I know either as friends or teachers, books with a lot of memories attached to them, and, of course, books by me. So there's only a handful of journals there and Bronze Dragon Codex, but hopefully it will be filled soon). I made a big dent in the boxes and hopefully hubby can do the corner shelves soon so I can get the really nice books on shelves (art books, antiques). Once that's done, he'll finish the trim work, we'll put up the mural in the reading nook, and then make the freestanding shelves for the middle of the room. That should handle everything! I do like that room, even though it's a complete wreak now; I spent some time reading there yesterday in between unpacking and sorting. Very peaceful. And when I run out of room, there's always this.

Today I have some ICFA post-mortem items, some work to catch up on, and if I have free time, I'm going back to the library. Also want to make reservations at the Hotel Roanoke for graduation weekend. :) Anyone else marching? Or just want to pop by and hang out?

Wow, what a week. Everything went great, no major problems at all. I was able to get up and make it to the 8:30 sessions every day and I believe I met everyone who was presenting in CYA. Also met lots of new people, some of whom I've friended on LJ (helloooo there!). Got to see many, many good friends, including Alaine, who I haven't seen since my wedding (in addition to me not making it to ICFA last year, we seem to have started a trend that whenever one of us is within easy driving distance of the other, the one who lives in the area is vacationing in England). And I also got to see my High School teacher, which was both wonderful and surreal (especially when I introduced him to my thesis adviser at Hollins). Hopefully I'll be able to do a more thorough recap later, but for now I need to catch up on work, nurse the sore throat I picked up (likely from talking nonstop for 7 days!) and, of course, post pictures on Facebook!

Why, oh WHY did I not remember to buy one of the guest scholar's books so I could have it signed? And why do I think THIS will be the main topic of ranting at the bar? Why do I never pack light? Why do I always either over or under pack books? Why do I post here and check out Facebook when I could be done packing? Why do all my clothes look too casual or too formal?

Ok, enough packing. But do check out the link above, it will make your head explode from the sheer stupidity.

I read the first fifty pages of "Tapestry Threads" to Brian during travel to Rams Head last night, and to & from Gaithersburg for a St. Patrick's Day parade this morning. Reading aloud has never been my favorite thing, as I can read faster than I can talk and I can sometimes get tangled up because my brain is further ahead than my mouth. Still, I think I'm going to start doing that with everything before I send to an editor or agent. I never knew how many mistakes you can catch when reading aloud until I took Han Nolan's tutorial a couple summers ago. I'm so glad she ran tutorial the way she did; it not only taught me how to read and catch mistakes in my own work, but it also taught me how to listen. Reading aloud also makes for a VERY quick trip; we seemed to get to the pub a lot quicker than normal. I'll have to do that more often, especially with my historical fantasy stuff (Brian not only enjoyed it, he also caught a few errors, yay!).

Now it's off to the agent who requested a revision, as well as a certain editor I know. We'll see how this goes. I think this is by far my strongest work, so I'm really hoping it's the one that gets picked up as my first non work-for-hire novel.

This means that, as of now, I am ON HOLIDAY FROM WRITING! I leave Tuesday for ICFA, so I'm not getting into a new project or resuming an old one in the next three days. For the remainder of the weekend, I shall stay home, and do some projects (there's an oxalis on my desk that's been begging for a repotting, we STILL have not hung our sword collection after living together for almost a year and a half, and we have to sand and stain more shelves for the library), watch bad horror movies, and play Xbox in person with Brian and online with my friend Jess if she's around.

Because I'm procrastinating revising Tapestry Threads (I'll do it before I leave! Honest!)

Thursday

8:30-10AM
Time/lessness within the Last Unicorn
Fairy Tales: Classic & Modern

10:30-12PM
Twilight Inspirations and Adaptations

2:30-3:30
History and Nationality
What Came Before and What's There Now

Friday

8:30 - 10AM
Romancing and Socializing the Vampire

10:30-12PM
Are there Really Monsters?
Growing and Healing

2:30-3:30PM
Location, Location

4:00-5:30PM
Defining the Heroine

Saturday

8:30-10AM
Waste Time? Not When there are So Many Uses For it!

10:30-12PM
Looking Beyond the Words on the Page

2:00-3:30 PM
More than Mere Minutes: Using Time to Tell a Story

4:00-5:30PM
Panel: Timeslip in Children's Fiction: So Much More than a History Lesson

We have papers on the works of Robert A. Heinlein, Ursula LeGuin, Peter Beagle, Stephanie Myer, Phillip Pullman, Pixar (yes, we have a WallE paper!) and many, many more by some amazing scholars. Look forward to seeing people there!

In addition to notes on "Breathe" and "The White Doe" and a poem for "Tapestry Threads, I have the following in the upper right corner:

To Do
Hollins Thesis:
Page to Han and Chip
Print Copies
Mail to Amanda
CELEBRATE!!!!

Yes, it is DONE!!! Barring some weird mail mix up or the horrifying announcement that I have to do the critical paper after all (because I took the comps for the MA, I didn't have to do the paper for the MFA), I AM DONE!!! I'll be marching in May, anyone else?

I also just found out that I'll be presenting at ChLA. That will be my first paper reading at any conference that isn't ICFA or Franny Butler so I'm pretty psyched. That also means a VERY busy travel schedule in June, driving to North Carolina, attending ChLA, driving back via Hollins, going to my cousin's wedding in Florida the following weekend, but it will be worth it. There's a lot of things scheduled for the summer, but at least I won't be packing up my entire life for 6 weeks. Brian keeps saying that he doesn't believe I'm not running away this summer (I've been doing it as long as we've been together; our first date was less than a week before I left for Hollins the first year), that I'll find SOME WAY to be there. Nope. I'll miss it, but I'm really looking forward to a summer at home (mostly).

I'm going to bask for a little bit, perhaps the rest of the day. Tomorrow and the weekend will be spent revising "Tapestry Threads" to the agent because with THAT done, and the thesis, and my reviews (just finished those this morning and asked them not to send any more until beginning of April; with ICFA and going to PA the following weekend I'd rather not have reviews hanging over my head), I can go to ICFA without anything hanging over my head. Nice!!! My crit group is very happy with the latest round of changes, so I just need to work on their suggestions on the latest version; shouldn't take more than a couple days.

Now.....how best to celebrate. Ideas?

A few years ago, I realized, AFTER I'd returned home, that my high school English teacher had been a guest at ICFA. I hadn't thought to look in the program for him until today, but THERE HE IS!! Lawerence C. Connolly, reading Friday at 8:30 AM (don't know if I'll be able to go, unfortunately; I think all the div heads are supposed to attend their sessions). As far as I know, he has no idea that one of his former students attends ICFA (I'm STILL ticked that I didn't read the program closely enough to see that he was there!). Can't decide if I should try to email him before hand or just go up to him there and surprise him.

The schedule is now live at www.iafa.org. Please check to make sure your name, affiliation, and paper title is correct!!!!

This morning in the shower (what's with all the good ideas popping up in the shower??) I had the inklings of ideas for not just one, but TWO sequels to Tapestry Threads. Not enough to make it a series, but 2 books tied to TT. Sigh. I should have known this would happen as soon as I officially finished TT! But I have the mermaid story I'm working on now too. Hmmm. I think after I return from Pittsburgh this week and have the ICFA stuff all wrapped up I'll dive back into the mermaid story. I've already re-visioned the backstory on the world, so I think now I need to quit meandering through the story and develop an outline.

Speaking of Pittsburgh, I'll be at SCBWI there on Saturday! Anyone else?

The solution to my birthday game is up!

I had one great birthday. Not only did I get that neat game from Brian, I also got my second royalty check for "Bronze Dragon Codex" (first one went towards my advance, so no money to deposit then), and feedback from my second reader on my thesis (all good, looks like there's very few changes, and it was also very complimentary!). We went to downtown Mount Airy to look at the Halloween decorations, then came back for the trick or treaters. Not many (we're not QUITE in the country, but it isn't exactly a heavily populated area), only about 10 in three groups. Fortunately, that left plenty of time to play Viva Pinata (yes, that is the main reason I wanted an X-box). Then went to a friend's house to hang out on their patio before they rip the roof off, and got a very yummy chocolate chip cookie cake.

Saturday was ICFA sorting day. I actually thought I'd be stressed out this weekend about that, but it ended up being quite fun. I read all the papers I had on Thursday and Friday, so all I had to read was the last minutes on Saturday, then send them on to my co-chair and let the higher-ups know my headcount. Not too bad. However, I loved seeing how the trend in papers has now shifted away from Harry Potter (not a single paper on that), to Twilight. There was a surprising number of papers on Twilight, some taking some very interesting approaches. I find that I really liked reading and evaluating the papers, and really have fun sorting them into panels, even though that doesn't need to be done just yet.

Anyway, back to work today. I want to send some manuscripts to people from SCBWI, but it's silly to send until I get my thesis reader's comments. Ok, so it's a good excuse to procrastinate. Again.

Ever feel that way? Like things you NEED to do are, somehow, procrastination?

( Cut for random organizational blather )

One last thing. See my new icon? WHEN (not IF) Tapestry Threads is published, that will be the PERFECT cover. It's a tapestry of an Alan Lee piece that Brian bought me for our anniversary from Argenti at the Ren Faire. Kind of small, but it has my main character in the background, another major character in the foreground (and yes, it does make sense for the main character to not be in the foreground), with a greyhound. Just change the greyhound to white, and there's my cover! Don't know if it would be possible, but that is my dream for now.

I'm starting to compile a list of people (specifically emails) who would be interested in or know people interested in the Children's and Young Adult Literature division of the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. The call for papers will be going out soon and I'd love to drum up some new faces. Please comment if you know of a school with a children's literature and/or fantasy department (or at least children's literature and/or fantasy friendly). If you know specific people that you think would be interested, please email me (see the IAFA website for address; it's in the "IAFA Officers" section). And above all, if you've written a scholarly paper on ANY aspect of the fantastic in children's literature, please send them my way! The fantastic includes picture books, fantasy, horror, and science fiction, from any era. I've heard papers there on everything from "Alice in Wonderland" to "Captain Underpants." Deadline is October 31.

Yes, still alive. For not taking a class for credit, this term has been very busy. I'm sitting in on a critical theory class and working on revising Tapestry Threads. I can see my way clear of the next milestone: finishing revising the 4th and last section. After that back to something a little more fun: floor plan of the castle.

I've also been busy with some proposals. Sent one out yesterday and hope to wrap up another one this week. Then I'm revising something for the Francelia Butler conference. And after this week, I need to really dive into both revising a review for JFA and looking over the various bits of paperwork I've inherited as CYA div head. Yikes. That still seems so weird.

I've also made arrangements to purchase the cover art of Bronze Dragon Codex. Thought a lot about this and I figured, I'll only have one first book. I can't wait to see it!

Looking forward to this week being over; most of the things hanging over my head will be done as of tomorrow. Then not only do I get to see my sweetie on Friday, we have our dorm Halloween party this weekend and one of my best friends is coming down for that too. Should be great!

I'm going to have to cancel this year. :( We're still dealing with my dad's surgery, diagnosis, and figuring out what to do next. I'm very sorry I'll miss you all, especially those I've come to love seeing every year. Hopefully I'll be able to come next year. I hope this year is a success, especially with the new location!