Procrastination, fear and celebration of poetry

It's amazing how easy it is to rationalize procrastinating. I just popped into the market to buy some milk, and met Mrs. Ellis. She got me to throw trash into the barrel and reset the top, all the while telling me about how she was from Russia, and practiced medicine in Germany during WWII. She finished up by commanding me to go inside and get a broom and sweep up all the fallen flower petals, as the staff clearly wasn't taking care of the place.

1) What a character.
2) When I'm old, I want to be as annoying and charming and opinionated and independent as she is. Forget just wearing purple. I'm going for the full Monte.

We've started a blog with the Vermont College faculty. Here's my first post on fear (and inspiration) of poetry. I know if Lee Bennett Hopkins sees this post I'm going to catch hell, but he's busy with his own wicked facebook postings.....

Vermont College

My first few days home from Vermont were catch-up days. Lots of sleeping, letting things I learned percolate, walks in the hills with my beloved husband and dog, and long, leisurely meals with family and friends. Finally unpacked my suitcase, washed my clothes, and put everything away. Now I'm back to work on my own projects, feeling the press of deadlines, the excitement of using what I learned from other faculty.

We had a terrific ten days at Vermont College. Nonstop learning and laughing. Very little sleep. Somehow Coe Booth talked us into doing a flash mob rendition of Michael Jackson's thriller at the 80's party. I kept my sanity with walks every evening through the neighborhoods. Here's a photo of the old brick armory at dusk. I think someone lives there now.

And a few of my favorite remarks (somewhat paraphrased) from various speakers.

Walter Dean Myers: "We're building America, one child at a time."

Martine Leavitt: "I hope we'll be able to read in heaven, but just in case, make sure you read Cormac McCarthy's The Road before you die." And: "Take your main character's emotional desire and make it plotty."

Marc Aronson: "Illustration is its own story."

Franny Billingsley: "Abstract things are telling. Concrete things are showing."

Until next time, Montpelier, when the snow falls and the trudging outdoors is treacherous and beautiful.

Why people moved to the city

I'm a city dweller, with all the amenities of modern life. We also have a cabin deep in the California redwoods, a mile up a dirt road. Quiet. Peaceful. No city services. So on several of the hottest days of July, we were out gathering firewood for next winter, loading up for the wood burning stove. Even with Tom on a modern, gas powered splitter (and Felix with a sledgehammer and a maul), it took all three generations of us. Sasha and my 93 year old dad pitched wood from the loose pile to the stack, Felix and I made a tidy, geometric pile to over-winter. Penny supervised. Think that looks hard? Here's my father's father, 90 years old, on the woodpile he just split and stacked on his farm in Graton, about 50 miles from our cabin.

Summertime, interview with Author Turf

I am loving summer. In a week I take off for Vermont College where I'm teaching. It's incredibly fun. Challenging, exhausting, rewarding... all rolled up into ten days. Not only do I get to be with terrific students who are working their hearts out to get better at writing, but I also get to listen to inspiring lectures from the other faculty.

Before I leave I had to make it out to the Pacific Ocean with my friend Andrea to hold me through the Vermont heat.


Why does the ocean look like it should pour through the gap? I've never understood this optical illusion.

We watched a pre-teen girl and her dad play in the waves, and then brush off the sand and get their shoes and socks back on and head out with their backpacks. On the return walk we spotted them again....


See them? Curled up in the high grass, reading?

Summertime and the living is easy.

And here's an interview with me that Brittney Breakey posted on her fantastic blog, Author Turf.

Road Tripping with my dad: Santa Barbara or bust

It's always an adventure hitting the road with my dad.
There are coffee and tea stops. Old friends to visit. Interesting things to photograph. "You see all these plastic bags blowing around? It makes a statement. You gotta have two things to make a good photograph. A field, and garbage. That's it." My cousni, Reeve Woolpert (on left) and his photo opening. "Best show I've ever seen." Great Mexican food, a crappy hotel, and home at the end of two long, wonderful days.

IRA and Research Trip to the Big Kahuna

International Reading Assoc. meeting was wonderful, as always. Our panel was a great range -- from Loreen Leedy's process to the hilarity of Jon Scieszka, with his underlying serious message about reading and computer literacy.

The URL's I referred to in my talk are up on my Facebook page for anyone who wants to check them out. I couldn't get them to upload here.

Then I went on to Washington DC to do some research on the newest nonfiction book I have in the works.... You want to know how much of a nerd I am? Here's the bedroom where I slept. I was very, very happy.

I managed to make it to the National Archives I (records) and II (photos), the Archives of American Art, and the Library of Congress. Going to research in Washington DC is like going to Mecca. I did figure out, however, that I need to really buff up my research skills. These places have so much material it is amazing.


There are an incredible number of rules, as well. Once you jettison all your stuff except a few items (computer, camera) you sit at a table and can only write on your computer or on specially identified paper with a pencil. Makes for a clean desk!

IRA coming up, and Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day

March 30 has been designated Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day by the U.S. Senate. It's the 38th anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Vietnam. With my new book, Dogtag Summer, just out, I'm fascinated by the whole war -- why we got in, the conflict between what was happening with the military and protesters at home, our defeat by the Communists in 1975. How have the intervening years been for those directly impacted by the war -- the Americans who fought, the Vietnamese, the orphans adopted here?

Do you have friends or family caught up in the Vietnam war? How are they doing? Were you?

There has been a belated, growing attempt to honor the military who served, rather than trash them along with the war. One of the first public attempts was the controversial design and construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, better known as the Wall.

I'm busy getting ready for International Reading Association annual meeting in a couple weeks. I'll be on a panel with some great authors, talking about technology. I've been putting together a speech on how I research online, especially how I find and use photographs, as well as this very cool program I am setting up with Jerome Burg, a Google Lit Trip for Dogtag Summer.

Bookstore appearances with pals, and an awesome writing trick

I just did two really fun appearances with friends. On Sunday Marissa Moss and Thacher Hurd and I were at A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland. We had an age range from preschoolers to local librarians/educators. DId I remember to take pictures? No! Not during the event... but afterward I caught a couple nice shots. Above is Thacher talking with my husband Tom. And here's the owner, Kathleen Caldwell. You can see by the piles of books and cards around the cash register that this is a friendly, crammed, delicious bookstore. Right outside was the Farmer's Market, full of people enjoying the sun after three cold, rainy weeks.


The next night Marissa and I appeared at Book Passage and spoke to a group of writers and pre-published writers, all working hard on their writing and on understanding the confusing world of children's book publishing. Really thoughtful Q and A.

Before the event, I had dinner with two great friends, Barbara Young and Linda Allison. Allison has been doing nonfiction for kids for ages. She had a brainwave for getting the creative work done before the stuff of life that is a hassle but has to be done. She divides her To Do list into two columns: Creative and Maintenance. I just love the word Maintenance. It puts that stuff right in its place. Sure you have to do it, but that's what it is. Just plain Life Maintenance. She also says "Writing deserves the best of you. That's why you need to do it first." Not new advice, but well said.

This last photo is Lissa Rovetch, Marissa, and me.

Today is the launch day for my middle-grade novel, Dogtag Summer. It's a wonderful moment, when the characters who've lived in my head get to step out into the real world.

Many, many people helped me with the research -- I had to know about the Vietnam War, about the pacifists at home and those who fought in Vietnam, and the villagers who just tried to survive. I really wanted to know what it was like years later for those who'd been caught in the fighting, or loved people who'd been in the war.

One person I interviewed was Donna Tauscher, who shared memories of her ex-husband's Vietnam was service, how it changed him, their marriage, and the fabric of her life.

I recently did a bookstore appearance and Donna showed up. In her quiet way, she handed me a gift: this small Li Xi, a red lucky money envelope with a 100 đồng note in it. Her husband had brought it back from Vietnam when he returned from the fighting. "I've had it a long time," was all she said as she slipped it into my hand.

What stories this beautiful old 100 đồng note could tell of being passed from hand to hand before it reached mine. And what a tender, cherished gift.

Animotos and learning, International Reading Association

I had a fantastic week with two great groups: teachers in Burlingame, and teenagers in Petaluma. Polished off the morning with a Skype visit with librarian Marjie Podzielinski's students at Coulson Tough school in Texas. The students are making Animoto's about the Sixties for our IRA session this spring. They're reading Marching for Freedom and Dogtag Summer, researching websites, checking their sources, and putting together photos, videos and music.

I'm so excited about this. I love combining history with 2.0 web skills. It's a fantastic form of narrative nonfiction. I'm eager to see what they come up with.

Reviews roll in, I roll out on appearances in the Bay Area with writing buddies

A couple posts ago I mentioned that scary pause where an authors finishes a book... moves on to the next project, but some part of our attention is in suspended animation, just waiting for the reviews.

Will the reviewers love my new book? Will they hate it? And worst of all, will they ignore it?

I've finally let out my breath. Two more reviews have come in on my new novel, Dogtag Summer, from Booklist and School Library Journal.

"Creative and winsome... poignant coming-of-age story that resonates with pain and a hard-fought resolution.” —Booklist

"Partridge also succeeds in incorporating solid historical research into a moving story, using the dogtag, symbol of a most unpopular war, as an instrument of catharsis.” —School Library Journal

Let the festivities begin!

Here's one of the wonderful aspects of being a writer: becoming friends with so many incredible people who also write. I've got some great appearances coming up with friends. These will be a blast, hope you can join us for one if you are in the Bay Area.

Monday February 28th: National Book Award winner Judy Blundell is here in California on a book tour with her new novel, Strings Attached. We'll be at Books Inc. Burlingame at 6:00 pm for a special wine and cheese mingler. Books Inc. is giving 25% discount on all books purchased at the event. 1375 Burlingame Ave, Burlingame, 94010 (650) 685-4911.

Tuesday March 1st: Judy and I will do a joint school visit in Santa Rosa, then a Dark Days of Winter Tea at Copperfields in Petaluma. For teens, refreshments served!

Mrach 27th at 1 pm: Great good Place for Books with Thacher Hurd and Marissa Moss. Marissa is dark-side funny, Thacher is hold-your-sides funny. Together they are funny squared. This will be rocking!

March 28th: Kid Lit Salon at Book Passages Corte Madera with Marissa Moss and Joanne Rocklin.

This is how a novel starts

I have a once-a-day feed from Google that picks up my name on the web. Usually it's just that a library somewhere has bought my book, or one of my books is for sale on eBay, or that I'll be appearing somewhere (which I already know). Pretty standard stuff.

But today I got a terrific Google Alert via Convict Records. In September 1846, Elizabeth Partridge was one of 169 convicts transported on the Elizabeth and Henry to Australia! Now usually, that side of my family rests very peacefully in small village graveyards. They were crofters -- small farmers -- and small time merchants. I had no idea I had scurvy ancestors.

What did this Elizabeth Partridge do that got her ten years in jail, swapped off for being sent to Australia? What was it like for her once she got there?

What if....

and a seed is planted. I don't know that I would ever take this any further, but it is exhilarating to have my mind tumble in a new direction.

What kind of random things have been making you think "What if....?"

The supreme vulnerablity of writing a novel

About six months ago, I finished a middle grade novel, Dogtag Summer. The idea had been brewing in the back of my mind, morphing and growing, for a long, long time. It started by my overhearing a conversation between my husband and an electrician, Jim, after they'd been working together all day. My husband asked Jim what it had been like for him to serve in Vietnam. Lots of words and feelings tumbled out of Jim. Several parts stuck with me for years. Like how he always walked point, because he'd been raised in the country, did a lot of hunting, and he didn't ever trust anyone else to walk point.

The what-ifs started for me right away. What if he had let someone else walk point, just once? What if an Amerasian child from Vietnam was pulled out of the country in the last desperate days of 1975 before the Communists took over? And what if, just what if, she were adopted by a vet with his own powder-keg of unresolved feelings?

I did a ton of research and interviews. I went to Vietnam to smell the river and the heavy rains, to listen to the cadence of people speaking to one another in the marketplace. I wrote, and rewrote and rewrote. I turned it in, (wrote and rewrote with my amazing editor's suggestions) and then wondered: how've I done, writing fiction?

Here's what Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus have to say:

Dogtag Summer

Elizabeth Partridge, Bloomsbury, $16.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-59990-183-1

This gripping yet tender coming-of-age story reveals multiple nuanced perspectives of the Vietnam War and its aftermath in the summer of 1980. A backfiring school bus triggers a series of flashbacks for sixth-grader Tracy. Partridge (Marching for Freedom) smoothly interlaces memories of Tracy's childhood as a "con lai" (half-blood) in wartime Vietnam, where her American heritage endangered her Vietnamese family, and her present-day life as the adopted daughter of a Vietnam veteran who is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. When Tracy and her best friend, Stargazer--the child of hippie, war-protesting parents--discover a dogtag in her father's ammo box, the event sets off an unexpected chain of events in both families, leading to excruciating memories, painful misunderstandings, and compassionate insights. Partridge delicately portrays Tracy's struggle to reconcile her last, harrowing memory of her biological mother and her relationship with her loving, adoptive mother, who tries to understand the ghostly memories haunting her daughter and husband. Appendixes include interviews in which Partridge addresses historical questions, as well as a teacher's guide for using this book in a curriculum about Vietnam. Powerful historical fiction. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)

DOGTAG SUMMER
“A child of conflict struggles to understand her past and her present in this impressive historical novel. Partridge proves her keen understanding of young people and her ability to write engrossing fiction grounded in the history she usually illuminates in nonfiction. This is a dual narrative of Tracy’s story, alternating between her experiences as a con lai, or half-Vietnamese/half-American child, in that country in 1975 and her time as an adopted only child enmeshed in her now-ordinary life on the coast of California five years later. The trauma that she suffered in the past emerges from deeply buried memories at the beginning of summer when she and best friend Stargazer, a child of hippies, build a Viking ship of war. Tracy’s father, a Vietnam vet, has hidden an old ammo box with a set of dogtags inside, and their discovery sets into motion Tracy’s process of remembering her past and connecting it with the present. Only 11, Tracy is realistically inarticulate, yet the depth of her emotion and suffering comes through. Never reverting to stereotypes, Partridge uses Tracy and Stargazer's fast friendship to help capture the ambivalence of the culture toward the war, as well as the struggle of the vets to personally cope with their experiences. A strong yet gentle read.” – Kirkus

Vermont College winter residency

We're coming close to finishing up our ten days together at Vermont College. It's been an incredible experience. Great faculty, fantastic students, learning, learning, learning. A few things I've learned that weren't on the schedule:

Snow is very fun. Beautiful. Cold.
You must always zip up your jacket before going out the door.
Cold doesn't actually hurt until it is about ten degrees outside. Then its pretty critical to keep moving. Even with your jacket zipped up.

I don't think there is any part of craft that we left undiscussed while we were here. And part of the appeal of being on the faculty is that I've learned so much myself. My ever-supportive husband has been behind me all the way in taking on this job, but.... he did just send an email saying our dog is missing me. He's sure. The dog has called a truce with the cat, and they are sleeping curled up together on the bed. Kinda lonely.

We had a great lunch time drop-in visit by Elizabeth Bluemle, who runs the Flying Pig Bookstore, and writes the Shelftalker blog (along with Josie Leavitt). Elizabeth has a lovely post today on "The Dream, Then and Now." Meanwhile, out in the real world at Monica Edinger's blog, Educating Alice, she posted a really cool way she and her students used Marching for Freedom in an assembly. I wish I had seen this performance!

Agent love

Wonder what authors' different relationships are like with their agents? Roger Sutton at Horn Book magazine asked five of us to answer this question: "Why I love my agent." The articles came out in the latest issue, but they aren't online at the Horn Book.

Because I want to shout from the rooftops about how much and why I adore my agent, I tried to take a picture of the article with my cell phone camera, but the letters and edges came out pretty wobbly. I'll paste the article in below the image, or you can read it here.

Publication: The Horn Book Magazine
Author: Partridge, Elizabeth
Date published: January 1, 2011

Many years ago, as an aspiring writer, I overheard a successful author give her definition of a good agent. "You don't want a friend," she said. "You want someone who's like a shark, swimming next to you. But you have to be careful not to get bitten yourself."

That made sense, in a writer's overblown-hyperbole kind of way. The author/ agent relationship was a business one. You needed someone tough and scary, with lots of teeth, who kept moving on your behalf. And you didn't want to be a bothersome client, or you might get a quick nip.

When I began working with my agent, Ken Wright, I treated him like a shark with a mouthful of teeth. I was respectful, and very guarded. It took him a long time to wear down my defenses and prove that he would never bite me, or even bite anyone else on my behalf.

Turns out he doesn't subscribe to the bunny-eat-bunny model of children's publishing. He operates on the old-fashioned handshake, negotiating deals, linking people and projects. He loves to brainstorm about ideas until they suddenly come into focus as a potential manuscript. It's clear he enjoys the whole business - and he's good at it.

Ken makes me laugh and makes me think. If I'm bogged down or overwhelmed, he smells it in the wind and shoots off an e-mail. "Talk soon?" he writes. He's my touchstone and my taskmaster.

While I'm alone in my writing room with my research and my interviews and a big, rambling idea I'm trying to squeeze between the covers of a book, he's got my back.

Author affiliation:

Elizabeth Partridge's newest book is Dogtag Summer (Bloomsbury).

New Year, new adventure

Yesterday our older son, Will, headed home to freezing Minnesota, and our younger son, Felix, went back to work (currently making cow proof fences so salamanders won't get squashed.) All the holiday decorations are put away. One last birthday cake to make -- my husband's birthday is tomorrow -- and then life returns to ... well, not normal exactly. To my new adventure.

In a few days I leave for freezing Vermont. (Notice a theme here with the cold?) I've taken a job teaching at Vermont College in the MFA Writing for Children and Young Adults Program. I am incredibly excited. I've never taught in an organized program before, though I've done all the pieces (lectures, critiquing, encouraging, mentoring.) Being used to mild California weather, I sent ahead a box of warmness -- a down quilt, flannel sheets, snow boots and a teapot.

My year started off with a treat. Last summer we had an amazing Boston Globe-Horn Book award evening, with all the winners giving speeches. The Horn Book people have graciously put links to all of them on their site. Here's my Boston Globe-Horn Book speech for Marching for Freedom. It's partly about writing the book, and partly about why I write and what inspires me.

And with a time-consuming new adventure coinciding with a new year, I've come up with a New Year's resolution: prioritize. This is always a weakness with me in the best of times. So with more demands on my time, I'm going to see if I can be more mindful. I've written prioritize on a slip of paper and stuck it to the bottom of my computer screen.

What will you be doing more mindfully this year?