My final blog for 2015 is a tribute to the teachers, Mrs. Smith and Miss Rabbas, and the 4th Grade Class of Little Chute Elementary School.  During November and December I helped teach the kids how to write fiction narrative via Skype classes.  Every session the class was enthusiastic and demonstrated eagerness to learn the skills of writing fiction narrative.  Writing includes both description and narrative and the class’s task was to master narrative through plot and scenes.  This is the 4th grade remember.  I certainly don’t remember learning writing in the 4th grade; if I had I’m sure I would remember the experience.

I met Amanda Smith, the senior classroom teacher, at the Oshkosh Irish Fest this year.  She ordered both of my books and when I mailed them to her I included a personal note to encourage her writing and offered my help.  The “help” she asked for was to help teach fiction narrative to her 4th grade class.  I couldn’t refuse. 

The teachers included me in their classroom lesson planning.  Several times we skyped our planning sessions at 7:30 am before their teaching day started.  Teachers are a dedicated, hard working lot.  We also exchanged numerous e-mails.  They were always willing to listen to my ideas and incorporate my suggestions into the daily 40 minute lessons.

I learned at least as much as the kids did from this experience.  First, I learned that you can teach writing skills and craft at a young age.  The 4th graders learned about character, showing vs. telling, strong verbs, plot and editing.  Once a 4th grader works hard for several weeks to write their story everyone knows it’s perfect.  Editing was tough for them to swallow.  Rather than attempting any major story overhaul the teachers suggested we concentrate on one thing – using strong words.  Their insight was instrumental in allowing the 4th graders to accept that their writing could be improved.

I also learned how much research was needed to prepare to teach a specific writing craft or skill.  I often researched one topic, like plot, for two hours to prepare for a 40 minute class.  I learned that the kids were eager to learn and tackled difficult problems like how to write a gripping introduction and slide down into a conclusion after the climax.  The teachers broke plot down into individual pages and that innovative technique transformed plot into small, manageable pieces.  It was a miracle!  Many of the students were able to create complex plots in just a few pages.

I learned that 4th graders are comfortable with technology.  Skype was not a problem. The kids were not shy about coming to the front of the room, grabbing the microphone and talking with me.  I was able to see the whole class.  I don’t know what they saw.  I fear I might have been a talking head.  If I was, it didn’t bother the kids.

You would think working on narrative for seven weeks would be enough.  Mrs. Smith and Miss Rabbas saw another learning opportunity – to teach keyboard skills.  Sometimes, I think teachers are gluttons for punishment or at least they’re not afraid to climb Mt. Rainier.     Before Christmas recess the students invaded the computer lab to transform their handwritten pages into a word document.

 The most significant lesson for me was that you can’t teach imagination or creativity.  Some of the kid’s stories were very complex with an introduction that grabbed your attention and a conclusion that ended with a question for the reader; sophisticated stuff.  Their imagination and creativity were inspiring.

It’s a little scary to be described as an “expert”.  I don’t consider myself an expert.  I’m still learning the craft of writing and feel I can always improve.  What I have picked up along the way I enjoyed sharing with the 4th Grade Little Chute Elementary class.  Working with both the teachers and students instills hope.  I’m looking forward to receiving copies of their stories early next year. I will miss both the 4th graders and the teachers.  Maybe I’ll be asked to help again next year – I hope so.

Several months ago at an author event I met an interesting young couple.  After graduating from high school Joe decided he wanted to live in Ireland and find his “tribe”.  Joe lived in Ireland for 17 years with a one year hiatus in France which didn’t turn out as expected.  Joe met Joanne a fine Irish girl and they were married in West Ireland in a unique pagan festival officiated by a former Irish Catholic priest.  It should be clear that Joe and Joanne are interesting people.

Joe asked me if my fictional character, Ian Murphy, was patterned after Danny Morrison.  I told him I didn’t have any idea who Danny Morrison was.  Joe was very enthusiastic about Danny, telling me he was the former National Director of Publicity for Sinn Fein, an author and a playwright.  He was also a political prisoner for years.  Joe said he had written a book about the Troubles called The Wrong Man that critics called one of the best.

I read The Wrong Man in just a week.  The story is from the perspective of a typical working class IRA volunteer.  The prologue is a graphic scene of an interrogation that was difficult to read, but necessary.  The book has strong themes of family, dedication, nationalism and betrayal.  To understand the Troubles, The Wrong Man, is a must read.

I wanted to know more about Danny Morrison so I visited his website and Wikipedia.  I learned that he adapted his novel, The Wrong Man, into a play.  The play has been produced both in Ireland and London and received excellent reviews.  I searched for copies of the play on the internet and couldn’t find it.  I asked my new friend Joe if he had a copy, he didn’t.  Joe suggested I e-mail Danny Morrison and ask where I could purchase a copy.  I had grave doubts that would be successful because I couldn’t imagine that an Irish writer would take the time to respond to an unknown American writer.

I was wrong.  I e-mailed Danny Morrison and in a day had a response.  He told me he had a copy of his play but couldn’t remember where he stored it electronically.  He told me to give him a few days.  To say that I was surprised was an understatement.  The next day I received an e-mail with his play attached, and a brief note that he had found the play and was searching for other material to send me.  I was more than willing to purchase his work and was amazed at his generosity.

He sent me a review of the play by critic Dominic Cavendish published in the Daily Telegraph.  In addition, he sent me an article he wrote for The Observer, a London newspaper, called ‘Writing Oneself out of History.’  These were fascinating but he didn’t address the question of why he adapted his novel to a stage play and how he made the conversion.

Then the e-mail stopped.  I waited a week and wrote again to ask him to share his reasons for writing the play and how he made the transition.  It’s been 18 days since I sent my last e-mail.  I doubt if he’s going to respond.  I was hoping to have a dialogue with another writer about writing.  I guess that’s not going to happen.  I don’t understand the change from being open and sharing to silence.

It’s a shame, really.       

It’s not too early for a post with that title because this article won’t be the typical 2015 in review piece.  This post only covers from June-December.

When my second novel in the Murphy series, Out of Darkness, was published in June I decided to devote the remainder of the year to marketing.  I am not fond of on-line marketing although I posted a press release, posted on Good Reads, updated by bio on all of my platforms and made all my books available in e-book format along with trade paperback.  Out of Darkness received two professional reviews; one from Karen Saeman of Inkspots, Inc. and the second from Frank West of the Irish American News.  Readers have also posted a number of reviews on Amazon.  Our local newspaper, The Star, published a ¾ page interview.  Our local library selected Out of Darkness as a suggested book to read.

I prefer to market by meeting readers in whatever venue I can.  That means road trips.  I visited a number of locations including:

                                                    Oshkosh Irish Fest
                                                   Sun Prairie Public Library
                                                    Wisconsin Book Festival
                                                   Mystery to Me Bookstore
                                               Beans n Cream Coffee House
                                           Books and Beer Book Club – Columbus
                                                    Sun Prairie Literary Society
                                                   Irish Book Night – Waupaca
                                         Irish Book and Music Celebration – Chicago
                                                        Local Rotary Chapter
                                                   Colonial Club Senior Center
                                                       Madison Senior Center

My last event was held at Beans n Cream Coffee House on December 4th.  I promoted the event on both my author facebook page and my personal facebook page.  The coffee shop posted on their facebook page and displayed a poster advertising the event.

On an unseasonably warm December evening not one person came to my author event at the coffee shop.  The shop is divided into two rooms.  I set up a table near the Christmas tree.  I shared the room with five customers.  Not one of the customers showed any interest in my presence.  In fact, they aggressively ignored me – each person was absorbed in their own world.

So, my marketing venture ended with a whimper not a bang (The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot).  For some reason having no one attend my final author event was an appropriate end.  The marketing season is done.  In 2016 I will concentrate on writing the third and final book in the Murphy Series.  I have registered for one author event in March 2016 but expect (and hope) such events will be sparse next year.  

Sometimes I like to write a frivolous blog and this is one of those weeks.  In 2008 I took a two week trip to Ireland because I needed to visit Ireland before I could continue on with my first historical fiction novel – Murphy’s Troubles.  The book is set in the period of Irish history called The Troubles from 1968-98. For some reason I decided I need to be wearing a beard when I went to Ireland.  I really don’t know why or how I felt a beard was necessary.  But I took my whim seriously and grew a full beard in the August heat.  Of course, the beard scratched.  My friends and colleagues at work ridiculed me for growing a beard in August.  “Nobody in Wisconsin grows a beard in August.  We grow beards in November before the gun deer hunting season” they chided me.

I arrived on the emerald isle with a full beard and felt very much at home.  Of course in Ireland in August the temperature is mild and as you would expect it rained several times – my beard felt right.

I thought having a beard would mean not shaving.  Not true.  My full beard would run down my neck to the top of my collarbone which makes me look like a Neanderthal – not the look I was going for.  So, I trim most of my neck and need to shave about every other day.  I also don’t like the natural shape of the beard on my cheeks so I trim it into a nice curve.

Mine is often called an “urban beard” – short and well groomed as my wife likes to say.  My friend Dennis has a man of the wild beard it hangs down a good 12” onto his chest but on Dennis it looks good.  Another friend of mine had a full thick beard most of his adult life and then when he retired decided to shave.  I actually didn’t recognize him the first time I saw him without his beard.  When asked why he shaved he responded, “I have more time to shave now.”

All in all I’ve discovered that keeping a trim beard is much more work than just shaving every day or every other day.  I still shave my cheeks and neck at least every other day plus grooming the beard at least three times a week.  Most of my beard has gone from speckled gray/black to white.  I think the white beard looks good. 

I’m terrified that if I shave off my beard my grandchildren would not recognize me and that would be a tragedy of the first order.  I won’t be shaving off my beard.

So, that’s about all I have to say or could ever say about wearing a beard.   

Several weeks ago I posted a blog sharing my experience with helping teach fiction narrative to the 4th grade Little Chute Elementary school students via skype.  We have now had four classes together.  We started by having the students record a “little moment” in their life that would be the core of their fictional story. 

Next we discussed how to imagine the main character for their story and our goal was to have them identify character traits.  We had the kids identify their favorite cartoon character and explain why they like that character.  Our hope was that in describing why they liked the character they would identify a trait.  It worked.  They said their favorite characters were silly, funny, brave etc.  Next they worked in pairs to write down as many character traits as they could.  As a group they developed an impressive list.

In the third session we talked about plot.  We used the story of the three little pigs to draw a plot diagram.  I learned that using the term “climax” was not useful and so we’ve changed the language to “the most exciting part of the story” and or “the solution” to the problem identified in the beginning of their story.  Unfortunately there was very little transfer from the “little moments” to the story the kids imagined.   We had the students plot their wn story using post it notes.  Plot is a difficult concept and the kids struggled.  Most were able to identify the beginning the climax and the end without any action between each.

The teachers and I agreed we needed another class on plot.  This time we used the book The Kid in the Red Jacket by Barbara Park, which they had read recently as a class, to find both character traits and plot.  I learned this is a very popular book for this grade level and the kids liked the story a lot.  Next the  teachers created a simple story and then drew the plot diagram to model for the students each step.  The students then worked individually on their plot diagram.  When finished the students took turns coming to the microphone and reading their story to me while the teachers worked with individual students.

I was pleased that the students were not shy about coming to the front of the class to talk with me, they even had a queue.   The original plan was to complete the section on teaching narrative by Thanksgiving break.  We’ve all learned that was too ambitious.  The class is getting close but need additional practice.  There are three students have been successful and don’t need more help, they can help the other students.

Next week we’ll help the kids continue to refine their stories – one step at a time.