Monique Polak

For someone who enjoys TALKING as much as I do, preparing for a talk is not usually too difficult! In a little over an hour, I've got to be at the McCord Museum here in Montreal, where I'm doing a talk called "Capturing the Teenage Imagination: Writing for Young Adults." As you know, this is one of my favourite subjects. I've scribbled a bunch of points on a sheet of paper andI'm pretty much ready to roll. (I rarely enjoy talks where someone just reads from a prepared script.) Here's my basic outline: First, I'm going to talk about the market for children's writing and point out that it's a growing, healthy market. Then I want to talk about using the first person point of view -- something many children's writers do. Then I want to discuss HOW adults can gain access to the teen world -- either by remembering back to their own childhoods or by SPYING ON TEENS, or of course, they could get a job like mine teaching in a college! After that, I'm going to talk about how I got the ideas for some of my books -- and then I'll do a short reading. Have you ever noticed  how when you list your points before a talk it gets you geared up and ready to go? So thanks for listening while I prepared! Another batch of correcting lands tomorrow, so you may not hear from me for a few days while I dig out from under it. Feels like spring today in Montreal, but apparently, they're predicting more snow for tonight. YIKES!!

Did I mention that I recently reviewed a book for The Gazette called "Complaint-Free Universe"? According to the book, we're not supposed to complain (because according to the book, complaining about things only makes us unhappier). So all I can tell you is I've got a pile of correcting sitting on the dining room table and it needs doing. It also means I may not get much time to write this week -- and next week, too, when I'm expecting another batch of essays. OH WELL!! (See, I didn't complain -- but I was tempted!!)

I'll still do my darnedest to squeeze in a bit of writing time this week. Orca needs me to write the dedication and acknowledgements for What World Is Left. That's another sign that that project is nearing completion. Okay then, back I go to that pile of essays!!

That's because I've been so busy working on the "track changes" for What World is Left. (I'm starting to get used to the name of my fall book, which was re-christened this week by my editor in B.C.) Only time for a short entry today since I'm headed out for dinner with a friend. But I wanted to share something interesting that Manitoba writer Anita Daher wrote to me today. It was about how vulnerable we writers feel when we are waiting for feedback from our editors. (Anita is working with Sarah Harvey, too.) Here's what Anita had to say: "whenever we put on the skin of a character, we're putting on all of their faults and sensitivities as well." Nicely put, no? Anita's latest book, published by Orca, is a sports thriller called Two Foot Punch. 

Okay, talk to you next week! Bon weekend!! 

So, after a great deal of deliberation (e-mail consultations with my editor Sarah Harvey in B.C., phone consultations with my parents, and several chats with my husband and daughter) the main character in my historical novel has had her name changed from Lotje (deemed too difficult for North American readers to pronounce) to Anneke. Hope you like it!! One of the funny things about deciding on hername was that people who've read the manuscript (like Sarah Harvey, of course) said things like: "She seems more like an Anneke than an Izabel." It's as if we were talking about a REAL PERSON or naming a baby!! 

The manuscript's working title was "Lotje's Story." All along, I knew that wasn't a very good title, but I was too busy writing to worry about it. So now, we've settled on a new book title, too. It's going to be "What World is Left" -- and that title comes from a line of poetry I quote in the story. It's from a poem by German poet Heinrich Heine.  In the poem, someone who has been through a terrible time, thinks to himself: "What world is left us still." To me, that means that despite all the misery any of us have endured or will ever endure, there is still "world" -- there is still a future, there is still hope. 

Now I'm working on what publishers call "track changes." That means Sarah has e-mailed me a copy of the manuscript with her suggested changes. All I have to do is read it through, make any adjustments that I feel are necessary... and adjust a few spots. For me, this polishing stage is one of the most fun parts of the process. Also, the book is becoming more real. What World is Left should be in bookstores by fall 2008. And if I want that to happen, I'd better get back to those track changes!!

A person like me probably shouldn't have coffee ever, but alas -- I had a cafe au lait downtown this morning with two friends from Toronto -- and now I'm even livelier than usual. My poor students!!! So I met up with Toronto children's writer and editor Gillian O'Reilly and Toronto elementary school teacher Nancy Rawlinson. Not surprisingly, we talked about kids books and I askedthem to pass on some writing advice to readers of my blog.

Nancy, who teaches grades one and two, reads aloud a lot to her students. Her advice to children's writers is: "Remember your audience" and "test your book out on kids since kids are very honest." She pointed out that kids sometimes give a thumb's down to books adults love.

Gillian talked more about the editing process. She told me how once she interviewed prize-winning Canadian children's author Tim Wynne-Jones about what it's like to have his books edited: "Whenever he received the editor's comments, he always felt for the first 24 hours that the comments were outrageous. Then after that, he was able to read them and deal with them." Gillian said she felt exactly the same way when she got editorial feedback on her first children's book, Slangalicious. By the way, Gillian's latest book is The Great Number Rumble: A Story of Math in Surprising Places. The book, which is non-fiction, is set in a school. You might be interested to know that Nancy was an advisor on the book.

Other news: my story about procrastination is in today's National Post. Here's the link in case you want to check it out (I remember some of you wrote to say you could relate to the procrastination thing!): http://www.nationalpost.com/life/story.html?id=365944

Also, good news: my editor at Orca says she LOVES (she used capitals, and she repeated the word three times!!!!) my revised book about the Holocaust. YIPPEE!!!! Looks like the main character's name will be changed. I had used Lotje, but people at Orca think it may be too difficult to pronounce (they're probably right). We're also talking about new book titles. The editor (Sarah Harvey) came up with two possibilities. I like them both, but I'll wait to tell you more... Talk to you a little later this week! Remind me to stay away from those cafe au laits, okay?!!

... or senorita! Now that I'm back in snowy Montreal, I have a tremendous urge to speak Spanish!! Those of you taking Spanish classes are SO lucky. If I had a little more free time, I'd ask one of the Spanish teachers at school to let me sit in on her (or his) class. 

So I'm back at work. I've already taught and tidied up my house (the tidying if you're new to my blog is part of my writing process... weird, I know, but hey, it seems to work for me) and now I'm going to sit down and work on that story for The National Post newspaper about Mexican dentists -- and how Canadians sometimes get dental treatment in Mexico. I wrote the first draft of my story on the plane yesterday -- so now I'm going to whip it into shape. This morning, one of my journalism students said how when she reads something really good, it feels like it was EFFORTLESS. We discussed how that's just an illusion. Good writing seems effortless and natural, but it's always always always the result of great effort. That being said, it's time for me to get back to that project. Adios!! 

So we're now in Puerto Vallarta, since that's where we fly home from tomorrow. Not to get into the gory details, but we took a bus here yesterday from La Penita... and I got... well... sick. Mike was my angel of mercy. I can't give you the details, but let's just say that if ever in one of my future books, a boy (you see I'd likely change the sex to protect my privacy) gets sickon a bus... the bus is traveling on these really wind-y roads in mexico... and there's no you-know-what-sort of bag available to save him. and so the poor boy (you understand that he's NOT me) vomits on the bus floor, and then starts to cry because he is so embarrassed and sick-feeling... well, that this might, just might have been inspired by what happened to me yesterday. Makes a good story, no? Certainly better than if I told you what I great bus ride it was. Anyway, the boy... er, I mean, I... am feeling back to myself today. But maybe I'll pop a Gravol tomorrow just in case. Hey, I figured out a way to read the comments you guys have been posting on the blog, so thanks for all of them. Tamar, I haven't read Fishbowl. I'm pretty sure it's in my daughter's room, so I'll look for it when we're home, I promise. I found a copy of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen in the hotel library -- and I'm really into it. It's about American circus life in the 1930s. Really makes you feel like you're getting to know the people and the places. Planning to write my Mexican dentists story on the plane tomorrow. Enjoy the weekend wherever you are. Hasta luego!!

So it's jueves, I think that's the right way to say and spell Thursday in Spanish. That means it's market day in La Penita de Jaltemba, so this little town which is usually pretty sleepy, wakes wide up. Mike and I are heading to the market soon, but first, I thought I'd say hola and tell you about the wonderful books I've been reading this week. I've finished Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now -- it's a YA book, but it definitely has adult-appeal. It's set in the future, during a world war. When I met Meg last month, she told me she was inspired to write the book after 9/11 -- she wanted to bring the facts of war and terrorism close to her readers, so they wouldn't feel these are just things that happen far away. Anyway, the book is also a love story -- and the narrator has an intriguing voice The other book I'm reading and really enjoying is Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. This is a work of creative non-fiction and it's the story of how Eggers brought up his younger brother after their parents died. The only problem is Mikey is reading the book, too -- and I don't like sharing books!! Okay then, off to the mercado. Enjoy your day wherever you are. Best best from me

Hello out there... all is well, except for one small glitch: I can't seem to check my website email from here, so Kim, Sophie and Tamar, in case you're  sending me comments, I'll have to wait till I'm back in snowy Montreal to read them.

I was going through this little notebook I keep and I found a quote about writing that I'd meant to post on the blog, so here itcomes. It's a line from a poem by someone named Karla Kuskin. She wrote: "Write about a radish/ Too many people write about the moon." Now I think that is just brilliant, don't you? Karla is telling us to notice the things other people don't -- and to write about them.

Did I mention that I am writing a story for The National Post newspaper about how many Canadian and American tourists in Mexico get their teeth fixed by Mexican dentists? In fact, I'm going to the dental clinic now -- for an interview, not to get my teeth fixed!! I hope Karla would think this is like writing about a radish!!

I don't want to make you jealous, but right now, I am writing from the side of the pool at our hotel. If it's any consolation, my ankles are sunburned!! Talk to you again before the end of the week. XO from me 

Quick entry since I´m working on a little old computer in an Internet place in Mexico -- and it´s hard to find the right buttons. We´re in La Penita. It´s warm and sunny and we´re going to spend the whole day READING on the beach. Ahhhh!! Did I tell you I was planning not to write... can´t find the question mark. Not sure I´ll be able to keep that promise. I told my editor at the National Post about this trip and I just happened to suggest two possible story ideas... and he liked them both. Uh oh!! Maybe I´m just one of those writers who can´t stop writing. Okay, off I go to la playa. Enjoy your day wherever you are. Best from Monica