Karen Sandler

Karen’s Blog

  • A Girl in Shop Class

    The other day, I was listening to an interview with Neil DeGrasse Tyson on NPR’s Science Friday. (side note: I am madly in love with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. If I wasn’t already married, I would woo Neil).

    Anyway, he got to talking about his childhood, how as a black kid he had to be an athlete in high school to fit in (he wrestled). When he told people he wanted to be an astrophysicist (which he knew from age 11), they told him oh, no, you should be an athlete. Neil said it wasn’t so much racism but the fact that that in those days (late ’60s, early ’70s, based on his age), athletics seemed to be the pathway for someone with his skin color.

    When asked what had kept him going despite society’s skepticism (although his parents did fully support his dreams) he mentioned he had/has a tremendous reserve of strength and self-motivation inside him. When he faced opposition or lack of faith from others, he would draw on his reserve to keep going. Sometimes his reserve got low, but he still kept going until he achieved his goals.

    One funny story he told was of being in shop class in junior high. All the students were to build a desk lamp. It was a simple design, with very clear instructions. But Neil didn’t want to build that desk lamp. He had a particular love of Saturn. He convinced the shop teacher to let him build a Saturn lamp. Neil glued together several blocks of wood, carved out a globe for the planet and a circular piece for the rings. He drilled a hole through the globe to run the cord through and rigged the ring to swivel so that the lamp would turn on when the ring was pressed. He still has that lamp on his desk at the Museum of Natural History. Here’s a video that includes a demonstration of his lamp. It’s at about the 1:10 mark.

    As he was talking about his shop class, he mentioned a reality at that time–that only boys were allowed to take shop. Girls were relegated to cooking and sewing classes. That brought back a memory for me.

    Somehow, when I was in junior high, I was allowed into a shop class. I was the only girl. I loved it. Our project was to design a floor plan for a house. Once we had our design, we were to use balsa wood to build walls. I created a house with a large courtyard in the middle and the rooms ringing the courtyard. I thought it would be cool to have a very private yard like that.

    I was able to draw the floor plan, and got two or three runs of balsa wood glued on. But then came the semester break. I was moved out of shop class (despite my objections) and moved into sewing/cooking class for the second semester. Although it turned out I also enjoyed cooking and sewing, the injustice of being booted out of shop class still stings.

    (Another side note: There was one boy in cooking class. I suspect he was ridiculed by his peers and looked upon with suspicion, just as I had been in shop class).

    I’m assuming that these days if a girl wants to do shop class, she can do it. I know boys take cooking class now in high school. They might still get razzed about it, but they at least have choices.

    So how about it? Anyone have an experience like mine? Or were you allowed to finish that cool project in shop class and you skipped learning how to cook and sew? Let me know in the comments.

  • RTW – Who Do You Love?

    This week, YA Highway asks Who has helped you on your reading/writing/publishing journey? I’ve given that considerable thought (at least the last five minutes) and as is often the case, I can’t come up with just one. There have been many. But there are two I’d like to mention, a Ghost of Writing Past and a Ghost of Writing Present. If there’s a Ghost of Writing Future, I guess I haven’t met you yet.

    My Ghost of Writing Past was Mrs. Luckensmeyer in 10th grade English. The best thing she ever did for me as a writer was the weekly composition book. We were to fill two pages in one of those small gray composition books every week and turn it in on Thursday. We could write our own original material in those two pages, or we could copy something from someone else (as long as we attributed). I think that dispensation to just put pen to paper and write was such a liberating experience for me. Also, she gave us the choice of whether we wanted her to read what we’d written. If we wanted her to read it, we wrote “Please Read” across the top. If we hadn’t given that permission, she would just glance at the pages to make sure we’d done the assignment. It was very cool.

    Here is a my artistically decorated cover and the first page of my 10th grade composition book. If you can read the enlarged version of the poem I wrote, you’ll see some very topical references to what was going on in the late ’60s. I mention the musical Hair because I’d gone to see it at the Aquarius Theater down in L.A. Me and my sisters had done the groupie thing afterward, and hung out with the cast in a seedy hotel room.

    My Ghost of Writing Present is my good friend and romance author, Barbara McMahon. Besides supporting me through those pre-published years when I’d be moaning and groaning about yet another rejection letter, she taught me a key lesson–conflict. We were attending RomCom in Reno, Nevada, sharing a room and enjoying the conference together. I was so chuffed to have a multi-published friend to hang out with. We were taking in the sights one night and I got to telling her about a book I was working on. She stopped me dead with one question–But what’s the conflict? I had no clue. I stuttered something, possibly hated her for a Reno second, then started thinking. From that moment on, that question has never far from my mind when I’m writing. Barbara’s voice is still whispering in my ear, What’s the conflict?

    So who’s important to you in your writing life? How did they help you? Let me know in the comments.

  • Subtext–When Your Characters Don’t Say What They Mean, or Mean What They Say

    There’s a concept I’ve mainly seen in screenwriting called “on the nose” dialogue. That’s dialogue in which there is no subtext, in which a character baldly says exactly what they’re feeling inside.

    What’s the problem with this? First, in the real world people almost never say what they’re really feeling. Emotions make us feel vulnerable. If we admit we like someone, we risk hearing back that the someone doesn’t feel the same way. If we tell a friend a secret, like how terrified we are of tiny little dogs, we risk being ridiculed.

    Second, in fiction, if the dialogue is “on the nose,” it deflates the tension between our characters and in the story.  We expect to be told all sorts of lies in the course of a story. Or maybe not so much lies, but we expect that the realization that a character has early in the book, or half-way through or three-quarters of the way through might not actually be true. People and characters don’t even tell themselves the truth most of the time.

    So, like real people, our characters should hide what they really feel. They should nibble around the edges of expressing their true emotions. Maybe they invite the special someone over for dinner, but make sure he knows he’s just one of several guests. Or he admires her new smart phone and asks all about it because he’s been thinking about buying one like it.

    Here’s a hastily written example of dialogue that is thoroughly on-the-nose. Boyfriend and Girlfriend are talking on the phone:

    Boyfriend: Okay if I bring Spot tonight?
    (Girlfriend smiles happily)
    Girlfriend: You know I love your dog.
    Boyfriend: And we’ll need to stop by Mom’s on the way to the restaurant.
    (Still smiling, Girlfriend nods)
    Girlfriend: Your mom is great. I’m always glad to see her.

    So here, “You know I love your dog” means “You know I love your dog.” And “Your mom is great” means “Your mom is great.” Girlfriend is saying exactly what she means. It’s pretty boring and doesn’t say much about the characters.

    Here’s an example where the action gives the dialogue a little bit of subtext:

    Boyfriend: Okay if I bring Spot tonight?
    (Girlfriend sticks a finger down her throat & mimes gagging)
    Girlfriend: You know I love your dog.
    Boyfriend: And we’ll need to stop by Mom’s on the way to the restaurant.
    (Girlfriend screams silently while pulling at her hair and kicking her feet)
    Girlfriend: Your mom is great. I’m always glad to see her.

    Now “You know I love your dog” means “Your dog disgusts me.” And “Your mom is great” means “I hate her, she drives me crazy.”

    So think about what you say to your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, parents, particularly if there are emotions at stake. Are you speaking on the nose, saying exactly what you feel? Or is there subtext?

    And as you write your characters, make sure there’s a message under the dialogue that doesn’t necessarily match what’s being said. That’s subtext. And subtext will amp up your writing.

  • RTW – Favorite Book in March

    ImageThis week, YA Highway asks, What was the best book you read in March? I’ll make this quick and easy–it was Jasper Fforde’s One of Our Thursdays is Missing . If you haven’t read any of Fforde’s wacky literary-based fantasies (the Thursday Next series), you’re missing out on a real treat.

    In Fforde’s Thursday Next series, we have an alternate history in which such things as literary detectives work in Jurisfiction and the BookWorld actually exists. There are wonderful explanations for how books work when a reader is experiencing them (actual BookWorld people act out the characters’ roles). Along with the mind-bending aspect, there is always a very satisfying mystery solved in each book.

    I highly recommend you pick up book one in the series, The Eyre Affair, a marvelous send-up of Jane Eyre. After reading the first one, you won’t be able to resist the rest.

  • Why Writing Multi-Culturally is So Much Fun

    Today, my guest blog post went up over at Ellen Oh’s blog, Hello Ello. She’s doing a series on What Diversity Means to Me. As I was brainstorming about what I wanted to write in answer to Ellen’s questions, I was inspired to compose a list of reasons why I enjoy writing a multi-cultural cast in my books. I had originally intended to use this list somehow in the blog post for Ellen, but instead I went another direction (as you’ll read if you pop on over there).

    But I thought it might be fun to post the list here on my own blog. Why I enjoy writing multi-culturally:

    • I get to use so many cool names for my characters
    • I get to write about so many different versions of beautiful
    • I learn some fascinating stuff about other cultures
    • I sometimes stumble across a fabulously delicious recipe to try
    • It gives me many new places to dream about traveling to
    • I get to give a wide range of kids a chance to see themselves within my book and on its cover
    • I get to learn about new languages
    • I get to meet some very awesome cultural experts

    Certainly not all-encompassing. So how about some more reasons? Let me know in the comments.