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Fan Mail Wednesday #85

April 21, 2010 / / No comments

When it comes to fan mail, I’ve been a bad, bad boy. So let’s get to work!

Hello,
My name is Bobbie P. and I am a fifth grade student. I read your book Six Innings and thought it was a good book. How did you come up with the idea for Six Innings? How did you come up with the characters? What inspired you to write this book? Please answer me back so I can finish my PowerPoint on your book. Thanks for your help.

I replied:

Bobbie,

Hey, lighten up on the praise, you’re giving me a swelled head!

Thanks for reading Six Innings. Gosh, I don’t think I’ve ever before been the subject of a PowerPoint.  I wonder: Is it like acupuncture? I mean: Will it be very, very painful? I don’t like needles or pointy things.

Brrrrinnng, brrrinnnng. Hold on: I’ve got to take this call from my wife.

(JP: “What’s that my little love muffin? PowerPoint? It’s on a computer? Really?! It’s not pointy at all? No sharp needles! Oh, thanks for the info. It’s so hard to keep up with technology these days.”)

So, um, Bobbie: nevermind!

To answer your questions:

I had to write a book about baseball; it was inevitable. Baseball has touched my life in every way that it can be touched, it’s an invisible thread that connects all the corners of my life. Most vividly in my childhood memories, most profoundly with my mother –- watching ballgames, having catch, connecting through the game. As a father, I’ve spent a lot of time around Little League fields. I’ve coached and managed many teams. I’ve watched those kids, tried to help the best I could, and always came away convinced that I learned more than they did. It’s a world I know. But more than that, it’s a world where many boys live –- passionately. We remember those games, those times, forever. For the book, I wanted to use baseball as a way to explore character. The friendships, the struggles, the inner lives as they are revealed in thought and action during a six-inning baseball game.

I started writing the book by filling a notebook with different ideas for characters. I’d write about them, think about their lives, who they were. Once I had a fairly large cast of characters that seemed alive to me, I put them into a baseball game. It’s one of the tricks of writing: You take characters and put them in stressful situations to see how they might react.

Good luck on the PowerPoint thingy!

By the way, for more on this book, this post gives you more background on the character, Sam Reiser, and how he was inspired by real life experiences.

My best,

JP

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Category: Fan Mail, Six Innings, Uncategorized / Tags: ,

Cyberbullying in BYSTANDER: An Excerpt

April 5, 2010 / / No comments

As I dug deeper into my research for Bystander, a bully-themed novel set in a middle school, I realized that I could write a hundred different stories on the subject. There are so many manifestations, so many different approaches to the issue, so many stories to tell. For my immediate purposes, I decided to focus primarily on boy characters. And for the most part, I did not address cyberbullying in a major way, though I fully realized it was a topic of vital importance for children today.

Just about every educator told me the same thing, in the same words: “Girls are worse.”

That’s why I made sure that one character in the book, Mary O’Malley, was directly touched by cyberbullying. She witnesses it, participates in it, feels uncomfortable with it, and is forced to make some difficult choices. In terms of character arc, Mary gradually moves from darkness into light. Or as she tells Eric late in the book, chapter 25 [misfits], while they sit together (and alone) in the lunch room:

“I’m done worrying about what people like Alexis Brown think of me.”

“When did you get so smart?” Eric asked.

Mary shrugged. “I had to do a lot of dumb things first. After a while, I decided to try a different approach.”

“How’s it working out for you so far?”

“The food’s better,” Mary said, twisting open one of Eric’s Oreos. She turned serious. “Do you know what Mr. Scofield told me? He said not to listen when people say bad things about me. He said, ‘You know, Miss O’Malley, it says more about who they are than it does about you.'”

Here’s an excerpt from an earlier scene in chapter 16 [Mary], when Mary is hanging out with Eric Hayes. They are together at a dog park with Ginger, a Golden Retriever:

It was Eric’s first time alone with Mary. Of course, not counting Ginger’s company. The dog somehow made it easier, gave them a third thing, something outside of themselves that they could share. Mary found an old tennis ball, hurled it across the field. Ginger took off like a rocket, proudly retrieving it. Just an animal, doing what came naturally. They played that game for a long while, Eric and Mary taking turns throwing the ball, Ginger tireless and impatient.

A few times Mary’s cell phone sounded. She’d flip it open, read a text message, flip it closed.

At a certain point she stopped talking.

“You’re frowning,” Eric noted. “Is something the matter?”

Mary shook her head. But a moment later she pulled out her cell, punched a few buttons, and handed it to Eric. “Here, look at this.”

There was a photograph of a girl’s thick body. She wore shorts and a midriff-baring shirt, with the head of a pig Photoshopped onto it. “Who’s that supposed to be?” Eric asked.

“That’s Chantel Williams, you know her?”

“Sort of, we’re in a couple of classes together.”

“Well, everybody is really mad at her –“

“Everybody?”

“Okay, not everybody,” Mary replied, conceding the point. “It’s mostly Chrissie and Alexis. They want me to come over, because they want to get her back.”

Eric didn’t know Chantel well. She seemed okay. “What did she do?”

“Flirted with the wrong guy, according to Alexis.” After a pause, Mary confessed, “I know, you don’t have to say anything. It’s all so stupid.”

“What are they going to do?”

Ginger dropped the ball at Eric’s feet, then plopped to the ground herself, exhausted. He picked the ball up and threw it. Ginger watched it sail through the air, but did not otherwise stir.

“Go on, go get it!” Eric urged.

Ginger rested her chin on the cool earth. She wasn’t going anywhere. The ball could stay lost forever.

It was time to go. Eric reattached Ginger’s leash and gave a tug. He reminded Mary that she still hadn’t answered his question.

Mary sighed, shrugged, rearranged a loose strand of hair. “Something mean,” she said, eyes narrowing. “They are talking about maybe some fake Web page. Alexis has a new iMac in her room. They want me to help. I’m good with computers.”

“You’ve done stuff like that before?”

Mary looked away, nodded. “A little bit.”

One last note about some of the things I was trying to achieve here. You read in the first excerpt the reference to Mr. Scofield, an English teacher. He is a minor but recurring presence in the book, an intelligent, capable teacher who senses what’s going on and tries, in a limited way, to council and assist. The line that Mary attributes to him — “You know, Miss O’Malley, it says more about who they are than it does about you” — came to me directly from a middle school English teacher, my friend Matt Ball. He told me that’s what he sometimes said to his students, if he saw they were having a tough time. I informed Matt that I was going to use it for the book I was writing. Matt told me to be his guest. So that’s how that little piece of advice got into Bystander.

File under: I’m not making this stuff up.


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Category: Bullying, Bystander, Uncategorized / Tags: , ,

Fan Mail Wednesday #78-80 (Thursday Edition)

February 24, 2010 / / No comments

My apologies — bloggy weirdness going on with my typeface below, but I’ve already spent too much time trying to fix it. The truth is, I’m not good at letting these things go (I like my i’s dotted and my t’s crossed). But, enough. Here’s a three-for-the-price-of-one deal!

Letter #78:

Dear Mr. Preller,

I am Miguel. I am in 4th grade. I like the Jigsaw Jones especially the Groaning Ghost because one part they said don’t eat the evidence and the end when they had a party. I have 3 brothers. 1 brother is in 1st grade the other two are four years old. What’s your favorite book you wrote? Do you like to play any sports other then baseball. How many books have you wrote? What new books are you writing in 2010? How many books are you writing in 2010-20ll? I hope you write more books of Jigsaw Jones.

Sincerely,

Miguel

I replied:

Dear Miguel,

Thanks for your letter. I’ve got you beat by one brother. Growing up, I was the youngest of seven children, five boys and two girls. We had the girls outnumbered! But you’ve got LITTLE brothers, whereas I specialized in the BIG ones. Jigsaw Jones is the youngest in his family because I know all about that. In your case, Miguel, you could write about being the oldest, and how the younger ones sometimes drive you crazy (wild guess).

When I was your age, I didn’t play many organized sports, but I constantly played DISORGANIZED ones! That’s the big difference between kids when I grew up (born in 1961, back in the waaay back) and kids today. I played pickup basketball behind the local elementary school, and we played tackle football almost every day until it snowed. Then we played some more. No adults standing around, no fancy equipment, nobody setting up teams, blowing whistles, or settling our disagreements for us. We had to work it all out for ourselves. It’s like a lost skill.

(Sorry if that makes me sound old, but I guess I kind of am.)

I have a new book coming out this summer, called Justin Fisher Declares War! It’s set in a 5th-grade classroom and involves a boy who attracts trouble. It’s pretty funny, I think, but that’s not really for me to decide. Very quick and easy to read.

I’d love to write another Jigsaw Jones book, but right now there are no plans for that. It’s up to my publisher. Fortunately, I wrote 40 of them, so there should be enough to keep you busy for a while!

JP

Letter #79:

you are the best author in the world. I love your books more then ice cream. my name is natessa but people call me Tessa i am in second grade in illinois. maybe you can visit my school. love tessa

I replied:

Tessa,

Thanks for that great email. More than ice cream?! Really? Any flavor?

Wow, that’s something — I never dreamed of beating ice cream. But I have dreamed of eating ice cream!

I love to visit schools and talk to kids. Maybe someday I’ll meet you in Illinois!

In the meantime: read, think, feel, grow!

JP

Letter #80:

James,

My four year old was given the Jigsaw CD (via Wendy’s), The Case of the Mummy Mystery, and that got him hooked on all the books. He has the mummy book memorized, which is hilarious when we read it to him and make any ‘mistakes’ at all, he’ll correct us. I typically read the first couple words and let him finish the paragraph. He LOVES Jigsaw Jones and often calls his 1 year old brother ‘Theodore’ instead of his given name, Eli. He also calls me ‘Mila’ and says that he is ‘Joey’. Not sure why he’s Joey Pignatano and not Jigsaw, but you can’t decode the mind of a four year old, can you?

Just thought I’d send out my big thanks and congrats because these books are a big hit in our house and Ethan’s first ‘big boy’ book that he’ll sit the entire book through without concern for ‘no pictures’.

I particularly love that there are not any rude words in the book, name calling, or other random things that some authors think they need to pull the kids in. There are couple books we read that I have to change the words (idiot, stupid, that’s not fair, shut up, etc. are not cool in our house).

Love your work and excited to be picking up more books. Take care, love to your family.

Trinity

I replied:

Dear Trinity:

Thank you for sharing that story. Your description of Ethan reminds me of when my middle child, Gavin, was in his Beatrice Potter stage. He was three or so and had a complete set of all the books. Used to carry them around everywhere, a challenge that required great effort. It was wonderful — a little nutty and eccentric, yes, but wonderful — and I loved the opportunity he gave me to read those books over and over again. Such lovely stories, true classics. I enjoyed discovering the lesser-known titles (to me, at least), but still remember The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies as my personal favorite.

We frequently played “Peter Rabbit.”

I’d be Mr. McGregor, chasing Gavin all around the house. Lisa would stand in as Peter’s mother. Maggie, Gavin’s younger sister by eighteen months, would want to play, too. Which led to this memorable exchange:

Me: “Okay, who do you want to be Maggie?”

Maggie: “Butter!”

Me: “What?”

Maggie (more insistent): “Butter!”

Me: “Butter?”

This went back and forth for a long while, to the point where we had linguists flown in from Princeton University, all to no avail. The house was in crisis. Maggie, frustrated and angry. Finally, we got it: Not butter — “Potter!”

She wanted to be Potter!

Thanks for reminding me of that story. As for the memorization, Gavin did the same with Peter Rabbit. I distinctly remember him reciting, almost word for word, the first 25-30 pages of that book. Three years old! Craziness. These kids are such sponges. I felt grateful for Beatrice Potter, that his young developing brain was filled with such incredible images and language.

I was happy to read your closing comments about the Jigsaw Jones series. My children were taught that words like stupid and fat were bad words. And truly, bad thoughts to have about other people (and “words” and “thought” are indelibly linked). So I made it a point to keep these words and therefore those thoughts out of the Jigsaw Jones books. And like you, I’ve often been disappointed by some of the (unnecessary) choices made in children’s books and movies in the hopes of bringing in that older, edgier audience. There’s time enough, later in life, for that stuff. I mean to say: I totally hear what you are saying and couldn’t agree more. I’m not trying to sit in judgment. It’s just that as writers we all have to make choices of what we want to put out into the world. And likewise, as parents, what we bring into our homes.

My best,

JP

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Category: Family, Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones, Uncategorized / Tags: , , , , ,

Fan Mail Wednesday #76 (Tuesday Edition)

February 9, 2010 / / No comments

A few things first.

1) This is my 400th post since I started this massive distraction blog back in May 2008. Wow, that’s an average of 3.67 blog posts per day! Oh, wait . . .

2) I’m heading off to Seneca Falls for a couple of days worth of school visits. So I’m shifting Fan Mail Wednesday to Tuesday. Poetry Friday will slide over to Thursday. And by popular demand, I’m eliminating Mondays altogether. Thank you, thank you very much.

3) Don’t you love that iconic image I put up top every time I answer fan mail? Do any of you know what that is? It’s something called “a letter.” You see, back in the Olden Days people used to write on pieces of paper with pens, pencils, porcupine quills or buffalo fat.

Then they would seal the paper in envelopes, and people called “Mail Men” — later renamed, “Mail Men or Sometimes Women” — would walk around the great gaping Earth to deliver those letters to highly arbitrary people. At first it was delivered with the aid of a live tiger, then pony . . .

. . . then funny little car. We called it progress. I’m sure that in these heady days of e-mail and Facebook and teleportation technology, the old mail service sounds like a wild fantasy. But I promise I’m not pulling your leg: It really did happen. Funny little cars? Believe it! They used to be everywhere!

Even so, some folks — and not just the Amish — still try to send letters the old-fashioned way. It’s funny when that happens! Did you know that the United States Postal Service is on pace to lose $7 BILLION this year? That’s not easy to do! But like my Daddy used to say, “When the Government gets involved, anything is possible.” Dad voted for Barry Goldwater in 1964, no lie.

Take a look at this letter I recently received:

Here’s the back:

But inside, folded neatly, I found this Secret Message:

I wrote back:

Dear TJ:

I was home the other day when I heard the doorbell ring. Cha-cha-cha, CHA-cha-CHA, Shooby-Dooby-Doo, it chimed. When I got to the door, I found your letter. It was exhausted and hurt. I carried it inside, offered it a cup of Green Tea, and it told me its terrible story. Apparently, on its way to my house — via my publisher at Scholastic — the letter was ATTACKED BY BEARS!

It was a rough battle — those bears have TEETH! — but the letter managed to escape. It survived with only minor injuries.

As requested by you, TJ, I am writing back. Thank you for reading some of my books. I love that they have helped you “read more and read better.” That’s awesome. And it’s true, there are special editions put together by Barnes & Noble that collect four stories in one book. Talk about a bargain.

At this point, I’ve written forty Jigsaw Jones titles. I think my publisher is sick of them. Maybe even the whole world is sick of them, I don’t know. But I’d love to write another someday. I still get ideas for new stories — and sometimes those ideas come in the mail. When, that is, they aren’t eaten by bears.

Thanks for writing. Your friend,

JP

P.S. I’m sorry if you are a very serious person and can’t tolerate any silliness. My apologies. I’ll try to be more serious next time. Bears only eat blueberries, salmon, honey, and Eggo waffles — NOT LETTERS. This fan mail stuff gets me a little nutty sometimes.

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Category: Fan Mail, Uncategorized / Tags: , , ,

Fan Mail Wednesday #74-75

January 27, 2010 / / No comments

I’m feeling pushed these days — mostly in a good way — so it’s hard to get to these letters. The demands of standard mail can be time-consuming and expensive. I’ll admit it: sometimes I get behind and never catch up on my replies. Then I feel awful about myself and vow never to fall behind again. Rinse, repeat.

And so it goes.

Like I’ve said before: I really appreciate letters that come with Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelopes.

I heated up my trusty, dusty scanner for these two. First, I received a lovely drawing from a girl named Lindsey:

I replied:

Dear Lindsey,

Thank you so much for your kind letter. It is not everyday that I receive such beautiful, creative artwork in the mail. I especially liked your idea for the book tree (not shown in the scan above) — I wish books really did grow on trees! Then I could go out and play instead of sitting here alone at my desk trying to think up new ideas.

I taped your picture on the wall in my office, so I can look over at it each day for inspiration. I’ll think of you and smile.

Thank you for that gift!

JP

Letter #75:

This also came in the mail (I scanned only the front page; it goes on, and on, a bit longer, but you get the idea):

I replied:

Dear Mukul,

Thanks for your letter. I need all the ideas I can get, so thanks for including a few spare ones of your own. I wish that I had so many ideas that I could give them away for free.

Um, they were free, weren’t they?

I don’t, like, owe you any money, do I?

I love traveling. Sadly, we haven’t been able to do much of it in the past several years. We’re working hard to pay our bills and save our money; we’re not in spending mode these days. But a dream that I’ve had for a long time is to bring my family to Ireland. I’ve been there several times on my own, but not in many years. I have roots there, since my grandmother was born in Ireland. She came to this country as an immigrant. In a way I can’t fully explain, I’ve always felt welcome and at home whenever I’ve visited that country. It’s as if there’s a part of me still there, almost magically, and I reconnect to it when I step on those shores. I wish I could live in Ireland for half the year — maybe someday. But mostly I’d love for my children to experience it, to feel just a little bit of what I’ve felt.

There are so many, many places I’d love to visit. Vietnam and India, Australia and Denmark, Costa Rica and New Jersey! The list goes on and on. Hopefully some of those dreams will come true.

Thanks for writing to me.

JP

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Category: Fan Mail, Uncategorized / Tags: ,
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