A Word Please

The multitalented author Dallas Woodburn joins me today! I don’t know where she finds the time or energy to accomplish all she does – and at such a young age. She has amazing drive and direction. Let’s get to know a bit about Dallas.

Dallas Woodburn, 22, is the author of two collections of short stories and a forthcoming novel. She has written more than 80 articles for national publications including Family Circle, Writer’s Digest, CO-ED, Justine, and The Los Angeles Times, and she writes a regular column for Listen magazine. Dallas is the founder of the nonprofit organization “Write On! For Literacy” that has donated nearly 11,000 new books to disadvantaged children. Her latest endeavor is starting a publishing company, Write On! Books, that publishes the work of young writers. In addition, she hosts frequent writing contests, teaches writing camps for kids, and is coordinator of the Young Writers Program at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Dallas graduated this past May from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Creative Writing and Entrepreneurship. Contact her at her website www.writeonbooks.org or blog http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com.
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I find Dallas’ work with literacy inspiring. So I asked her about it and here’s what she said:

You’ve created an organization called Write On! For Literacy. What does that entail?

In a recent national assessment conducted by the National Literacy Institute (NLI) of fourth-grade students, 13% reported never reading for fun on their own; an additional 16% only read for fun once a month. I think this is a travesty. Reading has brought me so much excitement, confidence and has opened so many doors for me, including a tremendous college education and a career that I love.

Writing and reading have given me so much fulfillment and self-confidence, and opportunities that I never would have been given otherwise – like traveling to New York to be a guest on The CBS Early Show when I was writing a column for Family Circle magazine. I feel other kids should be exposed to writing and reading as well, to encourage their self-confidence and self-expression. When I published my first book, There’s a Huge Pimple On My Nose, in fifth grade, the teachers in my elementary school asked me to talk to their classes, and then I spoke to other classes throughout the school district. I still enjoy talking to kids about writing. At the beginning of my talk, I ask the kids if any of them are interested in writing, and usually a few shy hands raise. In contrast, at the end of my talk when I ask the same question, a lot more hands raise. The students told me they didn’t know that kids could be writers. They thought they had to wait until they were adults.

I started “Write On! For Literacy” in 2001 to encourage kids to discover joy, confidence, a means of self-expression and connection to others through reading and writing. My website www.writeonbooks.org features writing contests, book reviews, fun writing prompts, and more. I also hold an annual Holiday Book Drive to collect and distribute new books to disadvantaged kids — more than 10,000 books have been donated to date.

If one of our readers wants to sponsor a local holiday book drive for your organization, what should he or she do?

That would be wonderful! Write On! would love for you to start a Holiday Book Drive chapter in your area! It can be as large or small of an effort as you have the time and energy for. Many chapter leaders begin book drives by inviting friends and relatives to get involved, and then broaden their efforts to area schools, churches and community groups. I have found in my own efforts that often people in the community want to get involved with literacy endeavors, but aren’t sure how — when they hear about the Holiday Book Drive, they are very excited to help out.

If you are interested in starting a Holiday Book Drive chapter, please e-mail me at dallaswoodburn@aol.com and I will add you to our chapter list. I can also send you flyers to help spread the word and get the ball rolling!

Here’s a little more information about Write On! For Literacy

Mission Statement:
Write On! For Literacy encourages kids to discover confidence, joy, a means of self- ?expression and connection with others through reading and writing.

Programs include:

Holiday Book Drive
Write On! Books Publishing Company, which publishes anthologies of short stories, poetry and essays by young writers.
Writing Contests
Summer Writing Camp
Scholarship Fund

For more information, visit the Write On! For Literacy website:
www.writeonbooks.org

Finally, I want to mention that Dallas has put together a book of her short stories called 3 a.m.: a collection of short stories. Here it is on Amazon:

Thanks for reading!

I’m excited to introduce children’s author Fiona Ingram. Fiona has a unique story to share with us today. I hope you’ll all enjoy it as much as I did.

I asked Fiona to tell us about herself:

I am a South African children’s author. Up until a few years ago I was a journalist and editor. Something rather unexpected sparked my new career as an author—a family trip to Egypt with my mother and two young nephews. We had a great time and I thought I’d write them a short story as a different kind of souvenir…. Well, one book and a planned book series later, I had changed careers.

It has been an incredible journey and not without its dark and dreary moments. Living in South Africa affords very few good opportunities for publishing. Hence my decision to find a publisher in the USA. That too has its drawbacks—I can’t do as much as I would like with book readings etc. But the benefit of the Internet has proved itself! I have found that through blogging, tweeting, Facebook, and other online means, I have been able to build up a good author profile.

My book has also done me proud in Book Awards and various contests.
• Finalist in the Children’s/Juvenile Fiction category of the 2009 USA Next Generation Indie Book Awards
• Finalist in the Children’s Fiction section of the USA National Best Books 2009 Awards.
• Winner in the Preteen category of the 2009 Readers’ Favorites 2009 Awards.
• Nominated Number 2 in the Top 10 Favourite Books of 2009 for Kids, Tweens and Teens in The Children’s & Teens Book Connection.
• Silver medal in the Teen Fiction category of the 2010 Nautilus Book Awards.
• Finalist in the 2010 International Book Awards.

Writing for children, it was inevitable that the subject of child literacy would interest me. I fostered and then later adopted a disadvantaged African child. I hope you’ll read her story from ignorance to literacy here as well. As a result, I now give creative writing classes with my book readings at schools, and write articles on how parents can help their kids to enjoy reading more. You can visit my website www.FionaIngram.com and look at a variety of articles in the Media Room. For those who are still adventurers at heart, please visit the book site www.secretofthesacredscarab.com. If you’re clever enough to crack the Curse of Thoth at the end of The Journey, you can read Chapter One of the next book in my series The Chronicles of the Stone.

About Fiona’s book – The Secret of the Sacred Scarab:

The Secret of the Sacred Scarab is a middle grade children’s adventure, filled with action, mystery, history (yes!), geography, archaeology, and all the kind of hands-on/solving clues stuff kids love. The story is a thrilling adventure for two young boys, whose fun trip to Egypt turns into a dangerously exciting quest to uncover an ancient and mysterious secret.

A 5000-year-old mystery comes to life when a scruffy peddler gives two young South African tourists, Adam and Justin Sinclair, an old Egyptian scarab on their very first day in Egypt. Only when the evil Dr. Faisal Khalid shows a particular interest in the cousins and their scarab, do the boys realise they are in terrible danger. Dr. Khalid wants the relic at all costs. Justin and Adam embark upon the adventure of a lifetime, taking them down the Nile and across the harsh desert in their search for the legendary tomb of the Scarab King, an ancient Egyptian ruler. They are plunged into a whirlpool of hazardous and mysterious events when Dr. Khalid kidnaps them. They survive terrifying dangers in a hostile environment (such as a giant cobra, as well as sinking sand), pursued by enemies in their quest to solve the secret of the sacred scarab. They must translate the hieroglyphic clues on the underside of the scarab, as well as rescue the missing archaeologist James Kinnaird, and their friend, the Egyptologist Ebrahim Faza, before time runs out. They must also learn more about the ancient Seven Stones of Power and the mysterious Shemsu-Hor. With just their wits, courage, and each other, the boys manage to survive … only to find that the end of one journey is the beginning of another!
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Fiona has written a moving piece about her personal experience with children’s literacy:

The Wonderful World of Words and One Child’s Journey There

I don’t remember actually learning to read; it’s as if I always did. Although we grew up poor (five children to feed, clothe, and educate), my parents always had books in the house. And then of course, there were the books we inherited from my grandparents. My very old copy of The Wind in the Willows, with those simple yet beautiful illustrations, is still on my bookshelf. Ratty and Mole were my heroes (and still are!). Other old friends are The Secret Garden, with exquisite color plates, The Water Babies, Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree series, my collection of the Lucy Fitch Perkins’ twin series, with her poignant stories of children of all eras and places around the world. I particularly loved Anne of Avonlea, The Little Princess, and many others.

The list of children’s classics is endless and not so long ago I read them all over again. I ‘inherited’ an African foster child from a disadvantaged background. This little girl came to me at age eleven, practically illiterate, scoring only 19% for English at school. Opening the doors into the wonderful world of books seemed insurmountable because she simply did not understand the connection between the written and spoken word. What to do? Begin at the beginning seemed a good idea.

I started off with my old favorites and Mabel loved them. Suddenly, the words were not frightening because she was hearing about places and people she’d never imagined. She’d lean over my shoulder, breathing down my neck as I read, my finger tracing the words as I sounded them out. The pages began to surrender the magical words, and she found them enchanting! Fired with success, we moved onto the rest of the library, slowly devouring my children’s classic book collection in very tiny bite-sized pieces. I was still doing most of the reading.

One day, Mabel decided she’d help out with the words, and began reading to me. It was still incredibly slow but I began to see the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. We got movies of books, watched them, and then read the books, just in case the moviemakers had left out some important bits. We expanded our repertoire book by book. I found other ways to sneak words into her day, not just when we were doing ‘serious’ reading. She read recipes with me when we baked; she read the instructions on the packaging to me while we prepared dinner; she read advertisements to me when we shopped. Suddenly words were a constant part of her life.

Mabel also began to show her imaginative side at school. Her poems and creative writing pieces began to change, reflecting more color, bigger words, more complex themes and emotions. What a breakthrough! The final moment of success came when just recently she turned to my mother and said, “Gran, will you buy me a book?”

My mother nearly fell off her chair and replied, “You can have as many as you like, darling.”

Mabel grinned. “Oh, then can you buy me all the Twilight books please?”

Thank you Stephenie Meyer for being the first author Mabel ‘owns.’ (Apparently vampires rock.)

Her latest ‘own’ books? Inkheart, and The Golden Compass.

Her latest marks for English? A magnificent 75%.

“I can do much better,” she said, frowning. “I’m going to have to improve on this if I want to be a writer.”

I have now adopted Mabel legally, not having my own children, and I can say the greatest compliment is that she has decided to become a journalist or a novelist (just like me).

Recently I called her and, hearing her voice coming from her bedroom, asked, “What are you doing?”

Reply: “I’m reading!”

Music to any parent’s ears!
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This is Mabel, Fiona’s beautiful adopted daughter, who has been blessed with the love of words and a mother’s unconditional love.

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You can learn more about Fiona and her work in the following places:
Her Website: www.FionaIngram.com
Her Book: www.secretofthesacredscarab.com
Her Blog: http://fionaingramauthor.blogspot.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/FionaRobyn