Out of the Mouths of Babes

It was Sunday morning, on Mother’s Day.  I was wrapped in a blanket of depression.  Holidays are difficult, but especially this one.  Instead of focusing on my many blessings, I was despondent.  In the three years since my son died, I now have more good days than bad.  On Mother’s Day, I was missing him, instead of being grateful for my husband, my other sons, for the richness of my life, and for the incredible people I call friends.

Sunday Morning is my favorite weekend show to watch as I putter around.  There was a segment on a teacher.  You know that caught my attention.  She wasn’t a citizen, but was going through the process of becoming one.  She has to show her worth before she will be able to call herself an American.  She had become bogged down with paperwork to show her desirability.  I came in the room in the middle of the segment, so I can’t even tell you her name.  I went to the show’s web site in hopes of watching the entire clip, but couldn’t find a listing.

The story wasn’t about her quest for citizenship.  In the writing business, we’d call this a subplot.  This young woman teaches aerodynamics, and according to the interviewer, and the award she has recently received, one of the best in the United States.

The interviewer talked about how she inspires her students.  I got the impression she teaches at a tough school.  Yet, her students got up before the crack of dawn in preparation of an upcoming competition.  They finished eleventh in a field of over fifty competitors.

At the end of the segment they were interviewing one of her young students.  They must have asked him something about his teacher’s attempts at becoming a citizen.  This young boy, who couldn’t have been more than eleven, said, “Never give up.”

I was surprised at my reaction.  It was a punch to my stomach.  I caught my breath and tears pooled in my eyes.

He could have been talking to anyone.  His message was clear and to the point.

He was talking to me.   My life has taken a path I would not have chosen.  I’m trying to make the most of a horrific situation.  There are times I want to give up.

As we go through this journey, it’s easy to get discouraged.  It’s easy to look at what has gone wrong.  It’s easy to pull the covers over our heads.

No matter the obstacles thrown in your path, take a breath.  You can get around it.  It may take some work.  You may have to scale high mountains, or swim shark-infested waters, or deal with editor and publisher rejections.

We need to listen to that child.  “Never give up.”  Never give up on yourself, or your dreams.  Never give up.

 

Bookstores

I live in a small town. Very small. We have one stoplight. One. When they installed it about five years ago it caused a major stir. People who live in small towns usually don’t like a lot of change. It’s one of the reasons they live in small towns. Change happens rarely and slowly.

I grew up in Minneapolis which, back then, was more of a small town masquerading as a larger city. I’ve lived over seas and in enormous cities with mind numbing populations. I’ve never minded change.

Until this past week.

Change has been happening all over the country in the past few years as a result of the economy. Some good and some bad and most because people are simply trying to stay afloat.

Last weekend our local bookstore closed.

I cannot even begin to describe how devastating this is to me. I have never lived in a town without a bookstore. I love reading. I love books. I love to wander around a bookstore and see what is out there. Smell the paper and the ink. Feel the creativity. Immerse myself in other worlds.

And on an entirely different level, it scares me. Does this mean that bookstores truly are becoming a thing of the past? Are e-books the future? I don’t have anything against e-books. I have a Kindle and it’s great for travel. The convenience is awesome.

But it’s not a real bookstore. There is something magical and special about bookstores. Holding a book in my hands. It would break my heart to live in a world without bookstores.

What’s your opinion? Paper books vs e-books? A combination of the two? Do you have a favorite bookstore?

 

Grant Writing: Part I

To borrow part of a phrase from my mother, “If I had a dime every time I heard XXX, I’d be a wealthy woman.”

 Well, if I had a dime every time I heard ‘just write a grant’,
I’d make Bill Gates look like a pauper.

 For the past dozen or so years, I’ve taught a bootcampish grant writing course for graduate students during the three week span after finals week through the first week of June. In theory, this class should be easy-peasy compared to the usual stuff.

You don’t have to read a TON of thick, ponderous academic books and journals.

In fact, I don’t assign ANY reading.

You don’t write several papers where you’re expected to synthesize said content into a summary analysis in response to a prompt (and it’s always a diabolical, what-the-hell-does-she-want prompt).

You only have to develop an application for use by a nonprofit or public sector organization. That’s it.

Heh heh heh . . .  it seems so easy . . . at first. But those of you who’ve written grants know the process is analogous to an iceberg . . .  or the ‘gee, I think I’ll write a novel’ impulse.

What you can easily see on the surface, the expected deliverable, only captures a very, very, very small proportion of the ‘berg. I can’t claim taking on an iceberg has a chance of succeeding. However, like writing a novel, any eventual success in grant writing means putting your butt in the chair, doing your homework, gutting it through, and preparing for a long process that may have more hurdles than high moments. Ahhhh, but those high moments ~~~    

For three posts (5/15, 5/29 and 6/5), I’m planning a quick and dirty introduction to grant writing. The secrets? As in fiction, know what you want to accomplish (e.g., project, or book, or short story, or genre) before you start and, to borrow a line from one of my favorite, not-exactly-art-film movies, Galaxy Quest:  “Never give up, never surrender.”

We approach the grant application in four broad stages: know your organization and need,  identify a compatible project and one or more viable funders, and write, on behalf of a public or nonprofit organization, to the selected funder’s ‘request for proposal’. Through a series of exercises distributed between twelve 4-hour classes, students develop a proposal suitable for submission or cannibalizing for boilerplate on future grant applications.  This week, we begin with the foundation . . .

Knowing (and Articulating) Your Organization and Need

 The narrative statement is critical. As in a query letter, the overworked target reader (who probably has an enormous stack of queries or grant applications to get through) must see something promising to warrant expending more time on your submission. So, aside from the basic typos, failure to follow submission directions and mastery of the English language (or lack thereof), you must draft a narrative statement that concisely explains the problem your agency intends to address AND the agency’s capacity to do so with the critical assistance of the funder. Let’s start with your organization.

Agency Capacity

 The strength of an organization lies in its focus, people, and processes and the coherent blend of those components. For all three, you need to have documentation (and depending upon the funder, you might be expected to provide these specifics). Your focus is captured in the mission statement of the organization and is also demonstrated in its history (what’s been done) and current scope (what’s being done) and who benefits. Often, grant writers are so focused on the ‘problem’ they take for ‘granted’ (couldn’t resist) a funder’s acceptance of the legitimacy of agency existence and action.

Your responses to the preceding question should implicitly set up your application. If the reviewer is not convinced you know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and for whom you’re acting, then there’s no point in continuing to review the application. In addition, if you haven’t established this legitimacy, your reviewer won’t buy your problem statement no matter how authoritative.

Problem Statement

Not all problems have solutions. But, we do tend to have lots of pet solutions floating around looking for problems. We’ll consider more about this point in the final post on program evaluation and budgeting. For now, you should identify the need you plan to address (and this means considering all of the variables and cause/effect relationships).

‘Need’ demands you can identify and document the person or persons affected by the problem and how they might be affected. This helps you establish the significance of the problem for the target population, confirms for the funder the appropriateness of their participation and allows you to answer the pivotal question: Why should your agency/organization take action?

In the next post, I’ll discuss funders, dissecting their request for proposals and the initial sketch of your proposed action.

In the meantime, what experiences have you had with grant writing?

Will you share your advice/cautions/tips on the process?

 

Guest Blogger: Kathy Bennett

Authentic Crime…Arresting Stories

The title of this blog is part of my author brand. It took me two weeks to come up with those four words. Some things are worth waiting for. That little catch phrase is perfect for describing my writing and me.

Prior to becoming a full-time writer, I was a Los Angeles Police Officer…for twenty-one years. While a police officer, I experienced a lot of things that most people can’t even imagine. But I’ve found there are many people who are interested in those events. They just don’t want to put their lives on the line to experience similar occurrences themselves. I totally get that and understand it.

That’s why I was so careful with the ‘tag line’ of my brand. I wanted to be able to stand behind it and know it was true. It’s my promise to the reader that while the situations and characters I put in my books may be fictional, the atmosphere and the possibility of those circumstances being true are dead on.

But being authentic is a delicate balance in several ways. First, there is a saying in police work that the job is 95% sheer boredom and 5% sheer terror. That statement is pretty darn accurate. So, as a writer, if I were to tell you all the boring things that go on in police work you wouldn’t want to read my book. The trick is to show you those boring things about the job, and yet, still make them interesting.

It’s like pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz. You might be disappointed that your preconceived idea about how powerful the Wizard is turns out to be false. But it’s pretty darn cool how he’s able to turn a wheel at his command center and get fire to leap 25 feet into the sky.

It’s the same way with police work. You probably have predetermined ideas how cops live their lives – much of your knowledge based on what you see on TV and in the movies. I’m here to tell you it isn’t all about pursuits and shoot-outs. Oh, those things can and do happen, but the normal behind the scenes stuff is interesting too. And that’s what I authentically deliver in my stories.

But being realistic can have its drawbacks too. In my book, A Deadly Blessing there are story lines and language that are true to life. And those situations occur every day in this country. I didn’t use those story lines for shock value. I used them because cops all over the country face those circumstances, or worse, on a daily basis. That’s what cops sign up for – and handling those types of problems is what they do.

The cop is bound by duty and integrity to face those challenges, while a reader of one of my books can feel all the emotions and the excitement of being a cop from the safety of their recliner…which, I think, is a pretty good balance.

And that is what I’ve promised you with my brand…Authentic Crime resulting in Arresting Stories.

 

Guest Blogger: Alexa Bourne

I spent 9 years teaching in my own classroom. It’s a rewarding career, but so very challenging. I signed my first book contract in December 2011. Since then, being an author has also been rewarding, but you know what I’ve realized since my book hit the cyber shelves? Being a writer is a lot like being a teacher.

In both jobs, you have a lot of disappointment. Teachers must deal with difficult children and/or parents and administrative requirements. Writers must deal with rejections and bad reviews.

In both jobs, the pay doesn’t really reflect the work we do. Teachers spend hours outside of school preparing and planning lessons. Many teachers work part time during the year or work during the summer. Writers spend hours outside of actually writing. We have promo work to do and I’m learning how amazingly overwhelming that can be! Now, some authors can say they make beaucoup bucks, but the majority don’t. Many writers still hold down day jobs to pay bills.

Both jobs are definitely 24/7. I used to drive around my city on errands and see something that would remind me of my students. I would create an activity for an individual student who was having trouble or I might create a game for the entire class in hopes of exciting them to read or write. Teachers often get home at night and pull out papers to grade while they watch TV.

I also have come up with some awesome plot points while driving around. A simple thing like a police siren once led me to an entire plot for a full-length manuscript. I, as a writer, often have my laptop while I sit on the couch watching one of my favorite shows. I now get up 15 minutes to a half an hour earlier each work day so I can check or send emails that have to do with my books. (And anyone who knows me knows what a sacrifice this is. I HATE mornings!)

There are, of course, many positives too. In both jobs you have many pleasant surprises. A student or parent might bring a teacher a treat to thank her. A student might make a card or poster for you. (I had a rough start to one day last week and a boy walked up and handed me a poster he’d made for me and two pens with flowers made out of colored duct tape on the ends.) When a student “gets it”, there’s no better feeling. In much the same way, writers get that feeling when people say they loved the book. (I’m still giggling when people say that to me!) Writers might get awards or letters from readers that truly touch the heart. Making a best-seller list or readers’ choice list is much like getting nominated for Teacher of the Year.

And the biggest similarity between writing and teaching? People who aren’t teachers or writers have no idea how much blood, sweat or tears we shed for each student and each book. But that’s okay. We teachers keep teaching so we can help shape the future. And we writers keep writing so we can help people escape their own lives if only for a few hours. Why? It’s what we do.