The master of show, and never tell.

Shel.

Wrote pint-sized sarcasm oh-so-well.

Shel.

Didn’t care that children often rebel.

Shel.

At visual humor, oh how he excelled.

Shel.

Putting kids everywhere under his spell.

Shel.

Sure to inspire, sure to compel.

Shel.

Went up and not down when he fell.

Shel.

KW….

©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.

Oh joy!

I’ve spent the last week in a semi-panic.  Would I look like some kind of female version of Clement Moore’s Santa–with a nose like a “cherry” and a belly like a “bowlful of jelly”? Cute enough on St. Nick, not so appealing on a middle-aged author. What would I wear? Would my hair behave? It never has up to this point. How would my voice sound with this awful cold? Would I even have a voice?  Would it be horribly rainy and drizzly (the film crew wanted to film out doors in a “bearsy” environment).

But lo-and-behold I survived.  In fact, it was fun. I opted to dress country/casual (avoiding frumpy/hick I hope). And when I woke up today my cold had departed and taken the drips and the drizzles with it.  The day was only partly cloudy and felt downright “balmy” (for Montana–for Arizona it would be an extreme cold snap).

The crew (Larry, Dave and Scott) were absolutely charming, funny, and sweet–and made me feel very at ease. We joked around a LOT. I mean, when the film guy gets deer “poo” on his knees while setting up the camera you can either laugh or, well–I don’t know, if you can’t laugh at that you probably wouldn’t get along with me.

Larry, me, my husband (Scott), Scott (from Scholastic) and Dave

It’s not the most scenic time of year right now, and the woods were a little “dead” looking–but since the book they featured was Bear Feels Scared it worked out well, since it’s set in the fall and isn’t full of greenery anyway. My husband and one of my sons came–and we joked that we were all loggers because we had to clear deadfalls so the ground didn’t look so cluttered. All in all a fun day.

One of the funniest parts of the day was when I had to peek around trees with my hand on my head like I was looking for bear. I felt like I was in a Captain Morgan’s commercial!  Oh, and true to form I almost fell flat on my face a few times while “strolling” through the woods. They wanted me to look natural, and I was trying not to look at my feet. Ha ha!

Me looking soooo photogenic

©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.

Now, on to my post….are you a Christian offended by the word “Xmas”? Do you feel it’s part of an evil effort to “x out christ”? Well, stop it! The origin of the word “xmas” is steeped in the Christian faith! And here’s the good news, it opens up a wonderful teaching opportunity about the history of the church. Skeptical? Read on…

First of all, the use of the word “xmas” isn’t some modern attempt to secularize Christmas. The word has been used for at least 1000 years, and probably much longer.

So what’s the X stand for? Christ! X was commonly used as an abbreviation for Christ in the 1500′s, the days of the early printing press. Words like Xian, Xianity, and Xmas were employed as a way to save time and ink. Typesetting was done by hand and a very tedious process.  Why X? It’s the Greek symbol for X (Chi) which is the first letter in Christo. Greek symbols representing important aspects of faith have a long tradition in the Christian faith.

Use of the word “X” for Christ has even been spotted in ancient Christian art.

This is from the Vatican. Greek letters X (Chi) and P (Ro)..symbolizing the first two letters in the word Christos…meaning Christ.

Pretty cool, huh?

So do not fear the word Xmas. When you see it, smile…and remember X=Christ.

©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.

                                    ⓒ Karma Wilson

What are your favorite seasons?

K…

©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.

You cannot imagine how hot, huge, and noisy the warehouse is. It must have been over one hundred degrees in there. With all the noise and the movement of the books on the hundreds of conveyor belts I felt almost like I might faint. The employees just went about their job amid all the bustle and heat. It certainly was fascinating to witness.

I never really thought about what it takes to pack and ship all those books of mine. Now that I know more about it I have to say I am so grateful to everybody who makes it possible.

Also, the people at the warehouse were so kind and welcoming. They really made me feel special and I so appreciate that. So a big thank you to all the publisher employees who don’t get as much publicity as the authors, illustrators, and editors. WE APPRECIATE YOU!

K….

©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.

Our family sponsors children in third world countries. I’m a strong supporter of Compassion because the charity watch organizations rate them highly and also  because they allow me to have direct interaction with my child. Letters and photos assure me that the money I send provides absolute necessities to the children and their families.

One of my sponsored children is in Bangladesh. He’s very articulate in his letters to me and he wants to grow up to be a teacher. A few months ago I sent an extra gift of $75 which goes directly to the family. To be honest I didn’t think much of it. Our family can spend that much on one meal out. It’s a small gift, not so noteworthy. But I know it goes further in third world countries. I clicked a few buttons and forgot all about it.

Yesterday I got a letter from my sponsor child. One line hit me hard. He thanked for the gift and said that with the money his family was able to buy “a cow and some chocolates”.  A cow! His family bought a cow, which in Bangladesh can be life changing, with what I consider chump change.  I’m having a hard time articulating how I felt…I suddenly had a small grasp on how much different my life is than the majority of people in the world.

And it’s a strange conundrum because while I feel happy that a family benefited from the gift, I feel almost guilty that I sent it off so casually. It wasn’t even a sacrifice to me, it was simply a few mouse clicks.

And the chocolates also hit me.  I imagine my sponsored child savoring the chocolate much like Charlie in Willy Wonka.  Chocolate must be a rare treat or why would he have even mentioned it?

Anyway, not really relevent to writing or children’s book, but I had to share.

K…

©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.

Here’s a few more to consider, especially when writing poems for kids:

Take common cliches and turn them on end (just from this post I’ve gleaned two poem titles–”Sitting in the Dark” and “Cake Walk). Cliches can make great poems for kids.

Talk to your friends with children and ask them about fun/funny issues they are dealing with currently. Write them down. I did this with an online writing group and literally have dozes of fresh ideas that would never have occurred to me on my own.

Look at your children. Surely something inspires you. Cowlicks? Dirt smudges? Runny noses? Stained shirts? Big eyes? They are a fount of inspiration.

But remember one thing–never write a poem for a child with a punchline that hinges on things that “you” find cute and adorable about children. This makes kids feel like the butt of a joke and it doesn’t take their interests into consideration. It talks down to them and will turn them off every time.  If it makes you go, “awwww, aren’t kids cute” you might want to delete or revise.

And never replace a difficult word because “kids might not know what it means”.  Poetry is one of the best ways for children to learn vocabulary. Dumbing down writing for children is, in my opinion, a crime.

K…

©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.

Wall Street Journal had a very interesting article about a new Internet phenomenon.  The explosion of online dating and networking sites has created a new form of plagiarism, and it’s not pretty.  People desperate to impress are apparently cut-n-pasting themselves an extreme personality makeover! According to the WSJ article:

“Among the 125 million people in the U.S. who visit online dating and social-networking sites are a growing number of dullards who steal personal profiles, life philosophies, even signature poems. “Dude u like copied my whole myspace,” posts one aggrieved victim.

Copycats use the real-life wit of others to create cut-and-paste personas, hoping to land dates or just look clever.”  

In my opinion what it boils down to is a lack of writing skills combined with laziness. We have become a “sound-bite society”.  Many people no longer have the patience to take a few minutes to be creative, witty and real. And while text messaging is quick and convenient, it makes for crummy dating profile. “SWM, n 2 tunes n vid games, seeks buTful girl n 2 same.”

Um, yea. But rather than write a compelling profile with subtle humor, deeper insight, and actual information about the writer’s personality, it’s much easier to seek the technological out, find somebody with a quirky, fascinating personality and steal it. I find myself wondering if their is multi-tier plagiarism going on.  Has somebody every copied a personality that was already plagiarized? Hmmmm….

But back to my point, this is exactly why we need to feed our children a steady diet of good literature from birth through 12th grade, and I mean real literature, not watered down pabulum! I once had a discussion with another author about how kids today are bored by the classics. The writer insisted that the because kids are bombarded with quick, easy entertainment (video games, TV, email, text messages) the writing in the classics wasn’t staccato enough, and had too much unnecessary detail. Novels mentioned  included Anne of Green Gables and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn!  The writer assured me that these novels would never be published in today’s publishing atmosphere. I agreed, but in my mind it was more a condemnation of today’s literature than the classics! (Note: there are a lot of wonderful books being written today, so this isn’t blanket condemnation.)

I know there are a lot of creative and wonderful young people out there and not everybody is ripping off a snazzy profile for their Myspace page. But it really concerns me that some young people are finding it too much trouble to come up with a couple of creative paragraphs about their own ideas and interests.

Whenever I’m asked what the secret to good writing is I have one main response: Good reading. This illustrates exactly what I mean.

K…

©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.

©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.

One of White’s essays is titled “Death of a Pig“, which was published in the January 1948 edition of the Atlantic Monthly. 

It’s a plain-speaking tale of a sick pig and how White tried, in vain, to help the pig recover over the course of many days.  The writing is funny and poignant at the same time.  The style is reminiscent of Lewis.  The two shared a droll sense of humor and an assumption that their readers shared their intelligence.  White and Lewis were contemporaries (born a year apart) and I found myself wondering if they ever met. I couldn’t find the information on Google so I assume not.  The essay itself is very touching, and it really conveys how something ordinary, like an ailing farm animal, can cause profound emotions and spur life evaluations.

I’ve read that White insists that Charlotte’s Web wasn’t inspired by the sick pig incident. Now, I’m not calling him a liar, but I find it hard to fathom that some little part of his subconscious didn’t have his old, sick pig in mind as he wrote about the porcine hero, Wilbur, who received a most remarkable pardon from an almost certain death sentence. One of the greatest benefits of being a writer is giving readers more satisfying endings than real life usually provides.

K…

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©2012 Good Karma. All Rights Reserved.