Paul Acampora's Blog

TO: Friends, family, and book lovers!

(with a special shout-out to fans of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD!)

FROM: Paul Acampora

SUBJECT: TEAM MOCKINGBIRD (!)

Hi everybody!

I’m writing because my new novel – I KILL THE MOCKINGBIRD – will arrive in stores this coming spring. It’s a comedy caper for kids (say that three times fast) about a group of friends who sabotage their school’s summer reading list. It’s also an internet conspiracy theory plus reverse psychology literary love story with ukuleles, baseball, wiener dogs, Santa Claus, an obsession with To Kill a Mockingbird, and a miracle cure for cancer (because let’s face it, who can resist a wiener dog?)

I’m also writing to ask if you would help me spread the word about the book by joining my TEAM MOCKINGBIRD! (Note: I haven’t decided yet whether TEAM MOCKINGBIRD! should always be followed by an exclamation mark a la WHAM! What do you think? ) As I was saying… the goal is simple: to introduce I KILL THE MOCKINGBIRD to as many middle school teachers and librarians as possible. If they like it, they’ll share it with kids. If they don’t like it… well… let’s not think about that.

If you’re interested in being on TEAM MOCKINGBIRD! (I’m liking the !), I’ll send you packets filled with super-cool gotta-have-it promotional items, book info, and SWAG – things like posters, postcards, bookmarks, concert t-shirts, secret decoder rings, authentic Captain Crunch sailor whistles, U.S. Mint Collector Coins, Harper Lee bobble head dolls, AND MORE! Ok… I’m kidding about the Captain Crunch whistles, but either way your part is easy: simply go and dump these tchotchkes – I mean SHARE these TREASURES – with a few of your favorite librarians and teachers. That’s it! Easy peasy. So… if you’d like to join the fun, just say so!

In conclusion, I am really, really, really excited about I KILL THE MOCKINGBIRD (That’s a TRIPLE REALLY my friends.) It was a lot of fun to write, and with your help, I think a lot of kids will have fun reading it too.

THANK YOU!

Paul

PS Just one more thing (for now)… I will have a limited number of I KILL THE MOCKINGBIRD advance copies later in the fall. If you or somebody you know (teacher, librarian, bloggers young and old) would like to review it somewhere, I’ll try to get you a free copy. Just ask! Thanks again!

It’s the parenting – not the spider bite – that’s going to kill me. This also answer the question: where do my ideas come from?

The scene: Me driving. Daughter (age 13) in back seat.

Daughter: Dad, there’s a spider back here.

Me: Oh?

Daughter: It’s on the seat.

Me: Oh?

Daughter. It’s on YOUR seat.

Me: Oh?!?!

Daughter: It’s crawling up!

Me: Can you reach him?

Daughter: It’s really big!

Me: Can you reach him?!

Daughter: No… because he’s on your shirt!

Me: Where on my shirt?

Daughter: Now he’s on your pants!

Me: This isn’t funny.

Daughter: And he’s HUGE!

Me: Stop it.

Daughter: ON YOUR LEG! THE SPIDER IS ON YOUR LEG! DAD! DAD! DAD! IT’s….

Me (swerve to curb. throw car into park): WHERE? WHERE?

Daughter: THERE!

Me: (swatting myself wildly like some insane medieval self-flagellator): WHERE? WHERE?

Daughter: You got him!

Me: (pale, dead quarter-sized spider at my feet) Next time, just let him bite me.

Twenty-five things revealed by NSA cell-phone surveillance/data collection program:

Apollo lunar landings we’re a hoax.
Fingernails really do keep growing after we’re dead.
There was a second shooter.
Most men can only remember 3 things without a grocery list.
Emperor Nero – and not early Christians – set fire to Rome.
Puerto Rico apparently became a state in 1912, and New Mexico is still a territory.
Barack Obama and Kevin Bacon are twin brothers of different mothers.
Kevin Bacon killed the electric car.
Kevin Bacon invented cold fusion.
Al Gore actually won 2000 Presidential campaign and has constructed fake oval office in basement rec room. He still makes Tipper call him Mr. POTUS. Also, Gore did invent internet and texts about it incessantly.
Fluoridation is real (and it’s good for your teeth).
Government surveillance is a myth (don’t look at that man behind the curtain.)
Most Americans believe that Area 51 is the source of Doctor Who’s sonic screwdriver (eye roll).
Jesus had wife, kids and siblings.
Joss Whedon is Dr. Who is Joss Whedon is Dr. Who is Joss Whedon… (see what I did there)
All of Shakespeare’s sonnets (but not the plays) were actually written by a roomful of monkeys with typewriters.
All of Shakespeare’s plays (but not the sonnets) written by Joss Whedon (cuz he’s the Doctor.)
As it works out, algebra does matter.
Since 2009, most bomb-makers in U.S. have been middle-school kids working on “most awesome science project ever!”
Downplaying terrorist threats and preventing texting-while-driving would have net effect of saving 500,000+ lives/year (including 62 government workers who crashed into cell phone towers during NSA surveillance/data collection program ).
Globally, thirty-nine percent of all call-center workers are looking at porn while they’re talking to you. The other twenty-one percent are texting their mom. The rest are shopping on Amazon. CIA provides daily report to President Obama about this.
Twitter was invented by aliens in failed attempt to make humans more concise before absorbing us into galactic hegemony.
The truth is not “out there.” It choked on one of those hot-dog/crescent roll mini-appetizers at a DC cocktail party last Friday night, and now it’s waiting in line for treatment at the VA hospital in Bethesda.
Former members of Stasi, KGB, SS, Gestapo, DINA, Tokko as well as staff from Herbert Hoover’s FBI and Nixon’s Whitehouse could have done a lot better with the right tools.
Kevin Bacon knew you were going to say that.

So here are a few things that novel writing has taught me (so far) about plot…

From novel #1: Action and motion are not the same as plot. But you can’t have plot without them.

From novel #2: Characters and relationships are not the same as plot. But you can’t have plot without them.

From novel #3: Problems and motivation are not the same as plot. But you can’t have plot without them.

Obviously, there’s is still a lot I don’t know about plot.

Two press releases from last night’s Bengal Bouts boxing match featuring Nicholas Acampora. I think one of these reports is especially good.

Dateline: February 14, 2013 (NOTRE DAME, IN) – Boxing fans at the University of Notre Dame’s Bengal Bouts witnessed a battle of the ages last night when freshman upstart Nick “THE AX MAN COMETH” Acampora took on 24-year old law student, Chris “Legal Beagle” Hinman. The Beagle bit early and often, but Ax landed several mighty blows. Still, the dogwood would not go down. ”That old man can really move,” admitted the Ax Man who had hoped his background as an award-winning dancer might give him a swift and graceful edge in the ring. On this night, it was not to be so. Despite receiving several strong swats across the nose during round two, the beagle prosecuted the freshman to the fullest extent of the law. Hinmam will face a new Bengal Bouts opponent next week. “I wish him a lot of luck,” said Acampora who must wait till 2014 if he hopes to compete in the ring once again. Asked to prognosticate about his future, the freshman said, “I’ve got a linear algebra test tomorrow.”

From Notre Dame’s student newspaper, The Observer (Feb 13)

def. Nick Acampora.

Experience bested exuberance when law student Chris Hinman defeated freshman Nick Acampora. Hinman’s maturity showed from the opening bell as he darted around the ring, stinging Acampora with quick jabs. The freshman landed some strong blows to Hinman’s head in the second round. But the law student adjusted and punished Acampora with counterattacks in the third round to earn a unanimous decision victory.” by Observer Sports Writers, Thurs. Feb. 13, 2013

Here are a few quotes and moments from  my recent awesome week filled with school visits and writing workshops. Thank you to all the students and teachers  at St. Anthony’s School (Bristol, CT), Talcott Mountain Academy (Avon, CT) and Memorial Middle School (Middlefield, CT)! Enjoy!
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90% of writing is paying attention to the world. The rest is just nouns and action verbs.

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Writers are people who write every day. Authors are people who finish things.

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If you don’t learn to write well, then all your thoughts and opinions and stories and ideas remain trapped in a box that looks like your head.
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You’ve got to keep a notebook. For me, cheap notebooks are best. The cheaper the better. They don’t demand good writing. If I had an expensive notebook, I’d feel compelled to try and write well and that would be a disaster. A leather bound notebook would kill me. Especially if the leather was made out of human skin. (I said this to a 6th grader who was reading Silence of the Lambs).
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Ideas come from everywhere. But the best ideas come from failure.
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I used to think that deer were like giant bunnies. After hitting a couple with my car, I learned that they are actually big bags of cement covered in brown fur. (This came up  while discussing similes and metaphors and the long beautiful driveway that leads up to Talcott Mountain Academy):



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All stories require at least two characters. And shut up about Hatchet.
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Student: My name is Colin, and I would like it if you named a character after me.
Me: You need to be careful what you wish for. Every character has a flaw. So even if I described you as a great athlete who is handsome and kind and heroic and funny, I’d still have to show something about you that is not flattering. Then everybody would wonder if the real Colin was kind of crazy.
Student: How do you know my name is Colin?
Me: Because you’re going to be in my next novel.
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Harry Potter is the biggest failure ever. It took him 7 books & 8 movies to kill the bad guy. What does this tell us? It tells us that failure is the magic ingredient that makes stories go.
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Put that book down. It’s bad for you! Even the author says so! (See below)

My writing group celebrated our 10 year anniversary today! Here’s a little bit of what we’ve made. And this is just the stuff I can show you. There’s lots more on the way!

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Random thoughts: Here’s why I loved the The Arcade Fire + Mick Jagger performance of “This Could Be the Last Time” from last season’s SNL season finale:

I love The Arcade Fire (and they’re going to have a new album in 2013!)
I think Régine Chassagne is really pretty.
I love how every member of the band appears to be thinking “OH MY GOD I’M ON STAGE WITH MICK JAGGER!”
Even though it’s sort of creepy and scary, I love that Mick Jagger moves and sounds as if he’s not actually a thousand years old.
At the end, Mrs. Chassagne gives Jagger a total I-don’t-care-if-you-are-a-rock-god-you-better-not-put-your-tongue-in-my-mouth-or-your hand-on-my-behind look. Love her.
Reading about members of The Arcade Fire led me to Les Jongleurs de la Mandragore, which I highly recommend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne4WN9j2YJ4

Today’s NYTimes review of a recent Beach Boys concert had me thinking about Mr. Cunningham, my very awesome high school physics teacher, who also happened to be an international Beach Boys expert. During my St. Paul Catholic High School years, Mr. Cunningham edited and published Add Some Music, “the preeminent Beach Boys fan publication of the late 70s and early 80s.” Sometimes we’d help mimeograph, fold, staple and prep copies of the “zine” for mailing while Mr. C. explained how Beach Boys music fit into the evolution of contemporary popular music, youth culture, American life, the universe and everything. It was not a surprise to me that someone as smart as a physics teacher would obsess about something that seemed so small. I grew up surrounded by accountants and firefighters and engineers like my Dad who could rebuild carburetors in their sleep. Looking back, what shocked me about Mr. Cunningham’s enthusiasm for the Beach Boys was his conviction that this passion had meaning. He made me think that if I could learn everything there was to know about a Brian Wilson song – or anything really – then the rest of the world might make a little more sense too.

There are many lessons Mr. Cunningham taught that I have not carried forward. My son knows better than to ask me for help on his thermodynamics test, and I still electrocute myself a little given too much time with a Van de Graaff generator. But sometimes, I can see a whole wide world just by pressing my face close to a very small glass or an old tinny speaker. I don’t think I would have figured that out on my own.

Bonus feature:

Listen to Don’t Worry Baby: http://grooveshark.com/s/Don+t+Worry+Baby/4iPMeJ?src=5

And then learn a little bit about it: http://www.cabinessence.net/essays/mob9.html

Now and again I hear from aspiring children’s book illustrators who ask if I might introduce them to authors in search of an artists to illustrate a picture book. In most cases, this question lets me know that I’ve just met an illustrator in need of advice. Here’s the thing: for the most part, authors don’t have any say in who gets to illustrate their work. That pleasure belongs to editors. As a result, I have almost no first-hand knowledge about how a person might break into the art part of publishing. Of course, my own ignorance rarely stops me from offering advice so… here are a few thoughts and notes that I’ve gathered from spying on people who seem to know what they’re talking about when it comes to advice for aspiring children’s book illustrators:

Create an online portfolio so that editors, art-directors and others can browse through your work at their convenience.

Network network network. Nobody will visit your online portfolio if they don’t know it’s there.

Join the SCBWI. It’s an excellent organization (I’m a member) that provides awesome opportunities to learn how to succeed at this work. SCBWI meetings and conferences also offer the chance to meet working illustrators, writers, editors, agents and other folks in the publishing world. My local chapter is hosting a “Making Picture Book Conference” in Philadelphia this May.

Be professional. Don’t miss deadlines. You don’t have to wear a business suit for this work, but you need to act and dress and “be” in a way that will inspire confidence in your ability to get the work done.

Be willing to revise. And revise. And revise. And revise…

Know what you like. Folks in the children’s book world are unbelievably committed to making great books for kids. In fact, they LOVE great books for kids. They want to work with people who feel the same way. So when an editor asks who and what you like, what she means is: What children’s books are your favorites? Who are the illustrators and writers that inspire you? I’m guessing that an aspiring illustrator who is in love with Chris Raschka, William Joyce, Kadir Nelson, Peter Sis and/or Shaun Tan will be more interesting than the person who only knows Picasso, Michelangelo, Diane Arbus, and Karel Appel. (Personal note: I think a picture book about Karel Appel would be kind of awesome. His work makes me think of Chris Raschka.)

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, be really good at what you do. Have skills. Grow your talent. Be working all the time so that you’re getting better. If your work isn’t important to you it’s not going to be important to anybody else.

The circus world of people who make books for children is really not that big. The tent is open if you can pull back the flap. Good luck!