One Potato...Ten!

Ten writers for children. All with something to say.

3/6/16

Another Mini Spud Reunion in Portland, Oregon!


Carmen seems to be the most popular Spud, or else Portland, Oregon is the place to be!  After a wonderful and productive 10-day writing retreat in Brookings, OR with two other writing friends (Patti Zelch and Gale Payne), we made the long drive back to Portland to turn in our rental car.  Carmen and Jeremy met us at the rental place, took us to dinner at a delicious Vietnamese restaurant, and then on to our hotel.  It was great to meet Jeremy, and we all had some "literary" conversation while feasting on Vietnamese specialties.

I hope it won't be long before all the Spuds can meet again!

11/9/15

Come on, Spuds


 Carmen and I had a wonderful Spud reunion this weekend in Portland at Wordstock, an impressive gathering of writers and readers. Afterwards, we want to Andina, a beautiful Peruvian restaurant in the Pearl District for a delicious meal and wide-ranging conversation. Thank you Carmen and Jeremy for such a lovely evening and making me feel so at home in your splendid city.


Two new books are out and I'm pleased to share covers with you. Game Changer is the true story of John McLendon and the Secret Game in 1944 and Randy Duburke, an illustrator I've wanted to work with for years, did an amazing job with the art.


The Extreme Sports book that some of you have heard about is also out and I'm thrilled with the design work done by Headcase Design. Please spread the word to folks you think would be interested in both of them. And let's go, Spuds. Stephanie took the first step. We want to hear your news and I know some of you have fun things to share.

10/9/15

We are still here. And we have updates:)

Well, it's been a loooong time since you've heard from us. No excuses, other than LIFE. Things happen, people get busy. The good news is that at least we've been productive since we've been away. I'll share a few things that have happened over the past year. I've had two books come out. First, the second installment of the Shipwreck Island series, LOST, which continues the adventures of the shipwrecked Robinson family.
This is my first year of having two novels out, because my latest YA novel released Tuesday, October 6th. Here I'm at the launch party we had in Irving, TX while I was on a school visit trip.

THE DETOUR is about Livvy Flynn, a best-selling teenage author who takes a drive into a nightmare... And, my most exciting news of all is that Legendary has optioned film rights. Yes, that's right. So read it before it becomes a movie! I also kept busy by going on a tour with friend and fellow Macmillan author Shelley Tougas. Our ADVENTURES FROM THE MIDDLE tour took us to five regional bookstores and four schools. We put on over 1000 miles in the course of a week, and here we are at Books and Company in Oconomowoc.  On Tuesday, Oct. 13, we will be at the Barnes and Noble in Mankato, MN at 6pm.

Stay tuned for more updates from the rest of the Spuds.
---Stephanie

11/22/14

Coming Home


This past week at the Spalding University MFA residency in Louisville, KY, I was privileged to meet up with fellow spud, Stephanie Stuve Bodeen.  At some point during our time there, we both mentioned how it felt like "coming home"-- very much like the feeling we had when all ten of our spuds got together at the Anderson Center last April.

The Spalding University MFA program truly is a home to all the faculty, students, and returning alums, who share the literary heart.  In fact, at the start of every residency, program director Sena Jeter Naslund's first words are "Welcome home!"

I was there as part of the Writing for Children and YA faculty to give my lecture on the non-linear narrative form and to lead the creative thesis discussion for one of my graduating students.  Stephanie came to discuss her novel The Raft, which was the book-in-common for all W4CYA students, and to give a second presentation entitled, "After the MFA: A Cautionary Tale."  We also had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with Pam Muñoz Ryan, author of Esperanza Rising and other award-winning books for children and young adults, as well as talented author/faculty members, Lesléa Newman and David-Matthew Barnes.

What a wonderful week of teaching, learning, encouraging, inspiring, and celebrating!

10/5/14

Gertrude Stein

I'm not sure if it's my turn to post.  Don't I follow Edie?  It just looks a little lonely on our blog, so I thought I'd check in.

With a few young children's books under my belt, my brain is asking me to work on something different, but I was surprised to find my mind wandering to Gertrude Stein (Oh, no, I'm rhyming again!).  She popped into my head when I was daydreaming at church today - don't tell the minister - and I've started doing some research on her!  I'm not sure if children would want to know about her, or why she made an appearance in my daydream, but I guess it's worth the time to find out. She's interesting to me, and I wonder if I can make her interesting to 4th and 5th graders.  What great company she kept!!

Here are a few photos of summer in Utah.  I think it's one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Chris rock climbing at Red Rock.

Scott and Chris at Zion.

Chris at Red Rock, feeling very proud of himself.  I won't tell you that behind him is a set of stairs and a bridge!!  :)


8/26/14

Reconnecting

Eight years ago I attended a summer residency at the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program.  That’s where I met Stephanie Bodeen and Kirby Larson, both of whom were teaching in the program.  (Stephanie would later be the driving force behind creating this blog).  Although I found the program on Whidbey to be a very inviting and supportive community of writers, I never had the opportunity to return to another residency or attend any of the many other literary events sponsored by WWW, until just a few weeks ago. 

It was residency time again and on the last night there was a faculty reading scheduled at the Captain Whidbey Inn.  Carmen Bernier-Grand, a current faculty member and also a member of One Potato . . . Ten, was listed as one of the readers.  Carmen had invited me to a reading last year, but I was unable to attend.  When I met her at this spring’s retreat, we laughed about how we both traveled all the way to Minnesota to finally meet each other, when she teaches only 20 minutes from my house! 

This year, I determined to finally make the trek to Coupeville for the faculty reading.  I joined a vibrant group of perhaps 40 people in attendance.  During a break in the readings, I walked up to Carmen and said, “Hey, stranger, I finally made it to a reading.”  Carmen looked at me for a moment with her face scrunched up in that universal expression of “who is this nut talking to me?” before I reminded her who I was.  As the light of recognition dawned on her face, tears welled in her eyes.  We hugged and laughed and talked for almost an hour after the reading . . .

And so now, after finally meeting my fellow bloggers at the spring retreat, I have seen both David LaRochelle and Carmen Bernier-Grand on my home turf in the last few months.  At this rate, I expect another of my fellow spuds to arrive on the island any day now . . .



7/25/14

Busy, busy!

I have just returned from the beautiful Northwest—a road trip through Ashland enjoying productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a visit with extended family in Salem, then several days relaxing on Bainbridge Island with my in-laws. 



I flew back early to work on art for How Sophany Saved the Cambodian Dance, a true story of a Khmer Rouge survivor by Daryn Reicherter, to be published by Tuttle. Here's the tiniest sneak preview of finished title page art and an early spread in the first phase. I'm combining traditional and digital methods as I create art.

The hours are too few for all the projects I have cooking. After this due date (Sept 1), I'm on to illustrations for Ansty Ansel, a picture book biography of Ansel Adams for Holt. Meanwhile I'm doing further research and additional writing for a new Lee and Low project; Tilbury has requested a book on another topic; I have another author-illustrator project almost ready to pitch, but in the midst of this yet another idea keeps tickling and distracting me. I need horse-blinders!

Also this summer I am helping my daughter develop her first picture book. She's written a fun fictional story with nonfiction backmatter in response to a Madagascar trip she took with a Stanford genetics project to work with lemurs. Following that trip she created art to include in her college admission portfolio. Perhaps you can see why I wanted to nudge her into creating her own book. She was a guest at my writers group a couple weeks ago and received helpful feedback and soon will meet with someone from my illustrators group to get assistance with her dummy. I don't think she will necessarily pursue this path in the big picture, but she will inevitably find her own ways to combine word and image.