Rural Life from a Rural Gal

Two more of my books came out recently.

They’re part of the Learn About Rural Life series from Crabtree Publishing. Writing these books was a work-for-hire project, which means I was contacted to write these books so they weren’t my own idea. I worked with Bender Richardson White. The books are designed for classroom use in the primary grades.

Life in a Farming Community focuses on Monticello, WI and Life in a Forestry Community looks at Mackenzie, BC. I really enjoyed learning more about these two communities. They remind me of where I grew up and where I live now: in a small rural community. I grew up surrounded by working apple orchards with a feral asparagus field as my backyard, and my in-laws actually are farming in Ontario’s Wellington County today. Forestry hits close to home too since I live in a forested area with the famous Algonquin Provincial Park nearby and the family tree includes a great grandfather who was a lumberman. You can find more detail about them on my website.

Do I think writers have to be personally connected to a topic to write about it? Not necessarily. I think a writer who knows how to ask the right questions and who has strong research skills can write on a lot of things without direct personal experience. But I like to be connected to the topic I’m writing about in some way, either because I have a little personal connection to it or because I just want to learn more about it.

Check out the other two titles in the series: Life in a Mining Community by Natalie Hyde and Life in a Fishing Community by Helene Boudreau.

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

Read to Me, Alex

I let a virtual stranger read to me yesterday and it was awesome. I highly recommend it.

No, I didn’t accost someone off the street, not that there’s anyone lurking on the street in these parts at this time of year to accost anyway. I just mean I turned Alex on. !?!

Oh, that sounds bad, real bad, cause Alex is not hubby’s name.

What I really mean is I turned on the text-to-speech function on my computer and the voice I’ve selected as the least annoying is named Alex. I had my computer, as Alex, read to me.

I was having trouble being objective about a manuscript. I’m too used to the intonation and expression I want it to be read with. What I needed was someone to read it aloud to me. I’ve had writing group pals read my stuff back to me before, and I know that’s extremely useful feedback, but they weren’t handy. Enter Alex. He worked beautifully.

I was amazed at the problems that suddenly stood out. I realized I’d written a couple sentences that were needlessly complicated. It even twigged me to a typo I’d not seen the previous fifty times (no word of a lie) I’d read one particular paragraph. Yes, sometimes Alex’s pronunciation or intonation is wrong, and I don’t think it would work for reading poetry meter, but on the whole I was impressed with how well he worked. Why not give it a try?

I use a Mac, but I know PCs have a similar function. Under my systems preferences panel there is a speech control option with a text-to-speech panel. Play with that for a bit to select a voice you like and the speed you’d like him or her to read in. Set the key combination you’ll use to tell the computer to read aloud any text you’ve highlighted. Now go highlight some text, perform your magic key combination, and give it a listen.

Of course, if you just want to hear something read back in the voice of trinoids, zarvox, or a pipe organ, who am I to say anything?

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

No, Thank YOU

My publisher sent me some wonderful thank you letters from a school in Kingston that Scot Ritchie and I visited during Canadian Children’s Book Week.

They’re awesome! What author doesn’t love to get letters like this?!

And I’ve got to say, having these letters to look through on cold winter days, or days when inspiration has dried up, or days when I’m sure no one will care what I write ever again,  makes me say:

No, thank *YOU*!

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.

Point of View, Sunset and the Soo

Sunset over the Soo

Yes, Sault Ste. Marie. Beautiful, no? This was the view from my hotel room last Saturday. For real. Breathtaking.

But so is this too
the view
from my hotel room 
in the Soo. 

In its unedited form, a bowling alley and parking lot that were really not so nice to look at. (I took this one first so it’s not as orange.)

Just goes to show you: Point of View is all in how you look at it.

© Lizann Flatt, www.lizannflatt.com
No part of this blog may be used without written permission from the author.