Yesterday, I had a wonderful opportunity to speak before the Suffolk County School Library Media Association (SSMLA) at their annual dinner. This talk before a smart, high-spirited group of school librarians, game me the chance to remember my high school school library at–New Rochelle High School.

My school library was a refuge for a geeky kid who liked to read – who was involved in her school’s literary magazine – and not much else – I was raised by a single parent, a father, who raised 4 kids along after my mother had a stroke and was left almost fully paralyzed and brain-damaged. We couldn’t afford to buy books in our house – but we didn’t need to buy them. There was the library, especially the school library.

You could find me there almost everyday after school.  I didn’t want to go home.  Home was chaotic. Home was loud. Home was where I, as the eldest daughter had to cook dinner and clean and do laundry and not stop until everyone was in bed and then, maybe I could escape and read more.

I have to admit that I don’t remember the librarians’ names – but I remember their kindness. I remember how they smiled when I checked out every novel by Ernest Hemingway after I read The Sun Also Rises in 10 grade English class.

One thing I do remember -- one stifling spring day, my study partner, David, leaned over to me and said, "I like you more than you think." But that’s a story for outside the library.

If you are a librarian or an educator, I've done something thinking about the Common Core for ELA Grades 8-12 and my young adult novel, LIE. I would appreciate your thoughts on my study notes -- at my website www.carolinebock.com.

And thank you school librarians, you should be mandated for every school, you are critical to our students success!

Pictures of inspiration from the NY Botanical Garden taken by my son, Michael Bock, new photographer - reminds me that there is spring somewhere -- even if it's under glass. First day of spring: March 20th. Truly, author of the new adult novels:

If you are one of those people who like to be in the know before anybody else... check out Lena Roy's blog post on my upcoming young adult novel, BEFORE MY EYES. I asked her if she could "blurb" (write an insightful but eye-catching yet meaningful few lines for promotional use based on an early, early review copy. A blurb is an art in itself). And was I surprised what I got back - much more than a blurb. Or maybe I shouldn't have been surprised - she's an amazing writer - and reader!  Here's a first take on BEFORE MY EYES:

   

"...Bock's story begins with a mass shooting on a Monday morning, and then she takes us back to Friday, weaving the narrative between three points of view: Max, a state senator's son who is having a hard time doing the right thing, Claire, a poet who has too many responsibilities, and Barkley, who hears voices, and unravels before our eyes. Max and Claire are more worried about themselves, and although we know what is going to happen, we quickly turn the pages.

 

-Because my library books are due that day. I couldn’t be so lucky as the world to end that day.

 

-Because my father said only two things are guaranteed death and taxes – and the latter are going off the fiscal cliff a week or so later or at least are not due to April 15. 

 

-Because every Jewish holiday comes down to this classic Alan Ladd quip: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.” We are still hungry – the world can’t end until we are all fed.

 

-Because on my 30 birthday (a few years ago!) a psychic took my drunken palm and told me I’d live to be at least 86. I believe this Times Square psychic more than the Mayans.

 

-Lastly, the world will not end on 12.21.12 because I still need to dance at my son’s and daughter’s weddings and they are only 12 and 7, because I still need to write my adult novel, because I still need to see Rome and Jerusalem and the Grand Tetons.  And because I have miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.

 

Your thoughts on 12.21.12??

Truly,

author of LIE

and because LIE still needs to be

promoted, bought, read.

Did you ever find something old--a poem-- and decide to finish it twenty years after you started it? Of course, you're a different person. Or are you? Here's my poem that I found and finished...

 

We come to it late this love late at night

after the argument about the kids

that aren’t born yet to us— we are preparing our

arguments ahead of time like we prepared

cheat notes for tests in college we make

ready our lives for children then come back to

love after we’ve decided nothing—

the children will come when they come and

we’ll let them be born. What a thing

to have to decide—

when to let something be born

and when other things like money

matter more. 

 

Twenty entangled years later,

making love late again.

No arguments before or after, only

our son and daughter’s sleeping breaths,

what a thing we’ve decided—

nothing matters more.

 

Two weeks without electrical power and finally, someone, said let there be light and there was light late on Sunday night here on Long Island – and heat and television and computers and all the modern conveniences that make our lives both easier and more complicated. I learned a lot of the last few days:

 

-I re-discovered Scrabble – and found at that 12-year-olds can be as competitive at Scrabble as they are at soccer! I also re-lived the joy of snow through his joy at the Nor'easter of November on Long Island.

 

-I read poetry to the kids at night – they liked My Cat Jeoffry the spiritual poem on cats by Christopher Smart the best and so did I. Our cat, Shelton, liked it too.  As Smart ends his poem about his cat, we petted our cat. "For he is of the tribe of Tiger... For every house is incompleat without him &/ a blessing is lacking in the spirit."

 

-I found the joy of early bedtimes, for the kids, and myself at 7:30 pm and for waking with the sunrise.

-Historical novels are better settings than contemporary ones when you are living in a cold,  dark surreal setting, I found contemporary settings where people argued over money and politics hard to focus on. For example, I started Richard Ford’s Canada (plan to finish it), J.K. Rowling’s Casual Vacancy (don’t plan to finish in the near future) but I did finish Hilary Mantel’s  Bring Up The Bodies-- about the last weeks of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII set in the brutal fall and winter of 1535. (If you don't recall Anne was the one beheaded and pushed aside for wife number three: Jane Seymour).

And, I worried a lot – about my family in the cold – though we were better off than many others – and remembered to be thankful for what we had: an intact house and car and, most importantly, one another. We celebrated by lighting candles on Friday night and saying prayers, even though we had no choice but to light candles, the prayers had a special meaning flickering the darkness with grace and calm. 

 

We live in strange times – between the future that we fear and the past, which we can’t return to. I just hope we won’t be living in the dark and cold until we figure out how to truly move forward.

  

Truly,

There are times when it's hard to write.  In the middle of100 mile per winds, it's hard to write, it's hard to imagine the night will end, and if it ends, will there be a roof on the house or trees on the roof. Hurricane Sandy. The rain drills sideways. The wind rips. You have to be the grown up because technically you are grown up even if you want to hide under the covers too.  You are thankful you do not have that house that you always wanted with the water view and afraid for those you know near the water.  Lights blink, revive, and blink again.  Dark hits you in the face.  Your children cling to you -- even your twelve- year- old son who earlier in the evening ignored you like always. They want to go, leave, escape, now.  You remember you live on an island -- the bridges closed, the railroad shut down, you cannot leave even if you were brave enough to drive anywhere. You're not brave enough.  And then,with a final heave of darkness and wind, the skies sigh in exhaustion.  The dawn seeps through the horizon, the land is speckled with wet leaves and downed trees, the sky blue and clear. Your neighbor lets you know he has a guy who has a chainsaw coming as if that is an every day thing -- and you are thankful to that neighbor and to the guy with the chainsaw.  Everyone has lost power.  A generator buzzes from someone's backyard and spews gasoline fumes into the storm-fresh air.  Your son takes off on his razor to find out what happened to his friends and their houses, waving you off, racing toward the sun.  

 

I hope all are safe and working on recovery -- 

 

Truly,

author of LIE

set on Long Island,

inspired by true events.

 

 

This wonderful writing friend made this comment on my last post... for National Bullying Prevention Month...and I feel compelled to share it widely because, honestly, I wish I had made it!  But this is a reason for insightful readers and editors like Debbie Vilardi, they see into your writing as much as your soul: 

"The hats you wear today have so much more power than the one you lost. If only the child you were could have known."

Thank you, Debbie! 

Truly,

author of LIE

Are you looking for a book club selection?  Did you know that October is officially National Reading Group Month (did you ever wonder who is in charge of assigning what events to what day or month?) I had a terrific opportunity through the WNBA (not the women's basketball association -- but the Women's National BOOK Association) to read a slew of books this summer and participate in the selection of their 2012 Great Group Reads. Here's the final list, which was just announced this week:

The Absolutist by John Boyne*

An Age of Madness by David Maine*

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan‐Philipp Sendker*

Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall

Boleto by Alyson Hagy

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman*

Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani

Faith by Jennifer Haigh

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

I Married You for Happiness by Lily Tuck

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

The O'Briens by Peter Behrens

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin*

The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman

Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward*

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeannette Winterson

Happy reading!!

Truly, Caroline

I recently visited the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios - Disneyworld in Orlando Florida--and was inspired at every turn -- not by the rides (though don't miss the Star Wars Tour at Hollywood Studios or the newly updated and wildly colorful "It's a Small World" classic at the Magic Kingdom) but by the imagination of the place, by the charm, by the wonder in my kid's eyes at every turn. What fascinated my 12 year old son?  The talking garbage can in Tomorrowland. Was there a real person guiding it by remote control? Was it advanced robotics? Was is something else? Who was behind it (if anyone knows more about the talking garbage can in Tomorrowland - please let me know!). 

At Disney's Hollywood Studios, the theme park tribute to Hollywood and the movies, I stumbled upon The Writer's Stop... of course, I had to stop and go into to this coffee shop and bookstore. Here I found a brief respite from the 90 degree tropical heat, and even more so, I discovered:  The Imagineering Workout: Excercises to Shape Your Creative Muscles by The Disney Imagineers. This book is a gem, written in short chapters, with practical as well as inspiration advice, from those hands-on professionals -- from writers to designers to engineers --  who create for Disney. Here's a few of their suggestions:

I plan to keep this book near my desk! Here's to a great end of the summer for all. If you haven't picked up a copy of my debut novel LIE now is the time--

Truly,

Caroline