We did it!!

Hi everyone:

Just a short and sweet, summer-sunshiney message to let you all know that, with your tremendous help and support and attendance...we DID IT!  We pulled off the first ever NerdCamp SoCal!!  With generous donors and a troop of hardworking, never-complaining co-workers, kiddos, families, district colleagues, bosses, spouses, et. al. we came together to LEARN and LEAD and hopefully spread a little more LITERACY and LOVE in this world.

You'll be hearing from us soon as we begin to hatch plans for NerdCamp 2.0 (2020)!!  For now stay tuned and enjoy the rest of your summer.  Happy reading!

:)
Alex and Jackie

May we present the amazing and beyond-gracious Danielle Davis...

Ever since beginning this nErdCamp journey, we've been bowled over and humbled and pleasantly amazed at the generosity of people in this community.  So many people have graciously given us their time, their ideas, their social media presence and connections; they've donated books {autographed ones, at that}, stickers, images, you name it...(the list goes on and on!).  This is all our way of saying THANK YOU to our nErDCamp crew!  You are all making this such a fulfilling and fun process.

Danielle Davis is certainly one who has gone above and beyond to support our efforts thus far.  Here is her beautiful entry on "Why She Writes!"  Enjoy!

Why I Write (Danielle Davis, author of Zinnia and the Bees)

I write because I’m a Story Person.

Stories help me make sense of things: feelings, experiences, the world.

It started with reading “Hansel and Gretel” and Benjamin Dilley’s Thirsty Camel as a
kid by myself in my bedroom. And then my fourth grade teacher in Singapore,
Toby Anderson, reading Roald Dahl books aloud to us while we sat on beanbag chairs
in her classroom: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The
Witches.

In stories, I found characters who had agency and autonomy, who had inner compasses
about who to trust and about trusting themselves. In stories, I found comfort and
validation and hope. I found possibility and a little bit of magic, my favorite ingredient
in a story still. Those stories made me a reader, and later, a writer. They made me a
Story Person.

Now, I find all that stuff in writing stories too.

And my wish is that the books I write might do all that for kid readers in some small
way. Help make sense of things they’re going through, of the world. Strengthen their
own agency and autonomy and inner compasses. Give them comfort and validation
and hope (and laughs!). Fill them with the possibility of a little bit of magic.

I write because I’m a Story Person.

Are you a Story Person too?

Above illustration lovingly created by Genielysse Reyes

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Below photograph cleverly done by the author herself

Friday Feels...Last Few Entries Before the Official "National Day on Writing"

Hi everybody:
Hope you're as pumped as we are for tomorrow's "National Day on Writing."  It's been really fun to write these, read these, and talk about these entries around the office. We all write for different reasons, but the magic we feel is the same.  Today we present an entry from our own nErDCamp So Cal co-founder Alex Ross as well as an entry from Sarah Momo Romero whose new picture book Wake Up, Little Bat is out now!  Go check it out...perfect for the season!

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Why I Write (Alex Ross)
I write because it’s all I know how to do.  Truly. To not write is to not breathe,
to not process the world, to not make sense and art of the chaos and harmony I see.  
I know that sounds dramatic or like hyperbole or whatever, but I cannot think of a time
when I did not write.  

In second grade, I wrote fantastical stories about the members of KISS.  In these tales,
the KISS characters (Catman, the Demon, Star Child, and Space Ace) would travel the
globe in opulent limousines replete with comfortable leather couches and pinball
machines and jacuzzis...or else travel to outer space and fight martians and creatures
with laser-beams and magic.  I’d write these stories on this pulpy grey paper my favorite
teacher Miss Storm would provide, the kind of grey paper with a big rectangle box
on top for illustrating your story. To be pulled out of my story-telling reverie to do math
or spelling or even P.E. was to be jarred from a world I wasn’t sure I wanted to return from.  
Yet.

By 4th grade, I was a member of student council, acting as secretary: a role that involved
copious (ok...copious by elementary standards) note-taking and some correspondence
here and there.  During one fateful encounter between the press and me, I took umbrage
with the fact that the local paper, The News Chronicle, had failed to include me in a story
about our fundraising efforts to beautify the Statue of Liberty.  I was writing to discover my voice, and stake my claim in the world (even if at the time that claim extended only to my little patch of the Conejo Valley).  

During college, I wrote to fight off the angst of reading too much Charles Bukowski and

Hunter S. Thompson.  I wrote to emulate the exquisitely crafted lines that master poets

like Adrienne Rich and Sharon Olds composed. I wrote to survive loneliness or heartaches; I wrote to surf the soaring feeling of love and travel and new friendships.  I wrote letters and postcards and later emails to let people know they mattered, they were thought about.

Today I write as a way of crafting a legacy of adventure and presence.  I want to have lived, to have been here, to have wandered around this planet and made it better or more beautiful in even some small way.  I write to linger on as a light once I’m gone; I want my grandchildren and my great grandchildren to know me, minor successes and embarrassing foibles alike.  I think George Perec, the mind-bogglingly gifted French constraint author, said it best in a quote that hangs, with love, above my desk at work: “To write: to try meticulously to retain something, to cause something to survive; to wrest a few precise scraps from the void as it grows, to leave somewhere a furrow, a trace, a mark or a few signs.”  I write so I can live.

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Filling the Creative Well: finding my way back to inspiration

(Sarah Momo Romero)

If you had told me just three years ago that I would be a published author and illustrator, I would’ve called you crazy. “You have the wrong person,” I’d say, secretly hoping it would actually come true. Just three years ago, I was literally in a dark place, the basement of my house, pinning sketches on the wall, desperately trying to revive the creative spirit I had let whither away. As an artist, I felt so lost and unhappy, unable to figure out what went wrong and how to turn things around. Have you ever felt this way?

At the time, I was working as a graphic designer, finally settled into the rhythm of the company I had grown to love working for. So what was that darkness tugging at me, the empty feeling I just couldn’t put my finger on? What I didn’t realize was while I focused on my career, ultimately the path I thought would be right for me left my creative well empty inside. I had to figure out how to get the artist who quietly sank into the background back out into the sunshine. What did I do?

I tried EVERYTHING to spark a little creativity. I played and got my hands dirty again, literally. I took a wheel-throwing ceramics class and made lopsided, ridiculously heavy bowls. I sketched something every single day and hung it on the walls of my basement, the only space I had for my artwork in our little house. Slowly, that little spark grew into bigger projects, a local art show, and craft events. The artist inside me was starting to see the light again, but nothing felt quite right.

Then I decided to try taking an online children’s book writing class with the Children’s Book Academy, and that was it! With each lesson and every live webinar, my once empty creative well slowly started filling up again. Character development, story arch and the unexpected spark this ignited in my creative spirit was exciting and I couldn’t get enough. From then on, one thing led to another, I connected with my publisher, Callie Metler-Smith at Clear Fork Publishing, and after several rounds of editing my story, I signed a contract to publish Wake Up, Little Bat!

I truly believe if you have a passion or yearning for creative expression, it won’t just fall in your lap, no matter how much talent you have or how lucky you are. You really have to work at it, and in the end, it may not look anything like what you had originally imagined. I am so grateful for the long journey to get to where I am now, and am always reminded to stay hungry and keep reaching for the next creative adventure. As Angela Duckworth, author of the bestselling book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance says, “It’s not about discovering your passion and your purpose.  It’s about developing your calling.”

Maybe you’re like me, searching for your true purpose or just looking for a little creative fulfillment. Just keep working, keep playing, keep trying things out, because you never know where the creative path will take you. Today, I am a published author/illustrator of my very first picture book for children, Wake Up, Little Bat! Sometimes I have to reach out and hold the book in my hand to remind myself that it’s all real and not just a dream. And in the summer of 2019, I’ll be part of nErD Camp SoCal, connecting with educators, writers, and kids at my alma mater, Torrance High School. Someone pinch me.

Are you looking for that spark of creativity to light you up? What do you do to find inspiration again when you feel lost? I would love to hear about your experiences!

More entries...Write On, Right On!

Good afternoon.  Today we have two more incredible entries, this time by Marcie Colleen, author most recently of Penguinaut and Henry Lien of Peasprout Chen fame.  Both will be joining us this upcoming summer at nErDCamp SoCal.  Enjoy!!

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WHY I WRITE   By Marcie Colleen

Why do I write?

That’s a great question and one that I have several answers to.

I write because I have ideas I want to share with others.

I write because writing gives me great joy.

I write because I am an avid reader and books have helped shape who I am.

I also write because it’s a way I process things that are happening in my life and around me.

I could expand upon any one of these answers. But often when I am asked why I write one particular item that sits on my desk comes to mind.

It is a red, mud-caked LEGO brick.

This red, mud-caked LEGO brick is a symbol of why I specifically write for children. Let me explain…

When Hurricane Sandy ripped through New York City and the surrounding area on October 29, 2012 it changed life for many. My neighborhood in Brooklyn was fairly unscathed, but the images from only blocks away were unbelievable. I felt helpless as I watched the destruction unfold through video and photographs online.

On a personal level, I was supposed to run the NYC Marathon less than one week later, on November 4th. I remember that the subway was still not running, so I was on the ferry to the kickoff party on November 2nd when I got the news that it would be canceled.

I was running the marathon as part of Team in Training, raising money for blood cancer research. Let’s just say, people who run marathons and raise money for good causes are the last people to just sit still and do nothing. My team already had a rental bus to transport us to the start line on Staten Island. Staten Island was one of the most devastated area. Therefore, my entire running team chose to travel to Staten Island anyway, on the morning that should have been the marathon, to help with clean up.

We arrived in an area that looked like a war zone. Whole houses were moved off their foundations, cars were packed to the roof with dirt and sand. The air buzzed of generators powering pumps and chainsaws to help with cleanup.  

All day long, I worked with one family to empty their basement. Their belongings were muddied beyond recognition. Heaps of holiday decorations and photographs. But mostly toys. So many toys.

There was no question of what to keep and what to get rid of. It was all destroyed. It was all now trash.

My mind swirled with the stories of each item.

It was heartbreaking.

Before taking a wheelbarrow-full to the already overflowing piles on the curb, I pocketed this red LEGO brick.

To me it symbolizes the hardships in life that affect us all, even children.

Through my books, I hope to bring a smile or a giggle to a child’s day. To provide an escape among life's mud. If I can do that, even slightly, I will have done what I set out to do.

***

Why I Write (Henry Lien)

Hi. I’m Henry Lien. I’m a middle grade science-fiction/fantasy author. I write because the power of imagination is stronger than anything. Even reality. Even death. I illustrate with a story from my own life.

I am a skeptical, logical creature by nature (former lawyer here). I also never believed in soulmates. All of this changed when I met my former life partner Warwick.

However, Warwick was already ill with cancer when we met. When it became clear that Warwick was not going to prevail against his cancer, I did not accept that reality. The time we had had together was so cruelly short. So I invented a way to communicate with Warwick after he died.

Despite my skeptical and logical nature, I sometimes had dreams that contained information that I could not account for, including information about deeply personal domestic secrets and medical conditions about other people that I could not have had any possible way of knowing. I fully expected that after Warwick died, I would be visited by dreams of him. The problem was that I could never be sure whether it would truly be Warwick or just a figment of my unconscious that longed to see him again.

So I devised a system. I told Warwick to think of a password. I told him not to tell me the password but to write it down on a piece of paper and seal it up. Then, after he died, if he were able to contact me in my dreams, he must say the password to me. I would check the word he said to me within the dream against the word that he wrote on the paper. If they were the same, I would know it was him.

After Warwick died, I worried about losing the paper. Warwick’s brother-in-law was staying with me. I asked him to open the paper and make a photocopy of it, but not to read it aloud. Alas, Warwick’s brother-in-law was hard of hearing. He misheard me. He opened the paper and read aloud to me the word written on there.

I was despondent. Now if Warwick visited me, I would never know if it were really him or if it were just a cruel figment of my imagination. Warwick’s sister comforted me by saying, “Well, you were very clever boys to think of that system. But when Warwick visits you in your dreams, you’ll know when it’s him. And you won’t need a password to know it.”

I didn’t dream of Warwick again after he died.

Years later, I received a phone call while driving on the freeway. I answered the phone. The line was crackling, but the voice was unmistakable. Warwick said, “Meet me at 249 N. Main Road. I am waiting for you there now.” His voice was rushed but happy.

Then I woke up.

I googled “249 N. Main Road” but found nothing.

However, it could be “Main” or “Maine” or “Mayne” or “Meigne”. Further, Warwick was Australian and his accent could be hard for me to understand.

I still haven’t looked further. I am not sure that I want to. I am not sure that I need to.

I used my imagination to find a way around the reality of my soulmate’s death. Reality has become flexible, negotiable, and porous for me.

And I like it that way.

And in my writing, I find those pores in reality and, with the power of my imagination, stretch them until they become portals into vast, strange, gorgeous new realities. The world of Pearl from my Peasprout Chen series, the friends I have made there, and the imagined art form of kung fu figure skating are as vivid and real to me as quote-unquote reality.

And I like it that way.

Reality is full of possibilities.

If we decide it’s going to be.

Love to all,

Henry

x

Why I Write: The Magnificent MidWeek Edition!

To get you through the potential mid-week doldrums...(drum roll please)...may we humbly present not one, not two, BUT THREE entries from our talented nErDCamp friends on why they write (and/or draw).  Our first entry comes from working writer Emma Price, our second was done with love and care by our very own nErDCamp SoCal co-founder and writer/teacher extraordinaire Jackie Ryan, and our final entry is an illustration by the talented Maple Lam.  Enjoy!

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Why I write? (Emma Price)
I write because I have something to say that I think others might want to read. Writing has always been a part of me, just like reading. Why? I don’t know. I was told that if you love reading, it’s a given that you will love writing.  From a very young age, I loved to read. And after I retired, I became an author.

When I retired in 2005, I was at a loss. My daughter asked me what was I going to do. I said I don’t know. She said, “Mom, I will always remember you reading. why don’t you think about writing?”  So, I did. I thought about writing children’s books--after all, I am a retired elementary teacher. I always loved teaching reading and writing to my students. So, I went back to school and took classes on writing children’s books. What a joy!

The results are my two children’s books, Portia’s Incredible Journey, (2010), and Another Girl Calls My Dad Daddy (2015). And after a few of my teacher friends encouraged me to create a teacher’s guide for my first book, I wrote one.  

Now, I visit schools, libraries, bookstores, and other events for book readings and signings. For me, this is the perfect second career!

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I write because like many things in my life -- I just can’t let certain ideas go.  There are those ideas that just gnaw at me until I get them on paper. I used to write poetry.  My 8th grade English teacher Ms. McCampbell supported my poetic tendencies and that love of verse carried me through my very dramatic high school relationship.  I will say that the drama wasn’t for naught-- I wrote a poem, “Deep Blue” after break up #4 (or was it #5?) and it was published in a young adult anthology.

Though poetry has gone to the wayside for me, as an 8th grade teacher I wrote prose for my students regularly.  I wrote models of different types: narratives, arguments and an analysis or two, to help them see that there are many types of writers.  Students used my work (among others) to study craft and help shape themselves into writers.

In my “spare time”, I write because I’ve had a series weighing on me for years.  My home office is covered in papers and photos of my setting as well as post-its and drafts of chapters and sentences I like.  Character ideas that live in my dreams. My kindle is full of models by Laura Childs, Karen White, Ellery Adams and Mary Higgins Clark, along with others who help me be a better writer and inspire me to be a better thinker.  They allow me to study how they get from murder to solution all while adding in humor, a love interest, and an interesting job in the mix.

I write so my own children see that nothing is “just a dream” or “something I’ll get to eventually”.  I also want to show them that passion projects take time (that, for the most part, I need to find hidden between an episode of my favorite show and after a night’s sleep) but also that it takes work and patience.

I write because at the end of the day, writing has always been my marathon, or climb.  It has always been a puzzle to figure out.

--Jackie Ryan

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x

Kicking off the Week "Write" with our first #WhyIWrite Post!!

Hi all!

In anticipation of the National Day on Writing (October 20th), all this week into next week we will be publishing the contributions of our wonderful authors who've already committed to coming to nErD Camp So Cal next summer.  We asked our friends to respond to the prompt/hashtag "Why I Write" and urged them to go whichever direction they wanted.

Today we are honored to feature our first post by one of our local writers, Mary Jo Hazard, whose beautiful books depict the gorgeous landscape of nearby Palos Verdes and its famous peacocks!  Enjoy and keep checking back...

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I write because, honestly, once I started writing I couldn’t stop.

I’m a retired MFT. I wrote my first children’s book The Peacocks of Palos Verdes, in 2010 and stepped into a whole new world.

For me, writing isn’t just sitting at a computer putting thoughts on paper—it involves a lot more. It’s about doing research, meeting people, interviewing people, taking classes, joining writing groups, going to conferences, reading my book at elementary schools, doing writing workshops, and putting myself out there in ways I’d never thought about.

One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was hooked. I liked the creative process, getting an idea and running with it. I really enjoyed reading my book in classrooms, so I wrote two more children’s books, Palo’s World and P is for Palos Verdes.

Just for fun, I decided to write Stillwater, a coming of age novel, set in the 50’s in upstate New York where I grew up. Once I started, the book took on a life of its own. It was a catharsis—my main character deals with the major issues I’ve had in my life—suicide, family members and friends with mental illness, and the stigma that goes along with those things. Writing it was a trip down memory lane in many ways—lots of good memories too from growing up in a small town—wishing that kids today could have the same experiences. Stillwater will launch in March 2019.

Writing has also made me curious about everything and everyone. People amaze me, they really do. I write a weekly column for Peninsula News called PV Neighbors; it’s about ordinary people (like you and me) who do extraordinary things. My next interview is with a woman pediatrician; she has a successful practice, is on the staff at Torrance Memorial and in her spare time—she’s a hospital clown! It’s so inspiring to meet people like her and I’m honored to write their stories.

So, I write because it’s stimulating, interesting, a catharsis, a challenge, always new and exciting and I can’t imagine my life without it.

Welcome to the nErD Camp SoCal Official Blog!

Hi friends:

Jackie and I just wanted to reach out and welcome everyone to this grand adventure we are embarking on called nErD Camp SoCal !!  In the coming weeks, we hope to have new fun entries composed by our committed authors/illustrators on the topics of: Why I Write... and Why I Read...  In addition, we plan to post updates and video snippets of our authors/writers introducing themselves and helping you get to know them a little bit in preparation for next summer's "Unconference" on July 19th!

For now, hang tight...keep checking here and on Twitter and on the website to see what's new, who's coming, and who's ready to learn and lead alongside of you.

Your pals and co-organizers,   Jackie and Alex