Ohio Arts Council Individual Artists Grant!

So, I'm trying to get my hand on some Obama money! Well, it's been there since the days of JFK, but it's always fun to say "Obama Money".

The guidelines for writers state that my manuscript must be between 20-30 typewritten pages, double-spaced, 1 inch margins. That means 3 stories from ANY of my selections... The First three stories are numbered: 01, 02, 03...

Here are the nominees:

http://beyondelmisti.blogspot.com/
http://dimsumyumcha.blogspot.com/
http://greaterthangold.blogspot.com/
http://maximoandmummelsee.blogspot.com/
http://purestthread.blogspot.com/
http://sugarbreadinthetuliphouse.blogspot.com/
http://underthesantoltree.blogspot.com/

Read the FIRST THREE STORIES of each and let me know by email (NickSchuyler@yahoo.com) which are your 3 favorites, in order. Please include a brief paragraph of why you picked them. This insures you aren't cheating to get your way in for an iPod!

Otherwise, feel free to leave your comments onthe individual pages. If they're relavant, that ALSO gets your number on a poker chip to be placed in the hat! (Max 1 per collection, Max 8 entries).

The winner will be picked on July 3rd at noon (pre-red-white-boom); ! I'll update the winner on facebook on July 4th! Winner's got a 7 full calendar days to respond with mailing address for me to send it out!

THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HELPS!

Notes: Puffins of Saint Piet Island

I churned Saint Piet in the manner of about 30 hours. I collected Puffin photos online and then formatted all to square. Afterwards, I assembled a quick story in my head. I had originally decided to make this a story for little children, and it quickly evolved into a collection of limericks and then into several poetry forms.

I don't know if I'm happy with it or not, but it is what it is. I don't think I'll go back and give it any major overhaul - just continual minor tweaks until I find the words and meter that fits best.

I also think this is a good spring-board for another of my ideas. I have been looking for an illustrator for some time now, to no good end. I might just have someone take photos, not unlike these, and then use photo-to-cartoon software to render my desired end product.

We will see.

Notes: Maximo and Mummelsee

Maximo and Mummelsee was a very quick write (and a surprisingly easy one at that). I was hoping for more input from my editor/reader on this project (Kurt Dieckmann), but if you don't ask, you don't receive, right?

Anyway, I felt it was a good project. My mom, however, thinks it was my best effort thus far. I don't know why. Maybe it was that the story wasn't a disjointed collection of "side trips", like most of my other works.

Maybe it was because the main characters often had "sit-com" situations to get them to new places. Ying's family moved from Beijing to Shanghai to get from one chapter to the next. Gemma's father took her to Cebu, which included stories about passenger boat trips and pier markets on different islands.

Still, Max and his father took three road trips: one to Mummelsee, one to Munich, and one to St. Goarshausen. I don't know why she liked it best. I hope I get more readers to give input on good, better, best. Hopefully, there will not a be a consensus.

I am glad I could explore the history of Germany fully while avoiding the stereotypical "Hitler and the Jews" setting that seems to haunt both cultures. I wonder how my Israel stories will play out...

Notes: Sugarbread in the Tulip House

There were things I loved and things I hated about writing Sugarbread in the Tulip House. First off, I found that the doughnut culture of Holland was rampant. There are several sites devoted to the Netherlands way of making pastries, doughnuts, and sugarbreads. Netherlanders have a particular fondness for all things sugar, whether its taffy, doughnuts, strussel, or even sugared breads that they eat on savory sandwiches, like pastrami, pepperoni, or even plain pork.

Kind of odd, since the Hollandaise farm is nearly non-existent. The land is very fertile, but its also underwater so much that farming is impossible, except for a crop like rice, which demands a hotter climate.

So, I got to write about that.

I also got to explore a truly dutch game called "Sjoelbak", a tabletop variation of shuffleboard. That was interesting and fun.

On the sour side, however, was that I didn't want to dwell on Windmills and dikes - for two major reasons. First off, the WIndmill is a pervasive stereotype of Dutch culture. I really wanted to go another direction. Secondly, the word "dike" has such a negative connotation that I wanted to avoid that almost entirely. Children 9-10 years old are are the sophomoric giggle stage - where every mention of sexuality, overt or otherwise, is met with nervous laughter.

I did get to mention the beginings of Santa Claus/Sinterklaas, and even delved a little bit into "Black Pieter", the black elf that worked as Santa Claus' sidekick. I had to deal with the origins of the Dutch Slave Traders and what "Black Pieter" really was in a historical context. I artfully avoided that as best I could, without disgracing the racial implications it holds even today.

Notes: Purest Thread

Whew!

No...I mean it...

Whew!

That was one bear of a story collection to write. The main problem was a girl named Yasmeen, and Yasmeen was my MAIN CHARACTER.

Well, it wasn't her fault at all, really.

The problem with writing about a culture centered around Muslim beliefs is that there are certain restraints placed upon women by the whole of the society of Islam. Depending on the conservatism of the Islamic sect, some women are not to show anything other than their eyes. They are not allowed to venture into public places and they certainly cannot express themself physically, such as through sports.

So, I found myself wrestling with God again...or Allah... What do you want, Allah? Do you want me to adhere to the strictest tenets of the high mullahs and disallow female liberties? How do I speak of a culture that is half-missing, in the eyes of an American child, and even more so, the American writer who is writing for a second-generation Muslim-American audience?

So, it was a balancing act. I let the family be somewhat reformed, but still had the spirit of Allah and Mohammad resonating throughout the stories. It was even hard to speak of musical culture, because of the mixed feelings of the Muslim community as a whole.

In the end, I don't think I strayed too far from the ways of a typical urban Muslim family in Pakistan during the early part of the 21st century, balancing the struggle between old and new, sacred and not.

I am even considering writing my Indian story using Yasmeen as a recurring character, visiting her cousin Noor, who lives across the border in India, a world away from the strict upbringing of her cousin from the west.

Only time will tell...

Between the Lines

Through a mutual acquaintance on YouTube (happyslip!), I met a prospective illustrator. He does cartoons, mostly, which means he can probably churn out drawings of all qualities, good to sketchy.

Ever since I began writing seriously in 1989, I had a vision of an atypical set of illustations for my work. I belive strongly in using mixed media for my illustrations, whether it be watercolor, line drawings, pencil sketches, or acrylics/oils. I think the use of mixed media will help to set the work apart from the others, much in the same way "The Rainbow Fish" and "South Park" did the same in their corresponding ways.

I am pretty sure that finding my own illustrator is not the normal way graphic artists and children's book authors are connected. Usually, the illustrator and author are one and the same, related, or they're married through the publisher itself, whether they do the work in-house or freelance.

However it goes, I'm just excited to keep moving forward. Right now, I'm pretty excited about all aspects of my "Culture Kids" project.

Notes: Under the Santol Tree

Without the help of Mai Licayan, this story, as well as all the others, probably would not have flourished like they did. I travelled halfway around the globe to meet her in Cebu. Unfortunately, we only got to spend four days together. Fortunately, that was plenty of fuel for my writing fire.

And...she's one heckuva muse.

She was a constant reader (and a voracious one at that), reading each story within 24 hours and urging me on to the next story, curious as to what would happen to Gemma next.

A lot of the visuals are taken directly from experiences during my short time with Mai. Still, the stories from inside the Jeepney were taken from my time in Makati, near Metro Manila. I begged my host Eiselle to ride the Jeepney, and she reluctantly agreed. She preferred taking the taxi and having me pay the fare.

The stories from the Cruz house come directly from my time with Mai's family at their house. The pagav (gazebo) is where Mai and I enjoyed a fishy lunch together - bone in and all. Her parent's house was quite a bit farther from the beach than my story, but Gemma's brother Pidro was stolen directly from Mai's brother Ralj, who I only got to meet for a short while.

I had a friend from Cebu named Gemma and I really liked the name, too. Mai and I had a brainstorming session for the family surname. Finally, we decided on Cruz. Ironically, the first Miss Universe is named Gemma Cruz. One day, hopefully, I'll get to send her a finished copy of this work, including illustrations, binding, and publication.