Natchez Trace - Part 2

I have completed my trek along the Natchez Trace Parkway, traveling from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. The Trace is full of interesting stops where drivers and bicyclists can turn in and see beautiful sights or learn a bit of history. I want to share my favorites with you.

MOUNT LOCUST
Mount Locust is the only remaining inn of approximately fifty that served travelers on the Old Trace. Mount Locust is at milepost 15.5 on the Trace or just a few minutes from the beginning of the parkway by car. The inn was a one day walk from Natchez in the Trace’s heyday. Thank goodness for automobiles!
The Park Ranger at Mount Locust is a descendant of the inn’s operators and was born in the house.

ROCKY SPRINGS
This was my first visit to a ghost town. Rocky Springs, a thriving community first settled in the 1790’s, grew to over 2500 people at its peak. The yellow fever epidemic, boll weevils, and the demise of the spring that gave the town its name caused the town to dwindle to nothing. Now all that remains is a church overlooking what was once a thriving town, but is now a walking trail. Two safes, minus their doors, stand among the trees. Everything else is gone.

MERIWETHER LEWIS MEMORIAL
Meriwether Lewis, senior commander of the Lewis and Clark expedition, died on the Trace on the night of October 11, 1809. The circumstances surrounding his death are a real historical mystery. He either committed suicide or was murdered. I was told by one park ranger that his expedition journals, which Meriwether Lewis had in his possession, were never recovered.

This tragic event occurred at Grinder’s Stand, an inn where he stopped for the night as he traveled to Washington, D.C. A replica of Grinder’s Stand is at this stop along with a memorial and burial site of this great explorer.

JACKSON FALLS
This beautiful waterfall named after Andrew Jackson is near the end of the Parkway. We hiked down the path 900 feet to see the falls. The water cascades down to a clear pool before disappearing around a bend. Then we had to hike the 900 feet back up to our car. Not so easy, but definitely worth the time and effort.

There are so many great sights along the Trace that I could fill several blogs with the information. But I will stop here and encourage you to see for yourself when you get the chance.

Natchez Trace Parkway

Peter Parker’s spidey-sense tingles when Spider-Man is needed nearby. I think a storyteller’s writer-sense tingles when a story is present. When I enter the Natchez Trace Parkway, I feel the stories of the people who traveled the road two centuries before hanging in the air.

I wanted to take the same journey in the comfort of my automobile. I started in Natchez, Mississippi and am making my way up the 444 mile two-lane highway that the National Park Service maintains as a tribute to this important road in our nation’s history.

Trace is French for animal track. A park ranger at the Trace Headquarters in Tupelo, Mississippi told me that four major groups used the Trace.

Animals first carved out the trail that became the Natchez Trace. Two theories are: the animals were following the sources of water OR they were traveling to salt licks in the Nashville area.

Native American Indians used the same trail. The Trace winds through land that was part of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations.

Kaintucks traveled the Trace from 1785-1830. Kaintucks were men who floated down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to take goods to Natchez and New Orleans. Their boats were dismantled and sold for lumber and these men used the Natchez Trace to walk to Nashville and on to their homes.

Postriders used the trace from 1800-1825. The U.S. Government met with the Choctaw and Chickasaw leaders to gain permission to use the Trace as a national postal road to transport mail between Nashville and Natchez.

By 1830, people could travel up the Mississippi River by steamboat and the Natchez Trace was no longer used on a regular basis.

As I continue my trek along the Trace: more stories and perhaps a photo or two later.

Write Attitude

As Flu Fest slowly crawls to a close in the Parker household, the number of words/pages added to my Work In Progress this week = Zero.

In lieu of a weekly blog, I want to share one of my favorite websites. For writers and dreamers of all sorts, please click here to visit Write Attitude. Enjoy!

Dr. Seuss Week

This week children all over the U.S. are celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss with the National Education Association’s “Read Across America”. School libraries and bookstores are hosting special events to honor one of my favorite authors.

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) had ambitions to become a college professor. During his time at Dartmouth College, Ted Geisel was editor-in-chief of the humor magazine, a job he lost for breaking school rules. He continued to contribute illustrations under the name Seuss, his middle name and his mother’s maiden name.

Despite Ted Geisel’s successful career as a cartoonist, with his work appearing in The Saturday Evening Post, Life, and Vanity Fair magazines, his start as a children’s book author and illustrator was not easy. His first published book that he both wrote and illustrated, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was rejected 27 times!

Some of my favorite Dr. Seuss memories:

*Hearing The Lorax read in place of the class president’s address when I graduated from the Tulane University School of Social Work.
*Seeing the musical, Seussical, at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans and constantly whispering comments to my husband during the show like, “I love that book!” OR “That one is my favorite.”
*Visiting the “Oh, Seuss! Off to Great Places” traveling exhibit featured at the Louisiana Children’s Museum’s reopening in 2006. (I wanted to take the entire exhibit home with me. It was fantastic!).

For more fun info on Dr. Seuss, click here. And yes, I did try the games.

Do you have any special memories associated with Dr. Seuss or any of your favorite books?

Happy Leap Day

Happy February 29th. Welcome to a day that appears on our calendars once every four years. Leap year (the year including February 29th) is the year of presidential elections and the summer Olympics.

Folk tradition says in past centuries it was acceptable for women to make a marriage proposal to their love during a leap year. Apparently, the powers that be thought this gave women too much power because the period of sanctioned female-initiated proposals was shortened to only one day, February 29th.

This may be in response to men’s ire over a 13th century law that fined men who refused a marriage proposal. Their imposed penalties could include any of the following: a kiss, cold hard cash, or a silk dress. This was supposed to make the woman feel better. I wonder if the spurned woman chose the item. Maybe some ladies were just as happy with a new dress.

To give the fellows fair warning, a woman with a proposal on her mind was supposed to wear a scarlet petticoat (one that showed beneath the skirt I presume) to let any men in the vicinity know some lucky or unlucky man was about to be the recipient of a marriage proposal.

A writer friend and I were talking yesterday about things that spark story ideas for us. These type of fun facts often make ideas start to pop for me. What works for you?

Interview with Kristin Tubb

I am thrilled to share my interview with Kristin Tubb on her experiences at the Winter Conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators earlier this month.

Was this your first SCBWI national conference? If you have attended more than one, how was this one different from the others?

The national conference in New York was my second SCBWI national conference. I attended the LA event in 2005. Both are wonderful, with speakers and sessions that leave you crackling with creativity. I’ve heard it said that the LA conference focuses more on the craft of writing, while the NY conference focuses on the business of publishing. In my experience, I found that to be true. It seems as though attendees have more access to agents and editors in NY, but the LA conference offers a huge lineup of kid lit veterans. If I were made of bricks of gold and blocks of time, I’d do both every year!

Can you give a brief overview of what happens at the conference?

I was lucky enough to attend the special Writer’s Intensive that is held every year the Friday before the conference. From 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., eight writers were assigned to one of 30 tables. Each table had an editor or agent who directed a critique session. Writers brought a 500-word sample of their work, and had 15 minutes to both read the piece and receive critiques. It was amazing! My morning session was one of the best critique sessions I’ve ever been involved with at a conference. Our group really gelled. I’ll likely keep in touch with 2-3 writers from that experience. And Jane Yolen gave the closing remarks, focusing her speech on fabulous endings. “A good ending should be both predictable and unexpected,” she said.

Saturday included a number of keynote speakers: David Wiesner, Nikki Grimes, and Carolyn Mackler. (Wow! Pow! Ka-chow!) There were two pre-assigned break-out sessions, each featuring an editor of a major publishing house. The topic was the same for each editor: “What I want to publish.” I chose to attend sessions by Reka Simonsen (Henry Holt) and Wendy Loggia (aka, my SuperEditor, at Delacorte ) The editors were upfront and open about how their houses work, what the acquisition process is, and what their needs and likes are. At the core of every presentation? Editors want A GOOD STORY. Hmmm…

On Sunday, Susan Patron spoke about what it’s like to win the Newbery (it was *fascinating*!). I missed one of my all-time favorite authors, Richard Peck, due to my flight schedule.

Overall, it is delightful experience, one that reenergizes your writing and keeps you focused on quality.

What was your favorite event or speaker?

My favorite speaker was Carolyn Mackler (The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things). I’d seen her present at the LA conference in 2005, and boy, what a difference three years and a couple of banned books makes! Don’t get me wrong – she was an energetic, funny, and entertaining speaker when I first saw her, but her speech this year in NY was downright inspirational. As in, I-want-to-dash-back-to-my-hotel-room-and-write-right-now, I-don’t-care-that-there’s-no-money-in-kid-lit inspirational. All heart. Fantastic.

How did it feel to go to the conference as a soon-to-be debut author?

I’ve always found conferences a little nerve-wracking. Writers are a reclusive sort, and talking to strangers isn’t always easy. So for me, having a book coming out this fall was kinda like having the ultimate ice-breaker. Kid lit writers are the nicest people on earth, and they are genuinely happy for others’ successes.

Plus, I got my first-ever round of applause for writing at this conference! My SuperEditor offered Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Different as an example of middle grade historical fiction that caught her eye. “And the author is in the audience!” she added at the end of her lovely overview. “Give a wave, Kristin!” As I did, the audience clapped! For *my* book! I’m still floating.

What advice would you give unpublished authors who are considering attending the conference for the first time?

Go go go go go! But first, write the very best story you can write. Research the people who will be presenting at the conference, and see who edits/represents books that are similar to yours. Read those books. (This is a step that is often overlooked, but don’t overlook it! That whole ice-breaker thing again…) Be respectful of the agents and editors who are giving up their personal time to attend the conference. Bring business cards, and meet as many fellow authors as you can. If there are optional or additional critique sessions available, do as many of them as you can. After the conference, send exactly what the editor/agent requests, no more, no less. Write thank you notes. Have fun!

Tell me about your debut novel and when it will be available.

Autumn Winifred Oliver has charmed a hive of bees, wrangled a flock of geese, and filched a stick of dynamite from the U.S. Government. But it’ll take a whole new kind of gumption to save her Cades Cove home.

Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different is an historical fiction middle grade novel set in 1934 Cades Cove at the birth of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the only national park formed from privately owned land. It will be available October 14 from Delacorte Press. For more information, please visit my website: www.kristintubb.com.


Thank you Kristin, for taking the time to share your experiences! Now I definitely have ‘Attend SCBWI national conference’ on my to-do-list.

Kristin is a member of the Class of 2k8, a group of 27 debut Middle Grade and Young Adult authors with books coming out in 2008. Check out their website here.

Snowflakes and Book Characters

Two words that were seldom, if ever, spoken in New Orleans, but are occasionally heard in Tennessee were announced earlier this week. Snow Day! These seven letters pumped joy into the hearts of school children and made me pretty happy, too. From experience, I know a snow day sure beats the heck out of a hurricane evacuation day.

Before moving to Tennessee, I had only seen snow a few times in my childhood and once in New Orleans (Christmas Day 2004).

Earlier this week, I was sitting at my computer watching the snow through my window thinking, this is definitely a new experience for me. Large flakes started drifting down and I put my coat on and went back outside in a flash. I held out my hands and caught snowflakes in my red gloves. For the first time in my life, I saw the shape of a snowflake. My first thought was, “Wow! It really does look like they say in books.” My second thought was, “I feel like Snowflake Bentley.”

If you are a children’s book writer or reader, you probably know that Snowflake Bentley is the 1999 Caldecott winning biography by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931) developed a technique to photograph snowflakes. He is the person who actually proved that no two are alike. This wasn’t a quick process. It took years of trial and error. Sort of like working towards publication.

Do you ever think of yourself as a fictional character, or in this case, a real live person from history, in one of your favorite books?