Author: Loree Burns

Posted on

Milkweed, Monarchs and More

MILKWEED, MONARCHS AND MORE
A Field Guide to the Invertebrate Community in the Milkweed Patch
By Ba Rea, Karen Oberhauser, and Michael A. Quinn
Bas Relief Publishing Group, 2003

Category: Field Guide

I have spent a good deal of my reading time this summer poring over field guides. Sometimes I am trying to identify a creature I spotted in the field, other times I am reviewing the guide for possible inclusion in the backmatter of my citizen science book. I have found good field guides and not-so-good field guides; MILKWEED, MONARCHS AND MORE is one of my new favorites.

This little guide is the only one you’ll need to identify plants and insects living in a milkweed meadow. The small size is great for carrying into the field, though maybe not so great for old eyes like mine. Nonetheless, it is a cool tool for kid and adults who dig hanging out in the milkweed meadow, or who are interested in insects, particularly the beloved monarch butterfly.

Plus, if you owned one, you could easily identify all these creatures:


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns

(Go ahead, guess. I’ll post the answers in a comment below.)

Two more great reasons to own this field guide:

Buying a copy through MonarchWatch supports monarch butterfly conservation and citizen science.

Owners would make fantastic Monarch Larval Monitoring Project volunteers.

 

Posted on

Field Assistants

To follow-up on that last post …

I am also blessed to have kids who never pass up the chance to treck into the woods–or the milkweed meadow, or a snowy field, or the backyard–to look for bugs and stars and book ideas. These three are the most excellent field assistants a writer like me could ever have:


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Ellen Harasimowicz


© Loree Griffin Burns

They are also extremely patient on those occasional summer mornings when Mom gets in a groove and simply can’t leave her desk at the agreed upon hour …

 

Posted on

Field Research


© Loree Griffin Burns

I answered some questions this week for an article about field research. The author asked if I had any practical tips, and here’s the quick list I made:

Invest in a nice recorder, preferably digital … and then remember to keep it and spare batteries with you at all times. Keep in mind that background noise will wreck your recording, and adjust accordingly. (For example, if there are airplanes flying overhead, wait and do the recorded interview indoors later.)

Always carry a notebook and pens and pencils (pens don’t work well in extreme cold).

Always carry business cards.

Collect the full name and contact information for everyone you talk to.

Observe closely, write what you see, hear, smell, feel, taste, collect tiny details, snippets of conversation, lingo, weather details, EVERYTHING. You man not need all this information later, but this may be your only chance to collect it!

As soon as you get home, transcribe your tapes and record your notes. This is CRUCIAL. So many little details can be added to your notes while the experience is fresh in your mind; these details will be lost next month.

As soon as you’ve transcribed your tapes and notes, contact your host, thank them for giving you the opportunity to join them, and ask any follow-up questions you have.

Make contact with others you met in the field, too. These people may be great resources for you in the future.

Keep printed hard copies of all your typed notes and transcripts. (And, of course, remember to back up your digital copies.)

When your article or book comes out, send a copy to all the researchers who helped you during your field experience, even if the publication comes years later.

It occurred to me this morning—while looking through photographs I took this past weekend during a field research trip with photographer Ellen Harasimowicz—that I forgot to include a very important tip: surround yourself with good colleagues!

 

Posted on

Bug Boy

BUG BOY
by Eric Luper
FSG, 2009

BUG BOY, the much-anticipated second novel by my friend and critique partner, Eric Luper, hits bookshelves everywhere TODAY. Congratulations, Eric!

Here’s the flap copy: “Set amid the rough backstretch of 1934 Saratoga horse racing, this edge-of-your-saddle read follows the course of a young jockey whose rise to glory is accompanied by ever-increasing pressure to do something that could leave him trampled in the dirt.”

Honestly, how can you resist?

It was a treat to watch this book evolve from the germ of an idea into the gritty, breakneck historical novel it has become, and I am thrilled to start shouting from the rooftops about it. Treat yourself to this one, friends, and enjoy the ride.

(ps. There is a horse in this novel I am particularly fond of. Give the book a read and see if you can guess which it is!)

 

Posted on

The End

No, no, no … not the end of my book draft. (Are you crazy? I’m just getting rolling with that!)

No, today marked the end of my seven weeks fostering a hummingbird clearwing moth. I found its mysterious, pearly green egg on a viburnum bush in my backyard, brought it indoors, watched it hatch into a tiny caterpillar, and then grow into a giant caterpillar, and then transform into a pupa. (You can read more and see pictures here.) Today, right here in my office, the adult moth emerged … and I am in awe.


© Loree Griffin Burns

Isn’t it beautiful!?

The lovely flew off into the woods behind my house at about 3pm this afternoon, after posing sweetly on a potted sage for close to half an hour. My office feels strange tonight … a wee bit lonely, a wee bit magical.

 

Posted on

Writing Creative Nonfiction

WRITING CREATIVE NONFICTION
Edited by Carolyn Forché and Philip Gerard
Story Press, 2001

I got this book as a Christmas gift, but only recently began thumbing through it. I enjoy reading about other writer’s and how they work, especially when I am immersed in work myself. I particularly enjoy mention of those places where another writer struggles. For example, in her essay The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer, Robin Hemley says: One of the greatest difficulties for the writer of longer nonfiction is figuring out the structure of the book. For me, this has been one of my major hurdles, why I seem to stew about a book for a year or so before coming to an understanding of what I’m writing about and how to go about writing it.

Well, then, I am in good shape. Structure I’ve got. An opening chapter? Not so much. But I’ve settled on a nice structure, I think, and that’s something. At least to me … and Robin Hemley.

Here are some other gems from the early pages of WRITING CREATIVE NONFICTION:

… above all else write about something to which you feel some emotional or psychological tie.

Alan Cheuse in his essay Finding a Story, or Using the Whole Pig

I write because you can play on the page like a child left alone in sand.

Terry Tempest Williams in his essay Why I Write

Every writer ought to have to read her narrative to an audience of three hundred people and learn, by the shuffling of their feet, where the storytelling flags.

Philip Furia, in his essay As Time Goes By: Creating Biography

 

Posted on

Rising


© Ellen Harasimowicz

My friend and book-making partner Ellen Harasimowicz, took this photo last Friday night in Rhode Island. We had ventured to the southern part of that state to join local FrogWatchers as they listened for and recorded frog calls. The warm glow in the photo perfectly matched my feelings about the trip–my last into the field for this particular book–and the setting sun was appropriate, too.

Alas, the sun rose again on Saturday … and I began the next phase of the process: wrestling my citizen science research into the shape of a book. In reality, I’ve been drafting for a couple weeks now; somehow it all feels more official today.

In other news, proper summertime weather has arrived in central Massachusetts. Hallelujah! Hope it is sunny and bright where you live, too.

 

Posted on

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE
By Jacqueline Kelly
Henry Holt, 2009

Category: Middle grade historical fiction

A few weeks ago, I participated in a discussion about the teen detective in contemporary fiction, and I asked aloud for books that featured female protagonists with a scientific bent. Someone recommended THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE, by Jacqueline Kelly, and I am so very glad they did.

Calpurnia Virginia Tate, known to neighbors and friends as Callie Vee, is a wonderful girl detective. Mentored by her grandfather, she awakens during the glorious summer of 1899 to the mysteries all around her: Why does this single species of grasshopper come in two distinct colors? Why don’t caterpillar have eyelids? What in heaven’s name are those somethings-with-hairs swimming in the river water she looked at through Grandfather’s microscope? Must all girls grow up and become wives and mothers?

Callie Vee is that rare heroine who transcends her time and her place; she inspires readers—at least this one!—to wonder, observe, strive and dream. I highly recommend you make her acquaintance.

(For a proper review, check out this one from Colleen Mondor.)

 

Posted on

What A Girl Wants: Books She Can Relate To

Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray has inspired another interesting discussion about teen girls and reading. This time, Colleen asked us panelists to discuss how important it is (or isn’t) for writers to identify with their protagonists. Specifically, she asked:

 

Do you think writers and publishers address this identity issue strongly enough and in a balanced manner in current teen fiction?

Can authors write characters of different race/ethnicity or sexual preference from their own?

Beyond that, what special responsibility, if any, do authors of teen fiction have to represent as broad a swath of individuals as possible?

You can read the thoughtful responses of Colleen’s WAGW Panel here.

I tackled the question from a non-fiction point of view, of course, and only the issue of identifying with my subject as an author. I also linked over to a similar discussion that was started at the I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids) blog. If you feel strongly on these topics, do stop by and join in the discussions.

In the meanwhile, I’m rubbing my hands together in anticipation of reading three new titles in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Scientists in the Field series. Together these books share the work of five scientists, among them a female microbiologist/spelunker and an African American biologist: