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The Eve of the Feeding

Readers:

In a moment of sheer irony, I find myself on the eve of a feeding seemingly straight out of Mice Don't Taste Like Chicken.  Art may imitate life, but sometimes it is the other way around.

Two weeks ago, when I began my new teaching job, I accepted an offer from a colleague to house her two corn snakes, Beatrice and Priscilla, in my room as class pets.  Their unusual cage antics throughout this week signaled their hunger.

So, off to the pet store I went.

Associate:  "How can I help you?"

Me:  "I'm looking for some white mice.  For a snake feeding."

Associate (grinning):  (5 second pause)  "Sure, right over here."

I followed her, mini-plastic cage in hand, to the feeder mice and walked out of the store with two trembling rodents.

And now here I am, 8:45 on the eve of the feeding, concerned about those two little creatures, huddled together in my office.  I mean, I even fed them a few Cheerios.  That's one step away from naming them!

And so, my inner Drew fights its battle.  Who is there to save them?  

But such is the circle of life.  Snakes eat mice.  As Mr. Cross would say, "I can't deny their nature."

~Scott
"Live, Learn, Teach"
Posted by Scott H. at 9/21/2011 7:51 PM | Add Comment

MDTLC now available on Kindle!

For all my Kindle readers out there, the Kindle version of Mice Don't Taste Like Chicken is now available.  Click here for more details.

I encourage you to leave customer feedback on Amazon as well!

Thanks so much,

~Scott
"Live, Learn, Teach"
Posted by Scott H. at 7/20/2011 8:29 AM | Add Comment

PARC Partnership


Readers:

Below is the message recently released to all members of Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC).

Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC) is pleased to announce a recent partnership with author Scott Heydt. Scott writes young adult fiction and has recently published his new novel Mice Don't Taste Like Chicken. A portion of each book purchase is being donated to PARC to support the mission of amphibian and reptile conservation. Amphibians and reptiles offer important learning opportunities in the sixth grade class that serves as the setting for Mr. Heydt's new novel. Mice Don't Taste Like Chicken also features an Afterword written by Whit Gibbons, Professor Emeritus of Ecology at the University of Georgia. To purchase the book or for more details, please visit www.micedonttastelikechicken.com . A synopsis of the story follows below.

Sixth grade can be a zoo. Drew Harrington sure hopes so.
He and his best friend, Jackson Harris, can't wait to join Bridgeton Elementary's legendary teacher, Mr. Cross, in a classroom inhabited by cantankerous lizards, elusive iguanas, and a 13-foot Burmese python named Prometheus. Cootie-proof Kim Etter, Tinkle Troy Schwartz, the social outcast with an overactive bladder, and perpetual grade-schooler Joe Riaz are among Drew's classmates. Will this year be as predictable as the past five? Or will this be the year that makes Drew realize mice don't taste like chicken?

For more information about PARC and its efforts, visit www.parcplace.org.

~Scott
"Live, Learn, Teach"
Posted by Scott H. at 6/15/2011 7:11 AM | Add Comment

MDTLC Official Release


Readers:

Mice Don't Taste Like Chicken is officially available for purchase!  Visit www.micedonttastelikechicken.com, www.scotthbooks.com, or www.publishersdrive.com for details!  Available on Amazon and B&N in the next few weeks.  A portion of each book purchase is donated to Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC).

~Scott
"Live, Learn, Teach"
Posted by Scott H. at 6/8/2011 6:01 PM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment

Guardian

To my educator friends as well as past, present, and future students:

Below is a wonderful poem I found recently by Katy Farber in her book Why Great Teachers Quit and How We Might Stop the Exodus (2010).



GUARDIAN

 

I am the guardian of your 10-year-old-self

I bear witness, child one second

teenager the next

developing a sense

of what is right

what is wrong

and all in between

pushing the boundaries of childhood

like water on the levees

intense daily interactions

reading, writing, thinking

talking, laughing, brooding

until poof! You’re gone

like summer in Vermont

or a flock of birds overhead

flying fast out of sight

I squint to see

the tiny dots disappear.

 

So when I see you in town

at the grocery store,

don’t think I’m odd

because I stop in my tracks

 

shaken

 

because while I’ve stayed

the same in the mirror

you’ve gone through a

swirling metamorphosis

when I wasn’t looking

you’ve danced, sung,

played, changed

and done more than

I’d ever known

or could teach you.

I’m looking for the relic

for the tiny piece

of your preadolescent

clumsy, shining self

searching the pictures

in my mind

head spinning.

 

So when you see me

on the street

stop and say hello.

tell me who you are now

and I will tell you

who you were then.

 


Scott 

"Live, Learn, Teach"

Posted by Scott H. at 5/30/2011 8:51 AM | Add Comment

A Spark Reignited

Readers:

When I clicked into my blog template today, I noticed it has been 284 days since my last blog post.  Let's just say the time away was necessary to reignite the spark.

Just yesterday, I found myself substitute teaching with Gifted classes ranging from 3rd to 6th grade.  The fifth graders' assignment was to construct emotional, first-person journal entries from the perspective of a slave in the 1700s being transported in the Middle Passage.  With bright minds around me, I took a shot at the task as well. It reignited the writing spark so immediately, I just had to include the results on this blog.

I march.  I fall.  The whip cracks.  I cringe, grabbing at the chained ankles in front of me.  How far we have trudged, I know not.  I know only that each step brings the raw friction of shackle on emaciated bone.  Each mile carries possibility of death--death I may suffer to improve the life of another.  I drown out the woeful songs of my brethren and plod on...numb.

The ship is within sight now.  A rickety barge more suitable for firewood than floatation.  The slave driver shouts an order in his foreign tongue.  We stare, blankly, only to receive the force of the whip upon our backs.  The Rosetta Stone, the interpreter of all languages.  Pain and cruelty know surpass words.

My foot touches the ramp and I seize.  To step again is to step into nothingness.  For what is my life without my country?  My freedom?  It is nothing.

The force of bodies shoves me forward and I feel liquid seep between the slits of my calloused toes.  I venture a glance down to find my feet colored crimson.  Have I been cut?  Does the blood come from me?  

Only then do I spy the many pools before me.  Festering, fly-covered ponds of fluids, sputum, and human excrement.

My gut clenches and I wretch, expelling nothing but the few drops of saliva left in my parched mouth.  Days since I have eaten, there is little else inside me.  And what is inside me is of so little worth.  When the Devil steals your soul, you are left a hollow shell.  Why has God forsaken me?

~Scott
"Live, Learn, Teach"
Posted by Scott H. at 5/26/2011 7:58 AM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment

A Page Out of Scott Westerfeld's Playbook

Watch the Leviathan trailer here here:

Readers:

"Do you oil your war machines, or do you feed them?"  What an incredibly catchy line from Scott Westerfeld's newest book, Leviathan.  It's not just his first name, or the fact that I enjoyed the Uglies series so much--the idea he captures in the novel is, well, novel.

Leviathan takes place in pre-WWII Europe at the time of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination.  Instead of what we've learned in history class, the superpowers have much greater warring capabilities.  The Germans, or Clankers, have created armies of mechanical walkers reminiscent of Star Wars.  The British, or Darwinists, have harnessed the power of genetics to create an army of beasties that turn the ideal qualities of animals into battle-ready weapons.  

For example, early in the book, main character Deryn watches as a battle exercise involving fabricated bats takes place.  Deryn is airborne on the Leviathan (which I won't even begin to describe here) and looks across the water to a large sailing vessel.  She and a few others feed fabricated bats some figs with metal spikes inside.  The bats swallow the spikes, unharmed.  When a light is shown, the mosquito and moth genetics embedded in the bats draw them to the illumination.  Slowly they are lured over the ship, at which time the light changes from white to red.  These bats, so frightened of red it literally scares the "clunk" (as Westerfeld calls it) right out of them, lets it fly, spikes and all.  The ship is left in tatters as a result.  Who thinks of this stuff?!  So much fun!

It made me wonder what the world has actually done with genetic manipulation.  I researched a few "beasties" of our own that the FDA either approved already or is considering in development.  

Enviropig:
Pig manure gives off phosphorus which leeches into waterways and forms fish-killing algae.  The enviropig uses a mouse protein that affects the pigs saliva and eliminates the phosphorus left behind in its waste.

Life-Saving Goats:
These goats produce a protein, given off in its milk, for a drug called Atryn.  Atryn is an anti-clotting therapy for people with a rare disease called hereditary antithrombin deficiency.

Glo-Fish:
These fish have a florescent glow, kind of like a neon sign.  They were originally developed to detect polluted waterways.  Now, they're sold as unique pets.

So here's the question.  If you could combine qualities of animals into a new fabricated creature, what would you create?  Napoleon Dynamite had his Liger.  What will you create?  

Take a page out of Scott Westerfeld's playbook, and share your ideas here.

~Scott
"Live, Learn, Teach"
www.scotthbooks.com
Posted by Scott H. at 9/4/2010 9:57 AM | Add Comment

S.C.o.T.T.- Manuscripts (featuring Hayley Williams) *I wish

To my fellow writers:

Feel free to sing along above the original lyrics  Thanks to B.o.B., and the song goddess that is Hayley Williams, for the inspiration!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn6-c223DUU

"Can we pretend that manuscripts

On the hard drive

Are like future ARCs?

I could really use an agent right now,

Agent right now,

Agent right now. (x2)

 

Yeah,

I could use an agent or a rep or a pub,

To get my manuscript some acclaim and some love

Cause after all the typin’

The editin’, re-hashin’

The late night sessions

Hard work in the trash bin.

SASEs and the standard rejections

There comes a time when you fade to the blackness.

Yeah, you stare at the phone in yo lap

And hopin’ but the agents never call you back.

But that’s just how the story unfolds

You get another lead

Soon after you’re told.

And when you get asked for a partial request

Will they all be thinkin’ that your work is the best?

 

So manuscript, manuscript

I think you’re dope.

I’ll send you away

So don’t lose that hope.

If I don’t get a rep

Then I’ll switch my sights

I’ll be back on Agent Query

By the end of the night.

 

(chorus)

 

Yeah,

Yeah,

Somebody take me back to the days

Before this was a book

Nothin’ but a blank page

Before it ever mattered what I had on Facebook

Back when I was trying to get my photos some looks.

And back when I was writin’ for the hell of it.

But nowa’days I’m writin’ to stay relevant.

I’m guessing that if I can make ARCs out of manuscripts

Then maybe oh maybe I’ll make top 20 lists.

Before my website was lookin’ super sweet

And back when ain’t nobody ever read my Tweets.

And back before I filled up my journal sheets.

But this is for New York,

What’s up Simon Schust?

So can I get a rep to fuel my author rep,

Get a contract and a proof on my step.

So here I sit

And again I say,

I’m hoping’ we can make some ARCs out of manuscripts."

 

(chorus)

~Scott 

"Live, Learn, Teach"

www.scotthbooks.com

Posted by Scott H. at 8/22/2010 8:14 PM | Add Comment

Into the Wild

Readers:

"Greetings from Fairbanks!
This is the last you shall hear from me Wayne. Arrived here 2 days ago. It was very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory. But I finally got here. Please return all mail I receive to the sender.

It might be a very long time before I return South. If this adventure proves fatal and you don't ever hear from me again, I want you to know your a great man. I now walk into the wild."

— Chris McCandless, in postcard sent to Wayne Westerberg in Carthage, South Dakota, from Alaska

So begins the true story, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.  A young man one day abandons all and treks into the most brutal conditions to find himself.

I write this post at 5:30 am of August 14, 2010, the morning of my 30th birthday.  So begins the next chapters in my life's novel (yes, the cliche is heavy in this sentence).  A young man (me this time) abandons all and treks into the most brutal conditions to find himself.  In the spirit of Into the Wild, here is my postcard.

"Greetings from Thirty!
This is the last you shall hear from me Twenties.  Arrived here today.  It was very hard to say goodbye.  But I finally got here. Please return all "you're getting old" and "it's all downhill from here" jokes to the sender.

It might be a very long time before I slow down and my body heads South--after all, there's much more work to do.  If this adventure proves successful, and you hear great things from me in the decade to come, I want you to know you're the reason why.  I now walk into the wild."

--Scott Heydt, in a blog entry sent to his Twenties in Chalfont, Pennsylvania

"Live, Learn, Teach"
www.scotthbooks.com

Posted by Scott H. at 8/14/2010 4:37 AM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment

The Teen Phenom, Kieryn Nicolas!


Readers:

Meet Kieryn Nicolas, a teen writing prodigy (my opinion) that just hit the scene with her first novel, Rain.  In just a few months, she's captured the attention of many with her upbeat attitude and commitment to the craft.  This evening, I have the opportunity to host her in my Language Arts and Literacy graduate class.  She'll speak to my students (pre-service teachers) about what teaching practices motivated, and continue to motivate her, as a writer.


Fortunately for you, she also agreed to an interview on my blogs.  Check out her work.  You won't be disappointed!

How long have you been writing, and what inspired you to begin seriously devoting yourself to the craft of writing?

I think I’ve been writing ever since I could write—and that does not necessarily mean I could spell. I have a journal from when I was four, and my first recorded story, from what I can decode, reads: "Laura wus pritty and nice it wus 12:00 at night Laura hred a strang naus. it wus bumping and sloshing and skraching. She did not know wut it wus. so she went out side and thar wus a Baer. She kickd the baer and pushed Him into the woods. the end"

Talk about climaxes.

I was in fifth grade, though, when I decided I wanted to be an author. I had an amazing teacher that year, and we actually did creative writing. That’s probably when I realized how much I loved writing long stories—aka, novels.

How do youlive your life like a writer?  What day-to-day habits must you incorporateinto your routine?

Every day I have two emails and two Facebooks to check—my personal ones, and my author ones. I also have to remember to Tweet and do any other social media. Also, I always have something with me that I can record ideas on, whether that something is my phone or a notebook or the note app on my iPod. (I used that app a lot on the bus this year.) Pretty much I make sure that I stay in touch with my professional/author communications, and also the author in my head, who usually gets ideas at the least convenient times.

Who are someof the authors you lean on most for inspiration and craft when you get stuck inyour own writing? 

That’s an interesting question. Reading books that I like usually does motivate me to write my own stories. For example, J.K. Rowling is the queen of characters. Everyone in the Harry Potter series is incredibly real, and her writing makes me want to write my characters to life. Suzanne Collins—author of The Hunger Games and the Underland Chronicles—writes incredible action scenes, so when I read her books I want to make my own stories more exciting. I recently read the 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU series by Meg Cabot, and it had an incredible voice. Guess what I’ll be focusing on next time I write?

In youropinion, how important is the link between avid reading and strong writing?

I think the link is fairly important. I’m not saying someone who isn’t an avid reader can’t be an incredible writer, or vice-versa, but personally I attribute a lot of my strength in writing to the countless hours I’ve spent reading. Story ideas have always bounced around my head, and seeing how authors brought their stories to life helped me figure out how to put mine in words as well.

What’s thefunniest/craziest/strangest story you have so far from your writing escapades?

I’m not sure this is the funniest/craziest/strangest, but I got a friend request from someone from Indiana a few weeks ago. Thinking it might be someone I met at the Lit Fest, I clicked on his profile, and did a double-take when I saw I was in his profile picture. Yeah, it was the picture he’d taken of us when I signed a book for him! That was a pretty cool experience.

What can youtell us about your current projects? 

I’m currently working on a dystopian story that I absolutely love—but I’m really bad at summaries, so I’ll just leave it there for now. Also, I’ll have a “short” (I use quotes because myversion of “short” always contrasts with other people’s version of “short,”like my English teachers who insist on page limits and nonsense like that) story coming as an eBook from Echelon in the near future. It’s called Poison Ivy, and I wrote it as a response to To Kill a Mockingbird last year in English. We had our choice of projects, so long as we incorporated a theme from the book. I asked my teacher if I could do a story, and she said sure, as long as it was “reasonably short.” Of course, I used my own interpretation of “reasonably.”

Where can wego to learn more about you?

My amazing and tech-savvy grandma designed my website, www.kierynnicolas.com. On there are links to buy my book, a page with links to media about RAIN and myself, the prologue/first chapter of my book, a short bio, reviews of RAIN, and links to my social media pages (like Facebook and Goodreads). Also, I (usually) update my blog, www.kierynnicolas.blogspot.com,at least once a week. Well, I try to.

~Scott

"Live, Learn, Teach"

www.scotthbooks.com

Posted by Scott H. at 7/15/2010 8:02 AM | View Comments (2) | Add Comment
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