Books for kids, teens, & those who are young at heart

Tag: Great Connecticut Caper

Playing Catch Up Jessica McCadden Author of Chapter 8 of THE GREAT CT CAPER

Chapter 8 of THE GREAT CONNECTICUT CAPER is here! The adventure is really shaking and moving, and with only four chapters left, I can’t wait to see what happens next. While we all wait for find out what exactly is going on with Gillette Castle, let’s give a big welcome to chapter 8 author Jessica McCadden!

CTCaper_poster_finalPlaying Catch Up

by Jessica McCadden

From the moment my wonderful mentor, Sarah Darer Littman, brought this project to my attention I wanted to be a part of it.

As a graduate student pursuing my MFA in Creative Writing, I spend a lot of time reading, writing papers, and working on my young adult novel and though I work with wonderful writers and teachers, I’m always the sole author of my projects. One of the reasons the CT Caper was so intriguing to me was because I was excited about the prospect of creating a story that would be part of a larger work. The really cool thing was that the story would be a mystery not only to the readers, but to me—one of the authors! Participating in this process meant relinquishing some creative control, but was also freeing. I didn’t have to come up with a beginning or end—I just got to focus on my one small part of the story.

Since I was writing Chapter 8, I received the first seven chapters before writing my section. The main characters had been fleshed out, and the basic themes and plot already constructed. I will admit, before even starting to think about my chapter I had to map out what was going on. There were a lot of little details to keep track of, and the most important thing was to make sure I knew where each character was at the end of chapter 7 so that my chapter would be consistent with the events that took place before. This was very different from my solo projects because instead of planning the story from beginning to end, I was playing catch up. Once I was clear on what was going on, I wrote an outline for my chapter and figured out what Connecticut landmark I wanted to include, as well as which facts about William Gillette and Gillette Castle would fit into my story.

I was happy that I could include magic into my chapter because this fantasy world had already been established. My own novel and short stories are usually in the dystopian, science fiction, or fantasy genres, so it was fun to incorporate some of the elements I love to write in Chapter 8. I also wanted to add a landmark from the part of the state where I’ve spent most of my life (southwestern CT), so I did some research and found a historical mansion just a few miles from my old home that I included in the story.

As some of the other writers have mentioned, it was really difficult to stick to the word count! I think my first draft was over 900 words long, and I’d thought I was being frugal! Cutting the chapter down to 650 words took longer than writing the original draft. After some help from the project’s wonderful editor I made revisions and was very happy with the final draft—especially the cliffhanger at the end of my chapter!

Now that my part is finished I’m concentrating on school (pursuing my MFA in Creative and Professional Writing at Western Connecticut State University) and finishing my young adult novel. My goal is to finish the final draft by early next year and after that I will be seeking representation. In the meantime, I teach college English courses and lead creative writing workshops at Writopia Lab, which gives me the opportunity to help amazing and talented kids write their own stories.

I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a part of a unique, history-mystery for children that is educational and fun to read. I’m ready to write another chapter… sequel anyone?

PDI_0096About the Author:

Jessica McCadden is a freelance writer who received her B.S. from Boston University and has worked as a writer and producer at NBC, Nickelodeon, and TV Land. In addition, Jessica is in the process of earning her MFA in Creative & Professional Writing with an emphasis on Young Adult fiction from Western Connecticut State University.

Jessica teaches English Literature as a graduate assistant, has led creative writing workshops for kids at Writopia Lab, worked as an editorial intern at Talcott Notch Literary Services, and is one of the authors of The Great CT Caper, a serialized mystery story for young people.

One of her goals as a writer is to increase diversity in children’s literature. She currently resides in Connecticut and is writing her first YA novel.

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn, her website, and Twitter (@JessicaMcCadden).

Research – It’s Not Just for School Projects with Author Sarah Darer Littman

Chapter 5 of The Great CT Caper is here! I don’t know about you, but I’ve been having a blast reading the Caper and seeing where all the authors have taken the story. Today we welcome Sarah Darer Littman, author of chapter 5 of the Caper, who had a week to learn and write about a place she had never visited. Welcome, Sarah!

CTCaper_poster_finalResearch – it’s not just for school projects!

by Sarah Darer Littman

As a young girl living in London, I could see Baker Street Station from my bedroom window, and passed 221B Baker Street, the home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, every time we walked to Regent’s Park.

I was a voracious reader, and the wonderful children’s librarians at the library on Marylebone Road, where my parents took us regularly, put The Hound of the Baskervilles in my hands. I was hooked.

The Great Connecticut Caper audition required authors to write a short piece from a prompt, which set up a detective entering an empty house from which a strange noise was emanating, and pulling aside a curtain. I had him find a cat behind the curtain, and it seemed only logical that the feline should be named Watson.

GillettedoorAt this point, despite having lived in Connecticut for many years, I knew nothing about William Gillette and his creation of the screen role of Sherlock Holmes. But it seems like I’ve been on the path to his doorstep at Gillette Castle since I spent all those hours in my bedroom down the street from 221B engrossed in the mysteries of Sherlock Holmes.

When it came time to write my chapter, #5, I had an interesting challenge, because the story line diverged right at the end of the previous chapter, and I had very few words to account for what happened and move the parallel stories along for the next author. I’d visited Gillette Castle to learn more about William Gillette and hopefully get some fun tidbits Gillettefrog2I might be able to use in my chapter (“Ribbit, Ribbit!” Gillette really did have two pet frogs named Mike and Lena, I learned from my tour guide). But two of the characters in my chapter, Thomas and Norm, end up at Dinosaur State Park, which I’ve never visited. We were only given a week to write our chapter, and I was about to leave on a much needed vacation, so I didn’t have time to go up to Rocky Hill for a research trip. So I went online to learn whatever I could about Dinosaur State Park, and looked up images on Google Image search.

GilletteFrogs1But here’s the problem with only using online research: it’s not always correct. My original draft of chapter five involved excitement when a dinosaur statue in the field at Dinosaur State Park came to life and started chasing Thomas and Norm. But I was unsure of two things: 1) it’s been a long time since my son, now 21, was obsessed with dinosaurs and I knew every single dinosaur ever, so I wanted to check I was using the correct name and 2) I was worried because there is also a Dinosaur State Park in Texas and some of the same pictures that were tagged as being in CT were also tagged as being in Texas.

GillettearchwayThis is where being a journalist and understanding the importance of fact-checking helps me as a writer. I emailed Dinosaur State Park and explained my dilemma. I received an incredibly helpful email back from Meg Enkler, the Environmental Education Coordinator at Dinosaur State Park. Meg confirmed that the outside dinosaur statues must be at the Texas park, because the big statue of a Dilophosaurus, is indoors at Rocky Park. That nixed my existing plot line, but Meg helpfully suggested several alternatives, one of which I used. Thank you, Meg!

I often have to do a lot of research for my novels, and getting to ask interesting people questions about the work they do is one of the things that makes my own work so enjoyable – it’s lifelong learning.

SDLhiresheadshotAbout the Author:

Sarah Darer Littman is an award-winning author of books for young people. Littman’s first novel, Confessions of a Closet Catholic, won the 2006 Sydney Taylor Book Award for Older Readers. Her novel Life, After was a 2011 Sydney Taylor Honor Book. She is also the author of Purge and Want to Go Private? Her most recent novel Backlash, releases from Scholastic Press on March 31st.  In addition to writing for teens, Sarah is a political columnist for CTNewsJunkie.com, and teaches creative writing in the MFA program at Western CT State College and for WritopiaLab. You can find her online at http://sarahdarerlittman.com/@sarahdarerlitt, and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Darer-Littman/121109781249612.

The Great Connecticut Caper Starts Today

CTCaper_poster_finalGillette Castle has gone missing! And after all the hype I’ve been giving it on the blog lately, you can now finally join the young sleuths in solving the mystery in The Great Connecticut Caper. Chapter one goes lives today! (You can see I’m speaking in exclamation points!) Follow along at http://ctcaper.cthumanities.org/ as a new chapter is posted every two weeks and for fun activities as well.

The story has been getting some great local press coverage (see these great stories from the CT Post, which includes quotes from the illustrator of chapter two, the one I wrote; the Middletown Press; and NBC Connecticut), but it’s not just for my CT peeps. Any young or young at heart reader will enjoy the CT Caper. Make sure to regularly check out the blog here, too, as I’ll be hosting some of the other authors and illustrators on the weeks their chapters go live.

And if you are local, there’s still time to sign up to attend the launch party at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, this Wednesday, January 7 from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. There will also be a launch party later in the month in New Haven (details to come).

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