Mary Amato

Writing with Humor, Heart, & Grit

We are Singing

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Here is a quickie demo of my new song to hear all the parts.

I’ve had requests from my friends who sing in groups and choruses to provide sheet music for melody and harmonies for my song.

Here are links to find sheet music you can print out.

Melody sheet music

High harmony sheet music

Low harmony sheet music

Key of C…if you’re playing uke or guitar…chords are C, F, G. Please share and enjoy!

Rock Creek Valley Residency

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Thanks to the PTA, staff, and students of Rock Creek Valley for bringing me in for a residency in fiction writing. Every student wrote and revised a story. We focused on details, dialogue, and drama. Listen to Josie’s story to hear one great example of the work. The recording was a group effort using an the voice recorder on a smart phone.

Writing Workshops for Adults

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pencils-lotsWednesdays (January 11, 18, 25, Feb 1)
Noon to 1 pm
Robert Harper Books

6216 Rhode Island Avenue, Riverdale Park, MD 20737

Each workshop will involve:

  • Brief lecture-discussion on a different theme
  • An in-class writing exercise

The themes will be applicable to fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, play writing, and songwriting.

  • January 11: Concrete Writing: Exploring the Show-Don’t-Tell Rule
  • January 18: Point of View: Exploring the Unusual Persona
  • January 25: Between the Lines: Exploring Subtext
  • February 1: Withholding: Exploring When/How to Withhold Information from the Reader

Bring a notebook or fully-charged laptop to each session. Feel free to bring your lunch if you’re coming from work on your lunch hour.

Questions about the workshops? info@maryamato.com

Questions about Robert Harper Books? robertharperbooks@gmail.com

Class size is limited.

$15.00 per workshop if you register for all four in the series; $20.00 per workshop if you register for individual workshops. Registration is required and payment must be received in advance. To do so, email Mary Amato:info (at) maryamato (dot) com.

Mary Amato writes for both the adult and the children’s market. She has published sixteen works of fiction for young adults and children and has a new YA and a new series coming out. For adults, she has written numerous essays, articles, poetry, plays, and songs. She has a master’s in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University and has taught locally at Johns Hopkins and The Writer’s Center as well as for numerous institutions and organizations around the country.

Book Club for Kids Radio Show about Our Teacher is a Vampire

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img_4904Kids are the most fun book reviewers and have great voices for radio. I had a blast appearing on the Book Club for Kids radio show. The students had prepared by reading my book Our Teacher is a Vampire and Other (Not) True Stories. They chatted about the book and then asked me questions. Enjoy the episode and more from Book Club for Kids. Thanks to host Kitty Felde and her sub for the day, Mindy.

Our Teacher is a Vampire Cover

 

Private Lessons

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Get Happy Cover
Join me to explore:

  • Writing (Fiction, Poetry, Plays, Essays)
  • Songwriting
  • Performance
  • Ukulele
  • Beginning Guitar

Kids, teens, and adults. In person or via Skype.

I love to tailor experiences to help you reach your goal whether it’s to craft a poem, sing at an open mic, jam on the uke, or write your own songs. Learn ways to overcome writer’s block and/or stage fright. Learn to love your notebook and/or a microphone. Learn to embrace your own voice and find the joy in expressing yourself.

Contact me for more information.

info (at) maryamato.com
Student at Open Mic

 

 

ILA 2016

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Our Teacher is a Vampire Cover
I am looking forward to seeing fellow educators, authors, and lit lovers at the 2016 International Literacy Association Conference.

I will be on an engaging panel moderated by kidlit rock star Judy Freeman with authors Erica Perl and Tom Greenwald to show and tell how we use theater techniques in our middle grade fiction. Entertainment and education on one stage, plus lots of resources for educators to bring into the classroom.

Here’s my schedule. Come by and say hello!

  • Book Signing: Get Happy with Lerner Publishing Group, Saturday 2-3 pm, Booth #2123.
  • Panel Session: Five-Six-Seven-WRITE! Middle Grade Authors on Using Theater Techniques to Shape Narrative Writing with authors Erica Perl, Tom Greenwald, Mary Amato, Moderated by Judy Freeman, Saturday 4-5 pm; Event #1759. HANDOUT.
  • Book Signing: Our Teacher is a Vampire and Other (Not) True Stories, with Holiday House at Publishers Spotlight, Sunday 10-11 am, Booth #2022.

Get Happy Cover

Voice in Poetry at Burning Tree

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Writing a poem from the point of view of someone—or something—can be a thrilling way to experiment with and learn about voice. In a three-day residency at Burning Tree Elementary School in Bethesda, I watched fourth-grade poets turn into dogs, alligators, snakes, unicorns, and more. Thanks to the students for their eager participation and to the staff for making it happen–especially Mary Kunst, team leader, and PTA parent Stacie Gould.

Overall, we explored:
·      Word Choice
·      Tense
·      First-Person POV
·      Authenticity
·      Line Breaks
·      Diction and Slang
·      Rhythm and Emphasis

First, I took students through the process of “becoming” a character. We did character interviews and imagined our lives and personalities from the inside out. We wrote rough drafts of a poem from the POV of the character. I asked students to let the character’s personality and identity emerge through showing, not telling, an important literary concept. I shared my own rough draft and revision, and we discussed the importance of having a great attitude about revising, seeing it as an opportunity to shine. Instead of focusing on traditional forms (like haiku or sonnet) or rhyme, I asked students to focus on voice and point of view. Each student read his or her work aloud to me for feedback. During the final session we explored the importance of performing, of reading work with a unique voice. To add some fun, we collaborated in layering in a few sound effects.

We created one recording in each class as an example. Each student created a unique voice.


I encourage students to experiment with making their own voice recordings at home. Smart phones typically have excellent, easy-to-use voice recorders (often called Voice Memos and found in the pre-loaded Utilities app on the phone.

To do this at home:

1.Write a poem or a prose piece that has a lot of voice.
2.Rehearse reading the piece with expression. Mean what you’re saying. Speak clearly with energy.
3.Record the piece.
4.Name the recording.
5.Share by emailing it to yourself, family members, etc.

 

A note about recording types: Some phone automatically create files labeled with the extension m4a. If you’d like an mp3 of the recording, you can either find free software for formatting the file or you can set your “import as” setting on your computer’s media player (such as itunes) to “import as mp3.”

 

New Book and Resources

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Our Teacher is a Vampire CoverTeachers and librarians, see my special packet showing the step-by-step writing and publishing process. In this free download, students will be able to see real examples of brainstorming, drafts, research, revising, and more.  Teaching guide with Common Core standards is also available.

Our Teacher is a Vampire And Other (Not) True Stories is the collaborative writing journal of a classroom full of students trying to write a story. This book provides great opportunities for lessons on character traits, reading with expression, and understanding how point of view works.

My Ravenous Readers

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If you think kids aren’t reading anymore, think again. Twitter has been on fire with fans of my books, thanks to creative media specialists and teachers who are in high gear for my upcoming visits. The pictures will automatically get you into a good mood.

Songwriting Project at Holton

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Holton whale brainstormI met with each of the three fifth grades at Holton-Arms School for an interdisciplinary songwriting residency. The concept was for each class to write a collaborative song based on something they had studied in science; to learn how to collaborate in creating a melody for the song; to rehearse and record the song.

My favorite moments? When I headed to lunch and heard a group of girls singing their song as they walked down the hallway; when an actual bee flew in during the middle of our recording of the bee song; and listening to the girls experiment—and encourage one another to experiment—right up until the last minute. Each class created an engaging song from a unique point of view.

Topics Covered

  • Song structure
  • Brainstorming & Pre-writing
  • Research
  • Hooks
  • Collaboration
  • “Piggy-backing”
  • Writing elements: Point of view, alliteration, assonance, voice, rhythm, rhyme, meaning, symbolism
  • Revision
  • Performance
  • Music engineering (with sound engineer Cletus Kennelly)

The Songs

Listen to their songs!

What We Learned

The girls were good collaborators and were also respectful of one another. I saw many instances of constructive piggy-backing. For example, one girl would say a line, and another would say. “I like that, and what if we added this to it?” I stressed the importance of being open to changing or revising a line to make it stronger and shared how my editor and I work together to improve a piece.

We learned so many useful things on the spot. For example:

  • Sometimes you want to avoid repetition if it seems as if there could be a more interesting or lively substitution. For example, in the crocodile song, we changed “hiding, waiting, watching, watching for my prey” to “hiding, waiting, watching, searching for my prey.”
  • Some words that worked well on paper felt awkward when we sang them, so we consulted our inner thesaurus and brainstormed alternatives. “My instructions for the day” became “My directions for the day.” Directions felt better to sing and had a nice alliterative connection with “day.”
  •  We discussed consistency of point of view and voice. In one instance, we decided that it would be effective to break the rule. In the bee song, one student wrote a verse from the point of view of the queen. We discussed how it wouldn’t make sense to use this as a verse because the other verses are all in the point of view of workers, but everyone liked the idea of the queen talking. “We could use it as a bridge!” a girl suggested. Since the bridge is a part of the song that has a different melody and could have a new voice, we could imagine it working.

Thanks

Thanks to Ms. Van Ells, Ms. McFadden, Mr. Bane, Mr. Howard, Ms. Baker and all the staff and students.

Humor, Heart, & Grit

I give voice to the funny, sad, messy, and wondrous stories of life, especially the stories of children and young adults. My mission: each book has humor, heart, and grit. If you are a teen and/or you're looking for info about my books and music for older readers, please check out my www.thrumsociety.com site.
Learn more about my mission and resources.

Appearances and Private Lessons

See my appearance list and find out about private lessons via Skype or in person.