Max Meets a Bully

It seems appropriate that I am writing about this subject today, because (thanks to Facebook) I realized that today marks one year since I started my journey creating Max Meets a Bully. On June 20, 2016 I met with our family friend, Dennis Vanasse, who helped me start this project.

(I included a picture below from that day!) 

Writing my first children's book was a dream come true. I learned so much about the process, from creating the manuscript, to working with an illustrator, navigating layout design and marketing. Most importantly, however, I learned the value of community. 

I have been fortunate enough to grow up around incredibly supportive network of people who are unfailingly kind, generous, and encouraging. Needless to say the second word got out that my book was available for sale on Amazon, I found that I was getting multiple shares on Facebook and congratulatory text messages from people saying they had purchased my book. I was overwhelmed with the immediate support I got, especially when, to be perfectly honest, I was nervous about putting my work out into the world for the first time, especially in such a public setting. 

Soon after the book's release, I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in the Connecticut Family Festival in New London, where, in addition to reading my book, I spoke to a group of kids and their families about the necessity of being kind to others. I was able to sell and sign books as well. 

(Illustrator Paul Santiago and I at the Connecticut Family festival on June 3, 2017)

Then came my first book signing at Filomena's, only a day after the Connecticut Family Festival experience. Friends, family and even people I had never met before came to support me at this event and showed such genuine excitement for the book. The most rewarding part of the book signing for me was seeing a few of my former English teachers that have inspired me throughout my life. It was a humbling reminder of how I grew to love words and stories which ultimately led to this book's inception. 

About a week later I was fortunate enough to do another book signing at Muddy Waters Cafe in New London. It was a special experience being able to promote my book at two important places in my community. 

Though my book has been available for over two months now, the support has not stopped. I still receive texts, Facebook messages and photos of people buying my book and even sharing it with others. A mom of one of my students I teach regularly at Broadway Kids & Company summer camp brought the book into her classroom and had a discussion about bullying with them. This was my goal for the book from the very beginning: to make kids aware of this problem at a young age. 

(Pictured below is my student reading the book in her mom's class! So cool!) 

This was an amazing start to what I hope will be a solid career for me in publishing and maybe even writing as well. Regardless, it showed me that you can not only accomplish anything with the support of good people, but you can be proud of those accomplishments. I am so thankful for my support system back home in Waterford and New London, CT and the people who are always rooting for me to succeed in all that I aspire to do.

~

For anyone who would like to buy a copy of Max Meets a Bully I have included the link below! You can also purchase it at Filomena's :)   

https://www.amazon.com/Max-Meets-Bully-Mena-Buscetto/dp/1543005780/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498017570&sr=8-1&keywords=max+meets+a+bully     

First Weekend in NYC

I'm exhausted.

This was my first full, free weekend as an official NYC resident and I really did my best to fill every minute with seeing friends and exploring fun places in the city! Including the 4th of July holiday I only have about 4 and half weeks left in the program so I'm trying to take advantage of every opportunity. After reflecting on this weekend, I think I am successful in doing so so far!

Friday

Lectures ended early on Friday so I had the entire night free! Lucky for me I have many friends living in the city this summer including these two lovely ladies. 

We got together for dinner in the Upper East Side at a delicious restaurant called The Penrose followed by dessert at Insomnia Cookies! It's nice when a little piece of home is just a subway ride away :)

Saturday 

Looking back, this was an insanely busy day. It started off by me getting some really exciting news that I was asked to be a contributing writer to TheatreArtLife.com, a theatre entertainment digital platform. I will be writing regular articles for them about a variety of topics regarding theatre! I have always wanted to write for a website and this seems like an absolutely perfect place for me! (I have included the link below if you want to check out the site!) 

https://theatreartlife.com

Since the dining hall doesn't provide meals on weekends, my friend Emily and I decided to explore some local places for lunch and stumbled upon this really cute restaurant called Dig Inn. In essence, its an extremely healthy Chipotle! I included a picture of my lunch because a whole day later I am still thinking about it:  

(Herb Roasted Chicken, Lemon Quinoa, Sweet Potatoes & Sautéed Kale) 

I will definitely be back!    

                                                                   

                             

After lunch I was lucky enough to meet up with my friend Andrew for happy hour at a rooftop bar near my building!

Later that night, some of my friends in the program and I decided to go to an authentic ramen noodle restaurant called Totto Ramen. It was SO good. One of my friends who is from Singapore attempted to teach me to use chopsticks but you can imagine how that turned out. After dinner we found a cute bar around the corner called The Pocket Bar that had great music and a really cool atmosphere. It was a perfect Saturday night in the city!

Sunday

Although I planned to spend today in my pajamas recovering from the craziness of the weekend, Emily and I decided that since next week begins our intense, highly anticipated Book Workshop where we will have very little free time, we would take the day to do some more exploring! We decided to go to this bookstore called The Strand, that spans about 3 blocks and holds 18 miles worth of books. They had EVERYTHING there...from YA literature, to children's books, to art history, drama, fiction, nonfiction...you name it it was there. My personal favorite part was the Rare Books section where they had first editions of classic novels on display (and on sale for thousands of dollars) and even some old Playbills from Broadway shows! Surprisingly enough I was able to control myself and only bought a couple of books and a tote bag, but it will definitely not be my last visit! 

After The Strand we tried out a coffee shop called The Bean followed by dessert at the famous Ben's Cookies! 

P.S. I'm including pictures of all of this amazing food because I still can't get over how many great places there are to eat in this city. 

~

It was a very full weekend. I think the best part of it (one of them anyway) is that I finally feel confident navigating the subway which is something I was super nervous about to begin with. I am so thankful for all of these experiences and having the opportunity to explore this beautiful city with great people! Tomorrow starts another week of lectures and I am so excited to keep going on this journey! 

Banana Bread and Book Readings

Risks motivate you because you are determined not to fail.

This is a paraphrase of my favorite quote of the day spoken by an absolutely brilliant author named Tayari Jones. She was the speaker at our final lecture of the evening which ended about 45 minutes ago, and I am still thinking about her words and the unbelievably motivating hour she spent sharing her journey as a writer. 

I have never been much of a risk taker. I have always chosen the safest option in any situation, and if there was any risk involved at all I would think...re-think...evaluate..re-evaluate...overthink and eventually end up sticking with the reliable option anyway. This has been the pattern in my life and it hasn't necessarily proven to be a bad thing. It has driven me to a good amount of success and made me a very realistic and responsible person. Coming to this course is the biggest risk I have ever taken, so I knew exactly what Tayari was talking about when she said this quote.

I have barely been here one week and I already feel like I have absorbed so much knowledge, and that absorption has only led to a thirst for more knowledge about this industry and motivation to succeed within it. I applied for this course because I love books and always have, and I had a desire to learn about the "behind the scenes" aspect of the business (I guess the theatre in me will always reveal itself in one way or another). But in reality, I know next to nothing about publishing. I don't like walking into situations where I am not fully informed and know exactly what to expect yet here I am. Despite my lack of current knowledge I am determined to succeed. After hearing Tayari's lecture today I am so proud that I finally took a risk. I truly think I took the right one. One that will matter.

~

I thought it would be cool to give you guys a glimpse of my everyday life here at the course, so I included photos from my seat in the lecture hall! We sit in alphabetical order so I sit in the same seat every day. The speaker typically stands at the podium and if there is a panel of several speakers they sit in the seats with the microphones.

 

  

I was also lucky enough today to have some time to venture out to the local farmer's market in the neighborhood! They had meats, breads, cheeses, desserts, vegetables...it was really amazing! I ended up buying an entire loaf of banana bread made with organic spelt flour (sounds kinda gross but if you know me, you get it). I tried to take a photo of the farmer's market but it stretched out so far it was difficult. But you can kind of get the idea from the photo below! 

Tonight will consist of eating that banana bread (yay), relaxing, watching Netflix with my housemates and most likely buying Tayari's book online because I am obsessed. She read just one chapter from it tonight and I didn't want her to stop. The story is absolutely captivating and I'm already hooked! I included the summary of her book, Silver Sparrow, below if you are interested in learning more about it! 

~

   With the opening line of Silver Sparrow, “My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist,” author Tayari Jones unveils a breathtaking story about a man’s deception, a family’s complicity, and two teenage girls caught in the middle. 

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon’s two families—the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode when secrets are revealed and illusions shattered. As Jones explores the backstories of her rich yet flawed characters—the father, the two mothers, the grandmother, and the uncle—she also reveals the joy, as well as the destruction, they brought to one another’s lives. 

At the heart of it all are the two lives at stake, and like the best writers—think Toni Morrison with The Bluest Eye—Jones portrays the fragility of these young girls with raw authenticity as they seek love, demand attention, and try to imagine themselves as women, just not as their mothers. (Amazon.com)

What Is The Point?

It's a question we ask ourselves a lot no matter what stage we're at in life, and one that was presented to me today during a lecture. The lecturer was the President of an independent publishing company and proposed the question "what is the point of publishing?" All of us (about 110 people) looked around thinking the exact same thing- "I sure hope there's a point because we're all here for 6 weeks studying and learning how to be successful in this business." Luckily, this extremely intelligent lecturer gave us an answer that we all seemed to find satisfactory. He said, very simply, that

"the book is the point."

That five word sentence has resonated with me all day. The "book", in a more general sense, is the reason I decided to take a huge leap of faith and apply to this course in the first place. Books are important. They allow us to hear the voices of authors all over the world. They allow us to be imaginative and stretch our minds beyond the limitations of reality. The "book" stresses the importance of words and the impact they have on us whether they are read or spoken.

~

Well anyway, this blog post is coming to you a little later than my usual ones because it was a BUSY day at CPC (Columbia Publishing Course). We had our three typical lectures-one from Oxford University Press and then the other two from Independent Publishing Companies. They were all incredibly inspiring (as you can see from my reflection above).

Another really cool think about this course (besides literally everything) is that sometimes we get free books! Today we got a really well known, popular YA (Young Adult) book that I am super excited to read, especially because of my newfound interest in that area of publishing!

We also had our first Sherry Hour today, which essentially was a networking "mini-party"where all of us CPC students could have wine and get to know each other better! They really emphasize networking and making strong connections here, especially amongst each other since we will all be out there in the industry soon enough working together!

After our evening lecture, it was tradition that this particular speaker took the entire class out for a drink at a really fun bar a couple blocks away from campus.




(FUN FACT: The speaker in our last lecture was Ron Chernow's editor. Ron Chernow was the author of the book Alexander Hamilton. This book inspired the musical Hamilton. For those of you who know me you know this is a very big deal and can imagine how starstruck I was.)

Anyway...

 After a long day it was really nice to get to hang out, make weekend plans and talk to some new people outside of our lecture hall. It is also so much fun getting to know this area (there are so many good places to go for food and drinks around here, its great...but a reminder of how expensive NYC can be :)

(Below: Bernheim & Schwartz-the bar we went to after our final lecture for the day!)

This is getting very long but I can't say enough about how wonderful today was. I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

The Books that Built Me

In honor of an incredible lecture today given by the Vice President/Publishing Director of a Middle Grade and YA (Young Adult) literature imprint, I am dedicating this blog post to talking about the books that inspired me as a young reader. This will be a shorter post but hopefully one that will make you think of the books that made you a lifelong reader too!

The lecture today, entitled "Where it all Begins" really focused on the importance of providing high quality, entertaining, meaningful literature young audiences. It was emphasized that the sale of children's books is one of, if not the most important parts of the publishing industry. The reasoning for this is if children get hooked on reading early, they are more likely to become lifelong readers and continue buying books, therefore keeping publishing companies in business. Makes a lot of sense.

Today I was struck with a feeling of inspiration and direction. I am approaching this course with an open mind and am trying to learn everything I can about every role in the business. It is safe to say that after today's lecture on YA literature I can truly see myself working in that area of publishing and enjoying it. Maybe this comes from my recent studies in education, but I think it is moreso the nostalgia I feel when I look back on all of the times I was called out for reading books at family parties, or basketball games, school recess, or pretty much anywhere else where it wasn't normal to have a book in hand...

Or the time I read Number the Stars in one night with a flashlight under my covers.
       
Or the "book shopping sprees" I would go on at WaldenBooks and Borders and spend hours browsing the shelves and come out looking like I had just won the lottery.

Or maybe it is the gratitude I feel that I had family who bought me those books without question, or teachers who encouraged this unusual passion of mine throughout my young life. Regardless, I feel like I owe it to kids who are like I was back then, and be a part of publishing great literature for them.

Just for fun I included some photos of my favorite/most influential books as a child & young adult :)

  

"The first great experience, the one that seems to embody all the world's secrets, the moment to which our imagination is ceaselessly returning."-Francois Truffaut 

My (Actual Last) First Day of School

Today was a packed, but amazing day at the Columbia Publishing Course! I started the day off by going to the gym with one of my housemates (I'm really trying to become a morning gym person...we'll see how long it lasts) before heading to my first lecture at 10 a.m. My typical day will consist of three, two-hour lectures at 10 am, 2pm, and 7 pm. These lectures will be given by industry professionals in all different areas of publishing.

So far the lectures have been about developing and promoting nonfiction book ideas and resume/cover letter etiquette. Before coming to the course we all had several advance assignments that we received feedback on. This week we will be working in small groups to perfect our resumes and cover letters even further with a professional mentor! The lecturers today were a Senior Editor, CEO and General Manager of well established publishing houses in the city and they all had such unique insight and advice to share!

Our keynote speaker gave us a really great overview of the publishing industry as a whole, the future of the business, the potential for growth in regard to employment and so on. It made me realize very quickly that this business is competitive and challenging. However, as our keynote speaker said today, it is important to learn everything about every aspect of the business at the beginning of our careers (now) and I plan on doing just that over the next month and a half.
~
Despite the busy schedule today, I had some time to explore between classes. Of course, my first stop was to a small, independent bookstore across the street from Pulitzer Hall, the place where all of my lectures are held. In this store, I stumbled upon a really cool project called "Read me if you liked..." Basically, an unknown book was wrapped in brown paper with a list of three books taped on it. The books on this list were similar, and the "mystery book" inside was selected to appeal to the readers of those books.

That may have been a super confusing explanation (which I anticipated) so I took some pictures that will probably explain everything better!

(This is the mystery book that was inside the brown paper!) 

I am absolutely obsessed with this project and cannot believe I've never seen it anywhere before! This is such a good idea for people like me who are always looking for a good book recommendation, or are so overwhelmed by titles that they can't choose just one! After reading the first few pages of this book I can already tell I'll love it. Even though I have a lot of work to do related to the course I will make sure to read for fun while I'm here!

I should also mention that the food here is AMAZING. 

Thank you all for reading my last blog post and hopefully this one too! 

Welcome to the Columbia Publishing Course!

Hi everyone! I have decided to pick up my long lost blog and do my best to write about my experiences at the 6 week Columbia Publishing Course! I appreciate all of the support from back home and am so grateful for everyone who has pushed me to pursue and take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity. For those of you who have maybe seen some posts but still aren't exactly sure what I am doing, here is the run down: For 6 weeks I will be living at Columbia University in New York City and attending an intensive course on all aspects of book, magazine and digital publishing. The course includes seminars on everything from resumes and cover letters, to in depth discussions on all areas of the publishing industry. Although my schedule is tightly packed I am going to do my best to keep up to date with this blog, not only to inform all of you who may be curious as to what I am up to all summer but to keep working on my writing and document my experiences :) 

The first day was overwhelmingly exciting. My (amazing) mom helped me move into my room in Hogan Hall, the traditional senior housing at Columbia, and it is absolutely beautiful. I share the suite with four other girls (we all have our own rooms) and we have a big common area that includes a kitchen and living room. Our first activity of the course was an Orientation and Alumni Panel where we met the director of the course and some students who have graduated from it and have gone on to be very successful in the industry. I am already so impressed with the leaders of this program and I have no doubt I will learn so much. After Orientation we had a BBQ and I got a chance to talk to some pretty awesome people. The best part about this course is that I'm meeting people from all over the country who have both the same and different interests than myself. There are about 100 of us. It's like starting college all over again and I am so excited to meet so many new people over the next few weeks! 

Post-BBQ, my first night at Columbia consisted of watching the Tony's with one of my housemates. For those of you who know me well you know I would not miss that for anything. 

   P.S. I was very pleased with the awards :) 

It is a wonderful feeling to take a leap of faith into something you are so passionate about
 I already feel so motivated and excited and it hasn't even been a full day. Shout out to my parents for sending me here and once again providing me with the best opportunities life has to offer! I hope you all keep reading because I will certainly keep writing!

Tomorrow is a packed day but I could not be more excited to attend my first three lectures!!! 

Good night! <3