Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Following up and adding to Caryn’s post yesterday: What exactly is a “draft”? If you go from beginning to end without any revisions, that could reasonably be called a draft. But do we really? I work on a scene forever before I move on, maybe I skip around a bit to feel out other characters, …
Continue reading “Things are Getting Drafty”
Imagination is a uniquely human gift. Every one of us has used this talent at some point, and for a variety of reasons. We’ve all been actors or writers at times. As children we attempt to be more brave, powerful, beautiful, or smarter than we are, sometimes as a game—just for the pure joy of …
Continue reading “Write Your Story from Start to Finish: Thwart Your Internal Antagonist!”
About nine months ago, long before Lyn Shepherd bashed J.K. Rowling or Ruth Graham issued her condemnation of adults reading YA books, or the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter blasted fundraising milestones, I wrote a post where I advised writers: “…don’t dismiss children’s fiction. Children’s literature is often ripe with what scares society. The 1800s started a …
Continue reading “Kidlit Matters: What History Reveals”
I was hooked on mysteries with my first Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene). Who wouldn’t want to be her, zipping around in her little red car with her girlfriend, George, and boyfriend, Ned? She was intrepid, daring, smart, and very independent. In the 1950s, when I was reading Nancy Drew books, there weren’t many examples for …
Continue reading “Nancy Drew: Detective…and Writing Teacher?”
Last week when that article from Slate came out bashing adults who read YA novels, I was as outraged as everyone else who enjoys reading and/or writing books classified as teen lit. Many people, myself included, declared Slate writer Ruth Graham to be a literary snob. The definition fits. After all, “snob” defines a person …
Continue reading “Readers & Judgment: Snobs or Guardians of Good Taste?”
Roughly four months ago I began a challenge, to write one short story a week for a year. 52 stories in 52 weeks sounded like nothing when I sat at the starting line of week one with a few good ideas but when I finished week two I was concerned and I began to worry …
Continue reading “Story Ideas in Unlikely Places”
I loathe homework. I always have. I know that sounds ludicrous coming from a former teacher and assistant principal. I’m reminded of that old cartoon—a woman is standing at the foot of the bed, hands perched atop her hips and says, “Time to get up, you’re going to be late for school!” A muffled voice …
Continue reading “My Dreaded Homework Assignment: The Scene Outline”
If you haven’t already published a juvenile book with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) you don’t know they announced a big change on June 2. In a letter to all their children’s book publishers they wrote: “You can now set age and grade categorization refinements to help readers discover your books.” Okay maybe this doesn’t …
Continue reading “Use KDP Changes to Help Promote your Children’s Book”
Here in Arizona, spring isn’t as well-defined as it might be in your part of the world. Here, we call it spring when our temps get above the average 70 degrees of winter. For those three days, before the 100s begin, we have a version of spring. (Only kidding about the three days. Lots of …
Continue reading “Spring Cleaning the Writer’s Mind”
This week was my birthday. To me, it was a small milestone – crossing the line into the latter half of my thirties. It wasn’t met with much cheer. By this age I had expected to be a successful writer, or at least be living above the poverty line. Life as a starving artist is …
Continue reading “Writers & Ageism: Does it Exist?”