What if you’re an 8th grade football player who has built your reputation around bullying. You’re suddenly given the opportunity to rewind the clock and restart your life. Would you do it? That’s the problem that Chase Ambrose faces in Restart by Gordon Korman. After falling off his roof and going into a coma, he… Continue reading Restart by Gordon Korman: A Review and Audio CD Giveaway
Francesca Zappia tackles the difficult subject of schizophrenia in this young adult book, MADE YOU UP. Told from Alex, the 17-year-old’s deep point of view, the reader is brought so completely into her thoughts and emotions that occasionally you can’t figure out what is real and what isn’t—which is exactly Alex’s problem. She uses a camera to record what… Continue reading MADE YOU UP- A Review and an Audio CD Giveaway
One of the highest compliments you can give an author is to finish their book and want to read it all over again. In the case of The Hired Girl, by award-winning author Laura Amy Schlitz, that's exactly what I did; happily spending hours on a recent car trip reliving the world of Janet Lovelace,… Continue reading The Hired Girl: A Review and an Audio Giveaway
This is the reason I love well-written historical fiction: It draws me into a place and time that I am barely familiar with, brushes me with information and imagery, and leaves me wanting to know more. Enter Blue Birds by Caroline Starr Rose (G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Group USA). Written from the points of view of two fictional… Continue reading Blue Birds and an ARC Giveaway!
This is my sixth post from the 2015 Florida SCBWI young adult workshop with Erica Rand Silverman, an agent with Sterling Lord Literistic, and Jacquelyn Mitchard, author and editor-in-chief at Merit Press. Click here for Part I (Why Write Young Adult); Part II (Querying); Part III (Pitches); Part IV (Marketing Yourself and Your Work); and Part V (Building a Lasting Career). Jacqueline Mitchard facilitated this part of the workshop … Continue reading SCBWI Florida Workshop Part VI- Holden and Augustus: What We Mean When We Talk About Voice in YA
When I asked my writer friends for writing tips, I had no idea what they would send. I received lots of general advice, but also a few tidbits that I categorized. Today's post compiles ones on deep point of view. I was first introduced to this concept during Lorin Oberweger's Free Expressions seminar. Lorin generously gave… Continue reading Writing Tips #3- Nuggets of Wisdom on Deep Point of View
Congratulations to Ellen Sepnafski who won Eleanora Tate's book, "Just an Overnight Guest." ******* For those of you who are writers, no doubt you have parried the question which friends and relations pose: "What's taking you so long to finish your book?" This question, often accompanied by skeptical looks and eyebrow raises, may or may… Continue reading Psychology 101, Dominoes, and Answers to the $64,000 Question
Last year at this time I attended the Free Expressions seminar, Your Best Book. If you missed my recap of that great writing workshop, today I am guest blogging about it at Write2Ignite. I hope you'll click on over to learn more about "Creating Voice and Deep Point of View." Lorin Oberweger, Brenda Windberg, Emma… Continue reading Guest Blogger for Write2Ignite
My most recent book is Teaching the Story: Fiction Writing in Grades 4-8. Although intended as a teacher's guide for upper elementary and middle school students, I draw upon it when I teach writing classes at Central Piedmont Community College. I was looking over this week's class on Creating a Character and found my instructions for students to… Continue reading When the Teacher Becomes the Student PLUS a Great Giveaway!
Last week, I joined fifteen other middle grade and young adult writers in an intense week of writing instruction orchestrated by Lorin Oberweger, founder of Free Expressions seminars. As we learned throughout the week, our books need to be closely seen and experienced through our character's point-of-view. Accordingly, in my next 5 or 6 blog posts I plan to… Continue reading Free Expressions Takeaway Part I: Voice & Deep Point of View