Congratulations to Myra Dunlap who won an autographed copy of AIM from last week's blog. ***** Some books defy genres. Longbow Girl is one of them. It is well-researched historical fiction and also a meticulously crafted, time travel novel. No easy feat, but one that Linda Davies pulls off with aplomb. If you study this… Continue reading Longbow Girl: A Review and Audio CD Giveaway
Congratulations to Linda Phillips who won THE HIRED GIRL audio CD. For those of you who know that Linda and I are best writing buddies, I can assure you that this was not rigged and the winner was chosen through random.org! ******** Sixteen-year-old Noah Daniels is a patriot with a problem. Lame since childhood, Noah… Continue reading SCAR: A Review and an ARC Giveaway
When Allan Wolf was thirteen, he lost a penny behind the baseboard in his bedroom. He grabbed a pencil and wrote, "Penny lost down here on the night of April 12, 1976 at 2 til 9 PM and 5 seconds by Allan Dean Wolf." In some ways, that was the genesis of Zane's Trace, a… Continue reading Zane's Trace
In my writing career, the only thing I can imagine that would be better than acquiring an agent and publisher for Half-Truths would be if one of my writing friends reached their goal of obtaining a publisher. And so I am super-abundantly happy to celebrate Linda Phillips' news. Two years ago I shared how she… Continue reading In Her Own Words
Researching an historical novel can take you many different places. Looking to expand my understanding of my young, light-skinned African American character, I searched my local library for books on multi-racial issues. One of the books which popped up was Incognegro, a graphic novel written by Mat Johnson and illustrated by Warren Pleece (DC Comics,… Continue reading Incognegro
If you have ever known a teenager who sullenly withdraws into herself, begins doing poorly at school, denies cutting classes, drinks, lies, steals, and "accidentally" OD's on Christmas Eve—then you might recognize Jennifer Abbot, the 15-year-old protagonist in Joyce Carol Oates' young adult novel, After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and… Continue reading After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away
If boys can keep reading beyond the first few chapters which tell the back story of "A Small White Scar", they will find rattlesnake bites, a dangerous flash flood, and a rodeo that is so real you can hear the calves bawling in their pens. Boys who like action from the first paragraph will have… Continue reading A Small White Scar
Poignant and powerful, Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir of the last months of his life make The Diving Bell and The Butterfly a recommended read for mature young adults. In his mid-40's, Bauby suffered a severe stroke to his brain stem leaving him a paraplegic able only to communicate his thoughts, fantasies, desires, or memories by blinking… Continue reading The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
I love it when my 16-year-old daughter Lydia, recommends a book to me. As she predicted, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House Inc., 2005) is a compelling, and at times disturbing, story about Chinese women in the 19th century. Unlike other popular young adult novels, this book is written as… Continue reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
What happens when a 13-year-old girl who invents a non-existent father and lives with a palm-reading wacky mother befriends a 9-year-old boy who is mourning his mother's death? You end up with a sometimes explosive, rocky friendship that bonds two lonely children together in their need for love and acceptance. In this another "I-read-this-because-I love-the-author"… Continue reading Eggs