This is my Week 5 check-in of my ROW80 challenge to finish the rough draft of Sekrit Middle Grade Fantasy project by June 14th! Check out Sheri’s Progress Here Check out Margo’s Progress Here Check out C. Lee’s Progress Here This is the point in a draft where I get itchy. I did a lot of drafting this week, fingers flying over… Read More
Blogger Friends: Please Be Sharers!
I FINALLY figured out how to get the cool Social Media buttons on my posts! *balloons* *streamers* See that bar at the bottom with facebook and twitter and other buttons? Click on those to share this post to your respective social media favorites. I had two share buttons before, but only after seriously hacking the HTML and fighting with Blogger… Read More
The Importance of Backing Up
I interrupt my normally scheduled Friday post to bring you this Public Service Announcement. The Blogger Meltdown has reminded me of the importance of backing up. Last year, I discovered the back-up function on Blogger, and now seems a good time to remind everyone to EXPORT YOUR BLOG! Here’s how (from my prior post): Fortunately, Blogger has a back-up function. Go… Read More
How to Blog for the Long Haul
Lisa Gail Green did a great post on Blogging Etiquette, which should be standard reading for everyone starting out a new blog. Lisa’s post, and a plea for help from new blogger Lynn Kelley got me thinking. After blogging for about 18 months, what tips did I have to share with someone just starting out? Lisa’s Etiquette covers the Do’s and… Read More
Week 4 – Doing Everything But Writing
This is my Week 4 check-in of my ROW80 challenge to finish the rough draft of Sekrit Middle Grade Fantasy project by June 14th! I have to say, these weekly check-ins are very motivating! The friends are rockin’ their progress: Check out Sheri’s Progress Here Check out Margo’s Progress Here Check out C. Lee’s Progress Here This week was the Week-of-Doing-Other-Things. I… Read More
Newness Addict
Picture credit There’s a classic Twilight Zone episode called Little Girl Lost, where a girl crawls through a trans-dimensional doorway that appears in her room and her parents spend the entire episode trying to get her back before it closes again. If you haven’t watched the original Twilight Zone TV episodes, please fix that.* Now, if you were a little… Read More
Encouraging Young Writers…and a Winner!
Thanks to everyone who subscribed to my newsletter and entered the giveaway! And the winner is … Victoria Caswell (aka aspiring_x)! On to our show… Writing is a frustrating business. Everyone who has ever gotten a negative critique or a rejection on a query or simply contemplated that the odds of being traditional published are worse than being struck by… Read More
Something for Everyone
Picture Credit Mighty Mite (age 7) has been complaining lately about watching “sad” movies. He doesn’t like them. He’s fine with action-packed films and comedy and even the occasional love scene (“as long as there’s not too many of them” says Mighty Mite), but he wants nothing to do with the sad parts. He tears up, just like his mom,… Read More
Week 3 – Plotting vs. Pantsing
FIRST: Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter Pursuits and leave a comment to enter to win a copy of Life, Liberty, and Pursuit! SECOND: Week 3 check-in of my ROW80 challenge to finish the rough draft of Sekrit Middle Grade Fantasy project by June 14th The friends are rockin’ their progress: Check out Sheri’s Progress Here Check out Margo’s Progress Here Check out… Read More
A Newsletter and a Giveaway
You may have noticed Ink Spells spiffy new look. It’s a little more grown-up than my previous Clouds-R-Us look, but the focus at Ink Spells is still on Young Minds. See? It’s right up there in the header. Also new is the Writerly Musings tab. It’s a small (but growing) list of posts that have tackled writing issues such as… Read More
Daily Reminder: Everything is Possible
picture credit This tidbit about authors now signing their e-books with a stylus on the Nook Color somehow instantly renewed my faith in all things publishing. Why? Because there was a need (a small one, but a real one), and the people who get things done (thank you B&N tech wizards) made it happen. Less than a year ago, Scott… Read More
Adding Buttons to Your Blog
I’m ridiculously impressed with myself that I added some buttons to my blog. Now, this may not be the greatest of tech challenges, but for some reason Blogger and I had a big throw-down over it. But I came out the winner with these lovely buttons to show for it (see them on the sidebar as well): If you’d like… Read More
Winner of The Reinvention of Edison Thomas
Today, I’m finishing up my interview with Jacqueline Houtman and announcing the winner of a copy of her book The Reinvention of Edison Thomas. Great Review for EDDY: A middle grader with a high-function spectrum disorder finds some real friends in this wry debut…The author has a particularly engaging way of tracking Eddie’s thought processes as he struggles to wrest order from… Read More
Week 2- All About Voice
FIRST: Make sure you leave a comment to enter to win a copy of The Reinvention of Edison Thomas! SECOND: Week 2 check-in of my ROW80 challenge to finish the rough draft of Sekrit Middle Grade Fantasy project by June 14th The friends list keeps growing: Check out Sheri’s Progress Here Check out Margo’s Progress Here Check out C. Lee’s… Read More
Ink Spells Talks with Jacqueline Houtman, Author of The Reinvention of Edison Thomas
Today, I’m interviewing Jacqueline Houtman and giving away a copy of her book The Reinvention of Edison Thomas. Jacqueline stopped by Ink Spells back in January, when we were discussing Point of View in Kidlit, and shared her insights on using big words in middle grade books: Excellent post. Middle grade is not about vocabulary (and EDDY is a perfect… Read More
Writing to Trends
Laura’s post about How to Choose the Best Story and a comment at my writer’s group last night about the genre of my WiP being (maybe) saturated, got me thinking again about trends, that nasty word that will either thrill or chill you (or possibly both) depending on whether you’re writing a trendy book or not. Yes, I want to… Read More
Emotional Structure
Peter Dunne’s book Emotional Structure has given form to something I’ve always thought was simply intuitive: the character arc in a novel. Dunne emphasizes that emotional structure has to come before plot, because the plot is used to reveal the emotional structure. If you haven’t thought about emotional structure before plotting out your novel, fret not. You can apply Dunne’s… Read More
Week 1 – Open the Floodgates
When I joined ROW80 a couple weeks ago, I thought I’d be writing with a bunch of people I didn’t know. Silly me. My blogger-friends Sheri Larsen and Margo Berendsen have joined me, and we’ll be linking our posts on Tuesdays as a way to stay accountable for our progress (here’s the official linky for check-in #2 for ROW80). I’ve… Read More
Dear Twitter
I feel like I’ve been neglecting you lately. Sure, I tweet my blog posts, and occasionally whine about the weather, but what have I done for you lately? An occasional dalliance with #yalitchat just reinforces how much I’ve neglected our relationship. #Imsorry From now on, I promise to faithfully post something every day, throwing my thoughts into the electronic maw… Read More
Slang: Parlez-vous Interwebs?
I’ve always been a linguistic chameleon. By which I do not mean that I am good at languages. After four years of mangling my rolled-r’s in Spanish class, I admitted defeat. However, I am fluent in many English-dialects, and I pick up slang like a bad habit. If I visit Texas, I come back with a drawl. If I watch… Read More
Showing Emotion: Boys vs. Girls
Picture credit On Monday, I talked about Thinking vs. Feeling, and Sherrie brought up an excellent point: boy characters think/feel differently than girl characters. First, let’s not stereotype: boys certainly have feelings just as much as girls do, and your character should be true to who THEY are more than what their gender is. But, in general, what boys do… Read More
Thinking vs. Feeling
Picture Credit One of my favorite CP’s sent me a critique with several notes that said, “Don’t think so much. Feel.” Now, for me, thinking is feeling, so it took me a moment to figure out what she meant. I realized my character was thinking through something that they should be emotionally reacting to, and she (my crit partner) was quite… Read More
Blogger Love Week – Once More with Nicetude
I’m wrapping up my week of celebrating bloggers high in NICENESS COEFFICENT’s by talking about two bloggers whose niceness is somewhat transcendent, in the sense that you really wouldn’t believe people like this exist, except they do, and somehow they still want to hang out with you. Shannon O’Donnell (Book Dreaming): Shannon finds amazing, inspiring quotes. She does the whole… Read More
Blogger Love Week – Operation NICE
In the spirit of Operation NICE (which seriously? How cool is that?), I have more celebration of bloggers with high Niceness Coefficient’s (Trademark Pending). I consider Nathan Bransford’s blog the high water mark of blogging nicetude. We can’t all be Nate B. (he probably has the niceness gene), but here are some bloggers that are giving it a try: Lisa Gail… Read More
Whipping Out That WiP
I interrupt this Week of NICENESS to post about a writing challenge I am joining: Round of Words in 80 days. Margo Berendsen inspired me, and the challenge lines up nicely with writing that I want to do anyway. Here are my measurable goals: #1 Finish the rough draft of my Sekrit Middle Grade Fantasy novel by June 14th. And….that’s it…. Read More
Blogger Love Week – 30 Days of Kayes
Author friend Laura Kaye invited me to participate in a 30 Days of Kay(e)s Blogfest. Being a Kaye, how could I resist? You can find me over there today, doing an interview. The 30 Days of Kay(e)s has inspired me to do a week of Blogger Love. I like to celebrate NICENESS. This has been true for some time, and… Read More
Trapeze Babies*: Crafting the Killer Title
My Cover Maker *not a real book, thank goodness Titles are tough for me – either they come in a flash of inspiration with the first glimmer of story idea, or I struggle endlessly to come up with just the right words. The title for my current WiP (Sekrit Middle Grade Fantasy project) was looking like a struggle. My working… Read More
Analyzing Hunger Games
Since my Word Cloud spontaneously posted (#blogfail), I don’t have a Wednesday post. But you can find me over at the Scribbler’s Cove talking about Hunger Games and how dissecting a bestseller can help you structure your own story. (SPOILER ALERT – don’t click through if you haven’t read the books) See you Friday. Unless I #blogfail again. p.s. You… Read More
Time Stealers
Thanks to Angela over at The Bookshelf Muse, I’m no longer requiring captcha on my comments! Why? Because she convinced me that I no longer need that to keep the pesky spammers at bay. So, lovely readers, I’ve saved you a tiny five seconds on filling out the captcha field, but if you multiply that times the hundred million blogs… Read More
Ink Spells Takes On The Cloud
This post using word clouds inspired me to make this word cloud of all my Ink Spells posts. Apparently eating pizza for four days has influenced the cloud, but the proximity of house and keep is only coincidence. I’m tempted to write a post using only wordle-words, but instead I will use wordle-words to write a post about writing. The… Read More
The Toughest Critique You’ll Ever Do
Imagine your darling baby grows large enough to suddenly resemble a near-teen, old enough to write a book. A real book. A whole 35k of words with a beginning, middle, and end. He’s worked on it for six months, getting up at the crack of dawn to transcribe his scribbled notes to Word before he goes to school. Now imagine… Read More
Writing Fugue
Four days. No kids. No husband. House to myself, with no obligations but to write. Time to start a new book. Day 1: Dive into the heady rush of conjuring a new story. I have been thinking about this story since last summer, waiting and waiting until I could finally sink my teeth into it. I’ve promised myself I will… Read More
Missing Stuff
Picture Credit When I get really busy – with RL or the MS or the other MS or the tiny MS that’s really short – I don’t spend much time on blogs or Twitter or FB. It bums me, because I’m missing cool stuff like THIS POST, where Kate Hart breaks down YA sales by genre and six-figure deals. I’m… Read More
Research: Writing What You Don’t Know
How far are you willing to go for research? Normally, my answer is: very But I find myself in a unique situation where I need to research something I am so completely unfamiliar with that it somewhat terrifies me. What is this frightful new area to explore? Fashion. I know next to nothing about fashion. If you looked at my… Read More
Catching Up: Blogger Awards
I am woeful in my behind-ness with the blog awards! Shannon O’Donnell gave me the Beautiful Blogger Award, and Crystal Collier and Celery Tree gifted me with the Stylish Blogger Award: That you found something remotely beautiful or stylish amidst my postings warms my heart. Thank you! Now there are rules for passing on these awards, but being tardy (also lazy), I’m… Read More
On Being Present
Picture credit Sometimes, my mind wanders. Of course, I’m a writer, so I’m a professional daydreamer. Stand aside, amateur 5th graders gazing out the window! Professional Daydreamer at work, here! Yeah, that’s the kind of stuff that goes through my head. Several things of late have caused me to try to be more present: listening more closely to the stories… Read More
Repost: Twelve Tips for Reluctant Readers
My mom will be flying back to sunny California soon. Here’s one last selection from the way-back machine. Ink Spells will return to real-time mode on Friday! Twelve Tips for Reluctant Readers (original post 6/2010) I have three boys with three different learning styles and paths to reading. If you believe there is only one way to teach a child… Read More
Repost: Science as Magic
My mom and are steadily working through my tea collection. In the meantime, another selection by the way-back machine of posts-from-blogs-past! Enjoy! Science as Magic (original post 2/2010) (Editorial note: my thoughts on this are surprisingly unchanged. In fact, I believe this even more now than I did then) Is it just me, or has the world become ridiculously complicated? Now,… Read More
Repost: Creating Something from Nothing
My mom is coming to visit, something she does a few times a year. It’s precious time for me, so I will be stepping away from the blogosphere for a short time, sipping tea with her, and engaging in that endless talking thing we do. So, I’m cranking up the way-back machine and bringing you a couple reposts from 2010!… Read More
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!
Green Eggs and Ham and Cat in the Hat live large in our house. Dr. Seuss (107 and still going strong) was read in-utero to my boys via Oh, the Places You’ll Go. This is the kind of thing that makes me wish I had girls. For a Seussian birthday you can download a Seuss App or make some Seuss cupcakes or don… Read More
One Story at a Time…
Picture credit. Bonus points if you can read this. I have a hard time reading fiction while I’m intensely writing my own fiction. It’s as though I can only carry one story at a time in my head. Does anyone else have this problem? Or is it time to reformat the hard-drive in my brain, because I’ve clearly reached capacity?
Life, Liberty and Pursuit Giveaway
The Army Wives Saving blog is hosting a giveaway of my book, Life, Liberty, and Pursuit. Giveaway runs until 3/12, so hop over and enter if you’re interested!
Writers who Review Books
This great post by Stacia Kane (via Beth Revis) talks about the tricky line that writers walk when reviewing books. My official policy on Ink Spells is that I do not review books so much as recommend them. Which means I only talk about books that I can enthusiastically endorse. I see this as a win-win situation: I can help… Read More
On Being Funny
My Monday post was a terribly un-funny look at the raw guts of humor. Now for the funny part…. In preparing to draft my humorous skits, I read some D*mnYouAutocorrect (warning: NOT PG) and paid homage to LOLcats. After I wiped the tears of laughter from my face, I got to work. My first discovery was that I absolutely cannot write… Read More
Writing Humor: Funny on Demand
Today I have to be funny. Writing humor is hard, but kids (and adults) love it! I would say it’s almost a requirement in children’s books, to have at least some humor woven throughout even a serious story. I’m no stand-up comedian, but I’ve been known to pull a laugh or two out of my kids. However, writing straight comedy is… Read More
Ink Spells talks The Familiars
The moment I saw this book, I knew my youngest son, Mighty Mite, would love it. Magic, animals, a cat on the cover … it just doesn’t get better than that in 7 year old land. The Familiars, by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson, is an adorable story about three animal familiars and their loyals, the young wizards they… Read More
Hooking Kids on Science
When I was a kid – the age that I now write for – I was a science fiction addict. This was before the days of Harry Potter and YA, and most of my SF buzz came in the form of adult SF novels. Which is ironic, partly because I run a blog concerned about “age appropriate” reading material for… Read More
Creativity – How Does It Die?
Creativity, vibrant and alive This Ken Robinson video on TED talks about how education kills creativity. I believe children are born creative, but that creative spirit often dies a slow death from a thousand small cuts of criticism, or suffocates in an airless childhood where no time is allowed to simply be expressive. Much of my education (and I had a… Read More
Valentine’s Day Book Signing!
Tomorrow, I’m signing books at Norma’s Coffee Corner, Palatine IL, the local coffee-shop-of-awesome. I’m also giving away a Valentine’s basket with a book, chocolates, and other goodies. If you’re local: stop by and get a love story for your sweetheart or win a last minute Valentine’s gift! For everyone: Don’t forget to enter Omnific’s Looking for Love giveaway (see the… Read More
Repeat Repeat Phrases Phrases
I stumbled (via Jody Hedlund and the Steve Laube Agency) across a cool tool that will help me weed out those repeat phrases, the ones I like to weed out if I can. (Ok, that was almost painful to type.) The phrases you would repeat in reality tend to sprinkle through your MS, like hiccups that you never notice. As… Read More
Building a Story
Three Act Story Structure I’ve been thinking a lot about story structure lately. The awesome Debbie Ohi (seriously, check out her art), who I met last summer at SCBWI-LA, reported back from the SCBWI-NY conference this month with words of wisdom for children’s writers: 1) concentrate on story/characters 2) just get it written. I’ve been doing a lot of both since… Read More
E-books Sales for Kids Take Off
A great article in the NYTimes talks about a boom in e-books sales for kids and teens, possibly spurred by holiday e-reader gifts. Ink Spells has been a long time* advocate for and predictor of e-readers as the wave of the kidlit fiture. *approximately a year, which is 7 years in internet-time This is what I had to say in… Read More
Writer’s Knowledge Base + WINNERS
Thanks to everyone who entered the Readers are Smart Giveaway in celebration of YOU, my 300+ followers! The winner(s) are announced below…but first! L’Aussie alerted me to a very cool resource for writers. Do you ever feel like there are so many awesome blog posts out there, and not enough time to read them? I DO ALL THE TIME. Do… Read More
Snowpocalypse
So, this happened… There’s a street out there somewhere. Windowsicle. The kids are ecstatic (SNOW DAY!), but there’s not much to do until the world melts or gets plowed. Don’t forget to enter all the giveaways! 300th Follower Readers are Smart Contest – Win a book of your choice or a 20 page critique from yours truly Omnific Publishing’s Looking for… Read More
FREE BOOKS! Omnific Throws a Giveaway!
It’s the Season Of Love (Dark Omen! Cover your eyes!). On top of Monday’s Smart Reader Contest, I have TWO MORE giveaways to share with you! Firstly: The Looking for Love Web Hunt I don’t talk much about my book Life, Liberty, and Pursuit on Ink Spells (since my book is YA and all), but I wanted to alert everyone to a… Read More
Readers are Smart CONTEST
picture credit Child readers are even smarter. “Whenever you write, whatever you write, never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are.” -Rod Serling “The audience is not only amazingly sensitive, but as it settles into a darkened theatre its collective IQ jumps twenty-five points. When you go to the movies, don’t you often… Read More
Point of View in Kidlit
Boundless Tagging onto our discussion of Big Words on Monday, this happened yesterday … Mighty Mite (7yo): “What four words do you think describe me?” Me: “Um…short, jumpy, fun, and cute?” Mighty Mite: “Unbelievable, Boundless, Exciting, and Radical.” (reading from the YMCA camp brochure) The Moral: Point of View is Everything. That Mighty Mite can read those words shows he’s… Read More
Ink Spells talks Dogsled Dreams
Dogsled Dreams is a debut novel by Terry Lynn Johnson about a girl who dreams of racing her dogs in the frozen north. This middle grade novel is fast-paced, stuffed full of doggy goodness and racing lingo, and charmed the anorak off me from the very first page. Johnson has created a story that will appeal equally to 7-year-old boys… Read More
Tiny Word Demons and Using Big Words
Writing It Sideways has a great post on filter words … those sneaky little words that put space between the reader and the protagonist, keeping the reader from being immersed in your story world. Words like to wonder, to think, to touch … The post has fantastic examples of how not to use these words in your prose. Word choice… Read More
Questions Answered: Writing and Family
I asked for questions, and you came up with some great ones! This is the last one… Margo asks: Do you feel as a writer that non-writing world (e.g. family, friends, co-workers etc) just don’t “get” you? What’s the first reaction you get when you tell people you’re an author? What kind of reaction do you get when you tell them you write… Read More
Ink Spells talks with Kai Strand, Author of The Weaver
Today, I’m delighted to have Kai Strand, author of the newly released middle grade book The Weaver on Ink Spells to talk about moving, writing, and publishing with her small press, Guardian Angel Publishing. Serendipitously meeting Kai on Twitter and FB is one of the reasons I love the blogosphere. And her novel The Weaver – just out with a… Read More
Questions Answered: Writing Epiphany
I asked for questions, and you came up with some great ones! Laura asks: What’s been the biggest writing epiphany you’ve had that you remember? I’ve had several along the way, but the biggest was the realization that I had to write worse to write better. Let me explain. I had written a couple of novels a chapter at a time, revising… Read More
Advice from Holly Black and Call for Guest Posters
One of my favorite authors gave some great advice for NaNo-ites last year (thanks to Margo Berendsen for the link), but there’s one point that jumped out at me: Holly Black: There aren’t good books and bad books. There are finished books and books that still need more work. Please don’t let wondering if there’s a market for your book… Read More
Questions Answered: NASA and Cheese
I asked for questions, and you came up with some great ones! I’ll be sprinkling the answers over the next couple weeks. Sharon asks: Sorry, but I have to know what your favorite cheese is…mine is Irish white cheddar. (YUM) There really is no bad cheese, just as there is no bad tea. Unless the stink is enough to kill small animals,… Read More
The Small Press Experience
I recently lucked into winning a full MS critique from author Michelle Davidson Argyle. Not only did she give me an outstanding critique, but I quickly realized we had much in common as small press authors. I’ve learned a tremendous amount about the business of publishing during the publication of my book with Omnific Publishing. But until I talked to Michelle,… Read More
Questions Answered: (Not) Childhood Books and Giant Turtles
I asked for questions, and you came up with some great ones! I’ll be sprinkling the answers over the next couple weeks. Jemi Fraser asks: What was the first book you remember really catching your attention as a kid? Star Wars or Star Trek? 🙂 Aliens wiped my brain of all memories before age 12, so I’m not really sure if I… Read More
Stories are like Air for Children …
… they need them to live and to grow. – Me Stories are equipment for living. – Kenneth Burke Fiction gives life its form. – Jean Anouilh Our appetite for story is a reflection of the profound human need to grasp the patterns of living, not merely as an intellectual exercise, but within a very personal, emotional experience. – Robert… Read More
The Equation for Writing Happiness
From my Mission Statement 2.0: To create a body of novel length works that reaches a large number of young readers, to provide the greatest impact on young lives. Agent + Book Deal = Writing Happiness or Book Deal + 30,000 copies sold = Writing Happiness or NYTimesBestsellerList + Hugo Award = Writing Happiness What is your equation? For me, it… Read More
Belonging To The Writing Community
From my Mission Statement 2.0: To be a leader and member of a supportive writing community, through blogs, critiques, and social networking. Oh, to be young in blogging and full of the heady steam of the online community! After a year of blogging, I have a more clear-eyed view of the benefits and drawbacks of blogs, twitter, and social networking (for… Read More
Focusing on Craft
From my Mission Statement 2.0: To have every story be an improvement in craft. Pro: Hey, look! I’m improving my craft! Con: Wow. My writing really stunk before. How do you improve your writing? I was asked this question at a book club meeting. They specifically wanted to know if I took classes or got a degree in English or writing…. Read More
Understanding The Stories You Write
Female Philosophers. Yes they exist. WARNING: The New Year always brings out the philosopher in me. From my Mission Statement 2.0: To leverage my background in science, engineering, politics and life, to create compelling stories and characters that pose moral questions to young readers and make them think. You’ve probably heard there are only 7 basic plots (or 36). I’ve… Read More
A Writer’s Mission Statement 2.0
It’s a Shiny New Year! And a natural time to think about resolutions. If you’re like me, you’ll take stock of your progress in 2010 and resolve to do more/better in 2011. But before you make those important short-term goals, I think every writer should consider writing a Mission Statement. With all the time you spend writing, you want to make… Read More
A New Page … and Questions?
I’ve finally added a new About Me page to the header of my blog. See up there? Click on that page tab that says “About Me and My Books” and you’ll find a mini-bio, summaries of my WiP’s, and information about my published novel Life, Liberty, and Pursuit. Are you back? Good. I figured I would open the floor to… Read More
Happy New Year
Sparky regrets that second bag of catnip on New Year’s Eve. A Writer’s New Year’s Resolutions: Limit myself to seven mini-pots of tea, ten on a writing day, no more than twelve on a writing deadline Vow to keep my TBR pile short enough that it won’t kill the cat if it falls over Not to reflexively click “buy now”… Read More
All Good Llamas Must Come to an End
Today is the last day for my WRITERS GIVE HOPE campaign – click to comment-for-llamas, donate-for-llamas, and enter-for-Who’s-Your-Llama-giveaway! While you’re at it, click through to Nathan Bransford’s giveaway to give more to Heifer, and leave some comment love for others participating in his comment-a-thon! Contest ends at 6pm Pacific Llama Time (8 pm for Chicago Llamas). I will update then… Read More
Llama-licious Gifts
Are you a last-minute-llama Christmas shopper? (I just reached halfway, people. Pray for me.) You can buy llama books and llama shirts, but for the discerning llama lover, there are these llama-licious* gifts: *Thanks to K. Marie Criddle for the llama-licious terminology, which I have officially adopted. I think I just died from the cuteness. And proceeds go to help… Read More
Hello, Santa? I have a favor to ask …
Don’t forget to check out my WRITERS GIVE HOPE campaign to give llamas through Heifer International – and win a Who’s Your Llama t-shirt! Spy Llama An intercepted cable across the mid-pacific line was recently posted on WikiPeeks…the identities of the callers are unverifiable, but circumstances suggest that renegade present-giver Mr. Claus (MC) was one party and a distraught North America Parent (NAP) was… Read More
Happy Llama, Sad Llama …
Don’t forget to check out my WRITERS GIVE HOPE campaign to give llamas through Heifer International – and win a Who’s Your Llama t-shirt! Last year, my kids invented Llama hand signals** and a chant-song to go with them. If you think this is strange, you’ve never had a 3rd – 6th grader. They seem to live for this stuff…. Read More
Holiday Celebration: A Week of Llamas!
Because one day of llamas is not enough. I was inspired last year by Nathan Bransford to host a holiday charity drive to help Heifer International. This wonderful charity gives meaningful gifts of hope to hungry families around the world through livestock, training, and other assistance. Heifer deploys the idea Give a man a fish, you feed him for a… Read More
Too Much To Do + Too Little Time = Fursplosion
This is my day. And it’s only 9am. So yeah. No blog post today … but come back tomorrow for some great Llama fun and a kick off to my Holiday Celebration! *goes off to face the day*
Craft and Kids: Characters
Dark Omen (age 12) writes a lot, and his characters have always been very strong. Sinister overlords or heroic defenders of the galaxy. He also loves humorous characters – savvy robots or smart-mouthed subordinates that give voice to his quirky, funny side. Recently he’s started to give his characters more depth, because his plot turns require a character to be… Read More
Craft and Kids: Voice
Whenever I teach a child, I learn something. That may be cliche, but it is true for me. I’m not a teacher, but every parent is a teacher (intentional or not). The engineer in me likes to do things intentionally. Voice is notoriously difficult to describe, let alone teach. But some kids seem to have an intuitive sense of it…. Read More
Ink Spells talks London Deep
London Deep by Robin Price and Paul McGrory is story about a girl in a future where London is under water from global warming, and the APD (adult police) and YPD (youth police) compete to keep the peace in their watery new world. I was intrigued when the publisher (Mogzilla, U.K.) offered to send me a review copy. London Deep is half-novella, half-graphic… Read More
A Book for the Holidays
I squirrel away our Christmas books every year, so they are fresh when they come out again. I even hide the Christmas sheet music. (I hid it so well last year, that we have yet to find it.) We save Twas the Night Before Christmas until the Eve itself, but there are plenty of books that get read and re-read… Read More
No More Words
Sometimes I run out of words. Don’t get me wrong. My vocabulary rocks (and I’m humble, too). That’s what happens when you spend years 4-20 reading everything you can lay your hands on, including cereal boxes. (Which brings me to an issue I have with not making kids books “too smart” – where are they supposed to learn these words,… Read More
Reading It Out Loud
“Say it. Out Loud.” –Edward Cullen, pale, ice cold, and slightly belligerent boyfriend. Do you read your manuscripts aloud? Lately, as part of the ninth circle of hell revision process, I’ve been reading each chapter aloud as a final pass-check before I move on to revising the next chapter (and the next, and the next. Good Lord, what demon possessed… Read More
Holiday E-Cards: Tech Wonder or Abomination?
In the Year of the E-Reader, even holiday cards are getting a makeover. For a while now, my friends have favored those holiday-picture-cards (the ones with pictures of their family) over traditional holiday cards. I send e-cards for birthdays and fun, but somehow sending holiday e-cards feels like cheating. Where are the holiday stamps? The pictures of my kids all… Read More
Success Comes to those who Don’t Quit
I have to double-post today, because I just found out the Awesome Sherrie Petersen has LANDED AN AGENT!! I just posted about Failing the Right Way: knowing that every failure is a step on the road to success. But that’s only true if you don’t give up, which is so easy and tempting to do. Sherrie didn’t give up. I’ve… Read More
Where’s My Force Field?
Picture here. Sometimes I want to crawl inside a glass bubble and keep the distractions of the world at bay while I write. This urge is especially strong when I’m writing under deadline, self-imposed or otherwise. But life doesn’t happen inside a bubble, and life is part of what we’re writing about. So, I’ll wrap my force field tight around… Read More
Failing the Right Way
Sometimes the publishing world gets me down. I love celebrating the success of my fellow writers. I connect with a lot of writers for that very reason – to learn from each other, support each other on the writing journey, be there to say “yay!” when one of us reaches a milestone. But it also means that I often hear… Read More
Gifting Books to Kids – Part 2
As I mentioned in Part 1, there are many gift guides for books this time of year (here’s another). But it can help to know what kind of kid a book will appeal to. In Part 1, we looked at the The Young Science Geek, The Budding Military Strategist, and the Soft Hearted Free Thinker. Now see if you know… Read More
Gifting Books to Kids – Part 1
I love giving books to kids. Honestly, I love giving books to anyone that has a chance of actually reading the book, and many who don’t. This was something I did long before I saw it as my personal contribution toward keeping the publishing industry afloat. You can find plenty of Book Gift Guides for preschoolers, kids and teens for the… Read More
Gifts for Writers
Writers are an odd lot. Mostly happy with their notebook (electronic or paper) and their imagination, they can be difficult to shop for. But the holidays are upon us, and in the interests of helping out all your family members who are scratching their heads and wondering what to get you, here are few suggestions when shopping for a writer:… Read More
Things to Be Thankful For . . .
Health Family Freedom There are so many things to be thankful for, that list could go on for quite some time. But I stopped at Freedom, because without it, everything else suffers. I’m incredibly thankful to the men and women in service who make so many sacrifices to safekeep the freedoms that we have. We don’t often get a chance… Read More
Hanging out at the Teen Lounge
I love the library. Whether it’s checking out a crazy number of picture books when my boys were small, or taking on the summer reading challenge, or just retreating for an afternoon of quiet writing time (with WiFi!), the library is simply made of awesome. I show my support by vying for the most-library-fines-paid award each year. Like much of… Read More
Keeping Kids Reading
Keeping kids well-supplied with books they love is part of Ink Spells’ Raison d’Être (note: I really don’t know French, in case that wasn’t obvious). Which might make you think my home is lined with bookshelves neatly organized and ringed with the whispery sound of paper pages turning (or Nook page-clicks – seriously, what is with that sound?). But no. The boys… Read More
The Art of Hand Selling
I was terrified that only crickets would show up for my book signing. Instead, I had a wonderful time talking to friends and selling books. Having a small press book means a lot of the marketing and selling of your book falls to you. I love my publisher (Omnific Publishing) and they’ve done a lot to market and get my… Read More
Book Signing!
Not much of a blog post today, because I’m off to my first book signing! Terror is clutching my heart, trying desperately to warn me: no one will come, no one will come… I’m ignoring her plaintive voice and, buoyed up by some good press in the local paper, valiantly heading off to the coffee shop and the book store… Read More
E-readers for the Holidays
If you’re in the market for an e-reader for the holidays, here’s a great guide to get you started, courtesy of Nathan Bransford’s new gig at CNET (congrats again, Nathan!). I own a Nook, and regularly use the e-lend feature to share books with my mom in California and my niece in Wisconsin (I’m in Illinois). It’s cool to be… Read More
Dark Omen gets Interviewed
My post about a Twelve year-old View of the World – wherein Dark Omen opined about the utter uselessness of romance in fiction – inspired commenter, master librarian, and all around cool dude Iron Man Guy Carl (aka Mr. Swanke) to ask Dark Omen to interview over at his blog Boys Rule! Boys Read!. In my completely non-biased opinion, it’s spit-out-tea funny. Especially… Read More
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