Behold that is the beauty of this cover by Jesse Joshua Watson, and then congratulate him for being on the Booklist Top 10 Art Books for Youth list. Outstanding!
Creating a hero
The Type M for Muder blog has some advice from Donald Maas:Maass began by telling us that great novels need a compelling hero or heroine, a person who takes risks for the benefit of others, and to do so, flies in the face of social convention. He asked members of the audience to think of... Continue Reading →
3 keys to a successful school visit
Veteran school visitor Darcy Pattison has good advice today on her blog: communicate, prepare the school, and prepare yourself. To get all the details, visit her blog.
Advice to aspiring poets and writers
This comes from Jacqueline Woodson and Penguin: (E-mail subscribers, you'll need to click through to see the video.)
Getting to know each other
Remember when we introduced ourselves a couple of weeks ago? I snipped these out of the comments area so everyone could see some of the brave folks who were willing to play along:Martha Brockenbrough said... I'm Martha and I write picture books and YA novels.Here's my website: http://marthabee.com. And here's my grammar blog: http://grammatically.blogspot.com .Nina... Continue Reading →
A Book for All Seasons
A couple of weeks ago, husband and I went on a little trip into the Cascade Mountains to Leavenworth, WA, a community that rather ingeniously saved their town from recession after the Great North Railroad relocated by restyling the entire town into a Bavarian village. It's an odd weekend that Leavenworth doesn't have something going... Continue Reading →
Feelin’ competitive?
Then check out the contests Writer's Digest is offering.
The Luv Ya Bunches controversy
Some of you probably caught wind of the controversy around a book called Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle. She was asked to change parts of it so that it could be carried in the Scholastic Book Fair--and one of those changes was to alter the sex of a character in a same-sex couple.Here's a... Continue Reading →
Good news for Kathryn Thurman
She writes: "I wanted to let you know my bit of good news! My picture book, "A Garden forbPig," is projected for release next Fall, 2010, with Kane/Miller. It will have its debut this spring at the BEA. It's about a pig who plants a garden in an unusual way.I would also like to give... Continue Reading →
The definition of edgy
Elizabeth Law, one of the editors coming out for our spring conference, defined "edginess" this way on Twitter: EgmontGal: Guys, if anyone cares, characters having sex does not make a book edgy to me. Edgy is boundary pushing in literariness or plot #yalitchat