SCBWI-Oregon just let us know that the dashing and brilliant M.T. Anderson will deliver Multnomah County Library’s eighth annual Teen Author Lecture on Monday, Oct. 12. He was just in Seattle last year, and anyone who missed him might consider the trip to Portland. Anderson is the author of the Printz and National Book Award-winning... Continue Reading →
Will Your YA Be Read in Braille?
Corey Doctorow posts here about his own YA novel, Little Brother, being published under a Creative Commons License, which allowed Patti Smith, a teacher of visually impaired kids in Detroit, to download the book version and convert it to Braille for her young readers.As Corey points out, it's legal to convert any book to Braille... Continue Reading →
A big myth
The agent Colleen Lindsay has an excellent post on The Swivet about a misperception that bigger is better when it comes to books. Usually, this isn't the case--and it can sometimes be a marker that you're not yet a good enough writer to pare your story down to its essence.This is a must-read post, especially... Continue Reading →
You’ll never guess the new trend in romances
Bonnet rippers! Yes, Amish romances are selling...like whoopie pie (which is an Amish invention for those of you insufficiently steeped in trivia).Here's a Wall Street Journal article on the topic.And yes, this is about the adult market, but fierce, unrequited yearning has been known to do well with teens, too. Hmmm.
Does self-editing make you crazy?
Here's an interesting take by Sean D'Souza on why we self-edit and what we need to do to get over it. (Hint: write more. Lots more.)Write. Edit. Write. Edit. Edit. Edit. Edit. Write.Does this sound familiar? If it doesn’t then you’re probably from Mars, because most of us drive ourselves crazy with self-editing when we... Continue Reading →
How to submit to Elana Roth
Elana tweeted this morning that she was receiving lots of queries without sample pages. In case that's people from our region doing that, here are the submission guidelines from the Caren Johnson Literary Agency blog.It's smart to check submission guidelines--and recheck them--with each agent you query. There is no one-size-fits-all rule and agents create guidelines... Continue Reading →
Authors, Artists, and Poets: Stay Vulnerable
Have you seen this wonderful video by multi-talented author, Beth Kephart?Beth is the inaugural Writer-in-Residence over at readergirlz, where you can check out more of her vlogs and posts on writing!
Elana Roth’s book recommendations
Caren Johnson Literary agent Elana Roth made good on her promise to recommend great craft books for us. Here are some of her favorites:Narrative Design by Madison Smartt Bell The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by Alice LaPlante Story by Robert McKee (this is a screenwriting one, but good) Plot... Continue Reading →
Quote of the Day: Ray Bradbury
"Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer's make-up, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road to where he wants to go, I could only warn him to look to his zest, see to his... Continue Reading →
Tips on finding an agent
Michele Torrey, one of our dear PALs, has a great blog post on finding an agent--and specifically, how to make that list of people you'd like to query. Here's the start: Finding That Top Agent - Part IFace it. It’s a jungle out there. Finding a literary agent can be a confusing, agonizing, and frustrating... Continue Reading →