Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Plotting Can Be for You by Susanne Winnacker from Adventures in YA Publishing. Peek: “So despite the fact that I hated going into things without a plan, I tried to write my book without an outline. It would be fun, right?”
Carolyn & Lupe AKA “Team Flores”
By Carolyn Dee Flores & Lupe Ruiz-Flores
LR: We call ourselves “Team Flores.”
Although my daughter, illustrator Carolyn Dee Flores, and I have never worked together on a book, we hope to someday.
We team together when we make joint presentations and provide the moral support for each other.
When I wrote Hung Up (Simon Pulse, 2014), I knew before I typed the first word that the entire book would be written in phone conversations.
No traditional scenes. No chapters.
No physical descriptions, besides what I could work naturally into dialogue.
It was my tenth novel–the first I’d written in that format–and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Kristen Tracy on Can You Hear Me Now? & Writing Dialogue »
Novelists always know when to start writing. It’s when we get an idea—in the form of a voice, a setting, a conflict, or some other plot point. Inspiration strikes, and we create a new file titled something like “My Latest Greatest – Draft 1.”
But how do authors know when to stop writing?
Continue Reading Guest Post: Shirley Vernick on Drawing the Line »
Paint Me! (Sky Pony Press, 2014) is about a little girl who begins the day painting a portrait of her dog, but she quickly discovers the joy of colors and lots of messy paint.
At the end of the day, all is well after a bath and goodnight kiss.
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Sarah Frances Hardy on Paint Me! »
Wow! This weekend’s highlight was Middle Grade Mayhem, a joint launch event featuring authors Varian Johnson (The Great Greene Heist (Arthur A. Levine Books)), Greg Leitich Smith (Little Green Men at the Mercury Inn (Roaring Brook)), and Jennifer (“Jenny”) Ziegler (Revenge of the Flower Girls (Scholastic)) at BookPeople in Austin!
Children’s book editor Frances Foster with author Barbara O’Connor
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Obituary: Frances Foster by Shannon Maughan from Publishers Weekly. Peek: “Editor Frances Foster, whose celebrated tutelage of numerous award-winning authors and illustrators earned her placement in the top echelon of children’s book industry luminaries, died on Sunday,
Compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Congratulations to Kathi Appelt on the release of Mogie: The Heart of the House, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal (Atheneum, 2014). From the promotional copy:
Mogie is a real-life Labradoodle with a special talent: he always knows just what a sick kid needs!
Are you aware that books can sing?
I learned this in the second grade when an aunt gave me a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. That book sang to me–it was magic! Those musical words drew me back to read those stories over and over.
Growing up in the south,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Helen Ketteman on Making Picture Books Sing »
Adriana Brad Schanen is the first-time author of Quinny & Hopper (Hyperion, 2014). From the promotional copy:
Quinny and Hopper couldn’t be more different. They’re an unstoppable team. But when summer ends, things suddenly aren’t the same.
Can Quinny and Hopper stick together in the face of stylish bullies,
Continue Reading New Voice: Adriana Brad Schanen on Quinny & Hopper »
