As much as we would like to commit our entire lives to writing, most of us live in the real world. We can’t afford to spend our time at Walden Pond or in a permanent, never-ending, writer’s retreat.
We fit in writing amongst our day jobs, our kids,
VCFA Winter Residency & Cynsational Return
Welcome back to Cynsations! I’ll be posting sporadically until I’m up to speed for 2015.
It’s been a busy winter, highlighted by teaching at the winter residency of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults and speaking at ALA Midwinter in Chicago.
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Winter Hiatus, Podcast Interview & Feral Pride Review
Happy (Almost) New Year, and many blessings to y’all in 2015!
Cynsations will be on hiatus until sometime after the ALA Midwinter Conference in Chicago–hope to see many of you there.
Thank you for your support and enthusiasm over the course of the year.
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Cynsational News & Giveaways
2014 Diversity in YA Gift Guide from CBC Diversity. See also African-American Interest Young Reader Titles by Diane Patrick from Publishers Weekly.
First Five Pages Workshop Featuring Literary Agent Tracey Adams from Adventures in YA Publishing. Peek: “…will open for entries at noon EST on Saturday,
Guest Post: E. Kristin Anderson on Teens Need Verse
Young people love poetry.
At least they love writing it. When I ask teens whether they read much poetry, though, the answer is usually no.
I think I know why. Outside of my bona fide freaky obsession with Emily Dickinson from the age of six,
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“…And to All, a Good Night!”
Guest Post: Darlene Beck Jacobson on Wheels of Change
Original White House Invitation Emily Received in Wheels of Change.
The idea for Wheels of Change (Creston, 2014) came about through the discovery of two things while researching my family tree.
One was the fact that my paternal great-grandfather was a carriage maker in Washington D.C.
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New Voice: Nicole Maggi on Winter Falls (Twin Willows Trilogy)
Nicole Maggi is the first-time author of Winter Falls (Twin Willows Trilogy) (Medallion Press, 2014). From the promotional copy:
Sixteen-year-old Alessia Jacobs is dying to get out of her small town of Twin Willows, Maine.
Things start looking up when a new family comes to town—but when she falls for Jonah,
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Cynsational News & Giveaways
Jan. 27 Designated Multicultural Children’s Book Day by Claire Kirch from Publishers Weekly. Peek: “The mission of MCCBD, co-founders Wenjen and Budayr explained to PW, is to “not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries.”
Guest Post & Giveaway: Jennifer Wolf Kam on Words from the Past
Meeting young writers at The Voracious Reader.
In the spring of 1981, Space Shuttle Columbia completed a successful orbital mission around the Earth, my hometown New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup and eight-year-old me wrote my first fan letter. It was not a letter to Shaun Cassidy or Scott Baio,
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