Merlin, circled by Homicidal Aliens & Other Disappointments (Candlewick)
By Brian Yansky
Writers often bemoan the fact that they must work a day job as well as write.
They need the day job to pay the bills, but they often don’t like it much, and it keeps them from doing the thing they love–writing.
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Brian Yansky on Teaching Writing »
By Kami Kinard
My world is peopled with middle graders – my daughter, her friends, and the students I see when I volunteer or do school visits. Additionally, most of the fictional characters I’ve come to know and love are middle graders.
I met a lot of them in the books I read,
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Kami Kinard on Middle Graders Make Great Characters »
I’ve heard authors say they didn’t feel like they wrote their story—more like they were a conduit to some greater force writing through them.
It sounded like a bunch of hooey until it happened to me.
They say you write what you read. Well, I grew up reading fantasy.
For the past year plus, I’ve been crafting two different teen romance novels with thirteen different endings for each one.
I say crafting and not just writing because a huge part of the creation of these books involved coming up with the structure of the story—where the book would fork so that the reader could make a decision guiding the plot this way or that,
Thank you for narrating the audio editions of the Feral series (Brilliance)(print and e-editions from Candlewick/Walker)!
Could you tell us a bit about your background? How did you come to doing voice work for audio books?
Todd Haberkorn: I’m glad I made the cut and was able to work on this series!
From Cynthia Leitich Smith:
Do you wear more than one hat in the children’s-YA book world? There are a lot of us. Writers who also are teachers or librarians. Illustrators who do promotional design. Retired librarians who work as consultants.
Today we welcome indie bookseller and author-illustrator Annette Simon,
Are you struggling with a novel?
Is there a manuscript in a drawer that’s still haunting you?
Consider my latest story-behind-the-story:
Feral Curse (Candlewick, 2014) is a novel that rose from the ashes in more ways than one.
Continue Reading Feral Curse: Giant Steps Through the Ashes »
Quick, name a favorite literary or movie character. Now, what is it about him/her that’s so appealing?
In all likelihood, the reason you love that character is because he or she embodies a trait that you value: Atticus Finch’s bravery, George Bailey’s selflessness,
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Becca Puglisi on Where Do Character Strengths Come From? »
I was 50 pages into my first writing project, a YA fantasy novel, when I picked up a book about writing for children.
In the first chapter, the author explained that a new writer should never start with a novel instead of a short story or write fantasy instead of realistic fiction.
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Ellen Jensen Abbott on Verisimilitude »
Check out the Penguin Cha-Cha Storytime Kit!
Look through your shelves of picture books (does everyone love picture books enough to own shelves of them?). Do you notice any differences between the books that were written and illustrated by the same person versus the books that were written by one person and illustrated by another?
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Kristi Valiant on Marrying Art to Text in Picture Books »
