I’m thrilled to welcome author Kellye Crocker to Cynsations! Like me, she’s a Vermont College of Fine Arts alumnx more than a decade past graduation. Her debut middle grade novel, Dad’s Girlfriend and Other Anxieties (Albert Whitman & Company, October 2022) features practical tips on mindfulness and managing anxiety shared through a hilarious,
Continue Reading Author Interview: Kellye Crocker Uses a Light Touch for a Serious Subject »
After twelve years of writing and hundreds of rejections as I learned to write, I can’t quite believe my first novel is coming out in just eight weeks.
My biggest struggle had always been my characters. I read dozens of character craft books and asked for advice from character gurus like Coe Booth and Sandra Nickel.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Abigail Hing Wen on Character Development the Brutally Hard Way »
Marie Cruz is the debut author of Everlasting Nora (Tor/Forge, 2018).
From whom have you received creative feedback–critique groups/partners, writing teachers, expert/sensitivity readers, family and friends, editor and/or agent?
Over the last 15 years, I’ve received feedback from pretty much all of the above!
Eileen Robinson and I have been teaching about revision for several years now through our partnership, Kid’s Book Revisions.
Until recently, we hadn’t taught about line-editing–it seemed too complicated, too messy, for a workshop approach–but we thinking we’ve figured out how to do it.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Harold Underdown on Line Editing »
The popularity of the recent royal wedding illustrates society’s continued fascination with monarchies.
A new middle grade novel, Once Upon A Princess by Christine Marciniak (CBAY, 2018) offers a twist on familiar tropes. From the promotional copy:
After a coup in her country,
JoAnne Stewart Wetzel is the first-time novelist of Playing Juliet (Sky Pony, 2015). From the promotional copy:
Beth Sondquist, 12 1/2, secretly dreams of playing William Shakespeare’s Juliet.
When she learns the children’s theatre in her town is threatened with closure,
Continue Reading New Voice: JoAnne Stewart Wetzel on Playing Juliet »
Hannah West is the first-time author of Kingdom of Ash and Briars (Holiday House, 2016). From the promotional copy:
Building on homages to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jane Austen’s Emma and the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, Hannah West makes a spectacular and wholly original debut.
Continue Reading New Voice: Hannah West on Kingdom of Ash and Briars »
Melanie Conklin is the first-time author of
Counting Thyme (Putnam, 2016). From the promotional copy:
When eleven-year-old Thyme Owen’s little brother, Val, is accepted into a new cancer drug trial, it’s just the second chance that he needs. But it also means the Owens family has to move to New York,
Continue Reading New Voice: Melanie Conklin on Counting Thyme »
Space. Not up, as in the final frontier, but between, as in the distance between you and me.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that kind of space lately, and I’ve been especially curious about what can happen inside of it. What I’ve come to believe is that anything can happen—and everything.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Tamara Ellis Smith on Another Kind of Hurricane »
On Twitter? Follow @MelissaGorzela.
Melissa Gorzelanczyk is the first-time author of Arrows (Delacorte, 2016). From the promotional copy:
People don’t understand love.
If they did, they’d get why dance prodigy Karma Clark just can’t say goodbye to her boyfriend,
Continue Reading New Voice: Melissa Gorzelanczyk on Arrows »
