People always ask writers how they get their ideas. Ideas are everywhere—people should ask how does a book come about?
Over my 36-year career as a writer of children’s books, I’ve written a dozen picture books.
Normally, an idea comes to me and over a period of months,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Candice Ransom on Working Backwards & Amanda Panda Quits Kindergarten »
In storytelling, our number one job is to make readers care. We want to ensure that our fiction captivates them on many levels and that our characters seem like living, breathing people who continue to exist in readers’ minds long after the book closes.
So how do we do this?
Continue Reading Guest Post: Becca Puglisi on Setting as a Characterization Tool »
I headed to my first writer’s residency at The Ragdale Foundation at the end of March with an imagined vision of open space, open time, and what I call “open expectations” – no finish line, no deadline, no shoulds or have tos about the challenging revision of my middle grade novel in verse or the small community of artists of which I’d be part.
By Amy Bearce
Confession: I have a terrible time with world-building. So, naturally, I consistently write fantasy, where world-building is critical.
You gotta be kidding me! Credit: Pixabay, mintchipdesigns, CC0
In real life, I’m not very observant about the space around me. I notice people’s emotions, but not what they are eating or what they are wearing.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Amy Bearce on World-Building Woes (& Wows) »
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By Lara Herrington Watson
@lashwatson
As I finished writing my second YA novel, I worried that my writing was getting stagnant.
What if I was learning bad habits that I would repeat through all of my future novels?
In order to glean some knowledge about my writing,
I’m in a cozy, dark room – too warm, and scattered with noises of children’s breathing, soft wordless Beatles’ arrangements, and the burble of the turtle tank filter. It’s nap-time at the early childhood school where I work, and I’m on duty. I’m also working on a major revision for my novel in verse.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Carol Coven Grannick on In a Dark and Not-So-Quiet Room »
In early 1999, I was a graduate student in the children’s literature program at Simmons College in Boston.
I had a work study job at the Simmons social work school, mailing out applications and entering information into a computer, and that’s where I was on the morning of February 16th—sitting at someone else’s desk,
By Beth Revis
Beth Note: Don’t miss out on the giveaway at the end of this post. And remember all orders of Paper Hearts made before Nov. 15 from Malaprops will come with a special gift–see details below!
You can win a journal with this cover! Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Beth Revis on: Paper Hearts: Some Writing Advice »
My third picture book Dress Me! (Sky Pony, 2015) is a companion book to last year’s release Paint Me! (Sky Pony, 2014).
When I was thinking about what my next submission to Sky Pony would be,
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Sarah Frances Hardy on Writing a Companion Picture Book »
One of the great things about writing science fiction is that you get to make up a lot of stuff.
You can create new worlds, new languages, and even new life forms. From the androids in Philip K. Dick‘s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Continue Reading Guest Post: Kristi Helvig on Incorporating Science Into Science Fiction »
