Danica Davidson is the first-time author of
Escape from the Overworld (Skyhorse, 2015). From the promotional copy:
Eleven-year-old Stevie, who comes from a long line of Steves, doesn’t feel as if he fits in the Minecraft world. His father is great at building and fighting off zombies,
Continue Reading New Voice: Danica Davidson on Escape from the Overworld »
I remember the day I finished my first middle-grade novel, The Battle of Darcy Lane (Running Press, 2014), pretty vividly. I sat there for a minute, stared out the window of my office, and thought: “Now I need a new middle-grade idea.”
So I started to root around my brain for inspiration by asking myself the question,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Tara Altebrando on My Life in Dioramas »
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In 1984, Dana Walrath journeyed to Palu, in Western Armenia (now part of Turkey), where she saw the mill and farmlands that once belonged to her maternal ancestors, who were forced to flee the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
Her family story became the basis of her acclaimed novel in verse Like Water on Stone (Delacorte,
Continue Reading Guest Interview: Dana Walrath on Like Water on Stone »
By Anne Bustard
Every writer wants her work to sing.
Writing that sings is exquisitely crafted. It lifts its voice in praise of language. Its story is pitch perfect. It invites readers to sing along and has the power to linger in a reader’s consciousness long after the last note.
Like a composer creating a musical score,
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Anne Bustard on Musicality: Composing with Repetitions »
By Allison Estes & Tracy Dockray
From the promotion copy of Izzy & Oscar (Jabberwocky/Sourcebooks, 2015):
Have you ever taught an octopus to roll over? It’s harder than it looks.
Discover why octopuses make the best pets in this charming picture book about friendship and embracing individuality!
Continue Reading Interview: Author Allison Estes & Illustrator Tracy Dockray on Izzy & Oscar »
Kathy Dawson Books/Penguin, 2015
So good to be back visiting the multi-talented Cynthia Leitich Smith here on Cynsations with my third book in the Wilde Island trilogy. Cynthia hosted an interview for the first Wilde Island book, Dragon’s Keep (Harcourt, 2007) so this visit brings it full circle.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Janet Lee Carey on Tips for Writing Fantasy »
My new contemporary YA, Silence (Shadow Mountain, 2015), is a story about a fifteen year old girl who has an accident that changes her life forever. The only person she can relate to is a boy who has his own tragic past. Out of tragedy comes true love.
I spent years writing Silence,
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Deborah Lytton on What’s True to You »
Jean’s children, John and Jane
By Jean Reagan
Many years ago in a writing class, Kathi Appelt said, “Write from the hole in your heart.”
At the time, I had just received sketches for my first picture book, Always My Brother, illustrated by Phyllis Pollema-Cahill (Tilbury House 2009).
Continue Reading Guest Post & Giveaway: Jean Reagan on Writing from the Hole in Your Heart »
One of the things I’ve noticed my graduate creative writing students struggling with is where exactly to start in a book.
I’ve had two students fill up the first 40 pages of their novels with excruciating back-story details involving family history, blood-lines, place of birth,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Cecilia Galante on Where to Start Your Story? »
Sometimes it can be helpful to think about endings when you’re at the beginning of the process—not plotting the ending, but doing a bit of free, no-holds-barred thinking about your character’s emotional inner journey and where you hope she goes.
This is what you write towards,
