A Short Story by Gail L. Fontana My sister’s birthday is next week. Well, it would be. If she were alive. I guess it’s still her birthday. Holly would have been 13. It’s been three years since she died, and I’m happy to say that I haven’t stopped thinking about her even once. The whole…
Make a Cool Million with This Million Dollar Cookies Recipe! Food pops up a lot in the middle grade books I read. From Love Sugar Magic by Anna Meriano (cookies! cakes! bread!) and The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop by Kate Saunders (chocolate, of course) and A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd (ice cream!). I…
Secondhand Dogs Book Review Hello friends. I hope you enjoyed your weekend and had some sunshine in your neighborhood to celebrate any mothers in your life. Today I have a book review and an interview with the author. It’s always fun to get an inside peek into a creative person’s life and their creative process….
You might roll your eyes at the idea of everyday magic. Go ahead, I’ll wait. 😊 But when you’re done rolling your eyes, take a look around you. Finding everyday magic is a beautiful way to live. Every day holds magic. Kids are open to it. That’s why it so often features in their books….
Do you have time for a short butterfly story? If you enjoy it, maybe you could share it. Have a happy day. ~gail Butterfly Nudges or (A Different Kind of) Frozen I took a deep breath and squinched my eyes closed for a couple of seconds. When I opened them, I expected everything to go…
Hi there! I hope you’re feeling on-top-of-the-world. We actually have some rain this morning. It’s glisteny, shimmery, Winnie-the-Pooh blustery. I’m generally not an I-LOVE-the-rain person. But we so desperately need it. And since I was able to sneak my dog out for a walk early before the rain, I say “bring it on!” (As long…
Hello and welcome to Telling Stories. Today, in addition to a middle grade book review, I’m excited to share with you an interview with the author, Rachel Selle. Rachel is from New Hampshire, by way of Alaska, and currently lives in Germany, where she teaches second grade. This is her first published novel. Gail: Thank…
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher, is a bit of upper middle grade magical realism for 11-14-year-olds. The story starts with a dead body in the bakery. Not just dead, but murdered. The bakery is in a village where magic is commonplace and the only magic that the main character, 14-year-old Mona,…
Hello, and Happy Monday. This post talks about writing goals, but it can apply to absolutely any goal you have—and offers some ways to get you closer to success. Full disclosure, I only dabbled in writing when I was raising my kids. I finished my first manuscript about two years before I had my first…
Hi there! Hope you’re having a good day. Happy Spring! I just finished reading a fun book called A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher, and I really wanted to bake something. Usually, I bake cookies. But today, I felt like scones. Spoiler alert: They are not gorgeous. I wasn’t going to post…
