Happy Monday! (Or Tuesday or whenever you’re reading this.) Here’s my book list for September. Flora and Ulysses by Kate Dicamillo (Middle Grade fiction, 2013). Flora’s parents are divorced and the situation has made Flora a cynic. Enter squirrel-turned-superhero (because of an unfortunate vacuum incident) Ulysses, whose superpower is misspelled poetry. But will it be…
Do you take for granted some of the holidays that pop up during the year without really understanding why we observe them? I’ll admit, I do. Case in point—Labor Day. So, since I just returned from a mini vacation with no blog post written yet, I used my research skills (thank you, Google) to try…
The other day, I read an article by a woman who teaches writing to seniors. She said at their age, they should only be doing things that are fun. She was partially right. I think everyone should be doing things that are fun, regardless of their age. And if the fun isn’t obvious, find it….
What are your kids doing in their free time? Do they even have free time? A recent article in Publisher’s Weekly says that for kids, reading for pleasure is “losing out to other activities.” The article states that according to Circana BookScan, sales of middle-grade fiction—that is, fiction geared to kids ages 8 to 12—has…
Everyone has a story in them. Not everyone wants to write that story, but a lot of people do. I’ve joined several Facebook writing groups and it amazes me the number of people posting something along these lines: “I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but I don’t know how to get started.” Or they’ll…
A friend (who writes picture books) and I were having an interesting conversation the other day about upcoming trips to England, which led to talking about Shakespeare. I’m an English major, but I never appreciated Shakespeare. I know he’s the greatest playwright of all time, and he invented many words that are in our current…
How varied is your reading list? I feel like mine should be full of books about rainbows and unicorns and butterflies since I write children’s books. It’s not. Kids don’t stick to books about rainbows and lollipops, and neither do I. So I read a variety of books. And I get something valuable from each…
Here we are, halfway through the month and halfway through the year. How’re you doing on those goals you set back in January? Have you reviewed them lately? Maybe you’ve finished them? Or are making good progress. If so, yay, you! Maybe you’ve set them aside? No shame. No judgment. Just wondering. If you haven’t…
The amount of content available to internet users is mind-boggling. And LOUD! Much of it is free, too, which adds to the noise. (Things that cost money are often easier to ignore.) Pretty sure you all know how the internet works. Now here’s the hard part: At what point do you stop listening and say,…
I like my posts to apply to writers but also be helpful to other creative types (and I think we’re all a bit creative). So let’s see if I can tweak these Twelve Golden Rules to be helpful to all. 1. Before you set off on your yellow brick project road, have a plan or…
