Every year, we see a spate of lists of the best or outstanding books for that year. Why do some books land in that category while other perfectly fine books don’t? What makes a book outstanding? Outstanding can, of course, mean different things. Most easily it means big sales. If that’s the case then a lot of readers responded to that book, which is not to be sneezed at. A second meaning for “outstanding” might be that while the book…
Finders Keepers is designed for middle-grade readers (10 and up). Given how stressed out teachers are these days, I offer this teacher’s guide. I put the questions together with help from my daughter-in-law who is a reading specialist. I hope they’re useful to you. SYNOPSIS A whisper in the dark draws 12-year-old Cade to a hole in the paving where he finds a beautiful triangular stone. When he takes it home as a gift for Mum, she and his older…
Today’s blog post is once again written by Pamela Merritt, author of the forthcoming The Cat’s Pajamas and host of the Way of Cats blog. Doing NaNoWriMo – the right way Since 1999, increasing numbers of writers have been participating in the drafting marathon known as National Novel Writing Month. With a goal of 50,000 words, NaNoWriMo can be a dreaded, daunting, or delightful experience. It’s about our expectations, and our preparations. Because we have to be ready. My own…
Today’s blog is a guest post from Pamela Merritt, who offers advice on how to get around writer’s block. Visit Pamela at her popular blog and check out her book on Amazon. Take it away, Pamela! ______________ Yes, we can break a Writer’s Block with tricks. We want to trick our minds into cooperating. Why aren’t our minds cooperating now? Don’t they want to be “on the same page”? Sure, they do. We might be the one blocking them. Here’s…
On August 9, 2020, the New York Times Book Review ran a piece by Amitava Kumar called “Literary Advice.” Kumar is a writer who sometimes asks other writers to sign their book for him. When he does, he asks them to add a piece of writing advice. The Times piece includes some of what the other writers said. Here are the quotes that spoke particularly to me. Maybe they’ll resonate with you too. Read the masters and, at least occasionally,…
A book club recently decided to read The Wysman and invite me to speak at their meeting. Actually, I should say “our” meeting because it’s a club I belong to. I swear I didn’t suggest the book! Someone else did. The members are all avid readers though, so they decided that having an author to talk to would be interesting. I was, of course, happy to oblige. I love talking about writing. I must say it was a different kind…
I sometimes see people asking if a story a writer tells is based on their own life. I’m not usually asked, though, probably because I write YA fantasy set in a secondary world. So it’s hard to see the connection. However, I’d say a writer always draws on their own life. What else would we draw on? Usually, though, that drawing from life works differently than the question implies. Drawing on Emotion We draw on emotion as much as or…
In a recent article in Washington Monthly, Nancy LeTourneau wrote about how the web of ideas we have inherited from the patriarchy had distorted our idea of what it means to be a strong man. What’s disturbing to me is that, in young adult fantasy fiction, the distorted notion of strength also warps how we imagine a strong woman. We have moved along from writing the female character as a damsel in distress, but instead we often borrow the limited notion…
I am working on the theory that having a project makes people happier. By “project,” I mean something that requires a person to make plans and carry them out. The plans are for something they do freely rather than being assigned or forced to do. I first thought about this when someone gave Mr. DAW and me a book about wine that took up a different kind in each chapter and recommended some varieties to try. Each week, we read…
Book covers are supposed to serve as little billboards that tell the reader what kind of book they are and invite the reader to pick them up and examine them further. Read the back cover copy, maybe, or browse chapter 1. What makes a good cover? I’m probably not the person who should be answering this question because I’m not very visual and am terrible at telling good covers from bad. I’m so bad that my writer friends laugh at…