Blog

Getting to the point

Writer’s Digest’s Maria Schneider put up an informative post the other day about things she heard at when she accompanied the magazine’s contest winners on their New York agent meets (lucky them). I won’t plagarize her information here, but one caught my eye for further review: The elevator pitch, be able to sum up your…
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Reading to write

I’m back on the novel. Last week was still really busy, but I jumped into the rewrite of my novel anyway. Time to start waking up at 6 am again! New goal: Finish the rewrite by November.   I’ve also made strides with the Sir Newton Color Me Florida book. Drawings are completed and fixed…
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Finding some time

My day job has been kicking my butt, lately. It’s a busy time of year for us, and I’ve been swamped, which, of course, has put all my passion work — my own projects — on the back burner.   Last week, I didn’t get anything done on the Florida Sir Newton Color Me book,…
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Dig deep

One of the best pieces of writing advice I have heard was to find the 10th way of doing things. It was in a screenwriting seminar, and I apologize to the wise man who said this, because I can’t remember who it was. Let’s call him Will (after Shakespeare, who no doubt used this rule whether he knew…
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Inspiration and business

In case you haven’t seen it, J.K. Rowling’s speech to the graduating class at Harvard is quite inspiring. You can find it here. Her messages: We can learn from failure, and imagination helps us not only to write, but to make a difference.   The second is about her time working at Amnesty International. Her stories…
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Being technical in children’s nonfiction

Another blog has written a great review for Sir Newton’s Color Me Hawai’i. Keiki Gift Ideas, a blog offering up ideas for children’s gifts, posted a nice review, and the writer gave the book to her friend, who also wrote up a review. Bonus, two for one! Click here to see the reviews.   But one…
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Don’t be nervous

With my focus now on the Sir Newton books, I started making publicity calls for Sir Newton’s Color Me Hawai’i, which launched earlier this year. I’m late in doing promotions (you really want a nice big push when the book first appears in stores – but the beginning of this year was crazy, with a move to…
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The End

I did it. I typed those two words. Yesterday I wrote three pages in the final chapter and today I wrote the last three pages of the final chapter and the one-page epilogue. Done. The End. Goal accomplished: First draft completed by the end of June. Of course, it’s still early in June. But I…
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Almost at The End, sort of

Success! I had a very productive Sunday. I wrote 10 pages of my middle-grade novel, including finishing the climactic chapter and writing the first half of the last chapter of the book. All I have left is the second half of the chapter and the epilogue. (The book has a prologue, so the epilogue will wrap…
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Streaming or kinked

I’m still having ups and downs with my climactic scene, but yesterday, I felt as thought I had a bit of a break-through. Every so often, you run into a section of whatever you’re writing that you don’t feel as well as other sections. It’s more difficult to get your head around, more difficult to…
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