Kid Lit Nation (http://kidlitnation.com/) is hosting a webinar on 1-31-18 featuring debut picture book author Baptiste Paul and illustrator Jacqueline Alcantara. For more detailed information about the event, click this link – KIdLitNation Webinar You can register for the webinar via this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_exnq2R34Q1mdvJ4lBsqALw
KidLitNation Webinar on 1-31-18 Read More »
I have never been able to write poetry. Not good poetry, anyway. Give me 70,000 plus words to write and I’m happy. Give me 700 words for a flash fiction piece and I grit my teeth and write because the publisher pays me (and sends me glowing notes about how wonderful my stories are –
Louder Than A Bomb Read More »
I can’t count the number of times I have heard that word used by agents and editors at a writers conference I attended in the fall. Prairie Writers and Illustrators day is a yearly one-day affair by the Illinois chapter of SCBWI. The conference is hosted at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois every fall. During
Voice and Ownvoices Read More »
When I was a kid, we used to have a song we sang when we walked down the street, deliberately bumping into people we didn’t like. I am blind and I can’t see, and if I knock you down don’t you blame it on me. As if that absolved us from guilt. Being “color blind” requires
More on the “Color Blind” thing Read More »
At first, the question the novice writer asked seemed simple. A member of one of my writing groups asked whether describing one of her characters as “a black man” was racist. That one word (racist, not black) often seems utterly terrifying for many white people – especially white authors. I started simply, by asking if
So You Say You Don’t See Color Read More »
I was recognized today. When you are a writer, that’s important. Even when, no especially when, another author knows your name. I attended a writing workshop at the Northbrook, Illinois public library about crafting YA characters. The library holds a series of workshops int he fall entitled NorthBrook Writes! These are all open to the public,
It feels good to be known Read More »
Domestic violence is a quiet epidemic, hitting 25% of all women, and 7.6 percent of men at some point in their lives. October is Domestic Violence month, for the millions of men, women and children who live within violent homes every day. Domestic violence makes up 21% of all violent crimes, and has no respect
Courage Spotlight – Domestic Violence Read More »
There are many kinds of courage. Living with Sickle Cell Disease requires more than one of them. Dontae Morrow is twelve, and does not want to be labeled the sick kid. He may have to live with sickle cell disease, but that does not define him. Being the minister’s son, however, does sometimes prove difficult
Courage Spotlight – Sickle Cell Disease Read More »
This post is a response to a question about how I got an agent, from someone about to start the process of searching for one of their own. The timing on was excellent. I have been commissioned to create a workshop on the business side of writing for KidLitNation.com, and chose to use this as
Finding a Literary Agent Read More »
Revision is a bitch, with a capital B! I once wrote a post about the differences between revising and editing a manuscript at (https://romancingthegenres.blogspot.com/2015/08/revision-and-editing.html) Those actions require two different skill sets and produce two different levels of pain. Revision means changing scenes, moving action around, adding, subtracting, modifying. Change pieces from act 1 to act
Revision is a Bitch Read More »