I can hardly believe it’s been nearly a year since KISSING SHAKESPEARE was released! And on Aug. 6, I’m celebrating the release of the paperback. In honor of that occasion, I offer here, drum roll please, a deleted scene from the book. Last year, after KISSING SHAKESPEARE made its debut, YA librarian Joy Davis published […]
The Next Big Thing
Today I’m participating in THE NEXT BIG THING. It’s a blog hop that began in Australia and went international. The purpose is to get the word out on middle grade and YA writers and their current or upcoming books. Each of us answers the same set of questions, and we “tag” two other authors who […]
Kissing Shakespeare FAQs
When Tania Navarro, age 19, wrote to me about KISSING SHAKESPEARE, she asked several questions. Afterward, I asked her if she would mind if I used them on this blog, since many other people have asked me the same questions. She was kind enough to give her consent. Tania is nineteen and lives in eastern […]
Looking Back at 2012
For many years I made it a habit to list my writing accomplishments as each year drew to a close. I first got the idea from Cynthia Morris. She suggested it as a way of focusing on achievements rather than on setbacks. I haven’t done it lately, because my critique group has been doing […]
Engage the Senses in your Writing
Over and over again, writers are told that in order to enrich their writing, they should strive to engage as many of the senses as possible in a descriptive passage. The easiest, of course, is visual. We tend to stick with that one, because it’s the most obvious and most overwhelmingly present. Readers always want […]
Kissing Shakespeare Discussion Questions
Here’s my first go at questions for Kissing Shakespeare. I wrote these with book clubs in mind, since several groups who are reading KS gently prodded me! They’re meant for a casual, if thoughtful, discussion, for teens or adults, NOT for classroom use. Sometime soon, I’ll do a set for teachers. Obviously, the emphasis would […]
Writing in the Digital Age
Recently I attended a symposium on digital publishing organized by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of SCBWI. I learned about the proliferation of e-books, POD, and apps, as well as interactive books and transmedia (multiple media). Lisa Rutherford from Coliloquy taught us about active fiction, and a new concept (at least to me) of “living books, […]
Fleshing out Secondary Characters
I hate to admit this…but I accidentally found a good way to deepen and add complexity to secondary characters. When I first began writing KISSING SHAKESPEARE, I wanted to try a using a dual point of view. Ahem. It didn’t work out for me. However, I wrote a few chapters from the POV of Jennet […]
The Most Useful Thing You’ve Learned About Writing
The Writer magazine has been running a feature called “Writers on Writing” in which they ask a well-known author this question: What is the single most useful thing you’ve learned about writing, and how has it helped you as a writer? So I’ve been thinking a lot about that and wondering if I could distill […]
Characters and Emotion
Over at TheWildWriters last week, Claudia Cangilla Macadam wrote a blog post describing her method of getting into a character’s emotions. She acts them out! I can’t specifically recall ever having done that, but I’m planning to give it a try. A way that I frequently use to pick up ideas for describing a character’s […]