Deborah Halverson

Author & Editor

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Home > Blog

Talking Book Trends with Fellow Book Folk

August 14, 2022 Leave a Comment

I had a great Sunday afternoon. Why? Because I spent it with authors and illustrators of children’s books–always a great, varied, and energetic group of people. I was invited to a virtual meeting of SCBWI Nebraska. I talked about how the various categories of children’s books are performing, how some audience and market expectations are […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing

The Coolness of Editing Bayside

August 9, 2022 Leave a Comment

Today I edited bayside at San Diego Bay, near Maritime Museum of San Diego. I enjoyed my view of Californian (the official tall ship of the state of California), and the San Salvador replica (the original first sailed into San Diego in 1542). The main museum is 1898 steam ferryboat Berkeley from San Francisco Bay. […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing

Feeling Spacey Today

July 13, 2022 2 Comments

Have you seen the first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope? They get my imagination all whirled up as I try to wrap my head around the depths of space. Inspired, I set up my mobile editing office at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park today. I get a kick […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing

Podcast Alert: Deborah on “How Writers Write”

June 2, 2022 1 Comment

I love the “How Writer Write” podcast. Host Brian Murphy excels at leading great discussionabout writing practice and process. We get into that in this episode, plus we dig into the question “What makes a story ‘Young Adult’?” and I get to talk about what it’s like to think like an editor. It’s a fabulous […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing, News

Deborah Auctioning Picture Book Edit & Call for #WeNeedDiverseBooks

December 6, 2021 Leave a Comment

I’m honored to be contributing to the #WeNeedDiverseBooks Campaign by offering a picture book edit and phone call with me in their Holiday Auction. Visit https://bit.ly/3HZPItU to bid on this and check out all the other offerings. The Holiday Auction ends 10pm Eastern 12/6/21.

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing, Events, News Tagged With: DearEditor.com, Deborah Halverson

Can You Eat 76 Hot Dogs in 10 Minutes?

July 4, 2021

Joey Chestnut can. Oh, and don’t forget the 76 buns — because he ate those, too. Today was the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Championship, held every 4th of July. When I wrote BIG MOUTH, a middle grade novel about a boy who aspires to be the world’s greatest competitive eater, the Nathan’s Famous […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing

How to Write a Great Query Letter

January 27, 2021

Every writer seeking traditional publication will submit their project to agents and/or editors at some point. Writing that submission email can be stressful. You want to get it right, right? In this post, I break down the parts of a query letter and talk you through each one. At the end, I’ve included a sample […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing, Writing Youg Adult Fiction For Dummies

Predicting a Uniquely Unpredictable 2021

January 16, 2021

I shared some predictions for children’s literature market in the January edition of SCBWI INSIGHT, a monthly enewsletter for members of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators. INSIGHT features current children’s book hot topics, helpful hints, exclusive interviews and monthly contests. When talking about likelihoods for 2021, emerging trend-lines are intriguing to extend […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing, News

A Book with Benefits

November 25, 2020

It was my honor to edit the Purple Project’s picture book PENNY’S ADVENTURES IN SAN DIEGO. Sales benefit victims of domestic violence and abuse. For this book, thirteen San Diego County mayors and a deputy mayor each penned a chapter of a story about a kind-hearted purple butterfly named Penny visiting their respective cities and […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing

My New Class for KidLit Writers!

October 12, 2020

I’m honored to have created a new class for Children’s Book Insider: “10 Things That Get Kidlit Manuscripts Rejected – and How to Avoid Them.” It will be 90 minutes of deep-digging writing tools for writers of picture books, chapter books, middle grade and young adult — fiction and nonfiction. I’ve got you all covered […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing, News

Texting in Novels – It’s a Thing

June 28, 2020

The average American checks their phone 47 times a day. 23 billion text messages are sent each day worldwide. 98% of US smartphone users send text messages regularly. American smartphone owners aged 18-24 send around 2000 text in a month.* With texting behavior like that, texting is going to show up in our novels. But […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing

Deborah to Offer a Digital Workshop for SCBWI (Free & Exclusive to SCBWI Members)

May 29, 2020

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be presenting the fifth workshop in the Society of Children’s Books Writers & Illustrators’s second Digital Workshops series. The series is for current SCBWI members, and is free — an offering for members during this unusual summer of lockdown and creative challenge. My workshop will be “Submissions Studio: Writing […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing, News

SCBWI Summer Spectacular Looks SPECTACULAR!

May 11, 2020

SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Authors & Illustrators) is going virtual with its annual summer conference — they’re calling it the Summer Spectacular and it is indeed spectacular! 10 keynotes with children lit luminaries, an agents panel, & an editors panel, plus nightly live twitter chat socials, an online member book sale, a meme […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing, News Tagged With: Deborah Halverson, SCBWI, Summer Spectacular

Reclaiming the Bound Book

February 19, 2020

I’ve recently been working to re-establish my long-abandoned habit of taking a physical book EVERYWHERE, even tucking it into my grocery bag to read while in the checkout line. Like many book lovers, as a kid I’d walk to school with an open book in my hands, never once tripping as I read. I imagined […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing

My Article in SCBWI’s “The Bulletin”!

February 7, 2020

My article “2019: A Year in Review” has been published in SCBWI’s Winter 2020 edition of THE BULLETIN. That’s a biannual publication provided to members of the Society of Children’s Books Writers & Illustrators. The article is a children’s publishing industry overview, examining events and trends of 2019. I’m honored that SCBWI trusted me to sum […]

Filed Under: Adventures in Writing, News

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WELCOME TO DEBORAH’S BLOG

See what Deborah is up to, or sit a spell and enjoy her tales about the thrills, chills, and spills of being a triplet mom, editor, and writer.

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From the Blog

Talking Book Trends with Fellow Book Folk
I had a great Sunday afternoon. Why? Because I spent it with authors and illustrators of...
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RSS From DearEditor.com

  • Re: What to Do? An Agent Requested My Full MS – But I’m Revising! August 12, 2022
  • Happy Summer, Happy Writing May 26, 2022
  • Re: Do I Include Back Matter in My Picture Book’s Word Count? March 23, 2021

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