Recently, while my sons got their hair cut, I was flipping through my writing craft books, finalizing a presentation. My son picked up Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies. “You wrote this?” He asked. I nodded, a little puzzled. “Yeah?” he said. ” The whole thing? All by yourself?” Me nodding. “Wow.” He picked up […]
Hot Dogs, Fireworks, and BIG MOUTH
A human being just age 74 hot dogs—and buns—in ten minutes. Why? Because he could. That’s the challenge of competitive eating, to see how much of a food you can chow down, as fast as possible, mostly to beat the eaters lined up next to you but also because you thrive on the self-competition. This […]
Richard Peck, Ya Did Good
My very first speaking gig as a young editor, in front of 300 people in Texas, happened last minute as I filled in for a New York editor whose family understandably didn’t want her flying, being just weeks after the 9/11 horrors. I was nervous–this was the 1st speech I’d ever put together about editing […]
Free Sampler Featuring New Fiction
Did you know Publishers Lunch offers a free downloadable sampler with pre-publication excerpts from major authors and debut voices each publishing season? Anyone can download it and enjoy the samples. There’s a Buzz Books for commercial fiction, and another for Young Adult each season. The 2018 Fall/Winter edition just came out, but you can download […]
Writing Pals & Creative Karma
I’ve tried writing groups/meet-ups before, but for reasons that were never bad, those never worked out. This time: GOLD. I’ve been meeting the amazing Barrie Summy once a week for about a year now, writing across the table from her, and it’s THE BEST. We talk a bit, write a lot, and joke about each […]
Meet Me at the Annual SCBWI Summer Conference in L.A. Aug 3-6
I’m pleased to be presenting two sessions at the Society of Children’s Books Writers & Illustrators‘ Annual Summer Conference in L.A. August 3-6, 2018: “Up-to-the-Minute Market Report: Industry Updates, Submissions, and New Imprints” “Subplots & Subtext: How to Deepen and Energize Your MG/YA Fiction” I’ll also critique manuscripts one-on-one, which is something I particularly enjoy doing. Conference registration opens April 17th @10am PT. […]
Deborah at WIK ’18 — Fun Times, Great Craft Talk
I’ve had a lot of plates spinning in the last few months, but they’ve been fun plates to spin. A big one was prepping for and attending SCBWI-Southern Breeze’s 2018 writing-and-illustrating for kids (WIK) conference at the beginning of March. I presented sessions on non-rhyming picture books, revising young-adult and middle-grade novels for submission, and the state of the […]
Expecting Boring but Getting Brilliant
My parents divided our garage in half with a wall of bookcases. While I checked out tons of books from the public library, this home library was a convenient way to satisfy sudden reading urges and a true treasure trove. Need a new book but the library is closed? Need a new book, but not in the […]
Booklovers and their Tchotchkes
Folks love their tchotckes. We display them in curio cabinets, on shelves in our living rooms and studies, even on the dashboards of our cars. Booklovers are no exception. While I’m no fan of visual clutter in my living or workingspaces, I have a few prized booklover tchotchkes, all presents from fellow booklovers. Here are three of my […]
What’s Up with the Ebook Sales Increase?
In intriguing but perhaps not sign-of-a-radical-shift news: Publishers Weekly reports that ebook sales were up in May, making it the first time in two years there’s been an increase in ebook sales from one month to next. Why is this intriguing? Because every year since ebook sales peaked in 2013, sales have dropped. Double-, even triplet-digit drops. Ebooks account […]
Deborah’s Interview Is Part of New Online Course at Children’s Book Insider
I’m proud to have contributed an interview called “Writing for Tweens, Teens and New Adults” to Children’s Book Insider’s Blueprint series, for their new Middle Grade/Young Adult Writing Blueprint. CBI always presents great content. Other fabulous interviews are a part of the new Blueprint — editor Mary Kole and author Matthew J. Kirby (a favorite writer of mine, […]
The Library Treehouse Every Backyard Should Have
When you’re feeling down or dreamy, what do you google on the internet? Baby animal videos? Flowers? I google home library photos. I picture myself in them, imagine redoing my house to be like them, just overall lose myself in them. Here’s one I want to build in my back yard. I won’t — my […]
Prospecting & Publication
Much like with prospectors at the peak of California’s Gold Rush, there was a time when writers rushed to self-publish because they saw other writers striking it rich when editors at traditional publishing houses spotted their books and signed them to lucrative deals. I understand the temptation. Much like those prospectors found with the reality of digging for […]
On Usage
I was perusing the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style this weekend, as editors are wont to do, when I noticed this statement: “The great mass of linguistic issues that writers an editors wrestle with don’t really concern grammar at all–they concern usage: the collective habits of a language’s native speakers.” (5.216) This spoke to […]
When Movie Love Leads to Book Love
Have you seen the trailer for the new movie adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time? Wow, please let the movie be as fantabulous as this trailer looks. This is a classic story I’ve not read — I just couldn’t ever get into it. Sometimes that happens to readers, even with classics. One readers’s beloved favorite […]
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