I’m honored to be a Guest Blogger on the amazing Cynsations blog today, with my post “Deborah Halverson on Viewing Narrative Beats as ‘Revelatory’ Beats in MG/YA Fiction.” There so much power and potential in those moments between lines of dialogue — the beats. I explore that in the guest post. Here’s a snippet: “Perhaps we […]

  My website designer and I have been hard at work all summer on a little something fun: a fresh new look for DearEditor.com, my writers’ advice website. I unveiled the redesign today. Huzzah! It’s been a labor of love. This designer, Theresa, was the first person I told of my plans to create the […]

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, […]

I’m excited to be on the faculty of the Society of Children’s Books Writers & Illustrators 46th Annual Summer Conference in Los Angeles, July 7-10, 2017. I’ll be presenting the annual Market Survey as well as a 3-hour writing intensive “How to Talk Like a Teen When You’re So Not One: Writing Dialogue in YA/MG Fiction.” I’ll also be doing […]

Summer is starting out with a lot of fun writing-related activity for me, that’s for sure. First Revision Week on DearEditor.com last week, and now a panel this coming weekend at Santee Barnes & Nobel (Sat., June 11, 2pm). The panel is “Writing a Book Is Like Riding a Roller Coaster!” My fellow panelists—fabulous YA writers—and I […]

If you follow my DearEditor.com writing advice blog, you know each spring I host a special event called Revision Week, which showcases interviews with prolific, best-selling authors that give us a peek into their revision processes and tons of useful insights into how we can go about revising our own writing. It’s now time for DearEditor.com’s 4th annual Revision Week, featuring […]

I don’t always post my cheers when writers I’ve worked with as an editor reach their goals because I don’t want to look like I’m trying to take credit for their hard work and talent. As an editorial consultant I point out strengths and weaknesses, and I make suggestions about opportunities and guide when writers […]