So it’s happening, my blog tour for WRITING NEW ADULT FICTION is coming together. I’m still welcoming hosts (sign up here), but I can tell you already the process has been a pleasure. Mid-way through this summer I cried, “Uncle!” in the face of my workload and joined forces with IndieSage PR, my first time […]
New Article!
The Sept/Oct issue of SCBWI’s The Bulletin is out, and I’ve got an article in it! “NEW ADULT FICTION FOR THE YOUNG ADULT WRITER.” Excerpt: “Writers see an overlap between ‘mature YA’ and NA and wonder what it means for their own stories about older teens…. There are essential differences in story content, though, and […]
Happy Pub Day!
My crazy/busy/fun summer hit’s its zenith today: Writing New Adult Fiction officially releases today! I’m always urging writers to celebrate their milestones, and now I’m taking my own advice. Tomorrow, a night out—probably involving root beer floats—with my four fellas. For everyone else, a week of “Free Partial Edit” giveaways and a grand finale “Free […]
It’s a book!
I came home from the SCBWI summer conference to find advance copies of my new book, Writing New Adult Fiction. It’s a book! Huzzah! It’s a couple of weeks yet till the official pub date of August 21, but some people have already contacted me to say they’ve pre-ordered it. Exciting! Now that the conference […]
Busy Summer
The next few months offer several opportunities to hone your writing with me, should you be so inclined. There are a couple still in the works; I’ll post those details when they’re finalized. Hope to see you! Aug 1-4, Los Angeles – SCBWI 43rd Annual Summer Conference “Market Report” Keynote 1-hr breakout “New Adult Fiction […]
A New Look, and a New Article
I’m pleased to debut a new look for my blog posts when they show up in subscribers’ inboxes. If you received this post via email, it should be spiffy and easy on the eye. If it’s not, then I did something wrong. Today is the first email with the new program. But to avoid turning […]
OnText Gives DearEditor.com the Thumbs Up
Ghostwriter Maryan Pelland posted a fab feature about my writers advice website DearEditor.com on her blog OnText. The feature, “Writing Children’s or Young Reader Books? Great Source of Publishing Help,” praised me as “a wealth of information for writers, authors, and ghostwriters to ask questions about the craft of writing or about the very confusing […]
Letters to Santa: My first picture book!
My first picture book has published! LETTERS TO SANTA celebrates the 100th anniversary of the USPS “Letters to Santa” program. I spotted the book on display at my post office yesterday! Letters to Santa is a great program, with USPS working with charities, companies, and individual citizens across the country in various ways to field […]
My 3 New Books Have Launched!
My three books for Rubicon’s Remix struggling readers series have launched! Brave New World: Cyber World, Brave New World: Meltdown, and Brave New World: Robotic World. I loved having the chance to write for a new audience. REMIX is a series of high interest/low vocabulary non-fiction readers geared toward students in grades 7 to 8 who […]
Win a Free Copy of Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies
“Revision can be daunting. . . . Why not give your brain a break by breaking your task into focused chunks? With this approach, you’d pick a writing element, say plot, and ignore everything but that. Working Big Picture chunks to small detail chunks rather than page by page, you’d focus not on revising the […]
Coverage of My SCBWI conference Market Trends Keynote
This year I had the honor of compiling the “2012 SCBWI Market Survey: Publishers of Books For Young Readers” report for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I followed up with a keynote speech at the recent SCBWI Summer Conference about what I learned from her survey – giving attendees the current market […]
Putting the Marketplace Under a Microscope
I just had the honor of presenting the keynote speech “An Up to the Minute Survey of Market Needs and Trends” to the 1,200 children’s books writers at the amazing Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators International Conference today. That’s me in the photo there, on one of the two big screens behind the […]
Summer Is Shaping Up
As the San Diego weather vacillates between hot-enough-for-the-beach and dark-and-stormy, I’m putting my summer together. Workwise, it’ll be a fun one, with the SCBWI 2012 Summer Conference in L.A. Aug 3-6. I’ll present a breakout session on writing dialogue, an intensive on revising your MG/YA novel, an intensive on creating youthful narrative sensibility, and the […]
So Much News!
January was a whirlwind of new projects and writing adventures. This is just some of it: New Project: a Picture Book about Santa I’ve been signed to write a picture book about the mighty man in red, to be published Christmas 2012. I’ll post more details when they’re available. Fun! New Project: 3 Books for […]
Spotlight Week: 7 Days as a Writing Nut
When I met Nutschell Anne Windsor at SCBWI-National Conference 2011, I instantly knew why this writer and blogger also teaches writing to others—she’s an incredibly upbeat person with a passion for writing. This week I get to bask in her enthusiasm as the feature of her blog’s Spotlight Week–or as she’s renamed it for the […]
