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From the Nonfiction Front ...The Underdogs' ClubFebruary 10, 2010
My mom is the quintessential first grade teacher—smart, quick, patient, firm but affectionate, with eyes in the back of her head that can spot emotional storms brewing 15 minutes into the future. She officially retired from the full-time gig a few years ago, but she still often answers that late afternoon/early morning phone (more…)
The FDR Memorial and the Maze of HistoryDecember 13, 2009
At Thanksgiving, I spent a couple days wandering D.C. with friends, a couple of whom had never been there before. (Special yay! to Hostel International for making it affordable.) We did our own after-dark tour of the Mall, visited the Capitol, and spotted Dennis Kucinich on a cellphone at the airport.
The highlight (more…) November 14, 2009
In addition to the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market, if I could recommend one resource for all writers for kids and teens it would be Children's Book Insider. Published by Laura Backes and Jon Bard, it is a great way to stay current on craft and the market. Check out CBICLUBHOUSE.COM for more info
November 13, 2009
What makes good nonfiction work for kids and teens? I think it's largely a matter of the adult writer communicating that she or he is right there with the reader, exploring and learning side-by-side. We need to lead with our sense of wonder and playfulness. All readers—not just youthful ones—trust the wonder-filled (more…)
October 14, 2009
I went to Julie Anne Peters book signing for RAGE last Saturday down at the Tattered Cover in Denver. It was well-attended, especially considering the cold snap and a few inches of early snow that tend to cause Coloradans to tuck their heads back into the their shells before they blow on their hands (more…)
September 24, 2009
Fish or famine ... anyone who has been freelancing for a while knows the unnerving wobble between too much work and nowhere near enough. In 17 years, I've experienced two patches as slow as this one. Is it the chilled economy? But I've got lines in the water and the fish are starting to circle again.
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Cool QuotesIt is blissfully simple to strike a savvy, sophisticated pose by attacking someone else’s creations, but the old adage is right: Any fool can burn down a barn. Building one is something else again. - Martha Beck
The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you: they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.
-Wade Davis Story means pleasure, as distinct from art; it would rather gratify than edify.
But stories also protect us from chaos, and maybe that’s what we, unblinkered at the end of the twentieth century, find ourselves craving. Implicit in the extraordinary revival of storytelling is the possibility that we need stories—that they are a fundamental unit of knowledge, the foundation of memory, essential to the way we make sense of our lives: the beginning, middle, and end of our personal and collective trajectories. It is possible that narrative is as important to writing as the human body is to representational painting. We have returned to narratives—in many fields of knowledge—because it is impossible to live without them. -Bill Buford, 1996 "Adulthood is the consequence of decisions made by a teenager."
-Stew "It is so easy to be cynical. It's an accurate reflection of reality. It's much harder; it takes a philosophical point of view, to be optimistic. You have to work at it every day. One of the joys of working with children is that they are still unspoiled by cynicism."
-Yo-Yo Ma "Kids are not stupid. They're just short." —Jack Prelutsky |
