Children’s Book Week – June 12-16 When books were just books When I was growing up, there was no such thing as “young adult” as a marketing niche. In my…Continue readingJust what is YA?
Part 1: The Five W’s and a H Before reporting became a dying craft, every newbie was taught that a news story had to answer five fundamental questions: Who, What,…Continue readingHow do you build a world?
Writing tips I began storytelling when I was a toddler. I wrote my first poem when I was five, my first ‘novel’ as an adolescent, and my first decent novel…Continue readingDo you want to write?
Fact, historical fiction, & fantasy, oh my! It might be because I grew up in a land where history is still lurking behind a sheer veil, always present and…Continue readingThe world I built
In Today’s Blog A Reading Plan A year of reading an author named Alma At medium.com, Jon Westenberg offers a one-year reading plan to “transform who you are, what you…Continue readingBooks to change who you are
The writer and sex In her book, Love and Trouble, Claire Dederer explains how a book review brought her “an unforeseen gift, or burden: Suddenly everyone wanted to tell…Continue readingThe writer and sex
Because they’re in love. Because in their best judgment making a certain choice seems to be the right thing to do and they only find out otherwise much later that…Continue readingWhy do protagonists do stupid things?
Love is one of the guiding principles of the human condition. Things have been done in the name of love – both great things and evil things – that defy…Continue readingWhy do characters love?
Protagonists are all very well. You pick a central character, you get into their head, you understand his or her point of view. That protagonist is by very definition the…Continue readingWhy are villains so much fun?
When we first came into the little town of Bellingham in northwest Washington, more than a dozen years ago now, many things delighted us — the trees, the glimpses…Continue readingA tale of two bookstores