Gimmicks vs. Originality – cont.

It is now the YA that I finished the other day, and there’s not any element of scrapbook in it. It’s just a straight-forward narrative. I don’t think I was really going for a gimmick or trying to be original. I had always wanted to write something...

Gimmicks vs. Originality

Four years ago, I began to write a YA that I intended to be something like Griffin & Sabine. In other words, tangible, colorful, unique, with letters you could physically remove from envelopes. I had an idea of putting together a scrapbook of a girl’s senior...

You, Maybe by Rachel Vail

I will say right off that I’m a huge Rachel Vail fan because her books are so good. I can’t tell you why I like this one so much because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it is definitely one for your reading list. If you’ve read it and want...

The End

  Don’t you love those two little words when you’re a writer. Especially when you finish your revision four days ahead of schedule? Yep. I did. For the first time in nearly four years, I don’t have a definite project waiting in the wings for me. Oh,...

Circles

  My revision has been going really well, but today I wrote in circles. After many hours of this I realized I should start my “day off” (Mondays) a bit early. Some days it’s like that! But I’m almost done and will meet my self imposed deadline...

If you’re a writer…

If you’re a writer, you have to read this. If you’re in love with a writer, you have to read this, because chances are, you help make this bravery possible. Janet Reid’s The Two Parts of Brave

Woods & Writing

All my life I have wanted to live in the woods. When I look out my window of my new office I see…WOODS! Yes! Finally. If my posture is too good, I can barely see the top of the pick-up truck, so now I have a good reason to slouch a little, which, (unfortunately...

A Special Halloween Author Interveiw with Wendie Old

Author, Wendie Old, lives in a colonial era stone farmhouse with her husband, two cats, a huge hairy dog, and has adopted her grandkid — with his and hers and hers computers. Her new book THE HALLOWEEN BOOK OF FACTS AND FUN is available in bookstores now. Visit...

Working around a mess…

No, I’m not talking about a messy manuscript. I’m talking about the mess my office is. The thing is, the old me would’ve said, “Okay…no writing until everything is unpacked and in place.” but the new me says, “No cleaning...

And she’s off!

Well, not quite off and running today, but starting tomorrow I will be jumping back into the writing fray after nearly three months off. I have a Work In Progress that’s about eighty percent done. It is now a sequel to a book that I wrote last spring, so it...

Changes…

Hi. I’ve made some changes to Need To Read. I’ve moved the actual blog back to my Live Journal where the archives work better. Also, I’ve put up a big list of Young Adult books that I like under the Need To Read tab here on the website, plus...

Regularly Updated List

Hi, All. A friend asked me to compile a list of contemporary YA fiction for a fourteen year old girl. Below is what I ended up with and I’m going to leave it up here, and add updates to it occasionally. Feel free to add titles to the comment section. This will...

Fast Cat – 41 minutes and counting

  As you know, my cat, Grinder, was missing for almost three weeks. He’s been back since last Friday and boy could he eat. However, there was one little problem. It was as if he had indeed left the island during his sojourn and gone to Mexico where he...

All screwed up…

Sooo…tonight we are going to put my new desk together (in theory) and then I’ll be able to write again (also in theory). That’s assuming we can figure out the drawings. We bought a desk and a filing cabinet at Ikea and last night we put together the...

The conference I didn’t go to…

Take this advice from me…if you’re planning on moving cross country and you think that immediately following this giant event you will be ready to attend a huge writer’s conference, I can pretty much guarantee that you’re not going to be able...

Synopsis

Ha! I bet you thought I was going to complain about writing a synopsis, didn’t you? Well, you’re wrong because I don’t have time to write anything, let alone a synopsis. I am BURIED in boxes! That’s right, the husband arrived with the moving...

Three Cups of Tea

Normally I put all the book reviews and suggestions on Need To Read, but this one is too important to go there since I know some of you only read the homepage blog. If you haven’t read THREE CUPS OF TEA – One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One...

Never pick out paint when you’re tired…

My husband picked the paint colors for all the rooms in our new house except my office. I’m not sure how that happened as we’d been discussing them for months and none of what we walked away with is what we’d talked about. I must’ve been really...

Wait ’til Next Year

  Yeah, yeah…I’ve heard it all. So what if the Cubbies got swept? Big deal. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again. But next year is their year for sure. How do I know? Cause it’s 2008. Every baseball fan knows the last time the Cubs...