by Joelle | Jun 12, 2011 | Daily Writings
Anyone in the biz, and anyone interested in the biz (the biz being young adult books), is probably up on the whole Washington Street Journal story from last week about dark YA and how it’s harming our children. I’m actually going to refrain from...
by Joelle | Jun 3, 2011 | Daily Writings
As my husband has been known to say, “I’m so proud I could pop.” The young authors in my writing program rocked the island with their stories last night. Not to mention their poise, humour, and professionalism. Mad Rona’s Coffee Bar was SRO,...
by Joelle | Jun 2, 2011 | Daily Writings
I am very excited because today is a big day here on the island. All year, I have been working with students in a creative writing program once a week at the local school, and today they are having a book release party. That’s right! They’ve written books....
by Joelle | May 20, 2011 | Daily Writings
If you live in Canada, it’s pretty hard to imagine you’ve missed the events in Slave Lake, Alberta over the last week, but since a lot of you don’t live here, I’ll recap. To put it succinctly…forty percent of the town burned down in a...
by Joelle | May 14, 2011 | Daily Writings
This photo was taken by my husband. It’s me and one of my best friends, Kelly. We’re celebrating the fact that Kelly just graduated from university and the same week, I got word that my book, Restoring Harmony, was picked up by Scholastic for the book...
by Joelle | May 13, 2011 | Daily Writings
Today is the one year book birthday for Restoring Harmony! It’s hard to believe it’s been out for a whole year. Lots of great things have happened in the last 365 days too. I had several wonderful signings/release parties, made lots of new friends, caught...
by Joelle | May 4, 2011 | Daily Writings
I got another great author blurb for my new book. Yay! “The Right & the Real has everything a reader could want: a gutsy heroine, romance, betrayal, and a pace that will keep you reading late into the night. Anthony’s character shows us what it takes...
by Joelle | Apr 29, 2011 | Daily Writings
I’m over at Bookshop Talk today blogging about why I think used book sales can be good for authors and publishers, even if we don’t make a dime off of them. Come on over and weigh in.
by Joelle | Apr 26, 2011 | Daily Writings
First off, thanks to everyone who entered my birthday contest by sharing what you’re grateful for in the comments! In a random draw, the winner is Tonja! Congratulations, I’ll send it off this week. For those of you still hoping to win a copy of RH, Deb...
by Joelle | Apr 19, 2011 | Daily Writings
I woke up to excellent birthday news yesterday! Remember those Scholastic book fairs you went to in school? The ones where the gym was filled with tables and tables full of BOOKS! Books that your parents gave you money to buy! Books, books, and more books! And...
by Joelle | Apr 18, 2011 | Daily Writings
Hi All. Time for the annual What I’m Grateful For On My Birthday Post. If you’ve been hanging out here for a while, you’ll know I do this every year. I think some other writers started doing it too, which is cool. Now that I have a book out, anyone...
by Joelle | Apr 15, 2011 | Daily Writings
I’ll admit it. I’ve done a signing/reading for three people. Okay, truth be told, I even did one for no one. Well, I didn’t actually go through with it because I have to draw the line somewhere…talking to myself just was a bit too much....
by Joelle | Apr 13, 2011 | Daily Writings
I’m very excited to share with y’all the cover for my next young adult book. I’m super excited as you can tell by all the exclamation points!!!!! Kicked out for refusing to join a cult, seventeen-year-old Jamie must find a way to survive on her own...
by Joelle | Apr 7, 2011 | Daily Writings
Hi. I’m over at Kidlit for Japan where they’re hosting an auction to raise money for the earthquake victims. You can bid on my item which is a signed copy of Restoring Harmony, a magnet, a gently read hardback copy of Anna and the French Kiss, and the ARC...
by Joelle | Apr 2, 2011 | Daily Writings
Happy Birthday to my wonderful agent extraordinaire, Michael Bourret! I hope you have a great day, Michael, and get lots of yummy treats! If I could, I’d get you a treadmill desk, because I know how much you want one, but alas…Canada Post would take years...
by Joelle | Apr 1, 2011 | Daily Writings
Happy Opening Day, Everyone! Go Cubs! It’s our year!
by Joelle | Mar 24, 2011 | Daily Writings
I’m sure you’ve all been missing my regular scintillating blog posts, haven’t you? Well, first I got hacked and that took a while to sort out. Luckily, the wonderful writer and my dear friend, Eileen Cook, has an equally outstanding husband who is a...
by Joelle | Feb 18, 2011 | Daily Writings
Today I’m dong a guest post over a Kidlit Frenzy about the men of Maud Hart Lovelace’s books. It’s part of their romantic Valentine’s week series of posts. Hope you’ll drop by and find out more about the handsome men of the Betsy-Tacy...
by Joelle | Feb 17, 2011 | Daily Writings
Last week, I was so deep into edits that I wasn’t able to teach my class, so that’s why there wasn’t a new prompt. Today, we had a wonderful class all about brainstorming. The kids formed teams of four, then they drew a topic from the hat. As a...
by Joelle | Feb 12, 2011 | Daily Writings
This video says it all.
by Joelle | Feb 3, 2011 | Daily Writings
I hope some of you writers out there will help me inspire my writing students to participate this week by jumping in yourselves. This week’s classroom lesson was all about dialogue, so if you want to work some into your writing, go for it! And don’t forget...
by Joelle | Feb 1, 2011 | Daily Writings
One of the fabulous things about being an author is you are hip to some really great books and often, people give them to you. I’m extra lucky because my sales rep is also a pal/neighbour of mine, and so she gives me loads of ARCs. I love this, as you might...
by Joelle | Jan 27, 2011 | Daily Writings
Join my students and leave me a story in the comments section. This week, we studied plot, so as you write your story, keep in mind the Beginning, Middle, Climax, & End. Prompt: Use these five words in a story of any length. Pencil, giraffe, desperate, headache,...
by Joelle | Jan 21, 2011 | Daily Writings
I am now doing a weekly writing residency at the local grade school with the Grade 6/7 class. At the end of every class, I give them a writing prompt and they can do it on their own time, or not. If they do participate, they get to share it at the beginning of the...
by Joelle | Jan 18, 2011 | Daily Writings
The blog Bookshop Talk very kindly had me over for an interview this week. And sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll be interviewing Eileen Cook there too. Drop on by!
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