Joëlle Anthony
J. M. Kelly
Welcome to My Blog
Cliche Queen
What with my Red Hair article, and the new piece I wrote for SCBWI about character cliches, I'm afraid I'm going to get a reputation as a Cliche Queen...or maybe the Cliche Police is more like it. One thing that surprised me when the Red Hair article came out (or is...
WHAT WOULD EMMA DO? by Eileen Cook
When my friend Eileen Cook finished the manuscript for this book she sent me a copy of it to read. That's why, even though I just finished reading the actual book, I felt proud to be able to give it a plug for the last month or so. Now that I've read it in its...
Kids with big voices…
I am a fan of the BBC4's children's radio show Go4It, which you can listen to here. While this week's episode is political (and I don't do much of that here...except for yesterday when I couldn't help myself!), I've listened to other episodes and find it a really cool...
Congratulations to the USA!
Your Canadian neighbours are wishing you well on this monumental and historic day!
THIS BOOK ISN’T FAT, IT’S FABULOUS by Nina Beck
This is a really fun book. For the most part, it's fairly light, but it's got some deeper stuff too. I think it's probably categorized under chick-lit YA (as a point of reference). I liked the characters, especially the main one, but also the minor characters were...
Stand-out Cover
Granted, I know (and love) this book SHUG by Jenny Han already, but I was at a bookstore the other day and what struck me about this book was how it jumped off the shelf because of the cover. And get this, I was just looking at the spine. This is a fantastic cover if...
A HEART FOR ANY FATE by Linda Crew
Well, I'm clearly not the only person who loved this book since it won awards! If you like historical fiction, especially stuff about the pioneers, then this is the book for you. Of course, it came out a while ago, so you might've read it already. In that case, read...
Let’s hear it for the kids!
If you write for kids or teens, I'm sure you have experienced the knucklehead (sometimes with good intentions) who asks you if you're "working your way up to writing for adults" or gives you the look that says, "Oh...isn't that sweet." Well, next time that happens,...
The Last Word – or is it the first?
As I mentioned a few posts ago, I've been reading Nevil Shute again...my comfort food equivalent in books. I've noticed a lot of things, but one that struck me in particular is how good he is at ending chapters. The last sentence or couple of sentences of each chapter...
TO BE MONA by Kelly Easton
Kelly Easton has written several books, but my library only has one of them, so I was very excited to get my hands on a copy of her new book, TO BE MONA. I didn't start reading until almost 10:30pm last night or I would've read this straight through. As it is, I read...
Adult fiction/nonfiction
OUTLIERS & BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell - I recently listened to OUTLIERS and even though it blew me away, I never really blogged about it. To be honest, I'm just not sure what to say. In this book, he takes apart our idea of success and reconstructs it. I found it...
First Sale of the Year!
I just made my first sale of the year - an article to SCBWI. It's called Avoiding the Character Cliché and the article is about falling into that trap and how to get out of it. Here's a sneak preview (the first sentence): The very best way to avoid character clichés...
AIRHEAD by Meg Cabot
Okay, can I just say this is the most hilarious book I've ever read? No, not because it cracked me up on every line (although it is pretty funny in places)...I mean the premise. ONLY Meg Cabot could get a publisher to say, "Wow, what a great idea for a series!" and...
It’s a Tall, Tall World (if you’re me)
I am what I refer to as Distantly Danish. That means my great grandparents and great, great grandparents on my mother's side all came from Denmark, and that I have cousins there who I've visited and who have visited me, but Denmark would never give me citizenship or...
Dream instead of resolve…
On a lot of blogs you are finding new year resolutions, goals, and lists of things people plan to accomplish this year. When it comes to something I have total control over (or as much control as a person can actually have), then I feel comfortable making it a...
pic
My husband has a pretty amazing pic over on his blog today.
Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book and so I got to read it in October 08. Wowie zowie! What a fantastic book. Smith's writing is elegant and evocative and you feel the heat, dust, and tension of 1943 Texas like you're standing right there. Back during WWII,...
GRANNY by Anthony Horowitz
This is a very funny Middle Grade...8-12, Grades 3-7 (it falls on the younger side, if you ask me). This is wacky and silly and exciting and boys and girls will both like it. I'm going to give it to my niece and she'll probably have a laugh. I am not a fan of...