Whew! Time flies. The hustle and bustle of spring seemed to arrive early here and with it came the SCBWI grant deadlines of March 31st. Last year, in 2012, I was awarded an Honorable Mention for my nonfiction submission. It was indeed an honor, especially after learning that only six of the 500 entries received… Read more »
Recently, I had a fabulous conference critique on a new picture book biography. It left me smiling for days, mostly because of two words: “great voice.” It’s taken a long time nail the concept of voice. If you’ve been writing as long as I have, you know how ambiguous the subject of voice is. I… Read more »
It’s been quite a week of awards celebration, hasn’t it? During Monday’s ALA awards presentation, I joined a group of author friends, huddled around multiple computer screens at the home of YALSA finalist, Cynthia Levinson. For an hour before the presentation, we enjoyed a festive atmosphere, complete with food, mimosas, party favors, and fidgety anticipation…. Read more »
Continuing my observations about unique storytelling techniques in nonfiction and historical fiction picture books, today I’m turning to dramatic point of view (pov.) Maybe you’ve heard this referred to as third person distant, Objective, or the fly-on-the wall pov. Whatever term you choose to use, I hope you’ll agree that this technique is clever, entertaining,… Read more »
2012 is coming to a close and, as I skim through the list of nonfiction and historical fiction picture books I’ve read and studied this year, a handful of new releases stand out as memorable, for various individual reasons. Of course, there are oodles of outstanding middle grade nonfiction books out this year, too, but… Read more »
Welcome to Part Three of my latest blog thread focused on craft considerations in nonfiction and historical fiction picture books. Basically, this is my private classroom where I peel back the layers and disassemble successful books to learn creative approaches to truth telling. The more I nose my way into the intracacies of these books,… Read more »
Like the rest of the country, I’ve been in a state of shock, grief, and confusion since last Friday’s horrifying tragedy in Connecticut. My heart goes out to the families of the slain victims, to the responding emergency personnel who will be forever changed by their traumatic duty, and to the Newtown community whose… Read more »
This post published in 2012 If it isn’t obvious by now, I’m that grown up kid who disassembles gizmos to figure out how they work-all because I want to learn how to build my own. But, in my case, the gizmos are books. This blog thread is about sharing my observations as I dissect nonfiction… Read more »
Welcome to part one of my new thread on nonfiction and historical fiction picture books. Today, let’s take a look at some “biographies” told through first person point-of-view (POV). I know what you’re thinking. Wouldn’t a first person biography actually be an autobiography? Well, welcome to the world of picture books where good storytelling often… Read more »
Whew! I polished up my newest WIP, sent it through my trusted critiquers, and buckled down in revision mode for a while. A few days ago, I sent this new project off to my agent. It’s likely she’ll ask for more revisions before it goes out into the world. That’s okay. It’s all forward motion…. Read more »
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