I did an interview with with author Kim Norman on my All About Children’s Books blog last week.   Some of what she said was instructive on writing PBs.   Author Kim Norman’s first picture book, JACK OF ALL TAILS, was released by Dutton, a Penguin imprint, in 2007. CROCODADDY, (Sterling, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble), [...]

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I can’t resist looking at another passage from Savvy. That book is full of gems: “WASH YOUR HAND, WILL JUNIOR,” I screamed again, raising my voice to be heard over the brawl and over the sound of breaking glass. As my brother’s pressure system grew, the window closest to Fish began to fracture, spreading splintering [...]

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When I read Savvy for the KidzBookBuzz Blog tour, I didn’t do what I usually do–write notes in the margins or put sticky notes in the good and bad places I’d want to remember to mention in my review. Why not? I quickly realized the effort would be fruitless. There were no bad places and [...]

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The KidzBookBuzz.com blog tour for Savvy, by Ingird Law, is in full swing just now, so I thought this would be a good time to post a little bit about what I learned about writing for children from Ingrid Law’s wonderful book. There is good reason this little book has won such prestigious awards and landed on [...]

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I wrote two chapters on my novel on Saturday. I have four chapters to go. I’ve been stuck for months. Stuck because I knew that I needed my character to do something at the very end that she would never do. I needed her to make a horrific choice and I couldn’t motivate her. So [...]

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Nathan Bransford on characterization. He proves he’s more than just a pretty face. He’s more than a nice fellow with a positive attitude. He’s also brilliant.  Every character has to want something, he tells us. When I am bored with a book, this is almost always the reason–the characters don’t want anything or if they [...]

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Here’s a wonderful blog post on naming your characters. In her list of things to avoid in character names, she give us: 3. Overly exotic names. Okay, I am talking about names that are usually reserved for strippers, I mean exotic dancers, professional sex workers and soap opera stars: Remington Steele, Shy Love, Johnny Wad, [...]

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Here’s a good post on cutting a novel down so you can speed the novel up. I like this tip in particular: It can be okay to tell. Both editors I’ve worked with have told me, in essence, “Sometimes I wish ‘show, don’t tell,’ had never been invented.” Writers who have already learned to do [...]

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A gal in my crit group threw this out for discussion: What makes a good character? What captivates you in a character? What makes a character memorable?   I wish I knew.  Wouldn’t that be the golden ticket? To know what makes for captivating, memorable characters?   So here’s a list I have had in my head [...]

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Two of my favorite author/agents are offering free e-books. First, Noah Lukeman is offering How to Write a Great Query Letter, and Amazon short. And then we have Donald Maass, giving away The Career Novelist. I already have The Career Novelist, but I downloaded it, too. I love having an electronic, searchable version on hand. [...]

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