Best writing podcasts to boost your craft
My wife called me over to the garage and pointed down to a piece of machinery the size of a fist. “I think it fell out of the car,” she said. The metal thingamajig was pointy on one end and…
YA Wednesday: Q & A with Beth Revis, 6 Golden Rules of Writing Middle Grade, Are You a YA Writer and You Don’t Even Know It, Summer Camp YA
I’m in my last week of Camp NaNoWriMo, a summer version of November NaNoWriMo in which you get to set your own word count goals and bunk in a virtual cabin with other writers. I wish I could say I…
Camp Tin House
I never went to summer camp. I always wondered what it was like, that thing that other kids in other places got to do. My mom couldn’t afford it. Instead, my brother and I spent our summers trying to stay…
Friday Feast: The Appeal of Depressing Books, How to Know If Your Writing Is Any Good, Southern Summer Reading Round-Up, Where Books Are All but Non-Existent, and How Historical Fiction Does What Textbooks Cannot
Like the author of our first link, Pamela Erens, I’m drawn to depressing books. The darker the better. I can tolerate a happily ever after story, but only after the characters have suffered great trauma to get to the rainbows on…
My Legacy of Lying
I come from a long line of liars. My grandfather, a Russian potato farmer, was conscripted into the army in World War I to serve on the eastern front. Most of the soldiers couldn’t read or write, but my grandfather…
YA Wednesday: World History Through YA, Alternate History, Political YA Reads, Is Political Dystopian YA Bad for Teens
With the political conventions going on this week and next week, social gatherings are a lot more complicated. Coupled with the humidity, heat, and a drink or two, differences of opinion can rapidly escalate into shouting matches. Personally, I’m searching…