The Evil Synopsis

I made up my own hashtag last week as I was working on the synopsis for the YA version of DUET: #evilsynopsis. Because I truly think they’re evil. How am I supposed to condense 77,000 words into a less than 500-word summary? It’s much harder than when the book was 44,000 words. My point with…

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Why Pride and Prejudice Stands the Test of Time

I’ve read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen so many times I’ve lost count. I first read it in 9th grade, when my English teacher told us to pick a classic to read for extra credit. I selected it because I’d read numerous historical romance novels where the heroines read this “scandalous” new book. I…

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What I Read in 2012

I ended up reading 83 books in 2012, the vast majority of them middle grade. Books I reviewed are linked. If it made my list of favorite MG/YA reads of 2012, it’s starred. River’s End by Nora Roberts The Tempest by William Shakespeare The Finishing Touches by Hester Browne The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by…

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My Favorite Reads of 2012

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal of reading 75 books in 2012. I’ve read 80 books so far, and I still have a week and a half left! It helps that so many of them were middle grade. It’s gotten to the point where I wonder why adult books are so…

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YA Review: A MILLION SUNS

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is one of those books everyone was talking about last year, and I finally picked it up in January. Although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I didn’t have the urge to immediately go read the next one. Part of that was due to the fact that I was focusing on reading MG as…

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So Apparently I Write YA …

Or at least I’ve written one YA. I hesitated whether to put this out there since a few agents still have DUET, but I’ll go ahead and say the revision I did was to make it YA. I had no idea if I could pull it off. For one thing, I had to add at…

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YA Series Recommendation: MATCHED by Ally Condie

I picked up MATCHED shortly after it came out in 2010 and loved it. So when Ally Condie made a stop in St. Louis on her CROSSED tour last fall, I had to go see her. It was my first author event, and I loved hearing about her inspiration for each book. These books are…

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MMGM: Zora and Me, plus a giveaway!

Sometimes you pick up a book and you’re not sure you’ll connect with it. Then you start reading and it’s like magic. You’re drawn into a world completely different from your own, and yet you feel like you’re a part of it. That’s how I felt about ZORA AND ME by Victoria Bond and T.R….

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If: A Word That Gives Hope

So, last month I did a post about when it’s time to revise. Then, two weeks ago, I talked about timing and how that plays into querying strategy. I had this whole plan for finishing out my querying for DUET, not because I want to give up on it but because I’ve been working on…

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MMGM: THE BFG

I got a little behind on my reading this week due to some non-writing commitments, but there’s a book I’ve been wanting to feature for a while that’s a favorite from childhood–THE BFG. Earlier this year, I kept seeing people post questions about their favorite books as children. Honestly, I could think of very few…

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Missouri SCBWI Conference Recap, Part 2

Yesterday I posted Part 1 of my Missouri SCBWI Conference recap. On to Part 2… Illustrator Will Terry kicked off the afternoon sessions. He offered the most polished presentation of the day, and of course he had a visual component. Like Ms. Dryden, he spoke about how technology has changed the industry, but he had…

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