Tag: Writing
Book Cover Reveal Monday!
It’s Book Cover Reveal Monday! Check out this amazing cover for Pen & Quin: International Agents of Intrigue – The Mystery of the Painted Book.
I’m excited to show you the cover for the first book in my middle grade mystery series Pen & Quin: International Agents of Intrigue.
The Mystery of the Painted Book will be released April 30th by Vinspire Publishing. And here’s the amazing cover!
For more news on the book’s release, follow me on social media, subscribe to my author newsletter and check out Vinspire’s full line of books!
Mad About Madeleine Winners and Women’s History Month!
Congratulations to the winners of the A Wrinkle in Time Giveaway! Siobhan won a copy of A Wrinkle in Time with the movie tie-in cover and Christina L. won the movie giftcard! Thanks to everyone who entered. I do hope you’ll take the time to see the movie or read the book. Stay tuned as I hope to do more giveaways as my own books near publication!
This is Women’s History Month and to celebrate, I’ve been doing a little reading on some amazing women. I just finished Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. You might remember this from the movie that released in 2016. It’s an amazing read about the black, female “computers” that literally helped propel NASA into the space age. These women were on the edge of the space race while confronting gender and racial discrimination throughout their lives and careers.
I’m in the middle of Becoming Madeleine, the biography on Madeleine L’Engle written by granddaughters Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Lena Roy. I’m really enjoying the glimpse into Madeleine’s childhood and how her varied school experiences shaped her as a writer. I especially love the snippets of journal entries written by a young Madeleine that reveal how desperately she wanted to be a famous writer, while also wanting to fit in at school like any other awkward teenager.
I’m hoping to finish out the month with Gift from the Sea. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, a writer, aviator and the wife of Charles Lindbergh, wrote this little gem in 1955 but her words speak across the years to new generations of women on writing, love, marriage, children and anything in between.
What are you reading this month? How are you celebrating amazing women, both those from history and those around you every day?
5 Great Reasons to Attend the Arkansas SCBWI Conference this June
Although Arkansas is the proud host of quite a few writing conferences, the Society for Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference is the only major conference in the state focused specifically on writing for children. Here are my top 5 reasons for attending the conference!
Although Arkansas is the proud host of quite a few writing conferences, the Society for Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference is the only major conference in the state focused specifically on writing for children. Here are my top 5 reasons for attending the conference!
The conference will host two editors and one agent from New York publisher Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic and Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. This is an easy way to get your work in front of editors and agents. That’s a BIG deal, and it’s not easy to accomplish.
This is a great opportunity to meet other writers from around the state. Writing can be a hard, lonely business. Use this conference to connect with other children’s writers in Arkansas and stay in touch throughout the year.
The conference is being held in the Butler Center in downtown Little Rock right in the River Market District. Spend a weekend in the capital and enjoy what downtown Little Rock has to offer.
The Arkansas SCBWI conference is NOT intimidating. This isn’t your overcrowded, get lost in the shuffle kind of conference. We’re a small, friendly group of writers looking to support one another. You will have the chance to speak with other writers, and you’ll get to chat with the industry professionals speaking at the conference as well.
Other conferences can be so full of writers that it’s hard to meet anyone, let alone talk personally with the editors and agents. Not so at the Arkansas conference.
Become a better writer. In the end, that’s what we’re all looking for, and the conference sessions will help every writer get better at every aspect of writing, from working on that book to pursuing publication and everything in between.
The Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Arkansas will hold its annual conference June 16-17 in Little Rock. Find out more information at scbwi.org or on Facebook SCBWI Arkansas.
I’ll see you there!
It’s National Library Week!
Some of my earliest memories involve biweekly trips to the library in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. I loved walking inside this older, red brick building where the smell of books greeted you, along with the librarians.
There’s nothing like that booksy smell? Am I right, fellow library lovers?
Some of my earliest memories involve biweekly trips to the library in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. I loved walking inside this older, red brick building where the smell of books greeted you, along with the librarians.
There’s nothing like that booksy smell? Am I right, fellow library lovers?
My sisters and I would rush to the kids’ section to choose our 4-5 books for that trip. I always wanted to know what my twin pulled off the shelf because I knew I’d be reading her books once I finished my own. I always perused the Newbery Honor books first, then the regular shelves. I loved the way the afternoon sunlight spilled into the large windows and sent golden specks of dust motes dancing through the air. It added to the magical feel of the library.
These days are busy ones for me as I pursue writing my own books, raising a daughter and helping with the farm, but I married someone who loves books just as much as I do, if not more (don’t ask to borrow his books and not return them in pristine condition), and we try to get to the library often. My daughter has already joined us on these trips. Mostly she loves to watch other children race around and look at books right now, but I know soon she’ll be interested in wandering through the shelves and pulling out books on her own.
Isn’t that a wonderful legacy? And it wouldn’t be possible without our libraries. So celebrate National Library Week this week. Visit a library, donate books, volunteer, or simply check a book out with a young person and pass on that love of reading.
October’s Last Glorious Weekend
Here we are at the end of October when it feels like the month just started. If there was a way to trade another month for a second October, I would do it in a heartbeat. Do we really need January or August?
Since stopping time is impossible, at least in this dimension (am I right, sci-fi fans?), we’ll just have to enjoy the end of the month to the fullest. After all, there’s still pumpkin carving to be done, corn mazes to be wandered through, trick-or-treating and fall color!
Here’s a few fun things on my calendar this Halloween weekend in Northwest Arkansas:
Friday, Oct. 28th – Animal Science Day! Ok, this one has me excited. The Department of Animal Science at the University of Arkansas is hosting an evening of Halloween fun at the Pauline Whitaker Equine Center. It’s free, costumes are encouraged and yes, animals are involved. Science and animals for Halloween. Win-win!
Saturday, Oct. 29th – Haunted Night on the Battlefield – This is a fun night at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. Follow candle lit luminaries down the battlefield to the Borden House for a spooky historical scene. Paranormal investigators are on the path to talk about tracking ghosts and other paranormal activity through the battlefield. If you make it back from the self-guided tour, there’s kettle corn and apple cider to warm your soul!
Sunday, October 30th – This is the last weekend to check out the corn mazes around the area and make last minute pumpkin purchases for carving!
Monday, October 31st – Halloween! Wear something spooky, something fun, and something that glows in the dark (for safety) and have fun!
And just for fun –
My favorite spooky story – A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. It starts on a dark and stormy night, has three Whiches (misspelling intended!) and is about a dark, evil force trying to take over the universe one planet at a time.
My favorite Halloween show: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Who doesn’t love the Peanuts gang? I always felt sorry for Linus though, spending all night in the pumpkin patch instead of having Halloween fun.
My favorite Halloween costume: I had a lot of great costumes growing up, but I loved dressing up as a Civil War soldier (Union, my twin was Confederate) and also as a bobby cop (opposite my twin’s convict suit.)
My favorite Halloween candy: Candy corn! What else!
You can still catch me as Blogger of the Month on the Arkansas Women Bloggers website and check out Glass House Press’s Battle of the Werewolves vs. Vampires on the GH blog.
Here in Northwest Arkansas, October has been unusually warm, so it looks like our fall colors will stretch into a hopefully cooler November! Hey, November’s a great month, too.
Have a fun and safe Halloween weekend!
Writing is a Marathon
As a runner and an athlete, the idea that life is a race I’m running has always appealed to me. I’m on a course but I can choose how I run this race. Do I sprint the whole way and burn out? Do I choose the way of the turtle, slowly but surely getting to the finish line? Do I fix my eyes on the runner just ahead of me and let her pace me, or do I blaze past her and hope I have the endurance to keep the pace?
And what does this have to do with writing?
My aunt recently mailed me a clipping from a daily devotional. She does this periodically and I’ve come to appreciate her thoughtfulness. There’s nothing like receiving mail (real mail!) from someone you love letting you know you’re in their thoughts.
The text of the clipping happened to be Hebrews 12:1-3. I don’t write much about faith on this blog, but it’s a deep part of my life, and that just happens to be one of my favorite verses, particularly this part: “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
As a runner and an athlete, the idea that life is a race I’m running has always appealed to me. I’m on a course but I can choose how I run this race. Do I sprint the whole way and burn out? Do I choose the way of the turtle, slowly but surely getting to the finish line? Do I fix my eyes on the runner just ahead of me and let her pace me, or do I blaze past her and hope I have the endurance to keep the pace?
And what does this have to do with writing?
If you’re a writer, you’ve probably noticed, writing is more like a marathon than a sprint. It’s a long, grueling process and the end of the race – publication, success, best-selling NYT author (hey, why not dream big?) can seem miles away – 26.2 to be exact.
Along the way, you’re going to encounter setbacks. Injuries that most often come in the form of rejection of your work. It’s not just disappointing, it’s soul-draining. You start to lose your way and wonder why the heck you’re even in this race because it sure looks like those non-runners are having way more fun and not throwing their precious time away on something that may never be successful.
So you consider giving up. You bargain with yourself. Maybe writing isn’t as important to you as you thought. Sitting down to write is hard anyway, finding (and protecting) the time to write is too difficult, nobody wants to read these stories, so maybe your time is better spent elsewhere. Maybe you should get a “real” job or pick up a hobby that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out? Netflix, anyone?
Plenty of people entertain the idea of writing, dream about it, start a story, even finish that story, but somewhere along the way, running the race becomes too much. The injuries (rejection), weather (unexpected delays), even the crowd cheering you on (distractions), it’s too much to deal with. You’re already way too busy with life to keep pursuing something that isn’t working out.
A writing mentor once said to me, “I know plenty of writers who are way more talented than me who never published. They gave up. I didn’t.”
I’ve been writing consistently since 2004 when I moved to Yemen and suddenly needed something to fill the long evenings I used to spend with friends and family back home. So I started pursuing something I’d always dreamed about, thankfully ignorant of how difficult a road the writing life is. Over the past thirteen years, I’ve gotten better as a writer, more disciplined, though I have my moments, but I haven’t seen much success and I’ve certainly endured long periods of disappointment where I questioned everything.
But.
Let us run with perseverance.
I couldn’t quit the race. The thing about a race is you never know what’s around the next corner.
In June I submitted three pitches to a Twitter event called #PitMad, where authors pitch their stories in 140 characters and editors and agents browse the feed and favorite anything that appeals to them. When you’re pursuing publishing, anything that gets your work in front of industry pros is invaluable. Writers pay big money at conferences and workshops to do just that.
Originally I was going to pitch two stories, but I added a third when I realized the rules for the event allowed it. I was surprised when this third story, a young adult dystopian novel, merited the interest of a small press in San Diego. They favorited my tweet. I sent a query letter with a more in-depth pitch and a few pages. Then I had a request for fifty pages. Then the entire novel.
And then I had an offer for the series. It happened so quickly I could scarcely believe it. Yet it didn’t happen that quickly because I already had part of that marathon behind me. All that hard work, the training, the persevering. I rounded the corner on the course I’ve been running a long time.
I signed on with Glass House Press at the end of June to publish my young adult dystopian series. The first novel, Dreamers, is expected to publish in 2018. (Whoo hoo!)
Is that the end of the race?
I have a feeling it’s just the beginning, actually, and that I’m going to need all of that endurance I’ve built up, and all of that perseverance to continue.
But I’m excited about the race again, and that’s where a runner, and a writer, needs to be.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.
Hebrews 12: 1-2
Research at Nerdies
Most writers can tell you one of the most fascinating, and often distracting, parts of being a writer is the research. It’s one of my favorite parts of writing. I’ve learned so many things I wouldn’t otherwise because I needed the knowledge for my characters, or setting, or simply to fuel my imagination. From the history of the Incense Trail to Springdale, Arkansas in the 1950s, research has taken me to some interesting places, both online and in person.
Last week I headed out on my most recent research venture to Nerdies located in downtown Fayetteville. Nerdies popped up on my radar last year and I’ve kept an eye on this fascinating place ever since. Here’s Nerdies’ vision in their own words: “Nerdies is a new type of business which focuses on all us nerds out there by offering an environment where people of all ages come and pursue things that they are interested in. Nerdies provides a unique environment for all those people who think ‘smart is cool’ and are interested in pursuing activities they enjoy in this new tech world.”
Pretty cool, right?
So what sent me to Nerdies, besides this cool mission statement? Simple. One of my characters in my current story is a nerd. A video-game obsessed nerd. The only problem? I’m not much of a gamer, although I’ll debate the nerd identity with you. (Believe me, I can geek out on anything space related).
What’s a non-gaming nerd to do? Find a nerd who does love video games and observe. Nerdies is running some pretty awesome camps this summer for kids 8-14. I contacted Nerdies owner Brad Harvey and asked if I could sit in on a camp session. Brad immediately agreed. Soon I found myself sitting in a small room with several flat screens mounted on the wall and eight kids with laptops set up for the Mods to Minecraft camp.
If you don’t know about Minecraft, you’re A) not a gamer B) not a kid C) not a parent. I’m currently none of the above, so I wasn’t aware of the Minecraft phenomenon that’s been captivating kids the last few years until I decided to create this new character. When I started researching which game he would be obsessed with, Minecraft seemed the obvious choice. A simple search returned results like, “Ten Problems that Parents Can Have with Minecraft, and “A Parent’s Guide to Minecraft: 5 Reasons to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Cubes.”
Parents concerned? Kids obsessed? Sounds like the perfect set-up for a great character. Back to Nerdies. I took a seat and tried to stay out of the way. The kids were playing the game that afternoon and trying out coding they’d learned in the morning session. I listened in while they navigated the blocky, lego-like world. Here’s a slice of the conversations.
“It’s raining and snowing at the same time. Oh my gosh, I love it!”
“I’m in a really good world. I don’t want to die. I’m too young to die!”
“I have a dragon on my leash.”
“Stupid creeper just blew up my house. It was so good. Ugh.”
“Did you freaking kill me? Did you do that?”
“Stop killing people.”
“Okay, stop hitting each other.” (This from the 20 year old instructor, and he means hitting virtually, not physically.) “Don’t build something in someone else’s world if you want to keep it.”
Did you understand all of that? Neither did it, but as I watched the kids interacting with the game and each other, I was impressed by how much of a social experience this was turning out to be.
These kids were having a great time building their own worlds, and sometimes destroying them, fighting monsters, flying and interacting in others’ worlds. And their enthusiasm was out of this world.
My expectations for a quiet, introverted character who sits locked in his room alone playing Minecraft for hours may have to be adjusted.
And that’s why research is important, and hands-on, live research like this is the best case scenario for writers. It knocks down pre-held dispositions. It brings up new questions. It spurs the imagination. My character will be different from how I first imagined him. I want my readers, kids the same age as those I observed, to feel like this character is just like them.
Thanks to my day at Nerdies, he will be!
Minecraft photos via photobucket.com users blackbaseballcap and ZimPLUSDib. Nerd Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Guest Post: 5 Ways to Renew Your Vision For Writing
I have a guest post today on the fabulous Arkansas Women Bloggers site. Drop by and learn 5 Ways to Renew Your Vision for Writing, and check out some of the best bloggers in the state of Arkansas while you’re at it!
2014 going…going…
Is the month getting away from you?
Between the parties, holiday shopping, festive atmosphere, not to mention those early evenings, 2014 is slipping away quickly.
I’m staring at a note card pinned to the bulletin board above my desk, the one labeled 2014 followed by the three major writing goals I wanted to accomplish this year.
I love this habit of setting writing goals in January.
I hate it in December.
Today I see a checkmark by the first goal – finish that novel and send to agent. Done.
The next two? Hmm. It’s true I’ve started on my next book, but the goal? Start and finish. Ah, this revision thing is dragging on. This book has been more difficult to write than any other, but perhaps all books feel that way when you’re in the middle of revision.
That last goal? I’m not going to hit it. Not in 2014. 
So, as I sit at my desk, revising like mad to finish Goal 2 (and this revision won’t be a final one by any means), and staring at Goal 3, the one I won’t hit this year, and Goal 1, that completed novel, the one I had high hopes for this year that haven’t yet come to pass, I’m starting to feel like 2014 was a struggle, that I haven’t accomplished much as a writer, that maybe I’m a failure at this writing thing.
So today, instead of focusing on those end goals, I’ll focus on the little things I have accomplished.
I’ve continued to write, mostly every day.
I’ve hit walls in writing, and struggled over them (sometimes it felt like right through them). I’ve not reached my goal to be published, but I haven’t given up, either.
I’ve had another year to pursue a career I love, with the support of people who love me.
So, 2014 goals? Thanks for giving me a jumping off point.
Time to enjoy the successes of the year, no matter how small, and start planning those goals for 2015.
2015 is wide open! 
Did you hit some writing goals in 2014? Are you already planning your goals for 2015?
2015 Image courtesy of krishna arts, Goals Image courtesy of Stuart Miles and Sleigh Image courtesy of Mister GC at FreeDigitalPhotos.net