For me, picking out a new book is as simple as reading its first page. Does it grab me? Do I want to read more? Do I want to read it badly enough to: a) check the book out? b) spend my hard-earned money on it? As writers, it’s our job to draw the reader [...]
May 12th, 2010
Story Beginnings — Part 2 (Where to Begin?)
We’ve all read them: books that stupify the senses for the first few pages or — ack! — the first few chapters. Like the literary troopers we are, we wade through those mind-dulling pages, meanwhile muttering incantations, It will get better . . . Any minute now something wonderful will happen . . . If [...]
May 11th, 2010
“March” by Geraldine Brooks
March by Geraldine Brooks My rating: 4 of 5 stars In the classic, LITTLE WOMEN, we, as readers, become intimately acquainted the four “little women,” and their mother, Mrs. March. However, we know little about their father who is away from home, serving the Union army as a chaplain during the Civil War. In her [...]
May 5th, 2010
Story Beginnings — Part 1
Next week I’ll be a part of the faculty at the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Spring conference in Portland, Oregon. Besides teaching various workshops, I have the privilege to participate in a WOW panel. In WOW, attendees pre-submit the first page of a manuscript. The first pages are read aloud (anonymously) [...]
