Niki Burnham's Blog

It's Thanksgiving week here in the U.S.A., which means it's time for a little maintenance on The Go-Ahead. (If I have to clean up my home office so it's in decent shape for viewing by holiday guests, I may as well clean up the blog while I'm at it, yes?)

I'll be updating the tags over the next few days, so if things go wonky, you know who to blame. Can't promise my updated tags will be as witty as those on my favorite procrastination website, Go Fug Yourself, which boasts categories such a...

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Anyone catch this video on the news?



This is University of New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert. Before I go further: I don't want to pick on Ms. Lambert specifically. She's certainly not the first athlete to behave this way on the field, and sadly, she probably won't be the last. But she did get caught on video, which is what has sparked the intense coverage of her particular case. Well, that and the fact that she's female. I don't agree with those who think when a woman does this...

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There was an interesting article (interesting to writers, anyway) in Friday's Wall Street Journal called How To Write A Great Novel. It's not a true How-To so much as a Here's-How-Others-Have-Done-It.

While I've never written in the bathroom or gotten dressed up as one of my characters, over the years I've found methods that work for me. They're not the same methods that work for others. I know one author who writes all her books while sitting in her bed with her laptop on a foam lap desk. ...

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I frequently get questions about writing fiction for teens--how to get started, how to find an agent, etc. I have answers to several of these questions on the Frequently Asked Questions page of my website. (And if there's a writing question I've missed, e-mail me and let me know. I update the FAQ page regularly!)

However, if you're working on a project and are looking for something more in-depth than what's on the FAQ page, I'm teaching a class starting TOMORROW via WriterUniv.com. It runs...

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Okay...the laundry is done. The mail is read/filed/recycled. On to the Paris recap!

First, the Good Stuff (and with Paris, you know "the good stuff" is REALLY good!):

My hotel was across the street from not one, but TWO chocolate shops. I didn't know this when I booked the room, so talk about a pleasant surprise! Needless to say, I popped right on over, taste-tested--yum!--and left with a sizeable bag of goodies:



After that, we made a beeline for the Eiffel Tower. The line was so long--over...

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I received an e-mail yesterday that went like this:


"Hi Niki! I read all your bks and luv ur blog. How come u haven't blogged about the world series? I am a MAJOR phillies fan and would like to know what u think.

pls keep making great books! K."


Well...hi, K! First, thank you for letting me know you enjoy my books. That's always the way to my heart! I'm very happy for you that your team made it to the Series. I assume you won't get much sleep for the next week or two, as you'll be busy...

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For the last three weeks, I've been taking a boot camp class. While it's very good for my muscles (I can do more pushups than ever!), and I'm having odd-yet-entertaining flashbacks to high school sports (jumping up and down bleachers and running suicides will do that), my knees feel like they were the actual part hit by a boot. I'm going through ice packs the way I usually go through ice cream. (Which brings me back to why I need boot camp. Research says ice cream is addictive, you know.)...

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The summer I turned fifteen, I got my first official job, cleaning an Army bowling alley. I scrubbed chairs, ball return machines, and even the snack bar's floor. It wasn't easy work. The best hour of the day, however, was from 12:30-1:30pm, when the televisions mounted over each lane showed The Young & The Restless. (You're probably surprised that a soap could be bowling alley fare, but this was Germany, and there was only one TV channel in English.)

Those daytime soaps changed my life, ...

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Fan mail is one of the best things about being a writer. I've had thirteen books and two novellas published, but never fail to enjoy the "squee!" moment of opening each day's fan mail.

Lately, however, a huge percentage of my mail has contained various forms of the same question: When will there be a movie based on the Royally Jacked books?

The answer is: I don't know. I am a writer living in Boston, not the head of a movie studio. However, I do have an agent who handles these sorts of t...

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I'm often asked about my favorite writers. I've always put
Even if you haven't heard of Larry, you've no doubt seen his work performed on screen or stage. M*A*S*H. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Oh, God! City of Angels. Tootsie. The man possessed an immeasurable wit.

If you want to learn about writing, watch a few episodes of M*A*S*H. Study how Gelbart develops his characters,...

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