Kirby Larson's Blog, page 97

Wordy Wednesday

Maybe it's because I've still got Twitter/tweeting on my mind, but I'm thinking about tight writing. (Tweets are supposed to be 140 characters or less.) And maybe it's because I'm trying my hand at another young reader (what I call a chapter book). Or maybe it's because I tend to be drawn to sparer writing, which leaves lots of room for reader involvement. Whatever the reason, I'm feeling in solid agreement with Will Shakespeare's observation that "brevity is the soul of wit."

Of course, a boo...

Just for Fun

Sometimes I just need a good laugh and this YouTube video did it for me!

Straight From the Jar

Isn't that a great name for a blog? Leave it to Ingrid Law (author of Savvy and Scumble) to come up with something oh-so-witty! Head on over there for a great interview with Frances O'Roark Dowell, whose thought-provoking Shooting the Moon I've just finished (check out my review on Good Reads). I first "met" Frances through her wonderful Chicken Boy, and actually got to meet her face-to-face for about three seconds at IRA in April.

Ingrid interviewed me, too, (to be posted soon) and I was stru...

Father's Day

David Neil Miltenberger

My dad hates mushy stuff. He likes sarcasm and cigars and heavy metal music. He loves my mom and his grandkids (usually in that order). Oh, and he loves us four kids, too! We would never have needed a DVD player on our family car trips, not with Dad along. He delighted in scaring the bejeebies out of us by pretending to veer off the side of a mountain road on our trips across the Cascades. He had us all convinced that a creature named the Glibby-Glurb actually existed, ...

Joining the 21st Century

If you are a writer, I'm curious about what you think about Twitter. I'm being encouraged to start tweeting and it seems overwhelming. About a year ago, Lisa Schroeder spoke at our local SCBWI meeting. She felt her latest book, Chasing Brooklyn, had been given a huge leg up in its launch all due to her Twitter friends and fans. Another writer I know felt she got a plum speaking engagement because of her Twitter connections and visibility.

Mitali Perkins has a great blog post about getting star...

More on Critique Groups

Phew. My brain is full from yesterday's post! There was so much good information there -- I'm going to share Deborah's group's organizational system with my current group, as well as tell them that Ann's group gives presents for every new book. Presents are good! Henry's response to the question about staying motivated brought to mind the quote from Madeleine L'Engle: "The writer who only works when he feels like it, is not apt to build up much of a body of work." I appreciated Sara's...

All You Ever Wanted To Know About Critique Groups and Weren't Afraid to Ask!

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Left to right: (top row) Martha, Deborah, Sara, (bottom row) Henry, Ann, and Conrad

As promised, here is everything you ever wanted to know about critique groups, with pearls of wisdom from Martha Brockenbrough, Deborah Heiligman, Sara Lewis Holmes, Henry Neff, Ann Whitford Paul and Conrad Wesselhoeft!
Innies or Outies? Everyone but Henry and Sara are currently in a critique group, though Sara would still be in BABES (Bossy Alphas but Excellent Scribes) if she hadn't had to move away.

Wordy Wednesday

As you know, Dear Reader, I spent Saturday with some amazing writers, including Patrick Jennings, talking about my favorite topic: children's books.

One of the attendees in the children's/YA chat house asked about word count. My standard answer is that, in a first draft, you should use however many words you need to tell the story. Personally, with the exception of the Dear America book for Scholastic (coming out in September), I've never fretted over word counts.

And yet, they do matter. 50,00...

Tune in Thursday. . .

I haven't forgotten about all of you folks dying to get the skinny on critique groups. Our awesome panelists -- Martha Brockenbrough, Deborah Heiligman, Sara Lewis Holmes, Henry Neff, Ann Whitford Paul and Conrad Wesselhoeft-- have responded to your questions and I am doing my editing bit and will post their smashing insights on Thursday!

Be still my beating heart.

Cupcakes and Picture Books!

I have a hard time imagining a more delicious combination. So if you live in the Puget Sound area and if you hurry, there is still time for you to sign up for Jaime Temairik Hequist's Picture Book Boot Camp, which starts TOMORROW NIGHT!

She promises cupcakes (her Nana's recipe) and I know any time spent with Jaime promises to be a jolly adventure.