Jennifer R. Hubbard's Blog, page 127

Working

Sometimes we stumble across a quote that resonates perfectly with a work in progress:

"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." --Albert Camus

National Library Week

Shelli Johannes at Market My Words has organized a celebration in honor of National Library Week, and you should definitely pop over there to celebrate. If you need any additional incentives, she's giving away prizes!

Also, as part of the celebration, Julia Karr is pledging money to her local library based on comments received on her blog; you veterans of the Library-Loving Blog Challenge know the drill! Please visit her and comment!

And speaking of the library challenge, I'm still getting the...

One of the above

Today I had a choice:

1. Go to the last day of a local literary festival, see a great YA panel, support a local bookstore, and meet some authors I've previously known only online.

2. Go on a twelve-mile hike with my husband and the local hiking club.

3. Stay home and catch up on paperwork, take a more leisurely walk, and work on the manuscript that the Muse has just been pouring through me.  (Writing this book has been such an intense experience that while I'm doing it, I never want to do anythi...

Poetically speaking

In observation of National Poetry Month, I've upped my poetry reading. I recently finished a verse novel, Lisa Schroeder's haunting Chasing Brooklyn. I can't recommend Lisa's verse novels highly enough, especially for reluctant readers: I just tear through them.  Right now I'm reading Jeannine Atkins's Borrowed Names, a book of poems about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, and Marie Curie. The book covers the women's accomplishments but has a special focus on their relationships with t...

More recent debuts

If you're anywhere near the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia this weekend, check out the Mount Airy Kid's Literary Festival at the Big Blue Marble bookstore. I'll be reading and signing at 4 PM on Saturday, and there will be plenty of writers and illustrators there: Nancy Viau, Matt Phelan, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Neesha Meminger, Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Zetta Elliott ...

And now it's time for our latest crop of debut novels!



The Reinvention of Edison Thomas, by Jacqueline J. Houtma...

In the middle

"Sagging middles" can be a problem in book manuscripts. Sometimes the scenes just seem to be marking time, waiting for the good stuff to happen. As a reader, I find myself getting impatient when not enough changes in the middle, when we haven't found out anything new for a while. Subplots can help keep things interesting. It's also nice to advance the plot in interim steps, where we find out one or two of the big secrets as we go along, instead of learning them all at the end.

I get impatient ...

On peer abuse

Carrie Jones has been organizing some writers to blog about their experiences with bullying, as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the horrific consequences it can have.

Some of my colleagues have posted incredibly moving accounts, such as this one by Saundra Mitchell. I find Saundra's story especially painful because I've been online buddies with her for a couple of years now, and I have never encountered a more welcoming, inclusive person.  Anyone who knows Saundra knows that she is...

Library-Loving Challenge: Totals Report, Part 2

When last we left the Library-Loving Blog Challenge, about half our challengers had reported in, with a subtotal of $2510 plus materials. Today I give you the next set of reports:

Chris Smith (Chris Smith, Author): 80 pounds for Literacy Trust (UK)
Mary Calhoun Brown (MaryCalhounBrown.com): $37 for Cabell County Library, Huntington (WV)
Colleen Rowan Kosinski (WriterGirl): $50 for Cherry Hill Public Library (NJ)
Holly Cupala (Tell Me a Secret) plus a matching donation from her sweetheart: $600 t...

The internal critic

Writers often speak of the internal critic, the voice that sometimes tries to squash our deepest work with messages such as:
"Don't say that."
"That's not nice."
"That's not lady-like."
"That's disgusting."
"That's embarrassing."
"What will people think of you?"

Such statements are mostly useless.  The internal critic is most helpful during revisions, when opining thusly:
"That's boring."
"How many times are you going to use that same metaphor?"
"Ditch the adverbs there."
"Is there actually a point to t...

Boys, girls, people

When I was in middle school, my gym class had a unit on gymnastics. We got to try all the equipment, from balance beam to pommel horse. The rings were my favorite.

Over the summer, my family moved to a different state. At my new junior high, we also had a unit on gymnastics, but we stuck with the floor mat, balance beam, uneven parallel bars, and vault.  "When are we going to do the rings?" I asked. 

"That's a boy's event," the teacher sniffed.

It's true that in competitive gymnastics, men comp...