Denise Vega's Blog: Denise Vega's blog and website, page 5

The Fast and the Furious Draft

“For me, one game is to announce…that I have finally decided on my next book, that I am ready to write it…to put my pride on the line.” ~ Irving Wallace, The Writing of One Novel

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Don’t Ask Me How My Book Is Doing

“No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.” ~ Martha Graham

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When Discouragement Hits

“When I’m writing, I try not to think things like, ‘Gosh, I have to finish writing this book.’ Books are very long and it’s easy to get discouraged. Instead I think to myself, ‘Wow, I have this great story idea, and today I’m going to write two pages of it. That’s all – just two pages.'” ~ Linda Sue Park

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How Many Lightbulbs Does It Take To Make a Story?

“…I slowly make up the story, and rewrite it several times, and each time I rewrite it, I get new ideas, and change the old ideas around. ~ Louis Sachar

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Change Beliefs That Hold You Back

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt

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Spring Renewal: Writers and Websites

“The only sense that is common in the long run is the sense of change—and we all instinctively avoid it.”

~ E. B. White

Change. That’s what life is all about, isn’t it? Our very bodies slough off cells and create new ones. We are different today than we were yesterday.

And so it also is with our writing, with our creating.

A few years after Click Here was published in 2005, I remember preparing to read a passage to a group of readers. As I skimmed through the paragraphs, I...

Priority vs. To Do List

I’ve been listening to Mel Robbins, speaker and author of The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage. No, it has nothing to do with picking food off the floor. 

Book Birthday!

Tuesday was the official release of my new picture book, If Your Monster Won’t Go to Bed! Such a magical day, with lots of well-wishers and excitement. I felt so, so grateful to be part of such an amazing community—of writers, friends, and family—each a part of the celebration in his or her own way.

It may feel sometimes like we work alone, but really we bring in all the experiences we have had with the people who we are lucky enough to interact with in all the ways that life may bring meanin...

Stories as Support

If you subscribe to my e-newsletter, you received a link to an article on Tuesday. The article covered a Children’s Book Council panel talking about trends in children’s books, but also what some booksellers and librarians are hearing in terms of what customers/patrons are looking for in books. Though they touched on several things, one aspect in particular caught my eye: A Manhattan bookseller noted that many of their customers were coming in looking for what she called  “’emotional tool kit...

Busting an Idea Wide Open

So back in 2015 I had an idea for a picture book that I thought was brilliant. Let’s call it PB1. I worked on various revisions, got feedback, revised some more, sent it to my agent, got more feedback and then…we agreed it was ready to submit.

We got a lot of passes, though one editor really loved it, but couldn’t get the rest of the team on board. The last of the passes trickled in last fall.

And the story sat while I was immersed in NaNoWriMo for my YA and was focused on another picture boo...