Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 153
January 20, 2020
Concentration: How to Get It Back
I’m not sure how it happened. I must have said yes not once but several times. But as I’m trying to work, various notes pop up at the bottom of my monitor. There are news headlines for things that I seldom actually consider newsworthy. And there are crafting patterns. I knit, crochet, and weave but […]
January 19, 2020
Ten Most Checked Out Books
In celebration of its 125th anniversary, the New York Public Library ran the numbers to see which 10 books have been checked out the most. I have to admit that there were a few surprises. The top 10 books along with their circulation numbers are: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats: 485,583 checkouts The Cat […]
January 16, 2020
Free Maps: Maps of Exploration from the Library of Congress
I can’t tell you why. All I know is that I have a thing for maps. Historic, modern, with or without political boundaries. It doesn’t really matter. If I see a map, I’m going to take a look. So it really isn’t very surprising that when I saw this blog post from the Library of […]
January 15, 2020
Writing Advice: Who Is Telling You What to Do?
Earlier this week, I read an interesting post from agent Scott Eagan at Greyhaus Literary. In “Who Taught You to Write Your Novel,” Eagan discusses looking carefully at whose advice you are following online or from writer’s workshops. The example Eagan gives is chilling. He writes about people who are “expert” speakers, giving presentations about […]
January 14, 2020
Back Up Your Blog!
Every now and again my computer pulls up a message. “Back up hard drive.” But it doesn’t remind me to back up my blog. I got that reminder today when I popped over to a favorite writing blog. Instead of a post on how to write biography for children, there was something written in Japanese. […]
January 13, 2020
National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature: Jason Reynolds
Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, announced yesterday that the next National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature will be Jason Reynolds. He’ll be sworn in on Thursday. Yesterday, I kept seeing his photo on social media. Hmm. Must be some celebrity. Then I realized that it was my book people sharing this guy’s photo. I […]
January 12, 2020
Polish: The Final Step in the Writing Process
I’m teaching a new online class this month, “Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults.” Of course, this means that I’m also working up a set of new lessons. My husband just proofed my second lesson. But I’ve got one more step before it goes out – applying the polish. I know […]
January 9, 2020
Webinars: One Way to Expand Your Writing Knowledge
This past week, my accountability group has been discussing what we want to learn in 2020. Specifically, we are focusing on what we want to learn about writing. We’ve discovered, one and all, that learning something new helps us stay energized and enthusiastic. Some of us want to learn something new because we want to […]
January 8, 2020
Picture Book Writing: Staying Motivated Year Round
I always start the year with great intentions. Surely I can rough 12 or 15 different manuscripts! And, in reality, I could. A rough is easy peasy. Rewriting it and making it work? That’s tough. What is really hard for me is staying motivated. A work-for-hire project comes along and I don’t get those rough […]
January 7, 2020
Character: Introductions
I’d say that I’m just short of the halfway point in the draft of my cozy mystery. They tend to be about 85,000 words long. I’m at 42,000 words. And, unfortunately, I’m having troubles keeping my secondary characters straight. My detective, her best friend and a few other characters are rock solid in my mind. […]
