Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 158

My First Write-In and While I’ll Attend Another

This weekend, a friend told me about a NaNoWriMo Write-in at her local library.  For those of you who have never attended a write-in, the idea is simple.  The library sat aside a meeting room for us to come write.  Five people gathered together and sat clicking away on their laptops or writing in note […]

What is Writing?

What counts as writing? This may seem like an odd question but think about it.  NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) encourages us to count only the words we write.  Word count is writing.  Period. This is one of the big reasons that I’ve avoided NaNoWriMo although I am participating this year.  But, as a nonfiction […]

100 Years of Children’s Book Week

2019 marks 100 years of Children’s Book Week. Normally, this is celebrated for one week in the spring but given that this is a special anniversary, a second week of celebrations, November 4-10, was added in the fall.  This week focuses on engaging students at schools, libraries, and after-school programs.  To read more about this […]

NaNoWriMo: Yay or Nay?

Well, it has happened.  I let two members of my accountability group talk me into doing NaNoWriMo this year.  But don’t worry.  I’m not ready to buy into the cult completely. I am joining as a NaNoWriMo Rebel. Normally, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words on a new novel project during the […]

Prize Pack: Keep Calm and Carry on Children and Snacks

Today a box came in the mail.  I won a copy of Sharon K. Mayhew’s Keep Calm and Carry On, Children and a variety of English snacks since the book is set in England. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Sharon knows how I spent my Sundays growing up.  First, we all went to church.  […]

Little Free Library: Trademarks and Legal Wrangling

I wish I had gotten pictures of the two Little Free Libraries we saw in the Eureka Springs area.  One was next to a school.  The other was near the library.  I just love these tiny libraries! So I was more than a little upset to see this story in Publisher’s Weekly, “Little Free Library, Founder’s […]

Word Count: How Much Is Too Much?

Recently I saw a Writer’s Digest graphic describing word count for a novel. I learned that for my mystery, 80,000 to 89,999 words should be my target. But what about children’s books? I last posted about this two years ago so I wanted to see if anything had changed. Board Books: The only listing I […]

Halloween Picture Books: Pair Creepy with Funny

Halloween picture books fascinate me.  When my son was little, our favorite was probably the Berenstain Bears Spooky Old Tree.  If you have never read it, it is an early reader picture book about whether or not the bears will dare to go inside this massive spooky tree.  Of course, they do it or it would […]

Writing Fiction: Go Big or Go Home

I’ve been trying to get back into my mystery this week and get started on a new picture book. . . (cricket, cricket, cricket) I say this and I’ve done some pre-work but sitting down to actually write has not been in the cards.  And the really sorry thing is that I don’t have a […]

Writing Fact Based Fiction

Writing fiction based on fact is always tricky.  Often the problem is that we are tempted to avoid making changes.  “But that’s how it really happened!”  Maybe so but it may require a few changes to make a believable and compelling story. It is often much easier to simply take inspiration from the world around […]