Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 176
January 21, 2019
Steady Ahead: Maintaining POV
When I say that I’m in an adult book club, I don’t mean racy adult. I mean grown up book as opposed to the books for children and teens that I write. Without these ladies, I might go months and never lay eyes on a grown up book. Not that I’m 100% happy with all […]
January 20, 2019
Source Bias: What to Use and What to Lose
Research, accuracy and source bias has been on my mind a lot the last few days, and not surprisingly it started with a news story. This particular story was the one about Nathan Phillips and a group of students from Covington Catholic High School. One narrative has a group of white male highschool students mocking […]
January 17, 2019
Mary Oliver: RIP
Mary Oliver. Even a non-poet like myself knows Oliver’s name. For those of you who may not have heard, Oliver died yesterday from lymphoma. Personally, I always appreciated the straightforward truth of her poems, many of which were set in the natural world. Even when I didn’t think I got poetry, I knew that even […]
January 16, 2019
Finding Your Niche: Or Why I’m Not Talking to My Socks
Finding your niche as a writer. That’s one of the big steps in writing success. When talking to non-writers, you may be a “freelance writer,” broad stroke. But when you are talking to an agent or editor? You should be a nonfiction educational writer, a children’s nonfiction writer, or something else fairly specific. Recently I […]
January 15, 2019
SCBWI Announces 2019 Golden Kite and Sid Fleischman Awards
On Tuesday, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) announced the winners and honor recipients of the annual Golden Kite and Sid Fleischman Awards. The Golden Kites are the first children’s literary award judged by the creators peers. The 6 categories are Young Reader and Middle Grade Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Non-Fiction for Younger […]
January 14, 2019
Best Writing Web Sites
One of the best things about getting together with other writers is sharing resources. Whenever my critique group meets, the first 20 minutes is spent discussing business. Whose acquiring and where we can go to get what we need to solve a problem. Sometimes people offer up a new-to-us resource. Other times people ask questions. […]
January 13, 2019
Reading the Map: A Book Set in Every US State
Last week, I read an Abdo Publishing tweet about a pair of sisters who spent 2018 reading a book set in each US state. Twins Elizabeth Krych and Rachel Van Houten have competed in various reading bingo challenges but in 2018 they decided to do something different. They challenged each other to read across the US […]
January 9, 2019
Picture Books: Opening with a Strong Hook
The vast majority of picture books are 500 words or less. That means that a picture book author has 500 words to pack in character, story problem, setting, tone and a hook. For those of you who don’t know the term, a hook is how you, literally, hood the reader. What makes them want to […]
January 8, 2019
Characters: Making Them Three-Dimensional and Realistic
Earlier in the week, I was reading a Writer’s Digest guest post by teen author Lorena Koppel. In her post, “From YA to YEAH: 4 Ways to Keep Teen & Young Adult Readers Hooked,” she discusses a variety of things, including unrealistic dialogue, that turn off young readers. Among the topics in dialogue she discussed is “codeswitching.” […]
Picture Books: Making It BIG and Personal
The other day, I heard someone comment that Where the Wild Things Are isn’t about the wild things or adventure. It’s about more than that. It’s about wanting to be loved. In case you haven’t guessed, I read and listen to a lot when I’m on the treadmill. I also have time to think as I’m step-step-stepping […]
