Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 187

Serendipity

Sometimes it is just funny how things work out.  You go into a project or an activity with one plan and something else happens. This past weekend, I went to a flea market with a friend.  It sounded like it was going to be a big event.  Instead, it comprised about six tables.  But one […]

Banned Book Week

Next week from 9/23 to 9/29 is banned book week.  Book banning continues to be a serious issue in the US. It is one thing if a parent doesn’t think their child is mature enough to read a specific book and approaches the teacher, asking for an alternate title.  It is another altogether when a […]

Graphic Novels: How to Format Your Script

Not long ago, I saw a call for authors to write nonfiction graphic novels.  Sounds great, but I don’t illustrate and I have no clue how to format the manuscript.  I tried looking it up online and . . . nada. Part of my problem may have been that I was using the wrong lingo.  […]

Picture Books: The Importance of the First Spread

Do you regularly listen to podcasts?  I have to admit that I don’t.  Most of them are just too long to hold my attention, especially when they ramble on for 5+ minutes about things they want me to buy.  I have the attention span of my audience. The exception to this podcast rule comes from […]

Reading Level: Taking It Down

Most of the books that I write for RedLine have a reading level of about 7.5 to 8.0.  That’s good news for me because my natural writing level is in that range. The book that I’m working on now has a reading level of 4.5 to 5.5.  I expected to have to play with things […]

Grammar Gremlins: You Can’t Start a Sentence with a Conjunction . . . or Can You?

Yesterday one of my high school buddies messaged me.  “So I’m asking an expert. Is it ok to begin a sentence with ‘And’ …..I’m proof reading technicians remarks.” Expert?  At bending the rules of grammar?  Yeah, that would be me.  I start sentences with conjunctions (And, Or, But) all the time.  But I got the feeling […]

5 Minutes a Day: Testing Your Characters and Your Setting

Are your characters unique?  Is your setting woven into your story? These are the kinds of things that can make a story top-notch instead of ho-hum.  Here are some simple thing you can do to test how well you’ve done. Change the setting for your story. If your story is contemporary, consider resetting it 100 […]

Entering Contests: Check All the Boxes

I’m almost halfway through another batch of contest entries.  I’m judging not entering, but this has given me some insight into how an editor must feel.  With that in mind, here are four tips that apply to contest entries but also to fiction in general. Follow the rules.  That doesn’t simply mean entering fiction in […]

STEM Titles Coming Soon

It really is a toss-up whether I prefer to write about social sciences and history or science.  I think that’s why anthropology was the ideal field of study for me.  So when my editor contacted me and asked if I wanted to do a title in a series of evolution, it wasn’t a matter of […]

MSWL Day: Use This to Research Agents

Are you looking for an agent?  Then you need to check out Manuscript Wish List Day (#MSWL Day).  It is coming up on September 12, 2018. For those of you who aren’t familiar with #MSWL it is a tag used by editors and agents to Tweet about what they want.  You will see posts about […]