Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 253
January 28, 2016
Portrayals and Prejudice
Yesterday, I read an article about the controversy surrounding The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz. Admittedly, I haven’t read the book yet although it is on my list. The Hired Girl is set in 1911. The main character, fourteen-year-old Joan, is desperate to get off the farm. She takes on a variety of hired jobs and […]
January 27, 2016
Naming a New Character
How much effort do you put into naming a character? I have to admit that for me it varies. In part because how I create a story varies from piece to piece. Some characters come into being with a name attached. Felicity has always been Felicity. That said, her last name has evolved over time. […]
January 26, 2016
GoodReads Reading Challenge and Why I read so Much
Do you know about the annual Goodreads Reading Challenge? I’m not using it as a reading challenge but I am using it as a way to keep track of what I read. Here is how it works. Goodreads members pop over to the reading challenge page and click the proper button and then state the number of […]
January 25, 2016
What Are You Writing?
Whenever a new writer comes to critique group, I ask, “What do you write?” Can I say, without giving offense, that it is off-putting if they can’t tell me? Too often the answer is “children’s stories” or “books for children.” That’s too broad and it makes me think that you don’t know the answer in […]
January 24, 2016
Picture Book Writing: How Much Detail
Recently I read a blog post by agent Heather Alexander on whether or not to include illustration notes in your picture book manuscript. In short, her answer is NO. Yes, there are times that it is okay but most often the answer is NO. Why is this? Because for the most part illustration notes are […]
January 21, 2016
Creating Distance Between Your Reader and Your Character
Most often, we try to find ways to bring our readers closer to our characters. We give the characters traits with which our readers can identify. This might involve making the character slightly older than the reader, putting her in a similar circumstance or have her experience a similar emotion. But sometimes we want to […]
January 20, 2016
Edgar Nominees Announced
On Tuesday, the Edgar nominees were announced. Each year, the Edgars are awarded by the Mystery Writers of America for the best mysteries. I’d love to say that I’ve read all of these but the Edgars always take me by surprise. Every stinking year. The nominees for the two categories of interest to writers for […]
January 19, 2016
Why You Need an Online Presence
I haven’t been doing as many author interviews since I no longer write for Children’s Writer, but a new project has my creating questions and looking for information on a handful of authors. I know I’ve said it before but I have to say it again – I am truly amazed by the number of authors […]
January 18, 2016
My New Book: Trench Warfare
Hip, hip, hooray! Both of my 2016 books are out as of January 1. I’ve already posted about 12 Incredible Facts about the Cuban Missile Crisis (12-story), so today I’m going to focus on Trench Warfare (Abdo). It seems like each and every time I write one of these books, I learn a thing or twenty. […]
Martin Luther King Day
First things first, my apologies for not getting this up last night. I was just heading to bed when I realized I didn’t have everything ready to go. My apologies. This time last year, I had just finished working on Black Lives Matter. I had turned in the full manuscript and done the rewrites under […]
