Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 7

Creating Top Notch Secondary Characters

Recently I was reading a newsletter from Janice Hardy, Narrative Nuggets (sign up here), about secondary characters. First, it made me think about my favorite secondary characters including Lucious Best and Edna Mode (Incredibles) and Haymitch Abernathy (The Hunger Games). I adore despising Effe Trinket (also the Hunger Games), but I’m not sure that’s quite … Continue reading Creating Top Notch Secondary Characters →

Early Reader, Chapter Book, or Early Chapter Book

If you haven’t met Orris and Timble yet, check out The Beginning by Kate DiCamillo This is a top notch, early chapter book about fear and friendship. My absolute favorite DiCamillo series is still Mercy Watson, but this is a close second. Check it out of you are interested in writing for new readers. Early … Continue reading Early Reader, Chapter Book, or Early Chapter Book →

Three Birds that Make Life Better: Guest Post by Cheryl Grey Bostrom

SueBE here for just a moment. Cheryl Grey Bostrom is joining us with a guest post as part of the blog tour for her book What The River Keeps. In this post, she discusses these three books. Here she is with . . . Three Birds that Make Life Better As an avid birder and … Continue reading Three Birds that Make Life Better: Guest Post by Cheryl Grey Bostrom →

Could You Write School Library Nonfiction?

Six of my new books arrived on my doorstep on Saturday. I wrote all six of these books last year. They demonstrate something important about this market. All kinds of kids are interested in all kinds of topics. Before you approach writing nonfiction for the school library market you need to consider what you are … Continue reading Could You Write School Library Nonfiction? →

Craft to Recharge

Hmm. What a microexpression! That’s assuming that you see the same still shot that I do at the beginning of the above video. I look like I’m catching flies! I just got the go-ahead on a new contract which means that I’m going to be spending time at my keyboard click click clicking away. And … Continue reading Craft to Recharge →

What Is a Critique Group?

It seems like it should be pretty simple to answer. What is a critique group? A critique group is a group of writers who help each other improve their writing. They do this by reading and critiquing each other’s work. But is that all they do? For some groups, the answer is most definitely yes. … Continue reading What Is a Critique Group? →

Working Toward an E-book

Researching how to create and distribute my upcoming e-book has been confusing. The first bit of confusion came when reading up on the fees that Amazon charges. Could it possibly be true that they charge you a set fee for each e-book sold? If that’s the case, giving a book away actually costs the writer … Continue reading Working Toward an E-book →

Rejection vs Critique

Yesterday one of my students told me that part of her plan to deal with rejection letters is to carefully read the rejection to glean what it is about her manuscript that didn’t work. The problem is that a rejection letter is not a critique. For feedback on your work, you need to get a … Continue reading Rejection vs Critique →

Idea Generation: Why Keeping a List Pays Off

Anyone else do Story Storm with Tara Lazar in January? For those of you who aren’t familiar, it is an idea generation challenge. Everyone who comes up with 30 ideas in the month of January succeeds. I didn’t quit at the end of January and am still jotting down story ideas. My goal? To have … Continue reading Idea Generation: Why Keeping a List Pays Off →

Twist Endings Picture Book Style

Yesterday I read three picture books that all have amazing twist endings. There are going to be plot spoilers throughout this post, so BE WARNED! If you have a young reader heading back to school, check out EMERGENCY QUARTERS by Carlos Matias. It is all about the emergency quarter mama gives Ernesto each day. That … Continue reading Twist Endings Picture Book Style →