David Macinnis Gill's Blog: Thunderchikin Reads, page 3

Starting with a Pop-Up, a School Library Grows in Denver | School Library Journal

Who says teens don’t read? This article shows us once again that if you bring books, readers will show up.

“We don’t have a library.”I was in a meeting with Karen Powell, principal of Montbello Career and Technical High School in Denver, CO. I had just told her about my new district-wide Diverse Books

Source: Starting with a Pop-Up, a School Library Grows in Denver | School Library Journal

Via Cynsations–Survivors: E. Lockhart on Thriving as a Long-Time, Actively Publishing Children’s-YA Author

In the latest in a series on longevity in kidlit, Cynsations interviews Emily Jenkins…

In children’s-YA writing, maintaining an active publishing career is arguably an even bigger challenge than breaking into the field.

Reflecting on your personal journey (creatively, career-wise, and your writer’s heart), what bumps did you encounter and how have you managed to defy the odds to achieve continued success?

I want to be honest about the biggest reason I have weathered tough times: I have some financial security.

I have published approximately 45 books in 21 years, and a huge factor in my remaining a working writer was a gift of money from my in-laws.

 

Learn more about  E. Lockhart   AKA  Emily Jenkins .  By Cynthia Leitich Smith for Cynsations Cynsations: Survivors: E. Lockhart on Thriving as a Long-Time,…:

Plotcasters Podcast: Craft Notes & Story Structure

I’m excited (and terrified) to announce a new podcast – Plotcasters – in which I to share craft notes, lessons on plot structure, and eventually, interviews with fellow writers. Three episodes are posted (3-Act Structure, Sticky Note Plotting Part, & Stick Note Plotting Part B). Feedback so far is been great (and terrifying), and I hope the podcast will be useful (and terrifying) to readers and writers alike.

If you want to check it out, you can find the episodes on iTunes and advertising policy for more details.

Plotcasters Episode 6: Q&A

Colored version of Sticky Note Plot

With great sticky notes comes great responsibility–to answer questions about stuff that you didn’t make clear the first time! We’ve been taking questions vis the website and Twitter about the details of the Sticky Note Plot, and David has answered them. He likes answering questions, so we may do another Q&A after the next couple of episodes.

Plotcasters is hosted by David Macinnis Gill, author of Uncanny, Soul Enchilada, and the Black Hole Sun series, all from HarperCollins. His website is www.davidmacinnisgill.com

Music:

One Minute Surf Boogie by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2016 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license.
Blow-up Santa by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license.
Foolish Game by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license.

Natl Book Award Shortlist 2017

[image error]The National Book Award shortlist in Young People’s Literature has been announced (chuffed to see VCFA WCYA represented twice!):

American Street, by Ibi Zoboi
Clayton Byrd Goes Underground, by Rita Williams-Garcia
Far from the Tree, by Robin Benway
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, by Erika L. Sánchez
What Girls Are Made Of, by Elana K. Arnold

PS. The links take you to the Booklist reviews. There is no Booklist review for Far from the Tree.

YA Scavenger Hunt

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 120 hours!

[image error]

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are SEVEN contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the RED TEAM–but there are also–BLUE, ORANGE, GREEN, GOLD, PINK, & PURPLE teams–each with 20 authors for a chance to win a whole different set of books!

If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE
 
Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the RED TEAM, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).
 
Entry Form: Once you’ve added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by OCT 8, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

HOSTED AUTHOR!

[image error]Today, I am hosting MARIEKE NIJKAMP on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! Marieke Nijkamp is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends (Sourcebooks Fire) and the forthcoming Before I Let Go. She is a storyteller, dreamer, globe-trotter, geek.
 
Find out more information by checking out MARIEKE’s website or find more about her book here!

COVER REVEAL!
[image error]
Description: Days before Corey is to return home to the snow and ice of Lost Creek, Alaska, to visit her best friend, Kyra dies. Corey is devastated―and confused. The entire Lost community speaks in hushed tones about the town’s lost daughter, saying her death was meant to be. And they push Corey away like she’s a stranger.

Corey knows something is wrong. Lost is keeping secrets―chilling secrets. But piecing together the truth about what happened to her best friend may prove as difficult as lighting the sky in an Alaskan winter…

MARIEKE’S PLAYLIST!
 
Before I Let Go is set in Lost Creek, Alaska, an eerie town where no one is quite who they say they are. It’s set in the middle of winter, where all escape routes from the town are cut off. And it’s a story about friendship and love and being different in a place where being different is deadly dangerous.


For the playlist, it meant I needed songs that included both the coldness of winter’s chill and the loneliness of lost friendship. And, for both Corey and Kyra, a hint of the vast universe.

Remember to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me, MARIEKE NIJKAMP, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 71. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the RED TEAM and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

CONTINUE THE HUNT
 
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author, Brendan Reichs!  Please leave a comment below, too!
Tweet #YASH






BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


EVEN MORE!
Are you a writer looking for tips on story structure, character building, and plot? Check out Plotcasters, a podcast (hosted by me) for fiction writers and the stories they write. Sign up for the Plotcasters newsletter, and you’ll receive a free copy of “7 Steps to Make dialogue Dance”!

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THANKS FOR STOPPING BY my website! Enjoy the rest of the YA Scavenger Hunt and come back any time!

Sticky Note Plot Visuals

(cross-posted from www.plotcasters.com).

There was a request on the Plotcasters twitter feed about what the sticky note plot looks like when it’s on the wall and why the colored stickies are important. Great question! It’s difficult to visualize a physical process just from an auditory podcast, so our team has decided to do some short videos to support the podcasts. In the meantime, I’ve done two screen captures of plots that I’ve done in the past and will explain them below.

The image above is a sticky note wall in progress. It was built using the same color of sticky notes because that’s all I had on hand and I wanted to get the ideas down before they slipped away. The 3-act structure is above the notes, and there are not many ideas yet. Later, I re-wrote the sticky notes and used colored stickies to visually delineate the acts.

This is a screen capture from the recording of a workshop I did. It was the second half of the workshop, and I was explaining how to include a B story in the plot. The acts are separated by colors, and the B story is denoted by smaller stickies. You can see the difference that the colored stickies make. Just by glancing, you can see the 3-acts and the Turn. In a ‘live’ plotting process, you can also see at a glance how many of the scenes get moved from act to act. I like to keep track of the those changes visually. It reminds me to keep the story fluid instead of locking it into pre-conceived notions.

This is the sticky note plot for Toy Story, which I didn’t write of course. In the workshop, I broke down the story to point out the key scenes and to show how the B story drove the main story. It’s fairly neat for a sticky note plot, which can get pretty messy, especially when I start putting strings on the notes to connect story threads.

With questions coming, Episode 6 of Plotcasters will be a Q&A about the sticky note process, the three-act structure I use, key scenes, character development, and just about anything else you’d like to ask about writing. Feel free to leave questions in the comments below or send them via Twitter. We will collect them two days before the podcast goes live and answer as many as we can. Episodes 7 & 8 will be about the B-story.

What the Sticky Notes Look Like

There was a request on the Plotcasters twitter feed about what the sticky note plot looks like when it’s on the wall and why the colored stickies are important. Great question! It’s difficult to visualize a physical process just from an auditory podcast, so our team has decided to do some short videos to support the podcasts. In the meantime, I’ve done two screen captures of plots that I’ve done in the past and will explain them below.

The image above is a sticky note in progress. It was built using the same color of sticky notes because that’s all I had on hand and I wanted to get the ideas down before they slipped away. The 3-act structure is above the notes, and there are not many ideas yet. Later, I re-wrote the sticky notes and used colored stickies to visually delineate the acts.

This is a screen capture from the recording of a workshop I did. It was the second half of the workshop, and I was explaining how to include a B story in the plot. The acts are separated by colors, and the B story is denoted by smaller stickies. You can see the difference that the colored stickies make. Just by glancing, you can see the 3-acts and the Turn. In a ‘live’ plotting process, you can also see at a glance how many of the scenes get moved from act to act. I like to keep track of the those changes visually. It reminds me to keep the story fluid instead of locking it into pre-conceived notions.

This is the sticky note plot for Toy Story, which I didn’t write of course. In the workshop, I broke down the story to point out the key scenes and to show how the B story drove the main story. It’s fairly neat for a sticky note plot, which can get pretty messy, especially when I start putting strings on the notes to connect story threads.

With questions coming, Episode 6 of Plotcasters will be a Q&A about the sticky note process, the three-act structure I use, key scenes, character development, and just about anything else you’d like to ask about writing. Feel free to leave questions in the comments below or send them via Twitter. We will collect them two days before the podcast goes live and answer as many as we can. Episodes 7 & 8 will be about the B-story.

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UNCANNY in the Wild #6

Spotted in the wild at Barnes & Noble in Jacksonville, FL. Y’all are still pretty wild down in Jax, right? Overjoyed to see the book facing out (!) and in the section with other horror and fantasy books.

Have you seen UNCANNY in the wild, too? Feel free to share a photo!

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UNCANNY in the Wild #6






UNCANNY in the Wild #6















UNCANNY in the Wild #6

By thunderchikin|



2017-09-24T21:00:42+00:00

September 24th, 2017|Categories: Uncategorized|

Spotted in the wild at Barnes & Noble in Jacksonville, FL. Y'all are still pretty

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Website Re-Design In Progress






Website Re-Design In Progress















Website Re-Design In Progress

By thunderchikin|



2017-09-23T14:07:26+00:00

September 16th, 2017|Categories: News|

...which is why my website looks like a shopping mall. It was a bad time

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Win a Hardcover copy of Uncanny






Win a Hardcover copy of Uncanny















Win a Hardcover copy of Uncanny

By thunderchikin|



2017-09-23T13:50:36+00:00

September 6th, 2017|Categories: Inklings|

Enter for a chance to win a hardcover of UNCANNY, the newest novel by David

Read More 0

Plotcasters Episode 5

You’ve finished a Sticky Note Plot. What do you do with all these stickies now? In this episode, David explains how he uses Word, Scrivener’s import feature and screenplay template to create a novel beat sheet, then a first draft from the beat sheet.

Plotcasters is hosted by David Macinnis Gill, author of Uncanny, Soul Enchilada, and the Black Hole Sun series, all from HarperCollins. His website is www.davidmacinnisgill.com

Music:

One Minute Surf Boogie by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2016 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license.
Blow-up Santa by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license.
Foolish Game by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2014 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license.