Kate Willis's Blog, page 110

Eyes Wide Open

I saw two happy people today. They were laughing over something together as they used the cross walk in front of us. Joy shone on their faces.

I saw a clump of trees that looked like a poodle or maybe some type of dinosaur.

I saw a cloud that looked like something else first and changed into a fish.

But the nephews I spent the day with saw even more than I did. They saw every blade of grass, every tree, every tractor, every cow, and every vehicle (with the correct classification). Even when w...

Book Review: Along Came a Dog

“The long, cold winter was over. The little red hen had changed and the other chickens picked on her now, or ignored her altogether. Then one day a big black dog came to the farm in search of a home. The dog was humble and lonesome. Then hen was cocky, and lonesome, too. A strange and wonderful friendship grew between them. The dog protected the little red hen, but who would protect the big black dog from being chased off the farm? Who would convince the man who owned the farm that the dog tr...

Faith Blum Interview

Who doesn’t like a birthday party? Faith certainly does. November 19th was the third birthday of her debut novel, A Mighty Fortress. To celebrate, she has all sorts of fun going on. First, she’s released a newly revised version of A Mighty Fortress. Second, she has most of her published books on sale. Third, she’s releasing the box set of all five of her novels for a special discounted price. And fourth, but not least, she now has the audiobook of her AMF available! Read on for more party fu...

Thankful (And a Bit of Book Collecting)

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving celebration with your family and friends! I enjoying gathering around the table with this goofy, godly tribe, talking our heads off and playing some rollicking games of Taboo and Pit later on.

Book Review: Lady Dragon, Tela Du

“Two girls with one face
Two girls with twisted fate
One in purple, one in red
One shall speak the other’s death
Who shall win their final war?
Lady Dragon or Tela Du?

Amber, the Lady Dragon, has been promised a fifty-year reign over Rizkaland and nothing can stop her from claiming it. But when you’ve lived six thousand years, fifty is such a pitiful number. Only one person can keep her from making this reign permanent – the Tela Du, a girl who shall share Amber’s face.

The last thing Petra w...

Bookish Happenings

Hello, I’m Shot Out of a Cannon. What’s your name?

Last week was one of the longest, coolest weeks of my life. (I got to celebrate a family birthday, participate in a Jesse Tree ornament exchange, help with a wedding reception, make new friends, and babysit the world’s sweetest kids.) And somehow during all of that, a ton of great bookish things still managed to happen. (Although, I didn’t get to read at all over the weekend.)

I wrote 5,000 hopefully useful-to-the-story words. I dreamed up Ea...

Think Twice Before Writing Seven

Should you write a seven book series? Why not? Jack Lewis did!

Two big reasons it worked for him: character and setting change.

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, we have four Pevensies and classic Narnia. Next is The Horse and His Boy with Shasta who barely visits Narnia and only meets the four original kidsas adults. Quite the change-up! Next Peter, Sue, Ed, and Lu with Prince Caspian (in the book named after him

Book Review: 5 Secrets of Story Structure

“Want to take your writing to the next level? Discover the “secrets” of story structure other authors are overlooking!

If you’ve read all the books on story structure and concluded there has to be more to it than just three acts and a couple of plot points, then you’re absolutely right! It’s time to notch up your writing education from “basic” to “black belt.” Internationally published author K.M. Weiland shares five “secret” techniques of advanced story structure.

In the multi-award-winnin...

Thank You, All

I came home from working at the polls with my sisterto find that I had received a very sweet note in the mail. Last month I shipped out a prize from the Five Fall Favorites blog party and didn’t expect to hear anything back.

The note, something to the effect that she loved the packaging and was enjoying the writing prompts, blew me away and made my day.

Fall Writing Contest!

Want a little writing motivation, but don’t have the time for NaNoWriMo? Noble Novels is hosting a fall writing contest! You can find more about rules and theme requirementshere.

If I can get my act together today, I’m hoping to work on my entry. The only clues I’ll give you are “coffee shop”, and “flooding”.