Oh my goodness: I love Dana Middleton‘s post today and its reminder that stories do indeed chose us! I’m sure many of us can relate to Dana’s story of wanting to wiggle out of being tagged “it,” and, like me, you will admire how Dana turned her desire to run into a connection with her… Read more »
Susan McCormick should probably buy a lottery ticket. Or perhaps a hundred. When she set out to write a medical fantasy that would catch young readers’ attention the way Rick Riordan’s mythology series has, likely she had no idea that we’d been spending a year or two or a thousand dealing with a pandemic. Her… Read more »
I am full of emotion as I write this introduction. First: my heart brims with joy to be hosting Cynthia Leitich Smith in celebration of her latest middle grade novel, Sisters of the Neversea (Heartdrum). Cynthia represents the very best in the kidlit community: she has long been a champion of others’ work; she is… Read more »
I adore Irene Latham and not just because she included a poem inspired by Hattie Big Sky in her collaboration with Charles Waters, Dictionary for a Better World, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini, published by Carolrhoda Books (pages 22-23, in case you’re interested). Irene embraces the fullness of writing in ways I much admire and long… Read more »
My sweet friend Helen Ketteman and I have known each other longer than dirt’s been around. In our early writing careers, we were part of a magical group called The Write Sisters, meeting each summer for an annual marathon critique session and pj party prior to the summer SCBWI conference in LA. I learned one… Read more »
What a sincere pleasure and honor it is to host Clare Meeker today. Clare and I have both been at this writing business for a long, long time (back to typewriter days!). Clare’s writing passion is nonfiction; she is a dogged researcher and a fine writer. You will love, as I do, her newest picture… Read more »
Today’s guest is a friend from the (sadly) now-defunct Northwest Institute of Literary Arts MFA program. I was the first faculty member in the children’s literature arm of the program and Loren Cooper was a student specializing in fiction. I badgered him into participating in a student reading one night and he good-naturedly humored me,… Read more »