“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” ~ Anna Quindlen
Thought for the Day: “Sure, it’s simple, writing for kids… Just as simple as bringing them up.”~ Ursula K. LeGuin ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: You can’t have a good story without a solid story premise. HERE C. S. Lakin has a great piece on Crafting a Compelling Story Premise. If our characters don’t… Continue reading The Hike to Home — Review
Thought for the Day: “A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.~ Bob Dylan ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Minor characters are awfully important to our stories. How dull they would be with only… Continue reading An Illustrated Collection of Nordic Animal Tales — Review
Thought for the Day: "Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except the best."~ Henry van Dyke, poet ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: K. M. Allan has a lot of great content on her blog. HERE she tells us How to Add Unpredictability… Continue reading Outside Nowhere — Review
Thought for the Day: “Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.” ~ Marianne Moore, poet ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Dialogue can make the difference between a great book and a mediocre one. HERE Audrey Wick writes in Writers’ Digest about Using Beats to Improve Dialogue and Action in Scenes.… Continue reading The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid — Review
Thought for the Day: "The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can."~ Neil Gaiman ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Kelsey Allagood has written an excellent article… Continue reading Where Snow Angels Go — Review
Thought for the Day: “Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like paté.”~ Margaret Atwood ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: I always learn something when I read an author interview. HERE Robert Lee Brower writing for Writer's Digest has an article titled… Continue reading Hero for the Hungry: The Life and Work of Norman Borlaug — Review
Thought for the Day: "You can sit there, tense and worried, freezing the creative energies, or you can start writing something. It doesn’t matter what. In five or ten minutes, the imagination will heat, the tightness will fade, and a certain spirit and rhythm will take over." ~ Leonard Bernstein ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends:… Continue reading Undercover Latina — Review
Thought for the Day: "It didn't occur to me that my books would be widely read at all, and that enabled me to write anything I wanted to. And even once I realized that they were being read, I still wrote as if I were writing in secret. That's how one has to write anyway… Continue reading A Perfect Mistake — Review
Thought for the Day: "You sit down and you do it, and you do it, and you do it, until you have learned to do it." ~ Ursula K. Le Guin ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Do you have a word-count problem? Is your book too long or too short? HERE is a great… Continue reading A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn — Review
Thought for the Day: "Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone."~ Amy Tan ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Becca Puglisi has a GREAT post HERE on Writers Helping Writers that will help you with How to… Continue reading Ethel’s Song — Review
Rosi Hollinbeck 