From time to time a friend or acquaintance reaches out saying they’d like to write a book but don’t know what to do (or what to do next, if it’s already written). This is a great resource for anyone in that situation — maybe you!
So You Want to Write a Book… :: Nathan Bransford

More from Susan Dennard’s vast collection of posts on writing. So many helpful links included.
Building Characters and Worlds :: Susan Dennard

Good (if somewhat discouraging) stuff here.
30 Years in Book Publishing: What I’ve Learned :: Publishing Confidential

“We can’t make readers. But we can create the conditions where they might want to be.”
This is the Work :: Pernille Ripp

Can never get enough Emily Dickinson.
Emily Dickinson Poems That Live Rent-Free in My Brain :: Kate Marigold

And speaking of Emily, here’s a great NYT article (gift link) that walks you through her poem “I dwell in Possibility” — a line I have had posted in my office for years.
This Poem Will Hit You Where You Live :: The New York Times

“But whenever we’re a beginner at anything, it’s useful to look back at the questions we’re asking and figure out why we’re asking them. This might be a thing you do when you’re frustrated by the answers you’re getting, or not getting. Instead of blaming Threads, or Publishing, or yourself, you might consider if you’re expecting the wrong answers to the right questions.”
How To Be An Author: Are You Asking How When You Mean When? :: Agents + Books

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Nearly everyone has an opinion about the kind of books children want and need. We’re acting as though kids only read one kind of book, as though there’s only one kind of kid.

The truth is that kids need all books, and all kids need books. All books make them readers. And when they grow up reading and loving story, they’re more likely to be readers when they’re adults.
— Rachel Toalson

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In writing, don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is ‘terrible,’ describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was ‘delightful’; make us say ‘delightful’ when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers ‘Please, will you do my job for me.’
— C. S. Lewis

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Last week I returned to Humboldt County for the children’s author festival. This northern California county has brought in authors for their biannual festival since the early seventies. Twenty-five authors participated this year. The photo above is at the Morris Graves Museum, where illustrations from various books were displayed. I loved seeing these spreads from Books Up the Mountain.

One really fun thing was to spend time with three of my author friends from the debut group the Class of 2k12. Here I am with J. Anderson Coats, Sarvenaz Tash, and Katherine Longshore. What would we tell our younger author selves? There will be many wonderful things ahead and many punches to roll with. Keep going!

Heart to heart with Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen.

For my first day of school visits I was taken up beautiful, windy mountain roads to Hoopa Elementary and Middle schools on the Hoopa Valley Reservation. We talked about “cleansing burns,” the fires the Hoopa have used to clear forest for thousands of years. An elementary teacher there has served as a lookout for forty years! It was all such a serendipitous connection to The Burning Season. As I finished reading aloud a poem from my book, a fourth-grade boy burst out with, “Dang!” I think it’s the most honest, spontaneous praise I’ve ever received. Kids are the best.

The second day I visited Coastal Grove Charter, a Waldorf school where the cafeteria makes amazingly wholesome foods, like bread and granola, and provides all fourth and fifth graders with violins. They sent me off at the end of my visit by singing their beautiful school song.

We visited the Sequoia Park Zoo to hang out with the redwoods.

At Saturday’s county-wide book signing as things were just beginning.

Thanks, Humboldt County, for another fantastic experience!

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