Monday, January 19, 2015

Time to Read!

                                    
 

Stephen King says, If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write.
 
That’s nice to know because sometimes I feel guilty reading when I should be writing.
 
My New Year’s Resolution for January:
Find three new children’s authors that I’ve never read before and read a book by each of them.
 
I’m no dummy! I picked an easy resolution for my first month. What can be more enjoyable than cracking open a new kids book?
 
I chose these three titles:
Eye of the Crow  by Shane Peacock – book one of his acclaimed Boy Sherlock Holmes series
The Unlikely Hero of  Room 13B by Teresa Toten – a brilliant writer who I can’t believe I’d never read.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs – the title and weird photo on the cover drew me in!
 
All three were great reads. I’m definitely going to explore more by Teresa Toten.
 
When choosing books to read, I think it’s important to look for the best. No point reading junk. You won’t learn anything.
 
I’ve heard that it’s a good idea to actually type out a few pages from a book that you really admire. I’ve never tried that (my typing skills are very sad) but it might be interesting. The idea is not to end up copying the author’s style, just experience the language and get inspired.
 
I goggled authors reading other authors and found two great blogs on the subject:
 
 
www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/mar/02/best-advice-writers-read
 
thewritepractice.com/roz-morris-on-why-writers-should-read/
                                                                
Happy reading!                                                                   

Saturday, January 3, 2015

DREAM BIG for 2015!


A new writing year! I like to dream big . . . a contract for my hard-to –find-a home- for fantasy . . . an unexpected award nomination. . . record sales on my royalty statements . . .  venturing into self-publishing . . . Anything is possible!

To get me started, here are my resolutions for a great writing year. I’ll keep you posted how I’ll do.

 January: Find three new children’s authors that I’ve never read and read a book by each of them.  

February:  Read a book on fiction writing techniques.

March:  Google famous quotations and use them to inspire five titles for books that I might like to write one day.  

April:   Read a play.

May:   Write a picture book manuscript.

June:  Describe an interesting setting using all the senses.

July:   Observe a person in a coffee shop (mall? bus?) and write a character profile.

August:  Read a book of kids’ poetry and write my own poem.

September:  Read a biography of a writer.

October:  Read a non-fiction kid’s book.

November:  Rewrite a folk tale or myth.

December: Sit back with a glass of eggnog, admire my stack of polished manuscript pages for my novel-in-progress and write a glowing review (unbiased of course!)  

                                        Happy New Year!