Hey there word nerds! Today I’m thrilled to have author Kiersi Burkhart on the show! Kiersi is an author and freelance writer living in windy, wild Wyoming. She is the co-author, along with Amber J. Keyser, of the middle grade series Quartz Creek Ranch; four stand alone stories all about a summer horse camp in… Read more »
Fairy tales are a rich source of story ideas. A writer could retell a fairy tale straight, or with a fair amount of creative license to make the story a contemporary one. Some aspects of a fairy tale could be taken individually or in combination as inspiration for a story, or pieces of various fairy… Read more »
Have you ever been isolated from others? You might be tempted to say “yes” if you’ve sequestered yourself during an illness or retreated to a favorite place to focus on writing or meditation. Isolation, however, isn’t the same as seclusion or solitude. It’s a state of aloneness in which you truly feel cut off from… Read more »
Writing is considered a solitary activity — the term ‘writer’ always brings forth images of introverted geniuses in their messy offices, with a typewriter as their only friend. But those images are nothing but a snapshot of the creative process. The truth is, every word we write has been influenced, motivated or touched by another… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have author Chloe Benjamin on the show! Chloe received an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin, and her first novel, The Anatomy of Dreams, received the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award and was longlisted for the 2014 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her… Read more »
Besides actually doing the writing, I’ve found that the hardest part of forging a writing career is making goals. There are more opportunities now then there have ever been: you can submit to literary magazines, pitch to editors at almost any publication, apply for writing residencies, and, if the opportunity presents itself, go to graduate… Read more »
Drum roll, please! Book award season is here. Every February, during its midwinter meeting, the American Library Association (ALA) announces the best children’s and young adults books published during the previous year. For lovers of children’s literature everywhere, it is the equivalent of the Oscars. There are acceptance speeches, selection committees, runners-up (honor books), and… Read more »
What’s the fastest way to lose your readers’ trust and interest? Sprinkle your text with grammar mistakes: mess with subject-verb agreement, write only in fragments or run-ons, add apostrophes where they don’t belong, and for good measure, get creative with spelling. If, however, you want to maintain credibility, you’ll need to mop up grammar errors… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Today I have the absolute pleasure of interviewing author Georgia Hunter on the show! Georgia’s debut novel, We Were the Lucky Ones, is an emotional story about a Jewish family ripped away from each other at the start of the German and Russian occupation of Poland, and their extraordinary journey back… Read more »
Dear Editor, I am revising my first novel, which is also the first novel in a speculative historical fiction trilogy. It has been a great joy, and I’m working on book two, so I feel pretty confident that I want to move this thing forward and that it’s worth the effort of revising. I’m having… Read more »
