Street fair youth fundraiser

| May 9, 2011

I’m going to be out of town at NESCBWI this weekend, which means that I’m going to miss the street fair they do every year on the Upper East Side to raise money for the young women and young men in my church here in New York. The funds raised from the tag sale and [...]

A Is for Anansi, NY Comic Con, and TANKBORN

| October 15, 2010

Last weekend I went to the excellent A Is for Anansi conference at NYU, and met a lot of thoughtful people who want to make the world a better place for African American kids. I took a lot of notes and would like to share them at some point, but I’m in the midst of [...]

Save Shannon Hale’s life

| August 19, 2010

Via Rick Walton: If you are the highest bidder, Shannon Hale will rave about you on her blog, describing in great detail how you saved her life several times. All money goes to buy books for kids who need them. To bid and to have Shannon put in writing that she is forever in your [...]

New seminar: Worldbuilding in MG/YA science fiction and fantasy

| May 28, 2009

I have a confirmed date, time, and place for our next local seminar on writing fantasy for children and young adults. This time we’re going to focus specifically on worldbuilding–how it’s different for younger audiences (and how it’s the same as worldbuilding you might hear about in adult books), how to really hit the right [...]

New class planned for early June, more local events

| May 13, 2009

I don’t have a date pinned down yet, but I’m planning to do another community seminar in early June: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction for Children and Young Adults. Writing fantasy and SF for children and YA is different than writing it for adults because of that added children’s/YA component: it’s a whole different [...]

A couple good causes

| January 13, 2009

I grew up in relative poverty. Relative, because it’s only poverty here in the US, not compared to the places in the world where every day is a struggle to subsist, to have shelter, to have all the basic necessities of life.  I grew up on a farm, so we had plenty of food from [...]