Lookit!
Hey, wanna see something cool? I know you do!
Stacy
On sequels
I’ve been reading a number of highly anticipated sequels lately, as well as editing a sequel or two myself. It has me thinking about the best ways to reintroduce your reader to your characters and plot that they may have just read last week—or maybe it’s been more than a year. How do you avoid … Read more
Hm, that’s weird
Sorry, LJ people, again. Since I switched the LJ cross-posting app, it seems that anything crossposted to LJ is turning comments off, even if they’re actually on by default. I’ve never turned them off on LJ, so I’m not sure what’s up. I’ll look into it and let you know when I figure it out. … Read more
One parent’s perspective on e-readers for kids
More and more teens are getting e-readers in the last year or so. There was a big wave of e-reader purchases for them at Christmas and Hanukkah last year (see this article in the New York Times covering that trend—a NYT article that actually gets it right about children’s books!). E-books are growing, especially in … Read more
Quick review of the redesigned Pilot Precise V5 Extra Fine
In a sentence: WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY PEN?? I loved the old Precise V5s. Almost every editor I know who I’ve ever talked pens with loves the Precise V5. It’s got a fine enough tip to write between lines of text without smearing ink everywhere, and it was steady and sure. And when … Read more
Villain POVs
I have to admit, I really hate villain POVs. There are so few villains that have any redeemable qualities, and especially starting a book out with the villain’s point of view when they’re murdering and/or plundering just makes me go, “Why do I want to read this book, again?” This is actually one of the … Read more
Livejournal fixed
Apologies to those of you on LJ who just got 10 or 12 posts in a row from me. Those are from the last three months, in which my LJ importer hadn’t been working. I figured for those of you who haven’t been going to my main site from an RSS reader, some of you … Read more
Win a critique from me
And by the way, if you haven’t seen me talk about it on Twitter or Facebook, you should check out this post on Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog in which I interview Tankborn author Karen Sandler—and at the end you’ll see ways to enter to win a critique from me. Deadline is Oct. 24! Edited … Read more
Simmons alums unite!
In celebration of my Simmons classmate Anna Staniszewski’s new book release, I thought perhaps we could make a list of children’s and young adult books by Simmons College children’s lit program alumnae. (The women’s college is open to guys in the grad programs, but I think most of the alums who have been published are … Read more
What have you read lately?
I’m currently splitting my time between two favorite authors’ newest books: James Dashner’s The Death Cure and Tamora Pierce’s Mastiff. I’m a HUGE Tamora Pierce fan. As she often says when she introduces herself at conventions, she writes about girls who kick butt. You can see a really interesting progression of feminist thought from second … Read more