One of my favourite Neil Gaiman quotes: “Just write. Many writers have a vague hope that elves will come in the night and finish any stories for you for you. They won’t.” You can see the original video in which he offers advice for young writers:
Just finished THE KIDNEY HYPOTHETICAL: OR HOW TO RUIN YOUR LIFE IN SEVEN DAYS by Lisa Yee (Arthur Levine Books, Mar/2015). I’ve been a fan of Lisa’s since MILLICENT MIN, and I thoroughly enjoyed her new YA. What I love about all of Lisa’s books, including this one: the wry sense of . . .
Every journey to publication is different. Don’t compare yourself to others. Find your OWN path, at your own pace.
Added to my For The Love Of Reading resource for teachers, librarians, booksellers and young readers: a free, print-ready “Reading Lets Your Imagination Soar” poster. For all my free, print-ready material, please see Debbie’s Print-Ready Archive. I’ve also added a greeting card version of just the found object art to my Zazzle card shop (Canada/U.S.).
What I just tweeted: Just heard that BONE GAP made the 2015 National Book Award Longlist!
There are already a bunch of online thesaurus sites out there, like Thesaurus.com, Merriam-Webster’s Thesaurus, Collins Thesaurus, Visual Thesaurus and others, but Power Thesaurus was the first crowd-sourced online thesaurus I’ve come across. I like the clean interface, without all kinds of ads cluttering the space. Just noticed that my friend Tara Lazar also likes it: Power . . .
I’ve added a free, print-ready poster version of this wonderful Madeleine L’Engle quote to my For The Love Of Reading page. You can find links to ALL my free, print-ready bonus goodies at Debbie’s Print-Ready Archive.
Anyone who thinks that picture books are easy to write because they’re short needs to read this advice from my Simon & Schuster editor, Justin Chanda.
Did you know that Madeleine L’Engle almost gave up writing when she turned 40 because of discouragement over rejections? “With all the hours I spent writing, I was still not pulling my own weight financially.” She discovered, however, that her subconscious wouldn’t let her NOT write. “I had to write. . . .