My Mitzy Kafka Story
Thursday, December 4th, 2008 Posted in Fun Clips, the writing process | No Comments »In my interview with Ellen Miles, we traded a few war stories from the trenches, odd jobs we've done over the years as "writers for hire." I mentioned a pen name I twice used, Mitzy Kafka. Someone remarked on it ...
Writers on Writing: Five Quick Quotes
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 Posted in the writing process | No Comments »True story: I just found this three-page list of typed quotes on the bottom of my t-shirt drawer. I figure it dates back seven years, from when I was working with my son's third-grade classroom -- and at which point ...
Jigsaw Jones Cover: Part 4, Sketches Are In!
Thursday, November 20th, 2008 Posted in Interviews & Appreciations, Jigsaw Jones, the writing process | No Comments »This is the fourth installment of a series of posts following the creation of a single book cover for Jigsaw Jones: The Case of the Secret Skeleton. In Part One I interviewed Scholastic editor Matt Ringler, and we talked about ...
That First Sentence: Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Monday, November 17th, 2008 Posted in Readings, the writing process | 1 Comment »A while back, I had the genius idea of posting about Great Opening Sentences. It struck me as a neat platform from which discuss writing in general. You can find that entry here and, as a brief follow-up, here. A couple ...
Jigsaw Jones Edits, Warts and All
Friday, November 14th, 2008 Posted in Jigsaw Jones, the writing process | No Comments »Last Friday I handed in the first draft of Jigsaw Jones: The Case of the Skeleton's Secret. In series publishing, things move quickly. Because the manuscript ran a little long -- and because I'm far from perfect -- my editor, ...
Characters Is . . .
Monday, November 10th, 2008 Posted in Bystander, Readings, the writing process | No Comments »Often we read about painters or novelists who listened to a certain kind of music while they worked on a given project. It helps get them in the right frame of mind. For example, I understand that Matthew Cordell listened ...
Deleted Scenes 2: Six Innings
Thursday, November 6th, 2008 Posted in Six Innings, the writing process | No Comments »When revising Six Innings, I eliminated about 25% from the first draft (for more on that topic, click here). One of the plot lines that got axed involved Alex Lionni's relationship with his father, a man utterly disinterested in sports ...
For Writers Only (Okay, Relax, Illustrators, Too)
Sunday, October 26th, 2008 Posted in Fun Clips, the writing process | No Comments »[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxschLOAr-s] Thanks to Richard Spaulding, an old friend, who passed this along. The man behind this video, Dennis Cass, has a pretty cool blogsite, Dennis Cass Wants You To Be More Awesome. He really does!
Jigsaw Jones: What’s In a Book Cover?
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 Posted in Jigsaw Jones, the writing process | 1 Comment »One of the central themes of this blog is that whatever touches my life as a writer is valid content. Or as my pal Matthew Cordell might say, "blog fodder." So, thus: I recently got this note from my ...
Inside Scoop: Book Covers, Along Came Spider
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 Posted in Along Came Spider, the writing process | No Comments »On Sunday night I began to write a post about my new "Jigsaw Jones" cover, but didn't have all the info I needed to make it happen. So, instead, let's just dub this COVER WEEK and begin here: A while back, ...