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10 Word Book Reviews

book reviewing / Challenge / random drawing

10 Word Book Reviews

Question: Can anyone write meaning-filled,10-word reviews? The tenwordreviews.com  shares several brief, positive reviews, including these 4: **Swan Stories: Fairy Tales Retold – edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling        Stories like chips: you can’t stop after one. Good selection. **In Real Life by Cory Doctorow      Morals exist online and off; both define you. Graphic, powerful.  **The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden      Gorgeous Russian folklore blends with superstition, magic, and horror. Magnificent. **Real is the Word They Use to Contain Us: Poems by Noah Wareness      Haunting poems, stories regarding the effects of Velveteen Rabbit’s realness.   My answer: Here...

Interviewing Author Laura Moe

interviews / random drawing

Interviewing Author Laura Moe

  I met Laura Moe when I became part of EPIC, a writing support group for authors around the area. She’s an organized, friendly YA author that has written an amazing current-day story everyone interested in teens will enjoy reading. Here’s part of her personal ‘story’. Enjoy getting to know Laura. Paddy Tell us about yourself. Ack! I’m not that interesting! My idea of a wild party is curling with a good book. What attracted you to teach and write for teens? The bulk of my teaching career I worked with high school aged students. They look like adults, yet...

Summer Reads for Women – 2018

musings / random drawing / recreational reading

Summer Reads for Women – 2018

PBS.org Recently PBS has compiled a list of 100 popular books from readers across the USA. It makes a good starting point for summer reading. With the process of requesting the titles, PBS gives you a chance to vote every day between now and the coming fall for titles you found worth reading. Join in the fun; copy their top 100 and read away! www.pbs.org/greatamericanread The following are partial lists of mostly new books. You might also want to check the New York Times and other newspaper and magazine book lists. Amazon list Beach House books by Mary Alice Munroe ...

Poetry for a Summery Day

poetry / random drawing

Poetry for a Summery Day

Here are a few summer poems by teens I found online. Enjoy a young perspective. As Time Passes Me By  © Alice G.  Published: June 2014 The butterflies are floating through the air. The grass is green, and the trees are tall. As the wind whistles through my hair, I let life pass me by. As time ticks and the clock goes by, the flowers grow taller as life passes me by. And I dream of floating right on by. But now it’s time to stop dreaming, and wake up to a hot summer day. Bliss Of Summer  © Judith...

Reader’s Mad Lib

musings / random drawing

Reader’s Mad Lib

Years ago, before kids had personal electronics, they played Mad Libs while riding in cars or waiting at appointments. Here’s a Mad Lib for Readers. Take a whirl and hopefully get a laugh. Number a paper to 8. Write down an appropriate word beside each number. Skim down the page for the Mad Lib short story. Drop in each word at its corresponding number. Enjoy, I hope. Words: an adjective ______________                  5.  another adjective  ______________   a color ___________________                 6. a noun  ______________________   a noun __________________                  7.  a verb  ___________________   an adjective __________________          8.  an adjective  ____________________  ...

Mother’s Day Quotes

quotes / random drawing

Mother’s Day Quotes

Mother’s Day is often celebrated with cards and flowers. Enjoy these brief quotes as you think of your mother, her mother and of mother’s to be. My mother taught me to live by the 3 p’s: to always be passionate, persistent, and prepared. Hailee Steinfeld A mother’s heart is a child’s schoolroom.  Henry Ward Beecher I got to grow up with a mother who taught me to believe in me.  Antonio Villaraigosa The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your universe. You relinquish that position to your children. ...

Event Reminders

adventure novel / Book events / musings / Tasman

Event Reminders

Happy May Day! You now have so many options of what to celebrate: May Day with maypoles and secret flowers to kind neighbors, Hawaii’s Lei Day, Law Day, International Workers Day, and even Mother Goose Day. I also celebrate my birthday. Whatever you celebrate, make your best effort to enjoy the month as we immerse ourselves with spring in full bloom. April 23rd I had the privilege of being interview by Laura Moe on her Young Adult Authors Cafe. She is an exciting teen author (Breakfast with Neruda) as well as a great interviewer. The hour of conversation flew by...

Writer’s Genre Query

musings / reading

Writer’s Genre Query

‘They say’ that writing requires equal time. What genres interest you? Do they relate to what you write? How does what you read influence your writing? Send me your answers. If you are considering dipping into other genres include them as well.

Powerful Vowels

details in writing / editing / reader suggestions / writing process

Powerful Vowels

SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) has a wonderful writer’s retreat each year. One year Darcy Pattison presented a discussion on the power of words, especially the energy of vowels. As readers and writers her ideas will shed light on how authors heighten energy in their stories. Here are a few details that may inspire you to occasionally stop and re-read for a different purpose. **High energy vowels include long e (tree), short i (sit) and long a (say). Compare these two sentences. Decide which provides more energy into the writing. The autumn I was seventeen, the nightmare...