Hunger Mountain
There are a lot of magazines geared toward children–the whole Carus group, New Moon (for girls), Stone Soup &c. &c. Most of these magazines, though, focus on a younger market, starting with Ladybug (pre-schoolers) up to New Moon (middle grade). Hunger Mountain, “a print and online journal of the arts” from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, is different. Like many literary magazines, Hunger Mountain publishes fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, essays, and visual art....
Read MoreThis is What I Learned, Part III
I’ve always had trouble with chapter breaks. Once upon a time, I assigned chapters based on word count. Later, I decided two scene changes would be equal to one chapter. But scenes vary widely in length and content, making my two scene rule more trouble than it was worth. This is What I Did doesn’t use proper chapter breaks, but rather journal breaks. Scenes change the way movie scenes might, flowing one to the next without any additional exposition. While using the exercise below,...
Read MoreAn Indian Rapunzel
I’ve always had a love-hate affair with my hair. When I was little, I’d beg my mother to braid my hair, and I’d pretend I was Rapunzel locked in the tower with only my hair to connect me to the outside world. But as I grew older, I grew less enamored of my hair. Caring for it was time consuming; drying it took a full day unless I could talk someone into helping me with the hairdryer. In the summer, it was heavy against my neck; in the winter, it was full of static, crackling and...
Read MoreThis is What I Learned, Part II
(A late post today–a teething, snugglier-than-usual Mir-cat is keeping me busy!) This is What I Did revolves around Logan’s reaction to an event–an event that occurred before the novel begins (and isn’t fully explained until around 135 pages in). Hints are sprinkled through the text, sometimes as flashbacks, but more often as Logan’s thoughts and actions. The latter–reveals–are very hard to do well, and something many authors, YA and adult alike, fail at....
Read MoreThis is What I Learned, Part I
Here’s the jacket blurb from Ann Dee Ellis’ debut novel: Imagine if you had witnessed something horrific. Imagine if it had happened to your friend. And imagine if you hadn’t done anything to help. That’s what it’s like to be Logan, an utterly frank, slightly awkward, and extremely loveable outcast enmeshed in a mysterious psychological drama. This story allows readers to piece together the sequence of events that has changed his life and changed his perspective on...
Read MoreAnn Dee Ellis & the BYU Writing & Illustrating for Children Workshop
Some time ago, I was lucky enough to attend BYU’s weeklong workshop for children’s writers and illustrators. The workshop is more like a workshop and conference, with morning classes and afternoon seminars. I was only just starting to shop my fiction then, and thought the workshop would me get a handle on the ins and outs of the publishing world. Despite my great love of books and book-learning, there really isn’t a substitute for chatting to someone who’s been there,...
Read More