The Gift of Revision

We’ve started our home renovation so I’m back and forth between our house and my mother-on-law’s. So far it’s working out pretty well. I’ve started revising my YA novel, Fact of Life #31, and it’s going well. My group was right on...

Young Talent

Sunday I had the privilege of working with several very talented teen writers in Broomfield, CO. These folks were willing to be inside on a beautiful Colorado day to hang out with me, talk, and WRITE. We did lots of writing and let me tell you, these writers can...

Reading Appreciation Week (MI)

I just had the very best time ever in Michigan. I was the guest author for RAP–Reading Appreciation Week. I got to visit two middle schools and doing a special presentation at the local public library. Students had to meet reading goals to be able to come to my...

2006 Teen Lit Conference

Saturday I gave two sessions and sat on an author panel at the 18th Annual Teen Lit Conference in Denver. The theme was censorship and there were some great keynote speeches on the topic by authors Kelly Milner Halls and my pal Julie Anne Peters. It was a blast. It...

Book Club Fun

Look! Three entries in a row. It’s a miracle. Because I’ve been away from it so long, I’m re-reading the pages I’ve written for the unsequel, trying not to do any line editing, which is hard for me. I’m a fix-it-as-I-go person, but that...

Revisions and Reviewings

The last week or so I’ve been working on revisions for picture books. I revised a manuscript called A MARIGOLD FOR MIGUEL, which had come close in the New Voices contest at Lee & Low Books. I got great feedback from an editor there (who is now my editor at...