Sheila's Guests and Reviews

Time to read, time to write, time to dream... I have friends whose Nanowrimo dreams are rapidly nearing completion, and others who, like me, didn't even dream of writing a novel this month... This month being November, Thanksgiving, the leadup to Christmas and more, I didn't feel like I'd ever find time, and I was right. But I did read some, and even wrote book reviews; I just didn't post them. So now, quickly, before I get busy with assigning ISBNs and uploading my own books, here are some of the things I've read for relaxation recently: Find some coffee. Relax with me. Children's books that I've enjoyed recently include: The Secret of Big A by Ofra Peled is the first in a series of alphabet books. It's like a cross between a picture book and a chapter book, with enough text to read like a real story, and bright but old-fashioned color images. The question of what the letter A, and little a, might look like is fun, and the the other books promise...

Aghghghg! My book-world is quietly falling apart, as publishers change and close, and even self-publishers prove to be built on shifting sands. Createspace is going to merge with KDP (logical - they're both Amazon) and "some" of my books won't work, but no one will tell me which. Or was that just a general warning sent to everyone. Or... whatever, it caused unhappy (unproductive) hours researching "stuff." But those were hours when I was meant to be researching public domain images for re-releasing my Bible stories. (They have a fantastic publisher, but he's closing soon and is very generously helping me cope with the change.) Perhaps they were hours that should have been devoted the re-release of my Mathemafiction novels (getting distribution through Ingram Spark, etc). Or perhaps to releasing overdue book reviews... Yes, book reviews. Reading books is the only thing keeping me sane (well, that and drinking too much coffee and eating too many gluten-f...

Today I'm delighted to welcome the spine-chilling author, Nancy Gray to my blog, as she tours the internet with a cool scary book for middle graders, The Scarecrow. But what draws an author toward writing horror... and horror for kids? Here's Nancy's answer to the question: Why Horror? When I was asked to write a blog about my work, I honestly wasn’t sure where to begin. So I started thinking about questions people have asked me before, and one of the things that seem to surprise people when I talk about my work is the fact that I enjoy writing horror. People probably wouldn’t expect it from me. They probably, in fact, would think I would prefer to write fantasy or young children’s stories instead of middle grade horror novellas, but horror stories are how I got my start and what I enjoyed when I was a child. So I’m going to try to explain why horror is important to me and why I think these books are worthwhile. Even though people don’t like to admit it, deep...

I've been reading some children's stories recently. They make such a pleasant break when the days are filled with raking leaves, panicking over delays, worrying over parental health, then failing to get things done... except for those brief snatched moment of reading children's stories as I walk from room to room. Suddenly the world is simpler again and the sun breaks through. So, why do you read children's stories? You do, don't you? If you don't and would like to try, I can recommend the following... Grab and coffee and see what grabs your attention. Perfect for October is Elphie Goes Trick Or Treating by Hagit R Oron and Or Oron . Starring the delightful young elephant, Elphie, in a perfectly human environment, Trick or Treating explores a youngster's natural fear of the unknown, adds a parent's kind wisdom and a child's innate good nature, and leads to a perfectly happy ending. It's a lovely simple tale, simply told, gorgeously illustrate...

I got some really good feedback about my middle-grade novel series yesterday. The first three chapters of book three were up for critique at our local writing group. I'd been wondering if it was even worth persevering with, but they seemed to find enough that they liked to persuade me I ought to try. So now I have three main things to think about: 1. I need a stronger start. One suggestion was to start with chapter two, but they liked the character introductions in chapter one, so maybe I should look for some other strong event... or at least a strong sentence. 2. I need to be more careful about introducing "new" characters; readers might not have read the previous books. 3. I need to think about how my chapters end... So, here's where I ask you a question. My instinct is to treat chapters like short stories each with a beginning, middle and end. I suspect that's born of the fact that I read in short bursts; I like to know where I last left off, and I like know wh...