Posts about writing and publishing.
K is for Keen it’s day 13 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter K Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. The word keen describes today’s two novels perfectly. I like this word keen because it has so many meanings. Some are finely sharpened, distinctive in perception, eager. These definitions apply to the characters, stories, and writing of the following multi-award winning books. Kira-kira by Cynthia Kadohata This is…
Justice. It’s day 10 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter J Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. Teens focus on the fairness of things and are quick to point out when justice has not been served. Today’s two novels explore what justice is from different angles. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre is not a young adult book, but it is a good book for young adults. Justice is…
I is for Inseparable It’s the A to Z Challenge! And the letter I Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. I’ve noticed as I get further into this A to Z Challenge that more and more ghost novels are creeping into my selections. I hope that’s okay with you, dear readers. One thing about ghost fiction in the young adult genre, it’s not usually scary. I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa…
G is for Ghost But before we get to that, it’s day 7 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter G Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. So, G is for Ghost. Of course it is. If you know me, you know that I am passionate about ghostlit. If there’s a ghost in a novel, I read it—literary, romance, women’s literature, young adult—doesn’t matter. I follow the ghost. (Raising a…
F is for FEED But before we get to that, it’s day 6 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter F Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. So, back to FEED. I just learned that FEED is an acronym. Who knew? FEED stands for Fast Exact Euclidean Distance, and it’s basically the stuff computers feed on. See how I did that, played with the word feed there? When it comes…
E is for Excorticate Did you know this word? Me, neither. I was looking for a word that meant “to peel layers” beginning with the letter E, and excorticate is what I found. Apparently, its origin is Latin although excorticate is not to be found in my standard Random House Webster’s. Anyhow, It’s day 5 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter E Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. Everything I…
D is for Danger It’s day 4 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter D Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. Danger is a common element in Young Adult fiction and so appropriate, too, as young people need to figure out how to safely navigate the world around them. One day they will be out on their own. Danger also heightens the tension in Young Adult fiction since teens are…
C is for Compass. It’s day 3 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter C Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. Today I present two novels suited for young adults though, curiously, neither of these was written for the young adult market. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon Both of these lost narrators embark on a…
B is for Bittersweet It’s day 2 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter B Day. A reminder that my theme for 2017 is Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. Presenting three novels suited for young adults that explore the sweet with the bitter: Black Beauty by Anna Sewell Black Beauty is a magnificent horse with a big heart. Sewell’s novel follows Beauty as he matures from a colt to an adult. As a…
Can you believe the A to Z Challenge is almost here? What is it, you ask? And how can you participate? Bloggers from all over the world write 26 posts in the month of April, one blog for each letter of the alphabet, six days a week with Sundays off. Anyone who blogs or likes to read blogs can join in. Click here to get started! Here is this year’s scoop from the A to Z Challenge folks: Each day…
“Ignorance is strength”~George Orwell, 1984 This week we heard the phrase Alternative Facts issue from Kellyanne Conway’s lips. Alternative Facts, as defined by Kellyanne, include Donald’s erroneous claims that a million and a half people attended his inauguration, that his was the most watched ceremony ever, that three to five million illegal immigrants robbed him of the popular vote, that those who walked in the Women’s March hadn’t voted. I listened to Kellyanne and laughed. Aloud. Like many others, I…
My mother always said I was born one hundred years too late. She could be right. I make quilts the same way my grandmother made them a hundred years ago—by hand. I used cloth diapers (albeit with a diaper service) when my daughters were little, and I use cloth napkins every day. When I buy milk, I choose glass bottles. (I’m not usually allowed to buy milk.) I line-dry my laundry in the sun. I sleep with white cotton sheets—old,…
Upon waking the morning after the election, I dressed myself in black. Head to toe, underwear to shawl. I was grieving. I was mourning. I was despairing. I thought: Never in my lifetime will a woman be president. I thought: I live in a country in which the loudest, meanest barnyard brute gets to win. I thought: Half of my country hates Barack Obama, a leader I respect. An astute leader without a hint of scandal. No Twitter rants. Yet…