The final issue of Sights from the now-defunct ATA Airlines featured my story about making music - ‘ukuleles, to be specific. Read about two luthiers who turn out museum-quality instruments on the Big Island of Hawai’i. The title - Guitar Heroes - is decidedly inaccurate, an unfortunate change made in the editorial offices.
Book covers are an emotional quagmire for authors. We have absolutely no control over what the cover will look like. Perhaps I’ve got some baggage as far as my book covers go, because I found this post from the Chronicle Books Blog to be a fascinating peek into the world of book cover design.
I discover the darndest things when I’m researching my books. I’m editing my medieval book, and right now focusing on medieval witchcraft and sorcery (no hands-on projects here, I promise!). I just discovered this site, where you can order spells to suit your every need. Who knew?
Amy Bowllan, who blogs for School Library Journal (you’ll recognize her name as the brave soul who came clean about her lack of PVC pipe knowledge), recently asked how Team Challenges can be used to “unspoil” a child. You can read my response here.
This just in:
“Perhaps we should explain what PVC pipe is.”
Dear person who is editing my book:
Are you serious?
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Dear blog visitors:
If you do NOT know what PVC pipe is, would you please be brave enough to comment? If there truly is a lack of knowledge about PVC pipe in the world, by all means we need to explain it. But I’m thinking that wasting words on a description of PVC pipe would be as ridiculous as explaining what a tire is.
Love this, from Editorial Anonymous:
Typeface is not the writer’s chance to make her manuscript more beautiful. If your manuscript needs decoration, it’s not good enough yet.
My Tropical Island Paradise article featuring places to go and things to see on the island of Oahu is now online at Disney’s Family.com.
I spent Saturday attending two writer’s workshops hosted by an author with 80 published children’s books to her credit. I learned some things and it was great to hear another author’s perspective on the business.
But, you know how there’s always one person in a workshop who raises her hand to share at every pause? Mmhm. You know the one. The one who has been told 50 times during the presentation that the workshop is about children’s book writing, and in fact the presenter has no experience whatsoever with the student’s area of interest? And who insists on continuing to ask irrelevant questions anyway? And the one who stops the class to share that if we can only watch our words on our breath as we breathe in and out, we’ll find that the idea is hidden in the space in between breaths? Yep. She was there.
The upcoming release of The Golden Compass movie has upset lots of people because (I’m told) that God dies in the film. I have no idea if this is true or not - I’ve yet to read the book (I know, I know) and certainly haven’t seen the movie. In any case, Barnes and Noble has a nice video of Phillip Pullman sharing details of how the book and movie came about. I found it interesting.
