Blog Archives

Teen Tuesday: #AugWritingChallenge

7/29/2014

This is the part of the summer where I gasp at how fast the season is going. The good news: we still have all of August ahead of us. Is anyone interested in participating in a writing challenge with me? I have never been able to commit to NaNoWriMo for a variety of reasons, but August feels like the perfect month for an experiment. With the #AugWritingChallenge, you write 500 words a day, each day, for the whole month. There are more details here, and this is for writers of all ages.

Teens, you can participate in an August blog chain if you sign up by August 4th. Sponsored by John Hansen and Teens Can Write, Too, this month's topic is "What characters are you most like?" Sign up here.

I'm looking forward to getting lots of writing done in August. Do you have any creative plans for the rest of the summer?

Friday Five: Guest post by C. Lee McKenzie, author of Double Negative

7/25/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

Today I'm thrilled to feature a guest post from my long time critique partner, C. Lee McKenzie. Her latest YA novel, Double Negative, launches today!

Double Negative Cover

Five Challenges I Had While Writing Double Negative By C. Lee McKenzie

Every book has its challenges, and each one I’ve written presents new ones. Here are five things that I wrestled with during the writing of Double Negative.

1. I struggled deciding how I’d handle Hutch’s language at the beginning of the book. I wanted him to use poor grammar, but I wanted to endear him to readers who I figured would find too much “warped” English annoying.

2. The second struggle was closely related to the first. I needed a way to gradually show Hutch’s language evolving, but I didn’t want to make his slow change disruptive to the story.

3. I dislike anything to do with the drug culture, especially when young people are involved. So I didn’t want to present a lot of drug scenes in my YA book, but I needed a few to put Hutch into bad situations so I could get him out of them. Choosing what kinds of scenes to use was a huge challenge for me.

4. Fat Nyla was a challenge, too. I loved her and I wanted the reader to empathize with her, but I didn’t want her size to be the only way for them to connect with her. Also, I didn’t want her arc to be a Cinderella transformation. She was interesting, but one of the harder characters to “get” right.

5. I have several adults in this story, and the challenge here was to keep the focus on my teen protagonist and let him find his own way, but with these adults as key players throughout.

One thing about being challenged is I learned a lot from writing this book, so I’m grateful it didn’t come easily to the page.

DOUBLE NEGATIVE Summary: Hutchison Mc Queen is a sixteen-year-old smart kid who screws up regularly. He’s a member of Larkston High’s loser clique, the boy who’s on his way to nowher--unless juvenile hall counts as a destination. He squeaks through classes with his talent for eavesdropping and memorizing what he hears. When that doesn’t work, he goes to Fat Nyla, the one some mean girls are out to get and a person who’s in on his secret--he can barely read. And then Maggie happens. For twenty-five years she’s saved boys from their own bad choices. But she may not have time to save Hutch. Alzheimer’s disease is steadily stealing her keen mind.

C. Lee McKenzie is a native Californian who grew up in a lot of different places; then landed in the Santa Cruz Mountains where she lives with her family and miscellaneous pets. She writes most of the time, gardens and hikes and does yoga a lot, and then travels whenever she can.

She takes on modern issues that today's teens face in their daily lives. Her first young adult novel, Sliding on the Edge, which dealt with cutting and suicide was published in 2009. Her second, titled The Princess of Las Pulgas, dealing with a family who loses everything and must rebuild their lives came out in 2010. Her short story, Premeditated Cat, appears in the anthology, The First Time, and her Into the Sea of Dew is part of a collection, Two and Twenty Dark Tales. In 2012, her first middle grade novel, Alligators Overhead, came out.

To learn more about Lee, visit her website, her blog, and the Double Negative Facebook Page.

Teen Tuesday: YCteen Writing Contest

7/22/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

YCteen Issue #242

YCteen Magazine is currently running a teen essay contest based on the following prompt:

If you could change someone's life, who would it be and what would you change? Why? It could be someone you know personally, a stranger you've observed, or yourself.

Writers must be between the ages of 14 and 19. The nonfiction essays (they must be true!) are due October 3, 2014, and can't be more than 800 words. First prize is $150. See the YCteen Contest website for complete rules and guidelines.

Friday Five: Hens, Horses and History--Guest Post by Bobbi Miller

7/18/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

On today's blog, author Bobbi Miller will be revealing five things she learned while researching her upcoming historical middle grade novel, The Girls of Gettysburg, available August 1st from Holiday House.

Historical Fiction and The Girls of Gettysburg
By Bobbi Miller

David McCullough once said, “We are raising a generation of young Americans who are by-and-large historically illiterate…The textbooks are dreary, they’re done by committee, they’re often hilariously politically correct and they’re not doing any good. [But] there are wonderful books, past and present. There is literature in history.” The strategy for using historical fiction to teach history is controversial. Educators worry that historical fiction may contain information that is biased or incorrect.

Historical fiction is the coming together of two opposing elements: fact and fiction. The controversy is grounded in defining the ‘truth’ of history. Other popular genres have distinct rules that govern basic premises. Dystopian fiction, for example, features a futuristic universe in which the illusion of a perfect society is maintained through corporate, technologic, or totalitarian control. Using an exaggerate worse-case scenario, the dystopian story becomes a commentary about social norms and trends.

Historical fiction defies easy explanation and definition. For some, historical fiction is first and foremost fiction, and therefore anything goes. Others condemn the blending of invention with accepted facts. Yet, nothing about history is obvious, and facts are often open to interpretation. Once upon a time, it was considered factual that the world was flat, that blood-letting was the proper way of treating disease, that women were emotionally and physically incapable of rational thought. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but he didn’t discover America. Some would say he was less an explorer and more of a conqueror. History tends to be written by those who survived it. As such, no history is without its bias.

So when I tackled the battle of Gettysburg as the focus of my new novel, Girls of Gettysburg, I had to first get the facts right. This was a daunting task because no other battle has been studied so thoroughly. And then, there’s the emotional truth, the story behind the facts. Historical fiction makes the facts matter to the reader. If I didn’t get this right, creating characters true to their time and place, the readers won’t care about the facts. For me, the only way to discover this emotional truth was to walk the battlefield of Gettysburg, and witness that landscape where my characters lived over one hundred and fifty years ago.

In my travels across the fields and town of Gettysburg, I learned many facts about the battle. Many of my scenes are based on actual events, from the harrowing basement cave-in to the march across the bloody field. I even researched weather patterns to make sure I had the weather right. But of all the facts I researched, these were some of my favorite:

The artillery barrage during Picket’s Charge could be heard 100 miles away in Pittsburgh.

The youngest soldier serving in the Civil War was a nine-year old boy from Mississippi.

In a single day, the one million horses serving in the Civil War would have peed enough urine to fill more than 12 standard swimming pools. More than 3,000 horses were killed at Gettysburg.

Robert E. Lee had a pet chicken named Hen. Every morning, Hen laid an egg under Lee’s cot, which he then cooked for breakfast. While Hen survived the battle at Gettysburg, she did not survive the war.

Feeling ill as he delivered the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln was diagnosed with a mild form of smallpox. Upon learning of his condition, Lincoln said, “For once in my life as President, I find myself in a position to give everybody something.”

Author Bobbi Miller

Bobbi Miller is the author of BIG RIVER'S DAUGHTER, MISS SALLY ANN AND THE PANTHER, DAVY CROCKETT GETS HITCHED, and ONE FINE TRADE. She lives in a log cabin, loves the outdoors and spins tall tales. For more information about Bobbi, visit her website.

Teen Tuesday: Movies Based on Teen Novels

7/15/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

Coming September 19, 2014

A number of recent movies have been created from teen novels. I'm looking forward to seeing The Maze Runner in September based on James Dashner's book. Do you have a favorite movie that was based on a middle grade or young adult story? Were their any film adaptations you disliked? Would you ever see a movie without reading the book first?

Friday Five: 5 Helpful Posts on Being a Debut Author, #NJSCBWI14, Hurricane Prep, and Writer's Block

7/11/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

I came across several good blog posts this week. Here are my favorite five.

An Unauthorized Guide to Being a Debut Author
By Dahlia Adler

Dahlia wrote a detailed three-part series about being a debut author. Check out part one (pre-promotion), part two (ARCs, swag, and self-promotion) and part three (in-person events).

The Art of Not Getting Published
By Susan Brody

An experienced conference-goer, Susan shares some big picture lessons she learned from this year's NJ SCBWI conference. Here’s a sample: “Becoming a published author does not change one's character. . . . an anxious prepublished author who gets a book published will become an anxious published author; only the focus of his or her anxiety will change.”

The Dirty Little Secret of the NJ SCBWI
By Taylor Vangclear

This is a thorough account of a first-timer attending the annual NJ SCBWI conference. And I’m not mentioning her blog post because she refers to me as “the nice lady in the lunch line” and she liked the workshop I taught. (Well, maybe that influenced me just a little bit.)

Hurricane Season Has Begun: Are You Ready?
By Robert Preidt

It’s officially hurricane season, and as with any potential disaster, it’s a good idea to be prepared. This article breaks down some ways to get you and your family ready.

7 Ways to Beat Writer's Block
By Andrew Lewis Conn

I love his unique suggestions, such as: pretend you have a serious injury and the surgeon has physician’s block -- absurd right? Now get back to writing!

Share your favorite posts (or links to your own blog) in the comments below.

Teen Tuesday: Teen Summer Writing Contest

7/8/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

Summer to do list: Write!

There are about two weeks left to submit poems and short stories to the Teen Summer Writing Contest sponsored by the Barbarba Bush Branch Library and the LSC-Tomball Community Library. The deadline is July 26, 5 pm -- leave time for mailing in your entries. There are poem and short story categories for ages 12-15/grades 6-8, and also for ages 15-18/grades 9-12. Poems must be less than 800 words, and short stories between 1000 and 1500 words. Please check the detailed submission guidelines for more information. Good luck!

Friday Five: 5 Reasons to Attend a Writing Conference

7/6/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

Happy 4th of July! Having recently attending New Jersey's annual Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference, I thought it would be helpful to explore why we attend conferences.

To learn.
Sign up for sessions that interest you, and if you have room in your schedule, try to take one workshop in a new area (for example, nonfiction if you are a fiction writer). At the recent NJ SCBWI conference, for example, Kathy Temean presented about the State of the Market, and is now sharing the info on her blog.

To meet new friends.
Conference-goers tend to be a friendly bunch, in my experience, and it’s great to meet new people who may become creative friends, sources of inspiration, or future critique partners.

To reconnect with old friends.
If you go to the same conference several times, one of the biggest joys is catching up with people you don’t get to see often enough.

To make industry connections.
Many people attend conferences to meet editors and agents and gain industry insight. Take advantage of editor panels, agent pitches, and one-on-one critiques (if available).

To be inspired.
Key note speakers (NJ SCBWI recently featured great speeches by Floyd Cooper and Rachel Vail), celebrating with other writers, and being surrounded by so many creative people can be inspiring! Soak it all in.

Upon returning home, make sure you convert the energy from the conference into something productive!

Have you been to any conferences lately? What other benefits do you think they bring?

Teen Tuesday: Contests and More

7/1/2014

By Yvonne Ventresca

This week: contests, workshops, and writing prompts.

Visit Free Writing Contests for Kids to see current listings of writing contests for teens (and younger kids).

The Writers Circle offers creative writing workshops for kids of various ages (and adults, too). Located in Summit, South Orange, and Maplewood, NJ. Typical fees are $180 for 6 weeks.

Check out the Teen Girls That Write blog for lots of fun writing prompts.

If you'd like to share writing resources for teens, please include them in the comments. Have a creative week!

Teen Tuesday: #AugWritingChallenge

Friday Five: Guest post by C. Lee McKenzie, author of Double Negative

Teen Tuesday: YCteen Writing Contest

Friday Five: Hens, Horses and History--Guest Post by Bobbi Miller

Historical Fiction and The Girls of Gettysburg
By Bobbi Miller

Teen Tuesday: Movies Based on Teen Novels

Friday Five: 5 Helpful Posts on Being a Debut Author, #NJSCBWI14, Hurricane Prep, and Writer's Block

Teen Tuesday: Teen Summer Writing Contest

Friday Five: 5 Reasons to Attend a Writing Conference

Teen Tuesday: Contests and More

Get new blog posts by email:

Archives

Categories

Historical Fiction and The Girls of GettysburgBy Bobbi Miller

Get new blog posts by email:

Newsletter: Sign me up!

Archives

Categories

Historical Fiction and The Girls of Gettysburg
By Bobbi Miller