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Fun History (Coming Soon) Fun 

Books, Agents and the Ups and Downs of Blog Writing

In the beginning of 2014, I decided to write a monthly blog on The Year of IVY, since I was sure my book RESCUING IVY would be coming out sometime during 2015. I would tell the story of the book from idea to printed page.

I made a great start, writing about how I got the  Read More 
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THE YEAR OF IVY -- YEAR TWO

A year ago, I set out to write about my middle grade novel, RESCUING IVY, having been led to believe by my editor that the book would be published in late 2014, early 2015. My goal was to blog about the novel in the year prior to publication, from getting the original idea to actually holding  Read More 
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Let History Inspire Your writing

I was asked by the Indiana Writers Consortium to blog for them on historical writing last month. The link to that site is www.indianawritersconsortium.org, or use the direct link in the list at the left, below.

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Even A Writer's Friends Aren't Safe

Writers have a heightened sense of curiosity about things around them, which is why many of us love research. It is also why writers commonly do things that polite society frowns on. Like eavesdropping on conversations. And stealing … er, borrowing events from your friends’ lives to use in your stories.

While researching RESCUING IVY,  Read More 
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The Year of Ivy -- In Writing What You Don’t Know, You Can Strike Gold

There’s a lot of advice out there for writers. I think, in large part, this is because writing is such a solitary, confounding, and frustrating experience. It’s also because I have found writers, especially writers for children, to be a very helpful group, and when one of them finds something that works,  Read More 
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The Year of Ivy -- The Trouble with Research

I love discovering new things, so I was really looking forward to doing research for Rescuing Ivy. But I soon discovered that for every question I found an answer to, three more questions were raised.

So, my visit to that small circus led to my wanting to know more about circuses, especially how the  Read More 
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The Year of Ivy -- A Gift from a Clown

An advertisement in our local paper answered my “where the heck do I go from here with my book?” question shortly after I asked it. A circus was coming to a town near me.

Not the world famous Ringling Brothers show that comes by rail every year to Chicago  Read More 
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The Year of Ivy -- The Journey of a Book from Idea to Printed Page

And so, the Year of Ivy has begun…

Last week, the final revision of my middle-grade historical novel, Rescuing Ivy, was passed from my editor to the publisher. My part of the process of turning Ivy into a book has come to  Read More 

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Welcome Back, Grandma Poinsettia

Grandma came to our house for Thanksgiving again this year, as she has for the 37 years I’ve been married her son. For the past 20 years, however, she’s not come in person, but in the form of a white Poinsettia.

You see, we  Read More 

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What to Write???

Faced with writing a blog, I pondered what I might have to say that would warrant someone taking time out to actually read my words.

I know a few things about young people, having raised four of my own. I've also taught elementary school for five years, been a den leader for a few  Read More 

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