authors, children's books, What's New, writing, writing conference

Imagine a Story Conference – CANCELLED

Unfortunately, the Spring conference in Montreal has been cancelled. CANSCAIP's annual "Packaging Your Imagination" conference will be held in Toronto this fall.

Fables, Friday Fables, writing

Friday Fable: The Climax that went “meh”

You may know the old tale, "The Mountain in Labour:" A magnificent mountain began to rumble one day, and it made such a mighty noise that it was heard across the land, and people came from far and wide to witness the wonder that was bound to follow. Thousands gathered at the base of the mountain,… Continue reading Friday Fable: The Climax that went “meh”

Friday Fables, writing, young adult novel

Friday Fable: The Writer and the 138,000 word manuscript

You may know the old story, The Boy and the Nuts: A child visiting a wealthy home was pleased to find on the table a jar full of nuts and figs. (This was in the days before Skittles, keep in mind.) He plunged his greedy little hand into the sweet jar and took all that… Continue reading Friday Fable: The Writer and the 138,000 word manuscript

writing

Suddenly a blog post

"World is suddener than we fancy it." (Louis MacNiece, "Snow") We've long been warned not to build tension on the cheap by spattering our manuscripts with the word "suddenly." Lately I've read a few posts advising writers not to use the word at all - ever - because it's meaningless. These are posts from editors… Continue reading Suddenly a blog post

authors, writing

Profread One Least Time

In submitting a manuscript to an American publisher last week, I wrote a cover letter mentioning that one of my books (All Good Children) was nominated for two YALSA awards. I read through the letter and manuscript excerpt, made a few revisions, proofread it a final time, and was just about to send it off by email when I made a tiny last-minute… Continue reading Profread One Least Time