Thought for the Day:
“The best way to have
a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” ~Linus Pauling~
Here are some links
that I think you will find valuable:
For a good article on creating emotional
frustration with GREAT examples and good exercises, click HERE.
Want to know how to develop any idea in to a great story? Click HERE for a good article on that.
Click HERE for a terrific article on turning any story idea into a
great story.
The winner of this week’s drawing for a Kindle
copy of The Treekeepers, (Hold your breath now!) is Carol Baldwin!! Carol is a writing
teacher and blogger extraordinaire. You can find her blog HERE,
and it is worth your time to go. Carol, I will be in touch about getting
your Kindle copy or The Treekeepers to you. If you didn’t win, read on. There
will be another giveaway this week.
A couple years ago when I went to my first retreat
with Carolyn Yoder at the Highlights Foundation, one of the new friends I made
was Ann Ingalls, a writer of extraordinary talent. She told us about her then-new picture book, The Little Piano Girl, which she had
co-written with her equally-talented sister, Maryann MacDonald. If you haven’t
seen this charming book, you really should get it. Ann and I have stayed in
touch. She helps me with my poems sometimes and we talk writing. Recently she mentioned
her sister had a new middle-grade book written in verse, Odette’s Secrets. I decided I’d better order it up and give it a
read. I’m so glad I did.
This is the story of a young Jewish girl living in Paris
with her mother and father. The Nazi’s invade the city and everything changes.
Odette’s father joins the French Army and her mother becomes part of the
Resistance. It was bad enough to have her father gone, but soon her mother
sends Odette with some other children to the country to live with strangers in
order to be safe. There she must keep secret that she is Jewish. She goes to
school, makes friends, and even goes to mass at the local church. Her life,
while so different from life in Paris, is really wonderful. After some time,
her mother has to escape Paris and is reunited with Odette. They move to
another small village and, again, Odette makes friends and seems to fit in. She
even teaches her mother what to do in mass so no one will know they are Jewish.
But is all this enough to keep them safe in these terrible times?
I pick wildflowers for Mary’s altar.
Then I take off my rubber sandals
and wade into the water to look for
frogs.
But a sound behind me makes me jump—is
it the cows?
No, it’s the village children marching
toward me.
One look tells me they’re not here to
play.
They look like farmers ready to chop
down a big tree.
 |
| Maryann MacDonald, photo taken by Stefan Falke |
I can’t bring myself to give away
Odette’s Secrets, but I always keep my
promises, so I have another middle-grade book to offer for this week’s drawing. It’s
The Fourth Stall Part III – a gently-read
ARC. You can see my review of it for the Sacramento Book Review by clicking HERE.
You won’t believe the concept of this series. It’s pretty darned funny.
Don’t forget to
stop by Shannon Messenger’s wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade
Monday links. Click HERE to find it.
On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry,
but it would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But
please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have
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