Animals make excellent symbols in writing and my children love books and stories about animals. One of their favorite stories is a little one I tell them about my guardian hawk. The hawk lives in the small copse, or group of trees, that borders our property. There are lots of tasty rodents for the hawk… Read more »
Books
Working With Volunteers Made Easy
Working with volunteers can be the most rewarding experience or the most frustrating. Numerous non-profit organizations across the nation rely on volunteers to stuff envelopes, raise money, pick up litter, and donate their time to the cause. It isn’t always easy, but working without volunteers is a frightening possibility for many organizations. Perhaps due to hectic… Read more »
Help for Moms of Picky Eaters: Mom Talk with Denise LaRosa
I am so thrilled to share the link to a truly fun conversation I had with Denisa LaRosa, host of Mom Talk with Denise LaRosa. Denise and I are both Pittsburgh moms, but she is raising girls and I have all boys. We share a common goal in helping our kids develop a healthy relationship… Read more »
Reading Goals for 2015
In 2015 I plan to read 100 books. While that total number of books may seem high for some people, but the goal itself seems straightforward, right? Wrong. Debate 1: Does it count as having read a book if you listened to an audio book? It turns out people don’t actually agree on what counts as… Read more »
Good Book Trailers
I love the idea of book trailers and hope one day I’ll have one for my as-yet-unpublished books. In the meantime, I’m very proud to share the excellent book trailer for Defective, a book written by my Pennwriters critique group partner Susan Sofayov. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but this trailer had… Read more »
The Goldfinch and other books
Writers need to read books. Here are some I’ve read because they won awards. “…It’s a joke, the Fabritius. It has a joke at its heart. And that’s what all the very greatest masters do. Rembrandt. Velázquez. Late Titian. They make jokes. They amuse themselves. They build up the illusion, the trick—but, step closer? it… Read more »
More tips for picky eaters!
Looking for more tips for picky eaters? If you have a picky eater in your family, you are probably familiar with the feeling that you’re in the middle of a food fight. You’ve prepared food but your picky eater won’t try a bite. Let the battle of wills begin! But I found that getting into… Read more »
NaNoWriMo 2014
It’s almost November! And you know what that means? NaNoWriMo 2014! NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month is only a few days away and I’m itching to get started. I had two ideas in mind for this month’s project. Project Ideas 1. “Sweetie” is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel set in Depression-Era Baltimore. -or-… Read more »
How to Find An Agent For My Novel
Earlier this year, I finished the first draft of my middle novel, Dare Club. Once the draft was done, I dedicated the rest of the year to revision and to find an agent for my novel. I knew that it would be tough to find an agent for my novel wasn’t going to be easy… Read more »
Kids Ebooks Project
I’m working on a new kids ebook project and it’s part bucket-list, part platform builder. I’ve created kids ebooks before, but for this project I felt it was important that the ebook exist as a standalone app and not get buried in an e-reader. I’ve also always wanted to create an app and I’ve had… Read more »