Travel-Sized
Something that has always stuck with me from pioneer tales is the images of the keepsakes and other non-mandatory items pioneer families often had to discard on the trail as the trip became harder and the oxen grew weary of pulling the overloaded wagons. This is just one of the reasons on the very long […]
Possible Detours
Once, in one of my (not uncommon) moments of thinking that I could no longer handle the financial uncertainty of the children’s book writing life, I read a book that purported to match creative people to potential career pursuits. I read the advice, filled out the quizzes, and finally received my assigned “type.” With great […]
Wish You Were Here
There are lots of ways that young writers can use actual collaging and related techniques to build a setting for their own stories.
Headlights
Recently, I’ve been thinking back on a time when my focus was riveted on helping to care for a family member who was dealing with serious medical issues. It’s been stressful to have this large “life moment” disrupt my normal routine, but it also brings with it a certain kind of clarity. It’s kind of […]
Watching for the Brown Truck
A few years back, I had one frightening week. I had my head down, working hard, when I heard a commotion outside. I got up to look out my front window and saw the SWAT team marching towards my house, carrying guns and wearing bullet-proof vests. Once the sound of the news helicopters alerted me […]
Emergency Car Kit
When I was a kid growing up in the north woods of Minnesota, a group of my neighborhood friends had a “Chipmunk Fort.” It was constructed out of a pile of old fencing materials in my friend Paul’s backyard; each kid had their own “house” in the fort. We spent some time collecting pretty rocks […]
Fake ID
Ask your young writers to imagine a social media profile for their main character. What games do they play? Do they win? Do they cheat? What would their online profile say? Do they lie when they’re online, and if so, what about?
In the Driver’s Seat
To be able to learn how to get somewhere, I have to drive the route myself. Riding shotgun doesn’t work if I’m trying to memorize the route; somehow the feeling of the necessary twists and turns has to seep up through the steering wheel and into the pores of my hands for me to be […]
Traction
I try to deliver regular advice you can use to aid and inspire your young writers, but this week I’m leaning on the wisdom of others. This is advice I’ve found helpful those times it feels like my writing wheels are stuck in deep mud and spinning wildly and I’ll never gain traction again. Here, […]
Blind Spots
Blind spots are a driving danger, but they can also be a reading pleasure.
The Finish Line
Nothing is a bigger thrill for the young writers I mentor than what we have come to call their “publication parties.”
Signs, Signs, Everywhere There’s Signs
When I was a young teenager my family made a road trip from Minnesota to Texas to visit my father’s parents. The long trip south mostly featured one kind of civil war: the endless bickering of my two brothers and the male cousin who’d come along for the ride. For the trip back north, I […]
That’s How I Roll
As a kid I was the one who instigated a lot of the fun. It might be playing pirates in the tree house, or cops and robbers in my mom’s parked station wagon, or spies who wrote secret code in lemon juice (later revealing the message by holding it over the toaster). Often our make […]
Tuned in to Talk Radio
When I was a little girl and my Minnesota grandparents came to visit, we shared them around for sleeping purposes. One night I would share my double bed with Grandma, and the next night my brother and I would switch places, and I’d sleep on his top bunk while Grandpa settled into the bottom bunk. […]
That Time I Drove the Karma Bus
All freshmen at my college had to wear beanies at the start of school. Besides the obvious fashion quandary, the problem was that students from the town’s rival college gloried in stealing beanies. And I knew if any of my upper classmates caught me sans beanie, they had the power to make me stand on […]