Writing the Controversial

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
October 3, 2009

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On Banned Books Week from September 26th until October 3rd, we celebrate the First Amendment which allows us the freedom to read what we wish to read. It also celebrates our intellectual freedom to express ideas that might not be acceptable to everyone.

An amazing number of books have been on the “banned” list. Almost every state in the Union still has some group who wants specific titles censored, out of the libraries and off the bookstore shelves. This is the outcome of writers who have been bold enough to speak their minds. Harper Lee did this with To Kill a Mockingbird. Mark Twain is still in the hot seat for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.

When you write, you sometimes must take sides on an issue. Writing is not for cowards, especially when you write about hot-button topics, attempt to make a specific point or include characters in your work that are less than conventional.

Writing is not only for enjoyment but also for enlightenment. When we see something that doesn’t seem right to us, or have a deep sense of commitment on an issue, we naturally have a desire to write about it. Not all readers may agree with us but we must be who we are as writers and as individuals.

To write from a controversial perspective, you must do your homework. Look on ALL sides of the issue, not just the one you agree with. Do some research on your topic and on your story line that represents your intellectual point of view. Develop your characters with care and understanding.

There is one lesson no one can teach you, how to be thick-skinned. You can suffer for your decision to express yourself so be prepared. However, if no one took writing past the normally acceptable path, we would never grow in our awareness of that which is unfair and unacceptable in our world.


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LINKS



ALA – Banned Books Week
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm


Banned Books Week
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

Banned Books List
http://www.adlerbooks.com/banned.html


Taking a Stand
http://www.uwec.edu/markgrjs/persuasion.htm


Diane Chamberlain Blog
http://www.dianechamberlain.com/blog/?p=601

The Business of Writing I

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
July 21, 2009
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We’d rather forget, but we can’t. Writing is a business as well as a creative endeavor. The way we keep our records, log our submissions and prepare for the inevitability of taxes shows whether we are professionals or not.

In the next few issues of Sharing with Writers, I’m going to talk about ways to organize what you do and become the true professional that you were meant to be. Why? Because I need to know this information, too.

Let’s start with organizing our work area. Oh, yes, I know it’s never completely organized, but the better job you do at keeping things together the more time you have to write.

I hope you have a cozy nook where you can write. If you have a spare bedroom you can convert into an office, congratulations. If not, find a corner of a room (or a basement) where you can work. You simply must have a dedicated area. I use the second bedroom in my little duplex. Make sure you have space for your computer, printer and shelves filled with good reference books. I have four bookshelves crammed with volumes and a closet that I converted into a supply room for paper, folders, and so forth.
So get your act together! Next issue well take the next step.
Happy organizing!

LINKS

Handling Writers Income and Expenses
http://www.writing-world.com/rights/expenses.shtml

The ABC Checklist for New Writers
http://www.writersservices.com/mag/08/ABC_Checklist_3.htm

Organized Writer - Julie Hood
http://www.organizedwriter.com/

The Writer’s Legal Guide – Tad Crawford
http://books.google.com/books?id=VIqj8BRPnOsC&printsec=frontcover

Taxes and Freelance Writers, What to Do?
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/89298/taxes_and_freelance_writerswhat_to.html?cat=3

A Straightforward Guide to Creative Writing, Stephen Wade
http://books.google.com/books?id=fWVzvxp3eBMC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=keeping+records+for+writers&source=bl&ots=9nZTHzV_Q9&sig=ReRe9IUztTrmWeR-WwMZCmJYLNw&hl=en&ei=pv5kSrLoC426Ne6wiZ8M&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10

Simple Recordkeeping and Tax Deductions for Writers, Pamela S. Thibodeaux
http://www.go-publish-yourself.com/articles/writing-related/thibodeauxp.php

Tracking Your Submissions, Greg Knollenberg
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/apr98/gak4.htm
Get Organized, Get Published, Don Aslett and Carol Cartaino
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Organized-Published-Ways-Success/dp/1582970033

10k Write Day! On a WEEKEND!

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For Milli Thornton's FEAR OF WRITING
http://www.fearofwriting.com
July 26, 2009 _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

10K Weekend Write!
Tentative Date: August 22, 2009

A Saturday Dedicated to WORDS

We all have a ton going on through the week and catch up with housework, second jobs, family and sleep on the weekends. I’m here to tell you that you also need one weekend a month to dive into the glory of words. You owe it to yourself. It’s like getting a weekend manicure – only this is a word-a-cure.

So here’s the deal. Join me, Mindy Phillips Lawrence, for the first WEEKEND 10-K Write on AUGUST 22, 2009 from 1am until 12am. OF COURSE you won’t write that long but you're going to want every minute to matter. Here are ten suggestions to make your 10K Writing Day count and give you time to get all those words written:

· Do everything you can around the house on Thursday and Friday before the Write begins.

· Prepare Saturday meals the day before so they can be nuked or cooked in 30 minutes or less (access a Web site or too for recipe ideas). This is the one day you have permission to eat in front of your computer.

· See if you can get your kids invited somewhere that day. See if granny is busy. If you ARE granny, see if you can swear off keeping the grandkids that day – or write around their visit.

· Lay out your clothes the night before.

· Shower early. It pries your eyes and mind open to begin your writing day fresh and alert.

· Start Saturday laundry and write from load to load. This is like having a writing timer set and you get clean laundry to boot.

· Establish a pattern you’ll use on both your weekend and weekly 10K Writes. DEDICATE yourself to giving a day a month to develop your stories, novels, articles, Web sites and so forth. It will pay off.

· Lay out all the writing paraphernalia you’ll need to write if yon intend to use a dictionary or a thesaurus (although this is actually a no-no on 10K Days).

· Plan 15-minute breaks to where you don’t get sick of the written word.

· Plan to take a walk during the day to exercise your muscles and air out your mind.


There you are. I’ll be writing with you and reporting my progress on the link Milli gives us. Just knowing that other people are in this with me is a huge boost so CHECK IN! CHECK IN! CHECK IN!

Mindy Phillips Lawrence
Springfield , MO

A SHARED BIRTHDAY

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
January 19, 2009
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I join these people in celebrating January 19th as my birthday: Chinese philosopher Tai Chen (1724), Scottish inventor James Watt (1736), US poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809), French painter Paul Cezanne (1839), US author and critic Alexander Woollcott (1887), US publisher Oveta Culp Hobby (1905), US actress Jean Stapleton (1923), Canadian broadcast journalist Robert MacNeil (1931), US singer Phil Everly (1939), English singer and actor Michael Crawford (1942), US singer Janis Joplin (1943), US singer and songwriter Dolly Parton (1946), and US newscaster Ann Compton (1947).

I’m not a teenager but I’m certainly not ready to relinquish my life to the “has been” pile either. In fact, I wish I had money for everyone who says to me, “I’m too old to do that.” BALDERDASH! Here are a few examples of writers who did NOT quit just because they had birthdays:

Norman Mailer
Until his death on November 10, 2007, Norman Mailer wrote. He was working on the second novel in a trilogy beginning with A CASTLE IN THE FOREST (2007) when he ran out of time. He was 84.

Helen Hooven Santmyer
Santmyer wrote her well-known novel, …AND LADIES OF THE CLUB, when she was 88. The 1400-page novel sold only a few copies before becoming a Book-of-the Month selection and taking off with readers. It was on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Elizabeth Jane Howard
Howard still plies her writing wares at 85. She lives and works in Suffolk, England. http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/an-85-year-old-novelists-writing-room/ She works on a MAC computer and sits in an old chair that she says is comfortable. Her first novel was THE BEAUTIFUL VISIT.

Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe is 77 and shows no signs of stopping. His fourth novel, BACK TO BLOOD is set to be published in 2009. He sent shock waves through the publishing industry when he recently ditched Farrar, Strauss and Giroux for Little Brown.

Joan Didion
At 74, Joan Didion is still producing work. In 2005, she wrote the heart-wrenching book THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, a catharsis about the death of her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne. She is working on an HBO special about Washington Post’s grand dame, Katharine Graham.

Mary Oliver
Oliver, a Pulitzer-Prize winning poet, is 71. Her remarkable poetry gets deeper and richer. Her most recent book, RED BIRD, came out in 2008.

What birthdays do is make you think about what is important to you as you become aware that you have less time ahead of you. The worst thing you can do is to get into the thought pattern that you are too old to do anything. The wheels will come off the wagon in due time. Meanwhile, keep driving HARD toward that finish line. Make the trip interesting.

LINKS

EXPLORING THE PAST: CREATIVITY IN OLD AGE
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9505EFDA1439F931A35750C0A967948260

HOW CREATIVITY KEEPS US AGELESS
http://www.beliefnet.com/Health/2007/05/How-Creativity-Keeps-Us-Ageless.aspx

'IT'S NEVER TOO LATE' FOR CREATIVITY, SAYS GERONTOLOGIST
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/17605/edition_id/349/format/html/displaystory.html

CREATIVITY MAY PLAY KEY ROLE IN HEALTHY AGINGhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4893420/

Para el amor de palabras (For the Love of Words)

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
March 25, 2009
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When I was in college (the first time), I swore what I considered an everlasting oath to study American literature and authors only. My upbringing had a hand in this decision along with the fact that my English professor who was so instrumental in my development taught American lit at that time. What I didn’t realize was that decision locked me into study of a certain range of thought, excluding other ideas from a more expansive world. I had narrowed myself. It has taken me decades to see where reading from a greater world of literature, writing and philosophy can expand what I know in a beautiful way.

I began to study languages in 1995, taking two years of Spanish, a year of Italian and began Portuguese when, unfortunately, my professor died mid-semester with no replacement (neither as an instructor nor as a person). I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude, in Spanish. I picked up Lorca, Paz and others and begin to learn about their work.

Now I have branched out to other countries. I am reading Salman Rushdie, V.I. Naipaul. Doris Lessing, J.M. Coetzee, and Arundhati Roy. I plan to expand even more.

What has this done for my writing? It has enhanced my ability with words immeasurably. The beautiful phrasing and description in Naipaul’s work has seized my soul. It SAYS something. Everything connects to some larger truth. It’s where I want to go with my work. Plain and simple, I want to write with a purpose. Reading current world literature has expanded my ability to write about that purpose as well as defining the purpose itself.

I want to encourage you to step outside your reading and writing box and EXPAND what you know. Grasp ideas from other cultures, faiths and philosophies. You don’t have to agree with them. Not at all. What you have to do is learn from them in order to deepen your base of ideas and, therefore, your writing.

I have mentioned only a few writers from a limited number of countries in the links below. Go to the Internet, your local library or a good bookstore and expand this list of authors to begin your adventure. Drink deeply and often. Your writing will deepen as your thoughts do.

LINKS

World Literature
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/

V.I. Naipaul
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2001/naipaul-bio.html

Salman Rushdie
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth87

Arundhati Roy
http://www.weroy.org/arundhati.shtml
http://www.salon.com/sept97/00roy.html

Gabriel Garcia Marquez
http://www.themodernword.com/gabo/

Doris Lessing
http://www.dorislessing.org/

J.M. Coetzee
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/coetzee.htm

Amy Tan
http://www.amytan.net/

Umberto Eco
http://www.umbertoeco.com/en/

RESEARCH AND WRITING

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
March 25, 2009
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Many of us work on articles, novels and other forms of writing for which we much do research. Thanks to the Internet, the job is much simpler than it used to be. However, sometimes it is still daunting.

Recently, my goal was to make a connection between Ireland and Germany in the years leading up to World War II, particularly in 1938. I didn’t know if there was an association but, thanks to Google, I found what I wanted.

If you do non-fiction writing or have a business helping others do research, you know how indispensible it is to know how to do good literary detective work. Google is not the only source.

Libraries
I am fortunate to have a large public library system where I live and very good personnel there who will help me find what I need. They also allow me to interlibrary loan resources that they don’t have in house. Because of this, I have books from several far-flung college libraries in my stack at home.

Also, if there are colleges and universities in your city, or nearby, you can usually join them for a small amount annually and have access to their works. I am a member of the Missouri State Library System, Mineral Area College Library in Park Hills, MO and the Magale Library at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, Arkansas where I graduated. I will soon add the Missouri State University Library System here in Springfield.

University Faculty
Your local college or university often has faculty personnel willing to help you with research questions. Even if you are trying to figure out a computer problem, you can often call a community college or university and get someone to help you. If you are doing research in a particular field, you might call that department and find a faculty member who will answer your questions.

Experienced Individuals
By use of the Internet and through referrals, you can often find those who have direct experience in the topic you are researching. For instance, if you need to figure out a police procedure, you could call the non-emergency number of your local police department, or make a trip there in person, and find someone willing to speak with you about what you want to know.
The Internet has many lists of those who are professionals who are willing to answer your questions so get out there and find your answers.

LINKS

University of Wisconsin Expert Database
http://experts.news.wisc.edu/

California State University Expert Database
http://www.csuchico.edu/pa/fdb/

Monmouth University Expert Database
http://www.monmouth.edu/about_monmouth/public_affairs/experts/default.asp

Washington University (St. Louis) Expert Database
http://news-info.wustl.edu/experts/

University of Virginia Expert Database
http://www.virginia.edu/facultyexperts/expert.php?id=289

University of Arkansas Expert Database
http://experts.uark.edu/

Louisiana Tech University Expert Database
http://www.latech.edu/technews/tech-sources-home.cgi

Penn State Expert Database – Criminal Justice and Race
http://experts.psu.edu/topics.php?topic=12

Character Development

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
March 13, 2009
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When you are trying to make your characters real, start with a list of their attributes (like where did they come from? What is their background? What do they look like? What faith did they grow up believing?). Get as detailed as possible. Although you might not use all the information, it’s good to have everything down about that “person.” Do this for each of your main characters and any others that might be beneficial to your writing plan.

Your characters are REAL to YOU. Take time to visit with them and figure out how they express themselves. Take a mental walk with them and get to know them better.

Writing Hot

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
March 13, 2009
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There’s an old song called “It’s Too Darned Hot.” I think writers can get that way at times when they write. When we are so “in the zone” working on a story that we forget where we are headed – or gallop out into la-la land – it might be time to draw back a little and view the landscape.

I was writing on my book last night and was hot as can be writing the story. When I drew back a little, I realized I’d lost my bearings. Today I took some time to read what I had down and figure out where the story was headed (no this is NOT over-editing what you’ve written and stopping dead in your tracks. It’s just a caesura – a pregnant pause).

Now, I know many writers write to a hard and fast outline. I write with a sentence-based, what-if concept that probably won’t work for anyone but me. Feel free to give it a try and jettison the whole idea if it doesn’t work for you.

By all means have fun with your story. If you prefer to gallop ahead and jump over that cliff at the end, go right ahead. There might be some cool ideas at the bottom.

I think I’ll stop short of that cliff and see if I can build a bridge.

ESSAYS ANYONE?

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
March 8, 2009
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Let’s learn a little about essays today. No, not those staid old things we read in Eighteenth Century anthologies in college or that some English teacher assigned us. Let’s think about the modern essay.

Several well-known modern writers have excelled at essay writing. Among them are Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, E. B. White, James Baldwin, Joan Didion, James McConkey, Cynthia Ozick, Alice Walker, Philip Levine and John Updike. They used the form to say something poignant and to get a point across.

In school we learned essay writing as a strict five-part form that I advocate you learn and then bend as you wish. I’ve given you links to the basics at the end of this article. I’ve also given you links to present-day essayists so you can see what they have to say and how they went about saying it.

So what can you say with an essay? Almost anything. Here are some examples:

PERSONAL ESSAYS
· A significant experience in your life
· An epiphany you had
· What you want to do in the last ten years of your life

PERSUASIVE ESSAYS
· The influence of the Internet, good or bad?
· National health care: for or against?
· Does the war on terrorism have an end?

RESEARCH ESSAYS
· Neil Sedaka, “The Immigrant” and how things have changed
· The influence of Irish music on Bluegrass
· The real history of the Suffragettes

So see? You can go fancy-schmancy with your topics or write an essay about why you like tulips instead of roses on Valentine’s Day. It’s all up to you.


LINKS

ESSAYS – Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay

GUIDE TO WRITING A BASIC ESSAY
http://members.tripod.com/~lklivingston/essay/

DIFFERENT KINDS OF ESSAYS
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/essay.html

“THIS I BELIEVE” - NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4538138

John Updike, “On Not Being a Dove” http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/on-not-being-a-dove-7529

Alice Walker, “Alice Walker Reflects on Working Toward Peace”
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/architects-of-peace/Walker/essay.html

Joan Didion, “Why I Write” (excerpt)
http://www.idiom.com/~rick/html/why_i_write.htm

Presenting with the Best

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
March 8, 2009
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I went to a writers’ workshop conducted by western author Dusty Richards, a guy with his 82nd book on its way. I learned something valuable. It doesn’t matter what genre you choose as a writer, there are means and methods of producing your work that will make it have a greater chance of success. I also learned how Dusty went over these writing methods using a PowerPoint presentation.

If you intend to speak about your work, why not learn to do a simple PowerPoint presentation on your topic and figure out how to hook up a computer projector to display it on a wall or screen for your audience? Now buying a projector might not be frugal, as Carolyn might point out, but renting one or seeing if the venue where you are speaking has one available IS very frugal.

I suggest you find a person who knows how to do this, take them out to lunch or dinner and take a notepad with you. Pump their minds for information and techniques. Then, after you’ve sucked out the proper stuff from their heads, offer some of YOUR knowledge back to them in exchange.

Maybe, as Rick said in Casablanca, it could be the “beginning of a beautiful [collaborative] friendship.”

Novels as Classrooms

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
March 7, 2009
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It’s Saturday morning and you’re staring at a blank page on your computer wishing it would miraculously turn into the Great American Novel. Unfortunately, it stays blank. You idea bin is dry and you aren’t sure how to express the one thought circulating through your head. Here’s an idea for you. READ.

In my home office, I have a pile of books that I’ve decided to study. They include Dan Brown’s THE DAVINCI CODE, V.I. Naipaul’s A BEND IN THE RIVER, Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s THIS IS THE PLACE, Dan Skelton’s OUT OF INNOCENCE and Laila Lalami’s ARC of SECRET SON. Lalami’s book weaves together the threads of a young man searching for his identity, the definition of “family” and the factions seeking to take over the heart of Morocco. I began to think how the writer structured her novel, developed the characters and set them on the road to either catastrophe or freedom. It was a perfect vehicle to study.

Here are some ways to turn the novels you read into classrooms for your writing:

* Pick one or two books that you think are exceptionally well written and in the genre in which you want to write.

Read these books once or twice, paying attention to how they are structured.

Choose one of these books and dissect it in these ways:

* Define the setting of the novel.

* Write a paragraph synopsis of the novel chapter by chapter.

* Make a character sketch of each main character.

* Outline how these characters develop throughout the story and how they interrelate.

* Is the setting a character in and of itself? Think the Mississippi River in Tom Sawyer. If so, list its characteristics as if it were a person.

* Look at the literary conventions used in the book: Metaphor, allegory, etc.

* Does the novel make a political, religious or social statement? If so, make some notes about where and how it achieves this goal.

* If the novel is a fantasy, in what way does it relate to the World we live in? What does it say about that World?

* What do you think you could have done better if you had written the book? Even Nobel Prize winners aren’t perfect.

Yes, this will take time. Yes, you will not be actually writing your Great American Novel when you are doing this. The important part is that you are training yourself to write it.

If you want to cut to the chase, look at the links below for sites that have already dissected classic novels. Not only do Sparks, Cliff Notes and Pink Monkey tell you about a book, they also show its structure. However, DO NOT use these tools in place of reading each book that you choose. You might differ with what an academic has said about the piece. In fact, please put your own thoughts down about the book and use the professional notes as a guide only.

Copying the plot of any of the novels you read is not the intention of this lesson. The goal is for you to learn character development, plot structure and insight in order to write your unique work. Whether you realize it or not, you have the same potential that published writers have. The only difference is they lucked out and found a publisher. You may have to write several novels until this happens to you--and it might not--but the process is paramount. There is CreateSpace.Com and other places to publish if you are not willing to wait for a big break (or if you have waited and get too discouraged). REMEMBER to edit your work to a fine polish whether you publish traditionally or otherwise.
Study, write and bloom!

LINKS

The Best Notes – Online Sparks and Cliffs Notes
http://www.thebestnotes.com/

Pink Monkey – A Web site that breaks down the plot, characters and meaning in famous novels. Use as a beginning, NOT a crutch.
http://www.pinkmonkey.com/

Writing a synopsis
http://www.ehow.com/how_4449207_write-synopsis-book.html

CreateSpace – Amazon’s arms for publishing on demand
http://www.createspace.com/

Pulitzer Prize Winning Authors
http://www.powells.com/prizes/pulitzer_fiction.html

Nobel Prize Winning Authors
http://almaz.com/nobel/literature/

New York Times Best Sellers
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller/

Literary Terms
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html

Plot Development
http://www.learner.org/interactives/literature/read/plot1.html

Reviews for Riters © on the HowToDoItFrugally site
http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.redenginepress.com/free_content.htm

Kids’ Stuff

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
July 21, 2009
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Writing books for children is a special market, one that determines a child’s love of words early on. It’s also challenging. Do you write books for children to read on their own or to be read to them by an adult? What about vocabulary and length? What about content? What about art?

Kids’ stuff in writing combines the delight of art and the magic of words in combination in order to paint a word-image picture for children. It’s a hard balance.

One of my favorite books for children is Maurice Sendak’s WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. When it first came out in 1963, people questioned the drawings in it, a series of monsters. By 1964, it had won the Caldecott Medal for its original artwork.
Historically known children’s writer-artists such as Kate Greenaway (1846-1901), depicted an idyllic life for children in her books using words and soft watercolor artwork. Her famous drawings of little girls caused parents to dress their daughters in the high-waisted frocks and pantaloons of the characters.

Modern children’s writers write about problems that children face as they grow up–-like divorce and moral issues. Children’s writers have to know how far to go in these books and how to present the material to a young audience.

Below, you will find some links that will help you with writing kids’ stuff. Good luck in carrying the love of words to the next generation.

LINKS

WRITING FOR YOUNG READERS, Eugie Foster
http://www.writing-world.com/children/index.shtml

Kate Greenaway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Greenaway

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, Maurice Sendak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Wild_Things_Are

Children’s Writing – Writer’s Write
http://www.writerswrite.com/childrens/links.htm

Stone Soup – A magazine for children
http://www.stonesoup.com/

Writing Multicultural Children’s Books
http://www.underdown.org/multicul.htm

Writing for Children
http://www.writing-world.com/links/children.shtml

Kathe Gogolewski – Writer/Book Illustrator
http://www.redenginepress.com/kathe_gogolewski.htm

Thinking Stone Press and MPL Creative Resources

Let Thinking Stone Press guide you through the process of publishing your OWN commemorative book for a loved one. We provide the book cover, the editing, formatting and coach you through placing your book on Amazon through CreateSpace – all for $250. It’s a great bargain!

E-mail thinkingstonepress@yahoo.com for details.

P.S. We do poetry chapbooks, too.

Rejection: A Positive Step Toward Publication

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"An Itty Bitty Column on Writing" by Mindy Phillips Lawrence
From Sharing with Writers (Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
February 3, 2009
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You send off a query and wait for an answer. And wait and wait and wait. One day, a thin envelope comes in the mail or an e-mail comes from the publisher. The contents says, “Thanks, but no thanks.” For the next day or so, you are in a blue funk. How could the editor not see how excellent your topic was? How skillfully you wrote about it? You begin to believe that all editors are born to reject.

Are you SURE about that? If that is true, how do all those OTHER articles, stories and books get published? Someone gets accepted. Why not you? Rejection exposes all our insecurities, dragging them to the surface. Even seasoned authors tend to question their abilities and rejection fuels thatfire.

But, here’s the thing. Rejection is a powerful teacher. Here are some ofits lessons:

~Rejection lets you know how deeply you want to fight for publication
~Rejection makes you tweak your writing and make it better
~Rejection makes you read the markets you query more closely
~Rejection makes you study the market’s cycle to see what’s hot and what’s not and try to produce a hot bit of writing
~Rejection teaches you not to take rejection letters personally
~Rejection makes you decide whether to choose to think positively ornegatively about your work

I read somewhere that when you receive a rejection you should allowyourself FIVE MINUTES to throw a temper tantrum in a room by yourself. After you have done this a time or two, you will realize that five minutes is an awfully long time to rant all alone.

So, get back to writing!

LINKS

“How to Deal with Rejection,” Shruti Chandra Gupta
http://literaryzone.com/?p=340

“How NOT to let Rejection Ruin Your Writing Career,” Melanie Marten
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/76897/fiction_writers_guide_to_getting_over.html?cat=24

“Relishing Writing Rejection,” Janet Grace Riehl
http://ezinearticles.com/?Relishing-Writing-Rejection

“Coping With Rejection,” Moira Allen
http://www.writing-world.com/basics/rejection.shtml

“Rejection: A Normal Part of a Writer’s Life,” Jason Lusk
http://writinghood.com/writing/rejection-a-normal-part-of-a-writers-life