Tag: writing
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Pink Umbrella spills the tea on ONLY GOSSIP PROSPERS author Lorraine Tosiello: Part 1
Join us as we celebrate Pink Umbrella’s newest historical fiction author, Lorraine Tosiello, before the December release of Only Gossip Prospers. The book deftly blends fact and fiction to draw a realistic portrait of Louisa May Alcott’s sojourn in New York City at the height of her fame in 1875. Only Gossip Prospers began in…
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There’s nothing sheepish about Michelle Wilson’s Olive Ewe…
Maybe Mary had a little lamb, but author Michelle Wilson has Olive Ewe, a sweetly disaster-prone little muttonchop who is the star of Wilson’s new children’s book, Olive. Olive worries whether her friends and family will love her in spite of her flaws…but rest assured, both Wilson’s book and its title character are lovable indeed.…
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The Red Pen: a Dash of Dashes
Dashes are sexy. Okay, maybe not sexy like Chris Hemsworth or a new pair of heels. But among punctuation marks, it’s the only one that leaves me a little breathless. Exclamation points are so obvious, semi-colons are pretentious, question marks too coy—oh, but the possibilities conveyed in that hot little horizontal pause! It’s enough to…
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The Red Pen: Word crimes
You’re a writer, which means you’ve probably achieved a certain level of grammatical smugness—enough to muster a Dowager Countess of Grantham-worthy eyeroll at a misused their/there/they’re in a sign, or at a colleague saying supposably instead of supposedly, at any rate. But there are some words that have even the most precise of us googling.…
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Adrienne Quintana’s HIGH SIERRA takes readers into the woods
The place was a total dive. Dirty log walls and rusting metal furniture gave off a homeless shelter vibe—nothing like the fat camp my mom sent me to last summer. I mean, that place looked and felt expensive. And the chunky, bald guy across the desk from me was no fitness instructor. Crooked, black framed…
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The Red Pen: Comma Chameleon
Perhaps no single keystroke has incited such violence of emotion as the Oxford comma. Also called the serial comma, it’s more or less grammatically optional in America—but don’t let our noncommittal adoption of the mark fool you. The Oxford comma has become something of a pop culture icon. It appears on t-shirts, drinking glasses, infant…
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The Red Pen: Deep Thoughts Edition
Inner speech, interior monologue, musings—a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and there are plenty of names to describe the process of getting inside your character’s head. But what do you do once you’re there?—and how can you bring your reader with you? Read on for thoughts on…well, thoughts. First, let’s lay…
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The Red Pen: Save Yourself from Seven Deadly Writing Sins
Okay, bear with me. Here’s a first draft: FIRST DRAFT: She was clearly dolefully miserable. “How . . . how . . . how could you?” she sputtered out in a voice that was icy with shock and rage. He sank down into the couch and rubbed his temple, framed by thick, salt and pepper…
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The Red Pen: Meter Mishaps
Congrats! You passed Meter 101 in my last post and you’re ready to move into master class territory. Today we’ll look at two common metrical problems in drafting children’s books: forced emphasis and over-consistency (yes, there is such a thing). METER MISHAP #1: EMPHASIS I remember watching my then three-year-old daughter do a puzzle. The…
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The Red Pen: Meter Matters!
Children’s books are deceptively easy. On the surface, the formula seems tried (or is it trite?) and true: a lovable character, a plot thinner than a fruit roll-up, a handful of sing-song nonsense words and a rhyming dictionary are all you need, right? If only! Let’s face it—if writing good kid lit really was that…
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