by Tracy | Apr 13, 2017 | For Readers, For Writers, More Personally
Save the date for a special Twitter chat event! Author-illustrator Jannie Ho (Bear and Chicken, Running Press Kids) and I will be hosting a #ChickenPBChat on Twitter on May 4th (International Respect a Chicken Day – who knew?) at 6pm EST. We’ll be...
by Tracy | Apr 10, 2017 | For Writers
Over at the First Five Frenzy post from last month, I talked about how to help a reader connect to your manuscript in the first five pages. I thought I’d quickly break down some of the previous advice that pertains to character, and then share a few more tips!...
by Tracy | Oct 21, 2016 | For Writers
I’m seeing a lot of manuscripts that aren’t written in ‘picture book language,’ so I thought I’d share some qualities of picture book language that separate it from regular prose. Here goes! Descriptions are minimal Since picture books...
by Tracy | Apr 22, 2016 | For Writers
Recently, I received feedback from one of my beta readers about a YA short story of mine, and they pointed out that I had set the reader up for a surprise ending but hadn’t delivered. And of course, they’re right. In this draft, the narrator tells the...
by Tracy | Dec 16, 2015 | For Readers, More Personally
As I write this, I’m very much off-target for reading the 100 books I set as a Goodreads goal for 2015. For comparison, in 2014 I read 156 when my goal was 100. At the moment, I’m sitting at 60. A few things changed this year from last in terms of my...
