Read or Write Anywhere

    Summer is about to begin!  But just because it’s summer doesn’t mean we should stop reading and writing. I’ve teamed up with the YA Chicks and many participating authors on a global campaign to encourage readers, writers, students, and teachers to share pictures all of the places—both ordinary …

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5 Best Books of 2013

There were a ton of books I wanted to read this year, but I couldn’t get to them all. Here’s my five favorites of those I enjoyed (in no particular order). 1. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson — “Lennie plays second clarinet in the school orchestra and has always …

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10 Great Gifts for Readers and Writers

Since it’s the holiday season, I decided to gather some great gift ideas for readers and writers. 1.  CHOCOLATE BOOK From Li-lac, my favorite chocolate store (thanks to Kelli Stanley who got me hooked on it one year at ThrillerFest), you can get this 7″ x 5″ chocolate book  in …

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Trust A Cop? Not The Amish!

Guest Blogger: Karen Harper Unless you know Amish thinking as well as I do, after studying and visiting them for twenty years and writing nine suspense novels set among them (or, OK, unless you remember the classic movie WITNESS,) you probably don’t realize the Amish usually “have no truck” with …

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Where Stories Come From

Guest Blogger: Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban Sometimes the inspiration for a story comes from an event in the writer’s past. That was the case for my young adult fantasy TWO MOON PRINCESS. Andrea’s journey from her medieval kingdom to modern day California and back parallels my own between Spain and the States, even …

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