Posted in Writing, Publishing, children's books, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, YA Fiction, Book Selling, Novels, Research, Memoir, Writing Craft, Bookstores on Jun 18th, 2013 Comments
Author Lewis Buzbee, interviewed at the request of a listener. (Thanks, Shannon!) We discuss his middle-grade novel Bridge of Time, published by Feiwel and Friends, and his nonfiction book for all readers, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, published by Graywolf.
Today's Write The Book Prompt was suggested by my guest, Lewis Buzbee. He calls this "the memory thief," and it's a timed writing exercise. The memory thief is on his way to your house. You have just ten minutes before he gets there. You get to keep any of your memories that you manage to write down before he arrives. Anything you don't get on paper is lost to you. Write madly, without censoring yourself or taking time to edit. Lewis says that wonderful, weird images will come out of this prompt, and people almost always start in childhood.
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Music credits: 1) "Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) "Filter" - Dorset Greens (a former Vermont band featuring several South Burlington High School graduates).
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Posted in Writing, Publishing, children's books, Fiction, YA Fiction, Environment, Mysteries, Novels, History, Research, Native Americans, Writing Craft on Jan 21st, 2013 Comments
Mary Casanova, award-winning children's author of novels and picture books, including Frozen, published by University of Minnesota Press. You can watch a trailer about the book here.
This week's Write The Book Prompt was suggested by my guest, Mary Casanova. Write about an image that has haunted you.
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a former Vermont band featuring several South Burlington High School graduates)
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Posted in Uncategorized, YA Fiction, Sasquatch, Cookbooks, Travel Writing, Screenwriting, Grief, Medicine, Relationships, Journalism, gardening on Mar 29th, 2012 Comments
2009 interview from the archives with award-winning poet Natasha Sajé.
Today's Write The Book Prompt is to draft an essay for the New York Times Modern Love column. Their submission guidelines include the following advice: "The editors of Modern Love are interested in receiving deeply personal essays about contemporary relationships, marriage, dating, parenthood...any subject that might reasonably fit under the heading Modern Love. Ideally, essays should spring from some central dilemma the writer has faced in his or her life. It helps if the situation has a contemporary edge, though this is not essential. Most important is that the writing be emotionally honest and the story be freshly and compellingly told." So draft an essay for the column. Set it aside for a week. And then decide what, if anything, you might want to do with it. Revise and perfect it and send it to the NY Times. Or take the material you put into that draft and turn it into a poem or a story or a new aspect of another work in progress. Or maybe you won't want to take it further. But the act of creating that first draft is your prompt for this week. Good luck with this prompt, and please listen next week for another!
Music credits: 1) "Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) "Filter" - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).
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Posted in Writing, Agents, Publishing, Fiction, YA Fiction, Book Selling, Novels, Self-publishing, Research, Writing Workshops on Dec 1st, 2011 Comments
Literary Agent April Eberhardt, who works with clients in both traditional publishing venues and e- and self-publishing venues.
Today's Write The Book Prompt is to write a poem that includes at least six of the following ten words, which I've chosen by scanning through a back issue of a favorite literary journal:
Spear, Makeshift, Sporadic, Glue, Wrestle, Pull, Bargain, Tributary, Feast, Grainy
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).
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Posted in Uncategorized, Writing, Agents, Publishing, children's books, Fiction, Blogs, YA Fiction, Nature, Novels, Research, Science on Nov 22nd, 2011 Comments
Award Winning Writer of Children's Books Kate Messner, whose latest is Over and Under the Snow. If you're interested to read about libraries in need following Tropical Storm Irene, check out this part of Kate's blog.
Today's Write The Book Prompt is to write a story, a scene, a poem, or a paragraph that has something to do with the kind of reader you were as a child.
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
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Posted in Writing, Agents, Publishing, Fiction, YA Fiction, Book Selling, Mysteries, Novels, Research, Writers' Block on Aug 15th, 2011 Comments
Vermont Novelist Jennifer McMahon, author of the new book, Don't Breathe A Word.
This week's Write the Book Prompt was suggested by my guest Jennifer McMahon, in whose books, secrets play an important role. Jennifer says that when she's stuck working on character, she'll often do an exercise in which she asks a character: "What have you never told anyone?" The answers she comes up with sometimes surprise her. If you're work doesn't involve character, then pose the question to yourself. What have you never told anyone?
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several South Burlington High School students).
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Please note: my interview with Geraldine Brooks about her newest novel, Caleb's Crossing, will air next week. Thanks for your patience! I announced the interview before recalling that this Monday would be a holiday.
Interview from the archives with Vermont children's novelist Kimberly K. Jones, author of The Genie Scheme.
Today's Write The Book Prompt is to write about a genie. Man or woman, good or evil, helpful or impish; write about a genie.
Good luck with this prompt and please tune in next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several South Burlington High School students)
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Posted in Uncategorized, Poetry, Science Fiction, writing retreats, YA Fiction, Ghosts, Cookbooks, Book Selling, Illustration, Research, Writers' Block on Oct 28th, 2010 Comments
Interview with Richard Russo, Novelist, Pulitzer Prize Winner and Author of That Old Cape Magic.
This week's Write The Book Prompt is inspired by the subject matter of Richard Russo's novel, That Old Cape Magic. Write about a childhood vacation. This can be a recollected vacation from when you were a child, or an imagined vacation seen through the eyes of a fictional child. As you write, focus on details of place.
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Excerpt of That Old Cape Magic read with permission from Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several South Burlington High School students)
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Posted in Writing, Agents, Publishing, children's books, Fiction, Poetry, YA Fiction, Book Selling, Novels, Illustration on Jul 6th, 2010 Comments
Interview from the archives with Rita Murphy, who spoke with Shelagh in October 2008.
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Posted in Uncategorized, Writing, Agents, Publishing, Fiction, Poetry, Theater, Playwriting, Activism, Creative Nonfiction, YA Fiction, Nonfiction, Mysteries, Novels, Short Stories, Travel Writing on Jun 21st, 2010 Comments
Anne Trooper-Holbrooke, Coleen Kearon, Benjamin Malcolm, and Susan Ritz: four writers working to develop their craft.
This week’s Write The Book prompt was inspired by a comment made by one of my guests. Coleen Kearon mentioned her efforts to introduce more plot, more active scenes into her prose, and to pay attention to the amount of introspection she includes. She described this effort as a move toward plot and away from too much exposition. You may have the same problem. Or perhaps, yours is the opposite problem. If you're a poet, this might not seem like a useful exercise, but the bottom line is balance. Read over your work with an eye to what you use too much of, and how you might rectify that by introducing balance. First, identify the qualities you want to balance. Action and introspection, for example. Or dialogue and exposition. Character interaction and scene setting. Take markers and highlight the parts of your work that fit one versus the other quality that you're trying to balance. Don't judge yourself as you go, but just objectively highlight the differences. And then study your work with this new colorful enhancement and work to right the disproportion.
Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several South Burlington High School students.
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