It always confused me when department stores showcased bathing suits in January. I grew up in Los Angeles, but we didn’t use our fully heated pool in the middle of winter. My mom explained that, to the rest of the country, winter is cruise season. It didn’t compute. Why would anyone lucky enough to have [CONTINUE READING]
During the 18 years that have passed since publication of the first of my 13 novels, the question that readers have posed to me most often is, by far, “Where do you get your ideas?” And the question is perfectly logical. Creativity is sometimes described as “making something out of nothing,” so the making of [CONTINUE READING]
Recently, we moved our family from Chicago, IL to Phoenix, AZ. No big deal. People move across country every day of the week. The part that had many of our family and friends scratching their heads was one day my husband came home and said, “How do you feel about moving to Arizona?” He loved [CONTINUE READING]
Thanks so much for inviting me to guest blog over here! For those who don’t know,my debut young adult novel, SOLSTICE, was just released last month. SOLSTICE is what happens when MATCHED meets THE LIGHTNING THIEF and is a story I loved writing and am thrilled to share with readers. SOLSTICE has two worlds parallel [CONTINUE READING]
Writing is my life. After my eleven-year-old daughter died, I began keeping a daily journal. It was therapy. It gave me a reason to get up each day. It kept me putting one foot in front of the other. It helped me focus beyond the moment. It began to heal me. It became a passion. [CONTINUE READING]
When I tell people I teach creative writing, one of the most frequent questions I’m asked is whether or not writing can be taught. Parts of it I’m convinced can be, particularly elements of craft, such as an understanding of how point of view works, effective ways of developing characters, and how to make readers feel [CONTINUE READING]
Dialogue is the most important part of any decision to have plastic surgery. It can be a life changing benefit but can have serious physical and mental consequences if done for the wrong reasons or by inexperienced surgeons. Parents, coaches, teachers, counselors – any one dealing with teens and adolescents need to be mindful of [CONTINUE READING]
Jun 152011
Author Paul Levine explains why he has pledged all royalties to childhood cancer treatment in his guest post below at The Book Faery Reviews. His novel “Flesh & Bones” is priced at 99 cents for a short time on Kindle, Nook, and at Smashwords. In the United States today, one in 300 children will be diagnosed with [CONTINUE READING]
Jun 142011
I love that I can make a difference in a child’s life. If I can educate them, inspire them, make them laugh or put a smile on their face with my words or characters, then I did my job as a writer and that makes feel good about what I am writing about. The Joe-Joe [CONTINUE READING]
While thinking about the title of this piece, I started to wonder – is there lifeoutside of writing? I soon realized that the answer is no, not really. Certainly, there appears to be one because I teach, and have friends and throw parties and love to sit in the morning with a cup of tea [CONTINUE READING]
Pursuit of publication is a long, difficult process, but once it happens, things get very busy, very quickly. Writers should take advantage of the time before their debut work releases to get a structure and system in place. Here are some steps to take to make the most out of that “between” time. 1. Write [CONTINUE READING]
May 102011
I am often asked why I don’t write books for adults. Sometimes the question comes to me as: “That’s nice, when are you going to write a real book?”, as if books for young adults aren’t real. Ditto the attitude for fantasy. Thank goodness the idea isn’t a pervasive one, or else I might have [CONTINUE READING]
I get asked all the time what my best piece of advice is for a writer and I always say write every day. That then brings about the litany of questions about what to write about, what if you have writers block, what if you don’t have time every day, blah, blah, blah. I get [CONTINUE READING]
Readers have asked me how extensively Jean Auel‘s Earth’s Children series of novels, beginning with The Clan of the Cave Bear published in 1980, has influenced the writing of my Promised Valley novels. The question is especially pertinent in view of the March 29, 2011, release of her sixth, and presumably last, novel in the [CONTINUE READING]
The active creative child is a prime candidate for an alternative school experience. When this book was published five years ago, we as a nation were in an educational fiscal crisis… Fast forward to 2010, and it is much worse. The financial pressures on our public schools (and political /union expenditure-but that is the topic [CONTINUE READING]
