Vonna | August 22, 2010
In our August meeting of the Houston YA/MG Writers, Rose Moriarty led the group gathered at La Madeleine in a discussion based on a recent post at Writers Digest—11 Plot Pitfalls and How to Rescue Your Story From Them, by Laura Whitcomb. If you haven’t already read this, take some time to check it out.
This [...]
Vonna | July 18, 2010
We had another great meeting of the Houston YA/MG Writers yesterday morning. Our usual venue had double booked our room, so Mary Lindsey generously hosted us at her home. Thank you Mary! We had a great turnout, but none of my usual buddies showed up today, so when we split into groups I didn’t think [...]
Vonna | June 26, 2010
Something one of my beta readers pointed out was that the sentences in my manuscript were too similar in length. As I read it through, the cadence did indeed seem monotonous. So I took a look at my first long paragraph. Here is the word per sentence pattern of a paragraph from my first page [...]
Vonna | June 13, 2010
Comments from my first readers are trickling in and some of their suggestions are so exciting that I can’t wait to jump on them. But I still have three more manuscripts out there, so I don’t want to get too carried away with revisions until I get the whole picture. Some suggestions were so good [...]
Vonna | June 3, 2010
Hooray; it’s summer! It’s getting real nice and steamy down here in Houston. Speaking of Houston, those of you from other parts may not know that in January I started a newsletter for the Houston SCBWI chapter. I have added a page here on my blog for anyone who would like to keep up with [...]
Vonna | May 22, 2010
While my last manuscript is out with my first readers, I’ve been busy at work on my new WIP. My outline, which I want to fill twenty to twenty-four pages, is currently at thirteen pages, so I have work to do this week. The more details I fill in, the easier it is to keep [...]
Vonna | May 15, 2010
Saturday morning I got to attend my first meeting of the Houston YA/MG Writers. The group had its debut meeting last month, but I was out of town that day. I love my SCBWI chapter, but I was intrigued by the idea of a group dedicated to writers who are working primarily in full-length novels [...]
Vonna | May 10, 2010
I’ve been working on the outline for my new WIP over the past week and pondering which character should take the lead. I had one particular character who I wanted to be the MC, but there were two other contenders who were speaking loudly. These other two each had a compelling conflict, but I couldn’t [...]
Vonna | May 4, 2010
The WIP is finally out with beta readers! It feels strange not to wake up, open that file and think about revisions. But I have a few good readers—generous writers, teachers and MG fantasy fans—so as soon as they get back to me, I’ll most likely have more revising to do.
I’m working on the next [...]
Vonna | April 25, 2010
In spite of the beautiful weather in Houston Saturday, a nice crowd showed up at Blue Willow Bookshop for Jenny Moss’s signing of her new fantasy, SHADOW. About half the audience had already read the book and had opinions on what they would like to see in a sequel. Most of them agreed they [...]
