From Avi: As I did last summer, I’ve invited 13 admired middle grade authors to write for my blog for the next three months. I hope you’ll tune in each Tuesday to see who has answered these three questions. You should have a list of terrific books to read and share and read aloud by the end of the summer … along with new authors to follow!
Your favorite book on writing:
I love Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction by a Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Winner by Jon Franklin. You don’t have to be a nonfiction writer to get a treasure chest of knowledge out of Franklin’s book, because narrative nonfiction uses the same tricks as fiction. Franklin lays out his technique and then provides annotated versions of two of his stories, including the Pulitzer-prize-winning “Mrs. Kelly’s Monster.” In sentence-by-sentence detail he shows how he created a vivid, emotionally charged narrative. For example, Franklin explains why he uses a rounded-off time (“6:30 am”) at the beginning of this story about a neurosurgeon at work, later switching to more specific times (“10:01 am”) as the tempo of the story shifts into high gear. Hats off to Franklin, who also points out a couple of sentences he wished he’d written differently. Now that’s a writer.
Reading aloud from my books:
The book of mine I would recommend reading out loud is Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune. It’s a biography of a real-life samurai who lived like an action hero. There’s a tongue-in-cheek warning on the back cover: “Very few people in this story die of natural causes.” For some readers it’s an actual warning, but for others I suspect it’s catnip. I’m particularly proud of the cliffhangers at the end of the chapters. Enjoy!
Where do you write most often?
Pamela’s most recent nonfiction book, How to Build a Human in Seven Evolutionary Steps