Where do you get your ideas? Best writing tips? This summer I have asked writer friends and colleagues to answer these same two questions that I am sure they too are constantly being asked by young people — their readers.
When you write historical fiction, such as I do, my research can take me anywhere and generally does. Such searches are helped by a wonderful truth: there seems to be a book, an article, or a memoir about anything and everything.
All of these factors are radically muting the love of free deep reading at a crucial stage in child development. The literary book is not what publishers want because, quite simply, they are not selling.
If I had to pick one book—from my early reading—the one that most influenced the way I think about books and the writing of books, it would be Treasure Island, written by Robert Louis Stevenson.
I have long believed stories — narratives — are one of the basic forms of communication. Narratives are one of the ways we make sense of the world.
I flew to Phoenix to accept an award, then flew to Denver to visit schools. I also agreed to make a bookstore appearance. It changed my life.
After a month or so of dithering — trying out this notion, that notion — I’ve committed myself to the book I intend to write next. Indeed, I’ve already rewritten it twenty times.
I’ve tried to recall if my reading was ever censored when I was a kid.
I have a fondness for old books, for the details they enable me to provide in my own books.
Grammarly instructed me that my primary writing problem is commas. That, I believe.