Middle Grade Ninja: Edge of Extinction

Esteemed Reader, prepare to be transformed into an Esteemed Viewer! I’m jumping into the deep end and taking Middle Grade Ninja into a new medium. Here is the first ever episode of Middle Grade Ninja TV. If y’all like it and some other folks want to be guests, we’ll probably do some more episodes in […]

Middle Grade Ninja: politics

Fair warning, Esteemed Reader, I’m going to use just a bit of adult language in this post. I’m emotional today because I’ve just picked up Little Ninja after his school went on lock down following a shooting. I don’t want to be writing this. I want that amazing interview with my hero Louis Sachar, author […]

Middle Grade Ninja

First Paragraph(s): Woodridge Academy, a private school in Heath Cliff, Pennsylvania, had once been the home of William Heath, after whom the town had been named. Nearly three hundred students now attended school in the four-story, black-and-brown stone building where William Heath had lived from 1891 to 1917, with only his wife and three daughters. Tamaya […]

Middle Grade Ninja: NINJA BOOK CLUB: Chapter 14 THE UNFORGIVABLE CURSES

First Paragraph: The next two days passed without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville detention, and Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full […]

Middle Grade Ninja: NINJA BOOK CLUB: Chapter 2 – THE SCAR

First Paragraph: Harry lay flat on his back, breathing hard as though he had been running. He had awoken from a vivid dream with his hands pressed over his face. The old scar on his forehead, which was shaped like a bolt of lightning, was burning beneath his fingers as though someone had just pressed […]

Middle Grade Ninja: NINJA STUFF: Conference with the Cannibals

How was your weekend, Esteemed Reader? Mine was amazing, though also exhausting. I attended the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Wild Wild Midwest Conference in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Typically, I like to go to these conferences alone, thereby forcing myself to meet new people and enabling me to have long conversations with faculty […]

Middle Grade Ninja: NINJA STUFF: Life Without Television (Part Two)

Last Time on Ninja Stuff: We discussed my former addiction to cigarettes and the prominent placement of televisions in American homes. What riveting stuff this blog is composed of 🙂 And now the thrilling conclusion… Hello, Esteemed Reader. My name is Middle Grade Ninja and I’m a television-aholic. But don’t get all high and mighty on me. […]

Middle Grade Ninja: NINJA STUFF: Swimming with Sharks (Part Two)

Last Time on Ninja Stuff: I talked about how writers need to exercise caution and make an informed decision when signing with a literary agent, even if that agent has appeared here. I gave an example of a lousy contract and cautioned writers to be wary of publishing professionals. And now the thrilling conclusion… In […]

Middle Grade Ninja: School of Ninja

Please forgive my brief absence, Esteemed Reader. It turns out publishing a serial novel is a lot less like publishing one book broken into five parts and a lot more like publishing five books about one story. The fourth chapter of The Book of David, available Halloween day, is longer than Banneker Bones and the […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “The Horrors of Writing Middle Grade Horror or Why Books Aimed at Children Can’t Be Awash in Blood” by David Neilsen

Hello. My name is David and I write Middle Grade Horror. My first successful foray into this realm, Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom, will be available on August 9, 2016 by Crown Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin/Random House. As you can imagine, I’m a little excited. But I’m not here […]

Pages