Middle Grade Ninja: Guest Post: “A Pulse-Pounding, Hair-Raising, Gut-Busting Good Time (Reading and Writing as Physically as Possible)” by Patrick Hueller
I went to a great, weird elementary school. One of the great, weird things about it was that we didn’t have assigned classrooms or teachers. Or rather we did have these things, but only briefly. We had Homeroom for a few minutes at the beginning and the end of the day. We saw our homeroom […]
Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Publishing Middle Grade in the Indie Age” by J.B. Cantwell
I am not one of those writers who has been penning stories since I was five, dreaming of the day that I would see my work on store shelves. I started writing just sixteen months ago, practically by accident, and twenty pages into what was supposed to be a companion guide for a video game, […]
Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Past Classics Still Inspire the Present” by Sally Barlow-Perez
I was about 18 months and 20,000 words into my middle grade novel, The Unintended Runaways, only then, it was called, Lia’s Journey. It was starting to lag. I worked in the afternoons and my mornings seemed to be getting shorter and both my writing and my psyche seemed uninspired. Furthermore, my weekly library runs –which included […]
Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “On Writing What You Know” by Janet McLaughlin
Writers have been told forever to “write what you know.” But what does that mean? I did a little research and found a short but provocative blog by Jason Gots entitled: Write what you know—the most misunderstood piece of good advice, ever. His conclusion, after interviewing Nathan Englander, the critically acclaimed author of What We Talk About When […]
Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “On Perseverance” by Miriam Spitzer Franklin
It all started with my dad. He was a chemical engineer who wrote plays in his spare time. I noticed the way he was lost in his own world when he sat at his typewriter wearing a cap, muttering the lines to himself and laughing out loud at his jokes. I watched in amazement as […]
Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “On Pacing ” by Chris Eboch
Fast-paced. Gripping. A page turner. “I couldn’t put it down.” Why do some books get these comments, while others are called slow or flat? A strong story has conflict and tension. But that’s just the beginning. Once you have a strong conflict, you need to make it as compelling as possible with proper pacing. As […]
Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “On Hearing Voices and Improvising Relationships” by Gary Schwartz
My bio states that I’m an actor who began as a mime and ended up doing voices in film, animation and video games. I’d written material for myself and my partner as part of the comedy team of Schwartz and Chung. I also wrote some screenplays and teleplays too, but it is only recently I […]
Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “On Boogers and Barf” by Cara Bartek
I am good at a lot of things. Okay, maybe I think I am good at a lot of things. Inflated ego aside, being a writer means that I need to be good at one thing: communicating. And in the most eloquent words I can muster … good communication ain’t easy! My goal as a […]
Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Objects with Secrets, Settings that Excite, Cultures that Expand” by Donald Willerton
I was in an antique store and found an old camel-backed trunk. It was a well-made trunk and in good condition, but it was locked. I could not get it open. I asked the owner of the store if he had a key and he said no. I asked if he had ever opened the […]
Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “The Mystery of Reading” by Izzi Breigh
No story is whole until it’s been read. That’s why every author wants readers to get sucked into their book. Once you’ve achieved that, the story stops being letters and periods arranged into sentences. It becomes characters, each with purpose and limitations, exploring brand new places. The story escapes the page and lives. For […]