Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Monsters and Heroes” by Clark Rich Burbidge

Fall has arrived. It is an exciting sports transition with baseball winding down and football gearing up. It also brings cooler weather and colorful outdoor activities. But for millions of our youth, anxiety and excitement are interwoven in their daily life at school and at home. Doubts swirl in their heads whether they walk through the […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Middle Grade Fiction Opened Another Way to Connect With My Kids” by Emilio Iasiello

I have been engaged in the craft of creative writing since I was in grade school, writing a weekly series for the mimeographed school “paper.”  The stories were adventure-based with over-the-top characters engaged in action-packed heroics as they fought the bad guys and suffered knocks along the way. I knew I was on to something […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “The Magic of Middle Grade Book Marketing” by Daniel Harvell

After writing, publishing and marketing my first novel, The Survivors, I thought I knew everything there was to know about getting a book out there. The process isn’t easy, and there’s no one single path to take – a writer has to employ a variety of methods to get his or her material in the hands […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Mac’s Sports Report” by Kyle Jackson

The first thing you need to know about Jolly Fish Press’new middle grade series, Mac’s Sports Report,is that it’s all about sports. The four books are loaded with action-packed athletic drama. Concussion Comeback is a football book. Sideline Pressure is a basketball story. Racket Rumors takes place on the tennis court. Back on Track takes […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Insights Into Writing for Middle Grade Readers” by Cynthia Reeg

For me, writing middle grade (MG) novels always seemed a good fit. I remember vividly that time in fifth grade: two of my best friends had a falling out and I was caught in the middle. One of the friendships would survive. The other didn’t. It was a very eye-opening episode in my life. I […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “I Never Went to School in My Pajamas: The Story of a Homeschooled Author” by Kristiana Sfirlea

Hi, everyone! My name is Kristiana Sfirlea, and I am the author of Legend of the Storm Sneezer, a middle grade fantasy involving time travel and things that go bump in the night. Oh, and I was homeschooled. Once upon a time, that statement would’ve drawn out the usual reactions: 1) The dubious, “How did […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Hybrid Publishing Middle Grade” by Glen Wood

What a journey it’s been so far! The Brain Sucker began life a few years ago as a story called “The Manners Thief”, which came about after I saw several young kids misbehaving in a supermarket. They were barrelling around the aisles, throwing packets of frozen peas in the air and almost knocked over several […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Hybrid Me” by C. Lee McKenzie

I never thought I’d self-publish a book. Why should I? I’d sold two novels to publishers, I’d found a small press to publish two more. I’d learned the ropes about querying, signing contracts, meeting deadlines and marketing the way the publisher wanted. But here I am officially a hybrid author. Maybe I should go back […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “How to Write a Poem in Ten Easy Steps” by Skila Brown

It’s National Poetry Month! Which is very exciting if you’re a poet or a lover of poetry. And probably doesn’t interest you at all if you consider yourself to be neither. But if you’re a reader…and certainly a writer…you should be celebrating too! Poems can amaze, invoke, inform, and impress. Bonus: they’re often short enough […]