Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Are Authors…Mentally Unstable?” by L. R. W. Lee

I’m just gonna put it out there: After several years in the publishing industry I’ve concluded authors are either nuts or sadistic. There, I said it.  Why have I come to that conclusion? We take a brilliant idea, build a world, add characters and put them through horrendous obstacles. And if we’re good writers, we […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Annihilation Day” by Alex Flynn

While The Misshapes: The Coming Storm, and The Misshapes: Annihilation Day, may be part one and two of a three-part trilogy, the writing process between the two books couldn’t have been more different. The Coming Storm had a long process to wrestle with the divine flash of inspiration, the initial charge of realizing that you […]

Middle Grade Ninja: Guest Post: “Adapting my Screenplay to a Middle Grade Novel” by Fred Holmes

Let me start off by telling you about my novel: THE UGLY TEAPOT is the story of a fourteen-year-old girl who loved her father so much that she worried about him constantly. After all, he was a photographer who traveled to the most dangerous places in the world. To allay her fears, each time he […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “7 More Questions For Author Anna Olswanger About The Greenhorn Movie”

Anna Olswanger is a literary agent with Liza Dawson Associates in New York where she represents fiction and nonfiction, for young readers and adults. She is the author of Shlemiel Crooks, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book, Koret International Jewish Book Award Finalist, and PJ Library Book, and  Greenhorn.  Click here to read my review of Greenhorn. Anna is […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “7 More Questions For: Author Hugh Howey”

WARNING: This post is a little more adult than most of the content of this blog. As 80% of my readership is composed of adult writers and publishing professionals, this warning only applies to the younger readers who find their way here. If you’re mature enough to want to read this post, you’re probably fine, but […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “7 More Questions For: Author Hugh Howey”

WARNING: This post is a little more adult than most of the content of this blog. As 80% of my readership is composed of adult writers and publishing professionals, this warning only applies to the younger readers who find their way here. If you’re mature enough to want to read this post, you’re probably fine, but […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “3 Easy Marketing Tips to Tell Your Story” by Christina Farley

Marketing yourself can be a hard thing to do and sometimes it even becomes a vortex that sucks you in and keeps you from doing what you really want to do: writing!  So today I want to share with you some quick tips on how to market yourself and your books while allowing you to […]

Middle Grade Ninja: God Help Me, I’ve Been Inspired By Ayn Rand (cold shiver)

Dear Esteemed Reader, Pray for me in my time of wanton depravity. I have been inspired by none other than Satan herself, Ayn Rand. I am unclean. First, I should mention for anyone unfamiliar that Ayn Rand, aside from her duties as the Princess of Darkness, is also the author of several books considered by […]