FREE BOOKS!

The Dog Days of Summer are upon us.

 

The heat makes us lethargic, stuck inside the house to keep cool. You've already seen all the summer movies. You've been to the mall more times this last month than you did while shopping for Christmas presents.

 

And last but not least, the kids are driving you bonkers. School is just around the corner and it can't get here quick enough to save your sanity.

 

*drumroll*

 

Which makes it time for some free books!

 

During the week of August 4-8, 2014, I am offering all my Goblin Apprentice books for FREE!

 

The books are for ages 7-15. Yes, I've had readers as young as seven and as old as fifteen read these stories. If your kids are on the younger end of the range, then you might want to start with the books on the bottom as they lean more toward the chapter book length and style.

 

The book covers will take you to my Amazon page, where you can individually download each book, or you can click the books on the right side of my blog.

 

Be sure to check that the Kindle book is free, and not just the Kindle unlimited notation.

 

Please feel free to spread the word, share the link on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ as I will be out of pocket this week.

 

 

May the stories keep the little monsters occupied until it's time to buy school supplies!

 

Later, Peeps!

Books for Boys

Ever since I started writing children's books and joined SCBWI in 2008, I've been hearing/reading the editors and agents lament that they want boy books.

Well, here's the interesting part--so do teachers and librarians. This last week I talked to my sister, who has a double Master's degree and works as a teacher and librarian at a military base in Germany, about this issue. She gave me an earful about the topic.

But, you wonder, aren't there a ton of boy-centric children's books out there?

For example: Mary Pope Osborn (Magic Treehouse), Henry and Mudge books, J. K. Rowling, Rick Riordan, R. L. Stine, Lemony Snicket, Eoin Coulter, Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants), Jeff Kinney (Wimpy Kid) etc.

Yes, but we have some problems with these books. 

1. Many of these are middle grade books (Rowling, Riordan, Snicket, Kinney, Coulter), which means there are no pictures, text heavy, longer chapters, etc. This book is aimed at the confident reader, who could be 8-14 years old
2. The younger crowd (5-7 years)might read Henry and Mudge, but aren't ready to read the middle grade books.
3. Captain Underpants might be big with boys, but not with teachers. They aren't fond of the overly illustrated pages and 'potty' language in which giggling ensues from reading about noises that come out of various orifices.
4. If the kid doesn't read or like horror, R. L. Stine is out.

So here's the thing as this writer sees it--

When young children start to read, they will read the picture books their parents read to them. Then they advance to early readers like Henry and Mudge.

The next step is chapter books, which are around 4,000-6,000 words, short chapters, some illustrations, lots of white space. This level of reading is targeted to the 5-8 year old--Magic Treehouse fills this gap nicely. But Magic Treehouse is only one series of books that boys would read. There are co-protagonists, brother and sister, who take the kids on an adventure.

Girls have a variety of books in this level of reading, Junie B and Fancy Nancy are the first to leap to mind without even thinking about it. Though I must admit that my daughter wasn't interested in either of these books. She liked the Magic Treehouse books, especially the fact-tracking ones, where she learned about the ocean, earthquakes, etc.

So if a boy can't get into the Magic Treehouse books, then there is no "bridge" book for them to become readers able to attack the longer and more intense middle grade books.

Then there becomes an issue of virtually zero YA books for boys, but at this age and reading level, many boys will start reading Sci-Fi, mysteries, thrillers, etc. as they are to the level of handling adult genre novels, and many of the YA books are thinly veiled romances.

After putting all these facts together, plus my interpretation, the "boy" books editors, agents, and teachers are wanting are 'bridging' chapter books.

• between 4,000-6,000 words--Magic Treehouse book, Dinosaurs Before Dark was right around 5,000 words
• short chapters 400-600 words--at this age, kids are exited to tell mom that, "I read three chapters today!" Encourage this.
• protagonist must be male, but co-protagonists are fine as long as the girl is more gender neutral.
• lots of white space--don't make it paragraph heavy
• every chapter MUST have a cliffhanger to encourage advancing to the next chapter
• Do NOT have a cliffhanger ending. Each book must have a final resolution.
• targeting a slightly younger crowd, 6-8 years old

So with this in mind, I thought I'd give a try to writing a boy chapter book, using Rory Leafhopper from my Goblin's Apprentice series. I just started it. I know how it starts and how it ends, but I have no idea of the adventures in between.

Actually writing this length won't be that tough as A MAZE OF MONSTER MIX-UPS, LOST LEPRECHAUN LOOT, and SUGAR PLUM DISASTER are all around this length, even though each chapter slightly longer, coming in around 800 words.

I just have to figure out what kind of messes Rory will be getting into!

Later, Peeps!

No Clue how to Write a Picture book

While I was walking yesterday, I started thinking--yes, I know this process usually gets me into trouble--about Piper.

Piper is a faerie who is featured on the cover of The Fast and the FAERIEous, as an older version than the one I want to write about. . . in a picture book. . . . sort of, or maybe an early reader, or a chapter book, or . . . see my problem?

Here's my sitch. Years ago I wrote quite a few stories about Peter the naughty little fly. Well, I don't have a clue how to go about writing a picture book. Oh, I know some of the basics--32 pages, the art is 50% of the story so descriptors aren't needed, less than 500 words (but can go as high as 1000), and keep the language and sentence structure are simpler.

But what makes one cute anecdotal story publishable, while another is not? That is the question.

After a quick search on the Internet, I found one author who wrote her story, but then she showed the finished published story. This gave me a back-to-back comparison as to what made one story better than the other.

Of course, at this time my daughter kicked me off the computer and I didn't bother to save the author's name, so I'll have to search the Internet again to find her webpage.

But that's okay. That's part of the editing process.

When my walk was over, I jotted a couple of pages of notes down. I have the motivation and adventure, but I don't have a good conclusion.

Right now, all I need to concentrate on is putting the story onto paper . . . er, type it in the computer. Once there, I can tweak and play with it all I want . . . saving the various versions.

That's the one nice thing about writing short stories. They are easier to handle and manipulate, BUT you have to write very, very tight, choosing the best words for the story.

That's what I need right now. More focus to my writing.

But you know what's sad?

I think this one little picture book story already has too many things going on.

*sigh*

Later, Peeps!