By Christine Kohler
This article originally appeared on the (ICL) Institute of Children’s website.
Is your main character a stargazer or navel-gazer? Does your protagonist observe the world around him using his five senses? Or does she mutter inwardly to herself, totally self-absorbed? If your character is Read More
READ LIKE A WRITER, a teaching blog
STARGAZER OR NAVEL-GAZER?
5 Ways to Move a Story Forward in Time
By Christine Kohler
Think of a story as a train. It has a beginning, stops it needs to make, and a destination. And it has a timetable at which to reach each whistlestop and the final destination. You are the conductor who holds the stopwatch.
"Literature is… tied to time in a way the Read More
THANKFUL FOR YEAR OF THE BOOK
By Christine Kohler
Wow! What a wild year 2014 has been. Last December Merit Press (Adams Media/ F+W Media) released the e-book of NO SURRENDER SOLDIER. January 2014 launched the hardback. I want to take this time at Thanksgiving to recap all the wonderful things that have Read More
11 TIPS ON WRITING AUTHENTIC DIALECT
By Christine Kohler
I have lectured on voice, dialect, and using foreign language within English-language texts. In many cases it is difficult to separate the three, especially in a novel liike NO SURRENDER SOLDIER (Merit Press, 2014) which is set on a Pacific island and all the characters are POC (non-white). However, for the sake Read More
KISS A PRESS RELEASE
I am surprised by the number of authors who are baffled how to write a press release. But that’s really not fair of me, considering I have a journalism degree, worked as a reporter and editor, and did public relations for several years while in graduate school. That’s also Read More
BIBA! CELEBRATING GUAM'S 70TH LIBERATION DAY
Since the publication of my YA novel NO SURRENDER SOLDIER (January 2014, Merit Press) people ask where I got the idea for this historical story set on Guam about the after-effects of war on families for generations. In honor of the 70th anniversary celebrating the U.S. marines' liberation of Guam during WWII from the Read More
NEWS INSPIRED AUTHOR TO WRITE A PARANORMAL NOVEL ABOUT BONNIE & CLYDE
by Kym Brunner
One of the questions most asked of writers is: Where do you get your ideas?
Besides just being lucky to have a deliciously fertile (read: weird) imagination, I often get ideas for new books by seeing something on TV or in the news that Read More
THE WRITING LIFE BLOG HOP
Suzanne Kamata, an American author and teacher in Japan invited me to a blog hop about the writing life. Suzanne has guest blogged before in this Read Like A Writer blog about food in Read More
PTSD: LEARNING TO HEAL
My guest blogger today is Eileen Schuh, whose trilogy is about a girl who undergoes a tragedy and develops, then overcomes, PTSD. Writing has always been part of Eileen Schuh’s own healing process. Her YA novels are at such venues as the North Slave Young Offenders Read More
PTSD IN FICTION CONNECTS WITH READERS
Some people, such my dad, will not read fiction. To them, fiction is not true. I disagree. Nonfiction may be factual, but fiction can often show truths in ways mere facts cannot. What fiction can do, especially in middle grade and young adult novels, is to hold up a mirror in which readers can Read More