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READ LIKE A WRITER, a teaching blog

STARGAZER OR NAVEL-GAZER?

photo by Pixabay.com

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 

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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 

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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 

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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 

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KISS A PRESS RELEASE

By Christine Kohler

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 
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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 

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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 

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THE WRITING LIFE BLOG HOP

Christine Kohler discusses her writing life, including what she is working on now.

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 

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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 

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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 

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