Happy summer to my teacher and librarian friends!

This is the time of year when I get a lot of kids' letters. I know the end of the year is hectic, so I'm amazed at the teachers who have time to help students with this project, bundle a stack of letters up and get them to the post office.

A few of them are priceless.  
Like these from a school in Minnesota:
(Sorry about the boring parts, reader. But glad you appreciated my use of HOGWASH.)
 

(True confessions: I used to like being sneaky, too!)

Also this: 
"I like the book because Glory is like my friend. She is a good friend. Like me."
 Be still my heart...

Another take on the book: "I liked it because it has exciting dialogue. Glory and Jesslyn were always fighting and talking."

(Note to self- write lots of exciting dialog.)

Some send photos. How can an author resist an entire third grade reading her book, holding it high!

I'm still waiting for one class's letters, but they emailed and wanted to know about my dogs. So I sent photos of our most recent sweet pup-- ole Barley, and my two grand-dogs, Ellie and Rocky the Rock Star.

Thank you, teachers and librarians everywhere, for reading to your students, for sharing your love of books, for instilling a lifetime of curiosity and reading for pleasure. I hope you all have time to read exactly what you love- all summer long!


 

 Ellis is the newest addition to our family. 

Sweet Barley. We miss him a lot!

Rocky giving me the evil eye for not reading faster. My To Be Read stack is very high.

A Template!

To write your novel with!

Of course, there's really no such thing.

But recently I found this "advice" buried deep in my files.

Here's the link:

http://www.authormagazine.org/articles/thayer_james_2009_12_16.htm

And remember my Nerdy Book Club post about TEN THINGS I'VE LEARNED FROM KIDS ABOUT WRITING A BOOK?

Remember that dog?

Here's a funny thing from that article by James Thayer about your Main Character:

1)  They are kind when it counts. Not always, and maybe not mostly, but when it is important, the hero will do something kind. If nothing else he will adopt a dog, a common fictional device to salvage otherwise irredeemable heroes, which is called the Adopt A Dog Technique.

 I'm totally good with that.

National Dog Day!

OK, I was away from my computer and missed it! Drat. But it's not too late to read a funny funny post about kids' writers and their true-life dogs. Plus some dogs they write about.
Click right here.

Come to think about it, we were out to dinner on the night before this momentous Dog Day and the quite classy restaurant was featuring Bring Your Doggie To Dinner night. Tasty treats on the menu and funny dogs of all shapes and sizes.


And while you're clicking, here's a post from a while back, featuring dogs in fiction and my own special sweet dogs (with pictures!).