This is a librarian thing rather than a writer thing, but it's book-related, so I'll post it anyway!

A coworker and I recently planned and presented a library program based on the Series of Unfortunate Events books/show/movie/aesthetic. We had a blast, and so did the kids who came to the party! Here's what we did:

In preparation for the party, my ( Read more... )

Romantic ships can be great, but I was delighted recently to see some book bloggers listing their favorite fictional groups of friends. (I think I first saw it on ForeverAndEverly? Can't find the post now, though, naturally.) So I'm stealing the idea! Here are a few books featuring groups of friends that I love.

The Amateurs series by Sara Shepard ( Read more... )

As we're wrapping up 2017, I thought I'd offer a few of my favorite reads that came out this year. I haven't had as much free time recently as I'd like, so I feel lucky that some of the books I did manage to read were this good!


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Fellow #1: Hi, I'm a scoundrely rogue! The heroine will meet me first and be put off by my bad manners ( Read more... )

It is a truth universally acknowledged that fantasy writers like maps. I recently discovered two great websites that let you generate fantasy maps of your very own! (I am in no way affiliated with either of these sites. I just like them.)

Inkarnate lets you draw your own continents, complete with features like forests, towers, and notes. You ( Read more... )

I just saw another post lamenting the silly - but unfortunately common - idea that boys can't be expected to read books about girls, even though girls commonly read books about boys. (In fact, we're often required to, for school.) I've written about this before. So has the excellent Shannon Hale.It strikes me that part of the issue may be that ( Read more... )

A somewhat-belated Happy New Year!


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Sometimes, when the world seems a little scary, you ask yourself: how can I use my powers for good? We all have powers of one kind or another. In addition to writing, it happens that I am a librarian. So here is one of my powers: book recommendations ( Read more... )

Writing fiction - even writing fantasy - doesn't mean you make everything up. Does your book have human characters? Does it have animals, plants, stars, diseases, art, wars, pretty much anything that exists in the real world? Then your book will be stronger if you know something about how those things really work. Research: luckily, it's more fun ( Read more... )