Believable dialogue is one of the most important skills a fiction writer can learn. The speed and rhythm of a character’s speech tells a lot about their personality, the environment they grew up in and their education. It is essential to give your characters a believable voice to give them life. Like a musician who […]
When our daughter was born, some twenty-six years ago, she was placed in my arms and I began to float on air. I had the same experience almost six years later when our son was born. But that’s another story. It was my daughter’s very early childhood that led to the creation of Maggie MacCormack and the […]
When people say to me, “You have a great imagination”, it’s not always meant as a compliment. I remember many grade-school teachers commenting passive-aggressively when a student demonstrated a command of their imagination. “Oh, that’s very imaginative,” when really they wanted to ask, “Why did you have to do something so different?” I was stunned […]
People often ask me if I have a work routine. I like to think I don’t. However…I would say my work habits are flexible, but disciplined. My work schedule on one day may begin at 2 PM and end the next morning 3 o’clock. The next day, I might rise with an idea at 6 […]
The older I get, the more I try to simplify my life. If I’m writing, I ask myself if I can get to the point quicker and still be thought-provoking. And if I’m drawing, I ask myself if I can say it in fewer lines but achieve a fulsome, engaging picture. The more we learn, […]
Writers can get attached to their syntax and feel that their way of writing the world is better than possible alternatives, simply because that writing is theirs. Often that does not turn out to best serve the author’s work. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for a writer to foster a good relationship […]
I have seen and heard many people ask how they can get rid of writer’s block. Anyone who offers a definitive answer to that question is, in my opinion, the equivalent of a snake oil salesman, someone selling you a product to cure your ills that doesn’t work. Harsh? Perhaps. Are there some specific conditions […]
Musicians know this term well: “Develop your ear.” In its simplest form, it is the ability to hear what is going on inside of the music – it goes beyond just understanding the melody and the rhythm section. Musicians who develop this ability quickly mature and often take their playing to a higher level of […]
As I’ve grown older, raised children, and seen the social and political climate proceed towards increasing aggressive confrontation, my creative intentions have changed with it – or rather, against it. I’ve grown less interested in pushing audience boundaries with representations of violence and sex, and more interested in writing stories and making art that challenges […]
Sequential art, like jazz, is a language which expresses ideas and stir emotions. To communicate, comic books use shapes, symbols, signs and pictures – as well as the letters of the alphabet. Comic book syntax is a systematic, orderly arrangement of panels, composition, typography, illustration, design and economy of prose. Grids, used to form structural […]
Nearly 35 years ago I was reading a book on Sufism. The title of that book escapes me, but a line from it still resonates deeply: “Get used to being alone.” It’s a message that’s opposite from what the world tells us: have lots of friends, be social and cultivate deep, meaningful relationships. Yet, the […]
For a long time, if you told someone that you self-published your own book they looked at you like you had the plague. One or two friends may accept the copy you gifted them, but neither of them would ever read it. If you were unable to find an agent who could sell your manuscript […]
Lewis was an atheist whose friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien influenced him to embrace Christianity. Every so often one reads internet reports of the urge to make C. S. Lewis more “marketable” and less “hurtful” by expunging any Christian reference from his work or banning The Chronicles of Narnia from bookshelves. I enjoy The Chronicles of Narnia, […]
I miss Jim Henson. I miss his brand of creativity and I miss what he brought to the world of entertainment. I – who never knew the man himself – see Jim Henson’s work as singularly inspired and gentle. I felt that there was in it always an attempt to celebrate imagination, uphold quality entertainment […]
Maggie MacCormack and the Witches’ Wheel is available for readers in Grade 7 and up . A free downloadable teacher’s discussion guide that can be modified in level-appropriate ways is available through the Resources tab under “For Educators.” This discussion guide helps educators spark lively conversations about topics for its young adult readers to think […]