Here is the new Loon Lake Books logo, in colour. Thanks to everyone who gave me input on FaceBook, and elsewhere. It’s probably a good idea to have a colour, and a black and white logo, but I like this one best. Entries to this blog will slow down as I concentrate more on writing […]
Loon Lake Books Logo Read More »
I was lucky enough to interview the witty, award-winning Canadian author, Richard Scrimger. Versatile, he writes for small children, middle grade, young adult, and adult categories. My current favorite is his YA novel Zomboy, in which a new student turns out to be undead, and unwanted, by unenlightened members of his community. Zomboy provokes thought but still
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The popularity of fantasy adventure novels hasn’t dwindled since Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Teachers capitalizing on this popularity can inspire student writing, without marking more pages than Lord of the Rings. Today, I’m going to talk about shared-world ‘novel’ writing. This is something I did with a class of gifted grade four students,
Shared Writing and the Classroom Novel Read More »
Could Wattpad be for you? Are you a traditionally published author, looking to open up new markets? Do you have an idea for a book that would make good serial fiction? This interview with Linda Poitevin is partly about writing, partly about marketing, but mostly about how Wattpad can help you find new fans. Since
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October 31, I posted the teaser for a writing experiment on Wattpad. Feeding Frenzy is a Supernatural Thriller, and a great big narrative sandbox for me to play in. The nature of the Wattpad community is friendly, so it’s a good place to find readers who appreciate humour and creative fun in their fiction. Over
NaNoWriMo Wattpad Experiment Read More »
I recently won a fan-run Best Blurb Award on Wattpad. This may be a big reason why Feeding Frenzy is climbing the rankings. I can’t believe it has risen to #53 in Mystery/ Thriller and #69 in Paranormal. That’s a lot of progress in a short time. I’m going to use it as motivation
Feeding Frenzy Wins Best Blurb Award Read More »
SFContario is a convention which offers over 50 panelists, covering science fiction, fantasy, science, costuming, art, writing, genre television, and movies, as well as other topics of interest to fans. It runs from the evening of November 14 to Sunday November 16, at the Ramada Plaza Hotel, 300 Jarvis St, Toronto. I have been invited to moderate a few panels, including a
SFContario Wattpad and Feeding Frenzy Serial Read More »
Starting October 31, I will be combining my love of experiment with Wattpad and NaNoWrimo to do something new. As a result I will not be blogging much about creativity. I’ll be too busy getting up at 5:00 am every day to write fiction. If we want students to experiment and create, we mustn’t be
Feeding Frenzy – Serial Novel Experiment Read More »
Guy Gavriel Kay is known for his fantasy novels, starting with the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, set at my alma mater, University of Toronto. He has written twelve novels, a book of poetry and numerous reviews and articles for Canadian and English newspapers. His internationally bestselling works have been translated into over twenty-five language. Among others, he
An Evening with Guy Gavriel Kay Read More »
We have a perennial problem at our school. The kindergarten students have trouble logging in to the board-wide computer system. The login uses a general user name and a shared password. This system is handy for sharing bookmarks and works perfectly for first grade and up, but it baffles many four and five-year-olds. The biggest
Student Movies that Teach Read More »