Back from Hiatus ... with Books for Girls Who Love to Write

Argh! Eleven days since my last blog!

I have no excuse except that I am exceptionordinarily (thank you, Clarice Bean) busy lately -- mostly with writing for money (aka freelance writing). I have been writing some weird stuff (not creepy weird, mostly just mind-numbingly boring weird).

Anyway, the irony of this is that while I am finally making money writing (I hear my parents cheering -- 15 years after receiving my bachelor's degree in writing) -- I don't seem to have enough time to write what I love -- which is the kind of stuff you read about on my site -- great books for kiddos -- and especially great books for girls.

So apparently, I'm going to have to start staying up later, drinking more coffee and focusing a bit more, because I have loved to write fiction for almost as long as I've loved to read.

Which brings me to my recommendations for today ... which are ... (I hope you'll be impressed after such a long-winded intro)... Books for girls who love to write, most especially Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine and What's Your Story?: A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction by Marion Dane Bauer.

Both of these books are excellent primers for girls who have a writer's heart beating within them (perfect for 10 years old and up) -- giving great advice and providing many fun writing exercises. Levine (who wrote Ella Enchanted) and Bauer (who wrote Runt and A Bear Called Trouble) both speak in a language writer girls will understand -- and won't make them feel like they are being talked down to....

These are books that I would have eaten up (and then licked the plate) when I was a writer kid. If you've got one of those girls with a fire in her for writing -- and dreams of having a book with her name on it on a library shelf -- buy her these books. Fan that flame -- no matter how many years it takes to ignite -- don't let it go out.

OK, I'm officially back. Another pot of coffee anyone?