I’m really excited to announce that Finding My Place: One Girl’s Strength at Vicksburg won 2nd place in the “Show-Me” Book Awards category at the Missouri Writers’ Guild conference on Saturday night. Any Missouri Writers’ Guild member can enter their adult or children’s book that was published the year before in this category, and they [...]

This originally appeared on a great blog by Anne E. Johnson, JESTER HARLEY’S MANUSCRIPT PAGE, where she reveals her own writing as well as highlights several fiction authors in all genres! Check it out here: http://anneejohnson.blogspot.com/ When I do school visits, I often talk to students about “potato ideas.” These are ideas that are not [...]

I’m so thankful for libraries and librarians. And this week, it’s National Library Week! Since my book Finding My Place: One Girl’s Strength at Vicksburg has been published, I’ve been invited by librarians to speak at two different schools in St. Charles County this year–at Discovery Ridge Elementary School in Wentzville and All Saints School [...]

Teaching protagonist and antagonist and studying how the author created each one can help students understand story elements better and their own fiction writing. (If you are a writer, this can also help you!) When I do school visits about my writing process, I share with students information about my main protagonist, Anna Green (13-years-old), [...]

No one can write thank you notes like elementary students. Remember that show Bill Cosby hosted–Kids Say the Darndest Things? That’s what it’s like when an author receives thank you notes for a school visit or a letter about a book. It’s the greatest thing ever and always brings a smile to my face. I [...]

If you don’t live in the Midwest, you are probably tired of us Midwesterners complaining about the snow on Facebook and Twitter. But just look at my back yard on Sunday! (See my daughter–she’s trying to help my husband shovel the sidewalk. LOL) This is a scene from MARCH 24! I know, I know, March [...]

Well, today is the first day of spring; and in St. Louis, it is NOT very springy! The forecast doesn’t look much better for the entire week. So I’m going to put a little spring excitement in the air with a book sale! If you haven’t heard about my book yet, it’s a middle-grade (ages [...]

Today, I wanted to share a couple of school visits I went on and photos I received this week. I’ll start with the visit for good ole Dr. Seuss Day! I had a great time at Southview School, part of the Special School District in St. Louis County, yesterday for Read Across America Day. I [...]

Continuing with my Wednesday 6 +1 traits of writing lessons to go with my book, Finding My Place, today I’m going to talk about a lesson in sentence fluency, using Finding My Place. One of the writing skills you teach with sentence fluency is having sentences of different lengths that start with different words when [...]

Here’s a simple word choice lesson you can do with kids while reading FINDING MY PLACE: ONE GIRL’S STRENGTH AT VICKSBURG or really any historical fiction book. Word choice is one of the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing. One thing about the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing that I love is that these [...]