Blog
A Wisp of Words. Reflections on writing books for kids.
Words Matter
My eleven-year-old grandson came home from his last day of school in June proudly waving a certificate that his fifth grade teacher had awarded him. On the certificate, in bold letters, were the words, “MOST LIKELY TO SAVE THE WORLD.” He believed those words…
Tell Me Why the Jack Pine Grows ~ The Role of TRUTH in Children’s Fiction
Fiction. It’s that comfortable place where characters, plot and settings are all figments of the author’s imagination. That safe, manufactured place where anything goes – right? Wrong…
Kids and “The Author Mystique”
Books are important. For those of us fortunate enough to have had them in our homes when we were small; to have had someone who was not only willing but eager to read those books to us, we were given a life-defining gift that opened new worlds with each turn of a page…
Forget-Me-Not
As you may have realized by now, I am partial to forget-me-not flowers. They have a way of showing up in my writing, of appearing in projects I have done with kids and finding their way into flower beds. They are a symbol of the histories that beg for recognition on the pages of books. And for me, they are also a symbol of childhood…
Q&A with author D. J. Brandon
In February of 2022, West 44 Books requested an author interview about the Graveyard Gruber series for their website blog. An excerpt from their interview is posted here…