Gratitude in 2020
I don’t keep a gratitude journal or do any other kind of gratitude process. But 2020 has been…a lot, and it feels right to put down some of the things I have felt grateful so many times during the past year. I am grateful that my family is healthy, that we have the capacity and […]
Adventuring in a Summer of Sameness
Still here, still in a place of luck and gratitude, still on a rollercoaster of anger and grief, still stepping into the chaos, and still pulling back when I need self-care. And still striving to add new things to make daily life feel like it includes change and some kind of forward progress. In June, […]
What Will We Do with May?
It’s May Day. March was chaos. March was crazy. It seemed like I heard a new announcement of some significant change every day. I watched the COVID-19 counts climb and climb. All the Zooming for work and the Zooming with family and friends made me feel like I was literally zooming through every minute of […]
Creatives in the Time of Social Distancing
Crazy times, right? Hard, frightening times for some more than others–if you’re sick or know someone who’s sick, if you’ve lost your job or have to take time off without pay, if you’re trying to juggle anything with caring for children–homeschooling or not. I’m counting myself on the incredibly lucky side–I have work, I can do […]
Book Riot’s 2020 Read Harder Challenge
Yes, I’m posting a lot lately. No, it probably won’t continue, since I head back to the day-job tomorrow, will be doing Storystorm all month, and will be digging into two or three new picture books. Not to mention getting my yarn stash down to a non-intimidating size. But…maybe I’ll be posting about challenge books. […]
Storystorm 2020: I’m in!
I just signed up for Storystorm 2020. If you aren’t familiar with Storystorm, it’s the creation of Tara Lazar–author of so many fantastic picture books. To name just a few you should definitely check out: The Monstore, Normal Norman, and The Upper Case: Trouble in Capital City. Every January picture book writers sign up to participate in Storystorm […]
Some Favorite Books from 2019
Without description and with only a hint of organizing, here’s a list of (some of the) books I read and loved in 2020. Picture Books Pluto Gets the Call, written by Adam Rex & illustrated by Laurie Keller Maximillian Villainous, written by Margaret Chiu Greanias & illustrated by Lesley Breen Withrow Mary Wears What She Wants, written […]
Writing without a Critique Group: Looking Back
When I published The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide in 2010, I wrote a lot about the process of finding a critique group and a little bit about waiting until you found the right one. Maybe I should have written more about the waiting. For various reasons, I was recently without my own critique group […]
Where to Find those 10,000 Books
So at some point in Outliers, I guess Malcolm Gladwell said a few things about putting 10,000 hours into something you want to do well. And possibly there is debate about not only what he said, but about whether he was right. Whatever Gladwell actually said, how many times have you heard other writers, publishers, agents, […]
Fuse 8’s List of Easy Readers & Early Chapter Books
If you haven’t seen this post, take a look. Good books in these genres were the hardest to find when my son was young. These look so wonderful, I’m putting some on my to-read list just for myself. http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/07/02/easy-readers-and-early-chapter-books-some-of-the-best-of-2019/
beckylevine.com 