Whoops, with all the back-to-school excitement in my household this week (first day of middle school!) I completely forgot to write a newsletter. This week I also got to spend a good few hours catching up with my critique partners who I hadn’t seen all summer and we plotted our upcoming retreat by the ocean. I’m counting down the weeks.
Currently obsessed with
📚 Tom Lake by Ann Patchett*. Ann’s writing is beautiful and I wish I had a physical copy so I could make notes (I’m reading it via my library and Libby.) I love this PBS interview about the book (check out Ann’s treadmill desk!). Kirkus said this: “Poignant and reflective, cementing Patchett’s stature as one of our finest novelists.”
💻 Speaking of the library, a lovely librarian gave me lots of tips about using a free online resource called NoveList. Check with your local library if it’s available.
If you liked a book you can use it to find read-a-likes. See my tip below on how to use it as a writer.
📋 This is random but I bought a set of clipboards* and stuck them on my kitchen wall to keep track of school things, bills to pay, important documents etc. With my kids in two different schools, the paperwork has doubled (and don’t even talk to me about the number of forms and emails I got sent last week).
Writing Tip of the Week
Use your local library and the resource NoveList to find comp titles and mentor texts for your next project. You can search using a title if you want to find similar books. You can use keywords. Or you can use a really cool tool that lets you mix characters, tone, writing style and more to get suggested titles. Let me know if you try it out or if you have more tips on how to use it.
Writing Prompt
Take a book from your bookshelf. Turn to page 76. Write a poem (or short story or anything) starting with the first word on that page.
I picked up Because of Winn-Dixie. The first word on page 76 is ‘finally’.
Finally her name flashed on my screen
it had been six years, maybe more,
since the day in the rain
the day when she said goodbye.
Her voice was the same and
she said she had missed me,
could I meet her back at our place,
the place I hadn’t been to since.
This time there was no rain
no tears
no goodbyes
just hello hello hello.
News
Just in time for back to school, I have resources for all my books on my website. There’s a guide for Dear Mr. G coming soon.
Until next week, happy writing and reading. Let me know what you’re thinking about this week.
Christine
P.S. links marked with a * are affiliate and may earn me a small percentage of the sale at no cost to you.