Monday, November 25, 2024

Getting Thanksgiving Right

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  This Thanksgiving week, I am reworking a post I originally wrote in 2014 for the Indiana Writers’ Consortium blog. The changes are mostly ...
Monday, November 18, 2024

Researching the Little Things

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  As I mentioned last week, I’ve been working on a story that takes place at the Grand Canyon. At one point, my protagonist visits the Tusay...
Monday, November 11, 2024

Story Ideas That Are Out-of-Sync with Travel

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  In 2014, I dragged Roland along on a trip to Utah and California to do research for my first middle-grade book, Desert Jewels . Since Rola...
Monday, November 4, 2024

An Hour Gained--Or Is It?

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  I haven’t posted my daylight savings poem for several years, so I thought it was time to do it again. Spring Forward, Fall Back Spring for...
Monday, October 28, 2024

The Importance of Context Clues

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  Last week I talked about using context clues to understand the foreign language phrases used in one of my current projects. Knowing how to...
Monday, October 21, 2024

Translation or Context? Using Foreign Languages in Novels

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  One of my current projects is Not the Enemy , a story about a German American girl living in Illinois during World War I. For various reas...
Monday, October 14, 2024

Visiting America's National Parks

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  I just put together a collaborative presentation on national parks for my camera club, and it reminded me how important it is to visit o...