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Simon & Schuster authors speak out on the topics that inspire them

A gossip queen dissecting politics? A political pundit musing about sports? A romance novelist waxing poetic on music? You read it here first... see what your favorite literary personalities have to say about life beyond books.

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The Unglamorously Hard Work Part

By Marion Dane Bauer - November 28, 2012

In the last few weeks I’ve been talking about writing for the pure love of writing, not as a career, and then I turned to asking what it takes to make a career, beyond serendipity, which is usually one of the most important ingredients. Today, as promised, I’m going to talk about the unglamorously hard work required to make a living as a writer. It starts with all I’ve...

By Marion Dane Bauer - November 26, 2012

Last week I talked about what it takes to build a career as a writer. I discussed the importance of setting a writing schedule and keeping it. I said that it is essential to learn to revise and to get the kind of input that tells you what kinds of revisions will be useful. And then I marched straight on into the deepest secret of every successful writer . . . serendipity. No...

THE BOOK OF KILLOWEN in Library Journal

By Erin Hart - November 26, 2012

Thrilled to find THE BOOK OF KILLOWEN included in Library Journal's prepub alert, a listing called "What's Hot" for March 2013, with fellow crime writers Rhys Bowen and Paul Doherty, among others!Feeling like an awful tease, since it'll be another 3+ months until the book is out. I am so sorry. (Okay, not really.)Here's a link to the full article at the magazine's...

So You Want to Write for a Living

By Marion Dane Bauer - November 14, 2012

Last week I talked about the benefits of writing for your own deep pleasure, not having to depend on this uncertain craft to have a warm bed at night and food in your belly. And as disingenuous as that sounds, coming from someone who is a career writer, I do remember from my own early years the pure joy of writing simply because I loved to write. But I also remember yearning for...

Wonderful, Wonderful November

By Trudi Trueit - November 12, 2012

November brings to mind so many things that are good for the soul: gold and red leaves swirling in the wind, warm pumpkin pie fresh from the oven, and gathering with friends and family to give thanks for our blessings. For me, November also means love. When I was a freshman in college, I planned to major in journalism so I thought it would be a good idea to join the...

It was a Dark & Stormy Halloween (Really!) ...

By Trudi Trueit - November 12, 2012

When I was kid, the moment the first fall leaf crunched underfoot, I had Halloween on the brain. I spent as much time as possible contemplating, debating, soliciting opinions, deciding, having second thoughts, and re-deciding about what costume to wear for that spooky, magical occasion. I drove my family nuts. But I had a pretty good reason. At my elementary school, we had an...

A Visit with a Book Group

By Jeannie Mobley - November 8, 2012

A couple weeks ago, I got to meet with a book group for the first time. They first contacted me a month earlier. They went to the library to get a suggestion for the next book to read, and the librarian not only pointed out my book, but told them I was local and might come talk to them. Thank goodness for libraries and great librarians! The thing about being a writer, is...

Writing for Money

By Marion Dane Bauer - November 7, 2012

One of my editors said to me recently, “I tried to support myself with my writing once. The whole endeavor lasted for about a day and a half and scared me to death.” I am one of the privileged ones. I do support myself with my writing. I no longer even supplement my income by teaching on the side, something I did for forty years. Nor do I supplement my income by speaking in...

October and A Sister's Shame

By Carol Rivers - November 6, 2012

October 2012 is publication month for my new 1930's novel, "A Sister's Shame". My stories are always peppered with gritty and often dangerous situations and this book is no exception. Just as today, my historical heroines must use a great deal of emotional energy and courage to try to resolve their desperate predicaments. In "A Sister's Shame" twins Marie and Vesta Haskins,...

A Search for God

By Marion Dane Bauer - November 2, 2012

I talked last week about the years I spent plumbing novels for scraps of ideas about God. What I found in church and discovered through reading more traditionally theological sources was too expected, too much cloaked in arcane language, too certain of itself. I needed questions that didn’t come with ready-made answers. And so I turned to novelists, the creative minds that...

The Forbidden Topic ... Religion

By Marion Dane Bauer - October 24, 2012

Last week I took on same-sex marriage. While I’m on a roll, I might as well talk about religion, too. There aren’t many topics forbidden to those who write for young people these days. Especially if the audience is defined as young adult, writers can take on sex, violence, racism, social taboos, war . . . you name it. And sometimes we can even tiptoe into religion. Religion...

Presidential Debates

By Gillian Royes - October 23, 2012

While watching – leaning forward, biting fingernails – the recent presidential debates, it occurred to me that what this tradition had become was an aristocratic boxing match. Maybe society, I pondered for days after the second debate, had found another way to separate the haves from the have nots. Physical boxing seems to be considered fitting for those with less income...

Hurricane Season

By Gillian Royes - October 23, 2012

Residents of the Caribbean, including me, wait anxiously for the end of the hurricane season, November 30. We keep our fingers crossed that we will have again missed hitting the number, in some sort of reverse form of roulette. Meanwhile, we live with rains, soggy walkways and potholes filled with water. It's not so bad. At least it's warm outside and there are periods...

More appearances, plus a refurbished website!

By Peter Ames Carlin - October 19, 2012

BRUCE will hit its official on-sale date on October 30, which means you can snap up, say, 100 copies and drop them into the kiddies' Halloween bags. A generous gift, but if you do it you'll be a hero, and all your neighbors won't ever stop talking about it. I swear.In the meantime: Check out my revamped website, peteramescarlin.com, which is full of cool Bruce/BRUCE info,...

My Giant List of Book Recommendations

By Melissa Wiley - October 19, 2012

For nearly eight years, I've been blogging about the books my children and I love. Now I'm putting together a master list of all those posts--hundreds of suggestions for picture books, early readers, graphic novels, middle-grade novels, YA, and other titles we've enjoyed. Here's the link: http://melissawiley.com/book-recommendations/ Happy reading!

By Marion Dane Bauer - October 17, 2012

In this new and sometimes bewildering world of blogging, bloggers are advised to stake out a territory. Define who you are, what your topic is, where you have credibility, what will draw your audience to your words and stay there. That hasn’t been difficult for me. I write for children and young adults. For years I have also taught those who want to write for children and...

When Is Scary Too Delicious?

By Marion Dane Bauer - October 8, 2012

Last week I talked about my new picture book, Halloween Forest, and about the function that fear has in a story, even for very young children. Fear tucked inside the safety of a story can allow us an exciting chill without submitting ourselves to danger. It allows us to move through our own feelings and emerge on the other side, having grown larger. But that leaves us with a...

Purging of Pity and Fear

By Marion Dane Bauer - September 25, 2012

Halloween is almost upon us, and my newest picture book, Halloween Forest, is on the shelf. When I received my first copy with John Shelley’s marvelously creepy illustrations of the forest of bones I’d written about, a rather delicious shiver ran down my spine. All those bony tree hands reaching … reaching. And my own shiver brings up an interesting question. What is the...

Spelling under the sea!

By Debbie Dadey - September 25, 2012

I'm having a great time writing the Mermaid Tales series. I loved being an elementary school teacher and librarian, so it's such fun writing about third grade merkids. I just finished an upcoming book about the horrors of spelling tests. They were difficult for me and for one of my sons, so I know they can be hard for other kids as well. I hope this book, the sixth one in...

Emotional Power

By Marion Dane Bauer - September 19, 2012

A while back, talking about gathering ideas for a sequel to Little Dog, Lost, I wrote, "I'm off and running, the story that's growing in my mind gathering emotional power as I go." And that is the key concept to understand when it comes to choosing the stories we write … emotional power. If an idea doesn't touch my own emotions, I can't possibly write it in a way that will...

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