I finished my synthesis paper to get in-service credit for the Read, wRite, Revise conference. In the process of writing it, I had this epiphany about my two careers. Below is my paper. Life is Hard by Docena Holm               This paper will be my thoughts on what I’ve learned about writing from the [...]

Sigh. I wish I could report that all my dreams came true with Stephen Fraser's critique. Not so. He e-mailed me back his critique the same day Carol sent my 2000 words. That was fast. It was a critique of my 2000 words, just as promised. It was good to hear his perspective and get [...]

I'm speaking in my daughter's Adult Living Class on Friday about being a writer as a career choice and I compiled all my entries together. Thought it might be interesting to see the progression. Pre. First 150 words of novel, 60 entries  Nicole Shanti              You can learn a lot from listening. And it’s safer. [...]

My last post was before the winner of Project Writeway was announced and then I won! I actually won! You can read the announcement. Throwing Up Words. I've also pasted it below. I sent my 2000 words, cover letter, and synopsis off last Friday. Carol Lynch Williams confirmed that she sent it to Stephen Fraser [...]

The winner for Project Writeway will be announced sometime on Monday. Of course, I hope I win one of the two critiques from Stephen Fraser. He is a great agent. Last year he read my Sleeping Beauty novel, A Kiss and a Curse. Although he said it wasn't sell-able in the current market, he was [...]

This has been an amazing experience. I've learned so much from these challenges and I'm so excited to be in the final three. Thank you to all my friends and family for voting even when you didn't know which one was mine. I hope you've enjoyed reading the entries. The last challenge is to write [...]

I can't believe it. I won the fairy tale retelling contest this week.The judge was Mette Ivie Harrison. My daughters and I love her books. I went to a break-out session she gave about fairy tale retellings at a BYU conference many years ago. I think it might have been my first Children's Literature Conference [...]

On to the next challenge! There are five of us for the next challenge of Project Writeway which is to write a 600 word scene of a fairy tale retelling. What I'm trying to decide at this point is if I should use a scene from a novel I've already written or come up with [...]

It's been a tense couple of days. The results were posted this afternoon for the dystopian scene. I've made it to the next round. I was very worried about this last challenge. After I submitted it, I thought about all the things that were confusing in the scene. The next challenge is to write a [...]

Do You Write for Children?   Annual Writing Conference—April 20–21, 2012 Read, wRite, and Revise A conference for readers, writers, teachers, and librarians of children’s literature Speakers include: Literary agent Kate Schafer Testerman BSU Literacy Department educators Sherry Dismuke and Susan Martin Established authors Alane Ferguson, Gloria Skurzynski, and Matthew Kirby Debut authors Kate Kae [...]