We’re holding a SETTING workshop with some of our wonderful Pitch Wars mentors during the month of June! They’ll critique 500 words from any part of your manuscript to help bring your settings to life. Critiques will be posted daily on my blog for the month of June. This is for MG, YA, NA, & Adult manuscripts. Your manuscript doesn’t have to be completed and it doesn’t have to be a manuscript that will be Read more…
Today, I am so grateful to Brenda for allowing me to participate in this extremely-important topic. We hear a lot about bullying these days, and that is wonderful and amazing and every time I read about or see a post that speaks against this type of behavior, I cheer and fist-pump! See, I’m a *tiny bit* past school age now. But back when I was in school, there was no outcry against bullying. It was Read more…
The best part of the contests for us around here is when we hear about successes. Today we celebrate Heather Ezell and her Pitch Wars mentor Rachel Lynn Solomon! Heather signed with Sarah Davies at Greenhouse Literary, and Marissa Grossman at Razorbill has acquired her debut NOTHING LEFT TO BURN. We couldn’t be more thrilled for her. So without further ado, please meet Heather and Rachel as they recap their Pitch Wars success story. Read more…
HEY THERE FELLOW ARMADILLOS! AKA: MY THOUGHTS ABOUT BULLYING. BY: KELLY CALABRESE I’ve been asked to share my insights on bullying, which Urban Dictionary defines as: See abuse. ‘Nuff said. So true! Bullying is abuse. It is a wicked display of power meant to intimidate and embarrass another. Worst all, bullying often causes victims to internalize. We remain silent about what happens. But thanks to organizations and people like Brenda Drake, many are speaking up. Read more…
Tomorrow is the release of my third book with HarperTeen, DOWN WITH THE SHINE. About the book . . . There’s a reason they say “be careful what you wish for.” Just ask the girl who wished to be thinner and ended up smaller than Thumbelina, or the boy who asked for “balls of steel” and got them-literally. And never wish for your party to go on forever. Not unless you want your Read more…
Tomorrow is the release of my third book with HarperTeen, DOWN WITH THE SHINE. About the book . . . There’s a reason they say “be careful what you wish for.” Just ask the girl who wished to be thinner and ended up smaller than Thumbelina, or the boy who asked for “balls of steel” and got them-literally. And never wish for your party to go on forever. Not unless you want your Read more…
Don’t Be a Bully (or Raise One) by Laura Heffernan This month, some of the other mentors have shared their experience with bullying, how it changed them. I hope these posts have made some people think about this problem, in realizing that our actions really do impact those around us. But if that’s not enough to make people care, to stop bullying (or to encourage their kids to stop), I want to talk about something Read more…
Friends Stop Bullies by C.M. McCoy Bullies have been the bane of my existence since the sixth grade, and when I saw Brenda Drake was doing a blog series dedicated to anti-bullying, I knew I wanted to contribute. This cause is close to my heart. Before I go into my experience with bullies, I wanted to share some things I’ve learned over the years. There are a lot of myths about bullying—that bullies just have Read more…
In this sparkling debut novel, Mary Ann Marlowe introduces a hapless scientist who’s swept off her feet by a rock star—but is it love or just a chemical reaction?… Biochemist Eden Sinclair has no idea that the scent she spritzed on herself before leaving the lab is designed to enhance pheromones. Or that the cute, grungy-looking guy she meets at a gig that evening is Adam Copeland. As in the Adam Copeland—international rock god Read more…
Your Bullying Did Not Break Me by Katie Bucklein Sometimes, when I think back to my high school years, they feel like yesterday. In a way, they were. I graduated in 2012 as an eighteen-year-old with a single blonde stripe in my brown hair (18yo-me thought it was bad-ass) and a goal to one day become the Secretary of Defense (lofty, I know). But that’s still four years between high school and now, where I Read more…