INK Sisters Write

Dear Alison, I made a mistake. I didn't realize I was supposed to post Monday, May 30th. I deleted that lovely blog schedule you made us--that blog schedule that listed upcoming posting dates? I thought this morning I was being conscientious when I emailed you a request for a new copy. Turns out I was just being late. But fear not, I have delivered. Bob Marley makes me happy, especially this time of year when the sun shines down on us and we can jump into lakes without turning into icicles. I love swimming. I love biking. I love hiking in the woods. I love being outside, but I also love reading and writing. So, to fit everything in (as best as I can) I wake up early to read. I stay up late to write. I weasel time in during the park days and field days and carnival days and tie dye days. And you and I have taken up sprinting. Oh my dear readers, fear not. We are not tugging on our sneakers. We are not breaking a sweat and burning our fair skin in the blazing sun. (Althou...

Dear Alison, Picture it: the first week of June 2013. The sun shining, the lilacs blooming, and me, a young writer armed with a suitcase full of new clothes, two young adult manuscripts, shiny and new and ready to be published, (READ: naive and nowhere near ready to be published), and a burning desire to learn more about the revision process from two revision masters, Harold Underdown and Eileen Robinson at the Highlights Foundation Revision Retreat.  I should mention the second suitcase I packed. The one filled with balled nerves, reservations, and self-doubt brought on by the handful of rejections I received from agents. (READ AGAIN: naive and nowhere near ready to be published.)  It was my first visit to the Highlights Foundation, my first experience as a writer attending a writing workshop, my first time away from my three kids, my first time spending a week working on my dream since my husband and I started our family. A week filled with firsts... My first impress...

Dear Kim, I considered posting the text that I sent you this past weekend about Girls on Fire , but I thought better of exposing our readers to the amount of expletives used. Instead I will share a censored version: Robin Wasserman's masterpiece is a dark and twisty tale, too believable to be anything but young adult horror. Set in Battle Creek, Pennsylvania in 1991, a fitting town for Wasserman's many battles: high school reverence, best-of-friend manipulations, sexuality, and the battle to be just a girl in the world.  Kurt Cobain (not Gwen) plays the soundtrack to this novel. His songs hang like storm clouds around the girls-- all devastation, destruction, and angst.  Hannah Dexter seeks something more out of life . Then Hannah meets Lacey Champlain who is equal parts  seductress  and best friend. Lacey pulls Hannah (now Dex, per Lacey's order) into the fierce and violent fold of high school girlhood.   The story opens (and spoiler-ish...

Dear Alison,  We love, REALLY love, sharing writer love everyday. It's what we do. It's who we are, and today, I want to tell you all about a writing pal of mine Stacy Barnett Mozer, the author of  The Sweet Spot. When thirteen-year-old  Sam Barrette’s baseball coach tells her that her attitude’s holding her back, she wants to hit him in the head with a line drive. Why shouldn’t she have an attitude? As the only girl playing in the 13U league, she’s had to listen to boys and people in the stands screaming things like “Go play softball,” all season, just because she’s a girl. Her coach barely lets her play, even though she’s one of the best hitters on the team. KIM: Baseball and now softball rule our house, and a book about a girl playing baseball really excites me (I was a baseball player myself and have the bruises to prove that sometimes boys don't approve of girls on the field)!  Hi Stacy! Thanks for stopping by INK Sisters...