INK Sisters Write

Dear Kim, On a fact finding mission I went digging through our old posts. See, I'm writing about food in my new novel and it got me thinking about how much food connects us . You and I must seriously want to be connected at Ink Sisters Write because over 50% of our posts mention food in one way or another. That's a pretty high statistic considering our mission is to " talk about books, writing, the writing-craft, and spreading the writer-love, one letter at a time ." Such a delicious mission! CHEERS! I wrote about character development over at The Highlights Foundation earlier today. The focus there was about how music influences character. Examples of music as a device abound in young adult literature but I couldn't find the same number of examples about food. Sure, there are about twenty YA novels about cupcakes, but what about stepping out of the bakery and into every day life? Not as many. Is it because food isn't as universal as music? I don...

Dear Alison, Wow! Tuesday was an AMAZING day and the way you announced the big news to the world--BRILLIANT.  It's one of our most popular posts of all time and with good reason--Carrie and you are a match made in heaven... And I am sooooooo happy for you. I haven't stopped happy dancing since the first phone call... I can't wait for the world to read your stories, because you are a master storyteller, an absolute Master... Alison and Carrie, I look forward to an amazing future filled with incredible books, delicious cheesesteaks, and killer shoes... So it's Friday, and way back in 2016 we posted every Monday and Thursday, but life got away from us. Mainly for bookish reasons but don't worry. InkSisters will be participating in the April #AtoZChallenge again. In a few weeks, the A to Z Masters will reveal the badge and the contest theme. We already know our theme, don't we Alison? It'll take a considerable amo...

Dear Kim, Remember that letter I sent you way back in October? (You remember October-- back when all things seemed possible.)  The letter,  COMP TITLES and THE QUERYING WRITER , shared details from our Novel Nuts & Bolts class with Empire Literary Agent Carrie Howland. (I may have referred to her as "agent-extraordinaire" in another post .) Though today's post will be my third about Carrie, it is titled "Part II" because my querying journey seems sequel worthy. I started looking for an agent soon after you and I met at the NYC SCBWI conference in 2012 . I had nice feedback from an agent at a conference and sent him my work. His response was kind (which I've found most responses from agents to be.) But my writing wasn’t ready. The novel he saw was the first I’d ever finished. I wasn't ready. I swallowed that little voice that said, SEND! SEND! SEND! for two more years until I entered #PitchWars -- Brenda Drake’s crash cou...

Dear Alison, The paradigm shift that began the beginning of November and culminated January 20 th knocked our country on our ass. We leaned on each other to stand up and prepare for battle. Over the weeks that followed, we wrote letters. We sent tweets. We made phone calls. We marched. We fought for our friends, our families, our children. We fought for our land, our arts, our very souls.  We will continue to fight every injustice, every threat to the rights of both present and future generations. We will do this. We are compelled to do this, but it is not without cost. We pretend our skin is thick. For many of us, especially those in the Arts—it is a fiction, a layer of ink and paint to protect our hearts from bleeding out onto the floor. As Tahereh Mafi said during her Saturday afternoon keynote at the New York SCBWI conference, “My thin skin helps me to be emotional.” SCBWI gave us a gift this past weekend, a gift of spirit, of hope, of possibility, a gift of h...