INK Sisters Write

Dear Kim, Another great session with agent-extraordinaire, Carrie Howland is in the books! (Literally.) Did you love the radial plotting exercise as much as I did? Mapping out Killer: A Love Story from the explosive climax outward gave me so much to think about. Adding to all of the AH-HAHs from my trusty plot map, I had an equally jaw dropping moment recently when Meg dug around my story and uncovered a major hole. That's me. And Ernesto. And Meg. We spent some time digging in the sand, but way more muscle was given to digging around our stories. Meg was on residency at the Foundation. ( I talk about the honor here .) Our group met daily to share pages we'd worked on during the retreat. Meg took home (well, to her cabin) several pages a night to review for us. One night she discovered the biggest hole in my manuscript. Like GRAND CANYON hole. Like, HOW-IN-THE-WORLD-COULD-I-MISS-THIS-HOLE, hole. Since the retreat I've been working on filling in an...

Dear Alison, Last night, I stayed up late. I was three quarters of the way through Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina, and I wasn’t about to put it down. Sleep could wait. Sleep was for the weak. Nora wasn’t weak. Nora wouldn’t sleep. She would push through blurry eyed and gritted teeth until the end. Around 2 am, I set Burn Baby Burn on the nightstand and turned off the light with full intentions of waiting until the morning to write my review, but Nora kept me awake. She refused to let me sleep until I poured my emotions onto the page (Or dictated into my phone.) Imagine Burn Baby Burn on nightstand in the pitch dark.  Nora's strength blew me away. I’ve always thought strong female protagonists are females who fight, who voice their opinions loudly, who don’t take one iota of crap from anyone. Women like Stiller, Nora’s protest loving neighbor. But Nora’s different. She doesn't fight. She doesn't confront. She possesses a quiet strength that help...

Dear Alison, I am a closet illustrator. I admire illustrators' ability to capture a moment, a feeling, a thought, an action in a single illustration. I even went to Zachariah OHora's Illustrator Session (I'll talk about that session another time) in hopes that I could glean some of his creative genius. I was so inspired I decided to create a post through pictures. So here goes... The Pocono Retreat 2016 was all about character and we kicked off the weekend Friday night with a costume party... Willowdean, Bellatrix and Max Quacks, Ducktective AKA Alison, Kim, and Donna Opal from Because of Winn-Dixie AKA Susan North Belle AKA Phoebe AKA Author Isabel Bandeira and Val Jones, Author of Who Wants Broccoli Dana Kramaroff Sophie from Sophie's Squash AKA Virginia Law Manning Strider from Lord of the Rings AKA Wes Loder Sophie from Sophie's Masterpiece  AKA Chrissa Pederson Harold's Purple Crayon AKA Andree Santini Ano...