INK Sisters Write

Dear Alison, You talked about character on Monday in your post, Character Development and Food...YUM!  I think about character and food a lot. In fact, since the new year, I've been getting up at 5 (closer to 5:15--love that snooze button) to write. I rejoined the #5amwritersclub. (It's open to anyone who wants to write early. READ: Insane and Driven.) This group is an amazing community of writers. They are happy, they are friendly, and they've got a load of character. We often talk about donuts. We always talk about coffee.  These people have become my Twitterverse friends. We chat throughout the day or continue conversations from the day before or promise to send virtual donuts the next day. In fact, I started this blog post during the #5amwritersclub, but the GIFs didn't want to load quickly, and we know my penchant for GIFs. The past few years I've spent many of my days substitute teaching. During my preps and lunch, I edit or read. The rest of ...

Dear Kim, That was a pretty sweet way to end #AuthorApril. The month culminating with our SCBWI Eastern PA crew at the Highlights Foundation, and a certain faculty member whose name fit our #AtoZChallenge perfectly. (Almost like we planned it!) It helped that Zachariah was such a good sport! This year's retreat was all about character. We kicked off the weekend with a costume party, celebrating favorite children's book characters. Hey, there you are with Effie Trinket!! Then we got down to business with our amazing faculty: Ame Dyckman, Zachariah OHora, Sean McCarthy, Leila Sales, Lauren Rille, and Meg Medina. Each faculty member shared techniques to help our writers develop strong, memorable characters. We also had Ky Betts, professional caricature artist, take our writers from flesh to sketch; highlighting the character found in all of us. Can you tell which faculty member had this caricature made? To learn more about Ky, click here. I had the oppor...