INK Sisters Write

Dear Kim, Last week I spoke with a group of writers at  Life in the Spotlight.  One of the authors asked me about using Twitter to reach her readers. You know I have a weak spot for The Twitter-sphere and shared my feelings as such with this writer. I think Twitter offers a great space to meet other authors, connect with teachers and librarians, share news about publishing, celebrate books, and even, for a select few, a place to nab a book deal. In 2014 I entered Brenda Drake's PitchWars contest.  This online contest provides authors of unpublished novels the opportunity to work with a mentor, polish a manuscript, and then place the manuscript in front of Brenda's team of reputable literary agents. My team, made up of Coach, Natalie Traver , and mates, Julie Dao and Jerilyn Patterson , quickly became more family than team and worked together to bring home second place in the contest. What began with a single pitch, turned into a crash course in whole novel revision, ...

Dear Alison, You sure do know the way to my nerdy heart. I can't believe that you went to all the trouble to create charts just for me...well, I guess it was technically for the blog, but we know who those charts were really for...I mean the post screams, "Kim, this one's for you!" I don't have anything stat driven today, but I plan to gush on and on about Zachariah Ohora and the Character session I crashed at the SCBWIEPA Pocono Retreat. In last week's  SCBWIEPA Pocono Highlights #2 post , I announced to the world that I am a closet illustrator. For a while, I've felt the need to push out of my comfort zone and attend some different sessions. My theory was that if I sat in a room with creative genius that some of that genius would rub off on me. Well, that was theory until Zachariah informed us we were going to draw. Draw? DRAW. No one said anything about draw. I grabbed my things and acted like I had somewhere else to go. Fortunately, Zachariah c...

Dear Kim, To honor your inner statistics nerd, I prepared our #AtoZChallenge Reflections by the numbers. Straighten those spectacles and get out your highlighter, here are stats on last month's challenge.  Blog Stats Number of visitors to our blog April 1 - 30, 2016 in the #AtoZChallenge. Average views per day: 201 Average views per post: 163 Average shares per post (Twitter and Facebook analytics used as well): 48 New subscribers: 13 Total April Traffic: 5,003 visitors #AuthorApril Stats Content on our blog April 1 - 30, 2016 in the #AtoZChallenge. Authors featured:          Picture Book Authors: 7          Middle Grade Authors: 4          Young Adult Authors: 17          Adult: 2 Illustrators featured: 6 Book Reviews: 34 Giveaways: 3 Comments from fellow A to Z Bloggers: 24 Post viewed the most: " B is for Bookishly Ever After by I...

Dear Alison, Happy Friday! I thought I'd share this novella from Inkspeller Bridie Hall. You may not like the snow, but this story might make you reconsider... Check out the cover: And a little teaser, to tease ya... Snowboarding means everything to Charlise, but she hasn’t met Sam Miller yet. Charlise is a snowboarder with a promising career ahead of her. Despite the fact that her father hates her risking her life on the slopes that had taken the life of Charlise’s mother she is determined not to give up her career the way her mother did when she fell pregnant. Charlise wants to win medals, lots of them. The last distraction Charlise needs is the American freestyle champion, Sam Miller, who utterly enthralls her with his wit and friendliness. Refusing to risk her career for a relationship, Charlise returns home for Christmas, determined to sort things out with her father. But the holidays culminate in an epic fight, and with a repeat of the painful break...

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...