WRITING LESSONS FROM WORLD CUP SOCCER By KIM BRIGGS

What does World Cup Soccer and Writing have to do with each other? On the surface, not much, but I wondered aloud what I should blog about and in my sports family, SOCCER rules.

Hmm, that's interesting. Writing and Soccer? They ARE alike. We dodge passive voice like Renaldo dodges opponents. We shoot on goal. Agents block our queries like US Goalie Tim Howard blocks shots, but if we write and submit like Messi. We fire from our right foot. Recover the blocked shot with our left and fire again. And again. And again.

Occasionally, with hard work and drive and a tenacious streak that won't quit, our relentless shots get through and score.

We can write every day for hours at a time. We can read books from our genres and categories. We can network and tweet and Facebook. We can workshop our manuscripts. We can edit out every cliché and passive voice. We can remove the stiff dialogue. We can round our characters til the cows come home, but at the end of the day, if we don't fire off query after query after query, we will never get that GOAL!

Game on,
Kim

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FIRST SNOW by Bomi Park: Classroom Activity and Review

Dear Kim, Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! We had fun with Bomi Park's gorgeous FIRST SNOW last week. We used the book as a mentor text to explore personal narratives and poetry. We also explored watercolor resist techniques. (We also made a mess-- which is kind of my modus operandi during writing workshop. Sorry, Kelley! ) I used the sentence starter from the jacket copy: Look up. One flake falls, then another. And just like that—it's __ __ __ __ __ __ __ . The kids worked cooperatively at their table groups to discuss what word might fill in the blank. I love hearing them chat. "Well it is a snowflake because 'one flake'." Followed by: "No. It has seven letters, snowflake has nine." And: "It is an action. A-- what's that called-- a verb because it is something falling." Eventually we filled in the blank by using spelling clues to check our thinking, which might not sound like a whole lot of fun, but spell...

Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira Book Launch Party

Looking for something fun to do on this rainy day? Our SCBWI EPA adopted member Isabel Bandeira (whom we all affectionately know as Carli) will be at the Barnes and Noble in Marlton, NJ today between 1-3 for her VERY FIRST Book Signing!! WOO HOO!! Her YA contemporary, Bookishly Ever After is a fun read about romance and love and book boyfriends and real boyfriends! Come down, get your book signed with with Carli and hang out with me! Hope to see you there! Write on, Kim Briggs

KIM NEEDS YOUR HELP!! Please, oh please!

Today is the day! STARR LOST, BOOK 2 of the STARR FALL SERIES is only... and I need your help. I've purchased ads from some major social promoters, and if all goes well, STARR LOST will make it to the bestselling list. Amazing things happen to authors and their books when they make the Bestselling list, so if you could purchase a copy or two (or three) for 99 cents it'll help hurl me to the top. So, let's see what happens when we all combine our buying power together. SUPPORT KIM BUY STARR LOST Ebook for $.99 AMAZON USA AMAZON CANADA AMAZON UK AMAZON AUSTRALIA And to thank you for your WRITER LOVE, I'm running a $10 AMAZON GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY... to enter, email a copy of your receipt to KimBriggs [@] KimBriggsWrite.com. a Rafflecopter giveaway Write on, Kim

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