INK Sisters Write

Dear Kim, I'm still not convinced about scones. Even if Simon Snow loves them, even if by deduction we can assume that Rainbow Rowell must enjoy them because she created Simon Snow and his love of scones. I still cannot see the scone value. Taste the scone value? Just not convinced. I'll tell you what I am convinced about-- Rainbow Rowell Rocks! And not just the holy-crap-I-love-everything-she-writes kind of thing (though that is true). She rocks to the highest magnitude of awesomeness because of her response to Lin Oliver's question, "What are your assumptions about people?" Rainbow, during her fireside chat with Lin, replied, "We are mostly good people who try hard." She went on to say that she hopes her characters fulfill that assumption. Lin Oliver and Rainbow Rowell at #NY16SCBWI In both #NY16SCBWI sessions Rainbow shared her hopes for her characters. She let us know just how deeply she feels for her make believe friends (and her vill...

Dear Alison f rom  one fangirl to another, Thank you for your recap on  Alvina Ling's Plotting Session . It's times like these when I wish I had a clone so I can listen to all the different breakout sessions and take notes--I know, I know. Geek alert. And the Vomit Draft concept? That's exactly what my first drafts feel like, but a good kind of vomit you know--the dumping of words onto paper instead of other places. I should probably change the subject. So, we spent the morning in Rai nbow Rowell’s Breakout Session. Officially, as Regional Advisors for SCBWI, we collected tickets. Unofficially, we considered ourselves bouncers, but you know what, all those fangirls and fanboys who came to her session LOVE Rainbow, and they were just as excited and starry eyed as we were. We kept our cool though, didn't we? On the outside, we were professional, calm, cool, collected, but on the inside, we were, well we were...         Levi and Cath Kanye West Styl...

YOUR PAST, YOUR PRESENT, YOUR FUTURE **For the sake of brevity, I’m not going to give a Grammar lesson on all the sub-categories of tenses, but I will discuss each tense and provide a few examples of when it’s used well, as well as, useful tips to take your writing to the next level. PAST TENSE Most books, both fiction and nonfiction, tend to be written in the PAST TENSE. It began thousands of year ago with when hunters returned home with their kill slung over their shoulders. Following the feast, villagers sat around the bonfire and listened to stories about the hunt, and so began our oral tradition of retelling a past event. Eventually, inspiration struck, and someone decided to record these stories. First through pictures, then through words. If you pick up a book, whether it’s from the bookshelf at home, at the library, at the story, from your neighbor’s coffee table, it’s probably written in the PAST TENSE. It’s a writer’s GO TO POV. Rainbow Rowell weaves past...