Looking for materials to enhance using The Last Panther in the classroom or book club? This is the place to find and share those. Although my first goal is always to write an entertaining story, it’s my hope that The Last Panther will help students creating vivid, personal connections to several areas of interest for 4th-7th grades, including: —Understanding […]
Do Something Good (and get a Protector Pendant!)
October 19, 2016 by · 6 Comments
Ever wish you were living in a fantasy book, fighting monsters and questing to save the world? (I sometimes do). Fortunately, there are plenty of real causes in need of heroes. BECOME A PROTECTOR! Being a protector is easier than you might think. You can: —Sell lemonade or homemade crafts to raise money to protect endangered species […]
Create a Comic Book in 10 (simple?) Steps
September 10, 2015 by · 1 Comment
Comics and other graphic texts are one of the fastest growing areas of publishing, and they seem to be getting stronger each year. If you haven’t considered getting graphic, you might want to. This post is for creators, especially writers, who are interested in graphic story-telling. Even if your art skills are limited to crooked, one-armed stick figures, […]
The One Thing I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Creating Characters
April 24, 2013 by · 5 Comments
There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there about characters. Do you make them quirky and unusual (like Amelia Bedelia), or more ordinary (like Charlie Brown)? Do you make them heroic (someone readers might aspire to be, like Atticus Finch), or deeply flawed (like FH in Jesus’s Son)? Do you make them raw and human […]
Writing Advice Part II (my top six other best pieces of advice)
April 19, 2013 by · 9 Comments
The single best piece of writing advice I ever got was to write the book you most want to read (more on that here). After that, here are six other bits of writing advice that have made the biggest difference for me (and that I need to keep reminding myself of to keep on going). […]
The Green Wave in MG and YA Literature: Radio Interview
October 12, 2018 by · Leave a Comment
Interested in learning more about the growing green wave in literature? Here’s a short Colorado Public Radio interview with me, and award-winning writers Laura Resau and Eliot Schrefer on how books are changing to help young people understand and address the environmental problems they’re inheriting. Many thanks to Grace Hood for putting this story together. […]
Cool News: The Last Panther is a Green Earth Honor Book and a Colorado Book Award Winner!
April 22, 2018 by · Leave a Comment
I just got some good news that I wanted to share with you Update: The Last Panther was selected as the 2018 Green Earth Honor Book, a Colorado Author’s League Book Award Winner, and a Colorado Book Award Winner! Available now (or ask your local bookstore or library to order it) Many thanks to the 40 readers and judges who […]
This Month’s Protector Pendant Winner!
December 9, 2017 by · 2 Comments
Meet Peter the Snake Protector! Peter saves snakes by catching unwanted garter snakes and relocating them. Not only that, he educates others about the importance of snakes in the ecosystem, and how helpful snakes are. I included Peter’s letter and some pictures he sent me below. For protecting animals, and for helping the environment, he’s […]
