John Scalzi kindly allowed me to blather on (at length) about how I came about the ideas that led me to writing Come Fall. You can find my essay here, as part of his ongoing The Big Idea columns.

I also posted a much shorter piece for Write Up Our Alley about book birthdays — what they are and aren’t.

I’ve recently updated my website to include resources for writers who are seeking information on how to get their works published. The list is a work in progress, and I’ll be updating it from time to time. You can find the current version here.

On Tuesday, Doe Boyle, Leslie Bulion and I spoke to a great group of aspiring children’s books writers about the mechanics of getting published (and the awesome opportunity provided by the Tassy Walden Awards for Connecticut writers).* We discussed cover letters, finding a critique group, researching publishing houses, the dos and don’ts of the submissions process. Ultimately thought, after almost two hours of questions and answers, our advice boiled down to this:

1. Write the very best stories you can write, then do everything in your power to make them better.

2. Never, ever, give up.

And that’s the secret.

* Special thanks go to the staff of the West Hartford Barnes & Noble who gave us this opportunity and were wonderful, from beginning to end!

Just wanted to remind folks that I’ll be appearing tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the West Hartford Barnes & Noble with Leslie Bulion and Doe Boyle to discuss tips on getting started in children’s book writing and the Tassy Walden Awards.

Hope to see you there!

In the mid ‘80s, when I was in law school, I participated in a seminar about how American law has treated African-American women over history. One lively discussion that stuck with me concerned whether a white person could ever fully understand, let alone properly describe, the life of a black woman. A classmate, an African-American woman, categorically stated that it couldn’t be done. Sullenly, I maintained that it should be possible.

This conversation came back to me, years later, when I wrote No Castles Here. About half the important characters are African-American. The primary setting is the inner-city in an imaginary neighborhood of Camden, NJ, a city where the majority of residents are African-American. Could I, as a white person write about the African-American experience?

Many, like my colleague back in the 1980s, strongly believe it wasn’t possible for me to do it — as illustrated in this blog discussion about the blurb for the book. But that wasn’t what I had set out to do.

I wanted to portray a poor bullied loser who encounters a bit of magic in his life. Because the references were easier for me, I made him white. I based his character, his family’s character, the neighbors, and the neighborhood on the hundreds of people I met and on the neighborhoods I wandered over the years, in the New Haven area, Brooklyn, and during my short time in Camden and Philadelphia.

Whether I was successful in what I set out to do, others will have to…