icon caret-left icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook twitter goodreads question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle

Finding the Write Words

International Blog Event: The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing is an awareness blog campaign that began in Australia and became international. It features authors and illustrators of books for kids and young adults and their recently published books and/or those that are slated to be released this year.

1) What is the working title of your most recent book?

Jodie’s Passover Adventure

2) Where did the idea come from for the book

I have always been fascinated by archaeology. Living in Israel gives me the opportunity to live in the present while being able to touch the past. Exploring caves, trekking through tunnels and discovering bits of the past is always an adventure, and one I enjoy sharing.  Read More 
Be the first to comment

"The psychoanalyst, like the archaeologist

Perhaps this explains my fascination, as a writer and as a topic for my writing, with archaeology. Writing is also a process that deals in levels, the deeper you have insight into your character the more you ‘dig’ at their whys, the  Read More 
Post a comment

The Write Place

The quote from Annie Dillard writer of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, published in 1974. She was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction the following year. I read this today on The Writer's Almanac just as I was about to get on my bike and go to a mountain cafe about 5k from where I live. I love the view. I find it inspiring. Am curious to know where other artists choose to work and if the venue changes depending on the work.  Read More 
1 Comments
Post a comment

Working it out in the end

Some of us dread the end, and though this may be an existential question for some, I'm thinking of it from the writer's point of view. I just finished reading a 400 and something page novel and was left feeling annoyed by the ending and wondering why I had bothered to finish it.

How do you know if you've ended the novel as you should have? How far into writing the story do you know how it will end? Does the ending grab you by surprise? Or is that where you were headed all along.

One exercise that may help you rethink your ending is imagining 5 alternate ways to go. If you drive the same route to work every morning, the chances of something new and exciting happening along the way are slim. But if you choose a completley different route, it may open your eyes to experiences you'd never imagined. Read More 
1 Comments
Post a comment

Screenwriting for novelists

"One of the fundamental truths of drama is that humans seldom have full understanding of why they are doing something, and this is no less true for writers." (Amnon Buchbinder, The Way of the Screenwriter)

I've just finished reading Buchbinder's work on screenwriting. I'm in the middle of a YA novel and though I  Read More 
1 Comments
Post a comment

Today...Temper Tantrums

Who hasn't experienced a temper tantrum?

But what happens when it's one of your characters....

When my characters are having a temper tantrum and refuse to do anything but glare at me in silence, I play the three ‘what ifs’. This really works. You think of the first thing your character would do in their situation. That’s the most obvious one to come up with. Then you come up with an alternative. But the third one, the one which is the hardest to come up with, is often the most interesting course to take. Read More 
1 Comments
Post a comment