I’d been looking forward to Jim Lynch‘s workshop on pulling novels from nature for a long time.  Jim wrote The Highest Tide, so he knows a bit about working nature into a novel.  If you haven’t read it, you should.  There’s a YA version with a different cover (a boy in a boat).

One of the things that really struck me about his workshop was his emphasis on setting.  Jim believes that writers (and those that teach writers) don’t put enough emphasis on setting. Just as where we come from sets up who we basically are, he believes that if you start a novel with a rich setting the story and characters will spring from that.  

 

 

And now, to honor a new WordPress feature… a poll!

When you boil it down, what does your story start with?  If it varies, how about your last story?

Do the kids know?  The Scholastic News election goes to Obama.  The election is usually a good predictor.  Fingers crossed (link from Read Roger).

Next Wednesday Deb Lund and Kathryn Galbraith are having a Monster Mash & Bunny Ball at Ballard Library.  Bring the kids!

Tonight I am going to a book launch for my friend Martha Brockenbrough‘s Things that Make Us Sic, illustrated by Jaime Temairik (she of zombies and Twilight sock puppet video fame). Question- if you put a zombie sock puppet on your hand, say “Brains, brains!” in a muppet voice, and 702 people watch it on Youtube, can you get a SAG card?  Just wondering.

Here is the great word of the day:

Panspermia.  

It means a mixture of all seeds, and it generally refers to the theory that microorganisms from space bring life to planets with good atmospheres.

Speaking of strange science, do you need a calendar and hold an appreciation of carnivorous plants?  Then I have a free download for you.

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