While this was my first year participating in Storystorm, the month-long, brainstorming event was first started under a different name (PiBoIdMo) in 2009 by picture book author, Tara Lazar. (This was originally an event for picture book writers.) It changed to Storystorm in 2017 and is held the entire month of January. So, yes, it…
Book Spotlight: Simone LaFray and the Red Wolves of London by S.P. O’Farrell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars A brilliant, must-read sequel to Simone LaFray and the Chocolatiers’ Ball! Sometimes I’m a fan of sequels but many times, I’m disappointed because they fail to capture the energy and ingenuity of the original. Simone LaFray and the Red Wolves of London is the exception because it takes all…
Book Spotlight: The Bluest Sky by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Bluest Sky is a moving account of the plight of those leaving Cuba in the 1980s. Seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy, this was an intimate story of what life was like in Cuba at that time. I was really struck by the generational gap of…
Book Spotlight: The Last Hope in Hopetown by Maria Tureaud
My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Last Hope in Hopetown is a fang-tastically, spooky debut that flips the script on our perceptions of vampires. In a world where vampires have come into the light and joined society, they are no longer the blood-thirsty villains but have jobs and own homes and raise children. That’s…
Book Spotlight: Earth to Dad by Krista Van Dolzer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars Earth to Dad is a beautiful, moving story about an 11-year-old boy, Jameson, set in a future where the Earth is moving closer to the sun after a meteor brushes past Jupiter, creating a bad chain reaction. Now things are dangerously heating up on the Earth’s surface and the…
#MoodPitch Fall 2022
The second-ever #MoodPitch, a Twitter-based pitch contest, was on November 3rd, and it seemed even more successful and popular than the first. According to @moodpitchers’ tweets, it trended #1 for 6 hours and had around 45K tweets. Yes, 45,000. That’s some good participation! What was different this time? Well, sure, the sheer number of moodboards…
Book Spotlight: Simone LaFray and the Chocolatiers’ Ball by S.P. O’Farrell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars As a fan of mysteries, chocolate, and Paris, I knew this book was a must-read. Simone LaFray is a 12-year-old secret agent whose current assignment to stop an art thief becomes personal when her family is targeted. S.P. O’Farrell expertly immerses us in both beautiful Paris and the family…
Book Spotlight: Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera
My rating: 5 of 5 stars Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls is spectacular and definitely a must-read for those who enjoy middle grade adventure. With a creative mixture of folklore and fantasy, Kaela Rivera creates an unforgettable world of criaturas and brujas, of darkness and fire and water. But it’s her main character,…
#PitchMe 2022
#PitchMe is a unique type of Twitter pitch contest created by author Krista Van Dolzer with the help of author Tara Shiroff. It involves four weeks of mentoring, opportunities to connect with other writers in your genre, and a pitch fest which will be reviewed by a group of agents and even editors. For the…
What is a Wishgiver or Aranea?
When I first started writing Maira and the Rainbow City (the working title for my upper middle grade fantasy), I knew I wanted my wish-giving creature to have some interesting qualities. Qualities which would affect how Maira experiences the world after she becomes one. In this fantasy world, the wish-giving creatures are called wishgivers or…
Christine Letizia 