Psst!  Wanna write a scorcher for the booming YA market?
OK, here’s the secret: The first thing you need to do is create an authentic, quirky, true-to-life voice.
The story and characterizations in Young Adult fiction are crucial too, of course, but the most important element is that distinctive narrative personality.
The strongest and most powerful voice is [...]

I can’t help smiling when I read a good hook.  When it happens, it’s a rush, a little like falling in love.
The hook — those critical initial sentences of a query letter from an author, or the opening of the book proposal itself — are the first and most important words that agents and acquiring [...]

“Writing a memoir is an act of courage. Be brave. It means exposing who you really are, which is hard to do, even to yourself.”
That advice comes from a conversation I had recently with Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D., President of the National Association of Memoir Writers. She’s the author of a new book, The Power [...]