Rekindling the Flame

  No one has followed our current blog series on starting a writing career or jump starting an old one with more interest than I.  In my case, the jump-start part.

  How appropriate, because this morning, I have a bad case of the Blogger Blahs.  Symptoms: feeling as if you have already said everything you had to say on a subject. Inability to focus on topic at hand.
Need for many. many cups of coffee. Sudden urge to clean office. (I never have an "urge" to clean, unless I am avoiding doing something else.)

 I've written my whole life. That's a long, long time. A long time to stay in love with a career that often doesn't love you back.

 I had about thrown in the towel with writing, when, at age 50, I sold my first book.  Suddenly the world was sunshine and roses. Every moment, every conversation, every observation was fraught with meaning. All of life was weaving itself into beautiful sentences and moments of serendipity...just so I, Mary Ann Rodman, could "use the moment" in a story.

Some ego, huh?

This fizzy, light-headed feeling reminded me of ...what? The desire to share every single last thought in writing was just like...oh yeah! It was just like falling in love!  I remember my first serious boyfriend, a guy who considered conversation a worthy way to spend an evening. (Fortunately, so did I.) We'd talk for hours, no story too insignificant, no detail to small to share, parse, consider. Seven hours talking could fly in an instant.

Winning the Zolotow Award for My Best Friend

That was exactly how I felt when I fell in love (again) with writing. With the validation of a book sale, this thing that I had done for decades now seemed sparkly fresh.  I had new-found confidence in my abilities. I could sit down at my desk and the next thing I knew it was six hours later. Not only six hours later, but with pages of new work to show for it.

And I sold books and sold books and sold books.

Such a lovely world.

But just as Real Life can follow a fairytale wedding, Real Life reared its dull, boring head in my post-publication life.  The best description of how I felt comes from one of my favorite books, Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh.

         ...it was hard for her to think. The thoughts came slowly, as though they had to squeeze through a tiny door to get to her..."

When you write on a regular basis (and not just the occasional weekend or vacation), sometimes those words won't come. And when they do come, you don't like them. They don't sparkle and shine the way they did when you were first in love. Perfectly good solid words...but the magic is gone.

The disappearance of "the magic" (or the giddiness of new love) does not mean you can no longer write, and more than noticing that your significant other leaves underwear on the floor means you are headed for divorce court.  It means the miracle has become mundane. Mundane can get on your nerves. Mundane can turn your technicolor world into shades of oatmeal.

Mundane, however, is not fatal.

Where has "the magic" gone? Not very far. It's up to you to re-discover it, relish it, allow it to amaze you again. Take time to re-kindle that love of words and turn of phrase that once sent you into Outer Orbit.

The re-kindling process is different for each one of us. Working with young writers in my summer camps always gets my motor running again. Speaking to them of writing in an enthusiastic way, forces me to act out an enthusiasm I may not feel first thing in the morning. By afternoon my creative cup always runneth over.

Changing up the same old same old also works.  I listen to different music, read different genres than I usually do.  I'll hang out in the International Section of the supermarket. I am not a cook, but finding unfamiliar foods and implements sends my brain down unfamiliar paths. (The path were I actually cook something is still unexplored.)

I also have a feeling that our latest Book Giveaway, The Magic Words by Cheryl Klein, might just be part of my own re-kindling process.  Click on link for details and deadlines, as well as the Rafflecopter entry link.

As for myself, I think I'll turn my car radio from On Broadway to All-Bluegrass-All-the-Time as I head over to the library to pick up a copy of Tess of the d'Urbevilles. Time to shake off that long time indifference to British literature and banjos. Maybe I'll find The Magic again.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

A Book (PLUS Book Giveaway) for Every Children’s Book Writer!

No matter where you are on your Writer’s Journey – still thinking about writing for children and thus refusing the Call to Adventure, half-way past the First Threshold and revising your story or in the throes of a Supreme Ordeal while readying your manuscript for submission, I’ve got the perfect guide book to keep you moving forward:  Cheryl Klein’s THE MAGIC WORDS (W.W. Norton, 2016).

As luck would have it, you can have it!  Simply enter our TeachingAuthors Book Giveaway at the end of this post.

For those new to writing for children, Cheryl Klein’s credits as executive editor at Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Inc.  guarantee writers the kinds of insights, techniques, exercises and reflections that are essential when placing the right words in the right order – “the magic words,” she says, that allow our books to change lives.

And not just our readers’ lives, but our writers’ lives too.

Knowing how this editor of award-winning books views her life’s work and passion speaks volumes for all she shares in THE MAGIC WORDS.

“I think of my work as an editor as being a mechanic for stories:  I take books apart, examine their component pieces, and help my authors assemble them again as more elegant and polished machines. My writing for writers, from this point of view, is the instruction manual that comes with the cars — how I articulate the instincts and knowledge about fiction I’ve gained over fifteen-plus years of working with writers and their books.”

Chapter by chapter, Cheryl Klein mines her years of editorial experience to clearly and thoughtfully instruct and show writers how to use and develop their gifts to craft a strong (and personally meaningful) story concept told in an appropriate format for their intended audience – a story that builds bonds between readers and characters, that keeps those readers engaged and turning the pages, that speaks to them with truth and thus is worthy of publication.

Each chapter offers Exercises, well-known referenced titles and concrete examples from esteemed authors such as Lisa Yee and Trent Reedy, all to support the stated take-away – The Power of Plot, for example, Seven Ways to Look at a Scene, Fundamentals of Voice, or Twenty Revision Techniques. Informational Asides, Book Map instructions and Checklists for Character, Plot and First Pages add to the content.

Together, the chapters underscore the 5 qualities this editor deems essential to magic-making:  good prose, rich characters, strong plot construction, thematic depth and powerful emotion, for both the reader and the writer.

A Recommended Reading List is also included.

Readers close the book smarter about story, craft, genre and format possibilities, children’s book literature and publishing as well as smarter about themselves as writers.

My all-time favorite chapter?  Chapter 16 – Perspective and Polishing.  Readers are offered the first scene of a YA novel, followed by Cheryl Klein’s annotated notes, followed by author Morgan Kass’ revised draft, followed by Annotations Part II. Talk about Show, Don’t Tell!  This eye-opening chapter should be compulsory reading for every writer of fiction. 

Speaking of which, I’ve now added THE MAGIC WORDS to my Recommended Reading lists for my University of Chicago’s Writer’s Studio and Newberry Library Workshops.

Why not see for yourself?  Click HERE to read an excerpt from Chapter 2 – Experience and Emotion -  Cheryl posted August 28 pre-publication.

MARY POPPINS creator P.L. Travers wrote, “We are all looking for magic…But indeed we have to wave the wand for ourself.”

Thank you, Cheryl Klein, for helping us wave our wands.

Happy Magic-Making!

Esther Hershenhorn

. . . .

AND NOW FOR OUR BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter to win a copy of Cheryl Klein’s THE MAGIC WORDS (W.W. Norton).  The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends September 26.

You may enter via 1, 2, or all 3 options.

If you choose option 2, you MUST leave a comment on TODAY'S blog post below or on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. If you haven't already "liked" our Facebook page, please do so today! 

(If you prefer, you may submit your comment via email to: teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com.)

Email subscribers: if you received this post via email, you can click on the Rafflecopter link at the end of this message to access the entry form.

Good Luck!

P.S. If you've never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, here's info on how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway and the difference between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

3 Insights Into Improving Writing Productivity

Our current series is about beginning a new writing career or jump-starting a stalled one. Carla shared 5 things she wished she’d known when starting out as a writer and JoAnn talked about coping with a lull in her enthusiasm for writing. My post today focuses more on the latter, but I think it's also of value to beginning writers. Before I get to that, I'd like to share two bits of news:

• The revised edition of my middle-grade novel, Rosa, Sola, (originally published by Candlewick Press) is now available in both ebook and paperback, and includes a new "Discussion Questions" section for classroom use. I'm currently sponsoring a Goodreads giveaway, which I invite you to enter on this Goodreads page or via the widget below:  

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Rosa, Sola

by Carmela A. Martino

Giveaway ends October 05, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

• Also, for those of you who live in the Chicago area: it's not too late to register for my class on "Finding Your Writer's Voice," which begins Tuesday, September 13, at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. See my website for details. 

Now for today's post.

Like JoAnn, I’ve been stalled in my writing lately. The problem started back in April, when I was sidelined with a repetitive stress injury to my dominant hand. The injury has not only interfered with my ability to type and to write longhand, but it has also caused me to lose my enthusiasm for writing. Fortunately, though, I'm currently leading a small, private class on Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. The timing of the class is perfect, as it’s helping me examine my writing process and the causes of my current lack of productivity. Here are three insights I’ve been led to recently, via Cameron’s book and other reading I’ve been doing:

1. “In order to do something well we must first be willing to do it badly.”

These are Cameron’s words in The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (Tarcher Books), but they convey a concept I've found in other books on writing and creativity--think the “sh**tty first draft” in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (Pantheon Books). Elizabeth Gilbert also touches on the topic in her book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (Riverhead Books) when she talks about the necessity of accepting imperfection if we want to lead creative lives.

I’ve always been a perfectionist, and now that I’m a published author and a writing teacher, part of me thinks that I should be able to produce a polished draft right off the bat, with little or no editing. And when I don’t do that, I feel like a failure. So I was shocked when, in Big Magic, Gilbert confesses to publishing a novel she’d written without revising a major flaw that her beta readers had pointed out. I listened to the audiobook, so I can’t quote Big Magic directly. But I did find an interview in The Guardian where Gilbert is quoted as saying:

“Perfection murders joy. You cut yourself out of the game before you even start. You cut yourself out of the game because you’ve decided it’s never going to be as good as your ideal.”

I also found the following image, which I’ve printed out and posted in my office as a reminder that I will always be a beginner. I’m hoping that trying to keep an open, “Beginner’s Mind,” will help me overcome my perfectionism.

found here with caption "Image Source: Facebook user Elizabeth Gilbert"

2. If I can’t “find” time for my writing, I need to “make” the time.

My students often complain about not having enough time to write, and lately I’ve been using the same excuse. Julia Cameron addressed this recently in a blog post:

"Most of us think, 'If only I had more time, then I would work.' We have a fantasy that there is such a thing as a 'good' creative time, an idyll of endless, seamless time unfolding invitingly for us to frolic in creatively. No such bolts of limitless time exist for most of us. Our days are chopped into segments, and if we are to be creative, we must learn to use the limited time we have."

That's how I worked on this blog post, in little segments of time stolen between physical therapy appointments, lesson planning, household chores, etc. If I can make time to blog, I can make time for my own creative writing, too.

When I explain this to my students, they often reply that they can’t just sit down to write. They need to feel “inspired.” But, as M. L’Engle says in Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (Crosswicks):

“If the artist works only when he feels like it, he’s not apt to build up much of a body of work. Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it, because the largest part of the job of the artist is to listen to the work, and to go where it tells him to go.”

3. My attitude has a profound effect on my productivity.

It’s not enough for me to “make time” for my writing. I need to bring the right attitude with me when I sit down to write. I’ve shared before about how research is showing that happy people tend to be more productive. But this is a lesson I need to constantly remind myself of.

In an excerpt from The Artist's Way posted on her blog, Julia Cameron says:

“Over any extended period of time, being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline. Enthusiasm is not an emotional state. It is a spiritual commitment, a loving surrender to our creative process, a loving recognition of all the creativity around us. 

Enthusiasm (from the Greek, 'filled with God') is an ongoing energy supply tapped into the flow of life itself. Enthusiasm is grounded in play, not work. Far from being a brain-numbed soldier, our artist is actually our child within, our inner playmate. As with all playmates, it is joy, not duty, that makes for a lasting bond.”

Hmm. There’s that word again: JOY.

For years I’ve been signing my posts here with “Happy writing!” I think I need a more expansive catch phrase. What do you think of this:

For more joy and inspiration, head over to this week's Poetry Friday round-up at The Poem Farm.

Carmela

Carrying On Anyway

In this series of posts, we're discussing how to start or reboot a career in writing for children. Carla gave us five really helpful things she wished she had known when she started. I'm focusing more on the reboot.

In my last post, I wrote about That Awful Balky Feeling and carrying on anyway. Here are a few things that helped me:

1. Ugh. Summer cold. Enough said.

2. I'm halfway through Julia Cameron's It's Never Too Late to Begin Again: Discovering Creativity at Midlife and Beyond. I've long been a fan of The Artist's Way, and although much of this book repeated what I'd already read, I found the reinforcement helpful.

3. Around here, we've been clearing out clutter. For me, that means sorting through and recycling lots of paper--ancient work-for-hire contracts, poems that students wrote in my workshops, half-baked ideas, and previous drafts of work I've since revised. It's a big relief to let go of that stuff! The good news: I found a few nuggets I'm excited about working on again. The other good news: If and when we find the perfect new home, we'll have less to move.

Our latest Book Giveaway: Pamela C. has won an autographed copy of Amy Cattapan's middle-grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere. Congratulations, Pamela!

Penny Parker Klostermann has today's Poetry Friday Roundup. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

Tips to Start (or Restart) Your Writing Career

It seems the learning curve for a writer begins with the first word we intentionally write and continues every day as we pursue the dream of being an author.  I’ve been thinking about what I wish I’d known-or understood better when I first began.    

Every writer’s journey is different.  We all have different jobs and family responsibilities.  We all write in different genres and have different gifts, talents and interests.  We all have different coping skills when faced with critique and rejection.  There are so many facets to being a published author that it is like talking to a young couple expecting their first baby:  They don’t know yet what they don’t know and there is so much to learn.   

Here are a few things I wish I’d known when I first started writing.

1.  Start somewhere.  Anywhere. 

You don’t need to know exactly how you are going to handle every page of a manuscript when you begin.  Just jump in anywhere.  You can make it all work together later. 

2.  Don’t confuse you as a person with what you write. 

Writers need a thick skin to endure rejection.  Editors and agents will reject your work-and it isn’t personal.  There are a thousand reasons why they reject a manuscript and it doesn’t necessarily mean that your manuscript isn’t good.  Often you will not know why your project has been rejected.  Remember that a rejection of your manuscript is not a rejection of you as a person.

morguefile.com

3.  Understand the purpose of a critique group.

There are two kinds of critique groups.  One is a group that only makes you feel good no matter what.  The other is a group that will help you get published, even if they tell you things you don’t want to hear.  Certainly you hope your group will tell you what they love about your manuscript, but the most helpful group can point out places in your manuscript that needs some work.  When others don’t love your manuscript like you do, that is when you need that thick skin mentioned in number 2.  Listen to their opinions, but in the end you decide what is right for your own story.  Remember that a critique of your manuscript is not a critique of you as a person.

 4.  Your story is told only through the words on the page.

Your manuscript has to be self-sufficient.  If you have to verbally explain to someone all the backstory they need to understand a section in the manuscript, then it doesn’t work.  A writer crafts a story (either fiction or nonfiction) that will be read, not explained ahead of time.  A story is told ONLY through the words on the page.

morguefile.com

5.  Publishing is a business.

This is a hard one to learn.  Most of us grew up loving books.  The idea of one day seeing our name on the cover of a book is a dream we hope comes true.  Writers are passionate about books and telling stories.  For most of us it is about the love of reading, and books, and the craft of writing.  It takes a while for some of us to accept the reality that writing books published by traditional publishers is a business.  Authors write manuscripts.  Publishers take manuscripts and turn them into books to sell.  The harsh reality is that although everyone who works for a publisher loves books, publishing houses must make money.  Therefore, they usually won’t offer a contract on a book unless they believe it will make money for them.  As authors, the sooner we learn this the better.

morguefile.com

For those of you who want to start (or restart) writing books for children and young readers, it is never too late and never too early. 

You can do it.   

Carla Killough McClafferty 

Enter (HERE)  to win an autographed copy of Amy Cattapan's middle-grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere (Vinspire Publishing). The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends August 31. That happens to also be the day of Amy’s Facebook Launch Party, where you can win lots of other great prizes, including a copy of Carmela's own book, Rosa, Sola.

Gathering Story Seeds: Part Two

"Gathering Story Seeds," my last post, was about finding story ideas. I spent the summer showing my Young Writers group how to keep their "writer's brain" open and alert for those little nuggets that stick in your head.  Or as I explained to the students, "Things that make you go 'huh?'"

image courtesy of Morguefile

Like finding seeds in nature, finding story seeds can be hard work. It's not so much a matter of concentration, but of awareness..  "Don't think too hard," I tell my students.  "Keep your Writer Brain open."  A Writer Brain uses all the senses to observe. If you think about it, most of what you think of as "observation" is what you see.  Wake up hearing, smell, touch and taste. (Be cautious with taste!)

Every writer goes through a time of story drought, where your Writer Brain becomes distracted by the minutiae of life, and eventually become dormant. That's been me for the past year. A whirlwind of family situations, caused my Writer Brain to check out as the rest of the mind skittered here and there with a thousand decisions and deadlines.

This summer, the pace slowed down. I had the luxury of focusing on my young writers and their progress. Talking about using all your senses and staying alert for six straight weeks must have imprinted on my Writer Brain.

No sooner had the Young Writers summer program finished than it seemed as if Story Seeds were cascading from the heavens. Even in the best of the staying-focused-and-alert times, Story Seeds are scarce.  Filling a page in "Seeds" notebook in a month is a huge deal. (Yes, I'm Old School; I still use a notebook.") This August, the notebook is half-filled...and there is still another week in the month!   Out of seemingly nowhere, Seeds have been falling in my lap, tapping me on my shoulder, being handed to me in the supermarket checkout along with my change. Seriously.

For example...

I was skedaddling through the "10-Items-or-Less" line at Publix, with four cups of Greek yogurt...and a hammer.  The checker (her name tag said "Rebecca") scanned the hammer. I am not a chatty person by nature, so it was out of complete silence that Rebecca hefted my new hammer, and with a gleam in her eye, said, "You know, when I was a little tyke, I wanted nothing more than a bright red tool box and hammer. And my mama and daddy got me one for my birthday."

Bzzzzap!  Writer Brain shocked to life, neurons firing rapidly. "How old were you?" asked Writer Brain, which is considerably more nosy and sociable than Mary Ann's brain.

"Two, three." Rebecca said carelessly, bagging the hammer and yogurt separately. "Guess that wouldn't happen in today's world, would it?"

Mary Ann's brain agreed that no, it probably wouldn't. I had a quick mental image of my own daughter at two, armed with a hammer.  Writer's Brain leaped into action to quash the silliness. Writer's Brain hurled down the words, "Becky's Toolbox." I scribbled that down on the back of the receipt as soon as I was out the sliding doors. (I know, I know..where was my notebook?) Unlike a lot seeds that seem interesting, but will need germination time, this one had sprung roots and was pushing through the dirt by the time I hit my driveway.

image courtesy of Morguefile

The wealth of ideas grew and multiplied. Family stories from my dad, an anecdote on Facebook, a surprise cache of Kodachrome taken by parents early in their marriage...all of these things have given my Writer's Brain more than enough to process, mull and squirrel away for future use.

My antennae are up, my ear cocked, nose ready.  Don't stand within my energy field, or you will wind up in my next story! Let those Story Seeds rain down on me.


Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

P.S. Don’t forget to join the fun! Enter (HERE)  to win an autographed copy of Amy Cattapan's middle-grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere (Vinspire Publishing). The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends August 31. That happens to also be the day of Amy’s Facebook Launch Party, where you can win lots of other great prizes, including a copy of Carmela's own book, Rosa, Sola.

Female Protagonists: Hearts of Fire

Photo credit: Photo via VisualHunt

 Recently Jo Eberhardt wrote (Problems with Female Protagonists) about her surprising discovery when, after counting the books in her personal library, she found that only a mere 27 per cent of her books had female protagonists, despite “her conscious intention for a 50/50 split.” Further researching female protagonists in other media, she found that over 70 percent of lead characters in popular movies were male. And even in those movies that feature female protagonists (Divergent, Hunger Games, Twilight), male characters speak more than female protagonists, and thus still dominate the story.

The protagonist of any story, the hero if you will, acts as a window inviting the reader into the story. The reader is drawn into the narrative because, just as the protagonist searches for his/her identity, the reader is engaged in their own search.

Yet, if the hero is always male, and the journey is always his story, what recourse is left to young adult women and adolescent girls? What is her story?

The profound truth, and primary function, of adolescence is the separation from parent, the search for uniqueness and the triumphant integration into wholeness. It’s the essence of the archetypal hero’s journey. Boys and girls look for their own hero to identify with. Both seek guides – protagonists – to show them how to begin their journey.

But that doesn’t mean their journey is the same. Even if the heroine’s journey follows a similar path, toward a similar purpose, there is a difference between his journey and her journey.

Megan Leigh (Dispelling the Myth of Strong Female Characters) offers interesting insight into the “myth” of strong female characters. Among many stories (and movies) claiming to have strong female characters, one overriding issue seems to be distinguishing between strong and weak, and passive and active characters. A female who is caring, vulnerable, even emotional tends to be considered a weak character. Yet, a strong female who is aggressive, abrasive, even with difficulty connecting emotionally, is considered negative. Both types are flat, negating their own flawed, complex humanity. As such, both types are reduced to a stereotype. In contrast, male characters are often allowed to play the full emotive spectrum. Says Leigh, in too many stories, the strong female protagonist is considered “special,” the exception or chosen one. If only one woman is ever shown to be capable and complex, and is presented as the exception, the “very framing of the narrative in a way that has men writing off most females as incapable, is an issue unto itself.”

Tasha Robinson (We’re Losing All Our Strong Characters to Trinity Syndrome) considers Valka, the long lost mother of Hiccup in the movie How To Train Your Dragon 2. Valka is complicated, formidable, wise and damaged, and she is fully capable of taking care of herself. For decades she had successfully avoided capture and death at the hands of the bad guys. Yet, within minutes of coming onto the scene, she becomes suddenly inadequate and needs to be rescued – twice. And for the rest of the film, she does nothing except  tell Hiccup that he is the chosen one. She has become superfluous.

Likewise, the “strong” character of the elf Tauriel in The Hobbit 2 demonstrates “elven archery king fu” when killing evil spiders and orcs, but only “shows any personality when she’s swooning over dwarf Kili.”

In my classes, we study gender identity and gender profiling, surveying several top rated TV shows that feature strong female protagonists that dare to tackle male-dominated jobs. These include super smart spies, corporate lawyers, political leaders, even homicide detectives. Despite the implied power positions, these jobs are often in the background. Their story-lines are often dominated by the unhappy state of their private life. Despite being labeled as capable, they are often rescued by their male counterparts. While their male counterparts are dressed in practical clothing that allows them to run, jump, and maneuver themselves effectively, the female protagonist tends to wear form-fitting clothes, with shirts buttoned down suggestively, and high-fashioned heels. Even their boots have heels. Meanwhile, those who weld their power are considered manipulative, shrill, even overly cold and emotionally disconnected, and usually it is because they are unhappy without a man in their life. I could go on, but you get my point.

It would seem, according to Robinson, that “strong female characters – someone with her own identity, agenda and story purpose – has become more of a marketing term than a meaningful goal.”

The heroine’s journey embodies its own language, ordeals and symbols that are uniquely her own. Strong female characters are not merely spunky spirits with backbone. Nor are they – think superheroes -- female impersonators let loose on the unsuspecting world.

Returning to the mother of Hiccup, Valka. As an ancient symbol, the dragon (according to Jung) is “the wildness of spirit,” which escapes and destroys the artificial order of oppression. Valka, however, had her wings metaphorically clipped just as she was becoming interesting.

Ursula Le Guin once stated that a storyteller’s mind does not work with archetypes not individuals. Says she (in personal correspondence), “I can think about what journey [my character] has to go in order to be what she can be … but [cannot] generalize about the feminine heroic journey.”

I would argue that, in fact, that is exactly how a storyteller’s mind works. Such storytelling is inherent in our thinking process. These ancient symbols have been a part of the human condition since before time. Storytellers have drawn upon these very images to tell their stories.

So the question remains, where is her story? Who are your favorite strong female protagonists?

Bobbi Miller 

P.S. Don’t forget to join the fun! Enter (HERE)  to win an autographed copy of Amy Cattapan's middle-grade mystery Seven Riddles to Nowhere (Vinspire Publishing).
The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and ends August 31. That happens to also be the day of Amy’s Facebook Launch Party, where you can win lots of other great prizes, including a copy of Carmela's own book, Rosa, Sola.