kmessner – Page 10 – Kate Messner

May 16, 2019May 16, 2019

Announcing Teachers Write 2019!

Hello, teacher/librarian/writer friends! Here’s an update on Teachers Write, our free online summer writing camp for teachers & librarians. Many of you have reached out to ask about this summer, and I hope you’ll be excited about the news I’m sharing today! I’m a little late with this year’s information because I’ve been busy writing books. Like this one…

Ranger in Time: Night of Soldiers & Spies
Illustrated by Kelley McMorris and out July 9th from Scholastic!

And this one…

Insect Superpowers: 18 Real Bugs that Smash, Zap, Hypnotize, Sting, and Devour!
Illustrated by Jillian Nickell and out November 5th from Chronicle Books!

But now those projects are put to bed, and it’s time to talk about summer camp, which will be just a little different this year. As most of you understand, coordinating an ongoing online project like this involves many hours of work. This has been a labor of love for me since Teachers Write began in 2012, but I’m at a point in my writing and personal life where I need to spend fewer hours online. I’m also mindful of the fact that this project has asked for many hours of free labor from our amazing guest authors, who are also busy writing books and doing other good, important work in the world.

Don’t worry, though – Teachers Write isn’t going away! This summer’s camp will just have a new format. Teachers Write 2019 will run for three weeks, from July 8-26. Instead of coordinating blog and social media posts, I’ll be sharing a daily newsletter, Monday through Thursday during those three weeks. Each week, we’ll focus on learning and practicing some element of writing craft by studying a mentor text or two. This summer, we’ll be learning from five amazing mentor texts – four picture books and one novel – and we’ll have a visit from the authors of our mentor texts each week for some Q&A. The list of books will be coming soon, so you’ll have time to purchase or request them at your library.

This summer, I’m leaving Fridays open for other posts that folks in the writing/publishing community would like to share with Teachers Write campers. So author friends… if you’d like to offer a mini-lesson or writing prompt on a summer Friday, just share it with the hashtag #TeachersWrite. I won’t be involved in these, but our teacher-librarian-writers will be able to search the hashtag for more inspiration & lessons on our summer Fridays and throughout the year.

Ready to sign up and write with us this summer? Just sign up for my email list here:: http://eepurl.com/grB4p1

And watch for our list of Summer 2019 mentor texts, coming next week!

January 8, 2019January 8, 2019

A Contest to Celebrate Ranger’s 9th Adventure!

Ever since the Ranger in Time historical adventure series launched in 2015, readers have been asking me to send Ranger to the Titanic. They’re getting their wish with book nine, which comes out January 29 from Scholastic.

It’s available for pre-order now, and copies ordered from The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid by January 28^th will be signed & personalized! To pre-order signed copies online, click here. When you order, make a note in the comments field about how you’d like your book signed. You may also pre-order by phone by calling The Bookstore Plus at 518-523-2950.

To celebrate Ranger’s ninth adventure, I’m holding three different contests – one for booksellers, one for teachers & librarians, and one for readers (with help from their adults). I hope you’ll participate and spread the word!

For Booksellers: The Ranger in Time Window Contest!

To enter: Create a Ranger in Time window display, or a display elsewhere in the store. Be creative (and if you’d like, feel free to feature other books that Ranger readers would love, too, along with the new book!)

Share your display on social media with the hashtag #RangerInTime and be sure to tag me (@KateMessner). The contest runs from now until February 22. Entries will be judged on the basis of enthusiasm and creativity. Winners will be selected by a panel of bookstore-loving authors and notified the following week.

First Prize: Bookstore Pizza Party with Really Excellent Chocolate for Dessert!

You’ll receive four large pizzas and a big salad from your favorite local pizza place, to be delivered on the day of your choice. You’ll also receive a big box of Lake Champlain Chocolates (with is pretty much the best chocolate ever), and you can either save that for the party or eat it as soon as it arrives. I know what I’d do…

Two runners-up will also receive that big box of Lake Champlain Chocolates (and should probably eat it right away.)

For Teachers & Librarians: Win a Class Set of RANGER IN TIME: DISASTER ON THE TITANIC!

To enter: Just share the contest graphic on social media! If you’d like, you can also include your students’ suggestions for where Ranger should go next! Include the hashtag #RangerInTime and be sure to tag @KateMessner. Deadline is January 29th at 11pm EST.

Bonus Entries: Pre-order a signed copy of RANGER IN TIME: DISASTER ON THE TITANIC for your classroom or library from The Bookstore Plus by January 28th, and you’ll receive 10 bonus entries for the contest, along with a pack of Ranger bookmarks to share with your readers (while supplies last).

To pre-order signed copies online, click here and make a note in the comments field about how you’d like your books signed (to “Ms. Porter’s 3^rd grade readers” or “To Orchard Elementary School”). You may also pre-order by phone by calling The Bookstore Plus at 518-523-2950.

Grand Prize: A class set of RANGER IN TIME: DISASTER ON THE TITANIC (up to 30 copies)

Winners will be drawn at random from all entries and announced/contacted on February 1^st.

For Ranger in Time Readers: A Ranger in Time Art Contest!

To enter: Create a drawing or other piece of art inspired by your favorite Ranger in Time book! Have your parent, grandparent, or other caregiver, or your teacher or librarian share it on social media with the hashtag #RangerInTime and be sure to tag @katemessner. (For internet safety reasons, please use only your first name. I’ll contact the adult who posted for you if you win!) Or have that adult email it to me (katemessnerbooks at gmail dot com). A grand prize winner will be chosen by a panel of book-loving authors, and five more winners will be drawn at random from all entries.

Grand prize: A signed copy of RANGER IN TIME: DISASTER ON THE TITANIC, along with a $50 gift certificate to The Bookstore Plus so you can order even more books along with it!

Five more winners (drawn at random from all entries) will receive a signed copy of RANGER IN TIME: DISASTER ON THE TITANIC along with a pack of bookmarks to share with your friends!

Deadline: January 25, 2019 at 8pm EST – Winners will be contacted on January 28.

And finally, for everyone…

A great big THANK YOU so much for reading Ranger’s adventures and sharing them with the readers in your life. Ranger and I think you’re the greatest – even better than squirrels and bacon.

~Kate

November 22, 2018January 28, 2019

Skype with an Author on World Read Aloud Day 2019!

Hi there – and welcome to the World Read Aloud Day author Skype volunteer list for 2019!

If you’re new to this blog, I’m Kate Messner, and I write books like these:

Also this one…which comes out three days before World Read Aloud Day, on January 29th!

I also read lots of books, and reading aloud is one of my favorite things in the world. When I was a kid, I was the one forever waving my hand to volunteer to read to the class, and still, I’ll pretty much read to anyone who will listen.

For the past few years, I’ve helped out with LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day by pulling together a list of author volunteers who would like to spend part of the day Skyping with classrooms around the world to share the joy of reading aloud.

WORLD READ ALOUD DAY IS FEBRUARY 1, 2019

The authors listed below have volunteered their time to read aloud to classrooms and libraries all over the world. These aren’t long, fancy presentations; a typical one might go like this:

1-2 minutes: Author introduces himself or herself and talks a little about his or her books.
3-5 minutes: Author reads aloud a short picture book, or a short excerpt from a chapter book/novel
5-10 minutes: Author answers a few questions from students about reading/writing
1-2 minutes: Author book-talks a couple books he or she loves (but didn’t write!) as recommendations for the kids

If you’re a teacher or librarian and you’d like to have an author Skype with your classroom or library on World Read Aloud Day, here’s how to do it:

Check out the list of volunteering authors below and visit their websites to see which ones might be a good fit for your students.
Contact the author directly by using the email provided or clicking on the link to his or her website and finding the contact form. Please be sure to provide the following information in your request:
- Your name and what grade(s) you work with
- Your city and time zone (this is important for scheduling!)
- Possible times to Skype on February 1st. Please note authors’ availability and time zones. Adjust accordingly if yours is different!
- Your Skype username
- A phone number where you can be reached on that day in case of technical issues
Please understand that authors are people, too, and have schedules and personal lives, just like you, so not all authors will be available at all times. It may take a few tries before you find someone whose books and schedule fit with yours. If I learn that someone’s schedule for the day is full, I’ll put a line through their name – that means the author’s schedule is full, and no more visits are available. (Authors, please send an email to me know when you’re all booked up! And please note that due to travel and other obligations, it may take up to a week for me to update.)

World Read Aloud Day – Skyping Author Volunteers for February 1,2019

Authors are listed here (kind of randomly, actually…in the order they filled out the form) along with publishers, available times, and the age groups for which they write. (PB=picture books, MG=middle grades, YA=young adult, etc.)

~~Kate Messner~~

~~Scholastic/Bloomsbury/Chronicle/Candlewick~~

~~K-8~~

~~9-11am EST~~

~~www.katemessner.com~~

~~http://katemessner.com/contact-me/~~

~~Jarrett Lerner~~

~~Simon & Schuster/Aladdin~~

~~K-2 and 3-5~~

~~8 am to 8 pm EST~~

~~www.jarrettlerner.com~~

~~jarrett.lerner@gmail.com~~

~~Ann Braden~~

~~Sky Pony Press~~

~~6-8~~

~~8:30am – 2:15pm EST~~

~~www.annbradenbooks.com~~

~~annbbraden@gmail.com~~

~~Mary Sullivan~~

~~Houghton Mifflin~~

~~K-2~~

~~9:00 to 4:00 cst~~

~~marysullivan.com~~

~~mary@marysullivan.com~~

Alyson Gerber

Scholastic

6-8

9am-4pm EST

AlysonGerber.com

Alygerber@gmail.com

~~Saadia Faruqi~~

~~Capstone~~

~~K-2~~

~~9 am to 2 pm CST~~

~~www.saadiafaruqi.com~~

~~saadia@saadiafaruqi.com~~

~~Jesse Klausmeier~~

~~Chronicle~~

~~K-5~~

~~10:00a – 10:00p CST~~

~~https://jesseklausmeier.com~~

~~jmklausmeier@gmail.com~~

~~Stacy McAnulty~~

~~Random House Children’s Books~~

~~K-2, 3-5, 6-8~~

~~9am – 3pm (EST)~~

~~www.stacymcanulty.com~~

~~author.stacymcanulty@gmail.com~~

Miranda Paul

Penguin Random House, Neal Porter Books, Lerner Publishing Group

K-5

9 am – 2 pm Central Time Zone

www.MirandaPaul.com

www.mirandapaul.com/contact

~~Daphne Kalmar~~

~~Feiwel and Friends, Macmillan~~

~~3-5~~

~~Any time (eastern standard time)~~

~~www.daphne kalmar.com~~

~~daphnekalmar@gmail.com~~

Robin Newman

Creston Books and Sky Pony Press

6-8

10 am – 1 pm EST.

www.robinnewmanbooks.com

rnewman504@nyc.rr.com

Dee Garretson

Macmillan, HarperCollins, Month9

6-8

8:00 – 3:00 Eastern time

deegarretson.com

deegarretson@gmail.com

~~Rebecca Donnelly~~

~~Capstone~~

~~3-6~~

~~9:30-2:00 EST~~

~~https://rebeccadonnellywrites.com~~

~~https://rebeccadonnellywrites.com/contact/~~

~~Carmella Van Vleet~~

~~Holiday House, Charlesbridge, Nomad Press~~

~~K-2 & 3-5~~

~~9:00 am – 3:00 pm EST~~

~~www.CarmellaVanVleet.com~~

~~www.CarmellaVanVleet@yahoo.com~~

~~Erin Teagan~~

~~American Girl and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~8am – 5pm EST~~

~~www.erinteagan.com~~

~~teaganek@hotmail.com~~

~~Ginger Johnson~~

~~Bloomsbury~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~12-3 EST~~

~~gingerjohnsonbooks.com~~

~~Ginger@gingerjohnsonbooks.com~~

Larissa Theule

Lender, Bloomsbury, Abrams

K-2

9:30-2:00 West Coast

larissatheule.com

ltheule@gmail.com

~~Rebecca Rupp~~

~~Candlewick; Random House~~

~~K-2, 3-5, 6-8~~

~~8 AM – 3 PM EST~~

~~www.rebeccaruppresources.com~~

~~rebeccarupp@gmail.com~~

Lori Richmond

Scholastic, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and more

K-2 or 3-5

10-2 EST

www.LoriDraws.com

lori@loridraws.com

~~Jenna Grodzicki~~

~~Clear Fork Publishing, Millbrook Press~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~9:30am – 2:00pm (EST)~~

~~www.jennagrodzicki.com~~

~~jennagrodz@live.com~~

~~Kevin Sylvester~~

~~Scholastic, Simon and Schuster~~

~~All~~

~~8am-10pm ET~~

~~Kevinsylvesterbooks.com~~

~~sylvesterartwork@gmail.com~~

~~Jodi Kendall~~

~~HarperCollins Children’s Books~~

~~3-5~~

~~9-11am EST~~

~~www.jodikendall.com~~

~~http://www.jodikendall.com/connect/~~

~~Sarah Sullivan~~

~~Candlewick Press~~

~~K-2, 3-5, 6-8~~

~~8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern time~~

~~www.sarahsullivanbooks.com~~

~~sarahsull026@cox.net~~

~~Jennifer Swanson~~

~~National Geographic Kids~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~Jan 30th 9am EST-2pm EST, or the week afterwards~~

~~www.JenniferSwansonBooks.com~~

~~jennifer@jenniferswansonbooks.com~~

~~Laurie Morrison~~

~~Abrams (Amulet)~~

~~6-8~~

~~9:00am-12:00pm EST~~

~~Lauriemorrisonwrites.com~~

~~Lauriemorrisonwrites@gmail.com~~

Bethany Hegedus

Atheneum/S&S Balzer+Bray/HC

3-5

Central

bethanyhegedus.com

bahegedus@gmail.com

~~Abby Cooper~~

~~FSG/Macmillan~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~12-4 PM Central~~

~~www.AbbyCooperAuthor.com~~

~~AbbyRCooper@gmail.com~~

~~Constance Lombardo~~

~~HarperCollins~~

~~3-5th grade~~

~~10 – 4 EST~~

~~www.constancelombardo.com~~

~~conlombardo@hotmail.com~~

~~Nancy Castaldo~~

~~Houghton Mifflin, Nat Geo, Random House~~

~~3-5, 6-8, 9-12~~

~~9 am EST to 5 pm EST~~

~~www.nancycastaldo.com~~

~~nancycastaldo@nancycastaldo.com~~

~~Phil Bildner~~

~~FSG, Chronicle, Candlewick~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~8 AM – 11 AM~~

~~www.philbildner.com~~

~~PHIL@PHILBILDNER.COM~~

~~Dana Alison Levy~~

~~Delacorte Press/PRH~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~8:00 am-2:00 pm EST~~

~~www.danaalisonlevy.com~~

~~dana@danaalisonlevy.com~~

~~Beth Ferry~~

~~Putnam, Scholastic, etc~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~9:30-2 p.m. EST~~

~~www.bethferry.com~~

~~cbferry@aol.com~~

~~Debbie Ridpath Ohi~~

~~Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers~~

~~K-5~~

~~1-3 pm EST~~

~~http://DebbieOhi.com~~

~~http://debbieohi.com/contact~~

Jenn Bishop

Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House

3-5, 6-8

10 AM – 5 PM EST

http://www.jennbishop.com

jenn@jennbishop.com

Nancy Churnin

Albert Whitman & Company; Creston Books

3-5

CST

nancychurnin.com

nancychurnin@mac.com

Carole Estby Dagg

Penguin/Nancy Paulsen

3-5 or 6th

After 11 am Eastern (8 am western) I’m on west coast

www.CaroleEstbyDagg.com

carole_dagg@yahoo.com

~~Jody Jensen Shaffer~~

~~Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan~~

~~K-2 and 3-5~~

~~10am-2pm CST~~

~~jodyjensenshaffer.com~~

~~jodyjensenshaffer@gmail.com~~

~~Kristin L. Gray~~

~~Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books~~

~~3-5~~

~~Morning, Central Time~~

~~www.kristinlgray.com~~

~~kristinlgray@gmail.com~~

~~Sarah Aronson~~

~~Scholastic and Beach Lane Books~~

~~3-5: K-2~~

~~7:00am-6:00pm Central Time~~

~~Http://www.saraharonson.com~~

~~sarah.n.aronson@gmail.com~~

~~Laya Steinberg~~

~~Barefoot Books; Dawn Publications; KarBen Books~~

~~K-2~~

~~East coast time 9am-2pm~~

~~www.layasteinberg.com~~

~~lasword@rcn.com~~

Jennifer Roy

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

6-8 or 3-5

Any (I am EST)

Jenniferroy.com

jenniferrroyauthor@gmail.com

~~Kate Feiffer~~

~~Simon & Schuster~~

~~K-2~~

~~east coast flexible~~

~~www.katefeiffer.com~~

~~katefeiffer@gmail.com~~

~~Lynn Plourde~~

~~Down East Books & Nancy Paulsen/Penguin~~

~~Gr. K-3 (focus “Baby Bear’s NOT Hibernating” Gr. 4-6 (focus “Maxi’s Secrets”)~~

~~8:30 am-3 pm (Eastern Time zone)~~

~~www.lynnplourde.com~~

~~lynn@lynnplourde.com~~

Rosanne Parry

Random House

3-5 and 6-8

9am to 3pm PST Oregon

Www.rosanneparry.com

Rosanne@rosanneparry.com

Marcie Colleen

Macmillan, HarperCollins, Scholastic

K-2, 3-5, 6-8

9am PCT to 4pm PCT

www.thisismarciecolleen.com

marciecolleen@gmail.com

Cate Berry

Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins

K-2

8AM-2PM CST

www.cateberry.com

Cateberrywriter@gmail.com

~~Katey Howes~~

~~Carolrhoda, Sterling, Ripple Grove Press~~

~~K-2, 3-4~~

~~On the hour and half hour, 9-2 EST~~

~~Www.kateyhowes.com~~

~~Howes_kathryn@yahoo.com~~

Kathleen Benner Duble

Delacorte

4-8

any time that day but 11-12

www.kathleenduble.com

info@kathleenduble.com

Laurie Ann Thompson

Simon Pulse, Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins

Any and all

10am-4pm Pacific

Http://LaurieThompson.com

Laurie@lauriethompson.com

~~Annie Silvestro~~

~~Doubleday, Sterling, HarperCollins~~

~~K-2~~

~~9am – 2pm EST~~

~~www.anniesilvestro.com~~

~~anniesilvestro@gmail.com~~

~~Tricia Springstubb~~

~~Candlewick; HarperCollins~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~during the school day, all time zones~~

~~triciaspringstubb.com~~

~~tricia.springstubb@gmail.com~~

~~Lindsey Leavitt~~

~~Random House, Harper Collins~~

~~K-2, 3-5, 6-8~~

~~9 am MST-2pm MST~~

~~www.lindseyleavitt.com~~

~~contact@lindseyleavitt.com~~

~~Kim Tomsic~~

~~HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books and Chronicle Books~~

~~3-5~~

~~10-3 (MST)~~

~~www.kimtomsic.com~~

~~Ktomsic@gmail.com~~

~~Lindsay Leslie~~

~~Page Street Kids~~

~~K-2~~

~~8:30 a.m.- 2 p.m.CST~~

~~www.lindsayleslie.com~~

~~lindsaylleslie@hotmail.com~~

~~Laura Sassi~~

~~Sterling Children’s Books and Zonderkidz~~

~~K -2 and preschool~~

~~9 – 2pm EST~~

~~www.laurasassitales.wordpress.com~~

~~Contact through website “contact” tab~~

~~Amanda Hosch~~

~~Capstone/ Capstone for Young Readers~~

~~3-5~~

~~9 am to 1 pm PT~~

~~www.amandahosch.com~~

~~amanda@amandahosch.com~~

Michele Weber Hurwitz

Random House & Simon & Schuster

6-8

9 am to 3 pm central time

micheleweberhurwitz.com

micheleweberhurwitz@gmail.com

Melissa Gijsbers

Stone Table Books

Any

Melbourne time (AEDST) – I think we are still on daylight savings then

melissagijsbers.com

melissagijsbers@gmail.com

laurenne sala

harper collins & candlewick

k-2

9-5 PSt

laurennesalabooks.com

salasala@gmail.com

~~Tamara Bundy~~

~~Nancy Paulson/Penguin~~

~~Grades 3- 8~~

~~10 a.m. EAstern – 4 p.m~~

~~Tamarabundy.com~~

~~Authortamarabundy@gmail.com~~

Ishta Mercurio

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

K-2 and 3-5

All Times EST: half hour slots all day from 9-4

www.ishtamercurio.com

ishtamercurio@icloud.com

~~Carol Gordon Ekster~~

~~Clavis Publishing, Pauline Books and Media~~

~~k-2, 3-5~~

~~Eastern Standard time – after 12:00 noon~~

~~www.carolgordonekster.com~~

~~cekster@aol.com~~

~~Carter Higgins~~

~~Chronicle Books~~

~~K-2~~

~~6:00-8:00 PST, 10:00 – 12:00 PST~~

~~www.carterhiggins.com~~

~~carterhiggins@gmail.com~~

~~Erin Soderberg Downing~~

~~Random House/Simon & Schuster/Bloomsbury~~

~~K-2, 3-5, 6-8~~

~~9-3 CST~~

~~www.erinsoderberg.com~~

~~erin@erinsoderberg.com~~

Kate Narita

Farrar Straus Giroux MacMillan

K-2

Available after 3 EST

www.katenarita.com

katenarita227@gmail.com

~~Jeanette Bradley~~

~~Roaring Brook~~

~~K-2~~

~~9-3 Eastern~~

~~Www.jeanettebradley.com~~

~~Jeanette@jeanettebradley.com~~

~~Tina Cho~~

~~Little Bee Books–Bonnier Publishers~~

~~6-8 OR 9-12~~

~~9-10am CST or EST/which in South Korea for me is late night Friday~~

~~www.tinamcho.com~~

~~tinamariecho@yahoo.com~~

~~Gail Nall~~

~~Aladdin/Simon & Schuster~~

~~3-5~~

~~9 am-3 pm Eastern~~

~~Gailnall.com~~

~~Gailnallbooks@gailnall.com~~

Laura Gehl

Albert Whitman (for most recent book)

K-2

10:00-2:30 EST

www.lauragehl.con

laurameressa@gmail.com

Dianne White

Beach Lane/S&S; HMH

K-2

7am to 2 pm MST

diannewrites.com

dianne@diannewrites.com

Hannah Holt

Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins

K-2

9am-noon (Pacific Time)

HannahHolt.com

HannahHoltBooks@gmail.com

~~Monique Fields~~

~~Macmillan~~

~~K-2~~

~~11 a.m. – 1 p.m. (central time zone)~~

~~moniquefields.com~~

~~moniquefields@mac.com~~

~~Laura Renauld~~

~~Beaming Books~~

~~K-2~~

~~9-3 EST~~

~~www.laurarenauld.com~~

~~laura@laurarenauld.com~~

Leslie Bulion

Peachtree, Charlesbridge

3-5

EST 10am-8pm

Www.Lesliebulion.com

https://www.lesliebulion.com/contact

~~Kim Chaffee~~

~~Page Street Kids~~

~~K-2,3-5~~

~~9am – 11am, 12:30-2:30 Eastern Time~~

~~www.KimChaffee.com~~

~~Kimchaffee1007@gmail.com~~

~~Stephanie Ledyard~~

~~Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press~~

~~K-2~~

~~School day any time zone~~

~~www.stephanieledyard.com~~

~~stephanie.ledyard@gmail.com~~

~~Laura Murray~~

~~GP Putnam’s Sons~~

~~K-3~~

~~8:30- 2:45 EST~~

~~www.LauraMurrayBooks.com~~

~~LauraMurrayBooks@gmail.com~~

~~Kimberly Norman~~

~~Sterling, Scholastic, Penguin/RH~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~10am-4pm eastern~~

~~http://www.kimnormanbooks.com~~

~~kimnorman@mac.com~~

Susan Ross

Holiday House

3-5, 6-8

Flexible

AuthorSusanRoss.com

AuthorSusanRoss@gmail.com

Stel Pavlou

HarperCollins

3-5, 6-8

11am-5pm EST

Danielcoldstar.com

Mail@danielcoldstar.com

~~Elly Swartz~~

~~FSG, Scholastic~~

~~9-12~~

~~10-2 EST~~

~~https://ellyswartz.com/~~

~~ellyswartz@outlook.com~~

Wendy McLeod MacKnight

Greenwillow Books

9-12

8 to 3 EST

WendyMcLeodMacKnight.com

Wendymcleodmacknight@gmail.com

~~Karina Yan Glaser~~

~~HMH~~

~~3-5~~

~~8am EST -1:30pm EST~~

~~www.karinaglaser.com~~

~~karinaglaser@gmail.com~~

Abigail Rayner

NorthSouth Books

K-2

9.30am-12.30pm EST

https://www.abiraynerwrites.com/ website

abi@abigailrayner.com

~~Lauren Magaziner~~

~~HarperCollins~~

~~3-5~~

~~9 am to 6 pm EST~~

~~www.laurenmagaziner.com~~

~~lauren@laurenmagaziner.com~~

~~Janet Sumner Johnson~~

~~Capstone Young Readers~~

~~3-5~~

~~9 AM – 2:00 PM MST~~

~~Janetsumnerjohnson.com~~

~~Pbjsociety@gmail.com~~

~~Alex Flinn~~

~~HarperCollins~~

~~6-8, 9-12~~

~~Any~~

~~www.alexflinn.com~~

~~alixwrites@aol.com~~

~~Jennifer Hansen Rolli~~

~~Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster~~

~~K-2~~

~~9-3 EST~~

~~jenniferhansenrolli.com~~

~~jhansenrolli@gmail.com~~

Jennifer Camiccia

Aladdin/S&S

3-5 and 6-8

10-2 PST Tuesday’s- Friday

Jencamiccia.com

Jencamiccia@gmail.com

Kathleen Burkinshaw

Sky Pony Press

6-8,9-12

10am EST – 3pm EST

www.kathleenburkinshaw.com

klburkinshaw@gmail.com

Dana Middleton

Feiwel & Friends

3-5th grades

7am-3pm PT

Danamiddletonbooks.com

Dana@danamiddletonbooks.com

Kayla Cagan

Chronicle Books

8, 9-12

PST, CST, MST, EST

Kaylacagan.com

kayla.cagan@gmail.com

Kathy Ellen Davis

Chronicle

K-2 and 3-5

7a.m. to 1. p.m. PST

Kathyellendavis.com

Kathyellendaviswriter@gmail.com

~~Lisa Katzenberger~~

~~Capstone~~

~~K-2~~

~~9-3 Central~~

~~www.lisakatzenberger.com~~

~~Lisakatz17@gmail.com~~

Linda Vigen Phillips

Eerdmans

6-8 and/or 9-12

Eastern/anytime

www.lindavigenphillips.com

linda.phillips4866@gmail.com

~~Dee Romito~~

~~Aladdin/S&S and Little Bee Books~~

~~K-2, 3-5, 6-8 (if only one, 3-5)~~

~~8:30-1:30 EST~~

~~deeromito.com~~

~~dee@deeromito.com~~

Lindsey Becker

Little Brown

9-12

Any US

literarylilycate.blogspot.com

lindseybeckerbooks@gmail.com

Christina Farley

Scholastic Press

3-5, 6-8

9am-2:30pm EST

www.ChristinaFarley.com

Christina@christinafarley.com

Christina Uss

Margaret Ferguson Books/Holiday House

9-12

9 am – 2 pm EST

www.christinauss.com

christina@christinauss.com

~~Nina Crews~~

~~Millbrook~~

~~K-2~~

~~9:30 – 11:30am EST~~

~~Www.ninacrews.com~~

~~Letters@ninacrews.com~~

~~Jennifer Chambliss Bertman~~

~~Macmillan~~

~~3-5~~

~~10:30-11:30 MST~~

~~Http://JenniferChamblissBertman.com~~

~~Jennifer.bertman@gmail.com~~

Samantha M Clark

Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster

9-12

9-2 Central

http://samanthamclark.com/

http://www.samanthamclark.com/contact/

Kim Ventrella

Scholastic

9-12

7:00am-5pm CST

https://kimventrella.com/

kimventrella@icloud.com

Ann Rose

Entangled Teen

9-12

9am(CST) – 3pm(CST)

www.amroseauthor.com

amroseauthor@gmail.com

~~Josephine Cameron~~

~~Macmillan, FSG (debut release April 2, 2019)~~

~~3-5~~

~~8:30am -12:00pm EST~~

~~www.josephinecameron.com~~

~~josie@josephinecameron.com~~

Mike Grosso

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Clarion Books)

3-5, 6-8

8am-3pm CST

http://mikegrossoauthor.com

me@mikegrossoauthor.com

Lee Gjertsen Malone

Aladdin/S&S

3-5, 6-8

8am ET to 4pm ET

Leegjertsenmalone@gmail.com

LeeGjertsenMalone@gmail.com

~~Marcy Campbell~~

~~Penguin/Dial~~

~~K-2~~

~~9:30 to 2:30 eastern~~

~~Www.marcycampbell.com~~

~~marcycampbellbooks@gmail.com~~

Deborah Bruss

Scholastic

K-2

10 AM to 2:30 PM. EST

Deborahbruss@mac.com

~~Jen Petro-Roy~~

~~Macmillan/Feiwel & Friends~~

~~6-8~~

~~12:15-2:15 EST~~

~~www.jenpetroroy.com~~

~~https://www.jenpetroroy.com/contact~~

~~Sarah Albee~~

~~Random House, HarperCollins, National Geographic~~

~~3-5, 6 – 8~~

~~9:30 am – 1 pm EST~~

~~www.sarahalbeebooks.com~~

~~albees@taftschool.org~~

Monica Tesler

Simon & Schuster

3-5, 6-8

9-6 EST

monicatesler.com

monicatesler@gmail.com

Melissa Sarno

Knopf Books for Young Readers

3-5

10:30am-12:30pm EST

http://melissasarno.com

melissa.sarno@gmail.com

Katy Farber

Green Writers Press

K-2, 3-5

EST

Katyfarber.com

Katyfarber@gmail.com

Emma Wunsch

Abrams

3-5

Eastern Time 9:00 am -2:00 pm

mirandaandmaude.com | emmawunsch.com

emmalucy@gmail.com

~~Vivian Kirkfield~~

~~Holiday House/Pomegranate/Creston/HMH/Little Bee Books~~

~~K-2~~

~~10am to 11pm EST~~

~~www.viviankirkfield.com~~

~~viviankirkfield@gmail.com~~

Nanci Turner Steveson

HarperCollins Children’s

3-5 6-8

Mountain Time 7:30am to 1:30pm

www.nanciturnersteveson.com

Ponywriter7@gmail.com

~~Jessie Oliveros~~

~~Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~Morning (9-12) central time zone~~

~~Jessieoliveros.com~~

~~Jessie@jessieoliveros.com~~

~~Margaret Greanias~~

~~Running Press Kids~~

~~K-3~~

~~9:45-11:15am~~

~~margaretgreanias.com~~

~~margaret.c.greanias@gmail.com~~

Beth Anderson

Simon & Schuster

K-2, 3-5, (a bit long for K)

9-4 MT

https://bethandersonwriter.com

beth@bethandersonwriter.com

Bonny Becker

Knopf

3-5

10 am and 11am, Pacific Standard Time

bonnybecker.com

bjb@site7000.com

Julie Abery

The Creative Company

3-5, 6-8

09.00 AM – 12.00 Am EDT

littleredstoryshed.wordpress.com

julieabery@hotmail.com

Rachel Noble

Enchanted Lion

3 to 8

I live near Brisbane australia

www.rachelnobleauthor.com

Rachnoble@me.com

K. A. Reynolds

HarperCollins

9-12

EST 10-2pm

www.kareynoldsbooks.com

poetesskristin@live.com

~~Anne Marie Pace~~

~~Disney-Hyperion~~

~~K-2~~

~~9-12 Eastern~~

~~http://www.annemariepace.com~~

~~annemarie@annemariepace.com~~

Augusta Scattergood

Scholastic Press

9-12

10-3 EST

https://www.augustascattergood.com/

gsgood2@gmail.com

~~Loree Griffin Burns~~

~~Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Henry Holt, Millbrook Press~~

~~K-12~~

~~9am until 4pm EST~~

~~www.loreeburns.com~~

~~loreegriffinburns@yahoo.com~~

~~Jennifer Elvgren~~

~~Kar-Ben~~

~~3-5~~

~~Eastern 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.~~

~~www.jenniferelvgren.com~~

~~elvgren@embarqmail.com~~

Jessie Janowitz

Sourcebooks

3-5, 6-8

10:30-1:30 EST

Jessiejanowitz.com

Jejanowirz@gmail.com

Patricia Valdez

Random House / Knopf

K-2 (3-4 as well)

10 am ET -12 pm ET; 1 pm ET – 3 pm ET

patriciavaldezbooks.com

pvaldez11@gmail.com

~~Stef Wade~~

~~Capstone~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~9-10 am CST, 12-2:30 pm CST~~

~~www.stefwade.com~~

~~Stef@stefwade.com~~

Melissa Roske

Charlesbridge

9-12

8am-4pm EST

http://www.melissaroske.com

melissa@melissaroske.com

Jenn Bailey

Chronicle

K-2

7 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST

www.jennbailey.com

jenn.c.bailey@gmail.com

~~Diane Magras~~

~~Kathy Dawson Books/Penguin Young Readers~~

~~3-5 and 6-8~~

~~9am-12 EST~~

~~www.dianemagras.com~~

~~diane@dianemagras.com~~

Rob Vlock

Simon & Schuster/Aladdin

3-5

9-5 Eastern time

robvlock.com

rob@robvlock.com

Yvonne Ventresca

Sky Pony Press

9-12

12:30, 1, 1:30 EST

YvonneVentresca.com

yvonne@yvonneventresca.com

Amanda Rawson Hil

Boyds Mills Press

3-5, 6-8

7 am – 12 pm PST

Amandarawsonhill.com

Amanda.rawson.hill@gmail.com

~~Mike Hays~~

~~Writer’s Digest Books~~

~~6-8 or 9-12~~

~~9:00-3:00 (Central)~~

~~www.mikehaysbooks.com~~

~~coachhays@gmail.com~~

Elaine Vickers

HarperCollins

3-5

10-1 and 2-5 pm MST

elainevickers.com

elainebvickers@hotmail.com

D~~eborah Freedman~~

~~Viking~~

~~K-8~~

~~TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Eastern~~

~~https://www.deborahfreedman.net~~

~~https://www.deborahfreedman.net/wrad2019~~

Gina Perry

Tundra (Penguin Random House Canada), little bee books

K-2

8:30am-2:30pm EST

http://www.ginaperry.com

ginacarey@comcast.net

~~Dianne K. Salerni~~

~~HarperCollins~~

~~6-8~~

~~10 am to 4 pm EST~~

~~http://diannesalerni.com/~~

~~dksalerni@gmail.com~~

~~Camille Andros~~

~~Abrams, HMH/Clarion, Macmillan~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~9:00-2:00 EST~~

~~www.camilleandros.com~~

~~camdros@gmail.com~~

e.E. Charlton-Trujillo

Candlewick Press

6-8, 9-12

9:00 – 1 p.m. Pacific

www.bigdreamswrite.com

atrisksummer@gmail.com

Shawn K Stout

Philomel

3-5

10-3 ET

Www.shawnkstout.com

Shawn@shawnkstout.com

~~Amy Makechnie~~

~~Simon and Schuster~~

~~6-8~~

~~EST – kindof depends on the day so please get in touch and I can work with a lot!~~

~~amymakechnie.com~~

~~amym@proctoracademy.org~~

~~Cynthia Levinson~~

~~Peachtree, Simon & Schuster~~

~~3-5, 6-8, 9-12~~

~~9-12 and 1-3 CST~~

~~cynthialevinson.com~~

~~clevinson@austin.rr.com~~

~~Ariel Bernstein~~

~~Simon & Schuster, Penguin/Random House~~

~~K-2~~

~~9:30am-11:30am~~

~~https://www.arielbernsteinbooks.com~~

~~a3bernstein@gmail.com~~

Lauren Abbey Greenberg

Running Press Kids

6-8

9am – 2pm EST

Laurenabbeygreenberg.com

Laurenabbeygreenberg@gmail.com

Corabel Shofner

FSG

5,6,7,8,9

Flexible

CorabelShofner.com

Eventsforcorabel@gmail.com

Dawn Prochovnic

Graphic Arts Books and Abdo Publishing Group

K-2 and 3-5

9 am to Noon Pacific Time

www.dawnprochovnic.com

dawnp@smalltalklearning.com

~~Sarah Jane Marsh~~

~~Disney-Hyperion~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~8AM – 2PM PST~~

~~www.sarahjanemarsh.com~~

~~sarah@sarahjanemarsh.com~~

Mikela Prevost

Viking/Penguin

3-5

9am-1:30pm MT

www.mikelaprevost.com

Mikela.prevost@gmail.com

Jonathan Rosen

Sky Pony Press

3-5 or 6-8

10-1 EST

Houseofrosen.com

Houseofrosen@aol.com

~~Dev Petty~~

~~Random House/Doubleday and LB & Co~~

~~K-2~~

~~After 9am PST, before 2pm PST~~

~~www.devpetty.com~~

~~devpettybooks@gmail.com~~

~~Beth McMullen~~

~~Aladdin/S&S~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~9-2 PST~~

~~www.bethmcmullenbooks.com~~

~~beth@bethmcmullenbooks.com~~

Corabel Shofner

FS&G

5,6,7,8

Flexible

Corabelshofner.com

Eventsforcorabel@gmail.com

Lisa Schmid

North Star Editions/Jolly Fish Press

9-12

PST

www.lisalschmid.com

lisa.schmid@sbcglobal.net

~~suzanne kaufman~~

~~random house~~

~~k-2~~

~~9-10~~

~~suzannekaufman.com~~

~~suzanne_kaufman@hotmail.com~~

Irene Latham

Penguin Random House

3-5

8 – 3 CST

irene@irenelatham.com

Robin Yardi

Lerner Publishing, Arbordale Publishing

K-2, 3-5

6:00 AM Pacific – 2:30 PM Pacific

https://robinyardi.com

robinyardi (at) mac (dot) com

Chana Stiefel

NatGeoKids, Feiwel & Friends, HMH

All of the above

Morning (Eastern)

www.chanastiefel.com

stiefelchana@gmail.com

~~Dusti Bowling~~

~~Sterling Children’s Books~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~9:00-3:00 MST~~

~~www.dustibowling.com~~

~~dustibowlingbooks@gmail.com~~

~~Gail D. Villanueva~~

~~Scholastic Press~~

~~9-12~~

~~Morning EST if possible please~~

~~www.gaildvillanueva.com~~

~~gaildvillanueva@gmail.com~~

Fran Wilde

Abrams

6-8

10am-4pm EST

Franwilde.net

fran.wilde@gmail.com

Lori Degman

Sterling Publishing

K-2

8:00am – 5:00pm CST

Loridegman.com

Lori@Loridegman.com

Jennie K. Brown

Tantrum Books Imprint of Month9Books

3-5

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. EST

www.jenniekbrown.com

jenniekaybrown@gmail.com

Beth Vrabel

Running Press

6-8

8 am to 3 pm cst

Http://www.bethvrabel.com

Bethannvrabel@gmail.com

Tina Powell

Peanut Butter Press & BWL Publishing

K-2

9 am to 3 pm ET

www.tinapowell.com

tina@tinapowell.com

Claudia Guadalupe Martinez

Cinco Puntos Press, Charlesbridge, Lee and Low

All

9-12 central

www.claudiaguadalupemartinez.com

cmartinez50@hotmail.com

Lindsay Moore

Greenwillow Books

K-3

9 AM, 10 AM, 11 AM EST

Lindsaykmoore.com

lindsay.koza.moore@gmail.com

~~S. K. Ali~~

~~Simon & Schuster~~

~~K-2~~

~~8 am to 3 pm EST~~

~~https://skalibooks.com~~

~~skalibooks@gmail.com~~

~~Michelle Cusolito~~

~~Charlesbridge~~

~~K-2 and 3-5~~

~~9am EASTERN to 4pm EASTERN (with periodic breaks)~~

~~http://www.michellecusolito.com/~~

~~bookings@michellecusolito.com~~

~~Sue Fliess~~

~~Albert Whitman, Running Press Kids, Sky Pony Press~~

~~K-3~~

~~9am – 2pm EST~~

~~www.suefliess.com~~

~~http://www.suefliess.com/contact~~

~~Sarah Grace Tuttle~~

~~Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, The Creative Company~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~EST 11 AM – 3 PM~~

~~www.sarahgracetuttle.com~~

~~https://www.sarahgracetuttle.com/contact~~

J. Anderson Coats

Harcourt Children’s, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Candlewick (forthcoming)

3-5, 6-8, 9-12

9:00 am – 3:00 pm PST

jandersoncoats.com

jandersoncoats@gmail.com

Christian McKay Heidicker

Holt Macmillan and Simon & Schuster

9-12

Any!

cmheidicker.com

cmheidicker@gmail.com

Linda Joy Singleton

Albert Whitman and Little Bee

3-5 (can do other ages)

In Pacific Tie Zone – flexible on time

Www.LindaJoySingleton.com

Ljscheer@yahoo.com

~~Barbara Lowell~~

~~Penguin Young Readers~~

~~6-8~~

~~CST any time during the school day in any time zone~~

~~https://www.barbaralowell.com~~

~~balowell22@aol.com~~

Krista Van Dolzer

Putnam, Sourcebooks, Capstone, Bloomsbury

3-5, 6-8

10a-noon MT, 1p-3p MT

www.kristavandolzer.blogspot.com

kvandolzer@gmail.com

Danielle Davis

Capstone

3-5

10am – 4pm PST

http://www.danielledavisreadsandwrites.com

danielledaviswrites@me.com

~~Elly MacKay~~

~~Tundra, Running Press, HMH, Owlkids, Orca~~

~~K-2 or 3-5~~

~~9-3 EST~~

~~Ellymackay@gmail.com~~

Samantha Cotterill

Little brown books, Simon and Schuster , Harper Collins

K-2, 3-5, 6-8

Between 9:30-1pm EST

Mummysam.com

Samcott@hotmail.com

Sandy Stark-McGinnis

Bloomsbury

9-12 Pacific Time–I am a teacher, so I only could a talk during my lunch (12:00-12:45).

sandystarkmcginnis.com

starksandy@hotmail.com

Lori Goldstein

Razorbill

9-12

EST

www.lorigoldsteinbooks.com

lori@lorigoldsteinbooks.com

Jane Kurtz

Beach Lane

k-2

8-12 Pacific

www.janekurtz.com

jane@janekurtz.com

~~Lauren Eldridge~~

~~Little Brown; Viking~~

~~K-2; 3-5~~

~~8:15am-2pm CST~~

~~LaurenEldridge.com~~

~~Laurenleldridge@gmail.com~~

~~Rebecca J. Gomez~~

~~Penguin, S&S~~

~~K-2~~

~~9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Central)~~

~~Rebeccajgomez.com~~

~~Rebgowriter@gmail.com~~

Veronica Bartles

Balzer + Bray (Harper Collins)

K-2, 3-5

7am-3pm eastern time

http://VBartles.com

vbartleswrites@vbartles.com

~~Buffy Silverman~~

~~Lerner Publications~~

~~K-2 or 3-5~~

~~10:30-12:00, T-Th~~

~~www.buffysilverman.com~~

~~buffy@buffysilverman.com~~

~~Elana K Arnold~~

~~Harper Collins~~

~~3-5~~

~~8-9:30 am pacific time~~

~~www.elanakarnold.com~~

~~elana@elanakarnold.com~~

Fran Manushkin

Capstone

K-2

12:00 noon-2:00 EST

www.franmanushkin.com

franm@nyc.rr.com

Keely Hutton

FSG Macmillan

7-12

EST 8AM-4PM

Keelyhutton.com

khutton1@rochester.rr.com

Sarah Darer Littman

Scholastic, S & S

3-5, 6-8, 9-12

EST 8am-12pm 1pm-6pm

http://sarahdarerlittman.com

sarahdarerlittman@gmail.com

~~Angela DiTerlizzi~~

~~Simon and Schuster~~

~~K-2~~

~~10:00am -1:00pm EST~~

~~angeladiterlizzi.com~~

~~angela@diterlizzi.com~~

Michael Salinger and Sara Holbrook

Scholastic, Boyd’s Mills, Red Giant

K-12 just give us a heads up

9am-12pm EST

Outspokenlit.com

salinger@ameritech.net

Cynthia Platt

Amicus Ink

K-2

8:30 a.m. – 1:30 a.m. ET

cynthiaplattbooks.com

cynthiaplatt@icloud.com

~~Jennifer Thermes~~

~~Abrams Books for Young Readers~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~10am-3pm EST. *Please note, I will be unavailable for WRAD on Feb 1, but would love to skype with your class on Wednesday, Feb. 6th!~~

~~www.jenniferthermes.com~~

~~jennifer@jenniferthermes.com~~

Jeri Watts

Candlewick

K-2; 3-5

9-3 Eastern time zone

Skype in the classroom

watts.jh@lynchburg.edu

Terri Farley

HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin, Simon &Schuster

9-12

Any (i am in Pacific)

TerriFarley.com

Farleyterri@aol.com

Hillary Homzie

Charlesbridge, Simon & Schuster, Sky Pony

k-2, 3-5, 6-8

Anytime from 7:30 a.m. PST through 2:00 p.m.PST

www.hillaryhomzie.com

hillary@hillaryhomzie.com

Patricia Bailey

Albert Whitman and Company

3-5, 6-8

9:00-3:00 Pacific

www.patriciabaileyauthor.com

patriciabaileyauthor@gmail.com

~~Juana Martinez-Neal~~
~~Candlewick Press, Penguin Random House~~
~~Elementary~~
~~9am — 3pm MST~~
juanamartinezneal.com
me@juanamartinezneal.com

~~Elizabeth Bender~~

~~Bloomsbury~~

~~9-12~~

~~10 -12 EST and 1-3 EST~~

~~www.talesofedbaker.com~~

~~edbakerbooks@gmail.com~~

Melanie Sumrow

Yellow Jacket/little bee books

6-8

9:00am-11:00am CST

www.melaniesumrow.com

melanie@melaniesumrow.com

Christy Mihaly

Holiday House (and Lerner)

K-2

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern

www.christymihaly.com

christy@mihaly.org

~~Jean Alicia Elster~~

~~Wayne State University Press~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~9a – 2p Eastern~~

~~jeanaliciaelster.com~~

~~author@jeanaliciaelster.com~~

Susan Ross

Holiday House

3-5, 6-8

Flexible

AuthorSusanRoss.com

AuthorSusanRoss@gmail.com

~~Rebecca E. Hirsch~~

~~Lerner/Millbrook~~

~~K-2, 3-5, 6-8~~

~~1 to 3:30 pm Eastern time~~

~~www.rebeccahirsch.com~~

~~rebeccahirsch@mac.com~~

Betsy Devany

Henry Holt and Co.

K-2

10 -5 EST

www.betsydevany.com

betsydevany@comcast.net

~~Mae Respicio~~

~~Random House~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~PST~~

~~www.maerespicio.com~~

~~mae@maerespicio.com~~

Jackie Yeager

Amberjack Publishing

3-5

10:00am- 3:00pm EST

www.swirlandspark.com

jacquelineyeager5@gmail.com

Marie Miranda Cruz

Starscape, Tom Doherty Associates

9-12

6-8 am PST

Www.cruzwrites.com

everlastingnora2018@gmail.com

~~Shauna LaVoy Reynolds~~

~~Dial / Penguin~~

~~K-2 and/or 3-5~~

~~I’m in central time and available between 9-11 AM, 12-2 PM, and 4-6 PM~~

~~http://shaunalavoyreynolds.com~~

~~shaunalreynolds@gmail.com~~

Christina Collins

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Ages 8 and up

10:00 am – 12:15 pm EST

www.christinacollinsbooks.com

christinacollinsbooks@gmail.com

Victoria piontek

Scholastic

3-5

10:00 PST-2:00 PST

victoriapiontek@gmail.com

vpiontek@gmail.com

~~Brigit Young~~

~~Macmillan (Roaring Brook)~~

~~9-12~~

~~9:30am – 1:00pm EST~~

~~brigityoung.com~~

~~brigityoungmg@gmail.com~~

Melissa Stoller

Clear Fork Publishing

K-2 and 3rd grade

9-4 EST

www.MelissaStoller.com

MLStoller@aol.com

Rebecca Caprara

Carolrhoda Books/Lerner

3-5 & 6-8

9:30am-12:30pm EST

https://www.rebeccacaprara.com

Caprarabooks@gmail.com

Christina June

Blink/HarperCollins

6-8 or 9-12

9-11:30 EST, 1-3:30 EST

www.christinajune.com

christinajuneya@gmail.com

Sue Lowell Gallion

Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster, Sleeping Bear Books

K-2

9-11 and 1-3 Central Time Zone

suegallion@gmail.com

JODI KENDALL

HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN’S BOOKS

3-5, 6-8

11-1PM EST

WWW.JODIKENDALL.COM

http://www.jodikendall.com/connect/

~~Kim Tomsic~~

~~Chronicle and Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins~~

~~K-2 or 3-5 or 6-8~~

~~Mountain Time~~

~~http://kimtomsic.com/~~

~~ktomsic@gmail.com~~

A. B. Greenfield

Holiday House

3-5

9:00-10:30 EST

http://www.amybutlergreenfield.com

amy@amybutlergreenfield.com

Merrill Wyatt

JIMMY Patterson Publishing

3-7

Between 10:45 and 12:45 or after 3:30 EST

Merrillwyatt.com

Rimerllwyatt@gmail.com

Jennifer Kam

Charlesbridge

6-8 or 9-12

8AM-1:30PM EST

www.jenniferwolfkam.com

Jrwkam@aol.com

~~Laura Shovan~~

~~Random House Children’s Books~~

~~3-5 and 6-8~~

~~9-4 EST~~

~~www.laurashovan.com~~

~~laurashovan@gmail.com~~

Stephanie Robinson

Random House/Delacorte Press

3-5

8:30-3:30 EST

https://www.fairdaysfiles.com/

robinsonstef@yahoo.com

Diane Zahler

HarperCollins, Capstone, Boyds Mills

3-5

12-3 EST

www.dianezahler.com

dlzahler@gmail.com

Wendy McLeod MacKnight

Greenwillow Books

6-8

any time between 9 a.m. to 5 pm AST

wendymcleodmacknight.com

wendy@wendymcleodmacknight.com

Joy McCullough

Dutton/Penguin Random House

9-12

any time after 8 am PST

joymccullough.com

joymariemc@gmail.com

~~Karuna Riazi~~

~~Simon and Schuster/Salaam Reads~~

~~3-5, 6-8~~

~~9 AM – 1 PM, 2:30 PM – 8 PM (all EST)~~

~~http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Karuna-Riazi/2105807769~~

~~karunariazi@gmail.com~~

Brooks Benjamin

Random House Children’s Books

3-5, 6-8

8:00 am – 4:00 pm (EST)

www.brooksbenjamin.com

cbrooks.benjamin@gmail.com

Jill Diamond

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

3-5

9:30-3:00 PST

www.jilldiamondbooks.com

jilldiamond78@gmail.com

Kris Waldherr

Scholadtic

6-8

9-11am

Kriswaldherr.com

artandwords@optonline.net

Karen Leggett Abouraya

Lee & Low

3-5

Any school hours (I am in Eastern Time Zone)

handsaroundthelibrary.com

Karen@handsaroundthelibrary.com

Mark Maciejewski

Simon & Schuster

3-6

8-3 pacific

MarkMaciejewski.com

magicjetski@yahoo.com

Mike Mullin

Tanglewood Press

9-12

9 – 3 EST

mikemullinauthor.com

mike@mikemullinauthor.com

~~Monica Carnesi~~

~~Nancy Paulsen Books~~

~~K-2~~

~~9:00 am – 4:00 pm EST~~

~~www.monicacarnesi.com~~

~~monicacarnesi@mac.com~~

~~Molly Idle~~

~~Little Brown~~

~~K-5~~

~~9am-1pm AZ time~~

~~www.idleillustration.com~~

~~molly@idleillustration.com~~

Bridget Hodder

Macmillan

3-7

9:30-3:30 EST

www.BridgetHodder.com

http://www.bridgethodder.com/contact-bridget-hodder/

Rebecca Ansari

Walden Pond Press (Harper)

9-12

8:30-3:30 CST

RebeccaAnsari.com

Rebeccaansariauthor@gmail.com

Jess Redman

FSG/Macmillan

9-12

9-12 EST; 1-3 EST

www.JessRedman.com

JessRedmanWrites@gmail.com

Hallee Adelman

Albert Whitman

K-2 or 3-5

10-2pm est

www.myquietship.com ; www.halleeadelman.com

Hallee@adelmans.net

Shauna Holyoak

Disney-Hyperion

9-12

noon to three EST

https://shaunaholyoak.wordpress.com/

s.holyoak@yahoo.com

Anica Mrose Rissi

S&S, Disney-Hyperion, and HarperTeen

K-2, 3-5, and 9-12 (picture books, chapter books, and YA)

10am to 6pm, Eastern Time

http://www.anicarissi.com

anicamroserissi@gmail.com

~~Mara Rockliff~~

~~Candlewick, HMH, Chronicle, etc.~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~9 am – 3 pm ET~~

~~mararockliff.com~~

~~mararockliff@mararockliff.com~~

Augusta Scattergood

Scholastic Press

9-12

10-3 EST

https://www.augustascattergood.com/

gsgood2@gmail.com

Sarah McGuire

Carolrhoda

6-8

anytime after 1pm EST

sarahmcguirebooks.com

smcguire.author@gmail.com

Jonathan Rosen

Sky Pony Press

9-12

EST 10-2

Houseofrosen.com

Houseofrosen@aol.com

Judy Lindquist

Florida Historical Society Press

9-12

Flexible

Www.judylindquist.com

Linkyjr59@gmail.con

Stefani Deoul

Bywater Books

9-12

EST – Flexible

stefanideoul.com

author@stefanideoul.com

~~Shelly Becker~~

~~Sterling Publishing~~

~~Grades K-4~~

~~Midday (Eastern)~~

~~Shellybeckerbooks.com~~

~~shellybecker@gmail.com~~

Jenipher Lyn

Crown / Penguin Random House branch

middle grade / tween age

Eastern, open availability.

www.jenipherlyn.com

Jenipherlyn@gmail.com

~~Melanie Conklin~~

~~Penguin~~

~~3-5, 6-8, 9-12~~

~~9am EST to 2pm EST~~

~~www.melanieconklin.com~~

~~melanie@melanieconklin.com~~

Emma Otheguy

Lee & Low Books, Bloomsbury, Knopf

3-5, 6-8

8am-6pm EST

www.emmaotheguy.com

https://app.youcanbook.me/#/editProfile?id=f935b5f2-e2ac-43ff-bccb-3da8ced4d04d&section=availability

Miriam Spitzer Franklin

Skypony Press

3-5, 6-8

EST 1-3 PM

www.miriamspitzerfranklin.com

mspitzerfranklin@gmail.com

Angela Cerrito

Holiday House

9-12

EST Noon – 4PM

www.angelacerrito.com

writerangela@outlook.com

Danette Haworth

Bloomsbury Walker

3-5

10:00 am-2:00 pm EST

www.danettehaworth.com

dhaworthbooks@yahoo.com

Doreen Spicer-Dannelly

Random House Books for Children

9-12

9 AM PST

www.spicerackproductionsinc.com

doreen@spicerackproductionsinc.com

~~Laurie Wallmark~~

~~Sterling Publishing~~

~~K-5~~

~~9-5 ET~~

~~www.lauriewallmark.com~~

~~www.lauriewallmark.com/contact.php~~

~~Jennifer Brown~~

~~Bloomsbury (MG); Little, Brown (YA); Katherine Tegen (YA)~~

~~Grades 5-12~~

~~9am-2pm CST~~

~~www.JenniferBrownAuthor.com~~

~~JenniferBrownYA@gmail.com~~

E.D. Baker

Bloomsbury

6-8 & 8-12

10 am EST – 3pm EST

www.talesofedbaker.com

edbakerbooks@gmail.com

~~Jacob Sager Weinstein~~

~~Random House/Clarion~~

~~K-2 (for my picture book) and 6-8 (for my MG novels)~~

~~8AM-3PM EST~~

~~jacobsagerweinstein.com~~

~~jswwrites@yankeefog.com~~

Patricia Sutton

Chicago Review Press

6-8

9-noon Central Time

Www.patriciasutton.com

Patriciakaysutton@gmail.com

David A. Kelly

Random House Children’s

Grades 2 – 4

10 am – 6 pm (eastern)

www.davidakellybooks.com

www.dakskype.com

Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

National Geographic Kids; Charlesbridge

K-2, 3-5, 6-8

10-2 EST

http://OnceUponAScienceBook.com

wheelertop@gmail.com

~~Mari Mancusi~~

~~Disney Hyperion~~

~~3-5~~

~~8:30-3:00 CST~~

~~www.marimancusi.com~~

~~mari@marimancusi.com~~

Malayna Evans

Month9Books

MG (5-6_

9a-2p CST

www.malaynaevans.com

malaynaevans22@gmail.com

~~Corey Ann Haydu~~

~~HarperCollins~~

~~3-5, 6-8, 9-12~~

~~10 am EST- 4pm EST~~

~~www.coreyannhaydu.com~~

~~coreyannhaydu@gmail.com~~

Shannon Hitchcock

Scholastic

9-12

10:00-2:00 EST

shannonhitchcock.com

ShannonH@ShannonHitchcock.com

Tracy Marchini

Creative Editions

K-2

9am – 5pm EST

www.tracymarchini.com

http://tracymarchini.com/contact-faqs/

Gail Hedrick

Tumblehome Learning

6-8

8–12and 1-3 EST

www.gailehedrick.com

gailehedrick@yahoo.com

Susan Tan

Roaring Brook

3-5 (But I also frequently skype with K-2, and would be happy to do that too!)

All day EST

www.susantanbooks.com

susanshaumingtan@gmail.com

Holly Thompson

Random House, Clarion, Henry Holt, Lee&Low

K-12

I’m in Japan so between Tokyo time 6 am to 11 pm is fine!

www.hatbooks.com

hatbooks@gmail.com

Stacie Ramey

Sourcebooks

9-12

after 1:00 PM EST

www.stacieramey.com

stacieramey@gmail.com

~~Maria Gianferrari~~

~~HMH; Roaring Brook; Aladdin; Boyds Mills Press~~

~~K-2; 3-5~~

~~10 – 12 EST 1-4 EST~~

~~mariagianferrari.com~~

~~contact form~~

~~Sheetal Sheth~~

~~Bharat Babies~~

~~K-2~~

~~9:30am- 2pm EST~~

~~www.sheetalsheth.com~~

~~sheetal@sheetalsheth.com~~

Anna Raff

Candlewick

K-2

9 AM to 3 PM EST

www.annaraff.com

anna@annaraff.com

~~Jody Feldman~~

~~HarperCollins/Greenwillow~~

~~3-7~~

~~8:30 am – 4:30 pm CST~~

~~www.jodyfeldman.com~~

~~jody@jodyfeldman.com~~

~~Sherry Howard~~

~~Clear Fork~~

~~K-2~~

~~11-4 eastern time zone~~

~~www.sherryhowardwrites for kids.com~~

~~sherryhoward0@icloud.com~~

Wendy Greenley

Creative Editions

K-2

9am-12 EST

www.wendygreenley.com

Wendy@wendygreenley.com

Jo Hackl

Random House Children’s Books

9-12

8:00-9:00 eastern standard time

www.johackl.com

Jo@JoHackl.com

Claire Lordon

little bee books/Sterling Children’s

k-2

9:30am – 1pm PST

www.clairelordon.com

claire.lordon@gmail.com

Jennifer Blecher

Greenwillow

6-8

9am-2pm EST

www.jenniferblecher.com

jenniferblecher@gmail.com

Anna Staniszewski

Scholastic

9-12

1:30-4:30pm Est

www.annastan.com

annastan@gmail.com

Jackie Azúa Kramer

North-South and Clavis

K-2

10:00-2:00pm EST

https://www.jackieazuakramer.com

jkramer422@gmail.com

Linda Marshall

Peter Pauper, Scholastic

K-2

9:00 – 5:00 EST

www.lindamarshall.com

SheepRFarm@aol.com

~~Julie Segal Walters~~

~~Simon and Schuster~~

~~K-2, 3-5~~

~~9:00 – 3:00 ET~~

~~www.juliesegalwalters.com~~

~~Julie.segal.walters@gmail.com~~

Jody Feldman

HarperCollins/Greenwillow

3-7

8:30 – 4:00 CST

www.jodyfeldman.com

jody@jodyfeldman.com

Darlene Beck Jacobson

Creston

9-12

9-11AM EST 1-3PM EST

http://www.darlenebeckjacobson.com

djac2185@verizon.net

Denis Markell

Delacorte Press

4-8

9am-4pm EST

https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Denis+Markell

dmarkell@aol.com

~~Jane Kelley~~

~~Random House Children’s Books, Feiwel and Friends~~

~~3-5~~

~~9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. CTS~~

~~http://janekelleybooks.com/Welcome.html~~

~~janekelley@janekelleybooks.com~~

Megan Wagner Lloyd

Knopf/Random House

K-2 only

10 AM to 2 PM EST

www.meganwagnerlloyd.com

meg@meganwagnerlloyd.com

Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

Henry Holt / Christy Ottaviano Books

K-2

MST 9:30am – 3:30pm

http://dancingelephantstudio.com/visualart/

coloredsock@mac.com

Evelyn Bookless

Marshall Cavendish

4-5 and 6-8

9am – noon

www.evelynbookless.com

evelynbookless@yahoo.co.uk

S.A. Larsen

Leap Books & Ellysian Press

3-5, 6-8, 9-12

8:00 AM – 1:00 AM EST

https://www.salarsenbooks.com/

sheri@salarsenbooks.com

Justin LaRocca Hansen

Dial Books for Young Readers, Sky Pony Press

K-2, 3-5

8am-3pm EST

http://www.justinlaroccahansen.com

j.larocca.hansen@gmail.com

~~April Jones Prince~~

~~Scholastic, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin, Penguin Random House, Abrams~~

~~K-5~~

~~10-2 EST~~

~~www.apriljonesprince.com~~

~~april@apriljonesprince.com~~

Annette Bay Pimentel

Nancy Paulsen Books, Charlesbridge, Amicus

K-2, 3-5

Pacific Time Zone 5 AM-3 PM

http://www.annettebaypimentel.com/

annettepimentel@gmail.com

Susan Lubner

Running Press Kids/Hachette

9-12

9am – 3pm eastern

Www.susanlubner.com

Suelubner@gmail.com

Michell Schaub

Charlesbridge

k-2, 3-5

8-3 central time

http://www.michelleschaub.com

shellschaub@hotmail.com

Ella Schwartz

Bloomsbury, National Geographic Kids

9-12

10:30-2:00

www.ellasbooks.com

ella@ellaschwartz.net

Lisa Kahn Schnell

Charlesbridge

K-2, 3-5

8am-3pm EST, but other times may be possible

lisakschnell.com

lisakschnell@yahoo.com

Meera Sriram

Penny Candy Books

6-8

9am-12 noon PST

www.meerasriram.com

meeratsriram@gmail.com

Maria Padian

Knopf Young Readers; Algonquin YR

ANY age group. I write YA but read everything!

9 A.M. – 3 P.M.

www.mariapadian.com

mpadian@comcast.net

Tom Hirschfeld

Penguin Random House

6-8

1-4 ET

www.itsuptoyoubooks.com

tom@hirschfeld.nyc

I’ll be updating this list every few weeks until WRAD, so if you check back, you may find that the options will change. Schedules will fill, so some folks will no longer be available, but there will also be new people added.

Authors & Illustrators: If your schedule is full & you need to be crossed off the list, please leave a comment to let me know. If you’re an author or illustrator and you’d like to be added to the list, directions are here. Please note that this particular list is limited to traditionally published authors/illustrators (such as those listed here), only to limit its size and scope. I’m one person with limited time. However, if someone else would like to compile and share a list of self-published, specialty, magazine, and ebook author/illustrator volunteers, I think that would be absolutely great, and I’ll happily link to it here. Just let me know!

Happy reading, everyone!

“World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another, and creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology.” ~from the LitWorld website

October 19, 2018October 19, 2018

#WhyWeWrite: Seven Award-winning Authors Share Their Secrets for the National Day on Writing

We write to share wonder and curiosity, to illuminate universal truths and small moments, to shine light into shadows, and so that our stories can walk quietly beside readers to let them know they aren’t alone. Today, we’d like to share some of our best writing secrets — the ones that keep us going and help transform a draft from good to great.

Martha Brockenbrough, author of The Game of Love and Death and the forthcoming Unpresidented: A Biography of Donald Trump

One thing I see often in the writing of my students (and sometimes my own work) is a scene that could be made stronger with a really strong setting acting as an anchor.

We all know that lots of description can be a snooze for readers, so I’m not encouraging anyone to do that. Most definitely not!

But … we should know where we are at the start of every scene, and finding clever ways to establish that will make your writing sing.

Think about how you know where you are. Your senses tell you. Sight often dominates, so here’s a way to find fresh observations. Close your eyes right. What do you hear? What can you smell? Are you sitting or standing or in some way interacting in your environment? How is that affecting your body? Those are questions you can ask yourself about your character and their world, and you can choose the most interesting and useful ones to help your reader slide inside your character’s entire existence—head, body, and experience in that form.

And one more tip: this is sometimes something I do the day after I’ve written a scene, and when I’m trying to warm myself up for new words. I read the previous day’s work and think about how I can create more anchors and more resonance for readers. It’s always a quick way for me to get myself back into the project, and I find so much pleasure in enriching things for readers this way.

Kate Messner, author of Breakout and the Ranger in Time series

I look for small things when I write. Often, the tiniest detail is the best detail when it comes to grounding a scene in a particular time and place or bringing a huge, sweeping moment back to the personal. The tricky thing about this is that the first thing we think of as writers is almost never that perfect, small detail. We have to dig for those.

When we’re imagining a beach by a lake, we get the lapping waves and the calling seagulls right away. But when we go to a lake and listen, we also hear the two dogs barking just up the hill – one with a deep woof and one with a high-pitched yapping. We hear the far-away train and maybe the scrape-clunk-scrape of a kid sorting rocks to find just the right one to skip. These are better details.

We’ve all seen disaster scenes on television, but again, when we imagine this setting, the first details we think of – twisted beams and emergency lights – probably won’t tell the story in the best way. It’s the smaller, more specific details that make it personal – the broken eyeglasses with the red frames, the Snapple rolling down the street from an overturned bagel cart, the firefighter who’s stopped to pet a dog. The first set of details tells us there’s been a disaster; the second set makes us care.

Here’s an exercise you can try in any setting. First, just stay at your desk or wherever you are, and write a quick description of that setting. What do you think you’ll probably see, hear, feel, and smell when you get there? Now, take your notebook and go to the place. Sit down, and for five or ten minutes, just watch and feel and listen, and write down things you notice. Sniff the air, too. Everyplace has smells, and not always the ones we expect. What did you notice that wasn’t on your first list? Those might be the best details of all.

Tracey Baptiste, author of The Jumbies books and Minecraft: The Crash

The most fun thing for me about writing is cutting scenes. Knowing where to cut a scene is hard, and getting just the right ending to it is also tough, but I think about it in two ways,

Have I shown the reader everything they need from this scene? And
Does the ending propel them to the next one?

So the first part always involves some back and forthing. Sometimes you don’t know if you’ve given the reader everything in a scene until you get to the end of the story and realize that you didn’t set up some things earlier that they’re going to need at the end, so you have to go back and fill this into scenes you’ve already written. This is mostly easy enough to figure out once you realize that you don’t have to get the scene perfectly right the first time, and it’s TOTALLY fine to go back and re-do a scene, add or subtract, etc.

What’s more difficult is knowing how to end it in a way that makes the reader want to keep on reading. And for that, I encourage you to watch one of my favorite movies in the whole wide world, The Fifth Element.

This movie cuts scenes with razor-sharp precision and what ends one scene starts the next, and it all feels orderly, but also super exciting.

Anytime I can’t seem to get the end of a scene right, I go watch The Fifth Element to re-learn how to basically throw the reader from one scene to the next. The way the editor or director moves from one scene to the next is merciless, and I apply that strategy to the end of every scene I write. Mostly, it involves finding the connective tissue between the two scenes so that what’s dropped in one is immediately picked up in the other by someone else, in a different way, but it works like gangbusters.

And it’s super fun.

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, author of Two Naomis and Naomis Too

Revel in what you do well. Enjoy your writing strengths, and use them unashamedly. I think of myself as much better at character development than ‘plotting’/action, and often spend too much time as my own personal contortionist, trying too hard to PLOT THE STORY, feeling inadequate and dim. It is inevitably misery-inducing, and not very good. But when I start with and spend time with what works for me — thinking deeply about character — the story comes, and those things that I think I have to do to PLOT, do come as a more natural extension of my work. So, do you. Enjoy it. Be proud of it–congratulate yourself, even (for just a bit, don’t get all biggety. But if it were me, I *might* have a morsel of cake). And then get to work. Start from your joy, and then challenge yourself. For instance, if you start with character, keep thinking about how the fullness of your character can drive the story. If Naomi Marie is anxious to appear a high achiever and prove herself on this group project, she might take on some tasks without asking her other team members if that’s OK. Maybe she takes on too much, and that affects another activity. Maybe another group member suspects her of sabotage, and engineers revenge. Stuff can happen! If you start with action, with a bit more ‘What if?’, maybe there’s a group of kids working on a project but one has been asked to cheat in order to make a friend look impressive. What kind of character might agree to cheat, and why? How would they go about it? Who in the group might immediately be suspicious, what would they do? and WHY? Would another group member be an accomplice, and (you guessed it) WHY?

Don’t try to be a different type of writer. Start from your strengths, and let them nourish your challenges. Let your writing joys feed your struggles.

Anne Ursu, author of Breadcrumbs and the forthcoming The Lost Girl

Like Olugbemisola, I am not a person who thinks in plot. To me, books are all character–even fantasies with the most elaborate world and coolest creatures are nothing without a compelling, whole character at the center. Fantasy books are journeys–yes, external ones, but more importantly they are internal journeys. Our protagonists begin in a situation where they have some deep-seated need or wound, something so desperate and profound that only a fantasy journey can heal that wound.

Whenever I get stuck on the plot, world, antagonists, or side characters I go back to the protagonist. What is her journey really about? What does she want and what does she really need? How can I design the rest of the story to challenge her and change her so that need is met by the end of the book?

When writers I work with are having trouble with their books I often have then write a journal entry from the protagonist’s point of view from the night before the book starts, where the protagonist confides all of their feelings and desires. Maybe the root of these desires runs far deeper than they know; after all they haven’t had a fantasy journey yet. But out of this exercise, I hope, comes a sense of what the gravity of the book is, the thing every other element should revolve around.

Laurel Snyder, author of Bigger Than a Breadbox and Orphan Island

As a teacher, I probably talk more about “default writing” than anything else.

Of course, we all have defaults, and occasionally, they can be useful. But learning to write well means learning to interrogate our defaults, to question their value in each instance. This means that we all need to know how to identify our defaults on the page, and consider other (better?) options.

Like the man said, KNOW THYSELF!

An example: I’ll confess that often, in my books, I default to BLINKING. Characters who are confused or upset or stunned or happy will BLINK, as a way of expressing that there’s a lot going on inside them. Now, this is fine once in a while, but it’s kind of a cheap trick, a manipulation, and I certainly don’t want to rely on it too often. So now that I recognize my BLINKING default, I look out for it. In fact, at the end of each draft, I do a search for the word “blink” and then replace that word/moment with something else, in each case.

An easy exercise that can help with this is something I call the HIGHLIGHTER TRICK. Simply take a printed draft of your work, and a highlighter. Now, read the manuscript backwards, sentence by sentence, beginning at the very end. You aren’t reading for content, so you don’t want to read forward, and get caught up in the narrative. You want to slow down and read each line on its own, as a discrete sentence. Paying attention to the words themselves, rather than the story. And each time you see something familiar—a word or phrase or sound or gesture that you know you’ve used in the past—highlight it. Then, once you’re done reading the whole thing with your highlighter, go back through and treat the story like a Mad Libs, replacing each highlighted item with something else.

One last note: when you find yourself absolutely resisting a specific change, that’s fine! Leave the highlighted section as is. Because sometimes in life, your default is the exact right instinct. The point isn’t that you should never use it. Rather, that you should CHOOSE it, each time, the way you should choose everything carefully.

Linda Urban, author of Road Trip with Max and his Mom and Mabel and Sam at Home

The best way to become a better writer is to read more.
You knew someone was going to say it, didn’t you? Next to writing a lot, reading a lot is the most commonly dispensed advice there is. Because it is very good advice.

Here’s what gets said less often, but is just as important: Read Aloud.

So much of writing is about the sound of things — the way words bounce or clash, the rhythm of sentences, the pitch of paragraphs, the hush of the rests between them. I realized recently that some of my best, most joyful writing has happened during times when I was also actively engaged in reading aloud to my children. It gets in your head, that sound, like an earworm tune you’re not even aware of until you’re singing along with it. Read aloud to write work worthy of reading aloud.

And then, do that. Read your own work aloud.
How does it sound? Are there consonants clacking when you intended a soothing swish? Does a languid pool of description slow down what ought to be a high speed hydroplane race? Have you spiraled madly round a manic moment only to peter slowly out? Again? Really? Fine.

Read it aloud.

Find the beat.
Make a change.

Read it aloud, repeat. Or re-beat. Until, finally, it sings.

Do you have a favorite writing secret to add? Please feel free to share in a comment. We hope you have a great National Day on Writing and a year full of wonderful stories!

August 3, 2018August 3, 2018

Teachers Write 8.3.18 One Last Friday Mini-Lesson…and Looking Ahead

Good morning! It’s hard to believe that our four weeks together have flown by already, and today is our last day of Teachers Write for 2018, and I want to use this last day of camp to talk about setting goals. That’s probably something you talk about with your students, right? But sometimes it’s easier to set those goals when we have specific assignments and set deadlines – an essay due on Friday, or final grades posted by the 20th. Goals for your personal writing can be more of a challenge, but they’re just as important.

I use something called a bullet journal to set my writing goals on a day-t0-day schedule, and I set up lists of monthly goals, too. Here’s what that looks like.

You’re probably noticing that this isn’t just about writing. My exercise and hydration goals are here, too, and so are reminders to schedule my kid’s physical and make plans for an upcoming trip to NYC. That’s what works best for me – including all of my responsibilities on one big list – because really, that’s how my world operates. You can read more about bullet journaling here – and there’s a whole post about how I use it in my writing life here.

I also use other kinds of charts to keep track of ongoing projects. This Gantt chart is a project-scheduling tool that TW guest author Tracey Baptiste taught me about, where you set up a chart with major steps to completing a project and shade in the boxes as things progress. (Please note that this chart only includes the first two major revisions – there are typically 8-15 more after that!)

However you keep track of your day to day and ongoing writing goals, it’s also important to make time to reflect, and that’s what I’m going to ask you to do today.

Your Assignment: How has your summer of writing gone? Take some time to reflect on what you’ll take away from these past four weeks of Teachers Write and what you hope the coming weeks and months will look like for you as a writer. What’s your plan for keeping regular writing a part of your life? Feel free to share thoughts in the comments. And don’t forget to check in with Jen at Teach Mentor Texts on Sunday for one more conversation about the summer’s progress.

Finally, I want to say thank you so, so much for making this a part of your summer. You’re teaching and sharing stories with kids and helping them to find their own voices in a time when this work is so desperately needed. So thank you for choosing this work and for making it a priority even during your summer break. Thanks for opening up and sharing, for encouraging one another to be brave, and for stepping outside of your comfort zones as writers. It’s been such a gift working with you this summer, learning from you, and reading your powerful words. And it’s an even greater gift to call you friends.

Keep writing. Keep sharing stories. And please know how grateful your author friends are for all of the work that you do.

~Kate

August 2, 2018August 2, 2018

Teachers Write 8.2.18 Thursday Quick-Write with Tracey Baptiste

Good morning! Our final Thursday Quick-Write for the summer comes from the amazing Tracey Baptiste.

Tracey is the author of the creepy MG fantasy adventures The Jumbies and Rise of the Jumbies (and a third book on the way, too!), the contemporary YA novel Angel’s Grace and 9 non-fiction books for kids in elementary through high school. Her new official Minecraft novel, The Crash, just came out last month! Tracey is also a former elementary school teacher who does lots of author visits, and she’s on the faculty at Lesley University’s Creative Writing MFA program.

Your Assignment: Write a scene in which a character has to communicate something important (traumatic/time-sensitive, etc.) but cannot use spoken or written language. They may be in a foreign country, or an alien world, or there’s some other reason for the restriction. Feel free to share a bit of what you wrote in the comments if you’d like!

August 1, 2018June 27, 2018

Teachers Write 8.1.18 Q&A Wednesday with Meg Medina and Ann Angel

Good morning! It’s time for our final Q&A Wednesday of Teachers Write Virtual Summer Writing Camp. Today’s author guests are Meg Medina and Ann Angel!

Meg Medina is the author of numerous prize-winning works for children and teens, including Mango, Abuela and Me, Tía Isa Wants a Car, and Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. Her forthcoming novel, Merci Suárez Changes Gears, will be published by Candlewick Press in Sept 2018. Meg is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books, a faculty member of Hamline University’s MFA program for children’s writing, and serves on the Board of Advisors for SCBWI. More at www.megmedina.com.

Ann Angel writes middle grade and YA nonfiction and serves as contributing editor for YA anthologies. Anthologies include Things I’ll Never Say, Stories About Our Secret Selves and Such a Pretty Face, Short Stories About Beauty . Ann’s biography Janis Joplin, Rise Up Singing received the 2011 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award and the 2011 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, was listed by Booklist as a 2011 Top Ten Biography for Youth and a 2011 Top Ten Arts Book for Youth. Additional nonfiction includes an Amy Tan biography and a reader’s guide to Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street. Ann teaches creative writing at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee. For more information: www.annangelwriter.com.

Teachers & librarians – Feel free to ask your questions in the comments. It’s fine to ask a general question or to direct one directly to a specific guest author. Our author guests have volunteered to drop in and respond when they can.

Note from Kate: I’ll try to be here for Q and A most Wednesdays, too. Please be patient with me if you’re a first-time commenter – it may take a little while for me to approve your comment so it appears.

Got questions? Fire away!

July 31, 2018June 28, 2018

Teachers Write 7.31.18 Tuesday Quick-Write with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Good morning! Our Tuesday Quick-Write guest author today is the wonderful Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich! She’s the author of 8th Grade Superzero, a Notable Book for a Global Society, as well as a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. She is a co-author of the NAACP Image Award-nominated Two Naomis, its sequel, Naomis Too, and the forthcoming Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey To Tomorrow, as well as the picture book biography Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins. Olugbemisola is the editor of The Hero Next Door, a 2019 anthology from We Need Diverse Books. A member of The Brown Bookshelf and the Advisory Board of We Need Diverse Books, Olugbemisola lives with her family in New York City. Visit her online at olugbemisolabooks.com.

Character/Emotion/Setting

Often when we think of writing stories, we think primarily of the character and setting — the who and the where/what. One of the ways to deepen a story and write three-dimensional characters is to be thoughtful about their emotional life and how they express those emotions in different situations. I often use a variation of this exercise as a writing game with small groups; it’s fun to see how differently we may think about demonstrations of thought and feeling!

Your Assignment: Write a scene using the following:

1) Create a character (include their age, race and ethnicity, gender)

2) and now…using that same character, mix and match setting and emotion.

a) Put them in a SHOPPING MALL, and the emotion is FRUSTRATION

b) in a CLASSROOM, and the emotion is JOY

c) at the BEACH, and the emotion is FURY

d) in a New York City subway station, and the emotion is EXHILARATION

e) in a KITCHEN, and the emotion is SURPRISE

f) in a PARK, and the emotion is DISGUST

g) in a CAR, and the emotion is SHAME

h) on a FARM, and the emotion is ENVY

i) at a BASKETBALL GAME, and the emotion is ANXIETY

j) in a SWIMMING POOL, and the emotion is LOVE

For each of these, be thoughtful about the ways that your character’s traits and the setting impact their actions, how the same trait is expressed differently, depending on the situation. Get to know your character even more, and most of all, have fun! And feel free to share a bit of what you wrote in the comments today if you’d like.

July 30, 2018June 27, 2018

Teachers Write 7.30.18 Mini-Lesson Monday with Chris Tebbetts

Good morning! Jo has your Monday Morning Warm-Up here… and Chris Tebbetts joins us with today’s mini-lesson. Chris is the author and co-author of many books for young readers. Titles include the #1 New York Times bestselling MIDDLE SCHOOL series, as well as PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPERHERO, with James Patterson and illustrator Laura Park; the New York Times bestselling STRANDED series with Jeff Probst; and the young adult novel M OR F? with Lisa Papademetriou. His work has received children’s choice awards in Oregon and Hawaii, as well a Sunshine State Young Readers Award nomination, and a nod on the New York Public Library’s annual list of Books For the Teen Age. Watch for his YA novel, ME, MYSELF, AND HIM next summer—and in the meantime, you can reach him with questions or school visit inquiries at www.christebbetts.com.

Three Steps to Character Dimension:
Internal Conflict, Contradiction, and Shadow Traits

I often think in terms of duality when I’m writing. I ask myself, what are the two sides to this story, this scene, this moment?

Or, for the purposes of today’s mini-lesson: what are the two sides to the characters I create? It’s a question that helps make the people who populate my stories more interesting, more human, more complex, and usually, more relatable.

To that end, here are three items for your writer’s toolbox; three ways to bring out the dimension in your own characters.

1) Internal Conflict

We all know that a story needs some sense of stakes. Your character needs a goal, and that goal needs to be impeded by some collection of obstacles and antagonist(s), creating the external conflict of your story.

But how about internal conflict? What conflicting stakes might exist—or could exist—within your character’s situation?

For Katniss Everdeen, there’s a driving tension at the heart of the story, between the rules of the Hunger Games (kill!) and her own moral compass (don’t kill!).

For Les Miserables’ Jean Valjean, it’s an internal conflict between his obligations to Cosette and to the rule of law, embodied by the story’s antagonist, Javert.

And for Ramona Quimby, it exists as a constant tension between what she knows she should do and what she wants to do.

What about in your own works in progress? Is there a way to complicate your character’s situation by giving her more than one want? And by making those wants mutually exclusive?

2) Contradiction

As Walt Whitman’s famous quote goes, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.”

Contradiction in characters is nothing new. It’s as old as story itself. And yet, at the same time, I have this sense that audiences are increasingly open to the idea of characters who don’t always turn one-plus-one into two. Characters who are more than one thing at the same time. Characters who contradict themselves and contain the multitudes that go with it.

In his excellent book, THE ART OF CHARACTER, David Corbett distills the role (and value) of contradiction into two things: 1) It defies expectations; and 2) It depicts complexity and depth.

He goes on to say:

“Developing a character with genuine depth requires a focus on not just desire but how the character deals with frustration of her desires, as well as her vulnerabilities, her secrets, and especially her contradictions. This development needs to be forged in scenes, the better to employ your intuition rather than your intellect.”

I like the way he emphasizes intuition in this case, since we’re dwelling into aspects of character that don’t always make sense on paper, but are, at the same time, completely and realistically human.

3) Shadow Traits

Here’s a bit more from THE ART OF CHARACTER:

“The tension created by these two antagonistic impulses – to control our behaviour so we “get along” and to let go and “be ourselves” – forms one of the core conflicts of our lives. And conflict is inherently dramatic…. For every trait we publicly exhibit, its opposite lurks somewhere in our psyches. These shadow traits may be feeble and ill-formed from lack of conscious use, but they exist – meaning that if a character acts unbelievably, we can make what he does seem more organic if we find a way to root it in the battle between the character’s conscious and suppressed behavior.”

Even as I write this article, I’m aware of the overlap between these ideas. Internal conflict is a kind of contradiction. And contradiction might easily contain some element of these so-called shadow traits, like Katniss Everdeen’s savage side, the part of her that comes out only by necessity. (Notice how that story begins with a hunting scene, where she’s killing wild game to provide for her family.)

That said, it’s not as important to me for these ideas to be distinct from one another as it is to find ways of asking myself useful questions about my characters along the way. To that end, here’s an assignment and some additional food for thought to consider:

Your Assignment: This exercise is based on ideas from “Composing A Life,” by Mary Catherine Bateson, a sociologist (and also Margaret Mead’s daughter). For more, I suggest listening to Bateson’s interview on the On Being podcast from a few years ago.

In the meantime, you can apply this exercise to any of your characters, or even to yourself, which can also be illuminating.

STEP ONE

What are the two sides of your character’s story? That might refer to her entire lifetime; her arc within the story; a specific scene or chapter; or even an individual moment. Almost always, at whatever scale, there is more than one thing going on.

I’ll use myself as an example. Both of these stories about me are true to my experience:

Story 1: In high school, I lived in the coolest little hippie town in America, surrounded by an academic, artistic, and diverse community. I was popular, confident, and involved in all kinds of extra-curricular activities. I loved my friends, and felt like I could truly be myself around them. I learned a ton in those four years, and I’ve never lived anywhere like it since.

Story 2: In high school, I lived in the most boring little town in America, surrounded by corn fields and pig farms. I was deeply closeted and keeping it a secret, not just from everyone around me, but also from myself. There was still so much I didn’t know. In fact, all I really knew was that I couldn’t wait to get out of Yellow Springs, Ohio.

STEP TWO

Now look for the continuity between those two sides of the story. Bateson poses this as a sociological question, but I’ve borrowed it with my storyteller’s hat on. What is it about your character (or yourself) that unites those seemingly conflicting truths?

Working off my own example, I’d say that the continuity for me was in two things: SMALL TOWN LIFE and SURVIVAL. Which is to say, yes, I grew up in a really cool little town, and yes, it was still (for me) the absolute middle of nowhere. Also, while one part of me thrived in high school, that was only possible because I was also keeping another part of myself hidden from the world.

STEP THREE

Write a scene that captures some of this duality. How might the contradiction manifest? And how might the continuity? Maybe it’s a scene you can use in your finished story. Or maybe it simply helps inform your overall writing process. Either way, I hope it might be useful for some of you.

ADDITIONAL FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Some questions to consider if you’re feeling stuck:

What is/are your character’s internal conflict(s)?

Are there competing stakes in your story? Two things the character wants, but can’t have both? If not, would that improve the story?

What is/are your character’s shadow trait(s)?

Where at the beginning of your story is the person your character will (or might) become? Can you show the potential for that change? (And do you want to?)

How is your character the same (and changed) at the end of the story?

Feel free to share a bit of what you wrote today in the comments if you’d like!

July 27, 2018July 27, 2018

Teachers Write 7.27.18 Friday Mini-Lesson with Linda Urban

Good morning! It’s the end of the week, and that means you can stop by Friday Feedback to get help with a work in progress. It also means another great mini-lesson, and today’s guest author is Linda Urban!

Linda writes picture books, chapter books, and middle grade novels. Her titles include A Crooked Kind of Perfect, Hound Dog True, The Center of Everything, Milo Speck Accidental Agent, Mouse Was Mad, Little Red Henry, Mabel and Sam at Home, Weekends with Max and His Dad, and Road Trip with Max and His Mom. Her books have appeared on more than 25 state reading lists, as well as best books lists from The New York Public Library, Kirkus, the National Council of Teachers of English, and IndieNext. Linda has a BA in Journalism and an MA in English from Wayne State University in Detroit and pursued further graduate study in Film and Television Critical Studies at UCLA. For ten years, she served as marketing director at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, California.

Linda’s joining us today to talk about notebooks!

One of the most important things I’ve ever written is this:

Like so many people who love to read and aspire to write, I had been gifted dozens of beautiful notebooks over the years. Hardcover, softcover, leather bound, handmade. I’d purchased at least as many for myself. And I almost never wrote in them. I was so afraid of making a mistake, or saying something inane, or making any mark I thought might be unworthy of the paper I was writing on.

The notebook page you see above was one such journal. Hardcover. Thick paper. Bright white. I loved it and knew instantly that THIS would be the journal of all journals – a document of our family’s holiday traditions, the sort of thing that my children would find upon my death and sue each other for custody of, it was so poignant and lyrical and full of meaning. On the first page, I hoped to begin with something simple. A Christmas shopping list. For my husband’s first gift, I intended to purchase a Southern treat I knew he’d love. These special, mail-order only grits from a company called Hoppinjohn’s. Do you see what I wrote instead? Yes. Papa Johns.

So long perfect notebook!

Or maybe, hello perfect notebook.

Because for the first time ever, I crossed out my mistake and kept writing. The burden of heirloom writing had been lifted and now I could write ANYTHING!

In an instant, my notebook went from being a performance space, with the expectation of perfection and a someday-audience, to a practice space where experimentation, play, and messes were not only okay, but expected.

And it has made a huge difference in my work. My notebooks are full of observations, experimentations, doodles and drafts. Jumbled amongst the writerly stuff are to do lists, drawings by my kids, theater programs, and recipes. And while that might sometimes make a particular item a tiny bit more challenging to retrieve a few weeks later, most of the time it prevents me from feeling too precious about things.

This is a page of observations from a trip to the dentist’s office. While I have not written a novel set in a waiting room, I can’t say it won’t happen. And the practice of observing small details has most definitely come in handy.

This is a notebook page I made during a revision of Milo Speck, Accidental Agent. I was working out the relative size of our hero, Milo, to the beings and features of Ogregon. These doodles didn’t just help with revising what was already in the manuscript, it sparked inspiration for an entirely new scene.

This is a brainstormed list of participants one might find in a small town parade, like the Bunning Day Parade that structures so much of The Center of Everything. You see I’m also working out some of the book’s themes and character choices as well.

Since messing around with my own notebook, I’ve grown more and more interested in the ways that other creative people use notebooks and if you’re similarly intrigued, I highly recommend you take a look at Syllabus by cartoonist and University of Wisconsin Prof Lynda Barry (whose Tumblr is a must-follow). Also eye-opening, the notebook Frances Ford Coppola kept while working on The Godfather (scroll down to see the actual pages. That is annotation!), and this great collection of notebook pages from JK Rowling, Kurt Cobain, and Sylvia Plath, whose sketches of the furniture at Yaddo are both delightfully wonky and a model for keen observation.

Your Assignment: More important than studying other people’s notebooks, however, is to get busy getting messy in your own. So, my prompts for you today are twofold.

If you have a nice notebook that you haven’t been using, take it out now. Open randomly to any page. Make a mess.

I KNOW IT IS HARD!
You’re expecting someone to scold you. Or you want to scold yourself.
Ask yourself why that is.
What principle or belief is at work?
Now set a timer and for five minutes, write about why you hold that belief. Where did it come from? What purpose does it serve? Is it empowering you – or holding you back?
Does that belief in any way inform your internal editor?

Find another page. If you like, you can turn to the front of your notebook, but if you’re feeling really rebellious after exercise one, let randomization be your guide.

Set your timer for ten minutes and observe the space you’re in. You don’t need to write in complete sentences – in fact, it might be better if you don’t. Take time to notice. What do you hear? What sounds are closest to you? What sounds are furthest away? What sound is missing? How about touch? What temperature is it? How humid? Are you sitting? Standing? What surfaces are you making contact with? What do you see? What is just out of sight?

Turn the page. Now consider a setting from your work in progress. A protagonist’s bedroom. That awkward Thanksgiving dinner at the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. The dragon-tamer’s office. Whatever. Now set your timer for 10 minutes and do the same sort of observing. Doodle, draw, write, draw lines and arrows.

Now set your timer for another 10 minutes and write a moment where your protagonist enters this space. Let her observe. Notice how her emotions, her agenda, her experience shape her observations. Don’t worry if what you write has little to do with your story-in-progress. This is notebook work. You’re not performing for a reader. You’re practicing. Get messy.

katemessner Follow

NYT bestselling author of 60+ books. Educator. Speaker. Adirondack 46er. Passionately curious. Find me on Bluesky now: https://t.co/9gUOBmESnM

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Amanda Hunt she/her  🔜 #FETC25 @thenextgenlib ·

28 Nov

The 1st in the #MG #nonfiction series by @KateMessner that highlights the TRUTH about the Mayflower, #IndigenousPeoples & #Thanksgiving. https://amzn.to/4g2HqCp #librarytwitter #booktwitter #bookeecommendation #nonfictionnovember #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #librarians

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Bethe Marie Lehman @bethebooks ·

30 Nov

Thinking the area seems familiar, author note confirms my suspicions. The book is about @CorkscrewSwamp - I was there last month! The creators always do an outstanding job with all the ecosystems they highlight. @KateMessner @csneal @DISD_Libraries #NFfriday #bookaday

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Bonnie Grover @bvgrover ·

1 Dec

Finn has to figure out how to work thru his anger and grief and what better way to do that than climbing 46 peaks in the Adirondacks. This novel in verse is a 5⭐️ read and I cannot wait to share it with my students and friends. #bookposse @KateMessner @bloomsburykids @NetGalley

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Susan Heller @suehellerjp ·

26 Nov

#ppspdspot @jp_library

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katemessner @katemessner ·

25 Nov

Teachers & librarians! I'm not really using this platform anymore but want to let you know about a free virtual author visit opportunity for this school year! Find & follow me here for details & please let your friends know! https://bsky.app/profile/katemessner.bsky.social/post/3lbs2q3bddc2i

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Zoom with an Author or Illustrator for World Read Aloud Day 2025!

Hello, friends! Are you ready for World Read Aloud Day? It’s an annual celebration of sharing stories from the amazing folks at LitWorld and Scholastic. This year’s World Read Aloud Day will be February 5, 2025!If you’re new to this page, I’m Kate Messner, author of more than sixty books for kids. I’m ...

Announcing a FREE Virtual Author-in-Residence Program for this school year!

My next novel comes out this spring, and I'm celebrating with an amazing offer for schools and libraries – a free virtual Author-in-Residence program! Just pre-order a copy of The Trouble with Heroes from my local independent bookseller, The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, NY and you’ll get an email ...

The Scariest Kitten in the World Coloring Pages

Reading THE SCARIEST KITTEN IN THE WORLD with your kiddos? Here are two coloring pages you can share with them, too! The Scariest Kitten in the World Coloring PageDraw your own "Scariest Kitten"

Teachers Write 2024 - Week 4: Back to the Drawing Board

Hello, friends! How goes your writing this week? It’s hard to believe that we’re already in our final week of Teachers Write. Before we get started with today’s mini-lessons, I want to say thank you. I’m so grateful you chose to spend part of your summer writing with us, and ...

Teachers Write, Week 3 - Word by Word: Fine Tuning Language As You Revise

Welcome to Week 3 of Teachers Write! In last week's camper survey, many of you shared that you're working on picture books and/or poetry, both forms that depend on economy of language, where every word truly counts. So this week, we're going to take a look at fine tuning. My ...

For Booksellers: The Ranger in Time Window Contest!

For Teachers & Librarians: Win a Class Set of RANGER IN TIME: DISASTER ON THE TITANIC!

For Ranger in Time Readers: A Ranger in Time Art Contest!

And finally, for everyone…

WORLD READ ALOUD DAY IS FEBRUARY 1, 2019

World Read Aloud Day – Skyping Author Volunteers for February 1,2019

Three Steps to Character Dimension: Internal Conflict, Contradiction, and Shadow Traits

Three Steps to Character Dimension:
Internal Conflict, Contradiction, and Shadow Traits