Interview with Illustrator, Emmeline Hall

On Tuesday I sat down with my friend,  Emmeline Hall, to interview her because her first book came out this month.

The book, Voices Across the Lakes by Anita Pinson is a collection of folk songs about the Great Lakes with stories to accompany them. Music for each song is in the book and readers can go to the website to listen to the songs as well.

Here is a link to Emmeline's Illustration page on Facebook as well as the book's page on Facebook.  Like her page then come back. Don't worry, we'll wait.
Emmeline's Illustration Page on Facebook

Voices Across the Lakes Facebook page



When did you know you wanted to be a children's book illustrator?
"I always liked to draw. I have a theater, costume design degree, even while working on this I kept thinking I'd like to be an illustrator."  "I had a lot of false starts but I kept at it"

You won the Minnesota SCBWI 2011-12 Illustrator Mentorship Award, how did that help your career?
"It was huge. This book wouldn't be here. David Geister mentioned me to the editor otherwise I never would have been introduced to her."
She does remind people that seeing a book published is not part of the award "Every experience with the mentorship is different. My goal was getting my name out there and getting my first book published. I was a success." Her other goals for the award include building and online presence and building her portfolio.

Do authors need to find their own illustrators?
"So many people tell me they are writing a children's book when they find out I'm an illustrator."
"The editor and/or art director make the match between author and illustrator. It's handed to you, like an assignment. If you're a writer don't worry about finding and illustrator. They(editors) have a vision for the book, trust that their vision is right."

What is your illustrating work day like?
Emmeline is a busy mom to four girls. She also works full time at a theater so no day is typical.

"I start with emailing, the business side of things. I have a calendar and a running to do list. I have a couple things going at once. I'm working on writing my own picture book. I'm working on a picture book dummy with my mom."
"I have a lot of lines in the water, you can't just focus on one thing, you have to have a lot of things going at once."

Art Cabinet-photo by Emmeline Hall

Art Cabinet- photo by Emmeline Hall

   Tools of the trade- photos by Emmeline Hall

With a full house her artwork day ends at 3 when the kids get home from school although sometimes she is able to go back to a project after the kids are in bed.

Since she has a full house she does most of her work at the kitchen table, keeping her supplies in an art cabinet. When she's drawing or sketching at the table she wears a Drawing Hat. When she's wearing the drawing hat the kids know she is working.

The Drawing Hat-photo by Emmeline Hall

"My youngest now wears a drawing hat when she's drawing."

"They are all into books and illustrating books, cartoons, or journals. It's really a family thing. They are all working on a book."

What is your favorite part of the process?
"I love researching. It's easy to do too much so you have to know when to stop."

While researching the song Follow the Drinking Gourd she learned about Quilt Code. Much like songs this was used by escaping slaves on the underground railroad.  "Each symbol means something like safe place, or water nearby."

Quilt code spot art

Spot art sketches- photo and art by Emmeline Hall

Advice to writers and illustrators who are just starting out.
"Meet as many people as you can who are doing the same thing and who have the same goal."
"Learn how the industry works so you don't waste time submitting the wrong thing to the wrong place."

"Spend as much time looking at children's books as you can!  Study how the artwork and text play off of each other in the layout.  When creating art for books you need to be mindful of details that you wouldn't need to in fine art, such as leaving blank space for text and avoiding the 'gutter' (the seam in the middle of the book where the pages are bound---details get lost here!)."

Are there revisions in illustrations?
"There are changes with the process. You go into it knowing you'll have to do several versions before the final. But sometimes it's hard not to get emotionally attached."

Below are samples of sketches side by side with their finished product. All art and photos from Emmeline Hall.

Art and photo by Emmeline Hall

Art and photo by Emmeline Hall

Art and photo by Emmeline Hall

art and photo by Emmeline Hall

Photo by Emmeline Hall
"I realized that my bible is still labeled with our working title, 'Voices of the Great Lakes.'. The published title is 'Voices Across the Lakes.'. A great example of just how much can change during the creation of a book!"

Favorite Illustrators: Trina Schart Hyman, Edward Gorey, Quentin Blake

Illustrating music: Classical Christmas music in the early stages, Rap near the end of the project

To learn more about Emmeline follow her illustrator page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emmeline-Hall-Illustration/461741530552165?fref=ts

To lean more about the book Voices Across the Lake including information on buying the book visit the books website here.

RTW- In love with writing

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

This Week's Topic is: It's (the day before) Valentine's Day! Let's jumpstart the lovefest by blogging about what you love most about writing (and/or reading)!

The thing I love most about writing is the chance to tell a story. I love making myself smile, laugh, or cry with the stories I'm writing. I love getting to know a character and seeing what adventures they will go on when I sit down to write that day. 

Fat Tuesday Musings

Happy Mardi Gras!

I'm not an overly religious person. I consider myself Catholic but I don't agree with the Pope on lots of things. I don't regularly attend Mass because I work on Sundays. I don't always give up something for Lent.

This year however I feel compelled to give up Facebook for Lent. So starting tomorrow until Easter there will be no Facebook for me.

I confess that I'm actually looking forward to it. As a single person who works in the evenings I probably spend more time on Facebook than say a person who works a 9-5 job or a busy mom, although some of my mom friends are on FB a lot.

But I wonder if the time I spend on Facebook isn't one of the biggest hurdles to my writing success. I mean how many times have I logged on only to lose a half hour or an hour of time?

I didn't attend the Winter SCBWI conference in New York City but I followed the hashtag on twitter. I wish I had thought to save the tweet but there was a quote about getting off Facebook and writing more so maybe that is what sparked the idea of this or me.

I'm really excited for what this could mean for my writing. I have a couple projects that I really, really like. I'm excited to work on them. I think they have legs. I'm looking forward to the time I'll be able to spend on them during my Facebreak.

I think it's hard for aspiring writers. We all hear that we need to have some sort of social media presence  but at the same time we know that time spent on these things can be one of the biggest thieves of our writing time.

I'm not giving up all social media.  I'll still use Twitter, I don't spend nearly as much time on Twitter as I do on Facebook. I'll still blog, instagram, pinterest, and use goodreads.

I'm interviewing an illustrator friend today and I'll post the interview on Friday so be sure to come back on Friday and check it out.


How do you balance Facebook and other social media in your life and writing?

RTW- Best book of January

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. 

This Week's Topic is: What's the best book you read in January?

The end of the holidays and the really cold weather meant that I read a lot of books in January.

My favorite was Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. I had it on my kindle forever but hadn't read it because I just wasn't ready for another dystopia YA book but then I started reading it and omg people I could not put it down. I actually forgot to plug in my Kindle and ran out of battery in the middle of a really intense part and I was seriously panicking.

 

I also loved The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. It's been sitting on my shelf for a couple years. I started reading it and I was seriously thinking "Why did I wait so long to read this? That was obviously a mistake." Don't make the same mistake I did if you haven't read this one you should probably read it. 

What was your best book of January?

RTW- Road tripping!

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

This Week's Topic is: In celebration of the release of Kristin Halbrook's NOBODY BUT US (hooray!!) we're asking: Zoe and Will set off on the road to seek a better life and encounter loads of drama on the way. What's the most dramatic road trip you've ever been on?

Since I had a car in college this opened the world of road trip possibilities to me. One of my more fun experiences was taking my best friend to Minneapolis. Seeing the city skyline for the first time a part of me knew that this would be home. But the most memorable trip was when I took my roommate, Val, to Chicago. Val was flying out of O'Hare for a year long study abroad program in Ireland.

Val, Eric, and I drove to Chicago. Val and Eric were both from Colorado while I was from Iowa and had actually been to Chicago. I also had a car. I'd been to Chicago before, spending two weeks there with a group of kids from church in high school. I'd also driven past Chicago on my way to visit my dad in Michigan.


We might have watched Adventures in Babysitting or at least talked about the movie in anticipation of this trip. I know that by the end of the evening we were all hoping that Thor, mighty god of thunder, would offer us some guidance.

We hadn't made hotel reservations figuring we would just find something when we got there. The only flaw in our plan, we discovered when we finally arrived in Chicago, was that you needed to be 21 to get a room at a hotel. OK, really?!?! We were all adults, we had all been able to vote, and do other things you need to be 18 to do for at least two years but we couldn't get a hotel room. One of us was traveling overseas and yet still we were unable to talk anyone at three hotels to rent us a room.

This was before wifi, GPS, and cell phones. So even if one of us had called our parents it was unlikely that they could have solved the problem for us with the speed and efficiency that today's internet is capable of. There 

We thought we would get to the city, get a hotel room, and maybe go out and hang out in the city. This is not what happened.

At some point in time we ended up getting off the freeway and driving through what we were fairly sure was not the best area of town. But it could have just been that it was a weekend and a bigger city than we were used to.

We managed to get back on the freeway headed in the right direction for O'Hare and on our way we saw a sign for a motel. 

It was still pretty close to the "bad area of town" detour we had previously taken. It wasn't one of the chain hotels so we thought maybe we had a chance at getting a room.

The place was called The Eden Motel and we were all fairly convinced that it probably wouldn't exist if we ever tried to find it again. The manager let us rent a room which was great because by this time it was pretty late and we were all pretty tired and crabby by this point. The room we rented was a little on the scary side. I used to have photographic evidence but the door to the room looked like it had seen better days, the carpet was stained with something we were fairly sure was bloom. The shower looked like you might leave dirtier than you started and the seat on the toilet was broken.

I tried to google the name of the hotel and while a historical photo from the 1950's shows up the other thing I've learned is that there is a high end grocery store there now.



We were cautious about the room but thankful that at least we had a room and didn't have to spend the night sleeping in the car. None of us dared to sleep under the blankets convinced that would be awful. The next day we took Val to O'Hare. Val began a year long adventure in Ireland and Eric and I returned to another year of college in Iowa.

Staying on course

Every January I have at least a week off from work and sometimes two. A couple years ago the theater I worked at realized that it was more profitable to put something funny on the stage opposite Christmas Carol so this year I spent the holiday season working on Servant of Two Masters. It was such a fun experience. There's just something about hearing laughter every day that is well, refreshing, uplifting, fun.

I'm off for two weeks until my next show starts. My cat was so generous and got me a lovely vet bill for my birthday earlier this month which means instead of sitting on a beach in Florida with my mom I'm having a little staycation in Minnesota, in the dead of winter. I'm not even sure it's acceptable to go outside right not. 

Sometimes I think pre-published writers dream of the day when we'll be successful enough at our craft that we'll be able to devote all of our time for writing. To be honest, I don't actually dream of this. Having my job to go to keeps me on task during the day. Sometimes I come home from work and write but more often than not I write during the day, before work. I feel like I have a job that fits me and I have energy, inspiration, and time left over to write. 

The January break for me is always weird and completely non-productive. On previous breaks in January I have been known to watch entire series of TV shows. There was the year I watched Lost. That was before instant streaming and one day the previous renter hadn't returned the DVD's on time. I made the video store owner call them and remind them to return their DVDs like now because I was there to rent them. 

Last year I had bronchitis during January so I had a perfectly good excuse for watching an entire series on Netflix.

Also my brother came to visit me last year during my break last year. 

This year, no excuses. This year I have set a goal that I need to write more than I watch TV during this Staycation. I have told my writing partner that if I come to her in two weeks talking about Tim Riggins or any other TV show in a way that seems to indicate I've watched more than one episode in a day she will have to stand next to me while I cancel my Netflix account.

So far so good. Yesterday I wrote, I read, and I didn't turn on my TV until around 8:30 and I only watched one episode of one show. 

Also during this staycation- Artistic Enrichment.  Today I go see the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the MIA. This weekend possibly Aida at the Pantages Theater and next week Doubt at the Minnesota Opera and Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Guthrie Theater.

image from http://www.mnopera.org/

image from http://www.guthrietheater.org/plays_events/plays/long_day’s_journey_night

Also there will be bowling, ice skating, volunteering, football, and Puppy Bowl. And writing. I hope there will be lots of writing. 

What are your tricks to stay on task for writing when your schedule changes? Do you use time off from work or staycations to power through big writing projects? 

Breakfast of Champions

I'm not going to lie. I would give up all the other meals in exchange for breakfast.

Not a cereal or frozen waffle breakfast either. I'm talking eggs, potatoes, maybe some other vegetables and bacon or some other meat but usually I mean bacon.

Thankfully my brother gave me these wonderful knives for Christmas so I've been getting in the habit of making myself some glorious breakfast at least once a week. My current favorite has been frittata. I swear if one can be obsessed with frittata I am.


I don't think I even realized how horrible my old knives were until I started cutting my veggies with the knives of awesome.

So I've been on a cooking kick making soup, chili, and anything else I can think to make with these knives.




My writing goals for the year are off to a good start. I'm signed up for the 12x12 in '13 challenge and have a couple longer projects that I'm excited about working on.

RTW- Dream Bookstore

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

This Week's Topic is: Imagine you get to open your own bookstore. What would it look like? What kinds of books would you sell?

One of my secret, if I ever win the lottery and become independently wealthy, dreams is to own a bookstore so I love this question.

I would love to have a bookstore that sells everything. I want olde-timey floor to ceiling bookshelves with ladders to reach the top shelves like in Beauty and the Beast.

I want every nook and cranny filled with books. 

Source: designlovefest.com via Carrie on Pinterest

I'd want my bookstore to feel magical and mysterious when you walk in. I want people to know that they are buying something magical.

Source: the-undone-and-the-divine.tumblr.com via Carrie on Pinterest

I would definitely have cats working there and maybe a dog. 

I would probably take a mix of all my favorite bookstores from real life and movies and combine it into my own bookstore. 

I would love to sell everything but I know that I would probably pay special attention to Children's and YA since that is what I want to write. 

What about you? What is your dream bookstore?

RTW- Best book of December

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

This Week's Topic is: What was the best book you read in December?

December was a good month for reading for me. I was working on completing a Lazyman Triathlon from Thanksgiving to New Years. So that's basically 2.5 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26.2 miles of run, walk, or elliptical. So yeah, I had a lot of time to read on the stationary bike and the elliptical.

I read Everyday by David Levithan, Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Leviathan and Rachel Cohn (This is one of my favorite holiday reads of all time, ever).

My favorite book was 

Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill.

This is a wonderfully written book and I love how real and brave Violet is. 

What was your favorite December read? 

New Year Goals

2013 starts tomorrow and it's easy to look back at 2012 measure success or failure based on resolutions made last year.

For me I didn't achieve the big goal, Have a book published, but thanks to some goal setting I accomplished a lot in 2012. At the end of the year I feel like I have a quite a bit to show for my year in writing.

1. Manuscripts. Thanks to the 12x12 in '12 I've completed 12 picture book drafts this year. Some are winners and some aren't but I have to say I'm proud all of them and proud of how I've grown as a writer because of this challenge. If you are looking for a way to challenge yourself and take the next step in your writing consider signing up.

2. Daily writing practice. OK when you're writing and you want to be published and you get stuck in a project sometimes it can be hard to remember your daily writing practice. This year I had a busy year at work but I remembered a time when I wrote daily and in returning to my daily writing practice I was able to rediscover the joy of writing.

3. New WIPs. I've been writing and revising the same project for the last three years. I know, I'm slow. I finished a big revision with major changes earlier this year. I'm not sure the future of this work but I finally allowed myself to work on a couple new ideas. Working on these new ideas has been fun and by slowly working on them I feel like I have a good start on both of them. I'm not sure if the future of the WIP I'd been working on for a so long but it feels good to make progress on some new ideas.

So, while I didn't achieve the big goal of publishing a book I feel like I've defiantly laid some good writing groundwork. I've learned that smaller goals and challenges are a wonderful way to make goals happen. Write daily, small goals, little milestones.

For 2013 I hope to continue along this writing journey. I hope to continue to lay the groundwork towards publication with things like monthly picture book drafts, daily writing practice, and continued work on my WIPs.

What are your goals for 2013?

Wishing you all the best in the new year.

RTW- How many books do I read in a year?

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

This Week's Topic is: About how many books do you read in a year? Do you want to read more? Or, less?

Years ago I started keeping track of the number of books I read in a year, mostly because other people wanted to know how many books I read in a year. What I really wanted was an answer to this questions. 

The answer is 52 books a year. That's a book a week. Of course there are books that take less than a week and books that take longer. Some years I've read more, last year I read 60 books and I thought that I could do that again but this year it looks like I'm on schedule to read 50. 

Although I miss the days of keeping a list of these books all in the back of my journal I really love Goodreads as a way to keep track of what I'm reading and connect with friends about what I'm reading. 

How many books do you read in a year? Do you like sites like Goodreads to keep track of what you are reading?

RTW- Revising, or am I doing this right?

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

This Week's Topic is: For many, December is a post-NaNoWriMo revision haze! How do you approach editing/revising? Any tips or tricks or resources you can share?


I didn't win NaNoWriMo this year but I got a good start and I wrote more than I might have written if I hadn't been doing NaNo so thanks to all of you who encouraged me to participate.

My revision process goes a little like this.

1. Finish a readable draft. Send draft to readers. If readers are writer types let readers know what I'm looking for.

2. Re-read draft while readers are re-reading. Write out questions for readers and critique partners.

3. Get feedback from as many readers as possible. Let face it, lots of people might volunteer to read your stuff but not everyone will finish and give feedback. Even if someone only makes it to chapter 4 I want to know that. I usually give a window of time like this- hey I'm going to start working on the next draft so if you have feedback give it now.

4. I like to use this book in my process. Great workbook for creating complex characters.


5. Digest feedback. I try to pay attention to things that come up from more than one person and really try to think about that and address those things. The reading/feedback/digesting feedback time is my time away from that project. I usually work on other things during that time.

6. Start new round of revisions.

Repeat as needed.

It's official, I'm signed up for NaNoWriMo

It's official. I just signed up for NaNoWriMo. I've started adding buddies and now I'm blogging about it so it's really happening.

Even though I've participated and crossed the 50,000 word finish line three previous years I'm a little nervous this year.

But as wise people pointed out, what do I have to lose and making progress is better than making none and the best advice- This could be the year you fall in love with your NaNo novel.

I really, really, really want this one to work out. So I've been plotting. I'm writing ideas for scenes on notecards and some other ideas about character arc and things like that in a notebook.

Even though it is still just an idea I'm walking through Writing the Breakout Novel so I can keep these things in mind as I write.

Good things have happened for me in NaNos past even though I haven't loved the finished products.
My first NaNo I really fell in love with writing again and realized I could write a novel sized thing. I also realized that writing a novel sometimes leads to a picture book idea.

I'm hoping that this is really the year that I love my "finished" product.

Also thank you for the encouraging from RTW a couple weeks ago on this subject.

A Million Yesterdays

This is a non-writing related post. But it is something close to my heart.

Yesterday I cried for three hours.

In Minnesota we have a terrible marriage amendment on the ballot.

I’ve gotten involved with the campaign. It’s easy for me to talk about something I believe in. I’m spending time on the phones for those of my friends who are unable to do so because I want to be able to protect them from experiencing more discrimination in their lives.  Small discrimination from people on the other end of a phone and big discriminations from a state amendment that limits their freedom.

I spoke with a grandmother who had two LGBT grandchildren and who was voting Yes. I encouraged her to talk to her granddaughter and see how she feels about this amendment. The grandmother became angry and refused to talk to her grandchild. It broke my heart to think of a parent or grandparent having the power to protect the rights of their child or grandchild and not protecting those rights. The impact of how hurtful this amendment is hit me so hard that I cried at the office and I am not an overly emotional person. Not an openly crying in front of strangers type person.

Yesterday was the worst day of the campaign for me. But I would rather take a million yesterdays than to have people I care about wake up in a world of hate.

This amendment breaks my heart because if it passes it has the potential to hurt people that I care about. It’s not only my LGBT friends that this hurts. This hurts their families, parents, loved ones. It hurts every person, gay or straight, who has made a phone call, hosted a house party, donated money, or gotten involved to make sure this amendment doesn’t pass.

Calling people I’m surprised at how many people are concerned about changing the “definition” of marriage. As if each and every marriage isn’t different and unique and special. Your marriage and the challenges you face are probably different from your neighbor's marriage. Each couple I know is unique. They each face their own joys and challenges in life but they face them together and with the support of friends and family. LGBT people are no different in this respect.

Voting No doesn’t change the law. Voting No doesn’t change the definition of marriage.  Voting No doesn’t take away religious freedom.

I love Minnesota and it’s hard to think that Minnesota could do something that could make me not love it, but to be honest if this amendment passes I won’t love my state and that thought terrifies me. 

RTW- To NaNo or not to NaNo, That is the Question

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.



This Week's Topic is: Are you doing NaNoWriMo, or have you ever? Does having a deadline inspire you?

I've participated in NaNoWriMo three times and I love the energy of having a deadline. I love writing with other writers, connecting with other writers. I love that there are write-ins at area coffee shops. 

The thing I don't love is my finished NaNo projects. Yes, I've won NaNo three times but I've never been able to do anything with these convoluted collections of 50,000 words. The pressure of writing 1677 words a day makes me do crazy things. Like inserting song lyrics into my novel. The craziness of NaNo once had me writing a science fiction middle  grade novel even though I have no idea how to write a story that takes place of a space ship because I don't watch a lot of TV that takes place on spaceships.

I'm a slow writer

All that considered I'm still on the fence for this November. I love the energy and the deadline but I so far haven't loved my finished product. 

Anyone else NaNoing? Convincing arguments for either side?

Writing book recommendation

Have you ever had an experience where you read a book or listen to an album and you know that you won't be the same person you were before you listened to or read it?

I feel that way about this book. I'm pretty sure after reading and re-reading this book I won't be the same writer I was before I found it.

I found this book earlier this summer and I've basically been reading it ever since. Sometimes I skip around picking an essay with a title that stirs my interest. Other times I read the shortest essay because that is what I have time for.

The best thing about this book is the excitement Bradbury has for writing. He doesn't spend much time talking about writers block and rejection. He talks about telling stories and how exciting writing is.

It might be hard to find but if you see it at a used bookstore or garage sale or whatever buy a copy.



I've read this book twice since I got it earlier this summer and I'll probably read it again.  Since reading this book I've been more excited to write. I ask myself "Am I approaching the page with as much excitement as Bradbury did?"

Loving Fall

I normally do Road Trip Wednesday on Wednesdays but I am an currently too much in love with fall to talk about anything else. So here's a list of things I love about fall

1. Pumpkin flavored thing. These have no place in August but I've spent the last two days on a search for something pumpkin flavored for my gluten free taste buds.

2. How have I forgotten that fall was so beautiful? Has it always been this pretty or is this fall just especially pretty?

3. Boots. Not snow boots but cowboy boots and frye boots that are really perfectly suited for the fall. Not winter when they get all icky and salty.

4. Sweaters and sweatshirts.

5. Temps in the 50s 60s and low 70s.

6. Last trips of the season to my favorite outdoor eating places like Tin Fish and Sea Salt.

7. Writing. Writing was my port in this busy sea of summer that was the summer of 2012. Excited to see what things I'll write this fall.

8. Theater. We are in full swing with a festival of plays at work. I'm excited for this new season. New stories to tell, new friends to make and old friends to catch up with.

RTW- Best book of September

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

This Week's Topic is: What was the best book you read in September?

The best book I read this month was The Princesses of Iowa by M. Molly Backes.

Even though I have lived in Minnesota for 13 years I grew up in Iowa. I went to high school in Iowa, I went to college in Iowa.

Reading this book was a little like visiting home for me and I seriously had to keep myself from getting in my car and taking a road trip to Iowa.

I felt like some of the characters in the book could have been people I knew. 

It was more than just Iowa me who liked this book Writer me like this book too. The main character, Paige, ends up in a creative writing class. Watching Paige find her voice and become a writer is something writers can relate to.

What was your favorite book of September?

Writing Dreams

Last month this post on Nova Ren Suma's blog got me thinking about one my particular dreams as a writer.

It took me a while to think about but then I realized a specific thing that is part of my writing dream.

My college has an alumni magazine. It contains the typical updates on lives of alumni- jobs, marriages, births, awards, deaths.

In the front of the alumni magazine is a section called "Pusha Da Pen" where books written by alumni are highlighted. A particular part of my writing dream is opening the Courier and seeing a book I've written highlighted in the pages of the alumni magazine.

Fortunately the alumni magazine arrives in my mailbox every quarter so I get to be reminded to this part of my dream every three months.

Have you read the post on Nova Ren Suma's blog? When you dream about writing what is a specific thing you dream about doing or seeing?