Writing Tips & the 69th Kid Lit Blog Hop

Carpinello's Writing Pages is back this Hop with more tips from the Children's, Middle Grade, and Young Adult writers I've interviewed. These are from December 2014 and January 2015. Feel free to leave a tip of your own in the comments.

Write what you know, what you love, and what intrigues you—Heather Fraser Brainerd, author of the MG novel Shadows of New York

Get to know the business before you get too far into your writing career. Know what agents can and can’t do for you. Know the difference between large and small presses. Never sign a contract without knowing what every paragraph means. Be aware that there are good reasons and bad reasons to self-publish. It’s a slow business, so there’s no excuse for being ill-prepared for the journey. Oh, and never forget that writers are the most important links in the publishing chain—R. M. Clark, author of the MG novel The Secret at Haney Field: A Baseball Mystery

It’s a long road, especially writing a first book, but you never finish unless you start. I know everyone says that, but it is so, so true. Pirates & Winged Horses took four years from initiation to publishing!

And then once you start, set yourself goals, but make them realistic. I started with the plan of writing a chapter a week, and that soon fell apart. Once you’ve missed a goal, it's tough to find the motivation continue. So what I did was to set up goals that I knew I could realistically hit, but were strong enough that those kept me moving along.

Also, write for the genre that you most enjoy—you are writing the book for yourself as much as anyone else—and what you like is what you’ll have had the most exposure to and what you’ll be best at—J. B. Pelts, author of the MG novel Robin Pembroke: Pirates & Winged Horses

Read as much as you can, go to conferences and workshops, and get into critique groups. I’d also suggest not just taking a creative writing class, but a literature class as well to see how great novels come together. I think my most helpful writing classes were the many lit classes I took in college—Krysten Lindsay Hager, author of the Tween/Teen novel True Colors

And Now,

Welcome to the 69th Kid Lit Blog Hop. This exciting Hop, now monthly, is where we develop an engaged group of people who love everything that has to do with children's literature.
 

On this Hop, Carpinello's Writing Pages interviews

Children's author Gail Truax

and

YA author Pat McDermott

Remember, you are always more than welcome to join us by popping in a post and hopping around to meet some of your fellow Kid Lit bloggers and authors!

 

Simply make a post and add it to the linky. (Please make sure to add your direct post only) 
Once you are done, then hop around to visit others. Please visit at least the two people above your link. Please leave a comment when you do visit, we all like those.
Also, it would be appreciated if you grab the Kid Lit Blog Hop Badge and display it on your blog and/or your post.

The hostesses will be around to see you. It would be nice if you followed all of them.

Happy Hopping!

Hostesses:

Reading Authors

Cheryl Carpinello, Author / Blogger

BeachBoundBooks

Pragmatic Mom

The Logonauts

Spark and Pook

BLOG HOP:

Meet MG Author R. M. Clark

Carpinello's Writing Pages welcomes R. M.  Clark author of MG mysteries. His reading favorites fit right in with ours!

First, a bit about R. M.:

I am a computer scientist with the Department of Navy and a children’s mystery writer. After graduating from the University of Idaho, I moved from the Gem State to northeastern Alberta to Southern California before settling into a cozy town in Southeastern Massachusetts, where I live today with my wife and two sons.

Why did you pick to write books for middle grade?

My first two books were written for an adult audience, but more than one agent noted that my voice was better suited for the younger crowd (not an insult—just a true observation). From that point on I channeled my inner ‘tween and wrote seven middle grade novels. I guess those agents were right!

What types of books do you like to read?

I mostly read adult thrillers and mysteries by stalwarts like John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and David Baldacci, but I venture into middle grade and some lower YA books to “keep up” with the genres.

When you are not writing, what do you like to do?

As a family, we like to go geocaching (www.geocaching.com), a high tech treasure hunt using a GPS device, which gets us out to many different places on the weekends. As a New Englander, I’m a diehard Red Sox and Patriots fan. Of course, that means a lot of people don’t like me already!


Tell us about The Secret at Haney Field: A Baseball Mystery and how the story came to be.

I spent nineteen years as a baseball coach—from T-ball to American Legion and most levels in between. From my typical place in the third-base coach's box, I imagined a baseball mystery told from the viewpoint of a modern-day bat girl (April) who happens to be a baseball savant. I wanted to include a reference to the Negro Leagues and its players because their history is so important to the game, so I created Flash Henderson, a speedy outfielder from 1941 who befriends April and her best friend, Darren. When they become entangled in a mystery involving the owner of the team, their passion for the game and its history take them (and the reader) on the journey of a lifetime.

Here's a peek at The Secret at Haney Field: A Baseball Mystery:

Twelve-year-old April O'Day's summer has gotten off to a flying start. As the new bat retriever for the Harpoons, her hometown's minor-league team, she's fetching bats and doling out great advice to players and coaches alike. In a word, she's becoming indispensable. But mysterious things are happening at Haney Field, which April and her best friend—and fellow baseball enthusiast—Darren Plummer are determined to uncover. As they quickly learn, this is no ordinary season. In fact, it's a whole new ballgame!






Have you written other books? If so, tell us a bit about them.

I’ve written nine books since I started writing seven years ago. My first one was “practice” and lives forever in the trunk. My next adult work, Center Point, was published last year. My debut middle grade book, Dizzy Miss Lizzie, was published in 2012, but the publisher went AWOL, and I recently got the rights back for it. I have two ready for submission: The Right Hand Rule, a mystery about four science fair winners who use their project knowledge to solve a mystery.  Then there’s The Tick Tock Man, in which a boy, CJ, is thrust into an Alice In Wonderland-type world whose citizens are mostly clock parts and whose job is to keep all the great clocks in town running smoothly. Things get even stranger when CJ uncovers a centuries-old feud between neighboring clock villages. Besides those, I have a few other manuscripts in various stages of readiness.


What’s next for your writing? Are you working on a new story?

I’m always writing (or re-writing) something. My latest manuscript is about Devin, a middle school boy who dreams of being a magician, but he performs badly under pressure. After opening a special magic box from a famous magician, Devin is convinced his brain is occupied by an 19th century kid magician named Ehrich, who just may be the key to Devin’s success and who just happens to be a young Harry Houdini.

What advice do you have for other authors?

Get to know the business before you get too far into your writing career. Know what agents can and can’t do for you. Know the difference between large and small presses. Never sign a contract without knowing what every paragraph means. Be aware that there are good reasons and bad reasons to self-publish. It’s a slow business, so there’s no excuse for being ill-prepared for the journey. Oh, and never forget that writers are the most important links in the publishing chain.


Anything else you want readers to know?

Thanks for having me. This is a wonderful site.


Where can readers find you and your books?

Read more about me and my books at my website, www.rmclarkauthor.com.