Willow Born Audio Teaser
Hello! So, I love audiobooks. They are fantastic to me because I get to listen to them while I'm doing other things at school or at home. Audible.com is really the only reason I'm able to stay...
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#PitchTunes
Now, while I will admit I need quiet to really focus, I do enjoy a dance break every now and then and there is one album that I have on repeat while I think of tiny edits here and there. That album...
View ArticleQuerying While Black (QWB)
I am guilty of querying while Black. I can't help it. It's the way I'm made. I write books with main characters of color who have friends of all backgrounds and come from a community of people with...
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Book Clubbing
I have a book club full of girls and one brave guy who love books, the problem is that they can never agree on what book they'd like to read so what we've done is implement the Blind Date.Blind Dates...
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#PitchWars Team Orca
Woot! Woot! I'm an alternate on Team Orca in the 2013 Pitch Wars. A huge thanks must go out to Brenda Drake, the organizer and my mentor Stacey Lee. Pitch Wars is a huge undertaking and they have been...
View ArticleLizzie Bright as the Magical Negro and other Travesties
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt is a beloved book across the nation, filling the shelves of public and school libraries in every state. It's won multiple awards and has been...
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A Blerd Teen's Stocking Stuffer (Last minute!)
So, you know a girl who's a reader and you don't know what to get her. Sure there are a ton of lists out there of top ten this and top twenty that, but most likely there aren't going to be too many...
View ArticleGetting to Know You...(Character Development)
There are whole shelves dedicated to character development at the bookstore and library, but there is no better way to get inside your character's head than to spend time with them. Some people like to...
View ArticleWriting Resolutions: I Resolve To....
Every year brings a new opportunity to reset, reassess and revitalize your life. I'm one of those people who love New Year's Resolutions. I like to look back and see what I can do better and then do...
View ArticleYA with Black Female Protagonists
Check out this fantastic convo we had on twitter where I got some great recommendations for YA with Black Female Protagonists.[View the story "YA with Black Female Protagonists" on Storify]
View ArticleLibrarians as Advocates
As a librarian I have the unique responsibility and pleasure of creating the universe. Arrogant? I don't think so. I create the universe because I curate the library. I pick the books that students...
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How to Shave 10K from your MS in no time!
So, if you're like me, you like really fat, juicy, wordy books. Unfortunately, that can be intimidating for some YA readers and those big, fat books are hard to sell. Maybe you've been told to "hurry...
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Southern Spaces
When we first learn to analyze passages, and this is as early as first grade, we learn to pay attention to setting. Where are we? What do we see when we look around? All of that matters, but it is...
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The Case for Black Characters
Whenever I approach a publisher or distributor about my desire to stock my high school shelves with Young Adult books with characters of color the response is easy to predict:"There just aren't that...
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Fantasy Fail: Slavery is Boring
Dear Fantasy Writer,In a world that you've created completely from the clay of your own mind, where dragons fly and magic prevails, where dwarves dwell and giants rule, why oh why are there still...
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The Planning Period: Librarians as Educators, Charter Schools, and 'Hood Love
The Planning Period with Jovan Miles | Listen via Stitcher Radio On Demand via kwoutMake sure you check out my interview with Mr. Jovan Miles on The Planning Period as we discuss the pros and cons of...
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The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson : What Awesomesauce is made of
Feminist, sci-fi, queer friendly, post-apocalyptic, Portuguese, afro-Latino revolution music. That's what The Summer Prince is. It is what you've always wanted to be printed, what you've been waiting...
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Girls Like Us by Gail Giles (Review)
Gail Giles weaves a tale as rich and thick as triple-chocolate cake. We all know that some people think diversity is just double-speak for Black, but in Girls Like Us we get to know girls who are...
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Next : D'Bow's High School Hoops by Kevin Waltman (Review)
I will admit that sports books are outside of my comfort zone. I'm a vampire and alternate reality type of girl, but I will say that Waltman's Next: D'Bow's High School Hoops drew me in with great...
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