YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST- HALF-TRUTHS HAS A HOME!

It's been a long time since I've published a "You Heard It Here First" blog post. 

It's been an even longer time since I first began writing Half-Truths. 

My first blog was in 2007 when I wrote about attending a SCBWI-Carolinas conference and finding my character's voice. Since then, I've written over 100 blog posts about this writing journey. The list includes the books I've read, 

a few of the over 100 people I interviewed, the workshops I took, and some of my major revisions. I applied for several SCBWI WIP grants and queried agents and publishers. Although I never won a contest or received a bite (although a few rejections were encouraging and personal), my vision for my book became clearer. 

One of my special interviewees, Price Davis.
He is standing in front of his childhood home in Cherry, NC.

Ask me how many drafts I've completed and I can't answer. Officially, I have ten drafts in Word and fourteen in Scrivener. Each of these drafts was revised countless times. 

One way of visualizing where scenes would go.

Sixteen years is a long time to be working on one book, but as I soon realized after beginning this task, I didn't know what I didn't know. There were times that I took breaks and worked on other projects too. Each time I returned to the manuscript, I still loved the characters and the plot. 

In the beginning, I had an idea about a white girl (Kate) who moved to the Myers Park neighborhood of Charlotte, NC from a farm in either South Carolina or North Carolina. She would feel like an outsider as she tried to figure out where she belonged in the world of 1950s debutantes. Soon after moving to her grandmother's home, she would meet a Black girl, Lillian. They would have an off-and-on friendship but would eventually bond over finding a remedy for Kate's goat's ringworm. There would be betrayal, the uncovering of long-buried family secrets, and clandestine trips to a funeral home and a cemetery. 

All that has stayed the same. But, so much has changed. 

I wrestled with how to begin the story and rewrote the beginning at least 50 times. I put in the murder of Lillian's brother and then took it out. I gave each girl a boyfriend and then, based on Rebecca Petruck's advice that I was getting too far away from my theme, I took them out. I spent two years writing it from both girls' POVs and then abandoned that idea. I made up a fictional town named Crossroads, NC until my mentor, Joyce Hostetter, convinced me that there was real history in Tabor City, NC that I should use. I changed the names of characters, deleted scenes that I loved, battled confusion and discouragement, and tried to figure out if this was a middle-grade or young adult book.

Until I found Monarch Educational Services in July. 

My Talking Story newsletter partner, Rebecca Wheeler, published her debut YA novel, WHISPERING THROUGH WATER with Monarch in January. She recommended querying the publisher, Jennifer Lowry. Despite being afraid of another rejection, within thirty minutes of sending my query, Jennifer responded that it was stellar. A few minutes later she asked for the full manuscript. That was beyond my craziest dream!

In September Jennifer provided detailed editorial input. One of her first reactions was that she saw Half-Truths as a young adult book and not as middle grade. Monarch is committed to clean reads and provides content ratings for all of their books. Since Half-Truths includes a reference to a sexual encounter between a slave owner and his slave, Jennifer felt strongly that it is a young adult novel. Since I've debated this issue so many times I'm happy to identify it as YA and for this conflict resolution! By the way, I've seen this book as upper middle-grade and expect that it will interest readers from 12 and up. 

Finally, after years of writing, rewriting, planning, and proofreading, I'm thrilled to announce, that Half-Truths will be published in June 2025. 

If you're my Facebook friend, you may have wondered why the picture of Blue Willow china has been my profile picture for all these years. If you want to be one of the first to find out its role in Half-Truths, leave me a comment (including your email address if you think I might not have it) and I'll send you a digital ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) about six months before the book releases. The only qualification is that you post a review on Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or Independent Book Review.  (Amazon won't allow you to post a review until the book's release.)

Thank you for joining me in this publication journey. 

BLUE WILLOW: A Book that Lillie and Kate Read-- Part II and Insight into Revision

 Back in 2014, I posted this:

As some of my faithful blog readers know, my story includes Lillie and Kate uncovering a china cup that belongs to both their families. Over the process of writing Half-Truths, I've played with different china patterns. My friend and writing mentor, Joyce Moyer Hostetter, suggested the popular Blue Willow pattern. When I posted this picture on Facebook, several friends commented about their grandmothers' collections. 

Becky Levine and Joyce chimed in that I really needed to read the book, Blue Willow, which they remembered from their own childhoods. After reading it I realized I'd found a book that both girls would have enjoyed and a story that could provide a rich subtext for Half-Truths.

Winner of the Newbery Honor in 1941, Blue Willow recounts the story of a family shaped by the Great Depression. Ten-year-old Janey Larkin longs for a permanent home for herself and for her most beloved possession, a blue willow china plate that belonged to her great-great-grandmother. Her father is an itinerant farm worker who struggles to support Janey and her stepmother.  When the family moves from one farm to another, the plate goes with them but stays packed away. "…never, Mrs. Larkin had declared long ago, would it be put out as a household ornament until they had a decent home in which to display it. In the meantime, it was kept sadly tucked away, a reminder of happier days before its owners had become wanderers in search of a livelihood." (p. 23)

Because the plate had belonged to Janey's mother, it had become a part of her memories that were mixed up with "Mother Goose rhymes and gay laughter and a home of their own.  And because the willow plate had once been a part of all this, it had seemed actually to become these things to Janey. It was the hub of her universe, a solid rock in the midst of shifting sands." (p.23)

That draft was from both girls' POVs. As I wrote in 2017, I returned to writing from Kate's POV alone.  In the current draft, Blue Willow china is still an important link between the girls. But my young beta readers and Deborah Halverson said that the china did not clearly reveal how the girls were related. If more than one reader has a problem with something in my manuscript--I need to fix it!

So, how to tackle this? I did some brainstorming and side writing. I started a new document and recorded every time I mentioned the china. That helped me to see the gaps where Blue Willow fell off the story radar and where I needed to build more connections between the china and the characters. 

I found several places where I could add internalization and dialogue showing Kate's assumptions and false conclusions. It was like figuring out where the puzzle pieces should fit. By the time I had worked through this brainstorming exercise, Blue Willow had gained more importance in the story. In the end, the girls discover how the china is the clue that solves their ancestry mystery.

This blog took a few hours to write. Inserting more information about the china connection took many more; it is just one of the story threads I am deepening in Half-Truths.

And that my friends, is what re-vision is all about. 

By the way, during a recent visit to Joyce's house, I ate from Blue Willow,

and discovered that the pattern adorns other things besides plates!

Do you have a favorite revision story? Or, maybe you enjoy Blue Willow too. Please share in the comments!

STORIES IN JOYCE'S BACKYARD: A "PICK-YOUR-OWN" GIVEAWAY!

 "This is the house that the Hinkle sisters lived in, and that's the muddy river where Thomas and Jackie fished together." Joyce Hostetter pointed out the car window as we drove around around her hometown, Hickory, NC--the setting for her Bakers Mountain Series. "See that old building? That's the hosiery factory where Junior worked for a few days. Over there is where the car mechanic lived who helped him fix his truck."

The Honeycutt family and their friends, who already had a special place in my heart from reading AIM, BLUE, COMFORT, DRIVE and EQUAL, became even more real as I saw the places where they lived, played, and worked--all within sight of Bakers Mountain. 

Bakers Mountain, photo courtesy Joyce Hostetter

How did Joyce end up writing a series of books that rose up out of what was once a rural community? It all began when Carolyn Yoder, senior editor at Calkins Creek, suggested that Joyce find the story in her own backyard. When Joyce began researching the history of Hickory, NC, she discovered the Miracle of Hickory at her local library.

Mural in downtown Hickory. Do you see Joyce?

She researched, read old papers, interviewed polio patients...and BLUE was born. Read some of Joyce's thoughts on the process of discovering her stories here. 

Part of Joyce's real backyard. Photo courtesy Joyce Hostetter

A few years after BLUE was published, I met Joyce in Birmingham, Alabama at a literacy conference. She was presenting on BLUE, I was presenting on Teaching the Story: Fiction Writing in Grades 4-8.  

We bonded over reading and writing. We co-presented several times and continue to publish a quarterly newsletter, Talking Story. We are critique partners and good friends. 

I felt Joyce's influence when I began brainstorming my own first novel. I rode my bike, walked, and drove through neighborhoods. What could have happened here? Half-Truths incubated. Ideas hatched. A novel slowly took shape. It changed. Got revised (many times!). Was reborn. 

What did Carolyn mean when she gave Joyce that assignment? Possibly she was not only talking about an actual backyard but was also encouraging Joyce to reach inside of her own experiences to find something she could relate to and authentically show in her writing.  

Let's face it. There might not be a compelling story about polio or pre-civil rights tension in your community, city, or state. Or, maybe you write science fiction or fantasy that's not even rooted in this continent or world--let alone in your neighborhood! How are you going to find that "backyard" story?

At the foot of Bakers Mountain and staring at Joyce's budding trees and the grass turning green I thought--my backyard is bigger than the crazy intersecting streets of Myers Park, NC. where my characters live. 

It's my whole life. 

It's writing what I know with a twist. 

It's taking my grief over losing someone I loved and embedding that in Kate, my protagonist's heart when she leaves home. It's realizing how making choices is not always very linear and conveying it on the page; it's understanding how gut-wrenching it is to feel betrayed--or be the betrayer. 

It's mining my life. 

How about you? What have you used in your life--whether it's a place, person, event, or experiences--that has made it's way into your book? 

What is in your own backyard? 

Some backyards are under construction,
like mine is!

GIVEAWAY

For the first time on my blog, one fortunate blog reader will be able to pick which book in the Bakers Mountain Series they want to win! Leave me a comment by May 11 to enter this giveaway and tell me which book you are interested in. U.S. addresses only. Make sure you leave me your full name and email address if you are new to my blog.

Make sure you check out the other great books on Greg Pattridge's MMGM blog! 

Double Interviews with Lisa Kline and Joyce Hostetter and Double Giveaways!

When Lisa Kline asked me if she and Joyce Hostetter could interview each other about their recent books, of course, I said yes! Both authors are North Carolina friends, terrific writers, and have been featured on my blog several times. Without further ado, here they are--interviewing one another!

LISA KLINE's INTERVIEW With JOYCE HOSTETTER

I read and loved Joyce Moyer Hostetter’s historical story Blue, which has become a classic, become required reading for many schools, and has even inspired a play. On her website, she says that she writes about tough topics because she is trying to understand the world’s sorrows. I so admire the way she addresses these tough topics in such an authentic and straightforward way. 

LISA: Jackie Honeycutt, your main character in Equal, is an appealing and earnest young man who wants to do the right thing. Tell me a little about how you developed his character. Was he in any of the previous Baker’s Mountain books? 

JOYCE: Jackie shows up at the end of Comfort but the reader doesn’t know much about him until they read Drive, the 4^th book in the series. As the youngest member of the Honeycutt family, he had to wait his turn to be the main character. Once the series was underway, Equal, the 5^th book was always going to be Jackie’s story.

LISA: You drop Jackie, your fictional hero, into a real protest march in Greensboro in 1960. That must have been a fun scene to write. Tell me a little about that decision.

 JOYCE: Ha! It was a necessary decision but my first draft didn’t include it. Since Jackie doesn’t live in Greensboro, I assumed he’d be reporting on the movement as seen through the eyes of his activist sister. But, of course, that doesn’t work! The protagonist has to get in on the action. So, I dug a little deeper and found a way to get him to Greensboro at a critical moment in history. In the end, it all worked well and yes, it was fun to write! Because, as you know, conflict creates the story.

LISA: You’ve said this is the final book in the Bakers Mountain series. Many readers will be sad to hear this. What project is next for you? 

JOYCE: I’m writing another North Carolina story set during WWI when several thousand German “enemy aliens” were interned in the small town of Hot Springs. In more ways than one it is a “friendship with the enemy” story. I am so psyched about this and am close to submitting my editor’s requested revisions.  Maybe I’ll blog about that soon at www.joycemoyerhostetter.blogspot.com

 .      

JOYCE HOSTETTER's INTERVIEW WITH LISA KLINE

Filled with dreams of publication, in the early 2000's I attended a writing session on historical fiction. The presenter, Lisa Williams Kline had recently won the NC Juvenile Literature Award for her historical novel, Eleanor Hill.  I soaked up her wisdom and made it my goal to write as well as she did so I could win that award myself one day. Clearly she set me on the right path because I actually did a few years later! I've been writing historical fiction ever since.  (Carol's note: I attended that session and still have my notes--somewhere. That's before Joyce and I knew each other--and before the three of us became friends.)

JOYCE: I loved reading One Week of the Heart and One Week of You! Both were poignant and funny and written with a lively, authentically teen voice. And they made me wonder, how'd she do that? Which of these stories did you conceive of and write first and where did your idea come from?

LISA I wrote One Week of You first. The idea came from two real-life situations. The first was that both of my daughters had to carry “flour babies” as part of their 8th grade health curriculum. Both boys and girls had to carry five pound bags of flour for a week, ostensibly to show them the meaning of having to be responsible for a baby 24/7. I found this curriculum kind of funny, and I thought it would make a funny story to have my main character forgetting her flour baby all the time, ironically because of a romantic relationship she was considering. 

The second real-life event was when there were three bomb threats in one week at my younger daughter’s high school. It was, needless to say, a chaotic and scary and emotional week, and I wanted to write about it. I wondered, could I combine a humorous story line with a serious one? I decided to try that challenge, and One Week of You was the result. 

After One Week of You came out, my publishers asked me if they could have more of Lizzy, the main character, which really made me feel good, of course! They wanted possibly a series, but said a novella would work also. And so I decided to write One Week of the Heart, a novella, which is actually a prequel to One Week of You. Getting back into Lizzy’s flaky character was a delight. 

JOYCE: Did you know, at the outset, that the whole story would take place in one week? What challenges are involved in fully plotting a story that takes place in a week? 

LISA: I did know that the story would take place in one week, because the students had to carry the flour babies for a week, and the bomb threats also took place in one week. And, of course, many teen-age romances last about a week, haha! I like using compressed time periods for my novels. It can keep the tension high, your reader doesn’t have to wait months or years for a resolution, and you still have freedom to explore the past through flashbacks. 

JOYCE: I always wanted to write funny and you do it so naturally. Got any tips for me and others who want to tickle the reader’s funny bone?

LISA: That’s a very nice compliment, thank you! I think the concept of the flour babies is inherently funny, so I had that going for me in this book. I found the irony of Lizzy repeatedly losing her flour baby because of her crush –the very thing the flour baby was supposed to be training her to guard against– to be funny. Also, Lizzy is a very flawed main character – she is forgetful, she is susceptible to flattery, she is overly competitive – and I think flawed characters can lend themselves well to comedy. Some things that I write just come out funny, and I have no idea how it works. I tried studying humor once – I read articles by really hilariously brilliant writers like Tobin Anderson – but found that being analytical about it didn’t work for me. When I try to make something funny it never seems to work. I’ve written several serious novels, but have seemed to have more luck with the ones that just turned out to be humorous. 

Learn some fun tidbits about Lisa at her Website's About Page.  

GIVEAWAY

Joyce, Lisa, and I are giving away a copy of Equal and a copy of One Week of You. In your comment, please let me know if you have a preference. U.S. address only; winner will be selected by 6 PM on November 10. If you share this on social media or join my blog, I'll put your name in twice. Make sure you leave your name and email address if you are new to my blog! I can't enter you in the giveaway without it.

Congratulations to Carrie Schmidt who won Code Breaker, Spy Hunter from last week's blog. 

EQUAL by Joyce Moyer Hostetter: A Review, An Autographed Giveaway, and a Bonus Giveaway!

Congratulations to Danielle Hammelef who won THE SUMMER OF THE TREE ARMY from last week's blog.

                                                        ****

Some people read a book which they really like and rush through it to get to the end. Not me. When I find a book that I love, I stretch it out. I don't want the story to end.

That was doubly true for Joyce Moyer Hostetter's last book in the Bakers Mountain Stories series-- EQUAL (Calkins Creek: 2021). How is it possible that there won't be another story about the Honeycutt family? I'm sorry to say to all her fans--there won't be. 😞 I even knew how the book would turn out AND I still cried at the beautifully crafted ending. But, I'm getting ahead of myself...

REVIEW

                                PROLOGUE

When I went to the river that day in 1959,

I didn't expect to meet a colored boy

who loved birds like I love my cow.

I didn't know what all I'd learn from him

or that a mean old drunk would come along

and force me to see myself as I never had before.

I didn't realize I was face to face with a muddy wide river.

I didn't think when I went into eighth grade

that a teacher would name my strengths

and inspire me to be even stronger.

I didn't know that I'd learn 

to speak up while measuring my words,

to hold back when I wanted revenge,

or to imagine an enemy as my friend.

                                                                            ******

EQUAL is the story of two boys--one white and one Black--becoming friends despite their differences, hard feelings, and an act of senseless prejudice. But that only scratches the surface. 

EQUAL is also about what it was like to live in a small, rural town in North Carolina in 1960 on the eve of civil rights. Segregation was the norm. As 8th-grader Jackie Honeycutt finds out, the atmosphere of prejudice not only dictates what school and church Jackie attends, but it leaves his new Black acquaintance, Thomas Freeman, and his family in constant fear of potential harm to themselves or their property.  

Mrs. Cunningham, Jackie's teacher, begins the school year by writing Abraham Lincoln's quote on the chalkboard: "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them into my friends?" This question haunts Jackie throughout the book and (as you can tell from the cover) is EQUAL's theme. Jackie wrestles with jealousy towards other kids at the 4-H competition; he struggles with anger towards a classmate who constantly mocks him; and he feels irritated towards the woman who leads the local Home Demonstration club and snubs his mother. But most of all, he has to come to resolve that dilemma with Thomas. It is not until he truly empathizes with Thomas and Thomas's family does he realize how he can answer Lincoln's rhetorical question. 

In the last third of the book Jackie is staring at Bakers Mountain from his front porch and thinks, "One thing I was figuring out was--as long as white people didn't know Negroes personally, we could never understand their viewpoint. Thomas had educated me on things I never even thought about before." (p.206) That is Jackie's moment of truth which leads to actions that surprise him, are character-revealing, and lead to the wonderful conclusion.

I have blogged before about the importance of making secondary characters a vital part of the story; there are many other characters in EQUAL who are strong and well-crafted. Readers will be happy to see Ann Fay get reunited with Imogene, her friend from the polio ward in BLUE and now she and Junior are happily married (finally)! But the other person in EQUAL who I want to mention is Jackie's mother. Her character arc is shown as she goes from being afraid of what her neighbors will think when a Black family spends the night during a snow storm to saying to Jackie, "Your father and I have been wrong. I was wrong for letting Blanche scare me away from doing the right thing. I believed her when she said poeple would think we're communists. And she was always saying integration could bring violence. I was scared, Jackie."

That conversation ends with her encouraging Jackie to invite Thomas over so she can really meet him. Jackie doesn't know it--but his learning to make friends with his enemies--changed not only him--but his parents too.

                                        EPILOGUE

When I went into the new year, 1960,

I didn't expect to be snowed in with a colored family

who deserved freedom as much as I did.

I didn't know what all I'd learn from them

or that a personal enemy would make me care enough

to join their fight.

I still didn't know how to cross that muddy wide river.

When I went to graduation that night

I knew I wasn't happy with my speech.

I didn't know that Maribelle would show up and 

I'd see Thomas in my mind's eye.

I didn't imagine that because of them,

and the two Jackies,

and all the brave people

who sat at lunch counters and marched in the streets,

I'd change my words midsentence

and wade right into that muddy wide river.

But I'm glad I did. 

                                ********

Equal takes place sixty years ago and is equally as relevant today. Read it with your kids, grandkids, and students.  Explore the Author's Note at the end. Talk about it. I want to hear the discussions that happen as a result of this book--and I'm sure Joyce does too.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

I've had the privilege of being Joyce's beta reader and read several drafts. You will read the completed story of how Jackie recognizes his racism and deals with it. But I saw how Joyce built the book. She knew Jackie was someone who talked first and regretted his words later. She knew he was a 4-H kid who loved his cow, Lucy, and would learn big lessons when he showed her at the county fair. She knew that fears of bombs from Russia, Communism, and integration would be part of the setting. She had the characters of course--she's been creating stories about the Honeycutts ever since Ann Fay's father left for WWII in BLUE. 

But Joyce didn't know Jackie's backstory and why Thomas didn't trust him. I was on the sidelines and watched her figure out that BIG piece of the puzzle and then weave it into the book. 

I tell you all this because some of you reading this are writers, like myself, who realize the enormity of pulling together all of the many threads that go into a novel--and I want to encourage you that even a master writer like Joyce works HARD to accomplish this. Others of you are readers. I want you to know that a story as magnificent as Joyce's doesn't just happen. There are hours and hours of drafting, writing, reorganizing, deleting, revising, and tweaking that go on behind the scenes.

If you are new to my blog and haven't heard of the Bakers Mountain Stories, please check out my other posts: AIM, BLUE, COMFORT, and DRIVE. (In this blog and this one, Joyce explains the order in which the first three books were written.)

TWO GIVEAWAYS!!

Thanks to Calkins Creek's generosity, Joyce is giving away one copy of a personally autographed book to one fortunate winner. Please leave me a comment by 6 PM on May 14 to enter. MAKE SURE you include your name and email address if you are new to my blog. 

DRIVE - with a beautiful new cover-- just came out in paperback and I have a copy of of that to give away also. When you leave a comment, please let me know which book you are interested in winning. Only continental United States addresses please. Sorry, you can't win both!

ONE FINAL WORD

Joyce's virtual launch with SCBWI-Carolinas is on May 27 at 7 PM.  She will be giving away another copy of EQUAL at that time--so if you don't win now, you'll have another chance to win later. You don't need to be a member of SCBWI to sign up and attend. Come and find out why Joyce wrote EQUAL and what she hopes readers will take away from it. 

How Do I Find An Agent?

 Congratulations to Connie Saunders who won The Middle School Writing Toolkit from last week's blog.

                                                                  ******

"May I ask, how do I even begin to find an agent?"

That was the question that Theresa Pierce, a two-time Rowan Salisbury Teacher of Year award winner asked me last week. Theresa has 35 years of experience teaching reading and history. In retirement, she has decided to pursue a new vocation--children's writer. 

I met Theresa through our mutual friend, Joyce Hostetter. Theresa is busy writing as well as learning about writing and publishing. That's a lot to cram in! But as her husband wisely told her, "You didn't get to be a teacher of the year overnight. This writing adventure is new for you. Give yourself time to learn."

My Response

This is a BIG question and it is a BIG learning curve. 

Let me say first of all, that even though I've been working on  Half-Truths for over ten years, I haven't submitted it to an agent because it wasn't ready. As Joyce told me many times, you only want to send a manuscript when you’re sure it’s ready. I thought it was ready several times and even sent it out once--but withdrew it after receiving feedback from Joyce that demanded to be incorporated into the manuscript.   

Agents are busy people. If you make a bad impression the first time, you probably won't get a second chance. Have critique partners, beta readers, and other writers told you that it was ready to go? I am glad that I have waited and kept working on my story. My characters have become more authentic and the storyline keeps getting stronger. It’s a lot of work. 

An agent will read my manuscript soon because I’m participating in a whole-novel workshop that included three beta readers.  I have incorporated these readers' insightful feedback into the manuscript, and now one agent will read the entire book and another will read the first 25 pages. I will receive feedback from both of them which I will evaluate and incorporate before I start my agent search. I have a folder in my inbox just about agents. I will cull through old blog posts and interviews to help me in this process.

By the way, I found this workshop on Kathy Temean’s Writing & Illustrating site. She often interviews agents and they’ll say what they are looking for. You should subscribe to this great blog. And while I'm thinking of it, one reason to join SCBWI is that agents like working with SCBWI members. They know that members are serious about their work.

People meet/find agents at conferences, through Twitter pitches (I have yet to master that—Twitter is pretty much a mystery to me), and through writing magazines. Writer’s Digest has an annual list of agents. I also subscribe to Query Tracker which I highly recommend. It’s a large database of agents and what they’re looking for. It only costs $25 per year and you get frequent updates. You can personalize a list of agents for multiple projects and keep track of your queries. Agent Query is another popular website.

Finding an agent takes time. You want to find an agent who wants what you have written (in my case that is a historical young adult) and then look at their website or wish list and see EXACTLY what they are looking for.  I zero in on agents who are interested in social justice and generational stories. That way when I write my query, I will connect my book to her interest. Writing query letters is an entirely different topic!

I hope this information helps. Yes, there’s a lot to learn about this business!! Writing a great book is only the first part! Be patient and diligent. 

Thank you, Theresa, for asking this question. If any of you are new to the writing-publishing business and want me to answer your question, leave it for me in the comments. I'm not an expert, but I have been in this business for over 30 years and would be happy to see if I can answer it, or at least point you to the appropriate resources. 

                                             *******

Theresa Pierce's manuscript, Up Dunn's Mountain won first place for Young Adult Literature at Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers 2020 Conference. She is a member of Word Weavers and the Daughters of the American Revolution.  

As a historic docent, she shares her volunteer time between the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer and the Rowan Museum in Salisbury. She is also a Toastmaster and speaks to historic groups, senior citizens, and of course, her favorite-- children.  

She is the newest member of the Write2Ignite blogger team and will be blogging about her writing/publishing journey. 

 

Fundamental STEPS to Writing Historical Fiction-- Highlights 2018

Congratulations to Joyce Hostetter who won THE HERO TWO DOORS DOWN and to Clara Gillow Clark who won PACO'S PAINTBRUSH. Clara Gillow Clark is the blogger from whom I won FOOD FIGHT FIESTA. (And no, I didn't rig the contest. Random.org always picks my winners!)

*******

Several weeks ago when I blogged about teaching at Write 2 Ignite, I mentioned that I have another opportunity to teach this fall. I'm thrilled to share that I'll be part of the faculty for Highlights Foundation's Historical Fiction Workshop led by my friend and mentor, Joyce Hostetter. 

Following the acronym STEPS, this is what Joyce and her team will cover:

STORY: Finding stories embedded in history and embedding history into our stories.

TIME: Allowing the historical era to shape characters, dialogue, actions, and more. Lila Weaver will present a talk on going from an eyewitness to a story teller.

EXPERTS: Seeking insight from archivists, specialists, eyewitnesses, and survivors. This is MY talk!! (I guess Joyce decided that after hearing my excitement over finding each new expert for Half-Truths, she would have me share my experience with others.)

PLACE: Infusing the story with a sense of locality and culture. This talk is by Julie Chibbaro.

SOURCES: Researching history and documenting resources.

 

Check the schedule and you'll see that besides talks on these subjects, participants will meet one on one with Joyce. They will have time to work on their manuscript and receive input from the faculty and other attendees. Carolyn Yoder, Joyce's editor, will also join the group for a question and answer session. 

 If you don't know Joyce, then here's the link to the Highlights blog where she talks about her journey as an historical fiction novelist. It's always fun to hear how she wrote BLUE without a thought that it would turn into a series. DRIVE is coming out this fall and Joyce is now writing her fifth book in the Bakers Mountain Series!

If you want to make history come alive to middle grade or young adult readers, then this is the workshop for you. To read more about the workshop and enter the great giveaways that Joyce is offering, click here for the special newsletter on the workshop. 

Hurry! The workshop is limited to eight students and is filling up--but Joyce and I would love to see you there too!