Through the Tollbooth — Your Road Map To Writing For Children And Young Adults

FINAL THOUGHTS ON FIRST LINES

by Sarah Sullivan September 3, 2010

On Monday I talked about looking at the first lines of successive chapters of a novel to see how the author moves the story along. Pick out a novel you admire and try this. Then look at your own novel. Maybe you’ve done the storyboarding exercise that Tami wrote about in her July 14th and [...]

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INTERVIEW WITH DEBUT NOVELIST SARAH DOOLEY

by Sarah Sullivan September 1, 2010

It’s a pleasure to welcome debut novelist Sarah Dooley to the Tollbooth today. Sarah’s first novel, Livvie Owen Lived Here was just published by Feiwel & Friends. Here’s what a Publisher’s Weekly reviewer had to say about the book. Dooley, a special education teacher, offers readers a rare opportunity to experience the day-to-day [...]

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FOUNTAIN BOOKSTORE AND THE BUCKET LIST

by Sarah Sullivan August 31, 2010

It’s Tuesday. Time to visit another bookstore. There’s a twist to today’s visit. Labor Day weekend is coming up. The end of summer. My pocketbook is thin, after traveling hither and yon through the warm months. So, today, I’m conducting a virtual visit to a bookstore I have long wanted to visit. Fountain Bookstore in [...]

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EASIN’ ON DOWN THE ROAD

by Sarah Sullivan August 30, 2010

Today, I’m going to talk about moving your story along, about progressing from one chapter to the next and pulling your reader along with you. I want to figure out what other writers have done. I want to know how they beguiled me into ignoring a steaming tea kettle or a ringing telephone for just [...]

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Warriors in the Crossfire Day 3

by Zu Vincent August 27, 2010

“I wrote Warriors in the Crossfire not thinking about genre, if it was historical, multicultural, or multi-racial. It was an important story that was shared with me.”

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Something’s Up!

by Tami Lewis Brown August 25, 2010

Stay tuned… in the next couple weeks you’ll see lots of sweet new developments here in the ‘booth. We promise you one thing. You’re gonna love it!

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Warriors in the Crossfire Day 2

by Zu Vincent August 25, 2010

I stood at Suicide Cliff where hundreds leaped to their deaths.

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Warriors in the Crossfire

by Zu Vincent August 23, 2010

“We sang, we talked, we danced. We shared more stories. We ate a lot of mangoes, red rice and reef fish…Research is more than reading. I swam with turtles… and sharks.” Nancy Bo Flood

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