Susan Orlean, an author I admire, passes along a piece of advice she received from a writer she admires in the July/August issue of Writer’s Digest. (I’ve found the writing community a congenial one in this way as they encourage and advise one another.)

Sleepovers don’t always come with a theme, but with two boys and two new picture books featuring green dinosaur pancakes that come to life at the hands of a magical grandmother, a theme happened.

When the University of Southern Mississippi OLLI group embarked on a two-hour tour of the Mississippi gulf coast aboard the Betsy Ann, comparisons to Gilligan’s Island ensued.

Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo opens her debut novel with twelve-year-old Ruby watching the people in her life disappear. Her father is gone, and now her mother gets handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser.

Some historical events leave that “I remember where I was” kind of feeling. The Sunday morning newspaper and several news shows and documentaries are bringing reminders of one of those occasions this week as they focus on the first moon walk.

Sophie Blackall, Caldecott Award winner for Hello, Lighthouse, already had the crowd for the 2019 Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival in the palm of her hand as she spoke, even before she had her assistants unroll the scroll across the stage.

I contend that there is much more in a name than Shakespeare recognizes. A rose just might not entice one as well if it were called an onion. Kimberly Willis Holt stirred a memory just by the name she chose for a character in her latest book.

It will be obvious to the reader from the start that The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt, a debut novel by Andrea Bobotis, is not her first writing.

Perhaps it’s only in a small town that Holiday Inn Express turns out to be a tourist attraction.

Buzz, Sting, Biteby Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, professor at Norwegian University of Life Sciences near Oslo and scientific advisor to the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, may sound like a title for children or young adults.

Basking in somebody else’s light beats sitting around in the dark.

The WWII London blitz forms the background for the cozy mystery, The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan.

People often said to me during those years with two under two that I would one day wish for that time to come back. Funny stories aside, I have never made such an irrational wish!

Three women, with only loose connections in the beginning, take turns narrating their stories that eventually will draw them together in Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera, just published on June 11. 

Boring is the first word I think of for an annual routine check at the dermatologist. Of course, other words – precautionary, necessary, waiting – come to mind as well. I

A novel idea (no pun intended) came up several times in the recent JambaLAya Conference. Several publishing personnel as well as authors mentioned that the perfect home for a book sometimes is a local regional publisher rather than one of the big names that writers often seek out. 

My first memories of “going to see Papaw” meant catching sight of the lilies crowding each other for room along the south length of his house. My sisters and I called them “Papaw’s Lilies.”

Lynne Kelly relies on her twenty-five years as a sign language interpreter for background to construct her middle grade novel featuring twelve-year-old tech genius Iris, who also happens to be deaf. 

Rarely do I get on my soapbox (or soapbench) for this blog, preferring to talk about books and topics I find interesting, but I am making an exception for this one. 

In her novel Mistress of the Ritz, that she says is “inspired by” rather than “based on” a true story, Melanie Benjamin weaves an account of Claude and Blanche Auzello, who keep the Hotel Ritz in Paris functioning luxuriously through World War II.