Parenting

300 Writing Prize Focuses Kids On Gender Equity

Harry Potter would be eligible for entry into a contest sponsored by up-and-coming young adult novelist R.J. Nimmo – on one condition. “He would need some magic spell or potion to change himself from a ‘Harry’ to a ‘Harriet,’” joked Nimmo, who is an expert on entertainment for children and young adults. “Describing how the famous boy wizard would behave…

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Misc

The Three Questions Of Science Fiction

There is a great deal of misunderstanding about what that particular branch of literature called “Science Fiction” actually consists of. Is it space-ships and monsters? Time machines? Galactic empires? Well, its all of those things, and often none of them. Science Fiction, broadly speaking, is story-telling that deals with the impact of organized knowledge on human beings. Usually, this means…

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Writing

Writing Resources 7 Books For Improving Your Manuscript

Whether a crawling novice or polished professional, writers from every walk of life have room for improvement in their work. An endless array of rules and techniques must be kept in mind when writing – punctuation, grammar, transition, show don’t tell, etc. As a result, it’s extremely important to have a firm grasp on the fundamentals. By stressing the fundamentals,…

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Writing

Are You Talking To Me

In poetic literature you will often find a poem that seems to be inviting the reader to participate in an adventure or a love story. The use of ‘you’ is evident in the poetry, but in most cases the reader understands that the poem is written to a third party and the author is simply allowing you the opportunity to…

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Writing

The 7 Habits Of Highly Successful Authors

The more I read how the successful authors do it, the more I realize that, like successful people in all walks of life, they all do things in common that contribute enormously to their success. So how can we learn from successful authors to ensure our own success in 2008 and beyond? We can start by adopting what I call…

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Book Reviews

Funny As A Fictoid

While truth may be stranger than fiction, a fictoid is definitely funnier than a factoid, says the author of an hysterical new book. What exactly is a fictoid? A fictoid is a bit of fictional history making a statement or telling a story in one sentence. “A typical fictoid tells who did what, when and where,” says Bill Dutcher, author…

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