“Where do you get your ideas?” This is one of the questions that authors dread because it comes up so frequently, pretty much every time they take questions at signings or other events. I went to an event with Jane Yolen once where she addressed this issue first thing before opening up the discussion to questions from the audience (though someone who I guess hadn’t been listening still asked anyway). But when a stranger asked me this recently after hearing me read my writing,

As many of you already know (because you heard me enthusing about it a million times online), I was one of two recipients this year of PEN-New England’s Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award. Basically, this is an award for emerging children’s book writers (which means no, friends and family, unfortunately you cannot buy this book and read it, but hopefully you will be able to eventually). At the award ceremony, Heather Demetrios and I read portions of our novels out

Come see me read from my manuscript! Here’s more info: 4th Annual Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award Sunday, May 6, 2012, 6:30 p.m. THE AMPHITHEATRE Lesley University, Cambridge (University Hall, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue) Winners AMITHA KNIGHT for her young adult novel, Landwalker HEATHER DEMETRIOS for her young adult novel, Streaming The winning manuscripts, chosen by the Children’s Book Committee, will be read by editors from Candlewick, Houghton Mifflin

I am very excited to share the news that I am one of two winners of the 2012 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award (phew! try saying that 10 times fast!). This award came as a big surprise and I am extremely honored to win! I’m sure the judges had some tough choices to make and I’m really glad they picked my manuscript, Landwalker, out of their submissions pile. #landwalker #news #PENaward

My writing and my parenting seem to be taking over my ability to churn out blog posts. Huh. Didn’t see that one coming. So I thought I’d do a quick update on my various writing projects (I’m feeling a little reticent to share, so you’ll have to guess which ones I’m talking about :) ): Book #1: A reader recently gave me some very useful feedback and I’m going through again and revising the crap out of this novel. Hopefully for the better, but we’ll see. Book #2: My co-author i

And even though I didn’t get around to the full 50k, I got a lot done. Writing a novel takes a lot more effort than just writing words on a page. Here are a few examples of what else accomplished this month: I researched backstories, sketched several new characters, did some plotting, was crippled by writer’s block, got over writer’s block, filled in more of my outline, realized what the story is *really* about, recognized some key areas that will need further development, an

I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year! The point of National Novel Writing Month is basically to take one month to write one new full novel of at least 50,000 words. While I will be taking a novel I’ve already started (I already had 8,000 written of Landwalker, so my goal is 50,000 additional words), I’m hoping to use this time to actually finish a whole first draft. Since I’m pretty sure the quality of my writing when trying to make deadlines like this probably won’t be s

I miss the good old days before the baby (writing-wise, at least). I’d roll out of bed, eat breakfast, and then write until I was finished for the day. I was pretty good at setting goals and getting work done, until I became pregnant. Then writing was very difficult. I had trouble thinking and forming sentences. My creative brain was gone. Thankfully it came back when the baby was born! To say it’s been tricky getting work done while watching my 7 month old is a bit of an und