My News

A Little Help From Our Friends

Good Morning,

Thank you for visiting my blog. 

It’s National Women’s Month. I think we deserve more than one month, but I’ll celebrate us in March. Women make contributions to our families, friends, and country. 

Sometimes men are reluctant to reach out to the women in their lives for help. They try to solve their problems alone. Wrong! We all need friends. Jacob, the main character in my YA novel Blame, learns this the hard way. Don’t make the same mistake. If you’re having problems, share your concerns with your friends. What might be difficult for one person to handle alone, may be relatively easy to deal with if we reach out to friends.

In my book Jacob takes too long to reach out to his girlfriend, Squirrel, for help. He suffers in silence. That’s why the book is in my silent series. Don’t suffer in silence.

Please follow this link to see the trailer. 

Blame: https://youtu.be/aZxkXeugtA0

Good Morning,

Thank you for visiting my website. 

Where do you go to read for free? When I was a teenager, I went to the library or the bookmobile. Pictured above the caption are the library located in the town garage in one of the towns where I taught, the library in the town where I grew up, and a bookmobile that travels through St. John’s County, Florida.

On my Facebook page this morning, I reposted Darlyn Finch Kuhn’s cartoon about libraries. Please read it, enjoy it, and tell me about a library you frequent.

Thank you for visiting Melody’s News.

YouTube

Good Morning,

Thank you for visiting my blog. I’m doing an experiment to determine if YouTube videos will draw people to my books. I’ll share the results with you. Please help me to determine if YouTube videos are a good marketing tool. Thank you.

Please follow this link to the second book in my Silent Series, Sinister Silence. While my books were written for YA readers, I’ve received comments from many adults, but not enough. Please follow this link and tell me whether my book trailer works for you. Sinister Silence: https://youtu.be/cn-5sCeLNws

One of the characters in my Silent Series is named Tatsumi. I got the name Tatsumi from the writer in this photo. I met Tatsumi at a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Conference.

One of the things I’m always doing is looking for names for my characters. I read names on nameplates. 

I noted the name Tatsumi on her conference identification and told her I loved her name. She said, “It means ‘beautiful dragon and is usually a boy’s name.’”

Since I was looking for a name for the Asian male in my young adult novel, Silent Screams, I asked if I could borrow her name for my character. She gave me permission, and my Tatsumi was named.

Tatsumi works well for my novel because the character reads manga books and wears Converse sneakers. When he was in middle school, he drew dragons on his sneakers because he loved Dragon Ball Z anime.

How did you get the names of the characters you chose for your books?

Myth

Good Morning,

Thank you for visiting my page. Thank you for following my blog.

Do you think YA books are just for teenagers? I consider that a myth. My YA books have high school students as the main characters, but many of my readers are adults. Yesterday, an adult reader posted a comment about my book Blame on her Facebook page. 

My marketing person posted my new trailer on YouTube. Please follow the link and tell me what you think of the video.

Silent Screams: https://youtu.be/EhXC4eHZmBc

Thank you.

What Does It Mean?

;

What does a ; mean to you?

Why enter the 2019 RPLA contest? You could win one of these great awards.

The Woman I Revere

Good Morning,

Thank you for visiting my blog. As you can see from pictures of me, I am not a young woman as far as the number of years I’ve lived. Because I spent so many years in classrooms teaching high school and college-age people, I consider myself to be young in many of my philosophies. My work with teens kept me young. Thank you, former students.

When I was growing up, we were taught to respect and defer to older people. I still call my teachers Mr. or Mrs. and their last name. Most of my students treat me with the same respect, even though I’ve told them they may call me by my first name.

Where am I going with this? Recently, when I have gone to conferences, I’ve heard some agents and younger writers make comments that seem to indicate they think older people should get out of the way. They think because we are older we cannot relate to young people. 

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The longer we live, the more we learn about human nature. People are people. We love, hate, hurt, and get hurt. We feel isolated at times. We want to belong. We make mistakes. We have wants and needs. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We can laugh at ourselves. 

Classics are classics because they appeal to human nature, wants, needs, and feelings. Those don’t change.

As a young person, I enjoyed the company of older people. I think it was because I could relate to my grandparents. My parents were busy making a living. Thank God. When I wanted to talk, my grandparents had time to listen.

In later life, I learned older friends understood and related to me. I loved that they weren’t judgmental. As a matter of fact, some of them were fun to be around. They provided advice when I wanted it; just listened if I wanted someone to bounce ideas off.

Why am I going to keep writing young adult fiction? How dare I assume the voice of a teen? Because I understand what it’s like to be a teen. I want teenagers to know they are not alone with their feelings. We all have issues, fears, and similar emotions. I had great rapport with a majority of my students. Many of them are my Facebook friends. They attend my book-signing events.

For those who don’t think young adults can relate to older women, go online and search for Ruth Bader Ginsberg, or should I say “The Notorious Ruth Bader Ginsberg?” Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the woman I revere, is an online sensation,  and she’s eighty-five years old. 

Young people admire Ruth Bader Ginsberg because she deserves respect. This Supreme Court Justice fascinates me. She is a millennial icon known for her progressive position on many issues and blistering dissents to rulings that she disagrees with. She isn’t afraid to disagree. Young men and women wear shirts bearing her picture and name. I plan to buy one and wear it. I’m praying she lives to outlive those who would replace her if they could.

Thank you for reading my blogs. Today’s stream-of-consciousness blog is my response to those who want to discriminate against older writers. 

When Love Hurts

Good Morning,

Happy Valentine’s Day. Thank you for visiting my blog.  Today I’ll share one of my poems from Backpack Blues: Inspire the Fire Within.

The First Page

Good Morning,

Thank you for following my blog. 

In order to acquire an agent, a publisher, and to get a reader to purchase and read a book, experts say the opening paragraph must hook the reader. In fact, pay special attention to that entire first page.

Agents frequently base their decision to accept or not to accept a submission based on the first ten pages. Peter Selgin published a book titled Your First Page. This book was recommended by an agent on the Florida Writers Association Facebook page. I purchased the book and try to hook readers with my first page.

The next paragraph is the opening paragraph of my book Blame. Does it hook you?

If you’re reading this, I’m sorry. It isn’t pretty. I
didn’t want to write about how my oh-so- normal life
jackknifed out of control, but coach said putting it on
paper is the only way to stop the nightmares. Besides, I
sure don’t want to freak out my college roommate next
year by bolting up in the middle of the night shouting,
“Don’t shoot.”

Thank you for visiting my blog. I’d love feedback.