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SCBWI Con is a Bass Player
August 2, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
I’m going to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators summer conference this weekend. I’m excited because it’s filled with people like me* and I love meeting and hanging out with other writers and listening to agents and editors talk, but I’m also terrified because, well, people. People are unpredictable and strange, which usually […]
Posted in: Kandace
Asimov Was Right
August 1, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
Arkem: I’m trying to spray you. Me: Am I being bad? Arkem: You’re working again. Me: Oh. I am. Sorry. Arkem: It’s okay. Recidivist tendencies are expected in your case. But not while you’re on parole. Me: I’m on parole? Arkem: It’s night time. Me: But that’s when my recidivist tendencies are at their worst. […]
Posted in: Kandace
Should This Chapter Be Called ‘Girding Your Loins’, ‘Possible Death’ or ‘Dead Cheerful’?
July 31, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
Me: I cannot have a chapter entitled ‘You pay in blood’ followed by one called ‘Blood on your hands’. That’s just wrong. Arkem: Blood around my digits. Me: Oddly enough it’s not the word ‘hands’ that causing the problem. Arkem: Viscous red goo that I cannot explain. Me: Yes, thank you. Very helpful.* I am […]
A Few Biscuits Short of a Cookie Jar
July 30, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
Me: I hate my book. It is a travesty made of terrible writing. Arkem: That’s not true. Me: How would you know? You haven’t even read it. Arkem: Well it doesn’t sound like it would be true. Me: That is a terrible basis for an argument. I have apparently developed a brand new habit of […]
The Monster is a ‘Who’
July 27, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
So I’m running a spellcheck in Word, partly because I think it’s funny, partly because it never hurts to have another set of eyes, even if they belong so a literarily questionable piece of computer software. Mostly this leads to me hitting the ‘ignore’ button repeatedly and occasionally muttering, Word, what are you thinking? You […]
Finishing the Book
July 26, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
I know what you’re thinking, Didn’t she finish the book like three weeks ago? This is where the ‘for certain values of’ comes in.* I finished the complete new draft a few weeks ago. Yesterday I finished the rework-the-new-sections-to-make-sure-they-don’t-suck part. Now I’m doing the go-through-the-dear-god-how-many-change-notes-did-I-make? part. You may notice the slight level of panic in […]
Because When You Solve For X, Things EXPLODE
July 25, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
Formulas and variables and integrals and derivatives: to the casual observer it looks like you’re doing math. But you’re not. Because when you solve for x, things EXPLODE. You’re doing ENGINEERING. — David Malki Rick is a mechatronics engineer. I like to explain this as: I program robots. Rick will tell you that this is […]
Posted in: Kandace
Writing ‘The End’
July 24, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
Writing the end of a book is painful for lots of reasons — because you’re letting go of the world you built, because you’re massacring your characters (possibly), because reaching the end of a story automatically raises the question, ‘What next?’. I spend an awful lot of my time making my characters and their worlds […]
Do YA Books Cross Borders?
July 23, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
Me: Arkem’s spare room — or what he calls my room — is filled with books. Rick: Very sensible of him. Me: I thought so. He says he knows what the Kandaces like, and this was less creepy than trying to find fake Ricks to populate the room with. He also says that may be the […]
Kandace Mavrick
Paul McLaughlan
platform thing 
August 3, 2012
by Kandace Mavrick
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