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Level Up! Creating Character Arc

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Three Times A Charm is on hiatus, because I haven't been recruiting. Feel free to contact me if you're an author, illustrator, editor, blogger, publicist, publisher involved in children's publishing and would like to be interviewed. So instead, I'm talking about the craft of writing. Creating a character arc is difficult, but crucial to the enjoyability factor of your story. Creating an arc over a series is even more challenging. In order for your readers to care, your character has to change and grow during their story. A friend of mine posted a picture of a scene from my book, Polar Opposites , on my Facebook page and the status called the characters in the scene, “Assholes!” Awesome! I squealed and clapped. Why am I okay with this? It’s the emotion behind the post that thrills me. Yes, literary characters can be jerks, too. And, as is the case in the scene my friend highlighted, it is often intentional. So many things have to come together to shape th...

Oh Nuts! I Lost My Sister by Dennis Marcoux

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Today, World of Ink Book Tours brings us Adventures of Nutty and Twittles – Oh Nuts I Lost My Sister by Dennis Marcoux. Book blurb:  Nutty and his sister Twittles set out to play a fun game of hide "n" seek with their friends. When Twittles is the only one missing, the game quickly changes.  Nutty has to find his sister because she may be lost in the dark and dangerous Forrest. Kai: Thanks for visiting, Dennis. What age range is Oh Nuts targeted for?  Dennis:  4-7 Kai: Can you share a memory of yours or a story of you from when you were within the age range of your target readers? Dennis:  I was about 6 yrs old and went to the ocean with my family.  My parents warned       me about going into the water without them.  I did not listen to them and went       into the ocean alone. A wave pulled me under the water and when I surfaced I was       unable...

Building Character with Claramina Dart from True Haven

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It’s Friday! Time for my blog feature, Building Character in which you get to meet characters from a book. Talking to a character outside of their book is fun! Huge. Amounts. Of fun.  This week Strands of Thought plays host to Claramina Dart from True Haven. Thank you for joining us, Claramina. We’d love to hear more about you. Let me introduce myself. My name is Miss Claramina Dart. I am now 14 and after my parents died, I managed to find a position as a tailor’s apprentice for Mr Thrums in my hometown of Mudwells. I know what you’re thinking, but it wasn’t that bad – at least to start with. It used to be rather grand in the old days, when people came to the spa to take the waters. Now it’s all crumbling rather, and it’s ever such a trial delivering garments to our customers by wheelbarrow. No sedan chairs for the likes of us! Life would have been bearable, if only our new assistant, little Barley Spindle, hadn’t got himself arrested by the evil Flugelcrampers who patro...

Three Times A Charm with Laurel A Rockefeller

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Today on Three Times A Charm we welcome author, Laurel A Rockefeller. I love introducing my readers to the people who work in children’s publishing. So nice to have you join us, Laurel. Can you tell us a little about yourself, please? Hello, my name is Laurel A. Rockefeller.  I am a gifted historian and historical reconstructionist originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.  History and science have always been my passion, ever since I was a little girl attending sky shows at the Hyde Observatory.  As a child, stories of Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Luke Skywalker filled my imagination.  The first movie I ever saw was the original “Benji” movie from 1974 which I saw with three generations of my family in a little town in rural Nebraska.  That experience, along with one Christmas where my family read “A Christmas Carol” aloud together around our tree cemented into my mind the need for family-centric literature and movies as certainly as watching Star Wars...

Holiday Giveaway - Win a Kindle Fire - Kids Edition!

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I am thrilled to be a sponsor of this really AWESOME giveaway! Look at this great new Kindle for kids - just released by Amazon. You have all sorts of ways to enter to win your very own, all while discovering some great books to load onto the Kindle as soon as you win it! Have fun and good luck! I'd also like to add a HUGE thank you to Mother Daughter Book Reviews for the hard work compiling this epic giveaway. All I can say is, "Wow!" About the Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition 7" Tablet I was pretty excited to see this pretty cool new product available through Amazon. This is a HOT PRODUCT! The all-new Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition Tablet also comes with 1 year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited (which means kids get unlimited access to 5,000 books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games—at no additional cost!). It includes a quad-core processor for great performance, a vivid HD display, front and rear-facing cameras, and Dolby Audio PLUS comes with a Kid-Proo...