This is where my ability to remember stories and plot lines come in handy. I was about to write the blog for this middle grade level book when the previous blog post occurred. We're all home now, things are settling in, and I can go back to writing and blogging. Learning to Fly (Dana Burkey) is the first book in the TNT Force Cheer series. It follows 12 ("But I'll be 13 in January") year old Maxine "Max" during the summer. While playing with her neighbor Peter and his younger brother, Kyle, it starts to rain so they decide to go to the indoor trampoline park. While there Max (don't call her Maxine) spots some girls her age practicing flips and other cheer stunts. Only Halley and Lexi aren't the typical cheerleaders - they belong to a gymnastics cheerleading squad. All of those competition squads that do flips and flying stunts and dance rountines? Yeah, that's TNT Force. They start showing Max some of their stunts and Max ...
Every day that I pull out my notebook or laptop I don't plan what goes down on the paper. I don't know quite where my characters want to lead me yet. Sometimes it's a matter of going back and seeing, 'Oh, I'm missing this...' or 'I need to add a scene to link these chapters together. Sometimes the plot bunnies invade and I have to write a scene for a part of the story not yet started. But every day I hit my NaNoWriMo daily goal, or personal goal, or even get words down on the page, is one more day I can feel good about working on this rough draft. Today I reached the halfway mark - 25,000 words. I have more words to add. I have more story to develop. I have more ideas, plot bunnies, and writing prompts to work with. And then, once this rough draft is finished, I'll introduce this new story to my beloved readers (and the world). Then the real work begins. Editing and polishing and titling and all that. Stay tuned. Alicia
Oftentimes how I pick my next read - or review - isn't complicated. In this case I was scanning titles on my kindle. I don't often go into the Young Adult section on my kindle. There are mostly big names and I'd like to support the new, not-big-names authors. But The Yearbook by Carol Masciola caught my attention. It might have been the cover. It was definitely the blurb. Lola, an orphan in foster care - a group home at that - manages to find herself in the library reserve room at school. She took over a job of throwing out fire and water damaged books out of self-preservation - she's trying to hide from someone. In the room she finds an undamaged yearbook from 1924. Falling asleep, she finds herself transported during a Fall Dance in 1923. There she meets Whoopsie, Thumbtack, and Peter the professor. Not wanting to leave her new friends and the feeling that she's finally found where she belongs, Lola goes back to get ...
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