Writer in Progress - Lupe Ruiz-Flores Blog
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
New Blog Location
Hello, everyone. Just a note to let you know that my blog is now on my website, www.luperuiz-flores.com. Please visit me there.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
2014 Laredo Book Festival
Last week
Laredo, Texas, held its annual book festival at their beautiful Laredo Public Library. It turned out to be a huge
success. Librarians, educators, and the general public were in attendance.
Authors and illustrators from all over Texas were part of the lineup. We all
had a wonderful time doing book readings and meeting with the public.
Looking forward to next year’s event. While there, we stayed at the famous La
Posada hotel right by the Rio Grande.
Librarians at the Bookfest |
And while there, visit Sambuchino's post on “11
Frequently Asked Questions About Book Royalties, Advances and Money,” to learn more on that topic.
Authors & Illustrators & Friends |
La Posada |
La Posada |
Schedule |
Net Royalty: A
royalty payment based on the amount of money a book publisher receives on the
sale of a book after booksellers’ discounts, special sales discounts, and
returns. – Writers’ Digest Weekly Planner
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Writers' League of Texas Book Awards
Congratulations
to all the winners and finalists for the Writers’
League of Texas Book Awards. I am honored to have been one of the finalists
in the category of picture books for my book, Lupita’s
First Dance. Wonderful to see so many of the authors I already know. Cynsations blog has a
complete list.
Picture Book – A type of book, aimed at preschoolers to eight-year-olds, that tells a story using a combination of text and artwork, or artwork only. –Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner
Here’s an
interesting post on the Project
Mayhem blog, which also appeared on the Cynsations blog. In this post
author Isaiah Campbell writes about rejections, rewrites, killing off his
darlings in the rewrite, and just plain perseverance before he finally got
published. Take a look. Interesting read.
Kaeden Books is
accepting submissions for children’s fiction and nonfiction. For details and
guidelines, go to their link.
Picture Book – A type of book, aimed at preschoolers to eight-year-olds, that tells a story using a combination of text and artwork, or artwork only. –Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Prologues?
Just what is a prologue and should we use one? The definition
of a prologue according to Wikipedia is: “A prologue or prolog (Greek
πρόλογος prologos, from the word pro (before) and lógos,
word) is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives
background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and
other miscellaneous information.”
Soooo … forward to
Ingrid’s
Notes blog, post “4 types of prologues.” She writes: “ … the first step is
to identify what kind of prologue one is writing and
the objective of that prologue. We need to know what we’re
writing and why, before we let the opinions of what’s ‘in vogue’ influence our
writing decisions.”
The four types she writes about are (1) Future
Protagonist, (2) Past Protagonist, (3) Different Point of View, and (4)
Background Prologue (which by the way, she writes that this is the one that
gives a bad rap. If you’re considering using a prologue or not, read her post.
Very interesting.
Our recent SCBWI Southwest Chapter Bookfair at a local
Barnes & Noble was a huge success. Not only did we have local authors and
illustrators signing their books, but we also had Akiko White,
Cakelustrator, demonstrating her talent, plus Xavier Garza
reading from his Lucha Libre picture books, Pura Belpre winner, Guadalupe Garcia
McCall, giving an inspiring talk, and Alberto Ramirez, demonstrating how to
be a clown.
Cakelustration |
Lucha Libre |
Alberto the Clown |
Guadalupe Garcia McCall |
And here’s a treat. View homes of eight literary legends
on the Mashable
blog. Enjoy!
"Short-Short: A complete short story of 1,500 words or less." -- Writer's Digest Weekly Planner
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Writing Tip: Outlining
Great news! I am one of the authors and illustrators selected to
be part of National Picture Book
Month in November to help celebrate why picture books are important. You
can visit the website for more information and to see all those wonderful
artists and authors who were selected as well. Stay tuned for November!
Here is the 2014 list of hundreds of
authors who will be signing and presenting at the Texas Book Festival in
Austin on October 25-26, 2014. It’s a wonderful weekend of books, authors,
signings, music, food, etc. Hope you can attend.
Many writers outline while many
others do not. Sometimes I do—not really a long-drawn out outline but a brief
one to map a road of where the story is going. Most times I don’t. If you’re
wondering whether you should or not, here’s a Writer’s Digest post by Brian Klems titled, “7
Steps to Creating a Flexible Outline for Any Story.” You decide for yourself.
And for more writing tips that include: (1) write a first
draft nonfiction picture book, (2) write and submit a NF article to Highlights,
(3) how to find an agent, (4) picture book celebration and (5) build your own
website, visit the Blogzone blog
written by author Nancy I. Sanders.
No matter what your writing life brings, believe in yourself and keep
moving forward. Most writers cycle between periods of self-doubt and periods of
confidence. – Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner
Friday, September 5, 2014
Writing Rules?
Twisted tree in LA |
We read books on the specifics of the writing
process, what to do, what not to do, etc., etc. I have so many books on
writing, I sometimes get confused about the do's and don't's. So when I read this article, “How to
Break the Rules of Writing and More,” I found
this article had a sort of twist to it. What! Break the Rules?
The interview of YA author Ransom Riggs conducted
by Adrienne Crezo on The Writing Prompt Boot Camp blog (Writers’ Digest),
is pretty interesting. Below is an excerpt from the interview with Riggs:
“Do you follow any specific writing rules?"
"I always distrust
overly specific writing advice. I don’t agree with it, necessarily. When you’re
thinking about what to write or how to write something, it’s too easy to make a
lot of arbitrary rules for yourself. I think the difficult thing with learning
how to write is not learning the style or rules, but figuring out what story
you want to tell.
I spent a lot of time
telling the wrong stories, especially when … I was in college or when I was a
kid trying to imitate C.S. Lewis or Stephen King. I never understood why my
writing didn’t take off. I would think, well, the sentences are correct, and
the characters are talking and everything looks right, and it seems like a
story. I did exactly what [they] told me to do, but there’s no blood in it and
I don’t know why. It’s something you have to learn, how to tell the right
stories for you, and it’s this completely ineffable thing.”
See what I mean? Does
this work for you? Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s worth reading.
Here’s a lengthy list
or sneak preview of the upcoming Spring 2015 Children’s Books posted on Publishers Weekly.
Did
you know you can have your book and eat it too? Check out these marvelous book
cakes on the MentalFloss blog.
“Remember that sometimes, especially
early in your career, a byline is more important than a pay check, since it
bolsters your confidence, builds your reputation, and may lead to other sales.”
– Writers’ Digest Weekly Planner
Friday, August 29, 2014
Tips for a Writer
Here’s
a post on the Writer Musings blog that covers a lot of territory on
the writing process. From “honing your craft” to “submission process” to common
advice,” this post proves to be most helpful. Included as well are topics such
as book reviews, author interviews, and “a bunch of advice from editors and
agents.”
Sand castle at Century Plaza Hotel - SCBWI-LA Conference |
Which,
speaking of editors, here’s a post on the Writer’s
Digest blog, titled “An Intimate Look at Working with an Editor.”
Here’s
an inspiring article by Elizabeth Bluemle on the Publishers Weekly blog, titled “Vermont’s Youngest Librarians (Ages 11 and 6).”
Hope
you enjoy all these articles and may they inspire you to write and write and
write. Wishing you a safe Labor Day.
Pathway - SCBWI-LA 2014 |
"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." — Jorge Luis Borges
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