Caroline Adderson guest blogs on writing for kids

Caroline Adderson knows a thing or nine about writing for kids. She's offered up that advice in this month's guest blog.

Caroline is the author of a bunch of books for kids. Her books have won the Diamond Willow Award, and been nominated for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Award, the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award, the Chocolate Lily Book Award, the Rocky Mountain Book Award, and the Shining Willow Award.

Caroline lives in Vancouver, B.C. with her husband and the son who lied to her when he promised he’d always be seven.

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2013 evaluations and mentorships with Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Gail Anderson-Dargatz is now booking 2013 spring and summer manuscript evaluations and mentorships. Fees are comparable to the Writers’ Union of Canada and Booming Ground manuscript evaluation services.

For a sheet outlining manuscript evaluation or mentorship details, email Gail's office at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Manuscript evaluations are ideal for a writer who has a draft completed and wants detailed feedback. Writers submit their manuscript by email, and Gail offers a detailed set of notes on that manuscript, usually within one month’s time. At that point, the writer is invited to ask questions and brainstorm with Gail over the course of a day, again by email.

Mentorships run over a period of four months. Each month the writer submits, by email, a short story or portion of their novel manuscript up to 5,000 words, for a total of 20,000 words over the course of the mentorship. Gail will provide notes on each submission that include guidance on elements of craft. Writers can expect Gail’s response to their submission in one week’s time. At the point Gail responds, the writer may discuss the submission, by email, with Gail for a day. Discussion then closes as the writer prepares his or her next month’s submission.

Gail teaches advanced fiction and advanced novel in the University of British Columbia's optional-residency MFA creative writing program. For more information on this program, visit the UBC Creative Writing Optional-Residency Program information page. Gail previously taught fiction at UBC's Booming Ground creative writing program, and has been a guest lecturer at Simon Fraser University's summer publishing program, among many other venues. She regularly presents workshops and lectures on craft and on living the writing life.

A weekend of writing with Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Okanagan College presents a weekend of writing with internationally acclaimed and bestselling author Gail Anderson-Dargatz May 18 and 19 at the Vernon campus.

"The May workshop events are a taste of what I'll offer this fall through Okanagan College," Gail says. "Starting in September, I'll run one-on-one fiction mentorships, manuscript evaluations, and peer critique fiction workshops both in face-to-face classes throughout the Shuswap-Okanagan region and on-line. I encourage writers to join us on the May 18 and 19 weekend to check out my approach."

The four workshops offered on the May 18 and 19 weekend are "Writing Home" or writing from personal stories; "So You Want to Write a Novel;" "Writing Children's and Young Adult Novels"; and "Publishing and Promoting Your Writing."

Register for all four workshops and get the forth one free!

Phone the college at 250-545-7291 local 2850 or 1-800-289-8993 to register and to place your name on the interest list for the fall courses.

You can also check out the Okanagan College brochure for more details. The workshops are filling fast, so register soon!