Writing and publishing advice for picture books, middle-grade, and young adult storytelling.
In sixth grade, I intentionally missed basketball sign-ups. I’d long decided it wasn’t for me, but fear of disappointing my sports-obsessed father prevented me from telling him the truth: I just didn’t love sports the way he did. So instead, I memorized the deadline, left the reminder flier crumbled at the bottom of my backpack, and waited for the day to pass.
The night after the deadline, thinking victory was already mine, I pulled the flier out of my bag and performed what I thought to be an Oscar-worthy performance of dismay that I had missed the chance to be on a team. Much to my horror, my father believed me, and with a quick call to the coach the next
