David*Macinnis*Gill.com

Check­list before start­ing next novel: POV Char­ac­ter?  Check Side­kick?  Check Vil­lain? Check Quirky sec­ondary char­ac­ters? Check Plot out­line?  Check Story Beat Sheet? Check Voice?  Check Premise?  Check Stakes?  Check Hmm.  What else am I missing?

Please join us for an ALAN Online BookChat to dis­cuss TWISTED with the author, Lau­rie Halse Ander­son . Date: Wednes­day, 7/25/07 Time: 9:00 PM East­ern URL: http://alan-ya.org/bookchat/flashchat.php Here’s more about TWISTED: High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background—average stu­dent, aver­age looks, aver­age dys­func­tional fam­ily. But …

That’s all I’m saying.

The third Pot­ter book was out before I read the first one, which I received in paper­back  as a give-away at the ALAN Break­fast.  After read­ing it on the plane home, I bought the other two books.  For Christ­mas, we bought a (at the time) com­plete sets for our fam­i­lies.  For books 4,5, and 6, …

Over a year ago, I came up with the idea of set­ting a screw­ball mys­tery in Japan, dur­ing the fes­ti­val of set­subun (in which chil­dren run about in scary masks while pelt­ing folks with soy­beans). I entered a first chap­ter of Yam­abushi and the Seven Gods of Hap­pi­ness in the smart writ­ers con­test and man­aged …

Find out your Harry Pot­ter per­son­al­ity at LiquidGeneration!

I’m ramp­ing up to start a new novel, a mys­tery. Plot­ting out ele­ments. Brain­storm­ing char­ac­ters. Look­ing through pho­tos for set­tings and phys­i­cal traits. Who am I kid­ding? I’ve never writ­ten a mys­tery before; I have no idea how to do it. In fact, all mem­ory of even how to write a novel has left me. …