Here at the Blood-Red Pencil we often mention those who pass on the craft of writing through their wonderful books on writing. Today I’d like to talk about a different class of mentors—authors of wonderful books who also generously give of their time and wisdom to up-and-coming writers. So many such writers have influenced my writing life, through their teaching, their professionalism, and their literary legacy. So many have influenced me in so many ways, but today I’ve chosen one nugget that exemplifies the way a few have created an impact that lingers. Their genres are diverse and I’ve learned as much through their great writing as I have through workshops and personal interaction. Check them out! Juilene Osborne McKnight (historical fiction) “He had only one book in him and he kept rewriting it.” Have you ever heard that oft-repeated phrase? Juilene thinks it’s too cynical—instead, she believes a writer’s soul tends to be drawn to one kind of archetypal story (mine is transfo...

1/25/2012 Update: At the recent ALA Conference, the award winners were announced and the 2012 Printz winner was Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley.   Click here for more information.  For many years, beloved Kansas librarian Michael L. Printz was considered by many to be the backbone of the American Library Association (ALA). After Printz died in 1996 at the age of 59, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA, a branch of the ALA) memorialized him by bestowing the Michael L. Printz Award to the best young adult book published the previous year. While fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and anthologies are considered, so far the prize has been awarded to eleven novels and one graphic novel . While the Printz Award program is relatively new, other ALA prizes are not. Generations of parents, students, librarians, and teachers have trusted the reputation of books that have won the John Newbery and Randolf Caldecott medals, the first of ALA’s annual awards for e...

Young adult author A.S. King is fearless. Her first novel, Dust of 100 Dogs , begins with dead 17th century pirate Emer Morrisey returning to a human body after living out a pirate’s curse that had doomed her to a hundred lifetimes as a dog. She has retained her original human memories as well as her memories of lapping at water and fighting with litter mates, and all of this accumulated experience contributes to Emer's long-interrupted pursuit of love and riches. And yep (or should I say, “yap”)—we buy all of this, hook, line, and sinker. In her new book, Please Ignore Vera Dietz , King continues to exert an almost defiant creativity. Rather than rely upon prose alone, King employs flow charts, for example, to exemplify the decision making of her 18-year-old protagonist, Vera. The big decision: Vera must decide whether she wants to clear the name of a dead friend—a boy she loved, who she feels betrayed her, yet whose memory won’t stop hounding her. King has Vera use her school vo...