image shows middle grade and young adult fiction books open with text face out

MYC – Two Approaches to Fantasy World Building

  Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Each Wednesday we’ll discuss prewriting and drafting a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. Last week, we continued our series with Welcome to World Building. Today we continue to examine the humongous topic by looking at two approaches to fantasy world building. When Gabby & I started talking fantasy world building, we figured out quickly that, while … Continue reading MYC – Two Approaches to Fantasy World Building

Writing Cross-Culturally

This month, The Winged Pen’s own Michelle Leonard and Julie Artz were lucky enough to attend Madcap Retreats‘ Writing Cross-Culturally Workshop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Not only was it a blast to finally meet up face-to-face, but the long weekend was packed with great information and resources. We’d like to share a peek at what we learned with our readers. Highlights We were surrounded by many … Continue reading Writing Cross-Culturally

Rooting for the Bad Guys

It’s been a long, rainy winter-turned-spring here in the Pacific Northwest. And I’m sick of it. Every day when I bundle up in my increasingly leaky raincoat to walk the dog, I try to remind myself that rain today means a glorious green summer. Three months from now. (Humph.) Yeah, I’m cranky. Which might be why I’ve been so delighted to stumble across two books … Continue reading Rooting for the Bad Guys