Category Archives: summer

Summer Writing Journal: Week 2

Posted on June 14, 2015 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

Here are some more writing prompts for week 2. I’m going to go ahead and put it up now, as everyone’s summer is different. (Ours, for instance, hasn’t started yet. But in Blacksburg I’m pretty sure our friends finished school … Continue reading →

Posted in summer, summer reading, summer writing | 2 Comments

Summer Journals

Posted on June 13, 2015 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

So I may have mentioned to some of you that I burned my diary when I was in high school. This turned out to be a bad thing, because the feelings that ended up in ashes are feelings I can now … Continue reading →

Posted in humor, illustration, reading with kids, summer, summer reading, summer writing | Leave a comment

Summer Reading

Posted on May 14, 2015 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

During the summer, I sign my kids up for nearly every reading program I find. I’ve heard some parents worry that there shouldn’t be prizes because reading is a prize in itself (true). But many of the summer programs give … Continue reading →

Posted in libraries, reading with kids, summer, summer reading | 2 Comments

Tom Swifties

Posted on July 7, 2013 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

I went to hear Elmore Leonard speak at the Coolidge Theater in Boston about 10 years ago. My biggest takeaway was that he never used adverbs when his characters talked. You should be able to tell from the dialogue if … Continue reading →

Posted in cars, family, summer, tom swifties | 4 Comments

Things We Do with Friends

Posted on June 25, 2013 by madelynruth@yahoo.com

Things we do with friends: Walk. Eat. Laugh. Cry. Talk into the wee hours of the night. And sometimes? We write books with them. Which is what I did with Mary Crockett. Mary and I first met in the mid … Continue reading →

Posted in Dream Boy, kidlit, summer, world domination, writing | Tagged , , | 4 Comments