A Magical Movie About Movie Magic: Review of Hugo
When I heard that Martin Scorsese was making a movie of one of my favorite books, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, I was delighted. Then when I heard they were changing the name to Hugo (which I’m still not happy about) and shooting it in 3D, I lost faith. I shouldn’t have worried. The story is about Hugo, an orphan boy who lives in secret rooms and passageways inside a Paris train station. His father is dead, and the only thing Hugo has to remember him by is the mechanical man his father had been repairing right before he died. From the pen in the automaton’s hand, it is clear...
Read MoreSome Thoughts on Scene Structure
I was minding my own business one day when a piece of wisdom floated by on my Twitter feed: “What’s the precise turning point in your current scene? Make its trigger more dramatic—or less obvious.” It was from the agent Donald Maass, who I follow because of his wonderful book: Writing the Breakout Novel. (All this year, he’s been tweeting Breakout Novel prompts from @DonMaass which you can find here.) As it happened I was about two thirds of the way through writing a scene and it was starting to bore the life out of me. (Perhaps this is why I was checking Twitter in the first place?) I...
Read MoreCanadian authors! Have you written to your MP yet about Bill C-11?
In its current form, Bill C-11 is a catastrophe for authors, since it directly undermines copyright, which is how authors earn their meagre incomes. -Paulina Ayala, MP forHonoré-Mercier,Quebec All right, if you are American you might just want to ignore this post because today I’m doing a little public service announcement for Canadians. As many of my friends in CANSCAIP (the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers) know already, there is a copyright bill called C-11 that is now going through its first reading in parliament. Apparently it is almost...
Read MoreAnd the winners are…
Congratulations to the two winners of my WITCHLANDERS giveaway, JUDY RUSSELL and CHERIE!!! I’ll be emailing you later today to get a mailing addresses. Yay! These winners were chosen by the Random Number Generator at RANDOM.ORG Here’s what you win: Signed by...
Read MoreWitchlanders Gets Another Star! (That Makes Three!) And Give-Away!
I never say “squee.” I mean, what kind of word is that, anyway? Surely there’s a better word for a woman of a certain age to use when she’s excited about something. A dignified word like: Topping! Oh Topping, Muffie. I’ve got some rather good news. Oh screw it, Muffie. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I am very happy to report that my little book has scored a hat-trick and has now received THREE STARRED REVIEWS! This one is from the really wise and discerning folks at School Library Journal. I’m so delighted I’m going to hold a...
Read MoreAbout Me
Hi! I'm Lena, a young adult fantasy author from Toronto.