Thanks Tennessee!
Very honored the WITCHLANDERS is in some great company today! UT Literature Center: Great Books for Kids to Read during Holiday Season
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 MoreWriting the Unreal with Lena Coakley and Megan Crewe – Wed. in Toronto
Writing the Unreal Wednesday, November 16th CANSCAIP Meeting – Free and open to the public 7:30 PM Northern District Library 40 Orchard View Blvd. (Yonge and Eglinton area) 2nd Floor, rooms AB (Please note! This is a change from the usual CANSCAIP room) www.canscaip.org High fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, steampunk, dystopian… The unreal genres are hot right now, but will that trend continue? Where did the interest in everything from magic to zombies start, and what’s behind their current popularity? Why are teens so keen to read about the fantastic? Two rising literary...
Read MoreAgent Hunting
I was thrilled by the response to my October 19th post, A Query Dissected, in which I shared the query letter that got me my agent and discussed some of the things I thought a query needed to be successful. But what if you are not quite there yet and don’t know which agents to approach? As difficult as writing a query letter was, I found searching for an agent to be even harder. How was I supposed to know which agents were reputable? How could I find out which ones represented my favorite authors? How would I know when I’d found the agent that was right for me? And so I’ve decided to write...
Read MoreMy Witch Fantasy Dinner Party
It’s Witch Week over at Serendipity Reviews, and to celebrate I have invited some of my favorite witches to a sumptuous dinner party, complete with special dishes in their honor. Pull up a chair! And check out the great review Serendipity gave Witchlanders!
Read MoreWorld Fantasy Con Wrap Up!
No, I’m not home yet (I fly out in a few hours) but I’ve already written up some of my favorite WFC memories over on the Enchanted Inkpot blog. Have a look! I’d have to say, this was the experience of a lifetime! So glad the con is coming to my home city of Toronto next year! Many, many thanks to Access Copyright Foundation who provided me with a grant to attend this conference. If other Canadian writers are interested in getting a grant for travel or professional development have a look at this...
Read MoreAbout Me
Hi! I'm Lena, a young adult fantasy author from Toronto.