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For middle readers…and adults who never grew up: The Owl Motel
Climbing the Crazy Family Tree, work-in-progress
Lena: Wild Girl on the Prairie, the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder's cousin, work-in-progress
Chuck Mall
About Chuck
Author of middle-grade fiction. Former writer for men's fitness magazines. Author of Middle-Grade short story collection, The Owl Motel: And Other Places Where You Are Not Welcome. Avid cook and gardener who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Amazon author page: Chuck Mall on Amazon
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Tag Archives: writing
A Dose of Encouragement
All of these scenarios about writers exist: * Someone wrote a first novel that sold well and made them famous. But after that success, none of his other books did well. * Someone wrote for 25 years, completing several manuscripts … Continue reading
Posted in MG fiction, Words, writing, Writing Angst, writing for children
Tagged encouragement, publishing, writers, writing
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Way Back in the Wayback Machine
To write kidlit, you need to mine your own past and reflect Continue reading
Posted in fiction, MG fiction, Words, writing, YA fiction
Tagged #middle grade, fiction, kidlit, memory, writing
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Middle-Grader Road Grading
Why are middle-grade books my chosen writing genre? I’ve written middle-grade and young-adult fiction, and picture books (which I’ve tried to write; but can’t do it well). Somehow middle-grade plots, characters, and ideas are what populate my mind. Perhaps it’s … Continue reading
Posted in fiction, writing for children
Tagged diversity, kidlit, middle school, writing
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The Useful Cage
How the Storytelling Format Can Limit a Fictional Narrative Strategically As a writer who has created almost all of his fiction in third person limited, using a standard narrative format, I’m always exploring how established novelists use or misuse format … Continue reading
Posted in fiction, Librarians, writing for children
Tagged beverly cleary, books, diary, kidlit, Librarians, Library, reading, writing
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Love, a Dream, and a Theft
My Secret Relationship with Ursula K. Le Guin’s Mother by Chuck Mallory To understand, you need to know I grew up in a very small town in the 1960s. My mother was able to put me in first grade at … Continue reading
Posted in fiction, Librarians, Library, Ursula K. Le Guin, writing
Tagged books, fiction, Librarians, Library, Prodigy, Theodora Kroeber, Ursula K LeGuin, writing
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When Your Own Writing Spooks You
Clean the basement. That’s how you find pieces of writing you never remember writing. I found one, and am going to throw it away. It isn’t bad as much as it is strange. In 2008 I took a stream-of-consciousness writing … Continue reading
Angst. Just your general angst.
I know writing is not supposed to be fun. I know it is not necessarily supposed to be hard. I know it can work well as you get into the “flow” and time and space disappear beneath the rapid-fire sequence … Continue reading
Posted in Words, Writing Angst
Tagged Chuck Mallory, fiction, imagination, struggle, writing
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The Strangest Quotes You Have Ever Heard, No Kidding
Here’s what happens when you open an old box you forgot you had and look inside… Continue reading
The Secret about Historical Fiction and Sci-Fi
Chicago is known for its long horrible winters, and being a writer and avid reader, I always have plenty to do indoors. However, sometimes the writing is arduous and you need a break. Then you get to that weird in-between-good-books … Continue reading
Posted in Historical Fiction, Sci-fi
Tagged historical fiction, novel, old TV shows, sci-fi, Westerns, writing
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Write to the Market?
I started with good intentions. When I was in elementary and middle school, I wrote about the small things close to me and my life. I lived in a closed world and could not see outside that narrow horizon. Though … Continue reading
Posted in Writing Angst
Tagged books, Judy Blume, literature, M.E. Kerr, Maia Wojciechowska, middle reader, S.E. Hinton, SCBWI, Sweet Valley Kids, The Outsiders, Writer's Digest, writing, YA
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