New Moon Girls

A collection of 21 posts

author interview

Author Interview: Sofiya Pasternack

I’ve been using my writing time lately to meet some grant and contest deadlines, so I got behind on posting this interview I did for New Moon Girls with Sofiya Pasternack, author of Anya and the Dragon. One thing I love about doing these interviews is that they always

291

Interview With Author Melissa Hart

If you love books (and if you don’t, I’m not really sure what you’re doing here), you might want to check out the Luna’s Reading Corner interview I did for New Moon Girls with author Melissa Hart. Melissa wrote Better with Books: 500 Diverse Books to

A Year in the Life

2014: My Writing Year in Review

It’s easy for me to get discouraged with how long some of my writing projects take. I will be finishing up my second year of revising my Rapunzel retelling in 2015, and I always want to be writing more than I actually am. But when I paused to take

authors

Writing as Nourishment

“My friend thinks of writing as digestion. For me, it is that and more. For me, writing is food itself. I need a certain amount of writing to stay healthy.” – Julia Cameron, “This Writing Life,” The Right to Write. And this reminds me of something Jacqueline West said earlier this

blogging

Writing, Feedback, and Kindness on New Moon Girls

Below is a guest post I wrote for Luna’s blog over at New Moon Girls. (And, by the way, if you know or love a girl between the ages of 8-14, definitely consider getting her a membership. And if you don’t, consider donating a membership to a school,

fiction

NaNo'Ers, I'm With You in Spirit

Although I usually take one year to “recover” between attempts at NaNoWriMo, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at November the same way again. This year, I’m on “recovery,” still working on the novel I pounded out last November (I’ve discovered that novels

article writing

It's Here: The Nov/Dec Issue of Verily Magazine

I’ve been waiting to write this post for a long time. The November/December issue of Verily Magazine is finally for sale, and it features my article, “Natural Wonder: Understand Your Cycle to Regain Your Sanity and Appreciate Your Body,” on page 87. In case the title doesn’t

fiction

To Outline or Not to Outline: A Question Only You Can Answer

A few weeks ago, as I fretted over my Dark Crystal submission (which I still haven’t started), one commenter authoritatively told me I must write an outline for it. I did, and I am, because it’s such unfamiliar territory for me that I just feel a lot safer

New Moon Girls

"Bikini Bods" for Ten-Year-Olds?

I subscribe to the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) newsletter, which includes daily calls for interview subjects and experts in various areas. Earlier this week, Girls Life put out a call titled, “Top teen mag looking for pro/celeb trainers for a bikini body Faceook chat.” When I went to

New Moon Girls

Free Access to New Moon Girls

This September will mark my ten year anniversary of doing work with New Moon Girls in some capacity. When I started as an intern back in 2002, New Moon was a bimonthly, black-and-white magazine. Now, it’s an online community for girls accompanied by a full-color magazine, which has recently

authors

Get it Written

While I was traveling after my wedding, New Moon Girls members were chatting with Victoria Holmes, better known as Erin Hunter (or the “main” Erin Hunter, as it were, since Erin Hunter is a pen name for a team of writers), author of the popular Warriors series for middle grade

NaNoWriMo

NaNo Congrats, Writing Advice from a 12-year-old, And Poem #3

I’m pleased to announce that all the friends I’m spying — er, cheering — on at NaNoWriMo now have words to their names. Yay!! The public guilting shall abate for a time. This morning I programmed this article to run on the homepage of NewMoon.com. Check it out — this

blogging

NaNo-ers, My Heart is With You!

Well, it’s here! For writers and would-be writers everywhere, this is the day you’ve been waiting for. November 1st, the official start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Well do I remember the joys, the sorrows, the euphoria, the stress, the comraderie! of this month of exuberant, frantic

books

Books and Busy-ness (or Business)

Yesterday, the day I’d been waiting for all summer arrived: my local library’s annual booksale. For the first time (at my mom’s insistence), I paid $10 to get into the “pre-sale” and was there when the doors opened. The pre-sale price was defintely worth it — I’ve

girls' voices

Support Girls' Voices!

Although I’ve been writing stories since before I learned to write (I put together picture books which I “read” to my family), I decided that I officially wanted to be a writer when I was 10 years old, thanks to the encouragement of a substitute teacher who I didn’

article writing

Content Writing Made My Dreams Come True

OK, the subject line might exaggerate — but just a little. Although I’ve been an approved writer since January, I just recently started writing for Demand Studios. Before this, I’d always been so busy with my other clients that I only had the chance to give Demand Studios a

authors

Happy Birthday, Judy Blume

I can’t stay long, but I didn’t want to let this day pass without mentioning that today is YA author Judy Blume’s seventy-first birthday (if my math doesn’t fail me!). In addition to being the mother of young adult literature as we know it, she’s

freelancing

Confession is good for the soul

So, after confessing my lack of progress on my short story a couple nights ago, the words have started flowing again. It helps that, as a freelancer, writing is one way to procrastinate working ;). (Don’t worry, I always make my deadlines). Although, speaking of procrastinating, I did feel bad

freelancing

Short, midnight, pre-holiday message

I do freelance work for New Moon Girls, mostly working with the newly launched web community for girls, NewMoonGirls.com. It’s a fully moderated website, which means that a trained adult sees everything before it goes public. I’ve been moderating the site for hours now — thousands upon thousands

New Moon Girls

My Madisonian Adventure

I got back at about 11 p.m. last night from my weekend in Madison. My note to self is that one should never spend only one night in Madison. I feel convinced that every gift I possibly could have wanted for family could be found on State Street, but,

Bi-Women

What I'm up to Now

I’m excited to be starting this blog and have decided my first post will be a quick snapshot of what I’m working on right now in my writing and editing life. – I’m working on an article for the Bi-Women Newsletter, due November 15th. – I’m participating for