One of the ironic results of writing a very successful book was expressed to me by a very well-known writer: “Why should I work hard? They will always tell me __________ is my best book and won’t bother to read anything else.” Teachers, think of your favorite writer. Think of your favorite book by that writer. Think what
Christopher from Austin, TX, writes, “You write a lot. So do I. My teacher says I should write less, and that will make me get better. What do you think?” Well, Christopher, Adam Grant, in his new book, Originals: how non-conformists move the world (Viking, 2016) writes this: “…the most prolific people not only have the
The short story is a staple of literature, and it is international. Chekov—Russian. Alice Munro—Canadian. William Trevor—English. Guy de Maupassant—French. Fitzgerald and Hemingway—US, to name a very, very few. There was a time they were very widely published in the United States, not just in specialized magazines, but in mass circulation publications like The Saturday
I just handed in a new book to my editor Richard Jackson. When published, it will be the twenty-second book I have worked on with him. The books he edited include The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Nothing but the Truth, Poppy, The Man who was Poe—among the books for which I am best known.
After a couple of my books were nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s juvenile award, I was asked to be a judge. I accepted and what happened was, I thought, fascinating. And bewildering. The judging went this way: Five judges were chosen. I didn’t know them, and never met them. Another writer was functioning
What’s my best piece of writing? I lost it. In a computer. Into the ethers. And I don’t know why. But I am sure it was the best writing I ever did. But be assured, I am not the only writer who has experienced this. I am a very fast (and sloppy) typist. I am also,
There are many of us who write stories with animals as their chief protagonist. I’ve just published Old Wolf, and there are novels like The Good Dog, and the Poppy books. All of these books, and others by other writers (like my favorite, The Wind in the Willows) are anthropomorphic stories, with a variety of
Avi_Advice for Aspiring Writers from Mackin Educational Resources on Vimeo. Thanks to MackinVia for this excerpt from a longer interview I did with them recently. You can view more of Mackin’s videos here.
A young reader recently wrote to me: “We [my sixth grade] thought your book [Never Mind] was really good, but at times it was hard to imagine. If it was made into a movie we could visualize the characters better and how they reacted. For example, Harry Potter is a series of books that were turned
It is exciting to have my new novel, Catch You Later, Traitor short-listed for the Edgar, the Mystery Writers of America award for the best mystery for young readers, 2015. It was in 1975 that my first novel, No More Magic, was similarly nominated. Much younger, to be sure, I did not quite know what to