Overflowing with Ideas

I now have no less than three different ideas for Middle Grade and YA novels. The one I'm currently working on (still half way) and two more.

This weekend, Mark and I were driving by a florist shop in Baltimore. I saw the name and said "That sounds like the title of a fantasy novel of some sort." Mark instantly had the plot. Soon, I had dreampt up the characters, and now I'm wrapped up in creating the setting and attempting to put it on paper before it has faded from my memory.

Mark and I plan to work on this one together, although I really wish I had the time and energy right now to just sit down and let it all flow out of me in one big rush. That would be such a relief and would help me relax too. These characters are haunting me.

Idea #2: I was looking around for something historical to write about. I want to either do non-fiction or an historical novel. I was researching famous teenagers throughout history, and somehow I landed on figure skaters. As a teen, I loved watching figure skating, and I looked up to young skaters like Michelle Kwan. I combined this love with an historical event, and boom! The idea was born. Its a Middle Grade novel that takes place in the 1960's and revolves around figure skating, and that's all I'm going to say about it for now.

The problem, of course, is that I must work and eat and sleep. I can't write all day, or even every day. And I can't let myself get lost in a new project if it means abandoning my current one, which is very likely since I'm half way through and running out of steam.

What's odd is that I used to think I could never write a novel, and now they're all I can think about. I'm constantly putting myself up to the challenge. I can write anything and everything I want to. As I sometimes say, I could write my way out of a paper bag, and I could write my way out of a plot hole if I had to.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. . . in my own time.

Introducing Suzanne Lieurance

Suzanne Lieurance is a fulltime children’s author, freelance writer, and The Working Writer’s Coach. She teaches children’s writing for the Institute of Children’s Literature based in West Redding, Connecticut, and is the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center.



Lieurance is the author of 20 published books and has written articles for a variety of magazines, newsletters, and ezines like Family-Fun, Kansas City Weddings, Instructor Magazine, New Moon for Girls, Children’s Writer, and many others. She hosts a talk show about children’s books, called Book Bites for Kids, every weekday afternoon on blogtalkradio.com.
Lieurance offers a variety of coaching programs via private phone calls, teleclasses, listserv, and private email for writers who want to turn their love of writing (for children and/or adults) into a part-time or full-time career.

Her new historical novel is The Locket: Surviving the Triangle Shirtwaste Fire

Galena, an eleven-year-old Russian-Jewish immigrant, lives in New York City with her family and works at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory with her older sister Anya. The factory pays low wages and has terrible working conditions, making Anya yearn to join a union. Soon a horrible fire guts the factory leaving Galena with painful, horrific memories. Follow author Suzanne Lieurance in this dramatic historical fiction novel, as she describes how Galena uses the support of friends, family, and Jewish traditions to inspire her to fight for workers rights.

Contact info:

Websites - http://www.suzannelieurance.com/
http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com/
http://www.workingwriterscoach.com/