Bear and the 3 Goldilocks Has Been Released!

Hi All,

Sorry about the long absence.  I just wanted to send out a quick post to share some great news.  I am thrilled to announce that my latest picture book, Bear and the 3 Goldilocks, has been released! This fractured fairy-tale was a lot of fun to write and Robert Lee Beers really did an amazing job with the illustrations. It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or ask your local bookstore. Autographed copies are also available through my website at www.kevinmcnamee.com if you are interested.

Happy writing!

Kevin

Nice Way to Wrap Up the Year

It’s official folks, my second picture book has been released. It’s a prose story called The Sister Exchange. It’s about a girl who wants to trade in her sister for another one. But these new sisters are not all they’re cracked up to be.

This was a fun book to write and is actually based on my nieces. One day my niece Brianna, asked my daughter if she would like a sister. Then she added, “Well you can have mine.” That line stuck in my head and I eventually thought about a scenario where you could trade siblings the way you traded stocks (a nod to my days in the financial services industry). My first drafts of the story included a mix of both brothers and sisters as replacements. But in the interests of brevity and simplicity, I made it just about sisters.

Kit Grady did a great job with the illustrations and I am very happy with the way this book came together. If you would like a peek inside at the story and illustrations, please go to http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com/sister-exchange.htm and check it out. This book is also available at http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ ,or you can ask your local book store. If you want to go green, it’s available as an E-book as well.

Not a bad way to wrap up the year. May all of you have a very happy and healthy new year. See you all in 2010.

Kevin

Prose vs. Rhyme

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything new. So I’ve taken a short break from creating online games and websites, and have been trying to get back to basics. I’ve framed out the idea for a new picture book, but now I’m left with one nagging question. Should it be in prose or rhyme?

I’m leaning towards rhyme for no particular reason other than it seems to be the best way for me to tell the story. It also means that I’ve picked the most difficult route to travel. To write a rhyming picture book, I still need all the elements of a story, I need a clear beginning middle and end; a strong plot, a likeable character, maybe a villain or two, some sort of conflict, and a good, believable resolution of the conflict, all while paying attention to rhyme and meter.

I’ve heard it said that a story shouldn’t be told in rhyme unless it absolutely has to, but I’m not exactly sure what that means. What’s the method for determining whether a story should rhyme or not? All of Dr. Seuss’s work could have been written in prose, but it wouldn’t have been the same. I think it’s just a plain judgment call.

I know why people say this though. Writing a story in rhyme is hard to do well. I’m sure that many otherwise promising stories have been sunk by faulty rhyme or meter, or that they were missing a necessary element of a true story.

I actually started writing this story in prose, and then I wrote another rhyming version. I like the rhyming version better. It has a certain character that the other version doesn’t. So for this reason alone I am taking the more difficult route. I don’t know where this will take me. Hopefully, I’ll wind up with a completed, polished piece. But I could also wind up with an unfinished, abandoned piece, which has unfixable problems.

A challenge…sure. But I’m not intimidated by a challenge. A rhymer it is.

Your Baby’s Ugly

I belong to two online critique groups, one for prose, and one for poetry. Both of these groups are invaluable to me.

Writing is a lonely business because most of the time, you’re working in a vacuum. Sometimes, it’s hard to see any potential flaws in my own work because I’m just too close to it. Stepping away from a project for a little while is helpful most of the time. It allows me to view my work with fresh eyes and maybe I’ll spot something I didn’t see before. But the best way to spot any flaws in my work is to have a trusted group of critique partners take a look at it. They don’t have any emotional investment in my project, so they will be able to look at it more objectively then I can.

Now putting your work up for critiques is not a natural process. As I mentioned earlier, there’s a certain emotional investment in your work. It’s like your baby. After all, there was nothing there before you made the effort to bring it into this world. Getting a critique is a little like presenting your baby to the world, only to have people say, “Your baby’s ugly.” And the thing is...maybe they're right.

Of course, a critique partner will be more tactful than that, maybe… But the point is, constructive criticism is vital to the writing process. Having someone else take a look at the story arc, character, pacing, grammar, etc., has definitely improved the quality of my work, and has made me a better writer. Over the years, I have gotten feedback that helped to make my stories shine, and some that I’ve disregarded because it didn’t fit with my vision of the story. But all of the feedback I’ve gotten, made me look at my story from another angle. That helped me craft a stronger story. Because whether I used the feedback or not, every thing in my story was there because of a conscious decision.

Now all critique groups are not the same. Some writers like to get together in person. However, that is something that wouldn’t work for me. I wouldn’t be able to commit to a critique group that met regularly and read over manuscripts. I just don’t have the time. The nice part about an online critique group is that you can critique when you have the time. If I get an hour here or there, I’ll be able to get a critique done. The other nice thing is that being online has put me in touch with people from the other side of the country, and the other side of the world for that matter. You get great feedback from dealing with such a diverse group of people. In the process, I’ve made some friends there that I wouldn't have met otherwise too. It's been a win-win situation.