Living the Fictional Dream

Erin M. Kinch’s musings upon the writing profession

I Feel Like I Should Blog…

…but I don’t really have anything to say.

My brain is mulling over a few short story/flash ideas, but nothing has solidified yet. I think NaNo has stolen all my words!

Got another huge project at work, so if you don’t see much of me here until the 9th, you can imagine me slaving away.

Also… yikes! Christmas! I have two of the three December birthdays taken care of, but only one Christmas present purchased. Eep!

Speaking of Christmas, what kind of books would you buy for an 11 year old? Middle grade, I guess… I always read way in advance of my actual age, so it’s hard for me to guess what my friend’s daughter would like to read. I also think she’d probably like something more modern than, say, Little Women, which was one of my go-to favorites at that age. I’m much more into the Y/A realm than middle grade now, and know a lot of good books for that age bracket, but I think she’s still a bit young for the full-on Y/A (especially the Y/A vampire crack, LOL).

7 Comments so far

  1. gay December 4th, 2008 8:24 am

    11? Hard to say at this age IN this age. So different from when I was 11. Holes is a terrific book by Louis Sachar, The Giver by Lois Lowry. You might check Jane Aegerter Marshall’s Goodreads. My sister has three kids and Sam is 11, her daughter 14.

    Oh I know. Maggie Valley. I took classes from Kerry Madden and sent these books to my niece. She loved them. Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Jessies-Mountain-Maggie-Valley-Novels/dp/0670061549

    and here is Kerry’s link: http://www.kerrymadden.com/

  2. gay December 4th, 2008 8:57 am

    Here’s my sister’s link at Goodreads. She reads more kids books than any adult I know.
    http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/268184

  3. Kevin Shamel December 4th, 2008 9:36 am

    I was going to suggest vampire crack.

    But you know… my 10 year old read the City of Ember series last year. Loved them. Movies coming out…

  4. Steph December 4th, 2008 4:27 pm

    I think NaNo stole all my words, too. I think I may work on revising some stuff in the meantime . . .

  5. Jason December 5th, 2008 8:55 am

    I concur with Kevin on City of Ember (my 9 yo loved it). I also think it’s a good age to start on things like The Hobbit and the Foundation Trilogy - I just gave a copy of the Hobbit to my 12 yo daughter. She also really liked the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfield. I’ll ask her tonight about other favorites.

  6. Jens December 6th, 2008 5:55 pm

    Anything by Roald Dahl! “Matilda” is great, but so is “The Witches”. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Great Glass Elevator”, “The BFG,” it’s all good! Just make sure it’s illustrated by Quentin Blake.

  7. emkinch December 8th, 2008 2:13 pm

    Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I really appreciate it. I’m going to head over to the bookstore later this week.

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