Laura Purdie Salas

Writing the World for Kids

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How My Monarch Poem Emerged [Poetry Friday]

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Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) A couple of weeks ago, I shared that my Poetry Princesses poem of the month was written on an airplane as I flew from Minneapolis to Orlando. Today, I thought I’d share the notebook pages of the drafts. I started out with my rhyming words, […]

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The Buzz of Self-Doubt for Writers (Not Just Students)

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I’m a fairly confident writer. But even though I know I can write, I never know if any particular person will like it. So, when I turn in a piece of writing to an editor, I hold my breath. It’s like turning in a school assignment and waiting for a grade. I just turned in […]

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Writing Openings

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted about working on the opening to my next picture book. I still haven’t heard if the opening I submitted will fly or not, but I thought I’d follow up here and share a couple of openings written after the fact. A lot of times, the meat of the […]

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Inviting a Reader in

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Teachers, I’m in the editing/revision process for my next book with Millbrook Press. Carol, my insightful editor, wondered if the book needed more of an opening to orient the reader. I wrote the book as a Things To Do If… poem (see some quick TTDI poems here and here and here), and if you go […]

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A Little Poetry and Game Night

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Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) A couple of weeks ago, I took my niece Lily (remember our collaboration of poetry and art here?) for a game/art night. We do this every once in a while. She’s very artistic. We go to a coffee shop and doodle or do rock art […]

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I’m EMBRACE-ing 2015!

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Each January, I choose a word of the year. This year, my word, my theme, is EMBRACE! I plan to try to embrace my writing life. If I can’t embrace it, I’m going to try to ditch it–either not do it (and quit feeling guilty about not doing it), outsource it…something. I love picture books, […]

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Special Saturday Edition: I’m at Will Write for Cookies

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Good morning, everybody! I don’t usually post on Saturdays, but it’s a special weekend edition, because I’m being featured over at the lovely Vivian Kirkfield’s Picture Books Help Kids Soar blog as part of her Will Write for Cookies series. Hey, if you change that to cupcakes, I’ll write, sing, dance, do just about anything! […]

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Writing Rhyming Nonfiction

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Today, I’m back at TeachingAuthors.com with an exercise on writing a rhyming nonfiction poem–I hope you’ll come give it a try–and don’t forget to enter the book giveaway while you’re there!

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How Books Change Us [Poetry Friday]

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Hi, Poetry Friday friends–I have a guest post over at Kirby Larson’s blog, Kirby’s Lane. It’s about my new rhyming nonfiction book, Water Can Be…,?and how the book and I both changed during the course of writing it. I hope you’ll stop by (and comment if you have a second). Thanks! The Poetry Friday Roundup […]

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Super-Sneaky Cybils Student [my writing life]

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I have a guest post up today at the SCBWI blog, and it’s all about how I’m using my role as a panelist on a Cybils committee to learn about a certain genre and improve my writing. And how you can use any awards list this way, too! Blogger Lee Wind receives my A Writer […]

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