Meet Suzanne Lieurance

This week's guest is Suzanne Lieurance. Suzanne is the author of twenty books and has written articles for a variety of magazines, newsletters, and ezines. She teaches children’s writing for the Institute of Children’s Literature and is the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center. She's the host of a talk show about children’s books called Book Bites for Kids on blogtalkradio.com and also 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 into a part-time or full-time career.

Can you tell us a bit about your recent release, "The Locket?"

"The Locket" is about Galena, an eleven-year-old Russian-Jewish immigrant, who 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. A dramatic historical fiction novel, readers can learn how Galena uses the support of friends, family, and Jewish traditions to inspire her to fight for workers rights.

What advice would you give to aspiring children’s writers who are trying to break into the field?

First, take a course or workshop to learn the basics about writing for children. Next, join or start a critique group for children’s writers and be sure there are at least a few published children’s authors in the group. Third, read, read, read all the children’s books you can. Finally, write, write, write!

What is "The Morning Nudge?"

As a writing coach, I like to encourage my clients to get a little writing done every single day. When I first started coaching, I would send out a weekly newsletter but I suddenly thought how much more helpful it would be to send something every weekday. I have a friend who calls it “The Morning Shove” because some days I just want writers to stop making excuses for not creating the writing life of their dreams. The only way to become a writer is to write! And the purpose of The Morning Nudge is to remind readers of that every day.

Where can people find out more?

For my books for children, visit my author website at http://www.suzannelieurance.com To find out more about my coaching, visit http://www.workingwriterscoach.com. You can subscribe to 'The Morning Nudge' at http://www.morningnudge.com and listen to my talk show about children's books on blogtalkradio every weekday afternoon at 2:00 CT at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bookbitesforkids