A Writer's Moment: Mastering those 'puzzly' plots

A Writer's Moment: Mastering those 'puzzly' plots:   “The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read.   I read Nancy Drew, of course, when I w...

Mastering those 'puzzly' plots

 

“The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read.  I read Nancy Drew, of course, when I was a kid, but I think the real appeal is as a writer because I'm drawn to puzzly, complicated plots.” – Elise Broach

  

Born in Georgia on this date in 1963 (she now lives in Connecticut), Broach earned acclaim as a writer of Children’s and YA mystery tales.  Her dozen best-selling titles are led by her award-winning Shakespeare's Secret, Desert Crossing, and the Masterpiece series.   Her most recent “Masterpiece” offering is A Trip to the Country for Marvin & James.

 

Broach also has authored 10 Picture Books for young children, including When Dinosaurs Came with Everything, voted a Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association, and My Pet Wants A Pet.   But writing mysteries seems to be at the top of her list.

 

 “I'm most interested in the relationship between the characters,” she said. “I'm trying to create characters who not only are solving a mystery but are solving the riddle of their own personal relationships.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Expansive, intelligent and non-medicinal'

A Writer's Moment: 'Expansive, intelligent and non-medicinal':   “The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but n...

'Expansive, intelligent and non-medicinal'

 

“The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but never forget to be entertaining and to have character and emotion at their heart." – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

Born in Nigeria on Sept. 15, 1977 Adichie earned a bachelor’s degree at Eastern Connecticut University, where she began her writing career before going on to earn masters’ degrees from Johns Hopkins and Yale.  Since then she not only has been published in the world’s leading English language publications but also translated into more than 30 languages.

 

Winner of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (Genius Grant”), she is the author of the award-winning novels Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun.  Her latest is Dream Count, published in 2025.  Adichie also has written numerous short stories and nonfiction pieces and has been honored with such prizes as the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, The Reader’s Digest Author of the Year, and a PEN Pinter Prize. 

 

“I am drawn, as a reader, to detail-drenched stories about human lives affected as much by the internal as by the external,” she said.  “(It’s what) Jane Smiley nicely describes as 'first and foremost about how individuals fit, or don't fit, into their social worlds.’”

A Writer's Moment: 'Small door; enormous room'

A Writer's Moment: 'Small door; enormous room':   “A picture book is a small door to the enormous world of the visual arts, and they're often the first art a young person sees.” – Tomi...

'Small door; enormous room'

 

“A picture book is a small door to the enormous world of the visual arts, and they're often the first art a young person sees.” – Tomie dePaola

  

Born in Meridian, CT on this date in 1934, dePaola created more than 200 children's books, authoring works ranging from his famous Strega Nona series to memoirs, legends, folk tales and religion.   He was honored for his lifetime contribution to American children’s literature with the prestigious Laura Ingalls Wilder Award and also was a several-time finalist for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award.   He died in 2020.

 

DePaola studied to be an art teacher, earning several degrees. in art while teaching at a number of colleges and universities.  But, after his books became successful, he left the teaching world in 1978 to concentrate full time on his adopted profession.   His lush artistic style earned him legions of followers – kids and their parents alike.   And, he also earned accolades for his fine art, creating numerous significant pieces that are displayed at museums and religious centers around the country.

 

DePaola credits his family with encouraging his development as an artist and influencing the themes of his works. 

 

 “I remember feeling guilty that I had a good childhood,” he said. “I thought everybody who is famous had to have a desperate childhood and work his way out of it, but I had a great one.”

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the scaffold beneath the structure'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the scaffold beneath the structure': “The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and th...