Anna Staniszewski

Archives: July2009

• WIP Update

  As alluded to in a previous post, I’ve been working on a new YA project, code name Lightning. So far it’s been slow going, especially since the story is set in an alternate reality. This means that it requires some research on my part and a whole lot of brainstorming. “If this incident in history

• What Makes a Boy Book?

  The question of what boys want to be reading/should be reading has been around for a while, but recently I feel like I’ve been hearing even more about it than usual, like in this article by Martha Brockenbrough. It seems to me that what primarily defines a book as being “for boys” is the gender

• Memorable Quotes from Simmons

  This weekend was packed with children’s literature fun. The Simmons Summer Institute got underway on Thursday with the theme of Crimes and Misdemeanors. There were many highlights including Kristin Cashore’s thoughtful talk about her own criminal past (childhood food theft and other rule-breaking) and the creation of her fantasy world; Anita Silvey’s well-supported assertion that

• Skipping Through Children’s Lit. Land

  The Simmons Children’s Literature Summer Institute is this weekend and I’m very excited to hear all the wonderful speakers they have lined up this year, including Natalie Babbitt, MT Anderson, and Kristin Cashore. Going to events like this is always inspiring and stimulating and just generally fun. I can’t wait to blog all about it

• Snapping Out of Revision Mode

  I’ve noticed that when I work on revising for too long, it becomes increasingly more difficult to start something new. I think Revision Mode puts me into this nit picky state of mind where nothing seems right. This is, at least partially, the reason that I’ve started several projects in past months but haven’t been

• Writing vs. Rewriting

  The other day I watched a great video of authors saying inspiring things. My favorite tidbit was contributed by Ridley Pearson: “No book is written. Every book is rewritten.” As I’ve been in the process of fine-tuning a manuscript to pass on to my agent, I couldn’t have agreed more with the sentiment, especially since

• Some Places Are Too Weird to Make Up

  Literature is filled with bizarre settings, but some places in real life are stranger than anything literary minds could imagine. I visited one such place while I was in Poland. It’s called the Wieliczka Salt Mine and it’s right outside of Krakow. No longer a working salt mine, its main industry now is tourism. What’s

• The Castles of Krakow and Prague

  I’ve finally gotten around to downloading the pictures from my recent trip to Poland and the Czech Republic and wanted to share some of them, namely the castles. I’ve long-since been intrigued by castles and luckily Eastern Europe is a wonderful place for castle-hunting. Seeing these magnificent structures makes it clear to me why so

• Harry Potter Returns!

  In honor of Mr. Potter’s reappearance in the theaters, here are a few Potter-related tidbits. First up is a Boston.com recap of the Harry Potter series. While I don’t know if the summaries are detailed enough to really fill you in on the things that happened in the books, it’s entertaining to see such huge,

• All in the Packaging

  I’m back from my trip and filled with memories and images from the places I visited in Poland and the Czech Republic. Once the jet lag wears off, I may even try to use some of them in my writing. But what stands out in my mind at the moment is something that people often