Books

Book Cover: How to Write a Play
How to Write a Play: The Tween and Teen Guide to Mastering Artful Storytelling

What happens when a teacher who is also a writer teaches writing for too long?

 

This book happens.

 

For the past fifteen years, I've taught creative writing to filmmaking and Talented and Gifted classes at the upper elementary and middle school level... all while writing nonstop myself.

 

Now, all the wisdom and materials I've created are here in one place and takes you a few steps beyond the typical English class. In order to learn how to structure a good story, you must learn what makes a good story and think beyond "What should I do next?" plot questions.

 

Filled with theory, exercises, examples, and jokes, How to Write a Play will get your creative juices flowing from your brain to the page.

 

The desire to tell good stories is built into our brains on a biological and evolutionary level. In How to Write a Play, you will learn what makes stories "tick" with readers and audiences, and why our brains crave good stories. You will be able to build from that knowledge to formulate plot, characters, scenes, dialogue, and jokes from the heaviest of dramas to the lightest of comedies.

 

This book is for tweens and teens with a true interest in writing and storytelling, who want to go beyond a typical Language Arts class to truly understand: What makes a story a good story?

Barnes and Noble
Ingram Spark
Or ask your favorite local bookstore to order from Ingram
Jasper Berry Out of Time
Jasper Berry: Out of Time

Order of the Time Watchers: Book 1

Twelve-year-old Jasper Berry never thought he was anything special—until one night, an old man named Fletcher shows up to rescue him. Fletcher tells Jasper that he’s a time traveler, just like Jasper’s long-lost parents. Jasper finds out that he’s meant to defeat a gang of evil time travelers called the Krylios Clan. This gang uses time travel to get rich and powerful, led by the evil Krylios and his powerful helper, Hayalet.

 

But now, what’s left of Krylios Clan has come back in time to get rid of Jasper before he can grow up to stop them. Fletcher’s plan is to send Jasper back 40 years into the past to meet a younger Fletcher. But, when he arrives, this younger Fletcher doesn’t even know who Jasper is!

As Jasper tries to figure out what’s going on, he gets help from other time travelers who want to protect him from Hayalet. But Jasper thinks he can solve this mystery on his own, and that’s where things get really tricky.

 

Will Jasper learn to work with his new friends, or will his stubbornness get him into more trouble? Join Jasper before he runs out of time for an exciting adventure through the centuries, full of danger, surprises, and bravery.

Barnes and Nole
Ingram Spark
Or ask your favorite local bookstore to order from Ingram
Torpedoed! Surviving the Lusitania
Torpedoed! Surviving the Lusitania

Passengers set sail aboard the RMS Lusitania after an ominous warning: submarines might sink her before she arrives in England!

 

It's the First World War, and Great Britain is at war with Germany. Despite the war, two thousand people dare to ignore the warning and travel anyway.

 

Seventeen-year-old deckhand Leo Masterson joins the crew of the RMS Lusitania at the last minute. He knows the Lusitania is fast enough to outrun any submarine! But the uncertainty of sailing into a warzone makes all the passengers and crew nervous.

 

The night before they reach the English coast, Captain Turner asks Leo to help get all the lifeboats ready for lowering. Should Leo be worried?

Barnes and Nole
Ingram Spark
Or ask your favorite local bookstore to order from Ingram
DASH
DASH: Carpathia's Mad Race to Rescue Titanic

The crew felt a new wind. The bitter cold added to the bite of a ship that had never, ever gone this fast. Sharp eyes stayed fixed on the dim horizon. There was no time for caution, though they knew dangerous ice lay ahead. The tiny vessel Carpathia raced into the same ice field that had just claimed Titanic.

 

Young Henry Cromwell dreams of becoming a reporter. Armed with a homemade radio, he spent the first three days of Carpathia’s voyage secretly listening in on the North Atlantic’s radio traffic—eagerly jotting down notes and being a general bother to the crew. But nothing prepared him for what he would hear at 12:30 am.

 

In the bitter cold air and moonless night, every crew member is awake. While the passengers slept, the Carpathia came alive, ready to take on Titanic’s passengers... if they make it in time.

 

DASH

Carpathia’s mad race to rescue Titanic.

 

Barnes and Nole
Ingram Spark
Or ask your favorite local bookstore to order from Ingram