Visiting the UK this Christmas

My daughter and I both love myths and legends. We'll be in the UK end of December/beg of January (her Christmas break from university studies). I'd love to be able to visit the most magical places England/Scotland have to offer but with all my work, writing, etc it's hard for me to plan my itinerary (Dec 27th thru Jan 8th). I was wondering if anyone reading this blog, who's visited the UK, would send me suggested itineraries I could follow. I've ordered books and videos from my public library and they've begun to arrive but if I can see someone else's itinerary and what they liked and didn't like that would help me lots. We both love the Arthurian stories. Would love to experience Stonehenge. Maybe go to Scotland and visit sites related to William Wallace, to Nessie the Loch Ness monster. Make this a time for memory building, fun explorarion of a land rich in history and lore. Thanks, in advance, for any/all information you can send my way.

Rules of Engagement: How To Get (& Keep) A Reader Involved In Your Novel

At the RMC-SCBWI 2005 Fall Conference one of the speakers was Cheryl Klein, Editor at Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic. Klein's talk on The Rules of Engagement: How to Get (and Keep!) A Reader Involved in Your Novel is a rare opportunity to understand, from an editor's point of view, what it is that makes a manuscript work and what keeps it from working.

Klein graciously allowed Children Come First to produce an eBook of her talk. It's divided into three parts.

The first part of the eBook talks about how to get and keep a reader involved in your novel. Klein lists the various things she sees in manuscripts that knock her out of the characters' brains or worldsâ€"little tiny things, pacing questions, word choices even, that distract and dislodge her from the story.

The second part, How to Disengage Your Reader in Ten Easy Steps, goes through ten different things writers need to avoid doing if they want to keep the readers engaged in the story.

The eBook wraps up its third part with a transcript of the question and answer session from the RMC-SCBWI conference.

Feel free to email this blog to friends. There's an "Email link" at the end of the blog you can use or you can just send them this page's URL. The eBook was produced by Children Come First and is graciously being offered free of charge by its author. Remember to click the "bookmarks" tab to navigate thru the document once you receive it.

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