Friday, June 27, 2014

Press Release for My New Book!


New Faith-based Book Helps Teachers and Parents Communicate With Tweens and Teens

Tackling Tough Topics with Faith and Fiction, a resource book, by Diana R. Jenkins, helps adults discuss sensitive subjects with kids and guide them as they face the moral challenges of the tween and teen years.

Today's young teens will face many challenges before they reach adulthood, and they'll need guidance. But it's not easy for adults to open up discussion on uncomfortable subjects....

Read more here!

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Can't Wait to Read This Book!


Kerrie Logan Hollihan, author of  Isaac Newton and Physics for Kids: His Life and Ideas; Elizabeth I, the People's Queen: Her Life and Times; Theodore Roosevelt for Kids: His Life and Times; and other great biographies for young readers has a new book out! (Isn't the cover great?) 
Reporting Under Fire: 16 Daring Women War Correspondents and Photojournalists profiles courageous female journalists who risked their lives to share the reality of war. I'm hearing great things about this book, and I'm starting it now!


Monday, June 2, 2014

The Writing Process Blog Tour Continues!

Keila Dawson, author of the delightful picture book The King Cake Baby, invited me to participate in this Writing Process Blog Tour. When I met Keila at our local SCBWI, I knew she'd be a writing success! Be sure to check out her responses to the writing process questions on her blog.


And here are mine:

What am I currently working on?

Tackling Tough Topics with Faith and Fiction just came out so I'm working on promoting the book. It's funny how much time that kind of thing takes!

I'm also working on a middle grade novel about a spunky girl nobody wants. Progress is slow because I work on it sporadically, and I'm experimenting with writing without an outline.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

There are lots of great faith-based values education materials, but Tackling Tough Topics is different in that it uses fiction. Kids connect with stories in a different way than they do with nonfiction. They get emotionally involved, relate to the characters, and wonder how things are going to come out in the end. All that opens them up to receiving the good message you're trying to get across.

Why do I write what I write?

I was a special education teacher for many years, and I view writing as another way to teach. I hope to help kids lead better lives, make good moral decisions, and grow up to be the people they want to be.

How does my individual writing process work?

It's a torturous process of writing then deleting then rewriting then rephrasing then moving along a while then realizing what I'm doing is not going to work and deleting then rewriting and so on and so on until I "rassle" the story into submission and feel really good until I start the next project! It's not pretty.


To continue the Writing Process Blog Tour, I'm tagging writer and illustrator Virginia Wright. (She is a fascinating person. Read about her below!) Virginia's answers to the writing process questions will appear on her blog on June 9.

Besides writing and illustrating, Virginia loves taking photographs of everything that catches her eye -- oddities, nature, and food. (Yup, she's a foodie, too, and has a recipe blog). She stated that she had hundreds upon hundreds, no, into the thousands now, of photographs and illustrations on her computer files. One of her favorite hobbies is creating artwork from her photographic images--combining real life photographs with digital painting. (She calls this "digital artistry.") Her current WIP, writing and illustrating, is a book for toddlers titled: Wild Animal Sounds.

Follow and friend her here: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/virginiabrownwright