From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 15:31:12 -0500

We invite others who have ideas to share with Monica about teaching writing to kids to reply to her directly.

In the meantime,I want to jump from what ME has said about pseudonymns to one of the pieces of advice she gives to kids in the Author's Note to "Blood on the Forehead: What I Know about Writing"
(HarperCollins, 1998):

"Take the trouble to give your characters interesting names. Mary Smith isn't a good choice."

ME, you've already talked about the source of your pseudonymns. Can you comment a bit about the source of the names of some of your characters? Where did the name Dinky Hocker, or Brenda Belle Blossom come from? Do you find that you are looking for a name that fits a character already fleshed out in your mind, or does the name also influence who the character becomes?

Megan




Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 21 Jun 2002 03:31:12 PM CDT