What Is a One Sentence Blurb?

TALKING MAMA HOME is about one girl's struggle to keep her family intact and the friend who helps her.

The above sentence is from my work-in-progress middle-grade novel, TALKING MAMA HOME. It is important to write a one sentence blurb for our stories. We need to be ready when we're asked by an editor, agent, teacher, or anyone what our story is about. After the sentence is a great one, expand to a three to five sentence paragraph for the query letter we'll need to send out to an editor or agent.

More snippets of TALKING MAMA HOME coming soon.

Have a blessed Sunday!

Summer Reading

I finally got to read a summer pick. It is a book from my library, Kaye Gibbons' "Sights Unseen." This is an adult book. I read only a few of those, mainly concentratng on children's books. There's a reason for me to read this for the third time.

The subject matter is similar to my manuscript for a novel, TALKING MAMA HOME, and is for 9-12 age group. Gibbons' "Sights Unseen" is about a woman looking back to her childhood, and what it was like to be born to a mentally ill mother.

This story helps me to see all the ways Gibbons is able to keep me interested in a tough story about mother loss and love. I happened upon Gibbons' books while researching published books on my topic of depression and mental illness. I've bought two of hers, the other, "Ellen Foster," is also about emotional imbalance of a parent and how one child got through her turbulent childhood.

If young adults want to read a book on surviving childhood, "Ellen Foster" will satisfy. Ellen is spunky and full of determination to make it in a cruel world.

I hope everyone has a chance to read or reread their favorite books during the summer. Fall is upon us. School is beginning. Keep reading books that give us hope.

Until next time.