Below are the most recent 2 friends' journal entries.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
long_stockings	1:42p	Miss January! http://thelongstockings.blogspot.com/2010/01/miss-january.html Yippee! We have a winner! Selected at random from all the emailed January Workshop entries is... (drumroll please) LESLIE TAYLOR! While Leslie will privately get the full Longstockings workshop treatment, we'll also be posting a nugget or two of critique and writing advice (using some of Leslie's words to illustrate) right here on the blog. Personally speaking, I have learned as much from my own manuscript critiques as I have the critiques of others, and the hope is that these tips will help everyone out there improve their writing! And Leslie is also going to be kind enough to send her reaction/experience of being workshopped, which we will of course share with you, too. Thanks again to all those writers who entered this month. Remember that there will be another call for February entries in the next few weeks...and throughout 2010. So stay tuned!!! -=siobhan=- (Comment on this)
long_stockings	11:16a	Katherine Paterson Is On A Mission http://thelongstockings.blogspot.com/2010/01/katherine-paterson-is-on-mission.html Check out this great article in the NY Times profiling Katherine Paterson, our new ambassador of children's literature.What an awesome, awesome lady. And I think she's a fabulous choice to replace Jon Scieszka, especially after reading this quote: “I want people to be reading about children of other places and other races and religions,” she said. “I think novels are a wonderful way to do that because you get in somebody else’s psyche and you see things quite differently than the way you see things simply through your own eyes.” This instantly reminded of how moved I was after reading the gloriously tragic SOLD by Patty McCormick. That book, that narrator, has stuck with me like glue. It opened me up to a world and a race and a struggle I never knew before...and it, in a small (but still impactful) way, changed me. I really wish this kind of fiction was getting more attention in these vampire-werewolf-angel-demon-zombie days. And I'm wondering...what book would you champion that would be in line with Katherine's mission? -=siobhan=- (Comment on this)