by Mary E. Cronin | Jul 7, 2015 | LGBTQ+, Middle-grade fiction, Tomfoolery, Uncategorized, We Need Diverse Books
As a teacher on summer hiatus, I’m grabbing all of the free hours I can muster, running as far and fast as I can with my middle-grade novel-in-progress, Tomfoolery. And the other day, the stars aligned to tell me, “Yes! Keep going. You are moving in the...
by Mary E. Cronin | Jun 12, 2015 | Conferences-workshops, Uncategorized
Time to unplug and retreat from the hubbub of life for a few days. I am packing the laptop, notebooks and other fun stuff and heading north, for a six-day retreat with writer friends in a house in Vermont. These early days of summer seem like a good time to make...
by Mary E. Cronin | Jun 9, 2015 | Conferences-workshops, LGBTQ+, Middle-grade fiction, Tomfoolery, Uncategorized, We Need Diverse Books
If we stare long enough, there are times when we swear we can see a budding flower actually bloom. That’s the tender window of time portrayed in “Ring of Keys,” the signature song from the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical “Fun Home.”...
by Mary E. Cronin | May 27, 2015 | Conferences-workshops, LGBTQ+, Middle-grade fiction, Teaching, We Need Diverse Books
What a delight to contribute a guest post on Lee Wind’s dynamic blog I’m Here, I’m Queer, What the Hell Do I Read? I have tips for middle grade writers who want to create multi-dimensional gay/questioning characters in their stories. Lee is an...
by Mary E. Cronin | May 21, 2015 | Community connections, Poetry, Teaching, Uncategorized, We Need Diverse Books
I recently received a bundle of letters from the kids at St. Luke’s School in the South Bronx. I delivered a poetry presentation there in the spring, using Jacqueline Woodson’s BROWN GIRL DREAMING and Kwame Alexander’s THE CROSSOVER as mentor texts....