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Carmela's Blog

Turning Life into Fiction Presentation Resources 2024

      I'll be presenting a workshop on "Turning Life into Fiction" for the Catholic Writers Guild Online Conference later this month. In addition to Robin Hemley's writing book of the same name, I'll likely be mentioning the following texts:

I won't have time for any writing exercises during the presentation, but for those who are writing fiction inspired by the lives of others, I recommend an exercise I shared on the TeachingAuthors blog in this post

 

Also, if you're writing historical fiction, check out the resources I share in this blog post.

 

And you can find multiple online articles at Writers Digest magazine on turning life into fiction and writing historical fiction here.

 

If you have any questions about my presentation, feel free to post it as a comment below or email me through my contact page.

 

 

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Agent Announcement!

     

     I'm excited to announce that I am now represented by Anjanette Barr of Dunham Literary, Inc! I'm looking forward to working with Anjanette to find homes for my latest projects. 

 

 

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TV, Radio, and Podcast Interviews

 

I'm in the process of revising this website and have decided to move the links to my TV, radio, and podcast interviews here. Unfortunately, direct links to some of the interviews are no longer available.

 

TV interviews: 

 Podcast and radio interviews: 

  • I enjoyed a wide-ranging podcast discussion with Jayne de Sales on the July 26, 2022 episode of Tales with de Sales. Our topics included Jane Austen, the harpsichord, computer coding, care of the poor, and my novel Playing by Heart.
  • I was interviewed by Antony Kolenc for The Shepherd's Pie podcast on Oct. 10, 2021. The topic was "Culture and Youth," and we discussed ways to help young people appreciate their own heritage and respect the culture of others.  
  • I was interviewed for the Catholic Chicago radio program for a second time, on July 26, 2018, this time by Graziano Marcheschi. We discussed both Rosa, Sola and Playing by Heart. The direct link to the recoding is no longer available.
  • Fellow author Amy Cattapan and I were interviewed for the Catholic Chicago radio program hosted by Fr. Greg Sakowicz, Rector of Holy Name Cathedral and Wayne Magdziarz, Senior Vice President at Loyola University Chicago on March 27, 2017. We discussed our books and the CatholicTeenBooks website for the first 30 minutes of the one-hour program. The direct link to the recoding is no longer available. 

 If you listen to any of these interviews, do let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

 

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Small Press, BIG Decision Presentation Resources

In this blog post, I share references mentioned in my January 27, 2022 SCBWI-IL Network Presentation "Small Press, BIG Decision:" 

Small Presses that offer writing contests:

Resources for finding Small Presses that publish books for children and teens:

Articles and sites related to book cover design:

Articles related to book contracts:

I also briefly discussed self-publishing. SCBWI has a section in "THE BOOK" on self-publishing. They recently announced they'll also be releasing The Essential Guide to Self-Publishing a Children's Book for members only.  

 

Do you have any resources to add? Please share a comment below or email me through my contact page.

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