Fill-in-the-Blank Plotting combines the two most reliable story structures -- the Hero's Journey and the Three-Act Structure -- and shows writers how to merge them to create a powerful plot. Some writers are lucky. Plots pop into their heads, fully formed and ready for the page. This book is for the rest of us. 
This book combines the two most reliable story structures: the Hero's Journey and the Three-Act Structure, and shows writers how to merge them to create a powerful plot. 
For those of us who have to work hard at turning our ideas into a workable story, here is a helping hand. Linda George's method for outlining allows flexibility and ''eureka'' moments, while providing a reliable way to develop scenes, characters, turning points, and other dramatic elements to strengthen your novel. 
In this book, Linda shares her two plotting boards, presents the twelve steps of the Hero's Journey, and shows in detail how the Journey fits into the classic Three-Act Structure. 
A fill-in-the-blank method may sound formulaic, but proves to be a wonderful platform for creativity -- a sturdy trellis for the climbing vines of your story.

Fill-in-the-Blank Plotting: A Guide to Outlining a Novel Using the Hero s Journey and Three-Act Structure

Reference

George, Linda

Words, Language & Grammar

Crickhollow Books

A Guide to Fantasy Literature is a wide-ranging, thoughtful look at the magic of fantasy storytelling and why it delights and enchants readers of all ages. The book discusses the nature of the best writing, from tales of Middle-earth and Narnia to many other examples of high fantasy, dark fantasy, fairy-tale fiction, magic realism, and adventure-fantasy tales. The book also examines the major building blocks of fantasy fiction, and discusses the purpose and popularity of fantasy literature today. Includes material from original interviews and many brief samples of outstanding passages from the writings of the best fantasists, from J.R.R. Tolkien to J.K. Rowling, from C.S. Lewis to Stephen King, drawing an inclusive picture of a vibrant literary community across the ages. 
This is a substantially revised version of an earlier work, The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature (2002), now oriented to a general audience of readers, while offering many tips and techniques for writers.

A Guide to Fantasy Literature - Thoughts on Stories of Wonder and Enchantment

Literature & Fiction

Philip, Martin

History & Criticism

Welcome to the adventures of two 13-year-olds, Katie McEachron and her friend Florence Mather, who experience an exciting summer in 1852 as the plank road that runs by their homes brings mysterious strangers to their dinner tables and the plight of runaway slaves to their consciences. 
Katie McEachron is a forthright, impulsive girl who has not yet learned the importance of keeping silent. Her friend Florence Mather, a solemn and hardworking girl, came with her family from Cornwall, England. She has an eager mind, but her mother is less interested in Florence's education than in having her help at the inn. 
One day in May, a stranger arrives at the Mather Inn. The visit of the stranger launches a string of events that will make this a most unforgettable summer for the two girls. . . . 
This well-researched historical novel, with its themes of Underground Railroad activities, 19th-century pioneer life, and the importance of friendship and family values, is sure to appeal to young readers (and their parents and teachers).

Plank Road Summer

Children's Books

Hilda Demuth

Emily Demuth

Saving Sailing is an appealing blueprint for the revival of family sailing -- and other quality uses of free time for rewarding lifelong pastimes. Participation in sailing is declining in America, down more than 40% since 1997 and 70% since 1979. In this provocative book, researcher and avid sailor Nicholas Hayes explains why. The book shows how pressures on free time have increased, and how, in response, many Americans have turned to extremes of spectator or highly structured activities . . . and away from lifelong, family-based, multi-generational recreation. 
Saving Sailing builds a case for choosing how to spend free time better, using it for quality experiences with families and friends through rewarding pastimes like sailing. 
The main challenge, the author suggests, is to develop an active system of mentoring, especially between generations. 
The lessons are broader than sailing, with useful ideas for all parents, for anyone seeking to strengthen the social fabric of American communities, and for those involved in programming for youth and adult activities.

Saving Sailing: The Story of Choices, Families, Time Commitments, and How We Can Create a Better Future

Parenting & Relationships

Hayes, Nicholas D.

Parenting

Writing that grant will be as easy as pie! . . . with this quick survival guide for the new grant writer, covering the basics in a fun and common-sense way. 
Grant Writing Made Simple is a quick survival guide and desktop companion for the new grant writer, especially for students majoring in English, community education, or social work, and for new professionals (or volunteers) working with a nonprofit organization, charity, or civic group who wish to write a winning proposal for an important project. 
This book covers the core competencies of grant writing, with tips for establishing need, proposal clarity, outcomes, evaluation, and more. 
With an approach based on common-sense principles, the book offers plenty of advice from foundation grant reviewers, writing instructors, grant-writing students, and others -- a compendium of the best and most useful tips and techniques. These little nuggets of wisdom are small enough to fit in your already-crammed-full-of-facts brain, but big enough to help you out when you get stuck just before that important grant deadline.

Grant Writing Made Simple - 87 Tips for Great Grants

Business & Money

Laurie Risch

Sally Stanton

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

Patton's Lucky Scout is a fascinating, intelligent, often humorous memoir of World War II by a remarkable soldier, a scout working behind enemy lines for Patton's famed Third Army on the move. The stories in this book are the memoirs of PFC Frank Wayne Martin, who served in the 328th regiment of the 26th Yankee Division in the Third Army during World War II. 
As part of a group of advance observers, his task was to scout routes and German positions, usually far behind enemy lines, then to report back, often directly to General Patton and Lucky Forward (Patton's mobile headquarters; ''Lucky'' was the code name of the Third Army). Based on these reports and other intelligence, Patton decided where and how to advance. In short, PFC Martin's mission was to spearhead the Third Army drive across Europe. 
Whether chatting up an enemy sniper in a tree or working with the French or German Underground or going without food for days, this is a memoir of survival. The personal account is full of humor and engaging stories, tales of a historic campaign seen through the eyes of an intelligent, trained observer. 
One example of the dry humor: the field cookbook offered in an appendix, a glimpse of GI ingenuity, with eccentric ingredients and offbeat techniques for collecting and preparing food. Julia Child might turn up her nose, but these reflect the real experiences of a scout working beyond enemy lines, with a trench knife, well-tuned powers of observation, common sense, compassion, inventiveness, and a powerful drive for survival.

Patton's Lucky Scout: The Adventures of a Forward Observer for General Patton and the Third Army in Europe

History

MARTIN, Nancy

Martin, Frank Wayne

Europe

A War of Her Own is a compelling World War II historical novel, set in Orange, Texas, in 1943, about a Texas version of Rosie the Riveter in search of happiness. In the summer of 1943, Orange, Texas, is a sleepy little town overrun with tens of thousands of new workers. With jobs galore at the wartime shipyards, the workers are rich with cash and looking for a good time. 
Bea Meade, mother of an infant son, finds her life shattered when her philandering husband announces he is leaving her for another woman. To make ends meet, Bea takes a job at a shipyard as a riveter. Meanwhile, she searches for the love missing in her life. 
Life is good for everyone in Orange--except Bea, who has to fight her own battles against a no-good husband, the prejudice facing women in the workplace, and the mysteries of her own past. 
Bea's journey to discover who she really is, a vibrant woman of her times, serves up an entertaining story of the World War II homefront you'll remember long after the final pages.

A War of Her Own - A World War II Novel

Sylvia Dickey Smith

Genre Fiction

''I find that most people know what a story is until they sit down to write one.''-- Flannery O'Connor Beginning writers too often believe that plot, or character development, or some structural element is what's needed to get published. This book looks at what really makes fiction work: good storytelling. ''A good writer is basically a storyteller,'' said Isaac Bashevis Singer, winner of the Nobel Prize. However, basic storytelling techniques, despite their immense value to all writers, are seldom taught in writing courses or in ''how to get published'' books of advice. This slim book explores three key elements that fuel the magic of story - intriguing eccentricity, delightful details, and satisfying surprises. The proven storytelling techniques are time-tested and used by the best authors, including by winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer, and National Book Award, as well as by commercially successful authors whose books appear on bestseller lists and whose work is treasured by generations of fans.Written by an accomplished editor and indie-press publisher, this guide draws on the author's decades of experience in the book trade, studying what really works for emerging writers and editing many books of advice on literary craft and career development.It will help writers in their efforts to craft better fiction (or nonfiction) and to get their best work published.

How To Write Your Best Story - Advice for Writers on Spinning an Enchanting Tale

In 2009, Loreen Niewenhuis walked completely around Lake Michigan. This book chronicles that journey, a 1,000-mile walk around the world's fifth-largest lake. The book explores both the geology of the lake and the measure of a person--a woman, married, mother of two sons (who joined her for portions of the walk). But most of the walk was done solo, an adventure in discovery of self and place. 
Niewenhuis conveys a sense of the magnitude of the lake she loves, a place so elemental to the four Midwestern states that form its shores. 
From a ground-level perspective, the book explores the natural and human history of Lake Michigan . . . and raises important questions about preserving our wild places and protecting fragile ecosystems on which we all depend.

A 1000-Mile Walk on the Beach - One Woman's Trek of the Perimeter of Lake Michigan

Loreen Niewenhuis

Americas

Jingo Fever is the story of young Adele Klein, a German-American girl who has come with her mother from Milwaukee to live in Ashland, a small town in northern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior, for the summer of 1918. In this historical novel for middle-grade readers, Adelle struggles to cope with the local patriotic fervor, in support of American troops abroad during World War I . . . spilling over into a hatred of all things of German origin. As she seeks friendships, she wonders how to deal with the bigotry of anti-German sentiment, which escalates with the approach of the July 4th celebration. The summer's events will teach Adelle about the importance of standing up for what's right. Themes include: family and friendship, ethnic heritage, patriotism during war, resisting intolerance and bigotry, and standing up to bullies.

Jingo Fever

Teen & Young Adult

Stephanie Golightly Lowden

Historical Fiction

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