Carmela A. Martino

Here are links to the online resources I'll be sharing at the Ela Public Library presentation, "Great Beginnings: How to Hook Readers and Keep Them Turning the Pages" on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013 :

* Writer's Digest magazine Jan, 2011 article by Elizabeth Sims, "8 Ways to Write a 5-Star Chapter One." .
* Article by Bharti Kirchner in The Writer, Dec. 2010, “The Pleasures and Perils of Prologues ."

Blog posts by former literary agent Mary Kole, who is also the author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit (Writer’s Digest Books):
• “The Promise of the Novel."
• “First Lines ."
• “Fix Your Beginning."

If you have any questions about the presentation, you can post them as a comment below or email me via the "Contact" page of this blog.
 Read More 

My poem, "At the Chicago Marathon," is one of 50 sports-themed poems in And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems edited by Carol-Ann Hoyte and Heidi Bee Roemer. I'll be one of six poets celebrating the book's release with editor Heidi Roemer at Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 7 pm. The official flyer announcing the event is shown at right.

Hope you'll join us. Children ages 6-12 are especially welcome!
For more information, see the listing for the "Heidi Roemer and Friends" event at the
Anderson's Bookshop website .
 Read More 

Well, it's now 9 pm Sunday, the end of my 48-hour book challenge. Today I finished reading my friend's young adult historical novel work-in-progress that I blogged about yesterday. Then I began The Name of the Rose, an adult novel by Umberto Eco. Both are quite different from Melvin Beederman Superhero: The Curse of the Bologna Sandwich, the book I began the Challenge reading. :-)

Today I read for a total of 5 hours. Adding that to my previous total of 8 hours, 45 minutes, gives me a total of 13 hours, 45 minutes. [That includes about 60-90 minutes spent blogging and reading a few blog posts. If I do this again next year, I'll know to track my blog-related reading more carefully. This year, I simply noted my stopping and starting times without differentiating time spent online. But I was careful to limit my online time.] I don't believe I've ever spent that much time reading fiction in one 48-hour period, except perhaps in my college days.

This has been a most interesting, and fun, experience. Read More 

I managed to put in only 1 hour 15 minutes of reading time last night. It's now 1 pm, Saturday, and I'm ready to sit down to some serious reading. It's too hot and muggy to be outside for long, so I'm going to read in the comfort of my lovely air-conditioned office.