Thursday, May 10

5 Tips for Writing a Scientific Genius When You Are Not One (by A. M. Morgen)

Hello! Welcome to the blog tour stop for The Inventors at No. 8, a new middle-grade read by A. M. Morgen—who was also nice enough to write an awesome little post for us here! Ms. Morgen has provided a rather unique and very useful how-to about character development. Because, you see, she's got one hefty character starring in her new book: the one and only Ada Lovelace. This book is a STEM-filled adventure that will be sure to win over readers!

About the Book

The Inventors at No. 8
A. M. Morgen

Little Brown Books (May 8, 2018)
978-0316471497

Meet George, the third Lord of Devonshire and the unluckiest boy in London. Why is George so unlucky? First, he's an orphan. Second, unless he sells everything, he's about to lose his house. So when his family's last heirloom, a priceless map to the Star of Victory (a unique gem said to bring its owner success in any battle) is stolen by a nefarious group of criminals, George knows that there is no one less luckyor more alonethan he is.

That is until Ada Byron, the future Countess of Lovelace, bursts into his life. She promises to help George recover his family legacy, and is determined to find her own father along the wayall in a flying machine she built herself. Joined by a mischievous orangutan and the long-lost son of an infamous pirate, Ada and George take off on a cross-continent journey through the skies that will change their lives, and perhaps the world, forever.

Five Tips for Writing a Scientific Genius When You Are Not One

By A. M. Morgen

If you watch crime shows on TV, you might expect that geniuses are so common that they work in every police station. However, true geniuses are rare. Scientific geniuses are rarer still. Only .25% of the world’s population is estimated to have a genius-level IQ. But exceptional intellect alone doesn’t make a genius. A genius must also be creative and persistent enough to put their talents into practice.

When I decided to write a book with a scientific genius character based on Ada Lovelace, I worried I wouldn’t be able to write her convincingly. How was I supposed to write a character that was smarter than the reader, smarter than the other characters, and smarter than me? Luckily, Google and Wikipedia came to my rescue, but I discovered a few other strategies along the way. You can read Inventors at No. 8, to judge whether or not I was successful in my goal to write a convincing child genius. In the meantime, here are 5 tips to keep in mind when writing a genius of your own:

Thursday, May 3

Treating Kids Like Experts (by Becca Lee Gardner)

Hello all! I've got a bit of a unique and special guest post today. Becca Lee Gardner has authored a book that targets an audience I'm often rallying behind: the between-ers. You know what I mean. The above easy readers but below big chapter books. The ones that really do need more options. We need to flood this market with book selections. And here Ms. Gardner is doing that with an original book series that's not actually quite published yet--it's a Kickstarter project. Check it out:


The Forest Glows
(The Hybrid World #1)
Written by Becca Lee Gardner, illustrated by Andrew Bosley

See the Kickstarter project here

THE FOREST GLOWS is a story of Milo trying to find his brother after an alien ship crashes into the Amazon Rainforest and the impact begins to change the forest into a hybrid of the alien world and Earth. Milo gains an ally in his search, a black jaguar, who has also lost something since the crash.

This is book 1 of 6 in this series!

Treating Kids Like Experts 

By Becca Lee Gardner

Kids are experts in story and imagination.

Ask a kid what they are drawing. Or to explain why something works the way it does. Or why there is a new scribbling of black marks on their bunk bed. Stories. Kids will tell innocent stories. Kids will take a world they don’t quite understand and piece it together with a story. And kids will sometimes tell the kind of stories that are crafted out of a moment of desperation. Kids experience their world through stories and so, even at a young age, they are experts in them.