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Russell F. Hirsch
Oct 25, 20232 min read
Descriptive Language that Sparkles
Kill your darlings! Get to the point! Plot over prose! How many times have you heard advice about simplifying your writing for middle...
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Russell F. Hirsch
Oct 11, 20231 min read
SIWC - Simply Inspiring Writers' Conference
We all know the feeling of finding our tribe. Whether we were kids discovering new friends on the playground, teens navigating a new...
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Russell F. Hirsch
Sep 27, 2023
Middle Grade Fantasy Word Counts – Part 2
Last post, I dove into an investigation of Middle Grade fantasy word counts using a random selection of novels from my own shelf. The...
Russell F. Hirsch
Sep 13, 2023
Middle Grade Fantasy Word Counts – Part 1
If you’re an over-writer like me, you probably agonize over word counts. If you’re an under-writer, you probably also agonize over word...
Russell F. Hirsch
Aug 16, 2023
Making Music With Words
Great writing has two main components: The “storytelling” component — big, structural things, like an exciting plot, good pacing, and...
Russell F. Hirsch
Jul 18, 2023
Exposition 101 – SPELL SWEEPER
Today, we continue to unravel that most dreaded of all fantasy writing phenomena… EXPOSITION! Oh, so messy… Writers know that getting...
Russell F. Hirsch
Jul 5, 2023
EXPOSITION 101 – Fablehaven
Exposition. Few words strike more fear into writers. Not exposition! Noooooo! Exposition is the explanatory stuff within a story. The...
Russell F. Hirsch
Jun 7, 2023
The Best Action Writer in All of Kid-Lit…
Ten years ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing a great Canadian children’s author who described his books as full of “running and...
Russell F. Hirsch
Jul 9, 2019
REVIEW: The Oddmire by William Ritter
Come with me and delve into the deep, dark woods of William Ritter‘s magical middle grade fantasy, The Oddmire, Book I: Changeling....
Russell F. Hirsch
Oct 28, 2018
Horror for Kids – with booktuber Emily of Page Turns
Happy Hallow-week! With leaves falling, fireworks flaring, and pumpkins grinning, I’m very excited to welcome booktuber Emily of Page...
Russell F. Hirsch
Oct 15, 2018
BLOG TOUR: The Flight of Swans by Sarah McGuire
Six years of silence. Magic as dark as black swan feathers. Sacrifice, struggle, and the interweaving of worlds. Today Storythreads hosts...
Russell F. Hirsch
Sep 21, 2018
Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older (Guest Review for The Book Wars)
The Civil War meets dinosaurs in Daniel José Older’s new Middle Grade novel, Dactyl Hill Squad. You heard that right. Civil War +...
Russell F. Hirsch
Aug 23, 2018
REVIEW: Sword of Power by Oliver Potzsch
Today, we’re diving back in time to 17th-century Prague! Getting historical? We’re getting there through the historical fantasy novel...
Russell F. Hirsch
Jul 10, 2018
Canadian Corner: J. Fitzgerald McCurdy
As a kid growing up in the Harry Potter generation, I devoured fantasy novels—and since a new HP book only landed on the shelf every two...
Russell F. Hirsch
Jul 1, 2018
Canadian Corner: William Pasnak
Happy Canada Day! This July, I highlight underrated Canadian fantasy novels for kids, especially those from decades past that still stand...
Russell F. Hirsch
Jun 11, 2018
Graces and Ghosts: Kristin Cashore’s Elegiac Fantasy
***Onward, there be spoilers!*** Although the series is beloved first and foremost for its powerful and deep-feeling heroines, a central...
Russell F. Hirsch
Nov 10, 2017
Pullman vs. Lewis: the Fantastical Frenemies
Last month, master storyteller Philip Pullman, published The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, marking a return to the world of His Dark...
Russell F. Hirsch
Jan 2, 2017
The Hero’s Journey – Resolution
Happy New Year to all! We have reached the 10th and final stage of a hero’s journey plot line and a fitting stage it is for January 1st...
Russell F. Hirsch
Dec 20, 2016
The Hero’s Journey – Climax!
Huzzah! We have reached the Climax, the grand hurrah, the big shebang, a moment so exciting that only funny-sounding words can express...
Russell F. Hirsch
Dec 11, 2016
The Hero’s Journey – Propelling Event
The beginning of THE END! We enter the third and final phase of a hero’s journey plot line. Act 3 Propelling Event Climax (aka Death &...
Russell F. Hirsch
Jul 27, 2015
The Quantum Questions are Rising
As I see it, there is no conflict between science and religion, or at least, between science and spirituality. And stories—especially the...
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