Storyteller's Journey

      Recently I attended a Writers' Mixer at Cover to Cover Books and Espresso; where the speaker, Randal Houle, discussed the importance of writing strong minor characters into your story. One point he made was that you can reveal more of your major characters' traits by having the minor characters reactions to them.
     The following week I went through my text and strengthened my secondary and minor characters. It made a big improvement, thanks Randal Houle!
    
     While I'm mentioning my current work in progress, I will give you a brief update. I am still on track to finish the re-write of my animal fantasy by mid-late August. My plan is to spend a couple of weeks in September revising (strengthening verbs, etc.) and two additional weeks editing (grammar and punctuation) my story. The goal is to attend the SCBWI Fall Retreat at Silver Falls Conference Center, in Sublimity, Oregon, in October. Wish me luck!