Ask the Author: Liz Cooper
Answered Questions (7)
Liz Cooper
I generally like suspenseful action series- Baldacci, Grisham, Harlan Corban.
Liz Cooper
Granny's Teeth- A Collection of Quirky Rhyming Tales is a collection of stories I originally wrote as stand-alone picture books for children. The first story in the book, was named as one of the top-ten entries in a contest co-sponsored by Simon and Shuster and Woman's Day Magazine several years ago. There were 5000 entries. I knew that this story was pretty good, so I combined it with fourteen others to create this book. I also added a strong comprehension aspect to it. I was the reading supervisor for my school district and I have pretty strong ideas about helping children to think about what they read. I added a section to help guide parents, teachers , and caregivers in ways to use the stories. These tips and types of discussion starters will work with almost any book read. My goal was to write stories that were totally fun and funny with complex themes you can really think about and discuss. Adults have told me that the book reminds them of their own childhoods. One of the stories is about my husband. It's a true story. When he was a kid, he broke a window. In order to hide his "crime," he cleaned up the broken glass and washed the other windows so that his mother wouldn't notice one was missing. She didn't for quite some time.
Liz Cooper
Ever since I was a child, I made up stories as I was falling asleep. In the early days, I made up episodes of my favorite TV shows. I always appeared in the episode as well. My earliest creations were for My Friend Flicka, and other very early kids' programing from the 50's and 60's. (This reveals my age, unfortunately). Later, I became more original and started creating stories in with new story lines and new characters. Westerns were big back then. I still have an idea in the back of my mind that I may use some day about a teenager in the 1880's who travels west to escape dire circumstances and provide for her brothers and sisters only to discover much harder challenges.
Liz Cooper
I'm currently working on a story about a blind kid who takes charge of a school when the teachers are tricked into not showing up to work. The working title is Mitzi Mufflin, Principal for a Day. This is the second in a series. The first one, Bluebell Skinks, Wheelchair Kid, is finished and will be published first. I'm holding off a few months until I make sure that both books are consistent. Several of the characters appear in both books.
Liz Cooper
Write, write, write. Keep your pieces, whether finished or not. I have folders with things I wrote several years ago and am now inspired to work on them again. Bluebell Skinks, Wheelchair Kid, sat for ten years on a shelf. A major publishing company was interested in it and wrote me several letters about it. Ultimately, it wasn't published. I'm now reworking it, and plan to release it myself. If I had thrown it away because I was discouraged, what a waste that would have been!
Liz Cooper
Writing keeps my brain active. I love putting the plots together. It's like building a puzzle. All of the major and minor events need to move the story forward in some way but they need come together in the end. Often adding a new detail will throw off the entire plot. Reworking the story and realizing that it finally makes sense is extremely rewarding.
Liz Cooper
The best way to deal with writer's block in my opinion is to simply do something else! It's amazing how many ideas come to me when I am washing the car or doing other chores. Unfortunately, I get my best ideas as I'm falling asleep or when driving. I can't write them down and usually forget them!
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