Blood on the Forehead : What I Know about Writing

The popular young adult author provides excerpts from five of her novels and five short stories as well as the stories behind them, offering tips about what aspiring writers need to create fiction successfully.

Grade 7 UpAYoung writers will take pleasure in this book of advice and encouragement by an award-winning author. However, there is not much new material here. Reprinted short stories and chapters from four of Kerr's novels, as well as from her autobiography, make up the bulk of the book. Short essays preface each lengthy selection. For example, in the section titled "What If?" Kerr tells how a neighbor inspired her to write Gentlehands (HarperCollins, 1978). In "Names," she explains how Marijane Meaker became M.E. Kerr. Readers unfamiliar with the author's work will scramble to find and finish her excerpted novels. Her fans will undoubtedly enjoy the personal reflections and discovering exactly where she gets her ideas; she aptly illustrates the fact that inspiration can come from the unlikeliest sources. Her remembrances of harsh critiques and abundant rejection letters drive home the importance of perseverance. Still, this book is more effective as a collection of her work than as a guide for aspiring writers. Kerr does offer several pages of general writing tips ("...give your characters interesting names," "Grab your reader right away"), but gives only quick examples. Young teens looking strictly for instruction in the craft of writing fiction may want to choose Marion Dane Bauer's What's Your Story? (1992) or Our Stories (1996, both Clarion) instead.AMiranda Doyle, Notre Dame High School, Belmont, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this writers' guide cum Kerr sampler, the award-winning author shares her expertise in crafting stories and novels. While aspiring authors eager for straightforward creative-writing lessons might be better off with the nuts-and-bolts guidance in such works as Marion Dane Bauer's What's Your Story?, Kerr's looser presentation also serves up much to stimulate discerning readers and writers. The most concrete suggestions, condensed into 10 helpful hints, are briskly spelled out in the first chapter; some are conventional ("Show your reader, don't tell him"), others reflect more personal preferences ("Be as direct as possible.... Flashbacks stop the momentum"). The rest of the book explains the genesis of specific pieces (five short stories, two novel excerpts, one segment of her autobiography, all included here). Offering few explicit rules, Kerr demonstrates how she alters and incorporates real-life events in her fiction. She also touches on current concerns like political correctness ("A writer today can become so self-conscious... that [a] game of Cowboys and Indians becomes Cowpeople and Native Americans"), confesses that she cannot begin a novel until she comes up with a title and injects a healthy dose of humor ("Cut! Cut! Cut! Your reader has a life"). Deepening readers' appreciation of Kerr's work, this volume will sharpen their approaches to their own. Ages 11-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

paper 0-06-446207-2 Kerr (``Hello,'' I Lied, 1997, etc.) wraps observations about writing in general, and her own work in particular, around five short stories, plus long extracts from four novels and her autobiography. Ten conventional tips for new writers open the book (``10. Cut! Cut! Cut! Your reader has a life''); it closes with an abbreviated section of cute quotes from children's letters. In between, Kerr shows how stories can come out of meetings, personal or witnessed incidents, and sometimes seemingly from nowhere; points out recurrent themes in her work; and discusses the differences between creating novels and short stories. The excerpts, from Gentlehands (1978), Little Little (1981), Me Me Me Me Me (1983), I Stay Near You (1985) and Fell (1987), average about 30 pages each, long enough to capture the author's distinctive sense of irony and to whet readers' appetites for more; the shorter fiction, all of which has appeared in collections within the last ten years, includes studies in character, family relations, and love. Without any comment on Kerr's forays into gay issues and other previously taboo topics, this book is not a true cross-section of her work: Still, it's valuable as an introduction for those just becoming acquainted with her, and equally worthwhile as the author's personal take on her art. (Memoir/anthology. 11-15) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 6^-10. Chatty and practical, Kerr shows and tells where she gets her ideas for her short stories and novels. Not that she has any easy formula: as her title suggests, writing is hard and her sources are elusive. The blunt introductory essay is the best thing in the book ("Cut! Cut! Cut! Your reader has a life"). Of course, she is also encouraging, and much of her lively commentary draws on her many school visits and YA workshops. As well as a writer's guide, this is a kind of Kerr sampling of short stories and novel excerpts, with an author's note as introduction to each one, discussing how she got started and what she did with the story. For example, in one fascinating note, she talks about the people and history she drew on for Gentlehands (1978), and then she includes the first three chapters of the novel. The tone is personal, but she takes her mentor's advice: "Don't unload on me! I want a story, not a summary of your life!" Hazel Rochman