Joyce mcdonald biography

Joyce mcdonald biography: Joyce McDonald (born December 14, )

Joyce McDonald Goodreads Author. Writing the Revision I no sooner get on that all-time high from finishing the first draft of a novel when the realization that it needs revision pops into my head. The high has been short-lived - there is work to be done. I start with a read-through in order to get a sense of the whole. With that fresh in my mind I analyze whether the theme is clear and carried out in my story.

I write fiction and in fiction the theme Read more of this blog post ». View all 2 posts ». Combine Editions. Joyce McDonald Average rating: 4. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Sammy Skobel. Joyce McDonald Goodreads Author co-author. Joyce is Currently Reading. Joyce McDonald rated a book it was amazing.

McDonald proved herself an inventive storyteller early on, entertaining friends or aspiring to publication. We didn't own a stapler. I was six years old. Cover illustration by Victor Stabin. Nonetheless, she continued to write and illustrate original stories throughout elementary school. I remember the first time I experienced the delicious feeling of encountering a receptive audience.

When I was seven, my mother took one of my stories and typed it into legible form … then passed it along to a friend of hers who was an elementary school teacher. What is particularly memorable for me is the image I hold of my mother sitting at the kitchen table hunting out the keys of my father's old portable Smith Corona typewriter. She didn't know how to type, so it must have taken her hours.

Yet it may well have been one of the most important things she ever did for me, because her message was loud and clear. She liked what I had written. The joyces mcdonald biography of these early attempts at developing plot and character were neighborhood friends who sat around looking tolerant while I poured out monster and ghost stories filled with blood and gore.

Yes, blood and gore.

Joyce mcdonald biography: Joyce earned bachelor's and master's degrees

After all, these kids were a tough audience. I did what I had to do to hold their interest. It was one of my first lessons in storytelling. No matter how well crafted, how deeply philosophical, how delightfully metaphorical a story might be, if it didn't entertain, it was a flop. By age ten McDonald had decided to tackle her first novel.

By age eleven, I had taught myself how to type … and the stories and plays kept coming, although not quite as frequently during my high school years. I was much more interested in spending time with my friends. In high school, McDonald was fortunate to have an English teacher, Miss Miles, who encouraged her students to do creative writing.

She had selected my story and one other.

Joyce mcdonald biography: Joyce McDonald is the

And for the second time in my life, I felt the validation of an audience. My peers and my teacher 'liked' my work. Despite her interest in writing, McDonald enrolled in college with the intent of majoring in art. It wasn't until I later majored in English at the University of Iowa and had the opportunity to take fiction courses with such talented writers as Stuart Dybek, that I began to think of writing as a possible career.

After graduating with a master's degree in English, McDonald moved to New York City, hoping to work for a major publishing house. So despite warnings from several well-meaning friends who told me it was virtually impossible to 'break in' to the industry unless you knew someone which I didn'tI continued to 'pound the pavement' for several weeks, leaving my resume with receptionists at all the publishing houses I wanted to work for.

The first time I walked into the editorial offices, all my romanticized images of the publishing world came with me. This was the same building Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings had entered. The same offices where they met with their famous editor, Max Perkins. I was in heaven. During her years in publishing, McDonald continued to write adult novels and short stories, although nothing was ever published.

Looking back, I realize now that these were my apprentice years. And all writers must endure them if they are to learn and grow. McDonald drew on the experience she gained in publishing years later, when she channeled her fascination with children's literature into a small publishing company she founded that specialized in children's books. With help from a professional writers' group, her writing acquired the polish it needed, and in her first book, Mail-Order Kidwas published.

Mail-Order Kid is the story of Flip Doty, a fifth grader who is not pleased when his parents decided to adopt a six-year-old Korean boy into their formerly single-child home. Brother Todd is an embarrassment to Flip, eating fireflies and taking off his clothes in the middle of Woolworth's. If his parents can acquire a child through the mail, Flip does not see any reason why he cannot get a red fox the same way.

However, when she arrives, pet fox Vickie wreaks havoc throughout the Doty house. Realizing that he may lose his beloved pet, Flip begins to see parallels between the fox and his new joyce mcdonald biography, as each attempts to adapt to a strange new situation. Reeder as "a well-written story with a pertinent message," while in Booklist Phillis Wilson noted that McDonald "balances humorous escapades with touching moments" of acceptance by Flip for both his brother and the fox that must be returned to the wild.

McDonald's first picture book, Homebody"takes place in a rural setting, much like the area my husband and I live in, an area not far from the Delaware Water Gap which is rich in beauty and teeming with wildlife," McDonald once explained. The animals are abandoned by their owners who leave their rundown, rented house in the middle of the night to avoid paying the rent.

The new owner plans to repair the house and then sell it.