Order “Cloudy Days” a new K-3 book from Sarah Frank with illustrations by Katie Bell

Sarah has a NEW book! Cloudy Days is a picture book for kids with anxiety.
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About the book: Now, more than ever, kids (and adults) are coping with anxiety. Written in verse by teen author Sarah Frank and illustrated by teen artist Kat Bell, Cloudy Days introduces young readers to what anxiety is through the story of best friends, Tulip and Lily. Cloudy Days is a perfect way to start a conversation about anxiety so kids do not feel they are alone and to know that friends and family will listen and help them. For Grades K-3.
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Filed Under: Books

Sarah is on the cover of Story Monsters Ink Magazine

Sarah Frank, Teen Author, Cover of StoryMonsters Ink Aug 2020

Sarah gets a cover! She’s featured on the August 2020 cover of Story Monsters Ink, “The Literary Resource for Teachers and Librarians” Inside is a 5 page spread… “Teen Author Sarah Frank Inspires Kids to Follow Their Dreams.”

You can preview her story here: Sarah Frank StoryMonsters Ink PDF  Aug 2020 9 pages

You can get a free online subscription to view the entire issue at: https://www.storymonsters.com/past-issues  

Covers 2018-2020 have featured: Sarah Frank, Torrey Maldanado, Vanessa Williams, Alane Adams, Raven Howell, Martha & Ann Driscoll, Deborah Smith Ford, Lois Lowry, Sean Hayes & Scott Icenogle, Julian Edelman & Assaf Swissa, Alyssa Milano, Raina Telgemeier, R.J. Palacio, Buzz Aldrin, Kobe Bryant, Jeff Kinney, Joanna Gaines, Fabien Cousteau, Taylor Moxey, Ming-Na Wen, Tomie Depaola, Kathie Lee Gifford, Julie Chen, Judy Newman, Ann M. Martin, Lauren Child, Mister Rogers, Jessica Kensky & Patrick Downes, Jason Reynolds, Neil Patrick Harris, Kwame Alexander, and Nathan Lane.
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Please share with any teachers, media specialists and parents you know: Story Monsters is an incredible resource!
Filed Under: News

The SF Writing Program

The SF Writing Program aims to provide free writing resources to any aspiring writers. There are worksheets, activity sets, and general tips for topics such as pacing, character development, plot-building, and poetry. The program is self-paced and all about what you want to get out of it.

There are three courses: Building Your Plot, Creating Your Character, and Striking Your Balance. The site is located at https://sfwriting.thinkific.com. All you have to do is put in your email!

Filed Under: News

Sarah’s Story Workshops

Sarah is hosting free workshops every Saturday of September! All workshops are at 7 pm eastern time via Zoom.

    • Workshop 1: Plot, September 5th
    • Workshop 2: Characters, September 12th
    • Workshop 3: Dialogue, September 19th
    • Workshop 4: General Q&A, September 26th

You can sign up for as many or as few as you would like. A few days before the workshop, zoom information will be sent to your inbox. We hope to see you there!

Sign up here: https://forms.gle/aprWTthL5WoxwQtJ7

 

Filed Under: Appearances, Writing Workshops by Sarah

Free Online Writing Workshop with Sarah Saturday July 25th

Sarah Frank, teen award-winning author, will be teaching a FREE workshop on how to start writing your story. She’ll outline tips for plot, characters, and world-building ad well as sharing her story. You’ll leave this workshop with a plan for a plot, an understanding of your characters, and many writing tips!

“HOW TO WRITE A BOOK”
Saturday, July 25, 2020 5pm – 6pm

Sign Up Here

Filed Under: Appearances, Writing Workshops by Sarah

Sarah’s books win multiple awards in 2020!

Sarah and Two Secrets have been named as finalists by the Florida Authors & Publishers Association, Inc. in the Children’s Fiction Grades 4-6  category. FAPA awards gold, silver, and bronze medals to finalists in each category. We will discover which medal it is in August.

“Each year, the FAPA President’s Book Awards program recognizes book publishing excellence and creativity in design, content, and production for North American authors and publishers. Librarians, book industry professionals, and educators from Florida and other states will judge content, theme, layout, and cover design elements.”

Additionally, Sarah and received a 1st place Purple Dragonfly award as Youth Author (under 17) Fiction for One Chance, while Two Secrets won 2nd place Purple Dragonfly in Middle Grade Fiction.

Filed Under: Awards

Sarah makes online appearance on “Wordier Than Thou”

Here’s a chance to watch the recording of Sarah live streaming on Facebook and Zoom.
The event was titled “Quarantine Storytime: a Virtual Reading by Sarah Frank”, and it was hosted by Wordier Than Thou.

The first 19 minutes is her reading aloud the prologue of One Chance, and then it was Q&A time for the balance of time.

Filed Under: Appearances, News

One Chance and Two Secrets awarded “Story Monster Approved!” seal

One Chance and Two Secrets have been awarded the Story Monsters Approved! seal. It’s a program showcasing “books worth devouring.” A Story Monsters Approved! book must inspire, inform, teach or entertain, and adhere to rigorous standards of excellence. 

Also, Sarah won the Young Author (Ages 17 and under) Fiction award for One Chance, while Two Secrets won for Middle Grade (Ages 8-12) Fiction

https://www.storymonsters.com/book-briefs/2019-story-monsters-approved-winners-announced

Grab a photo of you reading One Chance or Two Secrets and use the #CaughtReading hashtag. It’s a campaign started by Story Monsters Ink to encourage folks of all ages to pick up a book and read!

Filed Under: Awards, News

Book Talks: Inspiring Elementary and Middle School Students

I visit elementary and middle schools with 3 goals in mind: inspire kids to read, write, and follow their dreams. I tell them my story with the hopes it inspires them to write their own, both figuratively and literally. I want to show them proof that they can do it, that they can dream big and let their imagination take them places.

I know some of the kids will not be persuaded to take up writing, and that’s okay. I hope their take-away is that no matter what their thing is, they can do it. It’s all about putting in the hard work, the effort, and their determination.

I would have loved to hear that message when I was younger, so I feel lucky I get to spread it now. It’s important for them to hear that they can do it.

It’s also important that I help them make the distinction between school writing and creative writing. In school, students write a lot of nonfiction and essays with assigned prompts. That’s not all that writing is, and I want them to know that. Writing can be freedom, a creative outlet, self-expression. Writing can be anything you want it to be.

With every school I visit, I look out into the sea of faces and latch on to the kids I see absorbing my words. Even if there is only one, it makes me happy to see in their face that I inspired them. It makes it all worthwhile.

Filed Under: Notes From Sarah, School Author Visits

How I Came Up With the One Chance Story

As I say in all my book talks, I wrote my dream book, one that I would want to read. I did this by thinking about the components of other books I loved and combined them into one. For me, it was time-travel, magic, mystery, and history. I molded those four things together to create the Stone of Discedo. The Stone of Discedo is a time-traveling stone that allows the user to change anything in their own life if they first fix three terrible events in history. I used the stone to build up the plot from there and just let the story go where it wanted to go.

Unlike what I was taught in school, I did not do an intricate outline or a BMME planning. I let the story flow more naturally and had fun with it. Once I finished, I worked on the next book. In sixth grade, I rewrote One Chance on my computer and made a lot of changes. Once seventh grade began, I decided to re-write it again. The re-writing and editing process changed a lot but the basic plot remained the same as One Chance grew into the true dream book I had in mind when I started.

Filed Under: Notes From Sarah

You Can Do It Too!

It was a little luck, some skill, and a lot of hard work that got me where I am. I frequently get asked how I got a publisher, so here’s the story. I attended ICE Writers Camp (ICE stands for Imaginative Creative Explorers) for two weeks every summer from 3rd grade until high school. Every fall, ICE Camp has a reunion at the University of South Florida where all the campers and facilitators come back together. An author, illustrator, or publisher comes to speak to us. In September of 2015, my publisher, Mrs. Mitten, was our guest speaker. She’d heard about a book of poetry I self-published in elementary school and asked me to speak on a panel of authors to answer questions. I must’ve done a pretty good job, because after the event was over, she gave me her business card and expressed interest in publishing my book. For about a solid year and a half, my parents didn’t believe me that she was serious. But she was, and in May of 2017 I signed a book contract.

I happened to be at the right place at the right time, but I’d done all the right things to take me from there. I’d worked hard at my poetry, had a manuscript ready when asked for one, and continuously pushed myself to better my writing. I read everything available, have always spent long hours poring over edits, and learned the value of critique.

I think, or at least I hope, that many of you have a thing. By a thing, I mean something you love to do. Something that makes you happy, something that you want to do forever. If you don’t, that’s okay. For some, it’s art and for some, it’s music. Maybe you want to be a doctor or a scientist. Maybe you want to be a baseball player or a dancer. Whatever it is you want to do, whoever it is that you want to be, put your mind to that. Know that you can do it and you will.

Filed Under: Notes From Sarah Tagged With: ,

Why I Started Writing

I wrote my first story in first grade about a girl who could become invisible. You might think I wrote this because I wanted to become invisible. Actually, it was quite the opposite. I’ve always been the person in class who likes to talk (but not out of turn) and answer questions. I wrote the story because it was fun to imagine what another person’s life might be like. There’s mirrors (writing that stems or reflects the self) and windows (writing that lets you see into others). I started with writing window stories.

When I was in 5th grade, things changed. I was on crutches and in a wheelchair for a while. I missed out on some of my favorite things, like playing basketball. In October of that year, I got appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery. The worse part about that year, though, was the discovery of a life-threatening peanut allergy that spun my world into a danger zone. My life was in the hands of the people around me, people who couldn’t understand or just didn’t care.

I started writing to escape. I wrote mirror stories and window stories, both for the freedom of it. 5th grade was when I started the first draft of my novel, One Chance, and I’ve kept writing novels ever since.

It’s really easy to get lost in the same world over and over. So I did, and that’s how I got my series.

Filed Under: Notes From Sarah