I had a lovely chat with small press publisher Christi Craig of Hidden Timber Books yesterday.  We talked a lot about the devastation of elephant poaching for all of us and why it was so important to me to get that message out there, how ironic it is that perhaps in today's Covid-19 world we can really understand how connected w...

Thanks to Chrissey Harrison for mentioning my suggestion to film an author read-aloud in her excellent post. Here she offers ten ways to promote your book and I have to agree with her number one suggestion, which is to write another book. Another book is your best marketing tool and you're a content creator after all. Check out the rest o...

By Gila Green The secret of getting ahead is getting started—Mark Twain Three deadlines coming up, dinner's not made, and you haven't even hit the grocery store yet? The short answer might be fast food or begging a colleague to take one of your assignments, but the long-term answer is to improve your efficiency. Here are eight tips to help you save...

This indirect or left-branching sentence builds tension and creates excitement because it slows down the pace of the story. by Gila Green Have you ever seen any of these comments in the margins of your work? Slow downUnevenLacks climaxFlat If you answered "yes," you should immediately browse through your writer's toolbox of literary devices for pac...

Are your notions about your birthplace outdated? By Gila Green Diction. Slang and other everyday words sneak into our vocabularies. If you don't live and write in the same language, it takes an extra effort to root foreign words out of your work, unless they're part of your story.Names. Many writers spend a great deal of time enhancing their work w...

What you need to work on in your writing isn't description it's imagery.  By Gila Green If you write fiction you've probably been told dozens of times to include vivid description, work on your description, and not to forget description. Likely, you've also been reminded not to overdo it on the description. Unfortunately, being told to in...

By Gila Green We live in a publishing world that not only craves categories; it demands them. These pigeonholes are like gasoline for the modern manuscript, which cannot even move through cyberspace to an agent's inbox without the fuel labeling supplies. For those who guide writers on query letters, one of our first lessons is to help authors defin...

 Join me on on May 17, 2020! Register for FREE for the small press author reading series. "In light of so many cancelled book tours as of late, Hidden Timber Books is hosting other small press authors via Zoom for readings. These events are FREE, all you need to do is register for the link to join. Attend one, attend them all, and spread the w...

 Thank you so much to Erin Khar for featuring my young adult, environmental novel No Entry in the latest issue of Ravishly.

For the last month, Heidi Rabinowitz's The Book of Podcast has had a special series called "Books in the Time of Coronavirus." Authors whose spring 2020 promotional events were cancelled were able to tell the world about their new Jewish books. I wish to thank Heidi once again for including No Entry and to repost her entire series here. E...

"There wasn't ever a time that I didn't want a career in showbusiness. I spent years wearing blinders, forbidding myself from thinking outside of the box." I'm excited to share with you my interview with Dani Alpert, an author and Pilates enthusiast, who is new to me and who I've only met virtually. I'm so pleased she reached out to share her ...

Reposting from Canadian Writers Abroad by Debra Martens  Back in March when Canadian travellers were urged to come home, I thought of the small community of Canadian writers living abroad. Would they stay or go? As Antony Millen in New Zealand puts it, "It was a very eerie feeling to hear Justin call Canadians home with such urgency. I admit, ...

I'm happy to share my newest author interview with you today. If you can believe it, Mel Rosenberg is originally from my hometown of Ottawa and I met him only this year but that's not the amazing part. It turns out that Mel's mother was my kindergarten teacher way back in the Old Days. How is that for small world? Indeed, one of my earliest me...

 Don't forget to vote for your favorite in the Crystal Kite Awards! These are so many wonderful works to choose from.  "The annual Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award to recognize great books from 15 SCBWI regional divisions around the world." If you're eligible to vote, don't forget to do so, especially at this time when so man...

Today I want to wish a Happy Mimouna to those who celebrate! Though it was not the same as in past years, we still managed to celebrate a lockdown mimouna complete with homemade couscous, muflettot and Moroccan outfits straight from Morocco.  And thanks to Deborah Kalb for hosting the April Jewish Carnival:  At this difficu...

Thanks so much to Christina Hamlett for hosting me on her site. I virtually met Christina back in 2014 when I was looking for a new novel to write and decided to take her online course as a source of inspiration. The result was my novel A Prayer Apart (as yet unpublished, but working on it). I'm so happy to reconnect with her this week and to spend...

Gila Green at an author reading in Toronto February 2020

Hidden Timber Books: Meaningful Books and Stories "In light of so many cancelled book tours as of late, Hidden Timber Books is hosting other small press authors via Zoom for readings. These events are FREE, all you need to do is register for the link to join" and I'm so thrilled to be part of this series. I'll be talking about my YA eco-novel&...

So excited to be featured on The Drum.  bit.ly/safeso2 https://www.drumlitmag.com/https://www.drumlitmag.com/sounds/f/Issue_77-dot-_Spring_2020/#entry1101

An inspiring video from the Jewish Journal https://www.facebook.com/JewishJournal/videos/507071163529656/ 

Please vote for my book cover! It's one click and you are done.The "Alternative" book cover award poll is now live, and Passport Control is featured.   Here's the link to the poll (April's) which is now LIVE! : https://alternative-read.com/2020/03/31/april-2020-alternative-book-cover-award-nominees-have-you-voted-yet-vote-for-your-fa...

I'm a Backstory Rebel by Miriam Drori In one scene of my latest novel, Cultivating a Fuji, the main character, Martin, has to get himself an emergency passport. Martin, despite being intelligent, has no social skills and doesn't know how to stand up for himself. The scene shows the interaction between him and the woman who has to serve him at the p...

Rachel Biale

A decade ago, I won a partial scholarship to a writing program in Montreal at Concordia University. There I took writing courses with Mary Gaitskill and Jonah Winter and I met some wonderful writers. One of them was Rachel Biale and we've kept in touch on and off ever since. I'm delighted to host her on gilagreenwrites today and I want to...

LISTEN:   In response to the pandemic, The Book of Life is hosting a special series, Books in the Time of Coronavirus. Authors or illustrators of new Jewish books, whose promotional events have been cancelled due to quarantine, are invited to promote their books on the podcast. The first episode in this special series features Gila Green,...

Thanks so much to Shalom Toronto Lifestyle Magazine for featuring me on the cover and printing an article on all of my books.

I'm continuing to post educational videos about my young adult novel No Entry, which takes place in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Thanks to SCBWI for the inspiration to offer resources to teachers, parents, teens, wildlife enthusiasts, elephant lovers and booklovers in lockdown as I am in Israel.  

 My latest podcast with Dave Pezza's NovelClass is out. I loved discussing The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by author Michael David Lukas. This opportunity came at an ideal time. I had just participated in the Vancouver Jewish Book Festival (February 2020) and spent an evening as part of the festival enjoying a livestream intervie...

​"So many creators of children's books have risen to the call for help from teachers and parents during the COVID-19 crisis by creating online materials that will entertain, instruct, and inspire children and young people. Some are reading their books and discussing them. Some have created mini-lessons on art or history or craft projects. Some are ...

NovelClass@NovelClassPod·12hEpisode 4.02 of NovelClass airs this Wednesday! Author @green_gila returns to the show to join host @dpezza02 in discussing The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, and keep reading!!!

This website has been up for over a year and my decision to interview authors and to ask them to contribute posts has definitely been my best one. It's allowed me to connect with and hear the voices of so many writers and it's been an honor. Today's post is from Deborah Mendez-Blaauw, who was also gracious enough to review my novel-in-stories ...

As so many of us are in partial/full lockdown/quarantine and feeling isolated, I thought I'd read from my young adult novel No Entry. I hope to post a chapter on Wednesdays and Sundays, but given the crazy situation, I can only try to keep to a schedule--please forgive me if I don't.  If you want to learn about elephants, elephant poaching, wi...