Fiction is sold to literary agents or publishers by query letters after the book is written and polished. It’s an exciting and heartbreaking process that leaves an overwhelming number of authors doubting their ability to string more than two words together. The sheer volume of rejection is staggering. If you’re a writer, and your query…
A snippet from Rumer and the Red Cardinal, my young adult WIP (Work in Progress) Rumer lost track of time. The orphanage girls had a practiced makeup routine that she used to turn herself into a ghostly waif in fifteen minutes flat. Paloma was far more meticulous. Rumer would have been bored silly, but Paloma…
Galen Sinclair heaved, his mouth bubbling with the salty, metallic taste of blood; he felt a rush of fear, knew that he hadn’t been breathing. His eyes fluttered, closed again. Nothing. The night was like pitch, with only the soft chirping of a few cold crickets to break the silence. His senses reached out, found…
I’m not one for anniversaries—I struggle with feelings of loss—but this event five years ago felt like a lifeline. Something I never believed would come to me actually did, and it touched me profoundly. Five years ago today, my first novel, a late-middle grade mystery called Secrets of the Hotel Maisonneuve, became available for…
Calling all teachers! So happy to report that our teacher’s novel study guide for Secrets of the Hotel Maisonneuve is finished and is now available to any teacher who might wish to read the middle-grade mystery in class (and save time planning yet another lesson!) The guide was developed by a retired Grade 5 and…
Secrets of the Hotel Maisonnueve is now available in elementary and junior high classrooms throughout the province thanks to the Nova Scotia Book Bureau. If you’re a teacher, let me know and I’ll send you a copy. I can even visit your class to talk about being an author! We’ve gone to a second printing,…
Terri at Bookly Matters loved Secrets of the Hotel Maisonneuve, and this review landed in my inbox during a difficult month, proving to be the perfect balm after several exhausting months. I hope she doesn’t mind that I swiped her review photo because I loved it just that much! Rich with warm and wonderful characters,…
Author Chris Benjamin had nice things to say about Secrets of the Hotel Maisonneuve in Atlantic Books Today and I am so grateful! Through complex and diverse characters, Levangie weaves a complex and revealing tale, fully satisfying to the young reader hungry for mystery and adventure, but equally rewarding for wisdom-seeking adults. Kudos to Levangie…