Even before Frances became a novelist and published such critically-acclaimed books as Dovey Coe, The Secret Language of Girls, Trouble the Water and Shooting the Moon, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from U-Mass Amherst and taught writing at a college. For years, she was also the editor and publisher an arts magazine for kids, which was chock full of exercised teaching creative writing for kids, interviews with authors, writing prompts, poetry contests… — you name it!

Frances has continued to work with students — both in the workshop setting and as well as during school and library visits. She has judged student writing contests for publishers such as Scholastic, and had the honor of presenting awards to student winning of state-wide awards.

Frances teaches writing workshops locally and works privately with a group of advanced older students. Now she has decided to post some of the lessons she has developed over the years to help kids learn creative writing.