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Super SCBWI Summer Conference 2011
I gotta admit. This is a weird feeling.Why doesn’t the CVS cashier know I’m a Children’s Writer?How come the people in the fresh juice line don’t want to talk to me…about writing…and illustrating…and publishing children’s books?Oh yea…I’m not at the SCBWI Summer Conference anymore, that’s why! This year I attended the summer conference for the first time. On my first day I quietly sat in the lobby, trying to muster up courage to talk to people. That’s when I saw them…sunflowers! In the lobby of the hotel! As I have mentioned in a previous post, sunflowers tend to show up during significant times in my life. I think this experience…
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Library Days: The charming Katie Wheeler Library
As I mentioned in my previous post, Library Picture Book Round Up: Week One, I’ve been visiting libraries at least once a week this summer. This week I decided to visit the Katie Wheeler library in Irvine. Isn’t the building charming and quaint? As I strolled up the rose lined walk leading up to the front doors, I found myself thinking of a few literary classics of my youth. I could picture myself being transported to Prince Edward Island and seeing Anne of Green Gables, with her fiery red standing on the balcony above. It was refreshing. It was delightful place to spend an afternoon filled with nostalgia and…
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Storytelling with Pictures
Hello Blogging World! I have missed you. I have been busy writing, revising, reading, doing homework, catching up on life….and writing some more. Phew! Needless to say I’ve been busy. Today I took a break and did a little video-editing. Thanks to a helpful training session at the apple store, I am using iMovie to make a video of our family trip to Tahiti last year. Other than the blog writing I’m doing right now I did not do any writing for this project. I did however “tell a story through pictures,” which felt equally fulfilling. I tried uploading a video short of what I’ve been working on, but it seems…
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Library Picture Book Round-up: Week One
I have made it my mission this summer to visit the public library at least once a week. My goal is to read and study picture books to better understand their construction, find out what kids like, and improve my writing. This week I read:Press Here by Hervé TulletRhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan ThomasEpossumondas plays Possum by Coleen SallyFather’s Day by Anne RockwellHerbert, the True Story of a Brave Sea Dog by Robyn Beltonand Calvin Can’t Fly by Jennifer Berne What I saw with my writer eyes…I was delighted to see the similarities in the structure of these books. I was able to identify right away which books followed a…
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My 5 Year Old Reading Self
This past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend a Free Writing Workshop, The Seven Deadly Sins of Writing led by Author Amy Goldman Koss and hosted by SCBWI (have I mentioned how much I love them?) Ms. Koss was very candid, funny, and realistic in her discussion with us. I will be adding her list of seven deadly writing sins to my “post-its” from now on whenever I write. (I have been guilty of at least three!) Ms. Koss also led us in several writing exercises, one of which was to think about the age group you are writing for, write to yourself when you were that age and…
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Summer Writing Workshops
Hello everyone!So I have every intention to keep blogging throughout the summer, but at the moment I can’t make any promises. And why is that you ask? Well, I have signed up to take two online writing workshops simultaneously. I have my summer off from work so it should be no biggie right? Seeing as how the last class I took was two years ago when I took a Wilton Cake Decorating class, I’m actually a bit anxious about it. I know it will be a fun, exhilirating experience. But I can’t help but feel like an incoming college student all over again. Wish me luck and if all goes…
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Fairies on the brain: A book review and book trailer
It’s no secret that I’m a little obsessed with fantasy books. One of my favorite types of fantasy characters to read about are fairies. Give me evil fairies, quirky fairies, invisible fairies, or MC’s that are part fairy (like Sookie Stackhouse) and I am instantly intrigued. My latest read was Justine Larbelstier’s How to Ditch Your Fairy. This book fulfilled my fairy craving and thensome! It is a quick read, centered around a teen girl who is trying to ditch her parking fairy in lieu of something better — like the clothes-shopping fairy her best friend has. I love how Larbelstier’s pulls you into a world where fairies exist (or…
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RemembeRed: A Real Meal, Finally!
I gazed up at the menu with excitement. This was it, the first real food I would have in two weeks. This was the third restaurant in the food court I’d been to already, staring up at the menu deciding whether or not I could eat here. My husband didn’t say so but I could tell he just wanted me to pick something already. Would any of this food be ok and not get caught in the four gaping holes I had in the back of my mouth? I’d waited until I was almost thirty to get my wisdom teeth pulled out. Now I realized why this would have…
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5 Things to do while playing The Waiting Game
I have to confess, I have become a little preoccupied with checking my e-mail and mailbox for the past few weeks…wishing and hoping to receive news about recent manuscript submissions. Of course, it can take many months to hear anything however, I’ve been told one of my stories is currently under consideration. (Squeal!) It is so hard to contain that shred of hope I have in my heart without getting carried away. I have desperately been trying to find other things to keep those pushy little — “today’s the day, go check the mail!” monsters at bay. If you are playing the waiting game like me, here are five things…
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Adventures in Rhyme
If you’re an aspiring children’s writer like me, I’m sure you have heard the following plenty of times: Stay away from rhyme. It no longer sells and new writers rarely get it right. Truth be told I never have had a gift for rhyme or poetry. But, I have a silly story idea, which I have written in prose. The magic and silliness is just not working the way it is currently written. Every time I stare at the letters on the page, I think to myself, “how can I fix this?” Each time I do this the story starts trying to make a rhyme or song in my head.…
