Interviews (scroll down) with book creators and others in the children’s book community. I’m still gradually moving these over from the old site; thanks for your patience.
Many of these book creators were kind enough to offer useful Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators.
National Picture Book Writing Week starts tomorrow! Founder Paul Yoo explains the event… What exactly is NaPiBoWriWee? NaPiBoWriWee stands for National Picture Book Writing Week. The goal is to write 7 picture books in 7 days. I have to clarify this by stating that I do NOT think picture book writing is . . .
Starting Sunday, May 1st: Story A Day May Challenge! Founder of the challenge, Julie Duffy, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the event for me: What exactly IS Story A Day May? Story A Day is creativity challenge for writers: write (and finish)a short story every day in May. . . .
One of the creative challenges I’ve decided to take this month is Robert Lee Brewer’s November PAD Chapbook Challenge, in which participants write a poem each day, based on a prompt. “During the month of November, don’t worry so much about finished drafts; just get the rough drafts cranked out . . .
I’ve always been interested in reading about other writers’ work habits, so I was delighted to see that Cheryl Klein had posted a review with Elizabeth C. Bunce, the author of CURSE AS DARK AS GOLD (which I loved) and STARCROSSED (ooo, must get this). Elizabeth says that CURSE took three years of “painstaking craft and . . .
I met YA author Nelsa Roberto through the Toronto Middle Grade and Young Adult group (a.k.a. Torkidlit). Nelsa’s one of those people who makes you feel comfortable right away. She’s smart, she’s funny, she speaks her mind. Nelsa’s young adult novel ILLEGALLY BLONDE debuted in March and I really enjoyed it. Told with wry wit . . .
Lois Peterson is a children’s author and creative writing teacher living in B.C. Canada. Her books include 101-and more-Writing Exercises to Get You Started & Keep You Going(Metta), Meeting Miss 405 (Orca Book Publishers) The Ballad of Knuckles McGraw (Orca), and Silver Rain scheduled for publication in October. I first met Lois at the Surrey Writer’s Conference . . .
Many thanks to middle grade author Susan Kaye Quinn for interviewing me for her blog, Ink Spells, as part of her Art Appreciation Week. I enjoyed meeting Susan at the SCBWI conference, where I also found out that she has a ROCKET SCIENCE background! For those not familiar with the site, here’s a description: . . .
I met the fabulous Claudia Osmond through Twitter (where she’s @claudiaosmond), when she organized the very first in-person tweetup of Torkidlit. Hugely supportive of the local writers’ community, Claudia interviews writers and talks about writing on her blog, Where the (not-so) Wild Things Are. Her first book, Smudge’s Mark, came out from Simply Read . . .
I met Deborah Kerbel through the Toronto Area MG/YA Author Group, which was founded by Claudia Osmond via Twitter. Deborah’s a cheerful, witty and dedicated YA writer who is the author of several books for young people including Girl on the Other Side, which was nominated for the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award. Her . . .
THE SILVER ANKLET is a sequel to Mahtab Narsimhan‘s THE THIRD EYE, which won The Silver Birch award in 2009. For those who don’t know, The Silver Birch Award is a province-wide honour given by Grade 3, 4, 5 and 6 Ontario students. Although administered by the Ontario Library Association and run by teacher-librarians and . . .