It’s been four years since my first children’s book came out. One thing I’ve learned since then: to pay more attention to the people and things around me. EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE can be a source of wonder and inspiration: a snippet of conversation, a secret smile, even someone’s shoes. Ask . . .
Reminder: For those of you who are writing and/or illustrating children’s picture books: Feel free to download and use my picture book thumbnail templates during your early brainstorming.
Congrats to my friend Dorian Cirrone on the launch of THE FIRST LAST DAY (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster) today! Can’t wait to read this. Dorian Cirrone was a dance teacher, a choreographer, an assistant city editor for a daily newspaper, and a college English instructor before becoming a writer. Her middle-grade novel THE FIRST . . .
Thanks to Sylvia Liu for letting me be part of her A MORNING WITH GRANDPA book tour! Sylvia Liu is an environmental lawyer turned children’s author and illustrator, inspired by aliens, kraken, cephalopods, and the oceans. She lives in Virginia Beach with her husband, two daughter, Siberian kitten and guinea pig. A . . .
Mahtab Narsimhan is the award-winning author of The Third Eye. Her realistic novel, The Tiffin, based on the dabbawallas of Mumbai, also received critical acclaim. Mission Mumbai and Looking for Lord Ganesh are coming out this year. Committed to diversity in her stories, Mahtab lives in Toronto with her husband, son, golden retriever, and far too many novel . . .
Trisha Speed Shaskan has written over thirty books for children, including her latest picture book, Punk Skunks. Trisha has an MFA in creative writing. She’s been a bookseller, educator, and youth worker. Trisha lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her husband Stephen, and their cat Eartha, and dog, Bea. Punk Skunks is written by . . .
To writers out there who never have trouble finding time to write or revise: pls ignore the rest of this post. To those who are always putting their own projects on the back burner because of bill-paying work taking priority, family obligations, favors for other people, insecurity or fear, procrastination . . .
Megan Maynor is a former advertising copywriter and author of picture books ELLA AND PENGUIN STICK TOGETHER and ELLA AND PENGUIN: A PERFECT MATCH (coming 2017), both from HarperCollins Children’s Books. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and three children. ELLA AND PENGUIN is a new picture book written by Megan Maynor, . . .
Danica Davidson started writing at age three and never stopped. Before selling her first book, she wrote for such places as MTV, CNN, The Onion and Los Angeles Times. Among other publications, she was recently featured by Forbes for her Minecraft writing. She’s represented by the James Fitzgerald Agency. Attack Of The Overworld is the second book in . . .