I first met Kate Blair at CANSCAIP’s Packaging Your Imagination conference, when she was helping during my presentation. Her debut YA, TRANSFERRAL, came out from Dancing Cat/Cormorant soon after; I posted about it here. I enjoyed Transferral so much that I couldn’t wait until Kate’s second book came out…and I wasn’t disappointed. TANGLED PLANET is fantastic. Canadians . . .
Tess Callero is one of the fabulous literary agents at Curtis Brown Ltd (another fabulous agent is Ginger Knowlton, my own agent). I got to know Tess when I recently did an Instagram takeover of the CB feed; the fact that I had so much FUN was largely due to Tess’s enthusiasm and help . . .
Heather Camlot grew up in Montreal and was raised on Expos baseball and Canadiens hockey. After graduating from New York University with a degree in journalism, she became a writer, editor and translator. She lives with her husband and two children in Toronto, but still calls Montreal home. Clutch is her first novel, . . .
Every year, I think about doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I’ve participated in the challenge a few years in the past and completed a first draft of a middle grade novel. Doing NaNoWriMo is always fun and I did end up submitting the novel after many revisions. I got some encouraging . . .
A Guest Post by Josh Funk What would YOU do if you were a character in a fairy tale? That’s what I thought about as I wrote It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk. If I were Jack, I’d have a little more common sense than to sell my cow for a handful . . .
One of my favourite pieces of advice for writers and illustrators is from literary agent Jenny Bent: “…Be brave. Fail. Try again. Succeed. Rinse and repeat.” It applies as much to the published as well as pre-published. In fact, this advice is good for life in general. Thank you, Jenny!
Jody Jensen Shaffer writes books and poetry for children. Her award-winning poems have appeared in magazines like Ladybug, Babybug, Highlights, High Five, Clubhouse Jr., and more. Jody writes from her home in Liberty, Missouri, which she shares with her husband, two children, and their rescue dog, Sophie. You can find more info . . .