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You are viewing the most recent posts from the 1564 blogs currently in the JacketFlap Blog Reader. These posts are sorted by date, with the most recent posts at the top of the page. There are hundreds of new posts here every day on a variety of topics related to children's publishing. We have provided a variety of ways for you to navigate through the blog posts. Click the dates in the calendar on the left to view blog posts from a particular date. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. Click a tag in the right column to view posts about that topic. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a "More Posts from this Blog" link in any individual post.
designer brenda sutton works in new zealand under the studio name go benny go. brenda is in the early stages of setting up her surface pattern design studio. brenda says she strives to create striking design that combines the strengths of vintage with a modern aesthetic she is influenced by her time with walt disney australia where she worked both in character animation and special effects. it
hallmark have launched a new and ecclectic range of stationery this month. made up of seven individual and very different designs and a selection of products from memo pads to journals there is something for everyone. the ranges include 6o's mix, sew lovely, tea and roses and pretty scribbles. see more details online here.
Gwendolyn Brooks published Bronzeville Boys and Girls in 1956, a groundbreaking work of poetry about children growing up in an urban neighborhood. This book was re-illustrated and republished fifty years later with art by Faith Ringgold! I love these poems—they really hold up. Universal snippets of childhood that are grounded in the urban context (Chicago), but speak to kids today, too. Here’s one of my favorite poems from this timeless book.
Andre
I had a dream last night. I dreamed
I had to pick a Mother out.
I had to choose a Father too.
At first, I wondered what to do,
There were so many there, it seemed,
Short and tall and thin and stout.
But just before I sprang awake,
I knew what parents I would take.
And this surprised and made me glad;
They were the ones I always had!
Contemporary Connections
The family unit is such an important part of the lives of children as they’re developing. Poetry can capture familiar experiences and emotions and celebrate the good times as well as reflect the special challenges of these relationships and comfort us through the bad times. Here is a selection of poetry books about family-- several set in urban contexts.
1. Greenfield, Eloise. 2009. Brother & Sisters: Family Poems. New York: HarperCollins.
2. Grimes, Nikki. 1999. Hopscotch Love: A Family Treasury of Love Poems. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard.
3. Grimes, Nikki. 2000. Stepping out with Grandma Mac. New York: Simon & Schuster.
4. Gunning, Monica. 2004. A Shelter In Our Car. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
5. Harrison, David L. 1996. A Thousand Cousins: Poems of Family Life. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
6. Hoberman, Mary Ann. 1991. Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: A Collection of Family Poems. Boston: Joy Street Books.
7. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 2010. Amazing Faces. Ill. By Chris Soentpiet. Lee and Low.
8. Williams, Vera B. 2001. Amber was Brave, Essie was Smart. New York: Greenwillow.
Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2013. All rights reserved.
Image credits: http://bookstogether.squarespace.com;tower
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By: Mary Ann Scheuer,
on 4/10/2013
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Great Kid Books
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I look forward to each April, when libraries around the US celebrate
National Poetry Month. I share poetry with students throughout the year, but it's so much fun to shed special light on poetry each spring. Today I'd like to share a few resources that I particularly love.
Head to the fantastic blog
Gotta Book for original poems from 30 different poets throughout the month of April. Greg Pincus has celebrated National Poetry Month for the past FIVE years, sharing poems from a wonderful array of poets. I've signed up for the poems to be delivered to me by email each day - what a lovely way to start my day! This lets me share them with all sorts of people. Here's the beginning of a recent favorite poem:
Immigrant's Song: Coal Dust, Peppers, and Tomatoes
by
Nancy Bo Flood
I come from coal dust
And hopes taken down, down, down
Deep mine shaft down underground.
Dig hard, spend lean, save, save, save,
Leave
Before the shaft fills and dreams drown.
for more, see the whole poem at Gotta Book
Another blog that I enjoy reading throughout the year is Poetry for Children, a blog written by Sylvia Vardell. Sylvia is a professor and author of the ALA bestseller Poetry Aloud Here, also Poetry People, Children’s Literature in Action and the nationally recognized blog, Poetry For Children, as well as co-editor of the first digital anthologies of poetry for young people, the PoetryTagTime series.
Poetry for Children
http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/
This month Sylvia is featuring a "blast from the past," connecting favorite classic poems to contemporary poetry. Her blog is full of resources and ideas that are wonderful to follow up on. I love the way she reminds us to dig up the classics, ranging from AA Milne's
When We Were Very Young to Langston Hughes'
The Dream Keeper. Then she ties in all sorts of contemporary poetry collections that you'll want to find.
Take the time to explore the
interviews Sylvia has done with poets over the years. Last year she featured an interview with a different poet throughout the month of April. I don't think I can choose a favorite - there are so many wonderful interviews with the likes of
Douglas Florian,
Jane Yolen,
Helen Frost and more!
The poetry e-books
PoetryTagTime and
P*Tag are excellent collections. I especially love the way they convey that poetry is a living, vital art, one that real people are creating in response to one another's art. As the description for PoetryTagTime says, "
PoetryTagTime is a chain of poets and poems that makes language part of a playful game. When a poet is tagged, that poet must write a poem that connects with the previous poem. Part of the fun is the poet’s explanation of the sometimes whimsical “connection” between the two poems."
P*Tag is a collection for teens where poets create poems in response to photographs. I've seen this collection really inspire teens writing their own poetry, based on photographs or images they see in the world around them.
Poem Starter Videos
by Laura Salas
http://laurasalas.wordpress.com/
Poet Laura Salas has created a great resource to give teachers a quick and simple poetry activity for the classroom. As she writes, "These are quick and casual and done for fun. I’ll also be posting the text of each poem each day. So you can use these posts just to find a delicious daily poem to read, or you can watch the video with your students and start writing!" I've had fun sharing these with teachers and friends.
Drawing into Poems
by Amy VanDerwater
http://www.poemfarm.amylv.com/
Amy is a poet and former teacher who shares many original poems on her lovely blog
Poem Farm. Some poems are hers, others are by students in her workshops. This month Amy is featuring Drawing into Poems. As she writes, "Each day of this month, I will slow myself down, look closely at something, draw it, and take notes around my drawing. I'll photograph and share the drawing and notes here each day. From time-to-time, at least on Fridays, I'll share a poem inspired by my drawings and notes." I love this notion of poetry inspiring us to slow down and notice details around us.
For more resources to share during National Poetry Month, check out this compilation by
Jama Rattigan's blog post on
Alphabet Soup, where she has pulled together many different suggestions. And certainly follow the weekly celebration on the Kidlitosphere of Poetry Friday. This month, the hosts are:
I hope you enjoy sharing poetry with your children this month and throughout the year. If you make a purchase using the Amazon links on this site, a small portion goes to Great Kid Books (at no cost to you!). Thank you for your support.
Review ©2013 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books
Our guest blogger today is
Karla Brandenburg.
Mist on the Meadow is her new release and available now. I met Karla a few years ago at a Springfling Conference and had a wonderful time getting to know her.
Karla shares some of her insights we all face as writers. "What will our friends think of our writing? What will mom and dad say?" "Who do we please?" "Can we be true to ourselves and still write a dynamic book?" Here's what Karla has to say ...
Thanks for having me, Deb! And congratulations on your third “Promises” book.
I’ve just released my newest endeavor, Mist on the Meadow, which gave me an extra point to think about in my writing. Generally speaking, profanity in romance novels is kept to a minimum. As my mother always told me, it shows a lack of vocabulary. So imagine my surprise when, after writing a very intense scene with a high-strung hero, I found his vocabulary very colorful indeed!
When I’m writing, it tends to be from my head, through my fingers and I’m not always one hundred percent aware of the content until I go back to read through how it flows, works, etc. Yes, I knew I was typing those words, but often things go down on “paper” that will get cut later. As I re-read the first of Wolf’s outbursts, I paused to consider. Is that language really necessary? It is highly offensive to some people and could easily turn off a reader. So I reached out to one of my beta readers who had been following along with me and asked her the question. Her response was, “Absolutely it needs to be there. That’s who he is and his response is completely validated.” So I left it in.
Now, back to my parents. They generally like to read my work, and they generally get an inside view before it gets to publication. Mist on the Meadow went very quickly – sometimes stories do! – so they didn’t get that “first look.” When I was visiting recently, they asked when they were going to be able to read it, and I gave my mom the language disclaimer. Funny thing about my parents – and I’m going to digress for just a moment here – they’d done a read on the last book I published in an early stage, and my mother said to me, “it needs a little something more. More sex. More Violence.” MY MOTHER! My parents are very conservative, so that’s the last thing I expected to hear from her. That’s when I stopped worrying about offending my parents, or being nervous about their judgments on my writing. I’ve been grown up for a long time, but it’s funny how you never quite outgrow, “what will my parents think?” ANYWAY, back on track, I gave them the language disclaimer. My mother responded with, “Sometimes that’s what real life is like. It’s unfortunate, but true.” My mother, again, who is offended by movies with bad language. The book has only been out for a week, and I just received my “giveaway” copies, so the parents haven’t read it yet, but there’s a copy on the way to them.
The point of all of this is that there should be a sensitivity to your audience. You don’t want to offend people, and yet you have to be true to your characters. My heroine uses a tamed down epithet, her outbursts don’t require profanity. Men, on the other hand, are more often less reserved. Wolf has been through a lot in his life, and once those buttons get pushed one more time, he reacts in a less “civilized” manner, in spite of his resolve to maintain his self-control. It takes the calming hand of the heroine to “ease his pain.”
So what is Mist on the Meadow about? Here’s the pitch: Wolf Harper needs a Kundigerin, "one who knows," to close his grandmother's estate and save the failing family business; instead, professional baker Marissa Maitland rattles skeletons in his family's closet and ignites a passion Wolf has never felt before. Has he been bewitched?
Karla’s books are available through all the online booksellers or ordered by request at your favorite bookstore. Visit http://www.karlabrandenburg.com/ for more information or follow her blog at www.karlabrandenburg.blogspot.com.
Karla
Find out more about author Karla Brandenburg
http://www.karlabrandenburg.com/ http://www.karlabrandenburg.blogspot.com/Thank you, Karla, for visiting us today! Please feel free to ask Karla about her writing or other author-type
questions/comments you might have for her.
Til next time ~
DL Larson
By: Kathy Temean,
on 4/10/2013
Blog:
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Here is illustrator Joanne Friar’s painting of a rainy day done in acrylic gouache on HP watercolor paper and based on a poem from Robert Louis Stevenson’s “A Child’s Garden of Verses”. Joanne was featured on March 10th on Illustrator Saturday. You can use this link to see the whole post: http://wp.me/pss2W-4j3
Thought you would be interested in an interesting article written by Jeremy Greenfield for Forbes the other day, titled, How the Authors Guild Is Kind of Like the NRA and Why Scott Turow Is Wrong About Authors which rebutted an op-ed for the New York Times, written by Authors Guild president Scott Turow (who is also a lawyer and the best-selling author of legal thrillers like The Burden of Proof and Presumed Innocent). In this weeks article Turow, lamented that authors are under siege in the ebook era.
Turow’s angst all came about when last month, the Supreme Court decided to allow the importation and resale of foreign editions of American works, which are often cheaper than domestic editions. Until now, courts have forbidden such activity as a violation of copyright. Not only does this ruling open the gates to a surge in cheap imports, but since they will be sold in a secondary market, authors won’t get royalties.
Jeremy Greenfeld pointed out in his Forbes article that the vast majority of authors in the U.S. are not best-selling authors. Many of them have greatly benefited from the massive changes that have swept across the literary landscape in the U.S. Before the rise of ebooks, only a small fraction of them would have been able to live out their lifelong dream of becoming a published author. Now tens of thousands of them do it every month.
Below are a few excerpts from Jeremy’s article. The full article is worth reading, since you will not get the comparison of the NRA and the Authors Guild if you don’t read Jeremy’s whole piece.
(According to a recent survey of nearly 5,000 authors by Digital Book World — that Jeremy Greenfield authored — the top three reasons authors want to publish books are:
To build their careers as writers;
To satisfy a lifelong ambition; and
To write something that people are willing to buy.
To make money is fourth. The full study is available here.)
Some small percentage of those dreamers (an incredibly small percentage) go on to become Hugh Howey and Amanda Hocking. So, to the many of you out there who enjoyed Wool or My Blood Approves, thank some of the changes in book publishing.
The system that vaulted a talented (and lucky) few to the top is still thriving. Publishers are making just as much if not more money than ever before and the mega best-seller is alive and well. Check out the ebook best-seller list every week and you’ll see that big publishers dominate. Time and again, they are able to market and sell titles that spend months on the list. Want to sell millions of copies of a book? The same path that has always existed is probably your best bet.
But what if you’re not that talented (or lucky)? What if you don’t know the right people or nobody sees in your work what you see in it? Well, self publishing is now a viable option and a legitimate path to big sales numbers.
For some authors, the new publishing paradigm now offers them a choice between established publishers and publishing their own work themselves.
There are authors, such as narrative non-fiction and picture book writers, who are having trouble finding footing in the new era — and some of them write the most vital literature we have. Take Robert Caro, the author of several valuable and critically acclaimed tomes on Lyndon B. Johnson. Each of his books takes years to complete and probably can’t be done any other way. That kind of work takes investment and an appetite for risk; in the future, we may see fewer investments on Caro-like work. That would be a tragedy for American letters.
At this year’s Writer’s Digest conference in New York, there were nearly 500 attendees, enthusiastic writers who are interested in working on their craft and learning the business of publishing (disclosure: Writer’s Digest is a sister company to Digital Book World, my employer.) From what I heard, writers at the conference echoed the sentiment that now is the best time ever to be a writer.
“The vibe at the conference was incredibly upbeat,” Writer’s Digest community leader Phil Sexton told me. “Regardless of what challenges exist, most writers that we spoke to seemed to agree that we have far more publishing options and opportunities than we did even a few years ago.”
While there are things that the Authors Guild should oppose in defense of its constituents’ interests, it should not be done on a platform of “authors under attack” because that’s clearly not the case for the vast majority of authors. For most, this is the best time in history to be an author.
Talk tomorrow,
Kathy
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I had a long list of P-inspired words but kept coming back to this one, largely because kept thinking of Sean Connery in
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade uttering (while shot!) "Only the penitent man shall pass." (He did say it earlier in the movie, but this is scene that sticks in my head. It's a great example for vocabulary learning for all you visual learners!
PENITENT - feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong
Let's start with the poem that the books today build from.
This Is Just To Sayby William Carlos Williams I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Poem ©William Carlos Williams. All rights reserved.
There are some who call this "the dreaded plum poem." I happen to like "This is Just to Say". Was the speaker truly remorseful? It's hard to say. Would I have forgiven the writer? Eventually, but I would have been really aggravated to find and read that note. I can just imagine it scribbled on a Post-It note stuck to the refrigerator. (See, visual imagery!)
After sharing this poem there's no way you could skip a reading of Joyce Sidman's incredible book
THIS IS JUST TO SAY: POEMS OF APOLOGY AND FORGIVENESS. This book is a direct result of Sidman's work as a writer-in-residence at schools, where she uses the poem as a model. The book is written in the voices of school children and is organized in this fashion.
- Table of Contents
- Introduction written by Anthony K., a "student" in Mrs. Merz's class
- This Is Just to Say, by William Carlos Williams
- Part 1: Apologies
- Part 2: Responses
There is a wealth of material here, with seventeen apology and seventeen response poems. Here's a poem that reminded me a lot of my childhood relationship with my older sister (though I never stabbed her with a pencil!).
The Black Spot
(written by Alyssa for her sister Carrie)
That black spot on your palm.
It never goes away.
So long ago
I can hardly remember,
I stabbed you with a pencil.
Part of the lead, there,
still inside you.
And inside me, too,
something small and black.
Hidden away.
I don't know what to call it,
the nugget of darkness,
that made me stab you.
It never goes away.
Both marks, still there.
Small black
reminders.
Roses Are Red(written by Carrie in response to Alyssa)
Roses are red,
violets are blue.
I’m still really
pissed off at you.
Poems ©Joyce Sidman. All rights reserved.
The topics and emotions related in these poems are those that any child today might deal with. There are apologies for making fun of the dress a teacher is wearing, breaking a mother's precious glass deer, not winning a spelling bee, hitting a friend too hard with a dodge ball, and more. Some of the poems revela the writer to be truly remorseful, while others are only slightly apologetic.
To learn more you should check out the particularly useful
reader's guide at Sidman's web site. You may also want to take a moment to
watch and listen to her read from the book.
Forgive me.
This next book
is anything
but penitent.
Since it borrows
Williams' form,
I had to include it.
Please read on
and chastise me
later.
FORGIVE ME, I MEANT TO DO IT: FALSE APOLOGY POEMS, written by Gail Carson Levine and illustrated by Matthew Cordell, is a collection of poems connected with nursery rhyme or fairy tale themes and characters that borrow Williams' form but include apologies that are conditional or utterly insincere. Some of these poems are dark, but they're all entertaining and some are downright funny. Here's one of my favorites.
This Is Just to Say
I have shortened
my nose
with your saw
because
honestly
telling lies
is so much fun
Forgive me
I don't care
about becoming
a real boy
(Pinocchio)
Poem ©Gail Carson Levine. All rights reserved.
That's it for P. See you tomorrow with some O inspired poetry ponderings.
In 2005, I wrote what is, so far, my only magazine cover story.
The Weekly Reader publication Know Your World Extra ran it.
Hard-hitting, it was not. But it did have a good angle. The article addressed the trend (still in effect) of comic book companies (particularly the one with which I’m most familiar, DC Comics) taking the name of an established white superhero and creating a new, nonwhite version.
Firestorm became black.
Blue Beetle became Hispanic.
The Atom became Asian.
The Crimson Avenger became (no, not crimson) black…and female. Now female in the New 52: the Atom (Hispanic, too), Shadow-Thief, Wotan...
Numerous other examples exist.
The Justice League of All of America.
 |
| Sharon Wildey Calle |
After a week's vacation in the "Land of Enchantment" (New Mexico), I have come home inspired and ready to write.
My only challenge... How do I recreate the diverse and magical spirit of this environment as a setting for a story?
Literature has long been inspired by place.
The Grapes of Wrath, Gone With the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird- each of these transports us to a very specific time and environment.
Much is involved in scene setting. To give a true sense of place, one must incorporate the following: physical environment, people, culture, language, and history. It is challenging to not let your setting interfere with (or upstage) your plot. It must be seamlessly woven in between your characters' actions and dialogue.
As I sort through my photos, maps, and free brochures, I think of the people I met, the cultures I experienced, the landscapes I hiked through. I'm not ready to resign my memories to a scrapbook or picasa gallery just yet.
But I
am ready to share this adventure through storytelling.
What are some of the ways you incorporate a sense of place into your writing?
Are there certain children's books/authors that you feel do this exceptionally well?
Here is a little portrait of a new pot of succulents at my house.
I love these guys.
I've been doing some experimenting experimenting, and it seems to be working...
Outside our South Carolina spring is definitely here, everything is covered with a fine sheet of yellow pollen and the temperature is rising. We've signed up for our plot in the community garden again this year, and are slowly starting to plant. The potatoes we put in early are coming up, and there are a lot of them! (squeals of excitement from the kids) I'm hoping the early planting will trick the pests and last years potato bugs will arrive to late...
As we prepare to launch our brand new website (phyllisharrisdesigns.com),
we wanted to share a few sneak peeks. We are so excited because
we got to use our new grand baby’s nursery for our photo shoot;
featuring some of our best selling wall art prints.
Our first grand baby’s greatly anticipated debut is late July...it’s a girl!
More to come. Stay tuned! But in the meantime, our
Etsy shop is bursting with Spring so be sure to stop in for a visit!
~Phyllis
These are unedited photos taken by my amazing son-in-law Ron Hernadez! :)
“THE ANTI-BULLYING NOVELIST,” ELAINE WOLF, WINS 2013 COMMUNITY UPSTANDER AWARD
Acclaimed novelist Elaine Wolf has been selected as the recipient of the 2013 Community Upstander Award for her books and her anti-bullying mission. Known as “the anti-bullying novelist,” Wolf writes about what really goes on behind the closed gates and doors of our camps and schools––where, she says, means girls (and boys) practice bullying as if it were a sport.
“Wolf writes with insight and authority about an issue that society cannot afford to ignore.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Camp (Sky Pony Press) was chosen as Book of the Month by the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County (New York), which is presenting the Community Upstander Award on May 1st. Camp was given “a perfect 10” by the Voice of Youth Advocates and named a first place winner by the Forward National Literature Award Committee. It appears on “Publishers Weekly Bullying Resources: A Selected Listing.” Reviewers call Camp “a mesmerizing book” and “a must-read for adolescents and the adults who care about them.”
_______________________________________________________________
Reviewers say Danny’s Mom (Arcade Publishing) is “a must-read for all parents and teachers.” The Advocate calls Danny’s Mom “an excellent and essential read for mothers, adults who work in schools, and the LGBT community” and features the novel in “Books for Young LGBT Folks and Anyone Who Wants to Understand Them.” A reviewer for The Denver Post adds: "You think only students have to deal with backstabbing and bullying in high school? Think again. Wolf's heroine, a high school guidance counselor, fights back."
________________________________________________________________
Camp and Danny’s Mom have given Elaine Wolf a literal bully pulpit––a platform from which to carry on the anti-bullying conversation until our camps and schools are safer for everyone.
Elaine Wolf is an award-winning writer and the author of Camp and Danny's Mom. She is a former middle school and high school teacher and district language arts chairperson. The world she writes of is one she is passionate about and knows well. She lives with her husband in Northampton, Massachusetts.
I'm so excited to be able to give more information on our online story art class that's coming up!
First: There will be a website coming where you can sign up but we don't have that available just yet - it's coming!
Second: We are making a list and will give advanced notice to those of you who want to sign up. Simply leave your email address in the comments section below or email me privately and I'll put you on the list. These people will get first crack at the sign up when we launch the website. No obligation however if you're on the list - you will just get an email with the link to the class site.
Ok - so here's the info:
I keep writing "we" and you're probably wondering who I'm talking about? I'm going to be team teaching this class with Jake Parker!
THE JAKE PARKER! This guy is amazing - he's worked on feature films and comics as well as picture books - not to mention coming off of an amazing kickstarter raising 85,000 for his Antler boy book! (Don't tell anyone - but I'm more excited to learn from him probably than anyone else!)
Where: On your computer
When: Every Mon. and Wed. at 7:00PM - 9:00PM MST Starting June 10th and ending July 10th
Duration: 5 weeks = 10 classes
How much? This will be announced on the website but it will be a fraction of what a college class costs and I think extremely reasonable for what you will get.
Each class will be recorded and you will be able to watch it at your convenience - so if you have to miss a class you can still watch the presentation although you will miss out on asking questions.
In addition you will get a follow up skype call at the end of the class to go over anything you want to concerning your work or portfolio.
Each class has been carefully thought out and you will know what material will be covered as it will also be announced on the website.
I'm just bursting - this is going to be so much fun!
Oh yeah. You want a book that hits the sweet spot for the nine-year old mythical creature lover? This is what you are looking for:
The Menagerie, by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland (HarperCollins, March 2013, middle grade), is your basic ordinary boy meets a family who tends mythical creatures, and finds he has a knack for baby griffin wrangling. It's your basic new kid in town finds a niche and makes friends, with a bit of family dynamic stuff thrown in. And it's your basic scary government bad enforcement types and sinister sneakers off in the background threatening everything.
And the sum of these somewhat unremarkable plot points is an adventure with a generous dose of mystery that is eminently readable and very enjoyable, especially, I think, if you are nine years old. Even more especially if you are my own nine-year old, who turned right around after reading it in one day to begin it over again, and who can't wait for the sequel.
Things I especially appreciated:
1. Great baby griffins! The main story revolves around the escape of six young siblings, and their escapades all over town, which vary depending on their personality (one ends up in the library, because books are her favorite sort of treasure, another makes a hoard for himself with the pirate coins in a toy shop, etc.).
Logan, our central character, has the remarkable ability to converse telepathically with griffins, and here he is talking to baby Flurp (her thoughts are in bold) in the library:
"
Flurp ready to write fabulous tales of grand adventure. Furp ready to be most famous author of all time! From nice warm safe cave with much fish. She clacked her beak.
Nothing to eat in here but BOOKS.
"Did you actually--?" Logan glanced through the play-house window. The floor was covered in Harry Potter books, as if Flurp had been been making a nest out of them.
Eat books?! Flurp would NEVER! Flurp would STARVE first!The griffin cub let out a tiny burp that smelled of crayons." (p 105)
Plus Logan knows about griffins because he's seen one on a Diana Wynne Jones book, which made me, DWJ fan that I am, smile!
2. The fact that Logan is African American, and that this has nothing whatsoever to do with anything that happens. It's just who he is.
3. The nice balance of description (cool creatures!) with happenings, and an equally nice balance of the funny with the tense----it felt just right to my own internal nine-year old.
4. The fact that Logan has a cat named Purrsimmon.
And, as a small but worthwhile added bonus, "menagerie" is now in my son's vocabulary.
So give this to the kid who isn't ready for
Fablehaven yet, who loves mythical creature fiction, and watch the pages turn...
One last thing regarding my own boy's experience with it--after taking it to school, and talking it up, he came home to report that at least ten kids, including ones he hadn't expected to be interested, all wanted to read it. But he was a good child, and brought it back home to his mama...
There comes a time when decisions need to be made. Is it better to enroll in KDP Select and offer freebies, or not?
So far, I've got Forever Young: Blessing or Curse still enrolled, as well as Girl of My Dreams.
I took my most recent romantic comedy, Her Handyman, off the program, but may put it back on later. I have mixed feelings about offering freebies. After a free event, I do get more sales, but then I wonder if some readers notice it's available free for Prime members, which means it will probably be free for everyone else for five days, somewhere along the line. That seems a double-edged sword.
Anyway, I'll see how the system goes, and learn if any other alternatives present themselves.
In the meantime, I'm not completely neglecting other sources, since two of my books, Killer Career, and Two Wrongs, are still available on all the Smashwords sites, as well as on Amazon.
For excerpts and buy links to all my books, you're welcome to check them out at:
http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com
Yup! That's the cover, alright! I am exceeeeeedingly fond of it. To me it says "hey, there's a fun, funny novel in here about friends, Fibs, fibs, math, poetry, and pie." Of course, I could be biased :-)
Did I mention that
The 14 Fibs of Gregory K. comes out in October from
Arthur A. Levine Books? And that the above is the cover and that I'm super excited???? And it's even
available for preorder but no one has this lovely cover yet? I did? Good!
(If you are seeing this in email or a reader, just
click here and come on by to see MY NEW COVER!!!! Ooops. Sorry. Didn't mean to let my excitement get the best of me....)
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By: Ello,
on 4/10/2013
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Hello Ello 2
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So I made a gif of my own book trailer! it came out pretty well, if I say so myself!! You can check it out on My tumblr here!
I'll also be at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 18th, 2013, from 10 to 6. I will be a featured author along with my friend Jessica Spotswood! I'll update the blog with my time slot as we get closer to the date. But if you are in the area, I hope you can make it!
The Gaithersburg Book Festival is an annual celebration of great books and great writing that is fast becoming one of the nation’s top literary events. More than 100 featured best-selling and award-winning authors – including Walter Dean Myers, Kitty Kelley, Phillip Margolin, Jon Scieszka, Mark Shriver, Maggie Stiefvater, Evan Thomas, original MTV VJs Nina Blackwood and Mark Goodman, and more – will participate in panel discussions and book signings. Other activities include a spotlight on local authors, interactive writing workshops, a Children’s Village, presentations by poets and singer/songwriters, announcement of short story contest winners, exhibitors with literary wares, and on-site sales of new and used books. Admission, parking and handicap-accessible shuttle buses are FREE.
By:
catugeau,
on 4/10/2013
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THE WAY TUGEAU
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we’ve shared with you before one of our artists Priscilla Burris’s wonderful truly heart felt young characters and their special worlds. Well one of them Heidi Heckelbeck is a most popular little girl as it turns out!
Heidi won 1st place for fiction series at the New York Book Show!!!
They announced it last night at the event. Exciting! WAY TUGEAU (ooops To Go!) Little Simon and Priscilla! wow and wow!
Nelson County Middle School is doing a school wide read (or listen) of THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF MIKE. It was such FUN talking with these smart, funny, clever young people! Here are some of their creations:
Signs from the book for various rooms (I like how the front office got to be “Big Dawg,”) and quotes:
A beautiful Lego bridge and map, just like Mike’s, and a cat clock just like Poppy & Moo’s:
In fact, all the clocks in the school were transformed into “Felix the Cat” clocks:
A bulletin board with Lego tile comments folks can leave related to the book’s themes (“Do you remember a time you were lost?”), a skit, quotes from the book and even, the piece de resistance, Past’s shopping cart complete with laptop, cooler and photo of Misha! Wow! And even flowers and a Relay for Life luminaria in my honor! Yup, this is what makes a writer’s day — no, a writer’s whole year! Thanks, guys!
The adventures I have, when I randomly buy, pick up, or otherwise gank books! Once again, I am SUPER EXCITED because I've found another Cybils contender so early in the year. I'm a Luddite at heart, and I have had access to ereaders for years, but... Read the rest of this post
By: John Mark Boling,
on 4/10/2013
Blog:
The Winged Elephant
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New books just arrived…YAHOO!!
Memoirs of a Hamster by Devin Scillian is being published by Sleeping Bear Press. It follows our first collaboration, Memoirs of a Goldfish(2010).
Here’s a description of the story:
Night 1 / My life is perfect. / I have a bowl full of seeds, a cozy pile of wood shavings, and room to run. / I'm never leaving here. / Question: Who's the luckiest hamster in the world? / Answer: ME! Seymour the hamster has the perfect life. He has a spacious cage, a constant food supply, and a FuzzyBoy 360 exercise wheel that lets him run to his heart's content. Life could not be better. Or could it? When Pearl the cat tells Seymour of the goodies beyond the safe confines of his cage, he starts to think he's missing out. And out is the new in! It's only after Seymour is out of his cage that he begins to fully appreciate his safe and cozy home.
The illustrations were done in acrylic on watercolor board.
I think I’ll start my own memoir…
Day 1-
I received two boxes of freshly printed books. Who’s the luckiest illustrator in the world? Answer: Me!
…now, back to the drawing board.
By: Evil Editor,
on 4/10/2013
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Guess the PlotJust One of the Boys1. Tomboy Gena has always struggled with identity issues, but now he's certain to cause a stir after gender-reassignment. How will folks react when Geno is...Just One of the Boys?
2. Foundation: Check. Mascara: Check. Corset: Check. Fishnets: Check. And--oh yeah, chihuahua in the purse. Yep, Mike's ready for a night with the boys.
3. Kate's best friend Meredith blabs Kate's secrets to the cool girls, so Kate starts hanging out with the boys. Then the cool girls discover boys and want to use Kate as an in to the boys' group. Now Kate must decide: use this opportunity to become one of the girls, or remain . . . just one of the boys.
4. When Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson ride into the little town of Misery in search of a killer, 16 year old Belle is desperate to join them. Will cutting her hair, wearing her Pa's clothes and carrying a gun convince them that she's-- just one of the boys?
5. A lonely housewife disguises herself as an overweight, obnoxious executive in order to spend more time with her husband at the office. But what secrets will she uncover when her husband thinks she's...Just One of the Boys?
6. When a dragon wakes from his thousand-year nap, he finds a boarding school built over his lair. Roaming the dorms for sustenance, he discovers a deep love for the works of Goethe and an allergy to tweed.
7. Fifteen-year-old Patricia is a horse-loving tomboy. Her twin brother Patrick loves playing piano. When their parents head to Tuscany for the summer, the twins swap plans. He goes to Piano Camp in NYC. She goes to Boy Scout Horse Camp in Wyoming. Does she know Horse Camp has a communal shower room?
8. Psychologist Mandy Smith thinks she knows every manipulative, narcissistic trick used by patients to deceive therapists. Until she starts counseling a Sex Addicts Anonymous group. To better understand her new clients, Mandy hits the bar scene, undercover and transgender.
9. Philippa's always acted like one of the boys alongside her 9 brothers. But when she decides to get in touch with her feminine side, can she grow out her crew cut in time for the junior prom?
Original VersionDear Evil Editor/ Agent,
I’d like you to consider my tween romance, Just One of the Boys.
Fourteen year old Kate’s so-called best friend Meredith has just blabbed all of her secrets to the cool girls, in hopes of joining their group.
[Welcome to our clique. We've been wanting to add a new member, preferably one who blabs her friends' secrets.] [I'd get rid of "so-called" and just put quotation marks around "best friend."] [Also, could readers think Meredith blabbed her own secrets rather than Kate's secrets? Probably not, though technically, you'd write the sentence the same if it were Meredith's secrets, so maybe you should say "Kate's secrets."] Devastated that their friendship seems to be so cheap, Kate instead reconnects with her childhood friend, Aaron, and hangs with him and his buddies instead.
[Neither "instead" is needed.]
She doesn’t mind talking football and cars,
[Do boys care about cars before they're old enough to drive?] and actually enjoys jamming heavy metal riffs with them. But she has to dress down in order for them to stop trying for her attention.
[Not clear what that means, partly because what 14-year-old doesn't want attention?] She gradually gets to know the brooding Brandon, whose home life is terrible, and finds herself falling for him. But he sees her as ‘one of the boys’. Together, they write a song for a competition, and Kate uses the lyrics to express her feelings for him. He loves the song and reveals that he will dedicate it to Meredith, whom he loves from afar.
[Kate's mistake was calling the song "Meredith My Love." If she'd named it "Eleanor My Love, no prob. Or she could have put the names Brandon and Kate in the lyrics a la "Jack and Diane," "Frankie and Johnnie," "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde."]
Kate needs to figure how to get him to believe exactly how mean Meredith really is.
[Without just telling him?] In the meantime, the cool girls (including Meredith) start to be nice to her – probably to get to know the boys. Her impulse is to ignore them, but it gives her an opportunity to stop being one of the boys, even though she really prefers their company.
[So what's her dilemma? Sounds like she can just keep hanging with the boys or she can become a cool girl and still hang with the boys, since the cool girls apparently want to hang with the boys. Do both sides of the decision have a major disadvantage?]
This is a story about being yourself, even when the consequences are hard;
[I missed that part. Kate's only hard consequence was losing a friendship with someone who wasn't much of a friend anyway. But that wasn't a consequence of being herself; it was a consequence of Meredith being mean.] [Actually, it's a story about how boys make better friends than girls, but don't mention that, as girls are your audience.] about fitting-in and friendship and loyalty and about identity in the ever-changing world of the adolescent.
My contact details are as follows.......
Notes
This is pretty wordy. The fewer words you use to make a point, the more room you have to provide additional information.
It's also mainly setup.If you can squeeze the setup into one paragraph, something like:
When 14-year-old Kate is betrayed by her best friend Meredith, she starts hanging out with her childhood friend Aaron and his buddies. She gets to know Brandon, and together they write a song for a contest. The problem: Kate's lyrics express her romantic feelings for Brandon, but he wants to dedicate the song to his secret crush . . . Meredith!
. . . you'll have plenty of room to tell us how Kate attempts to win Brandon over, what goes wrong, what brings the whole situation to a boil.
I had all sorts of prospects for my class at Penn yesterday. Just two classes to go, and I had a plan in place, some thoughts about teaching the art of putting another's gestures, postures, cheekbones, eyes on the page. I had things to read, photographs to study, Annie Dillard, Anton Chekhov, Francine Prose, and Cynthia Kaplan in my back pocket. But before we would get to that, we would hear from the students themselves, who had been interviewing each other and writing "practice" profiles.
Except. These were no practice profiles. These were fully developed, deeply moving, vastly important
gifts crafted scrupulously for one another. It became important to simply dwell with these pieces, to slow things down, to take note of all the progress my students have made this semester, to honor the insights and the care embedded in their most recent work. There were students who had entered my classroom in winter proclaiming that they couldn't write; how wrong they were. There have been those who have worried about getting things wrong; time and again they got so much right. There were those who cautioned that they might not come to every class, and would probably be late with the assignments. Okay, so. There was only one of those, and he lied. He came. He wrote. Not just extremely well, but also (he amazed us) on time (give or take three minutes).
Soon I'll be able to share one of my student's works, for it will be published in an esteemed magazine. Someday I'll be able to tell you about the others—their gains, their triumphs, their stories.
But for now, in the midst of what has become the busiest season in my life, I want to take a minute and thank my institution, the University of Pennsylvania, for giving me the chance, again, to fall in love (thank you, Greg Djanikian, and thank you, Al Filreis). This is a great privilege, spending time with these students, watching them grow. And it is a great privilege to work at my alma mater. The final project my students will produce is a profile of an individual who inspires. Many of my students have chosen a university professor, and in reading through the profile proposals this morning, I am awed by the many professors I've never met who are radically changing student lives.
If you walk through life looking for the good, you find students like my students. You find an institution like my own.
My family and I each made photo collages for my Dad's funeral. I had a little fun with mine, adding some good, funny memories. I'll let this speak for itself....
You may have to right click and open in a new window in order to see it clearly. I would also recommend enlarging it in your browser a bit.
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Her designs look really fun, they certainly reflect her inspiration.
A huge thanks for the feature! Much appreciated :)
lovely style and bold colours
I'm a big fan!