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Listen to this Interview with children’s author, and instructor for the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club, Simon Rose on Robin Falls Kids:

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In what is a first for me, I was on The Casting Couch last night! As evidenced by the proper nouns, I wasn’t making out with some producer here in LA. I did an interview over on BlogTalkRadio (home of our own Mr. Media while you’re there) with Sean Berry, who asked me a bunch of very smart questions about what I do and the publishing industry in general. I really enjoyed it, and we discussed topics that appeal to aspiring authors through pros. So check it out!

Listen to The Casting Couch on Blog Talk Radio

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I had a fun time talking with April and Margaret today on the Robin Falls Kids Show.

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Just a few more photos from the big game on Tuesday night.

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HAMSTER HOLIDAYS: NOUN and ADJECTIVE ADVENTURES is here!!!

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If you haven’t joined our mailing list, please fill in your name and email address in the boxes in the right sidebar of this page. When you do, every Monday you’ll get our weekly email update with a list of the week’s guest authors on Book Bites for Kids, along with helpful articles, tips, and other resources for children’s authors, aspiring children’s authors, parents, and teachers.

If you received this week’s update this morning you know that Sarah Conover was our scheduled guest today for Book Bites for Kids. We had some technical difficulties at blogtalkradio today, but we hope to have the recorded interview with Sarah posted later today.

Learn more about Sarah’s new book Harmony: a Treasury of Chinese Wisdom for Children and Parents by visiting www.sarahconover.com.

blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Sarah Conover

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Listen to Book Bites for Kids, LIVE on blogtalkradio this afternoon at 2:00 central time when host, Suzanne Lieurance, will interview Kyle Donovan, author of the Do’ Bees book series for kids.

Call in during the show and ask a question or make a comment at 1-646-716-9239.

blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Kyle Donovan, Suzanne Lieurance, The Do Bees

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Listen to Book Bites for Kids, LIVE this afternoon at 2:00 central time on blogtalkradio. Lila Guzman, an instructor for the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club, will talk about her upcoming teleclass for the club.

We’ll also discuss the way the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club works, and what every member gets for their monthly membership fee of only $27.00.

Call in during the LIVE show to ask a question or make a comment at 1-646-716-9239. You can also call if you have an upcoming book signing, writers’ conference, or other event to promote.

blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Childrens Writers Coaching Club, Cwcc, Lila Guzman

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Join host Suzanne Lieurance for Book Bites for Kids, LIVE on blogtalkradio.com at 2:00 central time today.

Call in and answer the question of the day and receive a FREE package of Sun-Blessed Tomato Herb Dip Mix from the Three Angels Gourmet Co.

The question for today is “What is your greatest writing strength? How did you develop this strength?”

The number to call to answer this question and receive your Sun-Blessed Tomato Herb Dip Mix is 1-646-716-9239.

Remember - the show starts at 2:00 CENTRAL time today.

blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Sun Blessed Tomato herb dip mix, Three Angels Gourmet Co.

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Join host Suzanne Lieurance for Book Bites for Kids, LIVE on blogtalkradio.com at 2:00 central time today.

Call in and answer the question of the day and receive a FREE package of Divine Dill Dip Mix from the Three Angels Gourmet Co.

The question for today is “What is the best writing tip you have learned as a writer?”

The number to call to answer this question and receive your Divine Dill Dip Mix is 1-646-716-9239.

Remember - the show starts at 2:00 CENTRAL time today.

blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Divine Dill Dip Mix, Three Angels Gourmet Co.

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Today’s guest on Book Bites for Kids, LIVE on blogtalkradio.com at 2:00 central time will be Margaret Park, author of Now..for My Next Number!

blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Margaret Park

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This week’s teleclass for members of the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club will take place Thursday night, April 3, at 8:00 central time.

Children’s author Lila Guzman will present Red Flags: Mistakes That Doom Your Manuscripts.

This teleclass was originally scheduled for last month, but we had some technical problems, so you’ve got another chance now to take part in this class.

Join the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club and receive an email invitation to this event. You’ll also receive a link to the recording of this event on Thursday, just in case you can’t make it to the LIVE class.

As a club member, you are invited to take part in FOUR 55-minute teleclasses about children’s writing every month, plus you have the opportunity to submit a manuscript for professional critique every week, and you can choose to complete a weekly assignment and have it reviewed as well.

Find out why members love the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club by listening to Book Bites for Kids, LIVE on blogtalkradio.com this Wednesday at 2:00 central time when members will call in to promote the club.

And, if you have something you’d like to promote on the show tomorrow, call 1-646-716-9239 between 2:00 and 2:15 central time tomorrow.

blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Childrens Writers Coaching Club, Lila Guzman

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During the month of April, Book Bites for Kids will feature interviews with many writers who make their living as children’s authors.

We’ll not only talk about these authors’ books, we’ll also discuss how they manage to actually support themselves from their writing.

If you make your living as a children’s author, please email [email protected] and schedule an appearance on Book Bites for Kids next month. Share your tips for success with other children’s writers.

blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, childrens book authors

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Watch and listen to this video for Tera’s Dawn a new picture book from author Susan K. Schank.

Schank was the guest author on Book Bites for Kids on Tuesday, March 18th.

Listen to her interview at blogtalkradio.com once you have watched this video and you’ll find out how to order this beautiful new book.

blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Susan K. Schank, Taras Dawn

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Celise Downs will be the guest author today on Book Bites for Kids, LIVE on blogtalkradio.com at 2:00 central time.

Celise is making this fun offer - The first three people who call in or email a question during Celise’s interview, will receive a teaser from her upcoming third novel, A Royale Pain; Book One in the Draven Atreides, Teenage FBI series.

Listen to the show at www.blogtalkradio.com and call this number to ask your question or make a comment 1-646-716-9239.

If you want to email your question ahead of time, send it to [email protected].

author interview, blogtalkradio, Book Bites for Kids, Celise Downs

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Complacency sucks. We should all experience the bitter taste of bile rising in our throats at least once a day and now, thanks to a couple links I've found here and there, you're going to get that chance. I've a twofer for you here. If the former doesn't rouse your rebel blood and cause you to scream an unholy shriek of defiance then the latter most certainly will.

First off, Shaken & Stirred directed me to a little Library Journal piece entitled BEA Journal: Bloggers vs. Reviewers. Ah yes. The mythical rivalry between bloggers and reviewers. The fact that some bloggers can also be reviewers? Well, I'll just clip out a little piece of this article for your consumption. It speaks of the Ethics in Reviewing session that occurred:

I started the day off with a bang, sitting in (actually standing with notepad in one hand and trusty Nikon in the other) on the discussion of the growing influence of bloggers in the book world. It was a rehash of the ongoing bloggers vs so-called "real" reviewers argument, which is a good/bad one. This session, alas, was disappointing because the panelists all were legitimate reviewers, including a critic for the NY Times and a college lit professor, who also blog.

Those folks aren't the people causing concern. It's others going by the handle of Book Girl, or Book Dog, or Bookasaurus, etc., basically book nerds with no chops who pound away on their PCs while their 18 cats prance in the background. Those are the people I wanted to see defending their legitimacy, not some Times ace.

You'll be pleased to hear that I've sicced all 18 of my cats on this writer (though a good 14 of them took two steps out the door and then promptly began attacking my doorstop instead).

Nothing like a bit of massive stereotyping to start your day off right, eh whot? Whatever you do, don't tell the poor fellow that the New York Times has started culling some of their reviewers from amongst the bloggers amongst us (or so I heard this past week-end). I don't think he'd be particularly pleased.

My second entry doesn't actually make me mad. How could it? I mean.... well see for yourself:


In case you can't quite read that, it reads The Sky's Not Falling: Why It's OK to Chill about Global Warming. I'd cry but I'm having too good a time laughing to do so. It's the children's faces that get me. They look so smug and self-satisfied.

You should definitely hear the Kidslit take on it too. She's the one who discovered it, after all.

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I’ve had this word document open on my work computer waiting for inspiration to strike in between phone calls. Part of the distraction has been the blood stained copy of Chelsea Cain’s novel Heartsick sitting next to me (Sylla nicely sent me a copy that was floating around her backroom). Part of it is that this is Memorial Day weekend for most people, while today is my “Monday.” And still another part is that my brain is just preoccupied with matters of horseracing, customer interaction, and the total disbelief that often fills my days here that people wager this much money on a sport they maybe only have a 33% (or 28% depending on where you look up the stats) of seeing some kind of a return on.

I think you have a better chance of picking out a bestseller (wasn’t there a story on that not too long ago in the Times?)…or maybe you don’t. Depends on your definition of bestseller, I guess.

Y’all seem to feel the way I do on TPO issue, which is nice to know. Almost all my purchases lately have been in the Trade size because it fits in my purse perfectly.

The Written Nerd has a wonderful write up on how she feels about book reviews on her site. Definitely something to check out.

Colleen of Chasing Ray zeroed in on the whole NBCC maggot fiasco with a well-written query about how the post got through in the first place.

And I wish that I could provide some of bookish thoughts to finish this off, but it’s five minutes ‘til I’m out of here and there’s a drinks at a friend’s house calling my name.

I’m sure I’ll be much more bookish tomorrow, or at least wrapped up in a book. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend if you don’t get back here until Tuesday!

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A Year of Reading has been honored by Wild Rose Reader with a poem in our honor today! Check out her poem of address written as a FAX to Pluto, informing Pluto of its demotion from planet to dwarf. It is the perfect companion to an earlier poem that she wrote when Pluto was first demoted. Thanks, Elaine!

AND...

We have been selected as Thinking Bloggers by InlandEmpireGirl at Gathering Around the Table. What an honor!

InlandEmpireGirl's blog is full of recipes, gardening tips, thoughts on teaching and writing, and GORGEOUS photographs! Go check it out.

Here are some blogs that make US think:

Borderland writes indepth posts about education issues and about his classroom in Alaska.
PunditMom tackles politics and motherhood.
The Miss Rumphius Effect shares great thematic book lists that she uses in her teacher education courses.
Julius Lester's A Commonplace Book is a feast for the eyes as well as a place that makes us (and others) think. His "Books That Changed Your Life" series is fascinating. Educating Alice's Monica Edinger is featured today, and she's another blogger that makes us think hard about our teaching and our students' learning.

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Remember that whole Thinking Blogger meme that went ah-skittering about the Internet last week? I know. So totally last week ago, right? Well, no one ever nominated Fuse #8, which was fine n' dandy as I don't actually consider myself too hot on the whole "thinking" phenomenon. I think about my reviews, but haven't much brainpower to spare for my quick little daily tidbits. Example: See today's postings on The Giving Tree (me no like), on illustrated novels (me like), and on kidlit tattoos, (me like mucho).

But damned if the blog A Patchwork of Books didn't nominate me just last Friday. Awful sweet of them. As I understand it, I am to nominate five of my own favorite thinking blogs for the honor in turn. Problem is, everyone nominated everyone else last week. Almost everyone, that is. I think it's time to turn my attention to some blogs that make me think in unconventional ways. To the best of my knowledge, none of these have been properly celebrated thus far, so here it goes!

1. Children's Music That Rocks - Yep. Nepotism gets my top slot. Co-worker Warren runs a kidnote blog of magnificence that is constantly causing me to rethink my approach to that obscure little world. Only he could get away with a post that reads, "What do you get when you cross Bob Dylan's vocals from Nashville Skyline with Ballad of Easy Rider-era Byrds music, and illustrate the whole thing with funky fresh Doug Allen drawings?" Plus he did this recent post on an obscure 1954 Don Freeman illustrated picture book that rocked my world last week. Working with this guy ups my hipness quotient a good 20%.

2.Children's Picturebook Price Guide - Honestly, I think they need to work on their name. While an honest assessment of the info they carry, CPPG isn't just a rote recounting of what picture books are going for on the open market. No way, man. They research their puppies. Were you aware of the unresolved authorship controversy surrounding The Little Engine That Could? Howzabout the too little talked about worth of first-edition paperbacks? Think, hell. Linda and Stan are capable of making me learn.

3. Tiny Little Librarian - I'm not sure why TLL isn't better known. "Thinking" is such a loose term anyway. What TLL does for me is tell stories of horrid patrons. Stories that make me feel better about my own. From the adventures of Methadone Man, to the sly lady stuffing paperbacks in her socks, to the adorable kids showing up for storytimes, TLL has a million tales and they're all worth reading. A cathartic blog, if nothing else.

4. Bookninja - Not a kidlit blog. Not even an American blog, but my love for it is vast. It contains multitudes. Half of my best posts come from Bookninja some days. Despite its inexplicable contempt for Harry Potter (a contempt shared by Bookslut as well, I believe) my love for this blog is pure and true. Besides, how else am I gonna find out about Canterbury Tales, gangsta stylin'?

5. ShelfTalker - New. Attached to a large publisher. Smart as hell. 'Nuff said.

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Book Nut has the kind of banner most bloggers only dream of acquiring. Recently she had a piece up entitled Super Hero Books and Thinking Blogs that credits "thinking bloggers". The term is an interesting one. I mean, we all think (to some extent). But some do it better than others. And since I've been tagged, I have to do the same like those chain letters of yore.

Credit then to such "thinking blogs" as Oz and Ends, Educating Alice, Read Roger, and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. I'd mention others but some of you have been unknowingly tagged already, and it would be rude to repeat names.

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