How to use this Page

Thanks for talking to Boomerang Books, Deadly D/Dylan and Justice about your Deadly D and Justice Jones books (Magabala Books). Kids who like rugby league and sport are going to love these books. Questions for Dylan/Deadly D and Justice - What are your favourite football teams and players? Dylan: Growing up in Mount Isa and being a North Queensland […]

When two squirrels moved into my attic, I went on a quest to figure out what they were doing. I knocked on the ceiling, and they scratched back. Imagining what they thought and felt, I wrote The Bravest Squirrel Ever. Because I had so much fun writing this book, I continued their adventures with The Bravest Squirrel in the Forest and The Bravest Squirrel in School.

You might say I went a little squirrel crazy! But here's the deal: The fears and emotions my squirrels face are the same ones that kids face as they start to grow up--feelings we've all had to deal with at some point. Reading about sweet, determined, plucky squirrels never giving up despite the tough odds against them, we can discover we're braver and stronger than we ever imagined, just like Pippi, Max and Lana.

It's about time I did another Storytelling Thursday! 

ANNOUNCING:  The Children's Series for 2013 at Godfrey Daniels, the First and Third Sundays in January, February and March.  All these events start at 2 pm and each Sunday a different awesome, amazing, delightful and very talented storyteller will regale children of all ages.  (All members of the Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild, I might add.)

PLUS, Cops'n'Kids will be there to hand out FREE BOOKS!!!!  Heaven!  I'm in heaven!

This is the BIGGEST BARGAIN in live children's entertainment in the entire Lehigh Valley - if not all of Eastern PA and BEYOND!  (It's so exciting I have to overuse my CAPITAL LETTERS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!)  Admission is only $4.50 but that includes free books and a cookie - or fountain drink.  And children under 5 can get in for free. 

Now, don't worry.  You have two weeks to get ready.  The fun begins on Jan. 6th with Larry Sceurman, the Magical Storyteller.

Larry kicks the Children's Series off on Jan. 6th at 2 pm.

 Thursday came and went.  I blame it on my job which only happens on Thursdays and alternate Saturdays.  Then, Friday was a blur.  And I did not fulfill my Story Thursday commitment.  I do these things sometime.

So I will remind you all that Kristin Pedemonti will be the teller at the Children's Series tomorrow, Sunday, February 19th, at 2 pm at Godfrey Daniels.

It starts in one hour and 52 (51, 50, 49) minutes at Godfrey Daniels with Eva Grayzel telling.  Bring the kids!

With my blunt, redheaded sleuth songbird Dinah Galloway now starring in six published mysteries, I feel I can now officially take my place in the ranks of children’s series authors. Now, Dinah’s not unruffled and glam like Nancy Drew. Nor is she versed in magic à la Harry Potter – though just watch her make Purdy’s peanut butter chocolates vanish in a blink.

I’ve waited in vain for the postie to deliver a special membership card to this special cadre of writers. You know, The bearer of this card is an official Serial Flake, or something like that. In lieu of receiving that honor, I decided to investigate just who started children’s series.

Click your heels three times, and the answer is … L. Frank Baum, the actor-turned—farmer-turned journalist who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Raised by a Pennsylvania oil baron, Baum enjoyed an idyllic childhood on his Eden-like family estate, Rose Lawn. While a newspaper editor in South Dakota, he wrote Oz, basing Dorothy’s parched, gray surroundings on the Midwest drought of the time. I’m guessing Rose Lawn was his inspiration for her Over the Rainbow escape from the drought.

Fiona Bayrock interviewed me, along with Pam Withers and Deborah Hodge, about series books in an article for Children’s Writers and Illustrators 2010.

I love how the books that need the least promotion get the most. I will use as an example, say Harry Potter 7. The book is eagerly awaited. There are fan sites, "what will happen next" books, and all sorts of private parties. The book is getting tons of hype from the amateurs. And still Scholastic and the big chains are spending a ton of money. There are all kinds of prizes being given out. Most stores are planning huge release parties. (My favorite so far is Bookpeople, here in Austin, that's going to have the entire Austin Symphony Orchestra out doing something.) Admittedly release parties happen for other books, my store's having one for Riordian's Titan's Curse in May, but they aren't at midnight (overtime hours) and they don't require most of the staff to attend as crowd control. And Amazon is now sponsoring a contest for the Harryest city in the country. Basically Amazon will donate $5000 to a charity of Amazon's choice in the city with more than 500 people that preorders the most books. When will the madness stop? I plan to read HP7 because book 6 ended in such a nice unresolved way. Would I have done it without the publicity blitz? Yes. And if the book ends up being awful (which I doubt) then won't all that money look like a waste. Preorders are great, but nothing can save a book if word-of-mouth says it's awful.

Still, if I was a midlist author watching all this money being spent on a book that's doomed to be a success, I think I would be, at the very least, depressed.