How to use this Page

Scheduled to launch in Fall 2012, BookMentors.org is a non-profit that intends to use "micro patronage" to supply teachers, students, and librarian in high-needs schools with books.

BookMentors.org is a place where you can give and receive books, as well as ideas. Teachers and librarians request, receive, and recommend books. Donors recommend and buy books for teachers. Students benefit from all the shared books and thoughts. Everyone gets to write tributes to their favorite children's and YA books.

Not only does this sound like a good cause but it also seems like another opportunity for children's and YA authors and publishers to promote books.

I've signed up for their mailing list to be kept informed about the upcoming launch.

URL:  http://bookmentors.org/

Twitter: @bookmentors

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BookMentors

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/113752556044546203488/posts

If I could give one piece of advice to my young writer/illustrator self, I would have said this: START ATTENDING CONFERENCES. And join organizations like the SCBWI and CANSCAIP.

I have learned so much, been incredibly inspired and met many creative kindred spirits because of these events. Not to mention three children's book contracts! (I'M BORED plus two more recently, yay!!). Speaking of good things happening at conferences...

Here's my post about Pixel Shavings friends Russ Cox and Hazel Mitchell, with their good news from the New England SCBWI Conference.

I know, I know -- writing an entire story every day sounds crazy. But according to the rules of the challenge, it doesn't have to be a super-long story. I'm going to use this challenge as motivation to come up with SOME story plot every day: each with a beginning, middle and end. Some of these might be turned into picture books, middle grade novels or YA novels.

May is the first month in a while where I won't be doing any traveling, so I actually have a chance of completing this challenge. You can do the challenge on your own, of course, but there's also the opportunity of commiserating with others via the StoryADay.org online community. I've joined the Kid Lit group, for example.

Story A Day is the brainchild of freelance writer Julie Duffy. "Sick of starting and never finishing writing projects, in April 2010 I announced that I was challenging myself to write a story a day in May." She opened the challenge to others and was surprised at the response. "The enthusiasm for the project amazed me. It spoke of a hunger to write, no, a hunger for permission to write that I never dreamed was so widespread."

After May, I'll take the best plots and put them in my Rainy Day Story Folder to inspire me when I'm looking for new book ideas.

For more info about the challenge, visit StoryADay.org and follow the #storyaday hashtag on Twitter.

So who's with me?

One of my MiGwriter critique partners, Christina Farley, came up with a great idea: to interview our literary agents for our blog. So starting next Monday, we'll be posting info and interviews with our agents from Transatlantic, Curtis Brown, JenniferDeChiara and Jennifer Lyons literary agencies.

See the MiGwriters blog and please do "Like" the MiGwriters Facebook Page for updates.

It's National Library Week! You can find out more info about National Library Week at AtYourLibrary.org.

Librarians should visit the National Library Week event page on the ALA (American Library Association) site.

I just posted on the MiG Writers blog about finally getting to meet one of my MiG Writer friends face-to-face for the first time.

Thanks to Kathy Temean for sharing this Call For Submissions from TU Books and Stacy Whitman. Basically, they're looking for middle grade and young adult novels from SCBWI members. See Kathy's blog post for details.

Just discovered this blog while doing a Google search for publishing news: a great mix of publishing industry news and info of interest to writers. Schiel and Denver is an on-demand publisher with offices in the U.S. and UK.

Blog URL: http://www.bookpublisherblog.com/

On Twitter: @schieldenver

Jolie Stekly has a great interview with my agent, Ginger Knowlton. Ginger will be sharing her views, along with three other agents, on the final panel of the SCBWI Winter conference. And Ginger mentions me in the interview, yay!!

I just launched my Inkygirl Page on Google+! If you're on G+ and are interested in Inkygirl updates, please do add me to your Circles! :-)

If you're interested in finding out more about Google+'s newly launched Pages, read this Google+ Post.

Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article today called, Are Social Media Sites the New Slush Pile?

Debut author Leigh Fallon, discovered on HarperCollins’ community YA site, is one example about how the path to authorship is changing, according to the article.

Quote from the article: "Launched by HarperCollins in 2009, Inkpop combines community publishing, user-generated content, and social networking to connect aspiring writers of teen literature with talent-spotting readers and publishing professionals. Fallon uploaded her manuscript and almost immediately it caught the attention of readers – within three weeks it had risen to the site’s 'Top Five' most read and highly rated manuscripts."

You can read the full article on Publishing Perspectives.

Congrats to Writer's Knowledge Base, who wins an Inkygirl Golden CupCake Award! Created by mystery author and writing advice curator Elizabeth Spann Craig (@elizabethcraig on Twitter) this search engine is specifically geared toward writers.

It's a pretty amazing resource. Are you feeling dejected about a recent rejection? Entering "rejection" in the search field will turn up over 1400 posts on the topic! If you haven't already, I encourage you to try it out yourself.

URL: http://hiveword.com/wkb/search

Established in July/2010, the  Inkygirl Golden Cupcake Award is given to blogs  or sites I find particularly inspirational to writers, especially those that may not already be well-known. Criteria is unapologetically subjective.

If you win the award, you do NOT have to display or acknowledge the award (but feel free, if so inclined). Just bask in the ephemeral, golden glory of online blog stardom and then move on, continuing to be an inspiration to the writing community. And THANK YOU for doing what you do.

Here is a list of recent winners of the Inkygirl Golden Cupcake Award.

Yay! Official sign-up for PiBoIdMo starts today! Check out the cool event badge created by my illustrator friend Bonnie Adamson.

The challenge:

Create 30 new picture book ideas in 30 days.

You can find out more info in Tara Lazar's PiBoIdMo sign-up post.

Just had a great Hangout with some of my Pixel Shavings pals (group of children's book illustrator/writers who glog (groupblog) together): +Hazel Mitchell +Sheralyn Barnes +Russ Cox and +Fred Koehler. We missed you, +John Deininger!

We've never all been in one place together and some of us have never met in person, so it was great to actually chat face-to-face.

You can find out more about us at:
http://pixelshavings.blogspot.com/

Writers on Twitter are probably already familiar with Johanna Harness and #amwriting but if you're not, you should be!

#Amwriting is an ongoing chat. You’re not expected to stay tuned-in constantly. The chat happens in the background of your writing day. It is a virtual watercooler for writers, a place you can hang out and talk to your colleagues about your current writing projects (and theirs) and then you get back to work. You are expected to pop in and out of chat as you write, so no one thinks anything of it if you disappear into your writing.

#Amwriting is a community. The writers here care about one another. We have member biographies, a store, discussion groups, help-a-writer classifieds, and a site full of resources.  Both readers and writers are encouraged to join us: http://www.amwriting.org.

If you're not sure how to use hashtags or attend chats on Twitter, please see my Twitter Chat Guide For Writers.

My only warning: Just be careful not to let yourself get so pulled into online socializing that you forget about your real purpose: to get more writing done!

I've been compiling an "add yourself" list of literary/publishing people on Google+. Short URL: http://bit.ly/GP-LIT

To add yourself to any of these lists, just go to the appropriate list and make a post. Feel free to include a URL. You an always edit/update your listing later on. Do spread the word to others on Google+, thanks!

Note: Please don't ask me to add you to the lists -- I purposely made this an "add yourself" directory for easier admin. :-)

With Andrew Tolson's agent submitting his YA manuscript ,The Girl Who Saved Kafka, to prospective publishers, he wanted to entice editors with something extra, a taste of the novel before they had read the first page. He decided to launch a blog that was in the voice of the main character:

http://kafkagirl.com

An explanation from Andrew:

In my daily work as a photographer, I use big expensive cameras. For personal work, I’ve been using my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app. I’m fascinated by the lo-fi approach to many digital applications and Hipstamatic gives you all the beautiful and unpredictable results you’d get from a crappy film camera. The kind of low budget camera you might find in the Linfield Thrift Store. It’s a perfect tool for someone like Zoe Burns to express herself. She’s the fifteen-year-old heroine of my novel, who shops at the thrift store and uses a typewriter because it makes the letters sound loud. She’s desperate to break out of her outcast’s existence. But she must also come to terms with her crazy mother, her best friend’s growing allegiance to the popular girls and the pending appearance of teen pop star Tyler Sharp. Then there’s the school talent show which Zoe is being forced to enter. Can she combine her growing obsession with Franz Kafka’s existential masterpiece, The Metamorphosis, and her talent show performance? She’s certain she has the potential for extraordinariness but–

Wait a minute. This is starting to sound like a synopsis.

Just look at the blogopsis: http://kafkagirl.com

What gave you the idea for starting your Kafka Girl blog?

The idea was two-fold. First, I really enjoyed writing in Zoe’s voice and wondered what it would sound like if I transferred that voice to another medium and then added visuals. Since I’m also a photographer, I wondered what kind of things Zoe would take pictures of. How would she document her environment and her life? But also, I wanted to give prospective editors who are considering the manuscript a unique way of marketing the book to readers.

How often do you update?

At the moment I don’t update it all and that’s intentional. I’ve set up the blog so it has a narrative arc as Zoe introduces herself and her world. If the book sells, and the publisher is interested, I’d love to expand into regular updates with photos and video. Zoe already has a Facebook profile, but I’ve not done anything with it yet. It was a lot of fun putting together the stock images and shooting elements from the story, like Zoe’s Mom’s postcards. I hope the blog will intrigue readers enough to want to check out the book.

What has the response been so far?

The response has been great. I’ve even had a few people get to the end of the blog and not realize it’s fiction. I just hope no one will feel duped.

Who's the man in the picture? (beside "I'm Zoe Burns...") I thought Zoe was a girl?

The man in the photo is Franz Kafka, he of the book’s title. Nowhere in the blog is t

I've been using Google+ pretty heavily for the past week. See the end of this post for a list of Google+ resources for newbies.

If you're just interested in my overall summary, here it is:

Even in its beta testing phase, I like the look and functionality of Google+ much more than Facebook. It's easier to filter the info that you read and share, using Circles. I love the Google+ Hangout video chat feature, which has huge creative collaboration and teaching potential, in addition to the obvious fun social aspect. In addition to the fact that Google is gradually integrating other services so many people use (Picasa and Blogger will become Google branded), I believe that the Hangouts feature is going to ultimately tip the scales in favour of Google+ when it comes to the whole Facebook vs Google choice.

Shorter summary:

Google+ is only in beta and I already love it.

Above: how I felt when I first heard about Google+. Did I really need to join ANOTHER social network?

But here are some detailed reasons why I like Google+ so much:

Compared to Facebook, it's uncluttered

I'm really hoping that Google+ keeps its current clean design. I know they will probably add Google ads at some point, but I don't mind this (just as I don't with Gmail) as long as they're not too obtrusive.

It's easier to filter information

I have multiple interests and follow people who focus on those various interests, including writing, illustrating, webcomics, board gaming, filking, techies, social media, digital publishing, iPads, and more. I was excited when Facebook added Friends' Lists, but then they not only buried them so they were a pain to find (whereas Google+ keeps them prominently displayed) but I couldn't share with specific Lists.

As a result, I find it nearly impossible to keep up with my Facebook stream since everyone's posts, pictures and videos come through in one huge, unending, gloppy mess.

With Google+ Circles, I'm finding it easier to keep up with posts from my different groups of friends and acquaintances, plus follow higher profile people who may not know I exist but  whose posts I find interesting. I'm still finetuning, but here are some of my current Circles:

I'm sure that the Google+ people are working to improve Circle filtering functionality.  I would love to be able to use Boolean filtering algorithms, like "everyone in Circle A -except- for the people in Circle B."   I would also love it if Google+ added smarter searching and search results suggestions, so that  I could look for particular topics within a Circle or group of Circles.

Compared to trying to sort through all the information and noise on my Facebook stream, however,  I'm loving Google+, even in its beta phase. See my list of resources at the end of this article for some helpful info.

It's easier to share information

Because I have multiple interests and multiple circles of friends, it's sometimes a challenge to share information. Some people feel that the more people yo

Above: Neil Gaiman and his kitty, Oz.

Ok, so this blog has zero practical info, but how can you resist photos of writers and their feline friends? Check out Writers and Kitties.

Thanks to school librarian Lynda Shoup for the Stylish Blogger Award:

Heh. The award immediately inspired the cartoon above.

Apparently I'm supposed to tell you all 7-10 things about myself and then pass the award along to someone else. So here are some things about me that you may or may not know:

1. I work in a basement office which both Jeff and I nickname The Cave. There are small windows near the ceiling but I cover them up with scarves for privacy. I painted a tree on the wall. There are floating piles of books in its branches.

2. My music group recently put out a Mockumentary DVD which has some of our concert song performances on it! In one, Jean-Luc Picard dances with me. Here's the trailer I made on YouTube about it. You can buy a copy for $20 (plus shipping/handling) in our Urban Tapestry shop. And yes, I'm shameless!

3. I sold a website.

4. I was a clown in the Toronto Santa Claus Parade. Here's proof.

5. I have a weakness for miniature food.

6. A lot of people think I'm an extrovert, but I'm actually an introvert at heart. While I love hanging out with and meeting creative people, I need solitude to recharge.

7. I'm a board gamer. Jeff and I recently came home from a 10-day board gaming event (Alan Moon's Gathering of Friends) and those 10 days went by SO fast. I post board gaming comics and news on BoardGameBook.com as I work on a book which I am hoping will get more people into the hobby. Also see my profile on BoardGameGeek.com. Alan Moon just released a fabulous new game called Airlines Europe, by the way: a fun family strategy game!

8. I'm illustrating my first picture book! It's called I'M BORED and is written by actor/comedian/writer Michael Ian Black. Simon & Schuster is publishing it in 2012.

9. I have a meeting at Simon & Schuster in NYC next week, woohoo! We're going to be doing the first pass at the final layout of I'M BORED. Very excited.

10. I'm attending the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA this August (booking my flights today!).

And now I'm bestowing the Stylish Blogger Award onto my writer chef pal:

AMANDA SNYDER

for her blog, MY LIPS ARE RED

As you can see from the photo to the right, Amanda is a MUCH more Stylish Blogger than I am. :-)

I had a lot of fun at last night's tweetup of the Toronto Area Middle Grade & Young Adult Author Group. We've moved to a new location: The Bedford Academy near Avenue Road and Bloor. The place has a laid-back pub atmosphere; I recognized it from when I attended the National Cartoonists' Christmas party (Canadian chapter) a couple of years ago.

Claudia Osmond, Nelsa Roberto, and I treated Maureen McGowan to dinner in celebration for her birthday before the official tweetup started. I think I might make a habit of showing up early for the tweetups to have dinner with other earlybirds; I find it gets a bit noisy later (I sometimes found it a challenge hearingthe person across the table).

Anyway, here's a list of the people at last night's gathering:

Claudia Osmond

Maureen McGowan

Megan Crewe

Adrienne Kress

Nelsa Roberto

Humberta Araujo - Humberta's first tweetup! Great to meet her.

Patricia Storms

Jo Karaplis

Anna Humphrey

To find out more about upcoming author events and more about each author, see our Facebook page:

Torkidlit News: Toronto Area Middle Grade & YA Author Group

If you're a middle grade or young adult writer in the Toronto area who are interested in attending our monthly get-togethers, join our Facebook group:

Toronto Area Middle Grade & YA Author Group

Tara Lazar is a children’s book author, mother, foodie and founder of Picture Book Idea Month (a.k.a. "PiBoIdMo"). Her first picture book, The Monstore, will be published by Aladdin/Simon & Schuster in 2013. Tara is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Find out more about Tara at her blog: http://taralazar.wordpress.com/

And stay tuned for PiBoIdMo 2011 this November!

What inspired you to start PiBoIdMo?

I got active in the online kidlit community in November of 2007. I learned about NaNoWriMo  immediately--EVERYONE was chatting about it. I was jealous of novel writers having all the fun, so the following November I decided I would do something to inspire me as a picture book writer. I'd created one new picture book concept a day. I didn't make it through the whole month, though. I finished with 22 ideas, but one of them was for THE MONSTORE, my upcoming book with Aladdin/Simon & Schuster.


How many years have you run PiBoIdMo?

PiBoIdMo 2008 wasn't official, it was just me and a few local writing friends. I ran PiBoIdMo on my blog for the first time in November 2009. This past November was the 2nd year for the blog-based event.


How successful has it been?

The first year I ran PiBoIdMo, I didn't have a sign-up period, so I don't know how many people participated, but a little over 100 signed the pledge at the end, confirming they had at least 30 ideas. My website received 15,000 hits during November 2009, which, at the time, was the most active month the site ever had.

For PiBoIdmO 2010, there was a sign-up period which logged 404 particpants, with 201 completing the challenge. Web hits soared to 30,000 for the month and my blog was ranked in the top 100 book blogs by Technorati, making it as high as #10. I was blown away by the enthusiasm of the participators! Many blogged their daily progress. Megan K. Bickel, for instance, put her own spin on PiBoIdMo by creating ideas in alphabetical order.

And PiBoIdMo has netted others contracts and awards. Corey Rosen Schwartz came up with the idea for GOLDI ROCKS AND THE THREE BEARS during PiBoIdMo 2009, which was bought by Putnam in 2010. Diana Murray wrote a manuscript from a PiBoIdMo idea which won the SCBWI Barbara Karlin Grant. Those are the two PiBoIdMo success stories I know of, and I'm sure there's more to come! I hope people will contact me with their good news.


Have you enjoyed running it?

It's been a blast running it, but also a lot of work. The first year, I decided to do a daily post after I had already recruited guest bloggers. There were 15 guest bloggers, which meant I had to write 15 posts on my own. That was a bit much, so in 2010 I decided to schedule more guest bloggers. The response was surprising--there were more volunteers than days in November! So some of the guest spots rolled into early December. I had so much fun putting the posts together; I felt privileged to read all the great advice before anyone else.

Next year I might need a PiBoIdMo assistant! So many people volunteered prizes that I'm still doling them out in

So my writing critique group, MiG Writers, made me cry this morning. Just recently one of them asked me what my favorite picture book and favorite middle grade book was. I told them heck, that's a hard question but if I had to choose, here's what I'd choose.

Well, this morning I logged into my e-mail to find the following video and blog posting:

Feeling very, very lucky to have found this group of women. We've all become friends in addition to critique partners, supporting each other in so much more than just our writing projects.

Anyway, please do join the party over on the MiG Writers blog. :-)

And to my fellow MiG Writers: THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not sure how many of you used Inkspot or subscribed to Inklings back in the early days of the Web (whoa, that sounds so ANCIENT now, doesn't it?) but one of my columnists was Mark Fowler. Mark did the ASK THE LAWYER column. SOOOO great to finally meet Mark in person.

Mark is an attorney at Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP, and also blogs at RIGHTS OF WRITERS: A Blog About Writing And The Law.

I strongly advise you to check out Mark's blog, which has a ton of great info for writers. Mark says he is also open to suggestions about topics he should blog about, but says that he's unable (for legal reasons) to answer questions that are specific to your own situation e.g. individual advice.

Mark is also on the board of The Center For Fiction, the only nonprofit in the U.S. solely dedicated to celebrating fiction, working every day to connect readers and writers.

Anyway, check out the view from the floor where he works:

THANK you, Mark, for taking the time to get together!

For those on Second Life, I have an area on the London School Of Journalism space orb devoted to resources for children's writers and illustrators. Many thanks to Jilly Kidd for her generous donation of ad-free space!

After I took the screenshot above this morning, I dropped by the Milk Wood Writers' Dash to see who was up and writing already. The Milk Wood events are for ALL writers, not just those who write for children:

If you're on SL, feel free to add me ("Inkygirl Omizu") as a friend. I have landmarks to both of the places above in my Profile Picks.