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I was sitting in a restaurant on Friday. On the wall was a very cool painting of fish. It had a whimsical childlike quality. The stuff I like to paint. The longer I stared at  the painting, the more impressed I was by how well the artist had captured fun and playfulness in the work.

i a n s a n d s :

They may be the same number of words, but they're not the same. 

http://www.institutechildrenslit.com/rx/ws06/pborzine.shtml

Author Evelyn Christensen provides links to submission guidelines for children's magazines.  

highlights.com/contributor-guidelines

Scrawl is a new digital magazine about comics & illustration created solely for the iPad. Scrawl was created as an independent platform for artists, which enables freedom and the opportunity to create and share their work with others. The pilot issue, which is now available as a free download, won both the best in the comics category and the first prize at the “Magnify your world” contest held by Mag+.

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Also worth viewing:
Laura Cattaneo aka Halfpasttwelve
PLOC Magazine
Anorak Magazine Interview

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Something strange arrived in the mail yesterday. I’m worn out from the wondering,

tuckered out from the thinking….

It’s not a rejection, because Mom didn’t put it into the shredder (to destroy the Karma). It’s not a bill, because Mom didn’t get online (and mumble) and pay it. It’s not a catalog, because she didn’t order me ( or herself) a new dress or toy.

Is it…? Could it be…? It IS! It’s an acceptance from Turtle Magazine. 

They are buying one of Mom’s stories! Yay!  The contract is signed and ready to go, and the letter is hanging on the bulletin board.  It’s not Book #2, but it’s an acceptance, and we LOVE that!  Look for Mom’s story, Waiting For Petey in the November/December issue of Turtle Magazine for Preschool Kids.  That’s if you can find a copy.  Mom might go mental with excitement and buy them all herself. 

I wonder if Turtle Magazine tastes as delicious as the rent bill…..

Speaking of delicious things … and happy things, I’d like to thank our friends at DogDaz for giving us another Addictive Blog award, and our friend Chelsea at The Jenny Mac Book Blog for saying we’re Lovely again.  Both these blogs are fun to laugh with and learn from. See more about these awards here and here.

Things always work out even-steven for me.  If I lose a ball, I find another one on the field.  If I accidentally eat the wing off my stuffed chicken, Mom buys me a stuffed goose. 

Sometimes I fall off the chair.  Other times I fall off the couch.  Sometimes, I’m naughty, and sometimes I’m super-cuddly.  Even-steven.

Mom was even-steven yesterday.  Early in the morning, she got an acceptance for her story Too Many Pets from Stories for Children Online Magazine.  She printed it out, hung it up  on her bulletin board, and said, “Yay!” and “Yay!” and “No, you may NOT eat the thumb tacks.” 

Then the mailman brought her an envelope from Highlights Magazine.  Mom said, “I bet this is another acceptance!” and “We’re on a roll!” and “Yay!”  Then she opened it (insert dramatic music here).  I was hoping she would take out the box of thumb tacks (which I’m DYING to taste), to hang it up next to the other one, but nope.  No hanging, no tacks, …no yay.

Mom said, “Bummer.” and “Rejection.” and “At least she personalized it with a little note.”

Sometimes, even-steven stinks!  But not for me! Later I plan on being super-cuddly….

Jillian Tamaki takes my breath away. In her words:

A 6-page visual essay for Print Magazine’s “Trash” issue. Over about four weeks in April, I surveyed lost, abandoned, and discarded items on three blocks surrounding my apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The “trash” ranged from the mundane to the bizarre to the seemingly-poetic.

Click through to see the full post, which is beautifully drawn, beautifully painted, and beautifully paced. *sigh*

By Daisha Cassel

Imagine a “niche writer,” and you might think of someone who is limited. Boxed in. Pigeonholed.

Or maybe you actually envy niche writers because they obviously have years of deep experience in a particular field which they can now apply to their writing. And you don’t.

I haven’t been writing for decades, nor do I have any spectacular educational or career experience in the topic I write about most. I write for a variety of publications, from national and local mags to those entertaining booklets that grocery stores hand out before the holidays. Most importantly, I am able to make more money—and write for a much wider variety of clients—now that I have developed a niche.

Connect the Dots

Sometimes your niche is something you never would have thought about developing. This was certainly the case for me. When I started writing, I had a dream… I had an awesome dream. Lionel Richie would narrate my life through song while I wrote for the big glossies. Focus area? I didn’t need that! I could write about anything!

It went well at first. And then, I got frustrated. Each new piece required research into an area I was completely unfamiliar with. It was interesting and educational, but it was time consuming. When I broke down my hourly rate for these pieces, it wasn’t looking good.

I had written for a national food and lifestyle title when I learned about a new in-store magazine that was being developed for a big grocery store chain. I contacted the editor, flaunting my food mag experience. She immediately assigned me an article. A job had never come so easily.

Shortly after that, I was in another grocery store when I noticed this store had a much larger, very professional looking food-based booklet. I called up the publisher, introduced myself as a food writer, and stated my credentials. By the next week, I had two assignments for the publisher worth a total of $4,000. I had never had an assignment that paid so well.

Wanna know a secret? The articles I had written for the big food magazine—the one I name-dropped to get my other food assignments—weren’t even about food.

But I was familiar with the world of food writing and publication, and I connected the dots… and if you have even a few clips, you can do the same. Maybe you’ve done a round-up of hot new lunch box ideas, a review of a children’s book, and a article for the local newspaper about new policies at the elementary school. Who would be interested in all of these articles? Parents. Why not say you specialize in topics of interest to parents?

Once you’ve narrowed down your niche, it’s time to niche down your pitches.

Go long! Go wide! Go…less obvious!

Linda tells me many of her Renegade Writer students would love to write about a topic close to their hearts. This is a fantastic—having a topic you are truly passionate about is a great start to building a niche. Yet the problem is that many of these would-be niche writers think about markets where they would be preaching to the choir.

Having a niche sometimes means being an ambassador for your special topic. Give some thought to whether your piece would drive the average reader of that publication to action. Let’s say you love dogs, and want to tell the world how great they are. Do you think the readers of Dog Fancy magazine will change their thinking when they read a point-by-point analysis on why dogs are terrific pets? No. Those readers already love dogs, and except for a rare few have already acted on dog ownership.

Why no

Here are some fun characters by a mysterious "Greenwald R." They're from Pageant Magazine, a smaller, "digest" size magazine for the "gentleman." Bordering on the cheesecake from time to time, the magazine actually has an interesting connection to Mad Magazine. Well, I wish I knew more about "Greenwald R." I've seen similar work done by this artist, but never have been able to find anything more about him/her.

Can we finally put the argument to rest? E-readers are not killing reading, nor are they killing books. As research shows, people who own e-readers not only read more than people who don’t, but they read both e-books and print books. Not to mention, there are plenty of populations, from prison inmates to seniors, who will need print books for a long time coming. Neither one is going away.

That’s not to say that they’re the same, though. Far from it. In my experience, e-readers attract different types of readers than print books, and they’re also engaging more people who were previously non-readers. Anybody who thinks that’s not great, well… There are also scads of e-reading apps available for phones, tablets, and computers, so e-content is available to more than just people with Nooks and Kindles. People use e-readers for a variety of reasons, from pleasure reading to research, so it’s good to consider how many bases you can cover. The Pew Research Center released a report on reading, readers, and e-readers recently, and ALA of course responded. While Pew’s data is encouraging (among other statistics released, the study found that people who use e-readers read more books per year than people who only read in print), ALA pointed out that the stats of who reads at all, and who reads in what format, are also related to education and income level. So what can you do about it?

First, take a look at your e-book collection and see what types of materials are most widely represented. In my anecdotal experience, I’ve found that bestselling memoirs and adult fiction are easy to find in e-book format, as well as genre fiction like westerns and romance. Pew’s study also indicated that people are drawn to print and e-books for different reasons, based on the types of materials they can find. This is your chance to offer innovative e-materials, as well as to fill some gaps that your print collection just can’t do. If your library offers Kindles or other devices for checkout, and not just the e-materials, see if you can designate one of them as the YA e-reader, and fill it up with some teen-friendly stuff that will attract readers and non-readers alike. If you don’t have library-owned devices, you can always offer these suggestions on a flyer for your patrons who own personal devices.

February is right around the corner and that means Valentine's Day! More importantly, that means CANDY!
Fittingly, the February issue of Odyssey magazine is all about Candy!

My excitement at being surrounded by social studies teachers again after going to a few dozen math and science teacher conferences was tempered by the news I received on Saturday that a former Scholastic colleague had passed away. Eric Oatman was the editor of Search magazine in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and he was the first person to pay me to write about American history. Besides hiring me as the freelance writer of the teaching guides and reproducibles that accompanied the magazines, Eric also assigned me the articles and history plays that nudged me toward my current career as an author focusing on history. I wrote articles about men who hauled freight across the Old West; an oral history project with World War II Rosie the Riveters; the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919; and the spirit of exploration in America. My classroom plays dramatized the exploits of a former slave who spied for the Americans during the Revolutionary War; the kidnapping of Daniel Boone’s daughter in 1776; and a family’s westward journey during the Gold Rush.

Writing for Search allowed me to indulge my endless curiosity about the people who were left out of the American history textbooks I read when I was growing up. It also gave me the chance to earn a little extra money as I established my independence. (I still have the reclining chair, lovingly called my “Search chair,” that I bought with my first $300 check.) Eric was a wise and enthusiastic editor, offering a guiding hand but letting me go where the stories took me. I also appreciated that he was not without a sense of irony. In 1983, when Search and Senior Scholastic were folded into a new publication, Scholastic Update, Eric assigned me to write the magazine’s last play. It followed Amelia Earhart’s preparations before she set out on the 1937 flight from which she never returned.

Just received copies of the December HIGHLIGHTS with my story "Why Bears Sleep All Winter: A Tale from Lapland."
LAPLAND?

No, I have no ancestral family stories from Lapland. I found this charming story in a tattered second hand volume of Scandinavian folktales published decades ago. The moral of my discovery (ditto the folktale) is to do good works. I was volunteering at a church book sale when I pulled the volume from a dusty donation box.

I've always loved the how or why (pourquoi) stories. One of my favorites is the old African-American one called "Why Dogs Hate Cats." The story begins with dog and cat best of friends until the day they go to town and buy a big ham. On the hot, dusty road going home, they take turns carrying their prize dinner. When dog carries the ham, he always chants, "Our ham, our ham," but when cat carries the ham he always chants, "My ham, my ham." Well, you can see it coming - not far from home cat climbs a tree with the ham and eats it all. Dog declares, "I can't get you now, but when you come down out of that tree, I'm going to chase you 'til you drop."

What's your favorite folktale?

A call is out from APPLESEEDS magazine for ghost stories written by kids. Below are the details for submitting your own spooky story. One of my first published short stories was a ghost story written for a local newspaper contest. What fun it was to see my words in the newspaper for everyone to read.

So here is your chance. Scare the socks off some eager readers with your spook-tacular story!

BOO! AppleSeeds is looking for ghost stories from its readers! The October issue is all about ghosts and other spooky things, and readers probably have some great ideas for a story of their own. Have your child send us their ghost story (along with illustrations to go with it) by Nov. 15, 2011. Handwritten stories are okay, but make sure that we can read them. The winner will receive a copy of Robert San Souci's Dare to Be Scared. Send them to AppleSeeds Ghost Stories Contest, 30 Grove St., Peterborough, NH 03458.

Your intentions don’t create footprints, your actions do.

-S.Whyte-

My footprints are the CUTEST! They’re tiny and round with little marks from my little nails. When I walk in the wet grass, I leave perfect footprints in the street. When I get inside, Mom says, “Stand still.” and then she cleans my feet with a baby wipe, and it’s goodbye adorable footprints and hello feet that smell like baby powder.

Mom doesn’t like footprints OR intentions. She remembers a long time ago, when she was reading a story in Highlights Magazine. She said, “Cute story.” and “I totally could’ve written that!” and “What did you step in now? Ugh!” Then she got the baby wipes out - again!

Mom was absolutely right about Highlights. She COULD’VE written a cute story for them, but she DIDN’T and somebody else did. She had intentions, but what she needed was action. After reading and reading in Highlights and intending and intending to write, she finally took action. And guess what – the magical people at Highlights thought her story was great, and they bought it!  Ever since then, Mom writes all the time and sends stories and poems to tons of magazines for kids. Then she says, “Yay!” and “Look at my name in this magazine!” and “You’re filthy. Get in the bathtub.”

Goodbye footprints…..