September 15, 2020
Since March, when we had to all retreat to our homes and could no longer meet in person, the wonderful Laura Backes Bard and Jon Bard of the Children’s Book Insider have been hosting weekly online meetups for writers and illustrators called KidLit Distancing Socials. Each week at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 5 p.m. Pacific, Laura and Jon host a Zoom mini-webinar featuring a different special kidlit guest, and…
September 23, 2019
I’m very happy to welcome Lydia Lukidis to my blog today! Thanks for participating in this interview, Lydia. For those of you who don’t know Lydia, she has several books published – mainly as work-for-hire projects – and recently her first “all hers” picture book came out. We’re celebrating that book today! NO BEARS ALLOWED by Lydia, with illustrations by Tara J. Hannon, published by Blue Whale Press, is the…
November 19, 2018
Most of us cannot get where we want to be on our own. We need to learn from others, to be challenged by others, and to be supported and encouraged by others. The same is true for writing. At first, I was too nervous to share my writing (except my hymn texts) with anyone but close friends and family. Finally, I realized that I needed more. I needed to reach…
July 2, 2018
In the first half of this year (how can we be halfway through the year already?) I benefited from several webinars about different aspects of writing. A few were free, a few had a fee, but all were worthwhile. Among them were an Agents Day hosted by SCBWI Wisconsin, a webinar about writing first pages in middle grade and YA novels hosted by SCBWI-SouthWest Texas, one on writing the middle…
May 29, 2018
I read an all-too-brief article on Broadway World, with an equally brief — but delightful — video, and I wanted to share them with you (in an equally brief blog post!) Those of you who’ve been following my blog for some time may recall my previous posts about illustrator, costume designer, set designer, director Tony Walton. I featured Tony as a “Wednesday Worthy” back in 2012, and in October 2013,…
February 26, 2018
Title: Sam and Eva Author/Illustrator: Debbie Ridpath Ohi Publisher: New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2017 Genre: Picture book, fiction Audience Age: 3 to 8 years old Themes/topics: friendship, art, cooperation, teamwork Opening Sentences: Sam had just begun to draw when Eva arrived. Synopsis: I loved this book! Debbie is so good — she can convey so much emotion in a smile that’s just one line across…
January 8, 2018
For the balance of this time of alphabetical blogging, I intend to focus on recommending books I’ve read that have particularly touched me. Thanks for joining me in this reading journey. You might also be interested in following my personal challenge to read a picture book every morning, which I’m posting about on my Facebook page (link in the sidebar.) Today’s book is one that has been around for nearly…
December 4, 2017
Oops! This went live before it was finished! Sorry! Since I posted about artist James McMullan in my last post two weeks ago, it seems only fitting that I post about children’s writer, Kate McMullan, this week. Jim and Kate have been married for 38 years, and they make a marvelous team personally and creatively. Kate has written over one hundred books for kids, including (but not limited to) a…