UP! – When A Book Moves You…

It’s been a long while since I’ve written a proper blog post, I know. And it’s not that I don’t have plenty of ideas for posts. I do — a couple of them actually valuable — but what can I say? Life “stuff” can do that. I’m also not a book reviewer, so let’s not confuse this post about a book with an actual review. This is different. This is more.

For a very long time my sleep — mostly the lack of — has been an issue, last night being no different. I didn’t fall asleep till after midnight, then woke up about 4 a.m. to a pillow that shunned me no matter how much I tried to re-bond with it. By 4:30 the sun and birds were starting their day so I thought it best to join them. Continue reading

UP!–Writers’ Conference Nerves–and NO-NOs!

SCBWI-GirlwithKiteThis past weekend was our always anticipated, ever energetic, inevitably incomparable, annual NJ SCBWI Conference 😀 It is an event I look forward to and can’t bear to miss. During my many years of involvement with our New Jersey Chapter, I’ve been blessed to have gained many friends in the KidLit community, one of them being pal and KidLit guru, Tara Lazar. If you’re a KidLit-er and are not familiar with Tara and her blog—Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)—you should be! One of the many things she is noted for, besides her writing talent, is having founded PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) 😎 .

 

Now post-conference, many of us are inspired to write about it in one way or another. Since I barely snapped any photos (though Robin Newman did!), I figured I’d pass on blogging about it this year, but then Continue reading

UP!–The Afterglow of Our 2015 NJSCBWI Conference :D

SCBWI-GirlinChairwithDog

I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again: KidLit events are WONderful! For me, spending time around kindred spirits, regardless of what we’re doing, is very energizing, uplifting, inspirational and just plain FUN!

I’m a big believer in research and being super-organized for an event of this magnitude and importance (certainly for me), and this year I had the added task of creating a new dummy book. I had less time to do it than I would’ve liked, including the development of 9 characters, but I’m happy to report I did finish and was able to Continue reading

UP!–It’s NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK, sooo…

NYPL Lion & The Cat in the Hat with TEXT for blog post

For the few of you who were privy to this blog before I officially launched in Sept. 2014, this image of the NYPL Lion with The Cat in the Hat may look familiar to you. I had it filling space at that time, simply to have an image on the page and stated I would eventually post the article I wrote for which I’d done this artwork. I realize you’ve been waiting with bated breath having suffered sleepless nights with the anticipation having been so overwhelming 😉 Well, your Patience (yes, we’ll consider this lion Patience rather than Fortitude) has been greatly appreciated and hopefully worth the wait.

This was originally written for our NJ SCBWI magazine Sprouts (no longer printed) way back in January 2010, though it had been heavily trimmed due to page space constraints. I chose to post it now, in its full version, in honor of National Library Week, April 12–18 🙂 Keep in mind that some things that were stated 5 years ago are no longer current in respect to the state of the market/industry, etc. I’d like to point out that at that time, the monthly events were known as the Children’s Literary Cafe, now known as the Children’s Literary Salon. Also, since that time I’ve had the privilege to meet Betsy (Elizabeth) Byrd at the recent Bank Street Book Store Grand Re-opening enabling me to give her a copy of this article including the artwork 😀 .

As you read, it will be obvious how much I enjoyed this event. If you are ever able to attend, you can search for upcoming events on their site. I highly recommend it! So here we gooooo… Continue reading