Coming Up for Air

Summer is just about over, huh. I know this because I've met all of my most pressing end-of-season freelancing deadlines and have already switched over to thinking about how to handle The Holidays, work- and otherwise.

But I need to stop that madness. It's time to breathe, take a beat to appreciate exactly where I am in time and space, and focus on crafting an approach to enjoying the rest of the year. Which — according to that primary source known as the calendar — is just not over.

Something to relish after weeks upon weeks of editing other folks' books? How about this: Tomorrow, I write!

Writers (and All Publishing Pros): Beware

Popping in to reblog this excellent piece by David Gaughran: "Penguin Random House Merger Helps Author Solutions Exploit Writers."

The title itself speaks volumes, and I urge all writers, editors, and publishing pros — in-house and independent — to read this important look at how industry changes have expanded the reach of Author Solutions, the world's largest vanity press.

As Gaughran's chock-full-o'-useful-history blog outlines, this new marketing power is NOT a good thing for the authors the press seeks to exploit. Nor is it good for publishing, for the consumer, or for anyone involved in the genuine pursuit of creating quality books using fair business practices.

Please read the piece, check out its internal links for the troubling backstory, and pass along the information to all your publishing pals — especially your writer friends and, especially-especially, to new writers trying to make sense of the myriad self-publishing options available to them. They do not have to get scammed to take a nontraditional path to publication.

What's Brewing This Morning?

I hope it works!

And the Books Go to . . .

My Books for Writers Giveaway contest has closed. Thank you to all who entered. I crossed my fingers and rooted SO HARD for everyone!

No doubt you want me to jump straight to announcing the winning names, but I have to take a moment to say that — holy COW — running the entrant lists through the List Randomizer was downright stressful. I'm definitely going to need some chocolate this afternoon.

But. Back to the contest results:

(1) The lucky recipient of Mary Kole's Writing Irresistible Kidlit is Laurie Thompson!!!

(2) The lucky recipient of Chuck Sambuchino's 2013 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market is Tricia Lawrence!!!

Congratulations! I'll get in touch with both of you to arrange prize shipment.

Thanks again to participants for commenting on children's books you love. It's always fun to see which ones make other writers' hearts go pitter-patter. The new-to-me titles are going on my to-read list, pronto! (Anyone reading this can find some great book recommendations and writer blogs/sites at the original contest post.)

Okay, I'm publishing now. It took a while to run the randomizer, refrain from snacking, find a suitable (and free) piece of megaphone clipart, and decide whether — according to my blog's established post title style — I needed to capitalize "to."

Blog at you again soon!

Books for Writers Giveaway!

Here's a shocker for you: I own lots of books about writing.

Sometimes, for whatever reason (such as when an unexpected gift or review copy shows up), I find myself in possession of two copies of the same title.

Well, guess what! In my hot little hands at the moment are extra copies of [imagine a crisply dramatic drum roll, please] . . .


(1) Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers by Mary Kole

(2) 2013 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market by Chuck Sambuchino

I couldn't possibly bring myself to toss these in-demand books into my donation pile. They're too good. People need these. MY PEOPLE need these. So because I'm already in a sharing mood, I've decided to give away these gems in a little contest that starts NOW.

To be eligible to win one of the featured books, you must:

1. Write for, or sincerely aspire to write for, children and/or young adults. I will rely on the honor system.

2. Maintain your own website and/or blog. It does not need to relate to writing for children.


3. Leave a comment on this post. All comment conditions listed below must be met.

• In your comment, please share something you absolutely love about any one children's or YA book of your choice. It can be anything — a character, scene, theme, quote, dialogue snippet, setting, storyline, relationship, conflict . . . whatever makes your heart race with love for that particular work. There are no wrong answers. Any big or little thing that contributes to your kidlit book love is fair game!
• Link to or list your website/blog and tell us what kinds of things you write or hope to write for kids.
• Specify which ONE of the two giveaway books you hope to win.
• Note: If you wish to be considered for both book prizes, YOU MUST ENTER TWICE. To do so, leave two separate comments, with each one featuring a love moment from a select title — and each comment specifying your contest book selection. For example, if entering twice, you could mention a Mockingjay plot twist you love in your entry comment for Writing Irresistible Kidlit and then, in your entry comment for 2013 CWIM express your love for the magical visual world in David Wiesner's Flotsam.

The fine print: This contest kicks off at 12:00 p.m. Pacific on Thursday, February 14, 2013. It ends at 12:00 p.m. Pacific on Monday, February 18, 2013. The two winners — one for each featured book — will be selected from all qualified entries using an online list randomizer. Winners will be announced on this blog during the day on Tuesday, February 19, 2013, after which I will contact winners to make shipping arrangements. Postage is included in the prizes; the glass hearts and overhead-office-light spots pictured on the book covers are not.

I'm excited to run this contest (the first-ever for my blog!) and I hope you enjoy the thrill of the entry and seeing what makes other writers like you fall head over heels in love with books for young readers.

Remember to enter by noon Pacific on Monday, February 18, 2013 — and please share news of this contest with all your writer friends!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Announcing the Share the Love Giveaway!

Happy Valentine's Day, literacy lovers!

As promised yesterday, I'm sharing a link to the Online Author Visits special holiday contest, which we've dubbed our Share the Love Giveaway! We're gifting one lucky winner — and the library of his/her choice — with a selection of titles penned by OAV authors. (Through our website, we offer virtual author visits to schools, libraries, and book clubs.)

OAV authors include:

Martha Brockenbrough

Dia Calhoun

Janet Lee Carey

Joan Holub

Deb Lund

Claire Rudolph Murphy

Lisa L. Owens

Trudi Trueit

Suzanne Williams

Here are the official contest rules:

"One winner will choose 3 books from the list in this post. In addition, a U.S. school or public library of the winner’s choice will receive a collection of 6 books (to be selected from the list by OAV and sent directly to the winning library). Please enter using the Rafflecopter form [at the Online Author Visits site]. U.S. residents only, please. The contest runs from February 14, 2013, through midnight (PST) Sunday, February 24, 2013. The winner’s first name and last initial, and the name of the winning library will be posted here following the completion of the contest."

Please feel free to share news of this contest with all your friends, colleagues, and social media contacts. If you link to the contest page on Twitter, use the hashtag #onlineauthorvisits.

Best of luck to all who enter!

And remember to check back here later today, when I'll announce my own Valentine's Day giveaway for writers. A little birdie tells me that contest post will go live at noon Pacific.

Stay Tuned for a Special Valentine's Day Giveaway (or Two)!

Are you excited for tomorrow?

I am, and here's why:

I get to celebrate everyone's favorite love-it-or-leave-it Love Day with my real-life sweethearts (the husband and the greyhound) — and I'm also participating in a super-cool giveaway with my wonderful colleagues at Online Author Visits.

Don't ask for giveaway details, because those are TOP SECRET for now. But all will be revealed on our group's blog tomorrow. I can't wait!


Psst! If you are a teacher or librarian, trust me — you will want to keep an eye out for our Online Author Visits special Valentine's Day blog post. You can bookmark the blog or watch for the hashtag #onlineauthorvisits on Twitter.

And now, because I am officially in the spirit (please note the distinction between that and "into the spirits"), I thought I'd up the giveaway ante by hosting my own separate little giveaway thingy on this very blog tomorrow. This one is for kidlit writers. And it's gonna be GOOD.

See you soon!

I'm a Winner!

Badge designed by Ward Jenkins. Find him at wardjenkins.com.

For the second year in a row, I participated in Tara Lazar's brainchild event, Picture Book Idea Month. Masses of writers voluntarily pledged to spend November coming up with (at least) one picture book idea per day. And — last time I checked the tally — more than 400 of us completed the task, right on schedule.

That, of course, makes all of us big, beautiful winners, and I've downloaded my well-earned badge to prove it. (In case you missed it, please see above.)

This year I came up with a total of 38 ideas. Several of them are fairly well developed with a potential story arc or a rough outline. Most of the rest are one-sentence descriptions, simple concepts, or just kernels of some sort (think: particular settings, loaded character names, trigger phrases that mean something to me).

Now, please pardon me while I decide which one or ten of those books to start writing!

See You Tonight, SCBWI!

A teaser slide from my PowerPoint file.

Event alert!

I'm gearing up to present at tonight's SCBWI Western Washington Professional Series meeting. The venue is Seattle Pacific University's Demaray Hall, Room 150, and the program starts at 7:00 p.m.

My topic is "Exploring Your Voice As a Children's Writer" — which, in short, is about connecting with that voice in your head (you know you have one) and using it for good. In other words, letting it guide you in developing your only-one-like-it-on-Earth personal writing style.

This will be an informal and interactive talk with the best type of audience out there: Fellow children's writers.

After my bit, author-illustrator Ben Clanton will discuss "Hands-On Picture Books: Making a Great Reread-Aloud."

Looking forward to it, and cutting off my coffee consumption NOW. So any jitters people detect tonight will be all me.

What's News?

Yes, I did take back my blog, as I so bloggily declared I would in July. Sometimes, though, no blog news is good news. Other times — as is the case here — no blog news is really just no news in particular. That I felt like sharing. On the blog.

Oh, I was working, always working (a freelancer's gotta eat) — and writing, always writing (my YA WIP or whatever else I wrote to avoid it). But here's the thing about the writing: The process and my response to it turned downright rocky over the long Seattle summer. So I believe I did readers a favor by not blogging my way through it all. Seriously, no one but the dog needed to see that.

Now I've come back to the blog to share a merry milestone moment on my path to finishing my current novel-in-progress:

Speaker clipart
from Clker.com

I have begun to revise the dang thing. (Psst. That means there is a dang thing to work with.)

I'll admit that I share this news with some trepidation. One feels that doing so could possibly cause one's manuscript, computers, external hard drive, and online backup accounts to burst into flames.

But by the time you see this, I will have trusted Blogger's "Publish" button, and you, to handle my news with care.