Thursday, November 21, 2013

Advice for Writers...

 
"Keep a diary and write down your feelings about each thing you do. This means you have to notice and remember. And not just feelings, but the color and shape and taste and smell of things. This helps you to make what you are writing about clear and alive. 
Also, read a lot."
 
~Charlotte Zolotow
 
 
Children's book giant Charlotte Zolotow, author of more than 70 books and editor (at HarperCollins predecessor Harper & Row, where she reigned over her namesake imprint), has died at the inspiring age of 98.


Monday, November 11, 2013

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

 
"A person is a fool to become a writer.
His only compensation
is absolute freedom."
 
~Roald Dahl
 
Big Thanks to Tara Lazar and PiBoIdMo for the daily doses of inspiration!

Monday, November 4, 2013

Home Sweet Home...

In non-writing news, but a life update all the same, my husband and I just bought our very first house! We have moved to West Seattle, which after living in lovely lower Queen Anne, feels about a million miles away! We will adjust though, and are very excited to be first-time homeowners. Best of all? My very own Library/Writing Room!
 


The Uncorking of Brilliant Ideas...

Do you ever come across other people's brilliant story ideas and wish you had thought of them?!
All too often for me, I'm afraid. When I read this update in the PW Children's Bookshelf Rights Report, it sounded so wonderfully beautiful I was instantly insanely jealous that it was not my own (not to mention the landing of the perfect illustrator for this project, one of my favorites, the incredibly talented Erin E. Stead..!)
But works like this inspire me to keep getting better, to keep striving to achieve that laudable idea of my own that someone one day will be jealous of, oops I mean, inspired by :)
Very much looking forward to adding this book to my collection...
 
"Nancy Conescu at Dial has bought world rights to The Uncorking of Ocean Bottles, written by Michelle Cuevas (The Masterwork of a Painting Elephant) and illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Erin E. Stead (A Sick Day for Amos McGee). The picture book tells of a solitary seafaring man who, the publisher explained, “wishes that someday one of the bottles that he is charged with opening will contain a message for him.” Cuevas was inspired to write the story after she learned that Queen Elizabeth I had appointed an official “Uncorker of Ocean Bottles” and it was a criminal offense for anyone other than the Uncorker to open messages in bottles. Publication is scheduled for 2016; Emily van Beek at Folio Literary Management represented Stead, and Brenda Bowen at Sanford J. Greenburger represented Cuevas."  

Books of Note...

 
The New York Times Book Review has announced its 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2013. The honorees are:

My Brother’s Book by Maurice Sendak (HarperCollins/di Capua)
Ballad by Blexbolex, trans. from the French by Claudia Z. Bedrick (Enchanted Lion)
Jemmy Button by Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali (Candlewick/Templar)
The Dark by Lemony Snicket, illus. by Jon Klassen (Little, Brown)
Holland by Charlotte Dematons (Lemniscaat)
Journey by Aaron Becker (Candlewick)
Fog Island by Tomi Ungerer (Phaidon)
Jane, The Fox and Me by Fanny Britt, trans. from the French by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou, illus. by Isabelle Arsenault (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)
Locomotive by Brian Floca (S&S/Atheneum/Jackson)
Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson (HarperCollins/Tegen)
 
*Courtesy of PW Children's Bookshelf