A Lesson in Showing Versus Telling
Last week I started teaching the spring course in Childrens Literature for grad students in the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature at Stony Brook Southampton. We spent the first class discussing the many formats of children’s lit, and began our picture book study (we’ll move on to chapter books, middle grade and YA fiction [...]
Shout-Outs, Giveaways and Reciprocity
One of the things I love best about being a member of the children’s lit industry is the spirit of community with which we support one another. Unlike many other businesses, almost everyone who writes, illustrates, edits, publishes, markets, sells or otherwise works with children’s books puts their love of kids and reading first. This [...]
Character + Problem = Story
Last week, we delivered the first draft of the next manuscript in our Very Fairy Princess series. This one is a leveled reader – still 32 pages, like a picture book, but with fewer and simpler words, more repetition, and a whole bunch of other ‘rules,’ such as no contractions, limited idioms, and so forth. [...]
The End of Publishing… Again.
Early this week I had the pleasure of interviewing veteran literary agent and children’s book expert George Nicholson for the Children’s Book Hub. George reminisced about the time when it was thought that paperbacks would ruin the publishing industry, by bringing about the demise of hardcover trade and library books. This sentiment was so widespread [...]
Ideas on the Go
I’ve been honing my Story Radar, and have found the holiday season to be more abundant than ever with respect to prompting ideas. The problem is, most of them come to me when I’m on the fly… and if I don’t document them immediately, by the time I get home they’ve gone. So I’ve been [...]
Who Can Help Me Tell This Story?
This week I had the joy of interviewing my friend and picture book hero, Peter H. Reynolds, for the Children’s Book Hub. As usual, Peter said a million inspiring things and shared a number of jewels about writing. Among them was a reference to his own writing process that set off lightbulbs in my head. [...]
Literary Gifts for the Holidays
Looking for holiday gifts for the readers and writers in your life? Here are a few ideas: “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” Board game www.goodreadgames.com “Storymatic” Game (also a great prompt for ideas!) - www.uncommongoods.com/product/storymatic-game Literary Linocuts – www.etsy.com/shop/thediggingestgirl Personalized Ideal Bookshelf paintings – shop.idealbookshelf.com Typewriter key necklace, bracelet or watch - www.uncommongoods.com/product/typewriter-key-necklace Scrabble necklace [...]
Grateful
Ten years ago today, my mother and I had the good fortune to hear a special song, performed a capella at the Thanksgiving dinner table by our dear friend Anne Runolfsson. That song was John Bucchino’s “Grateful,” and we were so moved by it that we ended up collaborating with John, and the gifted artist Anna-Liisa [...]
Voice Exercises
As every singer knows, exercises that strengthen and warm up the vocal cords are essential in order to sing well. Painters do studies, and dancers stretch. But what about writers? This Fall, I’ve been taking a workshop entitled “Imagining What You Know” with the incomparable Roger Rosenblatt. Each week, Roger has given us a new [...]
Chekhov, the Picture Book Author
Michael Chekhov – nephew of playwright Anton Chekhov - was an esteemed Russian-American actor, director and acting teacher. Among those who studied with him were Gary Cooper, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Quinn, Ingrid Bergman, Jack Palance, Lloyd Bridges, and Yul Brynner. Constantin Stanislavski, with whom Chekhov collaborated at the Moscow Art Theatre, referred [...]
