Writers Wednesday

"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." Ray Bradbury

Inspiration . . . Often writers moan over the lack of ideas, but sometimes abundance is the problem.

In a recent conversation, a fellow writer expressed her frustration with trying to select a book project from among her many story ideas.

If you are struggling with the challenge of making the right choice, you'll find some excellent thoughts on the subject in K.M. Weiland's post "How Do You Decide Which Story You Should Write?" @ Wordplay.

 

 

Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday is hosted today by Simply Science.

For Nonfiction Monday - - "Life in the ocean : the storyof oceanographer Sylvia Earle" written and illustrated by Claire A. Nivola.

Nivola invites young explorers to discover the undersea world through the life of renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle.  Sylvia was Introduced to the warm clear waters of Gulf of Mexico at the age of twelve when her parents moved to Florida.  That introduction became a lifelong passion with ocean life that took her from swimming with dolphins to a dive 3000 feet below the surface.

Nivola's enthusiasm for her subject enlivens the narrative and informs her extensive author's note at the end of the text.  Her beautiful watercolor illustrations are exuberant, detailed, and lovingly drawn.

Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday is hosted today by Jean Little Library.

My selection is "Eat your math homework: recipes for hungry minds" written by Ann McCallum and illustrated by Leeza Hernandez.

McCallum entertains while she informs in this collection of math inspired recipes.  After providing some basic kitchen tips, she explores the Fibonacci sequence with snack sticks arranged on skewers.  Fractions feature chips and Tessellations are tasty in two-color brownies.  Probability Trail Mix, Variable Pizza Pi, and Milk and Tangram Cookies, round out the collection of treats.  The text is completed with a math review, glossary, and index.

The colorful cartoon style illustrations by Hernandez add an additional layer of exuberant fun.

Writers Wednesday

Many of the writers I meet at workshops or critique groups are teachers who were inspired to write a story that relates to their area of curriculum interest or expertise.  These educators often struggle with finding an appropriate venue for their work once it is completed. 

Today's guest post is by Kathryn Starke who has founded a successful company that targets the market for educator/writers. 

Kathryn Starke

            Each day in my position, I motivate children and teachers to enjoy the writing process.  I am an urban elementary school literacy specialist, children's author, public speaker, freelance educational writer, and the founder of Creative Minds Publications and Consulting, a global educational company based in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. I have my BS degree in elementary education and my Master's degree in Literacy Culture from Longwood University. I have been in the field of education for a decade, but I have been writing since I was a very young girl. I never imagined that I would become a children's author and be able to share my passion with readers of all ages.

            Having taught in Title I and inner city schools, I realized that engaging and educational literature is necessary for my students to learn to read, and in turn, read to learn. I wrote Amy's Travels, a multicultural children's book based on a true story, to teach the seven continents to my second graders. I originally started Creative Minds Publications to publish and market this trade book to schools in Virginia. This spring, Amy's Travels was released in its second edition and is used in schools on six continents. Our mission is to ensure quality literacy instruction for all students, which is why CMP publishes books written by educators; all our books are complete with curriculum and comprehensive guides to use at home or in the classroom. Turtle Without a Home is an example of environmental literacy, written by educators in northern Virginia, which is also published under the Creative Minds Publications imprint.

            From presenting at reading and writing conferences, I have met so many teachers that have an idea for a title; I now use my experiences to help fellow educators become published authors. I'm never looking for any particular topic, but the story has to match an objective that can be utilized in school curricula. They also have an illustrator or graphic designer ready to take on the project. My clients come to me as unpublished writers simply sharing a manuscript and goal for themselves and for their work. I am most impressed by a story that readers can make a personal connection to as well as learn a life lesson from; a story that makes you think long after you finished reading is a plus. And remember, your target audience is children, so you must use a simple sentence structure that can be read with ease. Many people have a wonderful story idea but do not present a great children's book because there is too much text on a page, which is overwhelming for children and the vocabulary is far too advanced. Think about how you would speak to a child in conversation or teach a child in your class and write that way.

            Thus far, all of my authors have come to me with their own educational materials to match their book, which is very characteristic of teachers. Creative Minds Publications is able to develop and write lesson plans and book guides for any titles published through us or through a publishing company in which we have a partnership. For example, Brandylane Publishers in Richmond, Virginia, publishes nonfiction materials, and we create materials or programs to complement the book to be used in schools or institutions. Danger on My Doorstep is a Holocaust story written for middle schoolers and published under Brandylane's imprint; Creative Minds Publications markets and distributes the book and programs in the educational realm, which is my expertise.  Keep writing, and do not get discouraged by what others may express about your work. Everyone has a story to tell, but it's how you present and market your manuscript or book that truly makes the difference.

For more information about Kathryn Starke and Creative Minds follow these links:

Creative Minds Website
Creative Minds on Facebook
Follow Kathryn on Twitter  Kathryn at Pinterest           

Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday is hosted today by Shelf-employed.

My selection is "Magic trash : a story of Tyree Guyton and his art" written by J.H. Shapiro and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton.

Shapiro's picture book biography tells the colorful story of  The Heidelberg Project, Tyree Guyton's modern art redemption of his dilapidated neighborhood.  As a child -- Guyton was introduced to art by his grandpa Sam.  As an adult -- Guyton returned home to discover a neighborhood of abandoned houses, litter, and crime -- and set out to make a difference.  He transformed his community with paint and turned trash into treasures that decorated porches, walls, yards, and streets. 

Shapiro's engaging narrative  is interspersed with short sing-song rhymes that celebrate Guyton's energy and delight in art.

Brantley-Newton's illustrations echo Guyton's style through her mixed-media use of collage.

Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday is hosted today by On The Way to Somewhere with Rena J.Traxel.

For Poetry Friday -- "Extra innings: baseball poems" selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Scott Medlock.

One of the great things about summer is baseball. Hopkins acknowledges America's passion for the game with a collection of 19 verses by various poets richly illustrated in handsome oils by Medlock.  The opening verse sums up the collection's focus on the game for players and fans with: Analysis of Baseball by May Swenson --

It's about

 the ball,

 the bat

 and the mitt.

Ball hits bat

or it hits mitt.

Young readers will find this book is a home run.

Writers Wednesday

Welcome!

I've found that writing can be a voyage of self-discovery -- finding what motivates us to put pen to paper, creating that personal connection with young readers, and learning how to listen to and trust our uniquely individual voices. 

How does John Everson, known to his audience as an award-winning mass market horror author discover his inner child and end up writing a children's picture book?

John shares his journey in today's guest post --

From telling tales of the crypt to spinning stories about Peteyboo and the Worm

By John Everson

 

I never set out to be a children’s author. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! But I’ve spent the last 20 years writing horror stories for adults.

My first novel, Covenant, won a Bram Stoker Award when it came out on an independent press and was subsequently released by a New York publisher in mass market paperback – that was a dream come true for me; my book was in stores everywhere on the same shelves as Stephen King and Clive Barker. Over the next few years, I followed that with five more horror novels.

But something else happened during that time.

I had a son.

Shaun is an amazing, beautiful, smart and funny kid who at 18 months old knew his alphabet and was starting to spell simple words. He’s the best thing that ever happened in my life.

 

Fast forward a couple years, and while I was still telling creepy stories to adults, I was also indulging in fanciful stories with my son. Shaun and I frequently played a game of imagination – telling each other silly stories, trying to top each other with crazy characters and situations.

And that’s how Peteyboo, a bug with 37 eyes and 18 legs was born. I made that story up on the spur of the moment for Shaun when he was around four years old, and he loved it.

Shaun turns 7 years old this week, and while we’ve long forgotten most of the impromptu stories that we made up during that time, Peteyboo has survived. Shaun kept asking me to tell him the story of Peteyboo and the Worm, and almost every time, he’d stop me, because I forgot a part. So eventually, I wrote the whole thing down, so I wouldn’t forget. (I have a terrible memory… maybe that’s why I am a writer – I put things on paper to remember them!)

I loved those seat-of-your-pants storytelling sessions, because they made him so happy. But they did another thing. They also freed my inner storyteller to a level he hadn’t reached before. When you’re making things up for kids, you can really let your imagination roam. Every time we told stories to each other, it pushed me to be a better storyteller… because I had to come up with inventive things fast and on-the-fly. If they didn’t hold his interest, I knew it pretty quick.

I think Shaun loved Peteyboo for a couple reasons.

One – he was a weird creature, with lots of legs and eyes.

Two, he was a sad creature, because he had no friends. Shaun is an only child, and so yearning for someone to play with rings true with him.  I suppose I knew that when I told him the story, and that’s why Peteyboo forges an unlikely friendship with a worm… and the two creatures find ways to help each other and play together. Peteyboo shares a strawberry with Worm, and then shows Worm how to overcome his lack of legs. And later, Worm teaches Peteyboo to trust, as they take a swim in the pond (where not having legs turns out to be an advantage). Together, they’re a better team than either of them are as individual creatures alone.

If ours was a normal household, Peteyboo would have eventually just disappeared into a stack of Shaun’s discarded drawings. But our house isn’t quite that normal – I have lots of books on our bookshelves with my name on the spine. And Shaun would come with me sometimes to book signings at Borders and Barnes & Noble stores. One day he asked me, “Dada, when is Peteyboo going to be in a real book, like your other stories?”

I gave that some thought and realized pretty quickly that trying to start a whole new career as a kids book writer wasn’t going to happen overnight. If I submitted the story to publishers and waited for them to A) buy it and B) pair me up with an artist to illustrate the tale… it would take months or years before the Peteyboo book was out. By then, Shaun probably wouldn’t care much anymore. So I decided to pull together a homemade chapbook version of Peteyboo and the Worm for Shaun. My day job was in desktop magazine publishing, so the layout was no issue, but I needed something to make the book special, not just a bunch of words. And I didn’t want to use clip art.

So I asked Shaun to help. The Peteyboo book became a joint project for us -- I asked him to draw for me what he thought Peteyboo looked like. And then I asked him to draw a strawberry. And the worm… and little by little, he drew a bunch of illustrations for the book, after each one asking me, “is that OK, Dada?” Sometimes I asked him to fill in the sky better, or the grass… and he’d comply, very serious about the whole project.

Eventually, I scanned them all in, designed the pages and printed out a nice chapbook with color art from my son… and thought that was the end of it.

But then the book made its way to kindergarten and First Grade when first his teacher and then my wife read it to the classes. And his friends started asking if they could get copies for their iPads.

I took the next step, and turned the chapbook into an ebook.  I even recorded an audio narration of the story, so kids can listen to me read it while they follow along (there’s a link to the audio file at the back of the ebook).

And here we are. Now kids all over the world can download the book from Amazon and read the story of a bug with 37 eyes and 18 legs.

Before Peteyboo, I had written fantasy stories with a teen as a lead character, and those stories could be enjoyed by both kids and adults… but most of my catalogue? Definitely for older readers.

Now, I have somewhat accidentally written and published a book for young children. And Shaun and his friends think it’s pretty cool.

Actually, I think it’s pretty cool too. I loved the process of creating Peteyboo, and I loved its purity of message. I’d love to spend more time working on stories that children would enjoy, because those are the kinds of stories that turned me into a reader… and eventually, a writer.

Of course, I have an adult novel about mutant spiders that I’m contracted to finish first… but there is another story I have in my back pocket that I’d like to get out in time for Shaun to read while he’s in grade school. It’s a story of goblins and half-breed trolls and a witch.

I’m hoping he and his friends enjoy that as much as they have Peteyboo and the Worm.

For the Amazon link to Peteyboo and the Worm,

 Click HERE.