Inspiration...

I received Stephen King's book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft for Christmas and I am enjoying the read. I have found some of it so entertaining and instructive, that I have read bits out loud to anyone around. My daughter pointed out that it seemed a bit like a nerdy writer's fest. I thought I'd best keep quiet and save all the quotes for my blog. So here they are...

On passive tense voice- "It is weak, it's circuitous, and it's frequently tortuous, as well."

On the use of abverbs- "the road to hell is paved in adverbs"
-----"while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine."

On vocabulary- "use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful."

I needed to be reminded of these points...and now I will never forget....

For more about Stephen King, check out his web-site www.stephenking.com and I am sure the book On Writing came from www.amazon.com

Dreams of a white Christmas come true...

There's nothing like a little snow to make the season bright! One of my favorite times of the year are these days between Christmas and New Year's,  hunkered down in a cozy house. I am just starting to think of some New Year's resolutions/writing goals. Updating this blog more often will have to be one of them...But first we need to go walk in the snow!

Hooray I did it. For PiBoIdMo I came up with 31 ideas. While they are all acorns now...and the squirrels should rightfully haul off a few and bury them, I look forward to working on finding the mighty oak in the bunch. It was a great month with loads of inspirational messages from PB authors. Free give-aways too. I highly recommend it.

PiBoIdMo

Well, I needed some inspiration and along came this...PiBoIdMo. A friend passed on the link to Tara Lazar's blog where the month of November is Picture Book Idea Month. The goal is to come up with a different picture book idea for each day of the month. What a clever idea and a daunting task...I'll keep you up-dated as the month rolls along. Check out Tara's blog www.taralazar.com for more inspiration and the learn more about Ward Jenkins, who did the cute logos.

Brain Freeze-It Isn't All About Ice Cream

Here I sit, looking for some way to procrastinate and avoid revising...again. The computer has been freezing, the house is freezing and my brain is freezing, but it's May, so things should be thawing soon!

Pearls of Wisdom

     In getting ready for the PB Academy for the coming conference, I have been looking for advice so I can provide helpful feedback, especially when the work is in verse.  A member of my critique group  recommended this by Kelly Ramsdell Fineman as a very useful, easy to understand explanation. I found it on the web-site of Cynthea Lui called Writing for Teens and Children
http://www.writingforchildrenandteens.com/guest-articles/how-to-crtitique-rhyming-childrens-poems/

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More by Kelly Ramsdell Fineman can be found at http://kellyrfineman.livejournal.com/

 

 

Counting the Days

I am so looking forward to the NESCBWI Spring conference in Springfield. I will be in the PB Academy and it sounds like it will be an intensive course. I can't wait! One of the instructors, Anne Broyles, forwarded Michelle Cusolito's recommendation to this link - Mara Rockliff's insights about writing longer picture books, it was very helpful. http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2012/04/guest-post-mara-rockliff-on-writing.html

Spring at Last

Though this winter was never really too cold, it's nice to see the pussy willows, tulips and green grass again. It also means that the NESCBWI conference is coming soon. I have signed up for the Picture Book Academy, which sounds wonderful. I am looking forward to learning new things and getting some constructive feedback from my group.

I have updated my list of helpful links, I found some really helpful info about the educational market in the latest SCBWI bulletin.