In a previous post, I mentioned the importance of having a fresh angle when writing nonfiction picture books. You might think historical subjects like George Washington, Charles Darwin, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, and Frida Kahlo have been “overdone.” Here are a few titles that remind us of the remarkable and little known chapters… Read more »
My son is a talented baseball player. Besides his regular team instruction, Kiddo works with a private coach to more individually hone his pitching and batting skills. Coach Brock is a former pro baseball ball player and is wonderful at breaking baseball skills down to their most fundamental movements. It requires strategy, strength, and instinct…. Read more »
In my last post, I brought up the idea of inspired moments; those rare, unexpected factoids or details that grab us by the throat. Such experiences inevitably enrich our current works-in-progress or inspire brand-spanking-new ideas. Just that sort of event hit me recently while watching a PBS program. The briefest mention of this man sucked… Read more »
What inspires your stories? Our imaginations are constantly bombarded, yet it takes but one little fact to grab us, holding us hostage until we pay it’s artful ransom. When that nugget of inspiration strikes, we must listen. When truth pulses as a nucleus, our job is to take dictation, building a form around it as… Read more »
There are wonderful books aimed at inspiring children to write and read. Now that school has started, I thought I’d share a bundle of titles that I’ve come across. Some of these books are useful during school visits. Others are wonderful classroom additions. All of them are visually appealing. This list of recommended reads is… Read more »
Thank you for visiting my blog. Please note that this post was published in 2010—long before my first published book, and long before I pursued an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where I dedicated half of my critical thesis to the murky nonfiction-fiction threshold and how the classification process adds to… Read more »
It was bound to happen. I spent three years, fifty rewrites, nine hundred miles to research, and countless dollars preparing, what I was certain, would be my book debut, the first kid-lit book on my chosen subject. Even the interested agent was anxious to finally see the end product, after suggesting I rewrite the original… Read more »
Pictures + Story = Picture book. Sounds easy, right? Writers hear it all the time.” Show don’t tell.” Paint images with your words so that the reader visualizes the characters, the setting, the detail. There’s nothing better than picking up a novel or chapter book with such vivid language that the reader feels he/she is… Read more »
So far, in this blog series, I’ve explored some distinct challenges facing nonfiction picture book writers including word count, language/word choice, and focus/angle. But that’s just the beginning. The more I study nonfiction titles in the pursuit of helping my own writing, the more I recognize the importance of theme. In his best selling book,… Read more »
DEAR READER, THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG. PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU WILL FIND SOME POSTS THAT WERE WRITTEN MORE THAN A DECADE ACO. REMEMBER THAT MY EXPERTISE HAS CHANGED IN THAT TIME, INDUSTRY STANDARDS HAVE CHANGED, AND BOOKS HAVE CHANGED, TOO. IT’S A GOOD IDEA TO READ MORE CURRENT ARTICLES ON CRAFT AND USE… Read more »
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