Although I’d been planning on posting something else today, I thought it might be beneficial to share something I posted on Facebook earlier this past week; something that gained quite a bit of attention and created a healthy discussion.
Went through 25 rejections!
The past two weeks I’ve received more rejections than I received all of last year.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve sent more submissions out in the past 6 months than I did last year, perhaps it’s because I finally got around to following up with a number of editors I’d been waiting on.
Regardless the reason, rejections don’t feel good.
“No” doesn’t mean “Stop;” it means keep going.
I’m not going to act like rejection doesn’t bother me and that everything is sunshine and lollipops. Rejections aren’t fun, I won’t argue with that. But I don’t get depressed by them.
Went through 14 rejections!
Folks who are new to the publishing industry need to know that rejections are going to be a part of their life now. Personally, I went from acting to voice acting to writing – so rejection has been something I’ve had to live with nearly all my life (to say nothing of my nerdy high school years).
The particular rejection I had posted about was for a manuscript for a poetry collection I co-wrote with David L. Harrison, one of the most incredibly talented, successful children’s poets in the biz. Although I’m running out of potential options for publishers to submit to (I’m unagented and can only submit to a limited number of houses), I shared the news of this rejection not to seek pity but to remind my friends and followers that even the most highly-esteemed writers like my co-author hear the word “no” sometimes.
For example, my recent picture book Once Upon Another Time (Beaming Books, 2021) was co-authored with Father Goose himself, Charles Ghigna, and it went through 25 rejections before editor Naomi Krueger saw my pitch on the #PBPitch Twitter event back in October 2019 and asked me to send her the manuscript. 25 rejections – and that was with the gravitas of Father Goose’s name attached to the project!
A partial list of the 25+ rejections Charles Ghigna & I received for “Once Upon Another Time” before editor Naomi Krueger at Beaming Books bought it.
A quick Google search of famous books that were initially rejected reveals myriad famous titles like Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, Steven King’s Carrie, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. Even my friend Laura Numeroff’s first If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book went through 9 rejections, with one of the editors telling her there was no way they felt the book could possibly be profitable.
Let that sink in. Just about every person in the free world has at least heard of that book (it’s been a Jeopardy question at least 3 times!), yet the editor saw no way it could be profitable. The editor wasn’t mean, short-sighted, or ignorant; she was simply not a good fit for the book.
Went through at least 8 rejections!
Sometimes editors just don’t see your vision, that’s all. My picture books are published by several different publishers because not all of them believed in all my manuscripts – and that’s ok! The ones who DID believe in them produced gorgeous books I’m proud to call my own.
Maybe you submitted a dinosaur book to a company that already has too many dinosaur books; maybe you submitted a humourous meta-book to a company that prefers inclusive, cross-cultural themes; maybe you submitted a 1st-person POV book to someone who doesn’t like 1st-person POV (don’t laugh, I know of at least one!).
Fact is, there could be numerous reasons – many beyond your control – why your manuscript was rejected.
So if you’re hearing the word “No” a lot lately, remember that it doesn’t mean you should stop what you’re doing; it means you need to simply check that editor or agent off your list and move on. Or better yet, check them off the list for THAT manuscript, and send them another! After all, if it’s a numbers game, then you’re doing yourself a favor by eliminating all those unecessary numbers.
And if you remember nothing else, remember this: each “No” gets you closer to a “Yes.”
.
How to Write a Poem
Open your eyes. Open your ears. Brace yourself to face your fears.
Open your mind. Open your heart. Open your soul, ……….tear it apart.
It’s Poetry Friday! If you’d like to check out all the poetry links and fun, be sure to head over to Rebecca Herzog’s little home on the web, Sloth Reads, for the complete roundup!
Create an account to add books to wishlists and be notified of special deals and dates…create custom collections…and discover and follow your favorite authors & illustrators!
I continue adding to my “Wit & Wordplay” videos ! These videos were created for parents and educators (along with their kids) to learn how to write poetry, appreciate it, and have fun with it. From alliteration and iambs to free verse and spine poetry, I’m pretty sure there’s something in these videos you’ll find surprising! You can view them all on my YouTube channel, and if you have young kids looking for something to keep busy with, I also have several downloadable activity sheets at my website.
Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personally-signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly EVERY book or anthology I’ve been part of!
Click any of the following covers to order!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send a comment to the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH requesting my signature and to whom I should make it out. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day) . Also feel free to visit my voiceover website HERE, and you can also follow me via Twitter , Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!
The children’s room in all its clean, reorganized glory!
Ah, what a joyous occasion it was…walking into our local library for the first time in a year and a half.
Like much of the country, our little town is slowly opening back up following the Covid-19 shutdown of 2020, and the fact that our library is finally accepting visitors was not something I just had to celebrate.
And the fact that my kids were just as eager to celebrate was a proud parenting win!
So proud to see Charles Ghigna’s and my ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME on display alongside so many books from my fellow author/illustrator friends! (Including Corey Finkle’s debut, YOUR FUTURE IS BRIGHT)
Another one of the many new books the children’s librarian was excited about was The Dirt Book: Poems About Animals That Live Beneath Our Feet (Holiday House, 2021), the latest poetry collection by my friend David L. Harrison.
From ants to worms to chipmunks, this book explores the lives of a variety of critters who live underneath our feet
Aside from David’s unique style of writing, which combines wit, insight, science, and ingenious wordplay, one of the things that makes this book unique is the fact that the reader needs to go dooowwwn to the bottom to read it…it opens from bottom-to-top, instead of right-to-left!
The book has received numerous positive reviews including raves from Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Shelf-Awareness, among others – so I knew I had to share some of the great news with those of you who follow this blog!
Told you – it opens from the bottom!
How cool is that?? Such a fun book – and for someone like me who just spent the past year learning unusual ways to teach kids while homeschooling – like combining poetry with science, math, and art – this book is perfect for getting your science lovers intrigued as much as the poetry lovers. Congratulations to David and illustrator Kate Cosgrove, who also provided visuals for David’s previous book with Holiday House, And the Bullfrogs Sing!
Speaking of science-lovers…Mr. Non-Fiction was thrilled that the library was finally open, and nearly cleared out half their shelves! This is what he considers bedtime reading.
For more poetry, be sure to check out today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup with Kat Apel at Kat’s Whiskers, where she is featuring Pet Pic Poems…sounds like fun, yes??
Create an account to add books to wishlists and be notified of special deals and dates…create custom collections…and discover and follow your favorite authors & illustrators!
I continue adding to my “Wit & Wordplay” videos ! These videos were created for parents and educators (along with their kids) to learn how to write poetry, appreciate it, and have fun with it. From alliteration and iambs to free verse and spine poetry, I’m pretty sure there’s something in these videos you’ll find surprising! You can view them all on my YouTube channel, and if you have young kids looking for something to keep busy with, I also have several downloadable activity sheets at my website.
Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personally-signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly EVERY book or anthology I’ve been part of!
Click any of the following covers to order!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send a comment to the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH requesting my signature and to whom I should make it out. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day) . Also feel free to visit my voiceover website HERE, and you can also follow me via Twitter , Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!
ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME (Beaming Books) is officially here, and today the official blog tour – featuring TEN awesome bloggers (well, nine awesome bloggers and me, ha!) – arrives at the ol’ Triple-R! I’m offering a FREE, PERSONALLY-SIGNED COPY OF THE BOOK to give away, too – details later on in this post!
Today also happens to be the NEA’s Read Across America Day, and I’m celebrating by sharing the book with 12 different schools across the country! These students get to be the very first kids in the world to read our book – plus, each school will receive a free copy of ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME, courtesy of Beaming Books.
Before we get to my dual-interview with my co-author, Charles Ghigna, and illustrator Andrés Landazábal, I do want to take a moment and thank our author and illustrator friends for their kind words of support on our Amazon page and the back cover. It was extremely generous of them to share their opinons of our work for all the world to see.
We’re also grateful for the American Library Association’s Booklist Online review, which includes the following:
“Beautiful images of long ago come together with lyrical text to transport readers to a past that is almost forgotten but that we would benefit to remember…a necessary addition to picture-book collections.”
Wow…a ‘necessary addition?’ Talk about humbling. Thank you, Booklist!
Now, then, I thought it might be a little different to interview both of my collaborators today; most book interviews are one-on-one, but why do normal? I wanted to allow both Charles and Andrés to share their thoughts about our book.
Charles Ghigna (photo courtesy Scott Pierce)
Charles (aka, Father Goose®) is known to live in a tree house in Alabama and is the author of more than 100 award-winning books from Random House, Disney, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Charlesbridge, and many other publishers. His poems have appeared in magazines from ‘The New Yorker’ and ‘Harper’s’ to ‘Cricket’ and ‘Highlights for Children.’
Andrés Landazábal
For his part, Andrés is not just an illustrator but also a production designer, art director, and animator from Colombia. His work has appeared in animation films, tv shows, and print companies. Andrés says that reading classic illustrated children’s books at a young age instilled in him a love for drawing and painting…and it shows!
Now, Charles and I met on Facebook many years ago and, like many of us, I really loved his ability to write beautiful imagery in a very simple style – which is not an easy task. The simpler the words or phrases, the harder they are to write, trust me.
It was, therefore, a thrill to be able to work with such an accomplished gentleman as Mr. Goose!
First of all, thank you both for taking the time to chat – and thank you, Charles, for your initial 4 stanzas that set this whole ball rolling! As someone who was just starting out at that point with no publishing credits, you took a big chance of working with me, and I appreciate that.
A little backstory: you wrote the first 4 stanzas of the book back in 2012 but weren’t sure where to go with them; you posted them on your blog and said if anyone had any ideas, you’d welcome the chance to work together. You were overwhelmed by the number of replies, but I wasn’t surprised at all – you’re Father Goose, fer cryin’ out loud! Who wouldn’t want to write a book with you??
So, what made you decide to ask an unknown writer his opinion of your stanzas, and if he had any ideas for a narrative? Why me?
CG: Not only was I surprised to see so many submissions to my request for a possible co-author, I was also surprised and pleased by the quality of the work. I read some very fine samples from some very fine poets, but yours immediately stood out and caught my attention. Your ideas were intriguing and your writing style was compatible to mine. It was an easy choice. So off we went on our journey into this wonderland of Once Upon Another Time.
Well, I’m certainly grateful you liked the premise! I also recall you saying you were surprised at how well our writing styles meshed…I did try to deliberately tailor my writing to better match yours, but I have to say it wasn’t all that difficult because our styles were more similar than either had realized. Do you think that helped alleviate any concerns you might have had about doing this collaboration?
CG:Yes, your writing style played a big part in my decision to have you join me on this one. I admire many of the other poets’ styles as well, but yours seemed perfect for this story.Readers should also keep in mind that as a narrative picture book, we didn’t have the luxury of writing several distinct poems, each in our own voices on each of their own spreads; every line needed to sound like it was written in the same “voice,” so to speak, to maintain the book’s continuity.
Were you as surprised as I was that the revision process of adding lines, removing lines, changing words, etc. was as easy as it turned out?
CG:Yes, after a few emails back and forth, we both seemed to have entered a zone together with the story. Our direction was clear, our dedication to the story was strong, and our willingness to give and take made it an easy, fun process. I think we inspired each other and raised each other’s game. The writing came so quick and smooth, it seemed as though the story was writing itself. It was! Good stories are like that. The best a writer can do it hang on and follow where the writing wants to take you. It also helps to have a good editor like Naomi Krueger to guide us along and to help fine tune our final drafts.
One of illustrator Andrés Landazábal’s favorite scenes from the book
I have to admit, knowing I was writing a book with the inimitable and highly-esteemed Father Goose was a daunting and intimidating prospect, and looking back at how easily it came together was probably the biggest surprise in the process for me; what surprised you the most?
CG:As mentioned, I enjoyed seeing how we challenged each other to make the writing as rich and memorable as possible, yet letting the story tell itself without calling too much attention to the language, not an easy task for two writers who are so in love with the sounds and nuances of the language itself.
Writing the book was certainly a learning process for me, as I was able to witness in real time your thought process when choosing words and lines and moving a narrative along. We both had very specific reasons for choosing one word over another – and while we disagreed occasionally here or there, we always understood and accepted the integrity of the other’s decision. So was the process of this collaboration different from any others you’ve done?
CG:I’ve only been a part of five collaborations so far, and recently started another new one. Each collaboration is different. Each one presents its own challenges. Our collaboration on Once Upon Another Time went remarkably smooth, partly due to our styles being so compatible.
My very first collaboration was a collection of holiday poems with my wife, Debra Ghigna. That book presented a few more challenges than ours and took a lot longer to write. Our good friends kiddingly said we were going to either have a really good book, or a really good divorce. Ha! I’m happy to report that Debra and I are still happily married. In fact, my second collaboration with her, Barn Storm, became a popular title in the Random House Step-in-Reading series.
The only other collaboration I’ve had published is Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (POW! Kids Books, 2018) with my friend and critique partner Deborah Bruss, which was a fun, rollicking rhymer written with a critique partner whom I could visit in person anytime I wanted. With you in Alabama and me in New Hampshire, that wasn’t really an option! Do you feel that was an obstacle, or did the lack of face-to-face interaction help you focus on the tasks at hand?
CG:I think the objective distance of writing via email gave us both more breathing room to gather our own thoughts and to take our time to see how what we’ve written fits together as a whole. What we might have missed on the personal level, was more than compensated by simply focusing on the writing.
I’ve told numerous people that Once Upon Another Time is a lesson in stick-to-it-iveness, as it was turned down by more than 25 publishers before getting enthusiastically picked up by editor Naomi Krueger at Beaming Books in 2019. For those keeping score, that’s TEN YEARS from Charles’ first 4 stanzas to the book finally seeing the light of day…whew! Have any of your books ever taken that long?
CG:Whenever I’m asked how long it took me to write a book, I tell them my age. The book I’m working on right now took me 74 years. Whenever I’m asked how long it takes to get a manuscript published, I tell them forever. Some of my books have taken a year or two to find a good home. Some have taken forever.
Ha, I know what you mean. Whenever someone asks me how long it takes to write a book, I tell them the worst answer possible: “as long as it takes!” (They often aren’t amused, ha!)
Andrés, I’d like to turn to you and thank you again for your beautifully impressive work…you did an outstanding job!
AL: I am very glad I could contribute to yours and Charles’ book! It really was fresh and magical to work on it! The manuscript itself was so beautiful; it was “easy” to feel inspired by and being able to come up with nice illustrations, really.
I’ve mentioned earlier, Charles wrote the first few lines in 2012 before I completed the rough draft a couple of years later – and then after revising & polishing it, we went through 25 rejections before our editor, Naomi Krueger, picked it up! So it’s been a long time coming, but well worth it, and I can’t imagine any better illustrations than what you’ve provided…you really gave the book an “updated classic” sort of tone, with scenes that are serene and pastoral while still vibrant and full of life.
AL: I’m a sucker for nature and landscapes! And what a journey the manuscript and you two went through…that is why I think it turned out so magical. And just like you said, everything was “well worth it” for the project!
This will be a nearly-impossible question to ask, Andrés, but what would you say is your favorite spread?
AL: I like very much the spread with the little girl (and the cat) looking through the window at this busy cityscape, which is filled with vehicles and lights and pollution. I like it because somehow, it portrays – in a way – our daily lives since the beginning of the pandemic, which is under lockdowns and what have you, but it also reminded us that it is kind of not fun at all to go back to that normal we are used to, which is the pollution, and the racket. It makes one feel like, “I’d rather stay at home!” What a conundrum! But that is how tough life gets.
Now, from a story point, it was a very fun illustration to make, because of the busy-ness of it, but at the same time the romantic and poetic it gets, which really is what made me feel with every single of the illustrations. But that “feeling” felt the most, especially with this one piece.
Any other spreads that speak to you, or of which you’re particularly proud?
AL: The children at their backyard admiring nature, and underneath there is this laid-out dinosaur bones – I thought that was a terrific story beat! And the other one, one of the landscapes where there is a deer and a mama bear with her cub running in the distance! That was a fun one, too.
The illustrations almost look like watercolors. Was there a reason you chose digital as your media?
AL: The thing is, I wanted so badly to make this book traditional, but “time” wasn’t on my side! So I was very picky when choosing the digital brushes, so the illustrations ended having that “traditional” feeling.
I think it worked in your favor, Andrés, because they are so vibrant and modern, but still with that soft, traditional sort of tone. Well done!
Thank you both for spending a few minutes commiserating about our first collaboration – I hope it’s not our last! I remember Charles telling me once that he was my biggest fan, and that was before I’d even signed any contracts…so I’m glad he’s stuck with me.
Congratulations on a fine-looking book, my friends. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next!
~ ~ GIVEAWAY!! ~ ~
Would you like a personally-signed copy of ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME? How about TWO?? I have two copies I’ll give away, with two ways to enter: leave a comment below, and/or share this blog post on Twitter and use the hashtags #giveaway and #2021BookBlast! Two drawings, two ways to win! I’ll announce a blog winner on Friday, March 19, so be sure to enter by 5pm EST on Thursday, March 18, and I’ll announce the Twitter winner at the end of the month. Good luck!
Create an account to add books to wishlists and be notified of special deals and dates…create custom collections…and discover and follow your favorite authors & illustrators!
I continue adding to my “Wit & Wordplay” videos ! These videos were created for parents and educators (along with their kids) to learn how to write poetry, appreciate it, and have fun with it. From alliteration and iambs to free verse and spine poetry, I’m pretty sure there’s something in these videos you’ll find surprising! You can view them all on my YouTube channel, and if you have young kids looking for something to keep busy with, I also have several downloadable activity sheets at my website.
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personally-signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly EVERY book or anthology I’ve been part of!
Click any of the following covers to order!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day) . Also feel free to visit my voiceover website HERE, and you can also follow me via Twitter , Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!
This week has been, to say the least, insane – one of the busiest weeks I can remember, honestly. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we’re homeschooling our kids this year (thank you, Covid), so time is at a premium to begin with…but with a book coming out next Tue., March 2, all my spare time has been spent prepping and organizing for the big day!
First of all, there’s the ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME Blog Tour, featuring TEN awesome bloggers spotlighting the book, sharing their reviews, and interviewing my co-author, Charles Ghigna and me. And what’s REALLY cool? Most are offering a free copy of the book to give away – so be sure to check out as many of them as you can and increase your odds!
Not only are Charles, illustrator Andres Landazabal, and I indebted to these fine folks for their support and kind words, we are also greatly appreciative of the American Library Association’s Booklist Online for their tremendously positive review, calling our book “a neccessary addition to picture book collections”– as well as all our fellow authors and illustrators who’ve shared their opinions of our book on both our Amazon page and the back cover:
I’m grateful to teachers, too! Specifically, the twelve schools across the country who’ve invited me to read the book to their students the day it comes out – which also happens to be the NEA’s Read Across America Day. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a picture book birthday than by reading to kids all day long!
The folks at New Hampshire radio station 105.5 JYY have also been extremely supportive, by inviting me to chat with my former radio partner, Nazzy, for a half-hour live podcast two days ago. We talked about all things involving writing, publishing, and the necessity of being willing to take a leap of faith:
Are you getting the feeling I’ve been just a little bit out straight?
Well, that’s just part of the story…because I am also once again one of the judges for our state’s Poetry Out Loud semi-finals! Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation contest that encourages the memorization and performance of poetry by our country’s high schools students.
I’ve been involved for nearly 5 years now, and it’s always amazing to watch these young people bringing life to the words of classic and contemporary poetry. This year, due to Covid, I’ll be judging performances virtually, as each student has recorded their performance and submitted it for review; it’s not exactly the live atmosphere we’ve been used to, but at least we’re able to do it!
For their performances, students are allowed to choose the poems they recite from a list of poems provided by the national Poetry Out Loud organization, so for today’s Poetry Friday post, I thought I’d share one of my favorites that one of our state’s students will be performing this year:
For today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup, head on over to Karen Edmisten’s blog, where she and Billy Collins contemplate their existence over a bowl of Cheerios!
Create an account to add books to wishlists and be notified of special deals and dates…create custom collections…and discover and follow your favorite authors & illustrators!
I continue adding to my “Wit & Wordplay” videos ! These videos were created for parents and educators (along with their kids) to learn how to write poetry, appreciate it, and have fun with it. From alliteration and iambs to free verse and spine poetry, I’m pretty sure there’s something in these videos you’ll find surprising! You can view them all on my YouTube channel, and if you have young kids looking for something to keep busy with, I also have several downloadable activity sheets at my website.
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personally-signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly EVERY book or anthology I’ve been part of!
Click any of the following covers to order!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day) . Also feel free to visit my voiceover website HERE, and you can also follow me via Twitter , Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!
A color/shape primer disguised in a Goldilocks-like tale, Elliot features a little green hero who used to be a tadpole, but now no longer needs to live underwater – so he leaves his pond in search of a perfect new home! Anna Kubaszewska did a fantastic job of creating bright, bold illustrations that include lots of little details to keep little ones’ attentions. They’ll love counting all the bugs, butterflies, and other pond dwellers!
(click to enlarge)
Did you know that there are two other authors I have to thank for helping Elliot see the light of day?
A little backstory to Elliot: the story first came about after I had posted a photo on Facebook of a tiny spring peeper who had decided he wanted to hang out on our front door one April evening, way back in 2014.
Look closely at that bottom pane!
I was intrigued not only by his apparent disdain for a normal home in the pond, but also by the shape of his body. (and his nonchalance of being stared at by everyone in the house)
A number of folks commented on the photo, but one commenter in particular was my friend and Once Upon Another Time co-author, Charles Ghigna (aka, Father Goose®), who suggested I write a book about “the heart-shaped frog.”
So I did!
Now, keep in mind, this was 2014…SIX years ago! I began subbing it, but since it was a board book written by a guy with no agent, my options for finding a publishing home were limited. Eventually, though, after 8 rejections, the folks at Rainstorm Publishing contacted me to let me know they loved the story and wanted to purchase it!
See? Heart-shaped!
Oh, by the way…the second author to whom I’m grateful? My friend and neighbor, David Elliott, who is also my little green buddy’s namesake – although I dropped one of David’s “t”s because I felt it looked cleaner for a board book title. (no offense, David!)
We met about 10 years or so ago, and when it came time to give my main character a name, David’s last name popped into my head and I just loved the sound of it as a first name.
And as I mentioned this past Friday, the book contains two “firsts” for me: it’s a board book, which I’ve never published before, and it’s also the first and only book I’ve ever had published in prose. Eleven books to my name, either out or under contract – and they all rhyme, except for Elliot!
If you’re interested in picking up a copy, I encourage you to order through our independent bookstore here in town, MainStreet BookEnds. Not only will you be helping out a small, local business, but you can request that the book (or nearly ANY of my books) be personally-signed! Books are wonderful gifts in their own right – but a book signed by an author or illustrator directly to the recipient is a truly unique gift that will be treasured.
You can create an account to add books to wishlists and be notified of special deals and dates…create custom collections…and discover and follow your favorite authors & illustrators!
I continue adding to my “Wit & Wordplay” videos ! These videos were created for parents and educators (along with their kids) to learn how to write poetry, appreciate it, and have fun with it. From alliteration and iambs to free verse and spine poetry, I’m pretty sure there’s something in these videos you’ll find surprising! You can view them all on my YouTube channel, and if you have young kids looking for something to keep busy with, I also have several downloadable activity sheets at my website.
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Click any of the following covers to order!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day) . Also feel free to visit my voiceover website HERE, and you can also follow me via Twitter , Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!
What’s that they say about the best-laid plans? I had grand ideas for Earth Day today, but everything changed when I went outside this morning and discovered my car battery was dead! Consequently, I had to spend half the day replacing it.
So instead of my original plans, I thought I would share a sneak peek at a couple of spreads from my upcoming picture book with Charles Ghigna, Once Upon Another Time (Beaming Books), due out Aug. 18! It’s a poetic journey through human history, beginning with a world that used to exist – and showing how that world can still be found, if you just know where to look…
If you’re interested, you can pre-order HERE. Charles and I began this book back in 2012, so we’re thrilled to see our little baby born into the world with Andrés Landazábal’s beautiful illustrations!
I continue adding to my “Wit & Wordplay” videos ! These videos were created for parents and educators (along with their kids) to learn how to write poetry, appreciate it, and have fun doing so. From alliteration and iambs to free verse and spine poetry, I’m pretty sure there’s something in these videos you’ll find surprising! You can view them all on my YouTube channel, and if you have young kids looking for something to keep busy with, I also have several downloadable activity sheets at my website.
The annual Progressive Poem, begun several years ago by poet/author/blogger Irene Latham, is a way for the Poetry Friday family and other kidlit bloggers to join together and create a crowd-sourced poem for National Poetry Month. One person writes one line, then another adds another line, until a completed poem appears on April 30. Here’s where you can follow along and find all the contributors:
I’ve teamed up with several other children’s authors to promote our upcoming books this year – and there are a LOT of them, too! In addition to April’s two releases, there are new books out from folks like Diana Murray, Corey Rosen Schwartz, Lori Degman, Michelle Schaub, and many others. I’m very proud to be part of this group of dedicated, talented writers.
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day)
It’s been a happy week, a sad, somber week, and a bittersweet week.
Last Thursday, March 30, the inimitable Tomie dePaola passed away, following complications from surgery he underwent after taking a bad fall at his home in New London, NH. All who new him are still in shock at this sudden loss.
There will never be anyone quite like Tomie dePaola.
Although we lived just 20 minutes away from each other, we had never met until about 10 years ago at my first New England SCBWI Spring Conference. (Tomie is the reason the original SCBW, as it was called, changed its name to include illustrators) I had a chance to chat with him and the SCBWI’s Lin Oliver during lunch and it was during that conversation that Lee Bennett Hopkins’ name first came up; I eventually connected with Lee and my career as a children’s writer officially began to gain some momentum!
After lunch, I told Tomie about my occasional trepidation about writing, how I will sometimes write something I think is really good, and worry that that might be the best thing I’ll ever write! I wonder if I’ll ever be able to top it…if anything I ever write again will b as good as this particular piece. So I asked him if he ever felt that way, and if so, what advice he’d offer. His suggestion?
“The first thing I’d do is go have a drink!” he chuckled.
But he added, on a serious note, that we all have doubts about our abilities and question what we do sometimes, and the best thing to do is just keep moving forward, doing what you love and doing it to the best of your ability. And that’s what I do.
My wife and I will both miss him. He was always giving of his time and knowledge, helping to build his fellow humans up. Tomie loved cats and dogs, too, and although he didn’t have any at the time of his death, he enjoyed hearing some of my wife’s stories about our own menagerie of 5 dogs, two cats, a rabbit, and several other critters.
This week is also bittersweet. My friend Lee Bennett Hopkins, whom Lin and Tomie suggested I reach out to way back at that first conference, passed away last August and never had a chance to hold his latest book in his hands. I’m very proud to have known Lee and to be a contributor to Construction People (Wordsong, 2020), one of his final poetry anthologies.
He had been able to see the F&Gs (folded and gathered copies), so he could see what the final product would look like, but it’s still not the same as holding the actual book in yours hands. Lee – whose birthday fittingly falls smack-dab in the middle of National Poetry Month, April 13 – has three more posthumous anthologies on the way, two of which I am also a contributor to, so I’m grateful for that. (One of them, Night Wishes (Eerdmans, 2020), is due out this September)
And it’s an exciting week, as well! In-between helping my two kids with their ‘remote-learning’ – which admittedly takes up the majority of my time these days – I’m in the process of working on a new poetry collection with a friend of mine who is one of the most respected folks in the industry, and we’re about halfway to completion. Meanwhile, Once Upon Another Time (Beaming Books, 2020), another collaboration with another highly-regarded fellow, Charles Ghigna, is just about ready to go to print! Charles and I had the opportunity to view the art-final ARC (Advance Review Copy) and it’s BEAUTIFUL! We can’t wait for everyone to see it when it comes out August 18. (And it’s available for pre-order at the link below!)
The 2020 Progressive Poem arrives here today!
The annual Progressive Poem is something that poet/author/blogger Irene Latham began several years ago as a way for the Poetry Friday family and other kidlit bloggers to join together and create a crowd-sourced poem for National Poetry Month. One person would write one line, and then it would travel from blog to blog each day, with each blogger adding a line, until we had a completed poem on April 30. Irene has been super-busy lately, so this year she handed off the organizational duties to Margaret Simon, who has pulled everyone together once again.
This year, Donna Smith started things off with a twist: she offered two lines for the following blogger to choose from; that happened to be Irene, who offered up two other lines from which the third blogger, Jone MacCulloch, could choose. So far, here’s what the poem looks like, with my two potential new lines added in bold: .
Sweet violets shimmy, daffodils sway
along the wiregrass path to the lake.
I carry a rucksack of tasty cakes
and a banjo passed down from my gram.
I follow the tracks of deer and raccoon
and echo the call of a wandering loon.
A whispering breeze joins in our song.
and night melts into a rose gold dawn.
Deep into nature’s embrace, I fold.
Splinters of sunbeams pierce young sky Promise of spring helps shake the cold
.
These took me quite awhile to nail down, I’ll admit; with the rhythm and assonance of the line endings, I kept feeling like the poem needed to rhyme, but with no discernible rhyme scheme I figured I’d just let it grow the way it felt best. So now I’ll let my friend Janet Fagal decide which of these she wants to seize upon! Have fun, Janet!
.
Like to follow along? Here’s where you can find all the contributors to this year’s Progressive Poem:
.
It’s Poetry Friday, which means there’s plenty more links and poetic fun over at Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s The Poem Farm – she’s handling the hostess duties today, so please visit and say hello!
If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll check out my “Wit & Wordplay” videos on my YouTube channel! These videos were created for parents and educators (along with their kids) and focus on how to write poetry, how to appreciate it, and offer tips on having fun with it. More are on the way, too, so be sure to subscribe or check back often! You can view them all on my YouTube channel, and I also have several downloadable activity sheets at my website. If you think any of this information might be useful for someone you know, I hope you’ll share.
I’ve teamed up with several other children’s authors to promote our upcoming books this year! And there are a LOT of them, too – including SEVEN in March!
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day)
Once Upon Another Time (Beaming Books, 2020) is my new picture book written with Charles Ghigna (aka, Father Goose®) – and the talented and inimitable Tara Lazar is hosting the official cover reveal on her blog! Tara’s been busy with Storystorm all January and will be announcing winners this week – so I’m extremely honored that she was willing to share our “baby pictures” (courtesy of illustrator Andrés F. Landazábal) with the world today.
Speaking of the new book, I’ve teamed up with several other children’s authors to promote our upcoming books this year. So be watching for news about Once Upon Another Time as well as blog posts and reviews of a whole bunch more – including six in February…
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day)
The book comes out Aug. 18, and author/kidlit blogger extraordinaire Tara Lazar will be hosting the official cover reveal on her blog! Tara’s been busy with Storystorm all January, so now that things are settling down, we get to have a first-look at this book.
Illustrator Andrés F. Landazábal’s soft, pastoral imagery is both bright and serene, brilliant and calming. In a word, gorgeous – and I’m not just saying that because it’s my book! To whet your appetite, I’m sharing the first few lines of the book. Charles and I are both poets at heart (even though I never call myself a ‘poet’), and we wrote this book as a lyrical look at Nature before humans left their mark, contrasting past with present: .
Once upon another time in a land of long ago, mountains peeked up through the clouds, bright with fallen snow.
I can’t wait for you to see the cover – and we’ll even include one of the spreads, too! So be sure to join me at Tara’s place THIS MONDAY, Feb. 10.
Speaking of the new book, I’ve teamed up with several other children’s authors to promote our upcoming books this year. So be watching for news about Once Upon Another Time as well as blog posts and reviews of a whole bunch more – including six in February…
For more poetry, please visit my friend Laura Purdie Salas, who is hosting the complete Poetry Friday roundup at her blog, Writing the World for Kids! .
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day)
Yes, folks, it’s that time of year again; Madness! Poetry – the brainchild of one Ed DeCaria – is the world’s largest bracketed children’s poetry competition (and quite possibly the only one), and it all begins in one month!
Ed is in the process of accepting and sorting through applications, but the premise is still the same as always: 64 “authletes,” as we are called, are paired with one another and given a specific word; we then have 36 hours to write a children’s poem using that exact word.
So 32 words, 32 new poems!
Here’s an example from last year, when I had to come up with a poem using the word “brace” in only 36 hours:
Second Thoughts
This homemade toboggan’s a real dream come true!
A few wooden planks, …..some twine, ……….some glue,
and here I am racing down Breakyerneck Hill
with goggles and helmet
and sheer force of will.
The one little thing that is worrying me
is that shed near that car …..near that rock …..…..near that tree.
I’ve lost all control and my rope is undone – …..so I’m bracing for impact ……………in three… …………………………two… ………………………………….one……!
.
Once the poems have been submitted, the public votes for their favorites and the winning “authlete” of each poem then moves to the next round. This continues until the field is narrowed down to just 2 writers…one of whom is crowned Madness! Poetry champion and wins the “Thinkier” trophy!
Don’t forget, we have a cover reveal coming for Once Upon Another Time (Beaming Books, 2020), my new picture book written with Charles Ghigna (aka, Father Goose®)! The book comes out August 18, and author/kidlit blogger Tara Lazar will be hosting the official cover reveal on her blog Feb. 10, as soon as she wraps up this year’s Storystorm!
And speaking of the new book, I’ve teamed up with several children’s authors like fellow authlete Lori Degman (who beat me last year, but I won’t hold a grudge), former fellow Poet’s Garage crit group member Diana Murray, Corey Rosen Schwartz, Michelle Schaub, and many others to promote our upcoming books this year. So be watching for news about this book as well as blog posts and reviews of a whole bunch more – including six in February alone!:
Looking for more poetry? For all of today’s Poetry Friday links and fun, head over to Jone MacCulloch’s blog, Deowriter, for some postcard poetry AND a giveaway! .
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!
To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right! (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day)
The 2020 Progressive Poem continues…
winning “authlete” of each poem then moves to the next round. This continues until the field is narrowed down to just 2 writers…one of whom is crowned Madness! Poetry champion and wins the “Thinkier” trophy!
Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme 