I just read about FRED, Fathers Ready Every Day, yesterday in my local paper. As a project designed by Texas A&M, FRED’s goal is to encourage father-child involvement and daily rituals of bonding and learning between children and positive male role models. The website provides a reading log and other tools to get started. Pass… Read more »
News to Use
A Thank You Gift for My Blog Followers
Since November is the month of Thanksgiving, I want to say thank you to my loyal followers with a: Private Picture Book Peek Week Coming November 2nd!A picture book manuscript critique contest for my blog followers only. To be eligible, you must be a member of my followers list in the sidebar of this blog.Enter… Read more »
Pay it Forward Friday – a Day Early: Spoonfuls of Stories
Cheerios is putting a favorite picture book in their cereal boxes. What a wonderful idea!!Vote for your favorite “Spoonfuls of Stories” picture book today.
National Novel Writing Month – I’m Jumping In
I just signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I’m s-o-o-o-o excited. NaNoWriMo begins November 1st. It’s touted as “Thirty Days and Nights of Literary Abandon!” How can I resist? I’ve written three other novels which are at various stages of resting and revision. But they weren’t written under pressure. I noodled around with… Read more »
Picture Book Peek Week #3 – And the Winners Are…
What a terrific batch of titles. And it looks like everyone was able to post without a problem this time – I hope. So without further ado … the winners of Picture Book Peek Week #3 are IT’S A SECRETFAR ABOVESANDY ANDY Please e-mail your manuscripts as Word attachments to reidy(dot)jean(at)gmail(dot)com.
Folksingers – Some of the Grandest Storytellers of All
Back in the day, before music videos, before CDs, even before 8-Track Tapes (if you owned one, fess up now – I never did) there was Puff the Magic Dragon and Peter, Paul and Mary. All drug culture references aside (I was too young to know of such things) the song became one of my… Read more »
Picture Book Peek Week #3 Coming September 21st!!
Back by popular demand: Picture Book Peek WeekFree critiques of select PB manuscripts – including those wretched rhymers (Yup, 3 of my upcoming PBs are written in verse!) Peek Week #3 begins September 21st. I’ve changed up the format a bit. Here’s how it will work: Sign up for a critique by entering your PB… Read more »
Camera-shy Creech Proving Any Author Can Make a Video Trailer
I love that one of my favorite authors is so very humble … and funny.
Random Acts of Publicity Week – Judith Snyder
Darcy Pattison’s Random Acts of Publicity Week began last Tuesday and I’ve decided to focus my not-so-random acts on one of my crit buddies, Judith Snyder. Judith is a teacher, school librarian and storyteller – she knows children’s literature. And even though she’s so very talented, Judith is soft-spoken and VERY humble. Tooting her own… Read more »
Parenting the Nearly-Grown: Guest Post by Masha Hamilton
Guest Post: Parenting the Nearly-Grownby Masha Hamilton (Photo by Briana Orr) “Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.” Roman philosopher and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C. Not long after the second of my three children was born, I sat at the kitchen table late one evening… Read more »
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