As I was racking my brain for what to write for this post, I had two problems. I had no ideas, yet also too many ideas. Random phrases and miscellaneous publishing thoughts kept inserting themselves onto the page. However, as soon as I typed them out, my mind went blank.     So instead of making a choice, I’ve decided to share them all with you. Here are my top ten random thoughts about writing, illustrating, and being a creative person, in no particular order. (Complete with random art!)  1. Trust Your Reader      When we are writi ..read more

Many of us have been there -- showing up all excited for an in-person event at a bookstore or library, and... crickets.  The audience you imagined, that you reached out to, that the venue promoted to, just doesn't show up. It's embarrassing, and the last thing you want to do -- okay, I'll take it out of second person and be honest myself: the last thing I wanted to do --was let the whole world know that the turnout was super disappointing. But get this: Iyana Jones reported in Publishers Weekly last week about Jamar J. Perry having this really hard, embarrassing experience ..read more

Have you ever felt super stuck? Like the jar of a lid that refuses to budge stuck? Like you wore too many socks with your snow boots and now you can’t get them off stuck? Like you typed some words and deleted them just to type the same words again stuck? Like why am I even attempting this because it won’t be good stuck?     Perhaps you get to the point where, out of desperation, you try something new. Recently, I impulsively booked a writing retreat. I thought I might try the “change your location” trick to get myself writing again. Amazingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it ..read more

The Bologna Children's Book Fair had its 60th anniversary this year, and SCBWI was "in the house!" SCBWI Instagram post from Bologna with text that reads:  Portfolio review at the booth. So many talented illustrators that we went overtime to get everyone seen! Thanks to our reviewers @ericarsilverman @dearnetta @ammi.joan.paquette @martharago #bcbf23 #portfolioreviews #illustratorsofinstagram #illustrationartists #artist Over at Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson reported in this piece, Bologna’s 60th Edition Draws 28,894 Visitors, that the “in-person professional visi ..read more

The way artificial intelligence systems are trained is that they intake vast amounts of art* created by humans to then re-mix and re-purpose the human-created art into something ostensibly 'new.' In a fascinating development announced March 2, 2023 in Publishers Weekly, the Authors Guild has added a new clause to their model contract,  "that prohibits publishers from using or sub-licensing books under contract to train artificial intelligence technologies. The clause also requires publishers to include the limitation in any sublicensee. According to a statement, the clause is "a respo ..read more

    As writers and illustrators of children's books, we often strive to create books for young readers to see themselves or to learn about others. This is something I hope for with many of my projects. However, in writing and illustrating my first book I was surprised with a different outcome: discovering myself.     In the weeks leading up to my debut, I wrote about the process of writing Blob many times. Blob started as a joke about how no one could recognize the animal characters I was drawing. In exasperation, I declared that I would draw a blob. They were c ..read more

If you've got the time (1:05:00) and you want the award-season thrill, watch the full video recording of the Golden Kite Awards ceremony and acceptance speeches here! The winner in each category received $2,500 plus an additional $1,000 to donate to a non-profit organization of their choice. Each honor recipient received $500 plus an additional $250 to donate. If you're in a rush, or just need to add to your to-read pile now, here's the list of honorees and winners:  (scroll down, so we don't have any spoilers...) PICTURE BOOK TEXT Winner: Fly written by Brittany J. Thurman ..read more

  Christian Elongué during a reading workshop at Nungua Methodist School (Ghana), Dec. 2022 1: Create more literary prizes for children books in African languages By encouraging and incentivizing authors and publishers to consider young adult and children’s literature, we can expose young people to different cultures to give them a more well-rounded literary experience.  2: Establish stronger network of literary translators in African languages Translation ensure that young readers have the chance to read brilliant stories from around the world in their traditional language ..read more

So over on Instagram, Laini Taylor @lainit, author of the bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy among other YA titles, shared this really fun writing exercise. With Laini's permission, I'm sharing it here: "This was the writing exercise we did this morning at my weekly Zoom meeting (optional; some people just work on their wip’s): Choose 1 word off list A and 1 off List B and use the result as a title or prompt for a freewrite, poem, brainstorm, story, or whatever. I posted a numbered version of the list too, since we’ve sometimes found it better to let a dice roll choose fo ..read more

Christian Elongué during a reading workshop at Nungua Methodist School (Ghana), Dec. 2022 Awards and literary prizes can encourage or boost literary expression in African languages. Below are few literary prizes and awards worth mentioning, most being from South Africa.  1. The Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature The Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature is a biennial award initiated in 1980 by Tafelberg Publishing, to develop high-quality literature for teenage readers (ages 12-18) and YA novels in all the South African official languages. The competition is only open to South Afric ..read more