woolly mammoth boogers . . .

"When you drink water through your trunk, does it taste like boogers?" -- Ice Age 4



. . .


If you haven't been following Rob Sanders' Picture This blog, you don't know what you're missing. This week it's all about First-Book Deals, so far we've heard from Fred Koehler and Aimee Reid.



My own book, Rabbit Surprise, had been rejected like 10 or 12 times (or maybe more), and I had given up on it, filed it away some place . . . and 2 years later . . . I get this phone call . . . where a slush-reader had liked the story, had not been able to convince the powers-that-be, had saved the story and now that she was working at a different publishing house and was one of the powers-that-be herself (Thank You Tracy!) . . . well, that's my story.


. . . 


and here's a little article I enjoyed reading: The Dot and Ish by Peter H. Reynolds


. . .

He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.

"Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters, sometimes very hastily, but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, 'Dear Jim: I loved your card.' Then I got a letter back from his mother, and she said, 'Jim loved your card so much he ate it.' That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. . . . He saw it, he loved it, he ate it." -Maurice Sendak in an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air"


. . .


Yesterday I was listening to a DNTO podcast with an interesting talk to Marc Kuly of the  Storytelling Classroom, and that's just one of the interviews in What is the Real Power of Story?


. . .


Be sure to check out Rob Sanders' final segment in his interview with Frances Gilbert, Editorial Director at Doubleday Children’s Books, Random House at Picture This!


. . .

Storytelling Stuff

“I believe that a good children's book should appeal to all people who have not completely lost their original joy and wonder in life. The fact is that I don't make books for children at all. I make them for that part of us, of myself and of my friends, which has never changed, which is still a child.”  ― Leo Lionni

. . .


I just listened to an interview with storyteller Donna Washington onThe Art of Storytelling podcast, she explains her views on age-appropriateness for scary stories, as well as a good explanation on one of the roles of repetition in children's stories: The Anatomy of a Ghost Story


and I enjoyed listening to Donna so much that I searched her out on youtube, lots of entertaining performances to watch. Here's a good example:





. . .
Also be sure to check out the next installment of Rob Sanders' interview with Frances Gilbert at Picture This.

where the trembling stops

"The life i touch for good or ill will touch another life, and in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt." — Frederick Buechner

Mo Willems is an amazing performer:




and a virtual author visit from Jarrett J. Krosoczka:





and check out Rob Sanders' interview with Frances Gilbert, Editorial Director at Doubleday Children’s Books, Random House: Picture This!


and pay a visit to a storyteller's blog, Karen Chace's Catch the Storybug

Tellers of Tales

"Since the beginning of time,
the hours between
the coming of night
and the coming of sleep …
Have always belonged
to the makers of music
and the tellers of tales."
from the homepage of the Southern Order of Storytellers


In my quest for examples of authors promoting themselves and videos of authors giving presentations I found Marsha Diane Arnold's webpage, which has a nice lay-out. I recommend you check it out, and while there, take note that she offers Virtual Classroom Visits and make sure you read her insightful blog.



I also found this youtube of Marsha reading a bit of Roar of a Snore:








Also pay a quick visit to Rob Sanders' blog Picture This for his frequently-updated insights into writing picture books.

Generating Picture Book Ideas

Reading Rob Sanders' Character/Situation Mash-Up reminded me of a tool I used to use to generate ideas for picture books. I took 3x5 index cards (cut in half because I write small, and they don't require many words) and divided them into three catagories, Who, What, Where . . . kinda like the board game Clue (the butler in the dining room with a candalabra). On the 'Who' cards I'd write a character, person, animal, etc.. Examples might be Chicken Little, Cow, Duck, Magician, Teacher, or Mad Margaret. On the 'What' cards I'd write a situation or event, examples might be Appreciation Day, Jump-Rope-athon, or Grandma Serving Tea. On the 'Where' cards I'd write things like Under the Table, Backyard, Crowded City Street, or pumpkin patch. Then shuffle each catagory and draw a card from each stack. I'd end up with something like: Rhino, At the Breakfast Table, Alien Invasion . . . just enough to tickle my imagination (oh yeah, a tiny flying saucer zips through the window and makes a splash down in my bowl of cheerios) and let my pen start scribbling!

A wonderful, helpful, blog here:

Picture This by Rob Sanders.
Check it out!
http://robsanderswrites.blogspot.com/