Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

O, give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
For His mercy endures forever.

-Psalm 136:1-3, NKJV

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!

Why are you a writer? Why do you write for kids? Is it because you’re a child at heart? I know that’s one of the reasons I write.

Here are some “secrets” about me that reveal that yes, I’m still a kid at heart:
* I usually eat lunch on my Winnie-the-Pooh plastic children’s dishes set.
* I bought a Dr. Seuss T-Shirt–with One Fish, Two Fish on it–similar to the one pictured above.
* I’d rather walk to the park than drive to the mall.
* I like to stop and smell the roses and hide behind our fence to watch a pair of grackles feed their babies in a nest under our neighbor’s eaves.
* I haven’t read an adult novel in so long that I can’t remember when. But I reread Charlotte’s Web and listen to The Secret Garden on tape and love to reread the Laura Ingalls Wilder series!
*When I’m at home all day by myself writing and the phone rings, I have to turn down the CD that’s blaring before I answer it. It’s usually one of the records from my childhood. Most recently it’s an old Disney recording of nursery rhymes and songs from “A Child’s Garden of Verses.”

So there you have it. The cat is out of the bag! One of the reasons I write is because I’m a child at heart. And that’s why I write for kids.

Why are you a writer?

Meet Author Karen Branscomb Milam!
E-mail: kjmilam@sbcglobal.net

Bio:
I knew that I wanted to write from the time I placed my chubby little fingers around my great uncle Lawrence’s flat red carpenter pencil, to make my first mark on paper. White paper was scarce in my home, but I covered brown paper bag strips with the alphabet, poems and stories during my early school years.

Years later, after I had raised my family, and retired after 23 years of teaching elementary school, my desire to write for children has been rekindled.

Nancy I. Sanders, Shirley Shibley, and Jan Kern have shared their valuable expertise and encouragement with me. Their counsel has helped me to get published with Focus On The Family, The Kids’ Ark, and DCCC: developmental reading stories. Although I am beginning my writing career late in life––the journey is where my joy lives––so I’m never disappointed. I am excited by each stage.

Interview:
Q: As a child, what were your favorite books to read?
A: Every book I read became my favorite, so I don’t necessarily remember the words, but the environments. My mother tucked me in with Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, and I can remember I loved to “watch” the cow jump over the moon before I went to sleep at night. In the first grade, I learned about the concept of city life from the Dick and Jane books; the principal’s office of my small country school acted as a very small school library; and the Book Mobile brought to me a sense of wonderment like none other. Each book I checked out to read provided light to my forested pathway. They provided the light so I, a lumber mill camp kid, could journey out from under the dark shadows of the tall redwood and fir trees, to discover people and places awaiting me in the outside world.

Q: What inspires you most as a writer?
A: God and His creation inspire me. I think that people, and the complexity of the human spirit are beyond human explanation. I find the unique abilities, talents, mannerisms, attitudes, of each individual, as they relate to their environment, continuously filling my writing treasure box full of ideas. The magnificent animals, some stately and some humorous give me a variety of animal friends to write about, or to pair with human characters. This incredible universe is alive, and pulsating with settings both in this world and beyond. From these things, I am convinced that every story setting, every character, and every plot imaginable emerge.

Q: What is one of your most favorite topics to write about?
A: Conflict resolution. I love the story of redemption, restoration, and its healing power. To help a character resolve internal or external pressures to draw closer to God, and/or to function well in this environment provides a challenge comparable to assembling the most illusive pieces of a 3-D puzzle.

Q: Share one tip you would like to give to someone who wants to learn how to write a beginning reader.
A: Go on a discovery mission to determine your reader and market needs. There are many ways to do this. Read Chapter 11, in Nancy I. Sanders’ Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career. This process can take many forms: Find your intended publishers, study their websites and read their beginning reader books. Interact with beginning readers at school, or at home with your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and neighbors, as you learn how they relate with ideas and words.

Read to them and discover what makes them giggle, or what makes their eyes widen in surprise. Find out what makes them pull away to hide under a pillow, or what makes them say “yum” or “ick.” You know when small children roll on the floor in delight, or mimic the character of an animal or person, that they have placed themselves into the reading process. These observations help you to develop interesting markers that will draw a child into the story. While you are making discovery observations, work diligently to discover potential markets for your beginning reader ideas.

Cheers for a job well done!
Really fun fellowship and friends
Ideas and inspiration
Timely market tips
Important feedback and constructive criticism
Questions asked. Answers provided.
Understanding ears and sympathetic hearts
Encouragement, enthusiasm, and energy!

Guidance and grace
Restoration, refreshment, and renewal
Opportunity for testing the waters
Uplifting prayers for God’s purposes
Polished to perfection and ready for publication!

What do you like best about your critique group? If you’re not yet a member of one, I encourage you to find one to join. A critique group is a great place to be!

Hi! My name is Humphrey. I’m a cat. I’m also a writer. You probably know that by now. But what you may not know is that for every manuscript I write, I create its very own research center.

For instance, currently I’m writing an article about the wonderful benefits of eating tuna fish. Every day. To create my research center for this article, I decided to dedicate one shelf on my bookcase for all the books and resources I already have on hand that cover this delicious topic.

First, I emptied the bookshelf from all its existing books.

Okay, okay. As you can see by the photo, after I emptied the shelf, I had to try it out for size. It wasn’t too hard to get up there. I just used the printer as a launch pad, leaped to the top of the desk, and then walked right in. It fit perfectly! (There was just a slight problem getting down from there. I fell out, but fortunately, someone caught me two-thirds of the way down. Actually!)

Once all that was done, I spread all the books I already own on my topic out on the dining room table. I organized them according to theme:
*The psychological benefit of eating your favorite food. Every day.
*The benefit of only having to shop for one item to eat. Ever.
*The benefit of never wondering what you’re going to have for dinner. Tuna fish!

Then I was able to see, at a glance, which research books I needed to get from the library or used book store to give me sources to round out my article. I next placed the organized piles back on the shelf to keep them handy as I write. My research center was ready to go.

Now…I think it’s time for a snack. Tuna fish, anyone?

Meet Author Bruce Hale!
Website: BruceHale.com

Bio:
Edgar-nominated author Bruce Hale is passionate about inspiring reluctant readers to open books (and read them). He has written or illustrated more than 25 seriously funny books for children, including the popular Chet Gecko Mysteries series and the comics-novel hybrid, Underwhere.

An actor and Fulbright Scholar in Storytelling, Bruce is in demand as a speaker, having presented at conferences, universities, and schools across North America – from the Maui Writers Conference to the Surrey International Writers Conference in British Columbia. His acting resume includes regional commercials, theater, and an independent film, The Ride. Bruce also sings with the VocalPoint jazz group of Santa Barbara.

Featured Book:

Snoring Beauty
by Bruce Hale
Illustrated by Howard Fine

A furious fairy. A cruel curse.
A princess enchanted by a spell. 

Think you know the story of Sleeping Beauty? Better think again. This fractured fairy tale tells the real story of Sleeping Beauty — warts, scales, and all. 

And guess what? She snores. (A recommended read on Oprah Winfrey’s Kids Reading List)

Interview:
Q: Describe the journey you took to write and publish this book.
A: This book was a long time coming. I wrote it in 2000 and sold it back in 2001, then revised it several times working with one editor. He wasn’t able to find a satisfactory illustrator, and the project passed to another editor when he left Harcourt. She asked for another couple rounds of revisions, then chose Howard Fine for the illustrations. An excellent choice! The book finally came out in 2008.

Q: What is your typical writing day like?
A: Unending hilarity and dazzling inspiration. But seriously…

I usually exercise and handle e-mail in the mornings, then start writing after lunch. I write (or revise, as the case may be) until dinnertime. Sometimes the writing flows, sometimes it’s like wading through concrete. But I keep showing up each day, whether the Muse joins me or not.

Q: Describe at least one specific technique you use to incorporate humor into your writing.
A: The Technique of Three is one of my favorites. You create a list, where the first two items are normal and the third is unexpected/bizarre — like “tall, dark, and full of zits.”

Q: Share tips you’d like to give to an author who wants to do Virtual School Visits.
A: Think visually. Be sure to take advantage of the strengths of the medium. It’s not as immediate as an in-person visit, but you can hold nearly anything — sketches, toys, crafts, whatever — up to the camera, and kids can easily see it.

Do you ever feel like you’re reading Greek when all you’re trying to do is read through a market guide or publisher’s submissions guidelines?

Download this fun matching game to learn some of the most common acronyms in the children’s writing industry. For added fun, print out a copy for each of your writing buddies and try to complete the answers during your next critique group.

Acronyms

(Don’t peek, but the answers are listed upside-down at the bottom.)

I know a lot of you are interested in writing alphabet books and ABC articles. So am I! That’s why I’m excited about my brand new teleclass that I’ll be teaching for the National Writing for Children Center. I’m now part of the faculty here at the center and will be teaching a new teleclass every month.

You can join me live on Thursday, November 12 at 10:00 Pacific Standard Time! Just click on the link today or tomorrow to register at The Children’s Writers Coaching Club. Then call the number they give you and join the fun!

If you can’t make it at that time, it will be available as a download afterwards.

Happy writing…from A to Z!

Hi My name is Humphrey. I’m a cat. You may already know that. But what you may not know is that I’m also a writer. And today, I want to tell you about putting on your editor’s hat.

Do you like to edit your own manuscripts? You know—self edit? Come on…really?

I don’t.

I mean, it’s just not the cat’s meow.

But I know I should. I know I’m supposed to. I know it’s what a cat’s gotta do to learn how to be a successful writer. So I decided to break my habit of neglecting this part of my writing life.

The first thing I did was get myself an editor’s hat. You know—first you wear the writer’s hat and then you take that off and put on your editor’s hat? Right? Well, I didn’t have an editor’s hat. So I went out and got one. Like it? It even has a little mouse at the top and this twirly thing to twirl around. It’s purrfect for a cat like me. You should get one, too!

After I finish my first draft of my manuscript, I set aside some time to edit. And now I make sure it isn’t the drudgery it used to be. I make sure it’s fun!

I put on my silly editor’s beanie. It gets me in the mood to have fun, dude. Then I get out my special highlighter pens. I splurged and bought some wa-ay cool ones that I can use to make neon colors and decorate all over my manuscript. (They don’t even have a cap to lose, but click like a ballpoint pen.) Since I have neon yellow and neon pink and neon orange, now I’m HOPING to find mistakes in my manuscript just so I can mark ‘em on my page and turn the boring black and white little marks on the paper into bright, fun, colorful pictures.

I know my weaknesses, too. So I made a list of ‘em. Here are the first three, for starters:
1. Don’t always use punctuation correctly.
2. Weak verbs.
3. Poorly constructed paragraphs without a clear beginning, middle, and end.

I also printed out some self-editing checklists from how-to-write books, and articles I found on the Internet. These lists remind me to check for realistic dialog, show don’t tell, and lots of other important stuff.

I take my highlighters and have some fun! First I look at every single sentence I wrote in my first paragraph. I highlight the capital letter at the beginning of the sentence in pink. I highlight the punctuation in that sentence in yellow. Then I make sure to check that I used that punctuation correctly.

If I’m not sure about the punctuation rule, I look it up in my reference books. But hey—my reference books aren’t bo-o-oring like yours might be. Oh no! First I made specially decorated book covers for each one of ‘em so they’re bright and colorful, not scary-looking or over-the-top academic. Then I got my highlighters out and really decorated the pages I use the most to remind me what the rules are that I most often forget. Plus, I got sticky notes in all shapes and sizes to stick on the pages I look up over and over again. I want to save my energy for chasing mice, not for flipping through the pages looking up the same rule I’ve used a zillion times before. Like I said—I want this self-editing thing to be as fun as a cat can have it.

So hey—how about you? Are you having fun when you self-edit your manuscript? If not, do something about it. Make it fun, like I did. Now editing’s my favorite part of writing. Not! But really, it’s way more fun than it used to be. Especially when I put on my editor’s hat. And nibble on tunafish…but that’s another story.

-contributed by Humphrey, Nancy’s writing buddy

Meet Author Dianne E. Butts!
E-mail:dbwrites@juno.com
Blog: Deliver Me
Web site: Dianne E. Butts, Freelance Writer
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/DianneEButts

Bio:
Dianne E. Butts has more than 225 publications in over fifty magazines and fifteen books. She has written for national publications such as Focus on the Family magazine, The Plain Truth, Light and Life, The Lookout, On Mission, Enrichment Journal, Bible Advocate, the Salvation Army’s War Cry, and the international Christian Motorcyclists Association’s Heartbeat. She has written for denominational take-home papers including Live, Evangel, Purpose, Standard, and Encounter for teenagers; for online publications including CBN.com, Crosswalk.com, TheChristianPulse.com, and Now What?; as well as devotionals including The Quiet Hour and Devotions. She writes frequently for writers in Christian Communicator and Cross & Quill. She has sold short fiction to Live and Evangel, and has a story appearing in Focus on the Family’s Clubhouse, Jr. in 2010. Her articles have been published in Great Britain, Bulgaria, Poland, Canada, and Korea.

Dianne’s book contributions include Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Best Stories of Faith, Zondervan’s New Women’s Devotional Bible, and the just-released book God Encounters: Stories of His Involvement in Life’s Greatest Moments (Howard Books, October 2009).

Her current project is a book of true stories of unplanned pregnancies, Deliver Me, which may end up being her second self-published book. Follow the progress of this book on www.DeliverMeBook.blogspot.com.

Dianne offers a free, monthly e-mailed e-zine for writers. Subscribe on her web site at www.DianneEButts.com.

When she’s not writing, Dianne enjoys riding her motorcycle with her husband, Hal, and gardening with her cat, P.C. The trio lives in Colorado.

Featured Book:
Dear America
by Dianne E. Butts
Ampelos, 2002

Written in the weeks following 9/11/2001, Dear America: A Letter of Comfort and Hope to a Grieving Nation talks about grief, presents the Gospel as a 5-act story, discusses some differences between Christianity and Islam, answers some questions about Muslims, and gives readers ideas of how to go on with God. The book, which sells for $6.95, is available on Amazon.com and Dianne’s web site.

Interview:
Q: Describe the journey you’ve taken as a writer.
A: I never started out to be a writer. I didn’t dream of writing since I was three years old like so many writers’ interviews I’ve read. My writer’s journey started when I was a teenager and I wrote a few “poems”—or at least I thought they were poems because they rhymed. I entered one in a contest to be used in our high school yearbook (but I lost out to the Beatles and the lyrics to their song, “The Long and Winding Road”).

However, my high school English teacher got her hands on some of my poems (I can’t remember how. I was certainly too shy to share them!) and she took an interest in me. One day she took me down to the school library and introduced me to Writer’s Digest’s Writer’s Market. She showed me how it worked and showed me how to format my poems for submission. We sent one poem out to three places and got two rejection slips. I remember one of them said, “This sounds like a Hallmark card.” I took that as a compliment although I knew that’s not how they meant it. We never heard back from the third place.

Then my writing journey paused for a dozen years.

I married in my twenties and we followed my husband’s job to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where I went to work in a gas station/rental shop. The ladies I worked with there were Christians. I’d gone to church some when I was a kid, but really didn’t know much. I’d even “prayed the prayer of salvation” and had “given my life to the Lord” when I was younger—several times! But not knowing any Christians and with no one to teach me or answer my questions, my weak faith wilted every time. But these ladies talked with me about Christ and answered my questions about Him and God honored those previous professions of faith and the more I learned about Him and the Bible, the more on fire I became.

I deeply wanted to share the faith I now understood, but, still being very shy, I had no idea how to do so. Then I started thinking, “What if I could write an article and get it published?” Because of Mrs. Hodges in high school, I knew what to do. I went to the library in Steamboat Springs, found the reference section and the newest volume of the Writer’s Market, and I was thirty years old when my writing career began. That was twenty years ago. Now it’s my passion to help others understand God and His story in the Bible, primarily through writing.

Q: What is one word of advice you received as a writer that you would like to share with others?
A: Probably the most valuable advice I received is to study the publication or publishing house before you submit. I consistently hear editors say they receive so much material that they can’t use and it’s obvious the writer has never seen their magazine or looked at their published book catalog. Writers who do this are seen as real amateurs. This type of submission clogs up the system and hurts all writers because fewer and fewer editors will continue to accept freelance submissions.

The new twist on this idea for me is your advice, Nancy, to really study children’s book publisher’s catalogs and find something to query them on. I learned early on that authors need to make sure the book publishing house they are approaching publishes the type of book they want to write. But to basically forget about the type of book we want to write and just look at their catalog and find something we can write for them is new to me. But it has that “Duh. Why didn’t I think of that?” feeling!

Probably the next word of advice I received that has really paid off is, “Go to a writer’s conference.” I started out writing alone, but I soon heard of the Colorado Christian Writer’s Conference and went. This past spring I went to that same conference for the twentieth year in a row. Besides what Mrs. Hodges taught me in high school, nearly everything else I’ve learned about writing for publication I learned there, not to mention the friends and contacts with editors I’ve made which have helped me get my foot in the door at magazines.

Q: What are some benefits of self-publishing a book?
A: For one, you stand to make more money per book sold than you would earn from royalties. Royalties on books are often less than a dollar per book sold, sometimes much lower. I heard a multi-published author at a recent conference say he earns 10 cents royalty per book sold. With a self-published book, you can often earn several dollars per copy sold, but that assumes you’re able to sell copies of your book! Many self-published authors find they don’t really have outlets to promote and sell their books. This is one of the biggest lessons I learned with Dear America. Ask yourself, and answer realistically,

- Who are my potential book-buyer/readers?
- Where are they and how can I reach them?
- How am I going to let them know about my book?

Another benefit to self-publishing is that you have complete control over your book, but that’s also a great challenge. As I consider self-publishing Deliver Me, I don’t know if I’m making good decisions about things like the back-cover copy and the price. And what am I going to put on the cover that will cause someone to pick up my book and consider buying it? I don’t have a committee or a sales department behind me to help me figure these things out like a traditional publisher does.

Finally, perhaps one of the biggest benefits to self-publishing, next to making more income from the sales of your book, is the time factor. Authors considering self-publishing probably already know you can wait years for a traditional publisher to respond and finally say “no thanks” to publishing your book. Sometimes we just need our book out, or need it out now so we don’t miss opportunities. Finding a traditional publisher can take months or years, with no guarantee you’ll ever find one interested in publishing your book. Once you do find a traditional publisher who wants to publish your book, it will be 18 to 24 months from the time you sign a contract before your book is out.

On the other hand, if you self-publish your book, you can have it out in 6 months or 3 months or even just a couple weeks after delivering your computer file to a printer.

Q: Share one tip you’d like to give to an author who is considering self-publishing a book.
A: This is a huge, all-inclusive “tip,” but honestly the one thing authors need to do when they’re self-publishing is to know what you’re doing. Please don’t think just because you’ve sent your proposal out to a couple publishers and haven’t heard back in a couple months that you should just find a printer and pay to have it printed! I’ve heard countless stories like this and the author, after spending tens of thousands of dollars, usually ends up with a garage full of books he or she can’t sell.

You MUST do your homework!

Find out about ISBNs and bar codes, because you can’t sell your book on Amazon or in stores without them. Do a budget and figure out what you might have to spend. How much is your cover going to cost you? Interior design? Do you have the skills or someone to put it all in the format a printer requires? Does this person know where the preface and title page and footnotes go? For goodness sakes don’t you dare go to press without hiring a professional editor! How much will that cost?

Are you going to hire a self-publishing company to do all this for you? Have you checked out numerous companies and compared prices and packages? Have you checked the company to see what others thought of working with them? There are some scams out there so ask around and check out any companies you’re considering so you don’t get taken!

How are you going to sell your book? Are you a speaker with opportunities to sell the book? If not, how are you going to reach readers?

When you find a buyer, how are you going to collect the money? Through your web site? How will you deliver the book? By mail? What about collecting sales tax and shipping? Or will your self-publishing company do “order fulfillment,” which is doing all this for you?

Do you know the different between Print-On-Demand (POD) publishing and off-set printing, and do you know which is right for you?

I’ve talked with some would-be authors who don’t even know the difference between going with a traditional publishing company and self-publishing. When they fork out a bundle of money to have their book published, they just think this is how it’s done. They have no idea about being paid advance and royalties by traditional publishers. They have no idea what they’re getting or what they need for their book to be a success. If you don’t know how traditional publishing works, then I’d say you don’t know enough to self-publish your book and make it a financial and business success.
There’s so much to know and learn. Search the internet or get some books, like Dan Poynter’s The Self-Publishing Manual, and learn all you can. I’ve learned a lot. I also have a lot left to learn. This is what my blog at www.DeliverMeBook.blogspot.com is all about. On this blog I’m writing about what I learned while self-publishing Dear America, what I’ve learned since, and what I’m doing to make my next self-published book—which may well be Deliver Me: Hope, Help, and Options When You’re Facing an Unplanned Pregnancy—a financial and business success. (That proposal is still out to a few traditional publishers and I’m waiting to hear from them, but in the mean time I’m actively writing the manuscript and getting ready to self-publish if I don’t find a traditional publisher soon.)

I’m sharing everything I know about self-publishing in my blog in order to help other authors successfully publish their books and not end up with a bunch of money spent on a garage full of books they can’t sell. There’re enough of those stories, and I want our reader’s stories to end better!

Thank you, Nancy, for inviting me to be on your blog today. I hope your readers find this information useful. It has been great fun!

Thank YOU, Dianne, for all your wonderful tips and encouragement! -Nancy