Files Full of Stuff

There were scores of rejection letters. I hadn’t kept them all or else there would have been hundreds.

A Tale of Twin Books

Here’s a bit of the bunny-eat-bunny world that I’d put out of my mind up until recently. A terrific cartoonist I follow blogged about people stealing his ideas, and it brought back memories. Twice in my 35 year career, I felt that an idea I submitted had been stolen. I knew that we could not…

Don’t Quit Your Day Job!

…if your illustrating/writing abilities are valuable enough for someone else to profit from them, then maybe honor yourself enough to try being your own boss and choosing who gets to make money off of your talents.

Easy-reader comic book! Goldilocks, revisited.

I decided to try writing and illustrating a graphic novel based on an early reader series I wrote called Sir Pants-a-Lot and Squire Mousekins. In the first adventure, the brave knight and his loyal squire rescue Goldilocks from the three bears. And, unlike the traditional story, they encourage the naughty girl to make amends for…

As you sew, so shall you rip: How I’m spending my Pandemic Staycation

Lately I’ve been bombarding Facebook with a new craft endeavor: patchwork. I’ve mistakenly been calling it quilting, which is the ultimate goal, maybe, but for now, I’ve been learning how to piece together different shapes of fabric bits. And I’ve been re-learning how to sew. So, a little sewing history: In my senior year of…

Changing with the times – how I stayed published.

This piece is from the May 2006 issue of our local electrical coop’s Ruralite Magazine. I interviewed myself actually, and was very easy to talk to. I also took the photos, hence the cut off head. The gist of the interview was how we creative types struggle in our careers. Getting published doesn’t mean we’ll…

BUG! Publishing News

It began last October with a semi-desire to learn how to do scratchboard while tinkering with a story idea. As usual, my brain firmly resisted this new task that sounded messy, time consuming and difficult to learn. So, after buying all the materials and watching a few tutorials, I tried creating the scratchboard effect using…

Texting While Driving: a Writer’s Tip

We all know that sticking our nose in a device to read and answer messages while we drive is akin to driving while impaired, or worse. But safe texting while driving is something I’ve done for years. A lot of writers talk of their routine of “Butt in Chair” (BIC) from something o’clock to whatever…

Can you handle the truth?

In the world of publishing we (hopefully) agonize over a project until it is perfect and present something we believe in our hearts is an incredibly awesome work of art. So it’s never any fun when our projects are rejected by an agent or publisher. In 30+ years of publishing children’s books, here’s my take…

Are You Done Yet?

Wow, it’s been thirty years since my first children’s book contract. So… what have I learned in thirty years? I’ve learned that people often don’t respect or understand just how long it can take to accomplish a task that might appear, to the one not doing it, to be easy. I think everyone has experienced…