The Invitation Ready for Book Deserts
A magical box arrived last week. I almost didn’t open it, thinking it was a holiday gift from a relative. Luckily, I noticed Room to Read as the sender. Inside was a full paperback set of the non-profit’s Peace & Equality picture book collection. It’s been a year since I was part of the team bringing this to life. My contribution was The Invitation, a picture book about neurodiversity, friendship and inclusion (partnered with illustrator Ruthie Lafond).
Get Creative with Constraints
There’s a quote out there in the Internet world that I’ve pinned and come back to periodically: Creativity is subtraction. This is a concept I find useful to remember in my writing, work and everyday life.
Imposing constraints is one way of prompting subtraction. Constraints involve taking away things we over-rely on, leaving us to cope. Creativity often is the result.
New Website, New Blog
Welcome to my updated website! Two big reasons I tackled this refresh were: • To streamline the site so you can quickly find helpful information and...
Creativity Practice: Use Seven Ways to Get Unstuck
One of my favorite ways to try busting through roadblocks is to generate at least seven alternatives (bonus points for even more ideas). The...
Nina Kosterina Biography Book Recognition
My Nina Kosterina biography just received a 2021 Purple Dragonfly Award in the young adult category! -- 2nd place in the young adult...
Remembering Robert Wadlow
Robert Wadlow passed away on this date in 1940. When he died at age 22, he was the world’s tallest person at a height of 8 feet 11 inches –...
An Update on Time Savings
In a recent post, I ask what you'd do with more time, shared some ways to swap time wasters with activities that really matter and shared a bit...
Take-Aways from Recent Panel Discussion
The non-profit Room to Read, publisher of my picture book The Invitation, invited me to participate in a May talk about Diversity of...
Introducing The Invitation – Available Free Online
As I wrote about in December, I was among the authors and illustrators hired by the non-profit Room to Read in the fall to develop a Peace...
How Would You Use More Time?
What would you do you with an extra 5 minutes a day? Maybe you have an immediate answer. Maybe it seems like a pittance and why bother. But how...
Check Out These Writing Prompts
I’m always looking for ways to juice up my creativity. If this describes you, here’s a blog post from the Storyteller Academy with six...
Lovejoy Biography Award
I'm happy to share that Elijah Lovejoy's Fight for Freedom received 1st place in the YA nonfiction category in the annual Royal Dragonfly...
The Creative Process of Book Covers
I'm a hybrid author - both traditionally and self-published. For me, one of the most enjoyable aspects of self-publishing has turned out to...
Start the Year with a Resource Boost
I spent the last couple of weeks in December tidying things up. Not in my house (as much as a major declutter needs to happen) but in my writing...
The Beauty of Imagination
As we sprint-scramble-crawl-drag-gasp toward the end of 2020, I want (need) to remember there are so many examples of positive imagination at...
More Book News: Design Prize
The talented designer Roberta Morris emailed me the other day to share that Elijah Lovejoy’s Fight for Freedom won a Graphic Design USA...
Book News: Nina Biography Released, Goodreads Giveaway
Alrighty. The second edition is now available of my young adult biography, Nina Kosterina: A Young Communist in Stalinist Russia! I’m...
The Time Warp of November
I'm not sure how to describe November except that sufficient sleep was not in the cards. Not all bad, although life as a special needs parent during...