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Back again with another tantalizing selection of great blog posts from the world of children’s literature.
If you’re enjoying these videos, please spread the word. Click here and tell some folks. Also, sign up to follow us on Twitter and you’ll get instant notice when each new video is posted. Our twitter address is http://twitter.com/jonbard
Oh yeah, one thing: this was the first video I recorded on our new computer and I’m still wrestling with some sound settings. So, my usually mellifluous tones sound a little tinny today.
Random House now has blog for their editors & writers. New piece up on children’s writing: http://budurl.com/p55e
Via 100 Scope Notes, interview with Caldecott Medal Judge: http://budurl.com/5t4b
Librarian Action Figures! http://budurl.com/t2km
Registration now open for Annual Muse Online Writers Conference. http://budurl.com/488b
Censor watch re: Picture book w/two male penguins who hatch an orphaned egg. Read more: http://fleck.com/qJsXR
What a great blog: Vintage Children’s Books brought back to life - http://fleck.com/m2WPC
Current Trend: Teen books tie-in with hot TV series http://fleck.com/RMJA4
A clueless parent’s guide to the phenomenon that is Twilight. http://budurl.com/ez6s
Nice piece on NBA winner Judy Blundell - http://fleck.com/tZQZs
The PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship of $5,000 is offered annually to an author of children’s or young-adult fiction. The Fellowship has been developed to help writers whose work is of high literary caliber but who have not yet attracted a broad readership. As a result, an author’s books may not have achieved the sales that would allow the writer to support him or herself solely from writing.
The Fellowship is designed to assist a writer at a crucial moment in his or her career, when monetary support is particularly needed to complete a book-length work-in-progress.
More info: http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/281
Let’s continue our series which will take us, step-by-step, from absolute beginner to published author. The topic of the previous issue: What Should You Write About? If you missed it, you can read it here.
If you’ve been with us since the start of this series you’re (hopefully) well motivated, you know who your audience is and what you’re going to write about. Now it’s time to learn the rules of the game. Because kids grow and change so quickly, children’s book genres are far more structured and tiered than adult genres. What a 2nd grader and 6th grader read are worlds apart, and the “rules of the game” reflect that.
These rules, which cover page length, word count, subject matter and other elements of a book, aren’t really official. There’s no rule book, and no one standard to adhere to. They’re pretty much an unwritten set of expectations that editors have when they’re looking at a particular type of manuscript.
So, let’s fix that — by writing some of them down. For whatever age group you’re targeting, find the rules and follow them closely when drafting your first manuscript. (A note: As with all “unwritten rules”, these aren’t written in stone and can be a bit flexible from publisher to publisher. But our interpretation of the rules should work for most cases. Also, experienced, successful writers can and do sometimes get away with breaking these rules — but newer writers should stick closely to them.) (more…)
Just got this e-mail, so I’m passing it along:
“Rhyming Critters 2″ has ten membership slots, of which eight are currently filled.
Our members are generally consider themselves to be at the Intermediate level. All have been writing for a number of years in different formats (poetry, prose, plays, music) and for different audience age levels.
In the group, we write and critique exclusively in rhyme. That’s how we got started and we have retained that unique format. Members can ask for critiques of other work but any critiques of prose or regular poetry are done off-line. The time commitment to the group is usually around a couple hours per week at most.
For our critiques, we exchange rhymes via e-mail, usually about one or two rhymes monthly per person. Critiques are also provided to the author via e-mail. We have an open recruitment for our vacancies - I keep a waiting list of interested candidates who I contact as vacancies occur—we’ve been running one or two vacancies per year, usually resulting from pressing family priorities or the good fortune of extra work related to getting a book manuscript accepted for publication.
Interested? Contact the group’s moderator Bill Kirk at rnbkirk@aol.com
Things got crazy around the office today so I just couldn’t get around to creating today’s best Children’s 
Lit Blog Posts video. Free free to dock me today’s pay.
The videos will return Monday. In the meantime, why not peruse some of the awesome interviews that comprise day 4 of the Winter Blog Blast Tour:
http://www.chasingray.com/archives/2008/11/wbbt_day_4.html
Every writer gets rejection letters. How a writer reacts to those rejections is what usually tells the tale in the long run.
Writers that go on to build successful careers manage to find ways to actually benefit from rejections, becoming stronger and more persistant. Writers who spiral into depression and despair at the site of a “thanks, but no thanks” missive either learn to suck it up or soon find themselves pursuing another vocation.
This fine piece from the Guide to Literary Agents blog can help you discover the silver-lined, half-full glass of lemonade (made from the lemons life gave you) that is the rejection letter.
Some breaking news:
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell (Scholastic) has won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The award ceremony was held tonight in New York.
Congratulations, Judy — it’s a great accomplishment!
For full details, check out this piece at School Library Journal.
