Children’s Writing Web Journal

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We’re offering a great little ebook called Getting Started Writing Picture Books as a bonus for signing up for our free eZine, The Children’s Writing Update.

To claim your copy, just click here

We just stumbled across this:  Until midnight tonight, you can grap a free copy of Liquid Story Binder XE, a “uniquely designed word processor for professional and aspiring authors, poets, and novelists.”   It’s being given away at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

Enjoy!

One of the great things about being a writer is that you can do it pretty much anywhere. 

Charge up the laptop battery and you’re ready to go.  But to really go mobile, a “wi-fi” connection to the internet is the only way to travel.

These days, scores of coffee shops, bookstores and even fast food joints offer wi-fi service to their customers.  The tricky part?  Finding them.  I’ve looked at a bunch of directories, and I’ve found this one to be very comprehensive and reliable:

http://www.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm

And here’s one that shows locations on a map:

http://hotspotr.com/wifi

Happy wi-fying!

Sure, YouTube is filled with great stuff for kids to view.  It’s also packed with videos that, well, aren’t too great for them to view.  How to keep a young surfer on a safe path?  Try TotLOL, a monitored front-end to YouTube that offers only G-rated videos for the young ‘uns.  It’s free!

TotLOL (via Lifehacker and Learning My Way Through)

Whoa, this is cool. Jott.com is a free service that does lots of things, but the most immediately impressive is its voice to e-mail feature.

Here’s how it works:

1. Set up a Jott account by registering your e-mail and your phone number.
2. Program Jott’s toll-free number into your phone contacts.
3. Whenever you want, call the toll-free number and leave yourself a message.
4. The message is transcribed and e-mailed to you, along with a link to the actual audio.

The possibilities are numerous.

You’re in the library or the bookstore and you come across some titles you’ll want to study later. Jott yourself all the info and it will be waiting for you in your inbox.

You’re at a conference looking for subjects to interview for your blog when you meet a famous author. Call Jott and conduct the interview using the phone as a “microphone”. The entire interview will be transcribed and sent to you along with the audio.

Needless to say, there are hundreds more uses, and Jott has a lot more to offer, including the ability to send RSS feeds to your phone. A killer resource!

http://jott.com

Thinking Rock is a free software program based on the GTD (”Getting Things Done”) philosophy. According to Wikipedia, “GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks”.

Here’s the description of Thinking Rock from the software’s website:

Thinking Rock allows you to collect your thoughts and process them into actions, projects, information or future possibilities. Actions can be done by you, delegated to someone else or scheduled for a particular date. Projects can be organized with ordered actions and sub-projects. You can review all of your actions, projects and other information quickly and easily to see what you need to do or to choose what you want to do at a particular time.

Definitely worth a shot for writers looking to add more organization to their efforts. The software runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Download your copy at http://www.thinkingrock.com.au/index.php

A remarkable — and free — event is coming June 6 for those in the New York area.  The New York Institute for the Humanities is holding an all-day symposium called Post Bang: Comics Ten Minutes After the Big Bang to explore the growing cultural significance of comics.  The entire day looks great but the highlight for children’s lit fans will be the COMICS AND KID’S LIT panel, set to feature Lisa von Drasek (Bank Street College), Leonard Marcus (Minders of Make Believe), Francoise Mouly (The New Yorker), Mo Willems (Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!), and Sara Varon (Sweaterweather).

Check out all the details at

http://nyih.as.nyu.edu/object/nyih.postbangcomics.html

Our little company was born 18 years ago in a Jersey City apartment, and, against all odds, it’s paid our mortgage, put food in our dog’s dishes and baseball cards in our son’s pockets.  If we’ve learned anything about building a business during this time, it’s this:

I didn’t always buy into that notion.  When we first put our website up (way back in 1995) it seemed crazy to give away so much information and I had to be dragged along kicking and screaming.  But, wow, I’m sure glad I got on board.  Since that time, we’ve given away a lot of stuff, asking only goodwill in return.  I have no doubt it’s one of the big reasons CBI is where it is today.   If you’re struggling to make it as a writer, I urge you to consider a similar path.  Give of your talents, help others who need it and be a mentor — and the big wheel o’ karma will surely spin your way.

Right.  Time to get off the soapbox and give you what you came for — free stuff!  We’ve got all kinds of goodies scattered around the web site and they can be tough to find.  I bet, for example, you didn’t know that we have a free ebook called Robert Louis Stevenson on the Art of Writing. It’s really an outstanding read and it’s waiting for you, along with a bunch of other things that won’t cost you a dime.

Here’s where to go to browse and take:  http://write4kids.com/freestuff.html

Enjoy!