Children’s Writing Web Journal

Welcome! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. We'll be updating the blog on a daily basis, with plenty of exclusive tips, articles and goodies for aspiring children's book writers. So why not subscribe now and have easy access any time you'd like!

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

This is cool — now you can leave your comment to any blog post as a video!  Check out the comments section for my video comment, and then leave one of your own.

When I lived in New York, I always loved going to the Public Library.  The big one, with  the lions out front.

Often, I had nothing I particularly needed to research — I just liked spending some time in a space so historic, hushed and grand.  So I caught a thrill when I came across these spectacular photos of the world’s great libraries.  They’re from the book Libraries by photographer Candida Höfer and they represent a time when libraries weren’t just functional boxes, but where works of art in themselves.

Feast your eyes, book lovers.

Photos of the World’s Greatest Libraries

OK, I’ve finally bought into this whole Twitter thing and, I admit, it’s pretty cool. Come join me — I’ll post occasional links, news tidbits and thoughts about children’s writing. I’m not the obsessive sort, so it will be just a few each day.

My Twitter URL: http://twitter.com/jonbard

I’ll be tweeting you!

Back again with more terrific blog postings for you. There are clickable links to each of today’s featured posts below the video.

The Way We Were?

How to Break Through Mental Barriers

Five Favorite Fictional Rooms From Children’s Literature

The children’s literature blog world (or Kidlitosphere, as it’s come to be known) is filled with smart, clever and insightful folks.  So many, in fact, that it can be a bit overwhelming to keep up with all the genius being tossed around out there.  So, we’re doing our part, by highlighting the absolute best postings from the Kidlitosphere in this daily video series.

Have a look…and then pay the featured blogs a visit.  And tell ‘em Jon sent you!

Today’s posts:

Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Brian Lies

My Epitaph: Suh-weet TY Note

“LinkIn” To Opportunity!

Comment Challenge: Questions & Answers

Here’s a nice list of 100 useful search engines to help you find just about anything:

http://www.unixl.com/blog/2008/100-fun-useful-search-engines-for-writers/

One of my great realizations from last weekend’s Kidlitosphere 2008 conference was that the future belongs to those who band together.  There’s simply too much clutter and background noise for individual authors to make a big splash on their own.  We need to collaborate.

Enter the group blog.

Writers, illustrators, agents, booksellers, librarians, readers — anyone with an interest in children’s literature — are working together to present multi-author blogs that are gathering plenty of attention.  These blogs work because they multiply the promotional power of having multiple authors, reduce the workload for each author and do better at attracting readers who are seeking a “big picture” approach about a particular topic.

You can group together with other bloggers to develop a group blog based around genre of books you write, where you live, where you went to school, common subject matter - or just about anything else.

Here are a few of the top group blogs in kidslit to get your creative juices flowing:

The Longstockings

Readergirlz

Class of 2k8

Disco Mermaids

Edge of the Forest

Guys LitWire

PS:  Wanna collaborate on a group blog?  We’re all ears.  Drop us an e-mail at mail@write4kids.com

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)

Writing contests are great ways to gain some recognition and find out exactly how you stack up against other writers. There are many, many contests these days, ranging from big national events to tiny niche competitions.

Want to find out if there’s a contest you’re perfectly suited to win? Try these hand-picked links….

www.writers.net/resources/resources_awards.php

www.writers-editors.com/Writers/Contests/contests.htm

Good luck!