Go here:

http://snipurl.com/30b41

and take 20% off anything we sell!  CBI subscriptions, ebooks...whatever. 
The discount will factor in at the end of the shopping cart process. 

If you're new to the Update, you may not know that we publish a monthly subscription-only newsletter for aspiring and working children's book writers that's jam-packed with market leads, advice, inside info and much more. It's called Children's Book Insider, and we've been sharing it with subscribers across the globe since May, 1990!

Here's a look at what's in the current issue of Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers:

* Magazine Opportunities for Writers with a Niche
* Ninth Annual New Voices Award Announced
* Publisher Seeks Innovative Books for All Ages
* Current Needs from Highlights for Children
* Infuse Your Story with Pop Culture
* Techniques for Signaling the End of a Scene
* NEW ONGOING FEATURE - A Literary Agent Answers Your Toughest Questions
* Executive Editor Anne Hoppe Talks About Bowen Press
* Improve Your Writing By Eliminating the Passive Voice  ........................and lots more!

If you enjoy the information offered in this e-mail update, wait 'til you see what we've got in store for you each month in the pages of CBI! A one year subscription to CBI costs as little as $26.95 and includes a special bonus gift.

For more information and to order, go to http://write4kids.com/aboutcbi.html

>>> ITEM 7 - Featured Children's Lit Blog:  Nathan Bransford's Blog

In the past couple of years, there's been an explosion in wonderful blogs about children's books and the writing process.  Now, in each issue of the Update, we'll profile a unique and helpful blog.

This issue, we highlight the blog of Nathan Bransford, a literary agent from San Francisco.  I'm really impressed with Nathan's take on the publishing industry.  He's thoughtful, insightful and cuts right through the mist of the publishing process.  His take on current trends in the types of queries he's receiving, for example, should be required reading for all writers.  In fact, I'll just go ahead and require it!

Here's the main link to the blog:  http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/

Here's the link ot the article on queries:  http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2008/07/query-trends-im-seeing-triple.html

PS:  If you have or know of a blog that should be featured in the Update, drop Jon a line at jon@write4kids.com   Also, if you happen to come across a children's writing blog or site that doesn't list the Children's Writing Update, The Children's Writing Web Journal (http://write4kids.com/blog) or Write4Kids.com among its links or resources, why not send a friendly note telling them about us?  We'd really appreciate it!

 

 

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We've Got Solutions to Aid Your Resolutions!

• Need insider secrets and fresh markets for your manuscript? Check out Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers at http://write4kids.com/aboutchi.html

• Just getting started and need a friendly, step-by-step guide to becoming a children's author? Check out Career Starter, The Beginner's Guide to Writing for Children at http://write4kids.com/starter.html

• Want to have an incredible amount of "How To" wisdom right at your fingertips? The Children's Writer's Big Book of How To has the solution to more than 100 of the trickiest issues faced by children's authors. From coming up with great ideas right through signing the contract, this amazing volume is packed with insight. http://write4kids.com/bigbook.html

• Have you written a story but don't know what to do next? I've Written a Story, What Do I Do Now? tells you what you need to know about submitting your manuscript to publishers efficiently and professionally. http://write4kids.com/nowwhat.html

• Tired of getting rejection letters? Improving The Odds reveals the manuscript-revision secrets of top authors that help push them over the top. http://write4kids.com/odds.html

• Looking to self-publish a picture book? Could You, Should You Self-Publish a Children's Picture Book? is the perfect step-by-step guide for anyone who's considering the self-publishing route. Don't spend a dime of your precious funds before reading what Anne Emerick has to say! http://write4kids.com/could.html

• Need to know how to write a killer query or cover letter that gets noticed? Author to Editor collects actual letters used by top authors that resulted in publishing contracts. Full analysis and lots of easy-to-apply tips help make writing the perfect query or cover letter a breeze. http://write4kids.com/a2e.html

• Having trouble developing a plot? Crafting strong characters? Coming up with good story ideas? Our In-Depth Workshop Series goes in-depth to make you a stronger and more confident writer. http://write4kids.com/indepth.html

• Care to hear -- first-hand -- the best advice superstar authors have to give for aspiring children's writers? In Their Own Words offers exclusive insight from Lois Lowry, Judy Blume, R.L. Stine, Chris Crutcher and many, many more. This is pure gold and available nowhere else. http://write4kids.com/itow.html

And there's more. For a full listing, just go to http://write4kids.com/collect.html

 

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The Children's Writers Big Book of "How To"

The Children's Writer's Big Book of "How To" has the solution to more than 100 of the trickiest issues faced by children's authors. From coming up with great ideas right through signing the contract, this amazing volume is packed with insight. Visit http://write4kids.com/bigbook.html to view then entire table of contents!

 

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>> ITEM 9 - Feature Article: Keeping the Rough Edges  By Laura Backes, Publisher of  Children's Book Insider

There's a funky little restaurant in town with an outdoor patio and back yard where my family likes to go for lunch. The owners live next door and have built a tree house in the yard for kids to play in while their parents eat in peace. The first time my son climbed up the ladder I went along to make sure it was safe, but also because I wanted an excuse to be up in the tree house myself. As Matthew poked his head through the trapdoor in the tree house's floor, he exclaimed, "This is the best tree house ever!" I had to agree. 

The entire structure had been pieced together from recycled lumber, much of which still bore the paint, logos or posters of the original walls from whence it came. The generous platform was ringed by a sturdy fence that included branches of the tree itself, random two-by-fours, wooden signs and even a pair of moose antlers. The "house" was more of a lean-to, tall enough for kids (but not adults) to stand up inside, with a screened door and two screened windows positioned so occupants could easily spy on the diners below or out over the adjacent parking lot. A green padded bench that looked like it had once belonged in a diner adequately furnished the space. Underneath the tree house hung a rope swing, from which kids could fling themselves into a thick layer of hay on the grass. Huckleberry Finn himself couldn't have built it any better. 

As I reluctantly descended from the tree house, leaving Matthew and his friends to play, I thought about how much better this house was than the prefab, plastic log cabins available at toy stores, or the opulent playhouses that appear in pricey neighborhoods, complete with dormer windows, real shutters and working cell phones. This house could be anything--a castle, a pirate ship, a space station. Hidden in the leaves, it was different enough from real, grown-up houses to be special, and its uses were limited only by the occupants' imaginations. 

It occurred to me that as adult writers of children's books, it's often tempting to for us to "clean up" childhood for our readers. We want to give kids--especially in the picture book crowd--a more perfect image of what life is like. We think they'll be comforted with warm, sweet stories of happy friendships, sunny days and joyful families. And many young children do get pleasure from these kinds of stories. But kids of all ages are also intrigued, and challenged, by the more unpolished side of life. They like the rough edges, the unpainted surfaces, the open-endedness of a tree house that doesn't look like anything in particular. They want to develop their own ideas as to what childhood's all about, even if it means getting a few splinters in their fingers or hay in their hair. 

If writers create characters who are too perfect, or plots that can only lead to one impossibly happy ending, they run the risk of shutting their readers out of the story. If readers think their lives should emulate some ideal, fictional standard, they can't possibly project themselves into a book. But more importantly, "perfect" offers only one answer, one interpretation. Instead of asking the reader to think, stories that reflect idealized situations tell the reader what life is supposed to be like (at least according to the author). The reader never gets a chance to find out on his own. 

Maurice Sendak understood this when he wrote the classic picture book Where the Wild Things Are. E.B. White grasped the sometimes messy, traumatic nature of true friendship for middle grade readers in Charlotte's Web, as did Katherine Paterson in her novel Bridge to Terebithia. From The Cat in the Hat to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the best literature for kids allows characters to get a little messy, take some risks, and gives the reader enough information to step into the story without so many directions from the author that the reader can't turn the story into his own. 

Good fiction, like a good tree house, provides kids with a place to dream, some friends to dream with, and room to go in any direction they choose. A trapdoor to shut out the grown-ups doesn't hurt either.