From the very beginning, from the birth of our nation, men and women have gone forth to serve our country. They go, they sacrifice...and some never return.
Today we remember them.
Today we thank them.
And today we pray, for those who continue to serve in the most dangerous of places, a safe journey home.
Stirring Words for Memorial Day
from the “Great Quotes” files of Barbara Jean Hicks
128 years ago, on May 30, 1884, the great American statesman, orator and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. delivered an address that included an explanation as to why we celebrate Memorial Day. His words go to the heart of battles of every kind—including those required to live and write with honesty and courage.
In Holmes’s words:
“To the indifferent inquirer who asks why Memorial Day is still kept up we may answer:
“It celebrates and solemnly reaffirms from year to year a national act of enthusiasm and faith.
“It embodies in the most impressive form our belief that to act with enthusiasm and faith is the condition of acting greatly.
“To fight out a war, you must believe something and want something with all your might. So must you do to carry anything else to an end worth reaching.
“More than that, you must be willing to commit yourself to a course, perhaps a long and hard one, without being able to foresee exactly where you will come out.
“All that is required of you is that you should go somewhither as hard as ever you can. The rest belongs to fate. One may fall--at the beginning of the charge or at the top of the earthworks; but in no other way can one reach the rewards of victory.”
The Hanging Off Jefferson's Nose
Super Blog Tour Master List
Welcome to the one-stop list for all the blogs hosting this incredible BOOK BLOG TOUR, including interviews with Tina Nichols Coury, her editor, agent and illustrator, plus amazing raffle prizes for commenters!
All comment raffles will be open until 10:00 pm (PST) on Tuesday May 15th. Only one comment per Blog Tour stop. The winners will be listed here and the on the hosting blog on Wednesday, May 16th.
_____________________________________________________________
Blog Tour schedule:
___________________________________
Monday May 7th - Hanging Off Jefferson's Nose Book Trailer Debut at Darcy Pattison's site http://www.darcypattison.com/authors/hanging-off-jeffersons-nose/
Today's comment raffle prize: One free book trailer from Tina's Trailers. WINNER - MARTHA BENNETT STILES
________ ______________________________________________
Tuesday May 8th - Interview with Tina Nichols Coury at Barbara Bietz's blog, Jewish Books for Children with Author Barbara Bietz
barbarabbookblog.blogspot.com
Today's comment raffle prize: A Kindle. WINNER - GAIL GAUTHIER
_______________________________________________________
Wednesday May 9th -Interview with Tina's agent Mark McVeigh at Greg Pincus's blog, gottabook.blogspot.com
Today's comment raffle prize: a 15 minute phone critique on 10 pages of a manuscript with Mark McVeigh. WINNER CSTWMAXE (NO EMAIL? CONTACT ME.)
______________________________________________________
Thursday May 10th - Interview with Illustrator Sally Wern Comport at Elizabeth Dulemba's Blog, dulemba.blogspot.com
Today's comment raffle prize: a Nook and a piece of original art from Hanging Off Jefferson's Nose.WINNER - MAGGIE SWANSON
_______________________________________________________
Friday May 11th - Joint interview with Dutton Editor Steve Meltzer and Tina at Cynsations, Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog, cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com
Today's comment raffle prize: Five first-page critiques by Steve Meltzer. WINNERS: SUSAN BERK KOCH, KELLY ANDREWS, JOANNE COOKE, ROSIE POVA, CATHY MEALEY.
________________________________________________________
Hooray for Highlights!
Did you love Highlights Magazine as a kid as much as I did? Yesterday I received my regularly scheduled email newsletter from Kent Brown at the Highlights Foundation and was thrilled to find my name in it! The focus of this month's edition was "We believe in picture books." I'm so glad someone still does--enough that they've asked me to lead a workshop in September called "Writing for Little Eyes and Little Ears: Read-Alouds for Early Learners."
I love picture books because they are the perfect synthesis of sound, sight and sense (or in some cases, nonsense!). I especially love the "sound" part.
Continue reading "Writing for Little Eyes and Little Ears - A Barbara Jean Hicks Workshop" »
I am happy to be part of the Blog Tour for Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat. I have never interviewed a cat before, but Susanna gave me unlimited access to her inspiration, Chloe.
Here is my interview with Chloe Reich-Golio, as told to Susanna Reich.
(Tomorrow's blog tour stop is at The Fourth Musketeer http://fourthmusketeer.blogspot.com/ - interview with Susanna)
How long have you been helping Susanna write her books?
I'd rather not reveal my age. However, I have been watching Susanna type since I was a kitten. I do occasionally walk across the keyboard and step on a key here and there. My contributions are always the best part of her books.
Continue reading "Minette's Feast: - Blog Tour - Susanna Reich" »
I am loving this published author thing. Dutton/Dial has had my book for seven years and now I get to enjoy the release. Here's a brief quote from the Booklist review from Daniel Krauss...okay, I am squealing!
"...the step-by-step (it was a long process) descriptions of planning and dynamiting are fascinating, and Comport’s realistic illustrations of the various bridges and slings built all along the famous sculptures are eye-opening and reveal the project’s dizzying scope. Perfect for history units, this is a great piece of work about a great piece of work."
A Nugget from Laura McGee Kvasnosky
from the collected notes of Barbara Jean Hicks
It was a pleasure hearing one of my favorite early reader authors, Laura McGee Kvasnosky, speak at the annual children’s literature conference at Western Washington University in early 2012. Laura writes the delightful Zelda and Ivy stories, a gentle chapter book series about two fox sisters who find adventure in the everyday. It turns out Laura draws (literally!) from her own childhood for these adventures, and she led us in a really great exercise to help us access memories from our childhood lives to inspire and inform our writing.
A Nugget from Gary D. Schmidt
from the collected notes of Barbara Jean Hicks
I’ve rarely heard a writer speak with such heart and deep-down truth as Gary D. Schmidt (http://www.hmhbooks.com/schmidt/) did at the annual children’s literature conference at Western Washington University in early 2012. Gary is the author of two Newberry Honor middle grade novels, The Wednesday Wars and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, as well as several other middle grade books. His thoughtful commentary left a deep impression.
This post has been reprinted again and again but it has dynamite information by Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
1) Buy your domain name as soon as you have a title for your book. You can get domain names for as little as $8.95. Tip: When buying a domain always try to get a .com and stay away from hyphens, i.e. penny-sansevieri.com - surfers rarely remember to insert hyphens.
2) Head on over to Blogger.com or Wordpress.com and start your very own blog (you can add it to your Web site later).
3) Set up an event at your neighborhood bookstore. Do an event and not a signing, book signings are boring!
What Publishers Want in a Children’s Book:
An Editorial Perspective, Part 2
from the collected notes of children's author
Barbara Jean Hicks
As children’s writers, our stories need to appeal to several audiences. We’ve already looked at the needs of the Child Audience. Last week and this week we’re looking at the needs of the Publisher Audience.
A manuscript that appeals to children’s book editors tells a compelling story, has a distinct vision, has emotional impact and uses language effectively.
Consider the following questions that address the final four characteristics publishers are dying to see in a manuscript. How does your work in progress meet these needs? The quotes come directly from ediotrs at a variety of houses. Again, a reminder: the answers to these questions make an excellent basis for a query letter!
Continue reading "What Publishers Want in a Children's Book - Part Two - Barbara Jean Hicks" »
What Publishers Want in a Children’s Book:
An Editorial Perspective, Part 1
from the collected notes of children's author
Barbara Jean Hicks
As children’s writers, our stories need to appeal to several audiences. The last two Fridays we looked at the needs of the Child Audience. This week and next we’ll look at the needs of the Publisher Audience.
Over the years I’ve been writing for children, I’ve heard many editors speak about what publishing houses are looking for in a children’s book. The bottom line, of course, is that houses want books that will make them money! What kind of book does that? After analyzing the comments from a slew of editors from seven major houses, I’ve come up with eight characteristics editors are looking for to take a book to market. Following are the first four; check in again next Friday for the final four.
Continue reading "What Publishers Want in a Children's Book - Part One - Barbara Jean Hicks" »
What Buyers Want in a Children’s Book:
The Parent/Librarian/Teacher Perspective
from the collected notes of children's author
Barbara Jean Hicks
As children’s writers, our stories need to appeal to several audiences. We’ve looked at the needs of the Child Audience and the Publisher Audience over the last four weeks. Today we look at the needs of the parents and librarians who purchase our books. Thanks to the staff at The Secret Garden Children’s Bookstore in Ballard (Seattle), Washington; Amy Walter, Selection Librarian, Children's and YA Materials, Seattle Public Library; and Kevin Wood, ELL Teacher, Seattle Public Schools, for their input.
Continue reading "What Parents and Educators want in a Book - Barbara Jean Hicks" »
Every time I go to a family gathering, the first question I hear when I come in is, "Did you bring us a new Bart King book?" It has become a sort of family parlor game to read out loud from Bart's books.
Bart King can write a funny book about almost anything. When his publishing house sent me his new book, Cute: A Guide to All Things Adorable, I wondered how he could make such a girly thing funny. He didn't disappoint. My family thought it was a scream, the boys and girls alike. From puppies to babies, Bart King found the humor in it all. The back cover copy asks: Is being cute a super-power? Why are bullfrogs cute? Is pink actually a boy's color? Where is the world capital of cuteness? What animals are in the Cuteness Hall of Fame? Buy the book and find out!
What Kids Want in a Book:
A Psychological Perspective, Part 2
from the teaching files of children's author
Barbara Jean Hicks
In preparation for a workshop I once offered at a writer’s conference, I interviewed a private practice child psychologist who uses bibliotherapy in her practice. Here’s her take on what characteristics a book must have to appeal to kids on a deep psychological level and draw them to a story over and over again. Notice the similarities to Bruno Bettelheim’s list of essential qualities a story must have in order to both hold a child’s attention and enrich her life. (Check out last Friday’s post if you missed it.)
Continue reading "What Kids Want in a Book - part 2 - Barbara Jean Hicks" »
What Kids Want in a Book:
A Psychological Perspective, Part 1
from the teaching files of children's author
Barbara Jean Hicks
As children’s writers, our stories need to appeal to several audiences: children, first and foremost; publishers, who can get our stories to market and hope to make a profit by doing so; and parents and librarians, who have purchasing power and can get our stories into the hands of readers. Let’s start today with the Child Audience, which seems to me the most important!
I’ve always been intrigued with the work of Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990), and started with him in my search to understand what it is, from a psychological perspective, that kids want from a book.
Continue reading "What Kids Want in a Book - part one - Barbara Jean Hicks" »
from the collected notes of Barbara Jean Hicks
To agent or not to agent? Sometimes it feels like harder work finding an agent than finding a publisher, so my temptation has been to submit without an agent. In the current market, however, with fewer and fewer publishers accepting submissions over the transom, an agent seems more and more necessary to publishing success.
When I first heard agent Marcia Wernick speak at an SCBWI conference in Seattle in 2004, she was associated with the Sheldon Fogelman Agency in New York City. In January 2011, she founded the Wernick and Pratt Agency with long-time colleague Linda Pratt.
Continue reading "Panning for Gold with Barbara Jean Hicks – Agent Marcia Wernick" »
Jo S. Kittinger is an amazing author an exceptional RA and cheerleader for the SCBWI. I saw her in New York this year for the SCBWI Winter Conference. Her new picture book, The House On Dirty Third Street, has just been released, so I asked Jo to give us a Writing Tip of the Day. Here's what she had to say:
Look for the heart of your story. Readers want to connect with emotion. They want to feel something when they read your book. I seldom remember characters' names or plot details, even in books I've loved. But I always remember the way a good book made me feel.
Continue reading "Jo S. Kittinger - Writing Tip of the Day" »
from the collected notes of Barbara Jean Hicks
Here are a few more nuggets from “Marketing for Authors,” a roundtable moderated by Kelly Milner Halls and Esther Hershenhorn at my first ever SCBWI Summer Conference…
From Kelly: Contact your local newspaper’s “Features” editor and help him fill a gap by writing an article about your book.
From Esther: Use an e-mail footer under your signature that lists all your books and all the things you do.
From Michelle Parker-Rock: Offer to write a short, simple column for an SCBWI region’s website and/or newsletter. Give yourself a nice, meaty byline and “About the Author” profile.
Continue reading "Marketing Nuggets part 2 - Barbara Jean Hicks" »
Today I am hosting Interview Wednesday for the Kidlitosphere. Kidlit bloggers will be leaving comments relating to kidlit interviews, with links to their own blog posts. Check back and see where it takes you! Scroll down to see my interview with Larry Dane Brimmer.
The author of more than 150 books, Larry Dane Brimmer is a legend in our business. I was delighted to find his new work, Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor, in my mailbox from his publishers to review. I thought I had heard all the stories about the Civil Rights movement, but I had never heard this one, and Larry tells it masterfully. It is a gorgeously designed book that complements a powerful, can't-put-it-down true story. I asked Larry to answer a few questions about the experience of writing this story.
Black & White is the true story of two men on different sides of the segregation issue during the Civil Rights movement. What inspired you to write it?
The simple answer is that the Civil Rights era fascinates me. I was a kid at the time and only vaguely recall news reports of the racial violence and tension in the South. I was busy being a kid. Researching Black & White was a way for me to inform myself about events that had sailed right by me in my youth. More specifically, Black & White grew out of a previous book I did for Calkins Creek, Birmingham Sunday.
from the collected notes of Barbara Jean Hicks
This week I dug back into notes from my very first SCBWI LA Summer Conference—in 2004! The nuggets I found at a roundtable called “Marketing for Authors,” moderated by Kelly Milner Halls and Esther Hershenhorn, are as relevant today as they were then. The moderators each brought a few good ideas to the table to get the ball rolling, and then the community of writers in attendance shared ideas of their own—too many to post all at once, but here are a few to begin, starting with Kelly and Esther. I’ll share more next week.
From Kelly: Give, give, give! Give workshops and encouragement whenever the opportunity presents itself.
From Esther: Write that bio—and make sure it puts your best foot forward—even before you need it. Your bio introduces you to the world.
Continue reading "Marketing Nuggets part 1- Barbara Jean Hicks" »
Today I am hosting Interview Wednesday for Kidlitosphere. Kidlit bloggers will be leaving comments relating to kidlit interviews, with links to their own blog posts. Check back and see where it takes you! Scroll down to see my Writing Tip of the Day with Hillary Homzie.
Over at My Time In Juvie an interview with Tamara Pierce. We recently had the privilege of interviewing Tamora Pierce and thought it might be appropriate for the event. The link is http://www.ourtimeinjuvie.com/author-spotlight/author-spotlight-interview-with-tamora-pierce
from the collected notes of Barbara Jean Hicks
On Balance in the Writer’s Life
Author Caroline Hatton posted a great comment on the SCBWI listserve for the California Central Coast chapter last month that I think deserves wider circulation. It’s about balancing a professional non-writing life and a professional writing life, and was written in response to another writer’s concern that a new employer might discover her online writing presence and worry that she was not fully committed to her “day job.” I particularly like the third point Caroline makes; it made me stop to think about my own reasons both for writing and for teaching. What is the common thread that underlies the work I choose to do?
Caroline's post:
I have three suggestions:
1. Be proud of everything you do because it will move others to respect you for it and to respect everything you do.
Continue reading "A Nugget from Caroline Hatton - Barbara Jean Hicks" »
Today I am hosting Interview Wednesday for Kidlitosphere. Kidlit bloggers will be leaving comments relating to kidlit interviews, with links to their own blog posts. Check back and see where it takes you!
This is a wonderful day. When there is so much grief in the world it is important to have a day to remember loved ones. To my husband, kids, mom, friends, family, editor Steve and agent Mark...Happy Valentine's Day.
A POEM FOR VALENTINE’S DAY
In honor of Valentine’s Day next week, here’s my favorite love poem ever. It’s a character sketch, beautifully rendered in twenty-four short lines, leaving such clear impressions both of the loved one and the lover/narrator that we feel as if we know them intimately by the end of the poem.
I think Nims’ skill at using the particular to make an observation about the human condition—in this case, about the nature of love—is something every writer can learn from and apply to his or her own writing. And oh, the images and language of his particulars! Great stuff.
LOVE POEM
My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases,
At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring,
Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen,
And have no cunning with any soft thing
Continue reading "A Poem for Valentine's Day - Barbara Jean Hicks" »
Today I am hosting Interview Wednesday for Kidlitosphere. Kidlit bloggers will be leaving comments relating to kidlit interviews, with links to their own blog posts. Check back and see where it takes you!
A new guest TeachingAuthor interview posted on our blog today with a book give away! http://www.teachingauthors.com/2012/02/celebrating-childrens.html
from the files of Barbara Jean Hicks www.barbarajeanhicks.com
As promised last week, here are the short version instructions for converting your out-of-print novel to e-book format for the Kindle and Nook. Also, just in time for Valentine's Day, I've provided a link to my second e-book, a Valentine's romance called Cupid's Chase, for an example of marketing copy and keyword suggestions.
Because Amazon and Barnes and Noble provide free e-reader apps for the iPad, iPhone and Android powered devices, these instructions can be used to make your out-of-print novel available as an e-book on pretty much any electronic reading device, including PC’s and Macs. I’ve published two of my out of print novellas as e-books using these instructions. I recognize this was a year ago, however; if anyone has updated instructions, please comment below!
Continue reading "Reviving Your Out-of-Print Novel as an E-book part 2 - Barbara Jean Hicks" »
Today I am hosting Interview Wednesday for Kidlitosphere. Kidlit bloggers will be leaving comments relating to kidlit interviews, with links to their own blog posts. Check back and see where it takes you!
Scroll down for my interview with author June Sobel.
Maeve Tynan an interviewed Children's Illustrator AnnMarie McCarthy for Interview Wednesday http://yellowbrickreads.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-with-illustrator-annmarie.html.
June Sobel, author of B is for Bulldozers, Shiver Me Letters and Good Night Train has been a member of my writer's group for years. She is kind, funny and incredibly talented. I asked my buddy June to give us a Writing Tip of the Day.
GETTING UNSTUCK
MAKE IT WORK! The admonition of Project Runway’s Tim Gunn resonates anytime my work in progress has hit an insurmountable wall, a hopeless dead end that sends me in search of chocolate and cake batter.
from the files of Barbara Jean Hicks
In early December 2010, I started thinking about what I wanted to give as a Christmas gift to my friends and fans.
Before I started writing children’s books, I wrote romance novels and novellas. (I know, what a switch!) The rights to one of those novellas, a Christmas romance called "Tea for Two," had reverted to me. What if I could figure out how to format it as an e-book and offer it for free to anyone who wanted to download it to their computer or reading device?
I’m always up for the challenge of learning something new, so the idea was just my cup of tea--so to speak.
Continue reading "Reviving Your Out-of-Print Novel as an E-book part 1-Barbara Jean Hicks" »
Recent Comments