Augusta Scattergood has a new book coming out in January. The Way to Stay in Destiny is a must read. I could go on and on about the book, but then I'd have to issue a spoiler alert. So, my review has been shortened to just the facts. 

The Way to Stay in Destiny weaves a Southern-charm spell on readers, casting them straight into small town Florida circa 1974. Young readers will enjoy the story, part mystery and all adventure with funny, poignant, and hopeful moments. Readers will step inside and feel the summer heat, tap their toes to the music and smell peach cobbler baking. And most of all, they will cheer for Theo.  

Check out the book trailer on You Tube:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjSns48zxkw 

                                    What a wonderful Christmas Party

                               Sandra Markle hosted for the Skywriters.                                                       

                She is not only an award-winning children's author, 

                                    but a hostess extraordinaire.

                                                                                    

.

                                                                                             

                             

                              HELLO, I'M JOHNNY CASH

                             By G. Neri

                                    illustrated by A. G. Ford

                                published by Candlewick Press. 

This beautifully illustrated picture book is a Junior Library Guild Selection. The gorgeous cover is even more eye-catching in person. But it looks pretty good under my tree and it's a great read. This isn't simply the story of Johnny Cash as a singing star. G. Neri uses his evocative writing skills to pull readers into Cash's story. The book begins with the hard-luck life of Cash growing up during the depression and follows the guitar-slinging, truth-telling singer/song-writer through his years dominating country music and crossing musical genres.

This picture book is Neri's nod to the Man in Black who like many Americans have struggled through tragedy and tough times while holding fast to their dreams.  Neri stays true to his own emotive and powerful style. Doing so he's created a soul-soothing and impressive book kids will love and  Johnny Cash himself would be proud to read. 

                                                                              anikaandaj@deviantart.com

Lighting the Way for Writers

                                             Lighting the Way for Writers 

                                       


I've always thought of myself as lucky. Okay, not Florida Lotto lucky. But tickets to Bruce Springsteen or Hollywood Studios lucky. Last year at a Tampa Bay Area writing workshop taught by author Joyce Sweeney, I won something equal to a writing lotto. My name was drawn to participate in Sweeney's online Advanced Fiction course. Lucky me!

The course started October 6th and it's amazing. I understand structure now in a way I never have before. What's more important than that?  Tips on writing and in-depth information n characters, scenes, and plot are part of the course too. And, it's only week five of a ten-week course. 

Whether you're a new writer and take Sweeney's Fiction Writing Essentials, her Picture Book Writing Essentials or are interested in the Advanced Fiction course, you won't be disappointed.

FYI - This is the first online course I've ever taken, so I was nervous. But the format's easy. Plus, I get to watch and listen to Sweeney present on video and then play it again to take notes.

I don't know when another class begins, but she has a Webinar on the Plot Clock,  7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 12th. The plot clock is a tool useful to both beginners and advanced writers. The Webinar's cost also fits writers' budgets at $19.

If you're serious about writing, check out Sweeney's site

www.sweeneywritingcoach.com

               How many story ideas can you imagine from this photo?

                                           Write a scene. 

                    Try to capture the feel in the photo. Show it with words.

                                          It's good practice!
                
                             And, you never know, you may come up with a

                                     story that even surprises 

                                              you.   

Take in this rock-solid affirmation for writers.

All writers need to hope,

                     to believe

                                and to write!

This cannot be a coincidence. Can’t be. 

I’m at Highlights wonderful  Unworkshop. It's a retreat at a place I'd longed to go for almost 20 years. It’s been a busy day and it's time to sleep, but there’s a book shelf filled with children’s literature and more. I have to peek.

I peruse the titles. BUD NOT BUDDY by Christopher Paul Curtis.  Love that book and have it at home. Joke Books, and lots of Highlights magazines which I read last night. 

One book catches my attention, KINGBIRD HIGHWAY: The Story of a Natural Obsession that Got a Little Out of Hand by Kenn Kaufman.

I don’t know that author. But it looks intriguing and there’s a bird on the cover. I've loved birds since I was a little kid.  Plus, it’s dedicated to the memory of  a person named Theodore.

I’m Theodora.

Okay, so I look up this author. He’s famous in the birding and the book world. Real famous! I should have known him. I also discover  the Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman website and  blog.   http://birdingwithkennandkim.blogspot.com/

Perusing their site, there's an Ibis photo, a bird  I’m struggling to write a  PB about.  And I find one of a woodpecker I saw just the other day in New Jersey. I'd never seen one like it before.

Poke me with a fork; I’m done.  

 I’m  taking the book – no, not stealing it– to read in my bed tucked inside a cozy  writer’s cabin in the Pennsylvania woods far from the August heat of my native Florida. 

But when I return home, I’ll buy this book that spoke volumes to me, not just about birding, but about  living and especially writing. 

I've never experienced writer's block, only foggy days where words won't pop through the brain mist.  Quotes from The Writers Digest List of 72- of-the-best-quotes-about-writing offer comfort. On those days words like these below are:            

                                                                                   "Food for Thought"

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” —Ernest Hemingway

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” —Virginia Woolf

“Making people believe the unbelievable is no trick; it’s work. … Belief and reader absorption come in the details: An overturned tricycle in the gutter of an abandoned neighborhood can stand for everything.”—Stephen King, WD (this quote is from an interview with King in the May/June 2009 issue)

 For more quotes check out:   http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/72-of-the-best-quotes-about-writing

Prescription from Pediatricians: Read to your baby q.d.  

We writers know reading is, well, as they say, fundamental. But now the American Academy of Pediatrics is supporting what many mothers have been doing for years. Decades? Probably centuries.   The AAP is backing the practice of reading to infants.

The new policy recommends pediatricians and policy makers promote reading to babies. Why didn't we think of that? Oh yeah, we did. 

But I'm happy, this policy is making the news. Seriously, pediatricians have been working on making this a policy  for years. Now it's official. Kudos to the medical community!
                                Check out the Publishers Weekly article for more details:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/63008-american-academy-of-pediatrics-backs-reading-aloud-from-infancy.html

                                        Keep reading to those little ones until they start reading to you!

Driving to Orlando from St. Pete on I-4 can be a dreaded journey, but not on Saturday, June 7th, 2014. I was off to the  SCBWI  Florida Mid-Year Workshops with two other Skyway Writer Critique Group members, Susan and Melissa. We met at Wire Grass in Wesley Chapel at 6:15 a.m. arriving with coffee cups safely in hand and climbed into Susan's car. She was the brave soul to carry us onward to a day of workshops and critiques.

If you're able to go next year, it's always around the first week in June, check it out. We had agents, editors, and well-known authors of YA, MG, PB, fiction and nonfiction.. Steve Mooser, the Co-founder/president of SCBWI  taught the Self-Publishing track with author Jaimie Engle.

Another  Skyway Writer Critique Group member,  Sandy Markle, author of 200-plus NF books, taught as a part of the Common Core Track. She presented along with author Melissa Stewart and HarperCollins Editor, Tamar Mays.

I learned quite a bit about PBs from a dream team in action.  Marcia Wernick was the reason I chose to attend PB over YA or MG and then I learned she only takes PB authors who also write novels. Luckily, I do!  She and agent Alexandra Penfold, another amazing agent and author, along with prolific Leslie Helakoski ( author/illustrator) and the wonderful Frank Remkiewicz ( author/illustrator) taught the PB track. They did not disappoint!

Rob Sanders, author of COWBOY CHRISTMAS talked about how amazing author Deborah Wiles was teaching the MG track along with Candlewick Assistant Editor, Carter Hasegawa.

And I heard all sorts of praise during the day for Marjetta Geerling (author) who taught the YA track along with the Delacorte Press Executive Editor, Wendy Loggia.

I'm sure I would have loved any one of the tracks. This trek to Orlando was a breeze talking with Susan and Melissa about writing. Seeing writers friends whom I hadn't seen in a while, like Fred Koehler, author of HOW TO CHEER UP DAD, and Shannon Hitchcock THE BALLAD OF JESSIE PEARL and one of my favorite people, author and teacher, Joyce Sweeney.

Getting to the workshop was a breeze. Deciding which track to attend -- when you write more than one genre-- now that was a challenge.

I wanted to salute all those who serve and have served our country on this Memorial Day. Remembering the people in my family who fought wars and the women I lovingly call my nurses, the Nurses of Post 122!


1st Lieutenant Jane "Betty" (McGough) Rosenberger, ANC coming home from her service in Japan at the end of World War II.

1st Lieutenant Anastasia M."Nancy" Hartley, AAFNC leaving the nurses' quarters on Orly Field, Paris, France, on VE-Day. She would eventually become the "First Director of Nurses" of the ( then) St. Petersburg Jr. College's two-year registered nurse program in St. Petersburg, Florida.

 1st Lieutenant Louise Coleman, ANC, who served in many places including a hospital at Camp Rupert, a  prisoner-of-war camp for Italian and German POWs during World War II.

 Joan (Tyrrell) Arcand, Lieutenant Nurse Corps, USNR  who served in the Korean War and spent the Christmas of 1953 caring for wounded at the Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan.

 Captain Rosemary Cianciosi, USAF, cared for wounded on a flight from Subic Bay, Luzon, Philippines during the Vietnam War.

 Lieutenant Mary Eileen (Newbeck) Christian , ANC,  with her graduating class from Flight School. The first group of nurses to be formally trained at Bowman Field, Louiseville, Kentucky. 1943

2nd  Lieutenant Antoinette "Toni" (Macedonio) Amato, ANC caring for a wounded soldier as part of the 147th General Hospital in Hawaii during World War II. 

1st Lieutenant Hazel (Stickney)  Murphy, ANC. She spent four years overseas with the 105th Hospital serving in New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea ( in this photo) and on the Island of Biak in the Dutch East Indies.  

You can find their stories and other nurses' stories of service in: 

Answering the Call: Nurses of Post 122  

      http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0035836049/Answering-The-Call-Nurses-of-Post-122.aspx

Fred Koehler, -- author and illustrator of HOW TO CHEER UP Dad, published by Penguin, USA --  meeting one of his younger fans at the Author/Illustrator Event on April 5th, 2014.

Fred signing his new book at the all-day Author Illustrator Event that began with kids ages 6 to 99 attending Fred's workshop entitled, How to Make a Picture Book. The event took place at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida. 

PolkMuseumofArt.org.

Fred posing with me after the throngs of fans had their books signed.

Fred and Rob Sanders, author of COWBOY CHRISTMAS, posing for a photo op.

Fred and his proud Mom!

I'm blessed and I'm lucky to be surrounded by super-talented women in Skyway Writers, my critique group. 

One of those awesome writers is Sandra Markle.

While I might not have up-to-the-moment details on her accolades, she's recently made quite a hit with readers of her book,  What If You Had Animal Teeth!?  And now, her fans are loving, What If You Had Animal Hair!?

Cute titles. Funny books. And she knows how to write humor. But those books are educational too.  Sandra Markle is much more than just a redhead with a wonderful sense of humor, who used to be a science teacher. She 's a plethora of information on science and nature. Add to that her passion for writing and educating children and you have a powerhouse of an author.

We call her the "Queen of Non-fiction." She writes fiction too, but with more than 200 non-fiction books published and numerous awards, you can see why that title fits.

Sandra Markle won the 2012 Prize for Excellence in Science Books by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) , Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, NSTA Outstanding Science Tradebook, Green Earth Book Awards, Cybils Finalist, John Burroughs List of Nature Books for Young Readers, Junior Library Guild Selection, Orbis Pictus Recommended Book, Charlotte Zolotow Award, to name a few.


The list of books she's written goes on and on.  Check her out online and you'll see how prolific of a writer she is and why she's won so many awards. Sandra Markle is detail-oriented, creative and each book she writes piques kids interest in science and nature. They learn by having fun too.

From her holiday blog, The Twelve Arachnids of Christmas, to her books of animals tales, Snow School, about twin snow leopard cubs waiting for their mother's return in a Pakistan's Hindu Kush to flying mammals BATS: Biggest! Littlest! with photographs from across the world, she produces intriquing books.  Take her books on disappearing  species, The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees: A Scientific Mystery and the Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs: A Scientific Mystery that won the 2012 Prize for Excellence in Science Books by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She writes award-winning non-fiction books that kids love.

I could fill several blog pages on Sandra Markle, but this is an introduction to a writer you'll want to learn more about on your own. 

A former science teacher who has worked in television and other forms of educational media, there is no doubt  that she writes from her heart with a passion for the wonders of science and nature.

She always has new ideas for books and activities that enhance a child's education and she writes books that make kids laugh and smile. So,  kids don't realize they're learning.

Just between you and me, her books may be written for kids, but adults can learn a thing or two about nature and science.  Really.   Dive into a Sandra Markle book and you'll see what I mean.

Go ahead. And have fun reading!

Check out her web site at: http://www.sandra-markle.blogspot.com/

On Saturday, Feb. 1st,  a bunch of SCBWI Tampa Bay group members met at Nancy Cavanaugh's home. Cavanaugh's the author of  This Journal Belongs to Ratchet, published by Sourcebooks, and the group was meeting for a Pajama Party Schmooze. Yup, you read right. Not only was it great fun and time to relax and talk with other authors, but the event had a charitable purpose too.

 Each member brought a new pair of children's PJs and a new children's book to be read at bedtime. The stash of sleepwear and books were to be donated to a program that delivers those goodies, or should I say, necessities, to children in need. Children who wind up in shelters, live in temporary housing facilities and others children in need who have few comforts at a time when they need comforting the most.

The Pajama Program  (www.pajamaprogram.org)  is a national organization, but has 62 chapters in 32 states. Check out one in your area. If there isn't one, maybe you could start one. Or maybe donate money or even one pair of PJs. And, don't think you need to be an author to throw your own PJ schmooze. Create the schmooze that works for  you. Make it as unique as  you are.

Our schmooze was a lovely brunch and Nancy and her daughter were the perfect hostesses for the event. We came in sweats, robes, PJ's, socks and slippers. We ate fruit, crumb cake, yogurt and sipped coffee, tea and juice. We talked about writing, publishing and how great it was to spend time together when we all dedicates so much time to writing alone in front of our computers. We schmoozed for hours. What better way to spend a Saturday morning?

Check out Nancy's first book This Journal Belongs to Ratchet, on her website. Get ready for her next book too, Always Abigail . It's due out in October.

Check out the Pajama Program at www.pajamaprogram.org

See what Sourcebooks offers at http://www.sourcebooks.com

Check out Nancy's website and info on her books and school visits at www.nancyjcavanaugh.com

It's almost time for the Florida SCBWI Conference held in Miami. I wish I could say I was going this year, but I can't. I've been attending for at least seven years and it's always the best conference. This year I just can't make it. And of all years it stinks because, well...

What's so special about this year, is one of my critique group members, Augusta Scattergood is being presented with the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award.

YAY!

For anyone who isn't familiar with the award, the SCBWI website says,  "The annual Crystal Kite Award is a peer-given award to recognize great books from 15 SCBWI regional divisions around the world."

Augusta is receiving it for her book, Glory Be. She wins for the entire Southeast region and we members of the Skyway Writers and all of the Tampa Bay Children's Writers are so proud of her.

Here's to Augusta and to Glory Be.

Check it out!   http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/glory-be#cart/cleanup

WELCOME

This is the first post of my new site. Thanks to Augusta Scattergood for helping me to create it and to my husband, Butch, for his photograph of one of my favorite Florida places.

Facts, Fiction and Folk Tales will allow me to share all things writing and more. By that I mean the trials, tribulations, joys and successes that pop up in a writing life. Writing tips. Writing discoveries. Writing greats and writing everything.

My only promise is to write about whatever catches my attention, tugs at my heart or speaks to me. Mostly about the ups and down of having a computer as your only co-worker. Sometimes about Florida, since I'm a native.

I like an eclectic range of things and of people and I like to write about them all. Being a writer is a blessing and a curse. You writers out there struggling to write the first paragraph on a blank page get it. Those of you struggling to be published understand. Journalists who want to write fiction for a living and people who think they must leave their day jobs to become a real writer, you know what I mean.

Sometimes it's a hard-luck life, but mostly, it's a life filled with the love of words.

How cool is that?