Tricks of the Trade: Learn to Write for Children in Just Six Weeks - Part 2

As promised I'm back again today to discuss the first three weeks of the Tricks of the Trade: Learn to Write for Children in Just Six Weeks. Remember each lesson is accompanied with an audio giving you the feeling that your instructor, Suzanne Lieurance is right in the room with you.

Lesson One: The Basics of Writing for Children

1. How writing for children is different from writing for adults.
2. How publishers group books and other materials for children according to age and grade level, subject matter, etc., and why this information is important for children's writers.
3. The most common fiction mistakes made by new children's writers.

Lesson Two: Grammar & Punctuation Basics

1. How to format manuscripts.
2. Tips for following submission guidelines.
3. Tips for correctly punctuating dialogue, paragraphing, etc.

Lesson Three: The Elements of Good Children's Fiction

1. What is Point of View.
2. How to Add Conflict to a story.
3. Why Sensory details are important.

The subject matter covered in the first three weeks will provide you with a sound foundation to keep the wheels of your creativity spinning for weeks 4-6. Visit again on Friday, December 18th and learn more about Tricks of the Trade: Learn to Write for Children in Just Six Weeks.

I personally refer back to my lessons, guidelines, and tips on a consistent basis to keep all I have learned fresh.

Can't wait, discover more at:

Learn to Write for Children in Just 6 Weeks

I'm open to your comments and questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you.

Tricks of the Trade: Learn to Write for Children in Just Six Weeks

We all know how quickly time flies. Here we are with 2009 rapidly coming to an end. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine where you envision your aspiring writing career to be in three months, six months, a year. Not sure what steps to take to make your dreams come true? Well look no further. Suzanne Lieurance, the Working Writer’s Coach, will guide you in her virtual classroom with printable .pdf lessons and an accompanying audio. Each lesson is curtailed to specific topics to bring your dreams of writing for children to fruition.

I’ve personally have taken the e-course and I’m a member of the CWCC. The expert guidance from Suzanne and the cyberspace companionship of the other CWCC members is invaluable. My short story, “The Golden Pathway, from an assignment with the CWCC placed 12th in the 77th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the Children/Young Adult category and after a few rounds of further editing, the same manuscript was accepted by Guardian Angel Publishing as my first story book to be published in 2010.

Discover more at:

Learn to Write for Children in Just 6 Weeks


I’ll be back again on December 16th and 18th to provide you with a further glimpse into this essential e-course.

Please feel free to ask questions, I’d be happy to answer them.

Winner Announced: Holiday Traditions

Congratulations to: TERRY LYNN JOHNSON

Kindly please forward me your snail mail address at: dmcdine@optonline.net so I can mail out the book and journal:

You Are More Than Enough, Every Woman's Guide to Purpose, Passion, and Power

AND

Achievement Journal

One and all, please join me in extending congratulations to: Terry Lynn Johnson

Thank you...I've enjoyed reading about everyone's holiday traditions...absolutely delightful!

Wishing you all a Joyous Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!

Warmest regards,
Donna

Holiday Traditions

THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW, MONDAY, DECEMBER 14th.

Family traditions vary from home to home. Each family having their own unique way of celebrating the joy of the season. Growing up my dad always saved his last week of vacation for the time between Christmas and New Year's.What cherished memories of having dad around for a full week. The pond near our house was a special spot to go ice skating and upon our return home, mom always had hot chocolate and fresh warm cookies straight from the oven ready for us. Yummy! I've continued this tradition with my own family and always take the time off between Christmas and New Year's. It's a wonderful opportunity not to be scheduled and taking the time to go with the flow and enjoy what the day brings us with no set plans.

Please share your family traditions. I'd love to hear all about them. You never know, your family traditions may become mine too. I'm always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to enjoy the magic of the season.

Leave a comment and automatically be entered into the DRAWING for “You Are More Than Enough, Every Woman’s Guide to Purpose, Passion & Power,” by Judi Moreo and as an added BONUS Moreo’s Achievement Journal will be included. Even if you are a male writer, please be sure to comment. 

I look forward to hearing from you!

God bless you and your families during this holiday season and best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Book Review: The Canada Goose and You by Jennifer Burrows

Title: The Canada Goose and You


Written by: Jennifer Burrows

Illustrated by: Margery Day

Ages: 4-8

Publisher: E&E Publishing

ISBN: 0-9791606-9-3

Published: October 2009

Hardcover: 32 pages

Price: 15.95

Canada geese are found across the United States. Many people don’t give them a second thought, but this book will change all that.

Come along on this wonderful journey into the life of Canada Geese, starting in spring with nest building and laying as many as 12 eggs. Through the summer months and what it takes to care for their young to their physical features, and migrating routines.

Accompanied with a glossary, suggested reading and website list, you will never look at these fascinating geese the same way again. The Canada Goose and You is a delightful introduction to the beauty that surrounds us each day.

Book Review: Ten Hats ~ A Counting Book

Title: Ten Hats – A Counting Book


Written by: Carolyn Mott Ford

Illustrated by: Jack Gordon

Ages: 4-5

Publisher: E&E Publishing

ISBN: 0-9791-606-2-6

Published: September 2009

Hardcover: 34 pages

Price: 15.95

Ten Hats – A Counting Book is a whimsical rhyming story teaching how to count. Featuring animals in colorful outfits from various professions, parent and child will find themselves reading Ten Hats – A Counting Book over and over again, almost to the point of wearing it out. The reader will also sing along to this perfectly written rhyme story jammed packed with fun.

A pig police officer crossing ducks across the street will have you laughing out loud. To join in on the fun and adventure you’ll have to add this delightful book to your home library and discover what the other hysterical animals are up to.

Poets Suggest The Real Thing Should Compete with Greeting Cards

Media Release

CONTACT:

Carolyn Howard-Johnson e-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com

CONTACT:

Magdalena Ball e-mail: maggieball@compulsivereader.com 

For Immediate Release

Poets Suggest The Real Thing Should Compete with Greeting Cards

Award-winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball have developed a new concept for inexpensive holiday gifts--an idea for poetic greetings apart from greeting cards.

They suggest a real chapbook of poetry and have released the first two in a series in time for the holidays. So far the series includes Cherished Pulse (for anyone you love) with artwork from California artist Vicki Thomas and She Wore Emerald Then (for mothers on your gift list) with photographs by May Lattanzio. New booklets are coming for Father's Day and for Christmas 2010.

The small books, a tradition in the poetry world since Elizabethan times, are priced to compete with greeting cards. The poets' idea is that, in general, cards from the rack seldom say what we'd like and that a small book of poetry would be more thoughtful.

Cherished Pulse may be ordered from Amazon at www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse and She Wore Emerald Then at www.budurl.com/MotherChapbook.

This us the second edition of Cherished Pulse. The first may well have been the first e-chapbook of poetry. This edition comes in paperback with a newly-designed cover; Ball and Howard-Johnson felt issuing a paperback essential considering the popularity of the e-book version. That e-book was offered by online gift-giving giant of 35 years, Celebration Express to its clients in 2007.

Magdalena Ball runs the highly respected compulsivereader.com review site. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Quark Soup, which won a 2006 "Noble" Prize from MyShelf's Back to Literature site, and a poetry book Repulsion Thrust, due out in December 2009. Her novel Sleep Before Evening, published in 2007, was a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's poetry appears frequently in review journals. She is listed in Poets & Writers and her chapbook of poetry, Tracings (www.budurl.com/CarolynsTracings ), was given the Award of Excellence by the Military Writers Society of America. She is also an award-winning novelist and short story writer and instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

For more information on any of the chapbooks in this poetry series, contact maggieball@compulsivereader.com.

Celebration Express can be found at: http://www.celebrationexpress.com.au/ 

Learn more about Howard-Johnson in the media room at www.howtodoitfrugally.com . And more about Ball at http://www.magdalenaball.com/.

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Support material available electronically or by post on request.

E-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com