Hi everyone,
On Tuesdays this month I’ll be posting a new series of WRITERS AT WORK, the informal nuts and bolts conversations about various aspects of writing that Sandy Asher and I started in 2010. Here’s a quick glance at the history of the chats. They can be found all in one place at the Writers at Work blog, http://usawrites4kids.blogspot.com.
WRITERS AT WORK Topics
September 2010, The Care and Feeding of Ideas
October 2010, Obstacles to Writing
November 2010, Reality of Rejections
December 2010, Editorial Suggestions
January 2011, Perils and Joys of Writing in Many Genres
February 2011, Pros and Cons of Having an Agent
March 2011, Wrestling with Endings
May 2011, Dealing with Speaking Engagements
June 2011, We Get Letters – and Lots of Email, Too
January 2012, Regarding the Emperor’s New Clothes
March 2012, About this Business of Internet Publishing
June 2013, Making On-line Challenges Work for You
August 2014, What Else is Out There?
Our topic for April is how writers and illustrators prepare to work. What research goes into the process that might surprise readers to learn? Sandy and I have stories of how we learned about our targeted subjects and we knew that other published writers and illustrators have interesting back stories of their own. We decided to call this latest addition to the WAW series, WHAT WE DID FOR LOVE: CHILDREN’S AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS RISK ALL TO GET IT RIGHT. Too dramatic? Hey, we’re story tellers. Besides, when you read some of the lengths writers and artists go to in order to get it right, taking risks is not a farfetched description.
You teachers with students who need help understanding why preparation is half the game, I definitely recommend this series to share in your classroom.
On January 14 and again on January 28 I announced this subject and told you that our guest is Debbie Dadey and she will lead off. I’ll go next followed by Sandy. We’re reserving the final episode of the month to feature stores sent to us by others. If we receive too many for one post, we’ll see about extending.
If you’d like to tune in for the latest series, here’s the schedule for this month.
Tuesday, April 7 – Debbie Dadey
Tuesday, April 14 – David Harrison
Tuesday, April 21 – Sandy Asher
Tuesday, April 28 – Others
So far “others” includes Veda Boyd Jones, Jane Yolen, Sneed Collard III, Bill Anderson, Matt Forrest, J.B. Cheaney, Claire Rudolf Murphy, Lois Ruby, Cynthia Grady, and Cheryl Harness. I bet we hear from other “others.” Whew!
So stand by for some interesting reading and helpful reminders of what we do for love, writing that is.
David
Children's Author David L. Harrison's Blog 