3rd Annual Valentiny Writing Contest

Time for another one of Susanna Leonard Hill's writing contests, hooray! These are so much fun. This time, I'm submitting to the 3rd Annual Valentiny Contest. The rules are as follows:


1. It must be a Valentine's story. 2. It must be appropriate for children (ages 12 and under). 3. It must be under 214 words. 4. It must include someone who is hopeful.


Good luck to all the contestants and thank you Susanna for the opportunity!

A Heartfelt Valentine

By Debbie Day

201 words

 

All the hearts gathered on Valentine’s Day

to hear what their president, Cupid, would say:

“The people are hoping for Valentine cheer.

What message of love can we send them this year?”

Every heart shouted the answers they thought:

“Love is like Nachos – it’s cheesy and hot!”

“You are my nut bar. You’re crunchy and sweet.”

“Hey there, I’m single…so please rub my feet!”

 

Then a small heart stepped in front of the crowd.

Boldly she stated her message out loud.

“Perfect,” said Cupid, “That’s what we’ll all say!

Just the right message for Valentine’s Day.”

Everyone cheered (well, the nacho guy frowned).

Then all the hearts rained on each city and town.

 

Some people scoffed at their heart-note surprise.

Others ignored it, while some rolled their eyes.

But all those who hoped for more love on that day,

smiled at the message and went on their way…

They said “hi” to strangers and held open doors.

They donated money and food at the stores.

They talked with their neighbors and friends far away,

to share the heart-message they’d read on that day:

“NO ONE’S THE SAME AND WE ALL DISAGREE,

BUT I CAN TREAT YOU LIKE I HOPE YOU’D TREAT ME.”  

High Time for Another Update

It's been awhile, so I thought I'd give a quick update on what's been happening the last couple months...


In December, I had my one-on-one skype critique with the talented Penny Parker Klostermann (see previous post and check out her wonderful books). She gave me a great critique on one of my rhyming stories and also shared some invaluable advice that I wanted to pass on:

• When writing rhyme...don't sacrifice the story just to get the rhyme. You have limited real estate, so to speak, don't waste it just for that last word of the phrase.
• Make every word count. Every word must belong and make sense to the story - don't take short cuts.
• Picture books need to either A) Have a strong goal/purpose, where the main character goes through some sort of transformation, or B) If the story is more of a general journey through and experience, there must be a theme throughout the story to tie it all together, such as a repeating phrase. (Say no to vague stories about feelings or lists, that don't have any purpose or theme!)
• Check out Storystorm here: https://taralazar.com/storystorm/. It happens once a year in the month of January (So it just finished up), but it's a great, FREE resource for picture book writers.
• Read THE NUTS AND BOLTS GUIDE TO WRITING PICTURE BOOKS by Linda Ashman.
• Make sure your in a writing group that consists specifically of picture book writers, who know the market and the ins and outs of picture book writing (which is quite different than other genres).  

Following Penny's advice, I participated in Storystorm this year, and wow. What a great experience that truly was! It's put on by Tara Lazar and it's basically a series of blog posts designed to help you generate ideas for picture books. It's still up on her website so any writer can look through the posts and get inspiration all year long (which I highly recommend). At the end of the month, I was left with more than 60 new ideas, 5 newly written manuscripts, and over a dozen more I started writing. Never has anything helped me so much with my writing.

I'm also in the process of reading Linda Ashman's book: THE NUTS AND BOLTS GUIDE TO WRITING PICTURE BOOKS, and again have found this so incredibly helpful! It contains the best, most straight-forward advice on writing picture books I've ever seen in one place - AWESOME resource.



I also organized a new writing group last month through my SCBWI membership - they have resources on their blackboard where you can find other members who'd like to start a critique group. So we have started meeting once a month and that's been great!



So yeah, Penny's advice has been amazing. I'm feeling super excited about my newly written manuscripts and have even started querying some stories again. It's been a good month!



In other news, my new book THE TWO ANGELS, A STORY ABOUT TWINS has been out for about 2 months now, and I've been so grateful for the success it's had. The first month of sales was better than I hoped, and I'm noticing that even after Christmas, there's been a steady stream of online sales. This wasn't the case with my first self-published book, ITCHY MITCHIE, and here's what I think is the difference. THE TWO ANGELS appeals to a very specific market: Twin families, and also Christians. When I set the book up in Amazon, I made "books for twins" and "a book about twins" two of the key phrases. Because of that, and also since there just aren't that many twin books out there, when people search for those things in Amazon, my book is one of the first to show up. It's also listed under religious fiction and Christianity, which makes it even more specific. So it turns out that writing a book for a niche market can be really beneficial rather than a generic children's book that may appeal to a wider audience but will simply not get seen in the enormous sea of picture books. Good to know, huh! (Now what other book could I write that appeals to a small, but consistent niche? Hmmmmm....)



Anyway, the kids are all emerging from naps and play time, so I better wrap this up, but it's been a great couple months of writing  and I'm excited for what's ahead in 2018!



Oh, oh! Ps. One more thing: Susanna Hill's next writing contest has been announced. It's coming up in a couple weeks, check it out here: https://susannahill.com/2018/01/27/bic-writers-its-time-for-the-2018-valentiny-contest-guildelines/



More soon!

Picture Book Summit and Halloweensie prize

What a busy month it’s been! Some fun things happening! Let me tell you all about it🙂:

In October, I participated in my first Picture Book Summit. It’s an all-day on-line picture book conference with amazing guest speakers, which included Tomie dePaola , Carole Boston Weatherford, and Adam Rex, WOW! It was a great experience, and I learned lots of important tidbits of writing info that I’ve scribbled down on several pages of notes. (In theory, I hope to copy those notes here on the blog at some point when things settle down, so hopefully that will really happen). If any picture book writer is considering taking this course in the future, I would definitely recommend it – aside from the valuable advice and straight talk about how to have writing success, another perk about attending the summit is that you can submit your manuscript to participating agents and editors who are usually closed to submissions.  So at the moment, I’m going through my stories and deciding which ones to send to who! If you're interested in attending next year's Picture Book Summit, here’s a link for you to learn more: http://picturebooksummit.com/.

Also in October, I submitted my picture book story to Susanna Leonard Hill’s Halloweensie writing contest (see below), and out of 244 entrants, ended up winning 2^nd place! I can’t tell you how honored and grateful I felt to have received this news! I got to choose from a pretty amazing list of prizes and ended up picking a one-on-one Skype session with Penny Parker Klostermann, author of THERE WAS AN OLD DRAGON WHO SWALLOWED A KNIGHT and A COOKED UP FAIRY TALE (Random House), both adorably charming and hilarious picture books! Check out her website here: https://pennyklostermann.com/. So now I just need to send her one of my picture book manuscripts and then I get a 30-minute critique from her. How cool is that! (which one to send? WHICH ONE TO SEND!) Not only am I a fan of her books, I also love her poetry blog – check it out on her website, it’s called “Blog a penny and her jots”😊. Again, for any of you picture book writers out there (or those who want to try it out!) Susanna is holding another writing contest around December 8^th. They are sooo fun, so I definitely think you should give it a try! The rules should show up on her blog sometime in the near future. Here's where you'll find it: https://susannahill.com/blog/.


Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Halloweensie Contest Finalist!

Hi Friends!

This morning, I was super excited to see that my story made it as a finalist for Susanna Hill's Halloweensie Contest! Hurray! I'm so grateful!

The next step in the contest is voting, which means all us finalists need your help! Please oh please just take a moment to look at all the entrants and vote for your favorite before this Thursday, November 16th. Here's the link:

https://susannahill.com/2017/11/13/the-2017-halloweensie-contest-finalists-at-long-last/comment-page-1/#comment-46518

Good luck to all the finalists and thank you so much for voting!! :)

Attack of the Vampire Cookie! **7th Annual Halloweensie Contest**

Hello friends! I know it's been a while, but I have a good excuse. I've been busy finishing up my latest writing project - a self-published picture book about twins, so stay tuned for upcoming announcements!

As for today, I'm submitting my entry to Susanna Leonard Hill's 7th Annual Halloweensie Contest! (You can find the contest here).

The rules are as follows: Write a Halloween story in 100 words or less that is appropriate for children (children defined as 12 and under) (title not included in the 100 words), using some form of the words candy corn, monster, and shadow. (Candy corn will be counted as 1 word.)

Here's my entry, thanks for the opportunity!

ATTACK OF THE VAMPIRE COOKIE

By Debbie Day

Word count: 100

On Halloween morning, a cookie is baked,

frosted in crimson and black.

With candy corn fangs and peppermint eyes,

it’s finished -  a vampire bat.

On Halloween midday, the party guests come,

craving a Halloween treat.

Before they can reach the desserts on the shelf,

a cookie escapes to the street.

On Halloween evening, up in the sky

Something bizarre is in flight.

A shadowy monster with candy corn fangs

is looking for children to bite.

On Halloween night, while kids trick-or-treat,

a creature descends, mean and vicious.  

“Look!” says a child, “caught in this branch,

a bat cookie. Mmmm, tastes delicious!”

MANIFEST WEST is in print!

I was excited to see this come in the mail today! MANIFEST WEST is an anthology that "delves into the rich mixing pot created in the West, derived from assorted cultures and ethnicities and from a variety of beliefs and traditions across the world, all manifested in today’s Western culture." Inside is my second official publication: a poem entitled MOVING WEST, describing some thoughts I had moving from Maryland to Wyoming. 

I look forward to reading all the contributions. If you're interested in a copy, you can buy one here:
http://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/3196-women-of-the-west

Summer Update... with a lot of DOT DOT DOTS

It’s been awhile so I thought I’d give a little update on…

WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING LATELY: 

-Going to the library LOTS! Reading LOTS of picture books with my kids, and sneaking in the occasional MG book for when I have the smallest sliver of “free time” in my day, which has been especially meager latterly because I’ve been ….

-Going to bed super early lately! This is something I’ve been trying to do better for a long time and I know it’s what I NEED to do in order to be a good Mom for my kids, have energy, patience, and the ability to get through another day, etc. It’s also because my husband and I are doing a little friendly compact. We have both agreed to do certain things to be healthier. His end of the bargain is to exercise more, while mine is to go to sleep on time. It’s left me with, like 30 minutes of spare time at night, but somehow, I’ve still managed to keep…

-Writing whenever I can! I’ve been focusing on rhyming and poetry lately. In the last couple weeks, I wrote a humorous rhyming poem about converting to vegetarianism (which is partially/kinda/sorta a true story of my life right now), a rhyming picture book about venturing into the woods after dark, and a non-rhyming serious poem exploring how words/thoughts/actions define who we are.  It’s been so satisfying to get new projects done! Now if only I could figure out what to do with them all. Speaking of which, I have been…

-Querying here and there! Getting lots of rejections back, applying for different writing opportunities I find on twitter, submitting a poem or two to a magazine, waiting for a positive response, you know how it is. I’ve also been…

-Attending writing groups! I’m now a part of three different groups, (actually four or five if you count one-on-one exchanges with random writing friends). Anyway, it’s so nice to have feedback and support with my projects... 

And that’s pretty much it folks. Just trying to do what I can when I can. Here’s one more thing I can share with you  before I go though: Our favorite books we’ve read this summer! So here we go, the books we’ve loved…

Picture Books:

THIS IS NOT MY HAT by Jon Klassen

THE LITTLE HOUSE by Virginia Lee Burton

SEVEN BLIND MICE by Ed Young                                                                     

BLIZZARD and BLACKOUT by Jon Rocco

BUGS GALORE by Peter Stein

GOSSIE by Oliver Dunrea

LUCKY DUCKLINGS by Eva Moore

There’s a lot more we’ve liked, I just can’t think of them off the top of my head, so moving on…

MIDDLE GRADE BOOKS:

THE CROSSOVER by Kwame Alexander

THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON by Kelly Barnhill

ONE CAME HOME (LOVED THIS!) by Amy Timberlake

Have you noticed a lot of these are Newberry/Caldecott winners? That’s because at the Wyoming Writing Conference I attended in June, when I attended Eugene Gagliano’s “Writing for Children” workshop, he handed us a list of all the award winning books from the last few years and challenged us to read as many as we could. So that’s been my goal for the summer. Along the way, I’ve picked up any other award winners I’ve come across. We’ve enjoyed so many of them! I also feel like I’ve learned a lot about what makes picture books successful in general. 

Anyway, I better call it quits since I’m far too late going to bed tonight (my husband’s been sick and since he can’t exercise I guess that means I don’t have to go to bed on time??…It's not very good logic and know what you’re thinking – she doesn’t stick to this going-to-bed-on-time rule very well, does she. But I just want to say that I’ve been SO good for the last month, with tonight being the only exception! :D 

That’s it for now. More soon!