General writing

This past summer, I had a great time hosting a Pittsburgh creative writing camp for kids ages 5-12. I didn’t plan to have such a wide age range, but lots of things in life happen different than we plan! Before the class started, I had a pretty decent curriculum planned for kids ages 9-12. I… Read more »

  In a previous post on submissions, rejections, and acceptances, I discovered I had a yearly average just above 10% as an acceptance rate. Also, I noticed my submissions aren’t consistent throughout the year. I’m OK with that! Everything ebbs and flows. I’m really happy with the past year (2017) in terms of WHAT I… Read more »

February is Black History Month. But wait. It’s November. Why am I writing about reading books about black history? Because black history is American history. And I love reading and writing about American history. I especially love learning the stories in history. Have you read Lift Every Voice? This beautiful book is by Pittsburgh author… Read more »

I’m so proud to share these two books that I wrote for KPS Storybook Development in South Korea! I had a lot of fun writing about the main characters, Janine Sardine and Picky Penny. Each character faces a problem that children in grades PK-2 often face. I love the final illustrations. Unfortunately these books aren’t… Read more »

This month, I’m particularly proud of my new article in the October 2019 issue of Muse magazine “Count Me In: Participate in Important Scientific Research Just by Counting Birds.” With the bird population declining by 29%, and the threat of state birds not even being able to live in their “home” states, paying attention to… Read more »

I’m wondering if a “how to” flow chart for writing picture books would be helpful. I sketched out a quick draft of a flow chart, but thinking it would be faster to just type up a Q&A. I see a lot of questions in different writing groups from people who have written a picture book… Read more »

I’m so pleased to be a Children’s Book Academy graduate. I had a great five weeks of learning from Mira Rosenberg and her incredible faculty. Thank you Mira!

So You Want to Be President of the United States! (Capstone, 2019). Wanted: Someone to be the face of America. The president is responsible for signing laws, making sure the laws are followed, and figuring out the best way to run the country. Find solutions to problems. Clean up natural disasters. Meet with other leaders. It’s… Read more »

Writing non-fiction for children is one of my favorite kinds of writing. In the past year, I’ve written three non-fiction books, one large non-fiction text book chapter, and numerous non-fiction magazine articles all for young readers. I have at least three non-fiction manuscripts waiting for the right publisher to fall in love with them. Non-Fiction is… Read more »