Earlier this year, we each posted photographs of our desks. I went back to look at my photo today, the desk of a Writer-At-Work. So sunny! So clean! Probably tidied up for the camera. Certainly nothing like the desk of an illustrator approaching a deadline. What does that look like? Not pretty. Probably not inspiring. [...]

On October 8, the New York Times printed a front-page article describing the decline of picture books in favor of chapter books. My first reaction to this news was sorrow, not because yet another body-blow had been dealt to the wounded children’s book industry, but because the reason given was so short-sighted. It seems that [...]

Indian summer in Connecticut- time to close up swimming pools, juggle soccer games with football practice, clean sticks out of gutters. For a children’s book author it means time to return emails to teachers, phone calls to PTOs, time to conjure up exciting ways to captivate classrooms, cafeterias and libraries filled with energetic, yet sometimes [...]

All of Your Messages Have Been Erased. Miss Fox’s Class Earns a Field Trip. Incomparable treasure, gifts from beloved friends, these books on my desktop inspire me to write. And intimidate me to silence: peering down at the covers hovering on the ledge above my keyboard, words seem inadequate. Vivian Shipley arrives for dinner with [...]

Often the best souvenirs writers bring back from Trips To Away are fresh new books to write – or a whole new committment to our art.  When we leave our homes, computers, and regular schedules, we become untethered. All the assumptions and paradigms that restrict us as writers suddenly come into question. Wide open, we float [...]

The Tassy Walden New Voices in Children’s Literature Awards ceremony is a stellar event. I mean it, this hard-earned recognition for a writer is a moment when the clouds clear and the stars shine and shimmer not on everyone, or that one, but on you. I was a finalist, and after a friend suggested I [...]