Best Children's Books I've Seen in a While

I have recently found a wonderful series of children's books that star a captivating curly-coated Jack Russell terrier named Mr. Pish. These books are pure joy. Mr. Pish embodies all the wonder and excitement of children discovering the larger world around them, and draws his young readers in with questions about their own surroundings and their own discoveries. Mr. Pish teaches about geology and geography, flora and fauna, history and culture with little bite-sized tidbits of fun. Never heavy-handed, Mr. Pish invites his readers to come along and share in his adventures and the results are several books that promise to spark a child's brain with a love of reading and knowledge. How cool is that?

Reblogged from http://facing50withhumour.com/2013/06/16/of-dogs-and-writers/

Check out Mr. Pish's webpage here.

Self-Publishing Goes Mainstream

Those of us who have discovered the joys of self-publishing could probably talk about it all day and the nay-sayers would never agree that it’s an idea whose time has come. Luckily for us, more “validating” sources are jumping on the bandwagon, and the issues of legitimacy are shrinking more every day.

Even the Big 6 have finally realized that self-pubbing is a viable option, and they are moving quickly to get their fingers in the pie. You can bet your bippie that they are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, anxious to help newbie writers and low-listers escape from their dungeons of obscurity, but because it has become a money-maker. They are finally realizing what we all knew long ago—that readers don’t really give a rat’s patootie who publishes a book. Think about it: when was the last time you wrestled with a book purchase, turned it to the back or the publication page to find out who had published it, and made your decision based on that? Anyone? Ever?

Didn’t think so.

So anyway, the Big 6 are now moving into the realm of the unwashed. In November of 2011, Penguin announced its addition of BookCountry, its self-publishing subsidiary.

“Book Country provides users with three self-publishing packages: $99 for a user-formatted e-book; $299 for a user-formatted print and e-book; and $549 for a professionally formatted print and e-book. Those who select the $549 option can choose from six styles created by Penguin’s in-house designers. Each style corresponds to a certain book genre: “The Sensation” for sci-fi/fantasy titles, for example, or “The Riddler” for mysteries and thrillers. Users can make up to 15 free formatting changes before the book is published.”

Likewise, a blog entry from November 2012 documented Simon & Schuster’s announcement of its new self-publishing arm, Archway.

"Through Archway Publishing, Simon & Schuster is pleased to be part of the rapidly expanding self-publishing segment of our industry," said Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster. "Self-publishing has become a viable and popular route to publication for many authors, and increasingly a source of content for traditional publishers, including Simon & Schuster. We're excited that we'll be able to help more authors find their own path to publication and at the same time create a more direct connection to those self-published authors ready to make the leap to traditional publishing." (Emphasis mine)

Obviously this is not new news, but the point is that it’s trending. Self-publishing is no longer the red-haired stepchild that lives under the stairs. She’s standing up, dusting herself off, putting on her dancing shoes. She’s already got her ticket to the ball, and has plenty of dance partners to choose from. Hugh Howey, author of the indie hit Wool, has broken through the barriers in a stunning way. His book, originally self-published, is now being translated into 19 languages and Ridley Scott is slated to do the movie adaptation. Not too shabby.

Also not too shabby is the Self-Publishing Book Expo. This year marks the 5^th anniversary of the book expo, slated to run in New York in November. It promises to be a cornucopia of panels, seminars, exhibitors and presenters. Sounds like the perfect place to rub shoulders with other unfettered, risk-taking, brave indie writers.

Whose time has come.

  

How Do You Choose the Next Project?

So I just finished my latest book, a ghost story (woo hoo!), and aside from waiting on beta-readers and fiddling with the cover and blurb, I’m ready to start my next project. But which one?

I’m guessing most of us writers have a backlog of ideas tucked away in their brains. I've got a good half dozen interesting ideas for books. There’s the novel I’m about half-way done with that concerns a past life as a Holocaust victim, the fictionalized version of the January 8^th mass shooting here in Tucson, a western romance about a British girl who lands in tiny Bisbee, Arizona, and falls for the local sheriff, a biography of my father-in-law, and a time-travel story about a western actor who slips through a vortex in Sedona and ends up in the old west.

Did I ever mention the fact that I never write the same story twice?

Now you might think that the logical process would be for the No. 1 item, once it’s completed, to come off the list and then No. 2 rises up to take its place.

But, no, it’s not that easy. I've found that the next project chooses me more than I choose it.

Rather than a rational to-do list like above, I find that my ideas are more like a simmering cauldron that bubbles and boils. I’m never quite sure which one will rise to the top and catch my attention like a delectable slice of carrot or a savory baby red potato. Whatever rises to the surface will entice me with a mouth-watering aroma, leading me gently to the keyboard.

Or it’ll grab me in a headlock and drag me to my computer, handcuffing me to the chair until I pour out its story onto paper.

And, to make it worse, the bubbling and boiling doesn’t stop there. I might be knee-deep in a story (as I was in the Holocaust book) when another idea (the ghost story) rises up and refuses to go away. Roiling merrily away, the new idea keeps drawing my interest away from the story at hand until I end up staring at the now abandoned story and typing nothing because I’m imagining the new story instead.

A writer’s progress is never smooth.

Which project sounds like the best one to you?