Advice For Young Writers, Quotes That Inspire, Why Picture Books Are Important, Advice For Young Writers - Three Questions With Author/Educator Frank Murphy

Frank Murphy is a teacher who writes and a writer who teaches. He spends most days at Holland Elementary School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania teaching 6th graders. I first came across Frank via Twitter, when I was impressed by his positive energy and joyous enthusiasm for teaching and children's books. You can find out more about Frank and his work at FrankMurphyBooks.com, Instagram and Twitter.

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Interview with book creator couple Sarah McGuire (THE FLIGHT OF SWANS, Oct.1st) and Fred Koehler (GARBAGE ISLAND, Oct.9th)

Sarah McGuire and Fred Koehler were once both awkward teenagers who mostly grew out of it. Each draws on their unfortunate adolescence to write stories for young readers. They met at a writers conference and decided to get married. In common they share: love of travel and adventure, dogs over cats, and sci-fi movies. They most often disagree about Oxford commas, whether or not Florida has hills, and who gets the fuzzy blanket. You can find out more about Sarah at her website and Twitter, and more about Fred at his website and Twitter.

Sarah and Fred are not only both children's book creators with middle grade books coming out this month, but they're a married couple (they got married last year on St. Patrick's Day)! Here's some info about their new books, and the pros and cons of being book creator couple.

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"Don't be afraid to be weird." Advice for young writers from WEAVE A CIRCLE ROUND's debut author, Kari Maaren in a Three Questions interview

I met Kari Maaren through a filk music convention, and fell in love with her song Being Watson (which almost always makes teary-eyed). She also is cartoonist with a webcomic, West of Bathurst, and an active one, It Never Rains. After being a fan of her other work, I was VERY excited to find out she was writing a book.

Her debut novel for young readers, WEAVE A CIRCLE ROUND, is a thoroughly engaging read with an irresistible main character (I love 14-year-old Freddy Duchamp's voice, both inner and outer) in a fearless and original take on time travel and coming-of-age. If you want to know more about the book, you should read the Globe & Mail review, the starred Kirkus review, starred Publishers Weekly review, starred School Library Journal review.

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Interview: Kevin Sylvester on MINRS series, science and advice for young writers

A while back, I raved about how much I enjoyed Kevin Sylvester's first and second MiNRS books for middle grade. Here's my #BookADay post about the first MiNRS book. 

With the third book in the series coming, I asked Kevin to tell my readers about his MiNRS series as well as offer some advice for young writers. Thanks to Kevin for answering in the video above!

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Behind The Scenes: Illustrator Andrea Offermann and the cover of THE YIN-YANG SISTERS AND THE DRAGON FRIGHTFUL

Don't you love the gorgeous cover of The Yin-Yang Sisters and the Dragon Frightful? Written by Nancy Tupper Ling, this upcoming picture book is illustrated by my friend, Andrea Offermann, and it comes out from G.P. Putnam's Sons Books For Young Readers on Sept. 18, 2018. Andrea was kind enough to share the process behind the cover design process....

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Interview with Curtis Brown literary agent, Tess Callero

Tess Callero is one of the fabulous literary agents at Curtis Brown Ltd (another fabulous agent is Ginger Knowlton, my own agent). I got to know Tess when I recently did an Instagram takeover of the CB feed; the fact that I had so much FUN was largely due to Tess's enthusiasm and help - in addition to her role as an agent, Tess is also the Social Media Director at Curtis Brown.

You can find Tess on Twitter at @tesscallero, Curtis Brown on Instagram at @curtisbrown.ltd and on Twitter at @curtisbrownltd.

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Advice For Young Readers, Jackie Robinson & Bookshelves: Heather Camlot (CLUTCH) Answers Three Questions

Heather Camlot grew up in Montreal and was raised on Expos baseball and Canadiens hockey. After graduating from New York University with a degree in journalism, she became a writer, editor and translator. She lives with her husband and two children in Toronto, but still calls Montreal home. Clutch is her first novel, from Red Deer Press. Check out the starred review in Kirkus! And congrats to Heather on the recent Silver Birch nomination!

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Inkygirl Profile: Meet Hannah Gavalis, Third-Generation Librarian

Earlier this week, I was so tickled to see this tweet:

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Advice For Young Illustrators: Three Questions With Children's Book Illustrator Ana Aranda

I met the delightful Ana Aranda through the SCBWI Illustration Mentorship program, when she was selected for the program in 2014. I love Ana's positive outlook, enthusiasm and good humor....and I especially love her ART! Ana was born and raised in Mexico City, she currently lives in San Francisco. You can find her work in picture books, art exhibitions and murals in the US and abroad. Ana’s biggest inspirations are her childhood memories, the vibrant colors of Mexico, and music. You can find Ana at her website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and her blog.

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Interview with Vijaya Bodach, who sold her TEN EASTER EGGS picture book mss to Scholastic through an Inkygirl post

Back in 2013, I posted an interview with Scholastic editor Celia Lee, who invited Inkygirl readers to submit picture book manuscripts for a limited time. Two book contracts came out of that, including Josh Funk's PIRASAURS! story (see my interview with Josh Funk and the illustrator, Michael Slack).

I'm delighted to interview the author of the other book that sold. Vijaya Bodach's story, Ten Easter Eggs, illustrated by Laura Logan, published by Scholastic in 2015. For those in the Mt. Pleasant, SC area, Vijaya Bodach will be doing a Ten Easter Eggs Reading at the local Barnes & Noble.

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A Compilation Of Advice For Young Writers & Illustrators From Children's Book Creators

Thanks to all the children's book writers and illustrators who have contributed advice for young writers and illustrators in their Inkygirl.com interviews over the years! I'm gradually going through my archives as well as my interviews with authors of books I've illustrated and compiling a list of advice takeaways.

If you click on the author's name beside each piece of advice, you can read the full interview.

Here is the list of advice for young writers and artists from published children's book creators.

Three Questions with Jackie Azúa Kramer & Maral Sassouni, debut author & illustrator of THE GREEN UMBRELLA (NorthSouth Books/Simon & Schuster)

I'm delighted to be one of the stops on THE GREEN UMBRELLA blog tour! The story is fun and imaginative, with gorgeous art. The underlying message of sharing, generosity and looking out for one another is even more important these days. 

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Advice for young writers, finding one's voice and CRUSHING IT: Three Questions Interview with Joanne Levy

I met Joanne Levy through the local Torkidlit group. I love her wry wit and also loved her middle grade, Small Medium At Large (Bloomsbury); you can see my interview with Joanne from a few years ago, where she talked about how she wrote the book, her work process and advice for aspiring authors. I'm loving her new book, CRUSHING IT, which debuts *today* from Aladdin/Simon & Schuster as part of their MIX series for tweens.

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Late Bloomer Profile: Laura Boldin-Fournier and her debut picture book, AN ORANGUTAN'S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (Pelican Publishing)

It's never too late to get published! This month's Late Bloomer profile: Laura Boldin-Fournier, whose first chidren's book came out when she was 68 years old. AN ORANGUTAN'S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS debuted earlier this year from Pelican Publishing, and Laura was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

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Advice For Young Writers, Office Dogs and Motivation: Three Questions With Kate Dopirak, author of YOU'RE MY BOO (Beach Lane Books)

Photo credit: Family Art Photography.

YOU'RE MY BOO by Kate Dopirak and Lesley Breen Withrow would make a wonderful holiday gift for a young reader. An ode to unconditional love, this reassuring and adorable story is like a hug in book form.

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How Books Get Translated: An Interview with Translator, Publisher and Author Lawrence Schimel

I've been grateful to Lawrence Schimel for his support and encouragement early in my career. We met online years before we finally met in person in NYC:

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Late Bloomer Profile: Andrea Zuill and her debut picture book, WOLF CAMP (Schwartz & Wade)

I met Andrea Zuill through the SCBWI Mentorship Program. Andrea was chosen for the program in 2011. She is SO much fun, with a wonderfully quirky sense of humor. I was VERY excited for Andrea when she got her first book contract! And with a prestigious publishing imprint like Schwartz & Wade!

Andrea was 53 when her first picture book WOLF CAMP debuted earlier this year.

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Three Questions for Jeff Szpirglas, author of SHELDON UNGER vs THE DENTURES OF DOOM

Who could not want to read a book with a title like Sheldon Unger vs The Dentures Of Doom? This new book comes out from Star Crossed Press on October 1st, 2016. You can find more info about Jeff Szpirglas at Twitter and Facebook, and more about Sheldon Unger vs The Dentures Of Doom on Goodreads.

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Rescue dogs, debut picture books and advice for young writers: Interview with TOBY author/illustrator Hazel Mitchell

Congrats to my friend and agency sister Hazel Mitchell today on the launch of her debut solo picture book, TOBY, which comes out from Candlewick today. Even though I've never met the real-life Toby in person, I've been following Hazel's photos and posts about this sweet rescue dog via social media. And like many other Toby fans, I was genuinely distressed when I heard about Toby getting lost and I cheered out loud when he was finally found, safe. You can find out more about the real-life Toby's adventures in this post by Hazel.

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Why I Love SUPER HAPPY PARTY BEARS! Plus Three Questions with Marcie Colleen

Just read the first two books in Marcie Colleen's debut chapter book series, SUPER HAPPY PARTY BEARS (just launched from Imprint/Macmillan) Omigosh, I am in love with these books. Here are just a few reasons:

- So many laugh-aloud moments, for both kids AND adults. What I especially loved: the humor aimed at adults is NOT the "nudge nudge wink wink, we gro

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