THIS SITE HAS MOVED. Inkygirl posts are now part of DebbieOhi.com.
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Debbie Ridpath Ohi reads, writes and illustrates for young people. Every once in a while she shares new art, writing and reading resources; subscribe below. Browse the archives here.
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*NEW!* Also see my Broken Crayon resource
Writer comics by Debbie Ridpath Ohi are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
More details: Comic Use Policy
Welcome to Inkygirl: Reading, Writing and Illustrating Children's Books (archive list here) which includes my Creating Picture Books series, Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators, Writer's and Illustrator's Guide To Twitter, Interviews With Authors And Illustrators, #BookADay archives, writing/publishing industry surveys, and 250, 500, 1000 Words/Day Writing Challenge. Also see my Inkygirl archives, and comics for writers. Also check out my Print-Ready Archives for Teachers, Librarians, Booksellers and Young Readers.
I tweet about the craft and business of writing and illustrating at @inkyelbows. If you're interested in my art or other projects, please do visit DebbieOhi.com. Thanks for visiting! -- Debbie Ridpath Ohi
I've been a fan of YA writer Kari Maaren fan ever since I heard her perform Kids These Days, a song from the viewpoint of a traditional vampire complaining about the Twilight generation of vampires.
In Inkygirl recently, I talked about how I'm sometimes more productive when I have sounds from a coffee shop playing in the background. Do you usually like to have background noise while you're working? If so, what type?
One-third of you prefer silence but the rest like some kind of background noise. Of the latter, 70% prefer ambient noise and 45% prefer music without lyrics.
These days, my favourite ambient noise tool is Coffivity. I've also recently signed up for Spotify, and use playlists like Indie Folk For Focus, Superior Study Playlist, Music For Concentration and Brain Food.
Next poll question: Are you giving any physical books this holiday season? (yes/no)
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Curious about my other publishing industry surveys? Feel free to browse current and past Inkygirl Surveys online.
I've been hearing the song in the above video in my head ever since my husband told me about it. The music video by Norwegian duo Ylvis went viral a few days ago. I love the wonky humor and tongue-in-cheek emo.
Popular Science followed up with a "What Sound Does A Fox Really Make" post that could be enlightening for kids (and grown-ups!) wondering what sounds a fox DOES make. :-)
But what *I* want to know: what's that children's book featured in the video? Here's a screenshot:
A blurrier close-up of the front cover:
Here's the back cover, though doesn't it look as if part of the cover beneath the man's hand has been torn?
If anyone can identify the children's book in this video, I'd appreciate it if you'd post in the comments.
Thanks!
Just discovered this Rolling In The Deep parody created by Sarah Parker Ada to help promote the New York State Reading Association annual conference last fall. You can find the lyrics here (click "Show more").
Then I found her wonderful "Read It Maybe" video (parody of Call Me Maybe):
According to this article on Reading.org, Ada is an adjunct prof for freshman composition at Jefferson Community College. I envy her students.
You can see more videos from Sarah Parker Ada on her YoUTube channel.
On Twitter: @SarahUkelele
Above: cover for Ookla The Mok's new album, OOKLA THE MOK VS EVIL. Cover art illustration by Art Baltazar, an American comic book artist whose Tiny Titans won the 2011 Eisner Award For Best Publication For Kids.
I've known Rand Bellavia and Adam English of Ookla The Mok for many years; my music group (Urban Tapestry) and Ookla (they were just called Rand and Adam back then) became friends when we were both just starting out. Our paths don't tend to cross that often anymore, but we're looking forward to seeing them both next month at FilKONtario. If you don't know what filk is, feel free to check out my What Is Filk? post.
Anyway, this album has been playing nonstop in my basement office for the past month.
I used to read & collect print comics (Dr. Strange, Power Pack, Elektra, The Dark Knight, Swamp Thing, Elfquest, Chester Brown, Seth, others) until I started to rethink (1) the amount of money I was spending, and (2) the amount of storage space I had. I gave most of my comics to a friend who was thinking of starting up a comics library, but I did save some of my favorites as well as buying compilations to replace some individual issues. I still read comics, but mostly digitally.
Anyway, OOKLA THE MOK VS EVIL is pure fun, focusing entirely on Evil and Bad Guys. Tons of geek culture references throughout, not just from comics but also other media, from Stars Wars to Disney to Doctor Who. Catchy earworm melodies and strong lyrics make this a must-have album for the comics fan.
You can download the lyrics from OOKLA THE MOK VS EVIL from the Ookla The Mok website, and you can listen to the entire album before buying.
Sidenote: Rand is a librarian! Or rather, a Library Director. You can listen to a song I wrote for him many years ago: Library Boy.
Related links:
Ookla The Mok official website
Review: Ookla The Mok Vs Evil (Word Of The Nerd)
Ookla The Mok on CDBaby | Ookla The Mok On Amazon | Ookla The Mok On iTunes
In a Baltimore Post Examiner article, librarian Meredith Myers says she created literary parody song "The Raven Is Hard To Handle" to honor Edgar Allan Poe as well as promote libraries. Fun video with a great message at the end!
You can find out more about Meredith in her website, StandUpLibrarian.com.
Debbie Ridpath Ohi tagged edgar allan poe, librarians, libraries, music, video in Random Diversions, Videos What a great promo video for The County Bookshop and its sibling entities. You can read how the video was made here.
Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the link!
I'm Bored Music Video (inspired by the new picture book from Simon & Schuster BFYR) from debsanderrol on Vimeo.
Thanks to my friend Errol Elumir for co-writing the I'M BORED song and creating the video above to help celebrate my upcoming book launch. Note that the song is only loosely based on the book. To find out what REALLY happened to the potato and the end, please buy the book! :-)
And special thanks to 7-year-old Zoe Elumir for playing the part of the girl in this homemade video!
I've posted some behind-the-scenes photos and info about the video plus lyrics/chords to the song in the I'M BORED Scrapbook.
Great new music video for writers from my friends Debs&Errol. :-D
You can see their daily comics on their website and Errol's daily NaNoToons.
If you're doing NaNoWriMo (or if you want to see me dance around my office in a red boa), check out Debs&Errol's new NaNoWriMo music video. :-)
For more info about Debs & Errol (who do wonderful music for geeks): http://www.debsanderrol.com
Errol Elumir is also doing daily NaNoToons: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/nanotoons
If you want to link to individual Nanotoons & get updates when he posts a new comic, be sure to "Like" the NaNoToons Page on Facebook.
Writer's Block by DebsAndErrol
Above: A fun song from Debs & Errol (a.k.a. Deborah Linden & Errol Elumir). Errol & Deborah are looking for new song ideas, by the way. If you'd like them to come up with some more writing-related songs, do go over to their CD Song Contest page and post your song ideas! You may win a free CD.
Title: "I Am The Very Model Of A Wrimo Individual," from Errol Elumir. Keep an eye on the NaNoWriMo blog during November from a comic collaboration from Errol and me. :-)
A brilliant NaNoWriMo song by my friend Errol. From Errol:
I like to do an intro video for Nanowrimo. For 2010, I did a parody of the song Good Ol' A Capella because I was too lazy to write my own song.
You can learn more about Errol and his creative projects at:
Shaun McNicholas from Cool Rules posted the following comment in response to The Apostrophe Song video I posted a few days ago:
Thanks for posting this Debbie. You might like to know that it relates to an iPhone App, The Apostrophe Song, that has hip hop, rock, acoustic and dance versions of the song. The App also has quizzes that test users' knowledge of apostrophes, and classroom ready materials for teachers.There is also an opportunity for schools worldwide to be included on the next update of the App. You can buy it for only $1 (see www.coolrules.com ). Hope you don't mind this blatent self-promotion :-). The Apostrophe Song has been a labour of love...
