Ten-Minute Blog Break - 16th December

It's been one of those days - I broke my tooth during breakfast, and everything that followed had to be fitted around dentistry! But fear not, because I managed to squeeze the Blog Break in, and good job too, because there are some great posts this week!

On the SCBWI-BI Facebook group, I've already flagged up Anne-Marie Perks's prominent (but strangely uncredited) appearance on the BBC News site with her wordless picture book illustrations. Over at Big Little Tales, Anne-Marie shares more background on the project and artwork from the forthcoming companion volume.

Last week, we had a wonderful story of perseverance rewarded (from Kathy Evans). This week, it's the turn of my fellow Undiscovered Voices 2010 winner Abbie Rushton. Ever wonder what it's like to have that meeting with a publisher? Read Abbie's post and find out all about it.

There's a great process-related post on Sarah McIntyre's blog this week. Responding to a query from an MA illustration student, Sarah tells us all about her sketchbooks and how important they are to her creative process.

Claire O'Brien also has some great advice for picture book illustrators, focusing on internet video training courses. In her blog post, Claire highlights some courses on a variety of sites that she's found engrossing.

Have you got a difficult teenager (or adult) who you want to buy a book for this Christmas? Nicola Morgan has gone straight to the source for her book recommendations, asking the teens of Larbert High School for their must-reads.

We're all about advice this week, and Candy Gourlay is happy to contribute. She's just made her first virtual author visit using Google Hangouts, and her blog post provides a guide as to how easily you can use the same technology.

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 2nd December

Christmas rumbles towards us, like a brightly-coloured tank playing Jingle Bells while simultaneously mowing down everything in its path. But the Blog Break stands firm from festive concerns (at least for this week, anyway!)

One of the many challenges of parenting is persuading a reluctant child to read, something that can easily turn into one of those battlegrounds like room tidying or eating broccoli. Sally Poyton is blogging at Space on the Bookshelf about a new book by Alison David, Help your Child Love Reading - a Parent’s Guide. The book is full of non-judgemental advice about how to foster a reading culture, and Sally even finds some useful tips for her own book-mad family.

Katie Dale is putting her thinking cap on, and taking part in the annual Kids' Lit Quiz. Pitting school teams against children's authors, the quiz is a fun and fiendish event that you can read all about in Katie's blog post.

For this week's adventures in self-publishing, Larisa Villar Hauser is delving into the mysteries of Amazon rankings and doing lots of promotion. Meanwhile, Olivia Bright has been experimenting with Amazon's new Kids' Book Creator to self-publish a picture book, and shares a useful how-to video guide on her blog.

Still in picture book territory, Claire O'Brien delivers the second half of her blog guide on creating a picture book illustration portfolio. Bravely analysing her own portfolio, Claire finds a surprising amount of room for improvement.

Who doesn't love receiving feedback from child readers? Sam Zuppardi has some fun letters from a primary school class who've been using his book The Nowhere Box for Literacy lessons, and making some stupendous cardboard collages in the style of the illustrations.

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 4th November

I'm in a post-conference state of over-stimulated tiredness (if such a thing is possible), but have valiantly dragged myself to my Blog Break chair to summarise another week's worth of great blog posts. Please wake me up if I... zzzzzzzz.

What?! I was just resting my eyes, OK? Look, why don't you go and visit Sarah Broadley (who I met in real life for the first time at the weekend), because she's been super-efficient at blogging her thoughts about the SCBWI Conference.

Catherine Friess (who I somehow failed to meet at the conference) has a really useful post all about book-related advent calendars. If you're fed up with chocolate or Lego for the kids this year, why not try one of her ideas?

Ukip supporters should probably click with caution on Jane McLoughlin's latest blog post. Emboldened by a controversy in the comedy world, Jane examines the subject of diversity in society and her hopes for reflecting that in children's fiction.

November brings PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) and NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), but we mustn't forget Inktober, the far more sensibly-named drawing challenge that spanned October. Claire O'Brien inked her way to a picture every day last month, and shares the results and her thoughts on the experience.

Bridget Strevens-Marzo hasn't blogged since March, but that's clearly because she's been busy obsessively repainting the cover for her next book! A perfectionist through and through, Bridget shares some artwork from Tiz and Ott's Big Draw and brings us up to speed on everything she's been doing. She certainly seems to have a lot of wall space and drawing pins to display all those roughs!

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who currently writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

Stew Magazine is looking for your help as it enters its second year - join the Kickstarter campaign.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 14th October

Occasionally, SCBWI bloggers fall through my net, either because they blog at the same time as lots of other people, or don't fit the theme of a particular week. But don't worry, because if you keep blogging, I'll get to you eventually!

A blogger who I've finally found space for is illustrator Claire O'Brien, who's been writing some useful stuff for aspiring picture book makers. Claire's blog post on Creating a children’s picture book illustration portfolio from last week is full of great tips and you may also like the video she made examining picture book anatomy.

Forget fish 'n' chips, because it's fish 'n' actors who are all the rage at Darlington Civic Theatre. Sam Zuppardi breaks out his considerable artistic skills to show us why.

Being a professional children's writer nowadays is a process of juggling many types of project, and few are better jugglers than the prolific Tony Bradman, who's interviewed for Space on the Bookshelf this week. As a writer, editor and teacher, Tony was the first to publish work by Scoobies such as Candy Gourlay and Miriam Halahmy, and he's currently working on an exhausting list of new projects for OUP, Barrington Stoke and the Golden Egg Academy.

Juliet Clare Bell is suffering a creative block - could reading her old school books help? What about a photo of E.T.'s head riding on a car? Find out in her post for Picture Book Den.

Finally, there's just room for some wise words from Sheila Averbuch about the painful business of having a book on submission. Sheila advocates a fire-and-forget approach to submitting your work, assuring us that our precious manuscripts are not sailing off into mortal danger, but are simply "in hyper sleep." In which case, I have enough books in hyper sleep to crew the Nostromo (from Alien). Let's hope one of them turns out to be my very own Ellen Ripley!

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who currently writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine (September issue out now).

Nick's most recent blog post takes a look back at a year of Stew Magazine stories and teases out the common threads that bind them. What's the Story?