Children's Writers Blog Hop

If you are new to my blog, welcome, welcome! Take a look around and have fun with what you find. For those of you that have been here before you'll soon understand this introduction. I was invited to be apart of a blog hop for writers of children's books. A blog hop is kind of fun. It helps people find new and exciting blogs and its fun to connect people all over the world. If you're following the tour you most likely came from Cordelia Dinsmore's blog at http://cordeliadinsmore.blogspot.com/.

Image courtesy of imagrymagestics / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The classification of children's literature encompasses a lot of ages. I write both middle-grade (ages 9-14) and also picture books (ages 2-9) so I think I have all the demographic covered. So while on this hop you might find someone who writes a picture books or someone who writes for teens. That's the fun of it. 

We were asked to answer 4 simple questions. I hope you find my answers insightful. I also invite you to check out the stops on this blog hop so we can keep you discovering new and talented writers.

1. What are you working on right now?

Right now I am working on a middle-grade novel that can be described at Rick Riordan's The 39 Clues meets Roald Dahl's The Witches. When Emmy and Ian Hunter's parents go missing they discover their family has a secret. Their parents are a part of a underground society of witch hunters. What's more is the witches have invaded their school disguised as Lunch ladies. Will Emmy and Ian be able to find their parents or will they be left to vanquish the witches of Roosevelt Elementary on their own? 

2. How does it differ from other works in its genre?

Most of the time I write things that are very different from the average mainstream MG book. I had a hard time connecting The Dream Keeper book with others in its genre. This time I wanted to try for something a little more mainstream. I liked the style of The 39 Clues and I am fasignated with witches and magic. This book is part mystery, part fantasy, part suspense, and all it fun. 

3. Why do you write what you do?

I work full time as a freelance illustrator mostly specializing in art for children. I also am a cover designer and have created many fun book covers. I also work part time as an author. I have several picture books published and I released my first MG novel in June of this year. The rest of my time is spent playing daddy to my little girls.

4. How does your writing process work?

It depends if I am writing a picture book or a full length novel. For a picture book I always start with just an idea of what I want to get across. Its harder because you are so limited in words and space. I write a brief idea of the main things I want in the book and then storyboard with drawings. Because I do my own art this is my process for those. With middle-grade I take the idea that I have and write out an outline of the main events in the book. Then I think about each main character and try to outline a internal story for each one of them. My outlines are not very detailed. I like to discovery write from point to point. If I get stuck somewhere, I will either storyboard out the scene I was working on or I will delve deeper into my outline. I find this is what works for me. Every writer does something completely different. That is why it's an art. No artist is exactly the same.

Your next stops on the blog hop will take place 1 week from today (August 19th) but please don't hesitate to go check out these blogs today. You'll enjoy what you find. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful morning, day, or evening (depending on what time your reading this).

Author Sherry Gamon: 
http://www.wordpaintingsunlimited.com/

Author Stacy Lynn Carroll:
www.stacylynncarroll.com

Author Joyce P. Smith:
 http://zanygsworld.blogspot.com/
 

Author Danyelle Leafty:
http://myth-takes.blogspot.com/

Author Monique Bucheger: 
http://moniquebucheger.blogspot.com/

Fun for you. I was only supposed to have 3 authors on my list but I asked 5 just in case one couldn't do it. Well, you get 5! They all accepted. Check out their blog posts on August 19th. And thanks for stopping by.