If you live in San Antonio or nearby, be sure to visit the San Antonio Book Festival downtown at the Central Library on Saturday, April 5. It is free to the public. There will be lots of local authors and authors from other states as well. The list is impressive. There will be music, presentations, food and books, books, books! Click here to view the lineup of authors. 

I will be doing a reading of Lupita’s First Dance/El Primer Baile de Lupita, under the Children’s Tent at 1:30 p.m. Come by.

A good writer is always a people watcher. – Judy Blume

(L to R) Cynthia Weill, Rene Saldana, Jr., Carmen Tafolla, Diana Lopez, Lupe Ruiz-Flores, Duncan Tonatiuh, and Diane Gonzales Bertrand

Lupe Ruiz-Flores “Hall” at Zapata Elementary

Librarian Ms. Carrillo at Robert E. Lee School and Author – Books! Books!



Teachers at Zapata Elementary

Author “signs” petition! – Robert E. Lee Elementary



Thank you, Target! “The best books come from someplace deep inside…. Become emotionally involved. If you don’t care about your characters, your readers won’t either.” – Judy Blume

Mexican Pottery

“Most new writers think it’s easy to write for children, but it’s not. You have to get in a beginning, middle and end, tell a great story, write well, not be condescending–all in a few pages.”  — Andrea Brown

Have you ever wondered how the process of a book “auction” works? Well, wonder no more. This post on the DearEditor blog, appeared on the Cynsations blog the other day. It is titled, “How Manuscript Auctions Work,” by editor Deborah Halverson. Although very brief, the article details the process your manuscript might go through if several publishers wish to acquire it. We should all be so lucky, right? It can happen. 

“A book is a wonderful present. Though it may grow worn, it will never grow old.” – Jane Yolen

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” – Jane Yolen

If you are writing a picture book manuscript, here are a few tips from Deborah Underwood of The Christmas Quiet Bookas she guest posts on The Write Routine blog. She writes: Leaving room for the illustrator is one of the most important lessons for picture book writers. And I’m sorry to say it took me about six years to learn it. SIX YEARS. I think that was because I didn’t really understand why we need to leave room, why we shouldn’t write a lot of description. Now–finally!–I do.

Underwood goes on to write: Every descriptive word in a picture book limits your illustrator. Read her post on how she resisted, at first, to make changes, but in the end was happy to have acquiesced.

Dummy – A loose mock-up of a book showing placement of text and artwork. – Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market.  Here’s a linkto creating a picture book dummy.

High School teachers with author and illustrator.

Librarians Janie Flores and Nicole Cruz with author and illustrator

Author with portrait.



Artist Eric Hinojosa with author and illustrator Carolyn Dee Flores.

The next day, my daughter and I again did a joint presentation, but this time we presented to librarians from the ESC Region One area in Edinburg. We also had the pleasure of being on the same schedule as award-winning author (2014 Pura Belpre Honor for The Living), Matt de la Peña, who wowed everyone with his keynote speech.



Author Matt de la Pena and me

I first met Matt at the 2013 summer SCBWI conference in Los Angeles. I attended one of his workshop sessions. We had a bit more time to talk at the Edinburg event. He is a remarkable writer. Imagine my surprise when he came up to my table so that I could autograph one of my books for him. Yikes!!

“Art is really the language of feeling.” – Steven Kellogg

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates’ loot on Treasure Island … and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life. – Walt Disney